It seemed like he had returned to his university self, in the dormitory with eight bunk beds, where only Li Haojun and two other roommates were present. The previous exams had left his mind in a fog; he had completed so many Chinese, math, and physics papers that the volume was overwhelming, and some he hadn't even had time to finish.
似乎回到了大学时代的自己,在八人上下铺床位的寝室里,只有李皓珺和另外两位室友.之前的考试让脑子浑浑噩噩,做了好多的语文,数学还有物理卷子,题量有些大,有的甚至没有时间答完.
At that moment, military personnel from the Armed Forces Department pushed open the door and entered to screen recruits. The Armed Forces personnel took one look at Li Haojun and disqualified him immediately—his height wasn't sufficient. He felt secretly relieved. The other two were selected. One of them left the dormitory, presumably for the next step of the medical examination. It seemed there was a requirement for those who were selected: their kidneys had to be compatible for transplant between them. A strange requirement, and rather unsettling.
这时有武装部的军事编制人员推开房门进入,前来筛选兵员.武装部的人只看了一眼就把李皓珺取消资格了,因为身高不够,他暗自庆幸.另外两个人被选中了,有一个离开了寝室可能去做下一步的体检,好像被选中的人有一个要求是他们的肾脏能够在他们之间互换,很奇怪的要求,也有些瘆人.
The other roommate was a tough one. He sat on the upper bunk, hands clenched together. Li Haojun looked closer and saw that, to avoid military service, he had bitten off a section of his own index finger. Li Haojun made a gesture, calling him to lean in, then leaned close to his ear and whispered,
另一个室友是个狠人,他坐在上下铺的二层,双手攥在一起,李皓珺仔细一看,他为了逃兵役,把自己的食指咬掉了一截.李皓珺打了一个手势,叫他把耳朵凑过来,然后趴在他耳边用气声说,
"That won't work. The severed piece of finger has to disappear, otherwise they can still reattach it if they operate on you now."
"你这样不行,掉下来的那半截手指必须得消失,不然现在给你做手术还能接上."
The other person agreed wholeheartedly with Li Haojun's suggestion and reached out, holding the severed finger up to him.
对方很认同李皓珺的建议,伸手把那半截手指递到了他的面前,
"Help me destroy it,"
"你帮我把它毁掉吧,"
"Huh?" Li Haojun agreed and reached out to take it, but his hand trembled and he dropped it on the floor. He stared wide-eyed, searching all over the ground, when he suddenly opened his eyes. What a strange dream.
"啊?"李皓珺答应着伸手接,手一哆嗦把它掉在了地上,瞪着眼睛满地寻找,这时睁开了眼睛,好奇怪的一个梦.
It must have been before dawn, but the night was still dark. The room was a bit chilly—the desert cooled down drastically at night, and he must have been woken by the cold.
应该是黎明前,但是夜还黑,屋子里有些凉,沙漠的夜间降温幅度有些大,自己应该是被冻醒了.
He went to relieve himself and came back, checking on Malaya. She had changed positions and was now sleeping on her side; she wasn't meditating anymore. He touched her feet—they were cold too. He had no choice but to fold the only blanket they had into a double layer, lie on his side, and wrap it around both of them.
去放了水再回来,查看了一下玛莱雅,她已经换了个姿势,现在是侧身睡眠了,应该不是在冥想了.摸了摸她的脚,也是有些凉,只好自己把唯一的毛毯叠成双层,也侧身躺着,包裹两个人.
This time it was a bit warmer. When Li Haojun opened his eyes again, it was already broad daylight. Malaya was sitting at the head of the bed, looking at him. Her hair was loose, still damp—she must have just washed it. Li Haojun stared blankly into Malaya's eyes, recalling the tall woman from his dream who had been pulling a suitcase, inviting him to board a plane.
这次暖和了一些,等李皓珺再睁开眼睛,已经天色大亮了,玛莱雅正坐在床头看着自己,她的头发披散,还散着潮气,应该是刚洗过.李皓珺愣愣点看着玛莱雅的眼睛,回想着刚才梦中那个手拉行李箱,身材高挑的女性,她正在邀请自己登机.
"Who is she?" Malaya asked,
"她是谁?"玛莱雅问,
"I don't know. In the dream she was my former colleague, but I don't remember any former colleagues,"
"我不知道,在梦里她是我的前同事,但是我不记得任何前同事,"
"Do you like her?"
