Once We Lived in Nanjing

Human power, after all, has its limits, like how no number of people can scoop the moon out of a well. This world always reminds humanity of this fact just when they believe they can do everything, making them realize their own weakness and powerlessness.

Mom poured them tea, but nobody touched it, letting it go cold.

At a quarter past ten that evening, the mechanical and rhythmic indicator light suddenly started flashing rapidly.

Everyone jumped to their feet.

"Signal!"

"There's data... there's data!" Zhao Bowen yelled, "All units, pay attention! We have data!"

Fortuitously, their waiting bore fruit. The data stream, transcending twenty years, burst forth from the Icom725 radio in the bedroom of Apartment 804, Building 11, Meihua Villa; it traveled along cables and optical fibers distributed across the country, where all units on high alert immediately began storage backup and decryption efforts.

"What?" Zhao Bowen picked up the phone, "Video? Okay... please sync it here."

He put down his phone and turned to the others,

"The data that came through contains video; no need for deciphering, it seems to be a recording. I've asked them to sync it here."

The monitors in the command center flickered and dimmed.

People could see something flickering under the dim lighting, but the screen was full of noise. A few seconds later, they could make out a person's upper body up close to the camera lens, fiddling with something, accompanied by a "click-clack" noise from the speaker. Once the adjustments were done, the girl stepped back, including her entire upper body in view. Old Zhao and Bai Yang almost wanted to dive into the monitor.

The girl was the same as before, only her hair was shorter, wearing a raincoat, her dirty face somewhat awkwardly smiling.

"Hello? Can you hear me speak?" Ban Xia spoke towards the camera, then turned her head as if asking someone else, "It can record, right? Both sound and the image?"

She shifted slightly closer to the center of the frame and spoke,

"This is a recording, I've successfully made it to the First Base. Bai Yang, old dad, Uncle Zhao, Uncle Wang, and everyone, if you see this video, that means the data transmission is normal."

The grip of the hand on Bai Yang's shoulder suddenly tightened; normally, at this time, he would have exclaimed, but Bai Yang remained silent.

"The First Base is functioning quite normally, the data preservation is very complete, although I can't tell much from it, the display here looks complete, I've already sorted and sent it as per the order..." The girl leaned against the wall behind her, lifting her dirty hair with her hand, touching her forehead, and taking a deep breath, "A bit dizzy, probably because I ran too fast, I've never run as fast in my life as today, fell several times along the way too."

"The current time is 9:50 PM; I probably can still talk to you for about five more minutes."

Time rewound to half an hour earlier, Ban Xia located the entrance to the First Base; it was beneath a manhole cover labeled "Defense Optical Cable, Do Not Dig". The entrance was a deep vertical shaft, and her flashlight couldn't reach the bottom. Metal ladders embedded in the well's wall accommodated only one person descending at a time, and she could feel a faint breeze from below carrying a slight scent of engine oil, indicating the ventilation system was still functioning.

After about ten minutes of descending, which she estimated to be the height of seven or eight stories, her feet finally touched the ground.

The bottom of the well was nearly pitch black, and the girl looked around with her flashlight.

She found herself in a narrow corridor, barely a few dozen centimeters wide, just enough to let a single person pass through, with tall walls on both sides. Taking a couple of steps forward, Ban Xia noticed a giant red button on the left wall—about the size of a dinner plate, emitting a glowing red light, very conspicuous.

She tried pressing it.

Lights flickered above her head, then the surroundings lit up.

It was a power switch.

Ban Xia turned off the flashlight and surveyed her surroundings again; she initially thought this narrow corridor led to the entrance of the First Base. In reality, this corridor was all there was to the First Base. Looking about ten meters ahead, the path ended in a dead end, and the walls were embedded with monitors, buttons, knobs, and levers—clearly, it was an operational panel; this sparse, rough-looking place smudged with grey cement didn't even have a chair.

Bai Yang had told her that the First Base contained simplistic yet comprehensive operation instructions; even a monkey put inside could learn how to make it run.

Indeed, Ban Xia noticed words on the left wall in bold orange.

"First, please push the lever upward."

Beneath the instruction was a sturdy black lever, resembling a plane's throttle. The girl grasped it with both hands and pushed upward.

During the push, she heard "click-clack" sounds from within the walls, unclear what mechanisms were activating. When she pushed the lever up, another line of text appeared:

"Computer protection cover is now open."

After opening the computer protection cover, a thick arrow on the wall pointed forward, leading to the second instruction, "Second, please turn the knob to the left."

Ban Xia followed the instruction beneath the knob and turned it to the left; after turning, the knob's dial displayed a line of small text: "Power is connected." She moved forward one step, following the arrow to see the third instruction.

"Third, please pull the lever downward."