"By the way, Tom, your painting is very interesting, interesting, very interesting."
Look for the opportunity and do what you like. What do children of this age like the most? The answer is undoubtedly praise, especially when your work is praised by others, it is hard to refuse.
Sure enough, as soon as Will spoke, Tom, whose hobby was painting, immediately smiled and was extremely happy. He first glanced at the paintings on the coffee table, then turned to the new neighbor and asked curiously: "So what do you think of my paintings?
"
“Great! Very Picasso style!”
"Picasso? Who is Picasso?"
"A world-class painting master, and also a master of abstract painting."
"What is abstraction?"
"Well, um, the so-called abstraction refers to the relative concept of concreteness. To put it bluntly, it is an alternative style of portraiture that is different from the realism style. You can understand it as random drawings, but the paintings are often full of the author's thoughts, which is a kind of through
An unconventional art genre that uses painting to express certain meanings.”
"Although I don't understand what you are talking about, you seem to be very powerful."
As expected, when he heard that his work could be linked to Naruto, the boy scratched his head and became even more happy. Seeing that the fire was almost done, his mind was spinning. Will also saw the opportunity and continued to speak. Now he was on the right track and hurriedly asked.
The key issue that has been troubled for a long time:
"So...who is this person in your painting?"
(Tell me, tell me the identity of the man in the painting, tell me what this is!)
Using the flattery technique, Will originally thought that the boy would tell him the identity of the faceless man when the question was raised, but who would have thought...
As the question entered his eardrums, for some reason, the boy did not answer or respond. He just looked down at the painting in silence. After looking at it for a long time, Tom broke the silence and instinctively shrugged. He shook his head slightly while shrugging his shoulders, and finally stared with a blank expression.
Will replied:
"have no idea."
"What? Don't know? You said you don't know?"
"Yeah, I really don't know.".
"Didn't you refer to anything? For example, books, images, or movies and videos?"
"No."
His expression was frozen, his expression was astonished, and his whole person was stunned on the spot as if he had been coated with a layer of cement.
Obviously, Tom's answer undoubtedly exceeded Will's expectations. He had considered the other party's answer, and even imagined that there were several answers. He might answer that it was based on his personal imagination, or he might answer that it was yes.
It was something in a book or a movie or TV show. Although there were many speculations, he only expected that the other party would simply and directly answer that he didn't know?
I don’t know? It’s neither a personal imagination nor a reference to movies and books. Since it’s nothing, how did you draw this thing?
As for Tom…
At this moment, looking at the sofa opposite and the brown-haired man in front of him staring at him with a puzzled expression, he probably realized that his answer was indeed a bit strange. The boy suddenly realized that he scratched his head first, and then put on a look on his face.
Recalling his thinking state, it took more than ten seconds for the boy to add to the above answer:
"I mean I don't know who the man in the painting is, but I have seen this man once."
………
"Hey, man, are you sure you want to quit your job and move here?"
"Yes, I am tired of this busy life. I don't want to continue this kind of life for a moment. I can't wait to leave New York by plane and go elsewhere. Of course, I will give Tamiflu as much as possible before leaving.
If that bastard likes to cause some trouble, such as deleting the survey data I recently compiled from the folder, he will not be allowed to use my results to claim credit from his superiors under any circumstances!"
"Haha, it's not just you. It's really in line with your personality to do this. Well, Duffell is not a good person anyway. There are many people in the company who hate him. Let's get back to the topic.
Now that you are leaving New York, where do you plan to live?”
"I've thought about this question a long time ago. How about California?"
"California? That's the West. In my personal impression, there are not only small towns but farms, and there are endless fields of bookmakers. It must be fun to run on horseback. Is it possible, you...don't tell me what you plan to do.
Go there and be a farmer?”
"Yes, you are indeed my friend. John, you guessed it right. I plan to live there exactly, and as early as three days ago, I had entrusted an intermediary to buy a small farm in a remote location locally. In other words, I got off the plane.
I don’t need to stay in a hotel, I can go directly to the farm to start a new life. Now, here are the photos of the farm sent by the agency.”
"Well, it's not bad. Although the location is a bit remote, the surrounding environment is beautiful. If possible, after I retire, I would like to herd sheep leisurely on the entire farm in the west. I can even dress up as a cowboy if I have nothing to do. It's a pity that my aunt doesn't look like a cowboy."
