Chapter 190
In Liu Xingquan's eyes, Xiangles was the first truly prosperous and modern alien planet he had arrived at since the beginning of his journey.
Sutiel took him to Wulan, the most important transportation port city in Xiangles. As soon as Liu Xingquan entered the city, his eyes remained round. He finally began to feel that this trip was worthwhile.
Xiangles's Ulan City was an alien metropolis that met all his imaginations. There were high-rise buildings stacked up everywhere, and vast passageways spread out like spider webs. In the sky were ships, transport ships, merchant ships and yachts shuttling back and forth. As soon as Liu Xingquan and Sutil walked out of the port, an automatic tour guide flew over and introduced this modern metropolis to them with a commentary as pleasant as music.
A semi-transparent holographic screen appeared beside the robot guide, introducing the structure and characteristics of the super cities of Xiangles, factory cities, mining cities, refineries, intelligent R&D centers, etc. These cities are like honeycombs with complex structures and amazing scale. This integrated industrial system has created the largest ship repair and shipbuilding base in this star region.
Sutil took his boat, a white bird painted on its dark hull, to a repair center in the harbor, where they were told the repairs would take most of the day.
So they walked out of the port and headed for the city's bazaar. This was the largest free bazaar in Xiangles, and it was not much different from the bazaar Liu Xingquan remembered. Thousands of mobile vendors set up stalls under the towering buildings, and brightly colored tents were stacked against each other. Above the tents were flying flags of various colors, with products from various shops, food, household electrical appliances, and dynamic patterns of department store merchandise whose uses could not be identified. In front of the tents were flashing three-dimensional advertisements to attract customers, using ostentatious tones or pungent smells to attract customers.
Liu Xingquan and Sutil walked slowly in the intoxicating fragrance . Sutil said that the market in Xiangles would be more beautiful at night. It was a gray day now, but at this moment Liu Xingquan had already felt the bustling beauty of this prosperous alien market.
"The snacks here are delicious." Sutil said, "I'll take you to taste the famous food here later."
Liu Xingquan nodded while carefully avoiding the aliens around him. Although he had come into contact with many strange aliens on the Impeccable, the amount of strange alien races that were beyond his cognition was really excessive.
He stepped back slightly to let a smelly hippopotamus carrying a box pass by him. The ground shook with every step taken by this leather-armored hippopotamus-like alien.
Some Gaila mushroom people who were not as tall as Liu Xingquan's waist and were wearing heavy cloaks would rush up from time to time to surround passers-by, stretching out their small white claws to sell them bottles and jars in their pockets, which were shaking with suspicious liquids.
Liu Xingquan only took a curious look at one of the little Gaila mushroom men, and was immediately surrounded by the group of little guys. Their little paws desperately shook the bottle, "Buy a bottle, buy a bottle! Taste the best..."
"Go away, go away, go away!" Before Liu Xingquan could ask what was in their bottles, Sutil rudely drove them away. "Ignore them."
Actually I don’t have the money to buy it.
Sutiel saw Liu Xingquan's expression, he smiled, took out two coins from his pocket and stuffed them into his pocket. "Twenty solas (the common currency in Xiangles), enough for you to buy snacks at the market."
"Ah, thank you."
Sutiel lowered his head and reminded him, "You can buy food from regular stalls, but forget about those little Gaila mushroom people."
At this time, a multi-legged spider waved a basket at them, "Strangers, would you like to try the best Wulan pie? It's absolutely delicious."
"What's the filling in this?" asked Sutil.
"The best Talan cattle, the fattest beef with tangerine fruit and curtain snake beads, Losa will crawl out of the grave and revive after eating it. If you don't eat a piece of my pie, you, Ulan, have come here in vain. I'll give you two eight solas."
"Five Sora, two."
The spider waved its limbs angrily, "Five Soras, why don't you go and rob them?"
"I think eight solas are enough to buy all the pies on your stall." Sutil said with a smile, "Today is Lianna's Day, won't you give me a discount?"
"Thank you, Melana, but you have to give me my money back. Six Solas ."
