"We now assume that Lao Luo is one of the faithful followers of Nostradamus. He came from out of town to work in our library, and lived there, perhaps in order to take the opportunity to find Mars Barth's prophetic poetry scattered around the world, and to seal it down or destroy it when he found it—didn't we only find the fifth book of the poetry collection? Then the first four volumes may have been found by him. And this fifth volume of poetry may have been left in a corner of the library, and was found by Director Xin not long ago, but because it was too shabby, it was put on the old book disposal shelf, and then bought by a few of us by mistake. Lao Luo didn't find out at the time, but when we came to the library to find Director Xin, we saw that it was actually pinched in Lu Hua's hands, so he was extremely surprised - I don't need to talk about what happened next, right? ”

After sitting down in Sean's room, Leanne asked as usual, "Master Sean, what do you and your friends want to drink?" ”

"Thanks, Leanne, we don't need anything now, I'll call you when I want something to drink."

"Okay." Leanne nodded, turned away, and closed the door empathetically.

After a moment of silence, Kirton said, "Now, I'm going to clean up all the events that have happened so far from beginning to end, and then let's all take a look at what the main problem is and what needs to be done now." ”

Sean gestured for Kirton to continue.

Kirton cleared his throat. "First, we stumbled upon a magical book of prophetic poems among the old books we were disposing of in the library. Of course, the most interesting and frightening of them all is the prophetic poem about the 'end of the world in 2012'. Then, in order to understand the accuracy of the prophetic poem, we went to the library to look up information about the author, Mars Barth. After clarifying the issue, we found something suspicious - it seems that there is another person besides us who is trying to explore this matter......"

"That person could be our classmate Fumino." Lan Xi interjected, "Of course, it's just a guess......"

Kirton glanced at her, then continued, "When we learned that the 'Doomsday Prophecy' might come true, we thought of discussing the matter with Director Xin. But what happened next was unexpected, disrupting our plan of action and making the whole incident even more confusing - when Lao Luo found out that we were in possession of the book of poems, he behaved strangely and hired someone to kill us in order to get it back. Fortunately, the murderer did not succeed. But Lao Luo disappeared without a trace after the revelation of the matter - so far it was - I didn't miss anything, did I? ”

"No, it's very clear. Now my mind is much clearer. Sean said.

"Then let's think about it, what are the main doubts now?" Kirton then looked at the three.

"I think there's something obvious." Lan Xi said, "It's not surprising that Lao Luo would disappear without a trace, obviously because after the killer he hired failed, Lao Luo thought that the matter was exposed, and was afraid that we would call the police to arrest him, so he absconded in fear of the crime - he probably didn't analyze the question of whether the evidence for his confession was sufficient as we did, so he fled in a hurry last night without even having time to pack his things." ”

"I think Lancy has a point." Sean said, "Lao Luo is a man with only a primary school education - this is actually in line with his psychological characteristics - he didn't think that the police would need evidence to arrest him, so he stupidly ran away or hid after the incident." And this kind of self-confession just proves that he is indeed the mastermind behind the vain attempt to kill us-" Sean looked sideways at Kirton, "It seems that we were too pedantic last night - we should have called the police to arrest him directly." ”

Corton pondered and didn't speak, but Lu Hua softened like a ball of anger: "According to what you say, I also think...... The murderer behind the scenes is none other than Lao Luo. Alas...... Originally, I still had a little illusion that we would misunderstand Lao Luo, but now it seems that ...... I've known him for more than a decade and thought I was friends with him...... I didn't expect him to try to kill me for a book of poems! ”

"You're to the point." Pondering for a long time, Kirton said, "I've been thinking about this question just now—what does this collection of poems have to do with Lao Luo? Or rather, what does the content of this book of poems relate to him? ”

"Didn't we analyze it before, this book of poems may be Lao Luo's personal belongings or family heirlooms, and he ...... it in order to regain it," Lan Xi said halfway through, pausing.

"You've found something unreasonable, Lancey." "No matter how important or valuable this book was to him, he had to get it—but it was only for him." We don't have to do it! If he just wants to go back to the poetry collection, he can talk to us. Lu Hua has been his friend for many years, and it is entirely possible that he will return it to him directly, is it necessary to kill us to get this thing back? So I don't think his motive for wanting to kill us is simply that he wants to get back to the book. ”

"And what do you think is going on?" Sean asked eagerly.

