Histoires de fantômes

Chapitre 7

"Didn't I say I didn't know?"

"Stop pretending. Have you forgotten how sinister your smile was just now?"

“Hmm,” he said slowly, “I think she was interested in you, but Sima Xiao pursued her relentlessly, which is why she hurt him.”

"Flirted with me?" I sneered. "She's flirting with you, isn't she? She didn't approach me because of you, did she? She knows you're inside me, doesn't she?"

“No…no way?” he stammered. “Night Demon just found you, how could she know?”

"Didn't you say she was incredibly capable?"

"Sigh... I don't know either, maybe we'll find out tonight."

"At night... how could you find out at night?"

"She tampered with the food you just ate, and I think she'll come looking for you tonight."

"What? Why didn't you say so sooner?" I suddenly felt nauseous, but couldn't vomit.

"With her here, how could I dare to say anything?"

"You've ruined my life."

"Don't worry, it won't harm your body."

"So what exactly did she do?"

"It's to make you dream of her fantasy garden, isn't it?"

"I don't understand. Oh well, things are already messy enough. One more thing won't make a difference."

Chapter Eleven: Forgetting Pei Qing

When I saw the editor-in-chief at work in the afternoon, he asked, "So, is Sima Xiao really possessed by evil spirits?"

I laughed and said, "Didn't his mother tell you?"

"She said you didn't see anything, is that true or are you deliberately hiding the truth?"

I asked curiously, "Judging from your tone, it seems like you know something."

"I'm asking you a question, so please answer quickly."

"Okay, maybe it's like you said, but I'm not sure. However, I'll try my best to investigate now."

He nodded and said, "Okay, okay, you must investigate this thoroughly."

"Editor-in-chief, now you can tell me what you know."

"I know? What do I know? I know nothing." The editor-in-chief, who was in his forties, was quite good at playing dumb.

I said, "Okay, you don't know, I might not be able to find anything about Sima Xiao's matter, and I can't help him."

“You… well, fine, I’ll tell you.”

Then he pulled open a drawer under his desk, took out a book, opened it, pulled out a photograph, and said to me, "Look who's in here."

When I took it, I saw it was a group photo of three people. On either side were two men and women in their thirties, one mature and elegant, the other beautiful and gentle, and in the middle was a pretty and cute girl of thirteen or fourteen. I was so surprised when I saw it that I exclaimed, "This is... Ayu."

"You also think she looks like Ayu."

"It's not just like... this must be her, even the dimples when she smiles are exactly the same."

“But her name wasn’t A-Yu, it was Pei Qing. She was my older brother’s daughter and passed away six months ago.”

"What? She...she's dead."

"Yes, she and her parents lived in a city far from here. She suddenly fell ill and passed away six months ago. I even flew there to attend her funeral."

"What a pity, she shouldn't be A-Yu, but how can she look so much like her?"

"Ah Ming, do you really think Ah Yu isn't Pei Qing?"

"Isn't Pei Qing dead?"

The editor-in-chief looked at me with a strange expression, and I understood somewhat. "You think she's been resurrected in another body?"

The editor-in-chief shook his head and said, "I don't know, but the strange thing happened on the day A-Yu came to report for duty."

"What? What happened?"

"I ask you, if you saw a girl who looked exactly like your niece, what would you do?"

"I...I'll think of my niece right away."

He smiled wryly and said, "But I just couldn't remember. Now that I think about it, it's because when I saw A-Yu, I completely forgot about Pei Qing."

"Ah...maybe you're so heartbroken by Ah Qing's death that your subconscious doesn't want to think about it anymore."

"Is this situation true?"

"This..." I felt that this explanation was far-fetched, so I could only force a smile.

He said in a voice filled with doubt and a hint of fear, "I have completely forgotten about this niece, and not only me, but also her parents and my wife have completely forgotten about her."

"Oh, how could this be? And how did you know?"

"It was only when I saw this photo that I remembered Pei Qing."

I looked at the editor-in-chief with a puzzled expression.

He shook his head and said, "Ayu came to our magazine office a week after you took leave. We were not short of staff, but after seeing Ayu, I felt that we really needed her. When Sima Xiao saw Ayu, he kept pestering me to transfer her to their planning team, but I seemed to think that Ayu wanted to work with you, so I didn't agree to Sima Xiao's request. Instead, I had Ayu work as a handyman here for seven days. After you started working, I introduced Ayu to you as your assistant."

I nodded and said, "Now that you think about it, something seems off."

"Well, I think my thoughts were being controlled without my knowledge—until the day before yesterday, when I was looking for old interview journals and found this book under the table, I flipped through it by chance and saw this photo. That's when I suddenly remembered my niece, Pei Qing. She looks exactly like A Yu. At the time, I was just wondering why I didn't think of her when I first met A Yu, and I didn't pay much attention to it."

I nodded again.

He continued, "But when I got home, I told my wife about a girl at the magazine who looked exactly like Pei Qing. My wife was quite surprised and asked me who Pei Qing was. I thought she was joking because Pei Qing often stayed at our house when she was little, and my wife liked her very much. How could she not know who Pei Qing was? I was a little angry at the time. I said she was my older brother's daughter, how could she pretend not to know? Unexpectedly, she looked at me even more surprised and said that my older brother didn't have any children, so where did this daughter come from? I was really angry. Although Pei Qing is dead, she will undoubtedly always be my older brother's daughter, my niece. I got up to get the photo album because there were many photos of Pei Qing at my house, but when I opened the album, I found..."

