Chapter 14

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Chapter 14: Solar Energy Bio-Wings

The morning sunlight arrived on time at the sunny side of the ninth cliff dwelling. Luo Yu woke up suddenly in her cozy nest. She opened her eyes, thought for a moment, and remembered that today was the sixth day since the Shan Hai Jing had made its emergency landing.

She sat up and leaned back, gazing at the soft morning light shining on the stone wall in front of her, and went over the current tasks in her mind.

The repair plan for the Shan Hai Jing had been largely determined yesterday. Aside from the power compartment, Zhu Huai assessed that if they could add three more engineering assistant robots, they should be able to complete the internal and external adjustments in five days.

In addition to the overall maintenance of the time capsule, there was still the unresolved issue of the control panel’s recovery panel being unstable. Although the sky curtain would no longer fail, if a new live broadcast appeared, there could still be random overflow of projections.

The last time the projections had gone out of control was the day after the Shan Hai Jing’s emergency landing. The specialized broadcasts occurred weekly. This meant that if they didn’t resolve the recovery panel issue in the next two days, when the live broadcast began the day after, the sky curtain might reappear in this time dimension. She wished to avoid repeating the scene from the riverside a few days ago.

Additionally, Ying Zhao had been calculating the time coordinates and trajectory for the past two days, and they were starting to get some clues. Although this place was thirty thousand years away from their point of origin in terms of time, theoretically, this time dimension overlapped with the Ming Dynasty dimension just before their return. Therefore, the actual time distance shouldn’t be as far as they had previously imagined. After all, when they fell, they had spent only a few hours in the time tunnel, so communication might be hopeful.

However, they still needed to find an opportunity to confirm this with the local experts and see if Zhu Huai could manage to get the control panel’s signal into the communications range of the space station.

Lastly, regarding the truth of their unexpected fall, the problem might lie with the maintenance team of the Time Bureau or the space station. Thus, until they discovered the mastermind behind it, even if they repaired the time capsule and calculated the return route, they couldn’t rashly attempt to go back.

After thinking through these matters, she rubbed her temples, feeling a headache.

After sitting on the bed for a while, she slowly got up, washed her face, changed her clothes, and stepped outside. Ying Zhao was sitting on the soft cushions by the window, eating breakfast. When she saw Luo Yu, she smiled brightly and said, “You’re up early today!”

“Morning,” Luo Yu nodded back with a smile and glanced at Zhu Huai’s door, which was still closed. She walked towards the main control panel, saying, “I woke up hungry today, so I won’t wait for Zhu Huai.” Saying this, she ordered a nutritious meal from the control panel.

Just as she finished ordering, she heard Ying Zhao’s voice from the window, “Could you help me order a hot wheat drink?”

“Sure,” she replied, scrolling through the menu to find the hot wheat drink and adding it to the order. Then she returned to the soft cushions, sat down, and looked outside. The distant waterfall seemed to flow more rapidly, and the curtain of water was wider than the previous days. She wasn’t sure what these natural phenomena represented, but her intuition told her that summer was approaching.

Ying Zhao, sitting to her right, finished her breakfast, wiped her mouth, and pushed her plate forward. She casually pressed the replay button on the panel in the center of the round table: “I received a message this morning from Lei Ming. She’ll take us to meet a cosmologist this morning, probably related to the time coordinates.”

As she finished speaking, a small holographic projection appeared on the round table, showing Lei Ming recording while walking in the woods. “Good morning, you three! I’ve arranged to meet a cosmology expert and would like to invite you to visit him. I’ll come to pick you up at ten, okay?”

“I haven’t replied. I was waiting for you to wake up before responding.”

Once the projection vanished, Luo Yu thought for a moment, “We still need Zhu Huai to check the recovery panel in the hangar today. How about this: at ten, the two of us will go with Lei Ming.”

Ying Zhao nodded eagerly, “Sounds good.”

Just as they finished replying to Lei Ming, a housekeeping robot entered the lounge. It first placed Luo Yu’s ordered nutritious meal by the round table, then moved to the other end to collect Ying Zhao’s used meal, and finally set down the newly ordered hot wheat drink in front of her.

As Luo Yu lifted her bowl and scooped up some meat paste soup, the adjoining arch slowly opened. Zhu Huai walked out, looking at the housekeeping robot collecting the dishes in front of her and noticing that Luo Yu was already eating. She rubbed her round head and said, “Look at you two, not waiting for me at all.” After saying that, she called the housekeeping robot, “Give me the same meal I had yesterday morning.”

“Of course, please wait a moment.” The housekeeping robot replied before turning and exiting.

Zhu Huai lazily walked over to Luo Yu’s side, plopping down on the soft cushions and yawning, “What’s the plan for today?”

Seeing Luo Yu eating, Ying Zhao replayed Lei Ming’s message. Then she shared with Zhu Huai the arrangement they just discussed. Zhu Huai nodded after listening, “Hmm, you two go ahead. The recovery panel is a bit tricky. The problem cannot be reproduced, so it’s hard to investigate. I’ll need to spend some time looking into it today.”

Luo Yu and Zhu Huai leisurely finished their breakfast and chatted for a while in the lounge. Zhu Huai then stood up and began examining the soft glass on the floor-to-ceiling window: “I always feel like this soft glass has some additional functionalities besides preventing birds from hitting it and being breathable, like a quick exit or something.”

