“Liu Luan, will you be passing White Satellite this time? Help me bring some stuff over to the spaceport there, will you?”
Wang Luan carried a big bag through the front street of the Small Wu District spaceport. The shop owners standing at their doors chatting all greeted her.
Most of the shops on this street sold spaceship fuel and parts, as well as stores for passing ships to restock daily supplies. They were also shops Wang Luan frequented often.
These owners were very friendly toward her, this young yet formidable repair technician, and helping each other carry things along the way was a common occurrence.
Wang Luan took the goods one of the shop owners asked her to bring. Another owner wiping a gun at the doorway casually asked, “I’ve seen you head out quite a few times these past months. You just got back and you’re heading out again, have you found some new route to run cargo?”
“No, I’m just wandering around outside,” Wang Luan didn’t say much.
She did a pre-takeoff check on her small spaceship, and then the ship slowly departed the port.
Before leaving the port, she happened to see a warship docked for resupply, with several soldiers at the port smoking leaf-cigarettes and chatting.
It was probably during the period after Yan Qiongyu left that military warships began appearing frequently in this area. The Small Wu District, along with the two surrounding star-ring ports, often saw soldiers in black uniforms. Wang Luan recognized them—this should be the Li family’s Third Legion.
It was said they were here to suppress and eliminate star bandits. Although she didn’t know the specific situation, after these people arrived, robberies in the chaotic zones did decrease somewhat.
However, for Wang Luan, the only impact was that whenever she went out, she had to wear a dust mask, lest she be recognized.
These days, Wang Luan spent most of her time on the spaceship. She piloted it from one planet to another, traveling alone along several routes. Completing a longer route would take a full month.
On unfamiliar planets, she would stay for a day or two, restock supplies, look around, then make a return trip and stay home for two days.
Every time she went back, the note she had placed under the vase before leaving last time was always completely undisturbed. That meant Yan Qiongyu had not returned.
“Miss Wang Luan, this time when I leave, I probably won’t be able to come back for a long time, and it won’t be convenient to contact you.” Yan Qiongyu had said this when he left. In the blink of an eye, more than half a year had passed, and indeed not a single bit of news had come.
Each time she returned, what greeted her was a vegetable garden overgrown with wild grass, and occasionally a black cat carrying a mouse in its mouth coming to look for her.
It was that very black cat Yan Qiongyu had brought back, then that suddenly disappeared one day.
It seemed to have always lived near her home. In terms of manners and propriety, it really did resemble Yan Qiongyu a bit. When it came to see her, it never came empty-handed—if not catching mice, then catching bugs. And it never stayed long. After entering the house, it would make a round like inspecting its territory and then leave. When leaving, it would even meow a couple of times as a greeting.
Compared to this black cat that liked to roam, the kitten Yan Qiongyu later brought back for her to raise was truly hard to describe.
She named that little tabby “Duorou.” Perhaps because of the blessing effect of the name, it grew extremely fast—far too fast—rapidly swelling from a palm-sized little lump into a washbasin-sized big mass, a lazy thing that wouldn’t move if it didn’t have to.
It was said that cats have a strong sense of territoriality, but Duorou didn’t have this problem. When the black cat came to inspect the house, it lay sprawled on the sofa without even lifting its head, with not the slightest sense of danger.
Wang Luan adjusted the route according to the star map. From the big bag she had tossed to the side, a round, plump big cat slowly wriggled out, shook its fat, then jumped onto the co-pilot seat and lay down. Because the co-pilot seat came with built-in massage, it was so comfortable that its fat quivered.
The co-pilot seat really was a cat’s exclusive seat.
Although Duorou was lazy, at certain times it was exceptionally smart. When the spaceship was about to dock, it would suddenly wake up, and completely abandon its earlier languor, moving with agile posture to hide in a corner of the ship, all just to avoid exercise.
Every time Wang Luan docked somewhere, she had to take Duorou down for a walk, wanting it to exercise more and stay healthy. But a lazy thing doesn’t like exercise and needed to be forcibly escorted out.