The editor-in-chief's eyes showed a look of panic, and I tensed up and asked, "What did you find?"

"I discovered that A-Qing's photos were missing. I searched the entire photo album but couldn't find any of her pictures. I remembered there were photos of her with us, but now they were just photos of my wife and me. Her solo photos were now just landscapes with no one in them. I exclaimed in surprise, 'What happened?' My wife asked me what was wrong, and I looked at her and asked, 'You really don't know A-Qing? Are you kidding me?' My wife smiled and asked me what I was talking about. I didn't know what to do, so I immediately picked up the phone and called my older brother. They answered, and the first thing I asked them was if they knew A-Qing. Sure enough, they were very surprised and asked me who A-Qing was. I was speechless for a moment, and could only manage to say with difficulty, 'She's your daughter.' Then they gave the same answer as my wife, saying I was joking. They didn't have any children, so where would they get a daughter? I hung up the phone in a daze, not knowing what had happened."

"You mean they don't remember Pei Qing at all?"

"Hmm, now that I think about it, if I hadn't seen this photo, I wouldn't have been able to remember Ah Qing either."

"All of Ah Qing's photos have disappeared from your house, so why hasn't this one disappeared?"

"Ah Ming, do you think this might be related to this book?"

The editor-in-chief handed me the book, and upon inspection, I saw it was a Buddhist scripture: the Diamond Sutra.

“That’s right. I bought this from a temple in Luoyan Mountain before. Is it because of the protection of Buddhist scriptures that Aqing in this photo did not disappear?”

"Perhaps. Besides what you've mentioned, editor-in-chief, have you seen anything else strange about A-Yu?"

Chapter Twelve: The Demon Realm, the Ghost Realm?

“Sigh… The next day I went to look at A-Yu’s file and found it was completely blank. In the afternoon I wanted to find her and ask her what was going on, but as soon as I saw her I forgot what I wanted to ask. This happened for several days in a row. When I didn’t see her I would remember everything, and when I saw her I would completely forget. This made me more and more confused. A-Ming, I know you are very knowledgeable about ghosts and gods, so I wanted to ask you if you could see anything wrong with A-Yu.”

I remained silent for a long time before saying, "It seems she only wants you to forget about A-Qing, but doesn't intend to harm you. Editor-in-Chief, you might as well play dumb for now and stop asking her about A-Qing. Leave the rest to me."

"So, Ah Yu really does have a problem... Is she human or noble?"

I smiled wryly and said, "It's hard to say right now, but the truth will come out eventually."

I sat in the pavilion in the park, breathing in the unique fragrance of summer flowers, trying to clear my mind and have a heartfelt conversation with another person in my heart.

"Hey, can you hear me? You're not asleep, are you?"

"No, I'm perfectly sober right now."

"Alright, now you need to help me answer the questions in my mind."

“This…”

"What, are you going to keep me in suspense?"

"No, there are some things I might be able to help you with, but there are others I'm not even sure about myself, so I probably can't help you with them."

"What are you saying? How could you not know? Aren't all the things that have happened around me related to you?"

"That's not entirely true."

“If I don’t say it this way, how should I say it? Do you dare say it has nothing to do with you?”

"Aside from the Night Demon incident, I really don't know anything else."

"You... I give up. Fine, then tell me who you are, who Night Demon is, and what happened between the two of you."

“I am a part of Cheng Lang, and so is the Night Demon… Sigh, I doubt you would understand even if I explained it this way, so you should go and see for yourself.”

"Go see for yourself, go there and see for yourself."

"Go to the Demon Realm and see the Spirit Mirror; you can see everything there."

“The Spirit Void Mirror of the Demon Realm, eh, I feel like I’ve heard of this Spirit Void Mirror somewhere before… Right, it was that fortune teller who tricked Xiuxiu into going to the Yin-Yang Sect who mentioned it. You wouldn’t be trying to trick me too, would you?”

"Don't be so suspicious, okay? This Spirit Void Mirror originally belonged to the Heavenly Court, but my mother secretly took it to the Demon Realm."

"Your mother? How could your mother steal things from Heaven? Who is she?"

"She is from the heavens now... I won't tell you any more. You will understand everything in time."

"Okay, so how do we get to the Demon Realm?"

“I could have made you unconscious and then taken your body with me, but Huanji has tampered with your body. I’m afraid that your soul will be controlled by her while you’re unconscious, so you’ll have to go to the Demon Realm on your own.”

"What are you saying? Do you think you can't take me there if I'm not unconscious?"

"This... I'm afraid it's difficult. Your physical body in the Demon Realm can hardly withstand two souls."

"I don't know if what you're saying is true or not. Never mind, just tell me how to enter the Demon Realm, and I'll go in myself."

"Okay, but once we get to the Demon Realm, I'll most likely fall into a deep sleep and won't be able to help you anymore. You need to be careful."