Time: Winter, C.E. 56
Nangong Wentian, six years and three months old, crouched beside the trash heap at the scrapyard, his small hands red from the cold, yet he never stopped rummaging.
The winter wind blew in from the sea, carrying a biting, damp chill. The scrapyard was piled high with all sorts of "trash" – rusted sheet metal, deformed bicycle frames, shattered glass bottles, and heaps of electronic waste whose original forms were unrecognizable.
Xiao Guang crouched beside him, also rubbing his hands to warm them, but his eyes sparkled brightly. "Wentian, what are we looking for today?"
"Chips," Nangong Wentian replied without looking up. "The newer the better."
"What are chips?"
"They're..." Nangong Wentian thought for a moment, then pointed at a nearby broken calculator. "That black, square thing inside there with lots of little legs."
Xiao Guang leaned over to look, nodding with partial understanding. Then he suddenly pointed excitedly in another direction. "Is it like that one?"
Nangong Wentian followed his finger – atop a pile of discarded electronics lay a circuit board with several chips soldered onto it.
"Yes!" Nangong Wentian's eyes lit up. He stood and walked over, carefully extracting the circuit board.
The board was filthy, covered in dust and grease, but it was mostly intact. He wiped it with his sleeve and could make out the model number – it was an industrial control board with at least three or four removable chips.
"Good find." He placed the board into a woven bag beside him, which he had taken from the kitchen before leaving.
Xiao Guang got excited too and started digging through the trash heap. Although he didn't fully understand what chips were, he knew which things looked "advanced" – anything with a screen, buttons, or densely packed small components, he would point them all out to Nangong Wentian.
"This one!"
"How about this?"
"And this one!"
In less than an hour, the woven bag was filled with seven or eight circuit boards, two old hard drives, a pile of wires, and an old power supply of unknown functionality.
"That's enough, that's enough." Nangong Wentian stopped Xiao Guang, who wanted to keep searching. "We can't carry back any more."
Xiao Guang reluctantly stopped, looking at the full bag of "treasures" with a wide grin. "Are we coming back tomorrow?"
"The day after tomorrow." Nangong Wentian looked up at the sky. "Tomorrow we have to help Uncle Tanaka chop firewood."
The two boys lifted the woven bag and wobbled their way toward the scrapyard entrance.
In the small shack at the entrance, the second-hand dealer Yamada was warming himself by a brazier. Seeing the two children carrying a full bag of scrap, he paused, then smiled. "Well, if it isn't you two again? Had quite the haul today."
"Hello, Grandpa Yamada." Nangong Wentian put down the bag and greeted him politely.
Over the past month, he and Xiao Guang had become regulars at the scrapyard. Yamada's attitude had shifted from initial wariness, to curiosity, and now to smiling whenever he saw them – a process that had taken only three or four visits.
"Let me see what you've got." Yamada walked over and peered into the bag. "Oh, all electronic junk. What do you kids want this stuff for?"
"To take apart for fun," Nangong Wentian said. "We want to see what's inside."
Yamada crouched down, picked up a circuit board from the bag, and turned it over in his hands. "I recognize this—it's from equipment scrapped by the factory. Can you kids even understand this stuff?"
"No," Nangong Wentian admitted, shaking his head. "We just think it's fun."
Yamada stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled. "You're not an ordinary kid."
Nangong Wentian felt a slight tension in his chest but kept his expression neutral. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing." Yamada waved his hand and placed the circuit board back in the bag. "This junk isn't worth anything. Take it if you want it—no need to pay."
Nangong Wentian was taken aback. "Really?"
"Really." Yamada stood up and returned to sit by the brazier. "I've run this scrap yard for twenty years, and I've never seen kids so interested in electronic junk. Consider it... a little kindness for promising youngsters."
Nangong Wentian fell silent for a moment, then said earnestly, "Thank you, Grandpa Yamada."
