WP Chapter 3 - Departure (3)

Translator: Deyonna

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After the subspace jump, Faust formally bade farewell to Marseille and left the Alpha Galaxy centered on the star Alpha, beginning its true interstellar voyage.

With this jump completed, Marseille would no longer be able to specifically direct Faust's jump times; Faust would proceed and jump step by step according to the route and jump times set in the ship's internal systems.

On the morning of the second day after the jump was completed, Jiang Che, holding a small scraper as he cleaned chewing gum off the floor, heard an announcement.

[...Fellow passengers, we are currently crossing the Orion–Cygnus Arm. Please turn your gaze to the right side of the ship. There, you will see the most famous Imperial Galaxy on the Orion–Cygnus Arm—"Haide"...]

Jiang Che immediately stood up, threw the small scraper and the scraped-off chewing gum into the trash bin, and searched floor by floor for a usable telescope.

Dozens of telescopes were installed along the ring-shaped corridor on each floor of Faust, but at this moment they were all surrounded by people. Jiang Che could only stand by the window, squinting at the starry river outside.

Between the first and second jumps of interstellar Route 18, the most spectacular sight was the Imperial Galaxy "Haide." Because a massive black hole existed at the center of the galaxy, constantly attracting and devouring surrounding stars, the "Haide" galaxy was year-round surrounded by a halo composed of stars and gas. This halo, a mixture of solid matter and gas, displayed a remarkably beautiful purple, and as "Haide" moved, its colors shifted constantly, like a clump of crayon powder smeared across black drawing paper.

Jiang Che had once observed "Haide" in the clear summer sky. It appeared as a cluster of stars in the east. Filtered through Marseille's atmosphere and barrier, its purple light was weakened and scattered by fine dust, producing even richer colors. On Marseille's land, if people saw "Haide" in the starry sky, it meant summer had arrived.

[...The Imperial Galaxy is also known as a giant elliptical galaxy, and is the gravitational center of its galaxy group. They have enormous appetites, growing ever larger by devouring surrounding small galaxies, like a gluttonous person who never stops eating. "Haide" is currently the closest Imperial Galaxy to Marseille that we can observe, and also the most visible galaxy in the night sky during summer...]

Jiang Che listened absentmindedly. He smelled a faint whiff of smoke. Excited at the thought of collecting the fine himself, he began looking around, ready to catch the smoker.

"Haide is gone?"

The one who spoke was a woman standing beside Jiang Che. She was about thirty, with long curly hair draped over her shoulders, blue eyes tinged with a bit of green, and a small orange badge pinned to her collar. Noticing Jiang Che looking at her, she turned her head and glanced at him: "Are you a staff member on the ship? Is there a mistake in your broadcast script? You can't see Haide from here."

"I'm just a cleaner." Jiang Che tugged at his clothes. He felt he was seeing another familiar face.

"Your captain is a drunkard. He probably doesn't even know what the ship's broadcast is saying," the woman said. "According to interstellar navigation regulations, if he drinks alcohol during the voyage, his ship piloting license will be revoked."

Jiang Che: "Mm, I know. But what use is telling me this?"

The woman glanced at him, her eyes filled with resentment and the pained frustration of someone disappointed by unfulfilled potential. "Since you're staff, you should keep a close eye on your captain! Don't let him drink anymore!"

Jiang Che nodded earnestly, putting on the appearance of someone humbly taking instruction.

He remembered who this woman was now.

After getting the job on the Faust, he had looked up information about the ship online. The blue-eyed woman before him was named Bering, the previous captain of the Faust, and the only woman in the five hundred years since Marseille's entire fleet system was established to have been given the opportunity to pilot a ship independently. But just before the Faust was set to depart, for some reason Jiang Che couldn't find out, Bering had been removed from her post.

"Why don't you want Pygmy to drink?" Jiang Che suddenly asked. "If his pilot's license gets revoked, you could take back the Faust, Captain Bering."

