Final Chapter (3)
Ge Zhiwen took out a handful of gold needles and said, "These gold needles are one of my props. If we can melt them down and make them into semi-circular gold balls, we might be able to put them into the depression."
Jian Tanxi said, "If we want to reshape the gold needle into a gold ball, we need to melt the gold needle with high temperature first. The melting point of gold is over a thousand degrees, and we can't create such a high temperature."
Zhang Dayong said, "I'll give it a try. I have a special ability called 'shapeshifting,' which allows me to change the shape of objects."
Ge Zhiwen gave all the gold needles to Zhang Dayong.
Zhang Dayong held the gold needle in his hand and squeezed and rubbed it forcefully.
His hand was pricked by the gold needles and bled, but he didn't utter a sound.
Ge Zhiwen looked somewhat frightened and said, "Why don't we just forget about it?"
Zhang Dayong: "It's okay, I feel like I'm almost there. It's because you gave me a gold needle that my hand got pricked. If it were any other shape, I wouldn't have gotten hurt. But even if I did get hurt, it won't be serious, so don't worry."
After a while, Zhang Dayong indeed rolled these gold needles into half a gold ball, which was semi-circular in shape.
He wiped the gold pellet clean and placed it into the second indentation.
However, the golden ball was also deflected.
Zhang Dayong wondered, "Gold won't work? Does it have to be something more expensive than gold? But we don't know where to find that right now. If we take too long to find it, we'll all move on to the next round of the game, and we don't know when we'll be able to open the box again."
Qin Man said, "I think we should put a semi-circular fruit in this second indentation. Fruit is a kind of food, and food is of course the most precious thing for earthlings."
Everyone agreed that this made sense, so they went off separately to look for round fruits.
Before long, each person had found two or three round fruits. They split the fruits in half and tried them one by one. However, without exception, all the fruits bounced off.
Ge Zhiwen said, "Fruits won't do either... then what else is round? Eyeballs... that's right, eyeballs. Without eyeballs, humans wouldn't be able to see the world. Therefore, eyeballs are naturally one of the most precious things."
As he spoke, Ge Zhiwen wanted to gouge out his own eyeballs, but he couldn't bring himself to do it and seemed very hesitant.
Qu Xingyuan stopped him: "Wait, don't be impulsive. I think I know what to put in the second indentation."
Everyone looked at Qu Xingyuan with expectant expressions.
Qu Xingyuan went outside, dug up some soil, and put it into the second depression.
Unexpectedly, the soil filled the second depression and did not bounce away.
No one could believe that the answer was so simple.
Old man Ryder murmured, "Soil, that's right, it's soil... Soil can grow all things, it can build houses, and some dishes need soil to be cooked properly. The soil on each planet is different, and different places nurture different people. For Earth, soil is one of the most precious things."
Jian Tanxi asked Qu Xingyuan, "Master Qu, how did you discover that the second empty space should be filled with soil?"
Qu Xingyuan said, "This box will bounce off anything it doesn't need. But when we tried it with fruit just now, the fruit and the juice that accidentally spilled out bounced off, only some dirt left on the fruit stuck in the dent. I think this is not a coincidence, but because the dirt is exactly what this box needs."
Otherwise, how could this box not bounce away the soil? So, I filled it with more soil. Soil doesn't have a fixed shape; it can be used to fill any depression.
Just now, we got stuck in a fixed mindset, thinking we had to find something semi-circular.
Jian Tanxi: "That's right... Qu Shen, you're so smart."
"It just happened to come to mind."
Others also praised Qu Xingyuan highly.
Next, there is the third indentation.
The third and fourth recesses are both small round holes, as small as headphone jacks.
In such a small space, it's almost impossible to put anything, except perhaps fine soil.
However, the soil had already been placed in the second depression.
Jian Tanxi just tried using water, but it didn't work.
With a try-it-and-see attitude, Qin Man took a little soil and put it into the third and fourth depressions, but the soil bounced off.
Old Man Ryder said, "These five indentations can hold things that won't be the same, so they definitely can't be soil."
Jian Tanxi said, "But even water won't work... Are we supposed to put in a beverage?"
No one brought any drinks, but Jian Tanxi had a multi-flavor water bottle; by putting water in it, she could pour out different flavored drinks.
However, only three types can be poured at a time.
Jian Tanxi asked, "What do you think is the most precious drink?"
Qin Man: "Tea brewed with the most expensive tea leaves?"
Ge Zhiwen: "Beverages with therapeutic effects, such as ginseng tea?"
Zhang Dayong: "I think it might be saline solution? Saline solution has a wide range of uses; people can't live without salt. Hospitals also use saline solution. Also, if someone is too weak, or has diarrhea and is exhausted, drinking a bowl of saline solution can immediately improve their condition. The first two compartments contain some seemingly insignificant things, such as a book or a handful of soil. So, the next compartment should also contain something that seems insignificant, but upon closer inspection, it is very important."
