Chapter 7 Chapter VII

Arthur Dent has seen many desolate and dilapidated places in his life, but he has never seen an airport with a sign saying: "It is better to travel without hope than to go here." Visitors are welcome, and a portrait of the president of "Now Whole Country" hangs in the lobby of the immigration department, with a smile on his face.This is the only photo of the president you can find.Since it was filmed after he swallowed a gun and killed himself, the smile was still miserable despite all the efforts in post-production.One side of his head was drawn with a pencil.We were unable to recover the photos.People on the entire planet, regardless of men, women, young or old, have only one ambition since ancient times, and that is to escape.

Arthur checked into a motel on the outskirts of town, sat sullenly on a damp bed, and flipped through the equally damp travel brochures.It said that after many light-years of arduous journey, the first settlers of the planet finally came to this virgin land in the farthest part of the galaxy.The most important town on the planet is called Oh Damn, and the other lesser towns don't even exist.The campaign to colonize what is now done was not successful.There are also people who really want to do something now, but all of them are the kind you absolutely don't want to meet. The brochure mentions trade.The main products here are the pigskins that are now trimmed, but the sales are not very good, because as long as the mind is normal, no one will spend money on the pigskins that are now trimmed.The trade was always hanging by a thread, but it never failed, because there were always a lot of insanity to be found in the galaxy.When sitting in the small cabin of the spaceship, Arthur found that the passengers always made him feel particularly uncomfortable.

The booklet also describes the history of some planets.Although I don't know who its author is, but this person obviously wanted to help this place attract business at the beginning, so he kept emphasizing that it was not always cold and humid here; There was no other positive factor to be found, and the tone quickly degenerated into savage cynicism. It talks about early colonial history.It said that the main activity of Zhazheng up to now is to catch the current Zhazheng pig, then skin it and eat it, because the Zhazhu is the only animal life form that has not yet become extinct in Zhazhen, and other animals have long been dead. Despair is dead.Zeppelin is a small and fierce thing, just a tiny bit away from being completely inedible, and at this tiny bit is the source of life on the entire planet.Since life is so hard, it stands to reason that there should be some rewards for lingering in the present.What are these rewards?Let's be honest, there is no such thing.not even one.Even if you're just trying to make yourself a protective suit out of pigskin, you'll be disappointed with even such a small thing, because God knows why, their skin is thin and leaks.This sparked unintelligible speculation among the colonists: What was the secret to keeping these marsh pigs warm?In fact, if anyone will learn the language of the Zebra, they will find that there is no secret at all.Zezhu is just as cold and wet as everyone else on Zha right now.Unfortunately, no one has ever shown the slightest interest in learning Zepi, because the way these creatures communicate is by biting each other's butts.This is how life is going on now, and basically everything Zezhu wants to say can be done in this way.

Arthur scrolled down quickly until he found what he was looking for.At the end of the booklet, there are a few maps that are now in order.The maps were a bit rough and simple, because no one would have guessed that anyone would be interested in them, but there was no shortage of information Arthur needed on them. He didn't recognize it at first, because the directions of these maps were exactly the opposite of what he remembered, so that they looked very strange.Of course, up and down, south and north, these are all arbitrarily designated by people, but we are all used to seeing things happen according to our own habitual pattern, so Arthur had to turn the map upside down so that he could understand it.

There is a large piece of land in the upper left half of the map. It gradually shrinks, and finally becomes a little waist, and then expands like a big comma.On the right, a bunch of familiar shapes are drawn together.The shape of these parts was actually not quite the same as the outlines he was familiar with.Arthur didn't know if it was because the map was rough or because the sea level was higher here, or, well, things were just different here.But he knew that the evidence was conclusive and beyond doubt. This is definitely Earth. Or more accurately, it's absolutely not. It's just very Earth-like in length and occupies the same coordinates in space/time.As for its coordinates in the probability world, only God knows.

