The man was speaking the interstellar common language, which Ruan Shiqing naturally couldn't understand.
But from the other party's anxious expression, the increasing force, and the eyes that occasionally glanced at the aircraft parts, Ruan Shiqing more or less guessed the other party's intention. But he still shook his head, pretending to be confused, indicating that he didn't understand what he said.
"So it's an ancient human?" The man didn't seem surprised. He looked him up and down and saw that he was wearing shabby clothes and looked disheveled. He muttered, "I can't even understand the common language. I don't know where he escaped from..." Then he made a gesture to Ruan Shiqing to ask him to wait, and strode away.
Walking to a simple tent at the edge of the garbage dump, the man shouted a few words loudly, then walked over with a cylindrical machine.
The cylindrical machine was painted gray, half a person's height, with a disc pulley at the bottom. It followed the man on its own and seemed to be intelligent.
After walking in front of him, two mechanical arms extended from the smooth cylindrical wall of the machine. The semicircular body on the top should be the head. After turning a few times, it pointed at Ruan Shiqing and greeted politely: "Hello, sir."
More polite than his master.
More importantly, the language it spoke was standard Mandarin.
Ruan Shiqing was surprised and responded tentatively: "Hello."
"Okay, now we have a translator. Can you tell me where you found what you have in your hand?" The man's words were translated simultaneously by the robot.
As expected, she became interested in the parts in his hand. Ruan Shiqing guessed that the crashed aircraft must have cost a lot of money.
Thinking of the carefully hidden drive and engine, he suppressed his joy and acted out the role of a homeless teenager who had never seen the world vividly: "I can lead you, but if that thing is valuable, you have to pay me."
As expected, the man sneered after hearing this, his expression somewhat fierce: "Don't even think about anything else. Tell me the place honestly and I'll give you a hundred star coins as a guide fee."
Ruan Shiqing seemed to be frightened by his ferocious look. After hesitating for a while, he bit his lip and nodded, then looked at the robot curiously: "What is this?"
Before the man could answer, the robot responded: "My name is 'Alex', I am a Type 4 life-assisting robot produced by Nashi Corporation. I have mastered 260 interstellar languages and am good at all kinds of housework—"
But before it could finish, the man interrupted it and mocked it, "Are you interested in Alex? Someone like you can't afford him."
"Is it expensive? I can save money and buy a cheaper one." Ruan Shiqing said this, but what he was thinking in his heart was: I can't afford it now, but I may not be able to afford it after I sell the drive and engine.
"You may have to save up for five hundred years, if you can live to that time." The man seemed to be much kinder because he was willing to lead the way, so he pointed him to another way: "But if you go to the underground market, you may be lucky enough to buy a translation robot at a low price."
Of course, all the models there are old and obsolete, and it is unknown whether the language system includes ancient human languages.
The man smiled maliciously, but did not remind him of this. He just gestured for Ruan Shiqing to lead the way.
Ruan Shiqing led his men to the place where the aircraft crashed as promised, but he did not approach it. Instead, he stopped at a distance and pointed his finger: "That's it. I want to sell the things I have, so I won't go over. Can you tell me how to get to the underground market?"
His suggestion was exactly what the man wanted. He didn't even need to get close to take a closer look. With just one glance, he was sure that the crashed shuttle was the "Silver Falcon". The man's breathing became rapid, and he naturally didn't care about Ruan Shiqing. He casually took out a hundred star coins and threw them to him, perfunctorily pointed to the approximate location of the underground market, and left him, eager to go forward to check.
Ruan Shiqing took this opportunity to escape quickly. He knew very well whether there were any valuable items on the aircraft.
Sure enough, about ten minutes later, the man jumped off the shuttle in anger, his pupils erected, the scales on his face opening and closing as if alive, revealing the unique coldness of snakes: "Who stole my drive and engine?" He looked around angrily, and found that the guy who led the way had disappeared. He could only kick the garbage next to him hard, sent a text message to his companions, and asked them to dismantle the remaining valuable parts of the shuttle.
But compared to the most valuable drive and engine, the rest is just garbage.
The man cursed angrily, but had to suppress his anger and wait for his companions to arrive.