The spaceship docked at a port, and sure enough, she couldn’t find that fat cat again. Wang Luan, well practiced, took out Duorou’s food bowl, tapped it, and poured food inside.
Along with the sound of food being poured, a thumping, drumbeat-like sound also gradually approached. Duorou came running with heavy footsteps, burying its head into the bowl and gulping down mouthfuls.
After just a couple of gulps, it was pressed down by Wang Luan and fitted with a homemade cat leash. Even while the leash was being clipped on, it was still seizing the time to eat a few more bites. The food-lure method never failed—greedy cats always stepped into the same trap.
The chubby cat dragged its feet unwillingly along the port street of an unfamiliar planet. Wang Luan had to urge it every two steps. Once she urged it too much, the lazy cat would even loudly quarrel with her—don’t think she couldn’t tell it was cursing her just because she didn’t understand cat language.
Wang Luan: “Shut up, I don’t have such a rebellious son like you!”
Duorou was even louder: “Meow meow meow wuuuu!”
At moments like this, Wang Luan would think about whether Yan Qiongyu had done this on purpose.
Did he bring this thing for her to raise just to make her quit keeping cats? To use it as a contrast to highlight how outstanding he himself was?
After the quarrel, Duorou twisted its bulky body and swaggered down the street. Whenever Wang Luan wanted to buy something, she would always find that the leash in her hand wouldn’t move. Turning around, she’d see the fat cat desperately tugging the leash, squeezing toward a fragrant snack stall by the street, forcing Wang Luan to lift it up and carry it away by force.
As long as there was food being sold on the street, this would definitely happen. Wang Luan felt like a single mother taking care of a child—the child throwing a tantrum and crying in public, and no matter how many times she tried to educate it, she always failed.
Carrying a huge lump of meat forward, Wang Luan started doubting again: was this exercising Duorou, or exercising her? Because from carrying the cat, the muscles in her arms had become stronger than before.
She decided that if Yan Qiongyu came back next time, she would make him carry Duorou around the streets, so he could properly experience just how tormenting the cat he chose really was!
Only… when would he be able to come back?
ততততততততততত
“Splash.”
Yan Qiongyu sat up from the cultivation fluid, waved away the assistant who came up to support him, and took the clothes at the side to drape over himself.
Compared to a few months ago, he was much more gaunt now, almost to the point that at a glance it felt frightening.
Seeing him stand up, the assistant followed with trepidation. “A-are you alright? Do you need the medical pod?”
“No need.” Though frighteningly thin, Yan Qiongyu’s movements as he fastened his clothes were still as composed as ever. When he spoke, he was unhurried, every word carrying an unquestionable force. “The most difficult experimental phase has already ended. There’s nothing to worry about.”
The assistant glanced at his back. On the back of his neck was a long scar. Because it had only recently healed, it still carried a faint pink hue, and was mostly covered as he dressed.
That was the location of the gland. Not long ago, he had stripped away half of the gland to cultivate mutated WE-elements.
No matter how many times he saw it, he still felt that the person before him, who shared a similar face with the godmother, was extremely frightening—both frightening and mad, whether toward others or toward himself.
He lowered his head and spoke cautiously. “Today, the C experimental division sent over news. An omega there has given birth to a child. That omega child’s pheromones are innately faint, and it’s basically not affected by alpha pheromones, it’s just still not very stable.”
The C experimental division was the former Utopia managed by Fu Qi, where omegas and alphas formed families. Yan Qiongyu did not change the management structure of that Utopia. Instead, he directly subjected the people there to batches of we-element interference, allowing them to evolve in a relatively natural environment.
This child who was basically unaffected by pheromones was, so far, the most significant result.
“Get things ready. I’m going to the C experimental division to conduct tests.”
Yan Qiongyu saw his own body reflected in the partition glass and paused. If Miss Wang Luan saw him like this, she would probably be startled… better to go see her after some time, at least when he looked more like a human.
That thought flashed by only briefly. Yan Qiongyu soon immersed himself once again in the complex experimental data. For nearly a year, he had hardly had a single moment of rest.
