Luo Binhan’s life aboard the ship began.
He was given a small private room with a bed, a storage chest, a desk and chair, and a display screen. At first, Luo Binhan thought the display was a TV, until Momo Luo told him it was a communicator.
When he turned on the display, a purple-haired figure named ∈ popped up on the screen. He enthusiastically greeted the two of them and asked if they needed anything.
"Ah, yes! Please send some food over. Thank you, please," Momo Luo said.
∈ immediately agreed, then asked Momo Luo whether he preferred pentose or hexose, and what color best stimulated his appetite. By the time the food was delivered, ∈ had dragged their conversation all the way to supernova explosions. Luo Binhan opened the door and took the food from the top of a disc-shaped robot. Momo Luo, looking relieved, turned off the display and ran over to eat with him.
The food that arrived was a type of round pastry with a sweet, jam-like filling. Luo Binhan was surprised as he ate. He had imagined that on an alien spaceship, they would use nutritional injections or eat simple, easy-to-store compressed food.
Momo Luo told him that it usually depended on the captain. The captain of the *Silence*—Jing Huang—particularly detested the use of nutritional injections.
"Mr. Xuanhong is very traditional," Momo Luo said. "He’s very resistant to changing his lifestyle."
"Xuanhong" was another one of Jing Huang’s names. Luo Binhan had heard 0312—the bald guy, Fack—call him that.
And so, they began to talk about Jing Huang.
"Mr. Xuanhong is a remarkable person," Momo Luo said, his voice overflowing with emotion. "He may not be good at expressing himself, but anyone who spends time with him can feel the pure and noble heart beneath his cold exterior. Once he matures a little more, I’m sure he’ll bring even more light to the universe."
Luo Binhan was dumbfounded. He asked tentatively, "Have you ever said that to his face?"
"He said he’d kill me," Momo Luo replied, blinking.
Luo Binhan slapped his thigh in relief. "Right, right! Now *that’s* the little terror I know."
After they finished eating, Luo Binhan remembered he still had some specialty pastries from Li Hai City. He casually grabbed a pack for Momo Luo. The young man excitedly declared that this was the first gift he’d received from an alien friend since his graduation and that he would definitely treasure it.
Luo Binhan had a bad feeling. ’Either this guy has issues, or everyone on this ship has issues.’ To find out which it was, he stopped Momo Luo from trying to permanently preserve the pack of train station snacks and said resolutely, "I’ve got a few more packs. Why don’t we share them with the rest of the crew?"
Momo Luo happily agreed. So they left Luo Binhan’s private room and returned to the round hall they were in before. Apparently, it was the ship’s bridge, but Luo Binhan couldn’t see anything that resembled a control console.
Jing Huang was nowhere to be seen. Only Yaliriga and a little blonde girl were sitting in the hall. The girl looked no older than eleven.
Luo Binhan nudged Momo Luo. "You guys hire child labor here?"
"Sunday was brought here by Mr. Xuanhong. She was on board before me," Momo Luo said with a look of complete innocence.
"Her name is Sunday?"
"That’s right."
"...Is she one of the local cannibals he captured when he was stranded on a desert island?"
"I’m sorry, what?"
Momo Luo’s big, innocent eyes were filled with confusion. Luo Binhan decided to try a more optimistic approach. "...Do you guys have an eight-day week? Work five, rest three?"
"A week only has seven days," Momo Luo said. "Seven days make a cycle."
Luo Binhan was exasperated. "Then why the hell is she called Sunday?!"
They approached Sunday together. Now Luo Binhan could see her clearly. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and was wearing a sailor-style dress and sandals. In her hair was a clip shaped like a pufferfish with its belly puffed out. For some reason, Luo Binhan found the hair clip profoundly inscrutable.
"Hey, little girl," he said with a plastered-on smile. "Want some of big brother’s snacks?"
Sunday tilted her head up, looking at him with innocent, clear blue eyes. Then she held out her arms and said, "Brother, hug."
Luo Binhan shrank behind Momo Luo in terror. "Is she trying to strangle me? Does she have tentacles under her skirt?"
Momo Luo laughed, pulled him out from behind, took a pack of pastries, and crouched down to hand it to Sunday. "Sunday, this is a specialty from Mr. Luo’s hometown!"
