Chapter 22 Chapter Twenty Two

Daylight blasted around them, hot, heavy sun.A barren plain stretched out in the heat, and they rumbled through it. "Jump!" exclaimed Ford Prefect. "What?" Arthur Dent held onto his hand desperately. no answer. "What did you say?" Arthur called again, and when he realized that Ford was no longer there, he looked around in panic and began to slide.He realized that he couldn't hold on anymore, so he pushed himself aside with all his strength, and when he landed, he immediately curled up into a ball, rolling and rolling, as far as possible from the pounding hooves.

What day is it today, he thought as he desperately coughed out the dust from his lungs.He hadn't been in such a bad mood since the destruction of the earth.He staggered to his knees, then stood up again and started to run.He didn't know if he was running from something or running towards something, but running away seemed prudent. He bumped headfirst into Ford Sheriff, who was standing nearby appreciating the situation. "Look," said Ford, "just what we need." Arthur coughed up some more dust, then pulled it out of his hair and eyes.Panting, he turned around to see what Ford was looking at.

It doesn't look like the domain of some king, whatever it is.But its appearance is quite attractive. First, the big picture.It was a desert world, and the dusty surface had been trampled hard enough to clean up any inch of Arthur's skin that was still intact, the parts that hadn't been damaged by last night's show.A little way ahead there were some big high rocks that looked like sandstone, eroded by the wind and the little rain that was always going to fall into wild, grotesque shapes that matched those giant cacti on the barren orange ground—they From time to time, a tree popped up, and its shape was equally wild.

For a moment, Arthur had the audacity to wish he was in Arizona, or New Mexico, or South Dakota, but it was clearly wishful thinking. First off, absolutely normal beast throws at Rumble Bang Bang Bang.Tens of thousands of them disappeared into the horizon at the far end, completely disappearing, and then swept over with a rumble, bang bang bang, and appeared on the opposite horizon. In addition, there are those spaceships parked in front of the fast food restaurant.King's Domain restaurant.Arthur thought to himself, this ending was too flat for such a thrilling beginning. In fact, there is only one spaceship in front of Wang's territory restaurant, and the other three are in the parking lot next to the restaurant.But it was the one parked in front that caught the eye.It was a great look.Crazy fins all over the body, too much chrome on the fins, and the fuselage is basically a horrible pink.It huddled on the ground like a sullen insect, looking as if it was about to pounce on something a mile away.The king's domain dining room was right on the path of the absolutely normal beasts' sprint—if they didn't make a slight interplanetary turn halfway through.It stands alone, undisturbed.An average restaurant.A small restaurant by the side of the road.I found a place for myself in the barrenness, quietly.King's territory.

"I want to buy that spaceship." Ford said calmly. "Buy?" Arthur said. "It's not like you. I thought you usually steal." "Sometimes you have to show a little respect to people," Ford said. "And probably a little money," said Arthur. "What the hell is that thing worth?" With a flick of his wrist, Arthur pulled his All You Can Eat credit card from his pocket.Arthur noticed a slight tremor in his hand holding the credit card. "Let them send me some food reviews..." Ford whispered. "What do you mean?" Arthur asked.

"You'll know it when you see it." Ford's eyes flashed fiercely, "Let's go and spend some money, huh?" "Two beers," said Ford, "and, uh, that, two bacon rolls, whatever you got—oh, and that pink thing out there." He slapped his credit card on the bar and looked around nonchalantly. It's quiet, uh, quiet. It wasn't very noisy here, but it's really quieted down now.Even the absolutely normal beasts in the distance who carefully avoided their territory seemed to suddenly become duller in their rumble. "Just rode them here." Looking at Ford, it seems that everything is normal, whether it is himself or everything else.The angle at which he leans against the bar is extremely relaxed.

Besides the two of them, there were probably three other guests inside, all sitting at their respective tables sipping beers, maybe three.Someone might say no more, no less, exactly three, but this isn't the kind of place where you like to talk too much.There's a big guy setting something up on the little stage; an old drum kit, two guitars, country western stuff. After Ford finished ordering, the bartender didn't move too quickly.In fact he didn't move at all. After a long time, he finally said: "That pink thing doesn't seem to be for sale." He has a special accent, and the lingering sound lingers for a long time.

