Chapter 6

6

For Shen Po, being forbidden from leaving this little village was worse than death.

He was someone who thrived on excitement. He loved fine food and exquisite clothes, loved mingling among beauties, and loved everything and everyone bright and dazzling. Never had he imagined that one day he would end up in a prison-like place where no one answered his cries.

This was his third day here.

Over the previous two days, Shen Po had tried every possible way to escape. But he discovered that once he left, he had no idea where to go or how to navigate the roads. Sheer terror overwhelmed his reason, driving him to scream and shout in frustration. In the end, he could only slink back dejectedly to Wen Yan’s dormitory, venting his anger by scribbling furiously across the students’ homework notebooks.

On the third day, things seemed to take a turn.

Wen Yan told him about the existence of something called a mobile phone, claiming this divine artifact could let him know the affairs of the world without stepping out the door, transmit voices across thousands of miles, and even fetch objects out of thin air.

Shen Po scoffed at the idea.

Transmitting voices across thousands of miles? Wasn’t that just a telephone? Even back in the Republic of China, they already had telephones. It was hardly surprising that people over a century later could make phone calls. But calling it “thousands of miles” was an exaggeration; back in his time, transoceanic calls were impossible. To get a message to America or Europe, aside from letters, telegrams were the fastest option.

As for fetching objects out of thin air, that was even more ridiculous. Did Wen Yan really think he would fall for such an obvious trick?

Wen Yan, right? Shen Po had learned the man’s name from his lesson prep notes. Before seeing the phone, Shen Po hadn’t felt that a century later was all that different from his own era. At most, electricity seemed widespread even in small villages. In Wen Yan’s modest room, electric lights were everywhere, along with strange furnishings that also seemed to run on electricity (an electric kettle, an electric blanket, and the like).

Shen Po hated studying, but he still possessed basic common sense. Back in his day, electricity was a luxury. Not only in rural areas, but even in major Chinese cities, not everyone had access to it. This was certainly progress for a century later, but it did nothing to alleviate Shen Po’s boredom.

That is, until he saw the instructions Wen Yan left, and until he picked up that object called a mobile phone. When his finger brushed lightly against it, the screen instantly lit up, making his eyes widen in astonishment.

He understood what a password was, but what was a fingerprint? And what was the internet?

Weibo^[1]… Why did tapping on this tiny icon reveal an endless sea of content?

Could this little artifact really compress every newspaper inside it? But then how could he explain the comments and messages multiplying with every refresh? Was it that newspapers published their stories through this device, and readers’ letters from across the country were posted simultaneously?

No, not just nationwide!

Shen Po noticed the IP location displayed behind each user’s comment:

From Hebei. From Inner Mongolia.

Although provincial divisions in the Republic of China didn’t have Hebei or Inner Mongolia yet, Shen Po could roughly grasp where those were. But tags like “From Canada” and “From the United States” completely blew his mind.

That fellow Wen Yan hadn’t lied to him. Could this artifact really receive information from the entire world?!

In that case, were paper newspapers completely obsolete?

Shen Po’s breath quickened, his eyes darting back and forth as his brain involuntarily absorbed the massive flood of information bursting across the screen.

#How Busy Are Shenzhou 5 Astronauts in Orbit#

#French President Macron Visits China#

#Trilateral Meeting Between China, France, and the EU#

#Drama XXXX Couple Is So Sweet#

#Experts Explain the Dangers of Skipping Breakfast#

#Scorpios Only Pretend to Be Cold#

These were all written in simplified characters, but Shen Po could understand most of them.

Still, recognizing the characters didn’t mean understanding what they meant when strung together. He was completely baffled.

The longer his finger lingered on the screen, the harder his worldview was shaken.

By the end, his soul felt as though it had left his body and ascended straight to heaven.

Who was he? Where was he?

Shen Po’s head spun, yet his curiosity and excitement only surged. He had no choice but to skip what made no sense and pick out the things he could grasp to ponder first.

What was “Shenzhou 5^[2]“? He had no clue; it looked like a code name. But he had a vague idea of what an astronaut was, since a distant relative of his had qualified as a pilot and become the pride of their family. Spaceflight was probably similar to flying a plane, right?

Yet as he read on, his confusion only deepened. Though both operated in the sky, astronauts were far more incredible than pilots. They flew through outer space! They could get up close to the stars and the moon, and in the future, they would even land on the Moon and Mars!

This was far beyond Shen Po’s imagination. Never had he thought that China a century later would be so formidable, or that its national power would surpass most countries in the world.

Wealthy and sheltered as Shen Po was, as long as he still identified as Chinese, it was impossible not to feel thrilled by such news. But immediately, another doubt crept into his mind: Could this really be true? The Republic of China government of his time had suffered endless humiliation. Even after winning the First World War, it had been treated with utter contempt, not to mention that foreigners from any nation, even Indian constables^[3], could lord over everyone in the concessions. How could such a pathetic, bullied nation suddenly leap into the ranks of world superpowers? Had all the great powers died off and perished, leaving the monkey to rule the mountain in the tiger’s absence^[4]?

This question spurred an urge to find out what on earth had happened over the past hundred years, but Shen Po didn’t know how to use a search engine yet.

Hold on, hold on. Suppressing his confusion for the moment, he turned his attention to other news.

A few hours passed, and Shen Po gradually got the hang of it. Although much of the content remained half-understood or read like complete gibberish, it didn’t stop him from following Wen Yan’s instructions to register an account and start interacting with netizens from across the globe on the posts he could understand.

In his eyes, an account was just like a pen name, and Weibo was a blend of newspapers, pen pals, and published magazines all rolled into one. Best of all, this divine artifact could even play television!

Television was a rare foreign novelty that didn’t even exist in China back in his day. Shen Po had only heard that such things existed in America, but those were in black and white, whereas this-

Excitement was no longer enough to describe Shen Po’s mood. Pumped with adrenaline, he clutched the phone tightly, quickly figuring out the ropes.

Though it was supposedly a place for netizens to exchange comments, among these messages from across the world, there was no shortage of clashing opinions and hurling of insults. Shen Po found it utterly fascinating. In the past, one could only witness people cursing at each other in the street, or scholars waging bitter wars of words in newspapers. A way of communicating in real time without ever laying eyes on one another was completely unheard of!

Shen Po was itching to join in right away, but he could not understand many of the topics, leaving him with no ground to comment or debate. Anxious enough to scratch his ears and cheeks, he could only keep scrolling through them one by one until, at long last, he spotted a topic.

#How Great Was the Sense of Happiness Being Born in the Republic of China#

Now Shen Po was fired up!