Silent.

This is the common reaction of the four teenagers after reading these words.

The reason why they are speechless is because there are so many complex emotions in their hearts at this moment: sadness, desolation, worry, and fear.

There is no doubt that Madame Lapet's memoir-like book had answered all their previous confusion and exacerbated the already fearful feeling in their hearts to the point of no return, as if the book were like a doctor's critical illness notice to a patient, and its contents were chilling.

After a few minutes of silence, Sean closed the book, let out a long sigh, and said, "Now everything is clear." It seems that Madame Lapet did strictly carry out her friend's deathbed request—judging from the fact that there was no information about the publication of the book—and it is clear that she had taken advantage of her connections in the publishing industry to secretly print her friend Mars's book of prophetic poems and restrict its circulation. ”

Lu Hua asked: "Since the distribution is restricted, how can this collection of poems appear in the library of an ordinary city in China?" Why did we find it so easily on the used book disposal shelves? ”

"If Mrs. Lapett had done so in strict accordance with Marles's will," said Kirton, "it is entirely possible that she would have printed and preserved the book of poems, and then instructed her descendants to circulate it hundreds of years later." Assuming that her descendants had a prominent position and had done so successfully, it would not have been surprising that we would have found this book in the library. ”

"You mean it's possible that this book, which was printed more than 500 years ago, could be found all over the world?" Lu Hua said, "If that's the case, there's no reason why only a few of us have discovered it." ”

"Who knows?" Kirton shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe Mrs. Lapett didn't print many sets in the first place, and after another five hundred years, most of the books may have been lost, damaged, or disposed of as garbage by unsuspecting people - it was a miracle that we were able to find one of these antique books." ”

"And," said Cotton, add, "Mars? Barthes writes the poems in a way that is 'hard to read' – so even if someone had the books in their hands, they wouldn't necessarily be able to decipher the meaning of them as we do. ”

Lan Xi rolled her eyes: "Why didn't this low-probability thing happen to me*?" ”

Sean thought for a moment and said, "I don't think it's right. One thing doesn't make logical sense – think about it, Webster introduced Mars in his Dictionary of Names? Bart the person, and explicitly mentions in the commentary - 'About Mars? For more details on Barthes, see the French historian André? Inluwa's famous book "History of France", and the famous writer Madame Lapet's book "Behind the Beg". This shows that Webster is like us, who has read the two books about Mars in their entirety. Bart's introduction. Then he should be the same as us - know Mars? The real situation of Bart! But why didn't he tell the truth in the introduction to the "Dictionary of Names"? ”

"It's not hard to understand," Kirton said. Webster called Mars in his book? Barthes was a 'controversial figure in history' and gave a very conservative introduction to him, for the reason that, although he had read Madame Lapet's book "Behind the Beg", he was not entirely convinced that what Lapet wrote was necessarily true. Is it possible that he thinks that Madame Lapett was only intentionally trying to help Mars out of affection? Bart is just 'avenging'. Webster was suspicious of Madame Lapett because he had not found the crucial evidence when compiling the Dictionary of Names—"

Kirton paused for a moment, stared at his three friends with serious expressions, and said, "This thing is in our hands right now." ”

"That book of prophetic poems!" Lu Hua exhaled in a low voice.

Sean also got it perfectly: "You mean, if someone is like us, who has read both "History of France" and "Behind the Begging", and he happens to have Mars in his hand? Barthes's collection of prophetic poems (and understanding the meaning of them) must have been a positive blow to Mars? Bart's bizarre background is undoubtedly confirmed! ”

"I am also convinced of the terrible prophecies in those books." Lu Hua added, "According to him (Mars), his prophetic power in terms of calamities is superior to Nostradamus!" ”

Kirton suddenly remembered something: "Ah...... Yes! Mars? Barthes told Madame Lapelt that in his conversation with Nostradamus he had discovered that Nostradamus had made a false prediction of some great future catastrophe—'at least a mistake in time'—and that it was impossible for Madame Lapet to understand what this meant...... And we should be able to roughly guess what he is referring to......"

Lu Hua felt a chill on his back: "He...... Isn't that the date of the 'end of the world'? The end of the world predicted by Nostradamus was 1999, and it has now been proven wrong......"

"And Mars? Barthes's prediction of the end of the world is 2012, a difference of 13 years from what Nostradamus said, which happens to be a 'time error'. Sean continued.

"That's right...... Nostradamus ......" Kirton said with a frown, "Lu Hua, you can show me the History of France." ”

Lu Hua handed him the book: "What did you find again?" ”

Kirton flipped to a page he had just read, then pointed to a sentence on it and said, "Ah! That's exactly what it means! ”

Sean and Lancey gathered around and asked, "What?" ”

Pointing to the book, Kirton said, "You see, the first paragraph of 'The Death of Henry II' introduces the full name of Nostradamus—his name is 'Michil?' Nostradamus' - 'Mihil'! Do you remember? ”

"Ahh Lu Hua exclaimed, "You mean, Mars? The last sentence of Barth's 2012 prophetic poem – 'The followers of Mihir will know what is wrong' – here 'Mihil' is referring to Nostradamus! ”

So what does this mean...... In fact, it is implied that Nostradamus predicted the wrong time of the end of the world? Oh my God, that's proof that we're right! Sean almost cried out, feeling a chill run down his back.

Lan Xi suddenly felt a wave of dizziness: "So...... Already convinced, right? Doomsday...... Will it really come in 2012? ”

Several people fell silent in unison. No one wants to admit it to their hearts.

