Chapter 60 "The Fourth Story"

The third story is over. Unlike the previous two stories, this time, the two boys did not speak. They frowned tightly, as if they were still immersed in that confusing world. "What's the matter? Guys?" Professor Lan said with a smile, "Still reminiscing about this story?" The tall boy raised his head: "Professor, in this ghost story..." "Stop," Professor Lan interrupted with a gesture, "I never tell ghost stories." "But, the end of this story clearly says..." "It's obvious that there are ghosts, right? So, you think it's a ghost story?"

"Isn't it, Professor?" Professor Lan shook his head lightly: "There is a five-minute fighting scene in a movie. Do you define it as a martial arts movie? It records the love between Prince Paris and Queen Helen. You don't think so. So think of it as a love epic?" The tall boy lowered his head and smiled, and said, "Professor, I think I understand something." "I understand too, Professor." The checkered boy said, "In the story of 'The Barking Dog', the 'ghost' only plays a role of threading the needle, right?" Professor Lan nodded slightly and said: "In people's minds, 'ghosts' often represent monsters with green faces, fangs, and bloody mouths. It seems that their mission is to harm and scare people—but if you think about it carefully, this story Did the 'ghost' in the story do anything bad? Did it hurt anyone? It didn't seem to—so why is everyone in the story still so afraid of the 'ghost'?"

The two boys looked at the professor, waiting for his explanation. "Because they all have ghosts in their hearts - people who have done bad things will naturally be afraid that one day 'ghosts' will come to settle their accounts, and they will naturally be afraid." "That is to say, 'ghosts' actually only exist in people's minds, right, professor?" said the boy with square grid. "Yes, a man of upright nature and open mind will never be afraid of ghosts—even if a ghost were sitting beside him." After saying this, the professor looked at the two meaningfully.

For some reason, Professor Lan's words made the two boys feel a chill go down their backs, and they shivered at the same time. After a few seconds of silence, the tall boy said: "Professor, the end of this story implies that Shack and Dilly are going to sell the house to the woman named Susan in the same way - what is the symbol of this vicious circle?" Does it make sense?" "What do you think?" the professor asked him back, "What do you think makes sense?" "Hmm...maybe, you want to use this story to tell a philosophical idea - in the face of interests, the selfishness of human nature will be exposed. But...everyone is not so selfish, right?"

"I certainly hope that not everyone is so selfish," Professor Lan said. "However, let's imagine a situation where a person accidentally receives a counterfeit $50 bill. What would he do? Most people will not be willing to hand it over to the bank for destruction and make themselves suffer--instead, they will choose to use this counterfeit banknote in the next payment without anyone noticing it-the next time they get this counterfeit banknote. The person who received the banknote will pay it to another person in a similar way... It has been forming an infinite cycle. On the surface, it seems that everyone has not suffered a loss, but the consequence of this kind of selfishness is that social integrity, morality Gradually lost—in the end, it is we human beings who suffer.”

The tall boy took a deep breath: "I understand, Professor—the true meaning of the story of 'The Barking Dog'." Professor Lan nodded and said, "I hope you can really understand the meaning of this story. Well, boys, our conversation tonight should be over." The checkered boy hesitated for a few seconds and said, "Professor, we still want to hear your fourth story!" "The fourth story..." Professor Lan raised his eyebrows, "I'm afraid not." "Why?" the boy with square grid asked anxiously. "I said before that if I found that you were already scared when I was telling the first few stories, I would not continue to tell it--during the process of telling just now, I have been observing the expressions of the two of you, Actions, I have noticed that you have shown fear many times. So, I will not go on."

"Yes, Professor, I admit it. There are a few things in the first three stories that really scare me. But, trust me - it's not far beyond my mental capacity, and I can definitely go on and on! "Said the square boy. "Me too, Professor! I have no problem at all - we're all very much looking forward to your fourth story!" said the tall boy eagerly, too. "Do you really want to hear the fourth story?" Professor Lan asked, looking into their eyes. "Yes, Professor!" The two boys replied in the affirmative. "However, it's obviously not suitable tonight." Professor Lan pointed to the big clock on the wall, "It's already eleven o'clock, you have to go back to the dormitory before twelve o'clock, and I should also rest."

The two looked at the time and lowered their heads at the same time, showing extremely disappointed expressions. Professor Lan looked at them for a while—the two boys seemed to be addicted to listening to stories, and they were still sitting on the sofa in silence, showing no intention of leaving. Professor Lan smiled helplessly and said, "Well, let me tell you the fourth story in a different form." The two boys regained their spirits, raised their heads and asked, "Professor, are you willing to talk?" Professor Lan shook his head: "I won't tell you the fourth story. I'll lend you the book that records this story. You can read it yourself, okay?"

