Once We Lived in Nanjing

[Interview Excerpt - The Final Day with Zhao Bowen's Conjecture:

On the day when the October National Day holiday in the second half of 2020 was about to end, I continued my interview with Bai Yang. The afternoon sun was lovely, with faint barking of a puppy coming from outside the window.

When the last step of the entire operation was mentioned, the young man sitting before me suddenly seemed a bit out of his element, his ten fingers tightly entwined.

We all thought it was a sure thing.

The young man sitting in the chair said softly.

Think about it, after such a long, complex, and vast plan finally landed successfully, who wouldn't breathe a sigh of relief? The vast majority of people had a kind of blind faith in their superiors, those around them, and the command center; they all thought that by doing their part well, the grand plan would succeed and Swordman would be eliminated, saving the world... This way of thinking was incorrect.

This way of thinking actually didn't stem from factual logic but from a natural affirmation of people's work results, simply put, it was self-comforting. I said.

Yes... that's true.

Bai Yang nodded.

I looked into his eyes, and he didn't shy away.

Deep in his gaze, there was still something lurking there, although it had been so long, it hadn't dissolved.

Tell me about Swordman, I'm very interested in its characteristics.

I shifted the topic.

According to your guesses, Swordman actually has no backside, right?

Bai Yang was startled for a moment, and after pondering for a few seconds, he nodded.

That's right, no matter from which angle or position you look at it, you can only see its front; it can be said to have no back.

Then here comes the question.

I said.

How can a structure without a back exist in three dimensions?

Bai Yang shook his head: No one knows, perhaps Swordman's structure is higher than three-dimensional, or perhaps its creators are above three-dimensionals... it's quite clear actually, they have the ability to influence space-time, surely transcending our world.

How did Mr. Zhao discover this?

I asked.

His conjecture—about the operational patterns of Swordman, let's temporarily call it the Zhao Bowen Conjecture—how did it come about?

I only know roughly, for details you'll have to ask Uncle Zhao…

Bai Yang thoughtfully answered.

Uncle Zhao first realized something was wrong when the young lady mentioned that the big eyes were always making eye contact with her, we initially thought it was some kind of eye-tracking feature, just feeling it was eerie, so Uncle Zhao took this question back to review the documents, discussed with the project team's expert panel, back when we had very limited information at hand, Uncle Zhao reviewed the recordings of our first video-link repeatedly, that was perhaps when he discovered something.

The first-time video linkage?

Yes, the secrets were hidden during the first-time video linking.

Bai Yang smiled.

At that moment, everyone thought that the young lady's activities had attracted Swordman patrolling nearby, but Uncle Zhao had a different opinion, he thought that what really drew Swordman to stop by the window was us.

The camera?

I immediately thought of this.

Correct, it was the camera positioned in the center of the room, what Swordman saw was not the young lady, but us.

Bai Yang said.

I held the shorthand notebook, momentarily forgetting to take notes, Bai Yang's slow and deep narration took me back to that night when mankind faced Swordman directly, but this time from an entirely different perspective.

There were several people present back then, myself, the old man, Uncle Zhao, Uncle Wang, Sister Qiao, all were staring at the computer screen in the living room, and we were all terrified by the big eyes outside the window, and a long time later when Uncle Zhao was verifying his conjecture, he made us remember the situation back then... he asked me if I was being directly stared at by the big eyes, he asked the others too, then we realized that although from different angles, everyone was making eye contact with Swordman.

So... at that time, Swordman had already locked onto your position.

I said.

Yes, it definitely had locked onto our position then, the characteristics of this entity are irrespective of any external conditions and unaffected by any factors, although there's a long twenty-year gap between us, the iron rule 'observer equals observed' still holds.

Bai Yang nodded and continued:

Only that this lock-in was interrupted.

Interrupted by what? I asked subconsciously.

Grandfather Huang, the Weasel.

Bai Yang answered.

The sudden appearance of Old Huang attracted the attention of all of us, we all focused on Weasel, so in the eyes of Swordman... it was as if we suddenly disappeared, evaporated from the world, after all, we weren't actually in that world, we were 20 years in the past.

Did it try to find you later?

I asked.

It definitely did, we believe it was searching for us at that time.

Bai Yang answered.

We were all sitting on the couch in the living room, and the place Swordman locked onto was the living room, so it didn't stay outside the bedroom for long, it immediately moved in front of the living room's French windows... This is our inference, but I think it's very close to the truth. However, the living room in that world was empty, no one was there, I think Swordman must have found it baffling, clearly having locked onto this place with people sitting, but when it peeped in, there was nothing, it must have thought it was haunted.

Bai Yang chuckled.

Teacher Zhao is very sharp and insightful.

I said.

It wasn't just him who discovered it though, many people came to this conclusion after a long discussion.

Bai Yang shrugged his shoulders.

You too.

I said.

I didn't do anything, really, I was just dragged along from start to finish.

Bai Yang laughed shyly.

After all, I'm just an ordinary high school student, what can an ordinary high school student do? What can they do…

The young man slowly fell silent, his eyelids drooping, and in his eyes, I saw again that thing, thick and undissolvable. I suddenly realized what it was.

What can I do?

Bai Yang said softly, turning his head away, casting his gaze on the brand-new IcR8600 amateur radio on the shelf.

If only I could do something.

Even just a tiny change, to make the final outcome slightly different, even just a little, but she's too far away, Teacher Tian Rui, she really is too far... Twenty years is really too long.

Can you understand? She really is far, so far.

I sensed the vulnerability and powerlessness of this young man, in front of the cold, hard face of time, human emotions are but snowflakes falling on a red-hot iron plate.

My effort to change the subject failed eventually, and Bai Yang returned to the final day of the mission he always dreaded:

We thought everything was secure.

The nuclear bomb detonated successfully, she just needed to stay in the safe zone for a week, until it was safe inside the nuclear explosion area, then she could make her way unhurriedly to First Base.

But less than twelve hours after the nuclear explosion... she made contact with us again.

Bai Yang's body suddenly tensed up.

·

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The day after the nuclear explosion.

January 3rd, 8 PM.

Bai Yang was routinely monitoring frequency 14255, he wasn't expecting to make contact with the young lady, according to the normal plan, she should be in the safe zone.

The channel was filled with crackling static noise, the headphones were full of the universe's meaningless murmurs, thinking about having to listen to these ancient whispers for a whole seven days, Bai Yang was truly frantic, he kept calling out on the channel, while secretly hoping the girl would come back soon—

As if some ancient god heard his plea, the amplitude of the noise suddenly increased in his headphones, then quickly dissipated, a girl's faint voice emerged from the noise:

"BG... is there anyone? Is there... anyone?"

Bai Yang jerked upright.

"This is BG4MXH! Miss, is it you? Please respond if you receive this!"

He shouted into the microphone, both surprised and amazed.

The other party paused for a few seconds, then also replied loudly, the voice both surprised and panicked.

"It's... it's me! BG! B... do you hear me? Hear... they... they came down from the sky."