Jian Tanxi felt that what the three of them said made sense.
So she poured clean water into the multi-flavor water bottle, and then poured out expensive tea water, ginseng tea, and salt water respectively.
However, all three types of water bounced off the box.
Everyone was very discouraged.
Qu Xingyuan comforted everyone: "It's okay, failing a few times is normal. Which of the games we played before didn't involve many setbacks? We'll definitely succeed. These third and fourth indentations are clearly only suitable for small things. If it's not soil, then it can only be liquid."
Perhaps our previous thinking was flawed. We can try rainwater, river water, and lake water. If it doesn't rain, everything will dry up, and there will be no life on Earth. Therefore, rainwater is very important. Although river water and lake water contain impurities, the rich microorganisms they contain sustain many fish and shrimp. So, this seemingly unclean water may actually be the most important thing on Earth.
Qin Man: "River water is easy to collect, but rainwater can only be collected when it rains, which we can't control."
Ge Zhiwen: "I have a special ability to make it rain, but it can only rain a little bit. I'm in charge of collecting rainwater. You guys go find nearby rivers, lakes, and the like to collect river water, stream water, and mountain spring water."
Jian Tanxi asked, "Is the rain you summoned using your superpowers real rain?"
Ge Zhiwen: "Yes, the principle behind my rainmaking is to gather nearby clouds and cause cloud droplets to condense quickly, which is essentially the same as the principle of artificial rainmaking."
"Okay, then there's no problem."
They went out together and asked Mr. Ryder to look after the box.
About two hours later, rainwater, lake water, river water, mountain spring water, and water from farmland had all been collected. Since there was no river nearby, no river water was collected.
Everyone tried all the water, but without exception, the boxes bounced off.
Zhang Dayong couldn't help but ask, "What does this box want? Does it want air instead of water?"
Jian Tanxi: "There is air in the depression, so what it wants is definitely not air."
Zhang Dayong squatted down, stared at the box, and said, "Hey, brother, what do you want? Can you say something? If you tell me, I'll definitely find it for you."
Everyone couldn't help but laugh.
Jian Tanxi suddenly remembered that she had the ability to be a storyteller, so why not give it a try?
She walked to the box and used her storyteller ability to try to communicate with it.
However, a sharp voice rang in her mind: "Warning! The Storyteller ability is temporarily unavailable!"
It seems the storyteller function can't be used on this box; we can only guess.
Jian Tanxi was somewhat discouraged.
At this moment, Zhang Dayong was probably too tired, and sweat was dripping from his forehead.
He wiped it with his hand, but a drop of sweat still fell, landing precisely on the third indentation.
Surprisingly, the drop of sweat did not bounce off.
In other words, what the box wants is this drop of sweat.
Zhang Dayong was extremely surprised: "How could this be... It was my sweat? I'm not some important person, I'm just a car mechanic, why would my sweat be useful..."
Old man Ryder looked enlightened and explained, "Actually, strictly speaking, this is not your sweat, but the sweat of the laborers."
Zhang Dayong asked in bewilderment: "The sweat of laborers?"
"Yes. You are an ordinary worker on Earth, but it is the millions of hardworking workers who keep this world running smoothly. And sweat is the proof of your hard work. Therefore, the sweat of workers is one of the most precious things to the Earth."
Zhang Dayong was dumbfounded: "So that's how it is... So the fourth indentation also needs sweat? Why don't you all try it and drip your own sweat into it?"
Although everyone thinks it won't be that simple, it doesn't hurt to give it a try.
Ge Zhiwen and Qu Xingyuan already had sweat on their faces. They dripped their sweat into the fourth indentation, but it bounced back out.
Qu Xingyuan grabbed his son Qu Chen, took a drop of sweat from Qu Chen's face and dripped it into the sweat, but it still didn't work.
Jian Tanxi and Qin Man ran around the abandoned factory several times until they were sweating.
They dripped their sweat into it, but it bounced off.
Zhang Dayong exclaimed in surprise, "Why is my sweat acceptable but yours isn't? If I represent the workers, then Qu Chen represents the children, who are the hope of humanity; Qin Man represents mothers, for humanity cannot exist without mothers; Ge Zhiwen and Qu Shen represent highly educated intellectuals, for humanity cannot exist without intellectuals; and Jian Tanxi represents the younger generation, who are the main force in building society..."
Old Man Ryder said, "It's not that they're unimportant, but the things needed for this box are unlikely to be duplicated. So, the third dent is already filled with sweat, and the fourth dent shouldn't be filled with sweat."
Zhang Dayong: "But the fourth indentation is just as small as the third, it can only hold a little bit of liquid. Besides sweat, what else... rainwater, river water, etc.? We've already tried those, but they don't work..."
At this moment, Qu Xingyuan said, "Besides various types of water, there is also blood."
Qu Xingyuan cut his finger with a knife and dripped a drop of blood into it.
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