The two boys looked at each other and nodded together: "Okay!" "Wait a minute." Professor Lan stood up, left the living room, and walked to his study.Two minutes later, he came out holding a thick book. Professor Lan handed the book to the square boy and said, "The fourth story is written in this book." The checkered boy took the thick book and found that the cover of the book was pure white without a word.He was curious to open the book and see what was written in it. At this time, Professor Lan pressed his hand with a serious expression. "I can lend you this book, but I must agree to two conditions." Professor Lan said.

"On what terms, Professor?" "First, you can't lend this book to anyone but you. Second, you can't read it tonight—at least, you have to wait until after twelve o'clock today, that is, tomorrow." "Why is that, Professor?" "From a psychological point of view, it is best not to continuously stimulate one's nerves for too long, otherwise it will cause some psychological discomfort. You have been listening to me telling horror stories from seven o'clock until now, and your nerves are always tense State - so, no more scary stuff tonight - I mean, you better give your brains a break, understand?"

The checkered boy frowned slightly: "Professor, is this fourth story really so scary?" "I'm afraid it depends on how you feel about it." Professor Lan showed a mysterious smile, "Okay, lads, it's time to go back—remember what I told you, before twelve o'clock today, you must not Read this book, don’t even open it, do you hear me?” "Understood, Professor." The two young men stood up, said goodbye to Professor Lan politely, and walked to the door. Before going out, the checkered boy seemed to think of something, he turned around and asked, "Professor, I remember you told us at the beginning of this evening that these three stories of yours are definitely stories we have never heard before—I It's a little strange, don't you ever tell these stories to anyone before us?" Professor Lan said with a smile: "The stories I tell vary from person to person, and I tell different stories according to the different needs of each person. I tell you these three stories, but with others, I tell the other three. Stories — generally, I don't repeat them." The checkered boy opened his mouth slightly, then nodded and said, "I see, Professor. Thank you for telling us three wonderful stories." "Yes, thank you very much, Professor. The three stories you told have greatly inspired our creation." The tall boy said gratefully. "That's good." Professor Lan kept a constant smile at the corner of his mouth, "Goodbye, young man." "Goodbye, professor, good night." The two bowed to Professor Lan and left the professor's house. ※※※ In the process of walking downstairs from Professor Lan's house, the two did not speak a word.It wasn't until walking back to the dormitory that the tall boy finally broke the silence. "It seems that what those guys from the Mystery Fiction Association said is true." He said. The checkered boy walked slowly and said, "Yes, Professor Lan really told three stories." "And it also tells three other stories that few of them have never heard." "No, it's four." Fang Gezi raised the book in his hand. They walked for a while in silence.Suddenly, the checkered boy stopped in his tracks. "What's wrong?" the tall man asked. "I... have an idea, I don't know if you have thought of it." "what?" "You also heard from Professor Lan just now that the three stories he told us seem to have never been told to anyone else." The tall boy nodded: "So what?" "And we're about to participate in a national suspense fiction competition..." The tall boy froze for a moment, then opened his mouth in surprise. "My God, do you want to... plagiarize these three stories from Professor Lan?" The checkered boy frowned and said, "Don't speak so harshly! This is not plagiarism. Professor Lan told us by dictation. We wrote it down with pens." "I don't see a difference in that." "Okay, don't be so serious." The square-faced boy said with some annoyance, "Don't you want to win an award? Don't forget, we came to Professor Lan for this purpose!" The tall boy pondered for a while, then said hesitantly, "But, if we do this, Professor Lan will find out sooner or later..." "What does that matter? Anyway, Professor Lan hasn't told these stories to anyone else—who knows if we created them ourselves?" The tall boy lowered his head, still silent. The checkered boy looked at him with brilliance in his eyes: "Think about it, the ideas and plots of these three stories are very good, as long as we work hard with our pens, we can write these stories more wonderfully - it is impossible to win the prize." That's not a problem!" The tall boy hesitated for another minute, then turned his face, looked at his companion and nodded. "Okay, let's choose first, which of these three stories do you like the most?" the checkered boy asked. The tall man thought for a while and said, "'Black Secret'." "Well, I'll choose 'barking dog', and that's it." "Hmm... wait, don't we have a fourth story? Maybe this one is more exciting." The tall boy pointed to the big book. The checkered boy looked at him: "You're right. We can see what the fourth story is about now." "Now?" the tall boy said in surprise, "but we just promised the professor to read it tomorrow—besides, we can't finish reading such a big book now." "We're just flipping through the front to see the general plot—hey, don't say you're not curious. Don't you want to see this mysterious 'fourth story' right away?" "I want to, but..." The tall boy raised his hand and looked at his watch, "It will be twelve o'clock in thirty minutes. If we don't go back, the door of the dormitory will be closed." "That's the problem. The professor told us to read this book after twelve o'clock, but we are not in the same dormitory at all-if we don't read it now, this book will be taken back to the dormitory by either of us , the other person will only be able to read it tomorrow morning--let me state first, I can't wait that long, I have to read the fourth story tonight." The tall boy bit