Himmlisches Buch Die große Leere

Kapitel 3

"Just say what you want to say quickly," I said impatiently, taking the chopsticks.

"If you turn around now, you can see the person you want to see." Maeda Reiko ignored what I had just said.

I involuntarily turned my head, and there I saw those unforgettable eyes again. At the same time, she saw me too, smiled slightly, and walked towards me.

"Hello." I stood up and greeted her.

She smiled again, handed over the bag and umbrella, and said, "Thank you so much for that day. Now they're back to their rightful owner."

I took the bag and umbrella, smiling as I said, "No wonder my umbrella was gone when I went to the reading room that day; you've been keeping it for me."

"I saw this umbrella in the reading room and remembered you said you forgot it there. I was worried someone would take it, so I kept it for you."

"By the way, how did you know I was here?" I asked, turning to look at Reiko Maeda. "Did someone tell you?"

The girl shook her head: "No, I saw you rushing towards the cafeteria on the street, so I went back to get your things and came here to find you."

"I see." I couldn't help but feel surprised; how did Maeda Reiko know she would run into me?

"I have something to do," the girl glanced at Reiko Morita, "I won't disturb your meal any longer." Then she turned and walked out.

I wanted to say something, but in the end I didn't say it and just sat down.

"You really like her," Reiko Maeda said, staring at me.

I ignored her.

"No need to remain silent, you can't hide it from me."

"How come you seem to know everything?" I'm getting more and more annoyed with her.

"Have you forgotten? I once told you that I could read people's minds."

"Hmph!" I was a little angry.

"You'd better stay away from that girl."

I jumped up and yelled at her, "Who do you think you are? Always telling me not to do this or that, stop acting like a savior!"

I've never yelled at a girl like that before, and I don't know why I got so agitated when she told me to stay away from that girl. Could it be, as Reiko Maeda said, that I've fallen for that girl?

Meng Na (3) of "The Fourth Campus"

"It's best to be polite when talking to ladies. Don't you understand this most basic principle?" Before I knew it, there was another boy next to me.

"This is between her and me, it's none of your business."

The boy smiled and sat down next to Maeda Reiko. "You shouldn't have gotten so angry. You should have waited for Reiko to finish speaking. Didn't you want to know some things you don't understand? Reiko invited you here today to tell you the answers. Why don't you be a good listener first?"

I looked at Reiko Maeda, and she said very sincerely, "Sit down, I'll tell you slowly." So I sat down again.

The boy bowed to me and introduced himself: "My name is Lin Musen, Lin as in 'forest,' Mu as in 'wood,' and Sen as in 'forest.' Nice to meet you."

"My name is Lin Yuan, Lin as in forest, Yuan as in plain." We shook hands. "Why do you sound like a Japanese person?"

Lin Musen smiled. "I'm a member of the Spirit Summoning Society, mainly responsible for arranging the association's various activities. As the saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do."

"I see." I didn't like him at all. I turned my gaze to Maeda Reiko. "What did you want to talk to me about today?"

Reiko Maeda smiled again, the same smile she had when she first met me. "You must be wondering why I told you to stay away from that girl. I know you like her a lot."

"Why?" I asked coldly.

She sighed. "Would you like to hear her story?"

"you say."

"Her name is Meng Na. Like you, she just enrolled this year. The reason I want you to stay away from her isn't because of her, but because of her older sister."

"She has an older sister?"

"That's right. She has an older sister who was also a student at this academy, but she went missing two years ago."

"Missing!" Reiko Maeda's words surprised me greatly.

"Yes, she was missing. However, everyone in the know at the time knew that she wasn't missing, but dead. But because her body wasn't found, and there wasn't sufficient evidence to prove her death, it was concluded that she was missing."

"What exactly is going on?" I began to realize that this series of events happening around me was not simple.

Reiko Maeda sighed again. "It's no wonder you don't know. After what happened with Meng Li, Meng Na's sister, there was a period of panic on campus. However, it subsided soon afterward. The school kept the matter strictly under wraps. All related materials were locked in the safe in the archives, and no one was allowed to see them. Anyone who passed on any information on campus would be severely punished by the college." Reiko Maeda spoke in a low voice, as if afraid of being overheard.

"Did the disappearance of Mengna's sister cause panic?" I asked.

