2 – Beijing
translator: xiin
editor: alamerysl
Facts proved that Yuan Xi had really thought a little too much. Not only did he not need to settle the bill for the room, the beautiful service staff also told him that he could stay as long as he wanted because it was a long term guest room.
Yuan Xi let out a sigh of relief, but he had no intention of staying here for a long time. Although he couldn"t figure out how he had gotten here, it certainly was not his place. He had to hurry back - although he must have already missed his morning job, he still had two more jobs to get to, and he couldn"t delay any longer.
So he hurried to the door and left, but when he went out, he turned rigid, as though he had been locked in place by a body-freezing spell.
The scene before his eyes was too strange.
Tall buildings that pierced through the clouds, endless streams of cars flying in the air, numerous huge holographic projections, as well as those completely transparent shops that were floating in mid-air… One scene after another was very lively and bustling, but everything was still in order.
Yuan Xi was unable to pull himself together for a very long time. This was definitely not the city that he lived in. No… Everything here did not belong to the Earth in his memory. It was more like a futuristic society from the movies.
For a nervous creature like Yuan Xi, he found he was momentarily unable to accept this reality.
Having done the deed… was fine. Wasn"t he already eighteen years old? Being on the bottom… was also fine. It wasn"t as though he"d lost a chunk of meat, and not only did it not hurt, it even felt great.
But… What was the situation now? How did Lao Tzu inexplicably change locations? Didn"t he just have a wet dream? What was this? What was this?! Really, what was this?!
Yuan Xi felt deeply that there were 10,000 little miniature versions of him roaring and shouting in his thoughts, "Shocked, shocked, we are all shocked!".
At this point, a jewel-blue flying car suddenly stopped in front of him, and a young man with a head of golden hair appeared, enthusiastically asking, "Brother, do you need a taxi?"
Yuan Xi was still standing there pretending to be a block of wood. The golden haired youth raised his brows, and then continued quite naturally, "First time in Beijing? Get in the car, brother here will give you a 20% discount."
Bei… Beijing… Yuan Xi"s lips twitched fiercely. "Bei" your sister! He studied in Beijing for four years, how come he"d never seen this version Beijing before!
While he was stunned into silence, he had already been invited up by the little blue flying car that was acting as enthusiastic as its host. Yes, you did not see incorrectly, he was really invited up by the little flying car.
The seat next to the driver"s seat moved as though it was alive and slid under Yuan Xi"s b.u.t.t, and he was pulled into the car with a "whoosh".
Yuan Xi"s b.u.t.tocks: Wuwuwu, this place is really scary. Why am I always being bullied?
By the time Yuan Xi recovered his wits, he was already inside the flying car and traveling around this strange and unfamiliar Beijing.
The golden haired youth was a typical chatterbox, sounds ceaselessly coming from his mouth. Even if Yuan Xi did not answer, he could still continue on the conversation by himself without pause:
“Brother, where is your home planet? You look like you"re also from the federation, right? Speaking of which, I was shocked just like you when I first came to Beijing. This is one of the most prosperous planets in our federation. It"s really awesome. Compared with here, that home planet of mine is really a poor place where even rabbits won"t s.h.i.t…"
Yuan Xi could not bring himself to say a single word. He really wanted to tell himself that this was a dream, but the tragic thing was, his few brain cells would never be able to create such a vivid dream.
The golden haired youth was still chattering on, enthusiastically introducing the various districts and streets of "Beijing", and even including some gossip and trifles that Yuan Xi was unable to make heads or tails of.
Yuan Xi finally moved his gaze to the golden haired youth, and seeing his enthusiasm, his heart suddenly clicked back into place. If he recalled correctly, this flying car should be a taxi. Taxis could not be used for nothing, and Yuan Xi still remembered his words about a 20% discount.
That was to say, he had to pay when he got there. He still had his wallet with him, and it contained his living expenses for the month, so he had ten red one-hundred-yuan bills. If this was in the Beijing that he knew, he would not be afraid to take a taxi, but he didn"t even have a clue what kind of place this was. Could he even use his red bills?
This thought had just crossed Yuan Xi"s mind when he suddenly saw a big red bill.
That was precisely a one-hundred-yuan bill. But how big was it? It was as big as a building. Yuan Xi blinked, and only realized after a good while that this should be a 3D advertis.e.m.e.nt.
Sure enough, the golden haired youth opened his mouth and said: "Oh, oh, they are collecting ancient currency again. Is there really so much value in these outdated paper monies? The prices have been driven up to the sky. If an ordinary person had one or two of those, they would have enough to live on for life and not have to worry about food or clothing for their entire lives…"
Have enough to live on for life?!
Yuan Xi"s eyes brightened. He had constantly been struggling for precisely that. My G.o.d… Could it be that this was his financial compensation for his shock?
One red bill was enough for him to live and eat without worries, and he had ten whole bills in his pocket! Could it be that he had encountered the miracle of becoming rich and handsome in a single second?
Calm down, calm down. Yuan Xi pacified his heart that was thumping wildly over money. He first quietly stuffed the ten one-hundred-yuan bills into the small pocket of his underpants before he mentally prepared himself, intending to properly ask about what was going on.
Because the youth with golden hair spoke very standard mandarin, he had no problems understanding Yuan Xi when he opened his mouth to speak.
