A Story Only Psychopaths Can Understand (Part 1)

1. Age\I boarded an express train, around 10 minutes before midnight. At a mid-station, a man also got on the train. After the doors closed, he seemed to suddenly regain awareness and started looking around at the faces of the passengers.\“Forgive my ignorance, may I ask if you are 28 years old?” he asked me.\“Yes, but how did you know?” I asked him back, but he ignored me and continued talking to others.\“Are you 45 years old?”\“That's correct.”\“Are you 62?”\“How did you know?”\He repeated similar questions to seemingly unfamiliar passengers. It seemed this man had a special ability to know people's ages just by looking at their faces.\At this point, there were about 15 minutes until the next stop. All the passengers, including me, were staring at him with curiosity, until he reached the last woman.\“Are you 50 years old?”\“Yes, but in five minutes, I'll be 51!” the woman replied with a smile.\Instantly, the man's face turned blue with shock, as if he were overwhelmingly stunned.\2. The Affair\A former colleague who worked with me previously recently transferred to my current workplace. Since we were both married men, we used to often hang out, travel, or drink and chat together. So I invited him to a nearby tea house to catch up.\I asked him, “What have you been up to lately? Making any ill-gotten money?” He smiled at my question and began to talk at length about his past experiences.\About a year ago, he met a woman ten years younger than him. During the Christmas holiday, he spent the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, and 25th at her apartment. Of course, not going home for four days almost caused his family to call the police, and he also deeply felt guilty toward his young daughter. Therefore, on the evening of the 25th at seven o'clock, he insisted on going home, but the woman cried and begged him not to leave.\In the end, the two had a huge argument. He left her behind without hesitation, taking the elevator from the 11th floor to the 1st floor and leaving."I really didn't expect it…" He smiled again and said, "By the time I walked out of the apartment door, she was already waiting for me outside…"

3. The Bus
A couple with a child took a sightseeing bus to travel to the wife's hometown in the countryside. When the bus reached the mountain road section, their child kept complaining about being hungry. Unable to persuade the child, the couple had no choice but to ask the driver to let them get off midway and find a nearby fast-food restaurant to have a meal first.

After they were full, the TV in the restaurant broadcasted a news flash reporting that a countryside tour bus driving in a certain mountainous area had just been struck by a falling rock, causing the death of everyone on board with no survivors. Upon closer look, it was the bus they had just been on!

Looking at this news, the wife whispered, "I wish we hadn't gotten off the bus just now…"

Hearing her say this, the husband angrily said, "What nonsense are you talking about, if we hadn't gotten off the bus just now…"

Before he finished, he also understood what his wife meant, "Ah, yes, if we hadn't gotten off the bus just now…"

4. The Baby
In a certain obstetrics hospital, a woman gave birth to a baby. That same night, during a routine check of the nursery, a nurse unexpectedly discovered that the baby was completely cold and not breathing—dead.

The hospital decided to conceal the incident and replace the deceased infant with a newborn orphan of only a few days old. During childbirth, the woman was unconscious and had not yet seen her own child, so theoretically, replacing the baby with one that had no distinguishable features seemed foolproof.

The next day, the hospital allowed the mother to see the replacement baby, but when she saw it, she screamed frantically, "This is not my baby!"

5. The Homeless Man
I am a regular commuter in the New York subway. Every morning while commuting, I always see a homeless man mumbling something in his mouth in the subway. Out of curiosity, I secretly leaned against a wall very close to him and overheard what he was saying.

An older lady passed by him, and the homeless man quietly said, "Pig!"

What is this? Just a simple insult comparing someone to an animal?

Next, an ordinary office worker man passed by, and he said again, "Human!"

Well, indeed, he is just an ordinary-looking person, no doubt about it.\A few days later, with nothing to do, I went back to the subway station to eavesdrop on the mutterings of that homeless man. A thin, destitute man passed in front of him, and he said, 'Bull!'\Bull? He looks more like a skinny bird, doesn't he?\Then an extremely obese man walked past him, and he said, 'Vegetable!'\Vegetable? Shouldn't that be a pig?\When I got home, I carefully thought about the logical connection here. Perhaps he was talking about that person's past life, or what they would be reincarnated into? But after observing his words and actions over the next few days, I still felt it didn't quite make sense.\Finally, one day I couldn't contain my curiosity anymore and went directly to ask the homeless man what his ability actually was, and also requested to learn how to gain it. The homeless man, after seeing the determination in my eyes, said nothing; he just put his palm on my head.\From the next day onward, that homeless man disappeared from the subway.\Was he a god?\Or an immortal?\In any case, I finally understood what that ability was because I had already obtained it, replacing that homeless man.