Chapter 4 The Shooter and the Farmer

The next day was the weekend, so Wang Miao got up very early, took his camera and went out on his bicycle. As a photography enthusiast, his favorite subject was the inaccessible wilderness, but as he reached middle age, he no longer had the energy to do it.

With this kind of luxury enjoyment, most of the time he can only take pictures of scenery in the city. He intentionally or unintentionally selected corners of the city that exude a wild atmosphere, such as the bottom of the dry lake in the park and the new soil excavated from the construction site.

Weeds growing out of cement cracks, etc. In order to eliminate the gaudy colors of the city in the background, he only used black and white film. Unexpectedly, he became his own school and gradually became famous. His works were selected for two major film festivals and he also joined the Photographers Association.

Every time he goes out to shoot, he rides his bicycle around the city at will, capturing inspiration and the composition he needs, sometimes for a whole day.

Today, Wang Miao feels a little strange. His photography is famous for its calm and dignified classical style, but today, it is difficult for him to find the stability needed to create this kind of composition. In his feeling, the city is waking up in the morning light.

The city seems to be built on quicksand, and its stability is illusory. In the night that just passed, those two billiard balls have been occupying his long dream, flying irregularly in the black space, in the black space

The black ball is invisible on the background, and it only shows its presence when it occasionally blocks the white ball.

Is the origin of matter really irregular? Is the stability and order of the world just a short-lived dynamic balance in a corner of the universe? Just a short-lived vortex in the chaotic turbulence?

Unknowingly, he had reached the foot of the newly completed CCTV building. He stopped the car, sat on the side of the road, looked up at the towering A-shaped building, trying to regain a sense of stability, and followed the building's spire twinkling in the morning sun.

Pointing, he looked towards the bottomless blue sky, and two words suddenly appeared in his mind: shooter, farmer.

When scholars at the "border of science" discuss, they often use an abbreviation: SF. It does not refer to science fiction, but is the abbreviation of the two words above. This is derived from two hypotheses, both of which involve the nature of the laws of the universe.

"Shooter" hypothesis: There is a sharpshooter who punches holes every ten centimeters on a target. Imagine that there is a two-dimensional intelligent creature living on the plane of the target. After observing their own universe, the scientists among them discovered that

They came up with a great law: "Every ten centimeters in the universe, there must be a hole." They regarded the random behavior of this sharpshooter as an iron law in their own universe.

The "Farmer Hypothesis" has a layer of disturbing horror: there is a group of turkeys on a farm, and the farmer comes to feed them at 11 o'clock every day. A scientist among the turkeys observes this phenomenon and has been observing for close to

There were no exceptions for a year, so it also discovered the great law of its own universe: "Every morning at eleven o'clock, food comes." It announced this law to the turkeys on Thanksgiving morning, but at ten o'clock that morning

When no food came, the farmer came in and caught them all and killed them.

Wang Miao felt that the road beneath his feet was sliding like quicksand, and the A-shaped building seemed to be shaking. He quickly looked away.

Just to get rid of his uneasiness, Wang Miao forced himself to finish shooting a film and returned home before lunch. His wife went out to play with the children and would not come back at noon. Normally, Wang Miao would be impatient to develop the film, but today he was not in the mood at all.

None. After a brief lunch, he fell asleep. Because he didn't sleep well last night, it was almost five o'clock when he woke up. Only then did he remember the film he took in the morning, and went to the closet.

It was developed in a narrow darkroom that was converted into a dark room.

The film was quickly developed, and he began to check which one was worth enlarging and developing into a photo. He discovered something strange in the first picture. This picture was taken of a small piece of grass outside a large shopping mall. He saw that in the center of the film

There is a line of white stuff, and if you look closely, it is a row of numbers: 1200:00:00.

There are also numbers on the second negative: 1199:49:33.

There is a small row of numbers on each negative of the entire roll of film!

The third picture: 1199:40:18; the fourth picture: 1199:32:07; the fifth picture: 1199:28:51; the sixth picture: 1199:15:44; the seventh picture: 1199:07:38;

The eighth picture: 1198:53:09...the thirty-fourth picture: 1194:50:49; the thirty-sixth and last picture: 1194:16:37.

