Once We Lived in Nanjing

Bai Yang drew a circle on his draft paper, then drew an eye in the middle of this circle, and finally added six insect-like long legs to the circle.

He stared at it, reconstructed it in his mind, and 3D modeled it, allowing it to slowly stand up on the paper. What kind of figure should it be?

A one-eyed spider?

Or a big eyeball with six long legs?

Are these six legs evenly distributed in a circle, or symmetrically distributed with three on each side?

The little eyeball on the paper started to crawl with a clickety-clack; it moved quickly, crawling from one end of the draft paper to the other, then jumped onto the math textbook, flipped over the pencil case, and even tried to climb onto a stainless steel thermos. However, its attempt failed. The exterior of the stainless steel cup was smooth and offered no footholds. It climbed two steps up the vertical cup wall and then rolled down, tumbling. This fall seemed to have dizzied it; it shook its head, attempting to rise again, but an Angel Envoy suddenly descended from the sky, and with a loud "bang!" it was crushed into the dust.

Bai Yang was suddenly startled from his imagination, followed by someone's weight pressing on his shoulder.

"What is this?" He Leqin curiously leaned in, picking up the draft paper on Bai Yang's desk, "What did you draw here?"

"Humanity's archenemy," replied Bai Yang.

"Humanity's archenemy?" He Leqin turned the draft paper upside down, staring at it for a long time. "This thing is humanity's archenemy? Can it withstand an armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot round?"

"Have you seen EVA?" Bai Yang pulled the draft paper back from his hand, "This is the 19th Angel Envoy; it has an AT field that armor-piercing rounds can't penetrate."

"You should be a director, come on, let's go to the bathroom."

He Leqin pulled him up.

BG4MSR found the teacher's draft notebook, a major discovery.

They initially thought the teacher hadn't left any materials, but clearly, the teacher might not remember what he used for drafting, and Journey to the West was the one that slipped through.

However, this was only a sheet of draft paper, not a notebook, so the information was fragmented and chaotic, requiring careful analysis.

Bai Yang asked BG4MSR to start flipping through the Journey to the West from the beginning, not to overlook any clues left by the teacher; even a casual circle drawn might contain a deeper meaning.

"Little Bai Yang, what have you been up to lately?"

He Leqin stood in front of the urinal, eyes on the blue slogan ahead: Take a small step forward, a big step for civilization.

Separated by one urinal from him, Bai Yang asked, "Why do you ask that?"

"You've been acting strangely recently, rushing home right after evening self-study, not waiting for me and Yan Ge anymore." He Leqin turned his head to look at him. "What are you addicted to?"

Bai Yang looked around and once the bathroom was clear of people, he spoke: "I told you, busy saving the world."

"Still not done saving it?"

"Saving the world, is that supposed to be easy?" Bai Yang said, "If I fail, then it's game over for Earth, and we won't even need to sit for the college entrance exams."

"Then you better fail quick," He Leqin huffed, "You'd be doing all the high school seniors a huge favor by canceling the college entrance exams. You'd be our great benefactor; we'd build a monument for you."

"Alright then, I quit." Bai Yang said, "You build me a monument."

He bantered casually with He Leqin, but his thoughts were fluttering. Bai Yang increasingly felt that his brain had been filled to the brim with everything related to BG4MSR, incapable of thinking about anything else. When doing homework, he recognized the problems but his mind drew a blank. Bai Yang didn't know if it was normal; his brain didn't seem to belong to him anymore, occupied like a computer being used by someone else, spinning non-stop 24 hours a day, yet the thoughts were unrelated to him.

Complex and chaotic information rolled in his mind, growing bigger like a snowball about to burst his skull.

He couldn't stop it himself.

Bai Yang felt that one day, his brain would suddenly explode, and from within, a destroyed world would emerge.

"Think carefully about how to deal with the 19th Angel Envoy; it's the key culprit behind the world's destruction."

Bai Yang closed his eyes, perhaps only able to find a moment of peace while relieving himself.

Listening to the trickling water, as soothing as listening to rain.

"To deal with the Angel Envoy, we should create the Unit-01." He Leqin said, "Then select a few autistic youth pilots. Do you think I have the potential?"

"Where are you autistic?"

"As long as I can pilot Unit-01, I can be autistic. Don't even mention autism, I can handle being schizophrenic, I don't ask for anything else, just need a partner as beautiful as Asuka."

"Aren't you peeing right now?" Bai Yang said, "Look down at yourself."

He Leqin looked down.

"Damn."

"What's wrong?"

"It's huge."

···

Ban Xia sat at the desk, flipping through Journey to the West in hand. To avoid any omissions, she diligently turned each page one by one. The teacher had randomly used this book for drafting; Chinese characters, formulas, it was all incredibly messy and disjointed, making it generally difficult to comprehend.

"Page 151, the twelfth chapter, Xuanzang upholds sincerity and establishes the Great Assembly, Guanyin manifests to transform into the Golden Cicada." Ban Xia held her pen tight, "This page has two English words, 'Xuan,' 'Zang.'"