"I'm from Hope Township. Five Sora."
"You win." The spider wrapped the two pies with its limbs and handed them to Sutil and Liu Xingquan. "We always welcome Lianna's fellow countrymen."
Liu Xingquan took the pie, which was soft and smelled delicious. After thanking Sutil again, he took a bite.
Delicious. The meat in the pie was smooth and juicy, melting in the mouth. In addition to the delicious meat, there were also crispy pieces of fruit pulp, and a small ball that burst with juice when bitten, very sweet and fresh. He couldn't help asking the spider stall owner what the small ball in the pie was.
"It's the Curtain Snake Pearl." The spider replied.
Seeing Liu Xingquan's confused look, Sutiel smiled and said, "It is the eyeball of the curtain snake."
"..." At that moment, Liu Xingquan almost spit out the pie.
"Don't worry. The snake has a lot of eyeballs. You won't die if you dig out some and use them as food."
That's not the point at all! A snake with lots of eyeballs? That's even scarier!
Liu Xingquan took another look at the pie stall spider owner in front of him. He found that this spider was of the same species as the chef spider he worked for on the Flawless. Could it be that this species of spiders were all good at cooking? He remembered that Chef Rico would spray its saliva as seasoning when he was grilling. Thinking of this, the pie in his hand might also be...
Sutiel had already eaten the pie in two or three bites. This pie was indeed delicious. Considering that he hadn't eaten anything decent for several days, Liu Xingquan felt that he had no right to be picky. He silently said to himself that it was delicious and there was no need to worry about it, and continued to eat it bite by bite.
The spider stall owner obviously liked Sutiel who came from Hope Town. It started chatting with him. The spider said that things in Hope Town were very unstable recently. A while ago, a young Homo sapiens merchant brought several ships of refugees. Since then, more and more refugees have been coming.
While they were chatting, Liu Xingquan looked curiously at the stalls next to him, and then he finally saw a species that he knew.
That's a cute cat.
That’s right, it was a cute cat that completely matched his perception. The cat was wearing small clothes and a green striped cloak, and was sitting obediently in front of the stall.
"It's a cat! There is actually a cat!" said Liu Xingquan.
"Sir, what can I do for you?" asked the cat in front of the stall.
Liu Xingquan shouted: "You can speak!!"
The cat looked at him strangely and said, "Sir, I am an Elt."
"Meow people are actually real!" Liu Xingquan shouted.
"I don't know why you are so excited, but do you need this, sir?" The cute cat pushed a cargo rack with its paws. On each row was a cage of different sizes, with a few little mice in it.
"The cat and the mouse! Cute!" said Liu Xingquan.
"These are genetically modified Didi mice. They are very useful housework helpers." The cat clapped its paws, and three little mice immediately ran out, picked up the small sundries on the table and put them aside in a pile. "They have been implanted with fixed thinking patterns, and can do simple storage and tidying work, and can also clean the room."
"cute!"
"They will also be good helpers for your work." The cat read out an instruction, and the three little mice immediately ran to the bookshelf on the booth table, took down a book, and lifted it in front of the cat.
"cute!"
"Three pieces for one hundred and eighty-five sola. Today is Lianna's Day, so I can give you one hundred and eighty sola."
"..." Liu Xingquan moved aside and walked to the stall next to him.
The stall next to him was a bearded Pepero man, who looked like a rat the size of a Homo sapiens. He looked at the Pepero man who fell into silence, wondering what it felt like to set up a stall next to the cat.
The Pepero made a hissing sound and showed Liu Xingquan its wares. Its wares turned out to be pots of fresh flowers, purple, red, pink, and white. But that was not the selling point of the big rat stall owner. It shook its paw at Liu Xingquan, picked up a small bottle of solvent and dripped a few drops into an empty flowerpot. After a few seconds, the seedlings broke out of the soil in the flowerpot, swaying with graceful branches and leaves, and soon grew buds, and then it bloomed.
Liu Xingquan exclaimed.
