Stargazing (1)

The six teenagers watched as the technicians installed a dish antenna with a 2.7-meter diameter on the mansion's backyard. Indeed, the size was huge for mere amateur radio enthusiasts, and it took three technicians three hours to set it up. Haoran told his friends a bit about the technical stuff while they listened with great interest.

"This is so exciting!" Dinh exclaimed. "I didn't know we could send a message to the moon."

"Actually, not really. What we do is bounce the message to the moon. Later, our message will be received by other stations on earth. We can start contacting Moon Bounce enthusiast community to discuss and work together," Haoran said. "When we send messages to the moon, the surface of the moon will reflect it back to earth, and other stations will catch the waves. Conversely, later we can also listen to messages bounced from the moon sent by other EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) stations."

"I can't wait," said Alex. "Do you know how to use it?"

Haoran shook his head. "I still have a lot to learn, but I've talked to many people about this. Tomorrow, the radio equipment will be delivered here, and the technicians will install the WSJT and teach me how to use it."

"When will they come?" asked Emma. She felt the need to be present when they taught Haoran to use the radio equipment so she could understand how it worked. As a genius, of course, she would be able to understand things more quickly than Haoran.

"They will come tomorrow morning, so I will have to skip school," said Haoran. "Can you come early tomorrow? Do you want to skip classes?"

Emma pondered for a moment. Tomorrow was the first class in Networking, and she didn't want to miss it. Finally, she shook her head. "No, but please make a recording of what they teach you, so we can all learn how to use it."

"Good idea. I'll do it," Haoran agreed.

Four hours later, the six of them had stared in awe at the large antenna dish that had been fixed firmly in the backyard. Now, Haoran's house suddenly looked like an amateur radio station or a small tech lab.

"Whoaaaa .. so cool," Alex said, clapping a few times. "I can not wait!"

"Me too," Emma murmured. She turned to Haoran and thanked him silently.

The young man just nodded and smiled in satisfaction.

At 8 pm, after dinner and feeling satisfied admiring the new antenna in the backyard, the guests finally took their leave. They will meet again at Haoran's house on Friday to celebrate David's birthday and, at the same time, try their first Moon Bounce.

***

Since Allan found out that Emma was his junior in high school, the young man became very friendly to her. Incidentally, they both took the same courses, namely Operating System and Database every Wednesday and Friday. so they met twice a week.

When Emma entered the Database class on Friday morning, she was amazed to see that Allan, who had arrived earlier, had vacated an empty seat for her beside him.

"Hey, Emma. Just sit here. I've saved you a good seat," Allan said enthusiastically.

Emma just rolled her eyes. She could read Allan's mind and knew that the young man was just looking for an excuse to sit near her. She tried to find another empty seat, but unfortunately, there were no more empty seats in the front. She did not like to sit in the back of the class on subjects which she deemed important.

Finally, she sighed and sat down next to Allan then took out her laptop. Their instructor arrived shortly after and the class immediately began. Allan was very serious about his study, and Emma was happy because the young man did not bother her.

After the first class ended, Allan immediately turned to Emma, who was getting ready to leave the classroom. "Do you want to have lunch together? I want to treat you to a meal. I never expected that I will meet my junior here."

Emma frowned. She remembered that she had heard Allan's name before.... somewhere.

Hmm ... didn't Nadya say that Bianca liked Allan Wu, the Head of the Student Council?

Was this the same Allan? If so, that meant his father worked at Lee Industries as one of the directors.

Maybe this person can be useful, Emma thought.

She wanted to help Haoran get rid of his father. At present, Haoran had absolutely no power over his father's business, but a few years from now, he must want to do something to change that.

"Is your name Allan Wu?" Emma asked the young man, her eyes showed interest in him for the first time. She just wanted to make sure that this was indeed the person she thought he was.

Allan's face suddenly looked happy when he found out the beautiful girl in front of him had heard of his name. He nodded with a big smile.

"That's right. That's me. Have you heard of me?"

Emma nodded. "I have. Once or twice, I think. All right ... I will have lunch with you."

