Chapter 1: So I Actually Have Talent
Chen Xing, a temporary worker, sat staring blankly at the press machine inside a Guangdong electronics factory.
Why temporary? Because he'd come with his school. Over eighty students were scattered throughout the factory. Most stood on assembly lines, swathed in anti-static suits. Chen Xing had it relatively easy – he could sit, just keeping an eye on the machine. The only downside was the relentless noise.
The machine suddenly fell silent. Chen Xing snapped out of his daze, removed a small part jamming the mechanism, and the press roared back to life with its familiar rumble.
Task done, he resumed his vacant stare at the machinery.
Normally by this point in his shift, his phone battery would be nearly dead from constant use. Today, it still showed 90%, he'd barely touched it.
If the factory hadn't been so deafeningly loud, you might have heard him muttering to himself.
"Am I still dreaming?"
"Is this thing real or not?"
In his mind's eye, something luminous hovered. Focusing on it revealed lines of text, yet it didn't disrupt his vision or thoughts. When he closed his eyes in the darkness, bright Chinese characters shone clearly. It terrified him. When this apparition first appeared that morning, his immediate instinct was to request leave and find a doctor – was he suffering some neurological disorder?
But the *content* of those words made him hesitate.
[Wanderlust System]
[Initialization Notice: To encourage citizens to step beyond their thresholds, Professor Ye has developed this Travel System. Rewards include cash, skills, talents, and cultural artifacts from parallel worlds. Embrace the sky, the sea, the sunlight.]
[Skills: None]
[Talent: Photography]
[Your travel radius over 19 years spans barely 100 kilometers. In an age of unprecedented mobility, you are less traveled than an ancient peasant. Begin your first journey. Note: Every landscape you truly appreciate will grant you a gift.]
*I have a system?*
*Who is Professor Ye? Future human? Ancient being?*
*Definitely not contemporary.*
He'd pondered this all day.
And that last line was blatantly wrong! True, he'd never ventured far from his hometown before, never traveled for leisure. But he was *now* in Guangdong – a thousand miles away! How could that possibly count as within a hundred *li*? He desperately wanted to explore this system.
But he was at work, surrounded by people. He fought the urge to engage with it.
He feared it might be real, potentially manifesting something visible and unexplainable. Equally, he feared fiddling with it might make it vanish entirely.
So, he spent the day oscillating between hope and fear, a knot of anxiety tightening in his chest.
---
8:00 PM.
Chen Xing packed up and headed out, waiting for his friend on the second-floor corridor.
He rarely lingered here. The corridor adjoined the locker room, perpetually saturated with the stubborn, sour tang of unwashed feet. The third floor, mostly occupied by female workers, smelled far better – they were simply cleaner than the rough-hewn men downstairs.
Ten minutes later, a group of classmates shuffled out of the assembly workshop, rubbing their sore legs.
"Chen Xing, you traitor!"
"We heard you get to *sit* all day?"
"How's your female line leader? Given you any... *hints*?"
Chen Xing flushed, glancing past them. "Where's Zhou Peng?"
"Still back there. Getting chewed out."
Zhou Peng was Chen Xing's closest friend. They'd attended the same middle school, though different classes. At their five-year vocational college, the shared background quickly forged a strong bond.
A few minutes later, Zhou Peng finally appeared. Shoulders slumped, he trudged towards the locker room. Spotting Chen Xing, he straightened slightly. "What are you doing here?"
"Haven't eaten, right? Let's grab something outside."
Their workplace resembled an industrial park. Chen Xing didn't really know the area; he hadn't explored. He only knew that just outside lay a bustling street food market – diverse offerings, packed with customers, almost all young workers from the surrounding factories. In his two weeks here, he hadn't seen a single regular employee over thirty-five.
They found a barbecue stall with free seats, ordered some skewers, and grabbed two bottles of beer.
Zhou Peng popped both caps, clinked his bottle against Chen Xing's, and downed half in one long glug-glug.
***Thud!***
He slammed the bottle onto the table. Beer fountained half a meter into the air.
"I'm quitting tomorrow! Can't stand this place. Some jumped-up little supervisor thinks he's god."
"What happened?"
"Quan Jing felt sick today, didn't come in. *I* put in the leave notice for her. Thought it was settled. Then, right before shift end, that bastard corners me, says *she* has to request it herself. What the hell? Does he think we're his permanent underlings?"
"Yeah," Chen Xing nodded. "We only get like fifteen hundred a month. Hardly seems worth it."
"Wanna bail too?" Zhou Peng asked, shelling boiled peanuts. "Several from our class already left. The girls left dorm by dorm. And the older students say even if we skip this 'internship,' we can still enroll next year."
"They won't withhold our diplomas?" Chen Xing asked, skeptical.
