Puzzle Madness

Chapter 101 Falling Objects

"Don't worry! I'm very cautious when it comes to this."

Ai Xi rummaged through his schoolbag and pulled out a small machine wrapped in transparent tape.

It's a pager. It's a common one, but it's been modified:

"I went to the Children's Palace at noon to pick up something; it's just right for you."

She handed the pager to Doudou - the buttons were worn flat, with round yellow smiley face stickers stuck in the gaps.

There's a battery box attached to the back, taped shut; the wires protrude slightly from the side and pass through a hole punched in the bottom of the case. It's a simple, crude design, and the battery life is good.

"I have an old one at home; I asked Mr. Liu from the model airplane class to modify it for me. Here, remember to bring it with you."

Without waiting for Doudou to answer, she pulled out a silver round tube that was half the thickness of her wrist and looked like a flashlight. Suddenly, she raised her voice:

"This is a transmitter! I press it, and your pager will flash, and you'll receive my coordinates—remember to come and rescue me."

Doudou noticed Ai Xi's intention, so he stealthily lowered his voice and took the transmitter:

"Why are you saying it so loudly? Oh, you still think that Asia-Europe Post is monitoring us. Isn't that a bit too paranoid? Do you really need to say it specifically for the listening device to hear?"

Ai Xi also replied in a low voice:
"It's safer this way. We'll be prepared for any eventuality."

Doudou shrugged; holding the transmitter in one hand and the pager in the other, he looked back and forth.

The transmitter looks like a small flashlight, but it has some buttons marked with numbers and is arranged like a telephone keypad.

There's a rubber band wrapped around the end of the device to prevent slipping. There's a red button on the top that clicks when you press it.
"Coordinates? Did you put a GPS in the transmitter? How could that be possible? It's so big. Oh, you used the preset coordinate numbers."

He compared the buttons on the transmitter with the words that appeared on the dot-matrix LCD screen of the pager; he immediately understood the working principle:
The so-called "coordinates" are actually just numbers for several locations in Mong Cai City. Wherever you are, just press the button to send the corresponding location number.
The range is rough, and the accuracy is far from certain. If you don't know where you are, or aren't at a numbered location, then it's of little use.

But it is much more convenient than a GPS that is heavy and as big as a schoolbag:

"Where is A01, a school?"

Ai Xi nodded, took the transmitter back, and put it in his schoolbag.

"Yes, I marked thirty locations; A01 is the school, A02 is my home, and A03 is the Children's Palace. They're all in the city."

"Here, I'll give you the chart later. Mong Cai is only about this size. If your pager starts flashing, remember to come here according to the number."

Doudou smacked his lips, feeling a little disappointed:
"I thought I could send you the longitude and latitude. Was this modified by Mr. Liu from the model airplane class? Isn't this from the [Little Scientist] kit?"

The [Little Scientist] series was quite popular a few years ago, and there were versions for several subjects - biology, chemistry, and physics.

It contains research equipment for young people, such as microscopes and circuit boards; it is both educational and entertaining.

This transmitter seems to be modified from the [Little Explorer] radio module.

Ai Xi put his index finger in front of his lips:

"Shh! This way, even if someone goes to ask Teacher Liu, they won't know the exact mechanism. I've added a little extra detail for double insurance."

"I can't explain it now, but you'll know when I ask for help. You don't have to keep picking it up to look at it, it will ring on its own."

I took the BB machine in my pocket and put it on the strap of my school bag. The extra battery box was bulging:
"What kind of transmitter are you using? UHF? Isn't that supposed to only reach a few kilometers? Any further than that won't work. Shouldn't we get closer?"

Doudou's hands-on ability is not very good, but he still listens carefully in the model aircraft class--
Ai Xi waved his hand, signaling Doudou not to worry:

"Teacher Liu hid a reflector where the old radio station antenna was and added a repeater on the rooftop of the Children's Palace. Covering most of Mong Cai should be no problem."

Doudou recalled the teacher of the extracurricular class and his similar interests and hobbies to his own:
"Huh? Mr. Liu is still thinking about using the radio to find an alien girlfriend—I hope he finds one soon."

They chatted for a while; until the sound of security guards chasing people away was heard on the playground, Ruan Jingbo's parents still didn't come to pick him up.

This statue-like female classmate never spoke again:
So the two of them closed the doors and windows and carried their schoolbags - they didn't even know where Ruan Jingbo's home was; so they let her stay in school and put a piece of ham bread and a bottle of mineral water in the drawer.

While crossing the playground, Doudou also saw his math teacher; the middle-aged man's head was shining with the sunset light, making him too conspicuous.

The math teacher was carrying a woven bag, which was half filled with cans and mineral water bottles; he walked with a clanging sound.

Maybe the waste in the trash cans in the office and classroom has been sorted:

He walked with big strides, full of energy; much more energetic than in class, and he didn't know what he was going to do -
It is a pleasant time to go home from school for both teachers and students.

Ai Xi and Dou Dou's homes were not in the same direction; so after they walked out of the alley in front of the school gate, they separated.
-
Mong Cai city seems to be getting more and more crowded.

The opening of Shouzhu 151 Building was clearly interrupted and had to be rebuilt; however, there were a lot more cars on the streets, even causing traffic jams at intersections.

