Sending a Light Signal to a Companion

No, that's not right!

Look more carefully. The two dots of light slowly moved apart, then gathered back together half a minute later. Then, the two dots of light slowly parted again!

It's not eyes!

Eyes can't have a trajectory like that!

She suddenly thought of something.

"Guo Er, what did you just say?"

"I said it's right over there!"

"The sentence before that!"

"Was that a monster?"

"No, the sentence before that!"

Tang Xiaoguo thought for a moment: "I wonder if Lu Zhe and Jiang Yao drifted to a small island nearby, started a bunch of fires, and are looking at us from the other side of the sea, just like those eyes..."

Shen Bing's breathing became hurried: "Yes, that's it! You...you might be right! Haven't you noticed, the distance between those two bright spots keeps changing. If it was some kind of animal, the distance between its eyes wouldn't change!"

"You're right!"

"Lu Zhe and Jiang Yao might have really drifted to some island over there. The two of them are each holding a torch, running back and forth to send us a signal!"

In an instant, Tang Xiaoguo cried out excitedly: "Really? Sis Bing, you're not tricking me!"

Shen Bing looked at the lights in the distance: "Silly girl, think about it yourself!"

"It's true, it really is Zhe Ge and Yao Yao, yay yay yay!" She wept with joy, throwing herself into Shen Bing's arms.

"Guo Er, don't get too excited. Since Lu Zhe is signaling us, we need to do something too!"

"Right, right, what should we do?"

Shen Bing suppressed her own excitement: "Yes, let's build up the fire first, then think of a way to let Ning Shu and Lin Qianqian know that Lu Zhe is still alive. They might not have seen the signal."

"Okay Sis Bing, you build the fire and I'll go tell them!"

"Are you sure you can handle it?"

Tang Xiaoguo pursed her lips and smiled: "From elementary to high school, I've always been the arts and culture committee leader!"

She waded through the water to the edge of the stone forest, cleared her throat, and started singing the love ballad of two ferry workers: "Little sister watching from the shore, big brother walking on the other side, our affection, our love, swinging on the rope..."

You wouldn't believe it, but Tang Xiaoguo's clear and melodious voice made the gentle melody sound bright and pleasing to the ear, lingering and far-reaching.

Ning Shu and Lin Qianqian, who were making lotus lanterns, heard it too.

Ning Shu's first reaction was: "Why did Guo Er suddenly start singing? Is she going crazy?"

"That doesn't make sense," Lin Qianqian thought for a moment. "Could she be conveying a message to us?"

Ning Shu's eyes lit up.

The two girls immediately put down what they were doing and ran to the stone forest to listen carefully for a while.

Then, as if on cue, they looked out at the sea and saw two moving dots of light.

At that very moment, on the opposite shore, Jiang Yao and Lu Zhe each held a torch, running back and forth along the coastline a dozen times.

Jiang Yao was exhausted: "Zhe Zhe, do you think they can see us?"

"I don't know, take a break if you're too tired!"

"Oh, look, Sis Bing also lit up lights over there!"

Lu Zhe looked up.

Sure enough, the long-awaited lights came on at Sis Bing's side.

But that wasn't all - there was an even more pleasant surprise!

They saw that at Ning Shu and Qianqian's side, two dots of light also appeared and began moving together and apart along a similar trajectory!

Then the same thing happened at Sis Bing and Xiaoguo's side too!

"They see us! They're responding!" Jiang Yao cried with excitement.

Receiving a response from their companions when they were most desperate...it was truly indescribable.

Holding a torch, Tang Xiaoguo wept with joy: "It's so great everyone's there!"

Shen Bing was also excited and wanted to shout, but realized they were too far away to hear.

But it didn't matter, knowing everyone was alright was the best thing.

Tang Xiaoguo said: "I just wonder what situation they're in."

Shen Bing thought for a moment: "We could try that method."

"What method?"

"Lamp signaling!"

"Oh, I think I heard my dad talk about it. One flash means thanks, two flashes means too slow, turn right to pull over?"

"No, not that. I'm talking about Morse code, using dots and dashes of different lengths to convey information."

"I've heard of that too. Would Lu Zhe understand it?"

"That kid is very knowledgeable, maybe he would. Even if he doesn't, he'll probably respond."

"How does it work?"

"Put your torch down first and watch mine!" Shen Bing went to stand in front of a large rock to block her torch periodically.

After thinking for a bit, she started sticking her torch out briefly then pulling it back quickly, repeating this pattern.

Sometimes she pulled it right back, other times she waited two seconds before bringing it back.

...Meanwhile, Jiang Yao saw the flickering light on the other side.

"Zhe Zhe, what's going on over there with Sis Bing?"

Lu Zhe stared intently at the opposite shore: "Yao Yao, quickly grab me a stick from the fire!"

Jiang Yao hurriedly handed one over.

Using the charred end, Lu Zhe wrote on a rock. Two minutes later, the flickering stopped on the other side.

"Yao Yao, watch that side for me and let me know immediately if anything happens!"

"What kind of situation?"

"That's Morse code. They're sending us a message!"

"You understand that?"

"A little, but I'm not very familiar with it!" As he spoke, he started writing letters under the code.

Jiang Yao watched the other side, curiously asking: "Did you learn this from the ten thousand whys too?"

"No, my dad taught me this."

"What does your dad do?"

"Pilot!"

"So awesome, no wonder my Zhe Zhe turned out so great. How do you tell them apart?"

"By the length of the light flashes. Dots are short, dashes are longer. Different combinations of dots and dashes form different letters and numbers. Like dot dash is A, dash dot dot dot is B, dash dot dash is C. It seems complicated but is actually very simple. I can teach you later."

On this side, Lu Zhe had already decoded all the letters: "whoareyou?"

"Haha, they're asking who we are!"

Lu Zhe thought for a bit: "Let's keep it simple, we'll spell our initials. I'll convert the letters to code first, then signal the sequence to them with light flashes."

...Half a minute later, on the other side, Shen Bing received Lu Zhe's message and wrote "LZJY" in the sand!

"Original poster's experience, phew..."

Tang Xiaoguo fell into deep Conan-like contemplation: "...what's he trying to express?"

"It's Lu Zhe Jiang Yao, their initials, so it is them!"

"That's so great, so great! Hurry and send them our initials too!"

Shen Bing said angrily: "Do you want me to send SBTXG or TXGSB?"

Tang Xiaoguo was stunned!

"Silly girl, sending full name initials is too cold and impersonal, disrespectful to them. Let's send our nicknames, GEBJ..."