The old spaceship’s power cabin had a miserable look, its messy, warped connecting wires sticking stiffly outside the peeled-off protective layer, clearly bearing the scars of countless repairs.
Wang Luan sat on an energy pipe, one foot planted on the thick cables tangled into a bundle below, half her body leaning into the opened maintenance window, knocking and tapping inside.
The youth holding an energy gun stood below on tiptoe watching, but still couldn’t see clearly what she was doing. He only heard a string of noises, along with her occasional movements of reaching out to switch tools and take repair materials.
“Sister Luan, can you fix it? Our ship is too old. The energy transfer pipes come loose every few days. Every time we fly in space for a few days it starts striking, and we can’t even get hot water to drink,” the youth complained.
The youth belonged to the Nanshi Association, one of the powers in this Lacquer Stone Star Ring. They mainly did work like escorting goods for resale or collecting protection fees, and usually also moonlighted in gray activities on nearby planets.
Ten years ago, their organization had once been glorious as well. But as new rival organizations rose up, and their boss became obsessed with omega beauties in the entertainment city, squandering money without restraint, the days of underlings like them began to get harder. Even when the ship grew old there was no money to replace it, so they could only call a mechanic to patch up whatever broke.
“Hey, I didn’t even get my salary last month. If this keeps up I won’t even be able to support myself. Repairers like you are great, Sister Luan—skilled, able to make money anywhere,” the youth said with a face full of envy.
Wang Luan was busy repairing, letting it go in one ear and out the other.
She was also a regular of this organization, often invited to help them repair all kinds of large ships and machinery. Every time she came, this youth called Gray Bird would come over. After a while, they could exchange a few words.
Just as she was burying her head in the final stage of repairs, noisy angry curses suddenly erupted outside, along with gunfire. Gray Bird, who had worn a simple, honest smile, changed expression and rushed out violently, raising his energy gun.
“Damn those xx, a bunch of xxx! They robbed our goods last time and now they actually dare to come knocking—go to their xxx!”
“Everyone get out here, teach these xxx a lesson!”
A string of dirty curses burst out from all corners of the ship. Wang Luan sped up to finish the last bit, lifted her toolbox, jumped down from above, and walked out.
In the corridor outside, there were plenty of guys who hadn’t even finished putting on their clothes, or who still reeked of alcohol and had just crawled out of bed, all grabbing weapons and rushing out in a hurry.
Wang Luan wanted to find someone to settle her payment so she could leave this place early, but couldn’t find anyone. Depressed, she rubbed her forehead and headed out. Before she reached the door, she saw another group rushing back in, a few of them clutching wounded spots and cursing loudly.
“x it! Did the Black Eagle Association brats switch to new weapons?!”
“If we can’t fight, withdraw fast! Go back to the lair first!”
A vibration shook underfoot. The ship was clearly about to launch. Wang Luan’s face darkened. “Fuck! I’m not even off yet!”
As she spoke, she shoved aside those rough guys barging about and reached the doorway. The ship hadn’t yet left port. She estimated the distance and prepared to jump down, but suddenly, on the docking port, a young man in black clothes recklessly raised his gun and fired at her. Wang Luan had no choice but to pull back her foot, twist to the side, and duck back behind the ship.
She drew out the small energy gun she had modified herself from behind her waist and fired a shot outside, cursing, “Blind bastard, who the hell are you shooting at!”
Just that brief delay was enough. The ship accelerated once, directly leaving the port by two kilometers.
Wang Luan sat back down on a chair in the ship’s corridor with a dark face. Gray Bird ran over with a frank expression and said, “Sister Luan, things were too chaotic just now. If you’d gone down, what if those brats had gone straight for you? Might as well take our ship to the Nanshi District first.”
The men and women nearby, still panting heavily after a quick fight, all chimed in: “Yeah, stay in the Nanshi District for a couple of days. We’ve got two more airships broken that can’t make it here—might as well take a look and see if you can fix them!”
“There’s been a group of smugglers over our way these past two days, lots of good stuff. Not going to take a look?”
“Take a look at what? Going there and back will take another one or two days. I didn’t even close my shop, what if it gets robbed?” Wang Luan was annoyed, but could only tacitly agree to go to the Nanshi District first, then take a ship back on her own.
There was no helping it. Places like this were just that chaotic. No matter where you were, you could easily be suddenly dragged into armed clashes between different factions.
But chaotic places also had their advantages. At least here, no one would bother to investigate another person’s identity, because there were plenty of wanted criminals and smugglers around. Someone with an unclear background could buy a fake identity and live normally. Even the imperial army couldn’t reach this place, and the stationed officials on the planet were nothing more than decoration.
Many large and small factions carved up the nearby planets into territories. Ordinary people paid protection fees to one faction today; tomorrow, if the territory was taken over by another faction, they would switch to paying that one—either way, it was all the same.
Wang Luan was still somewhat special. A rare talent like her who could repair spaceships and airships, and who didn’t charge very high fees, lived at the borders of several factions’ territories. Privately, she had repaired ships for several factions. Even that Black Eagle Association just now—she had gone to repair their ship’s power cabin before.
Speaking of which.
Wang Luan looked around. “Where’s your captain? Have him settle this repair fee with me.”
Gray Bird stuck out his tongue and darted away. Those who had been chatting idly nearby all pretended they hadn’t heard. Wang Luan couldn’t be bothered with them and went to look inside the ship herself. Finally, before the ship landed, she found the small squad leader who had hidden away, trying to dodge the debt, and pried her repair fee out of her.
