Once We Lived in Nanjing

At a little past six in the evening, Bai Yang finished school and returned home with Lian Qiao.

Bai Yang was in a down jacket, looking a bit like a Michelin tire man, while Lian Qiao was still dressed lightly, donning a gray fleece sweater, carrying his backpack, appearing to be a young mother just back from picking up her child from kindergarten.

"Based on the results of our experiments so far, anything confirmed by BG4MSR is unchangeable," Bai Yang climbed up to the eighth floor, panting, took out his keys to open the door, "No matter what you want to do, this world will always lead you back to its predestined track."

"This sounds as if destiny has already been fixed," Lian Qiao carried the bag, "as if we were puppets, controlled by something."

"Are you saying we don't have free will?" Bai Yang pushed the door open and turned to ask.

Lian Qiao nodded.

"Maybe it's our free will that led to this outcome," Bai Yang said, "I always think, in BG4MSR's era, most of the buildings in the city are still there, like building 12 next door. What if we blow up building 12, what happens to the building in her time?"

Lian Qiao was taken aback.

"I've always been preoccupied with this question, really entangled; in theory, it could be done, right?" Bai Yang said, "In theory, we really could blow up building 12, but BG4MSR told us before that building 12 is still there in her time. Wouldn't that mean facts from two different times don't match up?"

"Right."

"But theory and reality are two different things. In theory, we could bomb building 12, but in reality, it's simply impossible." Bai Yang stepped in, bending over in the entryway to change shoes, "As long as it can't be done, then it won't be against logic. It's different from solving physics problems. In a physics exam, we only need to address the theoretical issues. On the paper, you can blow up the Earth without any problems, but not in real life. What you want to do and what you can do are different in real life, so the question is... why is there a discrepancy between theory and reality? What causes such a huge difference?"

Bai Yang stuffed his sports shoes into the shoe rack, then continued:

"It's actually free will, our so-called free will, like how your reason will tell you that actually planning to bomb a building will not only fail, but will also land you in prison... The consciousness and thought commanding our actions are precisely what keeps us following that established path."

"Do you know about a psychological concept called the self-fulfilling prophecy?" Lian Qiao followed Bai Yang inside, "Self-fulfilling Prophecy, it means that people will unconsciously act according to a prophecy, ultimately making the prophecy a reality."

"What are you two talking about?"

Bai Zhen sat on the sofa, stamping documents, and looked up at the two at the door.

"We're discussing how the future seen by BG4MSR seems to become an unchangeable reality," Lian Qiao said, "In that case, isn't the coming of doomsday inevitable?"

"Yes." Wang Ning was engrossed in writing materials, not looking up.

"But this..."

"So what if it's inevitable?" Wang Ning threw the document in his hand to Bai Zhen, "Does it keep us from working? Old Bai! Stamp it!"

"Snap!" Bai Zhen stamped a bright red seal onto the document.

"Are you guys hungry?" Mom called from the kitchen, "Dinner will take a while longer! Do you want some snacks first?"

"Not hungry, Lian Qiao and I had a bowl of Sichuan wontons on our way here," Lian Qiao tossed the backpack to Bai Yang and turned to the kitchen, "Sister, I'll help!"

Lian Qiao is a good girl, visibly adored by mom, but their relationship is speeding toward a sisterly one. Lian Qiao calls mom 'sister', delighting her no end.

Lian Qiao can't cook, but she's always eager to help in the kitchen, wash dishes and pans, with adept hands she completes tasks swiftly, never dragging her feet. At first, Bai Yang was puzzled, thinking, "Is sister's mission to assist mom?" His slow mind hasn't caught on when, with the speed of lightning, Lian Qiao earned the favor and likes of the hidden powerful figure behind headquarters—administrative director and Empress Dowager Mom. Only then did Bai Yang realize, but it was too late — with Empress Dowager's full support, Lian Qiao dominated in front of Bai Yang.

With mom backing her, Bai Yang couldn't resist Lian Qiao's tyranny; if Lian Qiao said to stand, Bai Yang couldn't sit, otherwise, mom would say, "Listen to your counselor! Standing more helps you grow taller!"

Lian Qiao set up an extremely precise daily routine and took on the responsibility of taking Bai Yang to and from school each day, always carrying his backpack for him. Lian Qiao had a regular schedule, dragging Bai Yang for a run every morning and then to school, with a clear plan for each day.

But Lian Qiao didn't follow into the school; once Bai Yang stepped through the school gates, she disappeared, making Bai Yang suspect she went on to volunteer at nearby restaurants or someplace similar.

This suspicion had some basis; after a long time, when paths diverged and Lian Qiao completed her mission and returned to the team, Bai Yang heard a young waitress humming "Golden tile and throne, invisible to the Emperor." It turned out that an impressive sister used to work there who could carry six plates at once.

