While other people brought home girlfriends for New Year’s, Gu Xiaobei, a computer science graduate, came back with a tiny toddler who could walk.
The whole village went wild.
The news that Gu Xiaobei had brought a child home had been fermenting for a night and a whole morning, and had already evolved through four versions.
Version One: Gu Xiaobei found a girlfriend in the city and had a child with her, but she was too busy with work to come home. This version was closest to the truth, but it was too ordinary to be worth spreading, so the intelligence System automatically discarded it.
Version Two: A rich woman in the city had taken a fancy to Gu Xiaobei, and he’d married into her family. The child was hers, and he’d come home for a visit. This version included the key piece of evidence, a Porsche, which sent its credibility soaring. It currently had the biggest share of the rumor market.
Version Three: The child was Gu Xiaobei’s, but the rich woman was ten years older than him and had been divorced before, so he didn’t dare bring her home. This version fixed the logical hole in Version Two, namely, “Why didn’t they come back together?” It was doing especially well in the less affluent market.
Version Four: Actually, the car was rented and the child was borrowed. Gu Xiaobei was buried in debt and had come home to ask his parents for money. This version had the fewest followers because it depended on one assumption: that Gu Xiaobei was such a good actor. Most people thought he was too honest and simple to pull off such an elaborate act.
“Version Four is way too far-fetched.” Dawei, Gu Xiaobei’s childhood friend, squatted on the steps of the village shop at the entrance to the village, a lollipop sticking out of his mouth. He said to Aqiang, who’d come over to trade information, “That acting of his? Back in elementary school, he got caught stealing dates from Grandpa Wang’s tree. His face turned redder than the dates.”
Feels like ai