Ombres fantomatiques dans le pavillon

Chapitre 6

But Xu Wenkai still ignored what she meant: "What's wrong? That kid started it, why are you always blaming me!"

For some reason, Han Ying seemed too angry to speak, and Xu Wenkai didn't understand what was wrong with her either, just standing there dumbfounded. Chu Yi quickly came out, took Han Ying's hand, and gently comforted her for a few moments, then turned to Xu Wenkai and said, "What's wrong? Look how angry you've made Han Ying."

Although Xu Wenkai was a bit simple-minded, he was very sincere towards Han Ying. After Chu Yi said that, he was at a loss for words.

Chu Yi asked again, "What happened just now?"

Xu Wenkai's tone was noticeably less forceful than before. He briefly recounted to Chu Yi what had happened, almost getting into a fight with Zhou Hua. (I happened to witness that incident, so I won't go into details.) He clearly didn't know Zhou Hua, but Chu Yi immediately guessed that it must be Zhou Hua. However, she didn't say it aloud (I was upstairs with Zhou Hua at that moment) and instead asked, "Then why did you say Su Quan was a monster?"

When Han Ying heard Chu Yi's question, she wanted to stop Xu Wenkai from answering, but he beat her to it: "She always says she can sense other people's thoughts, what else could she be but a demon?"

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, Han Ying shouted, "Wen Kai!"

Xu Wenkai quickly turned his face away, as if he had never heard Han Ying speak so angrily before. But Han Ying ignored him and turned to leave.

Chu Yi was unaware that her question would cause Han Ying such agitation. She quickly chased after Han Ying, grabbed her hand, and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it..."

Before Chu Yi could finish speaking, she saw a tear roll down Han Ying's face, leaving Chu Yi speechless.

At this moment, Xu Wenkai also came out. When he saw Han Ying crying, he was immediately at a loss for what to do and stammered, "Han Ying, I, I'm sorry."

Han Ying seemed to disregard Chu Yi's presence, and said to Xu Wenkai, "Can't you think about me? You talk to her like that, do you really want her to come to me before you're satisfied?!"

When Xu Wenkai heard Han Ying say this, he didn't understand what she meant. He saw her crying harder and harder, and he didn't know how to comfort her.

Chu Yi realized that although she had advised Han Ying at noon not to think about Su Quan's ghost or anything like that, the current situation showed that her advice hadn't been very effective. So she said to Han Ying, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that question. Don't blame him."

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [19]: Han Ying didn't know if she heard it or not, but she kept sobbing with her head down. Chu Yi had no choice but to say again, "It's okay, I'm with you tonight, she won't come after you." Then she kept saying some seemingly unreasonable things to comfort her.

Chu Yi's words at this moment were tantamount to coaxing a child, but this method often works. Sure enough, after hearing Chu Yi's words, Han Ying looked up at Chu Yi with uneasy eyes.

Chu Yi smiled at Han Ying and squeezed her hand tightly, which finally calmed her down a bit.

Fortunately, Xu Wenkai wasn't too slow to react. He quickly stepped forward and said to Han Ying, "Ying, I'm sorry about what happened earlier."

Han Ying glared at him reproachfully, then turned and walked away.

Xu Wenkai glanced at Chu Yi, who gestured for him to hurry up and catch up. He understood immediately and jogged after her.

Chu Yi felt her doubts had reached an extreme. Judging from what had just happened, it was not hard to understand why Han Ying was extremely unwilling to mention anything about Su Quan. Even her unwillingness to let Xu Wenkai say anything about Su Quan could be explained as her fear of Su Quan's "ghost." But what puzzled Chu Yi the most was Xu Wenkai's statement that "she always says she can sense other people's thoughts."

"What do you think he meant by that?" Chu Yi asked me after recounting what had just happened.

I didn't answer her immediately. Instead, after thinking for a moment, I asked her a question: "Don't you think Han Ying is being a little too anxious about Su Quan's situation? Doesn't this indicate that Han Ying is very concerned about Su Quan's death...?"

Chu Yi interrupted me before I could finish, saying, "She was indeed very nervous, but I don't see anything abnormal about it. Didn't she tell us about what happened between them at noon today?" Then she paused and asked, "How did you come up with that question?"

I then recounted to Chu Yi the whole story that started with persuading Zhou Hua and Xu Wenkai to fight.

