Almost no one could believe that the seemingly timid Lu Heng would dare to secretly photograph a corpse under such dangerous circumstances.
"Holy crap, you mean, you secretly photographed the dead person right in front of that Master Wu?" Wei Dong couldn't tell whether Lu Heng was cowardly or audacious, and he had been standing next to Lu Heng the whole time without noticing him secretly using a camera.
Lu Heng's voice was still mumbled: "Master Wu hadn't arrived yet, the crowd was chaotic, I didn't even raise the camera, I didn't dare look through the viewfinder, I just pointed it in the direction where Xia Yu was lying and pressed the shutter. —And my hand was shaking at the time, I don't know if I could handle such a slow shutter speed."
"What shutter speed?" Wei Dong didn't understand, and Ke Xun and Fang Fei were also confused.
"It's…it's the shutter speed," Lu Heng said, increasingly apprehensive. He wondered if his act of secretly photographing the deceased violated some rule of this world. "I used a very slow shutter speed, 1/16 of a second, which is already well past the safe shutter speed limit. At that speed, a tripod should have been used, and my hands were trembling. The result might have been a blurry mess."
"Oh…" Wei Dong felt a sense of relief for some reason, as if failing to photograph anything was a comforting thing.
"Why did you think of photographing her?" Ke Xun asked.
The four of them slowly walked upstairs, occasionally encountering a pedestrian or two, at which point they would tacitly remain silent.
Hearing Ke Xun's question, Lu Heng seemed to find direction again amidst his confusion, and his voice became more firm: "I just wanted to take those pictures to show Sheng Nan, after all, it's her most cherished work, in case she wants to see it after it's published..." Lu Heng's eyes became hazy again, and he scratched his hair, "I must have been crazy, actually taking pictures of the female lead's corpse to show the author, who knows what I was thinking..."
"You just didn't want her to have any regrets." Fang Fei suddenly said.
"Yes, I don't want her to have any regrets in anything." Lu Heng murmured to himself, then nodded.
Ke Xun continued to ask: "What is the safe shutter speed you mentioned earlier, and what about 1/16 second? Why is the picture blurry?"
None of the three of them understood the photography-related questions Lu Heng had just asked, but now they all understood Ke Xun's intention. If Lu Heng managed to take a clear picture, it might become a useful clue.
"Speed is the click sound when we press the camera shutter, which is also the process of the camera performing exposure. If the speed is too slow, the shaking caused by holding the camera will affect the effect of the photo. 1/60 to 1/30 of a second can be said to be the limit of the safe shutter speed for handheld shooting. It is generally more stable to use a tripod to fix it, let alone the 1/16 of a second that I just used." Although Lu Heng was nervous and timid, he spoke fluently about these professional knowledge.
Although Wei Dong couldn't understand why dividing seconds into several parts would be called slow motion, he still asked, "Then why shoot at such a slow speed? You know your hands will shake when you're nervous."
"Because in that situation, the corpse was absolutely still, while the people around it were moving. If you shoot at a slow speed, the ideal effect would be: the people around them would appear ethereal, while only the corpse would be still and clear," Lu Heng answered seriously. "But it was impossible to take an ideal photo in that situation. I just pointed the lens in that direction, I didn't even have a chance to look through the viewfinder, and my hands were shaking. —It's better if it doesn't turn out well, Sheng Nan definitely wouldn't want to see Xia Yu's corpse."
At this moment, everyone had unknowingly reached the ninth floor. Ke Xun stopped at the corner of the stairs and asked again, "Does this kind of camera require film to be developed to see the photo effect?"
"Yes, this isn't a digital camera. You can only see the photo after it's developed," Lu Heng said, seemingly forgetting the danger around him for the time being, and said with slight excitement, "I think this kind of delay is the greatest charm of photography."
"..."
"I feel that the story of Xia Yu should have taken place in ancient times, and the era of this building and these people is also blurred," Fang Fei said, expressing her thoughts. "I can't believe that there would be a film developing shop in a building like this."
"What's outside the building? Maybe there is." Wei Dong regretted his words as soon as he finished speaking. According to the usual rules, this city gate should be the area defined by this painting, and no one could go out.
"Woof woof—" Luo Yu and the dog appeared at the door of the room.
Wei Dong: "I never expected that Xin Chun would be the first to greet us."
Luo Cheng said dismissively, still holding the dog in his arms: "I don't know why Xin Chun doesn't bark. Even my brother-in-law finds it strange. It should be able to hear and make some sounds, so it shouldn't be mute." "
A dog turned from a motion-sensing car is lucky if it can whimper a couple of times," Wei Dong said. "If I had known, I would have brought in my old toy car from when I was a kid. At least it could shout 'Please be careful when reversing' a couple of times."
