Le retour de l'âme

Chapitre 37

"First, I want to tell Yoshikawa-kun that all your efforts over the past few years have been in vain. I have absolutely no direct connection to the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack. Shoko Asahara, that idiot, was too impatient and opportunistic. If he had heeded my advice, things wouldn't have come to this. I've always advocated a gradual approach, using ideological control to achieve the ultimate goal, but he thought this method was too slow and unrealistic. He completely underestimated my abilities and resorted to violence. After the Tokyo sarin gas attack, I completely broke ties with him and left Aum Shinrikyo. I left Japan, changing my name to Reiko Maeda, not to escape police pursuit, but to escape Asahara's men's pursuit. He wanted to kill me to silence me and hated me because I embezzled 2 billion yen of his ill-gotten gains. There are no Aum Shinrikyo branches in China."

Yoshikawa's expression also turned somewhat grim. "What about the Séance Society? Why did you form the Séance Society in the first place?"

Yuri replied sarcastically once again, "Mr. Yoshikawa, you've got it wrong. Did I build the Spirit Summoning Society? It was founded by Nami Ikeda!"

Yoshikawa's face flushed red, as if he had just drunk alcohol. "Fine, then what is the purpose of using psilocybin mushrooms to extract hallucinogenic drugs and organizing so-called soul-summoning rituals?"

Yuri sneered, "That's right, the so-called summoning of spirits is just a smokescreen. Of course, I have my own purposes, but I can assure you that it has nothing to do with Aum Shinrikyo. If you want the answer, you'd better shut up. I'll tell you, but I don't like being interrupted when I'm speaking!"

"Give me a cigarette," Yoshikawa said to Chen Yiming. Clearly, he had been utterly defeated in this exchange.

PART 2.

The winter morning was very cold and gloomy, and through the balcony, one could see a thick fog outside. The fog had enveloped Yuri Hasegawa, adding to the eeriness of the scene.

She continued her story with her back still to us:

"After the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack, I decided to leave Shoko Asahara; I didn't want to be implicated. Before leaving, I took 2 billion yen, which was rightfully mine. If it weren't for me, how could those cult members be so obsessed with him! Afterwards, I traveled to Hokkaido, but I still couldn't escape his sight. I spent another 1 billion yen to bribe the security services, created a false identity, and fled to China, hiding there as a student. During my escape, I almost died at their hands; my brother saved my life! After arriving in China, I was filled with resentment, seeking revenge, seeking revenge in my own way, making all members of Aum Shinrikyo die under my curse! Nami Ikeda was my roommate at the time, and we quickly became friends. In July 1995, Nami Ikeda suddenly..." I decided to establish an organization called the Séance Society. After several conversations with her, I learned that she believed she had seen Nangong Xiaoxue, and that's when I learned about her story with Nangong Xiaoxue. During that time, she was undergoing psychological treatment under Liu Jianmin. Ikeda Nami was inherently very superstitious, and it was precisely because of this that I saw my opportunity for revenge. Before implementing my plan, I needed to test its effectiveness in practice. The Séance Society was, of course, the most valuable organization to utilize. So I actively participated in this association, echoing Ikeda Nami's hallucinations caused by her mental instability, observing her daily changes, constantly giving her psychological suggestions, making her believe she had superpowers and could see ghosts. Although Professor Liu continuously treated her, it was always ineffective.

The Fourth Campus: The Clouds Part and the Sky Opens (2)

Hearing this, I felt that this woman was both pitiful and terrifying. She was pitiful because she had gone astray, and although she wanted to turn over a new leaf, she couldn't escape the harassment of the evil forces she had encountered before, and she even lost her brother; she was terrifying because she used her best friend as a test subject in her pursuit of revenge.

"I did this to study the ultimate power of psychological suggestion. Although I often used psychological knowledge to brainwash the followers in Aum Shinrikyo, that method only works on people who have no faith, no worldview, who drift with the tide, and who have already lost themselves. To deal with the leaders in the church, I had to do further research. My curse is how to use psychological knowledge to destroy their minds and lead them to their own destruction! Without leaving any trace, without any evidence, even if thousands of people die, it's their own fault, and I don't need to take any responsibility." Yuri said, a hint of smugness in her tone.

