"Little Yi, are you sure my package really landed nearby?"
"Relax, my detector never makes mistakes, it's definitely around here, I swear on my life!"
"You need to be a person and have a head to swear with!" Fang Jueyu rolled his eyes helplessly.
Ideally, Little Yi could accurately locate the small meteorite carrying the package, but for some reason, the signal emitter might have malfunctioned during delivery, so it could only sense a general area.
However, this area was quite large. When Fang Jueyu arrived, he discovered it was a small village on the outskirts of Jiangnan City.
Unlike cities filled with roads and buildings, finding a meteorite here wasn't too difficult. Although this area was on the path to urbanization, it still retained its rural charm. Everywhere in the village were muddy ponds and farmlands.
Little Yi said that this package had an automatic cushioning system. If it fell here, there wouldn't be a big impact, making finding this fist-sized artificial meteorite like looking for a needle in a haystack.
"Damn, at this rate, when will we find it?" Fang Jueyu had circled a farmland several times already.
Little Yi told him that the package's precise location was lost, so they could only search by close proximity. As long as they got within half a meter of the meteorite, Little Yi could identify it.
But the village wasn't small, and its terrain was complex. The meteorite that landed last night didn't cause any noticeable noise, making it challenging.
Suddenly, Fang Jueyu spotted a few middle-aged people working in the farmland. A thought crossed his mind: since he struggled to find it alone, why not enlist a group of people to help, making it twice as effective with half the effort?
Fang Jueyu approached and patted a middle-aged man's shoulder.
The man straightened up, wiped his sweat, and observed that this young man did not seem to be from the village. Based on his attire, he probably came from Jiangnan City's urban area for leisure.
Many young people liked to visit such places to experience rural life, which was common to him.
"Young man, want to eat? Our vegetables are the freshest and reasonably priced!"
"Uh..." Fang Jueyu almost spoke, but swallowed his words, "Well, sir, I'm not here to eat. I'm wondering if you'd like to make some money? I have a temporary job, could you spare some time to help?"
The middle-aged man looked disappointed, "Young man, I'm busy tending the farm, I don't have time for anything else, ask someone else."
"Sir, won't you even hear what the job is?" Fang Jueyu asked with a smile, "I promise the pay will be higher than your yearly income here."
The man stopped what he was doing, "Young man, you better not be messing with me. What job pays that much? You don't mean something illegal, right? I can't do that!"
"No, no, it's legitimate," Fang Jueyu said, "Sir, are you familiar with this village?"
"How could I not be? I've lived here over forty years, I could walk around with my eyes closed."
"That's great!" Fang Jueyu said. "I'm looking for a fist-sized stone. If you can help me find it, I'll pay you a hundred thousand yuan!"
"Find a stone?" The middle-aged man had never heard of something like it in his half a lifetime. Could it be a rare stone?
But no matter how rare, it's just a stone. He wasn't educated, only knew to earn money honestly.
"Tell you what, if you don't believe me, I'll pay you half upfront. If you find the stone, I'll give you the other half. How about that?"
The man's family ran a rural homestay, although not educated, he knew online payments. Fang Jueyu directly transferred fifty thousand yuan to him online.
"It's real!" The man was overjoyed, "What if I can't find it? Will you take the money back?"
"If you can't find it, the money is yours. But it's hard to find, I need many people. Can you help gather more people? I'll pay each person fifty thousand upfront, and another fifty thousand if they find the stone."
"Alright! Wait here, I'll gather people right away!"
Apparently fearing Fang Jueyu might change his mind, the man ran home.
"Honey! Quick! Stop cooking, come with me, there's an employer hiring temp workers, paying fifty thousand each, and it's instant payment!"
"Really?" the woman asked in disbelief.
"Of course! The employer's waiting, call more people quickly!"
Word spread quickly, and soon the whole village knew an employer from the city was here looking for a stone. Anyone who helped would earn fifty thousand yuan upfront, and another fifty thousand if they found it.
And the employer paid promptly via instant transfer.
Men and women, old and young, all dropped what they were doing and started searching for a fist-sized round stone in fields, ponds, orchards, and such.
Even though it was a village, word spread rapidly, and people from neighboring villages joined the event.
Fang Jueyu lacked nothing in terms of money. The value of the package's contents was immeasurable by earthly currency. A few hundred people from several villages combined, and the potential reward, millions, was just a drop in the bucket for him.
Fang Jueyu sat on a wooden bench at the village entrance, facing a long queue, each person holding several round stones. Despite his explaining the meteorite had specific features, they, being simple farmers, eagerly brought every fist-sized round stone they found, as fifty thousand yuan was more than most families earned in a year.
"Geez! It's already hard with so many people helping, I'd never find it alone," a day had nearly passed with no results, and a mound of stones had piled up nearby.
"What do you think this employer is even looking for?" some villagers in line started discussing.
"Who knows? Who can tell what rich people want? I just saw on the news someone spent millions on a useless piece of wood!"
"Really? Could these stones be that valuable?"
"Who cares, even if they are, what do we know? Be content earning a few thousand!"
"Host, there's a signal!"
"What? Where?" Fang Jueyu jumped up excitedly.
"The signal's moving, it just passed right by you and then disappeared!"
"What?" Fang Jueyu scanned the surroundings, everyone with stones awaited quietly in line. The only one darting past him was a small child just now.
"There it is!" Sure enough, the child held a blackened stone pocked with small burning pits, characteristic of a meteorite. After all that searching, it was in the hands of a child.