Chapter 166 The Love of Sandworms
Guan Yu stood in the aisle and peeked into the kitchen curiously. It was called a kitchen, but it was actually a makeshift kitchen built on the ship. It did not have the fully automatic cooking equipment commonly used on the Galactic Federation ships, but only the simplest energy heating stove and manual juicer.
Jia Moer poked his head out of the door and said, "Please don't peek into a woman's private area."
Guan Yu smiled and said, "I just want to know what to eat today?" He sniffed his nose and said, "It smells good."
"It will be fine soon." Jia Moer said with a smile.
Since Jiamoer boarded Xiaozhen's ship, she has become a star surrounded by everyone on the ship. None of the crew members on the ship know how to cook, so everyone really respects the chef who .
Today's dinner did not disappoint everyone. Using the existing ingredients in the warehouse, Gamor quickly served a meal that whetted everyone's appetite. Synthetic meat wrapped in cheese, tarka fish soaked in sour vinegar with Rodian lentils, a few pieces of freshly baked Gnus-style bread, and a large bowl of vegetable stew. All the meals were popular and delicious, which made the crew members who had been eating nutrient solution for a long time burst into tears.
The three Gnuss barely maintained their dining etiquette at first, eating two bites before devouring the food. Xiao Zhen and Captain Madara kept nodding as they ate. After a while, they had eaten up all the food on the table.
"Is Ms. Fei not here?" Liu Bei asked after finishing his meal. He then realized that there was one person missing from the table.
"She said that she had to follow the traditions of her hometown and observe the rules these days, so she ate alone in her room." Ms. Fei was from the Yimen people, a mysterious race with a long ancient culture and complex etiquette traditions. There is a well-known joke about the Yimen people in the galaxy: [If you just say hello to an Yimen person, you may violate hundreds of Yimen taboos.] The Yimen people have many rules, so Liu Bei shut up and didn't ask any more questions.
Xiaozhen said to Jiamoer, "Thank you for your hard work. These dishes are delicious."
"I'm a certified chef from the Cooking and Gourmet Association." Gamor tilted his head. "Right now the variety of ingredients on the ship is still a little limited. When we get to the next planet, I want to buy some new ingredients."
The next planet she mentioned was Zangnom, a yellow planet. When the planet was discovered by the Galactic Federation, it already had a civilization, and the intelligent life on the land was a race called Zangnom Sandworms. After joining the Galactic Federation, the local area still maintained a dynastic dictatorship system.
Zang Gnom has two satellites, one of which has a stable vortex and is now an important galactic space jump station. Xiao Zhen must pass through this transportation hub to go to the Thorn Galaxy.
"There is a specialty on Zangnom called the golden-footed moth, which is said to have very tender meat." Gamor said, "I saw on the news that the local capital is holding an agricultural product expo. I want to go to Zangnom to buy some."
Her proposal was immediately warmly welcomed by the three Gnus people.
Xiao Zhen calculated that it would take at least ten hours to wait for the customs clearance and jump procedures on Zang Gnom II, so it would be a good opportunity to go to Zang Gnom's home planet for a stroll. So after some discussion, Captain Madara stayed behind while the others disembarked.
Xiao Zhen was sitting in the Interstellar Control Bureau of Zangnom. As expected, he did not get any news about Liu Xingquan. The local controller, a sandworm in a green uniform, rubbed his many legs and asked, "Let me confirm again, is the missing person an underage Homo sapiens?"
Xiao Zhen nodded, "His name is Liu Xingquan, and he doesn't have any identification on him."
"We haven't received any such reports yet. We have good security here, but if he gets lost on another planet, that's hard to say. As you know, pirates and slave traders are rampant recently. It would be terrible if something unexpected happened." The controller exuded a worried smell. She was a sentimental female sandworm. "If they lost their underage child, his parents would definitely be worried."
Another sandworm said coldly, "This is the responsibility of parents." It stared at Xiaozhen and said, "In our Zang Gnom, this kind of thing will never happen."
"Ah, I have heard a little about the customs of your place."
The female sandworm proudly said: "If a local larva is lost, it will be cared for by all of us and will be sent home by kind people in less than half a day."
Another sandworm added: "We are a loving and friendly race. We care for each other. Love is in our nature. Welcome to visit Zang Gnom. Enjoy your time, alien."
When Xiao Zhen left the control station, the female controller shouted behind him: "I hope you can find your friends soon!!"
At that moment, the female sandworm's worries and wishes flooded into his mind. Xiao Zhen felt the love of the female sandworm. It was not the kind of courtesy and coping of passers-by, but real worry and wishes. She was truly worried about his missing friend and hoped that he could find him as soon as possible. The shallow feelings of the sandworm next to it were the same. Although its words were a bit extreme, its emotion of wishing Xiao Zhen to find Liu Xingquan was real.
What a strange emotion. Why can they be so sincere to a stranger like me? Xiaozhen admitted that she knew very little about these interstellar races. Maybe these sandworms are really a loving race as they say.
