Chapter 378: I Regretted It

"During that time, I became Wang Xian's sole confidant. He trusted absolutely no one but me."

"To hide his deep-seated unease, Wang Xian tried his hardest to act like everyone else in front of outsiders. This is a very normal psychological response, especially for a child."

"Without parental love, a sense of security, or any form of validation, his mind had already begun to warp."

"The ghostly figure from his subconscious firmly took root in his mind. This was a form of self-suggestion: the more he thought about it, the more impossible it became to forget."

"During our conversations, I constantly comforted Wang Xian while casually instilling a few concepts into his head: karma, reincarnation, and the idea that good and evil always get their due. A clear conscience fears no ghost knocking at the door. If he lived an upright life, ghosts and monsters would naturally have no reason to attack him."

"I encouraged Wang Xian to participate in more extracurricular activities, interact with people, and perform good deeds, telling him that doing so might help him shake off the evil ghost."

"A week later, Wang Xian was on the verge of a breakdown. He grew noticeably thinner and became increasingly withdrawn. And the moment he closed his eyes every night, the image of a violently murdered woman would appear in his mind."

"During those days, he never turned off the lights when he slept, nor did he dare go into enclosed spaces alone. No matter which corner he looked at, he felt as though a blood-drenched woman might suddenly materialize."

"In truth, this was all a fabrication of his own mind. It's much like when people fully immerse themselves in a horror story and constantly reinforce a single thought: 'There's a ghost behind me, there's a ghost behind me.' Over time, their sleeping posture shifts from their side to flat on their backs, as if something unclean truly is hiding behind them."

"Wang Xian's condition was a hundred times more severe than reading a ghost story, because he knew perfectly well that he hadn't consumed any terrifying or stimulating media. That violently murdered woman seemed to manifest in his life completely out of thin air. He was terrified because he had no idea where she came from and could find no source for the phenomenon. And because of that terror, he constantly obsessed over ways to solve the problem."

"He had no one to talk to, so he begged me for help. However, I had no genuine intention of helping him. Instead, time and time again, I deepened his impression of the murdered woman, creating a vicious cycle."

"When Wang Xian began displaying self-harming tendencies, I knew it was time to stop. His fear of the murdered woman had finally surpassed his own physical pain."

"Having played the role of the caring older brother all this time, I set the second part of my plan in motion. I told Wang Xian that his condition was extremely severe, and that he needed to sit down with his family for a serious talk to explain the entire situation regarding the murdered woman from start to finish."

"Wang Xian obediently did as I suggested. As expected, neither his stepmother—who loathed him—nor his biological father cared in the slightest. They simply assumed he was acting out for their attention."

"With his parents entirely apathetic, Wang Xian had no choice but to seek me out again. Facing this desperate boy, I tried to console him. I told him that even if the murdered woman really was a ghost, she wouldn't target him for no reason, and that there had to be some sort of misunderstanding. Was it possible, I suggested, that someone in his family had committed some heinous crime, and the ghost was now seeking revenge?"

"With that slight prompt, Wang Xian immediately thought of his older brother—the one who had originally been sentenced to life, but whose sentence had been reduced to twenty years due to good behavior in prison."

"He told me all about Wang Kuai. Pretending to be agitated, I urged him to look up the photos of the woman who had drowned in that case."

"A few days later, Wang Xian came back to tell me that the deceased victim was not the murdered woman he kept seeing. Feigning composure, I slowly guided him, pushing him to uncover the truth on his own."

"Human nature is like that. People place an inexplicable amount of trust in the answers they uncover themselves. I completely let Wang Xian off the leash, and at the same time, I began producing a new video."

"I used much more cheerful movie clips. This time, in the final frame, I didn't just splice in the photo of my murdered fiancée—I also added a few words." Du Yu's persistently flat tone finally cracked. I could vaguely guess what had happened next, but seeing his pained expression, I kept my hands clasped tightly together and remained silent.

Du Yu paused for a long time before continuing, "I told him to kill his entire family."

