He was thirteen years old then. In the summer holiday he took four friends for a visit to the aircraft carrier on which his father was serving aboard. The climate of that summer was unusual and typhoons were formed one after another. It was a horrible night with blustering winds and pouring rains. The craft carrier was hit by a typhoon. The cables used to fix the aircrafts were blown loose. A dozen airplanes were sliding towards the sea. Everyone was petrified. But before anyone noticed, Lu Yong-ping’s father had climbed into the aircraft that was closed to him. The plane soared into the sky, leaving blue blames behind it...
His father steered the plane skillfully in the typhoon. However, just as the craft was about to get through the cloud wall, a zigzag lightening appeared in the sky, following that was a cloud of blazing lights which lit up the dark night. Lu Yong-ping was struck dumb and he did not burst out crying until long after...
III
There emerges the special type of clouds in front of their plane—the Taimu Cloud.
Taimu clouds are formed as a result of the force of tropical cyclones. They are like radial bands that stretch across the sky and they are lofty and reflect beautiful colors under the sunshine. They are constantly changing their arrangements and create vivid scenes: sometimes they are like the wavy flickering grains in the autumn field of the northern China and sometimes they are like the golden rippling sandy hills of the loess plateau. It is an amazing world, an exhibition of the golden feathers of the sea storm monster and the prelude of a mighty typhoon. The sea monster is hiding behind these grotesque clouds and watching for the aircraft’s move.
Like a hunter who hears the footsteps of the game, Lu Yong-ping gets tensed-up and also excited at the same time. He draws out a small and exquisite drug bottle from his bosom pocket and hands it to Hui-juan. She takes it and finds that it is the airsickness drug lately developed by the Medical Institute. It is a type of compound gas, which will be released from the bottle when the knob is twisted. Once you breathe in the gas, your airsickness will disappear.
Hui-juan smiles and says, “People all say that you are considerate and attentive. It seems that they are right. ” She plays with the bottle, turning it round and round, and remarks, “This could be a pretty good souvenir.” She appears very relaxed, while Lu Yong-ping, on the opposite, feels rather restrained. For one thing, he is a bit uneasy because Hui-juan is flying with him; for another, this is the first and also his last chance to explore the typhoon’s dynamic structure and the result of this flight—be it success or failure—will determine the destiny of his project. In order to make typhoon modification a success, he has spent three years in the research. At the very beginning, when he was still a student, he volunteered to start a cooperative project with the Typhoon Research Base. At that time, like his fellow students, he was required to stay on campus and there had been no precedent of a student of his like collaborating with an external research organization. His secret was revealed soon. The Director of the Student Affairs came all the way to the Typhoon Simulation Lab and gave him a rocket for it. What’s more, Lu Yong-ping got a disciplinary action, which has not been discharged up till now. Since then he has collected himself to dash headlong to the target of achieving typhoon modification and he would never give up before he gets to the end. Past scenes flash in his mind while he steers the plane. He thinks of Mr. Qin, who has full trust in him and has been giving him so much support; he thinks of Ge Yang, the mechanic who could keep working on the dock for days in order to ensure his safety in the flight...and he also thinks of his father. He can never forget the moment when his father’s plane was struck by the lightening. He almost passed out then, and the image of his father’s back when climbing up the aircraft kept flickering before his eyes.
All of a sudden a puff of orange color flashes across before his eyes. He looks again and finds it is the orange scarf that Hui-juan is wearing. The two ends of the scarf flow loosely above her chest like a flower. Lu Yong-ping asks deliberately, “Nice color of the scarf. Why is it that I’ve never seen you wearing it before？”
She pouts her lips playfully and answers, “This is the only one I’ve got, and how could I not spare it！ Why didn’t you gift me a few extra ones？”
Suddenly Lu Yong-ping notices that the plane has come close to the outer zone of the typhoon and their flight course has been blocked by clumps of cumulus clouds. He starts up the precision meteorological radar.