"She didn't disappear, she died," Maeda Reiko emphasized again. "Meng Li left behind a diary with a suicide note inside. However, apart from the head of the séance society at the time, Ikeda Nami, no one else ever saw the diary. I was busy preparing for my graduate school entrance exams then, and Ikeda Nami mentioned it to me, but I didn't pay attention. Who knew that not long after, Nami would die in that forest. Since then, no one has known where the diary was, and that forest has claimed five lives."

"The woods? Is that the place you called the 'forbidden zone'?"

"That's exactly where it is," Lin Musen continued, "Although I hadn't enrolled at the school back then, this matter had been circulating on campus for a long time. With the graduation of that group of students and the school's suppression of the news, the fact that someone had died in that grove of trees had gradually faded from everyone's memory. However, it was precisely because of these bizarre deaths that the area was sealed off."

Just then, several professors sat down at the nearby table, so we had to stop our conversation.

As Reiko Maeda left, she handed me a red hardcover notebook. I opened it to the first page, where the words "Séance Log - 1995" were written in large characters. Reiko Maeda said to me, "All the things you care about are recorded here, but much of it is written in Japanese. I've translated some parts. If you still have any questions, call me at this number." Lin Musen then took out a pen, wrote Reiko Maeda's phone number on a slip of paper, and handed it to me.

I casually flipped through the notebook that Reiko Maeda had given me; there wasn't anything particularly interesting in it, until I opened to the page where October 10th was recorded:

Monday, October 10, 1995 Weather: Rain

The disappearance occurred here

Recorder: Nami Ikeda

The Panic Occurs at the Fourth Campus (1)

PART 1.

Monday, October 10, 1995 Weather: Rain

The disappearance occurred here

Recorder: Nami Ikeda

The usually peaceful campus was thrown into turmoil by this sudden event—Meng Li had disappeared.

This morning, her classmates reported to the college that Meng Li had not attended classes or returned to her dormitory for three days. After confirming that she was no longer at the college, the college reported the case to the police.

The last time I saw Mengli was 15 days ago. She was in a very bad mood, sitting alone deep in the woods, looking very melancholy. I tried to go up and say hello to her, but she seemed unwilling to see me. When she saw me, she hurriedly left.

Meng Li, who was always carefree, has recently been behaving extremely strangely, which has been noticed by many people around her. However, when those who care about her try to help her, she always stares blankly and remains silent. I asked Maeda Reiko to try to understand her inner thoughts, but Maeda Reiko couldn't see through her either; her heart was a complete blank.

After Meng Li's mental state became abnormal, she often went alone to the deepest part of the woods and often returned to her dormitory very late. As the days passed, a deathly aura gradually appeared on her listless and melancholy face, an aura that was terrifying. So people began to stay away from her. The deathly aura on her face grew more and more somber each day, and even I became afraid of her, because it was mixed with a resentment, a resentment that could usually only be shown on the face of the dead.

I strongly suspect that the frightening Meng Li no longer belongs to this world, just as I can never escape the haunting presence of the girl who committed suicide. When I learned of Meng Li's disappearance, a strange unease began to creep into my heart. What did this sixth sense foreshadow? I couldn't say; I'd never had such an experience before. It seemed something terrible was about to happen around me, right here on campus.

PART 2.

Weather on October 13, 1995: Sunny

Log discovery

Recorder: Nami Ikeda

Four days have passed since I learned of Meng Li's disappearance, and all investigations have yielded nothing. The media has also been making a huge fuss about it. However, this afternoon, I confirmed the reason for this mysterious disappearance: Meng Li has left this world. At the same time, my unsettling sixth sense is growing stronger. I seem to see a shadow of death looming over the campus.

Just as I had guessed, the Meng Li I saw some time ago, whose brows were filled with death and resentment, does not exist in this world, because she has been dead for many days.

I only confirmed this by chance. Perhaps it wasn't by chance, because at that time I could vaguely sense a force drawing me to that place. I don't know where this force came from, nor who possessed it. But the fact that it could manipulate my mind shows how powerful it is. Therefore, somewhere in this campus, there must be a mysterious figure hiding, whose spiritual power far surpasses that of me and Maeda Reiko. Only when spiritual power reaches its highest level can one remain undetected by others who possess the same power. However, I find it difficult to understand why that mysterious figure led me into that grove.

I can't remember at all how I got into that forest. I only remember that it was a place I'd never been before.