"You're wrong. Your method is inciting someone to commit suicide, which is also a crime," Chen Yiming said.

"Even if it is, so what? Can you find any evidence? The law is all about evidence. My only regret now is that I was too hasty and used the hallucinogenic drug extracted from the psilocybin mushroom, which gave you leverage. If it weren't for Mengna's betrayal, my momentary mercy in not eliminating Xu Silu, and my excessive trust in Yoshikawa Hideo, which ultimately led to his betrayal, would you have been able to figure out the truth of these events?" Yuri said, sounding somewhat angry.

"That's not necessarily true. Anyone who has used hallucinogenic drugs can be detected through medical means. We found these substances in Nami Ikeda's body," Chen Yiming said.

Yuri sneered again, "Is that so? Then what about Lin Duyu and Xu Zhifei? What was found in their bodies? What was found in Old Man Sun's body? Hallucinogenic drug components?"

Chen Yiming was stunned, unsure how to respond. After taking a deep drag of his cigarette, he offered a flimsy excuse, "So, there's a will of heaven, and man proposes, God disposes. There were things you hadn't considered."

Yuri burst into laughter, seemingly even more smug. "You don't need to use these words to cover up your defeat. I'll just ask you, did you find these ingredients in their corpses?"

In the second round of confrontation, Hasegawa Yuri gained the upper hand again. I admired this woman even more, and became even more curious about the question she asked Chen Yiming: Why were no hallucinogenic drugs found in Lin Duyu and the others' bodies? But they were indeed frightened to death.

PART 3.

As dawn broke, the fog thickened. Although Yuri was standing on the balcony, very close to us, we could only vaguely make out the outline of her back in the dense fog.

"I originally planned to help Nami Ikeda with her treatment after completing my psychological research experiment, but at that moment, I noticed that Nami Ikeda suddenly shifted her attention from Nangong Xiaoxue's ghost to Meng Li. Nami Ikeda and Meng Li were quite close, which gave me the opportunity to interact with Meng Li. Just as Nami Ikeda described in her séance log, Meng Li did seem to be burdened with a heavy burden at the time. Hayashihara-kun has also read Nami Ikeda's records on this point, so I won't elaborate."

"Yes, that's true," I replied.

"During that time, Mengli often went to that grove, and I secretly followed her. I always saw her wandering there alone, lost in thought, but I didn't discover anything. However, Ikeda Nami didn't think so. Her condition was already very serious at that time, and she always felt that she saw the shadow of death in Mengli. In order to further study whether paranoia would eventually develop into schizophrenia, I echoed her words, gradually implying that she and I both had special abilities different from ordinary people. Later, I secretly read Mengli's diary, trying to find out her secrets, but she didn't write very clearly in the diary, only vaguely mentioning that she had discovered a secret. I thought that secret must be hidden in that grove. Later, it was indeed confirmed that my speculation was correct, in that..." I found those psilocybin mushrooms by the well. I'd learned about their uses from books when I was in university in Tokyo, and I was surprised to find something from South America on campus. Upon closer inspection, I suspected someone was cultivating them; there were signs of a greenhouse nearby. The discovery of these mushrooms filled me with immense joy, as they could accelerate my psychological attacks and greatly aid my revenge. It was around this time that Ikeda Nami established the Séance Society, providing excellent conditions for my next experiment. I quickly joined the Séance Society and gradually replaced her. However, what I never expected was that Ikeda Nami would die in that forest. "And you were in charge of that case, weren't you, Officer Chen?"

"Yes, it's me," Chen Yiming replied.

"Do you remember when I went to the police station to find out about Nami Ikeda's cause of death?"

"Remember, I also told you that anesthetic components were found in her body."

Yuri smiled and said, "That's right. I told you back then that she didn't have a drug addiction. Actually, at that time, I already had a vague idea of the cause of her death."

Chen Yiming frowned. "Oh? What do you think was the cause of her death?"

"Her death was entirely accidental."

"Unexpected!" Chen Yiming and I asked at the same time; this explanation did indeed surprise us.

