Wang Luan leaned in the narrow space of the engine room, amid the humming of the power apparatus beside her, waiting for the spacecraft to leave the high tower.
This was a spacecraft the high tower used to purchase some scarce daily supplies, departing at a fixed time every day.
Yesterday, when Yan Qiongyu was chatting with her, he had intentionally or unintentionally mentioned when this spacecraft would leave port and which areas it would pass through… she couldn’t tell whether that counted as a hint or an outright suggestion.
Once her estrus period passed, it was like leaping from NetEase Cloud Music at midnight straight to eight-thirty in the morning—time to get up and go to work—her headful of melancholy instantly turning into the reality of life.
The shame that had vanished for several days rebounded from rock bottom, sending blood rushing to Wang Luan’s head. She simply didn’t dare to face Yan Qiongyu directly.
Was that really her—the one who insisted on smelling Yan Qiongyu’s pheromones, who, when she couldn’t smell them, bit his lips until they were bloody, and then deliberately tore open his wounds again and again?
Was that really her—the one who couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night and had to hold Yan Qiongyu’s head and cry at him, tears soaking his hair, refusing to stop no matter what he said?
Was it really something she could do—thinking Yan Qiongyu’s shirt felt uncomfortable against her when sleeping and forcing him to take it off, then insisting there was a fragrance on his hands and demanding to pillow on them to sleep, leaving Yan Qiongyu sitting on the edge of the bed the next morning with his shirt draped over him, rubbing his wrist for ages?
And when Yan Qiongyu had things to do and left her sight, she would sit by the window saying life was meaningless, forcing him to promise to come back to see her once every two hours;
When eating, she wouldn’t eat properly unless Yan Qiongyu took a bite first, insisting that was fair;
After bathing, she cried and said there was no scent left on her body, dragging Yan Qiongyu to wrap themselves together in two quilts, insisting they stay there until both of them were drenched in sweat mixed together;
Were these things something a normal person could do?!
When Wang Luan thought back on it, she wished she could go back and punch her estrus self twice—best if she knocked herself straight unconscious.
Clearly, her first estrus period had only made her a bit depressed. Why was this one so difficult, and why was Yan Qiongyu’s temper so good now?
Back during her first estrus at the Wang family, if she went too far, Yan Qiongyu wouldn’t even bother coaxing her. He would just put on that fake smile and fake gentleness and give her a sedative injection to quiet her down.
In short, once Wang Luan’s estrus period ended and she reviewed her actions over the past few days, the strongest thought in her mind was to get off this planet as fast as possible.
Even at this very moment, as long as certain scenes flashed through her mind, she couldn’t help but slam her forehead hard against the wall of the engine room.
“Hm? Why does it sound like there’s something strange in the engine room?” a passing beta crew member said to a companion in confusion. The two opened the door and looked around the cramped space, found nothing unusual, and had no choice but to close the door again.
Wang Luan stepped on a seam and sat above their heads, hugging her shoulders as she silently digested everything, no longer making any noise.
When the spacecraft passed through a certain area, she took advantage of the procurement and loading to leave the ship smoothly and blend into the crowd.
This place wasn’t particularly far from the Little Wu District where she lived. After transferring spacecraft three or four times, she saw the familiar port.
Wang Luan returned home dusty and travel-worn. Without bothering with anything else, she first plunged straight into the vegetable patch.
After being away for some time, the automatic irrigation machine had been diligently working. The vegetables in the garden were still growing luxuriantly, though all kinds of weeds were no less ambitious, growing even faster than the vegetables.
Wang Luan rolled up her pant legs and sleeves, cleared out the weeds in the garden first, then went to wash herself, covered head to toe in dirt.
In the mirror, she could see the bite marks left on her neck and some other traces.
Without looking closely, she hurriedly covered her neck with a high-collared garment. With a lingering dampness about her, she simply packed some of her belongings into a folding case. Weapons, ray guns, energy guns, knives, and the like were all kept on her person.
She stayed at home for less than an hour before Wang Luan left again, returning to the port to prepare to take a spacecraft elsewhere.
For a short period of time, she probably wouldn’t be coming back here.
That Zhu Xing knew her residence was nearby and likely wouldn’t let things go so easily. She didn’t know what Yan Qiongyu had done to temporarily hold Zhu Xing back, allowing her to pass her estrus period in relative peace.
In order to prevent Zhu Xing from coming to look for her again later, Wang Luan decided to go out and live somewhere else for a while, to hide from this rotten peach blossom.
That kind of little girl who was still young was only interested in her on a whim—after some time without seeing her, it would probably fade.
While thinking about whether to go work for a while again at Qi Liao’s place, that generous rich second-generation employer from the Daquan District last time, someone nearby suddenly called out to her, “Sister Luan!”
Wang Luan looked up and saw Gray Bird from the Nanshi Association standing at the spacecraft entrance, waving the gun in his hand at her.