“We’re all old acquaintances, do you really have to charge every single time?” The small squad leader clutched her transaction card with a pained expression.
“I only took the repair fee. I didn’t even ask for the return ticket money,” Wang Luan said irritably.
Truly, you become like those you associate with—after staying so long in this chaotic zone with a bunch of foul-mouthed people, she had grown irritable as well.
Turning down Gray Bird and the others’ attempts to keep her, Wang Luan left the ship and headed for the trading market in the Nanshi District. Since she’d come all this way, she couldn’t very well return empty-handed; she might as well pick up some materials to replenish her shop’s supplies.
She lived in the Little Wu District and ran a repair shop. From all kinds of spaceships down to everyday household items, she repaired them all. Business was pretty good, and she would occasionally go out to scavenge for materials.
Carrying her tool bag as she walked along the street, Wang Luan looked up at the gray-blue sky overhead.
Many planets around here had quarrying zones. The stones extracted were processed here and transported to more developed star systems for sale. Because of years of pollution, the sky always looked a bit dim and gray.
That was why she didn’t want to live on these planets in the Nanshi District—the air quality was too poor. The Little Wu District where she lived now wasn’t as badly polluted, and still had blue skies and green trees.
The streets were bustling, with many people setting up small stalls and erecting miniature shops.
There were many large smugglers here, of course, but also many small vendors, drifting between districts to earn a bit of money. When the situation was bad and stalls couldn’t be set up, they would join some faction and go loot a round instead.
Wang Luan moved alone through the crowd, stopping now and then to look at the stalls.
By now she was used to living alone and had gradually adapted to this chaotic place. Though it was unstable, it still made her feel more at ease than the splendid yet cold Wang family manor.
It had been almost a year since she left the Imperial Capital Star and parted ways with Yan Qiongyu.
Back then, she hadn’t stayed on the planet where she separated from Yan Qiongyu, but found another place to live instead. This place was far from the Imperial Capital Star. She had only vaguely heard that the Fifth Prince’s siege of the Imperial Capital Star had failed, and that he fled with the remnants of his legion. As for the rest, she didn’t know much.
As for Yan Qiongyu, she hadn’t heard any news of him since. But given his abilities, no matter where he was, he should be doing fine.
And she herself was doing fine as well.
“How much is this?” Wang Luan picked up a part from a stall. It was obviously a component ripped off from somewhere at random. The stall owner probably didn’t know what it was for and had just put it out casually.
The stall owner held up a gesture for one hundred. Wang Luan took out her transaction card, ready to swipe it, when the stall owner said again, “One thousand.”
Wang Luan flicked her wrist and tossed the part back. The stall owner narrowed his eyes at her. “You damaged my part by throwing it. You have to compensate me one thousand.”
Ignoring him, Wang Luan snapped out her gun and pressed it up under the chin of a passing girl.
The girl, dressed fairly decently, still tried to put on a pitiful act. But when she felt the gun muzzle under her chin push upward slightly, she immediately gave an awkward laugh and put the small pouch she had hidden in her sleeve back into Wang Luan’s tool box. “Haha, sorry, sorry, here you go.”
Wang Luan put away her gun. The stall owner who had tried to act like a thug and force a sale earlier didn’t make a sound anymore, shrinking his neck and sitting behind the stall staring at the sky.
As she passed through this large stretch of stalls, similar incidents happened several more times. The first time Wang Luan came to a place like this, she had nearly had everything on her stolen by wandering pickpockets. But now she could skillfully draw her gun and press it to their heads.
In the end, with a haul of secondhand parts picked up cheaply, Wang Luan saw that it was getting late and headed for the spaceport to buy a ticket on a ship back to the Little Wu District.
This ship was an unmanned vessel that had been in operation for at least ten years. It would pass through dozens of nearby planets, with one ticket valid for the whole route.
At this time there weren’t many people on the ship. Wang Luan didn’t pay much attention to the others and found a solitary seat to sit down. The people who lived here were mostly like this, rarely bothering about other people’s affairs.
Wang Luan didn’t notice that when she walked into the passenger cabin, a person wearing a hat in the back row lifted his head and looked at her a couple more times.
That person sat alone in the back row. The hat covered his hair, the collar covered his chin, and a scarf wrapped around most of his face. Only a pair of exposed dark, deep-set eyes were strikingly beautiful. If Wang Luan had seen them, she would have felt them extremely familiar.
After all, the owner of those eyes had once hugged her as they squeezed together on a narrow bed on a barren star, and had taken her to flee the Imperial Capital.
Yan Qiongyu stood up and, without drawing attention, sat down two rows behind Wang Luan at a diagonal angle, watching her through the gaps between the seats. Watching her space out, yawn.
After a while, Wang Luan ordered a meal. With a look of disgust, she ate half of it, picking aside the boiled, sticky, unidentifiable chunks of meat.
Yan Qiongyu had eaten this meal before as well. That sticky meat really was hard to eat.
He leaned back against the seat, watching her finish eating, then lean there and doze off. A smile slowly appeared at the corner of his lips, and the previously distant, cold air around him softened.
Wang Luan didn’t fall asleep. Being alone outside, she still needed to stay alert. When someone passed by her side, she immediately became fully awake. They were about to reach the Little Wu District. She picked up her things and stood up to get ready.
Yan Qiongyu stood up as well, disembarking the ship together with Wang Luan, separated by a few people.
Even though his original destination was not here.
