第八十三章 失念引擎：水井 -2
With the addition of these minerals and earth transformed into energy, the sphere suspended in the manual workshop expanded slightly.
有这些矿物与泥土化为的能量加入，悬浮在手工作棚中的光团略微膨胀。
“Wow!”
“哇哦！”
Outside, a few people watched the pattern slowly rotating harmoniously within the sphere, and one exclaimed softly, “Such a stably rotating sphere is something we’ve never seen before.”
外面几人看着光团内和谐地缓慢旋转图案，一人低呼：“这么稳定旋转的光团，我们以前都还没见到过呢。”
“Rumor has it that the more harmonious and natural the flow of the sphere, the better the quality of the Lost Thought Engine born from it.”
“谣传说越和谐自然的流转光团，诞生的失念引擎品质越好。”
“With such ample preparation, I really think we can succeed!”
“有这么充足的准备，我觉得我们真的能成功的欸！”
“Box Eight.”
“八号。”
Time passed bit by bit as box by box emptied out.
时间一点点过去，盒子一个个变空。
Gasps and exclamations rang out across the wild from time to time, as the crowd watched the spinning light cluster growing larger and more beautiful, with the illusions within the pattern gradually transforming into scenes of Yang Zicang digging a pit, laying its floor, and building its walls.
原野上不时传来惊呼，因为大伙看到旋转的光团越来越大，也越来越美，图案中的幻象也逐渐变为杨子藏挖掘坑洞，将它铺底、砌墙的画面。
A hundred meters away, a sleeping person was awakened by the bursts of cheers that rose intermittently.
百米外，一个熟睡的人被不时响起的欢呼声所吵醒。
“Box Three.”
“三号盒。”
Zuo Feixian stepped closer step by step toward the lone, glowing workshop standing in the desolate wilds.
左非闲一步步靠近荒野上孤零零发光的作棚。
Out of the darkness, a figure suddenly emerged, startling the few present: “Zuo…”
昏暗中突然冒出个人影，几人吓了一跳：“左…”
“Shh.” Zuo Feixian raised his finger to his lips, signaling for silence so as not to disturb those inside.
“嘘。”左非闲将抬起手指，在嘴边做出了嘘声，示意不要吵到里面的人。
He stared at the glowing mass, his expression a mix of confusion, reluctance to accept, and a sense of loss.
他看着那团光芒，脸上表情有迷茫，有难以接受，也有怅然若失。
“Number two,” Yang Zicang said without turning his head from inside.
“二号。”杨子藏在里面头也不回的道。
“We’re about to succeed. Just, a, bout, to, suc, ceed!” Qian Zhongsheng clenched his fists and shouted in a low, excited growl from his throat.
“就要成功了，就、要、成、功、啦！”钱钟生紧握拳头，在喉咙里激动地低吼。
As the two carried in the stone box symbolizing the top layer of the wellhead—its exterior a mix of yellow mud mixed with gravel, and the interior lined with neatly arranged green stone slabs—and the green stones dissolved into mist and merged with the glow, all of Zuo Feixian’s remaining frustration faded away.
两人将代表井口最上层的岩石盒抬入。它四周是混合碎石的黄泥，内部一圈是整齐的青石条。看着青石化为云雾融入光芒，左非闲神色中的的所有不甘都消散了。
The harmoniously pulsating sphere of light was so beautiful that all he felt left was admiration.
那和谐闪动的光团如此优美，他剩下的只有佩服。
A fist-sized engine occasionally flickered within it.
一个拳头大小的引擎在其中不时闪现。
In fact, the well was already complete, but one last thing bearing the tag “Number One” remained.
其实现在水井已经成功了，但还剩最后个贴着一号纸条标记的东西。
Number One was not a box, but a stone-rimmed structure, equipped with an iron frame and green stones designed to prevent water damage.
一号不是盒子，而是个岩石围边，它带个铁架、青石做了防污水的设计。
“Heave-ho.” Qin Meng and the other two stepped up, and together the three of them struggled to lift the wellhead.
“嘿咗。”秦蒙和两人走上去，三个人吃力地抬起这井口。
“Let me help too.” Zuo Feixian rolled up his sleeves, revealing clean but heavily calloused hands.
“我也来吧。”左非闲挽起袖子，露出干净但手茧很厚的双手道。
“Master Zuo, maybe you’d better not.”
“左大师，要不你还是算了吧。”
“Do you want to die?” Zuo Feixian shot them a glare and scolded in a hushed tone.
“找死是吗。”左非闲瞪了他们一眼，小声呵斥道。
The group chuckled, and Master Zuo grabbed Wang Chong, who was about to move the wellhead, dragged him behind, and took his place at the remaining corner.
几人嘻嘻一笑，左大师伸手将想要去搬井口的王翀拽到身后，自己填上了剩下的那一角。
The men flexed their arm muscles, bent down, and carried the wellhead into the shed. Yang Zicang, standing with his back to the crowd, was faintly visible and elusive in the chaotic light, like a divine being.