A dilapidated red brick house is the most striking feature of the place. In front of the house is a circular pool with a stone sculpture of a young girl standing in it. Apart from the dense weeds behind the house, three cobblestone paths extend from the main entrance in three other directions.

Guided by that power, I entered the dilapidated house.

The brick house has two floors, with thick layers of dust covering the wooden floors and dense cobwebs growing in the corners. Clearly, it has been abandoned for a long time.

The house is surrounded by a dense pine forest, which almost completely blocks out the sunlight. Although the sky is clear today, the place feels unusually gloomy. There is a strange smell in the air, perhaps the musty smell of a house that is damp and rarely sees sunlight, but that doesn't quite seem to be it.

In the dim light, I could vaguely see footprints on the thick layer of dust on the floor. On the door of the fifth room on the right side of the corridor, I saw bloodstains. These bloodstains were clearly from a long time ago. If it weren't for the white door, it would have been impossible to tell what these black spots were. Due to the passage of time, the bright red blood had long since turned black and had seeped deeply into the door. Just then, that strange force began to invade my will again. Involuntarily, I pushed open the white door stained with blood.

The room, like the outside, was covered in dust. The layout was bizarre; it had no windows and was even darker than the corridor, almost pitch black. I felt my way along the walls as I entered. After a few steps, I came across a table. The room was so dark that I hoped to find some candles or something similar on the table. In that instant, with a sudden "boom," everything lit up—the candlestick on the wall in front of the table had suddenly ignited.

I knew that the candle must have been lit by the powerful mental energy of the person who led me here. To my surprise, I saw a red softcover book lying alone on the table. When I opened its cover, I was shocked to see a name written in black ink: "Meng Li".

How did Meng Li's notebook end up here?

By the candlelight, I casually flipped through a few pages; it turned out to be Meng Li's diary. Just then, the candle suddenly went out, and I heard a chilling, ear-piercing laugh. This was the first time I had ever felt fear. I grabbed the diary and ran outside.

PART 3.

Weather on October 14, 1995: Rain

suicide note

The Panic Occurs at the Fourth Campus (2)

Recorder: Nami Ikeda

I have absolutely no recollection of how I got out of that grove of trees yesterday. As I ran out of the red-brick house with Meng Li's diary, I tripped over something, and then I knew nothing more. When I woke up, I was still lying in the grove, but it wasn't the pine forest in front of the red-brick house anymore; it was a grove of trees along the way to the fourth campus. I tried to follow the traces of my memory to find the red-brick house, but no matter how hard I searched, I was just going in circles. I had to give up for now.

Back in my dorm, the first thing I did was open Meng Li's diary, looking for clues about her "death" or "disappearance".

Perhaps it was a coincidence, but I accidentally spilled water from my cup onto Mengli's diary. If that hadn't happened, I would never have discovered Mengli's suicide note. While frantically wiping the water stains off the diary, I unexpectedly found a piece of paper tucked inside. I eagerly took it out, and at that moment, my hypothesis about Mengli's death was confirmed.

The things Meng Li described in her suicide note are really elusive. Here I will excerpt a few important passages for research.

Written at the end of life

What is life? Perhaps no one can give a universally convincing answer. Throughout the distant past, countless philosophers have explored this question, and the debate surrounding it has continued for millennia.

Life is fragile; it appears so small in the face of nature, and so vulnerable when disaster strikes.

Life is also resilient. For hundreds of millions of years, humankind has continuously reproduced and thrived, struggling against nature. However, life will eventually come to an end...

...

Eternity? Is there a way to make life never end? Humanity has relentlessly pursued the eternal life throughout history, and modern science seems to have proven it to be a fantasy. However, further advancements in science seem to offer us a glimmer of hope…

Is that really the case? Perhaps it will be darker than hell.

...

I live in fear, with terrible demons appearing around me every day, trying to kill me. I know that no matter how I try to escape, one day its claws will strangle me.

I still can't believe the horrors I experienced—have you ever seen yourself except in a mirror? I think no one has ever had such an experience, but I did. This kind of terror is unimaginable until you experience it firsthand.

Yes, I saw another version of myself in the real world, a "me" that wanted to kill me.

When I first saw it, I couldn't believe my eyes, couldn't believe what I was seeing was real, until she walked towards me with a sinister smile and grabbed my neck! Is there really anything more terrifying in the world? Watching the "self" in front of you take your life!