Why it never ends

Chapter 199 Silent
That night, Stella was a guest in Victoria's darkroom in Tan Yi's apartment.Victoria is a little unclear about how all this happened, but Stella knows—the two of them are barely half colleagues, and she also has a lot of research on old-fashioned cameras. Quickly found the topic of Wulei that belonged to Victoria.

In the dim red darkroom, Victoria was developing photos at the workbench, and Stella looked around the room.

"So you used to be a war correspondent, and you joined Mercury Needle later?"

"Ah."

"Brilliant... I thought mercury needles were raised from boy scouts."

"Mostly, not all."

Stella walked slowly past several old photos posted on the wall. Most of the pictures were dilapidated wilderness scenes, and there were people in each picture—the old man drying clothes in the sun, the dead soldier who was killed in the corner, a building that only The church with stone floors and the priests and believers who are doing mass in the ruins...

The shadows in the photo are beautiful, with a deep texture.

"I was also born in the wasteland," Stella said, "but I was too young to remember many things."

"Which wasteland?"

"In the fifth district, I forgot where exactly." Stella looked at the photo, "Do wars often happen between the wilderness?"

"Occasionally, but not often."

"Then these are..."

"Mostly due to chelation disease."

Stella continued browsing, and after a while she stopped before a half-portrait of a woman holding her dead child and gazing into the camera.Looking at the woman's slightly opened mouth, Stella suddenly became curious: "When you took the picture, was she talking?"

"Ah."

"What is she saying?"

Victoria was silent for a while, "'Is this the picture you were waiting for?'"

"..."

Stella looked back at Victoria, and suddenly she had some new understanding of what happened in the afternoon.

Finally, Stella's eyes fell on a photo frame beside the workbench.

"This is Anna, I recognize it." Stella pointed to the photo, and she observed the clothes of the characters in the photo for a while, "Is it taken in spring?"

"No, it should be autumn." Victoria thought for a while, "It should be 4617."

"It was indeed not long before the arrest... She was arrested in December, wasn't it?"

"How do you remember so clearly, do you pay attention to her?"

"Yes or no, I have a sister who likes her very much, and another good friend has also been her student, so I will pay a little more attention." Stella sat down on the workbench where the sundries were piled up, "and, I've heard some rumors."

Victoria raised her eyes and glanced at her. Stella was looking at herself, silent because she deliberately kept her secret.

"... What rumors?"

"I heard that Anna is related to the mother city of District [-], which has never been opened." Stella deliberately lowered her voice to create a sense of mystery, "There are rumors that she grew up secretly in District [-], and then— —”

"She is from the fourteenth district," Victoria laughed. "If you don't believe me, go back and ask your sister and your friend."

"Huh? Are you sure?"

"You haven't read Anna's book, have you?"

"...I'm not very interested in knowledge about flora and fauna."

"The fifteenth district and the sixteenth district are both in the southern hemisphere, close to the equator, and the climate is completely different from that in the northern part of the fourteenth district," Victoria said softly, "And Anna spent her childhood in the snow field, and she wrote a lot in The details of life in the northern woods—these cannot be imagined."

"Really? I don't see anything in the world that can't be fabricated by imagination." Stella jumped down from the table—after all, she herself is an expert in this field, "Maybe she has a child who grew up in the snow field." A friend? Maybe she has read a lot of novels about snow fields?"

Victoria laughed and stopped talking. She moved the developed film into the stopper solution. After about 30 seconds, she took the film out again, drained the water and put it in the fixer solution again.

A few minutes later, the two went outside the darkroom and turned on the lights to see the effect.

"Which of these four photos do you think is better?" Victoria asked.

Stella moved her head closer, and the four pictures in front of her were all portraits.

"If you ask about exposure, the middle one is the best."

"What about the screen?"

"This one." Stella pointed to the far right position of the film.

This was a middle-aged woman who was wailing on her back, her hands were tightly clutching the skirt of her chest, as if she was shouting and shouting.Because the exposure time is too long, the photo on the far right is very dark. It loses some details, but it highlights the silhouette of the person in the sunset.

"why?"

"You still ask," Stella looked up at Victoria, "you won't be happy when I tell you."

Victoria burst out laughing. She was about to apologize for what happened in the afternoon when Stella interrupted her.

Stella pointed to the film, "It should be said that each one is very story-telling, and everyone seems to be talking——this one is joyful, ecstatic, and her tears seem to say, 'Okay, you There is also today!'; this one is pain, it is roaring to say 'I hate!' 'I hate!'; this one is weak, exhausted, the characters have no language, but a thick choking, gasping can be heard."

Stella's fingers finally moved to the portrait in the middle. In the picture, two women are praying towards the distant sky.

"This one... has no sound."

"No sound?"

"The characters are blurred - it's not that the face is not clearly photographed, but the whole 'face' is lost. But it's also very beautiful, very calm, a bit like a religious painting."

For a while, they looked at the photo without speaking.

Victoria leaned back in her chair, thinking about Stella's comments, and suddenly found that these analyzes explained her mood changes when she took pictures in the afternoon.

"The divinity in the characters overwhelms the humanity, doesn't it?" said Victoria suddenly.

Stella pondered, "...Yes."

The praying women bowed their heads humbly, and expressed their repentance and gratitude to the distant heavenly father—it turns out that there is indeed karma in the dark, and it turns out that God will indeed punish the unrighteous things on earth, as long as Wait and believe with a submissive heart, and you will finally be able to wait for your own justice.

...That's the way it is.

Stella grabbed a handful of her hair - she was different from Victoria, she knew the stories behind these faces clearly.

But how did Rishi do it?
How did he accurately pick out the same type of people from so many people—these women who are as diligent as cattle and horses, as weak as sheep, and cherish their feathers as swans...all of them are like natural sacrifices.

"How many people took your business card today?"

"Two." Stella replied, "I don't know if they will come to contact me."

(End of this chapter)