Your aunt left you a million inheritance like that, allowing you to live a retired life decades early, huh? Wait, what is this?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean what is that dark patch of land south of the farm?".
"Do you have bad eyesight? That's a forest. According to the agent, there is a dense forest near the farm I bought. It should be this forest. What? Is there a problem?"
"There's a problem, of course there's a problem, and as an amateur paranormal enthusiast, I find this woods a little odd."
"Oh? How do you say this?"
"Judging from the brightness of the photo, I guess the shooting time should be around one or two o'clock in the afternoon, and this time period coincides with the brightest time of the day. Otherwise, the farm and the surrounding environment would not be so clear, but the problem is exactly that.
Here, since the surrounding environment including the farm is all bright and well-lit, why is it that only the woods to the south are dark overall? At first glance, I thought it was a dark cloud falling to the ground, don't you think
Feeling weird?"
"John, your old habit of being suspicious has happened again. I strongly protest against this. Isn't it just a forest? And it is reasonable and reasonable that larger woods can often block the sun. What's the fuss?
of?"
"No, no, you seem to have misunderstood what I meant. What I mean is that this forest is a bit too dark. It is in sharp contrast with nearby farms and surrounding wilderness wheat fields. It feels a bit incongruous, unless it is deliberately processed through Photoshop.
Otherwise, it would be impossible for the woods to be so dim in broad daylight in reality. Also, the last one of the photos you showed me was rather blurry, with a little something similar to video snowflakes mixed in. Could it be that the camera malfunctioned during the shooting?"
.
"Hey, hey, hey, why do you care about this? A dozen photos aren't enough for me to see everything clearly? It's no big deal if an occasionally unclear photo appears due to a shooting error. Okay, okay, John.
Just shut up, I came to you to drink, not to chat with you about your meaningless personal hobbies. Let’s go to the bar and I’ll treat you!”
………
California, in a remote wilderness, in the living room of a farm.
"I mean I don't know who the man in the painting is, but I have seen this man once."
As soon as the boy said this, Will's confused face immediately changed. It became surprised and shocked. He was eager to know the identity of the faceless man, so before Tom could explain, the man seemed to be possessed by some kind of
Controlled by his emotions, he asked impatiently: "You said you have seen the man in the painting? Where? Where have you seen him?"
No one understands Will's current mood, and so does everyone else, and the same goes for Tom. Although the description is correct, but after noticing the nervous urging tone of his new neighbor for a moment, Tom could only tell the truth truthfully in the following time,
Then he gave a complete account of his recent encounter:
"Last week, yes, last week, that day happened to be the weekend. At the beginning, I was walking alone in the woods in the south. After the sky got dark, I was hungry and planned to go home for dinner, but just as I was about to walk out
When I was in the woods, I felt something. I vaguely felt that something seemed to be following me behind me. I was very scared at the time and thought it was a beast in the forest. Thinking of this, I quickly turned back, but when I turned around, I found that there was nothing behind me.
, let alone wild beasts, not even a hare was seen.”
"Seeing that there was no wild beast behind me, I was worried and quickened my pace and continued home. Strangely, not long after I walked, the feeling of being followed emerged again. I naturally turned around to look behind me again. The result was that there was nothing. It was still nothing.
None. When I saw this, I panicked, so I ran. Anyway, I finally managed to run out of the woods..."
As the saying goes, you can only understand the current situation through personal experience. This statement is indeed true. On the surface, the above description is not a big deal. In the eyes of adults, it is nothing more than being nervous and scaring yourself. But that time, I was followed by an unknown thing.
The experience was truly bizarre for a child like Tom, and precisely because of the strange experience, the boy’s expression during the narration
Gradually changing, he gradually revealed a strange expression that was both confused, nervous and mixed with suspicion. As the narration came to this point, he paused. After taking a deep breath, the boy continued: "In order to avoid the constant tracking, I ran out.
I ran out of the woods, but when I successfully ran out of the woods and reached the opposite road, I turned around and saw a person."
"At that time, I was standing on a road near the woods, and there was another person standing on the edge of the woods about a hundred meters away. A man, that was a man in a black suit. He was standing on the edge of the woods facing me.
Standing motionless in the direction in which it is located, due to the distance
It was far away and it was dark in the evening. Although I saw the man wearing a suit, I couldn't see his face clearly. In addition, I also found that the man was very tall, almost as tall as
More than a small tree, after all, the many trees around the man in the suit are the most
It was a good reference. The man was tall and slender, and even his arms were much longer than normal people. I was very curious at that time. After all, I had never seen such a strange person. I opened my eyes wide and tried to see.
