Cyber Ghosts

Chapter 193 Kill Oneself in Imagination
Speaking of that, Xiao Hong seemed to realize that he just shot his mouth off, so he hurried to stop. Hao Ning’s eyebrows moved, but he didn’t say anything. Anyway, this was not the first time this God Zhang acted mysteriously, so Hao Ning was not to ask about it.

“Why could the fake be more dreadful than the real?” Hao Ning was about to ask this question, which seemed to be what Zhou Yuan was worried about, “The jump was fake, and the suicide was fake. What else could be dreadful?”

“No,” Xiao Hong shook his head. He looked at Hao Ning and said, “let me ask you, when Zhou Yuan first used his talent to turn a bicycle into a car and you touched it, did you feel it real or fake?”

“You mean the Maserati with the pedals?” Hao Ning recalled, “Of course, real. How real that texture was!”

“When you opened the car door,” Xiao Hong continued to ask, “the feel and the weight of it, were these fakes of real?”

“The feel, the weight… It was real, absolutely real!” Hao Ning thought for a while. He did feel it real. The car door seemed so heavy, and he even got an immediate and gratifying jump forward. Everything was real. Thinking of this, Hao Ning had to refute, “But it was just a bicycle!”

“If that Maserati was on the road and hit someone, or ran over someone,” Xiao Hong continued, “what would happen to that person?”

“Of course, he would die…” Hao Ning blurted out and realized what he said wasn’t right, “Ah, not for sure. It was just a bicycle. How could it kill people?”

“Cars can’t kill people 100% in the crush, but they are more likely to kill people than bicycles, right?” This question may seem ridiculous, but Xiao Hong did not laugh. Instead, he said seriously, “This is the real difference between Zhou Yuan’s power and the camouflage: the real in the fake.”

“The real in the fake?” Hao Ning seemed to have heard that from Zhou Yuan, but he didn’t care about it, “What does that mean?”

“If the Maserati that bicycle turned into was a camouflage when it hit a person it would be equivalent to a bicycle hitting a person.” Xiao Hong saw that the more he said, the more nervous Zhou Yuan became, but he still kept saying, “But if it had been Zhou Yuan’s magic power, it would have been really equivalent to Maserati hitting a person!”

“F**k! How could it be possible!” Hao Ning jumped up and his head hit the roof. His head was so painful that he had to rub his head, and he asked Zhou Yuan, “Is that true?”

Zhou Yuan nodded and didn’t speak.

“Why!” Hao Ning almost broke down.

“Because what his power shows is not the distortion of the spell-caster to the real world,” Xiao Hong thought, looking for the words that could be most easily understood, “but the distortion of the receiver to the world. So, for the receiver, this is real, and all his feelings are real ‒ isn’t that extremely idealism?”

Xiao Hong finished that sentence and smiled at Hao Ning, waiting for the question of Hao Ning.

“Yes…” Hao Ning smiled embarrassingly, “In fact, I can’t actually accept this view. After all, my education is materialistic. I don’t believe that the feeling of consciousness can play such a great role in reality.”

“I knew that,” Xiao Hong said with a wry smile, “Especially with Theology and the power. Is that more difficult to accept? You believe that power is just a kind of special energy that has not been found in science, and it should be classified into the scientific system finally, right?”

“Well,” Hao Ning thought carefully, “I didn’t think about so much. But since you said so, in my mind, that’s really what I think subconsciously.”

“Let’s not talk about it,” Zhou Yuan couldn’t help saying nervously, “Let’s go and check my parents.”

“They are all right for this moment,” Xiao Hong said solemnly, holding Zhou Yuan back. “But if you don’t know these things, something would really happen to them.”

“What do you mean?” Zhou Yuan still didn’t speak. Seeing that Zhou Yuan was acting in a very unusual way today, Hao Ning immediately asked, “What the hell do you know, Zhou Yuan!”

“He didn’t know, but realized what he should have known,” Xiao Hong said for Zhou Yuan. “He can’t decide the life and death of his parents.”

“Mom, Dad, I’m so sorry for you!” After Xiao Hong finished, Zhou Yuan could not hold it back anymore. He cried out and slapped himself hard. “I’m not a man, I’m not a man. I’m not a good son. I’m scum. I’m a beast!”

With a sound “Hiss”, Hao Ning pointed at Zhou Yuan. Zhou Yuan immediately couldn’t move, with just a few hits, Zhou Yuan’s face became red and swollen, so it could be seen that Zhou Yuan was serious.