After school, Bai Yang could always see Lian Qiao standing at the gate. She was tall and noticeable, which surprised He Leqin and Yan Zhihan who occasionally walked with him.

He Da Shao and Yan Ge, one on each side, elbowed Bai Yang's waist and made faces, "Not bad, Little Bai Yang, a mature beauty! A mature beauty! Come clean, how did you hook up with her?"

In less than ten minutes, Lian Qiao had Yan Zhihan hooked, arm in arm, whispering to each other, leaving the two guys behind them with looks of sulky longing.

Lian Qiao told the two she was Bai Yang's bodyguard, because Bai Yang was recently traced by a low-profile mysterious billionaire from across the ocean seeking kin, becoming the sole heir to a hundred billion US dollars of wealth. Currently, he was in the process of dealing with the inheritance, but those coveting the wealth were clandestinely active. To avoid mishaps, Bai Yang's safety had to be ensured; even a single hair on Bai Yang was more valuable than gold of the same weight.

After finishing his words, He the Young Master plucked a strand of Bai Yang's hair, eliciting a painful cry from Bai Yang, as He Leqin said they could exchange it for money.

At the end, Forsythia secretly told Yan Zhihan that out of every ten pedestrians on the street, one was a hidden sentry, all hired bodyguards by Little Bai Yang.

Bai Yang was dumbstruck.

This sister really had no chill.

After hearing Forsythia's words, when Brother Yan and He the Young Master turned their heads to look at Bai Yang again, their eyes were filled with the hunger of wolves, pressing Bai Yang to swear on his heart and speak with his conscience, with their friendship, was it worth a billion?

Bai Yang threw his backpack onto the bed, while the sound of stamping "ka-ka" was incessant in the living room, where old Dad and Uncle Wang were engrossed in work, one reviewing documents, the other drafting materials. There had been an argument over their division of labor because, compared to stamping and signing, writing materials took much more effort—why should Old Wang do more work?

In the end, it was settled that Old Wang would get sixty percent of the military honors, and Old Bai would get forty percent, and only then did Wang Ning agree to the work.

Of course, he didn't work for long; not half a month passed before Wang Ning transferred Little Zhu over, promoting him to deputy director of the headquarters office (Wang Ning told him it was a significant opportunity for promotion by the organization), and all the draft materials were thrown to Little Zhu to write.

Wang Ning was just in charge of signing his name.

Zhao Bowen was absent, surely Uncle Zhao must have gone to a provincial or municipal committee meeting again; God knows what time he would come back, he was always busy.

Forsythia washed all the dishes in the kitchen, then went to the room to discuss with Bai Yang the issues of destiny and free will, urging him to conduct a simple experiment to prove it. Of course, blowing up Building 12 wasn't realistic, but making a mark on the wall was a piece of cake. Since Bai Yang and BG4MSR were in the same room, as soon as the former made some marks on the white wall of his room, the latter could immediately see if there was any change.

Doodling recklessly on one's own wall was a plan that would invite a scolding from Mom.

But Forsythia persuaded Mom.

So Bai Yang dug out the watercolor paints he used for art class in elementary school, got in touch with BG4MSR, and chose an intact part of the wall.

"I told you, you wouldn't believe it," Bai Yang smirked, "We already verified it when we sent Time Slow Delivery, but I'll prove it to you once more. I can conclude now that no matter what we draw on the wall, her wall won't change at all."

"Draw it!"

Bai Yang drew a SpongeBob on the pristine wall, and on the opposite wall, he drew Patrick the Starfish.

Next, he communicated with BG4MSR via radio.

As expected, the girl's response was that nothing had happened, there was no change at all.

Forsythia was startled.

"See, what did I tell you?" Bai Yang slapped his hand, "There won't be any change at all. You want to know why? It's definitely because in the not-so-distant future, my mom or someone else would think these two things were too ugly and have them covered up because they were unsightly, so you can't see anything over there..."

Bai Yang made a further inference:

"But these two paintings should still exist, they're just covered up. So now I'm asking BG4MSR to scrape the wall, and they'll come back into view."

He said this with utter confidence.

Forsythia nodded.

So Bai Yang got back in touch with BG4MSR, guiding Ban Xia on how to scrape the wall, peeling off the layers of white putty, and under normal circumstances, she would see the SpongeBob and Patrick the Starfish drawn by Bai Yang.

But now it was Bai Yang's turn to be shocked.

Still nothing.

Ban Xia scraped all the way to the bottom, to the concrete wall, and saw no trace of any paint left, as if it wasn't the same wall, and no one had ever drawn on that wall.

Bai Yang was stunned; he turned his head to gaze at SpongeBob and Patrick the Starfish on the wall, and somehow, this pair of good brothers had been lost in the tumultuous river of time.