Dashing to the Typhoon
I
It is at dusk of a mid-summer day.
Standing in front of the parking apron of the Weather Monitor Center, anxiously, Hui-juan is waiting for her beloved man Lu Yong-ping. She is looking at the colorful sunset glow, now and then she glances at the Typhoon Labs Building.
The setting sun lays a red garment over the mountains faraway. Purple mist oozes forward from the grassland till it overflows the parking apron and devours Hui-juan’s slim figure. She is in a simple and elegant dress. Her shining dark hair falls naturally down to her shoulders. Her meaningful eyes sparkle with an impish look, which gives her such a sweet look when she smiles as if she would spread her joy to all the people around her. In a word, she is a prudent girl with a pleasant personality. At the Typhoon Research Base, she is known as the“happy air goddess”, because she is a qualified small aircraft pilot for monitoring small climate phenomena.
However, people around Hui-juan do notice that lately she is rather depressed. They know that this is because Lu Yong-ping’s third experiment on typhoon modification failed again.
Hui-juan is in deep love with Lu Yong-ping, yet she is too shy to speak it out to him. Lu Yong-ping is a typhoon researcher. Last autumn, he came up with the photoelectricity trigger. However, since lacking understanding of the typhoon’s
dynamic structures, his three experiments on typhoon modification all failed. Having been under massive pressure, he has always been tied because of the heavy research schedules. She does not want to distract him and has therefore concealed her love for him at the bottom of her heart.
But she is worried when she learned this afternoon that Lu Yong-ping’s research project would be canceled. She is concerned that Lu might not be able to put up with this cancellation and frustration, and thus is desperate to comfort and support him at this difficult time...
She phoned him just before she came off work.
The big clock on the Terminal Building strikes 7 times. The purple mist is now clearing. Lu Yong-ping hasn’t come out and Hui-juan is wandering back and forth in front of the grassland. It is very quiet. Rows of meteorological sounding aircrafts are resting in the hangar. Only the office building of the Typhoon Forecasts Center is in bright light. Apparently may people are still working there. Hui-juan leaps over the white fence and gets on a small path, which is lined up with white blooming chrysanthemums on both sides. The wet haze filled with the flower fragrance penetrates right into her heart. Walking on this path embroidered with white chrysanthemums, she is waiting nervously, excitedly and worriedly...
Having walked through the long flowery path and come around the bend along the office building, she is now able to see Lu Yong-ping’s lab. On seeing that small ivory-colored building, sweet and pleasant scenes of the past come to appear clearly before her eyes.
It was in front of that very building that she got to know Lu Yong-ping four years ago. At that time, he was still a postgraduate student working for his master degree. He is not very tall, but very vigorous. His eyes are not big but are full of composure. He is so easy-going that he talks and laughs cheerfully and naturally with everyone around, including strangers. In less than ten minutes, he could make the strangers talk with him like that they are already good friends. Indeed he is so captivating when he talks, and he could talk you into doing anything willingly which you never wanted to do before. She felt at that time that this guy was certainly a good “talker”, but she wondered if he was a good doer as well in actual situations. Later on she learned that Lu Yong-ping was an exceptional doer: besides accomplishing his own aviation tasks, he also managed setting up of the “Typhoon Simulation Lab”within six months, and developed the typhoon catalyst within one year. Afterwards, he started practical experiments on typhoon modifications. With immense courage and bravery, he has made up his mind to make typhoon modifications a success.
Gradually she comes to admire him, and soon the admiration turns into love.
She loves him, particularly because he is a man who is ambitious and hard working. And perhaps like the case of loving me and then loving my dog, she also loves the aircraft that he flies. It is a nuclear-powered weather plane named “Warrior” and equipped with an advanced photoelectricity accelerator and two jet-flame propellers. It is an awesome airplane！ For many times she has dreamed of flying right into the typhoon in this airplane together with Lu Yong-ping and fighting against the crazy cyclones. Yet her heart is always filled with pity when she wakes up from such sweet dreams. She has repeatedly requested to fly with him, yet he always turns her request down on the same sake that she has never received trainings in flying into the typhoon, even though she is a certified small aircraft pilot for monitoring small climate phenomena. She is never convinced by his reason, yet can do nothing about it. Each time when Lu Yong-ping comes back with failure in the experiment, she feels very sad and regrets that she wasn’t able to give him a helping hand.
