2

Five years later.

NSC 257, the eighth galaxy, Beijing-ß planet.

Beijing-ß was a stereotyped name for a planet. There were dozens of Beijing planet, London planet or Zimbabwe planet in each galaxy. They were quite similar to the Beijing Road or the Nanjing Street in a country called China in the Ancient Earth Era.

Beijing-ß really had an eastern atmosphere: Lots of citizens had the blood of ancient Chinese, probably because of its name——nevertheless, you couldn’t live a comfortable life in the eighth galaxy even if you had the blood of ancient dragons.

It was said that one tenth of the news in other galaxies was talking about their miserable lives.

The eighth galaxy gained itself a nickname: the Wilderness.

The Interstellar Union consisted of eight galaxies. The capital planet Wotto in the first galaxy was absolutely at the top of the pyramid. Further from Wotto, more undeveloped the planet was——the eighth galaxy was already the sewer of the pyramid.

The eighth galaxy became the wilderness for both natural and historical reasons. Lack of resources and inconvenience in transportation were reasons for sure. However when it came to history , it was really a long story to tell——

In the old era, which dated back more than two hundred years ago, the IU was in the abyss of the star pirates——most of the pirates was descendants of the Ancient Earth Man as well, not alien monsters. Besides, they didn’t call themselves “star pirates” such a foolish name and they were not in an entirety. It was after the IU got most political powers in its control that it named all the organizations which didn’t obey the IU as star pirates for convenience.

The eighth galaxy was alone all the time. It was like a pitiful islet apart from other seven galaxies. The anti-govern organizations settled in the eighth galaxy to fight against the powerful IU in the past. In the beginning of the New Sidereal Era, the eighth galaxy was still under the control of star pirates. Until NSC 136, it was took up by Commodore Lu——Xin Lu was an excellent commander of the IU——and finally recovered communication with the other galaxies.

The IU developed at full speed under the light of science and civilization in the past 136 years. Instead the eighth galaxy was in endless civil wars against pirates. The longer the time past, the wider the gap between the IU and the eighth galaxy was. Compared with the IU, the eighth galaxy was more like a monkey to a human.

The IU was once evaluated the eighth galaxy after it was took up by Xin Lu, but only to find it not valuable at all. Therefore the IU set a self-government here, which was a polite way to say “go f.u.c.k yourselves”.

All the chief officers had their name cards in important occasions of the IU, except those of the eighth galaxy. It was just “The eighth galaxy” on the card instead of an exact name, not for area discrimination though, for the eight galaxy altered their chief officer all the time that others were unable to remember the name of the chief officer himself or herself. That was the reason why the name card replaced the area one.

People tried every means to get away with the eighth galaxy. The rest were all poor guys left behind by the time, suffering in the wilderness.

Beijing-ß was quite good in this galaxy, which had the largest population. It was messy and poverty-stricken for sure, but after all there were still some routes and industries, enough to simply keep its citizens alive.

In the evening in Beijing-ß, an old shuttle ran slowly along the road with sleepy pa.s.sengers inside. The words “Galaxy Transports” on its surface faded into “Gay sports” over the course of time. The artificial intelligence was already artificial idiot now. The damage rate reached up to 95%. Thus only the “super-safe mode” was still working, in which the bus bell rang every 5 minutes. Such a shabby shuttle drove at such a low speed, into a night more sombre than night itself.

None of the windows was intact——all broke by the citizens who had been woken up by the b.l.o.o.d.y tinkle.

The shuttle, in which dust swirled in the air, was unable to shelter anything from wind. Nonetheless n.o.body would maintain it, because the Galaxy Transportations Company had been bankrupt for 200 years. The only thing left was an urban public transport system, automatic and moribund.

It was in deep winter here. What is more, winter in Beijing-ß’ was pretty long according to the revolution routine of planets. The winter here lasted 3 years long in NSC whereas the temperature regulation system stopped running long time ago because of its poverty. The freezing wind, hollowing, crying, blowing, attacked the unprepared city. All of the poor pa.s.sengers held their clothes tight, like quails hid their heads under their wings.

It was the poorly poor who used this kind of free transportation. Lots of them are beggars who were too dirty to be identified their s.e.x or age. Thanks to the sealing carriage, the smell of the pa.s.sengers would not kill themselves.

A drunk girl, whose face could not be recognized since her make-up was messed up, sat in the back corner of the “Gay sports”. She was not afraid of the coldness, letting her jacket open and showing the strange bra and the skull tattoo on her waist—— a tough hoodie, obviously.

A backpack more than one meter high was placed beside her feet. She was wearing a headset, closing her eyes to get some rest. She looked a little bit of grumpy, for drunk and noisy crying of a d.a.m.n child. The crying was so loud that the music playing in the headset could not drown it out.

She tried to bear it for a few minutes, but she failed. She took her headset off, ready to make some more noise.

The strange thing was that the annoying crying disappeared when she took out her headset.

She looked around in mad, finding no one but sorehead adults preventing themselves from the fierce wind. There was no child. She hiccupped in drunk, doubting if she had an acousma. Wearing the headset again, she closed her eyes again tiredly.

