They landed on blood-red soil. Before disembarking, Yaleriga pushed Luo Binhan into a small cylindrical cabin.
"What?" Luo Binhan asked.
"You need to change clothes." Yaleriga said, "The atmosphere here is mainly carbon dioxide and nitrogen, the gravity is too small, and there is a trace amount of harmful radiation."
Luo Binhan got into the cabin without saying a word. "Where are the clothes?" He looked around.
The hatch closed suddenly. Several thin rings fixed his hands, feet and waist respectively, and the surrounding metal inner wall squeezed towards him.
Luo Binhan screamed as usual, but a stream of water vapor immediately sprayed on his face, choking him and making him cough. Then his eyes were covered by some kind of soft plastic ring. He felt some mechanical arms moving around his body, making a small buzzing sound.
When he was thrown out, he found that he was wearing a gray and white jumpsuit. It feels a bit like satin, but much thicker, and the inside is bulging as if it is filled with air.
"The way you wear clothes here is quite interesting." Luo Binhan touched the fabric of the clothes and said, "Why isn't it made of alloy?"
Yaleriga turned to look at him in front of the cabin door. "Alloys are usually for combat armor," she said. "You won't get a chance to use them."
The huge hatch behind her pulled upward. Strong wind and red sand rushed in from the outside world. Luo Binhan immediately felt that his vision turned a little bluer.
He reached out and touched it, and found that his head was covered with a transparent blue membrane. It's light and thin, but feels pretty stiff.
"That's a memory armor that automatically detects environmental readings. Memory armor is often overly sensitive, so it's best not to touch it." Yaleriga said while he was touching it.
"Plate armor?" Luo Binhan froze as he tried to knock the blue film.
"Sheet, a synthetic element." Yaleriga corrected, "Its proton structure is very tight and cannot be formed in most natural environments. The special properties after polymerization are very suitable for use as armor."
Luo Binhan stared at her goat-like horns: "Why do you know so much?"
"I slept with a materials scientist." Yaleriga said lightly.
Luo Binhan was extremely envious. This emotion blinded his observation, and it was not until after leaving the spacecraft that he was shocked to realize that Yaleriga had not changed her clothes. Her clothes were scantily clad, with a gauze towel wrapped around her upper body and lower body. Luo Binhan had only seen such a hot outfit a few times on the beach during summer vacations.
He asked with even more admiration: "Is this your legendary skin radiation protection, body weight resistance to gravity, and plant-style photosynthetic respiration?"
Yaleriga smiled in the whistling red wind. "My armor is implanted on the inside of the skin, trachea and nerves," she said. "Do you want it too? I know who to contact to arrange the implant surgery. It's quick and doesn't hurt at all."
Luo Binhan was so frightened that he shook his head desperately.
They walked across a black metal overpass, and in front of them was the Fishbone, which was billowing smoke. Viewed from the ground, it towers like a mountain, covered with a layer of scale-like armor, and the material looks a bit like charcoal. Those shells were riddled with holes and looked in very bad condition. They were still falling powder. Luo Binhan regretted following them.
Before entering the Fishbone, he looked back behind him, and for the first time he truly saw the appearance of the Silence with his naked eyes.
A ship as dark and lightless as the deep sky.
It was only one-third the size of the Fishbone, but it was still huge to Luo Binhan, so its overall outline could barely be seen at such a close distance. The armor covering the surface of the spacecraft was as scattered and harmonious as bird feathers and fish scales. Luo Binhan didn't know their specific functions. He could only vaguely feel a complex and cold beauty like metal from parts of the spacecraft.
Yaleriga pulled him into the Fishbone.
There were several people lying scattered in the corridor of the spaceship with the red light flashing. It was not appropriate to say that they were people because they came in all shapes. The air was filled with white mist. They were all wearing jumpsuits similar to Luo Binhan. Luo Binhan could only tell. They had limbs just like him, but it was impossible to tell what they looked like.
Yaleriga led him to a hall with monitors and consoles. It was in the shape of a regular octagon, surrounded by floating screens emitting blue light, and a strange buzzing sound echoed in the air. In the center of the hall is a crystal pillar that emits silvery white light.
This place is more like the bridge of a spaceship in Luo Binhan's imagination than the rotunda of the Silence.
Jing Huang and Momolo stood farthest from the entrance. The former has a person under his feet.
