Volume 6 Chapter 27 The picture

The video recorder was a Panasonic that the guy had found at the flea market in the shipyard. When I got to Uncle San’s room, the guy was installing it. I saw two identical spares on the sofa, in case one broke down and delayed things. Fortunately, the quality of imported goods from that era was not bad, and all three tested well. I weighed the spare one, and it was dead heavy. Things from that era were solid, unlike the DVDs of today, which can be swung around like a dog playing with a flying saucer.

During the time it took to install the VCR, Uncle San didn’t say a word, just let me sit there while he smoked cigarette after cigarette, his mind wondering about something.

My hangover headache gradually improved, and I was a little nervous, constantly speculating about what was on the tape. I thought about Xisha, but they couldn’t have taken video equipment there (such equipment was quite rare at the time, and film cameras were still commonly used in China, and the film was still manual), so the content on the tape could not have been filmed in Xisha at that time. Similarly, it could not have been filmed behind the Bronze Gate. With these two places ruled out, what could be on the tape? I really had no idea.

The TV and VCR were connected and the power was turned on. I picked out one of the tapes and was about to put it in, but before I put it in the slot, I hesitated again. I don’t know why I panicked for a moment and glanced at Uncle San.

Uncle San waved his hand at me and said, “Put it in? What are you looking at me for? Are you afraid he’ll crawl out of the TV?”

I pushed it in, and the VCR started to run. I sat back on the bed, and soon, snowflakes flashed on the screen. Uncle San stopped smoking, threw the cigarette butt into the ashtray, and we both sat up straight with some nervousness.

The snowflakes flashed for more than ten seconds before the picture on the TV started to appear. The TV was color, but the picture was black and white. It should be a problem with the tape itself. The picture was very blurry at first, but gradually became clearer.

It was an old-fashioned wooden room. We could see the wooden floor. The camera kept shaking. It was obvious that the person or object holding the camera was not very stable. We could see a window on the back wall. It was very blurry outside. It seemed to be daytime, with a little bit of backlight.

Uncle San and I looked at each other. This seemed to be a picture of a residential building. We really didn’t expect to see this. Could it be a selfie show? Wait a minute. The stuffy oil bottle came out while eating noodles and said to the camera that it had been a long time since he had seen us and asked how we were doing.

Under the window, there is a rather old-fashioned writing desk, which looks a bit like the old furniture in revolutionary movies. It is full of things, documents, a desk lamp, and a telephone.

The style of the telephone is relatively old, but not so old that it is falling apart. The time this video was shot should be after the 1990s. Of course, there are still many families that use this old-fashioned telephone, so it is hard to tell exactly when it was made, but it definitely wasn’t made earlier than the 1990s.

The camera then kept showing the same scene in the room, as if it were a still life. After waiting for a while, we realized that the camera was fixed in one position, similar to a fixed shot in a movie, and would not move.

In that case, we didn’t know how long the still picture would last, and we couldn’t just sit there watching it. Uncle San pressed fast forward. After about 20 minutes, all of a sudden, a black shadow flashed past in the room.

Both Uncle San and I were startled.

Uncle San quickly rewound the tape and saw that a person had walked into the camera from outside. We could also hear the sound of a door opening and closing, so it must have been someone returning from outside. On closer inspection, the person who had walked in was a woman. It was hard to tell her age, but she looked quite attractive, with her hair tied back in a ponytail.

Uncle San suddenly became nervous. He walked forward and almost touched the TV screen.

But the woman walked very fast, and suddenly she passed through the screen and ran to the other side, disappearing off the screen.

I saw that Uncle San’s face suddenly looked strange, and I wanted to ask him what was going on, but he waved me away and told me to be quiet.

Time continued to advance, and five minutes later, the woman appeared on the screen again, already in her pajamas. Then she walked straight to the front of the screen, and the screen began to shake, obviously adjusting the camera angle.

This was equivalent to a close-up, and the woman’s face was directly in front of the TV. I saw that the woman was quite young, very pretty, with big eyes, and overall looked a bit sweet.

Uncle San was also close to the TV, and suddenly he locked eyes with the girl on the TV. What I didn’t expect was that in an instant, Uncle San first froze, then suddenly shuddered, shouted, and took a dozen steps back, almost knocking the TV off the cabinet.

