Цзянху Фэн Цинчэна и Мо Сибэя

Глава 16

"Change your destiny—do you know where you were born?"

Yu Ling shook her head helplessly: "I don't know."

"Nanming City".

"Is this the place?"

Although she had some doubts about whether she was still in the Sleeping City, she felt a chill run down her spine and looked up at the silent ceiling.

"Yes, you were born in this Nanming city on Buddha's Birthday in 1985. I heard your first cry outside the delivery room of Nanming Hospital."

The sound of a baby seemed to echo in her ears, causing Yu Ling to tremble and shrink back.

"Father" continued, "You are my daughter, and I named you Yuling. Your mother and I love you very much. But that year, an accident happened, and I was determined to completely change this city, for myself and for all the citizens of Nanming. However, the governor of Nanming City—Ma Qianlong—absolutely forbade me to do so. At the most critical moment, in order to protect myself and my family, and to save the entire city, I chose to take a desperate gamble!"

What did you do?

"I followed the example of the German officer Stauffenberg during World War II. Just as he entered Hitler's wolf's den, I secretly planted a bomb under the table while I was meeting with Ma Qianlong. The time bomb exploded shortly after I left, but history repeated itself. Ma Qianlong miraculously escaped death with only minor injuries, while his two old subordinates became scapegoats. Just as I was about to launch a coup, Ma Qianlong broadcast a message to the whole city, and my seven confidants were arrested one after another. I myself risked my life to escape from Nanming City."

Yu Ling frowned: "You abandoned my mother?"

“I’m sorry, I didn’t even have time to say goodbye to you and your mother. My plan was thwarted within hours, and the whole city was placed under martial law for a massive manhunt. I was incredibly lucky to escape Nanming City quietly. I left Nanming City and never heard from you or your mother again. I even suspected that you had been targeted by Ma Qianlong and killed! Now it seems I was wrong. Ma Qianlong is not as petty as I thought. He clearly spared you and your mother and let you leave Nanming City alive.”

"Then why didn't Mom bring me to find you?"

She was already somewhat skeptical when her "father," slightly agitated, grabbed her hand and said, "You must know, when I escaped Nanming City, I was penniless, without even a legal document. All my struggles in the first half of my life had gone down the drain. I completely lost contact with your mother and never expected her to bring you out. At that time, I wandered alone to Bangkok, got a fake passport, and went to Hong Kong. Your mother didn't know where I was. Perhaps she still longed for the mountains of her hometown and didn't want to live in a bustling city, or perhaps she was tired of power and money, so she took you to live in seclusion in a small mountain village."

"Is...all of this...really true?"

“Now, I am the one who rules everything here, so why would I need to lie to you?” He looked up and let out a long sigh, putting his arm around Yu Ling’s shoulder. “It’s been more than twenty years, so long since I came back—but everything has changed. All I see is a sleeping city! Perhaps the ordeal a year ago was already destined more than twenty years ago!”

"Don't touch me!" Yu Ling still felt very uncomfortable and broke free from his grasp, hiding in a corner of the room. "How did you come to the conclusion that I'm your daughter?"

Back to base camp.

The rain outside showed no signs of letting up, and the whole house seemed to be swaying in the wind and rain, with even the floorboards creaking underfoot.

Dingding hurriedly ran back to the small attic, feeling utterly exhausted. Thankfully, she had closed the skylight tightly, and the rooftop echoed with the roar of heavy rain. She took a deep breath and slumped down among the clutter. She, Xiaozhi, and Ye Xiao had spent the night there; she wondered how she would get through tonight. She guessed Xiaozhi was still being interrogated downstairs, and Ye Xiao probably wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. As for what they had experienced outside, she had no interest whatsoever.

Just as she closed her eyes to drift off to sleep, her arm bumped into something. She groggily looked down and saw an old-fashioned radio. Dingding carried it out; the radio was very bulky, with a thick cord trailing behind it, covered in a thick layer of dust. These crystal radios were common decades ago, and this was probably the oldest electrical appliance in the house.

Since the TV could receive a signal, could there also be a radio signal? Thinking of this, she immediately plugged it in, and the radio quickly lit up. Dingding excitedly wiped the dust off its surface and adjusted the radio's frequency by hand. A scale slid across the number lines, while a hoarse sound came from the speaker.

The sound emanating from the old radio made Dingding's heart nearly leap out of her chest. She quickly sat down and fiddled with the scale. Although the speaker emitted only static, a regular sound wave gradually became clearer amidst the noisy electromagnetic waves. As the scale slid down, the electromagnetic noise gradually decreased, and her anxiety grew.

Finally, she heard something, though it was still blurry against the electromagnetic background, but she could tell it was a meaningful signal.

The scale was gently fixed in place, and Dingding could already hear that it was a kind of regular melody, or more precisely, music!