Because inside the blooming pink flower lay a gem ring. The Pepero man twisted the ring and shook it at Liu Xingquan, and it hissed a few more times. Perhaps the language of the rat race was relatively unfamiliar, and the goggles Liu Xingquan was wearing did not translate it successfully. Seeing this, the Pepero man clicked on the holographic screen, which explained Liu Xingquan with images.
It turns out that the gift to be given is planted together with the special seeds made by the Pepero people and combined with special potions. It will grow quickly when given to others and the small gift will appear just in the center of the flower.
This was a very interesting surprise gift. Liu Xingquan couldn't help but feel the urge to buy it.
The Pepero marked the price on the holographic screen: sixty solas.
Although it is much cheaper than the little mouse just now, it is still not something I can afford.
The cat next to them glared at them with a gloomy look.
Sure enough, this cat and Pepero the rat are in competition. Don't look at me, I'm just a very poor stranger.
A claw tugged at his clothes from the side. Liu Xingquan lowered his head. It was the little mushroom man named Gela who had just been driven away by Sutil, shaking the bottle at him. "I'm sorry, I don't want it." Liu Xingquan said.
The little mushroom man still stubbornly pushed the bottle towards him, and he then realized that the bottle mouth had been opened, and a light yellow mist surged up.
This smell...is the smell of my mother's cooking.
It tastes like his favorite beef curry.
He stood there in a daze.
The bustling alien market began to become blurred, and some familiar scenes were emerging and gradually becoming clearer.
He was standing on the street in front of his residential complex, the road he had to take every day after school.
He picked up his feet and walked towards home.
Am I finished school?
Yes, I am going home now. My mother is waiting for me to come home.
It was a very familiar feeling, so familiar that he almost wanted to cry.
He walked up the stairs and stood at the door. The smell of beef curry wafted out from the crack of the door.
His hand reached for the doorknob and gently pushed it open.
"Happy Birthday!!!" Yan Zhen shouted while banging the latte art.
"Happy birthday!!!!" his father laughed, and his mother poked her head out from the kitchen smoke, "Xingquan, happy birthday!!!"
Did I have a birthday? he wondered absentmindedly.
"Look, your mother cooked a table of dishes." Dad smiled, "Xiaozhen is here to celebrate your birthday too."
"Thank you."
"Look, a birthday cake." Dad picked up the birthday cake and said, "Light the candles and make a wish."
Yan Zhen said: "Okay! Blow out the candles, blow out the candles!"
"Thank you. I'm really glad."
It would be great if you were real.
"Get ready to blow out the candles!!"
It would be great if you were real.
Liu Xingquan said softly: "But you are all fake."
Dad asked in confusion, " What are you talking about?"
"Yan Zhen forgot my birthday after the accident. He won't come. And I didn't celebrate my birthday this summer." Liu Xingquan lowered his head and said, "Because, Dad, Dad, you've passed away."
They all solidified and turned into light yellow mist in an instant.
…
…
He sat on the ground, surrounded by noisy sounds.
Sutil shook his body, "Are you okay? Are you okay?"
Liu Xingquan slowly raised his head. The young man in his eyes was filled with anxiety. This was his savior. Sutil, the pilot of the boat. He was indeed still on a distant alien planet.
"I'm fine." Liu Xingquan said, "I seemed to have hallucinations just now."
"It's the trick of those little mushroom men from Gela," said Sutil. "The bottles they have contain a kind of hallucinogen made from mushrooms. Some of them can make you see the fantasy dreams you desire."
"Sweet dream?"
"Yes, so there has always been a market for this kind of hallucinogen. There are some of them that sell good quality hallucinogens, but they are mixed with some thieves who deliberately target foreigners to make them indulge in beautiful dreams and then steal their property. That's why I told you to stay away from them."
“You said that…” Liu Xingquan fumbled around subconsciously and shouted, “My schoolbag!!”
"Your bag is here." A clear female voice came from behind.
Liu Xingquan turned his head.
She was a young Homo sapiens woman, well built, with honey-colored hair neatly tied back, and a nice mouth that was a little too big for Earth standards. In one hand she held a spear with a squeaking little Gaela mushroom-man poking out of it. She tossed the bag back to him.