Bai Ling was briefly startled, then grabbed Jiang Che by the collar, her tone fierce: "Before you came aboard, did you not take the Beagle Personality Test?"*

Jiang Che thought about it and nodded.

"If you had taken the Beagle Personality Test, someone like you could never have been allowed aboard! The test exists precisely to ensure that people like you don't exist within a ship's crew." Bering stared at him, suppressed anger in her eyes. "Actually encouraging a captain who's already been dismissed to curse the current captain? You're terrifying! Do you have any idea how much manpower and resources a ship consumes, how many passengers it carries, what kind of missions it has to complete—do you think this is all a game? Do you think just anyone can be a captain?"

Jiang Che, however, wasn't intimidated by her. Bering was more suited to being captain than Pygmy, he thought.

Before coming aboard, he had volunteered to take the Beagle Personality Test, but Pygmy had refused. A single personality test cost 500 yuan, and with nearly a hundred crew members on the ship, the money for all those tests had gone straight into Pygmy's pocket.

Jiang Che was about to explain things clearly to Bering, but she had already lost interest in talking to him. She shoved him toward the window and turned to leave.

Before leaving the ring-shaped corridor, Jiang Che noticed that the sole of his shoe was a bit sticky, as if he'd stepped on something tacky. A bad feeling rose in his heart.

He turned to look, and sure enough, he saw several fresh wads of chewing gum on the floor.

That night, a strange accident occurred in the Faust's catering department: due to a leaking sink, the chewing gum that was supposed to be distributed free to passengers three times a day had been completely ruined overnight.

The tragedy that befell the chewing gum drew no one's attention. All the cleaners on the ship thought that the free chewing gum distribution was a pointless and obnoxious measure. "It's all spat out by kids!" Heaney said. "We should be thanking that broken sink."

Jiang Che: "You're absolutely right."

According to the schedule, the second subspace jump would take place on the third day of the voyage, and the broadcast once again reminded passengers to hurry and watch "Haide." Jiang Che finished his work and ran up to the fourth floor to use the telescope, but still found no trace of "Haide."

An odd feeling rose in his heart.

Why would scenery that must exist along Route 18 vanish into thin air? A massive galaxy like "Haide" had no higher-mass black hole nearby, so it could not have been swallowed instantly. No anomalies had been observed on the Marseille side. Not even the ship's broadcast script had been revised.

He had gone to see Heaney, but Heaney clearly did not think a cleaner had the right to question the ship's heading. He even doubted whether Jiang Che actually knew what "Haide" looked like.

"There's a purple nebula there." Heaney pointed it out to Jiang Che. "See it? Everyone's taking pictures with it. That's Haide."

"It's not purple, it's red." Jiang Che suspected Heaney's eyes were failing him. "That's the Rosette Nebula in Monoceros!"

"Oh." Heaney looked at Jiang Che with a smile. "What's Monoceros?"

Jiang Che gave up.

The second jump was about to begin. Having finished his work, Jiang Che planned to go back to his tool room and lie down.

Just as he was about to descend the steps, he saw the paper and fountain pen placed beside the corridor. The interior of the Faust fully simulated Marseille's gravity environment, and in order to let passengers "experience the life of the past" as much as possible, even a suggestion book, fountain pen, and ink had been provided. This area had been specially set aside for passengers to leave comments about the voyage, but Jiang Che had never seen anyone write down a single opinion.

He actually wanted to write something. He had even thought out the content: "Please stop handing out free chewing gum!"

Passing by the suggestion book, Jiang Che suddenly noticed that someone had already left handwriting on the first page.

"Haide is not on this route."

Jiang Che was startled and hurriedly picked up the sheet of paper.

The handwriting was very free and elegant, but for some reason, some brown powder had been left on the paper.

The powder still carried a faint, peculiar fragrance. Jiang Che could not resist leaning in and sniffing it.

He recognized it at once: it was the dried tangerine peel powder he had sprinkled on the shredded beef.

