Chapter 233: Teaching Visit Day Ends
Fourth day morning of the Production Escort Ship teaching visit, outside the spaceport of the Fourth Production Escort Ship.
Xiang Chuan yawned while sitting on the bench in the waiting room, looking completely exhausted as if they hadn’t slept at all, in stark contrast to the spirited Class Eight students around them.
Class President Lu Daiqing was startled by their appearance and asked worriedly, “Classmate Xiang Chuan, what’s wrong? Did you not sleep well last night? Or are you feeling unwell?”
Before the person involved could respond, Chou Manman sitting next to them couldn’t help laughing. “Not at all. Last night, Xiang Chuan wanted to buy some beef offal and rice from Chief Steward An Jing and Manager Wu. But after messaging the two managers at night, especially Chief Steward An Jing, they kept chatting with them for a long time about the edible processing of beef offal. Xiang Chuan couldn’t find a chance to interrupt, and Chief Steward An Jing dragged the conversation on until past four o’clock.”
“That’s because they’re dumb.” Ainuo mocked harshly. “If you want to buy something, you can wait until today to prepare it. The agricultural products logistics chain on the Production Escort Ship is very mature. Maybe if you tell the two managers when you wake up in the morning, the stuff will already be prepared in the cargo hold and ready to return to the Main Ship with the shuttle we’ll take later.”
“I was just worried I’d forget when I woke up in the morning. Thanks to you all, I haven’t gotten enough sleep these past few days, and now I have to catch the shuttle flight this morning… Yawn…”
Xiang Chuan shook their head while yawning, truly too sleepy to stay awake, and directly leaned on Ouyang Yating’s shoulder on the other side, their whole body going limp.
“Don’t sleep, it’s almost our turn to board.”
Ouyang Yating gently pushed Xiang Chuan, but Xiang Chuan, severely sleep-deprived, couldn’t hear a word. They mumbled a few inaudible words from their mouth, only a horizontal lie away from falling into dreamland.
At that moment, the homeroom teachers leading the group began organizing the students from each class to line up, preparing to board the shuttle that had already entered the port.
Seeing this, Ouyang Yating pushed Xiang Chuan’s shoulder harder. “Alright, stop it, Club President. Time to board.”
“Nooo… Mom, let me sleep a bit longer…”
“Who’s your mom!” Ouyang Yating abruptly stood up, causing Xiang Chuan to flop entirely onto the bench.
The commotion woke Xiang Chuan up a bit. They looked blankly at the Class Eight crowd holding back laughter, pointed at Ouyang Yating who had walked to the front of the line, and asked, “What’s wrong with her?”
“Hahaha!!” Nancy couldn’t help bursting into laughter. She went forward and pulled Xiang Chuan up from the chair, laughing. “Yating’s fine, she was just annoyed by her own unfilial sixteen-year-old daughter. Alright, hurry up and get ready to line up, or you’ll make your ‘good mom’ blow a fuse again.”
Nancy’s words made the surrounding Class Eight crowd unable to hold back their chuckles, but seeing Ouyang Yating’s menacing glare from the front of the line, they didn’t dare laugh out loud like Nancy and could only cover their mouths while their shoulders shook nonstop.
This behavior from the Class Eight crowd left the students from Class Seven and Class Nine on both sides of the line baffled: What new antics was Class Eight up to now?
——
Third Fleet Main Ship, outside the spaceport.
After groggily disembarking from the shuttle, the oncoming warm breeze nearly made Xiang Chuan collapse into sleep again. Fortunately, Ainuo, Liang Gong, and Chou Manman, who had been watching them closely, quickly steadied their body and escorted them all the way to the port exit.
On the evening of the third day of the visit, the school had already notified all students’ parents to come to the spaceport to pick up the students. Since it was a weekend, the students could immediately enjoy a brief rest upon returning to the Main Ship, regroup their spirits to face the visit summary report they would have to deal with after returning to school.
Weekends were also the time when residents who normally worked on Production Escort Ships and Military Escort Ships came to the Main Ship to relax and have fun. The central spaceport of the Main Ship was docked full of small shuttles, making the drowsy Xiang Chuan think they were facing a 21st century urban intersection during early morning rush hour or evening rush hour.
