Henry Foster shook his head slightly. “Certain special lenses can achieve this, for example, there was a time when x-ray cameras caused quite a stir. But such lenses are unlikely to penetrate the human body, because penetrating clothing is just getting through a single layer of plain cotton fabric, while the human body is much more complex, including bones, skin, fat, and muscle. If it could penetrate the human body, then the background, books, chairs, sand, and so on behind a person would also be penetrated, and nothing could be photographed at all. Besides, the lens works indiscriminately—if your friend can’t capture it, no one else can either.” He spoke to her firmly, “So, the phenomenon you’re describing is physically impossible.”

Her eyes dimmed instantly, and she sighed, but didn’t seem too disappointed.

Henry Foster continued, “These photos look perfectly normal, there’s nothing wrong with them. I don’t think anyone tampered with them. If you insist that someone who should be in the photo is missing, then it can only be explained by the supernatural, which is even more unbelievable. Besides, you said that none of the other people present at the time could confirm that Daodao was actually there, so the only possibility is that you’re mistaken.”

She tucked her hair behind her ear, took a sip of tea, and said, “There’s really no way to achieve this effect, not even with something extremely complicated?”

Henry Foster shook his head. “You must be mistaken.”

She gave a bitter smile. “I wish I was mistaken too, but this is something I experienced myself. Just because you say I’m mistaken doesn’t mean I can fool myself.”

Suddenly, Henry Foster felt as if he was being played with, even a little annoyed. He looked at the earnest face of Olivia Parker, wondering how to get out of this situation.

Olivia Parker went on, “Mr. Guan, don’t think about it anymore. Just treat it as a joke I told. But I hope you can do me another favor—can you help me contact your friends? I want to go to Badain Jaran again.”

Henry Foster frowned. “Go again?”

“Waiting for another backpacker group would take too long. You just said you have good connections over there, so I think you should be able to introduce a few reliable people to take me in. I want to go back to Gutongjing. Everything Daodao did there, I did too. There’s no reason she had an accident and I didn’t—except for one thing. There’s a stone mountain in Gutongjing, very steep, and none of us dared to climb it. Only Daodao went up. So, it’s very likely that what happened to Daodao is related to that stone mountain. This time, I want to climb up there myself and see what’s up there—what could have caused Daodao’s problem?”

Henry Foster found it all very unreliable. She was actually asking him for help so seriously over such a baffling matter. Henry Foster hesitated for a moment, then mustered his courage and said, “Miss Parker, I think you’d better see a psychologist. Long-term writing can lead to impaired judgment. I’ve been through that myself. I think you’re getting a bit obsessed.”

He thought Olivia Parker would get angry, but she just sighed, as if she’d suddenly lost interest in talking to Henry Foster, her face a little pale. Henry Foster watched her pack up the photos, then said in a very soft voice, “Thank you, Mr. Guan. Sorry for taking up your time.” With that, she was about to get up and leave.

Henry Foster felt a bit uneasy and asked, “Do you need me to walk you home?”

Olivia Parker shook her head, seeming to have her mind elsewhere. Henry Foster thought for a moment, then pressed, “By the way, why don’t you just ask Daodao what she actually saw? Why go back into the desert yourself?”

Without looking back, Olivia Parker walked out of the teahouse and said, “That’s no longer possible.”

Sand Sea I: Phantom Shadows in the Desert

Chapter 12: Henry Foster’s Story (Part Four)

Back home, Henry Foster went over the whole thing in his mind and still felt something was very off.

He remembered the materials he’d looked up when preparing to go to Badain Jaran. Among them, only a French photography magazine had published a photo of Gutongjing in an issue from 1998. It showed a desert depression scattered with rocky hills, nothing that looked particularly frightening. However, the caption mentioned that Gutongjing gave people a particularly strange feeling. There was a word in French that described the feeling perfectly, but it was hard to find an equivalent in Chinese. Roughly, it meant that in that place, your mind would sense things you normally couldn’t feel. What was chilling was that the photographer who took the picture committed suicide three years later. Of course, photographers committing suicide is as common in the field as poets doing so, so there’s no reason to link this incident directly to the legends about Gutongjing.

Henry Foster’s thirty years of life experience told him that things like this were usually pranks, so he was convinced this was fake. But looking at Olivia Parker’s expression, she didn’t seem to be playing a trick. The most likely explanation was that her mental state was abnormal.

This wasn’t the first time he’d encountered something like this. Henry Foster had a friend who was an example—he wrote novels about the “Cultural Revolution,” later developed depression, and writing novels can easily make people lose themselves.

Henry Foster thought about calling the publisher to tell him about this, since he was the one with a vested interest. But then he remembered he’d promised Olivia Parker not to tell anyone else, so he put the phone down. Still, he couldn’t stop worrying about it.