Chapter 9: Mobile Phone

After Ba Ke Er Er and Zhang Fan returned home, what they prepared to do was organize all the luggage they had brought back; Ba Ke Er Er and Zhang Fan were full of energy, especially Ba Ke Er, who, while he was seriously organizing the animal hides, Zhang Fan took out the small box he had seen once before, and Zhang Fan was now holding that small box aimed at himself. When they heard the "click" sound, Ba te er noticed the small box in Zhang Fan's hand.

"Fan Fan, what are you holding in your hand?" Ba te er asked curiously.

"Er…"

Hearing his question, Zhang Fan hesitated a moment then decided to tell him.

"This is a mobile phone; in my original tribe we used it to communicate with people, and with it you can stay in touch with faraway tribespeople."

Ba Ke Er felt very surprised.

"Wow! So amazing? Then why did it just ring? Are your original tribe people looking for you?"

Zhang Fan couldn't help but roll his eyes at Ba Ke Er's comment.

"Of course not! Even if someone were looking for me, my phone wouldn't ring here because there's no signal at all; a phone needs a signal to contact others, and without signal it can't be used to contact anyone. But it just rang because… look!" Saying that, Zhang Fan showed Ba Ke Er the photo he had just taken. Ba Ke Er was astonished!

"This… this… how does this person look so much like me?!" Ba Ke Er wondered.

"You look like him? Come on! This is you!"

"How could that be? When did I get inside this box?" Seeing Ba Ke Er doubtful, Zhang Fan immediately used the phone to take a selfie of the two of them.

"Look! How's that? That's how you get in!" Seeing Fan Fan and himself so close on the phone screen, Ba Ke Er was overjoyed!

"Great! This phone is really a good thing; you must keep it safe!" Saying that, they heard the phone ring again.

"Fan Fan, what's wrong now?"

"It's about to run out of power, no problem! I also have a hand‑crank charger; I originally bought it just because I thought it was fun, never expecting it would actually be useful!"

After saying that, Zhang Fan took the charger out of the shopping bag and began to charge the phone. Ba Ke Er also thought it was fun, so he said to Zhang Fan:

"Fan Fan, can you let me try it?"

"Sure! Here you go, shake it gently—don't break it, I only have this one charger."

Saying that, he handed the phone and charger together to Ba Ke Er. As soon as Ba Ke Er took them, he began to shake them gently, carefully, making Zhang Fan laugh with delight.

"Ba Ke Er, you don't need to be so careful; you still need to shake it fast."

"Okay!"

After saying that, Ba Ke Er began shaking it quickly. About two hours later, when Zhang Fan had already finished organizing everything and Ba Ke Er's hands were almost too tired to move, the phone finally showed "Charging complete".

"All right, Ba Ke Er, you must be exhausted—stop and rest a bit."

"Okay, Fan Fan must be exhausted too! I'll go hunting later, after eating we'll go to the chieftain."

"Okay!"

Finally, as it approached four o'clock, Ba Ke Er went out to hunt. After he left, Zhang Fan didn't idle either; he started preparing the barbecue sauce with the seasonings he had brought, for the meat to be grilled later. He had just finished when Ba Ke Er came back carrying the processed game.

He quickly used a bone knife to separate the meat for tonight and for tomorrow morning, then skewered the meat for later on clean branches, and preserved the meat for tomorrow morning with salt. This was the method Zhang Fan taught him!

Zhang Fan walked over and placed the meat Ba Ke Er had skewered onto the grill he had set up, then lit the fire. Then Zhang Fan and Ba Ke Er—one turning the meat, the other basting it with barbecue sauce—soon the aroma of the grilled meat filled the whole house.