After hearing this, Chu Yi, like me, remained silent for a while before saying, "So you believe Zhou Hua's speculation?"

I scoffed, "Do you think I'm a child? You think I'd believe that nonsense? I only asked that question because of my own feeling."

Chu Yi shook her head for some reason after hearing what I said, and seemed to sigh softly.

I asked, "What's wrong?"

Chu Yi said, seemingly quite reasonably, "Your imagination has declined."

I retorted defiantly, "Are you kidding me? Do you really believe what he said?"

Chu Yi said slowly, "Think again about what Xu Wenkai said."

My mind raced, and I immediately understood what Chu Yi meant. I said, "You mean Su Quan really has the ability to see through other people's thoughts, and that he also saw Han Ying's desire to kill her?"

Chu Yi nodded in agreement, but I said, "No, no."

Chu Yi remained silent, only looking at me with her eyes asking if something was wrong. I said, "First, I don't believe Su Quan has the ability to read other people's minds. You and I both know that's an overload on the human brain, an ability that almost doesn't exist. Second, even if we assume she did have that ability, it wouldn't necessarily be related to her death."

Chu Yi pouted and said, "Of course I've thought of those two questions too, but I always feel that there must be a connection between these things."

I put my arm around her shoulder and said, "Don't worry, we've found the answers to even the strangest things before."

Chu Yi leaned closer to me and said softly, "Yes, I hope it will be the same this time."

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [20]: Chu Yi and I then came up with several other ideas, but we quickly rejected them ourselves. I still think Zhou Hua's idea is not worth mentioning, so Chu Yi stopped arguing with me.

After sending Chu Yi back, I returned to my dorm alone. It was quite late, but since it was the weekend, everyone else was still awake. So I wandered around a few nearby rooms for a while. By the time I felt sleepy, it was already 2 a.m.

When I returned to my dormitory, most of the others were already asleep, so I washed up and lay down on my bed.

A lot happened to me today, and what's most infuriating is that I still can't even make a hypothesis about the connection between these events.

I sighed, turned my head, and soon fell asleep.

I don't know how long I slept, but suddenly I felt like I was about to wake up. Because I had received some martial arts training, my nerve responses are relatively more sensitive than the average person. Especially after falling asleep, while I can enter a deep sleep, I can also keep myself alert at the same time.

So when I felt myself waking up, my first reaction was to prepare to fight back. I tried to shake off my drowsiness, to get my eyes used to the darkness as quickly as possible, and at the same time, I started to activate all the muscles and nerves in my body.

When my eyes could barely see in the dark, I was extremely surprised to find a person sitting on the stool next to my bed!

I was momentarily at a loss for how to react; I was so shocked that I just stared blankly at the person.

However, my night vision quickly returned, and I gradually saw that it was a woman I didn't recognize. She was sitting on a stool with half her face turned toward me, wearing a white shirt and with long hair draped over her shoulders.

Just as I recognized that it was a woman, her face slowly turned toward me.

At that very moment, I saw the most terrifying face I had ever seen in my life!

Her face, initially turned towards me, was merely abnormally pale, which certainly wasn't enough to terrify me. But to my surprise, when she turned her face, I discovered that she only had this one side of her face!

I know this may not be the most accurate way to put it, but who can really call that bloody, mangled thing the other half of a face?

Her face was neatly divided into two parts from her brow to her jaw. The left side, though abnormally pale, had nothing else strange about it; in fact, it could be described as a pretty face. But the right side was a dark red mass, utterly indescribable! Its appearance, beyond being described as merely ugly or terrifying, created an extremely eerie contrast with the other side of her face.

The oppressive atmosphere made it almost impossible for me to breathe; the terrifying scene froze all my nerves, leaving only my brain spinning alone.

My brain immediately produced a fact that was hard for me to accept—the girl in front of me was Su Quan!

When I thought of this, my mind almost stopped. I opened my mouth, but only made a "gurgling" sound.

At that moment, I didn't even have the strength to close my eyes and not look at that scene. Of course, I am not a person who is easily frightened, but at this moment, everything in front of me was really too terrifying!

Just as I was at a loss, "Su Quan" stared intently at me with her other eye. Suddenly, the corner of her mouth seemed to twitch slightly, as if she wanted to say something.

I was just subconsciously watching her mouth, thinking she might still be able to say something, but I never expected that the way her mouth moved would cause the muscles on her face to move as well, and a piece of something would suddenly fall off the half of her bloody face where the eye used to be!