“A quick exit?” Ying Zhao followed her to the window and glanced down at the cliff below, where the cave villa’s floor-to-ceiling windows were situated. Below lay a dense forest. “If we go out from here, won’t we just fall and end up as a pancake?”

“Of course, we can’t just run out.” Luo Yu also stood up, walked to the window, and lightly touched the soft glass. She suddenly recalled seeing people in wing suits flying past them from their aircraft over the past few days, soaring like birds.

She glanced back at the two, and Zhu Huai and Ying Zhao seemed to have thought of the same thing. The three exclaimed in unison, “Wing suits!”

At that moment, the main control panel at the entrance announced, “Lei Ming has arrived at the cliff dwelling’s front desk and requests entry permission.”

A few minutes later, the butler robot brought Lei Ming to the door. Luo Yu walked over to open the door and was surprised to see her dressed unusually today, wearing a silver-gray bodysuit with several black straps on her upper body and legs.

Only after she greeted the three and entered did they notice she was carrying a pair of bio-wings on her back—the wing suits they had just been discussing.

As Lei Ming walked in, she smiled and said, “The place we’re going today isn’t suitable for travel by aircraft, and taking the jungle floating tracks would involve transfers. After thinking about it, I decided a wing suit would be more convenient.” She walked over to the soft cushions and turned to face them. “It’s easy to use, I guarantee you’ll get the hang of it immediately.”

Noticing she hadn’t brought anything else with her, Luo Yu asked, “Do we have wing suits available here?” They had been running around outside these past few days and returned to the cave villa early each time, so they hadn’t had a chance to examine many of the equipment in the house. Since they hadn’t connected to the in-house housekeeping system, they had to explore on their own.

“We should have them; these are everyday items,” Lei Ming replied confidently. “If you don’t mind, can I come in to help you find them?”

Luo Yu nodded, “Okay, let’s check my room.” Saying that, she led the group through the left archway.

The equipment in the room was mostly still set to default, so Lei Ming found the wing suit quickly in the changing room. She pulled out the sliding cabinet that contained the wing suits, revealing two massive bio-wings and harnesses—one black and one white.

“The black is for falcon wings, and the white is for seagull wings. Falcon wings are usually for short distances; they are fast and good for hovering. Seagull wings are better for long distances, being energy-efficient, but a bit slower. You’ll get to experience the different advantages in time; today, we’ll wear the falcon wings,” Lei Ming succinctly explained.

Luo Yu reached for the black set. The artificial falcon wings were significantly larger than real falcon wings. She ran her fingers over the feathers, which felt much like real feathers but were just bigger. When she flipped one feather over, she discovered a very thin photovoltaic panel hidden underneath. She touched the others nearby, noticing each feather had a photovoltaic panel beneath it as well.

“Solar-powered?” Luo Yu asked, but she didn’t see any energy storage equipment. “Does this mean we can only fly on sunny days?”

“It’s powered by light energy,” Lei Ming explained, pointing to a strap on the bio-wings. “It has an unobtrusive energy storage strap that can store energy for about six hours, primarily to cope with rainy days. If we fly at night, we’ll attach light-sensitive auxiliary wings to enhance moonlight energy conversion.”

“Moonlight is usable too? That’s impressive!” Zhu Huai praised, quickly dragging Ying Zhao to run out of Luo Yu’s suite to get their wing suits.

After a while, the group reconvened in the lounge with their respective wing suits. With Lei Ming’s assistance, they donned them and each received a detailed second inspection from her.

Once they finished the checks, Lei Ming demonstrated how to use them. Luckily, the villa was tall, with the ceiling nearly five meters high, allowing them to try flying inside the spacious lounge.

Using the bio-wings was indeed straightforward; it was controlled by the body. Once airborne, speed and altitude were directed by the angle of body tilt.

Luo Yu thought this was similar to the balance scooter she used at the office, except this was a three-dimensional version in the air.

After teaching them the basic usage, Lei Ming explained the meanings of several sensors on their shoulders, which were mainly used for storm avoidance and monitoring flight speed and risks.

Seeing that the three of them had practiced adequately in the lounge, Lei Ming clapped her hands, “I think we’re about ready; let’s go!”

Zhu Huai, brimming with excitement, pointed at the window and asked, “Can we go out from here?”

“Right.” Lei Ming adjusted her collar, “Watch the external environment carefully first, then remember to accelerate quickly.”

With that, she took a step back, ran a few paces, leaped into the air, and tilted her body slightly forward, bursting through the soft glass.

After she exited, she flipped in the air and hovered outside, waving at them. Zhu Huai couldn’t hold back and hurriedly followed, clumsily turning to hover beside Lei Ming and gave her a thumbs up.

Next was Ying Zhao, with Luo Yu following behind. After everyone was out, Lei Ming led the way, initially taking Zhu Huai to the hangar.

They arrived at the familiar helipad in just about three minutes. Luo Yu, Ying Zhao, and Lei Ming hovered in mid-air, watching Zhu Huai land smoothly in front of the hangar where the Shan Hai Jing was parked. She waved at them, and they returned the gesture in the air.

After waving, Ying Zhao turned to Luo Yu and winked, “It’s my first time in a wing suit! I was afraid she might crash into the hangar door, but luckily, she didn’t embarrass us.”

Just as Lei Ming was about to respond, she suddenly received a new message. She glanced at her wristband and smiled at Luo Yu and Ying Zhao, “It seems that cosmologist can’t wait to meet you.”