"Withhold? As long as you pay the tuition every year, they'll mail the diploma right to your door."
"Seriously?"
This was news to Chen Xing. The diploma mattered most to him; other things were secondary.
In middle school, he'd been reckless – skipping class, internet cafes, karaoke, drinking.
His grades plummeted, barring him from regular high school, landing him in this vocational college. He still remembered his parents' faces the day his middle school exit exam results came out.
No hitting. No yelling. Just profound disappointment.
He almost wished they *had* hit him.
That day marked the abrupt end of Chen Xing's rebellious phase.
"Why would I lie? Anyway, once I'm back, I'm done with classes. Pay the fees, wait for the diploma. We graduate in just over a year. Come on, cheers." Zhou Peng said.
The barbecue hadn't even arrived yet, and their first two bottles were empty.
Zhou Peng ordered two more.
He was dead set on leaving and determined to convince his buddy Chen Xing to join him.
At their age, weren't they all the apple of their parents' eye? As the internet said, weren't they all little princes and princesses? Their families weren't destitute. Why slave away in this unfamiliar place for strangers?
The work itself was bad enough, but the pay was insulting.
Were they treating them like toddlers?
The factory's regular staff pulled in over five thousand a month, plus benefits. The school? Gave the students a measly fifteen hundred for 'living expenses.'
*That's beyond ridiculous!*
"I already talked to Quan Jing," Zhou Peng continued.
"She's coming with me. You too. The three of us, we'll fly back... Screw another train ride. Twelve hours in a hard seat? Hell no. Should've known it'd be this brutal coming down."
"Hold on. First, tell me what you think of these photos?"
Chen Xing passed his phone over.
*This* was the real reason he'd asked Zhou Peng out.
---
**(End of Chapter)**
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**Key Translation Choices & Nuances:**
1. **Cultural Terms:**
* **电子厂 (diànzǐ chǎng):** "Electronics factory" - Accurate and clear.
* **压机 (yājī):** "Press machine" - Standard industrial term.
* **防尘服 (fángchén fú):** "Anti-static suits" (Implied function in electronics) - More precise than just "dust-proof suits."
* **线长 (xiàn zhǎng):** "Line leader" - Standard factory hierarchy term.
* **五年制的职业学校 (wǔ nián zhì de zhíyè xuéxiào):** "Five-year vocational college" - Captures the duration and type of institution.
* **文凭 (wénpíng):** "Diploma" - Correct for this level of education.
* **坐票 (zuò piào):** "Hard seat" (train) - Specifies the uncomfortable class common in China.
* **心头肉 (xīntóuròu):** "Apple of their parents' eye" - Equivalent English idiom conveying deep affection.
* **龟儿 (guī er) / 日嘛遇到鬼了 (rì ma yùdào guǐ le):** "Bastard" / "What the hell?" - Conveys the frustration and vulgarity without overly obscure or direct translations. "Bastard" captures the insult; "What the hell?" the exasperation.
* **离谱他妈给离谱开门,离谱到家了 (Lípǔ tā mā gěi lípǔ kāimén, lípǔ dàojiāle):** "That's beyond ridiculous!" - Captures the hyperbolic meaning and exasperation of the meme-like phrase effectively.
2. **System Text:** Translated with a slightly formal, slightly futuristic tone ("Wanderlust System," "Professor Ye," "parallel worlds," "embrace the sky") to differentiate it from normal narration. "Keen Eye for Photography" sounds more like an inherent talent than just "Photography."
3. **Style & Tone:**
* **Internal Monologue:** Italicized and phrased colloquially ("*Am I still dreaming?*").
* **Dialogue:** Rendered naturally in contemporary English, preserving the casual, sometimes frustrated tone of the young workers ("You traitor!", "What the hell?", "Screw another train ride").
* **Narration:** Maintains a close third-person perspective focused on Chen Xing's thoughts and sensory experiences ("staring blankly," "deafeningly loud," "stubborn, sour tang," "oscillating between hope and fear," "knot of anxiety").
* **Descriptions:** Translated vividly ("Beer fountained half a meter into the air," "perpetually saturated with the stubborn, sour tang").
4. **Implied Meanings:**
* **"跟着学校过来的" (gēnzhe xuéxiào guòlái de):** Explicitly stated as a "temporary worker" who came "with his school," implying an internship/co-op program common in vocational schools.
* **"估计还能听得见他的自言自语" (gūjì hái néng tīng dé jiàn tā de zìyánzìyǔ):** Translated as "you might have heard him muttering to himself," emphasizing his distraction and internal conflict.
* **"叛逆期就过去了" (pànnì qī jiù guòqù le):** Translated as "marked the abrupt end of Chen Xing's rebellious phase," capturing the sudden shift triggered by his parents' disappointmnts.