In another timeline, Du Lingyu is the sole survivor; everyone else is dead.
The other twelve people are all gone.
This helpless, deadly despair leaves everyone speechless.
"Let's continue discussing this image," Mu Yiran's voice was somewhat cold, but those who knew him could tell that this coldness was used to mask his grief. "Regarding the negative space Shao Ling mentioned, it's clearly present in this image as well, filling the area around the photograph, and its content is rather strange."
"Yes," Shao Ling tried to recover from his earlier sadness, "Negative space should be blank or gradually darkening, but the negative space in this photo is black with white spots, somewhat like snowflakes falling at night, but not quite."
Zhu Haowen joined the discussion: "I think the camera is a key tool in this world, probably related to Bi Di's identity as a photographer. We already know that cameras can capture past and future scenes through shutter speed, which is a temporal depth. So is it possible that the camera lens angle can capture spatial expansion? Can a wide-angle lens like this capture scenes beyond the light and shadow?"
This idea was novel, and everyone nodded in agreement. Shao Ling further said, "If that's the case, I think that given the extent to which this picture uses a wide-angle lens, it may have captured more than just the world outside the light and shadow."
"My God, did it capture the world outside the painting?!" Luo Yu exclaimed in surprise.
"Not quite," Shao Ling said hastily. "I've been thinking about the composition of the Four Brigades and what the world outside them is like. Through the words in that book, 'Wu Ze,' and the paintings by Shi Xun and Wei Dong, I think the Four Brigades should be arranged in a ring, which also corresponds to the saying 'circling the brigades for me.'"
Wei Dong frowned and listened for a long time: "You mean to say that the Earth Egg is like a big egg, and the Four Brigades are like a waistline tied to the Earth Egg?"
"Yes, you expressed it very accurately." Shao Ling nodded.
"I think the Four Brigades aren't attached to the Earth Egg, but rather encircle it from within," Zhu Haowen said this time. "The opening of the *Wu Ze* says: 'The Earth Egg is contained within the earth, and within it there is also light and time.' I think the people in the Four Brigades live within the Earth Egg, still distributed in a banded pattern, but not like we live on the surface of the Earth, but inside the Earth Egg."
"I can't think straight anymore. What do you guys suggest we do next?" Luo Jin looked at the lit incense. "The lights will be out in a little over two hours. We need to hurry."
"Besides the funeral procession, I'll have Ke Xun and the others go to the shops according to the shopping list in the package. Hopefully, they'll find something," Mu Yiran said, taking out another roll of film. "Now let's look at the photos from Xi Shengnan's camera."
Luo Jin took the film and did a simple projector setup. "It seems Xi Shengnan didn't take any photos. Her camera shouldn't have any pictures of this world."
"Perhaps Xi Shengnan from another timeline took these photos. We still don't know who took those pictures of the white fish." Wei Dong, not one for idle chatter, quickly loaded the film, ready to "project" it.
"Right, right, we have a lot of work to do. We'll have to enlarge those white fish pictures later." Luo Jin quickly got into character, focusing intently on cooperating with Wei Dong.
One by one, Xi Shengnan's photos flashed on the screen. His shooting style was completely different from Mai Peng's; Xi Shengnan seemed to prefer macro photography of still life, or narrative-style portraits and street scenes, occasionally shooting animals and food.
When the old station art museum appeared in the photos, Wei Dong and Luo Jin slowed down simultaneously. This familiar art museum, like a repressive dream from which they couldn't wake, pulled them back into the darkness.
"Do you think we're still in the old station art museum?" Luo Jin suddenly asked.
"If we're still inside the painting," Qin Ci chimed in, "the painting 'The Journey' is displayed in an art museum, so broadly speaking, we're still inside the Old Station Art Museum."
"Well, this question is just as profound and difficult to answer as the questions surrounding our current timelines." Luo Yu shook his head and continued showing the next image.
Xi Shengnan seemed to be a photographer passionate about documenting life; she even photographed the museum's lobby, and even took a profile shot of the old man at the gate, his seemingly ordinary expression conveying a sense of pathos.
After that, she casually snapped photos of the various exhibition halls, quickly revealing the familiar hall and the familiar door.
Behind the door was another section of the exhibition, separated from the main hall—an exhibition of Bi Di's photographic works.
The subsequent photos were indeed of Bi Di's exhibition. Xi Shengnan didn't specifically focus on any particular works, but rather created a comfortable atmosphere with the layout of the exhibition hall and the light from the windows, giving this future photography exhibition a golden hue from the eyes of those looking up to it.
"Stop!" several people said in unison.
Wei Dong and Luo Jin also stopped what they were doing, pausing the slowly moving negative on the screen.
The image was of a display stand in the exhibition hall, where a row of photographs created a sense of depth, with Bi Di's photos arranged from near to far.
Everyone's attention was focused on the third work from the left—although the image was small and not very clear due to the focus deviation, it didn't prevent everyone from recognizing it immediately—"The Journey," this was indeed the image of "The Journey."
"My God, I have a sense of temporal displacement. Are we looking at this painting inside this painting now?" Luo Jin shook his head, feeling utterly incredulous.
The others silently observed the painting, feeling a sense of familiarity that would be recognized even if it were reduced to ashes, yet also a sense of alienation and unfamiliarity from not seeing it for so long.
