To be honest, at first he really didn’t notice anything wrong with these photos, because in terms of photographic principles, there was nothing wrong with the photos themselves. Maybe the shooting techniques and expression were a bit immature, but that’s not a “problem,” just a “flaw.”

He compared the two piles of photos again and again, and finally realized that the issue wasn’t with the photos themselves, but with their content.

In the photos they took after returning from Gutongjing, one person was missing.

Sand Sea I: Phantom Shadows in the Desert

Chapter 11: Henry Foster’s Story (Part 3)

Noticing that someone was missing from the photos wasn’t easy for him, because most of the photos were taken during the bonfire party, where there were lots of people and it was chaotic. The reason Henry Foster was able to spot this was because, in the previous pile of photos he was shown, Olivia Parker had a lot of pictures taken with another woman, but in this pile, there wasn’t a single one.

“Why is that illustrator missing?” he asked. “That Dao... what’s her name?”

“Daodao.”

“Right, why is she gone? Did she leave halfway through?” He looked at Olivia Parker and asked, feeling a sense of unease, wondering if something had happened to someone during their trip. But in the photos, she was always smiling brightly—if her best friend had gotten into trouble and she could still smile like that, he’d have to reconsider her character.

Olivia Parker bit her lower lip, but said, “She didn’t leave. She was right there in our group.”

He looked at the photos and made a gesture of confusion.

Olivia Parker said, “Or, to be more precise, she’s in these photos—”

He kept looking at her. “She’s not here.”

“She is. She’s in most of the photos. She really liked taking pictures. When I took these photos, there were several times when she was the focus.”

Henry Foster suddenly started to understand what she was trying to say, but he couldn’t believe it. He looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

She went on, “But when I developed these photos, I found that she didn’t appear in any of them. Even in the ones I’m absolutely sure I took for her, she’s not there.”

He drew in a sharp breath and looked at the photos. His first thought wasn’t whether this was possible, but whether she was messing with him.

He’d often heard that authors who write suspense novels end up making themselves a little crazy—could it be that Olivia Parker had been rushing her manuscript so hard that she’d lost track of reality and fantasy?

But when he looked into her eyes, he couldn’t see a trace of confusion.

“Could it be that you made a mistake, that your friend deliberately avoided the camera? I read a novel once where someone’s friend went missing, and when they tried to find a photo of that friend for a missing person notice, they discovered that person had never left a clear image—in every photo, the friend had deliberately avoided the camera or only showed a side profile,” Henry Foster said, trying his best to convince himself this was real and to avoid the urge to leave. “In the end, they found out the friend was actually a secret agent, trained to avoid being photographed.”

“That novel was written by me,” Olivia Parker looked at him. “But that was just a story. And here, it’s not enough to just show a side profile. To completely avoid every camera is extremely difficult.”

“But…”

Olivia Parker suddenly made a gesture. “Old Sullivan, I know you don’t believe me. I’m not telling you this to make you believe me. I just want to ask you, in terms of photography, under what circumstances could something like this happen?”

Henry Foster wanted to say, “In a dream,” but held back. He thought for a moment and decided to go along with it, replying seriously, “Is your friend herself normal? Can you see her?”

“Of course.” She nodded. “Otherwise, I’d have gone crazy first.”

“What about the other team members who were there at the time? Did you ask them? Did they all see Daodao that night?”

Olivia Parker replied calmly, “I asked, but their memories of that night are all very vague. No one can say for sure that Daodao was with us that night. That’s what really surprised me.”

Henry Foster thought for a moment and said, “In theory, the way a camera captures an image is the same as how the human eye sees. So, whatever the human eye can see, a camera should be able to capture. A person’s image is formed because light reflects off them and into the photosensitive device. For someone to not appear in a photo, you’d have to somehow prevent the light reflected from that person from being exposed on the film.”

Olivia Parker’s eyes lit up. “So it’s possible?”