“Sister Luan, I haven’t seen you in a while. What have you been busy with lately?” Gray Bird ran over happily and said, “Our crappy spacecraft broke down again. We couldn’t find you, so we could only keep running it like this. If you have time, could you come take a look for us?”
Wang Luan walked toward their old spacecraft, saying as she went, “You’ll have to pay me a repair fee.”
Gray Bird followed behind her, starting to pour out his grievances: “Sister Luan, you don’t know—our boss was assassinated a few days ago and got seriously injured. There’s no one to manage things now, our territory has been taken over by others, and of the Nanshi Association’s twelve teams, eight have disbanded. Once they disbanded, a lot of brothers didn’t know what to do, couldn’t get paid, and for the sake of living could only go quarrying and mining.”
“Our team leader is still pretty responsible. He knew the brothers were having a hard time, so he found a way and took us to do deliveries, at least earning a bit as a parting fee.”
Gray Bird chattered all the way as he followed Wang Luan into the spacecraft. “No idea where the leader got the connection, but we received a whole hold of white crystal jade, planning to transport it to the Yanhe side. If we can sell it all, each of us can earn a sum. It’s just that the distance is too far—we’ve never gone that far before. A round trip will take half a year.”
Wang Luan had never been there either. Yanhe was in the Huanghe Star Ring, extremely far from the Qianshi Star Ring where the Xiaoquan District and Nanshi District were located. That side was also at the edge of the empire, with its only specialty being a kind of salt.
As Gray Bird kept talking, his expression grew even more troubled. “Such a long distance—everyone is basically risking their lives. No one knows if we’ll even be able to come back. Our crappy spacecraft—there’s a chance it could break down halfway on some desolate star. Sister Luan, if you have time this trip, please help us thoroughly check the spacecraft. The repair fee—this time the leader will definitely be willing to pay.”
Wang Luan listened without responding, but after boarding the spacecraft she didn’t go to repair it. Instead, she turned to look for the team leader.
“What? You want to go to Yanhe with us?” The leader, Shanma, a middle-aged female alpha, was overjoyed when she heard this and grabbed Wang Luan’s hand tightly, refusing to let go. “That’s great! Come, come—welcome! We can’t ask for more!”
Their crappy spacecraft was old, and no one knew whether it could withstand such a long interstellar voyage. Having a powerful mechanic on board meant there wouldn’t be problems like falling apart halfway or breaking down in some barren dead zone, leaving the whole ship waiting to die.
Wang Luan said, “Leader, there’s no need to grip me so tightly. I’m not going to run.”
Leader Shanma burst into loud laughter. “I told you long ago not to be so distant. From now on, just call me Sister. We’ll be together for quite a while on this trip!”
After saying that, she immediately shouted, “Aren’t the supplies finished yet? Hurry up, hurry up, set sail! Don’t delay any longer!”
Gray Bird stuck his head out with a beaming grin. “We’re starting, we’re starting!”
Looking at the expressions on their faces that practically read “once you’re on the pirate ship, don’t think about getting off,” Wang Luan was speechless for a long moment, then carried her toolbox to go repair the spacecraft for them.
This spacecraft was called the Tieshi, and with its age there was no helping it—if it wasn’t one thing breaking, it was another. But none of the problems were too serious, and Wang Luan could handle them.
After fixing the temperature regulation problem that Gray Bird kept nagging about, she walked out and saw that everyone on board had taken off their thick padded coats, gathered together to play cards and chat. When they saw her, they all greeted her.
The ship itself wasn’t large. The cargo hold took up half of it, and the rooms for sleeping were all tiny. The only space that was somewhat bigger was the leader’s room. There were no extra rooms, so Wang Luan was arranged to live together with the leader.
The single alphas here were basically the same as bachelors in her own world—many were sloppy and casual. The leader’s room wasn’t big to begin with, and it was filled to the brim with clothes, food, and alcohol she had piled around at random. Even pigs would shake their heads and refuse to call it a pigsty.
Wang Luan couldn’t help but get to work tidying up this chaotic cabin. Because the commotion was so big, it even drew the bored crew members over to watch. A group of men and women, aabb, stood at the doorway gossiping.
“Sister Luan is really capable—she’s even more virtuous than an omega.”
“Ah, I really want to find someone like Sister Luan to be my wife. Being a husband is fine too—I’m okay with top or bottom.”
“You kid, what nonsense are you dreaming? You’re just a beta—do you think Sister Luan would look at you? It’d have to be an alpha like me to even have a chance!”
On this spacecraft there were only alphas and betas, and the way they spoke was extremely casual—before long, talk turned into roughhousing.
Wang Luan finally managed to tidy up the room she would be staying in, getting herself covered in grime in the process. She went to the bathroom to clean up, only for hot and cold water to spray wildly from the faucet. All sorts of things in the bathroom suddenly began flying through the air, smashing into her head.
