Chapter 98: The First Time I Have Smelled Soil

Chapter 98: Chapter 98: The First Time I Have Smelled Soil

While Kay’s group were absorbed in exploring the waterfalls and valleys of the hillside house district, elsewhere the red electric cart had also brought the passengers with garden house tickets to their destination.

The friend who had shared the ship with Kay, whose name was Elian, stepped down from the cart with a face full of curiosity. The garden house district lay on the gently sloping plain of the Southern Hemisphere. Unlike the grandeur of the mountains and forests or the stillness of the pine groves, this area brought a feeling of abundance and of peace that was strange to them.

"The structure of the houses looks so unfamiliar, what style of house is this?" Elian murmured.

The houses here had been designed by Liam after the style of the Japanese wooden houses on Earth, which Elian naturally did not know. But this did not stop Elian and the other tourists from falling in love with them at first sight.

The outside of the house was enclosed by a fence carefully woven from bamboo. The gate was of bamboo too, yet it had an electronic locking system. Elian swiped his card to open the gate, stepping in gingerly.

Inside was a small yard, with a pebbled path leading from the gate in to the house.

In the middle of the yard, right in front of the house’s entrance, was a shallow pool, its bottom scattered with small, snow-white pebbles mixed with a few larger cobbles covered in deep green moss. Laid across the still face of the water were smooth-worn stepping stones, arranged with great skill to lead straight up to the step of the veranda floored with beech wood. In one corner of the pool, a hollow bamboo tube was pouring a steady rhythm of babbling water down onto the surface, making a soft, exceedingly tranquil knocking sound.

The whole space of the garden was dotted with soft carpets of moss, with ornamental plants of no known name trimmed meticulously into poses stretching up to catch the sun, along with rustic stone lanterns nestled under the leaves.

Every detail in the yard, even the smallest, carried an exquisite arrangement without being in the least forced, giving off a deep breath of meditation. This architecture brought a feeling of absolute serenity, as though washing away entirely all the bustle, the noise and the cold metallic smell of the world outside.

Elian followed the instructions on his smart watch, pulling the door across to the right. He pulled it open and shut it again several times, delighted beyond measure by a sliding door system like this. Having played with the door his fill, Elian took off his shoes and stepped into the house.

The house was very spacious and airy, the comforts inside lacking nothing, yet all of it cleverly disguised with materials from nature. However, what drew Elian was not the furnishings inside, but the wooden door standing wide open towards the garden behind.

He stepped out into the back yard and stopped dead.

Opening out before his eyes was a garden some few hundred square metres across. Each bed of soil was laid out dead straight. On them were rows of brilliant lettuce curled into heads, tomato plants hanging heavy with ripe red fruit, along with a whole trellis of cucumbers, their rough-skinned fruits carrying a thin white bloom. In a corner of the garden there was a fruit tree besides, weighed down with round fruits of orange-yellow.

Curiosity by instinct spurred Elian on, and he took off his socks and set them to one side, stepping down off the wooden step.

When his bare feet touched the cold ground, the soft, loose feeling that travelled up gave him a slight start. In the Lumina Galaxy, the ground was all sheathed in steel or poured with rigid synthetic resin, and even in the conservation areas, plants were grown in sterile tanks of nutrient solution.

Only people who farmed could touch soil directly like this.

Elian slowly bent down, hesitated a moment then pulled off the protective gloves he always wore. He put his bare hand to the dark brown surface of the bed. The soil was slightly damp, loose and crumbly, clinging a little to his fingertips.

Elian raised his finger close to his nose. An earthy, damp fragrance carrying the primal breath of all living things rushed straight into his sense of smell. It was not perfumed like synthetic scent, nor was it flavourless like the filtered air of the Capital. It was the smell of life.

The sockets of Elian’s eyes suddenly reddened. He opened his smart watch, filmed a video and sent it home to his family.

