Once Upon in Nanjing-Chapter 26 - 12 Neighborhood Garden Action_2

This was my first reaction.

In the second half of the year 2020, during the National Day holiday in October, I visited the individual concerned for the first time. By then, it had been half a year since everything had ended.

Building 11 of Meihua Villa is a very old building with eight floors and no elevator. Entering through the entrance of the building, you can see rusty mailboxes hanging on the walls and an old road bicycle parked against the wall. Climbing up the stairs one step at a time, the eighth floor is at the top level, and there are clotheslines stretched across the hallway with wet clothes hanging on them.

I knocked on the iron door of apartment 804, and the door was opened by a young man—he was already a college student by then, wearing a simple black short-sleeve shirt, his hair a bit messy, wearing slippers. From the first sight of him, I knew he was the one I was looking for because this young man matched the image of Bai Yang I had envisioned in my mind. However, he stared at me with some suspicions for a good while, probably pondering whether this travel-worn man was the writer he had a long conversation with on WeChat the night before.

Bai Yang let me into his room, saying that he was the only one at home now, as his parents had gone traveling.

The room serves both as a study and a bedroom, not very spacious, just enough space for two people to turn around.

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My attention was quickly drawn to a massive black object on the bookshelf, which looked like some kind of large radio.

That is...

I asked.

I had never seen that possibly world-saving amateur radio station before, and I couldn't help but be curious.

Oh, that's not Twisted Twenty-Five.

Bai Yang smiled.

That's the IcR8600, given to me by the people from the commission. Twisted Twenty-five was taken away by the people from Nanda, saying they wanted to research it.

When the conversation turned to the first instance of Time Slow Delivery, Bai Yang pondered for a long time before throwing a question at me:

Teacher Tian Rui, what do you imagine Time Slow Delivery to be like?

I was taken aback.

What would Time Slow Delivery look like? Maybe digging a hole in the ground, burying something, letting it sit for twenty years, and then the other person digs it up?

Is it that simple? Bai Yang asked.

Could it be more complicated? Isn't it just that simple?

Then Teacher Tian Rui, let's consider a situation, Bai Yang said, suppose you live twenty years from now, and I want to send you something. I have a thought in my head now, deciding to bury a time capsule downstairs tonight, but before I bury it, I use the radio to inform you to go dig it up, do you think you will find it?

I furrowed my brows, thinking deeply.

Teacher Tian Rui, do you have this idea: for people twenty years later, what happens now has become history, so even though this era hasn't buried it yet, to people in the future the capsule has already been buried for twenty years?

Bai Yang smiled.

I paused, then nodded.

Actually, this is impossible, because nothing would be found. Bai Yang said, I spent a long time exploring and trying, and the first pattern I summarized—I call it the first law of Time Slow Delivery—is "The first prerequisite for successful Time Slow Delivery is that the sender must know the exact information about the location of the parcel, or in other words, the state of the parcel must be definite, including its spatial and temporal coordinates."

At the operational level, this means that the sender must have truly buried the capsule before a condition is met for Time Slow Delivery. Bai Yang continued, before it is buried, its state is uncertain, and as long as there is uncertainty, there is a probability that Time Slow Delivery will fail.

After saying this, Bai Yang summed up:

In summary, any attempts to transport the capsule before it's buried are out of the question, vetoed outright, just like the example I just gave. Even though I plan to bury the capsule tonight, there are a thousand reasons that could delay this action before I do it, such as changing my mind at the last moment, or unfortunately breaking a bone if I fall while going downstairs.

It took the writer a moment to digest these words, then a question dawned on him:

The first time you tried Time Slow Delivery, you buried the capsule before notifying Ban Xia, which fully met the conditions, why did it still fail?

Bai Yang sighed softly, and posed another question:

Teacher Tian Rui, let's consider another scenario. You still live twenty years from now, and I live in the present. You communicate with me via radio, asking me to bury the capsule in a certain place, and then you go dig it up... would you be able to find it?

He didn't leave any time for me to interject, and continued directly: If it were possible to find it, a paradox would exist, you see, Teacher Tian Rui. You live in the future, I live in the present, your request is the cause, and me burying the capsule is the effect, how can the cause occur after the effect? Isn't this inversion of cause and effect?