"你喜欢她吗?"
"Heh, I don't know either. I don't even know her, so how can I talk about whether I like her or not,"
"呵呵,我也不知道,我甚至都不了解她,怎么能谈到喜不喜欢,"
"Hmph, isn't she my sister?"
"哼,她不是我姐姐吗?"
"No, she seems taller…" Li Haojun was comparing with his dream memories, and before he could finish answering, he noticed Malaya was staring at him, examining him. Only then did he realize—was she hinting at something, or did she know something.
"不是啊,她似乎更高挑..."李皓珺比较着自己梦中的记忆,还没等回答说完,发现玛莱雅正盯着自己查看,这才意识到,是否她意指什么,或者她知道什么.
"Then? Was it you who projected that dream for me?" Li Haojun asked tentatively.
"那?是你给我映射的那个梦吗?"李皓珺试探着问,
"No," Malaya replied briefly and playfully, then stood up, turned around, flipped her long hair, and walked away. The tips of her hair landed right on Li Haojun's face, carrying a faint fragrance, leaving him with a face full of confusion. You could never figure out women.
"不是,"玛莱雅简短调皮地回答后站起转身甩了一下长发离开,发梢正好打在李皓珺的脸上,还带着淡淡的清香,留下他一脸的疑惑,猜也猜不透女人.
After breakfast, Li Haojun received his new work instructions: continue attending the exhibition today. However, the company's testing equipment he had installed was damaged and had been collected; a new one would be sent here, and he would need to install it upon arrival.
吃过早餐,李皓珺新的工作指令已经传达,今天继续参加展会,只是他所安装的公司检测设备损坏了,已经回收,将会发送一台新的到这里,到达后还需要他进行安装.
Li Haojun was still a bit puzzled—a liquid nitrogen leak shouldn't have damaged the equipment in the high-rise building, should it? It was just a coincidence that the hazardous materials truck had crashed right into the plaza in front of that building.
李皓珺还有点疑惑,液氮泄漏不至于对高楼里的这台设备造成损坏啊?只是有点巧合,那台危险品挂车正好撞到了那一栋高楼前广场.
They settled the bill and left this remote small hotel on the outskirts of the city, taking a taxi with Malaya to the exhibition venue. The city seemed to have returned to normal. Flipping through local news, yesterday's accident was already all over the feeds. Li Haojun tried to report his safety to Qin Wenjing and Kesiya far away, but found they had no idea what had happened here. Strange—did local news really stay confined to just the local area?
结账离开这个市郊偏僻的小旅店,和玛莱雅一起坐上出租车赶往展会现场.似乎这座城市又恢复了正常,翻开当地新闻,昨天的事故已经刷屏了,李皓珺尝试给远方的覃文静和凯西娅报平安,却发现她们根本不知道这边发生了什么,奇怪,本地新闻就真的只局限在本地了吗?
At his company's booth in the exhibition, Li Haojun had lost interest in talking to visitors. He held his terminal device and kept searching for local conditions. He couldn't understand why news of such a serious local hazardous material leak hadn't spread elsewhere, and he was curious why people in the city center looked young, beautiful, and elegant, while the residents in the suburbs seemed to be barely surviving.
展会上在自己公司的展位里,李皓珺对于与来访人员交谈的兴趣不大了,拿着自己的终端设备一直在搜索当地情况,他不太理解为什么那么严重的本地有害物质泄漏事故的新闻没有传播到其他地方,也好奇为什么市中心的人们看起来年轻,美貌有气质,而市郊的居民却是似乎在苟延残喘.
Although the U.S. federal government was gone, the state governments should still be maintaining their administrative functions. Li Haojun found state-level public news organizations, but their condition was worrying. Some had limited resources and almost no reach or influence; others, supported by different local sponsors, seemed to have drifted away from public welfare and credibility. The remaining self-media outlets only circulated within local circles, their attention focused more on their own living conditions, completely uninterested in what was happening in the wealthy downtown areas.
虽然美国联邦政府不在了,但是州政府应该还在保持着管理机能,李皓珺查到了州级别的公立新闻机构,但是它们状况堪忧,有的资源有限,几乎没有什么传播和影响力,有的受到不同地方赞助者支持似乎偏离了公众福祉和公信力,而剩下的自媒体都是在本地圈层中传播,他们的注意力更多地在于他们自身的生活状况,对于市中心的富人区发生了什么根本不感兴趣.