At this time, Ruan Shiqing had already left happily with a hundred star coins in his pocket. It was unknown what material the coins in this world were made of. They were slightly larger than coins, shining silver, and engraved with intricate and gorgeous patterns on both sides. At first glance, they looked like a majestic beast, and only the familiar Arabic numerals in the middle could be understood.
"We are rich now." Ruan Shiqing played with the star coins he had just acquired and waved them in front of Gouzi as if to show off: "Dad will take you to buy delicious food right away."
"..." Rong Heng was unable to refute his wrong perception and could only raise his paw to push away the poor star coin.
Your Royal Highness, the honorable Crown Prince has never seen star coins with such a small value. One hundred should be the smallest value among star coins, right
However, Ruan Shiqing thought that Gouzi was curious about the star coin, so he generously stuffed the entire star coin into his hand and earnestly instructed, "You can play with it for a while, but don't lose it."
Rong Heng: …
He stared at the poor star coin in front of him for a while, and saw that it was about to slip out from the gap under the coat due to the bumps. After hesitating for a moment, he pulled the star coin back and held it down with his claws.
If he really lost it, he would definitely cry, right
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince thought uncertainly.
Ruan Shiqing was on his way to the underground market. The snake-faced man's directions were too perfunctory. After three wrong attempts, he finally found a wooden sign with a simple hammer and sickle painted on it - this was the signpost to the underground market.
The arrow on the wooden sign pointed to a narrow staircase, which was made of irregular stones. Because it had not seen the sun for many years, the gaps between the stones were covered with slippery moss. It meandered downward from Ruan Shiqing's feet, deep and dark, with no end in sight.
After confirming that he had found the right place, Ruan Shiqing let out a sigh of relief and carefully walked down the stairs.
I don't know how long the stairs are. I walked down for a long time before I finally saw a faint light. Ruan Shiqing quickened his pace and turned a corner. He saw a huge stone archway. Behind the archway, the empty and bright underground cave was filled with all kinds of stalls and bargaining customers.
The place was bustling with people.
Some of these people had animal ears on their heads, some had animal tails showing, and some were even bargaining in the form of animals... The goods displayed on the stalls were even more bizarre. Although Ruan Shiqing's worldview had long been shattered, in this situation, his heartbeat would still speed up and his blood pressure would rise for a moment.
After calming down a bit, Ruan Shiqing walked into the dungeon. Everyone was busy and didn't notice the arrival of a newcomer.
He pretended to be familiar with the place and wandered around in the cave, but he was actually observing from the dark. Occasionally, a stall owner would greet him, but the language was so unfamiliar that he could only pass by without looking away.
The cave was huge, with many stalls. Ruan Shiqing kept walking inside, trying to find a robot like Alex, but after walking for a long time, he didn't see anything similar. Instead, a familiar voice caught his attention.
In an inconspicuous corner, a man was sitting cross-legged in front of a stall with few goods. His whole body was covered by a brown cloak, so his face could not be seen clearly. His only speech in Mandarin was very eye-catching.
"Clearance sale, last few items, clearance sale, don't miss it if you pass by..." This person was like an emotionless tape recorder, shouting the same words tirelessly, occasionally inserting a passage in a language that Ruan Shiqing couldn't understand, but based on the similar frequency, it was probably the interstellar universal language version of "clearance sale".
Ruan Shiqing stopped and observed for a while, then walked towards the man's stall.
The other party saw him approaching and asked in Mandarin: "What does the guest want?"
Ruan Shiqing glanced at the merchandise on the stall and asked casually, "Do you have a translation robot?"
He didn't have much hope at first, and just wanted to use this as an excuse to get close to the stall owner, and then ask if he knew where to buy a cheap translation robot. Unexpectedly, the other party excitedly said, "Yes, yes, yes." He picked up a tattered little robot from the stall and enthusiastically promoted it, "This is a Type 4 life-assisting robot produced by Naxi Company. It is equipped with 260 interstellar languages. It's only 998 yuan. It's absolutely worth the money!"
As if afraid that Ruan Shiqing would not believe it, he lowered his head and fiddled with it for a while, turned on the broken robot, and greeted him in not very fluent Mandarin: "Mr. Xianxian, hello, No. 09..., at your service."