"That's right, it was an accident. Psilocybeans were initially used in medicine to extract psychotropic drugs, intended to treat hallucinogenic patients. When I learned that anesthetic components were found in her body, and given that she didn't have a history of drug use, I immediately connected the mushrooms to her cause of death. Ikeda Nami had been receiving psychotherapy before her death, but the effects were minimal; it's very likely that she was given hallucinogenic drugs in a rush to achieve results."

"So, the mushroom growers are the Psychological Research Society?" I asked.

"Exactly. But they didn't realize that Nami Ikeda was often with me and was constantly receiving psychological suggestions from me. As a result, those hallucinogenic drugs not only failed to help her treatment, but also worsened her condition, ultimately causing her to die of fright in her own hallucination world."

The Fourth Campus: The Clouds Part and the Sky Opens (3)

Hearing this, I breathed a sigh of relief. I finally understood the truth about Nami Ikeda's death. But what about the others? At this moment, I was completely immersed in Yuri Hasegawa's story.

PART 4.

The fog was even thicker than before, and Yuri's body was almost completely enveloped in the fog, gradually becoming blurred.

"After Ikeda Nami died, I naturally took over the Séance Society, and so I began my second experimental plan, which was to figure out how to make more people lose their way in illusions and reality, and eventually be controlled," Yuri said with a smug smile.

Chen Yiming interrupted her again, "Wait, what about Meng Li? Meng Li disappeared before Ikeda Nami died."

"That's right, she's missing, because I directly orchestrated Meng Li's disappearance!"

The three of us looked at each other in bewilderment.

"The secret Meng Li discovered was that mushroom farm, and she clearly knew who planted it and what the mushrooms were for. She always believed it was related to Ikeda Nami seeing Nangong Xiaoxue's ghost. I tend to agree with Liu Jianmin's view—Ikeda Nami was hallucinating because she was too preoccupied with Nangong Xiaoxue's death. After discovering the mushrooms, I started researching how to extract the hallucinogenic substances from them, because putting them in food would be foolish and easily exposed, while using the air to spread them was a much better method. From the moment I discovered those mushrooms, I often collected them late at night. The first person to discover me was Meng Li. She clearly mistook me for that person's accomplice. To prevent this secret from being revealed, I knocked her unconscious and hypnotized her, making her forget who she was and everything in her memory, giving her a strange memory—seeing another version of herself!"

"What!" I jumped up from the sofa upon hearing this. "You mean..."

Yuri chuckled coldly, "Heh, you finally have a little bit of intelligence. That's right—Meng Na is Meng Li!"

It's pitiful that she didn't even know who she was, not even until her death!

Hideo Yoshikawa shook his head repeatedly, muttering, "Unbelievable, utterly unbelievable!"

Yuri's tone turned contemptuous again. "Of course it's unbelievable to you. You'll never understand the immense power of suggestion. Haven't you heard of that famous American experiment? A group of struggling students were divided into two classes. One class continued with the old teaching methods, while the other class received constant encouragement. Although they still failed tests, the teacher always gave them confidence, telling them they had improved in some areas. After six months, the students in the first class saw their grades rise rapidly, while the class that continued with the old teaching methods continued to decline—a vicious cycle. This is the potential power of suggestion. There's a Chinese proverb: 'A lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth.' When you constantly instill a certain psychological suggestion in someone, they will naturally or unconsciously accept it. Hypnosis is the highest level of psychology, but its principle is also suggestion. Do you understand?"

At this moment, even the two policemen, Chen Yiming and Yoshikawa Hideo, were listening intently.

Yuri continued her story, "For a while afterward, I kept Mengli locked in that secret passage until everything calmed down. Then I hypnotized her again, allowing her to appear on campus as Mengna. Only then would no one suspect her, because two people in the world can't be exactly alike. But I didn't expect her to fall in love with Lin Yuan, which ultimately ruined my plan. Now I think you understand why I didn't let you get close to her—I was worried that your presence and in-depth investigation would cause her to regain her memories. That's why she told you before she died that she wasn't actually Mengna. But that's even more tragic than her believing she was Mengna! Isn't it tragic for someone to die without knowing who they are? It's all your fault, Lin Yuan! If you hadn't been curious, if you had listened to my warnings from the beginning and ignored these trivial matters, she wouldn't have died so painfully!"

"Wait a minute!" I roared. "Was it you who moved her to the morgue?"

She remained silent, and that silence itself was the answer.

