Wandering Planet
Synopsis
Translator's summary: Five hundred years ago, humanity rushes to evacuate Earth ahead of a catastrophic asteroid impact, but only a fraction passes the rigorous screening process. Jiang Che is among the chosen few. He leverages his selection to negotiate a ticket for his sickly younger sister, but when he wakes up five hundred years later on Planet Marseille, he learns that his sister's ship vanished during the exodus. Determined to search along the ancient flight path for any trace of her, he takes an unpaid cleaner job on the Faust, a cruise liner making one final voyage back toward Earth.
Then everything goes wrong. The intoxicated captain inputs incorrect navigation coordinates, pulling the ship into the event horizon of the galaxy's central black hole. They are rescued by a selfless maneuver from a legendary science vessel that had been missing for a century, but the time dilation costs them dearly: thirty years pass in the outside world. When the Faust's command orders a retreat back to Marseille, Jiang Che requests a lifeboat to press on toward Earth. The captain grants it, and he departs with an unlikely crew: Ovid, a genetically modified clone hitman; Linny, a disgraced general; Tang Mo, a singer fleeing loan sharks; and Pierre, an eager young navigator. But as they salvage flight recorders across dead worlds and decommissioned outposts, they learn the truth: the Great Retreat wasn't a noble, tragic escape. An elite faction within the evacuation command gave the order to cut the civilian ships loose. His sister's was one of them.
A dolphin-shaped ship filled with human passengers detaches from the mothership and slowly glides into space.
In 72 hours, Jiang Che, the cleaner aboard, will meet his Mr. Hitman.
And Earth, their destination, remains 42.73 light-years away.
1. "Can-cook-anything" chef top VS "Can-eat-anything" hitman bottom. Interstellar gourmet romance fiction. Goes on VIP on July 31st, updates daily at noon.
2. Also known as Interstellar Cooking Guide, alternative titles include Stir-fried Nebula, Poached Star, Steamed Black Hole, Char-grilled White Dwarf, Dry-fried Comet, Cosmic Meal, etc. (None of the above dishes actually exist.)
3. Despite the space setting, it's not particularly high-brow. The food is quite ordinary: pancakes with crepes and soy milk, fried dough sticks, rice noodles, chili oil snails, shredded chicken vermicelli, roasted oysters, grilled meat, roasted chicken, roasted duck, steamed goose, clay pot rice, chrysanthemum cake, egg rolls, strawberry jam and cranberry yogurt, sweet potato bread with osmanthus and Chinese yam, braised pork intestines and mixed tripe, sliced tough-skinned pork, white bone snake, rose nebula spring constellation dew, Sagittarius creative sushi, dark swamp fragrant bread slices, earthenware jar planet aged cold-brew tea…
4. Pseudo sci-fi, a genuine sweet story.
5. This entire work is filled with serious-sounding nonsense.
6. Weibo: @凉了个蝉. Reader Group: Typo Propagation Research Institute. Entry password: work or character name.
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