The substance, along with a trace of viscous liquid, rolled down her face, across her snow-white shirt, leaving a bright red streak of blood, and finally stopped at her knees.

I followed the trail of blood, and when I saw what was resting on her knee, I couldn't bear it any longer and screamed as I sat up.

That thing was one of her eyes!

But right after I yelled that, I felt my whole body tremble violently, and I suddenly opened my eyes.

I found that everything in front of me was still pitch black, and I didn't sit up. My eyes were still not adjusted to the darkness and I couldn't see anything clearly.

I felt a chill down my back again; it was clearly from the sweat-soaked mattress, and beads of sweat were still sliding down my face.

I thought about what had just happened very quickly, and immediately came to the conclusion that everything that had just happened was just a dream that was too real for me.

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [21]: When I think of this, I can't help but let out a long sigh of relief—after all, the scene just now was too stimulating for me, so much so that I don't even want to think about it again.

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down, thinking that the image of Su Quan dying that I saw yesterday at noon must have left too deep an impression on me, which is why I had this dream.

But then I thought that such vivid dreams had occurred before. If the cause of these two dreams was the same, it meant that a very strong force had indeed surrounded Su Quan during her lifetime. (Please note that this passage might seem a bit unclear, because it relates to an experience of mine that is closely connected to dreams. In that story titled "Nightmare," I gained an extraordinary understanding of dreams. So, in short, this dream greatly changed my view of Su Quan.) Then I thought of Zhou Hua's speculation and Xu Wenkai's words. I had initially dismissed them, but this dream made me want to carefully examine the connection between them.

Although it was still dark outside, I was wide awake. Lying in bed, I tried to connect the two events. As I thought, I suddenly remembered that when I first heard Zhou Hua talk about Su Quan, I had imagined a scenario: Su Quan, under a long-term state of psychological suggestion, ultimately deliberately created a death situation that matched the psychological suggestion.

I only thought about this idea at the time and didn't delve into it, but now that I think about it now, if I connect it with what Xu Wenkai said, then I can imagine the following situation: First, Han Ying had always harbored some hatred towards Su Quan because of Zhou Hua, and this hatred suddenly erupted the day before Su Quan died.

Then, I assume that Su Quan received Han Ying's thoughts through an unknown means, and formed a very strong psychological suggestion in his mind.

This psychological suggestion accumulated over time, leading Su Quan to have the idea that he was "killed," and he told Zhou Hua about this idea that very night.

Finally, on the second day at noon, Su Quan could not withstand the psychological pressure, which led to her death.

I came up with this series of ideas in one go, and although they seem somewhat illogical, they are arguably the only relatively comprehensive explanation for this series of events so far.

I was naturally a little smug about reaching this conclusion, but then I immediately thought of a few doubts in my hypothesis: First, and most importantly, how did Su Quan gain the ability to perceive other people's thoughts (and the existence of this ability still needs more proof).

Secondly, whether Su Quan's death was a suicide under psychological suggestion, as I suspect, still needs further verification.

Third, I thought of what Liu Shiyan told me about her experience. Could it also be related to Su Quan's abnormal mental state?

Although I only thought about it briefly and came up with a few doubts, I felt that the general direction of my idea was correct, so I couldn't help but feel an irrepressible excitement.

I pressed on while the iron was hot, continuing to consider how to resolve the doubts I had in mind. After some thought, I decided to go to the hospital where Su Quan had stayed the next morning (or rather, this morning) to investigate her medical records. I figured if she really had that so-called "ability," it should be reflected in her medical records.

Then I want to talk to a few more of Su Quan's roommates to see if I can get more "evidence" about Su Quan's "ability".

Once I had a plan, I even felt a childlike eagerness to do it.

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [22]: As soon as it was dawn, I got up, got dressed and went out for my morning exercise.

Because I got up earlier than usual today, there weren't many people on campus yet. I jogged slowly along the tree-lined paths, thinking that things had finally started to look promising (although I wasn't sure if they were correct). I felt a surge of excitement.

After exercising, I returned to my dormitory, washed up, and then went to the cafeteria for breakfast.

Chu Yi and I eat breakfast together almost every day; it's become a routine, and today was no exception. I had just bought my food and found a seat when Chu Yi came walking towards me with her meal.