A black, round jar with a strangely shaped black lid tightly sealed it.
All eyes were on the jar. Luo Cheng reacted most strongly, clutching Xin Chun and backing away step by step, pressing his body firmly against the doorframe, ready to escape at any moment.
Xi Shengnan, however, showed no panic, only a hint of surprise.
Lu Heng, sitting beside him, was also unfazed, even reaching out to touch the jar.
The other new members also stood up and walked towards the black jar, their faces filled with disbelief, their eyes shining with an incomprehensible piety.
It was as if the black jar was a unique treasure.
Luo Cheng: "Holy crap, holy crap, the evil jar is starting to work its magic! Its first step is to lure the newcomers inside and turn them all into pus..."
Cao Youning stepped forward, patted the jar, hesitated slightly, then picked it up and weighed it in his hand.
Ke Xun whispered to Mu Yiran beside him, "Can you give this newbie a little crash course?"
Mu Yiran: "...I don't know either."
Ke Xun was taken aback. Besides not having watched the cartoon, Mu Yiran didn't recognize the black jar either. Of course, most of his companions didn't recognize it either.
"Can anyone tell me what's inside?" Wei Dong was also puzzled: the way Cao Youning was holding the jar reminded him of himself when he was starving and holding a bucket of freshly made instant noodles...
"We still don't know what's inside." Cao Youning said, shaking the jar. "It feels like there's something inside, it's a bit heavy."
"Holy crap, don't shake it like that! What if it explodes?!" Luo Yiran almost stormed out, and Xin Chun's eyes widened, her hair standing on end.
Seeing Cao Youning about to open the mysterious black lid, Luo Jin shouted at the top of his lungs, "Don't open it! Can you guarantee it's full of cheat codes?!"
Everyone: "..."
Perhaps Luo Jin's words reminded Lu Heng, who snatched the jar from Cao Youning's hand: "Don't open it! Is there a hidden pocket? Use the hidden pocket."
"Yes, yes, a hidden pocket!" Xi Shengnan continued to rummage through her package, and the new members also began to help her search.
Wei Dong's eyes widened: "Are you really photographers? Are you sure you're not gangster photographers? 'Hidden bag'? What kind of underworld term is that? Haowen, do you know it?"
Zhu Haowen's eyes were also wide: "..."
"Found it! The hidden bag!!" Du Lingyu found a stack of black cloth-like objects at the bottom of a pile of clothes. At first glance, it looked like a black garment, but when opened, it was a thick, strangely shaped black bag. Du Lingyu held the bag up to the lantern for a long time, "Double-layered, coated with glue, completely opaque!"
Hearing this, Mu Yiran's slightly furrowed brows gradually relaxed, as if he understood what these things were.
The newcomers put the black jars into the hidden bag, looked at each other, and finally handed everything over to Mai Peng.
Mai Peng rubbed his itchy nose from a cold, sealed the opening of the hidden bag, and reached inside with his hands to find two cuff-like objects on the bag.
Wei Dong: "Holy crap, could it get any weirder..."
"Should we turn off the lights?" Mu Yiran said.
Mai Peng paused. "It's safer if it's turned off."
Perhaps because of Mu Yiran's attitude, the older members, though not entirely convinced, cooperated by turning off the few lamps in the room. Luo Tan, who was standing at the door, obediently carried the dog in and closed the door. The room was plunged into darkness; once the curtains were drawn, it was almost completely black.
"Mai Peng, you're really brave," Luo Tan's voice trembled in the darkness. "In such a dark room, you dared to put your hand into the black bag and open the black ashes inside... oh no, the black jar..."
"Don't be afraid, we do this all the time. When we first entered the photography industry, these were the most basic tasks," Cao Youning comforted Luo Tan.
"The photography industry?" Several people asked.
"Yes, you people who don't work in photography don't know, that black jar is a standard developing tank, used for developing film," Cao Youning said.
"Huh?" Wei Dong was quite surprised. "A single tank can develop film?!"
Lu Heng's voice rang out as well: "Yes, it can. This is purely manual development. If you have experience, the results will be even better than what you get at a photo lab."
"I can't believe it..."
"Of course, besides the developing tank, we also need developing and fixing solutions. Hopefully, this world can provide us with these," Lu Heng said.
A rustling sound could be heard in the darkness, seemingly the sound of the tank being opened. Everyone fell silent because it was pitch black, and they couldn't judge the results from Mai Peng's expression.
Mai Peng's breathing was heavy, like someone with a severe cold: "Yes, there should be the things we need. There are powder packets, lots of powder packets."
Wei Dong's wandering thoughts started conjuring up images of instant noodles... were there sauce packets...?
