Chapter 87 Communication

This was a young captain, clutching paper and pen, his expression one of utter agony, as if wanting to cry but finding no tears.

Wang Hu was almost choking with anger. He probably wanted to curse, but after glancing at the aliens, he smiled and said in a tough-love tone, "You useless wretch, ungrateful offspring, why didn't you take the opportunity to learn properly from your father!"

"If I had known earlier, I, I would've learned it even if it killed me..."

Just then, the political commissar rushed over.

"Quick, Professor Liu, this is Professor Liu who teaches foreign languages, he knows several languages!"

Wang Hu was about to explode again. Tilting his head, he said, "What's the use of knowing several languages! Can he speak the aliens' language? You should've invited an expert in ancient Chinese!"

Professor Liu, who was in his fifties, stared blankly at the alien, as if he hadn't heard Wang Hu's words. But soon, he slapped his hand and said, "Simple!"

Everyone jumped at Professor Liu's clap. Wang Hu asked, "What's simple?"

"Communication is simple. This alien speaks ancient Chinese, right? That's good. Our civilization has a continuous lineage. As long as he can speak ancient Chinese, the rest is straightforward. When ancient humans first made contact, it didn't take long to learn each other's languages from scratch, let alone for someone who already has a foundation. Moreover, I believe in the aliens' learning abilities, they can quickly grasp the language we use now. Hand me the paper and pen."

The captain immediately handed over the paper and pen, and Professor Liu pulled up a chair and began to write on the paper.

"First, learn Pinyin. Since our children can master it, it means that learning to recognize characters through Pinyin is genuinely simple. After mastering Pinyin, get a dictionary, and I believe we can communicate in at most a few days."

Wang Hu said anxiously, "A few days? Isn't that too long?"

Professor Liu looked up and then smiled at the alien, "Please follow me, ah wo e, bo po mo fo..."

The alien actually began to practice pronunciation along with Professor Liu, speaking with perfect accuracy. Moreover, the alien's voice was identical to Liu's.

"This is the initial consonant, this is the vowel..."

"Initial consonant, vowel..."

"Pinyin, hello."

"Hello."

"My name is Liu Wen."

"My name is Liu Wen, your name is Liu Wen."

"Right! Exactly right!"

Professor Liu turned to Wang Hu and said with a smile, "See, that's how strong the learning capabilities of a highly intelligent species are!"

Just then, a soldier outside shouted, "Report, I've brought Professor Zhang..."

A man in his sixties was led into the conference room. He looked at the alien and, after a long exclamation of surprise, said to Wang Hu, "This is, this is..."

"This is our savior, Professor Zhang, what do you teach?"

"I teach history, from the history department of the teachers' college. Why did you ask for me?"

"This alien friend has written in Small Seal script and spoken in ancient Chinese, and now Professor Liu is teaching him Pinyin."

Upon hearing this, Professor Zhang was invigorated and immediately said, "Learning Pinyin? What's that for? Let me do it!"

Professor Liu was not pleased. He turned around and said sternly, "Learning Pinyin is useless? Do you plan to have the alien friend communicate solely in ancient Chinese with people in the future? Please understand something, communication with a subject from a different civilization and language requires a linguist, not a historian."

Professor Zhang completely ignored Professor Liu and said urgently, "Let me see what he wrote... Oh, that's definitely Small Seal script, a typical font from the Western Han period. By the Eastern Han, it was mostly clerical script. He wrote the opening of the Book of Rites, the chapter on Qu Li. Let me continue writing it down, give me the pen."

He snatched the pen and swiftly wrote several lines of characters.

"Luckily I've practiced as well, otherwise not many people could write Small Seal script nowadays. I've written 'Arrogance can't be long-lasting, desires can't be followed, ambitions can't be fully satisfied, joy can't be extreme.'"

After finishing, Professor Zhang took a deep breath, while Professor Liu urgently said beside him, "Write it in Simplified characters, mark it with Pinyin. Oh come on, stop showing off your knowledge; communication is the most important thing now!"

Wang Hu also said in a grave voice, "That's right, communication is what's important, Professor Zhang!"

Professor Zhang shook his head but still wrote the Simplified characters and marked the Pinyin. However, after he had finished, he wrote another Small Seal character for "Han" on the paper.

After showing the alien what he had written, the alien nodded awkwardly, but it was evident that the alien recognized the "Han" character.

The alien took the pen and wrote another line of script, indeed continuing from the Book of Rites.

After completing a phrase from the Book of Rites, the alien wrote two more characters.

Professor Zhang was transfixed, staring straight at the alien, motionless and speechless.

Wang Hu, out of patience, said, "What did he write!"

"Wang Mang, Wang Mang..."

Turning around, Professor Zhang pointed at the alien, his voice a mix of mirth and sorrow, "He recognizes Wang Mang; Wang Mang is his friend."

"Wang Mang, the usurper Wang Mang?"