"Alright, alright, hurry back now. It's getting dark." Yamada waved them off. "Be careful on the road."
The two lifted the woven bag and started walking back.
After they'd gone a few dozen meters, Xiao Guang suddenly said, "Grandpa Yamada is really nice."
"Yeah." Nangong Wentian nodded.
"Why is he so good to us?"
Nangong Wentian thought for a moment. "Maybe because he did similar things when he was young."
Xiao Guang didn't fully understand but didn't press further.
By the time they returned to the orphanage, dusk had settled. They quietly carried the woven bag to the back kitchen and hid it in the old wooden crate. The crate was almost full now—piled with their haul from the past month: circuit boards, chips, wires, old batteries, small motors...
"Xiao Guang," Nangong Wentian suddenly said, "do you know what we can do with all this stuff in the future?"
Xiao Guang shook his head.
Nangong Wentian fell silent for a while, then said, "You'll know someday."
He didn't know how to explain concepts like "quantum computers," "artificial intelligence," or "data processing systems" to an eleven-year-old. But he knew Xiao Guang didn't need to understand them.
Xiao Guang just needed to trust him.
And Xiao Guang did trust him.
"Wentian," Xiao Guang suddenly remembered something, "do you remember that auction Grandpa Yamada mentioned last time?"
Nangong Wentian's heart stirred.
The auction.
A month ago, Yamada had casually mentioned something—the Orb military had recently scrapped a batch of equipment and was auctioning it off through special channels. If they could get their hands on those things...
"I remember," he said, looking at Xiao Guang. "What are you thinking?"
"I was wondering," Xiao Guang scratched his head, "if we could get our hands on that military equipment, maybe we wouldn't have to dig through garbage dumps every day."
Nangong Wentian fell silent for a moment.
Xiao Guang was right. Even scrapped military equipment was far more advanced than the junk in civilian dumps. If they could get their hands on those...
But the question was, how?
He was only six years old. A six-year-old couldn't possibly attend a military auction.
"Xiao Guang," he suddenly asked, "do you remember when exactly Grandpa Yamada said that auction would be?"
Xiao Guang thought for a moment. "It seems... next month? In the city of Orléans."
The city of Orléans.
That was the capital of Orb, dozens of kilometers away from this remote fishing village. The two of them, just children, couldn't possibly go on their own.
But what if they had help from an adult?
Several names flashed through Nangong Wentian's mind—Tanaka, Sister Mary, the headmistress...
The headmistress.
He recalled her gentle yet profound eyes. She had once worked at Morgenroete and knew important figures like Erica Simmons. If she went to the auction...
No, that wouldn't work.
Although the headmistress was kind to him, letting her know he was interested in military equipment was too dangerous. She would suspect, she would question, she would...
Wait.
Nangong Wentian suddenly thought of a possibility—they didn't need to go themselves, nor did the headmistress need to go. They just needed to find someone to help them bid on the items they wanted.
But this person had to be reliable, had to be able to keep a secret, had to...
It was too difficult.
"Wentian?" Xiao Guang asked worriedly, seeing him lost in thought. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Nangong Wentian snapped back to reality. "Just thinking about how to get those devices."
"Any ideas?"
"Not yet," Nangong Wentian shook his head. "But I'll think of something."
Xiao Guang nodded, completely trusting him.
That was Xiao Guang—never asking why, never questioning how, simply believing.
Nangong Wentian looked at him, warmth rising in his heart.
Having lived in this world for six years, he had always been alone. Although Xiao Guang was by his side, he didn't know his secret, didn't know that his mind held knowledge from another world.
But at this moment, he suddenly felt that whether or not Xiao Guang knew the secret wasn't so important.
What mattered was that someone was willing to accompany him digging through the trash, someone was willing to believe every word he said, someone was willing to treat the discarded "junk" as treasures alongside him.
"Xiao Guang," he suddenly said, "in the future, I'll make you the greatest engineer."
Xiao Guang was taken aback. "What engineer?"
