novelraw Chapter 60 Photograph
Chapter 60 Photograph
The rain stopped.
It was as if even the weather had been infected by Chi Xiaoguo’s smile, turning bright, turning radiant.
The gray, oppressive gloom that had hung over the morning quickly faded.
The sun rose in the east, sunlight bursting forth—everything brimming with life, birds singing, flowers fragrant.
Jiang Ran looked at the rainbow scattered across the raindrops on the glass and said nothing.
He had just asked Chi Xiaoguo what her second choice had been.
He was only thinking that, if there were a chance, after the worldline changed, he could go take a look at the university she attended.
See whether she had found like-minded companions as she wished;
see whether she was still this lively, cute, and innocent.
Who could have expected—
Chi Xiaoguo’s words would add a trace of reluctance and sorrow to this separation that was destined to arrive.“Hehe, if Senior Jiang Ran could also come to Donghai University, that would be great.”
Chi Xiaoguo smiled sweetly.
“Then you could officially join the Film Camera Club! It would definitely be lively and happy here every single day!”
Jiang Ran lowered his head.
He reached out and patted the Positron Cannon’s casing.
“About that, you might really be mistaken;
don’t look at this thing and think that just because it looks like a camera, I must also be interested in film photography.”
“Actually… I won’t hide it from you. I’ve never touched a film camera before, not even once. I’m not interested in taking photos either. Sorry—this might disappoint you.”
Jiang Ran knew very well that this kind of honesty would most likely make Chi Xiaoguo feel bad.
But.
These were the last few minutes they could spend together.
At the final moment, he truly couldn’t bear to lie again, to deceive such a pure girl.
“It’s okay~”
Yet this little bundle of sunshine seemed completely unaffected.
“As long as you’re willing to understand, lots of things you don’t like will slowly become things you like.”
She formed a frame with her thumbs and index fingers, holding it up before her eyes.
Then she squinted one eye, just like taking a photo… aiming the “lens” formed by her four fingers at Jiang Ran.
“If you don’t try, how would you know you don’t like it?”
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
Sunlight fell over Chi Xiaoguo, making her look especially pure and sacred.
Jiang Ran smiled.
He was moved by this sincere passion of hers.
If there really were some timeline where he studied in Donghai, and Chi Xiaoguo was also the president of the Film Camera Club—
Perhaps.
He truly would be willing to try… to pick up a film camera, load a roll of film, and press the shutter amid interwoven light and shadow, just to see what that felt like.
“What’s real is real;
what’s fake is fake.”
“What film cameras record is the truest history of this world.”
“Every trace of light, every grain of color, even every bit of noise… all of it is the most original appearance of this world at the instant the shutter is pressed.”
Chi Xiaoguo’s past words echoed in his ears.
“How about taking a photo?” Jiang Ran suggested.
“Huh?”
Chi Xiaoguo froze.
“N-now?”
“Yeah.”
Jiang Ran nodded.
“Just like you said—if you don’t try, how would you know you don’t like it.”
“I’ve never taken a photo with a film camera before, not even once. I might as well take this chance to try.”
After all—
Jiang Ran looked at the girl bathed in gentle sunlight.
After all, if he missed this chance, he would never see her again.
The ocean’s most remote Nemo Point is 2,600 kilometers from land;
the Earth and the Moon gaze across a distance of 380,000 kilometers;
light travels 9.46 trillion kilometers in a year;
the Milky Way has a diameter of 100,000 light-years;
to walk from one end of the universe to the other—even light, the fastest thing of all, would take 96 billion years.
Actually.
None of these distances are that far.
The truly distant gap is the knowing and not knowing, the seeing and not seeing, across two parallel worldlines.
Just like Jiang Ran today, and Chi Xiaoguo.
So—
Take a photo. Leave a memento.
Even if everything would turn into a history that never existed after the worldline transition.
At least, Jiang Ran would remember.
At least, this real history—this real light, these real colors—had once been recorded.
“Trying it is fine… we also have equipment in the activity room.”
Chi Xiaoguo scratched her head.
“But, Senior, do you know how to use a film camera?”
“I might not have eaten pork, but I’ve seen pigs run.”
Jiang Ran smiled.
“Isn’t it just aiming at the subject and pressing the shutter? I’m just trying it anyway—to see what it feels like to take photos with a film camera. No need to set the bar too high.”
“Mm… alright then.”
Chi Xiaoguo went to the equipment rack and took down a Kodak camera.
“This camera is old, but back in the day it was high-end and has autofocus. It’s more suitable for beginners like you, Senior.”
After that, she skillfully opened the film canister, pulled the film out, loaded it into the camera, closed the bottom cover, made a few small adjustments, and handed it to Jiang Ran.
“All set! Now, just like you said, you only need to aim and press the shutter! By the way… as your very first film photo in life, what are you planning to shoot?”
“I’ll photograph you.” Jiang Ran took the camera.
“Huh!”
Chi Xiaoguo widened her eyes.
A-as expected of you, Senior! Challenging high-difficulty portrait shots right off the bat!”
“But… I’m not a professional model, and I came in a hurry this morning—I didn’t really dress up…”
“It’s fine.”
Jiang Ran raised the camera, pressed his eye to the viewfinder, and aimed at the girl whose expression was a little nervous.
“Because it’s real, it’s more meaningful. Are you ready?”
“N-no! I’m not!”
Chi Xiaoguo panicked.
She waved her hands hurriedly, turned to the glass of the bookcase, tidied the little buns on her head, smoothed her bangs, then turned back and cleared her throat twice.
“Ahem. Okay, now I’m ready.”
She looked a bit restrained, not knowing what pose to strike, so she simply stood there with both hands in front of her, gripping the hem of her clothes.
“OK, then I’m taking it.”
A hazy room, a hazy lens, hazy orange light.
A hazy gaze, a hazy smile, a hazy girl.
Through the viewfinder of the old film camera, everything looked hazy.
But with his index finger resting on the springy shutter, Jiang Ran felt that all the haze, at this instant… was hazy in just the right way.
Click!
With a crisp shutter sound, his first film photograph in life was completed just like that.
Honestly.
The mechanical feedback of pressing the shutter really was different from taking photos with a phone—it carried a different kind of solemnity, a different kind of preciousness.
“Is that enough?”
“Yes.”
Chi Xiaoguo took the camera, smiling and showing her two cute tiger teeth.
“It’s a pity this isn’t a digital camera. Before the photo is developed… you can’t see a preview. It’s just like opening a blind box.”
“When I get around to developing this photo, I’ll give it to you, Senior! This is the very first photo you took with a film camera—it’s extraordinarily meaningful!”
“Sure.”
Jiang Ran replied casually.
However—
He would never see it.
This was a photo that would never be seen, a blind box that would never be opened.
After the worldline changed, this stretch of history would no longer exist, and this photographed image would disappear as well.
No one would know whether the photo was clear or how it turned out.
Everything would be buried in the unknown.
Jiang Ran glanced at his watch.
“About time.”
It was time to say goodbye.
He walked to the experimental table and patted the Positron Cannon.
“We… begin.”