Siheyuan (traditional courtyard house): Starting with the Korean War, returning home to take charge

There was a crack in the windowpane, which had been there since last winter and hadn't been repaired. A cold draft seeped in through the crack, causing the edges of the stack of letters on the table to curl slightly. He Yuzhu pressed the papers down, stared at the string of numbers, and counted them again.

143, 341, 000.

One hundred and forty-three million three hundred and forty thousand.

He picked up his pen and wrote on the paper: Energy. Materials. Communications. Medicine. Chips. Aerospace. Military. Quantum. Life. Ecology. Ten major fields, ten blank lines. After writing the last word, the pen lingered on the paper for a moment, leaving a small ink dot.

The door opened without a knock. Qin Huairu entered with tea, standing in the doorway without immediately coming over. She glanced at his table covered in papers, then at his wrinkled shirt collar, before placing the tea on the corner of the table. She knocked over a pen as she did so, but didn't leave.

"The rain has brought news."

The voice wasn't loud, as if she was testing his reaction. He Yuzhu looked up, clutching a letter in her hand, the edges of which were crumpled, her thumb rubbing back and forth on the seal.

"What did you say?"

She placed the letter on the table, her fingers pressing down on it. He Yuzhu waited for her to continue, looking at the letter as if considering how to phrase it.

"She said the well water level was too low again. Uncle San said the harvest was bad this year."

She paused, removed her fingers from the letter, withdrew them, and placed them on her knees.

She asked you if you had any solutions.

He Yuzhu didn't reply. He took the letter, unfolded it, and read it again. He Yushui's handwriting was neater than before, each stroke carefully written, but the character "紧" was crooked, and the last stroke was drawn out very long, as if he hesitated when he wrote it.

"Let me see."

He folded the letter and stuffed it into the drawer. Qin Huairu stood there, neither leaving nor speaking, and after a while turned and went out. The door wasn't closed tightly, leaving a crack, through which the light from the corridor leaked, drawing a thin, long, bright line on the floor.

He Yuzhu turned the paper to a new page and began writing. Nuclear power technology fundamentals, twelve million. High-temperature gas-cooled reactor principles, eight million. Solar cell technology, six million. He didn't stop after finishing that; his pen continued down the page—ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber, five million. Carbon fiber composite materials, seven million. High-temperature alloy series, ten million. Microwave communication principles, four million. Satellite communication fundamentals, six million. Optical fiber materials and technology, five million.

He wrote slowly, pausing to think after each line. When he got to the medical section, the pen hovered over the paper for a few seconds before finally falling. Penicillin fermentation process improvement, three million. Streptomycin production technology, four million. Vaccine production line design, five million. Insulin extraction process, six million.

The pen tip continues its journey, relentlessly. Improved lithography machine, eight million. High-purity silicon purification process, six million. Integrated circuit design fundamentals, five million. Preliminary design of manned spacecraft, fifteen million. Space station expansion module, twelve million. Lunar lander concept, ten million. Anti-radiation missile design, eight million. Early warning aircraft radar design, ten million. Stealth coating materials, six million. Quantum computing principles, eight million. Quantum communication fundamentals, six million. Gene editing fundamentals, ten million. Stem cell research program, eight million. Biopharmaceutical technology, seven million. Desertification control technology, five million. Saline-alkali land improvement program, four million. Wastewater treatment technology, three million.

After finishing writing, he spread the pages on the table and went through it all again from the beginning. His fingers traced the numbers line by line, and halfway through, his palms started to sweat. He put down his pen and went through it all again.

143, 310, 000.

There are 31,000 points left.

He filled in the 31,000 points as well, and wrote a line at the bottom: Return to zero.

After he finished writing, he stared at the two words without moving. The lamp on the table made the paper appear white, and the ink, not yet dry, shimmered faintly under the light.

The footsteps in the hallway stopped at the door, but there was no knocking. He Yuzhu turned the pages of paper over and placed them face down on the table.

The door was pushed open. Old Sun came in, didn't say anything, and sat down in the chair opposite him. He didn't rush to speak, took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, took a drag, and slowly exhaled. The smoke dispersed under the light, like a thin veil.

"Old He, someone's watching you."

He Yuzhu leaned back in his chair and looked at him.

Old Sun held the cigarette between his fingers, didn't smoke it anymore, and just let it burn on its own.

"They weren't ordinary petty thieves. There were three groups. One group was from the Manchu remnants, and the other group's origins were unknown."

He paused, and the ash from his cigarette fell on the table, but he didn't brush it off.

"You should go out less these days. I've also increased the number of people at home."

He Yuzhu didn't reply. He stood up, walked to the window, and pulled the curtains open a crack. It was pitch black outside, and a person was standing under the streetlight. He couldn't see the face clearly, but he could see the glow of a cigarette butt, flickering on and off.

"Where is the butler?"

Old Sun stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray.

"They escaped. They're not in the country. But the second administrator there was caught, and he implicated over 1,200 people."

He Yuzhu turned around.

"One thousand two hundred?"

Old Sun nodded.

"It's rotten all over, from top to bottom. But the one at the very top..."

He didn't go on.

