Wei Dong rubbed his eyes, but they remained blurry again. "To hell with the painting! To hell with the painting!"
He felt a noticeable pull on the film in his hand; Luo Yi was reminding him to feed it.
Wei Dong's reaction was somewhat numb, but he heard Ke Xun say, "Next."
Yes, whether in the past or the future, no one can be certain that what a camera captures is inevitable.
History is formed by chance, and no one can predict the future. What's the use of crying and wailing now? Wei Dong loosened his grip on the film, and the second image appeared on the screen.
Thirteen pairs of eyes (including Xin Chun's) looked at the screen, half of them moist.
The second negative was bright, clearly capturing nighttime.
Many people seemed to be sleeping on the beds; it was a quiet photograph.
Mu Yiran stepped forward, staring intently at a small black dot in the corner of the image: "Next."
The next image was also nighttime, with everyone sleeping on the beds, seemingly no different from the previous one.
Mu Yiran continued to stare intently at the same black dot in the upper left corner of the image: "Go back to the previous one."
The image returned to the previous one, and everyone subconsciously began to look for differences between the two seemingly identical photos.
"There's one person missing here!" Du Lingyu took two steps forward, feeling a little scared, as if Ke Xun was standing right next to her. She lowered her slightly red and swollen eyes, stepped forward, and pointed to the lower right corner of the image, "In the second image, there's one person missing here."
The bed was dark, and the figures on the bed were also indistinct, making it impossible to distinguish who was who, or even how many people were in the picture. —Although negatives use inverted white to represent darkness, a large expanse of white makes it even more difficult to distinguish anything.
The two images on the screen kept switching, and following Du Lingyu's guidance, everyone noticed the difference in the lower right corner of the images—the first image showed a bed full of people, while the second image had an empty space near the edge, enough for one person.
"Who's that?" Cao Youning asked. "Should we count the people from that end?"
It was hard to tell exactly how many people there were; everyone was sleeping together in loose cotton robes, making it difficult to say the exact number.
But Wei Dong felt a little relieved because, according to habit, people usually sleep in the same spot the first night. Following last night's arrangement, Mu Yiran was sleeping on the far end, Ke Xun next to Mu Yiran, and he was next to Ke Xun—although it was difficult to determine the exact number from the picture, it was certain that at least seven or eight people were photographed.
That meant Mu Yiran was safe, Ke Xun was safe, Wei Dong was safe, Luo Yi was safe, Zhu Haowen was safe, Qin Ci was safe… Ke Xun was safe.
Wei Dong admitted to being selfish, but at this moment he was truly more concerned about the safety of the veteran members.
Fang Fei, being a girl, was on the other end of the bed and couldn't possibly have been photographed.
"Why do I feel like that person is you?" Cao Youning looked at Lu Heng.
"Why?" Since Xi Shengnan left, Lu Heng's cowardice seemed to have lessened considerably, though he was often lost in thought.
"Because I slept next to you last night." Cao Youning pointed to the lower right of the screen. "Look, that slightly larger figure, that should be me. I'm a little distance away from the person in front of me; that's Mai Peng."
"Why is there a distance?" Mai Peng asked—it was cold in the dormitory, and everyone instinctively huddled together to keep warm.
"I... I was afraid you'd give me your cold."
"Okay."
"So that person is me, and Lu Heng is on my other side, but the Lu Heng in the second picture is gone!" Cao Youning said.
Many eyes were fixed on Lu Heng, wondering where he could have gone in the middle of the night.
Lu Heng himself didn't know either, his eyes innocent and helpless.
Zhu Haowen asked, "Did anyone get up in the middle of the night last night?"
No one answered, only Cao Youning thought for a moment and said, "I was too tired last night, so I lay down and slept for a long time."
Du Lingyu said, "Actually, I wanted to go last night, but I didn't dare, so I just drifted off to sleep."
"What time period are these photos of?" Qin Ci asked.
"The first one is 1/1000 of a second, so it might have been taken 3 or 4 hours later. The second one is 1/2000 of a second, so it might have been taken 4 or 8 hours later," Mai Peng said. "Actually, we still don't fully understand this pattern."
Mu Yiran's brows gradually relaxed: "Look at the next one, the one at 1/4000 of a second."
The image on the screen moved to the next one. The image was still white, with a grayish tinge, and it looked like it was still night. The bed was empty, except for a figure sitting on it!
Luo Jin almost cried out in alarm: "What's going on?! Where are everyone? It's still night! Who's that person sitting on the bed?!"
Zhu Haowen: "And the person lying next to him."
"Wh-what? Lying next to him..." Luo Jin looked at the area very close to the edge of the photo, where there really was a person lying. Because only half of the photo was taken, it wasn't noticeable unless you looked closely. "My God, this is so weird! Could it be that everyone has moved to the other side to sleep...?"