Ruan Shiqing:
Oh no, I ran into a rip-off.
He said indifferently: "Don't try to fool me. I have seen the Naxi Type 4 robot. The one in your hand, let alone a Type 4 robot, doesn't even look like a robot. Two hundred star coins is the least." It was a small pile of tattered things placed on the stall. If it didn't move or make any sound, you wouldn't have noticed it was a robot.
Unexpectedly, he was a connoisseur of the goods. The stall owner smiled and said, "I think you look kind, little brother. If you really want it, four hundred dollars is not less."
"I only have two hundred and one. If they don't sell it to me, I'll go look somewhere else." Ruan Shiqing was well versed in the art of bargaining and made a gesture to leave.
The stall owner really tried to persuade me to stay: "Two hundred and one is too little. I can't even make back the cost. Two hundred and thirty, do you think two hundred and thirty is okay?"
"Deal." Ruan Shiqing turned around, picked up the tattered little robot, and studied it, "It's not broken, is it?"
The little robot is pretty good at self-promotion and responded immediately: "No, it's not broken! I, I know two hundred and eighty-one... interstellar languages." Twenty-one more than Type 4!
"That's it."
After all, he only spent 230 star coins, so he knew the little robot would not be in good condition. But he didn't need the little robot to do anything else, as long as it could temporarily serve as a translator. He would slowly learn the interstellar universal language, and once he learned it, he would no longer need the robot to translate.
"Thank you for your patronage." The stall owner took out a small bottle of motor oil and handed it to him: "This is a gift. The joints of robots often need to be oiled."
After saying that, he spread his hands towards Ruan Shiqing, waiting to receive the money.
Ruan Shiqing calmly lowered his head and discussed with Gouzi: "Where are the star coins that Dad gave you to keep?"
"..." Rong Heng moved his claws away expressionlessly.
His temporary master was even poorer than he had imagined.
Ruan Shiqing rubbed his little head with a smile and put a hundred star coins into the stall owner's hand: "This is a deposit. I will pay you the balance after I sell the goods in my hand."
Stall owner:
Ruan Shiqing took advantage of the fact that he hadn't reacted and carried the little robot into the crowd.
He had carefully observed along the way just now, and found that the goods displayed on several stalls were similar to what he had in his hands. Now that he had the little robot, he could go and ask about the situation.
Fortunately, the three parts he dismantled were in high demand and were in relatively new condition. After comparing prices from three vendors, Ruan Shiqing sold them to the second one and received 1,330 star coins in return.
After paying the balance for the little robot, there was still 1,200 left. He spent another 400 star coins to buy four tubes of nutrient solution and two tubes of trauma medicine, and then Ruan Shiqing happily left the market with the dog in his arms.
He didn't notice the two figures following him stealthily.
Ruan Shiqing was holding the puppy in his coat and the small robot in his hand. His steps were much lighter than when he came down, and even the shadow behind him seemed to be excited.
The two brothers hid in the darkness and followed him closely, but they had a small dispute at the corner.
"Are we really going to do it? He looks even poorer than us."
"I saw him sell the aircraft parts to Endor, and buy nutrients and medicines. He still has 800 star coins in his pocket. Although it's not much, it's enough for us to buy nutrient solution to last for a few days."
"But we robbed him of his money, what should he do?"
This question made the two of them silent at the same time. After a moment, the eldest brother said, "Then leave the nutrients and medicine to him. At worst, we can return them to him after we get the money back."
…
The whispers in the dark did not escape Rong Heng's ears. He shook his ears and snorted unhappily.
On the remote garbage planet, not only is poverty omnipresent, but public security is also poor.
Just when he was hesitating whether to take action to remind the boy, he felt someone rubbed the top of his head.
When he looked up, he saw the boy's body pressed against the wall, hiding in a shadow. He placed the shabby little robot he had just bought at his feet, so that it wouldn't get damaged in the fight. After doing all this, he lowered his eyes, rubbed his head, and whispered in a low voice, "Don't be afraid and don't scream later, okay?"
It seems that he is not so completely without vigilance.
He is very courageous.
He is meddling in other people's business.
Rong Heng sneered and lay back lazily.