Once We Lived in Nanjing

"Okay, Xuan, Zang, got it," Bai Yang noted down on paper, then paused slightly, "Miss, this isn't an English word, these are the pinyin for Chinese, it represents Xuanzang, OVER."

It seems that the teacher also does some inexplicable little things in her spare time, such as annotating pinyin in the "Journey to the West."

"Page 152, there's a very big question mark on this page, as big as a page."

"Okay, a very big question mark." Bai Yang drew a large question mark on the paper, "OVER."

He was recording the drafts left in the book by the teacher, those incomprehensible texts or formulas that neither Ban Xia nor Bai Yang could fully understand by themselves. Bai Yang's task was to write them down completely and hand them over to a professional like Zhao Bowen when he returned for further research and interpretation.

"Wow, this is a drawing."

"What kind of drawing? OVER."

"It's quite scribbled, I can't really make out what it is…" Ban Xia turned the book on the desk to a new angle, "Is it the Sun?"

On page 153 of "Journey to the West", the teacher sketched a large doodle with a black pen, drawing a sun—or perhaps a moon—at the top half of the paper, the handwriting was sloppy and repeatedly smudged, making it seem like the continuous circles were drawn unconsciously if not for the other elements in the picture. Ban Xia realized it was a celestial body because it still radiated light, with thin straight lines radiating from that circle in all directions.

On the lower half of the page, the teacher drew a straight line, probably representing the ground.

Above the ground there were square buildings, dense high-rises, all covered with messy shadows.

Ban Xia realized it was a city under the illumination of a black sun or a moon.

And there were people.

Tiny stick figures, many of them, but Ban Xia suddenly became puzzled as she scrutinized the doodles, looking at them one by one.

All these little figures had an apparent, visible abnormality.

Did the teacher draw them incorrectly?

Why don't they have heads?

···

Life was turning out a bit unexpected for Bai Zhen, he had barely established what seemed like a formidable Reverse Future World-saving Amateur Radio Emergency Communication Command Center, just by its name length, it probably equals to a North American Aerospace Defense Command plus a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, but since the establishment, all he had been doing was the work of a cunning second-hand electronics market dealer at Huaqiang North.

"If we're using the Hikvision camera, then connect it to the network port." Wang Ning sat opposite him on a small stool, holding an adapter in his hand, "Or use the USB one, connect to the USB port, which is better?"

"See which one is easier to handle." Bai Zhen replied.

"For image transmission, we need to unplug the repeater first, right?" Wang Ning asked.

"Yes, after all, the radio only has one hand mic port, we need to replace the repeater to hook up the mainboard, the connection is almost the same." Bai Zhen nodded, "It can't have both remote control and image transmission capabilities at the same time, you can't have your cake and eat it too, at least not for now."

The Celeron 3150 industrial mainboard, powered up, was hanging on the wall, stuffed with adapter cables.

"Did you go back to your hometown recently?" Wang Ning suddenly asked.

Bai Zhen looked up at him and nodded, "What's up?"

"Is your old house still there?"

"Of course, it's still there, in good condition," Bai Zhen said, "I even reinforced it a bit."

"Bai, what if all this really ends up ruined…" Wang Ning leaned in and gestured around, "Would digging a basement to hide in be useful?"

"That's like asking if digging a hole in the sand on the beach would be helpful against a tsunami's giant wave." Bai Zhen said, "Do you think it would be?"

"But aren't you also digging?"

"What choice do I have, us little fish and shrimps, what can we do if we don't dig holes?" Bai Zhen shrugged, "What else do you expect, flying to the sky?"

"I'm planning to buy a house where you are," Wang Ning said, "And you help me keep an eye on it."

"The homestead land in the countryside can't be sold, the paperwork won't go through."

"Under the table is fine, I don't need a property certificate, just the land use rights, ultimately the property certificate will just be a piece of waste paper anyway." Wang Ning said, "I need to dig a hole too."

"Then it's best to dig deeper, if we live close, we could even connect underground." Bai Zhen pulled a soldering iron from under the coffee table, "Do you know how to dig trench fortifications?"

Wang Ning sighed.

"Can you believe this mess, everything was fine, and then suddenly, it's the end of the world? Couldn't it wait until I was dead?"

"Back in '99, wasn't everyone screaming about the end of the world too?" Bai Zhen pulled a roll of solder from under the coffee table, "Accept reality, life just doesn't make sense."

Although they say when the sky falls, there's the taller one to support it, ordinary people always manage to find a way to survive through the cracks.

But Wang Ning and Bai Zhen already knew the outcome, they were aware that this was an unavoidable disaster, in which no one could escape harm.

"Stock up on supplies, food, drinks, utilities," Bai Zhen said, "When society really stops functioning, it will be hard to find anything, we might have to revert to primitive living."

"No matter how many supplies we prepare, how long can we last?" Wang Ning asked, "What about our next generation? What about our sons?"