In an instant, everyone became anxious, trying to identify who it was by looking at the sitting figure. However, the photo was blurry, and they could only make out that it was a man, who didn't seem to be very tall.
Ke Xun quietly approached Mu Yiran: "Are you looking at that incense stick?"
Mu Yiran turned to look at Ke Xun, not speaking for a moment.
Ke Xun, however, saw a very complex emotion in the other's eyes, a mixture of the joy of something lost and found, and the sorrow of needless worry. This was never an expression that should belong to Mu Yiran.
"Get out of here quickly, everyone else is just a paper tiger~" Ke Xun clenched his fist and gently punched Mu Yiran's equally clenched fist. "Boss, please crush me with your intelligence."
Mu Yiran's eyes flickered, and he said seriously to everyone, "It should be confirmed that the increase in camera shutter speed multiplies time. The three photos just now all showed nighttime scenes, but they were at different time periods, even different timelines."
"Timeline?" Many people asked.
"Although there is no conclusive evidence, I believe that there is more than one timeline in this world," Mu Yiran said.
"You mean, parallel universes?" Shao Ling asked.
"No, a parallel universe is a spacetime that doesn't intersect with our own. But by comparing these three photos, I believe that the other timeline can be connected to our current timeline, although I can't find the connection point yet."
Mu Yiran looked at the bewildered crowd and continued, "Everyone can take a look at the black dot in the upper left corner of the picture. That's the incense stick I placed in the corner of the room. The red flame of the incense stick is very conspicuous in the dark."
Everyone's eyes were focused on the incense stick in the photo.
"As Mai Peng just mentioned, these three photos were taken at 1/1000 second, 1/2000 second, and 1/4000 second respectively. Judging from the position of the incense burner, the 1/1000 second photo depicts the scene four hours later. This shows that the progression of seconds should be exponential. Following this pattern, the 1/2000 second photo should depict eight hours later, which is indeed the case based on the burning point."
Luo Yi frowned and said, "If that's the case, then the 1/4000 second photo depicts something 16 hours later?"
"Logically, that should be the case," Mu Yiran's gaze lingered on the 1/4000 second image, "but strangely, the incense burner in this photo hasn't changed compared to the previous one."
A silence fell over the air.
"I didn't quite understand," Wei Dong pondered Mu Yiran's words. "Could it be that time has stopped?"
"Time stopped in our world. All the people in the Lantern Journey have entered an irresistible sleep," Mu Yiran slowly stated his conjecture. "Even their breathing is paused in their sleep. If I'm not mistaken, this pause lasts for 12 hours."
"Why? Why?" Luo Yiran was completely bewildered. "You have to explain in detail. I don't understand at all."
Mu Yiran stood beside the light screen, facing everyone: "Let's forget about yesterday's assumptions about time for now, because the time we entered the painting and the time within the painting are not necessarily related. To make it clearer for everyone, let's assume that the time the lanterns were lit was midnight.
"Midnight is a beginning, and it's also the time we just arrived in the Lantern Journey." "
Indeed, not long after everyone entered the painting, the lamplighter lit the lanterns.
" Mu Yiran continued, "The lights will be lit at midnight, and this light will last for four hours, after which there will be a long period of darkness. That is to say, the lights will be turned off at 4:00. After the lights are turned off, everyone will be able to stay awake in the darkness, just like we are now. But after a few hours, everyone will involuntarily enter a forced deep sleep state. This time should be 12:00."
"Taking the three future images I just showed as examples, Mai Peng took the photos about an hour and a half before the lights went out, that is, an hour and a half before 4:00, around 2:30. The first future image shows what happened 4 hours later, at 6:30, when everyone was already in bed, whether they were asleep or not is unknown; the second image shows what happened 8 hours later, at 10:30, when someone left, their purpose unknown, but because the incense burning was still continuing, it was still on our current timeline.
The third image shows what happened 16 hours later, at 18:30. At this point, the incense burning was frozen, remaining at approximately 12:00. This means that from 12:00 to 18:30, time in this world is frozen; even if it is flowing, we cannot detect it with any time-related instruments—except for a camera. Therefore, I tentatively designate the timeline after 12:00 as a separate one."
"Another 'us' exists on another timeline. Perhaps we transform into 'them' after we 'fall asleep,' or perhaps 'they' live in our dreams after we fall asleep.
'They' have the same personalities and emotions as us, and perhaps they also have the same goal: to find the signature and escape.
'However,' 'their' situation is clearly dire. It's rare to find someone alone at home in the dark. It's unlikely they left someone to guard the house; it's more like… this is the only one left in the team."
This sentence made everyone hold their breath. Fang Fei finally spoke after a long pause: "Next to him, there's another sleeping companion."
"That person is dead, or rather, that person wasn't dead at the time," Mu Yiran sighed softly. "That person's hairpin had black lines, which in reality are actually light patterns in jade. If I'm not mistaken, that person is Xi Shengnan.
'Xi Shengnan, still alive.'"