"Don't compare your 'Please be careful when reversing' to my Xin Chun. It's unique." When Luo Cheng and Wei Dong returned to the room, all 13 people were already there.
The room was very spacious, about 100 square meters by my estimation. The beds were actually large communal beds. Du Lingyu said to Fang Fei: "The girls' quarters are over there by the screen. It's already good that they can be separated like this."
Fang Fei nodded. This was much better than when everyone was crammed together in the cabin.
"This building is huge. We've been wandering around for ages and still haven't gotten out of this courtyard. Finding the autograph is like looking for a needle in a haystack." Cao Youning sat on a wooden stool, somewhat dejected.
"What have you all found out about the origins of this building?" Shao Ling, who had been searching for clues in the room, turned to the members returning from outside.
"Lantern Journey." Ke Xun felt a voice ring out along with his own, and turned to see Zhu Haowen.
Zhu Haowen fell silent, sitting quietly in a chair by the wooden table.
"We didn't actively inquire earlier. We heard the name Lantern Journey from those people. Besides Lantern Journey, there's also Fluorite Journey." Ke Xun continued, "If Lantern Journey is all about lanterns, Fluorite Journey seems to be completely dark."
Mu Yiran nodded, turning his gaze to another group.
Qin Ci, as their representative, said, "We tried to inquire discreetly. What we can confirm now is that our Lantern Journey is a giant hotel, which the locals call the Reverse Journey."
The Reverse Journey finally intersected with the name of the painting.
Du Lingyu was very surprised: "Inn? Hotel? Why are there such big hotels? And so many people?"
Qin Ci nodded: "If I'm not mistaken, this world is divided into inns because the outdoor environment is very harsh, so people need to live in large groups."
"But once people settle down, it's like having a home, so why call these places inns? Hotels aren't homes." Luo Yi couldn't understand for a moment, only remembering that in the TV dramas he watched as a child, wives always complained to their husbands: You treat our home like a hotel.
"We haven't found out about that yet," Qin Ci smiled apologetically, "Besides the Lamp Inn, Xiao Ke found out about a Fluorite Inn, and we also heard about a place called the Cold Night Inn. These giant hotels are like small countries, without a clear ruling class. Everyone seems to trust the wizards very much, calling them Master Wizards."
Mu Yiran nodded slightly and got up to open the large wooden cabinet against the wall in the room. Inside were all sorts of packages, 13 in total.
"I apologize to everyone here. We just opened and checked all these packages," Shao Ling said.
People felt there was no need to apologize, since these things didn't truly belong to them; they were merely props temporarily assigned to each person by this world.
"Aren't the contents of these packages different?" Mai Peng asked. "How do we determine who these packages belong to?"
"Are we going to have to choose our packages this time too?" Wei Dong couldn't help but think of the painting *Pure Land*, where each person indirectly determined their fate by choosing a prop.
"No, these packages have each person's mark," Shao Ling replied. "Some are explicit marks, like this earthen-red cloth bag, which has the character for 'rain' engraved on the back of a diamond-shaped mirror inside. We believe it belongs to Du Lingyu; some marks are suggestive, like my package, which contains a small xun (a type of ancient Chinese wind instrument). I learned to play the xun with a teacher when I was young, so that package should be mine."
Everyone was very curious, wondering what attributes their own package would "encompass".
"Of course, there are also some packages we can't identify, which you'll have to check yourselves." Shao Ling distributed the packages with assigned owners to the group, leaving the unclaimed ones on the wooden table.
Wei Dong held his own coarse cloth package: "I'm just wondering, how did you know this was mine... Oh, this is mine."
Wei Dong held a thin notebook filled with various drawings, mostly sketches, including portraits, landscapes, and some funny pictures.
Luo Yi peeked at the cover and couldn't help but chuckle: "Brother Dong, you drew yourself so handsome!"
"I barely captured one-tenth of my spirit," Wei Dong joked shamelessly, then looked more closely at the drawing of himself on the cover, which read: "Wei Family Art Collection of the Light Brigade.
" "Looks like we're from the Light Brigade?" Wei Dong continued flipping through the album, hoping to find some more clues.
"We are indeed from the Lightbringer Brigade. In our shared luggage, we found something like a travel document, which records our itinerary." Mu Yiran said, opening the "travel document" that was on the table. "It's a record of nearly ten years. We've traveled to various inns, sometimes for as long as half a year, sometimes for only ten days."
"Why did we leave the Lightbringer Brigade and go to so many places?" Wei Dong had already put himself in the shoes of someone from the Lightbringer Brigade.
"We should be a spice caravan. We have a lot of spices in our large luggage." Mu Yiran gave his guess, while opening a dark brown package beside him. "I'm very curious to know who the owner of this package is."
The dark brown package was opened, revealing a snow-white mask inside.