Strange game designer.

Chapter 731 Silence

"Every photograph is a gentle tyranny over a fleeting moment." The photographer can freeze that memory with absolute subjectivity, and when we are too cowardly to choose to forget, it still bears the sin for us.

Gao Ming entered the darkroom, and the light from outside lingered on his shadow.

On the table in front of him were a thermometer, several beakers, a measuring cylinder, and a clamp specifically for filtering water from film. Thin ropes hung overhead, and many photos were posted on the wall further away.

"This seems to be called a developing tank." Li Sansi's memory jumped at Gao Ming's fingertips. He carefully opened the developing tank, adjusted its internal central axis and film clips, poured in the developer, stop developer, and fixer, and gently shook it. It was as if a photograph from the past appeared in his field of vision.

"Li Sansi has no memory of this room, no memory of the neighbors or the living people around here. Are these forgotten moments preserved in the photographs?"

Standing before the wall where no light could reach, Gao Ming silently gazed at each person in the photograph. It was as if he were looking through a mirror called the past, seeing a stranger to himself—no, a stranger to Li Sansi.

At the very bottom of all the photos is a silent, stern middle-aged man in a dark gray suit, his face as uninteresting as the law he holds in his hands.

Behind the man stood a thin boy with long hair. He was neglected and undisciplined, introverted and sensitive. He clung to his father's trouser leg, hiding behind him. Only with the sense of security his father provided did he dare to timidly peek at the camera.

Unlike his father, the boy's eyes were filled with curiosity. He didn't pose or strike any poses; all his emotions were revealed in his beautiful eyes.

Those eyes look a lot like Li Sansi's.

"Father?"

His fingertips unconsciously rested on the photo, and a memory that Gao Ming had never read in Li Sansi's mind slowly emerged. It seemed to be Li Sansi's childhood.

In the solemn and dignified courtroom, the tall father stood like an angry lion, one hand pressing down on the table, the other waving in response to the sound.

“The death penalty is neither necessary nor beneficial. We must first fight for humanity. As long as the death penalty exists, the entire penal code will reek of blood, bear the mark of gloom and terror, and be stained with the desire for revenge.”

Li Sansi's father was a lawyer, though his memory of him is somewhat hazy; more accurately, he was a legal researcher.

Everyone scoffed at what Li Sansi's father said, and an elderly couple looked at him with utter disappointment. Li Sansi sat alone next to the old couple, clutching a simple plastic toy.

In this chaotic city, Li Sansi's father had been working tirelessly to abolish the death penalty until the day Li Sansi's mother was murdered. The mentally ill killer sat in the dock, smiling and playing with his hair.

Everyone wanted the murderer dead, but the father wanted him to live.

Why should he live?

Should we use even crueler methods to make him atone for his sins?

Death was the first seed planted in Li Sansi's heart. To him, death was the chef's skirt stained red with blood, the cries for help, and his mother's final, frozen, and worried gaze. His mother was asleep, covered with the red chef's skirt—that was death.

Gao Ming looked at the second photo. His stern and rigid father never seemed to smile. A few years later, he married another woman, a woman who was born later than his mother but was older than her.

The woman in the photo was very fair-skinned, and her smile was like a flower blooming in summer. Li Sansi remembered that her surname was Xia, because he hated the sweltering summer the most.

The three of them looked like a haphazardly pieced-together corpse in a mass grave. Li Sansi, who was older, stood alone on one side. His hair was longer, and even with light makeup, he couldn't hide the scars on his body.

Li Sansi had no childhood memories related to domestic violence, and he couldn't recall where those injuries came from. He only knew that from a very young age, he liked to overthink things, and the more he thought about them, the more his body would hurt.

The third photo in the bottom row is a large group photo with many people and a lot of content.

The father, looking somewhat aged, stood in the center. Aunt Xia, holding a newborn baby, leaned against him. Li Sansi, holding his mother's photo frame, stood on the other side. Through the window behind them, they could vaguely see an elderly couple hanging in the opposite building. Their bodies swayed slightly, and their bulging eyes seemed to be looking in a certain direction.

The photos captured the moment, showing both the bodies and the reunion.

It seems that only these three photos on the entire wall were not taken by Li Sansi. Whenever he sees these three photos, they remind him of something. They are like a key that can unlock another side of Li Sansi, because he knows that all his changes started from that period.

Moving his gaze upwards, Gao Ming saw the process of a baby slowly growing up; those photos were all related to Li Sansi's younger brother.

Whether it was because of his age or something Li Sansi did, his father changed his mind about letting Li Sansi study law and gave him a camera instead.

He doesn't like photographing scenery, he only likes photographing people, and his younger brother is his main subject.

In fact, Li Sansi didn't think newborn babies were good-looking, not even as good-looking as stray cats on the street. But as the baby grew up, Li Sansi found his little brother more and more adorable. The little guy cried a lot, but he also liked to laugh. He could distract his father from his work and attracted all the praise from the neighbors. It seemed like he was surrounded by a lot of love, things that Li Sansi had never received. But Li Sansi wasn't envious. At least in Li Sansi's memory, he felt that he had never envied his little brother.

His little arms are so cute, and his little feet are so tiny, yet they can still wave. He seems hungry; his face is chubby, and he's looking at me with smiling eyes.

Li Sansi likes to look at his younger brother through the camera, because only through that small device can he observe him without any emotion.

The world captured by a camera is completely different from the real world. The camera captures inanimate objects, while in reality they are all alive.

The father really liked the photos Li Sansi took of his younger brother. The deep brotherly affection and harmonious family made him feel that he should be a good father. But Aunt Xia was different. Whenever she saw Li Sansi approaching his younger brother with a camera, she would feel inexplicably nervous, especially when Li Sansi's lens peered into the stroller. The black frame of the lens hid Li Sansi's true gaze and covered the upper half of his face, only revealing the upward smile on his lips.

This child had never smiled before, even though he was just like his father.

(End of this chapter)