Once We Lived in Nanjing

"Are you guys hungry? I'll ask Xiao Zhu to order takeout. What do you want to eat?"

A few seconds later, everyone in the car took off their headphones and turned their heads.

"What should we eat?" Wang Ning rubbed his hands, "Local Zhejiang cuisine? Sichuan food? Or BBQ skewers?"

"Don't you have Meituan yourself?" Bai Zhen asked, "Why do you always let Xiao Zhu do everything? Is he just here to order food for you as the office manager?"

"I'm busy here, aren't I?" Old Wang picked up the phone, shook it, then clamped it between his neck, pulled out a pen and small notebook, "Working!"

"Stewed beef with lifted foot, this one is good," Zhao Bowen said. "There are several places nearby. They all were pretty decent."

"Okay." Old Wang nodded, reached for the dial pad, "Hello? This is Wang Ning, please transfer to line 06... Yes, right, hello? Xiao Zhu, can you order some food for us? Have you had lunch yet? You have? That's good. Please order two servings of stewed beef with lifted foot, and also two baskets of crab roe soup dumplings, some skewers too... Alcohol? No alcohol, we're working, not partying. Just get some coconut juice."

"Charge it to the headquarters' account."

After finishing, he hung up the phone cleanly and liberally, especially that last part, was refreshingly blunt.

The people around didn't speak, but one could detect a hint of disdain, probably because no one liked their jerk of a boss, Wang Ning.

Half an hour later, Xiao Zhu appeared outside the car door holding two large food boxes, tapping on the window with his head.

The food arrived, and the work team ate in shifts.

Zhao Bowen, Bai Zhen, and Wang Ning squatted by the car tires eating their boxed meals while mumbling, their hair unkempt, cheeks gaunt, and clothes shabby, looking like three migrant workers who had just come to the city. The security guard at Life Insurance Square felt their presence by the bustling building entrance was an eyesore and wanted to shoo them away.

But before they could approach, plainclothes officers who emerged from nowhere stopped them.

The security guard was startled by the ID tucked inside the jacket of the officer, and when he looked up again at the three figures squatting on the curbside eating their meals, their unkempt demeanor suddenly seemed unfathomable.

"How many plainclothes officers are around here, anyway?" Wang Ning asked.

"Who cares how many? Does it affect our eating?" Bai Zhen retorted, stuffing a soup dumpling into his mouth, "When do we start the next step of our plan?"

"After seven tonight, we'll start as soon as we can connect with the signal," Zhao Bowen replied, "After it gets dark, the camera can work for four hours. It gets dark at six, so we start at seven, giving us three hours of stakeout time."

"What if we don't catch anything?"

"Then we continue tomorrow," Zhao Bowen said. "Unless our luck is really that bad, the likelihood of encountering something at Xinjiekou is very high. The computer team's simulation tells us we have a seventy percent chance of encountering the Swordman."

"Your guess better be solid," Bai Zhen spat a small piece of bone to the ground, "If it's wrong, the whole plan is a waste."

"Just as solid as the Riemann hypothesis," Zhao Bowen said in a deadpan.

"The Riemann hypothesis hasn't been proved yet," Wang Ning said.

"Being unproven doesn't stop us from using it, and my guess being unproven won't stop us either," Zhao Bowen said matter-of-factly, "As long as it helps us catch the Big Eyes, whether my guess is provable or not doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it's a black cat or a white cat; as long as it catches the mouse, it's a good cat."

"Is this scientific?"

"Of course, it's scientific," Zhao Bowen said, "As long as it produces results, who cares how you pieced the data together."

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That evening at seven.

"All units at each station, this is Zhao Bowen, final routine check."

"Team one reporting, all is normal."

"Team two reporting, all is normal."

"Team three reporting, all is normal."

"This is the command center, all is normal." This voice was from Lian Qiao.

Old Zhao stood inside the command vehicle, glanced at his watch, "All units, countdown begins, five! Four! Three! Two! One! Signal connected!"

Once the signal connected, Bai Zhen and Wang Ning's computer screens flickered. If it weren't for the noisy static on the dark background, they might have thought their screens had gone dead.

This was a very long video data transmission link, two wireless cameras placed at Xinjiekou were the source. They sent image signals to a wireless router, the router sent signals to Icom725, Icom725 transmitted the data to the post twenty years ago, distributing it to all departments, with the two cameras respectively marked as Camera One and Camera Two. Camera One's signal receiver was the computer in front of Bai Zhen, and Camera Two's was in front of Wang Ning.

Both men stared at their computer screens. They would need to keep watching like this until the camera batteries ran out tonight.

"It's so dark, I can't see anything clearly," Bai Zhen said, "I should have gotten an infrared camera."

"So we just keep staring like this?" Wang Ning asked.

"Yes."

Wang Ning and Bai Zhen, both deputy team leaders, their task was to stay inside the vehicle and continuously monitor the screens, no leaving their posts no matter what happened.

Zhao Bowen stood between them, occasionally looked down at his watch. As time passed, beads of sweat formed on his forehead and soon his shirt was soaked through. Old Zhao unbuttoned his collar, took a deep breath, the vehicle had no open windows, and the air conditioning was set very high continuously blowing hot air.