his lip and thought for a while, then said, "Okay, let's open it now and take a look." The two of them walked right under the street lamp.The checkered boy looked at his companion, swallowed his saliva, and opened the big book. On the first page of the book, there are four large characters: Four people's night talk. "It turns out that the name of the fourth story is "Four People's Night Talk." The boy with square grid said to himself, and then he turned to the second page. In this way, they read the big book with the help of the dim light from the street lamps. As they watched, their faces gradually changed—— The general plot of the book is: "One night, three college boys came to the home of a professor of psychology and asked the professor what is the most fearful and frightening thing in the human mind. The professor promised to use three stories to illustrate, but the condition is that after telling these three stories, leave them alone. The professor has nothing to do with any situation. The three students agreed. So, the professor began to tell the first story 'July 13th'..." Seeing this, the two boys opened their eyes in horror and opened their mouths.They couldn't believe what they saw. "My God! What's going on here?" The tall boy looked terrified, "This...isn't this story about what happened to us tonight?" The checkered boy quickly flipped through the book, with beads of sweat on his forehead: "That's right, the second story is 'Black Secret', and the third story is 'Baking Dog'... the words written in this book and The exact same thing happened to us tonight!" "How is this possible...this...what the hell is going on?" The tall boy was incoherent in panic, "We went to find Professor Lan because it suddenly occurred to me this afternoon, and we didn't make an appointment with him in advance... Why did this book come to you? Exactly the same as what we experienced?" The checkered boy put his hands on his forehead and forced himself to calm down. After a few minutes, he looked at the tall man and said, "I guess, is this a prank that Professor Lan played on us?" "What?" The tall boy looked at him puzzled. "If we think about it this way, there must be more than two of us who have visited Professor Lan. Therefore, Professor Lan can prepare such a book in advance. As long as he encounters a similar situation, he can pretend to be mysterious after telling three stories. Lend them the book—everyone who sees it will be as shocked as we are!" The tall man thought for a while, and said: "Indeed, Professor Lan was very sure that the fourth story would scare us, and we were indeed taken aback just now—could it be, the fourth story is like this—although we can Scary for sure, but just a prank?" "That's probably the case." Fang Gezi said, "One more thing, have you noticed that this book says that three people visited Professor Lan, but we only have two people tonight-this is different from the book, This further confirms that this book is not a sinister one, but just a prank tool." The tall man nodded repeatedly.After a pause for a few seconds, he said, "By the way, have you read the end of this book—what happened to the three boys after they finished listening to the story?" "I haven't watched it yet," Fang Ge said, "but we'll find out soon." As he spoke, he turned directly to the last few pages of the book. The two put their heads together, and were about to watch the ending of "The Fourth Story", when suddenly a boy from the same dormitory building ran past them—obviously, he was rushing back to the dormitory. The boy saw them reading under the street lamp, frowned and looked at his watch, turned around and shouted to them while running: "Hey! The door to the dormitory will be closed in a few minutes, you three still not going back?" When Fangge and the tall man heard this, Mudi raised his head. The two first glanced at each other, and then looked around in unison—— Besides them, where is there a third person nearby? In an instant, the hairs of the two stood on end, a gust of cold air rushed from their toes to their scalps, and their faces suddenly turned pale. A few seconds later, their nerves finally collapsed, and they could no longer control their fear—the two uttered a heart-piercing scream, threw the book away, and ran towards the dormitory building. After the big book was thrown on the ground, it was still opened at the last few pages. A gust of wind blew, and the paper was blown slowly, as if an invisible person was still flipping through it. Five minutes later, the boy who just ran over came back. He picked up the big book, patted it lightly, and carefully blew off the dust on it. He looked at the direction in which the two panicked people were running, with the corners of his mouth slightly tilted up, revealing an unpredictable and sly smile... ※※※ When the clock struck 12 o'clock, Professor Lan was sitting on the warm sofa in his living room, holding a cup of coffee with a strong milky fragrance in his hand. He took a sip of coffee, put the cup on the coffee table, and smiled faintly. Those two young people with impure motives should have read the book by this time and were punished. Professor Lan sighed softly. Few people understand exactly what psychology really is, and unfortunately those who have only had a face-to-face meeting with a psychologist are included.What's the point of psychology if a psychologist can't gain insight into a person's real purpose or change of mind after four hours of contact? The two young people who were eager for quick success did not feel the fear from the heart after listening to the first three stories, but they were frightened out of their wits by the "fourth story". What is the reason? From the end of the third story, "ghosts" entered their hearts, occupied their souls, and devoured part of their bodies—from then on, they merged with "ghosts".With just a little opportunity, the ghost can immediately jump out from behind them, with a hideous face and a terrifying description. I hope everyone will not be frightened by the ghost hiding behind them. Good night everyone. (End of "Four People's Night Talk")