几人膀子肌肉鼓起，弯腰将井口抬进棚内。背对着众人的杨子藏整个人在混沌光芒中若影若现，宛若神人。
The glimmering fingers gently touched the gray stone wellhead, which then dissolved into light and merged into the luminous mass.
闪动着光华的手指在青石井口上轻轻一点，它便化光融入光团。
“It should have succeeded.” Yang Zicang used the model to confirm the completion of this Lost Thought Engine.
“应该成功了。”杨子藏利用模型确认这次的失念引擎制作结束。
With the light receding into a crystalline three-cylinder mini engine, the engine fell from the air upon losing energy support, and Yang Zicang caught it with a single hand.
光华缩入水晶般具现的三缸小发动机内，失去能量支撑的引擎顿时从空中跌落，杨子藏一把将它接在手中。
[I have obtained a new Lost Thought Engine. As a terrain-type engine, its rhythm can only pulse once.]
[我获得了新的失念引擎，作为地形类的引擎，它的脉搏仅能跳动一次。]
The chaotic glow faded, and Yang Zicang’s figure came into full view.
混沌光芒变淡，杨子藏的身影清晰出现。
Inside the engine in his hand, a scene unfolded slowly: crystal water gushed forth from the bottom of the well. Even just holding it, one felt a cool, refreshing pleasure. Although the creation process left him as fatigued as after an all-nighter, the sense of accomplishment was immense.
手中的引擎内，画面缓慢流转：清泉自井底汩汩涌出。光是握着，便觉清冽舒畅。虽然一场制作下来，精神跟熬了个通宵一样疲惫，但成就感却是满满。
The people watching tensely at the headquarters cheered excitedly:
总部紧张看着的几人兴奋道：
{It worked, right?!}
{成功了！对吧？}
To them, all of this felt unreal, as if guiding a wizard from a fantasy world in bringing a creation to life.
这一切对他们来说都显得如此不真实，就像是指导着魔幻世界的炼金术士完成了一项造物。
“It worked. It is perfect, a creation from the hard work of all of us.”
“成功了，它很完美，这是我们大家的心血。”
{Excellent! We must remember today’s process.}
{太好了，我们要记住今天的流程。}
{Xiao Yang, I’ll prepare five sets for you next—no, ten!}
{小杨，接下来我给你准备五套，不，十套！}
{I really wish I could go over there myself; that’s where I belong.}
{真想亲自过去啊，那边才是我该待的地方。}
YangZicang looked at the person before him and the crowd in the Mental Link:
杨子藏看向眼前的人，和心灵链接里的众人：
“Thank you, thank you all for your efforts. This engine, created together by us, can solve many people’s drinking water difficulties.”
“谢谢，非常感谢大家的努力，这是我们一起制作出的，能解决许多人饮水困难的引擎。”
He whispered softly in his heart to the engine in his hand: And thank you, you whose name I do not know.
他内心轻轻对着手中的引擎道：还有谢谢你，不知其名的你。
The engine in his hand seemed to quiver slightly, as if sensing YangZicang’s thoughts, but on closer inspection, it felt like mere illusion.
手中的引擎似微微雀跃着，仿佛感知到了杨子藏的心念，但仔细感知却又像只是幻觉。
YangZicang severed the Mental Link, shifting his focus to the here and now.
杨子藏断掉了心灵链接，注意力放到了这边。
“Wow, Yang… Brother Jiazi, it worked, right?”
“哇，杨…甲子哥，成功了对吧。”
“Of course it did! Hehehe, we can drink clean water now!”
“肯定成了！嘿嘿嘿，咱们能喝干净水啦！”
YangZicang stepped out and saw the newcomer who had appeared.
杨子藏走出，看到新出现的那人。
“I—can I take a look at it?” Zuo Feixian stared nervously at the young man before him. It was something he had struggled long and hard to achieve without success, yet the other had created it.
“我，我能看看它吗？”左非闲紧张地注视眼前的青年。这是他努力很久都没成功的东西，却被对方造了出来。
“Of course, you can.”
“当然可以。”
How could YangZicang not guess that the person who had been tailing him for most of the day was the legendary well-known “Master Zuo”, instantly famous for his single touch.
杨子藏哪里猜不出眼前这跟了自己大半天的人，便是传说中“一沾成名”的左大师。
Holding the Lost Thought Engine in his hands, Zuo Feixian was certain it was a well that could produce the finest springwater.
左非闲感受着手中的失念引擎，他肯定这是能产出最好泉水的水井。
Glancing at the many empty boxes and some items on the ground, Zuo Feixian could perceive the maker’s meticulousness from the order of their labels. It seemed that while he had been asleep, these people had done a lot—really quite embarrassing.
眼睛瞟了眼地上的许多空盒子和一些东西，左非闲能从它们的标号秩序中感知到制作者的一丝不苟。看来自己睡着的时候，这些人做了很多，还真是惭愧。
“Responsible and professional, no wonder you achieved it so perfectly only disciple brothers. How do you plan to handle this water-well engine? Actually, Hub Town doesn’t have much need for it. I know I don’t have the right to say this, but I still hope… it can stay here in this barren land.”
