Chapter 170: First Time Leaving The Mothership
The day of the visit activity.
Xiang Chuan stood in the crowd, yawning.
First Year High School students were now lining up by class to board the transport ship, most of them looking like Xiang Chuan, with faces showing they hadn’t woken up yet.
Because it was only six in the morning now.
To ensure that this three-day visit activity would give students enough learning time, the grade directors of the two grades at Nongda Affiliated High School directly waved their hands and scheduled the assembly time at six in the morning, so they could arrive at the production escort ship around seven.
This way, teaching activities could start on time before the first class period in the morning.
When Xiang Chuan first saw this schedule, she couldn’t help but sigh: As expected from the affiliated school of Agricultural University; the emphasis on agricultural practical teaching compared to usual basic education is probably as big as the gap between 21st century university required courses and elective courses?
They never saw the grade director this proactive during usual basic classes!
However, since everyone generally gets up early, most students’ homes hadn’t reached breakfast time yet. Boarding students were better off; the principal specially arranged for the logistics department to have the canteen prepare some buns and steamed buns for the students. Day students, upon hearing this news, immediately contacted boarding classmates in their class to help pack two or three buns.
So now, the entire school front gate, as well as the school back gate where second year high school students were assembling, were filled with the aroma of buns.
Xiang Chuan had never seen a scene where everyone held a bun, because 21st century students’ takeout breakfasts were much richer than these: pancakes, glutinous rice, hot dry noodles…
Xiang Chuan silently looked at the roasted beef bun in her hand, silently wiping away a tear of bitterness in her heart: Early-rising corporate slaves and students still eat too poorly; her path to discovering gourmet food is still long and arduous.
Before long, Class Eight Grade One, where Xiang Chuan was, boarded the transport ship.
The air exhaust circulation inside the transport ship was still very powerful; even with everyone in the class holding a bun, there was no strange smell in the cabin.
Even after bringing out the scallion pork buns, there was no need to worry about the smell bothering people. Xiang Chuan thought, leaning on her chair.
This time, everyone brought little luggage; Xiang Chuan’s home only prepared her with change of clothes and daily necessities like toiletries. One reason was that this wasn’t about dealing with an unfamiliar environment, and the other was that the production escort ship side provided food and lodging. The principal had already greeted Yue Xiang Group in advance, having Xiang Chuan open temporary authorization for the two production escort ships, so in the canteens there, they could also use recipes provided by Xiang Chuan’s side. No need to worry about Nongda Affiliated High School students, whose tastes had been spoiled by the school canteen, A Bite of China Club Small Restaurant, and the off-campus Yue Xiang Restaurant, having trouble swallowing liquid food and solid food.
In short, compared to the previous field training, this visit activity was basically like a free trip for everyone.
Although Xiang Chuan promised to authorize a few more recipes not available in the canteen for the production escort ship side, the Class Eight Grade One crowd still felt very sorry before departure that they couldn’t mooch off Xiang Chuan’s home cooking anymore. (Xiang Chuan: No, brothers and sisters, are you only eyeing my lunch box?)
Then, a sentence from class president Lu Daiqing dispelled their small resentment: “Everyone, don’t forget, Classmate Xiang Chuan can’t control herself when facing fresh ingredients; maybe this time she’ll research some new recipe on the spot?”
The Class Eight crowd thought of various things during the field training and silently gave a thumbs up to their class president’s statement.
After all, Classmate Xiang Chuan really goes for it when there’s good ingredients!
Xiang Chuan, who had watched the whole thing in the group chat back then: Heh, do you think good ingredients are that easy to come across?
Around six fifteen, all classes of first year high school had boarded the transport ships.
The protection zone they went to for the previous field training was in the main ship southern region, while this time they were heading to the spaceport used for movement within the fleet range.
The large port was located in the administrative area on the north side of the main ship, where ten large shuttles were docked, usually only used when intersecting with other fleets or encountering small supply space stations left by other fleets on the route; the small shuttles at the central region port were used more often.
The Third Fleet mainly conducts agricultural research, so even residents settled on the main ship often go to the production escort ships for work.
At this time, the residential area and commercial district of the Third Fleet Main Ship were all quiet, but as the Nongda Affiliated High School transport ship gradually approached the port, Xiang Chuan saw through the window that surrounding transport ships or floating cars were gradually increasing.
After the transport ship arrived at the external traffic facility docking area, first year high school students followed the grade director’s instructions, entering the port class by class in an orderly manner; their luggage would be packed by class and handed over to the same short-range shuttle to be transported together to the Second Production Escort Ship.
Xiang Chuan curiously looked around at this port with a strong future style.
Zero-gravity adaptation space, anti-gravity equipment, holographic service guides… Everything before her eyes almost perfectly matched her generation’s imagination of “future” style buildings, giving her a feast for the eyes.
In comparison, the other students around had no particular reaction.
After all, they were all from the Third Fleet; most families were engaged in agriculture-related work or food processing industries that dealt with agricultural business, and as Nongda Affiliated High School students, most had accompanied their parents to production escort ships during holidays. If it were the large port in the northern region, they might be excited, but the central region port…
For most people, it was still not as rare as the southern region.
Nongda Affiliated High School first year high school had a full count of three hundred fifty people; to avoid hindering others’ normal passage, the port specially arranged for students to take the VIP channel, directly to the small shuttle pre-arranged by the school.
Earlier, Xiang Chuan was wondering: Can a small shuttle fit three hundred plus people?
Now, actually seeing the shuttle, Xiang Chuan felt she had still underestimated modern people.
It was called a small shuttle, but the actual size looked as big as three cruise ships!
If “small” was already this scale, what would the “large” ones at the northern port be like? Probably as big as an escort ship? Xiang Chuan felt that 21st century tech concepts had limited her imagination.
In lingering shock, Xiang Chuan followed the large group onto the small shuttle.
Six forty-five, the shuttle departed from the port.
Seeing the shuttle shoot out from the main ship’s port, with the view outside the window changing from a dimly lit sky like Earth’s to the boundless universe, Xiang Chuan finally realized.
She had left the main ship for the first time.