So what was the wealthy class's reaction to all this? Li Haojun didn't know any affected wealthy people, and they hadn't posted any post-disaster reflections on their private social media. So Li Haojun thought of contacting the government's public security and rescue departments to check for casualties, but they refused on the grounds of personal privacy. He then tried to learn about the registration of the truck involved, but was told the incident was under investigation and details couldn't be disclosed.
那么富人阶层对这件事有什么反响呢?李皓珺不认识任何受影响的富人,他们也没有私人社交媒体发布什么劫后余生的感慨.于是李皓珺想到了找到政府治安和救援部门查询是否有伤亡,但是对方以涉及个人隐私为由拒绝了.他又想了解肇事半挂车注册情况,又被告知事件正在调查不便透露.
Ah, what a perfect display of bureaucratic obstruction. Yet such dismissal of citizens' right to know didn't provoke any local protests—it was still an outsider who cared about the details.
啊,多么完美的耍官腔啊.可是这样的搪塞公民知情权居然没有本地人抗议,还是一个外地过来的人在关心事件细节.
Having hit a wall, Li Haojun thought about those young people at yesterday's noon news, the excitement on and off stage at that game awards ceremony, and he let it go. A degenerate generation raised on electronic drugs—how could you expect them to monitor their government and defend their rights? They probably didn't even remember their ancestors' Declaration of Independence.
碰了一鼻子灰的李皓珺想想昨天中午新闻里边台上台下那些年轻人在游戏颁奖会上的兴奋表现,自己也就释然了.被电子毒品喂大的堕落一代,怎么还能指望他们监督他们的政府,捍卫他们的权力呢?可能他们连他们祖上的独立宣言都不记得了吧.
Looking up with a sense of melancholy toward the window, the distant desert held its eternal earth, blue sky, and white clouds. Li Haojun got up and walked to the window, cracking it open. Though the summer wind outside was hot, he still wanted to breathe natural air. He turned around, about to return to his seat, when he noticed Malaya was smiling at him.
怅然抬起头望向窗外,远方沙漠里是永远不变的大地,蓝天和白云.李皓珺起身走到窗边开了一条缝,虽然夏日里外面的风有些热,但是他还是想呼吸自然的空气.转身刚想回到自己的座椅,这才发现玛莱雅正笑眯眯地看着他,
"What's wrong, Ethan? Not happy?"
"怎么了伊森?不开心了吗?"
"Heh," Li Haojun laughed at himself and shrugged,
"呵呵,"李皓珺自嘲一笑,摊了摊手,
"I, heh, I'm overthinking it," he knew that sometimes Malaya knew what he was thinking. Maybe she had sensed his gloomy mood just now,
"我,呵呵,想多了,"他知道玛莱雅有时候知道他在想什么,可能刚才自己的气氛郁闷都被她知道了,
"No, I think you're just curious about the locals' living conditions. Actually, this is a continuation of your judgment from last night—when we were walking before dinner, those old men watching us. Your mind wants to understand their living situations so you can better judge their behavior and the potential threat level to me."
"不,我觉得你只是好奇本地人的生活情况,其实这是你对于昨晚对于晚餐前我们散步时侯,那些观察我们的老男人的判断的延续,你的脑子里想要了解他们的生活状况,这样更有助于你判断他们的行为,和对我的潜在威胁等级."
"Oh," Li Haojun replied, gazing into Malaya's large eyes. The ethereal quality in her eyes made him feel both close to her and far away at the same time.
"哦,"李皓珺答应着,望着玛莱雅那双大眼睛,她那眼中的空灵,让自己觉得和她的距离既亲近又遥远.
Seeing Li Haojun's confusion, Malaya smiled and explained,
见李皓珺有些疑惑,玛莱雅一笑解释说,
"I checked the company data. The impoverished population around Las Vegas isn't very aggressive. The data suggests they've been domesticated. It's just unclear whether it's through drugs, gene editing, or artificial selection."
"我查了公司资料,拉斯维加斯这一带贫民人口攻击性不强,看数据似乎他们已经被驯化了.只是不清楚是通过使用药物,还是基因编辑,或者是人为筛选."
（Translated by ChatGPT）