Wang Luan: “…………”
Seeing her come out of the bathroom in a sorry state, Captain Shanma suddenly remembered something and reminded her, “Ah, I forgot to mention—sometimes the gravity device on the ship malfunctions. The location of my bathroom isn’t great, it’s affected the most. When you shower, the water often goes flying everywhere.”
The reminder came far too late.
Wang Luan wiped the water from her face, wet hair dripping, and strode down the corridor. Along the way, she saw the cards in the hands of the crew members playing cards suddenly fly out. Everyone reacted without surprise, grabbing the cards, and even catching the cups that floated up into the air along with them.
It took Wang Luan most of the day to fix the gravity device. Only then did she finally get a proper shower.
At mealtime, the ship’s dining area opened. Looking at the spacecraft rations in her hand, Wang Luan felt that if she had to eat this kind of thing for more than half a year, she might die.
Captain Shanma ate without batting an eye, even smiling as she said to her, “If you can’t get used to it, you can go cook for yourself in the kitchen. All the ingredients are there. We’ve been on ships year-round—we’re used to eating this stuff.”
Wang Luan got up directly and made herself a bowl of minced-meat noodles. When she came back, Captain Shanma sitting across from her stared at the noodles, her expression gradually turning pained as she muttered, “It feels like the food in my mouth is starting to lose all flavor.”
Gray Bird came over with his tray, shoveling mouthfuls of mush into his mouth while his eyes stayed fixed on Wang Luan’s noodles, his nose sniffing nonstop.
The other crew members also brought their trays over and sat around, using the fragrance wafting from Wang Luan’s noodles to help them eat.
Even the crew member acting as the cook came over. Eating the food he had made himself, he said with a choking voice, “I wasn’t a cook to begin with. I was just forced to cook because I couldn’t beat anyone else. If it doesn’t taste good, can that really be my fault? Slurp… this noodles smells so good. It’s like it has my mom’s flavor.”
Surrounded by a crowd, Wang Luan also began to feel that her noodles didn’t taste so good anymore.
Cargo ships on long-distance hauls moved very slowly through the universe, and they didn’t spend large amounts of energy on spatial jumps, so many of the stars they passed by could be seen with great clarity.
Desolate planets grew from small to large in the ship’s field of view, then gradually receded. The spacecraft was like a train traveling across a wasteland.
Wang Luan sat alone by the porthole with the best view, looking out at the stars beyond.
A case of alcohol was set in front of her. Captain Shanma sat down across from her and opened a bottle with one hand. “What is it? Feeling down?”
Wang Luan pushed the alcohol aside, took out the thermos she had brought herself, and poured a cup of drink.
“Why did you suddenly decide to come along with us on this delivery?” Captain Shanma asked.
“Gray Bird said you’re going somewhere very far this time. This ship is too old, and I was worried something might happen to you on the way. I’ve been free lately, so I figured I’d go with you once,” Wang Luan said after taking a sip of her drink. “And I’ve never done a long-distance interstellar trip before, so I thought I’d try it out.”
She hadn’t forgotten that when she first arrived in the Little Wu District and was unfamiliar with everything, Captain Shanma had helped her, and that her earliest jobs had been introduced by Gray Bird and the others.
“Come on, I think you just had a fight with your partner,” Captain Shanma smacked her lips. “Don’t look at me like this—I’ve been there. Back when my partner was still around, every time I fought with him I wanted to get on a ship and run far away, come back after a few months. I think you’re also trying to avoid someone. Am I right?”
Wang Luan fell silent. In that sense, yes—and no.
Captain Shanma took it as tacit agreement and asked curiously, “I didn’t even know you had a partner. What kind of person are they? Tell your sister about it.”
Wang Luan had never talked about Yan Qiongyu with anyone else, and for a moment she didn’t know how to put it. But she did want to talk to someone, so after a long while she answered, “He… is someone completely different from me.”
“How different?”
Wang Luan was a bit distracted. “Someone like me—eating, sleeping, working. Every day is just living. But for him, it feels like every day is survival.”
“Tch, survival?” Captain Shanma mulled it over. “Is he a star bandit, living with his head on his belt?”
Wang Luan: “…………”
Alright, she didn’t want to talk anymore.
Ever since Wang Luan had inadvertently learned about the “Utopia,” and gained a basic understanding of what kind of place Zhu Xing lived in, she had grown increasingly tense for Yan Qiongyu. He seemed to be doing something very difficult. Thinking of the wounds on his body last time only further confirmed this.
Moreover, looking at the way Yan Qiongyu conducted himself now, he really resembled that kind of antagonist in stories—the kind who, once they have someone they like, gets their weakness seized by enemies and dies a miserable death in the end.
With an especially grave expression, Wang Luan drank her self-made health-preserving tea.