IV
The typhoon has stopped its steps forward and is spinning at a high speed at the same spot. Its diameter is narrowing down, while its strength is being reinforced dreadfully. Oh, yes！ It is gathering up energy. In the meantime, darkness is spreading over the ocean; horror is growing with the waves. Clouds, lightening, gales, rainstorm, all weapons are in stock. The sea monster has stored up sufficient anger and is now ready to relieve its rage. Compare with this huge monster, an aircraft is nothing but a tiny bug.
Lu Yong-ping flies the “Warrior” in circles at a distance of 70 kilometers away from the typhoon and carefully searches the best angle to cut in it.
The numbers on the navigation panel are changing quickly. Whirling air streams come from various directions, the aircraft starts to tremble and big quivery sound comes from its tail. Hui-juan picks up the satellite cloud imageries adeptly. She reports to Lu Yong-ping, “After a short interval, the Typhoon No. 9 has started to leave the East China Sea and is now moving in the direction of The Sea of Japan along the regular route. Its central wind power has upgraded to level 13.” Lu Yong-ping is staring at the radar screen. His eyes have been trained to detect the quivers of the meteorological radar’s echoes in a blink and catch the crack in a typhoon, which is the thin clouds area that the plane is able to break through. The sea water pushed by the typhoon gives out a hollow sound like that of a water mill. It mingles with the angry billows, turns into crazy shouts and rises all the way up to the sky. Having flied for two rounds on the spot, Lu Yong-ping seizes a chance. He points the head of the plane to the direction of the third quadrant, at the same time he lowers down to the altitude of 4,000 meters. “Attention！ We are cutting in！” He utters this short warning quickly and then pushes down the control stick. The aircraft immediately shoots into the center of the typhoon like an arrow.
In 30 seconds the wings of the plane start to shudder. The ravaging wind storm jumps amok up and down and flings itself at the craft, as if it wishes to smash this tiny “bug” that has rushed in rashly！ Hui-juan’s face turned pale in an instant. She feels dizzy and nauseated. She clenches her lips and silently tells herself, “Hold up！ You must hold up！” She must not distract him at this crucial moment. The plane is thrown up by a rising air stream; it bumps up for a few second and then falls down again. They feel like they were sitting on a car running wildly on a bumpy sandbank, and their limbs were almost torn apart from their body in such bumpings. Lu Yong-ping uses all his strength to hold the control stick tightly in his hands and let the plane remain in the best angle to break in.
The sheared air streams are like powerful lined artilleries. They kept firing at the aircraft’s body, like a giant playing with a dice in his hands. The “Warrior” roars while its nuclear-powered propellers spray white flames. Its sound echoes with the lightening and thunders deep in typhoon. By and by, Lu Yong-ping manages to cut out a fissure. The Typhoon holds back a step as if it were fighting for fun, but immediately gathers up for more violent strikes. Lu Yong-ping reckons this is the time and he turns on the dynamics detector. The three-dimensional radar antenna starts to rotate instantly, and all the indicator lights in the cabin begin to flicker. The beeping of the electric signals and the chugging of the computer’s terminal unit are tuned together into a symphony of marching towards the typhoon.
Sweat streams roll down Hui-juan’s face and damps her orange scarf. She tries hard to hold up her uneasiness; meanwhile she keeps picking up the typhoon cloud imageries sent from the Pacific Meteorological Geostationary Satellite, and also monitoring strong electric signals from the typhoon center—this concerns their flight safety and she must make the judgment in a timely manner so that she could give warnings to Lu Yong-ping against the thunderstorm area with high-voltage electricity. Now that Lu Yong-ping eases up a bit, he suddenly notices Hui-juan’s pale face. He says to her, “Are you not feeling well？ Why not use that drug？” His words remind her. She fetches the bottle and rotates the cap. However as the shudder of the aircraft gets more and more violent, she vomits in the end. Lu Yong-ping hurriedly hands her a towel that has been soaked with medicine.
The typhoon has started its counterattack！
They are now getting close to the typhoon’s last line of defense—the“eye wall”.