I tried to see the other person's face clearly, but I still couldn't see clearly. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see clearly.
No matter how hard my eyes stretched my neck, I couldn't see the man's face clearly from beginning to end. After trying hard for a long time, I could only vaguely see a touch of white. Yes, white. His head seemed to be white, as if... it was as if the hair on his head and his facial features were all covered in white.
The eraser erased that blank space..."
"I thought I was blinded at the time, so I reached out and rubbed my eyes vigorously. But the strange thing is that when I finished rubbing my eyes and looked towards the woods opposite, the man in the suit disappeared. He disappeared in just a short time.
Inexplicably disappear in an instant
Miss you? Just when I was in a daze in disbelief and shock, my mother happened to run from behind and called me to eat.
In the evening, I was beaten by my mother after dinner."
Tom's narration ends here, and the narration process is very smooth. As for Will, who has been sitting on the sofa and listening intently...
The man frowned with an expression of surprise. He was silent at first and thought deeply. After a moment, the man lowered his head and glanced at the pictures on the table and then looked at Tom: "So, then, this picture..."
Without Will continuing to speak, the boy nodded naturally and replied: "Well, the person in the painting was drawn based on the impression in my mind after I returned home."
In fact, the key clues were revealed at this point in the conversation, and Will already had a general understanding of the whole thing.
First of all, it is certain that Tom did not lie. As a young child who has not been polluted by society, the possibility of the other party lying is extremely low, and the above description is also very likely to have actually happened. Let’s not talk about who the mysterious man in the suit is.
Who, just relying on Tom's narration process just now is enough
It is enough to scare others, enough to make any adult feel terrified after hearing it! At this moment, Will himself felt exactly this way. Yes, Tom was very young, only seven or eight years old, when he encountered this kind of thing.
Naturally, he would not feel too scared. On the contrary, at that time, he should be more
Most of them are curious, which can be clearly seen from the doubtful expression on the boy's face throughout the narration. Of course, the above is not the point. The point is the mysterious man in the suit in the boy's mouth. The boy was remembered by Tom because of his strange appearance and even drew it on the paper.
The faceless man, if Tom is
If you are too young to realize the fear, then as an adult, Will can't seem to calm down. In other words, from the moment he heard the narration, Will has already felt chills running down his back and sweating all over his body, as if he was hit by a sudden wave.
I can't help but shiver as the cool breeze blows...
The reason was none other than the scene he saw with his own eyes within a few minutes. He could swear that he saw the faceless man in the suit. He had witnessed him appear at close range in the living room at the scene, whether it was his clothing, appearance or behavior.
The shape is almost the same as what Tom described!
(What's going on? Is the faceless man real? This, this is not consistent with common sense? Is there such a person in the world? Is there a person with a head as big as a small tree and no hair or facial features? Could it be that the other person
Lying? No, from Tom's narration, I really can't hear the other party showing any signs of lying. That's it.
That's right, but the question is...if the other party is indeed not lying, then what is the faceless man in the suit that Tom described before? After all, it is impossible for humans to look like that. It is completely impossible to exist in reality. First of all,
Not to mention anything else, it cannot be explained from a scientific perspective alone.)
(There is also the dark woods to the south. According to Tom, the faceless man once appeared at the edge of the woods...)
(The dark woods and the faceless man in a suit. What is the connection between the two?)
The scene became silent, and his thoughts were surging. At this moment, looking across the coffee table, and looking at Tom, whose expression did not seem to be fake at all, Will continued to be silent for a long time. It was not until a minute passed quietly that the man finally stopped thinking and guessing, and then
He asked Tom again in as calm a tone as possible: "Have you ever told your parents about your experience?"
"Of course I did. In fact, I told my mother what I saw and heard on the road before I even got home. I also told my father when I got home."
"Then what?"
"Well, then I was first beaten by my mother, and then my father called me to the bedroom and gave me a scolding. I was forbidden to go to the woods to the south. I was afraid of being beaten, so I had nowhere to play.
Within a few days, the place of play was moved to another abandoned farm nearby. No, it should be playing in your yard."
"call!"