There were on average more than 350 first-year high school students, and modern cars weren’t that expensive. Most parents were willing to get up early in the morning to pick up their kids, then take them to play nearby or have a good meal at Yue Xiang Restaurant. The hover cars picking up children filled the entire exit hover zone, making the already crowded spaceport exit even more chaotic on weekends.
Fortunately, the Main Ship’s central spaceport was accustomed to handling such situations. They divided the waiting platform at the end of the exit into upper, middle, and lower branches, with three boarding gates per branch.
Modern people could solve over ninety percent of their travel needs with just a personal terminal, so the entire exit had hardly any people like those in 21st century platforms or stations carrying large and small bags waiting for cars. Without the luggage issue, boarding was very fast.
Xiang Chuan was supported by Liang Gong and Chou Manman standing in front of the waiting area at the exit, fuzzily sending their location to the family driver before clinging to Chou Manman’s arm like a koala.
Finally, the three of them, along with Ouyang Yating who couldn’t stand by any longer, worked together with hands and feet to stuff Xiang Chuan into the Xiang Family’s luxurious car. The car was AI-controlled and driven. After confirming Xiang Chuan was in the car, it immediately deployed the seatbelt to secure the head-back big-sleeping Xiang Chuan and smoothly drove toward the Xiang Family Mansion.
——
Evening, in the Xiang Family Mansion.
When Xiang Chuan woke up in their own room, they were completely dazed.
Huh? Wasn’t I at the Production Escort Ship’s spaceport? When did I get back? When did I fall asleep back in my room?
They were stunned for a full five minutes before piecing together some fragmented information from their spotty memories.
Simply put, Da Xing had made a great contribution at home. After the pickup car delivered them to the Xiang Chuan Mansion, Da Xing detected that Xiang Chuan had fallen asleep in the car. The posture of Xiang Chuan sleeping in the chair triggered Da Xing’s health protection assistance function. It directly carried Xiang Chuan out of the car all the way to their bedroom, and even thoughtfully helped them remove their coat and tucked them in.
Xiang Chuan shook their head, yawned as they got out of bed, and went into the bathroom for a simple wash-up.
They were now very glad that they had returned in the morning just after their parents, Xiang Xue, and Lin Ming’s breakfast time, so when Da Xing carried them through the living room, they weren’t subjected to stares from the four.
Though it was extremely likely that Dad, Mom, and little sister already knew about it. Xiang Chuan looked helplessly at the glass mirror in front of them.
Because TV series were a godsend for killing time, aside from Xiang Qi who was often nowhere to be seen, the Xiang Family members would gather in the live broadcast room after meals on weekends to watch dramas with Xiang Xue. Sometimes when watching got tiring, Xiang Chuan would go to the kitchen to prepare some snacks, and then Xiang Xue and Lin Ming would follow, pointing the live stream lens at the Xiang Family Kitchen to share scenes of Xiang Chuan cooking.
Therefore, the conclusion was: When Da Xing delivered Xiang Chuan to their room, Dad, Mom, little sister, plus Lin Ming were all in the live broadcast room watching dramas.
Glancing at the time, 5:32 PM. Good grief, rounding it off, they had slept nearly half a day.
But this nap had some effect; at least Xiang Chuan’s mind was much clearer now. Thinking about how they had called Ouyang Yating “mom” at the spaceport and clung to Liang Gong or Chou Manman’s arms like a koala, Xiang Chuan even felt an impulse to just drop out of school next week.
Too socially dead.
Xiang Chuan left the room lost in wild thoughts and arrived at the restaurant. At that moment, Xiang Xue, Lin Ming, and Mr. and Mrs. Xiang Weiguo were also coming out of the live broadcast room.
As soon as they saw Xiang Chuan, Xiang Xue and Lin Ming’s eyes lit up instantly: “Sister/Xiang Chuan sis! Food!”
Xiang Chuan: …
Fine, there were gluttons at home who needed feeding too. Xiang Chuan thought of the class full of gluttons who were nearly addicted to being fed, and expressionlessly dumped all the recipes they had saved to their terminal from the Fourth Production Escort Ship canteen onto Little Chef.
Xiang Chuan: I’ve bought the rice for you. Go to Little Chef for meals. Your sister just wants to eat and wait for death!