"Everyone... It is the first time I have smelled soil. Real soil, soft with the damp smell of water... So it turns out that the source we all came from has a taste this real and this warm."

The group of tourists in the garden house district were going through a similar upheaval of feeling at this moment. There were older people who had even knelt right down by the vegetable beds, cradling handful after handful of soil and bursting into sobs. The viewers in their broadcasting rooms were moved along with them.

While the garden house district was sunk in choked emotion, over in the riverside town district the air was exceedingly lively and brimming with life.

The blue electric cart brought more than a hundred passengers to the wharf area. Stilt houses of wood roofed with palm leaves stood close against one another, their wooden walkways jutting right out over the clear green water.

The river in this Southern Hemisphere flowed exceedingly gently. The surface glittered as it reflected the sunlight, gentle breezes sweep across, creating small, rippling waves...

"Please board the woven bamboo boats, we will take you to your lodgings and visit the floating market along the way!" The boatmen in coarse brown clothes, wearing conical hats woven from palm leaves, smiled in welcome.

The passengers stepped down into the small boats curious and excited. When their feet touched the bottom of the boat, the rocking of the water startled many of them into yelping out loud, but right afterwards they burst into delighted laughter at this new experience.

They were called woven bamboo boats, but in fact they were still boats fitted with an automatic balancing system. However much the boat rocked, it could not capsize.

The boatman called out, reminding everyone to sit tight, then pressed the start button. The boat parted the water lightly and glided away.

The Omega girl sitting at the bow could not hold back, reaching a hand down to trail it in the water. The cool water running between her fingers made her cry out: "Heavens, real water! Not fluid in a pipe, nor artificial mist! It is so cool!"

The people on the other boats copied her as well. Suddenly something shot up out of the water into the air. Amid their frightened screams, the thing that had just shot up, having jumped too high and lost its momentum, dropped straight down into the bottom of the boat.

"A Blue Shell Beast? Oh my mother, how is there a sea-beast in the water like this?!!!"

The boatman laughed out loud: "Set your minds at rest, everyone, the sea-beasts in this water are all the gentle kind, they will not attack people! You are truly blessed with food luck. Blue Shell Beast meat is exceedingly good, in a little while I will take it to the kitchen and have them cook it up, one more dish for your lunch!"

The Omega girl wrinkled her nose: "It looks that ugly, is it edible?"

Another person said: "I hear its meat is very fishy?"

The guide wagged a finger, saying: "That is because none of you know how to cook it. Let me let you in on something, every sea-beast in this river can be eaten and can be caught. So long as you catch it, bring it to the town’s kitchen and lay out a little silver and they will cook you a whole banquet of sea-beast!"

Everyone let out a delighted cry, beginning to ask about the methods of catching sea-beasts.

After going a stretch further, the sound of laughter and talk along with the hum of hawkers’ cries began to carry back. The reach of river ahead widened out, with dozens of wooden boats moored close against one another to form a bustling floating market.

"Corn cakes grilled over charcoal here! Blow on them while you eat!"

"Chilled fresh tomato juice! Lotus leaf tea, cooling and detoxifying, right here!"

"Sweet potatoes roasted until the syrup runs, who will buy?"

The tourists on the boats all went round-eyed, their mouths watering beyond their control. The nose-filling fragrance of corn charred at the edges and the rich, fatty smell of sweet potato oozing syrup blended into the river wind blowing past, setting their stomachs rumbling all at once.

"Boatman! Let me pull in at that sweet potato boat over there!"

"Three grilled corn cakes for me! Where do I swipe my ID card?"

The floating market swiftly turned into an explosion of a food destination. The tourists used to drinking insipid nutrient fluid were now like starving tigers pouncing on prey. They sat right there on the woven bamboo boats, blowing hard on the piping hot food while biting down to the teeth.

The warm, delicious flavour spreading through their mouths had every one of them narrowing their eyes in satisfaction, hurrying to take photographs and broadcast live to show off to the whole Galaxy.