Tales of the End of the Century

After leaving the command post, Bai Ye sat for a long time on the gravel slope outside the blast door. He placed the enamel mug at his feet and took out the reflecting mirror that Shen Jing had placed in his palm before leaving. The mirror was clean and facing upwards, and the pattern of the engravings on the back was almost identical to the one Lao Wei had given him in the mining area. Both mirrors had been turned over and pressed against the center of the kerosene lamp for many years. He took out a small round mirror, turned it over, and placed it next to the three reflecting mirrors. Now he had three mirrors beside him that no longer reflected his image.

Tie Niu squatted beside him, carving a sixth scratch on the stone slab with the tip of his dagger. Old Wei's mining area, the cooling towers of the old industrial zone, the backup camp, the observation station, the sub-command post—now, next to this new scratch, there was another shallow indentation. The last telegram sent by the gray-clad man and Vasily from abroad was still in his pocket, the paper worn thin from folding, containing only one line: "End of the old geological exploration line, the last batch of peripheral outposts cleared, no remaining signals." He took the telegram out, spread it on the stone slab, and pressed one corner down with the tip of his dagger.

Lan Susu turned on the oscilloscope and placed it on the stone slab. The screen was no longer filled with scattered signals. Every frequency that had previously been marked as "direction unknown" radiating outwards from Yushugou had now been filled with its measured range or arrival date. She turned to the last page of the subject roster and lightly drew a thin line with a pencil next to three blank columns that had not yet been registered, waiting for the three weakest signals from the edge of the desolate beach beyond the border to converge. After these names were filled in, all traceable signals from the Aurora Project's rift period subjects would be confirmed. The Aurora Project had a total of twenty-three rift period subjects registered, but if you included those who had been transferred from the mining area's shelters and were never recorded, those who had been led out step by step by white doves with chalk arrows under the cooling towers of the old industrial area, those who had stayed behind for more than ten years in the reserve camps and deep within the observation stations, and the names in the last batch of communication records from the sub-command that had not yet been destroyed—the total number was far greater than the number on Sergei's list. She closed the roster, gently pressed the cover with her hand, and then looked up at Bai Ye. "The list will remain on the bookshelf in the east wing; all the gaps from when it was first put in have been filled. When it's opened again, people might come again. No matter when, new names will always be added."

Bai Ye stood up and put the enamel mug into the side pocket of his backpack. He didn't immediately head out of the country, but instead retraced his steps along the old evacuation route back to the archives corridor of the sub-command headquarters. Before leaving, Shen Jing handed him the last piece of the Aurora Project's supply transport master plan in the command headquarters—it showed a route never recorded in any transfer file, extending southwest from the back of the mountains, crossing an entire forgotten old geological survey line, and finally stopping at the end of the survey line at an abandoned camp eroded to its skeleton. He spread the map out next to the blast door and squatted down to trace the dotted line very, very slowly. The gray-clad man had also drawn the same set of coordinates when he finished writing his last telegram, but he couldn't move forward even half a step further, leaving Bai Ye and his group with instructions pressed down with a piece of paper in their backpacks—"End of the overseas survey line. The last batch of outer outposts have all been cleared, no signals left. But someone left an enamel mug under the wind. There are words on the bottom of the mug."

Lan Susu readjusted the oscilloscope antenna to the survey line. The three faint frequencies on the screen were much closer than yesterday. They were no longer scattered but began to converge towards the same point—the location of the tank under the vent, the very edge of the handwriting left by White Dove after she crossed out the warehouse number on the supply slip for the last time. She marked the three new coordinates on the overall material transport map one by one, and then wrote a few very faint lines in pencil on the blank page of the roster that originally belonged to Sergei's name. "Overseas survey line. Three signals. No name recorded. The handwriting on the bottom of the tank matches the engraving on the stone slab in Old Wei's mining area. Expected to withdraw on its own in the coming days."

Bai Ye put the enamel mug into the side pocket of his backpack, stood up, and slung his satchel over his shoulder again. Tie Niu pulled out his dagger, finished carving the last new mark pointing to the survey line on the stone slab, and handed the gray-clad man's telegram to Lan Susu. She took out the last roll of reflective rope from her bag, tore off a piece of rope, tied it to the zipper of Bai Ye's satchel, and tied the other end tightly to her own wrist.