When she was about to fall asleep, a poignant crying woke her up like a needle stabbing her eardrum. “ Mommy!”

She opened her eyes, thrilling. The “Gay sports” stopped.

Turning off the music, she heard the miserable crying not far clearly this time.

But……where the h.e.l.l is the child?

The station board was stolen years ago and the street lamps were all broken, too. There was just darkness. Some paths crossed, forming into a nasty block, which looked like an eye of darkness peeping at people. The artificial idiot driver had something wrong again, beeping “the final station” earlier, and then went to sleep before the pa.s.sengers say no. They had to get off the shuttle, cursing and swearing.

The girl frowned, grabbing her luggage and getting off after some exhausted pa.s.sengers. A small man in thick clothes in front of her was holding a skinny geezer. The geezer was pulled by him, smas.h.i.+ng into her by accident.

The hoodie girl didn’t have a chance to seethe. Instead, she was dizzy for a second. She rubbed her smoky eyes plastered by mascara, but only to see the geezer turning into a little boy.

“Am I too drunk? Fake alcohol maybe?” She tried to be a little more sober.

Eventually she ensured it to be a child who was about 3 years old, hardly to walk by himself for now. Although he was in a shabby jacket, the clothes underneath referred that he was born in a wealthy family.

The “beggar” was holding the boy by his neck and wrist. The boy was struggling and crying all the time but no one paid attention to him. Even no one reacted like there had been anything wrong——it seemed like they saw merely a crazy geezer like she had just now.

It was a collective illusion!

Her pupils shrank. she doubted the “beggar” was a human trader. That was the reason why she followed them.

The “beggar” did not pay attention to the girl, going straight to a narrow path between shabby buildings.

In the darkest corner was a speakeasy, of which the backdoor’s lamp lightened the path. The crying reverberated in the path. But no one cared.

It must not be psychedelic——either in bus or in the path, the wind would blow away any chemical absolutely.

The girl adjusted her post, putting up her hood, and then stopped the beggar. “Hey, you, stop there.”

The beggar paused, tightening his hand on the boy’s neck. On the contrary, he smiled like a coward and shrugged his shoulders, suggesting that he did not want to get into any trouble. He stammered: “Me……me?”

The girl squinted warily and rose her jaw. She pointed at the boy. “Is this your child?”

The “beggar” changed his face, blinking and smiling grudgingly. “Wha……What? You……You——You must misunderstand something. What child? This, this old thing, look like……an old monkey. He is small, but not a kid, look at him. “

He pushed the guy in his hand toward the girl. At that moment, she saw something like a faulted screen. The crying-to-choking boy went tall and short, changing between a gross old homeless and a crying boy. The picture on the screen altered from time to time.

She frowned, stepping closer. “That’s weird. “

The “beggar” smiled when she was confused. “Look, what, what did I——I

say……”

He was. .h.i.t by a beer bottle before finis.h.i.+ng his words. The girl’s action was as sudden as lightning . The bottle fell into pieces immediately when it met the beggar’s forehead. The unpleasant smell of alcohol spread everywhere. The hoodie girl held the rest “corpse” of the bottle, wiping off her faded lipstick. “You son of b.i.t.c.h. How dare you to fool ME, huh?”

The alcohol blurred the beggar’s face. He stopped smiling and let his coldness show. Setting the boy aside, he became a nearly-2-meter-tall muscular man with his bones cracking!

The tough girl was really confused this time, shrinking back for a few steps. “You……”

The “beggar” smiled with his b.l.o.o.d.y big mouth. “I see. A vacucerebral b.i.t.c.h.“

The confusion altered into anger after the b-word. She attacked his pubic area and grabbed his hair when he try to elude. The sharp bottle piece was supposed to made his face bleed again——her acts were perfect. An experienced hoodie for sure.

Nonetheless the bottle did not hurt him at all. The man’s face was firm and pale, like some kind of metal.

He rotated his neck left and right and back again, holding the girl as if she were a kitten.

The bottle fell to the ground and the girl struggled in mid-air . She looked at the reflective face, astonished . “You……you are not a man. “

The “beggar” smiled weirdly. His giant hand on her head squeezed——

A strong light swept through. Three or four high-speed motors followed after, obviously disobeying the ban of “no high-speed motor 100 meters near ground”. The light was much faster than the loud sound. Then a strong wind swirled on the ground.

The “beggar” realized something and decided to run away immediately.

The wind knocked down the girl. She fell down with her luggage, trying to stand up with her arms and legs.

The boy, who was screaming, floated on the air right away.

The monster-like “beggar” ran as fast as a beast could. He disappeared in the darkness with a ray.

The boy, moving his limbs helplessly in the mid-air, smashed to the speakeasy.

The backdoor opened just on time. A man stepped out and got the boy by the neck.

The motors muted after they had landed. The girl looked out through her messed hair and saw a tall man standing in the shadow, whose face was sheltered from the light.

He bent over, leaving the boy alone. The other hand was flicking a cigarette.

“There’s no need to chase. Run away already. s.p.a.ce field. ” He spoke leisurely, “Try to be more shattering next time. You’d better scare people a light year away.”