I don't know if it's because the summer in Jiaozhi Autonomous Prefecture is too hot--
Before the official arrival of autumn, Mong Cai City seems to have been accelerated: more and more people, more and more construction projects, more and more shops.
And more and more surprises.

Especially today, when DouDou was yawning incessantly on her first day of school and getting ready to go home and play games, this feeling was particularly strong. Halfway there, the bus got stuck in traffic—
The traffic condition in Mong Cai City was already bad, and today it was even more congested than an ant crawling; in the end, the driver got lazy and opened the door early to let the passengers get off the bus.

After walking through the long, snake-like traffic jam, I found out the reason for the traffic jam -
In the middle of the intersection, on the traffic island, there was a pool of blood, what looked like a corpse.
He or she is wrapped in white cloths—multiple sheets of white cloths.

The corpse was torn into pieces and scattered everywhere; it was scattered across the traffic police booth and zebra crossing, covering a span of dozens of meters.

The traffic police booth in the center was also covered with white cloth, but it had been soaked with blood and turned a dark red. Liquid dripped down the edge of the parasol like a curtain of water.

Doudou stood on tiptoe, looking over the shoulders and overhead, but couldn't find the vehicle that caused the accident.

This wasn't the first time he'd seen a car accident scene—Doudou was the type of person who would stop on the road and watch the scene carefully.

".Jumped off a building! Jumped to death! Of course there's no car!"

Doudou squeezed into the crowd, quietly listening to the discussions coming from somewhere. People who were getting off work, after school, or even just hanging out were all crowded together:
".I saw it with my own eyes; it suddenly fell there, boom, and then there was fuck everywhere."

"Wow, that's horrible—it's terrifying! The traffic is so bad, how long will it take for us to get through?"

The smell of blood mixed with the smell of tar, the heat waves rolled in, and it made people dizzy.

Doudou raised his head following the voice in the crowd - looking at his parents' faces, he looked at the surrounding shopping malls.

Suspicions soon arose:

This is the most central intersection in the entire Mong Cai City, surrounded by commercial areas; it is also the widest six-lane intersection.

The traffic police booth is right in the center, at least thirty meters away from every rooftop around it - and the commercial district of Mong Cai City is full of old, low-rise buildings, the tallest of which is only seven stories high.

Before Shouzhu 151 appeared, these buildings were already considered very tall in Mong Cai.

Doudou scratches his nose:

Could someone jumping from a building jump so far? Even with a full-scale run-up and a favorable wind, it seems unlikely they would land so far away—unless they could fly.

Doudou himself can jump farther: according to the triple jump method, he can probably jump several blocks away.

But if it were an ordinary person, even if they accelerated and jumped from the roof of the old shopping mall on the corner, they probably wouldn't be able to land here; unless they jumped from a helicopter.

Besides, seven floors... could a fall from the seventh floor cause such damage? The human body didn't seem so fragile. He had seen other people who had jumped to their deaths before, and their bodies were always intact, or at most broken in two.

But the body not far away seemed to have been hit by a shell, and was shattered everywhere; it was stuck on the asphalt road like mud.

【Did it fall from the sky? 】

After thinking about it for a while, Doudou began to feel his scalp itchy. He had been thinking too much today and he really couldn't think anymore.
Suddenly: there was a commotion among the crowd again, but it was not clear.

Just when Doudou was about to squeeze out and go home obediently--
“Up there!! Up there!!!”

Screams grew louder and louder all around, rising like a tide.

Boom! Bang, whoosh!
Then, something strange happened--
Another body fell:
It fell to the ground like a meteor and hit the middle of the road with a deafening sound; it was like someone fired a gun next to my ear.

The body exploded with the impact. Fresh blood splashed onto the white cloth, staining it all red.

The little half of the head bounced on the asphalt road like a stone skipping on the water; after a few bounces, it rolled to the side of Doudou's Feili shoes.

"what!!!!"

"Here we go again, here we go again!"

[Eh? Why is someone jumping again?]

The crowd dispersed like the tide amid screams, and Doudou squatted down and looked at the half head that was resting at his feet.

There wasn't much blood, so why were they so frightened? He stared at the half-bloody face:
[Eh? This isn't it]

Most of the onlookers retreated to the sidewalk, whispering, shouting, or looking for public phones; the drivers stuck in traffic honked their horns anxiously, not knowing what they were urging.

Doudou wanted to get a closer look, but the falling hadn't stopped. This time, it was continuous:
Ping pong ping pong!

There were more noises, but they were crisper and less harsh. The screams and cries of the people behind him as they dodged interrupted Doudou's thoughts:
More objects were falling from the sky, but they were not human bodies. They hit the ground and bounced up again, like rain.

They were empty, crushed mineral water bottles and cans—
A woven bag in red, blue, and white floated down in front of Doudou, covering half of his head.
Although only half of the face was left, the more Doudou thought about it, the more familiar it seemed.

Because I just saw before I left the school gate——
Why does it look like my math teacher? The math teacher whose lectures made me sleepy and whose effect was comparable to hypnosis?

And the woven bag seemed to be the one that the math teacher was holding in his hand when he walked out of the school gate.

(End of this chapter)