Kirton analyzed like a detective, "Let's recall an important detail - when we went to talk to Director Xin and walked out, it was obvious that Lao Luo had eavesdropped on our conversation before. After we walked down the stairs, Lao Luo mysteriously asked us to meet in the oak forest in the evening. It was clear that he had already murderous intentions at that point! Let's take a look at it now - what does it mean that Lao Luo immediately decided to get rid of us after overhearing our conversation? ”

Lu Hua's body suddenly shook like an electric shock: "I understand what you mean...... Kirton. Lao Luo would do this, and the only explanation is that he thinks that we have insight into something that we shouldn't have known, that is, ...... The contents of that book of poems! And we're still spreading the contents of this book of poems, and he's going to get rid of us in order to kill people and keep this secret from leaking out! ”

"Yes, that explains why he didn't just want to get the book back, he wanted to kill us!"

After listening to this conversation between Kirton and Lu Hua, Sean seemed to be even more confused, and he said blankly: "I don't understand, what does this book of prophetic poems written by a medieval Frenchman have to do with a librarian like Lao Luo?" Why did he go to great lengths to protect the secrets of this poetry collection? ”

"Maybe he knows the contents of this book of poems, especially the part about the prophecy of the end times, so he doesn't want to let this secret leak out?" Lancey said this, feeling confused in logic, and muttered, "What does the end of the world have to do with him?" ”

"yes." Sean said with a sneer, "Whether the end of the world is really coming in 2012, or whether everyone knows it or not, I can't think of anything that has to do with an ordinary librarian." Why did he have to risk murder to guard such a secret? Hmph, could it be that he was 'kind' for fear of causing panic in society, so he had to kill us? ”

Kirton cupped his chin in his hand and tried to think, his eyebrows twisted together like hemp rope. After a few moments, he said: "Perhaps there is some subtle connection between this Lao Luo and the poetry collection - and we have violated some of his 'interests' by disseminating the actual content, especially the 'doomsday prophecy'." ”

"What benefits? Is it necessary to patent such a thing as spreading the prophecy of the end times? Lan Xi glared.

"And what we don't understand now is what the connection between Lao Luo and the prophetic poem will be." "If he knew this, wouldn't it be clear what the conflict of interest he had with us, or his motives for doing it." ”

Kirton suddenly asked, "Sean, is the notebook that Lu Hua translated the poem last time still here?" ”

"yes, it's on my desk, what do you want to do?"

"You bring it here, and we'll study the poems again." Kirton said.

"I don't think there's going to be anything new." Sean snorted, but still walked to the desk, took Lu Hua's notebook, and handed it to Kirton.

Kirton opened the notebook and read the prophetic poems page by page, page by page, from beginning to end, Lu Hua and Lan Xi also leaned over and watched together.

When Kirton turned to the horrific "2012 Apocalypse" prophetic poem again, his eyes stopped at those lines for a long time, and he read the poem almost word by word:

The last day of terror has finally arrived,

Apollo was moody due to a fall.

Volcanoes, earthquakes are no longer scary,

There is no use in the time of destruction.

The frightened have nowhere to hide,

Buried en masse by the rain of stars.

In view of the fact that my great prophecies have come to an end,

The followers of Mihir will know what is wrong.

Even though this is the second time I have read the poem, the fear and shock that these lines reveal between the lines still make the listener shudder. Lu Hua writhed uncomfortably, noticing that Kirton's eyes were still fixed on the verses. He asked curiously, "Kirton, what are you trying to find?" Haven't we understood and analyzed the poem thoroughly enough? ”

Lancey said with a worried face, "Don't you find anything more terrible—I think there's a limit to what we can do with fear." ”

Kirton looked up, pointed to the last line of the poem, and said, "I think we all paid attention to the description of the apocalyptic catastrophe earlier in the poem, and ignored this last sentence." ”

Sean hurried forward and read the verse over again: "'The believers of Mihir will know what is wrong'—do you think there is anything implied in this sentence, Kirton?" ”

"'Mihil' refers to the great prophet Mihir Nostradamus. And this verse reminds us that Nostradamus had many 'believers' who supported his prophecies. ”

"So what?" Sean asked, puzzled, "Does that mean anything?" ”

"Let's look at it this way." "The end of the world prophesied by Nostradamus was 1999, and the end of the world prophesied by Mars-Barth was 2012—and we assume that the descendants of Nostradamus, or some of his faithful followers, noticed this—then there is no doubt that one of the two great prophets must have been wrong." If the descendants of Nostradamus, or his loyal followers, had been closely watching and waiting for the correctness of the doomsday prophecy to be tested, they would have discovered that Nostradamus's prophecy had been wrong by the end of 1999 – what would they have done? ”

"If I were one of his followers, I wouldn't have supported him anymore." "Because his prediction was wrong, it naturally made people feel out of tune." ”

Kirton pointed at Lancey, "It might be like that for the average person—but what about his most faithful followers?" Come to think of it, the proverbs they had lived for centuries, and an idol that they had worshipped for centuries would not make their supporters give up their support for him altogether—and might even try to cover it up or make up for it, as a way to prove that their ancestors' faith was not wrong. In this case, wasn't Mars Barth's book of prophetic poems their greatest threat? ”

"Ah-" Lu Hua exclaimed, "You mean that Lao Luo may be one of the 'Mihir's disciples'?" ”

Lan Xi also shouted: "That's why he didn't hesitate to kill us in order to recapture the poetry book and keep the secret!" ”

Sean felt a little confused again, "So, is the poetry collection Lao Luo's after all?" If it was his, then he should have destroyed it a long time ago, and what was he doing with it? ”

Kirton made a gesture for them to stop talking: "I have a bold guess - if that's the case, then everything makes sense." ”

All three looked at Kirton intently.

