If outgoing packets that leave a VPN node contain my endpoint's IP address - which it must, since how else would it later be routed back to me - how does the location of the VPN exit node spoof my endpoint's real location? Isn't it obvious when the receiver inspects the packets what/where the source IP is?

If my endpoint's IP address is not included in the packets that exit the VPN tunnel, how then does that same node - or other nodes in case of multi hop - route the packets back to my endpoint? Are there perhaps VPN specific identifiers in the packet that only that node knows how to route back to me?