Early in the morning, Bai Yang was kicked out of bed by his mother to go running five kilometers with Lian Qiao. After training for so long, Bai Yang had mastered the art of running while half-asleep. Unlike dolphins that could work with the left brain while resting the right and vice versa, Bai Yang could simply let his brain enter a state of emptiness while running. In this state, he wouldn’t recognize even his closest relatives.
He changed into his running shoes and drowsily opened the door. Before he could step over the threshold, a group of men in blue clothes burst in.
“Good morning,” the leader gruffly greeted.
“Hey, hey, hey, what’s this… who are you?”
Bai Yang was startled, his sleepiness half gone.
The group of men ignored him and poured into the living room in formation. They carried toolboxes, bundles of silver metal wire, putty powder, paint buckets, and most dramatically, stacks of ceramic tiles. Their heavy combat boots left black footprints on the floor his mother had just mopped.
Bai Yang immediately understood what kind of people they were, thinking to himself: why didn’t you change your boots when you changed into civilian clothes?
Who else would all have crew cuts and wear 07-style combat boots in unison?
“You’re here? So early! Ah, Team Leader Huang, hello, hello.” His father poked his head out of his room. Still, in his pajamas and slippers, he went “pitter-patter” over to shake hands. “Did you bring all the materials?”
“All here, Section Chief Bai.” Team Leader Huang patted his red toolbox and pointed to the materials his teammates were carrying on their shoulders and in their hands. “Has Director Zhao returned?”
“Not yet. He went to the Provincial Committee meeting last night and hasn’t come back. Probably sleeping on the floor there,” Bai Zhen replied. “Let’s not waste time, let’s get started.”
Bai Yang stood to the side, confused.
The construction team headed straight for Bai Yang’s bedroom. Four burly men squeezed into the small bedroom. They moved out everything that could be moved – chairs, bedding, backpack, books from the bookshelf – and piled them in the corner of the living room. For immovable objects, they spread transparent plastic sheets to wrap them up completely.
“What… what are you doing?”
“Construction,” Bai Zhen said. “Why aren’t you down running yet? Lian Qiao is waiting for you downstairs. Aren’t you two supposed to go to the Zitai office building and Mochou Lake subway station this morning?”
“Oh, oh, oh.” Bai Yang left, looking back three times before going downstairs.
The construction team laid plastic sheets on the floor, desk, and bookshelf, then began scraping the wall coating. After scraping, they removed a layer of bricks, drew grids on the bricks with oil-based markers, and drove expansion bolts into the grids. They closed the door and began hammering away vigorously, showing no restraint.
Every minute, muscular men carrying hammers and chisels would come out to fetch more materials piled in the corridor.
What were they doing?
They were constructing a safe room.
The construction team brought silver-plated thick copper wire 4mm lead plates (which Bai Yang had thought were ceramic tiles), and even yellowish lead-containing radiation-proof glass. They tightly laid the lead plates on the north and west walls, interlocking them without gaps, then laid the silver-plated copper wire in the bricklayer gaps of the room, winding round and round into a grid pattern—clearly, the lead plates were radiation shielding walls, while the copper wire would form a Faraday cage.
Although the nuclear industry working group stated that this nuclear bomb was specially designed with optimized radiation and radioactive contamination, such that the radiation dose would drop to 0.01Sv beyond three kilometers from ground zero, and within twenty-four hours after the nuclear explosion, the radiation dose in the contaminated area’s air would naturally decrease to one-hundredth of the initial level—meaning that after one day of nuclear explosion, the radiation dose in the air at Meihua Villa would only be 0.1mSv, not even reaching the level of one CT scan at a hospital.
The working group’s experts said not to worry, our Miss Qiu is very clean. Back when the Soviet Union used nuclear bombs to blast reservoirs, the Minister of Atomic Energy was the first to jump in for a swim.
Even so, the command center remained uneasy. Old Wang said looking at the data alone shows it’s not as much as a CT scan, but can you get CT scans every day at the hospital?
Continuous exposure to 0.1mSv radiation dose is equivalent to standing in front of an X-ray machine for chest radiographs every day—not fatal in the short term, but not okay in the long run.
The young members of the nuclear working group secretly muttered about whether there would even be a long-term.
Wang Ning immediately flew into a rage and wanted to hit them.
Old Bai couldn’t hold back someone of his weight alone; it took Old Zhao to restrain him.
So the command center planned to convert Bai Yang’s bedroom into a safe room that could protect against radiation and electromagnetic pulse, to prevent the nuclear explosion from destroying the Icom725 radio. Old Zhe’s aging body at twenty-five couldn’t withstand the torment of nuclear weapons—when the electromagnetic pulse hits, the internal circuits would be burned to chaos.
Therefore, they laid silver-plated copper wire along the walls to form a Faraday cage to protect the radio from the effects of the nuclear explosion.
After laying the radiation shielding walls and Faraday cage, the construction team put the bricks back, applied cement to the walls, and smoothed the putty. The mason’s technique was skilled and masterful, quite remarkable. Bai Zhen commented that this plastering showed twenty years of craftsmanship. The cement and putty were specially made, and mixed with barium sulfate. Finally, the construction team removed the window glass and replaced it with lead glass.
After completing all this, they rolled up the plastic sheets from the floor, taking away all the garbage.
Clean and efficient.
“Wow… Team Leader Huang, you’ve done very well, very efficiently.”
Zhao Bowen poked his head in to look. The interior of Bai Yang’s bedroom remained as before, except the four walls and ceiling were brand new as if newly renovated.
“Director Zhao, you’re back.”
“Just got back from the Provincial Committee, meetings all night and morning.” Zhao Bowen yawned. “Lately, it’s been dizzying how busy we are…”
“Do the living room and other areas need modification?”
Old Zhao turned to look at the messy living room filled with documents and computers, shaking his head:
“Forget it, this side isn’t suitable for large-scale work. Renovating the living room wouldn’t be done even by tomorrow. Just modifying the bedroom to protect the radio is enough. Your mission is complete.”
“Then we’ll return to report.”
Team Leader Huang snapped to attention and saluted.
The construction team filed out in formation, with the last person mopping the floor on the way out.
Near noon, when Bai Yang returned, he found his room seemed different—nothing had moved, only the walls were cleaner.
“Is it tomorrow?”
“Yes, young miss, the spacecraft will launch tomorrow, and also return tomorrow, landing near your house… uh, my house, OVER.”
“It will land?”
The girl was a bit surprised.
“Of course, it will land. How else would we get the nuclear bomb into your hands?” Bai Yang explained. “A very large return capsule will land. When it lands, the retro rockets will fire, making a huge BOOM—quite spectacular. Miss Qiu will be sitting inside, you just need to receive her, OVER.”
“BG… it… it won’t crash into me, will it?”
The girl was worried again.
Bai Yang was stunned; he hadn’t thought of this. But thinking carefully, it was possible. Usually, manned spacecraft return capsules all landed at the Siziwang Banner landing site in Inner Mongolia, a vast and sparsely populated area. There had never been a spacecraft landing in downtown Nanjing. So he took off his headphones and turned to shout: “Dad—! She’s asking if the spacecraft might crash into her, is that possible?”
“Yes—!” his father answered.
“What?” Bai Yang was shocked. “Then what should we do?”
“What else can we do? Be alert, stay far away when you see it coming down, and leave the rest to the Buddha and Bodhisattva’s blessing. Your Uncle Wang has already gone to Qixia Temple to burn incense.”