A big meeting every three days, three small meetings a day.

Shen Cong had discovered that people in leadership all loved holding meetings, whether there was cause or not.

He replied at once, impatient. "I don't have time. Whatever it is, handle it yourselves."

"Commander Hu, this matter really is extremely urgent. I'll keep it short. Yesterday, before dawn, a helicopter landed in Donghai County. This helicopter belongs to our nation's first commissioned aircraft carrier, the Liaoning…"

The Liaoning?

Shen Cong's brow shot up, unable to suppress his astonishment.

What the Liaoning meant — surely any Chinese person understood. Even though in 2019 China commissioned its second carrier, the Guangdong, and in 2021 its third, the catapult carrier Shanghai, the Liaoning had always been the most beloved carrier of all.

The captains and crews of the Shanghai and the Guangdong had all been trained aboard the Liaoning.

After the end of the world, with the old world all but obliterated in the apocalyptic storms, Shen Cong had imagined the Liaoning destroyed, and had imagined the Liaoning surviving. But actually hearing news of the Liaoning still gave him a huge jolt for an instant.

"Is what you're saying true?"

"It's true. The helicopter pilot is an iron person, and what's happened aboard the Liaoning, you absolutely couldn't imagine — utterly incredible. But the Liaoning has run into trouble now; they can't reach shore. They'd meant to berth at Qingdao Harbor, but that whole place was sea-beasts, so they drifted to Lianyungang Harbor — and it was the same, a swarm of sea-beasts. Out of fuel, they could only send their one and only helicopter ashore to call for help."

The Liaoning!

Shen Cong still remembered — he'd only just started junior high when the Liaoning completed its carrier-aircraft takeoff-and-landing training, and the launch signal permitting the J-15 to take off, "crouch and bend, then point to the sky," swept the whole country in no time.

Back then the entire class, led by the teacher, had struck the "carrier style" pose — a deep memory.

To think the Liaoning would just turn…