Suddenly, a person jumped out of the black vortex. The soldiers around him immediately went on alert, with more than a dozen assault rifles all pointing at the entrance of the hole, and the atmosphere froze.
It was not until everyone saw that the person emerging was wearing a familiar uniform and carrying familiar weapons and protective gear that they relaxed.
“Xiao Nan!”
“Captain!”
Seeing his comrades looking at him excitedly, Nan Qingchuan could no longer conceal his own emotions. He took the camera in his hand and solemnly handed it to the concerned leader.
“This time, we’ve made a major discovery!”
Gu Jiaqi discovered that Xiaoshu slept a lot, to the point of being somewhat lethargic. Scientifically speaking, children did need more sleep, but Xiaoshu had slept continuously from daytime until now, a total of fourteen hours. That was truly excessive.
She suspected that Xiaoshu had been poisoned by some kind of toxin or was suffering from some illness. Her inability to speak might also have something to do with it.
But since Xiaoshu could not speak, there was no way for her to find out what was wrong. She could only make a rough guess about what had happened to her before she entered the black hole.
As a result, among the two people who had come from other worlds, Gu Jiaqi actually knew more about the tall, muscular soldier.
Looking at Xiaoshu sleeping soundly on the small bed, Gu Jiaqi finally made up her mind and opened her StarNet savings account.
The money in there had been lent to her by her friends to save her life. Gu Jiaqi’s mental power had once gone into severe turmoil. At times like that, she needed a doctor who specialized in treating and calming mental power, and such doctors charged extremely high fees. Although she had recovered before, what if it happened again? That could be a matter of life and death!
However, Gu Jiaqi felt that after retiring, all the troublesome matters had disappeared, and she had already regained control of her mental power. More importantly, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She needed money, and she needed to take a gamble.
Fortune favors the bold. Gu Jiaqi decided to take a risk. If things really did not work out, she could always borrow money again!
“Sois, you bastard!”
Whenever she reached this point, Gu Jiaqi could not help getting angry again.
Because she had beaten Sois so badly that she broke three of his ribs, that bastard had actually joined forces with the Noble Protection Association to have all her cash assets confiscated.
Otherwise, how could a soldier who had earned so many merits have ended up in such a state?!
Gu Jiaqi hated this aristocratic system. Commoners had to pay a much greater price if they wanted to get ahead.
“They keep saying everyone is equal. Equal my ass!”
Muttering to herself, Gu Jiaqi opened StarNet’s shopping platform. She bought more than a dozen humanoid robots, then bought a small medical pod. The fifty thousand star coins her friends had lent her were now completely gone.
Now, Gu Jiaqi was truly penniless.
Fortunately, that ancient person had gone back to his own world to get food. And food was a very good thing.
In the Empire, cooked food had always been considered a luxury. In the past, every meal came with the risk of radiation viruses entering the body, so people had gradually come to favor nutrient solutions instead. It was not until a hundred years ago that someone discovered how to remove radiation from food. From then on, prepared meals became a delicacy that people could only occasionally enjoy.
Thinking that the ancient people seemed to eat meals every day, Gu Jiaqi could not help looking forward to it.
“Hello, dear customer. Since the Q903 planet you are currently on is extremely remote, delivery will take three hours!”
Gu Jiaqi stared blankly.
Fine, fine. A little slow was better than nothing…
She fed some nutrient solution to Xiaoshu, who was still sleeping, then wandered back toward the black hole again. What if someone new appeared?
“Holy crap…” No new person had appeared through Gu Jiaqi’s black hole, but the old one was pretty great too!
Nan Qingchuan stood beside a rather long food cart and saluted Gu Jiaqi.
“Miss Gu, our country’s leaders have approved and support cooperation with your planet. This vehicle and the food on it are our expression of goodwill. Please accept them!”
Nan Qingchuan’s voice was powerful and firm, while Gu Jiaqi’s eyes lit up.
Gu Jiaqi truly had not expected the ancient people to have so many different kinds of food. Just look at that huge braised pork knuckle! Look at the roast chicken and roast duck! And those adorable little ribs!
“You’re being way too generous!”
Nan Qingchuan said, “We urgently had our best chefs prepare these. They’re all still hot!” He stepped forward and pulled open a drawer beside the food cart. Only then did Gu Jiaqi see that the drawer was filled with food as well.
But then she noticed something. “Why is all the food in these drawers so small?” Gu Jiaqi had never seen a situation where a huge plate held only a tiny portion of food.
“This is Western cuisine. The food above is from our country, and the portions are more substantial. The food on the other side is Western cuisine, which is known for its refinement…” Nan Qingchuan gave Gu Jiaqi a brief introduction, explaining the origins and regions associated with various cuisines and how they were distributed around the world. Gu Jiaqi was deeply shocked.
This tiny planet actually has so many different culinary traditions. It seems our ancestors lost a great deal of culture and skills during humanity’s migration into space…
Although there were many varieties of food in the interstellar era as well, the food on this single small food cart already spoke volumes.
Her doubts did not stop Gu Jiaqi from doing what she needed to do. She took out a food detector shaped like a flashlight from her spatial chip, expanded its scanning range to the maximum, covering the entire food cart, and pressed the detection button.
Three seconds later, the “flashlight” emitted a green light, indicating that none of the food on the cart was dangerous.
