Five Lights Mailbox

Chen Miemie and Loop returned to Fairy Tale Road with the [Forbidden Fruit Compendium].

It was exactly 5:30 PM, and families were beginning to pack up their stalls, preparing to close for the day.

The half-hour or so around dusk when shops closed was usually used for dinner.

Some shop owners had no business at night and simply stopped operating, while others would reopen at 6:30 PM.

Chen Miemie had observed this carefully.

When he stood at the entrance of Fairy Tale Road No. 17, which was Old Man Yu's shop, people could still see him.

But once one of his feet crossed over the outer wall of No. 17, his presence began to fade.

When both feet crossed over and he squeezed into the [Door Gap], he became completely invisible, and people around him would act as if they didn't see him squeezing through the wall.

Practice made perfect.

What used to take several minutes now only took about ten seconds for Chen Miemie to squeeze through the entire gap and reach the door.

"Chen Miemie, you need to maintain that Five-Light Mailbox at the door," the [Forbidden Fruit Compendium] suddenly spoke.

"Huh? You recognize this thing?"

"Of course. Anyone with a bit of age on them would recognize this."

"I heard the guards at the Academy say it's used for mailing, but now that everyone has wristwatches, who still writes letters?"

"Who said mailing is only for letters? Besides, some places can't even be reached by wristwatch."

"Are you serious? This kind of mailbox only exists in the Sealed Book Repository, right? Can it really outperform wristwatches for city communication?"

"This isn't just any mailbox—this is a Five-Light Mailbox!" The [Forbidden Fruit Compendium] was very displeased and fell silent again.

He entered the shop.

The [Forbidden Fruit Compendium] floated out from his backpack.

It flew out on its own and went straight into the study.

It came to the book at position 7, row 13 of the large bookshelf, clumsily pushed out the book that was there, and then crammed itself in.

Chen Miemie and Loop: ...

Dude, were you really that comfortable in someone else's place, finding your own slot so quickly?

The [Forbidden Fruit Compendium] was a book, and it fitting itself onto a shelf as its nest was quite in character, so Chen Miemie silently allowed it.

After a brief rest and eating some roast chicken, it was time to open the shop.

Tonight was a Frost Moon, and Chen Miemie tried to form a contract with the [Forbidden Fruit Compendium] but found he couldn't succeed, likely because what was here wasn't the original body of the [Forbidden Fruit Compendium].

Waiting for customers was a bit dull, so Chen Miemie took out a book and started reading.

The first book he read was the free copy of The Five-Light Mailbox Guide he'd gotten from the bookstore.

Only a few pages in, he started exclaiming.

"Forbidden Fruit, Forbidden Fruit, the book says you can fit a car into a Five-Light Mailbox?!"

Forbidden Fruit was Chen Miemie's shorthand for the [Forbidden Fruit Compendium] after they'd gotten familiar.

The [Forbidden Fruit Compendium] floated over: "A car? You could fit a bus. In 'One-Light' mode, theoretically, you could squeeze in a small room."

Chen Miemie flipped a couple of pages further and immediately found the classification for "Five Lights."

"So according to the book:

The Five-Light Mailbox has five gears for mailing:

'One-Light' mode: can fit a car;

'Two-Light' mode: can fit a large bathtub;

'Three-Light' mode: can fit a small suitcase;

'Four-Light' mode: can fit a thick dictionary;

'Five-Light' mode: can only fit a single letter.

Why is 'One-Light' mode so strong? That mailbox is so small—how does it all fit inside?"

The [Forbidden Fruit Compendium] fluttered its little wings and flew up to Chen Miemie:

"If you flip a bit further, you'll see that 'One-Light' is actually the weakest gear, and 'Five-Light' is the strongest. Of course, the conditions to activate the strongest gear are the strictest.

When a Five-Light Mailbox is in use, light shoots out from the top. Anything within the range of that light gets collected into a mysterious space—the items aren't stored in the small container you see."

"Activation conditions." Chen Miemie continued flipping. "Found it."

"A Five-Light Mailbox is powered by the five types of light from two suns and three moons. The higher the gear you want to use, the more types of light you need. Currently, the highest gear available is 'Four-Light' mode.

Huh? Forbidden Fruit, why can't 'Five-Light' mode be activated? The book doesn't explain this."

"Because humans can't provide all five types of light. In the past seven ages, the Constant Moon never favored the world, so light from the Constant Moon couldn't be stored.

Besides, for practical needs, 'Two-Light' is usually enough. Even 'Four-Light' is rarely used."

A book in the family was like a treasure.

Chen Miemie kept reading while consulting Teacher Forbidden Fruit on the spot.

"The book says there's no need for high gears—'One-Light' is generally enough. But you also said 'Two-Light' is sufficient. So what's the advantage of the higher gears?"

"I don't know," Teacher Forbidden Fruit replied bluntly.

"You don't know?! Then how can they say 'Five-Light' is superior to 'One-Light'?"

"For everyday use, there's really no difference. But scholars have conducted experiments.

Chen Miemie, do you know who the mail carrier is when something gets thrown into a Five-Light Mailbox? What's doing the transportation behind the scenes?"

"I don't know."

"A Five-Light Mailbox isn't just simple spatial transmission. 'Light' itself is the mail carrier, and light is what transports for the sender."

"Wow, that's kind of impressive."

"There was an experiment done by scholars before.

They tried methods like sealing or isolating two functioning Five-Light Mailboxes.

The experimenters used a lot of [Mystery] power, testing repeatedly.

In the end, they found: in 'One-Light' mode, the mail could be effectively intercepted and destroyed;

in 'Two-Light' mode, the chance of destroying the mail was extremely low;

in 'Three-Light' and above, interception and destruction were impossible—send, and it would definitely arrive.

From this, they concluded that higher gears, though they could handle smaller items, ensured higher reliability for the delivery.

But as I said, 'One-Light' is enough for everyday use."

"Now, how many Five-Light Mailboxes are there in the Sealed Book Repository?"

"Fewer now. You're right—with the development of logistics and distribution, and the convenience of wristwatches, fewer people use Five-Light Mailboxes. As far as I know, no more than 30 exist across the entire city."

"Since we've got one at our door, we have to try it sometime. By the way, Forbidden Fruit, how do you store light?"

"You can buy special colorless stamps, then inject light into them. The more types of light you inject, the more colors appear on the stamp.

To inject light, you can go buy it. I saw a store selling light on this street as we walked here."

Chen Miemie frowned: "How dare you traffic in light!"

"What's so surprising about that? Seers who specialize in light can infuse light into wax, making special candles.

Right now, the light from the two suns is the cheapest, Rainbow Moon light is mid-range, and Frost Moon light is the most expensive."

Chen Miemie's brow relaxed a little: "And what about Constant Moon light?"

Forbidden Fruit was speechless: "Did you even listen to what I said earlier? There is no Constant Moon light. If you could produce it, you'd be rich overnight."

Chen Miemie immediately beamed with excitement: “All right, all right. This is a market economy—we need all kinds of flowers to bloom. Selling out this market could really take off.”

He stood up at once. “Let’s go. We’ll go buy some cheap sunlight right now.”