"Turn off the lights—"
The voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly to everyone in the lantern-lighting group.
Unlike the initial method of having someone light the lanterns, turning them off was much easier. All the lanterns seemed to receive the command "Turn off the lights," extinguishing one by one from the ground floor upwards.
This ritualistic sense of sacredness silenced everyone, as they watched the light gradually disappear from their feet to their heads, truly experiencing the process of being enveloped in darkness.
After an unknown amount of time, Luo Cheng stammered, "Brother, brother-in-law, are you still there?"
Before Ke Xun could answer, a warm hand quickly grabbed him: "You're still here, that's great!" One could imagine that the other hand was already holding his "brother-in-law."
Strangely, although it was dark, it wasn't pitch black; there seemed to be a faint light illuminating the surroundings.
"Xin Chun… Wahahahahaha…" Luo Cheng cried out uncontrollably, his voice distorted.
Unaware of the situation, Xin Chun clung pitifully to its owner's shoulder, seemingly about to fall off at any moment. Its eyes shone like two jewels.
Ke Xun picked Xin Chun up and examined its eyes closely: "Are all dog eyes this bright at night?"
"This isn't normal." Mu Yiran also came over to look, one hand still tightly gripped by Luo Yi, her weak voice carrying, "I thought Xin Chun had suddenly turned into a monster..."
"Let's go back to the room." Mu Yiran noticed that the entire lantern pavilion was plunged into darkness, except for Xin Chun, whose two points of light were extremely conspicuous.
The three of them used the dog's eyes for illumination to return to their room.
When Ke Xun entered the room, he covered Xin Chun's eyes: "Everyone, be prepared, Xin Chun's eyes glow in the night."
Even with the prior warning, everyone in the room still gasped softly when Xin Chun's eyes lit up again.
Xin Chun was placed on the table, serving as a dog-shaped nightlight.
Although a dog's eyes were bright, they couldn't compare to real light; currently, they were only slightly brighter than everyone's cell phones.
"It's strange, why weren't this dog's eyes this bright when we first arrived, even though it was dark then?" Shao Ling sat at the table, studying Xin Chun's eyes. "Could it be like some kind of stone, only absorbing enough light to release its glow at night?"
This explanation was more convincing to everyone. Then Zhu Haowen bluntly changed the subject: "There are two questions now. First, what time do the lights go out here, and why is the lighting time so short? Second, how do the lights go out, and why do they turn off on their own?"
This was precisely what puzzled everyone the most. Zhu Haowen continued, "You... " "What time do you think it is? Please answer based on your intuition. Everyone has a biological clock. We haven't been here long, so we shouldn't be assimilated too quickly."
The word "assimilation" sent a chill down everyone's spine. Wei Dong looked around in the dim light and touched his stomach: "I think we ate around 1 p.m., so it's probably a little past 2 p.m."
Qin Ci nodded: "I think that's about right. We entered the art museum at 9:10 a.m. I checked my watch then; we entered the paintings around 9:30 to 9:50 a.m. If we go by that time, it's probably around 2 p.m. now."
"But is time outside the painting the same as time inside?" Du Lingyu asked. "What were your experiences like?"
Qin Ci replied, "Not necessarily. We usually enter the painting in the morning, but inside it might be afternoon, or even dusk.
It's very important for us to figure out the time, especially the time periods. If we calculate based on outside time, for example, if we arrive inside the painting at 10:00 AM, according to human digestion time, we'd feel hungry around 12:00 PM. Lunch would be around 1:00 PM, and the lights would be turned off at most an hour later, which is 2:00 PM as we just estimated.
From 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, that's a total of four hours. From turning on the lights to turning them off, it's only four hours."
Everyone fell silent.
Xin Chun blinked, and the whole world became half-light, half-dark, alternating between light and shadow.
"Why is a day in this world so short?" Xi Shengnan sighed, leaning against the screen, looking somewhat listless. "If a day has less than 24 hours, is our time here still seven days? Doesn't that mean we have less time to find autographs?"
Hearing this, everyone's nerves tightened.
"As is customary, time flows the same inside the painting as outside; a day is also 24 hours," Shao Ling said. "However, if the daytime here is only 4 hours, it means the night will be extended, and we will experience a long 20-hour night. What's worse, all the dangers in the painting happen at night."
"This, this is too difficult." Du Lingyu turned her face to the shadows and gently wiped away her tears.
Cao Youning yawned inappropriately: "Sorry, sorry, people tend to get sleepy after eating, and besides, I have a habit of taking a nap. I really hope that turning off the lights this time is just for everyone to take a nap, and maybe the lights will be turned back on in two hours."
Mu Yiran lowered her eyes slightly and had to admit her discovery: "It's already dark."
"Dark?" Cao Youning was taken aback.
"Don't you think it's already pitch black outside?" Shao Ling couldn't help but say. "When we first arrived, the sky was slowly brightening, although at its brightest it was just a hazy gray, but that was still evidence of daylight. Now it's completely dark."
