Paintings of Terror

Chapter 239: Timeline

Wei Dong wiped his eyes, but his vision was blurry again: “Fuck this painting! Fuck it!”

He felt a distinct pull on the film in his hand. It was Luo Bu reminding him to push in the film.

Wei Dong’s reaction was somewhat numb, but he heard Ke Xun saying, “Next one.”

Indeed, whether it was the past or the future, no one could determine for certain that what the camera captured was inevitable.

History was full of randomness, and no one knew what would happen in the future. Crying and lamenting at this moment served no purpose. Wei Dong loosened his grip on the film, and the second image appeared on the screen.

Thirteen pairs of eyes, including Koharu’s, looked towards the screen and half of them were moist.

The second negative had bright colors, indicating that it was taken at night.

There seemed to be many people sleeping on the bed. It was a peaceful photo.

Mu Yiran stepped forward and focused on a small black dot in the corner of the photo. “Next one.”

The next photo was still taken at night, with everyone sleeping on the bed. It looked not much different from the previous one.

Mu Yiran continued to gaze at the same top left corner of the photo, on that small black dot. “Go back to the previous one.”

It switched back to the previous photo and everyone instinctively started to look for the differences between the two seemingly identical photos.

“There’s one person missing here!” Du Lingyu took two steps forward, feeling a bit scared. Only when she felt that Ke Xun was standing next to her, she lowered her slightly swollen eyes and stepped up, pointing to the bottom right of the photo. “In this part of the second photo, there’s one person missing.”

The beds were dark, and the figures on the beds were also quite dark, making it impossible to tell who was who or even the exact number of people. Although the negative represented darkness with white colors, a large area of white also made it indiscernible.

As the two photos kept switching on the screen, everyone followed Du Lingyu’s guidance and noticed the difference in the bottom right corner of the photos. The first photo showed a bed full of people, while in the second photo, near the edge of it, there was an empty spot where a person should have been.

“Who is that person?” Cao Youning asked. “Shall we count the number of people?”

It was hard to tell how many people there were. Everyone was sleeping together in large cotton robes, making it difficult to see the exact number of people.

However, Wei Dong felt slightly relieved. Because based on people’s habits, they would tend to sleep in the same spot they did on the first night. According to last night’s arrangement, Mu Yiran was sleeping at the edge of the bed, with Ke Xun next to Mu Yiran, and himself next to Ke Xun. Though it was hard to determine an exact headcount, it was certain that at least seven or eight people were captured in the photo.

In other words, Mu Yiran was safe, Ke Xun was safe, Wei Dong was safe, Luo Bu was safe, Zhu Haowen was safe, Qin Ci was safe… and yes, Ke Xun was safe.

Wei Dong admitted that he was selfish, but at this moment, he truly cared about the safety of the older members more.

As a girl, Fang Fei was sleeping on the other end of the bed and couldn’t have been captured in the photo.

“Why do I feel like that person is you?” Cao Youning looked at Lu Heng.

“Why?” Ever since Xi Shengnan left, Lu Heng seemed to be less timid, although he was mostly in a state of absent-mindedness.

“Because I slept next to you last night.” Cao Youning pointed to the bottom right corner of the display. “Look, that slightly larger figure, that should be me. There’s a bit of distance between me and the person in front, which was Mai Peng.”

“Why is there some distance?” Mai Peng asked. It was cold in the Lantern Inn, everyone naturally huddled together to keep warm in bed.

“I, I was afraid I might catch a cold from you.”

“Alright.”

“So that person must be me, and on the other side is Lu Heng. But Lu Heng is missing in the second photo!” Cao Youning exclaimed.

Many people’s attention focused on Lu Heng, wondering where he could have gone in the late night.

Even Lu Heng himself didn’t know, his eyes innocent and helpless.

“Did anyone get up during the night?” Zhu Haowen asked.

There was no response. Only Cao Youning thought for a moment and said, “I was too tired last night and fell into a deep and long sleep.”

Du Lingyu added, “I actually thought about going to the bathroom last night, but I didn’t dare. Eventually, I dozed off.”

“When was this captured?” Qin Ci asked.

“The first photo was taken at 1/1000 second, so it’s probably about three or four hours later. The second photo was taken at 1/2000 second, possibly four or eight hours later,” Mai Peng said. “Actually, we still haven’t fully figured out the pattern.”

Mu Yiran’s furrowed brows gradually relaxed. “Let’s see the next one, the photo taken at 1/4000 second.”

The image on the screen moved to the next one. The photo was still whitish, with a gray tinge. It appeared to be nighttime, but the bed was empty, except for a single figure sitting on it!

Luo Bu almost screamed out, “What’s going on? Where are the people? Where did they go? It’s still nighttime! Who is that person sitting on the bed!”

Zhu Haowen added, “And there’s someone lying near the edge.”

“W-What? Lying near the edge…” Luo Bu looked towards the edge of the photo. There really was a person lying there, but because only half of the person was captured, it was not easy to notice. “Oh my god! This is too creepy. Could it be that everyone gathered to sleep on the other side…”

For a moment, everyone panicked and tried to identify who it was by examining the sitting figure. However, the photo was blurry, and they could only tell it was a man, seemingly not too tall.