After leaving the control building, we were greeted by the robot Roken 89, which had just returned from the local Supervisory Eye contact point.
Roken 89 said: "The Overseer's contact office reported that there is no record of Liu Xingquan's whereabouts in the local area."
"I see."
"To return to Laura from the Thorn Star System, this is the space jump station that you must pass through on the way." Luo Ken 89 said to Xiao Zhen, "I have made arrangements. Once Liu Xingquan sets foot here, he will be closely protected by the Eye of Supervision."
"Your premise is that he knows the way home," Xiao Zhen said, "but my good friend knows nothing about interstellar space."
"Yan Zhen, your friend is an intelligent life form. Please believe in his ability to act."
"You are so optimistic."
Roken 89's eyes flashed with electrons. "I always have great respect for intelligent life forms. You can make incredible and irrational decisions in desperate situations. We robots can only calculate based on our inherent paths. In our logical behavior environment, robots know the outcome as soon as they start, and there will be no surprises. But you intelligent life forms are different."
"What do you want to say?"
"Intelligent life can never be 100% predictable. From this point of view, you have the chance to create a miracle. Yan Zhen, give your friends more trust."
Xiao Zhen touched his nose and smiled: "Are you comforting me?"
"No. I'm describing the superiority of intelligent life forms." Roken M89 looked ahead and said, "Your crew members seem to be having a great time."
Ms. Fei and Liu Bei Guan Yu were walking along the street. Ms. Fei tied her silver-gray hair behind her head with a hair ring and wore a silver tunic popular in the Galaxy. Her graceful figure and icy temperament gave her a beauty that transcended race and civilization. The Tibetan Nome sandworms walking on the roadside looked at her curiously, and some even rushed up to ask for a photo. There were also female sandworms who came to ask what manufacturer produced her clothes.
Even though there were many alien visitors in the area, Ms. Fei was so beautiful that she stood out like a star.
"The locals are really friendly." Liu Bei approached, carrying bags of local specialties. "I just bought a few things, many of which were given to me by sandworm vendors."
"The drinks and food they make taste very good." Guan Yu was eating an omelet in his hand. It was made with eggs laid by a local cuckoo insect, and the pancake was filled with the meat of the golden-footed moth, a specialty unique to the Tibetan Nome star. It was juicy, soft and smooth when you took a bite.
"Where are Jiamoer and Zhang Fei?"
Liu Bei said that Zhang Fei was accompanying Jia Mor to the Agricultural Products Expo, and everyone could go there together.
The city of sandworms is made up of hemispherical mounds. From the ground, there are few pedestrians on the road, and the mounds look short, old and rough, but as long as you walk into the mounds, you will find a vast and brand-new wonderful underground city. The underground streets under the mounds are crisscrossed and connected in all directions. Ancient insect houses are densely arranged on both sides of the street. The inner wall is painted with self-luminous paint, which makes the underground as bright as day. It can be said that this is a prosperous city that never sleeps.
All the sandworm residents are very friendly. When Xiaozhen and others were strolling on the street, enthusiastic sandworms would move up to them from time to time, asking them if they were lost and offering to lead the way.
After rejecting the third sandworm who offered to lead the way, Liu Bei couldn't help but say, "These locals are too enthusiastic. On other planets, such enthusiasm is often a liar."
"They are really a very friendly race." Xiao Zhen said. He could feel that the attitude of these insects was not hypocritical.
Ms. Fei suddenly spoke softly. Her voice was like the sound of broken ice, and Xiao Zhen did not understand her language. He asked, "Did you say anything?"
Fei replied in the common language: "It's a proverb among us Yimen people. It means that there is no perfect thing."
The streets were full of sandworms, including noble ladies wearing gorgeous feathers, young worms wearing sports tights, and vendors soliciting customers at stalls along the street, mixed with monkeys with shiny fur. From the beginning, Xiao Zhen was forced to close her consciousness receiving channel. Every sandworm had too much emotion towards the aliens, "I welcome alien guests", "Welcome to our home", "Come and try my cooking" and other similar and turbulent emotions that made Xiao Zhen dizzy.
He had to block all the sandworms' consciousness information.
Well, much easier.
It is better to keep an appropriate distance between organisms.
In these lively crowds of sandworms, you can often see two sandworms accompanying an ape on the street. These apes are generally fat and strong, with shiny hair and excellent spirits. You can tell at a glance that they have a good diet. At first, they met two or three on the ground. After arriving in the prosperous city underground, these apes can be seen everywhere. But basically, it is two sandworms with one ape.
Liu Bei asked, "What are these monkeys? Are they a hobby of the locals?"
Roken89 said: "It is the accessory of the Zangnomu Sandworm."
"What do you mean by accessories?"
Guan Yu swallowed the last bite of the egg roll pancake and said, "Toko, these sandworms call these apes this. I asked about it when I was buying things just now. I think they are like pet dogs raised by Homo sapiens. We Gnus people also raise them, but we raise wild wolves."
Two more sandworms walked past them with an ape. The ape smelled the meat pie sold by the sandworm vendor and immediately stayed in front of the stall.