"You mean, the developing and fixing powder packets?" Mu Yiran's voice rang out.
"I think so, and there are also some other essential things for developing film." There was another commotion from Mai Peng, as if she was checking the contents one by one.
Qin Ci didn't understand what was going on for a moment, and said in a low voice, "Since it's already confirmed to be a developing tank, why check what's inside in the dark? If it's something dangerous, wouldn't it be even more dangerous in the dark?"
Mu Yiran replied, "Developing tanks are used to develop film. If this tank already contains film, opening it will completely expose the film and ruin it."
"Oh, I see." Qin Ci's voice lowered, finding it hard to imagine what would be written on it if the tank already contained film...
"There's film! There really is!" Mai Peng's thick cold voice rang out.
Qin Ci instantly felt that his "one thought had come true."
"How much film?" Lu Heng asked cautiously.
"It's in a small paper envelope, it's been cut open, there should only be a few sheets," Mai Peng said.
Mu Yiran's voice rang out: "It's impossible to determine whether these rolls of film have been exposed, right?"
Mai Peng replied, "Theoretically, yes. You can't tell by touch alone without looking at them. However, these rolls have already been cut open. I think only developed film would be cut open."
Thinking about it, that made sense. But experience is one thing; what if the film inside the envelope was undeveloped? Exposing it to light would ruin it, destroying precious data.
"What should we do, brother-in-law?" Luo Yiran's voice rang out.
"Two options: one is to take out only a small sheet of film, so that if it's exposed, only that small sheet will be ruined; the other is to immediately find a red glass lampshade to set the room as a darkroom, minimizing the damage to the photos." Mu Yiran offered two solutions.
"I have a red lampshade here." Suddenly, a delicate voice rang out; it was Du Lingyu.
Everyone was startled. It seemed that Hua had prepared all the equipment for developing film for everyone.
Du Lingyu muttered to herself, "No wonder there was a red lampshade in my bag, wrapped in cloth. I thought it was too eerie to say anything earlier, so it's the red light in the darkroom."
Mai Peng's voice said, "I've sealed the darkroom bag. Everyone can light the lamps now."
A lamp quickly lit up; it was the gauze lamp next to Zhu Haowen. Du Lingyu walked over and handed him a round red glass dome...
The red light made everyone in the room look red, which was particularly eerie.
Mai Peng took out a small negative from the darkroom bag and first shone it on the red light: "It's already developed. The technique is really good. The indoor temperature here is only about 10 degrees Celsius. To be able to develop this level of film by hand under such cold conditions, it must be a very experienced craftsman."
Ke Xun and Wei Dong had already gathered around Mai Peng. Now, no one cared about the quality of the film; everyone was more concerned about what was on the film.
Wei Dong squinted at the red light for a long time: "I think these are just a few big black dots on a white background! What are these things?"
Zhu Haowen, who was closest to the red light, also squinted for a long time: "I think these should be white dots, not black dots."
"Haowen, are you blind?" Before Wei Dong could finish speaking, Mai Peng said: "He's right, that's how film negatives are. The colors are the opposite of the colors in the actual photograph. If it's black and white film, then the black on the film is the white in reality, and the white on the film is black—because they are completely opposite, the film after development is also called a negative."
"Oh, right, right," Wei Dong nodded, "It's a bit like the color inversion effect when processing images."
Ke Xun kept staring at the black dots on the film: "Mai Peng, are you sure this photo is very clear and the developing effect is also very good?"
Mai Peng nodded: "I think so, it's a pity the negative is too small, but we don't have professional equipment to develop and enlarge the photo."
"There's something grayish on these four black dots, it's really hard to tell what it is," Ke Xun's eyes never left the film. "But I think these four black dots are actually the shape of fish, a kind of fish similar to a flatfish."
Perhaps it was Ke Xun's reminder that made Mai Peng seem to realize something. He looked at the negative repeatedly and called over the other photographers to look at it together: "Lu Heng, don't you think these gray things look like water?"
Lu Heng looked for a long time, his voice a little heavy: "Judging from the texture and shape, it should be water, but if these are water, then the white background of the negative should also be water, which means…"
Du Lingyu's voice trembled a little: "This picture is so scary."
Although the other members did not have professional photography knowledge, through Mai Peng's explanation of the negative, they could somewhat imagine what the original photo looked like.
In the black water, four snow-white diamond-shaped fish were swimming.
The photographic conditions in this world are limited, it is impossible to complete the photography underwater, let alone capture the complete side profile of the four fish.
In other words, these four fish are lying flat on the water surface.
These are four snow-white dead fish.