Sean snapped twice from his nose, breaking the suffocating dull air, and said, "I'm thinking about a question - is it true that only the four of us in the world know this secret now?" ”

"Maybe." "I don't think it's easy to meet all of the conditions that we've just analyzed," Kirton said. Besides, if the four of us hadn't discovered this book together and then studied it together, I am afraid that we would not have discovered the secret. ”

Lan Xi sighed wistfully, "Do you think we are lucky or unlucky?" ”

"I don't think it's anything – maybe it's not a matter of luck at all." Lu Hua said thoughtfully, "Maybe all this is destined by God, and a few of us have been given the mission of unlocking this secret in the dark - this is the will of God." ”

Sean said unacceptably: "Lu Hua, what you are saying now does not match the philosophical views we learned in school. ”

Lu Hua looked at him and said, "Then what we are experiencing now—a person hundreds of years ago can see in a dream that the catastrophe that is about to happen in the future—can you explain this kind of thing with the knowledge of textbooks?" If everything in the future is predestined, then what's so strange about a few of us being 'arranged' to discover this book? ”

"Well, now is not the time to argue philosophical points." "Let's think about what to do next!" ”

"What's next? Isn't that obvious? Now that we have discovered this shocking secret, we should find a way to tell the country and the government, and the world, so that everyone can prepare for the catastrophe! Kirton said.

Lu Hua seemed to be taken aback by Kirton's words, and he opened his mouth wide: "It's easy for you to tell the world?" Is this something that a few of us can do? Besides, who are we going to talk to? How could people believe the words of a few of us high school students? ”

"Then you have to try!" "If they don't believe me," said Kirton, "we'll show them the book of poetry along with these two books—then we'll know we're not making it up!" ”

"The question is who are we talking to about this?" Lu Hua emphasized again, "Do you want to find newspapers and TV stations? Even if we were to take all these books that would prove that we were telling the truth, it would take at least an hour or more to read them patiently - I guess the newspaper people would have thought we children were playing a prank after listening to our accounts - and they would not have spent more than an hour verifying what we said! ”

"I think what Lu Hua said makes sense." Lan Xi said helplessly, "The main thing is that we are all teenagers, and what we say will not attract attention from others - it would be much easier if we could find some people with prestige and status in society, try to get them to believe us first, and then they will tell the media about it." ”

Kirton looked at Lancey with some surprise and exclaimed, "That's a great idea!" Lancy, you're so smart! Why didn't I find out before? ”

"Thank you." Lan Xi smiled slightly, then frowned, "What do you mean by that?" ”

"Okay! As Lancey said, let's try to find someone with social influence, well, this person's identity must be able to make the media take his words seriously......" At this point, Cotton stopped abruptly and looked up at Sean.

At the same time, Lu Hua and Lan Xi's eyes also focused on Sean.

"Hey, wait." Sean faced the three of them and unconsciously took a step back, "You want to give me this task?" Let me go tell my dad about it? ”

"Whatever you want. You can also tell your mom – your parents are absolutely talkative people anyway. Kirton stared at him.

"Yes, Sean, I can't think of a better person than your parents." Lancey also said, "Especially your mother, who is the U.S. Consul in China!" If you let her believe this, maybe she can tell the American side, which is equivalent to telling the world! ”

Unexpectedly, Sean shook his head one after another and said, "No, I've thought about it too, but it's not appropriate to do this!" ”

"What's wrong?" Kirton asked.

Sean looked very embarrassed: "Actually...... Because my parents are both influential people, they can't spread this kind of talk freely – imagine how much panic it would cause in the world if they did convince the media or many people that 2012 was the end of the world! ”

Lu Hua said: "But many people have heard the Mayan prophecy about the end of the world in 2012 before, and they haven't shown much panic." ”

"That's because most people have an optimistic attitude that the Mayan prophecy may not be accurate—but now that we've found this book of prophetic poems, it's a different way to prove the correctness of the Mayan prophecy — will people not panic when they know about it!"

"So what do we do? To sit back and wait in order not to cause panic? Kirton's tone became agitated.

"Kirton, have you ever wondered if it's really like Mars? On the last day of 2012, as predicted by Barthes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and asteroids hitting the Earth would have been impossible to take any precautions in advance with the current state of human technology! Whether you knew about this catastrophe before or not, you can't change the doom of the destruction of the world! In that case, why do you need to tell everyone so that everyone can live a life of fear? Sean said solemnly.

"No, I'm not as pessimistic as you think." Kirton said firmly, "Even if there is a great catastrophe, mankind should not give up hope, but should do its best to fight against it - even if it only has a small result in the end, it is better than doing nothing and waiting for death!" ”

Kirton's words were so eloquent that all three friends were impressed by his unyielding attitude. Sean was the first to say, "Okay, I'll try to talk to my parents tonight." ”

Lu Hua said: "I don't think we should put all our hopes on Sean alone, what if his parents don't believe or are unwilling to spread the news? Why don't we all go home today and talk to our parents about it, maybe there will be unexpected results. ”

"Okay, that's it!" "Let's all go back and try to convince our parents that one more way is one more hope!" ”

"But there's a problem." "What if parents are skeptical and want to see this book of poetry and the two books related to it?" ”

"By the way, that book of poems is still in your room." Lu Hua said to Sean, "Otherwise, I won't take it back, you can take a look with your parents tonight." ”

"What about these two books?" Sean pointed to "History of France" and "Behind the Begging", "Without these two books, the power of explanation is not enough." ”

Lu Hua thought for a while and said, "These two books are in the reading room of the library, and they are not allowed to be borrowed, so it is better to let them be placed here, and if our parents don't believe it, we can take them here to see." ”

"That's it." Cotton stressed again to the three men, "Remember, do your best to convince our parents of this – it's about the fate of the whole world." ”

After saying this, Kirton shivered all over his body, as if he had a sense of lofty mission that was unbearable from a high place.