Chapter 353: The Picture is Clear! The Truth of the Vicious Ghost

“Then, the others will gradually start showing these symptoms too.”

Here are a few examples.

Take the Tennessee Middle School incident from 1998. At a school in a Western Country, more than a hundred students and staff members showed symptoms of poisoning and nausea.

They said they had food poisoning and were subsequently sent to the hospital for treatment.

But the hospital’s tests showed that out of the hundred-plus people, not a single one was poisoned.

Yet, over a hundred people exhibited the symptoms of poisoning and were utterly convinced they had it.

In 2007, there was the seizure incident at Bird School in a Western Country.

Multiple students displayed symptoms of convulsions and fainting, but the hospital couldn’t detect any negative medical conditions like food poisoning.

In 1979, at a school in a Boston suburb.

224 students collectively felt dizzy, weak, nauseous, and lethargic, but in reality, their bodies were not experiencing any actual discomfort.

Over in Jamaica, in the early 1960s, when the Beatles held a concert…

The concert saw a mass emotional breakdown, causing several people to faint.

“This is a form of psychological contagion.”

“As long as you are in the same environment as someone else, then when that person exhibits a certain condition due to that environment…”

“…you might start exhibiting it too.”

Xu Huo slowly explained.

A mental illness that can be contagious sounds unbelievable, but that’s the reality.

It’s a psychological issue of getting caught in a mental fixation.

For example, if you believe you’re listless and extremely tired…

…before long, you’ll genuinely feel listless and tired.

“And as for Wang Wei and the other three deceased, they were all accomplices in what was done to Zhang Jiayu.”

“So, after inhaling laughing gas, which caused brain issues and led to hallucinations, all it took was for one of them to believe that Zhang Jiayu was actually alive, or that he was a ghost coming to claim their lives…”

“…and the others, in that state, would also become increasingly panicked until they too started hallucinating, effectively ‘catching’ the condition.”

Xu Huo slowly explained.

It’s a form of psychological suggestion.

For instance, late at night, when you look at a wall, the patterns on it might seem like nothing.

But if you’re under intense psychological suggestion, the patterns on the wall might start to look like a human face.

“After that, the four of them were gradually, step by step, consumed by this condition, descending into madness.”

“And that is the crux of the current case.”

Xu Huo sighed.

Laughing gas… mass hysteria…

Honestly, if anyone else had taken this case…

No joke, it would have definitely become another bizarre and inexplicable case!

‘The Vengeful Ghost Murder Incident!’

Yes, that’s most likely what people would have ended up calling this case.

There’s no helping it. If it were anyone else…

Forget mass hysteria—that’s an obscure piece of knowledge even some psychologists and psychiatrists might not know.

Even laughing gas—a professional narcotics officer wouldn’t recognize it.

This stuff is popular abroad; narcotics officers in this country almost never encounter it.

On top of that, standard procedures, no matter how detailed the drug test, wouldn’t be able to detect it…

It can only be found through specific, targeted tests, and even then, the test has to be done within a short time after inhalation.

With these two impossibly difficult conditions, no police officer would want to take on this case.

“Mass hysteria… a contagious mental illness…”

Li Jianye was stunned. It was the first time he had ever heard of such a thing.

But fortunately, the prerequisite for this thing is that certain specific conditions must be shared, integrating the minds of multiple people into a single whole.

He suddenly recalled what Xu Huo had said back at the station—something about the minds of multiple people flourishing and perishing as one…

Isn’t what’s happening to Wang Wei a perfect example of that?!

“It’s not a mental illness. It’s a form of psychological suggestion. You could call it a psychological disorder.”

Xu Huo explained meticulously.

Psychosis, neuropathy, and psychological disorders are three completely different fields. They shouldn’t be confused.

“They’re all pretty much the same,” Li Jianye said.

“Not even close…”

Xu Huo was slightly taken aback.

But he paused, then his expression turned serious as he looked at Li Jianye.

“Whether Zhang Jiayu is dead or alive right now is irrelevant to the case.”

“But what we can be certain of is that what Wang Wei and the other three saw was definitely not Zhang Jiayu himself!”

Zhang Jiayu is a man, not a god. He couldn’t have appeared before all four of them simultaneously when they were separated.

So it could only have been a hallucination.

They had an answer now, but…

“What’s the truth about what happened six years ago?”

Li Jianye asked, as if in a trance.

“Six years ago, there was a fire. Wang Wei faked the scene to make it look like Zhang Jiayu had run away and his wife had died.”

“Then what about Zhang Jiayu?”

“Is he dead? Where’s the body?”

“Did Wang Wei really kill just for the money?”

“What exactly happened between them six years ago?”

“If Zhang Jiayu is dead, how did Wang Wei kill him? And why would he be so terrified now just from a mere glimpse, after having already killed the man?”

“How brutal must the method have been to terrify even the perpetrator?!”

Li Jianye didn’t know.

Xu Huo knew even less. Six years ago, he was still in high school, preoccupied with figuring out how to get Chu Xi to share some of her food.

But…

“But Shen Fei knows.”

Xu Huo narrowed his eyes.

“But Shen Fei’s insane…”

“No. To us, he’s insane. But to Zhang Jiayu, he’s not.”

Xu Huo said with a chuckle.

“What do you mean?”

Li Jianye paused.

“Isn’t he afraid of Zhang Jiayu?”

Xu Huo narrowed his eyes as an idea popped into his head.

“Then let’s give him a Zhang Jiayu!”

Li Jianye froze for a second, but then his eyes lit up.

“Heh, you kid… you’re devious!”

“But I like it!”

When the ghost from your nightmares becomes real…

…will a person go mad?