His assistant quickly held the TV, and I went to help him. I saw Uncle San pointing at the face on the TV and shaking and shouting, “It’s her! Huo Ling! It’s Huo Ling!”

We were shocked by Uncle San’s sudden reaction. His assistant quickly dropped the TV to help him, and I first straightened the TV set, for fear of breaking it if it fell.

However, his assistant was unable to hold him up, and Uncle San was screaming and backing away, until he hit the sofa and almost tipped it over. He fell to the ground, and it was obvious that he had been in great pain. He covered his lower back and his face turned white. Even so, his eyes were still fixed firmly on the TV screen, and his eyes were about to pop out.

I was a little surprised. This woman was actually Huo Ling?

According to the account of the Mian Youping, Huo Ling was the daughter of a cadre. When the Xisha archaeological expedition was underway, she was one of the few people who went down to the underwater tombs. There was very little information about her, and I didn’t know which one she was in the black and white photo, so I naturally couldn’t recognize her. It’s really incredible that such a person would appear in the video tape sent by Mian Youping…

Moreover, what made me feel strange was how this video tape came to be. From the way she adjusted the camera, it was clear that she knew the existence of the video recorder. This was definitely surveillance footage. Why did she make such a video, and how did the tape get into the hands of the Mian Youbing? Why did Mian Youbing send it to me?

There was something fishy going on, I thought to myself. Third Uncle was right, it seems that the whole thing is far from over.

At this point, the woman on the screen had already adjusted the camera, and the screen was no longer shaking. She also moved away from the camera again and sat down at the edge of the desk, holding up a mirror to brush her hair.

Because it was a black-and-white picture, and because of the shaking just now, the screen became a bit blurry. Uncle San gradually calmed down, but his face was already ashen, and his expression was completely different from before. He was clutching the armrest of the sofa, and his whole body was shaking slightly, obviously very nervous.

I asked Uncle San to confirm, “Is this the woman you went down to the bottom of the sea with, Huo Ling?”

Uncle San didn’t respond at all. I had no choice but to look at his partner, who didn’t know what to say either.

In the video, Huo Ling kept combing her hair. After her ponytail came undone, her hair was quite long. I didn’t know how far she was going to comb it. It was about twenty minutes before she stopped and re-tied her ponytail.

After combing her hair, she stood up, looked out the window a little confused, then ran to a place where the camera couldn’t reach, and then ran back. But when she came back, I noticed that her clothes had changed.

In other words, she went into the back room and changed her clothes.

Then, the most unbelievable scene appeared.

After she came out, she ran to the camera again, as if she was not satisfied with the angle, and adjusted the lens. The screen began to shake, and her white face filled the entire screen.

Uncle San let out a very strange groan, as if her face was very scary.

I thought she was going to change her clothes and go out, or cook something, and that there would be no one in the room for a long time. So I picked up the remote control and prepared to fast forward. At this time, I saw her sitting back down at the desk, picking up a comb, untying her hair, and starting to comb her hair again!

“This woman is crazy!” the guy on the side couldn’t help but yell.

Uncle San immediately made a gesture to tell him to be quiet, and his eyebrows were tightly furrowed.

She was combing her hair with her back to us, and we couldn’t see her expression. There was only a vague shadow in the mirror, and her movements were almost identical, with the same frequency.

I watched for a while, and I almost suspected that her head was made of iron. If I combed my hair like that, my head would have been combed into a walnut long ago. This kind of scene made me feel that the atmosphere had become a bit strange. I endured it, and it was probably another twenty minutes before she re-tied her hair and stood up, running outside the camera with a thump.

The guy and I both breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that it was finally over. If she continued, my head would start to hurt.

However, before we could stretch our muscles, she changed into another outfit and ran out again, approaching the camera and adjusting the angle for the third time.

I was confused. I couldn’t figure out what this Huo Ling was doing. This was too exaggerated. Could it be that she liked this… or was she going to commit suicide? So she changed her clothes and adjusted the angle again and again. Then did she want to comb her hair again? If she continued to comb her hair like that, the comb would become a brush.

At that moment, the picture suddenly stopped. Looking back, I saw that Uncle San had pressed pause. On the black and white screen, the close-up of her face was suddenly frozen.

Uncle San’s face was ashen, and his lips were still trembling. He looked closely and said in a hoarse voice, “My God, she hasn’t aged at all!”