The background noise had faded away, and she could clearly hear the music on the radio—it was a melodious electronic tune. She couldn't make out the melody or how it was made, but it was very different from any other sound.

At this moment, the attic was filled with the sound of music from the radio, seemingly insulated from the heavy rain on the roof. Only distant electromagnetic waves kept penetrating in, stimulating the crystal radio to emit sound.

Dingding still couldn't tell what the piece was, nor could she tell what instrument it was played on. The melody was so unique, it didn't belong to any current style, it only carried a certain mysterious color, sometimes whispering softly, sometimes rising and falling violently, tightly gripping the listener's heart.

The music lasted for several minutes, then suddenly a man's singing voice could be heard—

I wander aimlessly, unable to see the way forward.

I sing in the human world, but I hear no applause.

Arriving in cities and on stages

Seeing each face and hearing each monologue

I don't know how high the sky is or how thick the earth is.

I don't know how many hearts a person has or how deep they are.

Covered in wounds, hands filled with loneliness, feet covered in mud

A face full of helplessness, tears, and a heart full of coldness

I play my pipa, my guitar, and my pain.

I sang of my past life, my future life, and my dreams.

Let's go, let's go, through all the dust and wind.

Let's go, let's go, through all the dust and wind.

The song was sung with a desolate yet heroic tone, as if the singer were truly wandering the world, having abandoned everything yet covered in wounds. In this secluded, sleeping city, on a rainy night before the end of the world, hearing such a Chinese song on the radio waves filled me with an indescribable excitement, my hand gripping the old radio trembling uncontrollably.

As the song ended, a slight static appeared on the radio, but soon a magnetic female voice could be heard—

"Good evening, listeners. This is Lunar Radio Station, the 'Voice of Heaven' program. I'm your host, Xiaodie. We just played an old song for you, 'Wandering.' This classic Chinese song is nearly forty years old, but it's still covered by many singers. Recently, the winner of the 'Earth Boy' talent show also rose to fame by reinterpreting this old song."

Dingding thought to herself, "Why have I never heard this song, 'Wandering,' before? I've never heard it in this style before. Is it some old Hong Kong or Taiwan song from back then?"

A strange piece of music came on the radio, followed by the host speaking again—

"Today is September 30, 2046. This is a radio wave from the moon, from our media center in Moon City. Sending you our distant blessings."

2046?

Dingding initially doubted that she had misheard, but when she heard that it was radio waves from the moon, she suddenly felt as if she had been transported to another world.

It truly felt like a lifetime ago—she hadn't misheard; this was a Chinese radio broadcast from 2046, when the moon had become a Chinese colony, and a large number of the remaining Chinese population had migrated to the moon. This was also the first radio station to broadcast from Earth on the moon.

In the world of celestial secrets, in a sleeping city, on a night of torrential rain, radio waves travel from the moon in 2046.

Nine o'clock, Nanming Hospital.

The TV screen in the emergency room was filled with static. Tong Jianguo was already able to walk, his left arm was in a thick sling, the bleeding had completely stopped, but his muscles were still throbbing with pain.

He looked out at the heavy rain, a raging fire burning within him. He couldn't sit here and wait to die any longer. He knew that person was right here, that person so familiar yet so strange—he had to find him!

Tong Jianguo walked out of the emergency room, went to the doctor's office, found a flashlight, unopened batteries, and a raincoat. He struggled to put on the raincoat, took the charged flashlight, and quietly left the deathly silent hospital building.

Goodbye, morgue!

Goodbye, Henry!

As soon as he rushed out of the building, he was met with a terrifying downpour. Tong Jianguo, who was completely covered in a raincoat, walked around in pain but did not find the yellow Hyundai sports car. He had driven the car to the hospital that afternoon and clearly remembered parking it at the hospital entrance.

Yes, it must have been driven away by the men in black!

Tong Jianguo gave a helpless bitter smile, only then remembering that his left arm was in a sling and he definitely couldn't drive with just one arm.

He walked into the night, covered by a raincoat. Although it was difficult to see clearly around him, he still found his way to the police station—it wasn't far from here, and he had passed by there twice before.

He walked alone in the heavy rain for ten minutes and finally found the silent police station. He strode into the second-floor office, opened the unlocked safe, and found a handgun and dozens of bullets. He loaded the bullets into the magazine, then released the safety and fired a test shot—the crisp sound echoed in the police station, and Tong Jianguo was very satisfied.

Because one of his arms was still in a sling, he found a police gun holster and strapped the gun under his armpit so that he could draw his gun like a policeman.

Wearing a raincoat and concealing a gun, he walked out of the police station. Instead of returning to headquarters or anywhere else, he headed straight for a nearby street. He remembered catching a glimpse of a telecommunications equipment store on his way to the hospital that afternoon—and sure enough, he soon found it; the store's neon lights flashed, standing out conspicuously in the rainy night.