Ke Xun quietly approached Mu Yiran’s side: “Are you looking at that incense stick?”

Mu Yiran turned his head to look at Ke Xun but didn’t speak.

But Ke Xun saw a very complex emotion in his eyes, a mix of happiness from finding something lost and sorrowness from groundless worries. These were not expressions that should belong to Mu Yiran.

“Let’s think of a way to get out quickly, everything else is just paper tiger~” Ke Xun tightened his fist and lightly tapped Mu Yiran’s clenched fist, “Big boss, win with the power of your brain.”

Mu Yiran’s eyes flickered. He addressed everyone with seriousness: “One thing we can be sure of, the camera’s shutter speed increases time exponentially. The three photos just now depict night scenes, but at different times, and even different timelines.”

“Timelines?” A lot of people asked.

“Although there is no concrete evidence, I believe there is more than one timeline in this world.” Mu Yiran said.

“You mean, parallel universe?” Shao Ling asked.

“No, a parallel universe is a space-time that has no intersection with our time-space. But by comparing and observing these three photos, I believe the other timeline can be connected with our current timeline, but for now, I can’t find the point of connection.”

Mu Yiran looked at the bewildered crowd and continued: “Everyone, please take a closer look at the black dot in the upper left corner of the photos. That is an incense stick I placed in the corner of the room. The red ember of the incense stick is quite discernible in the darkness.”

All eyes focused on the incense stick in the photo.

“Just as Mai Peng said earlier, the three photos were taken at shutter speeds of 1/1000 second, 1/2000 second, and 1/4000 second, respectively. By observing the length of the incense stick, we can deduce that the scene captured at 1/1000 second happened four hours later. It appears that that time is increasing exponentially at each interval. Following this pattern, the photo taken at 1/2000 second should depict a scene of eight hours later, and judging from the incense, it seems accurate.”

Luo Bu frowned, “If we follow this pattern, then the photo taken at 1/4000 second should be sixteen hours later?”

“In theory, that should be the case,” Mu Yiran’s gaze rested on the photo taken at 1/4000 second, “but strangely, the position of the burning incense in this photo hasn’t changed compared to the previous one.”

Silence filled the air.

“Wait, I don’t get it.” Wei Dong carefully pondered Mu Yiran’s words, “Are you suggesting that time has stopped?”

“Time has stopped in our world. Everyone in the Lantern Inn has entered an irresistible state of sleep,” Mu Yiran slowly spoke out his speculation, “Even people’s breathing in their dreams has stopped. This pause in time, if I’m not mistaken, should be twelve hours.”

“Why? Why?” Luo Luo was completely dumbfounded. “You need to explain it in detail. I don’t understand at all.”

Mu Yiran stood beside the screen, facing everyone. “Let’s temporarily set aside the assumptions we had yesterday about time, because the time we entered the painting and the time within the painting are not necessarily connected. To help everyone understand better, let’s assume that the time when lanterns are lit is at zero o’clock.”

“Zero o’clock is a starting point, and it is also the time when we just arrived at the Lantern Inn.”

Right, the lanterns were lit not long after everyone entered the painting.

Mu Yiran carried on, “The lanterns are lit at zero o’clock and the lights will last for four hours. After that, it’s a long time of darkness. In other words, lights go off at 4:00, but everyone can still maintain consciousness in the dark after the lights-off, just like we are now. However, several hours later, we will involuntarily enter a state of deep sleep. This time should be 12:00.”

“Using the three photos as an example, Mai Peng took them approximately one and a half hours before the light went out, which is one and a half hours before 4:00, so around 2:30. The first photo depicted an event of four hours later, at 6:30, when we were already lying in our beds. Though it’s uncertain if we had fallen asleep. The second photo showed an event eight hours later, at 10:30, when someone had left for an unknown purpose. However, because the incense was still burning, it remained within our current timeline.”

“The third photo captured an event sixteen hours later, at 18:30. At that time, the incense stopped burning and stuck at around 12:00. This means that from 12:00 to 18:30, time in this world becomes frozen. Even though time is passing, we cannot detect it with any timekeeping device, except for the camera. Therefore, I consider the timeline beyond 12:00 as another separate timeline.”

“On this other timeline, there still exists an ‘us.’ Perhaps after we ‘fall asleep’, we transform into ‘them.’ Or perhaps ‘they’ exist within the dreams that come after our deep slumber.”

“’They’ have the same personalities and feelings as us, and perhaps they even have the same purpose as us, which is to find the signature and get out of this place.”

“However, the situation for ‘them’ is clearly not favorable. Only one person is left alone in the room during the night. This is a rare occurrence, and it’s unlikely that everyone left one person behind to keep watch. Instead, it seems more like… there is only one person left in the team.”

Those words made everyone hold their breath. Fang Fei spoke after a while: “There is another companion sleeping next to them.”

“That person is already dead, or rather, it can be said that the person had not died at that time,” Mu Yiran sighed softly, “There are black threads in that person’s hairpin, which are actually the light patterns of jade in reality. If I’m not mistaken, that person is Xi Shengnan.”

“Xi Shengnan, who is still alive.”