Once We Lived in Nanjing

Black screen.

Black screen.

Black screen.

Bai Yang slowly moved closer to the screen and tapped the computer monitor with his hand.

"No signal?"

Suddenly, in the darkness, a black and white face emerged, resembling a deathly pale corpse soaked in thick black water, which startled Bai Yang and almost knocked over his chair.

"Wow!"

What kind of deathly lighting is this? She was using a flashlight to shine upwards from under her chin, casting dark shadows on the philtrum, between the eyebrows, and forehead, creating a sinister and ghostly appearance. Bai Yang never expected that this girl's first appearance would be in the form of a ghost.

Fortunately, she quickly changed the direction of the light. As the direction of the light shifted, the face on the screen came to life, revealing a delicate and fair-skinned girl. Her sweaty bangs clung to her smooth forehead, and her eyes were exceptionally distinct in black and white. She widened her eyes, moved closer to the camera with her left eye peering into it, not knowing what she was looking at, then switched to her right eye. Her eyes rolled around as she stepped back and crouched down, lifting a cardboard sign, on which was written in bold black letters:

"Can you see me?"

Under the video transmission condition, both parties couldn't communicate in real time or talk, similar to watching TV, where people outside the TV can't communicate with those inside, and could only use signs to communicate.

The girl held the cardboard in front of the camera lens for half a minute, assuming that the other party should have clearly seen the words, then crouched down again, disappearing from the camera's view momentarily, and reappeared holding another message.

"The photo looks great!"

Then she disappeared from the camera again, stood up, holding the sign and using the flashlight.

"Thank you!"

Bai Yang thought to himself that speaking this way was really troublesome, but seeing a real person made the effort worthwhile.

They had spent so much time, thought, and energy just for a chance to meet face-to-face, right? Humans are visually oriented creatures; only by seeing the face can one truly get to know another.

"Yo—" Suddenly, two hands landed on Bai Yang's shoulders, followed by a heavy pressure on his back, causing Bai Yang to stagger. Lianqiao had appeared behind him, half her body pressing down on him, tilting her head to look at the screen, "Why can't I see the face? I can only see a chin; ask her to squat down a bit."

"I can't talk to her right now... Move your hands, move your hands, you're crushing me, sis." Bai Yang patted Lianqiao's wrist, "This is a one-way video transmission; we're currently watching a silent film."

The girl on the screen changed to another cardboard sign, this time taking a bit longer to write. The sign was messily inscribed with:

"Let's switch every five minutes"

"Can you see clearly on your side? This camera doesn't seem very good"

"Is the lighting on my side a bit dark"

"Can you see clearly on your side? This camera seems not too normal, and I've changed to a very thick curtain, the room is very dark."

"It is very dark." Lianqiao said, "It would be good if we could connect during the day, it's a pity to only see the beautiful girl at night, but thankfully this time, no big eyes are causing trouble, where is that thing now?"

"Probably still wandering around in Nanjing City." Bai Yang said.

"That thing is really troublesome… Hey hey hey, what is this silly girl trying to do?" Lianqiao's face suddenly changed.

Bai Yang turned his head to look and was also startled.

"I'll perform a backflip for you!"

The large characters scared the two of them out of their wits.

"Stop her, stop her!" Lianqiao slapped Bai Yang's shoulder forcefully.

"How… how can we stop her?" Bai Yang was flustered, "I told you she can't hear me speaking from her side, it takes five minutes to switch the transmission direction! Right now damn it we can't do anything…"

While Bai Yang was speaking, the person on the screen had already climbed onto the bed. She stood on the edge of the bed, and the camera only captured her slim lower leg.

"Damn, what if she falls and hurts herself? What then?" Lian Qiao was anxious and sweating, like a parent worried about their child, "Fooling around, why perform acrobatics in such a small room?"

Bai Yang's hands hovered nervously over the table, looking for something to solve the problem, but his gaze swept around, finding nothing useful.

"I, I, I, I, I'll go call someone... I..."

He suddenly froze.

The slender figure on the screen leapt up, soared, flipped backward, and landed firmly. The camera's refresh rate couldn't keep up with her movements; Bai Yang and Lian Qiao only saw a blur before the girl was already standing gracefully on the floor, precisely within the flashlight's beam.

She wore a black turtleneck sweater and dark jeans. The camera's field of vision still couldn't capture her face; they could only see her spreading her arms, slowly bowing.

Lian Qiao and Bai Yang didn't speak for a long time.

After a long while, Lian Qiao said,

"She must have practiced for a long time."

She must have practiced for a long time, those flowing movements, flipping in the cramped bedroom, leaping lightly, landing precisely, as graceful and smooth as a dancer, she must have trained for a long time, for many years, and today, she finally found her audience.

*

*

*

Five minutes later, the data link switched, and it was Bai Yang's turn to transmit video signals while the other party received them.

Bai Yang held a stack of A4 papers, writing on them with a marker to answer questions one by one.

"We can see you."

"If you think the photo looks good, I'll go take more for you tomorrow, take a lot more."

"The light is a bit dim, but the camera still works fine, no need to change it. We can see clearly. Also, don't do backflips anymore, it's too dangerous. What if you fall?"

Bai Yang unfolded the papers and hung them in front of the camera.

He did not know if the other party really saw those words because there were no signals or feedback. Feedback would only come five minutes later when the data link switched roles, turning Bai Yang's role to receiving image data, and then he could get feedback from the girl. At this moment, everything Bai Yang was doing felt like talking to a computer.

Talking about it, this was a remarkably inefficient mode of communication, five minutes per turn, like a turn-based game. People accustomed to real-time communication would find it hard to endure in this day and age; five minutes without a reply on WeChat or QQ and you'd think the person went to defecate, ten minutes with no reply and you'd assume they drowned in the toilet.

When Bai Yang wrote on the paper, it felt like he was writing a letter.

He had never written a letter; his father's generation might have sent letters when they were young. Writing letters was an ancient way of connecting, but here he was, passing paper letters with electromagnetic waves traveling at the speed of light.

Quite a bit of science fiction retro, isn't it?

"Yangyang! Are you guys chatting?" Zhao Bowen pushed open the door, "Remind her that we're about to initiate the second phase of the East Red Action plan..."

"Got it," Bai Yang said.

"Yeah, tell her the specific plan is being arranged... Hold on, I need to take a call." Zhao's phone suddenly rang in his pocket, and he exited after closing the door, "Hello? Yes, it's me... Uh-huh, what? Brussels? What meeting? No way, I have no time to go out now. Gentlemen, every minute is precious here. Can you understand? The situation is urgent; every minute we delay, the world slips closer to destruction. I don't have time to argue with foreigners. You might want to ask Old Bai and the General; one is the deputy commander, the other is the base commander. They would be the right people for this."

After the call, Zhao Bowen pushed the door open again, seeing Bai Yang and Lian Qiao twisting their heads with serious expressions.

"It's fine, it's fine, we have plenty of time." Old Zhao waved his hand, "I was just scaring them. You know, these people would rather pass everything on to you so they won't have to take responsibility. When you're in this field, you need to have good ball-playing skills. When the ball comes to your feet, you must learn to kick it away..."

Zhao Bowen spoke with the tone of an old hand in the field.

"This is the wisdom of navigating your career."