“You’d better calm down and stay still for a while,” said Hao Ning with a sigh. He looked back at Xiao Hong, who stunned. “It’s a kind of acupoint kung fu skill that makes people unable to move.”

“This, does it work on God?” Xiao Hong hurriedly covered himself for fear that Hao Ning would give him a hit, “I suppose not?”

“Well, I haven’t tried it yet.” Hao Ning knew what Xiao Hong was thinking. This kid knew a lot, but he always had a desire to excel. In fact, he secretly compared Hao Ning and himself in his heart and wondered who was more powerful. He teased Xiao Hong and said, “Or, should I give it a try?”

“Well, forget it,” said Xiao Hong, covering himself more tightly and looking like a little girl worried about being insulted. “Let’s get down to business.”

“OK,” Hao Ning put his hands on the car seat and leaned forward, showing that he would not take action. “You just said that Zhou Yuan could not decide the life and death of his parents. What do you mean?”

“If Zhou Yuan’s Maserati bumps into people and kills them, Maserati would still be driven by Zhou Yuan, right?” Xiao Hong continued to explain, seeing Hao Ning nodded, “But for his parents’ imagination, if I don’t guess wrong, he only applies the spell to his parents, not even including himself. That is to say, the receiver is not everyone, but only his parents.”

“It’s natural. There’s no need to influence others, but why doesn’t it include himself?” After Hao Ning asked this question, he immediately understood, “Ah, yes, his purpose is to let his parents have a more perfect Zhou Yuan in their imagination, so why should his real body be in it? I see. You can go on.”

“It didn’t matter at first, but what if his parents wanted to die one day?” Xiao Hong continued, “For example, imagining that the building collapsed, or a knife stabbed directly, it would be like the person that Maserati hit‒”

“So, will they really die?” Hao Ning understood that if Maserati created by Zhou Yuan’s power could really kill people, the knife imagined by Zhou Yuan’s parents, which was also created by Zhou Yuan’s power would also kill them. “That is to say, his parents are likely to die because of the things they imagine in their minds?”

That could be the most breathtaking explanation of “kill oneself in the imagination”!

“Impossible, impossible!” Hao Ning immediately shook his head and said several “impossible”. Finally, he fell down on the back seat, watching Xiao Hong, and stopped talking.

“In the face of unacceptable facts,” Xiao Hong wryly smiled, “the second reaction is to refuse. Obviously, you have already reached level 2.”

“You know so much…” Hao Ning knew the theory Xiao Hong mentioned. It seemed that Xiao Hong learned a lot from Zhang Chi Hang in the new era, “Even if so, it doesn’t matter. Can’t Zhou Yuan remove the spell?”

“Cocoon yourself…” Xiao Hong looked at Zhou Yuan, who couldn’t move, and shook his head. “The art can’t beat fate. Fate can’t beat the hearts of the people. His parents have become the parents of the richest person in the country in their own world. One has a dream lover in her heart, and one has countless girls falling for him. What do you think will happen if the spell is removed?”

“It will…” Hao Ning stunned at the moment he opened his mouth. Right, if his parents knew that they were so rich and had such a capable son and a successful life, and suddenly all of these were gone overnight, what would happen? About 70-80% of the people would go crazy. Thinking of this, Hao Ning assumed difficulty, “They may break down, but there are also people who can accept the fact that they fall from a high place…”

“Sure, Brother Hao Ning, the kind of person you said does exist, but it’s definitely not Zhou Yuan’s parents,” Xiao Hong sneered, looked at Zhou Yuan and sighed, “You can show people’s hearts, but how can you not see through people’s hearts…”

“Why?” Hao Ning didn’t like what he heard, “Xiao Hong, you can’t judge a person like that.”

“Brother Hao Ning, let me ask you. What kind of parents,” Xiao Hong asked with a smile, “would constantly mention others’ children to their children every day?”

“Well…” Hao Ning’s own parents didn’t do that, so he could only rely on imagination for a moment. “They hope their child will have a bright future? So, they expect to push their child forward by comparing them with other kids as competition?”

“There are many kinds of them, but according to Zhou Yuan’s description,” Xiao Hong sighed. Today, he didn’t know how many times he sighed. Xiao Hong looked at Zhou Yuan sympathetically, “his parents belong to the kind of parents who don’t succeed very much but want their children to succeed and put unrestrained and endless requirements on them.”