A gray car has come from her opposite direction, but Hui-juan does not notice it until its bright lights force her to close her eyes. She withdraws to the roadside and gives way to the car. However, the car comes to an abrupt stop right beside her. Lu Yong-ping leans out of the car window.
She deliberately bends her head to hide her eyes away from him. Lu Yong-ping smiles and says, “Hey！ I have a piece of good news for you—Typhoon No. 9 is formed！ And I have got the permission to fly for it！”
She raises her head and could not conceal a sweet of her laughter. “Oh, I had thought that you were abducted by some Aliens！”
“I’m sorry！ Mr. Qin had a talk with me. It is him who that has advised the management not to cancel my project and instead allow me to fly for another time to collect information about the typhoon’s dynamic structure. He has always helped me at crucial moments...”
“I’ve been so concerned that your project would be canceled. Now everything’s fine...” She ponders for a second and continues, “Don’t you need an assistant for this flight？ In your previous flights...you failed because you didn’t have an assistant.”
He shakes his head and smiles, “I’m afraid that’s not the reason. Had I studied the typhoon’s dynamic structures at the very beginning, I would have already beaten it.”
“Oh, I don’t believe you！ After three failures, you are still so stubborn. Come on, do you need an assistant？”
“Why do I need an assistant？ I’m not flying for a sightseeing tour！”
She gets cross and turns her head away.
“Vroom—” The engine of his car is started. The bright lights of the car rip the darkness of the night. She is wrought-up and cries out, “Wait！” She speaks impulsively, “I will go and fly with you！”
The lights dim down. He opens the door with a mysterious smile on his face and says, “Get into the car. I’ve
already secured approval from the Director. We will fly together tomorrow...”
II
The nuclear-powered weather sounding plane “Warrior” roars and shoots into the sky like an arrow, leaving the Yuedong Airport below which turns into a small match box. And after a few ticks of the second hand of the watch, the “match box” disappears, while the vast blue sky and sea come into their view. Lu Yong-ping noses the aircraft to the altitude of 10,000 meters, leaving the altocumulus clouds roving below the wings of the airplane. He glances below and finds that some fishing ships are sailing into the ocean in arrays. They look like the small wooden toy boats that children play with in a pond. This is a fleet that goes on fishing after typhoons. When he thinks that the fishermen must be looking at them on the deck, he cannot help feeling proud of himself. How fortunate he is to be a meteorological pilot, a son of the sky！ He then takes a glimpse at Hui-juan and smiles secretly. It seems that she has dressed up for this flight. She is in a dark brown pilot uniform suit, and wears a headset on her head and the orange scarf he gifted her last autumn around her neck. She sits elegantly in the co-pilot seat. A ray of sunlight streams in through the porthole and pours down on her face and body, making her radiant with youthful beauty. Her big bright eyes are gazing ahead with her long eyelashes fluttering now and then as if they were communicating with the clear sky. A young man as he is, Lu Yong-ping has a strong feel that he is attracted by this charming girl. His face blushes a little.
The girl seems to have sensed his glances. Feeling a bit shy and somehow unnatural, she remarks, “This plane is so fast！”
“Sure, it is. How can it not be with an extra ‘engine’ installed today？” He says with a content smile.
She gives him a direct yet bashful stare, and then she couldn’t help laughing.
Lu Yong-ping again teases her and says, “Laugh now, and do not cry later on...”
“Humph, you always underestimate others...”
Now they both burst out laughing.
