In the seemingly endless dense forests of Great Green Mountain, Zhang Bin was trudging along. Sweat poured from his body, soaking the clothes on his back. As he walked, he looked around, searching for something.
Last night, he had seen it clearly. A meteor dragging a long tail had crashed into the dense forest of Great Green Mountain. He had even heard a sound like a thunderous boom.
Today, he was here to dig for the meteorite, which might fetch a large sum of money.
With that money, I could pay for Father's medical treatment. Mom wouldn't have to wear a worried frown all day, my sister wouldn't look so pale and malnourished anymore, and the family wouldn't have to sleep in a drafty, worn-out house.
"Found it!"
Zhang Bin suddenly let out a cheer. About a dozen meters ahead, a large pine tree, thick enough for a person to wrap their arms around, had many of its branches clearly broken off and hanging down. It must have been smashed by the meteorite.
He ran over and scanned the ground with wide eyes. Sure enough, he found a deep, though not very wide, pit in the ground that was still emitting a scorched smell.
Zhang Bin's heart began to pound as he raised his hoe and dug frantically.
Soon, he unearthed the meteorite, but it turned out to be an exquisitely crafted cell phone with a wide screen.
"How is this not a meteorite?"
Zhang Bin was utterly baffled and dumbfounded.
CHIME... CHIME...
Just then, the cell phone began to ring, emitting a very pleasant tone.
"A call is coming in? Is there even a signal this deep in the old woods?"
Zhang Bin snapped to attention and tentatively pressed the button on the phone that was flashing with a blue light.
Instantly, a colorful image appeared on the screen. In a shabby-looking room, a youth who looked to be in his twenties was sitting on a blue-colored wooden chair, holding a cell phone of the exact same model.
The youth's appearance was fundamentally the same as an Earthling's, but his ears were pointed, and his aura was distinctly different. His clothes were also peculiar; a black flying saucer was printed across the chest. He was staring wide-eyed at his own cell phone screen, his face a mask of shock and his mouth agape.
The pointy-eared youth urgently spoke in a strange tongue, the words guttural and incomprehensible.
"Hello, hello! It's a pleasure to meet you, my extraterrestrial friend…"
Although Zhang Bin didn't understand, he still responded enthusiastically, chattering away.
The extraterrestrial youth, of course, didn't understand either, but a look of surprise and excitement flooded his face. He guided Zhang Bin to tap a special icon on the phone screen.
Pleasant music began to play as the screen image changed, and a video started.
The vast universe, filled with countless stars. A magnificent, discus-shaped galaxy unfolded on the screen, and an ovular planet, shaped like a duck's egg, slowly emerged into view. The planet grew larger and larger until it filled the entire screen.
The camera zoomed in further, and a large square on the planet gradually enlarged, revealing many people in strange attire skillfully assembling a machine that looked like a rocket. The parts they used were peculiar, their surfaces etched with lines of various colors—red, green, blue—forming strange, incredibly complex patterns.
Once the assembly was complete, they placed a cell phone inside the rocket's cabin. It was identical to the one in Zhang Bin's hand.
Finally, they conducted a grand ceremony, offering prayers to the heavens while singing and dancing. Amid countless cheers, an old man in a red robe and a golden crown, his face stern and imposing, activated the rocket's switch. The rocket burst forth with dazzling blue light and soared into the sky. It flew at the speed of light, vanishing from the atmosphere in an instant and rapidly disappearing into the distant, disc-shaped galaxy...
An unknown number of years passed. The rocket traversed nearly half the galaxy before breaking into a familiar sight for Zhang Bin: the Solar System. Then, the rocket malfunctioned and exploded. Propelled by inertia, the cell phone from its cabin continued its flight. It headed straight for Earth, bursting through the atmosphere in a shower of sparks before landing in the dense forest.
In that moment, a surge of excitement flowed through Zhang Bin like an electric current. His body began to tremble uncontrollably, and his tiger-like eyes blazed with a scorching light.
Now I fully understand. In the Milky Way Galaxy, there's a planet similar to Earth inhabited by intelligent life. Just like Earth's astronomers, they were exploring the vast universe for habitable planets and searching for extraterrestrials. They detected Earth, and this cell phone was the device they launched to communicate with Earthlings. I've found a miraculous phone that can communicate with extraterrestrials! That's why the alien youth was so eager to call. I'm talking to an alien right now!
As soon as the video finished, the extraterrestrial youth pointed again, guiding Zhang Bin to tap another icon on the screen.
A new image appeared on Zhang Bin's phone. It was a resplendent sun, with several curved, alien characters floating beneath it. At the same time, the phone vocalized the alien script.
Zhang Bin instantly realized he must have activated the alien language tutorial software. The software was now teaching him the alien language. Only after he learned it could he communicate with the extraterrestrial youth.
His face twisted as if he'd just bitten into a bitter melon. Back in school, foreign languages had been his biggest headache; he usually failed the exams. Forcing him to learn an alien language was practically a death sentence.
How could I possibly learn it?
The extraterrestrial youth seemed to understand Zhang Bin's distress. His eyes shifted, and he guided Zhang Bin to press and hold a specific spot on the phone for about ten seconds.
With a CLICK, a cover on the back of the phone popped open, revealing a small compartment. Inside was a pill wrapped in green paper, no bigger than a peanut, that emitted a strange fragrance.
"There's an Elixir hidden inside the phone? Could this be some sort of Immortal Pill?"
Zhang Bin wore a look of astonishment. He quickly tipped out the Elixir and looked expectantly at the youth on the screen.
Envy was written all over the youth's face, and his eyes burned with intense longing. He made a gesture of tossing the pill into his mouth and swallowing.
I'm just a peasant who barely graduated high school. My father is gravely ill, and my family is penniless, truly poor as can be. I wish more than anything I could earn enough money to send my father for treatment, to change my family's fate of sorrow and poverty... This one Elixir might be my only chance. I have to take it!
With an internal shout, Zhang Bin quickly unwrapped the paper around the Elixir and, without a moment's hesitation, swallowed the pill from outer space.