“Mr. Nan, what exactly are the terms of your proposed cooperation?”
As she spoke, Gu Jiaqi elegantly picked up the chopsticks beside her, grabbed a piece of bright red meat, and put it into her mouth. It was rich without being greasy and incredibly delicious.
Nan Qingchuan stood ramrod straight. “My superiors have decided to meet your requests as much as possible in exchange for the various weapons and discarded mechas on your planet.”
In reality, his superiors attached tremendous importance to this matter. The entire Huanxin Square had already been completely sealed off, and academicians from the Academy of Sciences had set up numerous monitoring instruments beside the black hole. The entire military was screening for people capable of seeing the black vortex, and a special task force had already been preliminarily established. Before Nan Qingchuan came over, the top leader had already boarded a helicopter and was on his way.
To prevent surveillance by foreign satellites, the entire square had been covered by a huge canopy. Even Nan Qingchuan himself had been classified as a top-level confidential individual. No one could now find any information about him on any website.
The image of the alien woman standing before him and leisurely eating the food had also been repeatedly studied, and a personality model had been created to facilitate negotiations.
Gu Jiaqi had guessed that the ancient people would take this seriously, but she ultimately had no idea of the details. Hearing Nan Qingchuan say that they would do their utmost to satisfy her, she raised an eyebrow.
“Actually, these mechas and weapons aren’t very useful to me. You can take them if you want.” Gu Jiaqi first made her position clear. “After all, the appearance of this black hole is also an opportunity for both of us. Mr. Nan, I think we should both be a little more sincere with each other. What do you think?”
Nan Qingchuan nodded. “Please feel free to state whatever requests you have.”
Gu Jiaqi picked up a plate, selected several dishes and some staple food, then called over her mecha’s artificial intelligence, Xiao Hong. Using her mental power, she ordered it to take the food to the shelter for Xiaoshu.
“Mr. Nan, let me put it this way. The appearance of this black hole is extremely strange. Even with the technological development of our era, we wouldn’t be able to create a black hole like this. We have to first work hard to figure out its patterns and complete the exchange of everything both sides need as quickly as possible. Otherwise, if the black hole suddenly disappears, both of us will suffer losses.”
What Gu Jiaqi had said was precisely what the people of Ming Country were worried about as well. The appearance of this black hole was highly suspicious. It was an unknown mystery, and if it suddenly disappeared, there would be no way to find it again.
Gu Jiaqi knew that Nan Qingchuan would take her words seriously. She also knew that every word and action of hers would certainly be recorded by Nan Qingchuan.
“I assume your communications equipment can’t pass through the black hole. In other words, the two worlds can’t establish a connection using wireless equipment at your current technological level. I’ll give you one of our communications devices next, and we’ll try it again. But I estimate that it definitely won’t work. In that case, we’ll have to use actual people to relay messages.”
Nan Qingchuan had obviously thought of this as well. Or rather, they had thought of it long ago. The most important thing now was to find out whether other people could pass through this black hole. If Nan Qingchuan were the only person capable of crossing it, then carrying out all kinds of subsequent tasks would become very difficult.
“Miss Gu, my superiors are already conducting experiments, but so far, they haven’t found a second person.”
Gu Jiaqi nodded. The ancient people were certainly more anxious about this. “There’s definitely nothing I can do to help with that. You don’t know this, but my country is not only developing rapidly, it’s also extremely warlike. This entire star system has already been conquered by a single country. If they find out that there’s a passage here and that the passage leads to another parallel universe, both you and I will be in serious trouble.”
Gu Jiaqi still remained wary of the ancient people. What if they wanted to all cross over and conquer her? Although she was confident she could escape, if the Empire’s nobles found out about it, she might end up in prison.
In any case, she might as well scare them a little first.
Nan Qingchuan understood what Gu Jiaqi was implying as well. The two reached a preliminary agreement on cooperation. Then Gu Jiaqi took out the light gun and lightsaber she had shown Nan Qingchuan before.
“You brought me so much food, and all of it is free of radiation. Take these weapons back and study them for now.”
Nan Qingchuan accepted the weapons and hesitated before asking, “Then… how long will the energy in these last?”
Gu Jiaqi said, “If you attack continuously without stopping, the energy will be depleted in about two hours. Although I’d really like to give you some energy boxes as well, as you can see, I’m currently building my own planet, and I really don’t have the money to buy extra supplies. If our cooperation succeeds, I’ll probably give you more energy boxes.”
Gu Jiaqi had never been a merchant, but she knew how to play the sympathy card when appropriate. Besides… everything she said was true!
Nan Qingchuan nodded solemnly. This was indeed a serious issue that concerned the interests of both sides.
After all, these weapons were extraordinary, and it was very likely that they would not be able to decipher the technology behind them in a short period of time. In that case, insufficient energy would become a fatal weakness. Nan Qingchuan did not believe that Gu Jiaqi, who could barely afford to eat, could be very wealthy.
“The most important thing now is to figure out the black hole… Also, bring me more food next time.”
Nan Qingchuan did not waste any time and turned around to return to Ming Country, while Gu Jiaqi stored the food cart away and hurried back to the shelter to check on Xiaoshu.
The child had been asleep for more than ten hours. It was truly too strange.