Once We Lived in Nanjing

Ban Xia lifted Old Mr. Huang high and said, "Come—say 'daddy!'"

Old Mr. Huang disdainfully turned his head away.

He had been alive for more than ten years, truly old and advanced in age. A weasel can live up to nineteen years under natural conditions. By human standards, Old Mr. Huang was considered well past his prime and was at least two generations older than Ban Xia; how could this yellow-haired girl dare to ask him to call her 'daddy'?

"Not saying it? If you don't call me daddy, I won't give you anything to eat." Ban Xia leaned close to him, her clear eyes staring straight at Old Mr. Huang's two little black-button-like eyes. The white mist she exhaled slowly whirled in the air. Old Mr. Huang disdainfully turned his head again, struggled free from the girl's grip, and darted out of the door through a narrow gap.

He didn't need Ban Xia to feed him; he could find food himself.

Ban Xia watched the fluffy long tail of the weasel flash and disappear through the door gap. She raised her hand to adjust the collar of her denim jacket. After entering December, the climate had turned a bit drier; winters in Nanjing were not too cold, with the temperature staying above zero all year, but Ban Xia was a person who dreaded the cold. Even indoors, she wrapped herself up tightly, with two sweaters on her upper body and thick woolen pants below. She had already put on her long johns the moment the temperature dropped, which would make any mother feel relieved.

The room was cold and quiet, sunlight peeping through the gaps in the curtains. The winter sun was lazy, and the winter world was just as lazy. No sparrows landed on the windowsill chattering away, no sika deer or water buffalo trudging past the streets, leaving behind a desolate city.

Ban Xia sat down in a chair with a flop and stretched lazily. Looking outside, she could see the vines covering the opposite high-rise. The sense of security that Meihua Villa and Nanjing City's uniform residential buildings provided was comforting. Each window was girded by a grid, and there were millions of grids across the city—with only one hiding a person. Hidden in the forest, the girl felt well-concealed. If someone—or something—with big eyes were to look down from above, they would see nothing but large swathes of reinforced concrete buildings.

It was easy to hide someone less than 1.7 meters tall in the 6,500 square kilometers of Nanjing City.

Bai Zhen, Zhao Bowen, and Wang Ning had suggested that Ban Xia stay indoors recently, not to leave Meihua Villa during the day, not to leave the apartment building at night. No one knew how strong the search capabilities of the 'big eyes' were. It had one very large eye that likely used visual means to gather information from the outside—maybe visible light, maybe infrared. The best strategy when facing big eyes was to hide.

Hiding behind the thick concrete and brick walls, years ago, a teacher had taken Ban Xia to live underground for a long time, demonstrating that human structures could indeed offer protection.

Bai Zhen said that humanity, after so much hard development, should have some confidence in itself; one shouldn't be so terrified at the mention of aliens that they wet themselves in fear. How could we be so cowardly and let down our ancestors?

What of the big eyes?

What of the dark moon?

One would rather be flayed than fear to bring down an emperor!

Today, the girl took stock of her home supplies. She had thirty kilograms of cured venison, ham, and salted fish, a jar of fermented bamboo shoots and sauerkraut, and two large barrels of freshwater. Ban Xia estimated her own food consumption. With so much stock plus the wild vegetables grown in Meihua Villa, she could hold out for half a month without an issue.

The only thing she needed to do was to stay hidden, to buy the other side more time.

The world from twenty years ago was trying to find a way.

"Mom and Dad, what do you want to eat tonight?" Ban Xia called out from her room, "I was going to go catch octopus these two days, but now I can't go out. We only have ham and salted fish at home. What do you want to eat?"

"Not speaking? Then shall we have ham and salted fish?"

"Okay, let's eat that."

Ban Xia decided on ham and salted fish for dinner, but she had to be careful not to make smoke while cooking. It was fine at night, but during the day, smoke from a fire could be visible from afar and potentially expose her location.

Ban Xia tried out the field troop's method of cooking in a buried pot, digging a smokeless stove on the lawn of Meihua Villa's compound. This was something Bai Zhen taught her. She labored with a shovel for half an hour, making a makeshift stove with a tiny opening that could just fit a small aluminum pot. Ban Xia then brought the ingredients downstairs, sat on the grass, knees bent, and watched the bone broth bubble in the pot. Holding chopsticks, she waited for the soup to turn milky white then threw in wild vegetables, venison, and bamboo shoots, dipping and eating bit by bit, enjoying the steaming food and working up a sweat.

This was the last hot pot in the world.

It's a pity that there are no ingredients.

Under conditions of material scarcity, preparing a sumptuous meal is a hassle, very difficult, with complicated steps and requiring a great deal of effort. To make dinner, Ban Xia has to be busy all afternoon, but compared to the happiness brought by eating hot pot on a cold winter night, what's this trouble really?

This little joy and happiness made Ban Xia feel as though she was born for this.

"There's so much in this world that you can't bring with you at birth or take with you in death."

"The only thing you can take with you is yourself and your temper."

Ban Xia started humming softly.

"You once had the most beautiful love, you've heard the most beautiful melodies."

"Have touched someone's lonely fear."

"And you've seen the most beautiful scenery..."

She sat on the lawn, humming a song and swaying her body joyfully with the rhythm.

"I stumble and rush towards you—"

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After dinner, it was time for Ban Xia to go to work.

Her working hours were every night. It used to be at eleven p.m., now moved up to seven p.m. Although the people on BG4MXH's side were working hard to come up with solutions, Ban Xia couldn't just sleep through it; all the work required her cooperation.

Improving the data transmission system was the first task Ban Xia needed to complete now.

Originally, under the guidance of BG4MXH and others, she had set up an image data transmission system, but before it could be put to use, contact was lost. Half a month passed without any communication until it was finally restored the day before yesterday. As soon as the connection was re-established, a pile of complicated and tedious tasks was dumped on her, leaving Ban Xia dizzy. BG4MXH secretly told her that there was no way around it, the ones in charge now weren't him or Uncle Zhao; they were all being managed by others and couldn't do as they pleased anymore.

Zhao Bowen's prediction was correct; setting up a data transmission system was indeed crucial, the foundation for subsequent work. But Bai Yang, Bai Zhen, and the others' technical skills were too weak. The experts immediately dismissed their plan relying on AFSK signal modulation, saying that the transmission speed was too slow; using such a thin pipe comparable to the thickness of a pencil to drain the Miyun Reservoir water, how long would that take?

Zhao Bowen argued strongly, saying they had to consider feasibility and operability, taking into account that the girl on the other side had no technical background, and the simpler the plan, the better.

Therefore, after several rounds of discussions and mutual compromises, it was decided to upgrade the AFSK modulation to PSK while also pulling two technical backbones from China Telecom Jiangsu Branch to assist in link construction.

Ban Xia would have to wait a few more days to see the night view of Nanjing City from twenty years ago.

BG4MXH consoled her, saying it was okay, this was a technical upgrade allowing the transfer of more and clearer images, which was a good thing.

"BG! BG! Can you hear me?" Ban Xia grabbed the handheld mic and started calling, "I'm starting my shift!"