Paintings of Terror

Chapter 235: Past, Present, Future.

Wei Dong’s roar startled everyone.

Everyone stared intently at the figure displayed, then turned their heads to compare it with the real Ke Xun, then stared at the display to ponder, and then turned to look at Ke Xun again…

After examining these negatives with Mu Yiran last night, Ke Xun was mentally prepared, but when he saw the big figure of himself on the wall, he still couldn’t adjust himself: “It’s too close. It makes me look a bit fat.”

Everyone: …

“This is completely messed up,” Cao Youning began pacing around the room. Every time he passed in front of the display, his enormous shadow would appear on it, as if trying to compare himself to Ke Xun on the wall in terms of height, weight, and strength. “The time is all messed up. They were clearly taken at the same time, so why some has people eating, some with no one around, and some with Ke Xun entering the room after the lights went off? The cat Ke Xun was holding is Koharu, right? And the cat next to the other window is also Koharu, right? What about the cat squatting next to them during the meal…”

“Dog.” Luo Bu couldn’t help but interject. “Koharu is a dog.”

“Oh, right, right.” Cao Youning stood in front of the display, and the image of Ke Xun’s shadow fell on his face, with the two dots that were Koharu’s eyes aligning perfectly with Cao Youning’s own eyes. “Anyway, it’s completely messed up. There’s no order to it at all!”

Mai Peng directly pulled his chubby companion away from the display and looked at the composed veteran members. “I think Mr. Mu probably already understands what’s going on.”

“Yeah, Mr. Mu, please tell us,” Ke Xun looked at Mu Yiran with expectant eyes.

Mu Yiran had already lit a lamp beside him, causing the images projected on the wall to instantly fade in the warm orange light. “There is indeed a pattern here, and it follows a very standard time pattern.”

At this moment, the expressions of the people varied. Some seemed to have figured out the answer, some seemed to have a partial understanding, and some had no clue at all.

.

Wei Dong and Luo Bu hadn’t fully grasped it yet. Wei Dong carefully put away the film and returned the projector to the communal cabinet.

All the lights in the room were lit on. Mu Yiran wrote down some numbers on a piece of paper: “According to the time we estimated yesterday, lunchtime was about 13:00. Lights-off was about 14:00. About an hour later, Mai Peng started taking pictures. Let’s assume it was 15:00.”

“Mai Peng took three photos at 15:00. The first photo shows half of an empty room with Koharu sitting by the window. We can’t estimate what point in time this was. The content of the second photo is very clear. It is the scene where we had lunch at 13:00. The third photo is when Ke Xun was about to enter the room after the lights went off at 14:00.”

“The shutter speed of the camera used in the second photo was 1/60 second, and the photo captured is of the scene at 13:00. The speed of the third photo was 1/30 second and captured the lights-off at 14:00. The first photo used the fastest speed, 1/250 second, and captured a scene we didn’t seem to have experienced before — Koharu sitting by itself by the window. Its eyes were bright, so it was obviously after the lights-off.”

Qin Ci couldn’t help but say, “That’s exactly what I don’t understand. If the photos taken at 1/60 second and 1/30 second both captured past events, with a one-hour delay between each point in time, then what did the photo taken at 1/250 second capture?”

Everyone looked at Mu Yiran with questioning eyes, but Mu Yiran’s gaze was directed towards the window. He then said to Koharu, “There was an animal in the photo just now that looked exactly like you, sitting by the window.”

Koharu seemed to understand and let out a series of “woo” sounds as it quickly dashed to the window, as if it wanted to expose the imposter dog.

Fang Fei gasped: “I remember now. There was indeed such a moment last night. When the film had just been developed and we had all gathered around the table looking at the film, Koharu was also startled when it saw this particular photo. It jumped from the table onto the bed and then ran to the window, as if trying to find that dog imitating it—just like how it’s acting now.”

Fang Fei wasn’t used to talking so much at once, and after finishing her explanation, she quickly fell silent again.

Upon Fang Fei’s reminder, most people recalled the scene from last night. Luo Bu suddenly realized, “No wonder the photo didn’t capture anyone on the bed because at that time, everyone was gathered around the table looking at the film. Only Koharu ran to the window! The camera unexpectedly captured that exact scene.”

“At that time, the film had already been developed, which means that the event occurred after taking the photos,” Shao Ling also figured out what happened. “After taking the photos, we immediately started preparing the developing tank to process the film. The whole process took at most an hour. If we took the photos at 15:00, then it should be around 16:00 when we gathered to look at the developed films.”

