nurturing humanity
Revisiting the Sandbox
Tongcheng was quite a big city, and Xu Zhi and Chen Xi took their time walking around the place as they shopped.
He went to the shopping mall and bought a whole lot of appliances, including a washing machine, microwave oven, and refrigerator. He planned to revamp his old house and transform it into a modernized home.
The owner of the mall was naturally smiling very happily. Most people shopped online these days, so it was rare to see a generous customer visiting a physical shop in person. He immediately arranged for the purchases to be delivered to Xu Zhi’s home in the countryside.
In truth, Xu Zhi did not want to shop for household appliances online and preferred to visit the shop instead.
After all, most of them performed similar functions. He was mainly concerned about the appearance of the furniture, whether they were compatible with one another, and how he could arrange them to create a cleaner living environment.
Then, following Chen Xi’s lead, Xu Zhi went to some other shops where he bought some instruments and equipment. He purchased a high-pressure water jet, an electric drill, a chainsaw, and water sprinklers, along with some other modern farming tools.
After all, these were all essential tools for a creator like him!
“Pack them up, pack everything up! I will deliver everything to the farm for free, just for you.” The shop owner was delighted to have such a generous VIP buying from his shop and laughed heartily.
Some of the equipment cost thousands, or even tens of thousands, of yuan. Up to this point, Xu Zhi had spent seventy to eighty thousand yuans on various things, but he still had eleven thousand yuans left in his savings account. He had not been frugal for a while, but neither could he be bothered to think too much about it.
If I have the money to spend, I’ll jolly well spend it. After all, I can afford it.
On the way back, Xu Zhi rode in the front of the electric car, with Chen Xi sitting behind him. She could not help but touch Xu Zhi’s thick mass of hair. Then very quickly and without any warning, she yanked out a strand of hair. The instant pain evoked tears that threatened to fall, with a grimace, Xu Zhi asked, “What are you doing? Can you keep your hands to yourself?”
Chen Xi was also very shocked and quickly tossed away that strand of hair that she had plucked out. She was shocked beyond words and exclaimed, “What strong hair roots! What exactly have you been through!”
Xu Zhi felt a headache coming his way.
Why are you so bothered about me growing hair? Am I not allowed to grow hair?
He seemed helplessly speechless and in a pained voice said, “I’ve already told you, it’s the chemotherapy! Chemotherapy! I am now recovering well from the side effects. And besides, I wasn’t born bald.”
“Really?” Chen Xi stared at him.
“Really.”
Xu Zhi gave her an earnest and serious look.
“But still, that’s really surprising.” Chen Xi was still feeling shocked.
After all, she had been delivering food to him for several days. From the way he looked, it did not seem as though he was someone going through a sudden spurt of vigor in the final moments before death. Was it really like he said? His hair had grown, his body had become fitter, and his face had become much more handsome. Could it really be due to recuperation and exercise?
It simply felt like something was not right.
“You’re so suspicious! You are imagining all sorts of things. I can’t even be bothered with you.” Xu Zi traveled home with a befuddled Chen Xi seated behind him. There were occasional piles of cow dung on the ground while they were riding along the countryside dirt paths which Xu Zhi did not bother avoiding. He simply rode over them.
After all, the car did not belong to him.
On both sides of the road, there were fields staggered in a neat arrangement. From time to time, aunties and elderly ladies greeted him warmly.
“Yo, Xiao Zhi and young lady have just gone to the city!”
“You young people need to get out more and walk around.”
“Our village is aging. Everyone has either left for their studies or work. You two are the only young ones left!”
“Hello Aunt Li, hello Uncle Zhang,” Xu Zhi responded with a chuckle. “I’ve just taken Chen Zi out for a walk and bought some household items.”
The warm sunlight shone down on them.
It was already past six o’clock, and the stars could be vaguely seen in the sky. The village was unlike the heavily polluted city. The sky was extremely clear at night time.
Xu Zhi believed that even in that miniature sandbox world, in the dark night that would last for fifty years, one could still see a sky full of bright stars and the full moon and understand the vastness of this universe along with its infinite possibilities.