"This is the last section. From the mining area to the industrial area, from the observation station to the sub-command post, many people have been tied to this rope. Now it's in your hands. When you reach the windy spot, you untie the end of the rope and put it under that jar, so it can become the starting point for the next leg of the journey."

Bai Ye looked down at the reflective cord on his wrist, turned on his headlamp, and walked ahead towards the survey line. Tie Niu followed behind with his axe, while Lan Susu was the last to leave the blast door. She straightened the enamel mug Shen Jing had left behind and gently closed the door. The silvery-white halo above the door frame had completely receded, leaving only a very faint layer of residual warmth, like someone had just pulled a hand that had been outstretched in the darkness for a long time back onto their lap.

At the end of the exploration line lay a landscape eroded by wind. The sandstone was jagged and worn by the wind and sand, which blew in from the west, carrying fine sand and bits of dry grass. Bai Ye stood at the edge of the wind gap and looked down—it wasn't a canyon, but a whole subsidence basin hollowed out by the wind. Scattered at the bottom of the basin were a few military tents that had collapsed years ago, their tent fabrics torn into strips by the wind, fluttering silently. Lan Susu turned up the three frequencies on the oscilloscope screen that were still slowly converging in this direction. She flipped over the last telegram from the man in gray, and on the back was drawn the location of the enamel mug at the end of the exploration line. The three of them walked down along the edge of the subsidence basin and found the mug under the most sheltered rock wall at the bottom of the basin—it was placed between two flat sandstone rocks, weighing down a stack of supply lists wrapped tightly in tarpaulin. There were chalk marks on the bottom of the mug, blurred into a white blob, but the strokes were still discernible. The strokes of the jar left behind by Shen Jing at the sub-command headquarters are completely identical.

Tie Niu squatted down and opened the oilcloth package. Inside were several yellowed fragments of test subject lists, a very short piece of chalk, and a note handwritten by Bai Ge: "At the end of the overseas exploration line, the last batch of peripheral outposts have been cleared out, leaving no signals. But someone left this jar under the wind. There are words on the bottom of the jar. Bai Ge."

Bai Ye squatted down and picked up the enamel mug, examining it for a long time. The chalk writing on the bottom of the mug shone faintly white under the headlamp—it wasn't written by Lao Wei, nor by Shen Jing, nor by any of the registered Rift Phase test subjects of Project Aurora. The handwriting was stiffer, more hesitant; the first horizontal stroke was crooked, as if unsure whether he could still write. But the last vertical stroke was long and decisive, as if he had stood up after finishing that stroke, pushed open the door, and walked out. He took out his own enamel mug as well, placing the two mugs side by side on the sandstone. Both mugs had writing on the bottom, different strokes, but it was the same character.

Tie Niu stood up, his headlamp scanning the basin's perimeter. Every so often, an arrow drawn with industrial crayon marked the rock face; the oldest was faded beyond recognition, the newest sharp and angular, identical to the last arrow Sergei had drawn in the pipe. He gently scraped off a small piece of chalk dust from the rock, rubbed it between his fingers, and deciphered the direction of the chalk mark—Sergei had extended the arrow from here all the way to the bottom of the wind gap, perfectly coinciding with the countless times circled coordinates on the supply list in his hand. Lan Susu took out the engineering drawings Sergei had left behind and redraw a small circle at the end of the survey line, connecting the three interdependent supply coordinates of the backup camp, the observation station, and the wind gap basin. She carefully put away the blueprints and looked again at the group of wind-eroded caves deeper into the subsidence basin. She said that the last self-sufficient observation station outside the region should be located at the end of this cave complex. Project Aurora used it as the signal relay hub for the entire exploration line, but after its disbandment, it completely lost contact with the sub-command headquarters. As soon as she finished speaking, the three faint frequencies from deeper in the basin simultaneously flickered slightly on the oscilloscope screen—not that they grew louder, but that they were getting closer.

Bai Ye stood up, put both enamel mugs into the side pocket of his backpack, turned on his headlamp, and headed deeper into the cave complex. Tie Niu followed behind, gripping his axe, his headlamp beam merging with Bai Ye's to form a single beam. Lan Susu finally put away her oscilloscope and tore off a piece of reflective cord to tie around her wrist. The three of them passed through the wind gap and continued towards the next supply coordinate below the exploration line. Tie Niu broke off half a dried shrub branch from the rock wall and stuck it in the spot where the mugs had been—in a few days, the other three frequencies would arrive from the other end of the exploration line; they would recognize the mugs and the shrub branch.