Wei Dong was amazed and said to Fang Fei, “I didn’t expect the camera to capture things that will happen in the future. It’s incredible.”

Fang Fei nodded. She didn’t intend to say much, but seeing Wei Dong looking at her, she continued, “Although it’s a bit messy, as long as we find the central point, we should be able to discover the pattern.”

“Right, right.” Wei Dong nodded and, together with Fang Fei, turned their expectant gaze once again to Mu Yiran.

Mu Yiran continued to live up to everyone’s expectations and said, “I’m not familiar with photography, but I speculate that there should be another point of speed between 1/250 second and 1/60 second in the camera’s shutter speed, and this point is likely to be a commonly used speed.”

Mai Peng picked up the conversation, “That’s right, it’s 1/125 second. This speed is often suitable for shooting people walking at a normal speed on a sunny day. It’s the most commonly used shutter speed, especially for beginners. They often set the shutter speed to 1/125 second because, unless they are taking special photos, this speed generally won’t go wrong.”

Mu Yiran wrote down ‘1/125 second’ on a piece of paper, “This speed should be the central point that Fang Fei mentioned earlier. If our guess is correct, the photos taken at this speed should represent the normal time and capture the immediate moments. Unfortunately, none of the four photos taken yesterday used this speed, which caused everyone to be confused.”

Shao Ling carefully looked at the values of shutter speed written by Mu Yiran on the paper, “So, if we take 1/125 second as the central point, when the speed is faster than this, it will capture future scenes at the same location. When the speed is slower than this, it will capture past events at that location.”

1/125 second was like the present continuous tense. Slower than this speed, it captured the past; faster than this speed, it captured the future.

Mai Peng looked at the camera hanging in front of him and found it hard to believe that such an ordinary camera had been endowed with such a magical power in this world.

Du Lingyu also gradually figured it out, “If we calculate based on yesterday’s photo-taking at 15:00, it means if Mai Peng had used a speed of 1/125 second to take the photo, it would have captured the scene at 15:00. However, Mai Peng chose 1/250 second, which pushed the time forward to 16:00, capturing the future scene where everyone was not in the frame because they were looking at the film. When Mai Peng chose 1/60 second, which is slower than the central point of 1/125 second, the time moved back one hour, capturing the scene when Ke Xun returned with the dog after lights-off at 14:00. As for 1/30 second, which is two steps slower than the central point, it pushed the time back by two hours, capturing the scene two hours before at 13:00, when everyone was having lunch.”

Du Lingyu, after finishing her analysis, looked somewhat uncertainly at Mu Yiran and said, “I don’t know if what I just said is right.”

Mu Yiran nodded, “Absolutely correct.”

To make it clearer for everyone, Mu Yiran directly wrote down the corresponding times for each shutter speed on the paper: 1/125 second, present time; 1/60 second, one hour earlier; 1/30 second, two hours earlier; 1/250 second, one hour later.

Lu Heng also started to gradually understand. His voice was somewhat hesitant, “Then, what about the photo I took, the one with Xiayu? I used a shutter speed of 1/16 second at that time.”

“That photo’s time would be even earlier. We arrived in the painting around 10:00 in the morning, and you went to the second floor to investigate around 11:00 in the morning. At that time, using a shutter speed of 1/16 second…” Mu Yiran wrote down 1/16 second on the paper. “I want to ask, between 1/30 second and 1/16 second, are there any other shutter speeds?”

Lu Heng answered, “No, at least not on my camera.”

“The progression of time may be in increments of one hour, with each speed setting shifting the time forward or backward by one hour. If we calculate it that way, at 1/16 second, it captures a scene from three hours earlier. Three hours before 11:00 is 8:00,” Mu Yiran said.

“That time seems correct. We entered at 10:00, and we hadn’t arrived in this world yet at 8:00. It’s highly likely that something happened during that time.” Lu Heng analyzed.

“There is another possibility,” Mu Yiran drew another line. “The progression of time may not be of hourly increments, but rather exponential increments. 1/125 second is the central point, 1/60 second is one hour earlier, 1/30 second is two hours earlier, 1/16 second is four hours earlier, 1/8 second is eight hours earlier, 1/4 second is sixteen hours earlier…”

Everyone listened attentively. Wei Dong couldn’t help but open his mouth wide, “If that’s the case, wouldn’t it mean that we can capture things from a long time ago and a long time in the future?”