Chapter 39: Thirty-Ninth Day of Being a Salted Fish

However, when Siming and the others returned, they acted no differently than usual.

Except for the fact that there was one more person mooching a meal: Geshu Qing.

After eating as they always did, Siming took Zhu Rong and Lu Yuan to play video games. When their gaming time was up, he finally said with a smile, “We’re leaving tomorrow. Thank you.”

“Mm.” Lu Yuan nodded. He glanced at the game console in Zhu Rong’s hands. “Taking it with you as a souvenir?”

Zhu Rong’s eyes widened, then she smiled. “Yes!”

Geshu Qing also bid Lu Yuan farewell and thanked him.

Lu Yuan shook his head.

“I’ve given you some information regarding your family’s situation; you should have looked it over by now,” he explained. “The current head of your clan, Geshu Ming, is a very reliable person. She was once a friend of mine and helped me out quite a bit. I suppose I owed her a favor. So, in truth, I should be the one thanking you for existing…

“By helping you this time, she and I are even.”

Goudan frowned. “Did you two end up fighting later on?”

“What made you think of that?” Lu Yuan laughed. “I just felt that if I had truly died, there wouldn’t have been much I could do about owing a favor. But since I’m still alive after all, it’s better to pay it back if I can.”

“It’s mostly because that ‘once a friend’ part sounded a bit strange,” Goudan said, shaking his head.

“That…” Lu Yuan thought for a moment. “It’s because I don’t know if I’d still be considered her friend later on. Probably not. But that’s not really important.

“And it’s lucky that it turned out this way…” He stopped halfway through his sentence, falling silent.

If he spoke any further, he would be revealing some of the Geshu Family’s secrets.

He had once experienced the unique clan-specific communication ability of the Geshu Family. In other words, his Mental Power had once been linked with Geshu Ming’s, allowing for communication anytime, anywhere.

If that state had been maintained until the moment his Command Ship went out of control, the fact that he hadn’t actually died would likely have been exposed long ago.

Goudan looked at him, then at Siming, but didn’t press further.

Geshu Qing, however, spoke up. “That’s not how the debt is calculated. What you think is your business, but I still have to thank you.”

“Suit yourself.” Lu Yuan didn’t care much about it.

Glancing at Geshu Qing, he hesitated for a moment, wondering whether to ask about the memories of the Desolate Planet. Then he decided that since Geshu Qing must have recorded all the valuable information, he only needed to read through it slowly.

Asking now would instead ruin the sense of mystery. Better not to ask.

–

The next morning, three mechas powered up and left the Desolate Planet amidst a roar that didn’t sound quite normal.

Lu Yuan was not an early riser and didn’t come out to see them off. Only Goudan, Old Fourth, and Lao Tong went outside with them, watching as they boarded the mechas and took flight.

Then Lao Tong also bid farewell to Goudan and the others and departed.

She had her own tasks to perform. Now that Zhu Rong was gone, she had to begin her own journey as well.

Lu Yuan remained lying in his room, only using his Mental Power to follow them for a short distance.

Though the mechas were very dilapidated, they ran steadily enough and were quite fast. Before long, the mechas flew out of the Desolate Planet’s atmosphere, then accelerated all the way, breaking free from the planet’s gravitational pull and heading into the vast universe.

Upon reaching the first Warp point, the three mechas finally slowed down.

The Warp device that Zhu Rong had spearheaded was still not quite perfect. It took them some time to switch into Warp mode.

The group confirmed through the mechas’ communication system that everything was normal before simultaneously initiating the Warp.

Lu Yuan withdrew his Mental Power.

Mental Power could not follow through a Warp, so he could no longer track them.

However, looking at the current situation, there was a good chance they would successfully Warp to their destination.

Their fuel was sufficient. Though the mechas were junk, they would suffice. Lu Yuan had checked them with his Mental Power beforehand.

Their destination was located on the outer edge of the Milky Way’s smallest spiral arm—the Sixth Spiral Arm¹.

As a spiral galaxy, the Milky Way’s spiral arms were rich in gas and dust, and star formation was most intense there.

This didn’t mean people could always witness the birth of a star there—after all, the Milky Way’s star formation rate wasn’t that high, forming at most one low-mass star per year.

Even so, the environment at the spiral arms remained very unstable. Consequently, it was a place where Empire jurisdiction was relatively loose, and a favorite haunt for star pirates.

At the outer edge of the spiral arm, the stars that had already formed gradually moved away from the arm, entering a relatively stable state. Compared to the inner side of the arm, the environment here was better, and many star pirates were willing to place their headquarters in such locations.

Siming had previously asked Lu Yuan for help in locating a Star Pirate Syndicate base to serve as their destination.

