Once We Lived in Nanjing

Ban Xia crouched down, brushed away the soil on the surface of the sphere, barely making out its dark red color under the moonlight. It seemed there were white characters and a serial number, but they were worn down to the point of being unreadable. She almost tripped over it twice, which seemed like fate.

The Miss Qiu, covered in dirt, had been here for who knows how long, perhaps even rooted around by a wild boar, otherwise, it was hard to explain why it wasn't staying nicely inside the return capsule, but instead ended up in a pit. Ban Xia knelt down, embraced the large sphere with both hands; it was hard to imagine that after its explosion, its power would equate to ten thousand tons of TNT. Roughly thirty centimeters in diameter, half-buried in the soil, it had a weight disproportionate to its volume. The girl tried twice to lift it, failed both times, and ultimately had to roll it out.

It was really heavy.

Miss Qiu rolled to a stop beside Ban Xia's calves.

It was miraculous, such a tiny sphere, capable after explosion of destroying the entire Xinjiekou—where was all that energy hidden?

Ban Xia thought to herself.

Human beings truly possess unbelievable power.

She took out a small knife, unscrewed two screws, and removed a palm-sized cover, revealing the nuclear bomb's control panel.

The cover she removed was light yet sturdy; Ban Xia twisted it with her hands, it felt like some high-strength plastic, two millimeters thick, the outer wall was painted red, the inner wall black, probably the carbon fiber BG mentioned.

Under the cover was the control window, different from what Ban Xia had imagined—it did not use a button keyboard for password entry, but a six-digit mechanical roller; beside the roller was a thin key slot, the small panel was arranged very compactly, the steps to unlock the nuclear bomb were simple—first insert the key, then enter the password, to unlock the nuclear bomb.

The sign of successful unlocking was red turning to green—Ban Xia originally thought it was a red light turning into a green light, but upon seeing the nuclear bomb, she realized her mistake. The control panel's red wasn't a light, but a semicircular metal disk painted in dark red, with the yellow word "Circuit Breaker".

One could imagine, after unlocking, the disk would turn to the green half.

The design direction of this nuclear bomb was beyond Ban Xia's expectations; it showcased high integration and mechanization, indeed mechanization and not electronic or digital. To withstand long durations and harsh conditions, the designers utilized a large amount of mechanical structures in the narrow space between the bomb shell and the explosives. It was a sophisticated mechanism; many moving components did not require electricity to enhance reliability.

The girl replaced the control window's cover and breathed a sigh of relief.

Now that everything was ready, she just needed to wait for the key to be delivered to her to unlock it.

Miss Qiu, once unlocked, would enter into a ready-to-trigger state, where the trigger's last safety measure would be disabled, turning it into the most dangerous weapon in the world.

"BG, the 'mushroom' has been picked, and it's intact."

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The living room had been silent for a long time, nobody expected that after braving so many great storms, they would be stumped at the last moment by a tiny USB drive—how could they ensure the key was safely delivered to the girl's hands?

This problem appeared simple at first glance but was nearly impossible to achieve upon closer reflection, fundamentally contradicting the three laws relied on by the Time Slow Delivery headquarters—chronic sabotage at Time Slow Delivery's core is to make it seem dead before revival, to reduce the information carried by Time Slow Delivery as much as possible—equating to placing it in a high-risk environment close to loss.

This was something the client—nuclear weapons project team and the people behind them, could not afford.

A key that might leak the mechanism to unlock nuclear weapons, no one could bear the responsibility for its loss.

Therefore, the client had only one requirement:

Safety.

This safety was not just physically, but also politically significant, and the latter could not be ignored because it was the source of power for the headquarters. When one relies on the power of a strong system to achieve goals, compliance with its rules and restrictions is inevitable—unbounded freedom is impossible. These hardships, brought about by humans, are unavoidable and insurmountable. Zhao Bowen sighed, having a deep understanding of this. This was perhaps the inherent limitation of human society.

