《The Rising Sun》佟九

2、Ch.2 The Tiananmen Square

　　Right now, Gongzi is standing in a bystreet in Beijing. Bystreet become a popular place to visit in Beijing after years. She just got here several minutes ago, and she is trying to figure out where this place is.
　　She looks around and find a little sign in a corner. It indicates “丰盛胡同”(Fengsheng Bystreet). She takes out the map and find it’s not far from the Tiananmen Square.
　　She pushes the first button on the watch, Elena’s voice come out, she is the one who taking care of this assignment in the back, “Code 033 Gongzi”
　　“Yes.”
　　“How is everything going“
　　“Don’t know the date yet, but seem everything is going as planned.”
　　“Good. Have you found code 068”
　　“She is not with me now. Please change signal to code 068.”
　　“Ok. Wait.”
　　An electronic sound lasts for half minute. A unemotional sound comes out, “target, code 068, searching...”
　　“Successfully connected.”
　　“Gongzi” Jennifer’s voice comes from the other side.
　　“Yes, Jennifer. Where are you”
　　“I’m in Sichuan...and I just noticed that the year is 2008. The time machine got messed up.”
　　“Oh...no...you are not joking right”
　　“No Gongzi. I don’t have to. It’s the year of Sichuan Earthquake.”
　　“Go communicate with Elena. Ask her what you should do, and I can handle the assignment on this side.”
　　“Ok. Take care.”
　　“You too.”
　　Gongzi makes a sigh. She has never been in Beijing before. Instead, Jennifer is very familiar with Beijing because she has lived in here and knows some history about it.
　　She walked out of the bystreet, the narrow street and sounds come from the families give her tendenss.
　　She asked a passerby the date, he gives a look at her and tell her today is May 3rd, which is the calculated date.
　　She remembers the time period of protesting is between April 15th and June 4th.
　　She takes out a notebook, it has the notes and summaries she made before the traveling, which includes the introduction of the movement.
　　The Tianamen Square protests of 1989 also called the June Fourth Incident. It was a series of pupular demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The movement lasted for about seven weeks.
　　In the late 1970s, the Chinese leasershi of Deng Xiaoping abandoned Maoist-style planned collectivist economics, and embraced market-oriented reforms. By the late 1980s, the pace of change grievance over inflation, limited career prospects for students, and corruption of the party elit were growing rapidly. In April 1989, triggered by the death of deposed Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang, a liberal reformer, mass gatherings and protests took place in and around Tiananmen Square. The largely student-run demonstrations called for continued economic reform, freedom of the press, accountability from officials, and political liberalization.
　　The government initially attempted appeasing the protesters through concessions, but a student-led hunger strike galvanized support for the demonstrators around the country. Ultimately, Deng Xiaoping and other party elders resoveled to use force to suppress the movement...
　　Gongzi closes her notebook after reading the third paragraph. The hunger-strike may already started. She needs to find a place to live near the Tiananmen Square to make it easier to complete her assignment.
　　She follows the map and walk toward Tiananmen Square’s direction. She spends an hour to to find the place and start to looking for any rent house.
　　After two hours, she finds a little house locates in a small bystreet, and there’s a sign writes “出租房屋”, which means renting house. She stepped in and saw an old woman sitting there behind a desk.
　　“请问这个是租房吗。”Gongzi asked carefully.(is this the place you are renting out”
　　“是的。我们按日计算。你也是来天安门做运动的吧。最近的房子都住满了呢，剩下的已经不多了。” The woman nodded.(yes. We count the renting fee by day. Are you also coming for the movement The houses close here are all full, there aren’t more left.”
　　Gongzi smiles and tell her she decides to live here. She hands her 5RMB.
　　The woman get the money and says, “我们都老啦没什么干劲儿。你们年轻就瞎折腾。孩子啊，我劝你还是早点回去吧，别让父母担心。跟政府斗，能有什么好结果。” (we are old now and cannot do many things. You are young but are doing unnecessary things. My child, listen to my advise, go home and don’t let your parents worry about you. There’s no good efforts for fighting with government.)
　　“谢谢你说的话，我就来呆几天就回去了。”Gongzi responds.(thank you for your advise, I’ll just stay for few days and leave)
　　The woman then passed Gongzi the key and leave.
　　Gongzi goes to the bed and have a nap. When she gets up again, she finds it’s 5p.m. now.
　　She connects with Elena, “Did Jennifer talk to you”
　　“Yes. The problem is time machines are all in use. The one you used is in fixing. She has to wait at least half month.”
　　“What is the time for her”
　　“May 3rd, same as you, but in different year.”
　　“But I remember the earthquake happened in May 12th.”
　　“Yes, and she is in Sichuan right now. I told her to leave.”
　　“She’d better leave, she cannot change anything in the past.”
　　“You are right. I’ll remind her again later.”
　　“I’ve rent a house in Beijing. When shall I come back”
　　“Let me check...June 5th. The day riight after the movement end.”
　　“Get it.”
　　“Alright, take care of yourself there.”
　　”Thank you. Bye.”
　　“Bye.”
　　Gongzi takes out her camera and start to walk to Tiananmen Square.
　　Tiananmen Square is larger than she thought before. The photo of Mao □□ is on the top of the gate. There are a lot of people sitting on the ground.
　　She photographs them.
　　She notices a person fell ten meters away. The person’s friends cried and called the ambulance. The nurses and doctors quickly put that person in the ambulance and leave.
　　The person probably fell because of hunger, Gongzi think.
　　In the following few days, she continues coming here and walk around to collect photos. She save them in her earrings.
　　Six days later.
　　“What”
　　Gongzi think it’s the worst thing in the world.
　　Jennifer falls in love with a boy in Sichuan, who will die in the earthquake.
　　This makes Elena worried.
　　“Jennifer tells me she doesn’t want to see him die.”
　　“No girl want to see her boyfriend die, Elena.”
　　“It’s not the point. She tells me she want to save him.”
　　“How”
　　“Tell them there will be an earthquake.”
　　“What will happen”
　　“People will move out and be alive.” Elena almost yell in the other side, “listen Gongzi, we don’t know what will happen if you change anything in the past. If she save them, thousands people could appear in China without warning, and nobody will know where they are coming from. It will have a huge impact in present. We cannot take this kind of responsibility, we need to find out a way.”
　　“I understand. But what if nothing will happen in present, what if they are not related anymore”

　　“I don’t know, Gongzi. What I said was the hypothesis the scientists made, they are more reliable.”
　　“Alright Elena. I’ll talk to Jennifer to find if there’s another way.”
　　“Ok.”

　　….....