As a senior second-generation rich man, Luo Binhan soon discovered that that person's clothes were much more elegant than the others - the fabrics were smoother, the colors were more complex, and they even had some patterns that might be more than just decorative.
Someone was tugging on Luo Binhan's hand. He lowered his head and saw Zhou Ba looking at him.
Luo Binhan immediately noticed that she was still equipped with the navy-style dress, white belt sandals, and unfathomable puffer hairpins. She was clean and tidy, with no red sand stained on her body.
"Lo, lo," she said, "the clothes are so ugly. Take them off, take them off."
Luo Binhan took a stinging breath, and then pushed her away firmly: "Don't always focus on appearance, it's too superficial."
Jing Huang started to kick the people under his feet.
"Where is the goods?" he asked coldly.
Momolo next to him sighed and said in a gentle tone: "Mr. Xuanhong, you can't be so rude to prisoners..."
The owner of the spaceship made a creaking sound under Jing Huang's feet. The syllables were very similar to human laughter, but Luo Binhan could tell from his newly learned language that it was a groan of pain. The prisoner turned his head towards Luo Binhan, revealing an inverted triangle face.
Luo Binhan thought that the facial features were roughly the same as his own, except that the skin was gray-white, with a texture like rough sandstone, and there were many coral-like things growing on the top of the head and face.
"Who are you?" he asked Jing Huang in an unfamiliar language.
Jing Huang immediately added another kick and said angrily: "I am your father."
"It's not good to lie, Mr. Xuanhong." Momolo interjected gently, "You can't give birth to a Tansang person."
Jing Huang ignored him and kicked the prisoner again. The owner of the Fishbone was sweating like he was being burned by fire, and red liquid oozed from his skin, which immediately condensed when exposed to the air. He said brokenly: "We are... Levidaya. What you did will be remembered..."
"Remember your mother." Jing Huang said, kicking his stomach.
"Our power is spread all around the alliance." The master's words trembled with pain, and there was a strange buzzing sound in his throat. "We, even the laws of the alliance cannot stop us..."
"You are talking nonsense," Jing Huang said, "I am robbing you. If you are legal, you will definitely lose a lot of money. Why should I rob the poor?"
The master's trembling body froze. His protruding eyes first stared at Jing Huang, then slowly turned to Yaleriga, moving back and forth between the two.
He suddenly stopped moaning. "Silence," he said, "the ship of the black swallow, the jade of the black rainbow, you are silence."
Jing Huang kicked him again: "Ji, your mother. Stop talking about these things. Where is the goods? If you don't tell me, my ashes will be raised for you."
“Mr. Death reincarnates endlessly. What a lonely and gentle world this is! Life is as lonely as the stars, and every life is worth cherishing..."
"Cherish your mother." Jing Huang said, "Last time you destroyed three satellites just by shining random light. If you hadn't run faster, you would have got in. You are such an unlucky thing, you know how to commit crimes against the wind."
He angrily kicked the owner of the Fishbone again.
The master groaned and howled miserably. Luo Binhan could no longer sit back and watch this heinous act. He quickly stepped forward and pulled Jing Huang aside.
"Brother Jing, Brother Jing, it's okay." He patted Jing Huang on the shoulder and said, "The ashes can be raised, so don't ask me. If you want to make a name for yourself these days, who is not an iron-blooded orphan? Don't even mention it. Forget it, don’t mention it. The grudges in the world have nothing to do with my mother."
Jing Huang impatiently knocked his hand off: "My mother is big, but Tan Sang has no mother. They breed them together and hand them over to the army after they are born. Don't stop me from extracting a confession."
"No," Luo Binhan said, "I'll do it, I'm the best at this."
Jing Huang looked at him suspiciously.
"Of the children of my relatives who have gone missing while playing, which one of them should I not trick someone into catching?"
Finally Luo Binhan got permission. He sat cross-legged in front of the owner of the Fishbone. He wanted to smoke a good-quality cigarette, but he didn't have any. He could only take out his silver lighter filled with loneliness and play with it.
"Brother, is it hard?" he asked quietly to the owner of the Fishbone.
The other person stared at him blankly. Luo Binhan took this as acquiescence, so he sighed deeply.
"It's okay to be miserable." He patted the middle part of the other person's body sadly and said, "This is life."