Old Zhao, Old Bai, Old Wang sat at one end of the coffee table, while representatives of the nuclear industry project team sat at the other end,

"This thing is too troublesome," Wang Ning pulled out a tissue and wiped his nose, "According to what you said, neither throwing the time capsule into the lake nor embedding it in the wall works."

"No, it doesn't," the nuclear project team shook their heads.

"Then I'm out of ideas," Wang Ning shook his head, threw the tissue into the bin, stood up, and walked past the coffee table to the door, "It's too stuffy in the living room, I'm going out for some fresh air."

"I will go for some fresh air too," Bai Zhen stood up and followed.

The two went downstairs to the residential complex.

"These bastards don't trust us at all," Wang Ning said, "They are on guard everywhere, like guarding against a thief."

"Typical, those in the group include operatives from the Zhongbao Committee or state security, like those two sitting there not speaking much, not all of them are from Zhonghe," Bai Zhen commented, "I've dealt with this when I was in the army; I can spot their kind a mile away."

"You've dealt with them? You never mentioned it, what did they need your assistance investigating?"

"Oh, I was the one being investigated."

"Shit," Wang Ning said, "It turns out you have a record, and they are all here because of you?"

"Bullshit, what past do I have? You think they are targeting me? They are watching the key," Bai Zhen spat, "The basic principle in this line of work is to assume the worst. It's not the 'what if's' that scare me, it's the 'just in case's'. From their perspective, burying the key to nuclear weapons in a residential area for twenty years is completely unacceptable. Who knows whether you'll dig it up tomorrow as a ghost or not?"

"Who the fuck would dig it up?"

"Who knows who might get bought off in the future," Bai Zhen said, "This vigilance is necessary."

"So," Wang Ning said, "This doesn't work, that doesn't work, how should we deliver the key?"

Bai Zhen said nothing.

When the two wandered around the building and returned upstairs, Zhao Bowen and the nuclear project team had already started arguing; to be precise, old Zhao was cussing them out single-handedly.

Old Zhao is old Zhao, he doesn't back down even when facing the clients, he curses as usual.

"This risk is necessary!" Old Zhao was fuming, "You talk politics, but physics doesn't follow politics!"

The nuclear project team was helpless, they tried to pacify Zhao Bowen: "Director Zhao, please calm down, there's nothing we can do, the higher-ups demanded it, this involves nuclear weapons, it's not a trivial matter, we can't be careless."

"They are waiting over there!" Zhao Bowen pointed towards the bedroom door, his face red and neck swollen, "That girl is threatened with fatal danger, she could be discovered by Swordman at any minute, every minute is precious, if this delays our strategic advantage, leading to uncontrollable consequences, who can bear the responsibility? You, me, everyone present, who can bear it?"

"Director Zhao, please… please sit down, let's talk, there's nothing we can't discuss."

"Talk! Talk! Is there even time left for talking!"

"Director Zhao, we're not saying you can't proceed, but you also haven't come up with a reliable plan, have you?" the nuclear project team seemed somewhat wronged, "Besides, retreating ten thousand steps back, even you think using the time capsule is an unreliable plan. If you really build it into the wall, you can't follow the double-blind principle of Time Slow Delivery; the likely outcome is failure, wouldn't that delay our strategic advantage too?"

Zhao Bowen was speechless.

Indeed, he couldn't come up with a viable plan.

They had only used the slow delivery method buried in walls once, by embedding the time capsule deep within the stone gates of Meihua Villa. However, doing so made it nearly impossible for BG4MSR to extract, the more enclosed and solid the burial, the higher the probability it will reach its destination, but the more difficult it is to retrieve. If reinforced with a thick layer of steel-reinforced concrete, it could not be opened without destructive means, not to mention the girl had no such means; even if she did, the likelihood was high that the key would be destroyed in the process.

If it wasn't buried firmly enough, simply digging a hole in a wall to hide it might not withstand the major filtering mechanism.

Old Zhao's brow was tightly furrowed, this tiny gadget was indeed a big trouble.