Once We Lived in Nanjing

Lian Qiao quickly got the hang of it and started helping. Her first task was to stuff invalid documents into the shredder.

The specific process is as follows: Bai Zhen sat at one end of the dining table, sorting out the invalid materials. He pushed the sorted documents to Old Wang at the other end of the table. Old Wang's job was to stamp the document cover to render them as waste paper, then set them upright, pause, align, and hand them over to Lian Qiao. Lian Qiao stood by the coffee table, took the waste papers from Old Wang, and handed them to Zhao Bowen, who finally stuffed them into the shredder—the estimated distance from Bai Zhen's seat to the shredder on the coffee table did not exceed five meters. Within these five meters, the waste paper was transferred through four people, with each person responsible for one meter. Division Chief Wang proudly called it procedural, regulated, systemic, with clear division of labor and team collaboration, reflecting an international advanced level of administrative management and project execution.

From then on, the staffing at the headquarters hall of the Reverse Future World-saving Amateur Radio Emergency Communication Command Center increased from five to six staff members.

The additional position was astutely arranged by Wang Ning in the middle of the waste paper tossing process between himself and Zhao Bowen (Old Wang remarked that it was not easy to allocate positions in this environment of reducing manpower). Later, Division Chief Wang reported in his weekend summary report: After careful consideration by the command headquarters, with a pragmatic attitude, democratic voting, wide consultation, and local adaptation planning, Captain liaison officer, coach Lian Qiao decided to take on the role of director for the Document Transfer Office of the Reverse Future World-saving Emergency Communication Command Center. This is an important, core, critical position, a bridge for information flow within the command center, vital for securing document and information safety of the command center, fundamental for the normal operation the command center relies on, driving the great mission to save humanity forward, and the source of resolute determination and strong belief to win this battle. We have every reason to believe that with Comrade Lian Qiao's robust assistance, all humanity will surely move a step closer to ultimate victory!

Lian Qiao: But aren't I just passing a few papers?

Every time, Wang Ning would reflect on the regret that his superb administrative management skills were only being used for a division chief position.

"Did Changchun Institute of Optics call?" Zhao Bowen asked.

Old Bai glanced at the four mobile phones lined up on the coffee table.

"No."

"What about Institute No. 8?"

"No."

"What about Institute No. 5?"

"No."

Zhao Bowen scratched his head. In these desperate times when you'd almost whip someone to hasten things, not having calls for two days meant there was a problem.

"I'll make a call to check."

Old Zhao decided to personally inquire about the progress from the space group.

He casually picked up a mobile phone, scrolled through the WeChat contacts, and made a call.

"Hello? I'm Zhao Bo..."

Old Zhao didn't finish his sentence.

"What happened?" the others looked over.

"He hung up." Zhao Bowen tried another mobile phone.

"Hello? I'm Zhao..."

It was hung up again.

"Old Bai, you make a call." Zhao Bowen asked Bai Zhen to call, "I'll give you the phone number."

Bai Zhen dialed the phone.

"Hello? Hello, this is Nanjing Command Center, I am Bai Zhen..."

"Did it get through?" Zhao Bowen asked.

"It did."

"He said he was looking for Teacher Sun, and asked if Teacher Sun was in the office," Zhao Bowen said.

"I'm looking for Teacher Sun, may I know if he is in his office?" Bai Zhen said, "Oh... so he is there? Good, good, could you please ask him to come and take the call..."

Bai Zhen handed over the mobile phone.

Old Zhao unceremoniously took the phone and got straight to the point: "Hello, this is Nanjing Command Center, I am Zhao Bowen, could you let Teacher Sun take the call?"

"Teacher Zhao, you... please hold on," the voice on the other end suddenly turned timid, "I... I'll go call the teacher..."

Then Old Zhao heard a soft "click", the person put the phone down on the table, and immediately after, someone on the other end was faintly heard shouting, "Iron Hand Chaser is coming! Iron Hand Chaser is coming—! Silly kids, run—!"

After a while, disastrous news was heard. Teacher Sun, in his rush to answer the call and while closing the door of his own office, accidentally trapped his fingernail causing serious injury. He fainted, was in critical condition and barely alive. He was immediately sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, hence unable to take Zhao Bowen's call. They apologized profusely, a truly regrettable situation.

"Damn it!" Zhao Bowen cursed and threw the phone on the couch, "Deserting in the face of the enemy! Can't even manage a satellite! What's the use of you guys!"

Space Team: Damn it, if you're so capable, you do it.

The work of the Space Team is the foundation of the plans that are about to be rolled out. Zhao Bowen is counting on them to launch a telemetry satellite to twenty years in the future, to carry out precise surveying and optical reconnaissance of the Qinhuai District, Drum Tower District, and Xuanwu District areas in Nanjing City, especially to pin down the exact location and movements of the Big Eyeball. If they can gather enough data on the Big Eyeball, then the Computer Team might be able to build a predictive model of its movements—people are desperately hoping for more information about the Big Eyeball. Everyone knows it's the culprit behind human extinction, yet everyone knows so little about them, understanding the Big Eyeball is the top priority, but it's impossible to send BG4MSR into the risk area for close surveillance, thus satellite is currently the strongest and most covert surveillance means humans have, it's a pair of eyes located two hundred kilometers above, probably no less perceptive than the eyeballs of humans or the Big Eyeball.

These are the considerations of Zhao Bowen.

But in the eyes of the Space Team, Zhao Bowen is just a layman talking nonsense. The disparity between satellites is bigger than that between humans and dogs. A small CubeSat is a satellite, and so is a US behemoth aerospace carrier; can these be the same? If you want to quickly scan a total area of 180 square kilometers covering Qinhuai, Drum Tower, and Xuanwu, build a city's GIS vector map, and also capture dynamic targets like the Big Eyeball which measures less than ten meters, analyzing its behavioral patterns and movement trajectory, do you know how big the field of view and resolution you would need? Do you realize how big and heavy this satellite would need to be? Do you know that anything that goes in front of the camera can't be light? Do you know what it means to be financially ruined by photography? Do you know how much power it takes to send such a thing into space?

The most outrageous thing is that you want this thing to leave the Earth for twenty years, and twenty years later, come back and precisely re-enter orbit, all of which are to be autonomously completed in a totally uncontrolled status; damn it, that's just absurd, is your satellite possessed or what?

Changchun Institute of Optics swore in Northeastern dialect.

Zhao Bowen: I don't care what chants you recite, I don't care how you achieve it, but you must complete it, that girl is still waiting.

Lian Qiao looked a bit dazed.

Old Bai kindly reminded her, "Standard procedure, you'll get used to it. The normal conflict between the client and contractor, would it even be cooperation if there's no quarreling?"

"What's quarreled at the headboard is resolved at the foot of the bed," said Old Wang, "Relationships are forged through arguments, the more arguments, the healthier."

Lian Qiao nodded.

At this moment, the sound of unlocking came from the door, "creak", the door was pushed open; it turned out Bai Yang was back. He was wearing trousers and a black hoodie, entering the foyer ready to change his shoes.

"Yangyang is back?"

"Where did you go this afternoon?"

"I went to help He Leqin fix his computer, his Dell gaming laptop's screen was coming unglued and cracked..." Bai Yang took off his shoes and placed them in the rack, slipped on his slippers, straightened up, and glanced around the living room, suddenly he froze.

His gaze fell on Lian Qiao, and he stepped back:

"You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you..."

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(Author's note: Friendly recommendation time, recommending a book, "Filled in the Wrong College Volunteer, I Entered the College Cultivation Class.")