She traveled around the world just to fill a photo album that was always missing someone.
Ruan Tinglan, who suffers from bipolar disorder, returned to the rooftop on the top of the city on the day of the memorial day. The photo album in my hand, titled "Collection of Landscapes You Should Have Seen But Haven't," records magnificent glaciers, burning sunsets, and dancing aurora... But it is alone in the place where it should appear, leaving a dazzling blank and the phrase "We should be here." When the desperate wind rolled up the corners of her clothes, she took a step forward - at the moment of falling, at the same place many years ago, the unforgettable look at each other and the coldness missed by her fingertips pierced the fog of forgetfulness like a sharp blade.
The dusty iron box pries open the past: yellowed diaries, faded oaths, 23 bloody missed calls on an old mobile phone... Fragmentary objects are like keys, opening the prison of memory. She recalled the golden light on her eyelashes when they first met on the rooftop, the fingertips secretly entwined under the desk, and the first kiss exchanged in the dark with her heart beating like a drum. However, those sweet promises of "you will travel around the world for me" cannot withstand the cold pressure of reality.
Ruan Tinglan, who was tearless at the funeral, embarked on a journey around the world, wildly capturing the scenery with his camera, but stubbornly leaving a human-shaped hole in every photo. The world filled the photo album, but she was lost in the boundary between illusion and reality - there was always a figure standing in the blank space, smiling at her.
This is a cruel struggle between memory and forgetting, a gap that even the whole world cannot fill, and a desperate elegy dedicated to people who "should be seen but not seen". The deepest regret is that the scenery you were supposed to see will always remain on the unfinished page.
Intention: Live well and cherish the people around you