"Was it you who was disfigured?!"

"No!" she cried, "I didn't do it! She fell from the clock tower herself..."

"Nonsense! She was perfectly fine when she was alive, but when I saw her in the morgue, she, she, she had become like that—!"

"Lin Yuanjun, calm down and listen to me. It's true that I arranged for the body to be placed in the morgue, but I didn't disfigure her! That night, Meng Li rang the sleeping clock to summon you. When I rushed over, you were with her, so I had to go back to the dormitory to get ether to knock you both out—you don't remember what happened afterward because of the ether! But even after you passed out, you clung to her so tightly, it was as if you were dying with her! I had no choice but to pry her off, and I accidentally pushed her off the platform. I'm sorry, the gears scraped her face..."

I lunged forward, but two policemen held me tightly.

She sighed, "I knew this day would come. I told you not to go near her, not to go near her, but you wouldn't listen..."

"You son of a bitch, you made me stain your face too!"

"Believe me, Lin Yuan! Meng Li's disfigurement was definitely not caused by me!"

"You killed her, you Japanese woman, you heartless Japanese woman!" I was being dragged along by Chen Yiming and the others, so I could only curse incoherently.

"If this continues, I have nothing more to say."

"Lin Yuan!" Officer Chen shook me violently. "Do you want to rest in another room?"

I realized I had interrupted their questioning, so I gritted my teeth and sat down.

"Do you remember the first time we met in the reading room?" Yuri Hasegawa asked affectionately.

Grief and indignation were still stuck in my throat, and I couldn't speak.

"I knew that day that you were a man of extraordinary will." She began to use her usual silver tongue. "Back then, I made you look into my eyes, and there was a figure in them—not you, and there was no one behind you—most people would be terrified by that, but you weren't flustered at all! Do you know how much I admire you, Lin Yuan-kun? Have you ever wondered what that figure was? Do you want to know the answer? Come on, good boy, let me tell you." Her tone became hypnotic again. "There was so much perfume in the reading room, a subtle fragrance wafting through the air. It was thundering outside, but inside it was so cozy. Think about it carefully, think about it carefully..."

The Fourth Campus: The Clouds Part and the Sky Opens (4)

Perfume, perfume… I remember now, there was a faint fragrance. It was thundering outside, yes, and it was raining. All the windows were closed, but the subtle scent lingered in the air. Really…

"That's perfume containing hallucinogens, extracted from psilocybin mushrooms. I left you hanging for ages so you could properly inhale it, and also to subject you to terrifying suggestions amidst the thunder and lightning. After I arrived, I hypnotized you, using my eyes, my expression, and the tone of my voice to hypnotize you."

"Look me in the eyes." The scene from that day appeared in my mind like a hypnotic dream.

"My expression was terrifying, wasn't it? I think I saw something, right? Lin Yuan, you were affected by me; you accepted the suggestion—that something was behind you. The drugs made your psychological defenses weaker. So you saw the ghostly figure in my eyes. But there was one thing I didn't expect: your will was so strong. The hypnosis only worked for a fleeting moment when we made eye contact. The moment you picked up the mirror, you couldn't see the ghostly figure anymore. The instant your gaze left my eyes, your willpower rendered the hypnosis ineffective! I also didn't expect that Meng Li—the one you always called Meng Na—would run into you downstairs and become your friend. Looking back, I think she was following me." She already suspects I'm the mysterious woman from her memories! Your continued relationship is extremely disadvantageous to me, so I'm keeping you away from her and even falsely accusing her of cutting the power when we first met. Actually, it was Wang Siyue who did it. I'm not the reading room manager, how could I have the key? Wang Siyue opened the door, and I had her cut the power at the appointed time. Everything was planned in advance, but no one knows she's also a member of the Séance Society. You weren't scared; instead, you became even more interested in investigating, even asking to join the Séance Society! It was at this moment that I became interested in you—you're the first person I've met with such a strong will and resistance to hypnosis, making you even more challenging for me!

"Having Meng Li as your guinea pig isn't enough; you also want to use me as a test subject!"

