Tian Xingjian had an easygoing nature. Back when he had to escape on the battlefield, he had stayed in all sorts of places. Here, at least, there was a room and a bed. He simply tidied the bed, put a relatively clean cloth on it, and fell asleep as soon as he lay down. Unconsciously, he didn’t know how long he had slept. Fatty was suddenly awakened by the violent shaking of the transport ship. He got up and walked past several beds full of broken parts to the porthole. Looking out, he saw the transport ship slowly ascending under the effect of the anti-gravity device. It was dark, already nighttime.
Fatty felt a little hungry. He had slept for at least seven or eight hours. Checking the time, he saw that it was already ten o’clock at night. He decided to go eat something in the restaurant and take the opportunity to see how this ship was doing. After all, he was somewhat worried that the ship would fall apart once in space, which would be disastrous. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on NovᴇlFɪre.ɴet
Besides the cargo hold and power cabin, the transport ship was divided into four floors. The bottom floor was the luggage hold, used for storing items like mechanical flying cars. The middle two floors were the crew rooms, and Tian Xingjian lived on the bottom floor near the luggage hold. The top floor contained the bar, restaurant, entertainment room, captain’s quarters, control room, and command room.
Fatty climbed the stairs all the way up. There were many crew members on this smuggling ship, all looking sturdy and wild. Most of them were gathered in the first-floor crew rooms, making a ruckus, gambling, drinking, and fighting. Some guys deliberately glared at the stowaway Fatty as he passed by, trying to startle him. Seeing Fatty’s terrified and honest expression, they laughed heartily as if they had won the lottery.
Fatty, like a sheep passing through a pack of wolves, finally reached the top floor. Although this floor looked shabby, it was much better than the two floors below. At least it was relatively clean. The restaurant was nicely arranged, and some crew members inside were eating and chatting softly, appearing peaceful and calm.
Fatty felt like he had moved from a noisy hell to a peaceful heaven. He shrugged in puzzlement. Without having done smuggling work, it was impossible to truly understand the thoughts of these crew members, who roamed the universe with their lives on the line. Smuggling was not easy. Besides evading patrols of various national space police, they had to be on constant alert for other smuggling ships and often encountered firefights due to route conflicts. The most significant threat, however, came from space pirates who could infiltrate anywhere. These pirates usually possessed space mecha, some even equipped with space energy cannons. They modified high-speed vessels themselves or bought decommissioned warships through certain channels. In terms of strength, they far outmatched smugglers. Hence, an ordinary smuggling ship would spare no expense in equipping long-range high-precision radar and speed-enhancing power systems, hoping to escape before pirates spotted them.
However, if pirates spotted the smuggling ship in advance and targeted it, the ship’s fate was essentially sealed. Transport ships could rarely match the speed of high-speed vessels. Most pirates would leave survivors, but if they took a liking to a particular ship, it meant a death sentence for everyone aboard. They were only interested in the ship, not the people.
Fatty paid ten times the price of food in the capital for a meal. While waiting for his order, a group of leaders clearly higher in status than the ordinary crew members entered the restaurant, escorting a woman. To Fatty’s surprise, there was a woman on this smuggling ship, and she was wearing a ship captain’s uniform. His curiosity piqued, he took a good look at the captain. She was between 18 and 25 years old. The broad age range was due to her breathtakingly beautiful and delicate face, though it bore no expression. Her slightly furrowed brow hinted at a bit of worry, making her appear more mature than her actual age.
The group sat down. Although the beautiful captain sat at the head of the table, no one spoke to her. The others chatted among themselves, breaking Fatty’s expectation that they would try to flatter the captain, especially since she was such an extraordinarily beautiful woman. This struck Fatty as very strange.
His meal finally arrived an hour later. By then, the restaurant was packed with crew members. Some glared at Fatty, who had a table to himself, but no one drove him away. It seemed this restaurant was a sanctuary from the crew’s violent tempers. They would rather fretfully circle around him and hint with their eyes, but none dared to step over the line. Fatty paid no mind to these guys, pretending to be oblivious as he slowly ate his meal. The crew could do nothing except watch him. After a while, a middle-aged, burly man dressed as a chef walked up to Fatty and coldly ordered, "Hurry up and eat, and get out once you’re done."
Fatty was taken aback. Looking at his nearly empty plate, he nodded repeatedly with a terrified expression, "Okay, okay, I’ll finish up right away, right away."
Earnestly requesting monthly votes. Where has the prestige of Fatty’s book fans gone? Look, I’m updating diligently; at least give me some hope! In Moscow, no less than 6000 characters every day. Yesterday was 8000! It’s the end of the month; friends with votes, please help me out. Let me see if there’s a chance to get into the top three.
(To be continued. To find out what happens next, log on to WWW.CMFU.COM. More Chapters are available. Support the author and read legally!)