ততততততততততত
Wang Luan finished another route exploration and returned to the Little Wu District. Before she could go back home, she was intercepted halfway by acquaintances.
Captain Shanma and the former crew members from the spaceship would get together for late-night snacks every so often, and each time they would invite Wang Luan along.
The group went to the late-night eatery opened by Gray Bird. This young man, who used to like chasing after Wang Luan wanting to learn spaceship repair, had later changed his aspirations precisely because of her.
He could be considered to have fulfilled his wish of taking Wang Luan as his master. Quite a few barbecue and stir-fry dishes were learned from her, and business was doing quite well.
Captain Shanma came as usual to have a heart-to-heart talk with Wang Luan, but unfortunately Wang Luan was busy managing the cat. Duorou was pressed in her arms, desperately stretching out its furry paws to try to grab the barbecue placed in front of her. That cat face was straining so hard it had become ferocious.
“No, you can’t eat this! Let go!”
“Meow meow aowu! Meow aow aow aow aow!”
“You’re still cursing?!”
Only after finally subduing the cat did Captain Shanma click her tongue and interject, “The way you look right now, you’re just like someone married with a kid.”
Wang Luan thought to herself, isn’t that exactly so—worse yet, a little hellion.
“What have you been busy with lately? I tried to get you to eat together several times and couldn’t find you.”
“Running routes.”
“Running routes? What, you planning to do transport?”
“Not really.” Wang Luan didn’t know how to explain it. Her motives and reasons for running around everywhere weren’t easy to put into words.
The other crew members chatted loudly. Somehow the conversation shifted to a story: a wealthy merchant had gone out to sea on a ship and dropped his treasured possession into the sea. He’d hired many people to retrieve it, but no one managed to find it. It had been several years now, and every year he still paid people to go search.
“It’s been so many years. If he can’t find it, he should just forget it. Spending so much money every year to look—what if he never finds it and just wastes all that money?”
“Maybe the treasure is extremely valuable. How could he bear to give up… Right, Sister Luan, what do you think? If you lost a treasure, wouldn’t you look for it?” the speaker suddenly asked Wang Luan.
Hearing this, Wang Luan replied, “If it were me, I’d board a ship and go out to sea. If I couldn’t find it, I’d never come ashore for the rest of my life.”
Everyone burst into teasing laughter, and soon the topic shifted away.
Wang Luan rubbed the fat cat in her arms.
As she piloted her spaceship past one unfamiliar planet after another, it was probably just like that wealthy merchant going out to sea.
She always thought that as long as she went to enough places, maybe one day she would see Yan Qiongyu by the roadside. Just like that time she suddenly saw him on the spaceport street—although he hadn’t planned to go back, once he saw her, she still brought him back with her.
But regrettably, after going to so many places, she still hadn’t run into him. Only then did she realize just how vast this universe really was.
The friends around her were drinking and chatting noisily, and the cat was noisy too.
The communicator she had carried on her body for over a year without any movement suddenly rang. Wang Luan’s hand stroking the cat paused.
Everyone was drinking merrily when they suddenly saw Wang Luan stand up abruptly.
“Sister Luan, what’s wrong?”
“You’re heading back already? Don’t, it’s still early!”
Wang Luan lifted the cat, her expression strange—half surprise, half anger. She took a breath. “Next time we’ll gather again. I’m heading back. The one at my place has crawled out of the grave.”
On the communicator was a message from Yan Qiongyu: “Miss Wang Luan, I’m coming home tomorrow. Do you need me to bring anything back?”
Wang Luan replied quickly: “You’d better bring a helmet and armor.” She hit harder now.
No one had lived in the house for a while, and a layer of dust had settled everywhere. Wang Luan worked together with the cleaning robot until midnight before getting the inside and outside of the house thoroughly cleaned.
Early the next morning, Wang Luan set a nourishing soup to stew and sat on the sofa waiting for Yan Qiongyu to come back with flowers, ready at any moment to throw the fat cat in her hands at his head.
But when dawn arrived and the day passed, the person who said he was coming home still hadn’t appeared.
