This actor is full of tricks.

The next scene was a perfectly normal queue for tickets. As they entered the amusement park, the director gave them a special instruction: "You two children, you must stay close to your father later. If you run around, the ghosts will take you away."

The two children shivered, and the little girl stomped hard on the director's foot: "Daddy is bad, he always scares me and my brother."

"Hahaha!" The director's happy laughter rang out in the video. The camera angle began to drop, presumably because the director had squatted down. A large hand reached into the video from the edge of the screen and rubbed the little girl's head. "Has your father ever told you that there are no ghosts in the world? Those are just things adults use to fool children."

"But my classmates say that there are ghosts on foggy days." The little girl tilted her head, looking puzzled.

"That's because they were also deceived by adults. Let me tell you two, adults are the best at lying." The director had already begun weaving lies for his children.

The little boy next to him asked, "Does Dad lie to us too?"

"Dad wouldn't lie to you. If Dad really did lie to you, it must be because Dad was protecting you."

"I don't want Daddy to lie to me." The little girl shook the big hand in the picture in a spoiled manner, and the little boy also came over and comforted his sister like a little adult: "Didn't Daddy just say that he lied to us to protect us?"

"No! No!" The little girl only cared whether her father was lying to her.

"Okay, okay, Daddy would never lie to you." The headmaster smiled indulgently, then pointed to the carousel not far away: "Want to go ride that?"

"miss you!"

The two children skipped and hopped over, and being children, they forgot their unhappiness as soon as they started playing.

"what!!!!!!"

Just then, screams came from the haunted house in the distance, and the crowd began to stir. Several staggering, terrifying-looking ghosts could be seen running out of the haunted house, chasing after the screaming people.

The actors hired by the dean made their appearance.

It was quite obvious that the makeup on those ghost faces was of poor quality. After the initial panic, some passersby realized that it was just an amusement park show and happily gathered around to watch.

But it wasn't like that for the children. The director's two children had just finished riding the carousel when they saw this terrifying scene. They were so frightened that tears streamed down their faces, and they ran over and hugged their father's legs tightly: "Daddy, there's a ghost! A ghost is coming!"

"Haha!" The dean squatted down again and put his arms around the two children. "Didn't Dad just say that there are no ghosts in this world? Dad is going to make a horror movie soon, and these ghosts are actually actors that Dad hired."

"Really?" The two children, with tears in their eyes, burrowed desperately into their father's arms.

"Really, look, Dad can even call them over." As he spoke, the dean called out to the ghost that was running around everywhere, and the ghost came running over eagerly: "Director Qin, how was my acting?"

"Very good." The dean praised, sent the actor away, and then took out two lollipops from his pocket: "See? Dad didn't lie to you. That really was an actor Dad invited to film a horror movie."

"It really is!" The two children seemed to believe it. They were young, and to them, their father's words were the most truthful things in the world. They trusted their father unconditionally. "Dad, this horror movie might take a while to film. If you ever encounter ghosts again, remember that they are all actors playing Dad. There are no ghosts in this world."

"But Dad also wants to remind you, since you two aren't Dad's actors, when you see those actors, you must remember that it's Dad filming, so you must stay far away and not delay Dad's filming schedule."

The little girl seemed to understand, but the little boy puffed out his chest confidently and said, "I remember, Dad. My sister and I will never interfere with your work."

"Great job!" The director patted the little boy's head.

The videotape ended there, and the screen went completely black.

To adults, this videotape is nothing more than a fairy tale riddled with holes. The dean's lies are utterly untenable in the eyes of adults; he lied to his own children and fabricated a false utopia.

This approach does indeed preserve the children's innocence, but the downsides are also very obvious and fatal. Once those two children believe the headmaster's words, they will lose their fear of real ghosts and might even approach them instead of running away.

To be honest, from Lin Jue's own perspective, what the dean did is hard to understand. Between innocence and safety, he would definitely choose the latter without hesitation, unless he could stay by the child's side to protect him at all times and lie and say that fighting the monster was also filming a movie, so that he could have both.

However, it's also possible that the dean did just that, staying by his two children's side at all times to protect their safety.

"So what's the situation with these two children now? Ten years have passed, and they must be sixteen or seventeen years old now. Are they still living in the utopia their father created?"

"A lie will always be exposed eventually. By the time they are sixteen or seventeen, they have their own judgment and will eventually find out that their father is lying through information from the outside world, unless they are cut off from contact with the outside world."

"Could it be that these two children were kept in a mental hospital by the director all along?"

Lin Jue intuitively felt that the main reason his predecessor stole the pocket watch was because of the two children in the photo, but he couldn't deduce any useful information from just one videotape, nor did he know what happened to the two children afterward.

It's unclear whether they are alive or dead.

"After watching it, don't you think Qin Lang is quite funny? This kind of lie is completely harmful to children." Dong Jian pulled out the videotape: "When I first heard his idea, I thought it was quite difficult to comment on."

"It's hard to say. Everyone has different opinions. Maybe for him, a child's innocence is the most important thing." Lin Jue shrugged. "You said before that you had met Qin Lang a few times. Have you met again since December 5th?"

Dong Jian froze, remaining silent for a long time. He took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and smoked silently.

Lin Jue wasn't in a hurry and waited quietly for the other person. Judging from the other person's expression, something must have happened that they didn't want to talk about.

(End of this chapter)