Chapter 24: Twenty-Fourth Day of Being a Salted Fish

With Goudan’s starship gone, life for the people on the Desolate Planet gradually returned to normal.

The same was true for Lu Yuan.

Although splitting off a portion of his Mental Power to follow Goudan’s starship did have some effect on him, it wasn’t particularly severe.

The biggest change in his daily life was actually the food.

It was a change for the better.

It wasn’t just that the quality of the ingredients had improved; the chef’s skills had also taken a massive leap forward.

With Goudan gone, Siming had taken over the task of making dinner for Lu Yuan. Having traveled all over the Desolate Planet for many years, Siming’s cooking was far superior to Goudan’s.

Lu Yuan was quite satisfied with this arrangement.

Another change was that the foot traffic in Lu Yuan’s little shop had increased significantly.

As the saying goes, when the granary is full, the people learn etiquette¹.

An improvement in living standards is often accompanied by an increase in spiritual desires. Once their bellies were full, people instinctively began to pursue a more civilized and enriched life.

Lu Yuan’s shop provided sustenance for the soul.

In addition to the customers, a group of people who were familiar with Lu Yuan or needed his help also frequented the shop.

Besides Siming and Zhu Rong, who were already regulars, several teenagers who had started a band had been coming by often lately.

The weather was gradually turning cold. Especially at night, the wind whipped against one’s face, sharp and biting like a knife.

Life on the Desolate Planet was becoming a bit difficult.

Although they had recently acquired new supplies, there hadn’t been enough time to rebuild or repair the original houses. Even if they wanted to make repairs, they only had wood, which offered very limited insulation.

Lu Yuan’s shop, however, was kept at a constant temperature. Lazy as he was, Lu Yuan refused to mistreat himself. He had put genuine effort into constructing the place where he intended to live long-term, ensuring there were no drafts.

With Lu Yuan’s permission, the members of the small band would come to the shop every evening. They used the time to experiment with their newly repaired instruments or try their hand at composing. Occasionally, they would bring a bit of food from home in exchange for the chance to listen to a few records.

The boys were quite talented.

Though their posture while playing was often incorrect and their movements clumsy, after a period of experimentation, they stopped producing mere noise.

Lu Yuan didn’t mind them being there. When he was building the game consoles, he hadn’t bothered to install speakers in every single one. For most games, sound effects were just the icing on the cake rather than a necessity. While making speakers wasn’t difficult, doing it repeatedly was incredibly tedious.

Consequently, the games they played usually had no background audio.

With the band practicing there now, they served as the perfect BGM for the gamers.

It worked out well.

Aside from them, Old Fourth had also been coming over frequently.

Old Fourth was the only blacksmith for miles around.

Of course, according to his own words, he should be called a “Mechanical Engineer.”

A profession with such a complex, five-character title² obviously wasn’t something that should exist on a Desolate Planet.

In fact, Old Fourth wasn’t a native of this world. He had simply arrived here twenty-some years before Lu Yuan. He was a rarity: a criminal exiled here from outside the Desolate Planet by the Empire.

Lu Yuan had learned in history class that six hundred years ago, shortly after the Empire was founded, the founding monarch, Emperor Qixing, abolished the death penalty. Many people disagreed at the time. That was until Qixing announced that abolishing the death penalty didn’t mean these people would escape punishment; instead, the Empire would exile them to the Desolate Planets.

Qixing designated several decaying planets with exhausted resources as Desolate Planets.

On one hand, these planets were used for waste disposal.

There was a reason for choosing these formerly Habitable Planets for waste disposal rather than just any random planet. Although the galaxy was full of worlds, not all of them could be used for storage. Only planets with suitable gravity and reasonable atmospheric density could ensure that the discarded waste didn’t leak out into space.

On the other hand, criminals who only deserved to live among trash, scavenge trash, and eat trash were also sent to the Desolate Planets.

The Empire wouldn’t kill them, but they would be isolated from the world from then on, unable to communicate with the outside and with no possibility of leaving. Even if one of them chose to harm others again, they could only hurt fellow unforgivable criminals.

Many people felt this measure was perfectly reasonable. However, after living here for nearly a year, Lu Yuan didn’t see it that way.

This was why Lu Yuan didn’t discourage Siming’s ideas and actions, and was even willing to give him a hand.

The vast majority of people Lu Yuan met here weren’t criminals.

Most had been born and raised here. While they might engage in petty theft or highway robbery, that was simply the education they had received since childhood; one couldn’t truly say it was their fault. Furthermore, the Desolate Planet had no laws, no police, and no enforcement agencies. No one was there to convict them.

Since Lu Yuan had arrived and established new rules, everyone—from the former bully Goudan to the ordinary people who had been bullied—was working together, using their own hands to create a better life.

Even if their ancestors had once committed crimes, Lu Yuan believed that these industrious, ordinary people deserved the same rights as any other citizen of the Empire.

And were their ancestors truly guilty?

Lu Yuan held a certain level of skepticism about that as well. Did the Empire really have so many people who deserved to be exiled to a Desolate Planet?

The stories from centuries ago had long been forgotten, and Lu Yuan was too lazy to go looking for them. As for those currently living here who were truly exiled, Lu Yuan had only met one.

Old Fourth.

Old Fourth was in his sixties. Although his age far exceeded the average lifespan on the Desolate Planet, his body was still quite robust.

His skin was dark and he was scrawny, so he couldn’t exactly be called handsome. The wrinkles on his face were so rugged that the children tended to avoid him. They weren’t exactly afraid, but the relationship wasn’t harmonious.

Coupled with Old Fourth’s seemingly eccentric and solitary temperament, his eyes were always wide and round as if he were glaring at someone. He didn’t like to talk, either; when answering questions, he usually just gave a couple of grunts and didn’t engage further. Consequently, the children never took the initiative to seek him out.

But lately, Old Fourth had been hanging around Lu Yuan’s place constantly. Since he didn’t dare put on airs with Lu Yuan, he seemed much more approachable.

“I heard from my dad,” Tiechui finally couldn’t contain his curiosity this evening. He plucked up his courage and leaned in toward Old Fourth, who was cleaning a set of parts, trying to strike up a conversation. “That you came here from outside the Desolate Planet?”

Old Fourth glanced at him sideways. “Yeah.”

Tiechui persisted. “What’s it like outside? Can you tell us about it?”

“Ask him.” Old Fourth looked at Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan, who was busy gaming, refused. “I’m too lazy to talk.”

“Me too,” Old Fourth said succinctly.

Lu Yuan looked up and saw that while the children hadn’t all crowded around, they were all paying close attention to Old Fourth. The music in the shop had stopped, and even Zhu Rong, who was in the middle of a game, had her ears perked up.

Lu Yuan was well-acquainted with Old Fourth. Seeing that everyone’s attention was finally on the old man, he smiled. “Go ahead and tell them. Consider it doing it on my behalf.”

Old Fourth remained silent for a long time. His expression turned somewhat fierce, but his eyes betrayed his embarrassment, and the tips of his ears turned red. Because of his dark complexion, it wasn’t obvious unless one looked closely.

Lu Yuan thought for a moment. “Or perhaps tell us about your past experiences?”

Translator’s Notes