Wang Miao immediately thought it was a problem with the film. He used a Leica M2 camera produced in 1988, which was fully mechanical and manual, without any automatic functions, and it was impossible to overprint numbers such as dates on the film. Just because of its excellent quality

Lenses and mechanical mechanisms, even in the digital age, are the aristocrats of professional cameras.

Re-viewing each negative, Wang Miao quickly discovered the first strange thing about these numbers: they automatically adapted to the background. If the background was black, the numbers would be white, and the numbers on the white background would be black, as if to create the largest possible image.

The contrast makes it easier for observers to see clearly. When Wang Miao looked at the sixteenth film again, his heart beat faster and he felt a cold air rising up his spine in the darkroom:

This photo was taken of a dead tree with an old wall as the background. The old wall was mottled and black and white in the photo. On such a background, it would be impossible to display the row of numbers in their normal position, whether in black or white.

It is clear, but it actually stood up and bent itself, appearing in white along the dark body of the dead tree, looking like a thin snake attached to the dead tree!

Wang Miao began to study the mathematical relationship between those numbers. At first he thought they were some kind of numbers, but the intervals between each group of numbers were different. He soon understood that these were timing units of hours, minutes, and seconds. He took out the camera

Notes, which recorded the shooting time of each photo in detail, accurate to the minute. He found that the difference in timing between the two photos was consistent with the actual time interval between them. Obviously, this roll of film recorded something in reverse.

Time passed at a realistic speed. Wang Miao immediately understood what it was.

A countdown.

The countdown started at 1200 hours, and there are still 1194 hours left.

Now? No, it’s the moment when the last frame of the film is taken. Is this countdown still continuing?

Wang Miao walked out of the darkroom, took out a new black-and-white film and loaded it on his Leica camera. He quickly started shooting randomly in the room, and finally went to the balcony to take a few outdoor scenes. After the film was finished, he took it out of the camera.

He took it out of the film and went into the darkroom to develop it. On the film that was developed, the numbers continued to appear on each negative like a ghost. The first picture was 1187:27:39, taken from the last picture of the previous roll.

The first picture of this volume was taken exactly at such a long interval. The timing interval of each subsequent picture is three to four seconds, 1187:27:35, 1187:27:31, 1187:27:27, 1187:27

:24...is the interval between his rapid shots.

The countdown continues.

Wang Miao loaded new film into his camera again and started taking random pictures quickly. He deliberately took some pictures with the lens cap on. When he took out the film, his wife and children came back. Before going to develop,

He loaded the third roll of film into the Leica and handed the camera to his wife: "Here, finish shooting this roll."

"What are you shooting?" The wife looked at her husband in surprise. In the past, he would never allow others to touch his camera. Of course, she and her son were not interested in that thing. In their eyes, it cost more than 20,000 yuan.

A boring old antique that I bought.

"Anything is fine, just take pictures." Wang Miao put the camera into his wife's hand and went into the darkroom.

"Then, Doudou, let me take a picture for you." The wife pointed the camera at her son.

Wang Miao suddenly had an illusion of ghostly figures stretched out in front of the child's face like an open noose. He couldn't help but shuddered slightly. "No, don't take pictures of your son. Just take pictures of something else."

The shutter clicked, and his wife took the first picture, and then shouted, "Why can't it be pressed?" Wang Miao taught his wife to pull a handle, "This way, I have to rewind the film every time." Then he got into the darkroom.

"It's really troublesome." As a doctor's wife, she couldn't understand that today, when digital cameras with 10 million pixels have become commonplace, there are still people using this outdated and expensive gadget, and they still shoot black and white film.

After the film was developed, facing the dim red light, Wang Miao saw that the ghostly countdown was still continuing. On the chaotic pictures taken randomly, including those taken with the lens caps on, it was clearly shown that

Ex:1187:19:06,1187:19:03,1187:18:59,1187:18:56……

His wife knocked on the door of the darkroom twice and told him that the shooting was finished. Wang Miao went out and grabbed the camera. His hands were visibly shaking when he took out the film. Ignoring his wife's strange look, he took the film and returned to the darkroom, closing it tightly.

