The roar of the plane’s engines was deafening.
An immense force pressed everyone in the cabin firmly against their seatbacks.
After a slight jolt, the city buildings outside the window rapidly shrank, transforming into a neat grid of geometric shapes before being completely swallowed by the thick layer of clouds.
The change in cabin pressure made everyone’s ears feel stuffy.
He Gui sat by the window.
He gripped the seat’s armrests tightly.
It was his first time on a plane.
A hand extended from the seat beside him, offering a piece of chewing gum.
He Gui turned his head.
Miao Shian sat beside him, his gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose. He had already opened a thick, all-English physics journal.
"Chew on this. It’ll help."
Miao Shian said gently, his eyes never leaving the page.
He Gui quickly took the gum, unwrapped the foil, and popped it into his mouth.
"Thanks."
He said quietly as his tense shoulders slowly began to relax.
In the row ahead.
Wang Huashao couldn’t have cared less about the cabin pressure.
He was leaning so far into Zhou Kai’s space beside him that he was practically in his seat, tracing diagrams on the back of his tray table with a capped gel pen.
"Brother Kai, did you see the flap on the wing just now?"
Wang Huashao whispered, his words coming out in a rapid-fire burst.
"The moment it retracted, the airflow disturbance couldn’t possibly be explained by Bernoulli’s principle alone. There had to be some extremely complex vortices on the edge. I bet if they lowered the angle of attack just a little, the lift-to-drag ratio could be improved..."
Zhou Kai was wearing a pair of noise-canceling earplugs.
He held his frayed, dog-eared notebook of corrected mistakes, staring at a circuit diagram on the page.
Hearing Wang Huashao’s incessant chatter, Zhou Kai pulled out one of his earplugs in utter exasperation.
"Wang Huashao."
Zhou Kai sighed.
"Can you give it a rest? The plane is flying just fine. It doesn’t need you to redesign its wings."
"I’m just applying theory to practice," Wang Huashao muttered, pouting as he leaned back into his seat, clearly not done with the topic.
Lin Yi had a black eye mask on, her body covered by an airline blanket.
Curled up inside an oversized T-shirt, she was sleeping with a complete lack of poise.
Whenever the plane hit a patch of turbulence, she would only furrow her brow slightly, shift her position, and continue to sleep.
Chen Zhuo was sitting next to Lin Yi, in the aisle seat.
A cup of warm water sat on the tray table before him.
He had taken off his glasses and was gently polishing the lenses.
As the team captain, Chen Zhuo had already filed away all the data from the past fourteen days. Every hands-on test result, every team member’s margin for error under extreme pressure—it was all neatly organized in the depths of his memory, like a computer archive.
Every failure over the past two weeks, every wisp of smoke from a burnt-out circuit, every final, glowing red light.
All of it had long since been forged into solid instinct.
He put his glasses back on.
His gaze swept across the cabin.
Wang Huashao was still pointing at the clouds, gesticulating to He Gui.
Though still nervous, He Gui was listening with intense focus, nodding occasionally.
Miao Shian turned a page of his all-English journal.
The red pen in Zhou Kai’s hand drew a circle in his notebook of corrected mistakes.
Chen Zhuo retracted his gaze.
He took a stack of boarding pass stubs and six ID cards from his pocket.
He meticulously double-checked the names on them against the hotel reservation information.
Then, he tucked them neatly into the innermost zippered compartment of his backpack.
Professor Wang, sitting a few rows behind them.
For once, he had changed into a slightly less wrinkled, dark blue suit jacket.
Though the style was terribly outdated, it at least lacked its usual scent of aged rosin and machine oil.
He was leaning back in his seat with his hands folded over his stomach, resting with his eyes closed.
The two-hour flight was exceptionally smooth.
The plane landed at Beijing Capital International Airport.
The massive tires screeched against the tarmac with a dull thud.
A chorus of crisp clicks echoed through the cabin as passengers unbuckled their seatbelts.
The noise woke Lin Yi.
She yanked off her eye mask, rubbed her dry eyes, and stood up, following the flow of people in front of her.
The group walked down the jet bridge and into the terminal.
The dry, bright air of the Capital City streamed in through the massive glass curtain wall.
At the baggage carousel.
The six of them stood beside a black conveyor belt.
Wang Huashao was gazing up excitedly at the airport’s massive steel-beamed dome, discussing the stress distribution of such large-span architecture with He Gui.
Miao Shian stood with one hand in his pocket, a gentle expression on his face.
Zhou Kai stood ramrod straight, his backpack slung over his shoulders.
The six of them collected their luggage.
The wheels of their suitcases rumbled dully as they dragged them across the smooth marble floor.
Following a staff member from the organizing committee who was holding up a welcome sign, they boarded a large bus.
The bus pulled off the airport expressway.
The scenery outside the window flew by.
Wide roads, towering overpasses, and dense streams of traffic.
The vast, ancient, yet modern city unfolded before the teenagers’ eyes.
It was quiet inside the bus.
Everyone was looking out the window.
「About an hour later.」
The bus slowly drove into the city center.
It stopped in front of a four-star hotel.
A conspicuous red banner was stretched across the hotel entrance:
"A Warm Welcome to the Provincial Teams for the National Junior High Applied Physics Competition Finals."
The bus door opened.
A wave of dry heat washed over them.
"Grab your luggage."
Professor Wang was the first to get off the bus.
Chen Zhuo stood by the door.
He helped He Gui lift down a rather cumbersome canvas suitcase.

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