Once We Lived in Nanjing

The following day.

Lian Qiao walked in with a big bulging bag and dumped all sorts of items on the floor in a noisy clutter. Old Bai and Old Wang leaned in.

"What are these things?" Bai Zhen squatted down to fiddle with them, "Cameras? Solar panels?"

"This look like wireless routers?" Wang Ning bent over, casually picking up a thick cable, "What's all this stuff for?"

"I asked Xiao Lian to buy these." Sitting on the sofa, Zhao Bowen closed his laptop and took off his Bluetooth headset, "Also, Miss Qiu has been deployed."

Everyone present was surprised.

"That fast?"

"Speed is of the essence in warfare." Old Zhao stood up and came over, "The project team is racing against time, Miss Qiu is on her way to Wenchang."

"Wenchang?"

"Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, we'll send Miss Qiu off on the Long March 5 rocket, using the second-generation spacecraft as the vehicle. It will be the world's first nuclear bomb to travel to space on a manned spacecraft. In terms of treatment, it's so much higher than its brothers and sisters, a spacious and bright manned spacecraft compared to the cramped intercontinental missile warheads, isn't it like a super first-class cabin?" Zhao Bowen squatted down beside Bai Zhen, reaching for a camera on the floor that Lian Qiao had scavenged according to his request. Old Zhao weighed it and then took the battery out.

Catching the Long March 5 Y3 launch was purely a coincidence; you could say China is big enough that as long as you want to find something, you can always find it.

"When does the Long March 5 launch?" Bai Zhen asked.

"On the 27th of this month." Zhao Bowen answered, "Time is extremely tight, and days wait for no one. It wasn't easy to get our hands on this big rocket, even with an imperial sword in hand, it took a long time to pull it off."

"When is it coming back?"

"Treated as the origin of our coordinate system, the spacecraft's return capsule will re-enter the atmosphere around 10 p.m. on December 27th, twenty years from now. It will land near Meihua Villa, within a one-kilometer diameter circle. Since it's not carrying living people, the landing can be a bit rough."

"We've got the nuclear bomb there, but what about the follow-up actions?" Wang Ning asked.

That was a question on everyone's mind and was still unresolved.

The nuclear bomb was on its way, and the rocket stood in the launch tower, seemingly all ready. But how would the bomb be detonated? How could it precisely destroy the Big Eye?

"Let's get Miss Qiu there first! We're catching the last train, and we'll take it one step at a time after that."

Old Zhao said that, but he actually had a plan in his heart.

He was going to take a gamble.

"A ten percent chance is worth a try, a thirty percent chance is considered confident, and a fifty percent chance, that's called a near certainty."

Zhao Bowen said this at the provincial committee meeting, his plan was only based on a hypothesis - a hypothesis is not a big deal, Riemann's hypothesis is also a hypothesis.

"What's your confidence level in your plan?" someone asked.

"Worth one-tenth of a percent try." Old Zhao answered.

A one percent chance.

The attendees exchanged glances, communicating silently. Given the current, almost hopeless situation, a one percent chance of success was quite remarkable.

"Are you really willing to try with just a 1 percent chance?" Bai Zhen helps tear open the packaging of the solar panels, "You're really taking a risk here, can you afford the responsibility?"

"I can't." Zhao Bowen says briskly as he works across the coffee table, "Why don't you take on this responsibility?"

"No, no, no, a Taoist priest fears death as much as his fellow monks. This arduous task is all yours, old Zhao." Old Bai shakes his head promptly, "Heaven bestows great responsibilities on those it wishes to strengthen, it first tests their resolve, exhausts their muscles and bones, starves their body and skin. The organization values and trusts you for a reason, and it's precisely because of your extraordinary mental resilience, a one in a million."

"Cut the crap, I'm going bald."

Zhao Bowen snorts coldly.

Wang Ning glances at old Zhao's thick black hair and snorts coldly as well.

"Now that it's tied up, you should tell us what these cameras are for." Wang Ning uses transparent tape to wrap the solar panels tightly together and pushes them across the coffee table, "Setting up two cameras, what can they do? Can they solve 'Big Eyes'?"

"1 percent chance to solve 'Big Eyes', 99 percent chance it can't." Zhao Bowen answers, "But regardless of the percentages, they are meaningless. The plan has now encountered an unsolvable problem, everyone is stuck, and the most troublesome time is when everyone stops moving... The important thing is not to stop. When such a large team halts, it cools down and solidifies; restarting it would be difficult. We need a breakthrough to give everyone hope, to keep the energy, enthusiasm, and vitality alive."

"Are you Cao Cao?" Wang Ning says.

"Cao Cao?"

"You're quenching thirst by looking at plums." Wang Ning explains, "I just wonder if these plums really exist?"

"What exactly is your plan, old Zhao?" Bai Zhen also asks as he tapes up the second camera and pushes it across the coffee table, "Are these cameras some kind of panacea?"

Zhao Bowen is mysterious, continuing to tease his two old pals, making them extremely annoyed.

"Next, we're going to place these two things at Xinjiekou." Zhao Bowen stacks the two cameras, each securely wrapped in transparent tape with antennas and solar panels, an enormous package. He turns his head and asks Lianqiao to help carry the wireless router, "Test if we can remotely connect these two cameras with 725, the technical department said it's possible, but we still need to try."

"Remote connect two cameras using the 725 radio? With coaxial cable or fiber optics?" Lianqiao follows behind him asking, "Dragging a five-kilometer cable from Xinjiekou to the headquarters..."

"The signal loss is too severe, it won't work." Zhao Bowen says, "Have you ever seen a five-kilometer-long Ethernet cable? It stops at a hundred meters."

"Use fiber optics!"

"Multimode fiber optics go up to two kilometers at most, not enough." Zhao Bowen continues, "We use wireless transmission, the wireless router you're holding can be flashed to act as a signal relay."

Zhao Bowen plans to place two cameras at Xinjiekou, and from his behavior, it seemed as though he intended to use the cameras as bait—this baffled everyone, there was no evidence suggesting 'Big Eyes' had an interest in cameras. If it did, with hundreds of thousands of cameras around Nanjing City, wouldn't 'Big Eyes' be overwhelmed in the city?

What kind of bizarre tactic is this?

"It's not a bizarre tactic, this is called the 'Stare-down Plan with Big Eyes'. If my guess isn't wrong, then this is key to defeating 'Big Eyes'."

Zhao Bowen picks up a roll of transparent tape, bites down on the tape with his teeth, and fiercely tears it downward.

"Hsshrkk—"

Ban Xia tears off the last strip of tape, wrapping it layer by layer around the camera. After securing everything, she picks it up and shakes it to make sure all peripherals are fixed, then tosses them into the backpack.

"BG, I'm all set here."

She slings the backpack over her shoulders, pulls out her pocket watch to check the time, attaches her hand-held radio, and heads out the door.

A bright crescent moon hangs in the sky, the black city like a marsh. The girl leaves the apartment building, stands on the open space in front of the building and glances at the moon, then turns and quickly disappears into the night.