Chapter 1 – Strange Phone

“Jian Mei, why do you make things so troublesome!”

“Even a cellphone can be lost!”

“Crying won’t help. If you get hurt, let’s see what you’ll do!”

The sharp female voice mixed with a hint of helplessness and the scolding continued. The child standing in front of the woman looked aggrieved, with dirty clothes and water dripping down. At this moment, the child also occasionally sneezed.

After the mother finally stopped, Jian Mei dared to whisper, “I just saw a little dog falling into the water, so I went to pull it out. Who knew my cellphone would fall into the lake.”

“You!”

Shen Meina was about to be infuriated by her son. How could he be so careless? It’s just a cellphone, but what if it fell into the water? Moreover, he had a pitiful and stubborn appearance, which was truly headache-inducing.

An elderly man walked back to the village entrance, wearing a black cloth jacket. Seeing his grandson in this state, he quickly asked, “Oh, Xiao Zhi, what happened?”

Shen Meina complained unhappily, “He went to the riverside to save a dog, look at him, all dirty!”

The old man wasn’t angry, he just bent down and asked, “Xiao Zhi, you’re so capable. Did you save it?”

Jian Mei became proud and tilted his head to answer, “Hmm, I saved it. But I got all wet, and as soon as we reached the shore, it ran away.”

The old man smiled and even took out a piece of chocolate from his pocket. “That’s still a good deed.”

Jian Mei felt praised and raised his face with a smile.

On the other hand, Shen Meina’s blood pressure rose a bit. She angrily said to her father-in-law, “You spoil him too much! He dropped the cellphone into the river just to save that dog. The phone was so expensive, he even cried and begged to buy it before. Now it’s gone, and next month I still have to pay for his extra classes. If it’s lost this time, there won’t be a new one.”

Upon hearing this, Jian Mei felt as if struck by lightning. He pitifully looked at his mother, “Mom…”

In fact, Shen Meina didn’t really intend not to buy him a new phone. She just wanted to scare him a little with this opportunity. But seeing her child’s expression, her heart softened again.

She was about to say that she would buy him a new one after this summer vacation, but the old man beside them spoke first, “Xiao Zhi, grandpa actually has a cellphone.”

Jian Mei looked at his grandfather in surprise.

Even Shen Meina was astonished, “Dad, you should use your phone yourself. How can you give it

The old man continued talking as he

walked into the house, saying, “It’s not my

old phone. It’s something I found in the

mountains a while ago. I can’t really tell

model it is, but it’s still sealed and looks pretty new.”

Jian MeÏ’s eyes lit up in excitement.

“Really?”

Shen Meina glared at Jian Mei and

disagreed, saying, “Dad, if it belongs to

someone else, we should return it.”

The old man led Jian Mei and Shen Meina

into the courtyard, where several shelves

displayed many medicinal herbs from the

mountains.

A lazy old cat curled up on

the old man’s rocking chair, sleeping. He

casually said while walking leisurely, “I

asked around the village, and no one lost

anything. I found this phone during heavy

rain half a year ago and waited for the

owner for half a month, but no one came.

So, I’ve kept the phone at home.”

Since that’s the case, Shen Meina

couldn’t say much

Jian Mei tugged at his wet clothes and

asked, “Should we give it to the police

officer uncle?”

Shen Meina sighed.”It’s been so long

now. It’s useless to give it to the police

officer uncle. Besides, it’s a new phone,

so it’s difficult to find the owner.”

Jian Mei said, “It’s still new. I’d be so upset

if l lost it.”

Shen Meina glared at him.

The old man walked slowly ahead

appearing cheerful and talking to himself

as if reflecting, “‘Everything has its own

fate, its own destiny.”

The group crossed the courtyard and

entered the house. The old man walked

alone, stepping on the wooden stairs, and

went inside to get the phone. Their house

had two floors, and the scent of medicinal

herbs flled the hall on the first floor. The

open windows let in the hot summer

breeze.

Shen Meina patted Jian Mei’s head and

said, “Be careful not to get sick. Go

change your clothes quickly.”

Jian Mei, peeling the chocolate given by

his grandfather, said, “It’s not that easy to

get sick.”

“How is it not easy? Have you forgotten

about your own health?” Shen Meina’s

voice abruptly stopped halfway, as if she

remembered something. Her expression

changed, and she even glanced

cautiously at Jian Mei’s reaction.

Jian Mei lowered his head, his expression

hidden, but there was a barely noticeable

pause in the movement of his hands

holding the candy wrapper. Then, he

raised his face and met Shen Meina’s

somewhat hesitant gaze. He broke off

half of the chocolate and handed it over,

saying,”Mom, do you want to taste half?”

Carefree.

Shen Meina secretly breathed a sigh of

relief, although she didn’t show it on her

face. She said irritably,”Keep it for

yourselfr”

Jian Mei wasn’t offended and simply put

the chocolate in his mouth.