“You, you, you, don’t demonize Zhou Yuan’s parents,” Hao Ning saw that Xiao Hong talked freely and was afraid that Zhou Yuan would be angry. He quickly untied Zhou Yuan’s acupoints and continued, “Parents are still very caring for their children. Didn’t your parents ever do the same to you?”

Hao Ning knew that Xiao Hong wouldn’t mind if he said so. But he realized that Zhou Yuan didn’t argue anything and just bowed his head without saying a word.

“Actually, you realized that a long time ago,” Xiao Hong looked at Zhou Yuan, “but as their son, you weren’t willing to say, didn’t want to say, and couldn’t even say, right?”

“Xiao Hong…” Zhou Yuan looked up at Xiao Hong and didn’t talk anymore.

“Ah, it was doomed,” Xiao Hong shook his head with a bitter smile, “Was that because Uncle Sun didn’t have parents in Journey to the West, Monkey Under Boat feels a more moral obligation in the real world as the compensation?”

Hao Ning knew that Xiao Hong wasn’t serious, but he also felt a little sorry for Zhou Yuan. How could this Zhou Yuan be the Zhou Yuan in common days who had the gift of the gab, who could make girls smile with just one sentence, and who paid attention to his looks and kept himself being glorious all the time?

Thinking of this, Hao Ning couldn’t help doubting that Zhou Yuan’s constant pursuit of brilliance outside, hoping to make people around pay attention to his behavior, could be a kind of psychological compensation. If Zhou Yuan were not so inexplicably lost at home, why would it be necessary to find the feeling of existence outside?

“In your parents’ imagination, when their son has money, it’s still not enough for them,” Xiao Hong continued. “It’s unrestrained imagination, which seems to be a constant demand for their son. But they didn’t take your wealth in their imagination to make you live a better life but chose to enjoy themselves. Doesn’t it just prove that they keep demanding their own son actually to compensate for the success they cannot achieve?”

“Xiao Hong, what you said was too straightforward…” Seeing that Zhou Yuan didn’t speak, Hao Ning had to persuade Xiao Hong, “They are Zhou Yuan’s parents, after all. For the elder generation, you have to keep some face…”

“I’m sorry,” Xiao Hong said, looking at Hao Ning directly. “See essence through appearance. It’s what the Bodhisattva taught me. Don’t parents also grow up from children? This is Zhou Yuan’s obstacle, but not mine. As a friend, if I don’t help him at this time and just say according to his mind, what would be the difference between this and his creating a fake image according to his parents’ wishes? If I did so, I would be not a good friend. As for Zhou Yuan…” Xiao Hong sighed at this point, “he is also not a good son – at least in the result.”

Xiao Hong looked at Zhou Yuan and seemed unwilling to say something, but after biting his lips, he finally said: “You told us the story of the brain in the jar. But, in the end, you use your own power to turn your parents into the brain in the jar…”

“I…” Zhou Yuan groaned and nodded. A tear dropped on the car. “I was wrong…”

“What now?” Hao Ning doesn’t want Xiao Hong to say this again, although it was true. But he also felt uncomfortable, “Otherwise, let Zhou Yuan’s parents continue to live in the imagination? So at least they are happy, and their body will not be a big problem, right? As long as Zhou Yuan pays attention to it, don’t let his parents think about suicide when they have nothing to do. Zhou Yuan can do something with that, right?”

This plan put forward by Hao Ning sounded like the best solution. Although it was ironic that to let them live in the imagination, who would care? Human life was most crucial, after all. Unexpectedly, when Zhou Yuan heard this plan, his eyebrows went more tightly locked. He shook his head and did not speak.

“You! Are there signs of backfire!” Xiao Hong’s face changed greatly at this time, and he didn’t care what he said just now, “You! You not only can’t decide about their life and death, but you are also ‒ ” When he said that, he was about to slap Zhou Yuan in the face. But after reaching out his hand, he clapped it on his thigh and sighed with anger. “You are not the one to blame, Zhou Yuan. If you are the Monkey Under Boat, the original heart that Uncle Sun asked you to find would be really more difficult to find…”

“What’s the matter?” Seeing Xiao Hong’s anger and sighing, Hao Ning hurried to ask, “What happened?”

“Ah, he is in a cocoon around himself. It’s hard to happen in a thousand years!” Xiao Hong patted Zhou Yuan on the shoulder seemed to comfort him. “Zhou Yuan’s spell is to show his parents the side they want to see most, which was OK at first. But what this spell shows is actually at the cost of his parents’ soul power. In other words, his parents have fulfilled their wishes through their own souls in self-deception.”

