Bai Yang froze for a moment.

“Is that possible?”

“Technically speaking, there’s no problem with the logic,” Wang Ning thought for a moment, scratching his clever but balding head. “But there would be quite a few practical difficulties, both in hardware and software.”

“Still worth trying though,” Bai Zhen sat across from him.

The two pondered for a long while, exchanged glances, then began a conversation that only they could understand.

“How to transmit?” Wang Ning asked. “SSTV for images, FSTV for video?”

“FSTV won’t work—it uses FM modulation, the bandwidth requirement is too large, can’t manage it on 14MHz,” Bai Zhen said. “Our method needs to be as simple as possible.”

“Then let’s use RTTY,” Wang Ning said.

“Teletype?” Bai Zhen asked.

“Yeah, teletype,” Wang Ning nodded.

“How to modulate the signal?” Bai Zhen asked.

“FSK?” Wang Ning pondered.

“AFSK,” Bai Zhen shook his head.

“Then she’ll need a sound card.”

“Where to find a sound card?”

“Find a computer.”

“Not realistic—a computer won’t survive twenty years. At most, we could find a microcontroller.”

“A microcontroller definitely won’t work. A bare chip can’t do anything—we’d need at least a Raspberry Pi. Nanjing Tech or Nanjing Aeronautics and Astronautics University must have some, we can look there.”

“And a camera.”

“Take one from surveillance equipment. Get it from Nanjing Museum, find a Hikvision one—they all have built-in IPC protocol, plug and play.”

“What about decoding?”

“Write it from scratch!”

“She won’t know how.”

“We’ll teach her remotely, transmitting one letter at a time.”

“That’s like climbing Mount Everest.”

“It’s our only option.”

“What language?”

“C.”

“Are you kidding? Writing C code through voice communication?”

“We have no other choice.”

They spoke rapidly, bouncing ideas back and forth.

Bai Yang was stunned watching them. Mom, passing through the living room with her mop, was equally bewildered. These two middle-aged men were intensely discussing technical issues, wearing white tank tops and loose shorts, spittle flying as they talked, resembling people bragging at late-night food stalls. They just needed a beer each—before getting drunk they’d say they were from Nanjing, after getting drunk they’d say Nanjing belonged to them. What kind of experts were these?

But they were experts, despite wearing plastic slippers, having tobacco-stained teeth, faces covered in oil and sweat, large pores, thinning hair, uncontrolled weight, and constant crude language. They belonged to the class of caustic small-town citizens who’d sit on little stools by the curb and critique young women passing by. Yet at this moment, they fearlessly shouldered the responsibility of preventing the collapse of civilization.

If they could shoulder life’s burdens, saving the world was nothing.

Middle-aged slobs saving the world.

“Conditions are very difficult over there,” Wang Ning said. “She might not be able to find all the components.”

“We’ll piece it together!” Bai Zhen was resolute. “We’ll assemble a workable data transmission system from electronic waste, building it piece by piece like a puzzle.”

“Can I… say something?”

Bai Yang finally spoke up, slowly raising his hand.

“Go ahead.”

Both men turned their heads.

“I hope you’ll consider BG4MSR’s actual situation. She’s not a university graduate in communications… she’s practically illiterate,” Bai Yang reminded them. “You’re rattling off all this stuff that even I can barely understand—isn’t it asking too much of BG4MSR? Can she do it?”

Bai Yang’s concerns were valid.

Who were Bai Zhen and Wang Ning? One was the head of a radio monitoring station, the other a retired communications technology veteran. Both were longtime HAM operators. Strip away their corporate drone labels, and the two men sitting in the living room today were Nanjing’s most experienced amateur radio experts.

But BG4MSR was different—she hadn’t even completed compulsory education. She was a poor semi-literate girl.

Having a semi-literate girl execute a plan devised by two experts was like asking an elementary school student to solve university-level math problems.

“It is asking too much,” Wang Ning nodded. “But at this point, we have no other options. This is our only chance, and our only feasible plan.”

“If conditions are favorable, we proceed; if not, we create favorable conditions and proceed anyway,” Bai Zhen said.

“Couldn’t we prepare all the equipment on our end and send it through time-slow-delivery?” Bai Yang asked. “Like sending a rugged laptop?”

“Won’t fit in the time capsule,” Wang Ning said.

“Buy a bigger time capsule.”

“The battery won’t last twenty years,” Bai Zhen said. “After twenty years without power, the battery will leak and the LCD will fail.”

“Don’t send a laptop—just send whatever equipment you need,” Bai Yang said. “That’s still easier than having her find everything herself.”

“Good point, we can prepare for both scenarios,” Wang Ning nodded. “I’ll go buy a larger time capsule… though how big would it need to be to fit a laptop?”

“But son, you need to understand that what we can prepare for her is only a small part. Most of the work still needs to be done by her,” Bai Zhen said. “The work that’s hers to do can’t be avoided even slightly—she still has to do it herself.”

“Yang, you should have more confidence!” Wang Ning said. “She’s not fighting alone—she has the world’s strongest support team behind her!”

Bai Yang puffed out his cheeks. “But this shouldn’t be her job anyway.”

“What?”

Both men were startled.

“Would you two please get one fact straight—we’re the ones asking for her help. This isn’t her duty or responsibility. She’s not even from 2019, and she doesn’t have to face the end of the world. To put it bluntly, would she lose a single hair if everyone in the world died? She could just turn off her radio and walk away—what could you do about it?”

Bai Yang rolled his eyes.

“Why are you acting like this is her natural duty? Demanding she do this and that—what if you annoy her and she loses patience with our games? What if she refuses to play along and runs away? What will you do then?”

“Well…”

Wang Ning and Bai Zhen were speechless.

Bai Yang had a point—they did not influence that girl. If she decided to quit, there was nothing they could do about it.

Conversely, their world was the one making enormous requests of her—she was humanity’s only hope for salvation.

If these two old men annoyed that girl to the point where she stopped responding to their pleas, Wang Ning and Bai Zhen might as well commit seppuku to apologize to the world.

“Hmm…” Wang Ning furrowed his brow. “This is indeed a problem. How can we instill strong confidence and conviction in her?”

“We need to give her firm determination to overcome difficulties, with the powerful ideology of hard work, fearlessness in the face of hardship, all for one and one for all, nothing is impossible for those who try,” Bai Zhen muttered. “We can implement a Support the Future Plan—stuff a political commissar into the time capsule.”

The two pondered for a moment.

“How about… we get her to join the Party?”