"Chief, please don't worry. We come with goodwill and won't harm a single member of your tribe on Snow Star." Hu Yu immediately made his position clear to avoid any misunderstanding among the Snow Tribe.
"Welcome. It has been a very, very long time since Snow Star last had visitors. Unfortunately, individuals from different civilizations differ greatly, so please forgive me for not being able to prepare a lavish feast for you. In fact, I haven't left this building in a very long time. Even my own people don't know how long they'll have to wait to see me. Today, to welcome you, I finally came out again," the old rabbit chief said, still speaking at an unhurried pace.
"General, this Snow Tribe chief is no ordinary figure," Academician Zeng warned Hu Yu over an internal channel.
"I know."
"Mr. Chief, thank you for your warm welcome. May I ask why you can speak our language?" Academician Zeng asked.
"Oh, it's simple. You've been here for a little while, and I learned it by accumulating data on your language. It's the same principle as that machine you started fiddling with, except that we're intelligent life-forms and are somewhat better than machines in certain respects. So I learned it a little before your machine did."
"Academicians, is that possible?" Hu Yu could hardly believe it.
"Ask Academician Xiao about that. It's more his field," Academician Zeng said with a smile.
"Academician Xiao?"
"General," Academician Xiao said, "it's entirely possible. Back in the Earth era, we had already researched biological computers and produced some partially developed prototypes. Although our work on biological computers was aimed at giving computers the ability to think logically, rather than powerful computational ability, in a certain sense, it's entirely possible for living beings to have thinking speeds comparable to the capabilities of our advanced computers."
"All right. It's simply incredible. Our human computer technology took hundreds of years to reach this point, and they're born at this level. Comparisons really are infuriating," Hu Yu sighed.
"Guests, where do you come from?" the Snow Tribe chief continued.
When two civilizations met without going to war, they could talk for years and still not run out of things to say. Everything from the fundamental structure of a civilization down to flowers, grass, and trees was an utterly novel topic to both sides.
"Mr. Chief, we're humans from Earth Civilization. How about we find somewhere to sit and talk? What do you think? I expect we'll have a long conversation," Hu Yu said with a smile.
"Forgive my poor hospitality, guests. I was just too excited. But our buildings are much too small to accommodate your bodies. How about this? There's a divine tree of Snow Star up ahead that has been growing for who knows how many tens of millions of years. We can talk beneath it. What do you think?" The Snow Tribe chief pointed to a gigantic plant several thousand meters away. It stood more than a hundred meters tall, and its enormous crown covered tens of thousands of square meters. On a planet where gravity was more than one and a half times that of Earth, a plant this huge could indeed be called a divine tree.
"Stay here and wait. The two academicians and I will go," Hu Yu said to the guards and scientists behind him.
"General!"
"Don't worry. Keep the scientists safe, and don't get into any conflicts with the Snow Tribe. The scientists may collect data nearby for their research. Do everything according to our exploration regulations. Do not violate them."
"Yes, General."
Hu Yu and the two academicians, Zeng and Xiao, followed the Snow Tribe chief's wooden cart to the giant tree several hundred meters away. The grass here was lush and green, and small, unidentified animals hopped about in the tree. Brightly colored Snow Star birds flew overhead. In terms of scenery, only a very few places on Earth had been this beautiful, yet such scenery was commonplace on Snow Star. The Snow Tribe had already cleared a space and spread hay over it. Everyone sat down.
"Mr. Chief," Hu Yu began, "more than three hundred years ago, we left Earth for a certain reason and wandered through space. More than two hundred years ago, we came to a planetary system over 300 light-years from here to resupply. While we were there, another wandering civilization attacked us. After a great battle, we lost many of our people. For safety's sake, we made another long journey of more than 500 light-years to hide in another star system. To our surprise, we still couldn't escape them. That civilization found us three years ago, and we fought again. After more than a hundred years of development, both sides had reached the stage of star system-level civilization. During the battle, we each detonated a star. We were lucky enough to survive, while the civilization that had kept attacking us was erased from the universe."
"A star exploding, and you survived. That suggests your civilization's level should be higher than theirs," the Snow Tribe chief said with a nod.
"Yes. To survive, our civilization developed in a distorted way, with everything geared toward war, so we were just a little stronger than them. After the first great battle, we undertook a long migration. During that journey, one of our fleets passed Snow Star and discovered your existence. So when we set out again, we made a detour here to tell you that, in a little over 300 years, the tremendously powerful shock waves from the explosions of the two stars will sweep through this region of space. You need to make preparations early. That's also why we came to Snow Star."
"Thank you for the warning, guests. Your goodwill will be rewarded."
"By the way, Chief, our fleet is stationed in orbit around the third planet. If your people observe it, please tell them there's no need to panic. Although our human civilization isn't a peace-loving one, if other civilizations don't provoke us first, we're also willing to show our goodwill." When Hu Yu mentioned the stellar explosions, the chief's reaction was overly calm. Given the Snow Tribe's intelligence, they should already have had some basic understanding of the universe; they couldn't possibly be unaware of what the simultaneous explosions of two stars meant. Before him was a group of rabbit-like creatures that looked harmless to humans and animals alike, but no one knew what they were really thinking, so Hu Yu could only bring up the fleet without showing any concern.
"General, please allow me to address you that way as well." The old rabbit actually made a smiling expression just like a human's. "General, you have no need to be wary of us. Our people have calculated from a large amount of data that you came with goodwill. At first I wasn't sure, but my people just sent word that your goodwill value is infinitely close to one hundred. In other words, we trust you completely now."
The three were once again stunned by the old rabbit's words. The old rabbit continued unhurriedly, "General, don't be puzzled. Have you forgotten our brains' processing speed? We've analyzed and modeled your every expression, speaking speed, tone, movement, and so on, in order to verify the truth of what you say. Of course, we wouldn't blindly draw a conclusion based on so little. In fact, we know everything you did at Tau Ceti and Alpha Centauri. Even so, I sincerely thank you for coming all this way to warn us of the approaching danger."