It danced and pointed at the meat pie, and the two sandworms stopped.
The vendor bug smiled and said, "Oh, it seems your Toko really wants to eat meat pie."
The two sandworms paid the bill promptly, and the ape immediately started to eat the pie, even climbing onto the stall and making a mess of the pie on the stall.
The vendor worms were not angry at all. The two sand worms apologized for helping to tidy up the stall, but did not blame the monkey for its mischief. The vendor worms praised their Toko for being well-fed and energetic, and chatted with the couple of sand worms about what they usually feed the monkey to make it so lively.
On the other side of the road, a monkey in clothes stood next to a sandworm who was obviously dressed like a noblewoman. The noblewoman sandworm was carefully brushing the dust off the monkey, as if she was treating a fragile treasure.
"I understand." Guan Yu said, "Just like the Lola people raising cats, they regard themselves as slaves and the cats as masters. These sandworms are all ape slaves!"
"Not all Lola people are like this. Cat slave is just an exaggerated description." Liu Bei said thoughtfully, "The residents here seem to regard monkeys as something more important."
Xiao Zhen slightly turned on the information reception and aimed at these monkeys. He felt a strong love, yes, love. These monkeys deeply loved the sandworms around them. This was not love for the master or the slave, but some kind of deeper and stronger bond.
It's like the deep love that children have for their parents. That kind of natural, original, deep love that comes from blood and genes...
It's strange, in Lola, the bond between dog and master is considered very deep, but not as hot as that of ape.
"The monkeys are accessories," Roken 89 repeated.
Guan Yu asked: "So what does accessories mean? It means pets, right?"
"No, they use it for breeding..." Before Roken 89 could finish his words, the monkey standing next to the meat pie stall suddenly let out a sharp scream.
It kept scratching its head with its hands, leaving bloody marks. The sandworms standing nearby looked at it with a very calm expression. Then the monkey knelt on the ground and kept hitting the ground with its head. After a while, blood gushed out, the skull shattered, and a group of young sandworms crawled out of its broken skull. "Children! It's children!!!" The two sandworms cried and laughed and took out a container to hold these tender and young sandworms.
A group of sandworms surrounded them and applauded, "Congratulations!! Congratulations!!! That's great, it looks like the hatching success rate is very high."
The two sandworms wiped their tears and said it was great. They had never expected that this day would come so soon. To celebrate the sudden arrival of their children, the couple would definitely treat everyone present to a meal.
Ms. Fei said softly, "Haha, accessories."
Roken 89 said: "That's what I mean. These crypt apes are the accessories that the sandworms raise to reproduce the next generation. The brains of the crypt apes are an excellent place for the larvae of the sandworms to hatch and grow. The sandworms believe that the stronger and smarter the toko they raise, the better their children will be."
Guan Yu whispered: "These sandworms are really..."
"This is their unique breeding method that has existed since the beginning of civilization, and it has been specially approved by the federal government," Roken 89 said calmly. "The Animal Protection Association once had some debate, but it was quickly suppressed in the name of respecting local cultural traditions."
"But this..."
"Sandworms love peace, love to help each other, and rarely show hostility towards aliens. According to the data, it is not an exaggeration to say that sandworms are one of the friendliest races. I can understand that the apes' similarities to Homo sapiens and Gnus in certain characteristics have caused you emotional discomfort. But please remain rational and respect local traditions."
Liu Bei showed an expression of reluctance on his face. He turned his head and said, "Let's leave here as soon as possible."
Guan Yu also seemed to be losing interest. He said, "Go and get Zhang Fei."
A team of sandworm guards came over and skillfully picked up the ape's body on the ground. One of the sandworm couples who had just had a child picked up a few pieces of the ape's skull. With tears in his eyes, he said, "I will keep these bones as souvenirs. In the future, children will know our Toko."
The sandworm beside it was also wiping tears as it watched the city guards carry away the ape's body.
When Xiao Zhen and his group were leaving, Xiao Zhen heard a lady sand worm next to him turn around and say to her monkey: "My dear, I will not let this happen to you on the street. You will lie in the most comfortable room in our house and wait for this moment to come." The monkey was a very beautiful monkey, with beautiful golden chestnut hair and a pair of bright eyes. It nodded as if it understood the words of the lady sand worm, and leaned obediently in the arms of the lady sand worm.
"Yes, we will never let this happen on the street. That is too outrageous." The husband beside the lady worm raised his hand and stroked the hair on the monkey's back, "Toko, we will always love you."
Xiao Zhen heard the monkey's fiery consciousness respond: I love you too.
He turned off all consciousness reception, blocked out all information, and followed Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Miss Fei to the Agricultural Products Expo building.
Jia Moer was standing at the door, with several large boxes beside her, which were obviously the results of her purchases at the Expo. When she saw Xiao Zhen and the others, she shouted, "You are here! I was just about to find you!!"
"We are ready to go. Where's Zhang Fei?"
"Something happened to Zhang Fei!!!" Jia Moer shouted with a strange expression, "Listen to me!"