There in front of them are pieces of cumulus clouds that are changing their shapes constantly, sometimes they are like a herd of horses running in the sky, in a while they turn to big whales swimming in the sea. They are so amazing. What a splendid nature and what a gallant course of conquering the nature！ Her heart is filled with happiness and unprecedented satisfaction...
She graduated from a prestigious Meteorological Science Research Institute of China with a major in weather dynamics. She has shown great interest in meteorology since her early childhood. She loves the weather observation career and is fond of exploring the secrets in the atmosphere high above. She loves the blue sky, which in her eyes is as clear as the autumn water, and as magnificent as fairy tales. Her dream was to explore the mysteries of the atmosphere. It came true when she was recruited as one of the first batch of weather pilots by the Typhoon Research Base. She is very intelligent and has excellent physical qualities, which enable her to get adapted to the job very soon. She is capable of breaking apart a small aircraft and piecing them together. Her familiarity with the upper atmosphere physics allows her to track the invisible air currents. Once she catches on an air current that goes in the same direction of her flight course, she would turn off the engine and let the air stream carries her plane on freely, like a fish swimming downstream.
Now the plane has come through the thin clouds zone and continues flying forward. The sky is not peaceful at all, with all sorts of meteorological elements changing constantly. Even when the sky is clear, the air streams of various temperature and humidity are still mingling with each other and exerting mutual influences. They are like a huge net that covers the globe, and the main lines of which being the atmospheric circulation. Driven by the pull of the sun and the deflection force of the earth rotation, the atmospheric circulation breaks into numerous sub-streams which are ramified all over the sky, hence creates varied and complex weather phenomena. At the center of the Pacific Ocean where the equator crosses, twisted air currents are formed above the ocean as a result of convergence of different airflows going up. Such convergent air current absorbs super energy from both the sky and the ocean, and rises up steeply while howling and spinning. The thunderbolts it carries are so violent that they can destroy everything on the ground and at seas. Even fish shoals try to keep away from them. In China this type of air current is called “typhoon”, in America it is called “hurricane”; and in meteorology, it is called “tropical cyclone”. It is the most furious sea monster with a huge body of 1,000km-long diameter, in which numerous cloud walls are formed above the sea. It spins at a high speed, generating winds that have a velocity of over 100km per hour！ It swallows fishing ships and damages other facilities on the sea unscrupulously. When it comes to the land, it brings huge ocean waves and drowns the city. It is the devil in the air and monster on the sea. And now, it is ravaging complacently on the ocean along the southwest-northeast directions, whereas the “Warrior” is coming after it.
Some fractional clouds emerge ahead, underneath there is a blue hole. Lu Yong-ping gently pushes the stick to steer the craft away from the fractus and flies to the clear blue zone-due to the atmospheric pollution, the fractional clouds above the Pacific Ocean always carry a lot of corrosive dusts. Lu Yong-ping grudges any erosion his aircraft might get, even if it is the minimal erosion. He cherishes the airplane as if it were his own life. Each time when he comes back from a detection flight, he would examine the craft along with the aircraft mechanic. Each damaged part makes him very sad. Apart from two regular nuclear-powered propellers, his plane is also equipped with a four-atom acceleration device. Once the plane is trapped in a typhoon, all he needs to do is to open the atomic flame vent and push the startup button of the nuclear reaction device, then with a big “vroom” the plane would break through the typhoon at a speed that is close to the first cosmic velocity.
The “Warrior” dives in the cumulus humilis clouds. Lu Yong-ping takes a glimpse of Hui-juan out of the corner of his eyes. She is still gazing at the sea with much curiosity and seems to have immersed herself in fairy tale fantasies. Far beyond where the sea and the sky joins with each other, there are waves which look like smooth hills going up and down on the surface of the sea and run at least 3 kilometers long. It just looks like what was described in the legend stories: the dragon king of the sea is drunk and goes crazy in his palace under the sea, causing huge waves that surge high up to the sky and swallow the fishermen. Lu Yong-ping suddenly feels that his heart is touched by something and memories of his teenage years flash in his mind, in particular the most heroic and tragic scene that he would never forget.