As the conversation between the two parties came to an end, Will, who was increasingly chilled, first forced himself to take a deep breath. Then, before Tom on the other side could say anything, Will, who was enveloped by an inexplicable fear, left the sofa and walked straight away.
Get up, walk around the central coffee table, and finally
Then he walked up to the boy and put his hand on the boy's shoulder while staring down into his eyes. Then he said in an unquestionable tone: "Listen Tom, your parents are right. From now on, you should not go to the woods to the south to play again."
If you want to play, you can come to my place, I'm always welcome."
"Huh?"
Looking at the serious expression of the brown-haired man in front of him, and listening to the man's solemn words, Tom was puzzled. In addition, he was still young and didn't think deeply. As expected, Will's words just fell, and the boy instinctively raised his hand to scratch his head with doubts on his face.
He paused twice and asked casually: "Why?"
Adults don't understand the world of children, but similarly, how can children understand the world of adults? It is true that Tom is much smarter than his peers and has a talent for painting, but after all, he is a child after all, just seven or eight years old.
Just a child, the world view of children at this age
He couldn't understand what that encounter meant, and the child couldn't detect the deep horror. Faced with Tom's confusion, Will, who had some kind of guess in his heart but couldn't explain it, could only force out a smile, and soon
He answered with the most intuitive external threat: "Because there are wolves in the woods!"
"Wolf? Really, really? You didn't lie to me?".
Sure enough, the child's simple way of thinking caused the boy in front of him to show a double expression of surprise and fear after hearing Will's answer. That's right. If it is said that children cannot be afraid because they cannot understand certain things that are terrifying to think about, then in the end,
The best solution is undoubtedly to change the means, from complex explanations to security threats, using things that the other party can fully understand.
Just intimidate. What kind of thing is both easy to understand and extremely threatening? A man-eating wolf is undoubtedly the most direct and effective deterrent to Tom, so Will using a wolf to scare Tom is more likely to induce the other person than explaining it in detail.
Fear, after all, Will understands children, and his purpose is nothing more than to hope that the other party will be obedient and not go to the south woods again.
"Of course it's true! I've seen a gray wolf on the edge of the woods when I drove through that woods before!"
"Gray wolf?"
"A large carnivore that is twice as big as the wolf you see in the zoo. It can kill a sheep in one bite. Even adult shepherd dogs don't dare to confront it, and humans don't.
You only dare to face them if you are carrying a gun. Well, since you want to hear it, let me tell you how many people that thing has eaten in the past..."
With his rich knowledge, Will completely dominated the conversation, easily changing the topic in the chat, avoiding sensitive topics and returning to normal chat.
It is said that time often flies very quickly when chatting. It is true. As time goes by, the sun gradually sets in the west. Not long after, the originally dazzling sun gradually turns red, and its position becomes farther and farther west from the top of the head at noon.
Slant until the sunset appears in the western sky, until the sky gradually darkens and evening comes.
Inside the farm living room.
"Huh? It's getting dark so soon? I think we should go over there. My father and mother believe that dinner has been prepared by now. Will, let's go quickly!".
After drinking 3 bottles of Coke, he put down the water glass and suddenly came to his senses. He watched the sky outside the window gradually darken. Tom did not forget his father’s original instructions. He stood up and left his seat and started greeting. As for Will, to be honest, although he personally
Not very willing, but due to Father Tom’s previous warm invitation
, and because he was really hungry at the moment, the man finally agreed readily, and immediately left the farm at the urging of the boy, and rushed straight to Tom's house in the north of the farm before it was completely dark, and to another farm not far away.
During this period, we talked and laughed happily, but...
During the walk, the two people talking and laughing in the middle, whether it was Will or Tom, neither of them noticed any details, or in other words, when they were rushing to the farm halfway, something happened nearby, and something happened.
What……
The sun was setting, and darkness shrouded the sky. Under the increasingly gray sky, on both sides of the silent road, if I looked closely, I saw a person appearing inexplicably under the tree on the roadside about a hundred meters away from Will and the two of them.
A man in a black suit and a man with a slender figure and a pure white face.
At this moment, this tall, thin man in a suit with no facial features was standing under a big tree motionless, staring at the two people in front of him. Not only that, but the faceless man suddenly appeared inexplicably, as if he was closing the distance and his ears were pricking.
If you listen quietly, you can further discover that there are sounds around the man. The sounds are ups and downs and intermittent, very similar to the signal noise released by FM radio: