The spaceship rushed out of the vast, dangerous asteroid belt and finally steadied. Captain Shanma, gripping the emergency handrail, smiled and gave Wang Luan a gesture, praising her: “Not bad, not bad!”
Gray Bird and the other team members present also chimed in with praise: “You drove really well… urgh! Re—urgh urgh! Really well!”
Wang Luan: “Thanks—urgh!”
It was too bumpy; once she relaxed, she felt like vomiting too.
After encountering the Yanlan Star bandit group and being forced to flee into the asteroid belt, nothing unexpected happened afterward, and they arrived at the Yanhe District rather smoothly.
After arriving here, there was nothing much for Wang Luan to do. Most of the cargo hold of white crystal jade they had brought was sold to a big merchant through Captain Shanma’s connections, and a small portion still needed her to sell on her own.
With nothing to do, Wang Luan disembarked and wandered around Yanhe to look around.
Although it was already the interstellar era, the gap between rich and poor was huge. Moreover, in this kind of chaotic area at the edge of the empire, where even the military could not manage things, most people spent their entire lives only living in the area where they were born, never having gone to farther places.
Locals around Yanhe looked a bit different from those in the Little Wu District. Their cheekbones were higher, their faces ruddy, their hands and feet rough and cracked—probably related to the fact that most of them worked in the salt fields.
Wang Luan strolled around the streets and bought some souvenirs. Having already adapted to the lifestyle of the Little Wu District, she actually felt quite a sense of security here.
Because when people here had conflicts, it was only physical friction, unlike in the Xiao Wu District where, at the slightest disagreement, someone could pull out a ray gun and press it against another person’s head or waist.
Although she clearly looked like an outsider, seeing the weapon at her waist, the local pickpockets kept their distance from her, and shops that tried to rip people off did not quote prices quite so outrageously.
Local specialties were mostly salt and some byproducts, which was a bit different from what she had imagined. There were all kinds of salt here, for all kinds of uses. Just edible salt alone came in hundreds of varieties, as well as salt for bathing and cleaning, for preventing insects, removing odors, and so on.
What surprised Wang Luan the most was that there was also a local specialty here: salt crystal handicrafts.
Naturally formed salt crystals were hard, came in various colors and shapes, and were as beautiful as many natural gemstones. Locals passing by were basically all wearing salt crystal jewelry.
When Wang Luan browsed a salt crystal craft shop, looking at the blue, emerald-colored, semi-transparent natural crystals on the shelves, she thought Yan Qiongyu might like this kind of natural ornament and decided to buy some to take home as decorations.
In one shop selling salt crystal jewelry, Wang Luan took a liking to a naturally formed snowflake-shaped pink salt crystal. According to the shopkeeper’s introduction, it could also be eaten.
Wang Luan thought of the days when she had been forced to gnaw on bugs on a desolate planet. If there had been salt back then, the bugs would not have been so hard to swallow. So what a practical piece of jewelry.
She bought a box of salt crystal jewelry in various colors—bracelets, earrings, necklaces, rings. If Yan Qiongyu did not like the pink snowflake pendant, she could choose something else herself.
After Wang Luan spent several days in Yanhe, Captain Shanma’s white crystal jade was mostly cleared out, and they hauled back half a cargo hold of salt crystals.
“That bastard is crying poor to me now, saying he can’t take out the money for the time being and can only use goods to offset part of what he owes,” Captain Shanma cursed with her legs propped up for a long while. “If I’d known he was such a turtle grandson, I wouldn’t have let him take advantage of even this much!”
She was not good at doing business to begin with. This time it was also unavoidable—she couldn’t watch her brothers split up poor and destitute, so she had pulled together this little operation. The more she thought about it, the more irritated she became. The next day, she called everyone together again and went to find that crooked merchant she had known before to “exchange feelings.”
Wang Luan stayed behind to inspect and service the spaceship and did not go along. She only saw Captain Shanma and the others drag back another half cargo hold of salt crystals, then cheerfully announce that they could return.
“Once we go back and sell this whole cargo hold, the brothers will have some security for the next few years, and won’t be forced to immediately go mine stone. Mining isn’t good work. Those who mine and cut stone, who among them doesn’t get sick while still young? It’s too bitter and too exhausting.” As Captain Shanma talked about this, it was as if a heavy burden had finally been lifted from her heart.
There were not many legitimate jobs in the chaotic zones. In the past year or so, Wang Luan had seen far too many cases of smuggling, trafficking, robbery, theft, and fraud. Work like Gray Bird and the others—something like thugs collecting protection fees and doing transport—was already a rare good job.
Knowing that after this return trip everyone would go their separate ways, the mood on the ship was not very high. No one was very interested even in playing cards.
Wang Luan dug up the radishes from the planter, preparing to make pickled radishes. As for food, in Wang Luan’s place, everything was uniformly named according to her own habits. If she liked to call it radish, she called it radish; if she liked to call it greens, she called it greens.
This kind of yellow radish had a high water content and grew quickly; when they were dug up, every single one was as thick and long as an arm.
Wang Luan arranged for the listless crowd to cut the radishes into strips and knead them, making a large amount of pickled radish together, even using the local specialty salt they had bought this time.
A group of people waited to eat the pickled radish and finally recovered a bit of their spirits, then urged Wang Luan to hurry up and plant another batch of radishes in the planter.
“If they grow a bit faster, before we go home, we might still get to see this vegetable flower once,” someone said.
As if everyone had forgotten that once they returned, this spaceship would no longer belong to them.
The pickled radish received unanimous praise, and afterward it became everyone’s fixed side dish, eaten with porridge, with noodles, with flatbread.
Seeing that they were truly too bored, Wang Luan dug out another bag of flour and decided to lead them in making dumplings to eat.
The dumplings they made were a miserable sight, but they ate with utter delight, everyone still wanting more.
Gray Bird held a basin-sized bowl of dumplings, squatted beside Wang Luan, and said, “So delicious, Sister Luan. I don’t want to learn spaceship repair anymore—it’s too hard, I can’t learn it. I want to learn how to make dumplings and radish strips. What do you think, if I open a shop selling food?”
During this return journey, it wasn’t just Gray Bird—many of the team members were confused about what they would do next after getting the money.
“Gray Bird said you’re all going to split up. What are you planning to do afterward?” Wang Luan asked Captain Shanma.
“Me? Whatever, I guess.” Captain Shanma said. “Maybe go fly ships for people—cargo ships, passenger ships. At this age, as long as there’s work to do, I can get by.”
“You’ve got it good. Young and with this kind of skill, you won’t have to worry in the future. Unlike these lazy things on the ship—get them to learn anything and each one of them is like their brain has rusted over, they just can’t learn.”
Captain Shanma let out a middle-aged sigh. “Right now everything about you is good. If only you could find an omega and let him give you a child, then it’d be perfect…”
At this point, Captain Shanma saw Wang Luan tremblingly raise one hand to signal her to stop talking.
Captain Shanma watched her press her head with a twisted expression, as if she had a headache, then clutch her stomach as if her stomach hurt, her feet twisting together as if her feet hurt too. “Tsk—where exactly does it hurt?”
Wang Luan didn’t speak, only waved her hand.
No, she still couldn’t accept Yan Qiongyu having a child. Just imagining what he would look like with a big belly was enough to make her collapse.
ততততততততততত
Yan Qiongyu received the communication and listened with divided attention. His expression was cold; under the laboratory’s cold white lights, his face looked sharp and thin.
“Fu Qi has already been captured. It’s just that ‘Yanlan’ sent a message saying they’re returning early. They only left one ship to escort Fu Qi and want us to go handle the handover ourselves.”
The person speaking was very cautious. The Yanlan group’s two leaders, elder and younger, treating the Disciple so perfunctorily was clearly not taking him seriously, but he knew exactly how terrifying the Disciple was and feared he might get angry over this.
Yan Qiongyu’s tone was calm, not taking the attitude of the Yanlan siblings to heart at all. “In that case, make preparations. I’ll go handle the handover personally.”
Most of the Yanlan Star bandit group withdrawing back to their old nest was because they had received news that their old enemy had already reached their doorstep, so they left in a hurry.
But strictly speaking, the situation was not so urgent that they didn’t even have time to personally hand Fu Qi over to the Disciple. Part of the reason they left without even meeting him was also that they didn’t want to give this Disciple a face.
On the one ship left behind by the Yanlan Star bandit group, besides Fu Qi, who was locked up, there were also two beta crew members and six alpha crew members. Before Yan Qiongyu arrived, they could only wait around idly where they were.
The location they were in usually had very few ships passing by—yet by sheer bad luck, it lay exactly along the route chosen by Captain Shanma.
“A ship passing by—a cargo ship,” a beta crew member on the Yanlan Star bandit ship noticed the dilapidated cargo vessel ahead.
Another crew member remembered. “This ship looks really familiar. We ran into it before when we came; the captain even had my brother fire a shot, but we didn’t hit it.”
His companion suddenly said, “Then how about we do a job? We came out this time just to grab one person and didn’t get any oil and water at all. Since they’ve run into us, we can make some extra on the side. Anyway it’s just a broken cargo ship, it definitely hasn’t loaded any weapons. We can deal with it casually, nothing to be afraid of.”
The other person was persuaded by him and agreed without much hesitation.
On Captain Shanma’s broken spaceship, by the time the person responsible for piloting noticed, it was already too late. A star bandit ship suddenly appeared, blocking their route, its energy cannons charged and ready, threatening them to stop immediately and hand over the goods on board.
There was no asteroid field here to flee into. A ship specialized in robbery had far better performance than their broken cargo ship, and facing it head-on, they couldn’t win.
Seeing that not only the cargo was about to be lost, but they might even be wiped out together by this group of utterly deranged star bandits, Captain Shanma’s face sank like water.
“This is cargo we worked so hard to get. How can we just give it to them!”
“At worst we fight them! It’s only one ship, there probably aren’t that many people—what’s there to be afraid of!”
Gray Bird and the other young people shouted.
Captain Shanma scolded with a stern face, “I fucking don’t want to either, but how are you going to fight them? Huh? Can you even get onto their ship? You can’t even see them, and you want to fight them across spaceships? One shot from them and you’ll be blasted into ash!”
Hearing this, everyone fell silent in dejection.
At this moment, Wang Luan’s voice was heard: “When the ships dock, I’ll crawl along the outer hull to their hatch and remove the hatch. You follow me in and subdue the people on board.”
Right—there was still a capable mechanic here. Removing a hatch wouldn’t stump her! Everyone cheered and looked to Captain Shanma, waiting for her decision.
Captain Shanma said, “What are you still looking at me for? Hurry up and prepare—hit them!”
On the star bandit ship, two beta crew members activated docking mode and took over the cargo from the hold, somewhat disdainful. “It’s just some worthless stuff. Forget it, resell it and we can still make a bit.”
“There are still people on the ship. How do we deal with them?”
“Hahaha, how do we deal with them? Same as before—one shot and send them into cosmic dust!”
The two chatted casually when suddenly the hatch was kicked open. A figure holding a ray gun rushed in, and right behind, one after another, a group of people poured in.
The melee ended quickly. Wang Luan herself hadn’t expected taking over a star bandit ship to be so easy. After tying up those who weren’t dead, she and the others sat inside the ship, staring at one another.
“What do we do next?”
Captain Shanma looked around the interior of the ship. “This ship is really not bad.”
“Captain, why don’t we just fly this ship away and sell it?”
“Are you stupid? If we take this ship away and sell it, Yanlan’s people will immediately trace the information and come kill us!”
“Then what do we do, just leave like this? But since we’re already here, it’d be such a waste not to take something back.”
“Take it apart. Look for anything valuable!”
Wang Luan also searched the ship along with the others. Suddenly someone cried out in surprise, “There’s an omega here!”
Fu Qi, locked in a cabin, looked haggard. Faced with this group crowding around him curiously, he realized something and pleaded pitifully, “You’re not Yanlan’s people? I was captured by them. Please, let me go.”
The group of alphas and betas on the ship hadn’t seen many omegas, much less one this beautiful, and were a bit excited, striking up conversation. “How did you get caught by Yanlan’s people?”
“These star bandits are too arrogant and too hateful. Are you alright? Oh right, what’s your name?”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be leaving soon. We’ll definitely take you with us.”
Fu Qi showed a grateful expression. His gaze quietly swept through the crowd, and after confirming that the leader among them was probably that middle-aged female alpha, he deliberately revealed a weak smile toward Captain Shanma. “I—”
Wang Luan stepped out from the crowd and suddenly knocked Fu Qi unconscious with one blow.
“This person is very suspicious. He might be someone from the Yanlan Star bandit group. We’re too pressed for time—don’t waste it here. Hurry up and sweep everything. If there’s anything to ask, we can take him with us and ask later.”
Everyone thought that made sense. They cast a regretful glance at the unconscious omega, then scattered again to continue looting.
Captain Shanma clicked her tongue and quietly said to her, “Such a beautiful omega, and you really went all out.”
Wang Luan replied solemnly, “You don’t understand. It’s precisely good-looking omegas who are dangerous!”
What she had just seen in this person’s manner reminded her of Yan Qiongyu at the very beginning. She absolutely couldn’t let him fool people—knocking him out first was the safest choice.
Before they could finish searching, three medium-sized ships suddenly appeared around the area.
“Not good, more ships showed up—are those Yanlan’s ships?”
“Doesn’t look like it, there’s no Yanlan insignia… damn it, they must know each other, they’ve sent an internal communication!”
Wang Luan and Captain Shanma rushed to the control room. Exchanging a glance, both felt the situation was grim.
And on the central ship among those three, Yan Qiongyu leaned on his hand, eyes closed, resting.
The person standing in front of the console hesitated, then turned back to ask for instructions. “Disciple, there’s no response from Yanlan’s people.”
“Mm?” Yan Qiongyu opened his eyes and rose, walking to the console.
Beside the ship Yanlan had left behind, there was also a cargo ship docked, currently in the middle of a cargo transfer. Something was off.
“Something’s wrong.” Yan Qiongyu tapped the console. “Send a communication. Tell them that if they don’t connect within ten seconds, open fire directly.”
……
“Oh no, oh no, they’re going to fire! What do we do? There’s no time to escape!”
On this side, Gray Bird shouted nervously aboard the ship. As everyone panicked and didn’t know what to do, Wang Luan had already stripped the Yanlan uniform off one of the hostages and put it on herself, casually wrapping half her face as well.
“You all hide first and don’t say anything. I’ll see if I can delay them a bit.”
There was no time for preparation. The communication request was already flashing a glaring red prompt. Wang Luan accepted it, and in an instant saw a familiar, beautiful face on the other side. All the dangerous thoughts in her mind immediately sank with a heavy thud.
Wang Luan: “…………Ah.”
Yan Qiongyu: “…………Mm.”
Even with her face covered, could he really not recognize who this was?
