(Translated from Japanese by Saya)
This is a cryptic story! :)
It was going to be 12.00 o'clock midnight in 10 minutes. I was on an express train.
Soon the train stopped at a station, and a man got on the train.
When the doors closed, the man jerked his head up, and suddenly started looking around the passengers' faces.
"Excuse me, are you 28 years old?"
He asked me.
"Yes, but how did you know?"
I replied, but he ignored me and went on to question other passengers.
"Are you 45 years old?"
"Yes, but why?"
"And you are 62 years old?"
"How did you know that?"
He kept repeating the same question to everyone.
It appeared he had a special power to know a person's age just by looking at the person's face.
We still had more than 15 minutes before we arrived at the next stop.
All passengers' eyes were now on this strange man.
"You are 50 years old, aren't you?"
"Yes, but I will turn 51 in five minutes, when the date changes at midnight."
The last woman who was questioned replied with a smile.
The man who was asking the question visibly blanched at her answer.
This is a cryptic story! :)
It was going to be 12.00 o'clock midnight in 10 minutes. I was on an express train.
Soon the train stopped at a station, and a man got on the train.
When the doors closed, the man jerked his head up, and suddenly started looking around the passengers' faces.
"Excuse me, are you 28 years old?"
He asked me.
"Yes, but how did you know?"
I replied, but he ignored me and went on to question other passengers.
"Are you 45 years old?"
"Yes, but why?"
"And you are 62 years old?"
"How did you know that?"
He kept repeating the same question to everyone.
It appeared he had a special power to know a person's age just by looking at the person's face.
We still had more than 15 minutes before we arrived at the next stop.
All passengers' eyes were now on this strange man.
"You are 50 years old, aren't you?"
"Yes, but I will turn 51 in five minutes, when the date changes at midnight."
The last woman who was questioned replied with a smile.
The man who was asking the question visibly blanched at her answer.
Comments
so this guy power isn't knowing "current age" of people but "age when that certain person dead".
since he saw the lady's age as 50 not 51, so something bad will happen to all of them inside the train before they arrived on the next station. probably a train crash :O
thats my answer hope its correct! also nice blog and thank you for keep updating this blog! \o/
This is me trying to compensate for the usual dark thoughts.
I was thinking along the lines that, going by how disturbed he got by her answer, his power worked in a way that a difference of 5 minutes shouldn't matter to his perception and he'd have seen her as 51. Since he still saw her as 50, he could tell she wouldn't make it to 51.
I swear that made sense in my head. Nonetheless, I'm adamant that Firefly got it correctly, that makes way more sense.
Thanks a lot for this cryptic one, Saya! It was quite fun trying to figure it out. (Also it's pretty amazing that you'll play the piano in a concert, hope that it's a good time for you!)
Take care and stay safe! I'll be sure to tell you about some of my dreams next time. (I actually keep something like a dream diary!)
Love you Saya-Sama!!
Who knows, maybe he's the one who had been scared to watch anything on TV past midnight, and now that he had finally mustered the courage to watch it again, he was as unfortunate as to catch the same strange program and see his name on the list on top of that.
I said before there is another version to this story which gives you a big hint at the end.
That version ends with the narrator complimenting the man for having the special power to see people's age, and to which the man replies "what I can see is not people's age but the age at which they die."
The last woman is supposed to die at 50, and she says she will turn 51 in five minutes, so that means they are all going to die at the same time in five minutes in a train crush or something.
@Leo Sooman pays me for stanning EXO Thank you for commenting! I really appreciate people leaving their original theory in comments because it makes them a more interesting read. :D I gave you the generally acknowledged "answer" to the story but it doesn't make you incorrect at all. I wish people were braver like you and not afraid of sharing whatever theory they come up with!
@firefly Hello, firefly! Wow since 2012? That's a long time! Thank you for not giving up on my blog :D I'm glad you decided to comment!
But yes, you're spot on! Well done for figuring out the "correct" answer! I'm very impressed :D <3
@George VanMeter Don't worry dear. You can't be worse than me when it comes to solving those cryptic stories! XD
@CreanJinSung That's a funny theory indeed! XD Poor man!
@Haem Great! Well done for arriving on the correct answer by yourself.
@Gabriel It think it is very hard, and I was surprised that firefly came up with the correct answer so fast!
But I think you were so close to the correct answer yourself? :D Well done, well done!
And yes, I played the piano last night in a concert! I played four nocturnes by Chopin. It was fun and exhausting! It has been years since I was a music college student and played the piano on a regular basis. I recently started taking the piano up again after a long break, and enjoying it very much! :D
You take care too, Gabriel dear. Enjoy life!
And that's wonderful you keep a dream diary. That's very interesting and I hope to hear some of your dreams! :D
@Unknown Aww thank you for being such a long time blog reader and I appreciate you dropped by to comment! :D Never be afraid of guessing wrong! People won't laugh at you, and if anything people will enjoy reading different theories. The world thrives on variety, my friend.
But I've never been called "Saya-sama" that's special XD I love you too but you should have your own name! I can't possibly call you "Unknown Sama" LOL
@Diogo LOL That's seriously a good theory, dear. I'm surprised anyone remembered my old post about the NNN News Bulletin! XD Thank you for linking those two posts up!
Thank you again, my dear blog readers! See you again hopefully at the next post! :D
<3 <3 Much love and peace!
I think this is like final destination. He was asking to make sure if that is the exact train in his dream or not. And when the last person answers, he know that by midnight they will all be dead.