Tong Jianguo broke into the electrical shop, turned on all the lights, and found a lot of electronic communication equipment, including some of the most professional equipment. Although this equipment could not communicate with the outside world, it could detect electromagnetic signals within a radius of hundreds of meters—this was something he had learned from years of field experience. Back in the Golden Triangle civil war, he had used this method to find targets and accurately snipe the enemy leader.

Although he couldn't use his left hand, he was still very skilled and quickly made a simple electromagnetic signal device in a few minutes. He carried the device with his right hand and returned to the vast, rainy night.

After walking only a few steps, the machines displayed strong electromagnetic signals, unaffected even by heavy rain. Tong Jianguo's heart raced; he wondered if the electromagnetic interference was the cause. He continued walking for a few more minutes, and to his astonishment, the entire city was filled with electromagnetic waves—there must be many electronic devices operating!

The sleeping city is not actually asleep; the pulsating nerves are simply invisible to the naked eye.

He found the direction with the densest electromagnetic signal and walked quickly forward following the machine's instructions. He passed through several streets shrouded in heavy rain; some roads had poor drainage systems, and the water had already reached his calves.

Finally, Tong Jianguo could see the high stands of the stadium.

The white lights from the ceiling pierced his eyes through the vast rain curtain.

The machine in my hand reacted more and more strongly, and all the electromagnetic waves were pointing in one direction—the stadium!

The heavy rain concealed his figure and footsteps, allowing him to reach the outer edge of the stadium without difficulty. This was the largest building in the entire Nanming City, with its enormous stands and roof making everyone feel insignificant.

Tong Jianguo, wearing a raincoat, nodded. This is it—all the electromagnetic waves in the city come from here. If there isn't a huge magnetic field underground, then there must be something strange hidden here!

The simple machine was no longer needed. Tong Jianguo put it aside, took off his heavy raincoat, and quietly slipped into the passageway under the stands.

With a sling on my arm, I carefully made my way through the tunnel into the magnificent stadium. Beneath my feet was a red running track, ahead lay a vast football field, and all around were densely packed seats. Wild grass grew wildly on the lawn, cascading down like a waterfall—countless lights shone from the ceiling, illuminating a dazzling world even in the pouring rain. It was a standard floodlit stadium, as if a football match was still underway, only the spectators in the stands had vanished instantly.

Has it really disappeared?

At the same time, at the same minute, at the same second.

Let's shift the camera back to our base camp.

Sun Zichu woke up.

In the bedroom upstairs, Xiaozhi still refused to reveal the secret, and Lin Junru didn't dare to actually lay a hand on her. Ye Xiao and Elena just watched coldly, unaware that Sun Zichu on the bed had opened his eyes until he let out a soft groan.

Lin Junru was the first to react, turning around and throwing herself at him, and the others gathered around as well. Sun Zichu's face was still pale, but he could blink slowly and make some soft sounds. Elena quickly brought over a cup of hot water, but Xiaozhi indicated that he could drink it later.

Ye Xiao whispered in his ear, "You, do you still remember us?"

Sun Zichu's lips trembled a few times, but he still couldn't speak, and could only blink hard.

“Yes, he recognizes us.”

Lin Junru excitedly hugged his head, pressing her face against his, hoping he could escape this calamity.

"Could it be a conditioned reflex?"

Elena said pessimistically, but was immediately rebuked by Lin Junru: "Don't jinx it!"

Sun Zichu had obviously heard this, and he nodded his chin a few times, indicating that he was still being stubborn.

“If he can wake up, it means the serum has worked and the toxins in his body are gradually being eliminated,” Xiaozhi said, based on what her mother had told her. “But his body is still very weak, so it would be best to send him to the hospital for treatment.”

“But the hospital here only has dead people, no living people.” Lin Junru gave a bitter smile, then whispered in Sun Zichu’s ear, “Are you thirsty?”

Sun Zichu nodded again, and she immediately brought him the water glass to drink.

Just then, Dingding came down from the attic. She was about to tell everyone that she had received a Chinese broadcast from the moon in 2046 when she saw the television screen flicker.

Then the screen replaced the static, and a series of English words came from the speaker.

The people gathered around Sun Zichu immediately turned their heads to face the television, and even Sun Zichu listened in a daze.

The television screen still showed a news studio, with a dragon-shaped logo in the upper left corner. The female anchor was still the same famous Chinese presenter, speaking fluently in English to the camera.

"Dear viewers, the 'Heavenly Secret' incident, which has garnered worldwide attention, has seen new developments. Please see the footage from the scene—"

Everyone heard the voice, and although only Elena could understand about half of it, they were still so nervous they could hardly breathe.

The scene shifts to the opening sequence of a documentary, prominently featuring photos of Ye Xiao, Sun Zichu, Dingding, and others. Amidst a rapid series of English narration, they witness a peculiar shot:

It was them!