"Everything I did leading up to that point was laying the groundwork for this very moment. Psychological suggestion certainly exists, but weak suggestions are far too easily ignored. They require long-term, subtle interference. After all, information only remains in the subconscious for a limited time. Eventually, it will be forgotten."

"To achieve a significant effect, one must control the environment of the suggestion, blocking out any outside interference."

"Furthermore, there is one most crucial point: the suggested information cannot conflict too heavily with the target's own subjective will."

"Directly telling a middle schooler to murder his family had zero chance of succeeding. That was why I first planted the image of my violently murdered fiancée into Wang Xian's memories, using it as a lever to pry at his subjective will and throw his life into chaos."

"Through our continuous conversations, I constantly fed him the idea that life was beautiful and uplifting—but with one major prerequisite: a happy family. In every single movie clip I showed him, no matter how impoverished or lowly the protagonist was, they always had at least one family member standing firmly by their side in support."

"This positive energy might have had some good impact on Wang Xian, but mostly, it served to tell him that he was a piece of trash that even his own parents didn't want! It told him he was beyond saving!"

"Through the videos, the music, and our seemingly casual daily chats, I was dropping hints practically every waking second. At the age where he was most prone to overthinking and rebellion, I presented him with the cruelest truth of all—that he was utterly alone."

"The subjective suggestion that his family didn't love him, combined with the subconscious suggestion of the murdered woman—one overt, one covert. It took a full two months to completely shatter Wang Xian's mental defenses, bringing him to a point where he was no longer opposed to the horrifying concept of murdering his own family."

"The objective of the Second Stage of the psychological suggestion was to implant the idea of killing his family, convincing him that they were the ones who had ruined him."

"The seed had already taken root and sprouted. For the harvest, I only needed to wait."

"Another month passed, and Wang Xian sent me some photos. Crimson blood was pooling from my fiancée's body. He had managed to track down the crime scene photos taken by the media back then."

"I heard the whole story from start to finish through Wang Xian. He was terrified, but also deeply confused. His stepmother was the mastermind behind everything, so why was the ghost targeting him specifically?"

"The appearance of my fiancée's photos acted as the trigger for Wang Xian's subconscious mind. In his eyes, there had to be a reason why a completely fictional ghost from his mind was now stalking him in reality, and that reason pointed squarely at his stepmother."

"His personality grew increasingly extreme. His attitude toward his family twisted from a desperate craving for affection into raw anger and hatred."

"With his subjective will altered, the Second Stage of the psychological suggestion was complete."

"Murder generally falls into two categories: crimes of passion and premeditated killings. Getting a middle schooler to execute a premeditated murder is incredibly difficult. Because of this, I initiated the Third Stage of my plan—whittling down Wang Xian's self-control to lay the groundwork for a crime of passion."

"I eagerly helped Wang Xian formulate a plan, telling him that the ghost was only haunting him for revenge. As long as he could get his stepmother to confess, or force her to burn incense at the victim's grave, he should be able to earn the deceased's forgiveness."

"Wang Xian's stepmother already loathed this bastard child born to a mistress. Coupled with her own guilty conscience, her attitude toward him was naturally downright atrocious."

"Had Wang Xian still been his old self, he would have just swallowed the abuse. Unfortunately, the current Wang Xian had changed. He was nothing more than a puppet trapped in deep terror, his very mind under my control."

"Things went even smoother than I could have ever imagined. Before long, I saw the news regarding the Wang Family in the papers."

"Using a fruit knife from the house, Wang Xian stabbed his stepmother seventeen times—the exact same number of times my fiancée was stabbed all those years ago. Afterward, he stabbed his father and the family nanny. Panicked and with nowhere left to run, he ultimately climbed a high-rise building and bid farewell to this world."

"It took me a year and a half to exact vengeance upon my enemies. Yet, as I read that news report, I didn't feel a single shred of joy. On the contrary... when I saw that Wang Xian had thrown himself off that high-rise, I suddenly felt a pang of regret."