Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 95
“Please be careful, madam.”
The staff at Olympus Spaceport was diligently providing attentive service to travelers as usual. When he saw a middle-aged woman stepping out of the cabin, he instinctively went forward to assist her and politely greeted her.
The “madam” he referred to gave him a graceful smile. Her well-maintained fingers rested on the staff member’s forearm, like a noblewoman accepting a knight’s help. “Thank you, sir,” she said, “but I hope the term ‘madam’ on Olympus doesn’t carry the same meaning as I understand it.”
The staff member’s face turned red with embarrassment. “Ve… very sorry, madam… I mean, miss.”
Only then did the woman withdraw her intense gaze.
“Ah, Jolene, come on now. You’re not a twenty-year-old girl anymore. Why are you so particular about these titles?” A man followed her out of the cabin. A cane hung from his wrist, and his hair was meticulously groomed. He was dressed in a suit that complemented the woman’s vintage attire. If she hadn’t denied being married just now, anyone would have mistaken them for a traveling couple!
“Shut up, Kepler. If people think we’re married, I might as well jump into a spaceship’s turbine engine and die!”
“Not to mention how terrible that would be, the cleanup afterward would be a real headache. You should choose another way to die that doesn’t trouble others.”
As soon as they disembarked, they started bickering. The staff believed more that they were enemies than a couple. They bantered back and forth until they accidentally bumped into a young man wearing glasses.
“Oh, sorry,” Jolene said, stopping her verbal battle with her companion to check on the young man she had bumped into. “Are you hurt?”
“No, it’s fine,” the young man replied with a gentle smile, taking off his glasses to check for damage before putting them back on. “I’m not that easily hurt, madam.”
Miss Jolene wanted to correct his wording, but the young man’s companion—a serious-looking girl—came up. “The car is still waiting for us, Doctor,” she said in a stern voice.
“Alright, alright, we’re going,” the young man said, clearly resigned to the girl’s urging. He gave Jolene another smile, nodded in farewell, and followed the serious girl away.
Jolene watched them disappear into the crowd. “Did you hear that, Kepler?” she said to her companion. “She called him ‘Doctor’. So young and already a doctor, how impressive.”
“If you start working hard now, you could be a doctor in ten years too, I guarantee.”
“Hmph! You always know how to mock me!”
The two continued their earlier quarrel as they walked toward the immigration checkpoint. The staff checked their documents. “Welcome to Olympus, Ms. Jolene Cavendish, Mr. Erwin Kepler,” he said, turning on the green light to let them pass.
They had been bickering like enemies, but now Jolene seemed to let go of her grudge. She didn’t argue further. Instead, she took Kepler’s arm and walked toward the spaceport exit like a lady escorted by a gentleman.
“It’s been a long time since I came to Olympus. The spaceport looks more beautiful,” Jolene said, glancing around. “It wasn’t this luxurious before.”
“The changes outside should be even bigger,” Kepler said. “I wonder what the underground market looks like now. I’d love to see it.”
“You’re feeling nostalgic, Kepler. Nostalgia means you’re getting old.”
“You’re no different. Look who’s talking.”
Their sparks flew again, but Jolene suddenly let go of Kepler’s hand and ran off, quickly disappearing into the crowd. Kepler adjusted his hat and hurried after her, but Jolene was nowhere to be seen. He looked around until he found her near the spaceport exit.
Jolene was looking around frantically, like a mother searching for her lost child.
“What’s wrong with you!” Kepler grabbed her arm. “Did you see someone who owes you money?”
“Damn it, shut up. How do you know what I saw!” Jolene snapped. “I almost found him. I saw him just a moment ago, and then he vanished!”
Kepler was baffled. “Who was it?”
“Ah, there! Look!” Jolene pointed. Kepler saw two young men walking side by side out of the exit. One had silver hair, the other black hair. The latter seemed familiar to Kepler, and after thinking for a while, he remembered seeing him at the Portia Casino in Neo Venice. He hadn’t expected to meet him again on a distant planet. It was quite a coincidence. After a moment, he realized the young man resembled someone else, a friend he hadn’t seen in a long time.
“He’s just like Figaro,” he muttered.
The young men hailed a flying car and left the spaceport, disappearing into the sky.
Jolene smacked him on the back. “You idiot! What are you standing there for! Don’t you claim to know many people in Olympus? Find out who that guy is! Hurry!”
“These fake IDs from Neo Athens work well,” Alois remarked, looking at the small card in his hand. To facilitate their travel, Neo Athens had given them special fake IDs. Alois’s card read “Jacques Turing”, and Joshua’s card read “Joshua Euler”.
“I used this name on Olympus,” Joshua explained. “I have a bunch of documents proving my identity.”
“I remember you also have a property here,” Alois recalled Joshua mentioning his residence on Olympus several times.
“Want to see it?”
“Why not?”
Joshua put his ID back in his pocket, took Alois’s hand, and boarded a flying car. “Avalon 27,” he told the car. The self-driving car recognized the location and took off, carrying them into the sky.
As they left the spaceport, Alois finally saw the true face of Olympus. The land was a vast expanse of red, with silver-gray buildings nestled among the rolling hills, forming several commercial centers. The streets flowed like mercury over the red earth. Olympus was windy, so tall windbreak walls surrounded the major cities. Trees were scarce because the soil wasn’t suitable for plants. All the oxygen was produced by bacteria that absorbed carbon dioxide and emitted oxygen. Towers housing the bacteria dotted the city, like a forest of steel pointing at the sky.
The landscape resembled Mars, the brother of Old Earth, the fourth planet of the solar system. That land was also red. In the past, before humanity left the solar system, Mars was seen as a new paradise, humanity’s second heaven. Perhaps Olympus was influenced by this, as many of its place names were taken from Old Earth mythology. “Olympus” itself was the land of the gods in one of those myths.
The car flowed like mercury to the edge of the city. Alois leaned against the window, eagerly taking in the surroundings like an insatiable, curious child.
“This area is Takamagahara, Olympus’s industrial zone.”
“See the east? That’s Penglai, the only place with a river.”
“We’re heading to Eden now, one of the few areas with greenhouse parks.”
Joshua subtly played the tour guide with a doting smile on his face. Thank goodness, Alois seemed to like this place. Contrary to its name, Olympus was no paradise but a haven for the underworld. But Alois didn’t know that. It was great that he liked it here.
The car left the bustling city, heading to the suburbs, and ascended a red hill scattered with villas. Joshua’s residence was likely one of them.
Alois whistled. “The rich neighborhood. You must be loaded.”
“If you have to live somewhere, might as well live comfortably.”
Joshua directed the car to stop at a security checkpoint by the road. He lowered the window and greeted the guard. “Good day, Mr. Fez.”
The guard, standing straight, saluted him. “It’s been a while since you were here, Mr. Euler!”
“Yes, I was away on some business.”
The guard glanced at Alois in the car. “Is this your friend?”
“Yes. Jacques Turing.”
Alois, slow to react to his fake name, just smiled foolishly at the guard.
“By the way, there’s something you should know,” the guard said. “Recently, an entertainment company plans to buy the land on the hill to build a large amusement park. They’ve been persuading the residents to sell. They’ll probably visit your place in the next few days.”
Joshua nodded. “Got it.” He bid farewell to the guard and directed the car to continue, soon arriving at a villa halfway up the hill.
<<< || Table of Contents || >>>
Kinky Translations 