Chapter 362
Chapter 362
I had assumed Seventh Master could put Brother Liu into a hypnotic state and smoothly recover the lost memory.
I hadn’t expected the original hypnotist to be so vicious.
Whoever it was had to be a master of the Mind-Capturing Art and hypnosis. They had erected a barrier in Brother Liu’s memory, like a firewall. Whenever he tried to recall the hypnotist’s face, it transformed into the person he feared most.
That person was his grandfather, though we didn’t yet know why he feared the man so deeply.
“Seventh Master, what do we do now?”
“I don’t know.”
Seventh Master shook his head, brows tightly furrowed. “My understanding of the Mind-Capturing Art and hypnosis is limited. That person is an expert. I cannot think of a way to break a deliberately constructed barrier like this.”
But we had come so far. Recovering Brother Liu’s memory might tell us where Liang Yi was.
I couldn’t accept giving up…
After thinking, I said, “The barrier makes Brother Liu remember the person he fears most. Since that’s his grandfather, what if we help him overcome that trauma? Wouldn’t the barrier collapse on its own?”
Seventh Master considered it, and his eyes brightened. “In theory, yes. But psychological trauma cannot be erased casually.”
“We should at least try. We’ve already come this far.”
Seventh Master looked at Brother Liu and spoke soothingly until his emotions settled slightly.
Then he said, “Liu Jianye, you are safe. Even if a ghost appears, it cannot hurt you. You have even less reason to fear your grandfather. The best way to overcome trauma is to face it directly.”
“Can you tell us why you are so afraid of your grandfather?”
Brother Liu’s Adam’s apple bobbed. His recently calmed emotions began to surge again.
“My grandpa… is a ghost…”
Those few simple words shocked Seventh Master and me.
His grandfather was a ghost?
Looking closely at the statement, “ghost” was the important part. Brother Liu didn’t fear his grandfather. He feared the ghost his grandfather had become.
But ghosts came from people. Logically, his grandfather must have lingered after death and appeared to Brother Liu when he was young. Unable to understand what he saw, the child developed a deep fear.
That might explain why he feared ghosts so much more than ordinary people.
“How could your grandfather be a ghost?” Seventh Master asked. “We are all people, and so was he. Did he pass away?”
Brother Liu’s breathing quickened. “He died. They buried him in a grave, but I could still see him… He wanted to take me away… If I went to his place, I would die. I don’t want to die…”
His account made the source of his trauma clear.
He spoke like a child, unable to organize his words properly.
That meant he had seen his grandfather’s Ghost when he was very young.
Children did not understand death clearly. But adults weeping at a funeral and the sight of the deceased lying motionless inside a coffin filled them with fear of the unknown.
At the same time, when a child learned they would never see that elder again, they felt the same grief and sorrow as the adults. Yet their sorrow was mixed with fear, and the force of those emotions struck a child’s heart far more deeply than an adult’s.
Without an adult to guide a child through that kind of shock, it could leave lasting psychological trauma. That was one reason some adults were terrified of ghosts.
What they feared wasn’t the ghost in front of them. A similar situation awakened the trauma and fear they had experienced as children.
After his grandfather died, Brother Liu had accidentally seen his Ghost. That was a second psychological blow, making his trauma far worse than most people’s. It probably explained his extreme fear of ghosts.
Seventh Master listened to my analysis, then nodded in agreement.
“Then let him face the fear from that night.”
He snapped his fingers.
Ding Ruoning created another Ghost Wall, and our surroundings transformed again.
Seventh Master and I looked around. A fresh grave stood before us.
It was on a mountain in the dead of night.
There was also another person here – or rather, a child. He was six or seven and looked somewhat like Brother Liu.
This was Brother Liu as a boy.
Every change in the scene followed his memories.
His mind had returned to the night many years ago when he saw his grandfather.
Soon, his deceased grandfather appeared.
A kindly Old Man stood before the grave, his back stooped, smiling at the boy.
Brother Liu felt no warmth. His reactions mirrored the child’s. The boy went rigid, legs trembling, his eyes filled with naked terror.
Judging from the scene, Brother Liu had probably gone up the mountain to play, gotten lost, and wandered to his grandfather’s grave after dark, where he saw the old man.
Was that frightening?
It would’ve scared most adults half to death.
Seventh Master crouched and spoke to the child. “The person you see is your grandfather. He may be dead, but death is not frightening. What is frightening is never seeing a loved one again after they pass away.”
He kept his words simple enough for a young Brother Liu to understand.
“You aren’t afraid that your grandfather died. You’re afraid you’ll never see him again.”
“From now on, you can only meet him in dreams. Perhaps he’ll still be the way he always was, as if he never left you.”
“But life lasts for decades. One day, you might not even see him in your dreams anymore.”
Brother Liu’s eyes reddened. Moments ago, his fear had reached its limit.
Seventh Master was deliberately guiding his emotions, transforming fear into grief.
“But now you can see him again.”
Seventh Master pointed to the Old Man by the grave. “He thought you came to visit him. He didn’t want to disappoint you, because he missed you too.”
“He has always been here. He simply cannot come out to keep you company. He has to remain in that place. Even if he is a ghost, he is still the ghost who loves you most.”
The young Brother Liu burst into tears.
They weren’t tears of terror. He was crying because he missed his grandfather.
He called out, “Grandpa.”
The Ghost waved, smiling with boundless affection, then vanished.