At this point, the writer was completely immersed in thought.

And Bai Yang pushed this problem one step further toward the absurd:

Teacher Tian Rui, if you dig a hole in the grass outside, and then use the radio to tell me to bury a capsule at the same spot, what would happen then?

Would a capsule suddenly pop up in an originally empty hole?

The writer was increasingly astonished.

This question is indeed absurd, yet hard to explain.

If I live twenty years from now, facing a white wall, and I use the radio to communicate through time to tell Bai Yang to paint a picture on the same wall, what would happen to the wall in front of me?

Suddenly a picture appears?

I shook my head, indicating I couldn't understand, unable to explain.

I could only wait for Bai Yang to unveil the mystery.

No need to explain. Bai Yang unveiled the mystery, because none of this will happen, no paradox will occur, you live twenty years later and use a radio to tell me to bury the capsule, but you will not find it, you dig a hole asking me to bury a capsule in the same location, that hole will not change at all, still an empty hole.

So you're saying, if I live twenty years later and see a white wall, and I use the radio to tell you to draw on the same white wall, the wall I see will still remain unchanged?

I asked.

Yes, it will still be a white wall. Bai Yang nodded, nothing as bizarre as a painting suddenly appearing out of thin air will occur.

Why is that?

The writer was quite astonished.

No paradoxes, this does make it slightly easier to understand, but why wouldn't there be any changes on that wall? Where did the painting from twenty years ago go?

The reason for this problem is the same as the reason why my first attempt at Time Slow Delivery failed. Bai Yang sighed, then suddenly became serious, and said to the writer in a stern tone:

Because it violates the second law of the three laws of Time Slow Delivery.

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That night, Ban Xia stayed up until three in the morning with the radio, reluctant to sleep - how could she sleep at such a critical moment?

She didn't want to wait a second longer.

The girl lay exhausted on the table, wearing headphones, listening to the faint current noise, as if sitting by the sea listening to the endless waves, in the boundless sea of electromagnetic waves, Ban Xia stood on tiptoe, hoping to see the mast of a small boat appear on the horizon, and that boat would bring important news.

She didn't know how long she had waited until that familiar voice sounded on the channel, Ban Xia suddenly perked up.

The other party was panting heavily, not wasting words, and immediately reported the location:

"At the west end of the neighborhood square corridor, right in the middle under that tile!"

Ban Xia took off her headphones and dashed out.

At three o'clock in the morning, armed with a shovel and a knife, she snuck into dense bushes, Meihua Villa's neighborhood square was barely recognizable from its original appearance, the corridor Bai Yang mentioned was engulfed by overgrown weeds, and the teacher warned her not to venture inside because it harbored snakes, lethal snakes, but Ban Xia couldn't care less, all she could think about was that tile.

Bai Yang provided a precise location, and Ban Xia quickly found the tile, inserting the blade of the knife into the gap of the tile, indeed it was loose.

She was immediately thrilled.

The girl forcefully pried up the tile, then swung the shovel to dig, growing more excited as she dug, what could it be?

Food?

But I'm not lacking food.

Drink?

Drinks wouldn't last long, right?

Medicine?

It would be great if it were painkillers, give me more painkillers.

Ban Xia excitedly chanted to herself while vigorously digging, her shovel moving like the wind, but as she dug, she realized something was amiss.

She had dug very deep, yet found nothing.

Where was the item?

Did she get the location wrong? Or did he remember it wrong?

Ban Xia started digging around the adjacent tiles.

She pried up the second tile close by, panting heavily and dug to knee depth, but apart from stones, she still found nothing.

Digging up the third tile.

The fourth.

Ban Xia pried up the tiles of the corridor one by one, then dug deeply with the shovel.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Still nothing.

Why was there nothing?

That night, Ban Xia frantically dug through half of the corridor tiles, covered in mud and in a sorry state, her fingers bleeding profusely, ultimately with nothing to show for it.

Exhausted, she leaned against the column of the corridor, watching the sun rise between the high buildings, her eyes blank and hopeless.