Pei Shao walked out of the movie theater and tightened his collar against the darkening night. His mind was still replaying the scenes he had just watched.
A huge poster hung on the wall outside the theater. Its star wasn't a human actor, but a giant robot called Optimus Prime.
That's right. The movie Pei Shao had just seen was the sci-fi blockbuster Transformers, which had taken the world by storm and grossed hundreds of millions of dollars.
Maybe a lot of people didn't like the live-action Transformers movies, or had never even watched the animated series. But one thing was undeniable: the movie's hero, Sam, owned an incredibly cool Chevrolet sports car that could transform, think for itself, and even help its owner pick up girls. Almost every Transformers fan who saw the movie was bound to envy Sam.
Pei Shao was one of the many moviegoers who were green with envy over Sam's good fortune. Of course, as an unemployed college graduate from a third-rate university, he couldn't afford a Chevrolet sports car. He couldn't even afford a QQ.
If only I had a Transformers friend, too...
Like most young people who had just watched a midnight showing of Transformers, Pei Shao let his imagination run wild, fantasizing as he hurried home with his head down.
Before long, Pei Shao turned into a narrow alley—the only way home. His parents weren't well-off, either. They supported his decision to look for work in S City after graduation, so they still sent him some money for living expenses each month, but it wasn't much. To save enough for things like internet access and movies, Pei Shao had rented a run-down place in such a remote location that it was practically impossible to find.
As he walked through the pitch-black alley, Pei Shao suddenly felt something catch his foot. The jolt snapped him out of his fantasy about picking up a whole bunch of beautiful women.
Who the hell had no sense of public decency and just tossed their trash on the ground? Furious that his daydream had been interrupted, Pei Shao cursed under his breath and raised his leg to kick whatever had tripped him. But when he looked down, he saw that it was a square stone. What's more, the writing and patterns on it looked just like the AllSpark he had seen in the movie. They were practically identical.
"Could it be a bootleg model?" Pei Shao wondered, and couldn't resist picking it up. The stone felt smooth to the touch, and he couldn't feel any patterns on its surface at all. He tossed it lightly in his palm and found that it was pretty heavy, a bit like marble.
"Hmm, must be some rich guy's unwanted model. Oh well, I'll keep it as a souvenir!" Pei Shao decided, then happily dropped the stone into his pants pocket.
When he got home, Pei Shao was so exhausted that he went straight to bed. When he woke up the next morning, his head still felt a little heavy.
But the moment he cracked his eyes open and started to sit up for a drink of water, Pei Shao jolted in shock! A robot-like figure was sitting in his computer chair, staring intently at his computer screen! And a mass of complicated data cables ran out of the robot, plugged into nearly every port on his computer.
Pei Shao quickly shut his eyes and rubbed them hard. When he opened them again, the robot was gone, and everything was back to normal. The computer wasn't even on.
Was that a hallucination? Had I watched too much Transformers? After rubbing his eyes a second time and confirming that there really wasn't a robot in front of him, Pei Shao couldn't help wondering.
"Phew!" Pei Shao sighed. Truth be told, he had actually felt a little hopeful just then.
But how could that be possible? Transformers? Heh... Pei Shao was just about to laugh at himself when the sound caught in his throat halfway through.
Because Pei Shao was staring in utter disbelief at a silver-white phone sitting on his computer desk, beside the bottom-right corner of his 17-inch LCD monitor!
The phone had the sleek, streamlined shape of a top-of-the-line sports car, and its surface was so smooth it almost gleamed. It wasn't as thin as the popular ultra-slim phones on the market, but its heavy-metal design was incredibly cool.
The phone was covered in complicated function buttons, and its LCD screen was almost as large as his palm. It was clearly no ordinary device. Most importantly, no phone company anywhere in the world had ever made a model like this. Anyone who could get their hands on one would look even cooler than someone with a Chevrolet sports car.
Impossible! Absolutely impossible! It had to be another hallucination! Pei Shao no longer dared to trust his own eyes. He closed them for ten seconds and prayed to the Jade Emperor, Jesus Christ, and Buddha, then carefully opened them a little at a time.
That's right! The phone was still there!
An uncontrollable surge of joy welled up inside Pei Shao. He nearly did a somersault on the bed. Transformers! There was no doubt about it! Pei Shao was certain that unless his memory had gone haywire, he had never owned a phone like this!
Remembering how Bumblebee had transformed into a Chevrolet sports car in the movie, Pei Shao was now almost one hundred percent certain that the incredibly cool silver-white phone in front of him was the dusty old Samsung he had in his pants pocket. Somehow, that Samsung had turned into a Transformer!
That's right! It was the "AllSpark" he had stuffed into his pants pocket yesterday! After picking it up, he had tossed it right into the same pocket as his phone!
Good heavens! A real Transformer! In my house! Pei Shao thought, his heart pounding as if it were about to leap out of his chest. He fought to contain his excitement and carefully got out of bed.
As he looked at the "Transformers phone," hundreds of possible opening lines raced through Pei Shao's mind in the space of a second. He had no idea what to say to express his excitement and delight.
But after the rush of joy passed, the smile on Pei Shao's face suddenly froze. He remembered that in the movie, the phone Transformer created by the AllSpark's radiation had been one of the Decepticons! The little thing had been terrifyingly violent when it appeared. The moment it saw someone, it had pulled out a weapon like a machine gun and blasted away at the bulletproof glass imprisoning it, making a hellish racket. Even the main characters standing nearby had been startled.
Would this one be just as vicious? Pei Shao wondered, suddenly breaking into a cold sweat. Maybe it hadn't attacked him because it thought he still didn't know what it really was. If he went over there too casually and let it realize he had seen through its disguise, would it fire a shot at his head?
Gulp! Pei Shao swallowed hard.
Before you continue