"Of course not," said Ford. "You make an offer." "Yep……" "Just think of a number, and I'll double it." "It's not mine, I can't sell it," said the bartender. "Then, whose is it?" The bartender shook his head at the big guy on stage, who was big, fat, slow, and on the verge of going bald. Ford nodded, and he grinned. "Okay," he said, "beer and meatloaf first. No rush to pay." Arthur sat down at the bar to rest.He's used to not knowing what's going on around him, and it's reassuring to him.The beer was quite good, and he couldn't help feeling a little drowsy, which he didn't mind at all.Bacon rolls are not bacon rolls, they are absolutely normal meat rolls.He exchanged some meatloaf-making expertise with the bartender and let Ford do whatever he liked.

"Okay." Ford returned to his stool. "That's it. The pink thing is ours." The bartender didn't know why, "He wants to sell it to you?" "He's giving it to us for free." Ford took a big bite out of the meatloaf. "Hey, no, don't rush the bill. We've got to add something, the meatloaf is awesome." He took a gulp of beer. "The beer is good," he added, "and the spaceship is good." He glanced at the big pink thing, just enough to see part of the chrome insect through the window of the bar, "it's all good, You know." He sat more comfortably, with a thoughtful expression, "every time like this you have a little doubt that those things are worth your trouble - I mean space/time The texture of the probabilistic matrix, the multivariate causal integrity of the probabilistic matrix, and the potential collapse danger of the various waveforms in the whole mishmash of all kinds... This kind of shit keeps annoying me. I think maybe the big guy is right. Just let go Pull it down, what does it matter? Let go and pull it down!"

"Which big guy?" Arthur asked. Ford nodded in the direction of the stage, where the big guy was saying "Hello" into the microphone.There are two more people on the stage. The bartender has been silent since just now. At this time, he asked: "You said he would give you his spaceship?" "Ah," said Ford, "that's what he said: Go away, take the spaceship, and my blessing. Be good to her. I'll be good to her." He took another sip of beer. "Like I said," he continued, "every time like this you think, just let it go, and then you think about those handsome guys, and you think, don't they think they can just let it go. They have to pay the price. It is my supreme and sacred duty to see them pay the price. Here, I want to add a tip to the singer over there. I have a special request. I have already negotiated with him. The tip will be included in the account Come on. OK?"