Hao Ning’s face changed after hearing this, “What? So, his parents’ souls are gone?”

“Brother, don’t so hurry,” Xiao Hong said with a wry smile. “Zhou Yuan’s matter is causing me a headache. Bodhisattva said you like to interrupt. Can you wait a little bit? When can you get rid of this problem…? Well, I’m not qualified to judge you — generally speaking, there won’t be anything. The soul is not as fragile as you think. Otherwise, when people pray and the soul has faith in the god and Buddha, will the soul be gone? Just like the body, the soul will produce something that can be produced continuously and will not hurt the soul, just like ‒”

Xiao Hong scratched his head and didn’t know how to give an example.

“Well, can I speak now?” Hao Ning saw that Xiao Hong was scratching his head for a long time and couldn’t think of an example. He asked tentatively. Seeing Xiao Hong nodding awkwardly, he continued, “Is it like the hair? It’s growing all the time, but it won’t hurt if I cut it ‒ not Liu Shuai’s hair, of course…”

“Yes, just like the hair!” Xiao Hong thumbed up and nodded, “You are still thinking fast. The hair produced by the soul can also be understood as the source of belief. If there is no fixed imagination, the hair will fall off automatically over time, and there will be no problem. But with the fixed imagination and idols, the hair will be like silk and gradually be entwined on these idols gradually. And for a long time, it will become Wuxiang fragrance.”

“I see!” Hao Ning understood this time. He used to wonder why people’s faith was created by the soul, while people didn’t lose their souls. With Xiao Hong’s explanation, he finally understood. People never lost their lives for their hair was cut off.

“Yes,” Xiaohong said patiently. Hao Ning couldn’t help exclaiming that Xiao Hong would be a good teacher if he were a teacher. He was not like Zhang Chi Hang, who talked about mysterious stuff and sometimes dissed him, and he could make things clear. “In fact, Zhou Yuan’s spell is very ingenious. He directly uses the “hair” produced by people’s souls and skips the step that gathering Wuxiang fragrance through idols. Wuxiang fragrance becomes a god and the god can fulfill people’s wishes. It let the incense fulfill wishes directly. It is a very wise spell, which is also the reason why Bodhisattva was very patient to teach Zhou Yuan.”

“Was he patient?” Hao Ning said, but he realized that he interrupted again immediately, and then he smiled apologetically. “Zhou Yuan just learn for a few days.”

“One day in the cave, one thousand years in the world.” Xiao Hong didn’t blame Hao Ning, and explained with a smile, “Have you forgotten the Bodhisattva’s control over time? It was a few days for us. I’m afraid Zhou Yuan doesn’t know how many years he has been taught for.”

“But Zhou Yuan’s this spell has never existed before,” Xiao Hong continued. “Bodhisattva can only tell him the basic things and let him cultivate by himself. The biggest limitation of this spell is how to distinguish the real and the fake. We have to figure out every detail.”

Hao Ning’s eyes moved. He wanted to ask a question, but he held it back.

Xiao Hong looked at Hao Ning and asked with a smile, “Do you want to ask what’s the relationship between this and Zhou Yuan’s parents? The imagination of Zhou Yuan’s parents comes from the “hair” produced by their own souls. In the normal case, it doesn’t matter. But if the content of the imagination is too large and too divorced from reality, that is to say, to distort the very big reality with the belief produced by only one person. This is not to cut the hair, but to pull one’s hair one by one from the head, and even hair with blood.”

At this point, Zhou Yuan covered his face and lowered his head. He was already shaking. Xiao Hong patted Zhou Yuan on the shoulder and continued, “But after all, what the soul produces is not hair. It is something connected with the soul. If the soul can make a decision and do not stick to it, at most, it’s like shaving a bald head. It doesn’t matter. But if it doesn’t stop and still increases its desire, it’s equivalent to forcing the soul to overdraw the faith it can actually create. That is the backfire of the incense of faiths.”

“This kind of thing is very rare,” said Xiao Hong with a frown, “because people can’t worship the Buddha desperately, and the Buddha is there, and it will not change even if people kneel to him. That’s why it’s better to have an entity for people to worship what they believe in, because if it’s fake, there would be problems ‒ but like Zhou Yuan’s parents, devouring themselves with such uncontrolled self-belief, it could be ‒”

“It could be the very first one?” Hao Ning couldn’t help it. After Xiao Hong said so much at once, Hao Ning finally asked.