"Thank you." Liu Xingquan took the schoolbag and thanked her.
Sutiel's expression suddenly became serious. "Thank you, Goddess of Jealousy Army."
The Goddess of Jealousy Army? Liu Xingquan looked at Sutil in confusion.
Sutiel explained to Liu Xingquan that the Goddess of Jealousy Army was the armed guard of Xiangles. The Goddess of Jealousy Army was composed entirely of Nansai female warriors. It could be said that they were one of the most powerful female groups of Homo sapiens in the galaxy.
Then Sutiel described to Liu Xingquan the strength of the Goddess of Jealousy Army, "Most planets in the galaxy have branches of the Eye of Supervision. But only Shanles does not have one."
"ah?"
"Because Shanles does not need the intervention of the Eye of Supervision."
“That sounds amazing.”
The gun-wielding woman at the side added: "It's not just the Eye of Supervision. With our Goddess of Jealousy Army here, the Security Committee won't be able to squeeze into Xiangles." She winked at Liu Xingquan, "My name is Naiwei, little friend, welcome to Xiangles."
"Thank you very much."
"It's just a small favor. It's our duty to maintain local order." Nevi said, "I hope I don't leave a bad impression on you. In fact, the public security in our Xiangles has always been good, but there are too many people recently." She suddenly looked at the sky and said, "Look, the Lianna Festival celebration has begun! !"
Sutil raised his head and stared at the sky motionlessly.
Liu Xingquan followed him and looked curiously .
Fireworks? Liu Xingquan thought so at first. There were colorful images shining in the sky. But then he realized that this was not fireworks, but a large-scale image projection, with the sky as the screen and light as the image.
He couldn't understand what the image was showing. Many figures flashed across the image, including strange-looking aliens and Homo sapiens. When the images of a fox in clothes and a female Homo sapiens flashed by one after another, there was an overwhelming cheer on the ground.
"It's Lianna!!" Nevi shouted.
Then other images of people appeared on the screen. After a male Homo sapiens flashed by, Liu Xingquan glanced at Sutil beside him.
Ah, he is crying, he thought.
Even on Earth, Liu Xingquan rarely saw an adult man cry in front of him. But now, his savior was crying. Crystal tears flowed down his cheeks. Although they had only been together for a short time, Liu Xingquan subconsciously regarded Sutil as his reliable elder brother and his safe guardian. Even when fleeing under the intensive fire of the Eye of Supervision, the young man always looked relaxed and natural.
Now, he is crying.
Why are you crying? Liu Xingquan wanted to ask him, isn’t the image in the sky a distant celebration story?
Nevi beside him was also surprised. She asked, "You are crying."
Sutiel looked at them, tears leaving two wet marks on his smooth face, "It's Wu Haixi." He raised his head again and said in a choked voice, "It's them in the legend."
"Yes." Nevi looked at another female image flashing across the sky, "Look, it's M'li."
"What did you say?" Liu Xingquan asked softly.
"It was M'li," Nevi said. "Lothar's first comrade to die."
At that moment, Liu Xingquan's heart suddenly surged. Another familiar name. One after another. These are names I am familiar with.
Those fragments and words began to take vague shapes in his mind.
Everything seemed to be connected in series as if under invisible guidance.
The light shines in the sky.
A fleet suddenly disrupted the heroic celebration.
Leading the way was a magnificent and noble ship, which descended on the Ulan of Xiangles like a proud queen. Liu Xingquan had once thought that the Flawless, which he had taken, was very beautiful. But now, in front of this ship, it was just like an ordinary bird.
The noble ship's engines left silvery trails behind it, emotionlessly dispersing the celebratory image.
The ship's emblem grimly announced its identity under the daylight - the Eye of Supervision.
At that moment, Liu Xingquan felt that all the blood in his body had frozen.
"This is the flagship of that great Inspector General, the Expanse." Nevi frowned and said, "Why is the Eye of the Overwatch here?"
