#lu guang coded

lu guang shiguangdailiren is like What if the world was cruel and cold and unfeeling but you met a person who was kind and warm and so fucking emotional and he inspired you to look at that cold world differently and see hope where none was visible before. and then he died, because the world is cruel and cold and unfeeling. and it doesnt deserve him, you think, he doesnt deserve to die because his vision of the world was wrong and yours was right, if this is truly how this world works then it doesnt deserve him. and if you sacrifice all of it for his life then that would be a worthy trade. he has changed you and maybe it is not for the better but you will turn back time so he has the chance to do it again. and again and again and again and again

do you think they noticed a change, the first few loops. i think they did. because how could they not, cheng xiaoshi and qiao ling, the two closest friends lu guang has, seeing him walk out of the room through a camera shutter and re-enter changed. diminished, faded, sad, the worn and cracking face of an old photograph. more and more tired each time he dives, further and further back with each attempt. every time a failure. and even as he lets the tides of time weather him more - render him a ghost, it feels like sometimes - even as lu guang changes more and more from the person he used to be, so too does that moment of disconnect in his friends’ eyes shorten and fade. because they don’t know him anymore. the golden stretch of time he spends by their sides before it all goes wrong is sliced thinner and thinner with every photo he uses, his touch blurring the memory with blood. each time he fails they know him less - the first him, the one unburdened by the terrible knowledge he now holds and the weight of too many failures.