Well, since the aliens wrote in Small Seal Script and spoke Ancient Chinese, it wouldn't be too surprising if they or their ancestors knew of Wang Mang.

At this moment, Professor Liu spoke gravely, "Now, I can responsibly say, just find a dictionary, a reference book comparing Small Seal Script with modern characters, and then give our alien friend any book, and he will be able to communicate with you."

Was anyone still considering whether it was useful or not?

Stop kidding around, who cares about that now? Just get the stuff first.

Without any hesitation, Wang Hu instructed, "Go find it, search the entire shelter immediately!"

Equally unhesitant, Professor Zhang declared, "I have the Comprehensive History of Shenzhou, Records of the Grand Historian, Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, and... I'll go get them all!"

Gao Yuan urgently said, "Who has scientific journals and books, and military stuff too, even manuals would do! Anything with text, bring it all."

Just then, an officer said with a shaky voice, "No need to look further, we have them! We have them!"

Wang Hu turned around abruptly, and the officer told Wang Hu, "Commander, have you forgotten? Secretary Cheng has been collecting cultural materials for the past two years, hasn't he?"

Wang Hu came to his senses and snapped his fingers, "His computer! It's preserved in the underground bunker! Go get it fast!"

A computer?

If there was a computer, that would be fantastic, not for transmitting data to the alien, but because a computer can store so much information—an entire library's worth of content could fit on a large flash drive.

Amid everyone's anticipation, after about fifteen minutes, the officer came running back, drenched in sweat. He saluted Wang Hu and, with immense excitement, reported tremulously, "Reporting, sir, found it, the computer isn't damaged and can be used."

Wang Hu sighed deeply, "Oh, Secretary Cheng, oh Secretary Cheng, I must award you the first-class merit, if only you were alive! Quick, open the computer!"

As a military laptop booted up, Wang Hu lamented, "When we received the order to set up this shelter, our cultural affairs officer said to save all the cultural materials and information that we could. Little did we expect his concerns to come true, and now his preparations have indeed come in handy."

The computer was on, but it was unclear what content it held; at that moment, Professor Liu loudly volunteered, "I'll look for it, I know how to search."

Better to let the cultural expert do the cultural tasks, Professor Liu sat down at the conference table and urged, "There's a directory, right? Yes, there is, look for reference books, databases, Chinese language... here it is!"

Professor Liu turned the computer screen around, extremely excited, "The evolution of Chinese characters, this is the most comprehensive database of Chinese characters, from pinyin pronunciation to the evolution of character shapes, everything included, this is simply... simply worth its weight in gold!"

Words failed to describe it aptly, but Professor Liu's description was indeed very fitting.

As the information was laid out in front of the alien, who was quite tall, he simply lowered his head and started to read the content on the computer screen.

After Professor Liu discreetly showed how to scroll down the page, the alien extended a finger, pressed down on the arrow key, and held it there without letting go.

The pages scrolled by rapidly without any reaction from the alien. That's when Professor Liu said with a sense of wonder, "This is an alien's learning capability, but this is too fast. My guess is that he's a robot, or perhaps he's using some sort of computer assistance, or maybe it's the spacesuit?"

As Professor Liu finished speaking, the alien spoke as well,

"Hello, to grasp more information, please provide me with more materials."

This learning capability was unbeatable, a total of five minutes. If the pages could turn even faster, perhaps it wouldn't have taken even five minutes.

But he wanted to see more materials?

Wang Hu hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth, "Show him everything, let him see all that's in the computer!"

Why did Wang Hu hesitate? Because if this alien wasn't a friendly extraterrestrial but one of those villains releasing viruses from the sky, then wouldn't Earthlings have no secrets left?

Yet this thought was also quite laughable because the aliens didn't need to bother with spies to conquer Earth.

So what was there to consider? Of course, let the alien look at anything they wanted; the most important thing now was for him to gain a basic understanding of Earth.

The alien knew how to use the computer, allowing him to search for all the information he needed on his own.

With gentle and extremely swift motions, so fast that Gao Yuan and the others couldn't see what appeared on the computer screen.

But suddenly, the alien stopped.

There was no puzzled expression, for the alien showed no emotion, nor was there any uncertainty in its voice, but the question the alien asked was indeed one of confusion.

"Are Earthlings really this powerful? Then why not simply annihilate the alien enemies?"

Everyone was puzzled and at a loss. Gao Yuan also couldn't help but lean over and take a quick glance.

With a wave of a hand, blowing up a planet. Indeed, the alien was reading a fantasy novel.

Gao Yuan stifled a laugh and said, "You don't need to look at the content under the fiction category, that's all made up, fictitious. What you should be looking at is natural science and physical chemistry; that way, you can truly understand Earth's civilization, the real truth."

The alien was silent for a moment before replying, "Understood."

Wang Hu wiped his sweat and chuckled bitterly, "Oh Secretary Cheng, oh Secretary Cheng, why did you have to include fiction as well? That really is... such a big misunderstanding!"