"OK." The bartender looked defensive, then he shrugged, "Okay, whatever you want. How much?" Ford said the number.The bartender pours into the bottle, into the middle of the glass.Ford quickly rolled over the bar to see if he was all right, then helped him to his feet.He cut his fingers and arms and was a bit dizzy, but otherwise unharmed.The big guy started singing, and the bartender took Ford's credit card and limped away. "Is there something going on that I don't know about?" Arthur asked Ford. "Aren't there usually?" "It's not necessary," Arthur said, slowly coming to his senses. "Should we go?" he asked suddenly, "Can that ship take us to Earth?" "Of course," said Ford. "Langdon must have gone there!" Arthur woke up suddenly. "We can follow! But...uh..." Ford left Arthur to wonder, and he produced his old copy. "But where are we on that probability axis?" Arthur asked, "Is the Earth still there? I spent so much time looking for her, but I only found some planets that looked a little bit like her or didn't look like her at all. But I'm obviously looking in the right place, because the continents are all right. The worst version is the one called now, I was bitten by a goddamn little animal. That's how they communicate, you You know, just biting each other. It hurts like hell. And then of course, half the time Earth doesn't exist at all, because she's been bombarded by those bloody Vogons. Do you understand me?" Ford didn't make any comments, he was listening to something.He handed the "Guide" to Arthur and pointed to the screen. The activated entry read: "Earth, basically harmless." "You mean it's there!" Arthur was excited. "The Earth is still there! Langdon must have gone there! It was the Earth that the bird showed her in the storm!" Ford told Arthur to keep his voice down, he was listening to a song. Arthur grew impatient.He had heard the bar singer sing "Love Me Tenderly" before.Of course, he was a little surprised to hear the song in such a god-knows-what place that wasn't Earth anyway, but then again, things didn't surprise him as easily as they used to.The singer sang well, bar singer style, if you like that kind of thing.But Arthur was getting impatient. "Don't you think it's time we hit the road?" he insisted. "Hush!" said Ford, "I paid for this song." There were tears in his eyes, which made Arthur uncomfortable.He'd never seen anything move Ford except very, very strong alcohol.Mostly dust.He waited, impatiently snapping his fingers, totally out of tune with the music. The song was over, and the singer went on to "Sad Hotel." "Anyway," Ford began whispering to him, "I'm going to have to write a review for this restaurant, too." "what?" "I have to write a review." "Write a review? Write about this place?" "Just post a comment and the spend will be approved. I've already done it, automated the process and left it untraceable. This bill needs some approval," he added quietly, and then Staring at his beer with a smirk on his face. "Just two beers and a meatloaf?" "Plus a tip for the singer." "Why, how much did you give?" Ford said another number. "I don't know how much that is," said Arthur. "How much is it in pounds? What can I buy?" "Probably I can buy one, a rough estimate...uh..." Ford frowned and counted the numbers in his head, "Switzerland." He finally said.After speaking, he picked it up and started typing. Arthur nodded shrewdly, and there were times when he really wished he could understand what the hell Ford was talking about, and other times, like now, he felt it was safer not to bother at all.He glanced over Ford's shoulder. "Won't be writing for long?" he asked. "No," said Ford, "it's a piece of cake. As long as the meatloaf is good, the beer is good and cold, the local wildlife is weirdly cute, and the bar singer is the best in the known universe, that's it. Almost there. Not much content, just to get reimbursed." He stroked the word "send" on the screen, and the comment just now disappeared in the subnet. "So you think that singer is pretty good?" "Hmm," said Ford, and the bartender came back with a piece of paper, his hands seemed to be shaking slightly. He pushed the paper towards Ford with a jerk of nervous reverence. "That's interesting." The bartender said, "The system refused to accept it the first two times, so I wasn't too surprised." There were big beads of sweat on his forehead, "Then it suddenly changed its face,' Oh yeah, no problem' or something like that, the system just...uh, accepted. That's it, do you want to...sign?" Ford quickly glanced at one side of the content, he licked his teeth, "Unlimited handsome is going to be in trouble." He said with concern, "Oh well." He added softly, "It deserves it." He signed something fancy and handed the paper back to the bartender. "That man, who has acted in bad movies all his life, and also walked in the casino," he said, "doesn't make much money today. He only needs to do what he is best at: standing in bars and singing. He even handles negotiations by himself. Yes. I think he must feel good at this moment. Thank him for me and buy him another drink." He threw a few coins on the bar.The bartender pushed them away. "It's not necessary." His voice was a little hoarse. "It's necessary for me," said Ford. "Well, here we go." They stood in the heat and dust, looking at the big chrome pink thing with wonder and admiration.Or at least Ford looked at it with wonder and admiration. Arthur just looked at it, "You don't think it's overly decorated, do you?" Arthur repeated the words as they climbed in.The seats and many control buttons are wrapped in fine fur or goatskin.There are also two large gold letters on the main control panel that read nothing but "EP". "You know," said Ford, starting the engine of the spaceship. "I asked him if he was really abducted by aliens. Guess what he said?" "Who?" Arthur asked. "My king." "Which king? Oh, we've already said that, haven't we?" "Never mind that," said Ford. "Anyway, he said, no, he volunteered." "I'm still not quite sure what we're talking about," Arthur said. Ford shook his head. "Listen, you have some tapes on your left, why don't you choose one to play?" "Okay." Arthur flipped through the middle of the box. "Like Elvis?" he asked. "I really like it, speaking of it," said Ford. "Well, this thing looks like a bouncing thing, I hope it's not an embroidered pillow." He turned on the main drive. "Yeah yah yah!" yelled Ford.They soared into the sky with a "swipe", so fast that they could tear people's faces apart. It really wasn't an embroidered pillow.