“How small is our world? For them, it has been a long period of more than two hundred years, and they have gone through five to six generations of life and death. Yet for me, it’s only been slightly more than two days, and I’ve only been out on a short shopping trip…” Xu Zhi laughed. He bade farewell to Chen Xi and returned home to his yard to take a look at the sandbox. He was just in time to learn that Gilgamesh was going to die from old age from the Insecta Nest Mind.
“It will probably be tonight for him. It could even be within the next half an hour,” said the Insecta Nest mind.
“That soon? It simply doesn’t feel real at all.”
In the orchard, Xu Zhi stood still for a moment.
With a small knife in hand, he silently cut the peel off an orange and a complete band of orange peel came dropping down in an unbroken string. One round, two rounds, then yet another round.
Suddenly, the knife jolted.
It broke.
“What a pity! I didn’t manage to peel the orange successfully.”
Xu Zhi scratched his head and thought for a moment. Then he stood up.
The tiny bugape from back then had actually made it this far and had written such an extensive and far-reaching epic of his life. Xu Zhi simply could not help but marvel.
Xu Zhi had merely given him some tools. And not just anybody could lever an entire history and become a great figure just because he was given a civilization. There was no doubt Gilgamesh was an outstanding king, despite his overly harsh and brutal character.
The bugape race that he had created, the race that could only scream “balding, balding” back then, had ultimately thrived and flourished.
“Forget it. Since he wants to see me, I think I should go and take a look. There is no way I can change his lifespan, but to visit an old acquaintance is still the right thing to do. Besides, it’s also necessary for me to put a stop to this race. In just a few days, they have destroyed countless ecosystems and annihilated so many species. It has surpassed my expectations. They are like locusts, conquering, fighting, and killing with simply no regard for the ecology. If this goes on, I think it won’t be long before the sandbox collapse and countless species will become extinct. Then they would be the only ones left. I have to go and talk them out of it and get them to show some restraint.”
Xu Zhi stood up and put down the orange. After all, it would not take him a long time, so there was no issue at all if he were to come back and eat it later.
“Adjust their time flow to a slower rate and return it to normal.”
Having said that, Xu Zhi put on the blue shoe covers meant for laboratory use and slowly strode into the sandbox.
Step, step, step.
The ground trembled slightly, and so did the mountains, rivers, earth, and ocean.
Trees were being trampled, valleys bore the marks of huge footprints, and countless beasts deep in the dense forest were frantically fleeing for their lives.
“This is…”
“The city, is it going to collapse?”
Gradually, the entire Uruk Kingdom began to shake, albeit slightly, affecting the city walls, houses, ground, streets. The pedestrians resembled scurrying ants, their faces expressing their rising fears.
Gilgamesh, leading his court ministers, fell to his knees as he suddenly felt something. For the very first time, an expression of childlike joy appeared on the aged face of this great Hero King and he said, “After two hundred years, the great intelligent creature that I met when I was a child, the Great Beast of Wisdom who gave me the Three Treasures of Civilization, has finally returned…”
The ground shook, and the entire Uruk City seemed to tremble slightly with every step the giant beast took.
This towering city with its circular landscape, the massive Uruk City, that housed tens of millions of people, was in Xu Zhi’s eyes, only a disc that was slightly bigger than a dining table.
After all, it was a city built by ant-sized lifeforms. It was still extremely grand and magnificent.
It was incomparably exquisite. Every part of it was finely sculpted and was so impeccable and luxurious. And every detail arrived at a scale that was as microscopic as the size of an ant. What kind of beauty did it possess?
It was like the most perfect bunker in the world.
Even though this megalopolis was not very sturdy, the civilization was still too crude to know how to bury a portion of stone pillars supporting the city walls deep within the earth to build the foundation of their city. This was why the entire city trembled slightly beneath Xu Zhi’s feet with every step he took.
“This is also related to the fact that they are unable to make use of cement. The solidity of a structure created from simply piecing stones together is just too low.” Xu Zhi strode towards Gilgamesh’s kingdom, trampling on lush patches of trees along the way, and finally arrived at the Nordic city that was right in front of him, which already had an ancient civilization of its own.
He looked down at the exquisite altar of the temple in the city.
The old, hoary Hero King was looking up at him with a pale and handsome, yet aged face. He was gripping the Sword of Damocles in his hand, and his eyes were glistening with tears as he looked at Xu Zhi.