Once Upon in Nanjing-Chapter 14 - 1 I Come from 2nd and 4th Holes

The next day was Monday, and as soon as I arrived at school, it was time for exams, one after another – mathematics followed by English. Senior year high school is like falling into purgatory, especially torturous for young master He, who would frequently quote Mr. Ji Xianlin to express his strong dissatisfaction: Always taking exams, if it's not you being tested, it's me. What the hell are we even testing for!

Exactly! *** once said, during exams, we could whisper to each other – if I don't know the answer, but you do, I could just copy from you and still gain some insights, right?

His classmates Bai Yang and Yan Zhihan applauded in agreement.

"Then Bai Yang, why not just let me copy your paper?" He Leqin leaned over and asked.

Get lost.

For the following period, Bai Yang was entirely immersed in his studies day and night, unable to break free. When he returned home at night, he was greeted by a mountain of English readings and math papers. The IC725 shortwave radio sat untouched, and gradually, he pushed that strange radio contact from his mind.

The incident of being stood up on the street for two and a half hours went unmentioned to anyone. Initially dwelling on it, intent on finding the person and demanding an explanation, but as he got swept up in the burdensome and complicated schoolwork, consumed with tackling exams day after day, he soon forgot about it.

The only lesson he kept in mind was: the things on the internet... ah no, on the radio, are illusory, beyond his grasp.

It wasn't until half a month later that his dad mentioned there was a foxhunting contest locally, set on Zijin Mountain, taking place over the National Day holiday, and asked if he wanted to go see the excitement.

Foxhunting, in this case, refers to amateur radio direction finding competitions.

Radio direction finding is an important aspect of amateur radio sports. Essentially, it's a treasure hunt game. The contest organizers hide several radio stations in different locations around the forest in advance. These stations continuously broadcast signals - "This is Fox One! This is Fox One!" "This is Fox Two! This is Fox Two!", and the HAMs participating have to use their radios to receive these signals and locate these fox stations, finding them all.

During the hunt, HAMs need to use a Yagi Antenna.

A Yagi Antenna is a highly directional antenna. The simplest Yagi Antenna is comprised of three horizontal and one vertical elements, forming a '丰' shape. This device can lose reception with just a slight misalignment, therefore using it can help detect the direction of the signal's source.

With a Yagi Antenna in hand, a HAM becomes a human flesh scanning radar, spinning the antenna round and round. Whichever direction provides the strongest signal indicates where the fox station is, somewhat akin to using a divining rod to find dragons.

Sounds kind of fun, right?

His dad said it's really an old boys' club, and compared to the competition itself, it's actually the drinking and kebab-grilling that happens after it's over that's more interesting.

With just a few words, his dad pulled Bai Yang out of the mountain of books and problem sets, back into the HAM circle. He began to stir with excitement again.

Today is Friday, and tomorrow is the last Saturday before the National Day holiday.

So, on a dark and windy night where all was silent, Bai Yang sat at his desk, pulled the curtains, connected the power, turned on the radio, put on the headphones, intending to tune the frequency, hesitated for a few seconds, then didn't adjust the frequency, and finally sent out a call on the 14.255MHZ channel.

From a God's-eye view, the author and the readers can now know that if Hertz's electromagnetic wave, emitted in Germany's Karlsruhe 130 years ago, changed the world for the first time.

Then on September 27, 2019, the electromagnetic wave emitted from the old IC725 in a unit of Zhongqin Garden, Meihua Villa, Qinhuai District, Nanjing City, changed the world for the second time.

Bai Yang once again made contact with that strange radio station.

BG4MSR.

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"2040?"

When Bai Yang heard this year, his first reaction was that his brain must be fried.

Either her brain was fried, or his own brain was fried – one of them definitely had a fried brain.

"BG4MSR, this is BG4MXH. What did you just say? Could you please repeat? 20 what? Two zero what? OVER."

He released the hand mic.

The other party quickly responded.

"BG4MXH, this is BG4MSR. I'll repeat, two zero four zero! Today is September 27th, 2040! OVER."