Sunday happily took the bag, tore it open, and started to eat. Luo Binhan watched her every move, but she seemed no different from an ordinary child.
When Sunday was about halfway done, Jing Huang appeared. He floated down from the top of the round hall and staggered around like Luo Binhan waking up on the first morning of a new school year.
"Yalei," he said, his face expressionless. "Where are we?"
"We’re in continuous tunneling, Captain. We just cleared the Trap Zone. Six more Star Layers until the Greatest Frontier."
"All of them Reason Zones?"
"The old maps show all of them are."
Jing Huang grunted. "In that case, I’m going back to sleep."
"Sleep my ass!" Luo Binhan rushed over and grabbed him by the hair. "You just kidnapped me on a whim! Spit it out, what’s the deal with your enemies?"
Jing Huang’s hair was pulled taut. He said with a look of displeasure, "You don’t know them."
"No shit, of course I don’t know them! What if they kill my family?"
"They won’t," Jing Huang said. "Because I don’t care about your family."
"What about Zhou Yu? You stayed at his place for a few days, didn’t you?"
Jing Huang impatiently pried his hand off. "You don’t need to worry about him. They could kill anyone, but they won’t go after him."
"Oh, so you people have principles," Luo Binhan said. "What is it, ’do no harm to doctors in a time of war’?"
Jing Huang ignored him and instead kicked Momo Luo. "Stop glowing. It’s so bright it hurts my eyes."
Momo Luo apologized profusely and dimmed the white light surrounding him. He said with a smile, "You seem to be in high spirits today, Mr. Xuanhong!"
"Piss off," Jing Huang replied, his face dark.
Just then, Sunday hopped off her chair and ran over to Jing Huang, her footsteps going PITTER-PATTER. She held up the pastry and asked, "Jing, Jing, want some?"
"No," Jing Huang said. "Go away. Don’t grab my clothes."
Sunday ignored him and spread her arms wide. "Jing, hug."
Jing Huang turned and fled.
The scene immediately descended into chaos. Jing Huang dashed around the circular hall with Sunday relentlessly chasing him, demanding a hug. The whole time, they both kept repeating their lines.
Momo Luo watched the scene with a beaming smile, sighing in satisfaction. "Everyone gets along so well..."
Luo Binhan felt his head swim. To get a grip, he sat down on a soft chair and casually picked a flower from a vase, sticking it in his mouth. He spat it out almost immediately—it was just an ornamental plant, and it had started screaming in his mouth.
To the right of the vase was a bookshelf. Luo Binhan glanced at it idly and saw a row of titles in the middle. As he looked at the words, translations automatically popped into his head:
*The Crying Durand People: The Imperial Sugar Mansion Disappearance Case*
*Swimming Fish and Flying Birds—A Comparative Study on the Folkloric Adaptations of Second-Class Combination Phenomena Across Various Star Realms*
*A Brief History of the Evolution of Alliance Aviation—A Holistic Study Based on the Top Ten Progenitor Civilizations and Predictions for Future Development*
*Primitives on a Raft to the Moon: Stone-Age Space Monkeys on Terrestrial Planets*
*How to Die Calmly in a Second-Class Civilization World*
*White-Haired Meow Meow Teaches You to Travel All Over the Inverted Star*
Luo Binhan stared at the titles for a moment, then rubbed his head forcefully.
"I’m fucking losing my mind," he muttered to himself.
He shifted his gaze to the top shelf. The books there looked thinner and plainer, like the monthly medical journals Zhou Yu subscribed to.
The first five titles were, in order: *Xunqu*, *Jingwei*, *Starlight Realm*, *Where Water Flows*, and *Famous Ship Award*.
Luo Binhan had no idea what these books were about, but at least their titles were refreshingly simple. He picked up the one closest to him, *Xunqu*.
When he opened the book, he found it was nothing like he’d imagined. Its pages were as smooth as plastic, and the characters writhed restlessly beneath the surface like magnetic filings. After he stared at a page for a few seconds, the text morphed into the familiar shapes of Chinese characters.
Luo Binhan looked at the inscription on the inside cover:
—When the darkness was yet unformed, he journeyed to the heart of the heavens and with this branch, stole the Star-Burning Fire.