"Yes. I started revealing more information to you, and that information itself was quite bizarre. Wasn't Officer Chen also confused by the strange deaths happening in the woods? Another reason was to make you completely give up on entering that forest. I didn't want anyone else to know about those mushrooms! So I set a second trap for you. Of course, before that, I made up a lie—I saw the ghost of Ikeda Nami. Then, I deliberately made you look for clues, find the witnesses from back then to understand the situation, to make them expose themselves one by one so I could deal with them one by one—I just wanted them to forget everything. We're already accomplices; we've lured Ling Min out of the water."

"Didn't you already discover Lingmin's abilities?"

"I found out?"

"You don't know Zhang Xueyao, the one who cursed her? And how did Zhang Xueyao die?"

"Hmph, Zhang Xueyao's death has nothing to do with me. She fell in by accident. Just like me, she found those mushrooms, and foolishly, she tasted them. She soon started hallucinating and jumped into the well. I happened to be collecting samples that day and witnessed it."

"How credible do you think this explanation is?" Hideo Yoshikawa asked.

Yuri laughed loudly, "Do you think I need to lie to you? I'm not the kind of person who only uses violence. Besides, I've already told you how to control other people's minds. Is there any need to hide this? I'll say it again, if you want to understand everything, don't keep interrupting me! Otherwise..." Yuri fell silent.

Chen Yiming couldn't contain himself any longer. "Okay, we promise we won't interrupt you again. Please continue."

"I wanted to save her too, but the mushroom grower showed up. He clearly didn't want more people to know the secret; instead of saving Zhang Xueyao, he stopped me from doing so. You're probably wondering why he didn't kill me? Well, he had already discovered me; the main characters in what Xu Silu mentioned were me and that person. But he's a coward; he wouldn't have the guts to kill someone. Otherwise, Xu Silu would be dead by now. Zhang Xueyao fell into the well herself. That same day, I made a deal with him: half of the mushrooms he grew would be mine. And the Zhang Xueyao Lingmin saw..." It was me. My purpose in doing this was to create panic on campus so that I could further expand the séance. Lingmin was greatly frightened after that incident. The person who planted the mushrooms wanted to get rid of me, but he was hampered by the fact that I had leverage over him and dared not use extreme methods. So he pitted the Psychological Research Society against my séance, accusing each other, with Zhao Jun being a key member. Unfortunately, he was quickly controlled by me using methods unique to women. He wanted to get rid of me but couldn't. He was afraid I would publish those explicit photos. So he was constantly conflicted, slandering me while simultaneously having to do things for me. That's why he suddenly pointed the finger at Lin Yuan that day, saying he had sleepwalking. I made him do that because Lin Yuan was too disobedient, especially since Lin Duyu had discovered the secret passage. So I devised this trap, first creating an environment where Lin Yuan lived in distrust, having those around him constantly hint that he was connected to Lin Duyu's death, and then bringing up the story of Ikeda Nami playing herself as a ghost in her imagination during her mental breakdown, implying that Lin Yuan was sleepwalking that day, playing the ghost he saw, scaring Lin Duyu to death. During this time, Zhao Jun, as I instructed, often... The purpose of talking to him was to guide Lin Yuan into having recurring bizarre dreams. It sounds unbelievable, but it's easy to do. First, Lin Yuan was already in a terrifying, absurd, and strange mental world at that time. High tension leads to poor sleep quality and increased activity in the cerebral cortex, making him easily susceptible to external signals during sleep. Talking to him in this state would cause him to react quickly, answer questions, and simultaneously, scenes related to the conversation would appear in his dreams. If you don't believe me, go read Freud's *The Interpretation of Dreams*. While Lin Yuan was repeatedly having the dreams I designed for him, I deliberately let him discover that book...

The Fourth Campus: The Clouds Part and the Sky Opens (5)