"It's..." Nangong Wentian thought for a moment. "Someone who builds amazing things."
Xiao Guang blinked, then grinned. "Okay! I'll wait for it!"
Outside the window, the night grew deeper. The winter wind still blew, but in the back kitchen, the laughter of two children warmed the corner piled with "junk."
Inside the broken wooden crate, the circuit boards and chips scavenged from the junkyard lay quietly, waiting for the day they would be awakened.
And Nangong Wentian knew that day wouldn't be too far away.
Three days later, they returned to the junkyard.
This time, Yamada saw them and beckoned them over.
"Kid," he said to Nangong Wentian, "didn't you ask about that military auction last time?"
Nangong Wentian's heart skipped a beat, but he remained calm on the surface. "Yeah, what about it?"
Yamada lowered his voice, speaking mysteriously. "I found out—the auction is next week. And this time, there are some good items up for sale."
"What kind of good items?"
"I don't know the specifics," Yamada shook his head. "But I heard there's equipment phased out from Morgenroete—real military-grade stuff."
Nangong Wentian's heart pounded fiercely.
Morgenroete.
The core military-industrial enterprise of Orb, the cradle of Mobile Suit development. Even the equipment phased out from there, even if obsolete, is absolutely top-tier.
If he could get his hands on it...
"Grandpa Yamada," he asked, "can ordinary people participate in this kind of auction?"
"Yes," Yamada nodded, "but there's a financial verification process and a deposit required. You need at least a few million in assets to enter."
A few million.
Nangong Wentian fell silent. All his savings combined amounted to just over two hundred thousand—money he had scraped together from various sources, far from "a few million."
"However," Yamada suddenly lowered his voice, "I have an old friend who deals in second-hand equipment. He'll also be attending the auction this time. If you want something, you can ask him to bid on your behalf—of course, for a small fee."
Nangong Wentian's eyes lit up: "Is your friend reliable?"
Yamada looked at him and suddenly laughed: "Kid, do you have some kind of secret?"
Nangong Wentian paused for a moment, then met his gaze calmly: "Everyone has their own secrets."
Yamada was taken aback, then burst into hearty laughter: "Good! Well said! Alright, I'll ask for you. But whether it works out or not depends on your own luck."
Nangong Wentian nodded: "Thank you, Grandpa Yamada."
Leaving the scrapyard, Xiao Guang eagerly asked: "Wentian, are we really going to buy those things? But we don't have the money."
Nangong Wentian didn't answer, but he already had a plan in mind.
Money—he had over two hundred thousand. Although it wasn't enough to buy top-tier equipment, it should suffice for a few key chips and some rare circuit boards.
Moreover, he still had those technical documents from the Star Core.
If he could exchange some of that knowledge for goods...
He shook his head, temporarily pushing the thought aside.
It was still too early. He was only six years old. A six-year-old child couldn't do anything too outrageous.
But he knew the opportunity was right before him.
Over the next few days, Nangong Wentian spent every day thinking about how to make use of this auction. He made a list, writing down the things he needed most—high-speed processors, large-capacity storage devices, precision sensors...
Then he did the math: if he only bought the most critical core components, the two hundred thousand might barely be enough.
But the problem was, how could he get Yamada's friend to bid for him? A six-year-old child handing over a sum of money to a stranger to buy things—it sounded like a fantasy.
Unless...
"Xiao Guang," he suddenly asked, "would you be willing to go to the city with me?"
Xiao Guang was stunned: "Go to the city? What for?"
"To meet someone."
"Who?"
Nangong Wentian was silent for a moment, then said: "Someone who might be able to help us."
He knew this decision was risky. A six-year-old and an eleven-year-old traveling dozens of kilometers to the capital to negotiate a deal with a stranger—it was practically playing with fire.
But if he didn't go, he would forever be stuck picking through other people's trash.
He wanted to change the world.
To change the world, you couldn't rely solely on scavenging.