He knew very well that entering a nearby Habitable Planet directly was unfeasible. The Empire’s household registration policy² was strict; in this era, there was almost no room for an “Unregistered Citizen” to survive.

But the Desolate Planet was full of Unregistered Citizens.

If they entered a Habitable Planet, they would immediately be exposed to the Empire’s surveillance, and the fact that they came from a Desolate Planet would be discovered quickly.

This was something Siming could not accept. He didn’t know how the Empire would handle people like them who escaped a Desolate Planet, nor did he want to find out. Regardless, judging by the Empire’s policies toward Desolate Planets, they certainly wouldn’t give people like them any good treatment.

As for going directly to the Capital Star to find the Geshu Family…

To be honest, they had considered that option, but Siming felt it wouldn’t work.

It wasn’t that he doubted Geshu Qing’s lineage. It was mainly that a place like the Capital Star would certainly have strict defensive shields. With their three broken mechas, they would likely be intercepted and locked up halfway before they ever saw anyone from the Geshu Family.

So the method he came up with was… to find star pirates. Star pirates certainly wouldn’t care where he came from.

Although Siming wasn’t certain he would be accepted by a Star Pirate Syndicate, it was better than running straight into the Empire’s arms.

Furthermore, Siming had a backup plan:

If things really didn’t work out, they would hand over Geshu Qing. They would tell the pirates that Geshu Qing was a member of the Geshu Family and pretend to kidnap him to demand money from the family.

As long as the pirates contacted the Geshu Family, the rest of them would be safe.

This plan had already received the consent of the victim, Geshu Qing.

Lu Yuan, however, felt it wouldn’t come to that.

Lu Yuan had experienced it firsthand. For an Awakener, as long as they showed enough sincerity, Star Pirate Syndicates were always welcoming.

Especially now, when the various syndicates were short on manpower.

Ten years—no, it had been over ten years now—over ten years ago, Lu Yuan had nearly cleared out all the Star Pirate Syndicates in the Sixth Spiral Arm, taking those pirates with him to join the military.

During those ten years, although some small pirate groups had gradually settled in the Sixth Spiral Arm, they were few.

After all, the Empire had been at war with the Zerg for those ten years, and not many people were running off to become star pirates.

It was too easy to die.

It was only after Lu Yuan “died in battle” that some of the pirates he had taken away fled back to the Sixth Spiral Arm to rebuild their syndicates. It had only been a year and a half since then. These rebuilt syndicates were currently in a state of needing everything to be restored.

However…

Even so, Lu Yuan couldn’t be certain what the three of them would experience once they reached the Sixth Spiral Arm. He could only wish them luck.

Lu Yuan watched as Siming and the others successfully warped, then slowly withdrew his Mental Power. The sun was fully up now, and Goudan had organized the people to start working again. It was gradually getting noisy outside.

Spring had arrived, the season when all things wake. Though there wasn’t much to wake on the Desolate Planet… at the very least, some weeds and trees would sprout during this season.

The people of the Desolate Planet couldn’t bear to harvest all these tender sprouts for food. They had to wait for them to grow. However, for those that were too crowded or growing in poor spots, the people would still pick some to improve their standard of living.

This was a rare chance for fresh food during the year.

The seeds saved from last autumn could also be planted now. They were usually seeds for vegetables and grasses. They didn’t survive easily and weren’t common, but if tended to with care, perhaps a few might live.

Some insects with extremely short lifecycles would also live briefly during this time, mating and laying eggs to complete the continuation of their genes.

For people outside the Desolate Planet, “bugs” would likely only appear on the menu in specific places. But the people here would collect them for food. It was a matter of necessity.

If it rained in a couple of days, some fungi would grow. The vitality of fungi was always very strong; people could harvest them for food without worrying they wouldn’t grow back. Thus, they were a highly beloved ingredient for the people of the Desolate Planet.

…In short, in spring, people had to get busy.

As for Lu Yuan…

Well, he naturally had nothing to be busy with.

His greatest task now was to find ways to kill all this free time.

For instance, continuing to read the reader left behind by Geshu Qing, which contained the memories of the Desolate Planet.

Hmm… the content inside is actually quite interesting.

---

Translator’s Notes

---

1. Sixth Spiral Arm: A spatial designation within the galaxy. In Chinese science fiction, ‘spiral arms’ (旋臂) are frequently used to divide galactic territory into distinct political or economic zones, often with outer arms representing lawless or frontier regions. ↩
2. household registration policy: A reference to the Chinese ‘hukou’ (户口) system, a mandatory governmental household registration that controls access to social services, education, and movement. In this sci-fi context, it implies a rigid, high-tech surveillance state where individuals without valid digital identities are marginalized. ↩