By noon, He Leqin dragged Bai Yang to a Japanese restaurant in the mall for wagyu sukiyaki.

“Can’t believe I’m having Japanese food with a dude,” He Leqin said. “Achieving a new life milestone.”

“What milestone?”

“Surrounded by men, men upon men, straight men, and now a big man before me with a manly face!” He Leqin rattled off in one breath.

“You’re quite thirsty,” Bai Yang nodded.

“No way!” Young Master He instantly protested.

“Look, there’s a girl in a white short skirt over there. Fair skin, kind of looks like Zhao Lusi,” Bai Yang pointed with his chopsticks.

“Where?” He Leqin whipped his head around. “Where’s Zhao Lusi?”

Bai Yang took advantage of the distraction to snatch the fatty beef from his bowl.

The shopping center’s air conditioning was running full blast, and neither wanted to leave once they got inside. In this increasingly hot summer, air conditioning was their lifeline.

The terrazzo floor was polished to a mirror shine, and the overhead lights reflected blindingly. Young women passed by, all tall and stylish, either carrying handbags or holding the arms of young men, their heels clicking crisply on the floor. Together they formed not just a crowd but a fashion tide. Bai Yang and He Leqin, two students passing through this perfume-scented, flashy tide, were like clueless raccoon dogs crossing the street.

Young Master He wasn’t the raccoon dog, of course.

Bai Yang was.

This was the most prosperous commercial district not just in Nanjing but nationwide, with hundreds of thousands of daily visitors. Standing on Xinjiekou pedestrian street, they looked up at the surrounding skyscrapers towering like giants, packed so densely they blocked the wind. Below their feet, Xinjiekou subway station was the largest in the country, with twenty-four exits and entrances.

He Leqin always felt proud standing at Xinjiekou, because back then his family had contracted to build the turntable in this subway station.

“How about getting a blind box for Brother Yan?” He Leqin asked.

“What blind box?” Bai Yang seemed slightly distracted.

“The new Pop Mart series.”

“Pop what?” Bai Yang asked.

“Pop Mart.”

“What Mart?”

“Pop Mart.”

“Pop what?”

“You’re being difficult on purpose?” He Leqin jabbed with his chopsticks. “Remember who paid for your ‘Goodbye Mr. Loser’ movie ticket.”

Bai Yang leaned back to dodge.

“What’s on your mind? You seem distracted,” He Leqin asked. “Got something bothering you? You can tell Big Brother about any relationship problems. Let the South Aviation High School’s number one love guru give you some advice.”

“My long-planned shortwave radio contact failed,” Bai Yang said.

“Oh right, that radio thing…” He Leqin slapped his forehead. Of course, he knew what Bai Yang was tinkering with. From a week ago, Bai Yang had been plotting to make a long-distance radio contact. He’d spent loads of free time preparing, from checking the antenna to inspecting the radio station to ensuring his outbound calls wouldn’t get him a visit from authorities—he’d put his heart into it.

“It’s not just a radio!”

“Radio station, okay? Radio station.” He Leqin corrected himself. “Didn’t you say you could hear broadcasts on that thing? Did you hear anything? Did anyone offer you dollars? Did anyone offer you girls?”

Bai Yang shook his head.

“No dollars and no girls, they just want to recruit you?” He Leqin was shocked at such stinginess.

“Sometimes I think you’re more like my dad’s real son,” Bai Yang said. “You both want dollars and girls.”

“The love of beauty is universal,” He Leqin said. “Dollars and girls…”

“America?”

“If they offered me their president, I guess I’d reluctantly accept.”

“I couldn’t contact anyone,” Bai Yang sighed. “Maybe there’s no one on the shortwave channels anymore, or maybe it was too late and everyone was asleep. Anyway, my plan completely failed. Making long-distance contact through shortwave is difficult…”

“Not a single person?”

“Not a single…” Bai Yang remembered he contacted someone last night. “No, there was one person.”

“Guy or girl?” He Leqin asked.

“Girl.”

“Fancy,” He Leqin nodded. “What’d she look like?”

“How would I know?” Bai Yang rolled his eyes. “You think the radio station comes with a display screen?”

“Alright, alright, go on, what happened next?”

“There was no next,” Bai Yang recalled last night’s contact. “She was an unlicensed operator, no call sign, wouldn’t give her location, just started shouting randomly on the channel, talking nonsense.”

At the time, Bai Yang was indeed startled. As a novice making his first external contact, he immediately encountered someone who completely disregarded the rules. Her questions left him bewildered… How many people were there, whether they lacked supplies, whether there were any casualties—by regulation, hearing the word “casualties” should indicate emergency communications. According to amateur radio rules, emergency communications take absolute priority over all other amateur radio contacts. In emergencies, operators can bypass all the usual protocols.

You could say the ultimate purpose of amateur radio is emergency communications—when major disasters strike, like earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, volcanic eruptions, forest fires, and other natural disasters, when all normal communication methods fail, radio stations become the last lifeline. They can send distress signals to the outside world via ionospheric reflection. It’s crude, fragile, and noisy, but it never fails.

But was last night’s contact an emergency communication?

He hadn’t considered this question before, but thinking back now, Bai Yang furrowed his brow deeply.

Unfortunately, Bai Yang was truly an inexperienced novice who didn’t know how to handle such situations. If his dad had been there, he probably would have handled it properly, right?

Thinking of this, Bai Yang grew secretly worried again.

Could it have been an emergency communication?

Could that girl have been in some kind of trouble?

Maybe she was in a dire situation, trying to call for help through the radio station.

Had he messed up by missing a chance to save someone?

“If it failed, it failed. There’ll be plenty more chances,” He Leqin consoled him. “You can try other channels tonight, try them one by one, and you’ll eventually contact someone.”

“14255.”

“14255?”

“Tonight I’ll try 14.255MHz again, see if I can contact anyone else…”

Bai Yang decided to attempt contact again tonight. He still remembered that channel—many old-timers had their own fixed frequency bands. Bai Yang hoped 14255 was that girl’s regular channel, that she’d be online again tonight.

But what if yesterday was her last call for help?

He Leqin noticed Bai Yang’s expression wasn’t right and gently nudged his shoulder. “Little sheep? You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Bai Yang shook his head. “Let’s eat, the pot’s boiling dry.”

The steaming sukiyaki pot bubbled before them, but Bai Yang had suddenly lost his appetite. Who eats hotpot in the middle of summer anyway?