Seeing that Yuan Xi had finally responded to him, the golden haired youth spoke even more. Although the collection of ancient currency was a relatively distant topic for him, he could not block out the advertising bombardment that went on all day long, so he still knew a lot about this matter.
Yuan Xi managed to sum up the information he wanted with great difficulty from the barrage of words.
Ruling out the possibility that he was dreaming, hallucinating, or having a mental breakdown, then it could basically be determined that he had travelled forward in time to the future. And it was a future that was an undetermined amount of years later.
This was Beijing, but it was a Beijing that was completely different from the one he knew. This Beijing was no longer a city, but an entire planet, cla.s.sified as a M-cla.s.s terrestrial planet.
The golden haired youth had nothing but endless praise for Beijing, saying that it was very similar to his version of heaven, but that was all. He was unable to provide any other information about the planet. He just kept repeating that it was amazing, and boasting with a strong sense of pride that he was able to live here.
As for the collection of ancient currency, it was similar to what Yuan Xi had imagined. Just like in his own era, there would be people who were keen on collecting antiques. In this era, there was also a group of such people. And the brand-new one-hundred-yuan bill in his hand became an antique in an instant.
To be precise, he also seemed to be an antique.
Yuan Xi was slightly shocked. He once again gathered his thoughts and turned his gaze forward. The windows of this blue flying car provided a 360 degree view. He could see the scenes outside from any angle; the vivid 3D holograms, and the products introduced in them were things that he would not be able to imagine even in his dreams.
The latest high-speed flying machine that could be reduced to the size of a ring, the "cellphone" that had transparent screen and could freely transmit all kinds of information and even form itself in mid-air, and the smart robots that were advertising themselves by acting cute…
Yuan Xi"s lips twitched, and he pulled his eyes away from the intelligent robot with a beautiful maiden"s face and the body of a buff man. He was afraid that if he looked at it for another minute, his eyes would go blind.
The scene in front of him left Yuan Xi, who was a real local dumpling, with too much to watch. It was only when the little flying car finally stopped that he looked doubtfully at the golden haired youth.
The golden haired youth also seemed to be somewhat discontented, muttering, “This is the twelfth spot check of this month. This is Beijing, how could there possibly be so many cosmic pirates? The airs.p.a.ce defense system here is one of the best in the entire federation. If pirates can really sneak in, then we"ll really have seen a ghost…"
His mouth was complaining, but his movements were very well-behaved as he stopped at the designated place for inspection.
Yuan Xi did not take this little episode seriously. Those were cosmic pirates. How could it have even the slightest relationship to an outdated antique like him?
The roof of the little blue flying car opened up. The golden haired youth had just been complaining a moment ago, but now that he was facing the inspector wearing a dark blue uniform standing beside the car, his smile was as magnificent as a blooming flower. "Vice-captain Li, thank you for your hard work. We have already been checked twelve times, how could there be any problems? We have completed all the procedures and we"ve been very proper…"
The man called Vice-captain Li"s eyelids twitched. He glanced at him, but did not say much. Instead, he turned his gaze towards Yuan Xi.
“Please remove all defenses and hand over your ident.i.ty chips for verification." Vice-captain"s voice was stiff. Although the content of his words was polite, his tone was tired. Obviously, this was just a formality.
Yuan Xi blanked. He was a little confused… what defenses, what chips… Hold on. A bad hunch started to spring up from his heart.
It was a different era, but the methods to apprehend culprits seemed to still be basically the same? Regarding this "chip" thing, although he did not understand completely, he has watched movies before. It wouldn"t be some sort of identification card type thing, right?
He was a very good, model Chinese citizen! All of his identification papers were complete, but he didn"t even know what this chip thing looked like!
Seeing that he was silent, Vice-captain Li repeated what he had just said.
Yuan Xi pressed his lips together as countless thoughts churned in his mind.
The golden haired youth was really warm hearted. Seeing Yuan Xi like this, he quickly interrupted, "Brother, you don"t need to be nervous. Didn"t we have to pa.s.s the security checks when we came to Beijing? It"s the same thing. This is just a routine check that looks at your basic information. They don"t have permission to look into your personal information."
Yuan Xi was already screaming in his heart. Big brother, the key point was that he did not have a chip at all!
In this deadlocked situation, Vice-captain Li finally set aside his lazy att.i.tude and his face became stern. He brought something out and pointed it precisely at Yuan Xi. “A compulsory scan will be conducted in three seconds.”
Yuan Xi stared at the rectangular object in the Vice-captain"s hand, and his lips twitched. Big brother, what are you doing pointing a remote control at me… Although he intellectually understood that a policeman would not bring out a remote control when he came out to handle matters, and there was a 80% chance that it was some sort of future edition, advanced weaponry, this shape was a little too dramatic…
Compared with his calmness, the golden haired youth"s expression was frightened. He hurriedly urged Yuan Xi: “You… You should hurry up and agree. This, this could be fatal."
Yuan Xi expressionlessly looked at the golden haired youth, then turned his head to Vice-captain Li and said stiffly, "I don"t have…"
once again, i"m translating this as a teaser and most likely won"t translate the entire novel. if you"re interested in picking it up and taking it over completely, or even just joining the current team that"s translating it, either as a translator or an editor, please let me know via the comments or
also, the big red one-hundred-yuan bill .