Jiang Che: "...A thief with beautiful handwriting?"

He felt that he was getting closer and closer to that eccentric food thief.

Back in his tool room, Jiang Che decided to lure the snake out of its hole.

Besides the dried tangerine peel, Jiang Che had also packed a jar of drunken eggs in Faust's large suitcase.

Drunken eggs were Jiang Che's proud creation. Because the ingredients were cheap, easy to make, and delicious, he often bought discounted eggs from the market, made a full jar, and could eat them for more than ten days.

Jiang Che dug out the drunken eggs stored in a glass jar. As soon as he opened the lid, the aroma of wine* and eggs rushed out. Boiled, shelled eggs were soaked for about ten days in a liquid mixed with seasonings and wine, and then the drunken eggs were ready. Jiang Che liked to add some spices to them, which made the flavor much more interesting.

*I translate 酒 as "wine" here because Shaoxing rice wine (specifically Huadiao, a premium type of Shaoxing yellow wine) is commonly used in drunken eggs. However, 酒 doesn't necessarily mean wine. It covers all types of drinkable alcohol, including beer, spirits, and liquor.

He fished out one drunken egg, placed it on a small plate, and carefully cut it open. The complex aroma sealed tightly within the egg white and yolk spread out, and Jiang Che sniffed hard several times. He liked soft-boiled eggs, so when boiling eggs he was very careful to control the heat. Thus the liquid at the center of the yolk was still viscous, wobbling clumsily with the motion of his hand, yet not quite flowing out.

The flavors of the wine and seasonings had seeped deep into the egg, and even that bit of soft yolk seemed thoroughly soaked in wine. A rich, fragrant treat nestled at the center of the egg white. The egg white was somewhat yellow, but the heart of the egg was a vivid golden-red. Jiang Che slowly ate half of it, leaned back against the stool, and let out an extremely satisfied sigh.

He placed the remaining half on the radiator to warm. Before long, the saucer grew warm, the half egg grew warm, and the aroma seemed to expand with the heat, swelling suddenly and filling his small room.

Jiang Che wasn't sure if this would lure out the eccentric thief. After waiting half an hour without hearing a sound, he couldn't resist and ate the remaining half as well.

The moment the egg entered his stomach, a sudden loud crash came from outside the tool room, as if something had fallen.

Jiang Che immediately grabbed his hammer and rushed out the door, but saw no one in either direction. Taking a few more steps forward, he spotted a dark figure lying prone by the roadside.

Jiang Che gave him a kick.

The man's hand twitched, but he couldn't struggle up. He only lifted his head with difficulty and said two words to Jiang Che: "Wrong one."

Jiang Che: "What?"

The man had already passed out. Looking more closely, Jiang Che noticed that although the man was lying face down, blood was slowly seeping from his abdomen.

---

*Beagle Personality Test: A personality assessment scale designed by the Marseille Academy of Sciences specifically for selecting talent for the Marseille Fleet. It was published and officially put into use in Marseille Calendar year 101. In Marseille Calendar year 224, the Marseille Academy of Sciences revised the Beagle Test, adding key content on cosmic ethics and cosmic biological relations, strengthening the assessment of fleet members' views on life and death and cosmic ethics, and emphasizing the importance of personality stability among fleet members. The scale consists of 499 questions covering an extremely wide range, and is currently the most frequently used assessment scale in the Marseille Fleet.

Author's note: The science behind the giant elliptical galaxy is real. There is a massive black hole at the center of the galaxy that continuously devours smaller galaxies or those passing nearby, growing ever more powerful.

The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros is real, and it is extraordinarily beautiful.

Haide is fictional. There is currently no galaxy called Haide.

Drunken eggs are easy to make; the method is actually similar to marinated eggs. Feel free to try some when you're free~

Translator's Corner

Updates for this project will be every Monday for now since I don't have a stockpile yet. I will keep you posted if the schedule changes. Thank you~

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