Cao Youning, though scared, couldn't help but yawn: "Sorry, I'm just like that; I get sleepy easily when it's dark."
"If you're sleepy, you can take a nap. We'll wake you up in about an hour," Shao Ling said. "Everyone else, wake up. It's 2 PM here. Remember this time and don't let yourself be assimilated by the world."
Ke Xun: "We can't just sit there. It's not a good time to go out and look for autographs, and we can't get a magnifying glass right now, but we can do something else."
"Develop the film!" It was Mai Peng who spoke, his voice sounding particularly strong due to his severe cold. "We have water now, and a kettle protected by a heat pack; that's enough for developing the film."
Hearing this, everyone got excited and got to work immediately. Lu Heng had already taken the developing tank out of the cabinet: "Turn on your phones, it'll be bright enough; we'll need to prepare the developing and fixing solutions later."
Mu Yiran asked from the side, "Does the developing tank have to be a whole roll of film? How many photos have you taken on your cameras so far?"
Mai Peng hesitated, clearly having overlooked this question in his excitement: "My camera shows that I've only taken less than ten shots. If I take them out now, the remaining twenty-odd shots will be wasted, and we might need to use film for taking pictures in the next few days."
Lu Heng also went to get his camera: "What about you guys? Who's been taking pictures in this world?"
"I didn't dare take any," Du Lingyu said. "My camera still has new film; I guess it's because I copied all the photos from the camera to the computer last night, and clearing it makes it new."
"I didn't take any pictures either," Xi Shengnan said. "The camera has already taken more than a dozen shots. I took some pictures of the architecture and street scenes in front of the art museum, and some artworks."
Cao Youning yawned and lay down fully clothed: "I didn't dare to take any pictures either…"
"Then let's develop this roll," Lu Heng said. "I've already taken 33 shots on this roll, that's enough."
"What do you mean by 33 shots?" Luo Cheng interjected.
"Film rolls are usually 36 shots per roll. If you only take a few shots and then take it out to develop, the rest of the film is wasted," Lu Heng explained. "This roll has 36 shots, and I've already taken 33, so wasting three won't matter."
"Then why waste them? Just take them all." Luo Cheng admitted he had the blood of a businessman and was sometimes good at utilizing resources.
Wei Dong nodded in agreement: "Luo Bo is right, let's take those three shots."
Lu Heng's voice trembled slightly: "Take...take where?"
Taking photos at night seemed particularly eerie, as if something invisible to the human eye was destined to appear in the lens.
The usually timid Luo Jing calmly said, "When I was little, my grandma told me that cats and dogs can sense things. If there's anything in our house, Xin Chun will definitely feel it, and she won't be as quiet as a chicken like this."
"Ugh..." Xin Chun wasn't happy about being compared to a chicken.
"Alright, as quiet as a virgin."
Xin Chun lay down on the table, seemingly too lazy to pay attention to her owner.
Lu Heng, as if trying to bolster his courage, said, "In my hometown, we also have this kind of saying about dogs. It's said that if a dog suddenly barks in the middle of the night, you can tell who 'passed through' the house by the speed of the bark. It's like 'biting people quickly, biting gods slowly, and biting ghosts at a moderate pace.'"
Lu Heng became more and more frightened as he spoke.
"Let's take pictures. We just want to capture some clues that are invisible to the naked eye with the camera. If we only capture ordinary night scenes, it's meaningless." Mai Peng was much calmer than Lu Heng. "Take pictures."
Lu Heng picked up the camera, his hand trembling slightly.
Seeing this, Mai Peng couldn't help but say, "Would you be willing to lend me your Ricoh camera?"
Lu Heng was more than happy to oblige: "Yes, yes, Mai Peng, you take the picture!"
Mai Peng took Lu Heng's camera, first looking through the viewfinder, then professionally adjusting the lens. He selected several angles in the room, and everyone "targeted" by the camera lens turned their faces away uncomfortably, as if they didn't want to be photographed.
"I'm going to use the flash, everyone be careful not to get blinded," Mai Peng reminded them, then took a picture in place, then changed the angle and took another one. This time, the "click" sound seemed to be slightly longer than before.
It took Mai Peng a while to peek out from behind the camera: "It's strange, the viewfinder seemed to change the moment I took the picture."
Everyone tensed up. Shao Ling asked, "What changed? Can you see it clearly?"
"I can't see it clearly. It was already dark, and the flash was so bright, but I still feel like the dog's position changed," Mai Peng said.
"What..." Luo Yu hugged Xin Chun tightly in fright.
"It was clearly on the table, but the moment I pressed the shutter, I saw it over by the window... because its eyes were very bright, I shouldn't be mistaken, there were two bright spots over by the window." Mai Peng was very certain.
"Could it be... there's another dog over by the window?" Du Lingyu murmured, "Or... something else."