He Yuzhu walked back to the table, sat down, and glanced at the few pages of paper. Zeroed out. He stuffed the paper back into the drawer.

The radio was on, but the volume was very low, crackling and hissing as if there was something blocking it. He Yuzhu turned the knob a little, and the sound became clearer, but he didn't turn it up.

"...Armed conflict breaks out in the Gulf of Tonkin, US warships attacked by torpedoes..."

Qin Huairu came out from the inner room and stood at the door listening. She didn't go inside, just stood there with one hand on the door frame.

"Is another war about to break out?"

He Yuzhu turned the radio volume down a little more.

"have no idea."

He didn't turn it off; he just left it ringing. Qin Huairu stood at the door for a while, then turned and went back inside. The door closed slowly behind him without making a sound.

He brought up the system interface and looked at the string of numbers: 143,341,000.

Start redeeming.

System prompts popped up one by one, and he read them one by one, his finger hovering over the confirmation button, then falling, then hovering again, then falling again.

[Energy & Nuclear Power Technology Basics Pack. Redemption successful. 120 million points consumed.]

[Energy - High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Principle. Exchange successful. 80 points consumed.]

[Energy - Solar Cell Technology. Exchange successful. 60 points consumed.]

[Material: Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber. Exchange successful. 50 points consumed.]

[Material: Carbon Fiber Composite Material. Exchange successful. 70 points consumed.]

[Materials - High-Temperature Alloy Series. Exchange successful. 10 points consumed.]

[Communications - Microwave Communication Principles. Exchange successful. 40 points consumed.]

[Communications - Satellite Communication Basics. Exchange successful. 60 points consumed.]

[Communications - Fiber Optic Materials and Technology. Exchange successful. 50 points consumed.]

[Medical - Penicillin Fermentation Process Improved. Exchange Successful. 30 Points Consumed]

[Medical - Streptomycin Production Technology. Exchange successful. 40 points consumed.]

[Medical Vaccine Production Line Design. Redemption Successful. 50 Points Consumed]

[Medical - Insulin Extraction Process. Exchange successful. 60 points consumed.]

[Improved version of chip lithography machine. Redemption successful. 80 points consumed.]

[Wafer Crystal High-Purity Silicon Refining Process. Redemption Successful. 60 Points Consumed]

[Fundamentals of Chip and Integrated Circuit Design. Redemption successful. 50 points consumed.]

[Aerospace - Preliminary Design of Manned Spacecraft. Redemption Successful. 150 million points consumed.]

[Space Station Expansion Module. Redemption successful. 120 million points consumed.]

[Aerospace Lunar Lander Concept Design. Redemption Successful. 100 Points Consumed]

[Military Industry - Anti-Radiation Missile Design. Redemption Successful. 80 Points Consumed]

[Military Industry - Early Warning Aircraft Radar Solution. Redemption successful. 100 million points consumed.]

[Military-grade stealth coating material. Exchange successful. 60 points consumed.]

[Quantum computing principles. Exchange successful. 80 points consumed.]

[Quantum Communication Fundamentals. Exchange successful. 60 points consumed.]

[Life - Fundamentals of Gene Editing. Redemption successful. 10 points consumed.]

[Life Stem Cell Research Program. Redemption successful. 80 points consumed.]

[Life Science & Biopharmaceutical Technology. Exchange successful. 70 points consumed.]

[Ecological Desertification Control Technology. Redemption successful. 50 points consumed.]

[Ecological Saline-Alkali Land Improvement Plan. Redemption successful. 40 points consumed]

[Ecological Wastewater Treatment Technology. Redemption Successful. 30 Points Consumed]

When the last message popped up, he stared at it for a long time.

[Current points: 0. Points earning window is permanently closed.]

He closed the interface. The papers on the table were still there, and the light was still on. The wind that seeped in through the crack in the window made the corners of the papers curl up.

He stood up, walked to the door of the archives, unlocked it, and pushed it open. The room was empty, with only rows of dusty iron shelves. He went out and carried the documents in, one stack at a time. Each time he carried a stack, he neatly arranged them on the shelf. When he reached the last stack, he paused, picked up the top one, and looked at the cover. It was a basic nuclear power technology package. The paper was cool.

He remembered that year at Changjin Lake, lying in the snow waiting for the bugle call to charge, wondering what he would do if he made it back alive. Now he knew.

He put the document back on the shelf, took a step back, and looked around the shelves. Ten rows, completely full. He closed the door and hung the key on a nail on the wall. The key wobbled twice on the nail, then stopped.

the phone is ringing.

He answered the phone, and it was Old Sun on the other end, his voice very low.

"Old He, a telegram has arrived from above. Vietnam is requesting assistance. They want you to attend a meeting tomorrow."

He Yuzhu held the microphone but didn't speak. A cool breeze slipped in through the crack in the window again.

Old Sun waited a moment.

"Old He?"

He Yuzhu hummed in agreement.

"understood."

He put down the phone, stood by the window, and drew back the curtains. The eastern sky was just beginning to lighten with the first light of dawn; the person under the streetlamp was gone. He closed the curtains, took the key from the wall, held it in his hand for a moment, and then went outside. The corridor lights were still on, empty and desolate; his footsteps echoed against the walls.