He came to the door. He was very busy, the developer and fixer were spilled on the floor, and the film was quickly developed. He closed his eyes and prayed silently: Don't show up, no matter what it is, don't show up now, don't let it be my turn...

…

He used a magnifying glass to look along the wet film. The countdown disappeared. There were only indoor scenes taken by his wife on the film. At a low-speed aperture, her unprofessional operation produced a blurry picture, but Wang Miao felt that it was his

The most pleasing photos I have ever seen.

Wang Miao walked out of the darkroom, let out a long breath, and found that sweat had soaked his whole body. His wife went to the kitchen to cook, and his son also went to his room to play. He sat on the sofa alone and began to think calmly.

First of all, this group of numbers that accurately record the passage of time at different shooting intervals and show signs of intelligence cannot be reserved on the film. It can only be made sensitive to light by some kind of force. What could it be? Yes

Is there a problem with the camera? Is some device placed in the camera intentionally or unintentionally? He removed the lens, disassembled the camera, carefully observed the inside of the camera with a magnifying glass, and inspected every spotless and smooth part.

Any abnormalities are found. Then, thinking of those pictures taken with the lens cap on, the most likely light-sensitive source is some kind of highly penetrating ray from the outside world, but this is also technically impossible: ray source

Where? How to aim?

At least with current technology, this power is supernatural.

In order to further confirm that the ghost countdown had disappeared, Wang Miao loaded another film into his Leica camera and began to take pictures one by one. When the film was developed this time, he had just calmed down for a while and was pushed again.

The edge of madness: The ghost countdown appears again. Judging from the time displayed on the screen, it has never stopped at all. It is just not displayed on the roll taken by my wife.

1186:34:13,1186:34:02,1186:33:46,1186:33:35……

Wang Miao rushed out of the darkroom, rushed out of the house, and knocked on the neighbor's door. The person who opened the door was retired Professor Zhang.

"Lao Zhang, do you have a camera at home? Oh, not digital, but film!"

"A great photographer like you wants to borrow a camera from me? The one that costs more than 20,000 yuan is broken? I only have a digital one... Are you uncomfortable? You look so ugly."

"Lend it to me."

Lao Zhang quickly brought a very ordinary Kodak digital camera. "Here, just delete a few pictures in it..."

"Thank you!" Wang Miao grabbed the camera and film and hurried back to the house. In fact, there were three film cameras and one digital camera at home, but Wang Miao felt that it would be more reliable to borrow them from elsewhere. He looked at the ones spread out on the sofa.

Two cameras and some black and white film. After thinking for a while, he loaded the film on the Leica, and then handed the digital camera to his wife who was serving the meal:

"Quick, take a few pictures, just like before!"

"What are you doing? Look at your face...what's wrong with you?!" His wife looked at him in horror.

"Don't worry, shoot!"

The wife put down the plate in her hand and walked over to look at her husband, the fear in her eyes adding to the worry.

Wang Miao put the Kodak camera into the hand of his six-year-old son who came over to eat, "Doudou, help dad take pictures. Just press this, yes, this is a picture; press again, yes, yes, another picture; that's it.

Just keep shooting, no matter where you are."

The son quickly mastered it. The little guy was very interested and took pictures very quickly. Wang Miao turned around and picked up his Leica from the sofa and started taking pictures too. The father and son started taking pictures like this "click, click" like this.

The wife was overwhelmed by the frequent flashes and burst into tears.

"Wang Miao, I know you are under a lot of pressure at work recently, please don't..."

Wang Miao finished shooting the film on his Leica camera, and then grabbed the digital camera from the child's hand. He thought for a moment, and in order to avoid the interference of his wife and children, he walked to the bedroom and took a few pictures with his digital camera.

I used a visual viewfinder instead of an LCD screen because I was afraid of seeing the results, although I would have to see them sooner or later.

Wang Miao took out the film in his Leica and went into the darkroom, closed the door tightly and started working. After the development was completed, he looked at the negatives carefully. Because his hands were shaking, he could only hold the magnifying glass with both hands - on the negatives, the ghost countdown continued.
To be continued...