Bai Yang sat in his chair, took out his phone to check the date and time, then glanced at the colorful SQL cards pinned up on the bookshelf. He pondered for a long while in his mind, thinking although it's wrong of you, miss, to have stood me up last time, do you really need to come up with such a ridiculous excuse to fob me off? You could have said your bike got stuck in traffic, the subway was delayed due to heavy rain, or you encountered a counterfeit bill with a mobile payment – those would all be more believable than claiming it's now 2040, right?

For a moment, Bai Yang wasn't sure how to reply.

He had reestablished contact with BG4MSR tonight and, following the principle that all HAMs are part of one family, he didn't want to pursue the responsibility of being left hanging. After such a long time, his frustration had already dissipated, and he didn't even care for an apology anymore. What amazed him, though – the girl actually asked why he hadn't kept the date that day?

That was just absurdly laughable.

After all, who was it that didn't keep the appointment?

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Heaven has seen it all, I stood at the intersection from six o'clock and waited until eight-thirty without even having dinner!

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Crying thief to cover one's own tracks, you're trying to bite back, aren't you?

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So, both sides started to argue, insisting that they both waited at the intersection until very late that day, but saw no one else arrive.

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Bai Yang: I swear on my personality, I absolutely waited at the intersection until eight-thirty, but I didn't see a person wearing a white shirt, black backpack, and pushing a bicycle at all.

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Ban Xia: I also swear on my personality, I truly waited at the intersection all night until dawn, but I didn't see anyone come to the meeting.

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Bai Yang: Then what's going on? One of us must be lying.

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Ban Xia: I am not lying.

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Bai Yang: Are you really dressed as you claimed?

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Ban Xia: Of course.

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Bai Yang: Then I can confirm I didn't see you at six o'clock. You didn't get the place wrong, did you? The intersection from Muxuyuan Street to Zhongshanmen Street.

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Ban Xia: I was under the overpass.

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Bai Yang: Right, under the overpass... What's the matter then? The place is correct, you didn't oversleep, did you? Like sleeping for two days straight, and you actually went the next day.

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Ban Xia: You're the one who overslept! My daily routine has always been very regular, and I confirmed the date before I left, September 8th! It's you, did you get the date wrong?

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Bai Yang: No, that day was indeed a Sunday, September 8th.

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Ban Xia: September 8th, 2040?

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Bai Yang: September 8th, 2019.

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Ban Xia: What?

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Bai Yang: What?

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This girl must have a screw loose in her head.

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Are there no sane people left who play with shortwave radios nowadays?

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Bai Yang didn't want to keep communicating, he still has to attend classes tomorrow, there's no point in babbling here all night. The National Day holiday weekend was rescheduled and he needed to take two days of classes.

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"BG4MSR, this is BG4MXH, let's call it a night, I'm going to take a bath, OVER."

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"BG4MXH, this is BG4MSR, you say it's 2019 over there, how can you prove your words? How do you confirm your identity? OVER."

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Bai Yang laughed to himself, shouldn't he be the one asking that question?

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"BG4MSR, this is BG4MXH, it should be me asking you that question. How can you confirm your identity? How can you prove it is 2040 over there? Why don't you tell me the next lottery numbers? If you get it right, I'll believe you, OVER."

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"BG4MXH, what is a lottery? OVER."

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"BG4MSR, if you don't know about the lottery, then you can tell me next year's university entrance exam answers, OVER."

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Bai Yang babbled nonsense; if you're from twenty years in the future, then prove it. If you can, tell me the winning lottery numbers or next year's university entrance exam answers.

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At the same time, he wandered in his thoughts; what if the other party was telling the truth? It would be mind-blowing. The future of his world would be her past, meaning she could tell him everything that's going to happen. Wouldn't that mean he could foresee the future? Getting rich overnight wouldn't be a problem, getting into Tsinghua University or Peking University either; he would be on an invincible and glorious path in life.

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But that was just wishful thinking; one would know it's impossible just by thinking with one's butt.

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"BG4MXH, what is the university entrance exam? OVER."

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"BG4MSR, you don't know the university entrance exam? You can ask your parents or other friends, they definitely know, OVER."

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Bai Yang said lazily, he wanted to see how long this poor lie can spin.

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"BG4MXH, there are no other people here, OVER."

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No other people?

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Bai Yang was startled, what did that mean?

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A few seconds later, the other party added:

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"In 2040, I am the only person left in the entire world."

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