"That's great! What do you want to eat?" Allan asked enthusiastically.

"Uhm .. I want to eat Pho," Emma said.

"Ah, I know a very good Vietnamese restaurant near here." Allan signaled that Emma should follow him. "My treat."

"All right, then," Emma finally nodded. For her, it never hurt to be friends with Allan. She had a feeling that one day her connection to Lee Industries through Allan's father would be of use to Haoran.

They ate lunch casually. Allan turned out to be quite fun and very intelligent. Emma could understand why that young man was elected the head of the Student Council when he was in high school. Even though his appearance screamed wealth and he brought his own car, it turned out that Allan was not arrogant as most rich students at school.

"So, after you graduate from high school, where do you want to go to study?" Allan asked as they ate lunch. "I was forced to follow my father's wishes to become a doctor. His father and brother are both well-known surgeons, and he wanted me to fulfill his lifelong dream."

"If your father wanted to be a doctor, why didn't he become one? Why does he have to force you?" asked Emma, ​​not understanding.

Allan shook his head. "Ahh ... he can't. My father's hand was injured when he was a teenager. He could never become a surgeon without his good hands, so he shifted his dream and works in Lee Industries."

"Oh ..." Emma could only shake her head with sympathy. "Too bad."

"Well ... I have no choice." Allan took a sip and sighed shortly. "Enough about me. Where are you going to college? You haven't told me."

"Me...?" Emma frowned and tried to think. She did not think about it at all. She was not Haoran, who had planned his life for the next few years. So far, Emma only had one objective in life, which was finding her parents.

Maybe she would be able to decide on her life path after she knew with certainty what happened to them.

She and Haoran had discussed the possibility of them having to go to university and study something that could give Emma access to SpaceLab. Maybe she would need to take Astrophysics. It was not a popular department, but it would give her an excuse to work for SpaceLab.

"Why are you silent? You don't know what do you want?" Allan asked attentively. "You should start thinking about it immediately. Soon you will have to apply for college."

Emma nodded. "You're right. Hmm ... maybe I will study Astrophysics. I want to work at SpaceLab."

Allan's eyes, who had been staring at Emma with admiration, now seemed to become even more amazed.

"Wow ... that's amazing. Good luck. You are truly not an ordinary girl," he commented. "I've never met anyone who wants to study astrophysics."

"Well, now you have." Emma replied.

Allan nodded with a smile. "Now, I have. Yes. Well.. that's very interesting. Good luck!"

"Thank you."

After a nice lunch, they returned to campus for the Database class and went back to working with their laptops for two hours.

At exactly 3 pm, Emma left the campus to head to Haoran's house. She couldn't wait to meet her friends and try their first Moon Bounce.

"Hey, Stardust! You came on time," exclaimed Haoran, who saw her from the second floor. The young man was setting up something on his balcony when he saw Emma walking in from the courtyard. He waved his hand towards the girl excitedly. "Come on up!"

Emma looked left and right quickly. After making sure there was nobody around her, the girl stomped her feet to the ground and rose toward the balcony. Two seconds later, she was already sitting on the edge of the balcony, smiling at Haoran's reaction. The young man looked like he had just seen a ghost.

"Why do you look so pale?" teased Emma.

Haoran held his chest in shock when he saw Emma suddenly fly to the balcony.

"Gosh... you surprised me. What if anyone saw you???" he asked worriedly.

Emma chuckled. "Nobody's watching. Come on ... what do you want to show me?"

Haoran finally nodded and took a step back to reveal the large box on the balcony floor. "It's a good thing that the boys haven't arrived. If they saw you fly, they can get a heart attack. Uh ... here, I bought a telescope so we can observe the moon. This thing just arrived. I want to put it on the balcony."

Emma looked at the telescope in awe. Its size was quite large, and she could see in the box that it could be used for deep-space viewing.

Ahh ... this was amazing. She never expected that they would do stargazing tonight.

"This is cool." Emma commented with a smile.

"I know," Haoran said, grinning proudly.