The purpose of "Dream Interpretation" was to deliberately mislead him with the passage that "dreams are exaggerated manifestations of forgotten memories in sleep," causing him to doubt himself. Finally, he deliberately cut the power cord to their dormitory, forcing them to light candles every day, which contained hallucinogenic drugs. Eventually, he actually started sleepwalking, stealing performance costumes and wigs from the Youth League's warehouse. The ghost stories circulating in the girls' dormitory were entirely Lin Yuan's actions while sleepwalking. The candles were placed in the dormitory by Zhao Jun according to my instructions. As for the person who described Ikeda Nami playing the ghost in his hallucinations, that was the grower of these mushrooms. On this point, our goals aligned. He also realized that if Lin Yuan continued his investigation, he might uncover this secret, and given Lin Yuan's connections with the police, it was even more dangerous. It was best to... The method was to make Lin Yuan appear mentally ill. A mentally ill person's words would be neither evidence nor believable. To add to that, when Lin Yuan followed my instructions to find Ling Min to understand the situation, the sudden power outage was also due to me pulling the switch. Ling Min's sudden mental breakdown was because she saw Zhang Xueyao again—of course, it wasn't a ghost, but Hu Xiaoli in disguise. Hu Xiaoli, as planned, pretended to see something terrifying and fainted after Lin Yuan left. The office was very dark then, so it was practically impossible to see her. Then she pretended to be possessed by a ghost and repeated exactly what I had said to scare Ling Min years ago, quickly driving Ling Min insane. As for who the ghost of Ikeda Nami that Lin Yuan saw in the corridor really was, I think you should speculate about that yourselves; otherwise, it'll be too boring.

"You actually treat these terrible things like a game!" I shouted angrily.

"Yes, it's just a game. I am the master of the game. When this game ends, it will be my time for revenge. I will use everything I gained in the game in my revenge plan to deal with those bastards of Aum Shinrikyo!" Yuri seemed a little excited, but she quickly calmed down.

"Let me tell you about the other people who died in the forest. It's simple: they all died from shock after learning secrets they shouldn't have known, and being hallucinated by the drug I extracted from these mushrooms. At that time, I had just extracted this drug and needed to test its airborne effects. The hallucinations caused by psilocybin poisoning are incredibly varied. How to induce terrifying hallucinations in these targets was my most important research project. The hallucinations caused by this mushroom poisoning are often related to a person's psychological state and environment, just like dreams—you can't escape the mindset and environment of that time. People who frequently watch horror movies often have bizarre nightmares. So I started using Ikeda Nami's death, using Ikeda Nami to see Nangong..." Xiaoxue's ghost forged a record of revenge at the end of Nangong Xiaoxue's diary! I spent a long time imitating Nangong Xiaoxue's handwriting. Then I started spreading it, spreading the curse of the diary! Lin Yuanjun was careless and didn't have the diary examined in time; in fact, the handwriting was different at different times. I quickly had Zhao Jun steal the diary and burn it, because I knew that when Chen Yiming returned, the handwriting issue would be impossible to hide. As for the summoning ritual, it was only to deal with that mushroom grower; he had already started using Old Man Sun's death to put pressure on me and the Spirit Summoning Association. So I wanted to create panic throughout the academy to force him. I think I don't need to say more about who this person is, Lin Yuanjun, have you guessed it yet?

"Dean Wu!" I blurted out.

"That's clever. If I'm not mistaken, he's about to jump off the building." Yuri laughed.

Upon hearing this, Chen Yiming and Yoshikawa Hideo jumped up from the sofa. At the same time, Wu Jiansheng and Mo Hui burst into the room, shouting, "Reporting, Captain Chen, someone has committed suicide in the teachers' dormitory area!"

Chen Yiming turned to look at Yuri's retreating figure on the balcony and asked, "How did you know?"

Yuri laughed again. "I just talked so much about psychology, don't you understand? Didn't you go to Dean Wu's house early this morning?"

Chen Yiming immediately said to Wu Jiansheng and Mo Hui, "Take a few men and seal off the scene right away. Remember to search his house, and take all his diaries and letters back for investigation."

"Hasegawa Yuri," Yoshikawa Hideo said, "I also wanted to ask about the disappearances of Zhao Jun and Wang Siyue?"

Yuli smiled. "Don't worry, that bastard Zhao Jun ran away a long time ago. As for Wang Siyue, you'll see her soon."

"Hasegawa Yuri! Save your complaints for your trial!" Chen Yiming seemed impatient because of Dean Wu's suicide attempt. He lunged at the balcony, but as he pulled out handcuffs, Hasegawa Yuri collapsed to the ground. Only then did we see clearly—

This person is not Reiko Maeda, but Wang Siyue!

Who was the person who just spoke to us?

That's definitely Reiko Maeda's voice!