Once We Lived in Nanjing

"I've said it before! I've said it before!" Bai Yang, frustrated as if he were scolding iron for not turning into steel, slapped the back of the sofa hard, "Uncle Wang, what did I tell you? Sending time capsules requires attention to two key points, following a double-blind protocol. If you neglect this, there is a high chance of failure, and what happened? It indeed failed, didn't it?"

"It shouldn't have." Wang Ning frowned, about to get up, "You guys wait here, I'm going to see if something went wrong."

"No, no, no, no, no." Bai Yang quickly stopped him and pushed him back down, "Uncle Wang, you can't go. If you dig it up again, it'll definitely be a lost cause."

Seeing Wang Ning about to make the same mistake as himself, Bai Yang hurried to stop him.

"But even if I don't dig it up, that girl over there won't be able to find it either, right?" Wang Ning sat back down, somewhat puzzled, "She couldn't find the capsule, could it be because I dug it up?"

"It might not be you." Zhao Bowen said, sitting on the opposite sofa, "According to MSR's sayings, there will be a catastrophic disaster in the future…"

"What disaster?" Mom, who was bending over to tidy up the table, heard their conversation and turned her head to ask, "What level is a catastrophic disaster?"

"Catastrophic disaster means everyone is gone." Zhao Bowen answered, "All of humanity extinct."

Mom just laughed upon hearing that, probably thinking these three grown men were still talking like children.

She shook her head and carried a stack of plates into the kitchen.

"Let's continue," Zhao Bowen continued, legs crossed, "When the catastrophic disaster strikes, human society will face tremendous upheaval, possibly wars sweeping across the globe. According to the information we have, this is highly likely." Yangyang, that girl explicitly told you, there were fighter jet debris on the streets, right?"

Bai Yang nodded.

"And burned-out tanks and armored vehicles."

"The scene was massive; you can imagine how chaotic the social environment was back then," Zhao Bowen continued, "In such a situation, how can you ensure that the time capsules you bury aren't dug up? Including old Wang, old Bai, you, and me—anyone who knows the exact location of the time capsules might steal them midway."

Wang Ning stroked his chin, furrowing his brow.

"Why would I steal them?"

"It's not what you would do now." Bai Zhen intervened, "But that doesn't mean you wouldn't do it five years from now."

"Is my will that weak?"

"It has nothing to do with will." Bai Zhen said, "You don't know what kind of circumstances you may face."

Old Wang's frown deepened, his face pinching into a frown. The failure of the first experiment was a blow to his pride; the esteemed Director Wang beaten by a high school senior.

"Let's not rush. We haven't fully believed MSR's story yet; let's not jump to conclusions." Old Wang picked himself back up where he fell, "We don't even know if it's true or false."

"Putting all ten capsules in one place carries some risk; if discovered, it's all over in one go," Zhao Bowen said, "I think scattering them might be better."

"I want to try again." Old Wang, more determined after defeat.

"Alright, explore more, report more!" Bai Zhen waved his hand grandly, like a commanding general, unshakable.

The first experiment failed because, Wang Ning suspected, the time capsules had been found due to social unrest in the future and were stolen. This time, Wang Ning buried all ten capsules separately. If ten capsules were hidden together and discovered, that would be the end; if he placed one here and one there, even the people who buried them might not remember all the locations, perhaps one or two might survive the cataclysm.

After a day of reconnaissance, an exhausted Wang Ning and Bai Zhen came back with notebooks.

He slapped the notebook, which listed all the prospective locations, on the coffee table, asking Bai Yang to match them with BG4MSR over the radio, marking the locations that could survive with a circle and eliminating the ones that would be destroyed in the disaster with a cross. Finally, he pointed to the circled maps in the notebook and said: We'll bury the capsules in these places!

Bai Yang shrugged; he said nothing.

Uncle Wang didn't listen, figured these people needed to hit the South Wall three times before they'd turn back, so he just let them go ahead.

Anyway, it wasn't his money being spent.

·

·

·

As expected, the second experiment still failed.

None of the ten time capsules reached the girl, despite Wang Ning's careful selection of the burial sites. The girl didn't find any, and her entire day was wasted.

"This isn't scientific," Wang Ning muttered, puzzled. "Why weren't any of the capsules received? Are you sure, Yangyang?"

"Positive."

Bai Yang was sitting on the side eating noodles.

"Why couldn't she find the time capsules?" Wang Ning asked. "Is it because there weren't enough? Should we try twenty capsules next time?"

"I think we need to change our approach, ten capsules didn't work, and twenty likely won't either," Bai Zhen pondered. "Just hiding them won't do any good, if what BG4MSR said is true, and the world is going to experience a human extinction crisis, the ensuing social chaos will be beyond any of our imaginations..."

"Old Bai—! Hang the laundry in the washing machine!" mom yelled from the room.

"Alright, coming!" Bai Zhen immediately stood up, continuing as he walked away, "The social chaos of that period will be beyond our imaginations, just like my son said, unless you throw them into a lake, it's hard for them not to be found..."

"Old Bai!" Mom raised her voice.

"Coming, coming." Bai Zhen hurried his steps, dashing towards the balcony.

Watching Bai Zhen's figure disappear into the balcony, Wang Ning and Zhao Bowen withdrew their gaze, struck by Zhao's ability to keep Bai Zhen in line.

"No need to hide it, then let's secure it," Wang Ning switched tactics. "We could cast the time capsules into buildings using concrete, that should be safe."

Bai Yang thought the idea indeed sounded familiar.

He had thought of this initially too.

"Yangyang tried this before," Zhao Bowen said, "but it also failed."

"How did Yangyang do it?" Wang Ning asked.

"I dug a hole and poured white glue into it," Bai Yang replied, "It failed, the capsule didn't reach."

"White glue? Latex?" Wang Ning was startled. "Why would you use that stuff? That thing's no good after being soaked by water for a long time, and if it's buried underground, exposed to the elements, it definitely won't last twenty years. I plan to use concrete, reinforce the capsules with reinforced concrete, this should definitely work."

They deployed Zhao Bowen once again.

Associate Professor Zhao, with a certification from the Physics Department of Nanjing University, approached the residential complex management, saying the nation's big plans depend on all of us, now we have a major scientific research project hoping for your cooperation; we plan to dig a hole behind the stone plaque that reads "Meihua Villa" at the entrance, and bury a seismic monitoring device in it, to monitor the changes in the tectonic activity of the Nanjing City area—we suspect the other end of Earth is attacking us using continental shelf oscillators, and we must monitor closely to counter it.

The complex was dedicated to contributing to scientific research, ensuring national safety, and stated they would spare no effort.

So Wang Ning and Bai Zhen brought a drilling machine, dug a hole behind the huge stone plaque, which was three meters high and eight meters long, buried the time capsule, and then filled it with concrete and covered it with tiles.

Old Wang pushed it hard, solid as a fort, and said, this time there should be absolutely no problem.

— And don't you know, this time there really were no problems.

Ban Xia, following the instructions, found the tile, smashed it, and saw the concrete, the time capsule was undoubtedly inside.

Then she spent the entire day smashing the concrete but couldn't unearth it.