"We now assume that Lao Luo is one of the faithful followers of Nostradamus. He came from out of town to work in our library, and lived there, perhaps in order to take the opportunity to find Mars Barth's prophetic poetry scattered around the world, and to seal it down or destroy it when he found it—didn't we only find the fifth book of the poetry collection? Then the first four volumes may have been found by him. And this fifth volume of poetry may have been left in a corner of the library, and was found by Director Xin not long ago, but because it was too shabby, it was put on the old book disposal shelf, and then bought by a few of us by mistake. Lao Luo didn't find out at the time, but when we came to the library to find Director Xin, we saw that it was actually pinched in Lu Hua's hands, so he was extremely surprised - I don't need to talk about what happened next, right? ”

"If that's the case, everything that happened really makes sense." "But there's still a question, how does Lao Luo know that there must be something he is looking for in our city's library?" ”

"Maybe he got some information before, or maybe he was lucky enough to find Mars Barth's poetry here? This is probably the only one he knows. Kirton shrugged his shoulders.

"So, the man who went to look through the two books "History of France" and "Behind the Begging" after we left the library is also Lao Luo? Perhaps our actions alarmed him, and he wondered why we were interested in those two books—but how did he know that we were reading these two books in the reading room? It can't be that you're following us, right? Lancey said.

"It's not surprising — he doesn't have to follow to know what we're reading in the reading room." Lu Hua said, "There is a monitor installed in the reading room, and he only needs to go to the monitoring room after work to call up the video to watch it." ”

He paused for a moment, then said worriedly, "Kirton, if it is true that Lao Luo is a fanatical 'Mihir believer' as you analyzed, then I guess he will not give up easily after the failure of the assassination of us. If he hadn't fled to the field, but was now hiding in the shadows planning his next attack on us, wouldn't we be in a very dangerous situation now? ”

Lu Hua's words made Lan Xi's face turn white with fright, and she asked in a panic, "Then what should we do now?" He's in the dark, we're in the light, and he'll find an opportunity to attack us at any moment! ”

Sean also said worriedly: "The four of us are fine when we are together, but once we are separated, it is really dangerous." ”

Kirton pondered for a moment and said, "It's better to ...... We're doing the opposite – the most dangerous place right now is probably the safest......"

"What do you mean?" Lu Hua asked.

Kirton said: "Didn't Lao Luo think that we would call the police to arrest him? So he fled in a hurry last night - it was obvious that he could go anywhere now, but he did not dare to go back to the library, where he lived. We took advantage of this opportunity to go to the house where he lived and maybe find some evidence of his guilt! ”

Lan Xi almost jumped up from the sofa: "It's too late to hide from him now, you actually want us to take the initiative to send it to the door!" ”

"I ask you, where are you going to hide from him?" "Didn't you just say that we were in the light and he was in the dark." Even if we hide at home and don't go out, as long as we are targeted by him, we may take advantage of the situation - especially Lu Hua, that book is now in his hands - if he goes home now, it will be the most unsafe! ”

Lu Hua opened his mouth, and when he realized this, his face immediately turned like earth.

"I think Kirton has a point. We can't always be reactive, we have to be proactive. Sean clenched his fists and pounded on his thighs, "If you don't enter the tiger's den, you can get the tiger!" ”

"But......" Lu Hua's face was embarrassed, "on what reason did we search where Lao Luo lived?" We don't have any evidence, Curator Xin will think it's illegal, he won't agree to it at all! ”

"Then let's call the police and let the police search Lao Luo's room." Lancey proposed.

"The Public Security Bureau is not run by us - the police will be so obedient, he will go wherever you tell him to search?" Lu Hua said, "The point is that this incident is so bizarre, and everything is our speculation - the police don't necessarily believe the words of a few of us high school students!" ”

"I have a plan, and it's just right to implement it today." Kirton winked and beckoned to his friends, motioning for them to come closer to him, then muttered, "We're ...... like this"

After listening to Kirton's plan, Lancy exclaimed, "Huh? That's too risky, isn't it? ”

"Do you have a better idea?" Kirton glared at her. Lancey stopped talking. After that, the eyes of several people intertwined, and they made a decision with their eyes.