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But even more distressing than the persimmon not falling was the fact that he had nowhere to go again. He had only twelve bucks left on him, and his food supply consisted of a few Huotuichang sausages and some hard bread. Surviving on these for three days shouldn't be a problem, but... the days that followed were bound to be tough. He surely couldn't spend every day waiting for that damned persimmon to drop into his mouth.
After eating a piece of bread by the roadside and picking up a mineral water bottle to fill with tap water for a satisfying drink, he began his first contemplation of the future for the day...
"Hey, little girl, give me some money."
Gu Tao thought it through and figured begging wasn't too shabby of an idea, but with no prior experience, he had no choice but to reach out his hand and ask. Right then, a high school girl in uniform happened to pass by, pushing her bicycle with a worried look on her face.
"I... I don't have money."
The girl was startled by Gu Tao, instinctively thinking she'd encountered a bad guy, so she spoke tremblingly.
"No money? That won't do," Gu Tao scratched his head: "How about this, your bicycle is broken, right? I'll fix it, and you give me money."
"Ah? How much... would that be?"
"Give what you feel's right. One hundred or two hundred is not too much, ten or twenty is not too little." Gu Tao said as he snatched the bicycle and pulled out a set of tools from his bag: "See, I'm quite professional, aren't I?"
"Prof... professional."
"Absolutely professional. I was the only genius in M55 who got into Citizen's University at fourteen." Gu Tao said while tinkering with the bike: "If I had the right materials, I'd assemble you a water-drop shuttle."
In no time at all, the bicycle was back in working order by his handiwork. Gu Tao rode it to test and, satisfied, handed it over to the girl: "The money."
"I... I only have fifty."
"So, how much do you plan to give?"
"How much do you want?"
"It's not about how much I want now; it's about how much you're willing to give." Gu Tao was both tickled and exasperated: "Can't you understand plain speech? No wonder your kind have remained a fifth-class civilization for so many years."
"Then... I'll give you all fifty." The girl, intimidated by his babble, wasn't clear-headed: "That's really all I have..."
Gu Tao thought for a moment, snatched the fifty bucks, then cocked his head to look at the high school girl and pulled a pen out of his pocket, picked up a cigarette pack from the ground, tore it open, and wrote a website on it: "If you ever run into a problem you can't solve, look for me here. I owe you a favor."
"Oh... okay."
Taking the cigarette pack, the girl slipped it into her backpack and rode away like the wind, while Gu Tao watched her flustered retreat and muttered to himself: "Weak sauce."
But after saying that, he looked up at the fifty bucks in his hand, kissed it hard, and muttered: "Got money for food!"
With money in hand, his first order of business was to have a good meal. He ordered fried chicken and sour plum juice, spending a total of forty bucks, and after finishing his meal, he discovered that it was already dark outside, with the apparent threat of a heavy rain looming.
"Ah... time to start my second reflection on life for today." Gu Tao muttered to himself while sitting: "Where to stay?"
His expression was one of conflict, as if he had a multitude of options to consider. Eventually, as if making up his mind, he steeled himself, gritted his teeth, and stood up with his bag on his back.
Braving the light rain, he boarded a bus and rode it to the last stop, and after a fifteen-minute walk that nearly soaked him through, he finally arrived at an abandoned air-raid shelter.
Even before entering, there was an unmistakable stench of urine at the entrance, unable to tell whether it was from an animal or human, but regardless, it was foul.
He stood there for a while, covering his nose and mouth as he slowly made his way inside.
The air-raid shelter ran deep. He walked farther in, to an area nearly devoid of light, when he suddenly raised his arm and pressed a few buttons on the dilapidated electronic watch, and suddenly, a buzzing noise filled the cave. Then lights began to flicker on around him, and the wall facing him slowly parted to reveal a strangely shaped spaceship inside. It looked very sci-fi and was as long as fifty meters.
"Welcome back, Explorer."
The distinct voice of artificial intelligence echoed from the spaceship, and then the hatch slowly opened with fluorescent-colored path lights guiding Gu Tao aboard.
Arriving at the resting pod, he flopped down onto the soft bed, and said with a tinge of sorrow: "And so, I return."
"This is where you belong," the AI responded.
"Damn it, it's all because of you!" Gu Tao suddenly cursed at the ceiling: "If it wasn't for you suggesting to try tuning the frequency interface, I wouldn't be stranded here. Six years! Have you figured anything out?"
"I deeply apologize for that. But barring any accidents, our home planet has dispatched a rescue team, and they should arrive soon." The AI's voice even held a hint of sheepishness: "My sincerest apologies."
"What I'm truly afraid of isn't whether the rescue team will come or not, but that our home planet will consider this place an aggressive civilization. Do you understand?"
"Understood, but I have continuously broadcasted harmless signals into space, so that kind of problem shouldn't arise."
At this, Gu Tao's thoughts drifted back to his teacher of years past.
"The universe is vast, and theoretically, where there is a star, life might emerge. And once life begins, there is a high probability of the genesis of a civilization."
"Why do I need to learn about primitive civilizations? They're still riding horses. What's the point of this information?"
Facing his question, his teacher, stern-faced, stepped forward with a voice full of authority: "The birth of every great civilization starts with barbarism. According to DNA mapping, they're our closest kin. Aren't you curious at all?"
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