Chapter 1: The Magical Diorama Box
July 10, 2023, Summer, Shuangqing City.
High temperatures, outdoor temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius.
Li Daoxuan shut down his computer, shook his head, and massaged his temples vigorously, then slumped back despondently, dissolving into a limp mass in his chair.
The work was finally done! The sky had already turned completely dark.
Today was his birthday. He had planned to take the day off to celebrate, but the client's ruthless demand to "finish it by today" shattered that hope. He had spent it frantically working overtime.
Was this kind of life truly happy?
After remaining slumped for quite a while, he finally dragged himself out of the chair and walked to the door.
There, a massive cardboard delivery box sat. A courier had delivered it that afternoon, and on the packaging, only the words "Happy Birthday" were written. Nothing else.
He had no idea which friend had sent it. After much thought, he realized he didn't have many friends. Apart from his best friend, Cai Xinzhi, who else would send him a birthday gift?
The delivery box was as large as a refrigerator. He struggled to tear open the packaging. Inside was a massive diorama box. It was about three meters long and over a meter in both height and width. Once he carefully laid it flat on the floor, through the diorama box's glass, he could see a scene of an "ancient village" within.
The village looked dilapidated: crumbling houses, tattered thatched roofs, and desolation all around it, with yellow sand swirling everywhere...
Li Daoxuan couldn't help but complain aloud: "Usually, diorama boxes feature pavilions, towers, waterfalls, and rockeries, all very beautiful and pleasing to the eye. Why does *this* diorama box have a desolate, broken village with yellow sand everywhere? Is it trying to say my aesthetic taste only deserves to see *this*?"
Just then, the wooden door of a dilapidated house in the village suddenly creaked open.
A tiny plastic figure emerged from the crumbling house. It was less than a centimeter tall, and surprisingly, the figure had flowing long hair, identifying it as a young girl.
Li Daoxuan was startled. A plastic figure moving? Was it an electric toy? So incredibly lifelike? This diorama box was quite interesting, he thought. Cai Xinzhi was truly a good friend; buying something like this must have cost a fortune.
He squinted for a closer look. The tiny plastic girl had delicate features and was quite pretty; her only drawback was her extreme thinness, giving her the appearance of being malnourished.
She didn't notice the "giant" outside the diorama box watching her. Clutching a small bamboo basket, she walked out of the village to the vast sandy expanse of yellow earth. She dug and scraped. Before long, she unearthed something and carefully placed it in her basket.
She was so small, barely a centimeter tall herself. The bamboo basket in her hand was even tinier, and what she dug from the ground was too minuscule for Li Daoxuan to discern.
Li Daoxuan hastily rummaged through his belongings, found a magnifying glass, and peered at the girl through it. Only then did he clearly see she had dug up a piece of grass root.
The girl frantically searched the sandy ground. One moment she would unearth a root, the next she'd find a withered branch, peeling off a strip of bark. If she was lucky enough to find a few green leaves of wild vegetables, she would happily place them in her basket as if they were treasures.
The girl scurried back to the village, carrying her basket of bark and roots back to her tiny hut. Soon after, smoke rose from the hut's chimney.
Li Daoxuan aimed his magnifying glass at the hut's window. He could actually see the young girl and a middle-aged woman through it, holding broken bowls and making eating motions.
"Eating bark, roots, and wild vegetables?" Li Daoxuan immediately understood. "This diorama box, it seems, is meant to depict a year of famine in a historical dynasty, showing the hard lives of the impoverished common people, to remind me that the happy life I have today did not come easily."
Li Daoxuan couldn't help but pull out his phone. He dialed Cai Xinzhi. "Old Cai, this birthday gift of yours is truly unique, even giving me a dose of positive energy and a warning. Brother, I really like it, thank you very much."
From the other end of the line, Cai Xinzhi's bewildered voice rang out: "What birthday gift? Is it your birthday today?"
Li Daoxuan: "!"
Just then, a strange sound suddenly echoed from inside the diorama box. Li Daoxuan, startled, put down his phone. He turned to look and saw outside the village, a large group of tiny plastic figures suddenly rushed forward. They were clad in tattered cloth, carrying rusty swords, spears, some even using pot lids as shields, while others wore makeshift wooden armor...
Clearly, this group was bandits!
They charged into the village, shouting something loudly.
But their voices were tiny, all jumbled together. To Li Daoxuan, they sounded like the rustling whispers of mosquitoes and ants.
He quickly shut the doors and windows, blocking out all modern background noise. Only then could he vaguely make out what the tiny bandits were shouting: "Listen up, villagers! Bring all your grain to me! Otherwise, I'll cut you down one by one until none are left!"
All the village doors remained tightly shut. No one emerged.
Li Daoxuan saw through the window that the young girl who had been digging for bark and roots, and the middle-aged woman were huddled together inside the hut, trembling uncontrollably.
"This diorama box is incredibly realistic, isn't it?" Li Daoxuan sighed, unable to help himself. "The details are so superb. Who sent me such an amazing toy?"
At that moment, the tiny bandits began to act. They kicked open doors and dragged the tiny villagers hiding inside out. The tiny villagers began to wail, one crying out: "We have no food in our homes! Even if you kill me, I can't conjure up any grain!"
"Thwack!" The tiny bandit raised his knife and chopped down on the tiny villager's neck. The tiny villager immediately lay flat and motionless, and astonishingly, a gush of red liquid flowed from its neck.
Li Daoxuan shook his head, feeling a pang of sorrow. He was glad these were just plastic figures. If such a scene had genuinely occurred in history, how tragic it must have been.
A tiny bandit walked up to the door of the mother and daughter who had been eating grass roots, and kicked it open.
The mother and daughter began to cry out. For the first time, Li Daoxuan heard the girl's voice: "Great King, Great King, please spare us! We truly have nothing to eat! Look... our family eats grass roots! In this bowl... it's all grass roots..."
The girl's voice was delicate and pleasant to listen to, but faint and weak. It was probably due to prolonged hunger, her energy completely depleted.
The tiny bandit cursed: "Damn it, a bunch of penniless wretches! I don't care if you eat grass roots or bark. If you can't hand over grain, I'll chop you up and eat your flesh!"
The girl shrieked in terror, as the middle-aged woman rushed forward, embraced her daughter, and pleaded: "Great King, spare her life!"
The tiny bandit's knife struck the middle-aged woman's neck. Red liquid spurted far out, and the middle-aged woman collapsed, motionless.
The girl threw herself onto the middle-aged woman's body, sobbing uncontrollably.
But the tiny bandit remained unmoved, coldly raising his knife once more, and brought it down towards the girl's neck...
Seeing this, Li Daoxuan could no longer bear it. He ripped open the diorama box's lid, reached his hand inside, bent his index finger, and flicked...
"SMACK!"
The tiny bandit, struck by his finger, was sent flying a meter away. It soared from the center of the village to the yellow sandy ground outside the village, landing with a heavy thud, its neck askew, motionless.
Li Daoxuan: "Oops, I think I broke its electric mechanism."
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