He sighed. Here, he realized, was as close to home as he could find.In other words, he couldn't be further away from home now.He closed the travel brochure with a "snap", and sullenly pondered what he should do next. Arthur's head was full of random thoughts, and he forced a smile.He looked at his old antique watch, shook it slightly, and wound it up.On Arthur's own time scale, he had toiled for a year to get to this place.In other words, it has been a year since Finchchi had an accident in hyperspace.One second she was sitting with him on the bouncing jet; the next the ship was doing a perfectly normal hyperspace bounce, and when he turned his head she was gone.The seats weren't even warm.Her name wasn't even on the passenger list.

He ran to complain and the airline was very nervous about it.There are tons of weird things that happen while traveling in space, and many of them could make a lot of lawyers a lot of money.They asked Arthur which sector of the galaxy he and Finchchi were from, and he replied ZZ9 Complex Alpha, and they immediately relaxed completely, in a way Arthur wasn't even sure he liked it.They even smiled, but of course in a sympathetic way.Then they pointed him to the terms in the ticket contract, which said that any life form born in the complex was advised not to travel through hyperspace, or at its own peril.This, they say, is known to everyone in the universe.Then they shook their heads and chuckled softly.

As Arthur left their office, he found himself trembling, not only had he lost Finchchi in the most utterly categorical way, but he also felt that the longer he stayed in the galaxy, the more things he knew nothing about. It seems that the more the number has increased. He was immersed in these memories, numb with pain, when he suddenly heard someone knock on the door.Before he could speak, the door opened, and a fat, disheveled man brought Arthur's only small suitcase. As soon as he said "I should put it...", suddenly there was a commotion: a small, dirty thing with claws and claws rushed out of the wet night, and bit the fat man's ass, regardless of the place Several layers of old thick leather padding.The fat man leaned heavily against the door, desperately trying to break free.What followed was an ugly mess of chirping and kicking.The fat man growled and pointed like crazy.Arthur hastily seized the heavy stick by the door--it was evidently reserved for such occasions--and hit the swine hard.

Zezhu was dizzy from the beating, opened his mouth suddenly, and retreated to a corner of the room pitifully limping.It turned anxiously, its tail folded between its hind legs, and looked up nervously at Arthur, with its head twitching strangely to one side, and its jaw seemed out of place.It barked a few times, dragging its rain-drenched tail across the floor, and beside the door, the fat man who brought Arthur's box was sitting on the ground cursing, holding the wound on his buttocks to stop the bleeding. His clothes were already soaked by the rain. Arthur stared at Zezhu, not knowing what to do.Zezhu also looked at him suspiciously, moaning and moaning, while moving his jaw, as if feeling pain.Suddenly, it lunged at Arthur's ass, but the dislocated jaw couldn't help, and it fell back to the ground screaming.The fat man jumped up, grabbed the stick, and beat Zezhu's head into a sticky, wet ball, and the whole thing was stuck on the thin carpet. He stood beside him and panted hard, as if provocative: Look If you dare to try again, come on.

In the mess of heads, a swine eyeballed Arthur, eyes full of reproach. "What do you think it wants to tell us?" Arthur asked in a low voice. "Oh, nothing," replied the fat man, "that's just their way of being friendly." He grabbed his stick, and added, "That's our way of going back friendly." "When's the next ship out of here?" Arthur asked. "I thought you had just arrived," the man said. "That's right." Arthur said, "But I didn't intend to stay for a long time. I just wanted to see if this is the planet I was looking for. Sorry."

"You mean you came to the wrong planet?" The man put on a very sad look, "It's really interesting, many people say this, especially the locals." He glanced at the wreckage of the Zezhu, with a deep look in his eyes , ancestral hatred. "Oh no." Arthur said, "It's the right place." He picked up the damp travel brochure from the bed and put it in his pocket. Passed his suitcase, walked to the door and looked out at the cold and wet night. "Yes, this is the place, yes," he said. "Right planet, wrong universe." As he walked toward the airport, a bird circled in the sky above his head.