A typhoon is divided into three rings from the inside to the outside. The first ring is called “typhoon eye”. This is the calmest of the three rings and there’s neither dark cloud nor wild gales here. The second ring is the “eye wall”. This is the deadly part of a typhoon. It is a thick cloud wall that enwraps the typhoon eye and is formed by rows of intimidating cumulonimbus. It could be dozens of kilometers long and several thousand meters high. Here the convections are most severe, and the rainstorms are terrific. The third ring, which they have successfully passed is the periphery ring composed of cumulus clouds. At this stage the most difficult part for them is to break through the “eye wall”. The outcome of this flight, in other words, whether they could successfully detect the typhoon’s dynamic structure lies in this stage. Lu Yong-ping has no doubt in this, because this is the most rampant and aggressive part of the typhoon.
In about 45 seconds, the aircraft starts to wag frantically, like a bull that has stirred a hornet’s net. Lu Yong-ping holds fast to the control panels and tries hard to keep the plane’s
balance, as if he were pressing hardly on the crazy bull’s
nose. Hui-juan is trying to keep the headset on her head while throwing up, and in between she informs Lu Yong-ping the movements of the electric thunders. Lu Yong-ping’s heart is touched: it’s almost incredible that a gentle and sometimes even timid girl like Hui-juan could become so bold and collected at crucial moments！
A bolt of lightening flashes outside of the cabin. The plane shivers and next is a big blaring sound. Hui-juan’s heart sinks. “We’re done！ One of the aircraft’s wings has been cut off,” she tells herself secretly. Darkness falls before her eyes. She did not realize that the plane is still flying only after a few seconds. She laughs at her timidity and stupidity stealthily. Then she puts her headset back in position and resumes working immediately. Now and again she casts her eyes on the typhoon dynamic detector, for she is as anxious as Lu Yong-ping—there’s still no image on the screen.
The“Warrior” is still struggling against the“eye wall”. It dashes through piles of rolling thick cumulus clouds and flies in pouring rains. The static eliminator throws out showers of sparks constantly. The plane is like a super hawk that’s flying across the ferocious clouds while its body is burning with powerful flames. It’s getting darker outside. The gale is howling, the sea is roaring and the wind is rushing as fast as 30 meters per second！ Hui-juan feels that she can hardly make it through. Her vomiting is so serious that she cannot raise her head. The drug has lost its effectiveness on her. Her tears are running down continuously. Meanwhile Lu Yong-ping is sweating with anxiety. He steps tightly on the balance panel trying to keep the plane steady, but the plane has never been as disobedient as it is today, still bumping up and down wildly. Hui-juan’s head is bent down and she is still tracking the signals while holding her neck with her hands. After another hail of vomiting, she feels some bitter taste on her tongue. She takes another look at her vomit and spots some yellowish-green bile！ She hides away the sickness bag beneath her seat in a fluster.
All of a sudden, the aircraft speeds up as if it has finally broken thousands of iron cables that have been holding it. It has pierced the typhoon’s defense line, the most dangerous cloud walls, and comes to a bright space. Here the temperature is high and the air pressure is low. And the golden sun is right ahead—they have come to the typhoon eye！
The young man and the girl both take a deep breath. They look at each other and smile in a grin of understanding. Then they both look outside of the windows. They see an oval-shaped sea area surrounded by towering cloud walls that stand erect as if they were cut by a big knife. Beyond the walls the clouds are rolling and waves surging, whereas inside the walls there’s a blue sky dotted with white clouds, and flocks of seagulls are flying over the deep blue and calm sea.
“Are you all right？ Can you make it？” Lu Yong-ping asks affectionately.
She gives a bitter smile and nods.
The aircraft goes around the typhoon eye in circles.
3 minutes and 44 seconds have passed. There’s still no image on the typhoon dynamic detector. Lu Yong-ping tenses as he repeatedly turns the red knob of the detector. His heartbeats are getting faster. He cannot afford another failure. He must get the typhoon’s dynamic structure chart in every possible way！