After a while, when he changed his clothes and freshened up a bit, Jian Mei went downstairs. Grandfather and mother were sitting in the main hall, and when they saw him, Grandfather waved at him and said, “Xiao Zhi, come here quickly.”

Jian Mei trotted to the table and asked, “Grandfather, is this the cellphone?”

On the wooden carved table was a box that was now open. Inside, there lay a black cellphone with a matte texture. It was about the size of a palm and looked brand new. Below the screen, there was a circular button. Although he saw it for the first time, it inexplicably evoked a strange feeling in his heart.

Shen Meina said, “I haven’t seen this model before.”

Jian Mei took a step forward and picked it up, flipping it over. He was slightly surprised and said, “There’s a logo on the back.”

“Z.”

Shen Meina leaned over and read it aloud, saying, “That’s strange. Could it be a foreign brand? Our domestic brands don’t have this logo on their phones.”

Jian Mei noticed a rectangular glass tray underneath the box and asked, “Mom, what’s this for?”

Shen Meina was also puzzled and replied, “I’m not sure.”

Surprisingly, this cellphone didn’t even come with an instruction manual. Upon inspection, there was no charger either, and they couldn’t find the charging port. Although the phone itself looked high-end and expensive, it gave off an overall sense of eeriness.

Shen Meina sighed and said, “It’s probably unusable. I think we should forget about it. If it doesn’t work, I’ll buy a new phone for Xiao Zhi. How can we use it without a charger?”

“Drip.”

Just as she finished speaking, a mechanical sound echoed in the room.

Shen Meina was taken aback and looked to the side, only to see her son placing the phone on the glass tray. Suddenly, as if it had been fully charged, the screen lit up, and the phone successfully turned on.

?

Shen Meina couldn’t believe it and asked, “Mei Mei, have you ever encountered this phone before?”

Jian Mei held the phone, feeling a bit confused herself, and said, “No… I just randomly tried it.”

Shen Meina walked over and asked, “Is this glass panel the charger?”

Jian Mei hesitated for a moment and nodded.

Since the phone could be used, Shen Meina didn’t bring up the idea of replacing it again. Instead, Grandfather’s inquiry about the SIM card caught her attention, so she didn’t pay any more attention to Jian Mei and went aside to discuss the matter of getting a new SIM card from the mobile company.

Jian Mei saw his mother and grandfather busy chatting, so he decided to go back to his room and hugged his phone. The palm-sized phone in his hand made him feel a bit uneasy. The reason was simple: the glass panel of this phone didn’t have a charging port. However, as he took a few steps to the side, the glass panel came into contact with sunlight and miraculously started charging. In a sense, this glass panel might be using solar energy as its power source.

But…

Are there any models with this type and functionality in the market?

It feels quite strange…

Jian Mei was filled with doubts as he sat on the edge of the bed and watched in astonishment as the phone successfully powered on. “The system is actually working,” he exclaimed.

It was a very minimalist Android system. However, unlike some other phone models, this phone didn’t have any additional software. Strangely enough, the system automatically installed WeChat for him. There wasn’t even a penguin logo, but a clear icon of the WeChat app.

Jian Mei connected to the Wi-Fi at home and, as if guided by some mysterious force, he tapped on WeChat first. Initially, he intended to log in with his own account, but to his surprise, the chat list that he expected to be empty had a pinned account. The account had a blank profile picture and an empty chat page, appearing clean and pristine.

Jian Mei wondered, “Is it a bug in the system?”

He found it a bit strange and decided to try deleting this account to see what would happen. After swiping left and tapping the delete button, he successfully removed the blank account from his chat list. Satisfied, he then logged in with his own WeChat account.

However, when Jian Mei successfully logged in with his own account and switched back to the chat list, he was once again shocked. His pupils slightly dilated as he incredulously stared at the chat box with the blank profile picture, which had reappeared despite him having deleted it.

What’s going on?

I clearly deleted it just now!

Muttering to himself, Jian Mei said, “Could it be a network issue? Did it not delete properly earlier?”

He found his own reasoning quite far-fetched, but driven by curiosity, he continued to stare at the blank profile picture for a while. After hesitating for a moment, he decided to send a few messages to the other party:

“?”

“Are you there?”

“12345678…”

As he progressed, he became more and more chaotic in sending messages. Unfortunately, he waited for half a day but received no response. Holding his phone and waiting for a while, Jian Mei himself laughed. Come to think of it, this account doesn’t even have a Moments or WeChat ID. How could there be a reply? His actions were really silly.

With this in mind,

Jian Mei felt somewhat relieved. He was ready to switch out of WeChat and go to the app store to download other apps. However, just as he switched out of the WeChat page and hadn’t been there for long, his phone suddenly rang with the WeChat notification sound: “You have received a new message.”

That empty account had replied.

Translator’s Note

Heyy guys!!!I am attempting to finish translating all 30 chapters of the novel “Online Dating Boyfriend is Actually an Alien” within 7 days. I would appreciate your support and assistance in achieving this goal on ko-fi