"I feel like this circle suddenly has a special meaning," Wei Dong said. "Don't you guys think this circle looks like a camera lens? We're all actually in Bi Di's lens."
"That makes sense. No wonder cameras are given such a special meaning in this world," Qin Ci stared intently at the circle in the photo and the houses inside it. "Now it seems that this circle might be a ring, and Ni Lü exists within that ring."
"And there's the timeline," Shao Ling added. "When we first entered the picture, our own timeline connected with another timeline, which probably formed a circle."
"The signature is outside the ring," Fang Fei also spoke up, with a startling implication. "We're inside the ring, and the signature is outside. We can only find the signature by going outside."
Everyone fell silent, sometimes thinking it was a rare breakthrough, sometimes thinking that reaching outside the ring was almost impossible—it wasn't just a matter of geographical distance; outside the ring seemed to be another universe.
"Look, there seems to be something on the right side of the ring," Mu Yiran said.
Everyone squinted at the right side of the ring. Because the signature is on the left side of the circle, the right side is often overlooked. Now, it appears to have some disordered lines, but they are very blurry due to the light color.
"I remember these things," Fang Fei said. "Before we started painting, I focused on the pencil drawing, which is the circle and the area outside it. On the left is the author's signature and date, and in the upper right corner are some very light pencil lines. I thought at the time that it was caused by the image not being processed cleanly."
"Yes, these lines are too random, they don't seem to have any special meaning," Wei Dong said.
Mu Yiran looked at Fang Fei: "What did you see in the lines? Can you draw them simply?"
"I'll try," Fang Fei went to the table, picked up the paper and pen Mu Yiran had prepared, and after carefully recalling, drew a few lines: "I forget if there was one or two lines on the left, but they were slightly curved. I remember the right side very clearly, the two lines intersected, like a cross. —But one thing is certain, these lines were very light and had been erased, so I thought they were just extra lines from the drawing and didn't pay attention to them."
"I think this circle can be erased because it's a pencil, it can be erased." If it were any other time, Shao Ling would have thought he was trying to tell a joke, but at this moment he was extremely serious. "The pencil parts of this drawing can actually be erased."
"Including the artist's signature," Zhu Haowen said.
"Oh my god, that's terrible! If the signature is gone, we're really doomed." Luo Yiran was scared by everyone's comments.
"Look closely at this pattern," Mu Yiran showed everyone the drawing Fang Fei had just made. "Please use your imagination. What do you think it looks like?"
"A few strands of hair…" Luo Yi said.
"Unfinished clouds?" Qin Ci said.
"Traces of wind?" Wei Dong said.
No one else spoke. They couldn't really tell what it looked like from just a few abstract lines.
Mu Yiran drew a similar pattern with his own brush, keeping the cross on the right and only keeping one curved line on the left: "How about this? What does it look like?"
Everyone frowned and looked at it for a long time, finally giving up guessing.
"A light bulb," Zhu Haowen suddenly said. "It looks a lot like the light bulbs we drew when learning about circuits in high school physics class."
After Zhu Haowen said that, everyone thought it looked somewhat similar, except that when drawing circuits, a complete circle would be used to enclose the cross, while this one was drawn more casually.
Mu Yiran nodded: "I also think it's a light bulb, or more accurately, a representation of a light source. A photographer would consider the position of the light source when composing a shot, so Bi Di specifically drew it out. But since it was just a draft to remind himself, he probably erased it later for the sake of the overall composition."
"If it's a light source, why didn't he just draw a sun?" Wei Dong said.
"I think if this painting were a photograph, it probably couldn't be taken directly in nature," Mu Yiran said. "So, since the artist couldn't use sunlight, he had to create an artificial scene and choose artificial light."
"But that's not right," Qin Ci said. "Whether it's the sun or a lamp, it's still a light source, but why is the shadow of the house in the circle opposite to the light source? That's not normal."
The upper right of the circle is the light source, but the shadow of the house in the circle is located in the lower right, which is indeed illogical.
"If the sun is on the right, the shadow of the house should be on the left!" Luo Yu also noticed the problem.
"That's probably why time is so disordered in this world. The light and shadow here are completely wrong," Mu Yiran said. "Light and shadow can also be understood as time."
The time in this world is so chaotic, with more than one timeline. This is not accidental, but rather the painter's original intention.
It seems the painter wanted to create a photographic work like this, a work with distorted light, an impossible creation.
"So? How do we get out? The signature is outside the circle," Luo Yi said anxiously.
"We can get out because the shape of the earth egg is similar to that stone ocarina, and it also has an outlet like a blowhole. We can go out through the outlet," Fang Fei's voice rang out behind everyone.
Everyone felt that something was wrong with Fang Fei's words at this moment, and they all turned around in surprise, only to realize that Fang Fei had put on her mask at some point!
That snow-white mask that belonged to a witch.
When Fang Fei put on this mask, it was as if she had instantly changed her identity. Although Fang Fei's facial expressions were not usually rich, this mask made her lines cold and hard, even somewhat sacred.
Wei Dong tentatively asked Fang Fei, "Are you Fang Fei now, or Master Wu?"
Fang Fei's snow-white face faced Wei Dong: "Whoever I am, we will always be partners. Our goal is to get the autograph and leave. I'm just using this mask to see things that are invisible to the naked eye."
"What did you see?"
"The inside of the earth egg, and the space we are in."