“既负责又专业，难怪成功得如此完美。甲子间兄弟，你要怎么处理这水井引擎？其实枢纽镇对它需求不算大，我知道我没资格说这话，但还是希望…能把它留在这片荒芜之地。”
“Why did Ning Yang choose you to build the well?”
“宁洋为什么选你造水井？”
“Huh?”
“欸？”
“You must have some outstanding qualities for him to let you manage twenty or thirty models? Not to mention that you’re so… ‘careless,’ yet he still chose you.”
“你总有过人之处，他才会让你支配二三十枚模型吧？况且你还那么…‘不小心’，他依旧选你。”
Yang Zicang bent down to pick up a box. “I believe he can see through your character.”
杨子藏弯腰捡起个盒子：“我相信他能看得出来你的性子。”
“Hah, you really are something.” Zuo Feixian forced a stiff smile to appear on his face. “Of course I do. I have ‘that hand,’ which is why the shelter chief treats me with such respect.”
“嗐，你这人真是。”左非闲僵硬的脸皮扯出个笑，“当然有啦。我有‘那只手’，所以棚主才对我礼待有加。”
He handed the engine to the eager people around him, and they promptly took it and gathered in a circle, passing it among themselves with delight.
他将引擎递给了望眼欲穿的身旁几人，大伙儿立即欢喜地拿在手里围成一圈的传看。
“What hand?”
“什么手？”
“There’s a mound behind the shelter area, go take a look at what’s on it tomorrow. That thing chose me.”
“棚区后面有个土包，你明天去看看那上面的东西就知道了。那东西选择的我。”
“Why wait until tomorrow?”
“何必等明天？”
After putting the small boiler fittings into Zuo Feixian’s stone house, the man with scattered hair, now dressed in a gray-black cotton coat that the shelter chief had recently given him, stuck his hands in his pockets and led only Yang Zicang to a small vacant lot behind a few stone houses.
将小型锅炉配件放进左非闲的石屋后，这个头发蓬松，穿着棚主新送灰黑棉服的男人，双手插兜，只带杨子藏一人走向几间石屋后的小片空地。
In the dim daylight, a yellowish-brown oval stone covered a small mound, slanting on a small pile of earth. It was encircled by a wooden fence with strips of faded cloth hanging amid drifting winds.
昏暗天光中，被石块包裹的褐黄长石，斜插在小土堆上。它周围有圈栅栏围住，还挂着随风飘荡的褪色布条。
This brownish-yellow stone, narrower than a stone tablet yet wider than a stone pillar, bore a vague, human-like outline.
这块比石碑窄些，又比石柱宽些的黄褐色岩石上，有着类似人形的轮廓，不过非常模糊。
Without the fence around it, it would have been dismissed as utterly worthless.
如果不是周围的围栏，它只会被当作一文不值的东西。
“A sculpture?” The young man speculated, looking at the relief-like mark, wondering if it was a type of bloodline sculpture.
“雕塑？”年轻人看着浮雕般的痕迹，心中猜测它难道是血脉雕塑的一种。
He was still hankering after the legendary bloodline sculpture he hadn’t yet obtained in his dreams.
他还有点念念不忘尚未在梦境中获得的，传说中的血脉雕塑。
“A sculpture? No, actually it’s alive. Strange as it sounds, it once told me it was half a ‘person.’”
“雕塑？不是哦，它实际上有生命，虽然很奇怪，但它的确告诉过我，它曾算是半个‘人’。”
“Half a person…” Yang Zicang studied the blurry-outlined rock carefully.
“半个人…”杨子藏仔细打量这轮廓模糊的石头。
Yang Zicang scrutinized the object, whose clear outline was no longer discernible.
杨子藏仔细打量起这已经看不出清晰轮廓的东西。
“Can I touch it?”
“能摸摸吗？”
“Yeah, but be careful not to damage it—or you’ll bring bad luck on yourself.”
“嗯，但小心别破坏它，否则你会倒霉。”
He wasn’t one to leave his mark on ancient relics; Yang Zicang touched it lightly, but felt nothing.
自己可不是喜欢在古迹上留下自己爪印的人，杨子藏只是轻轻触碰，却什么也没有感觉到。
Taking advantage of Zuo Xianfei turning aside to blow his nose, he secretly activated the White Shadow Thought-Dragon’s power, but the stone showed no psychic response either.
趁左非闲转身醒鼻涕，他悄然发动白影念龙之力，石头也无念力反应。
“You said you had ‘a hand,’ but I can’t see it from this outline.”
“你说你拥有‘一只手’，但这轮廓看不出。”
“Only someone who’s been chosen would know. That’s why most people, who can’t perceive it, just ignore it,” Zuo Xianfei said, stroking it too. “It helps me build successful engines more easily—even when materials are in short supply, it gives me a chance.”
“只有被选中者才知道哦。所以很多感知不到的人不在乎它。”左非闲也摸了摸，“它能帮我更容易造出成功的引擎，哪怕缺料也有机会。”
“Really?” This unassuming object was actually a great treasure.
“真的？”这毫无卖相的东西居然是个大宝贝。
Master Zuo said with a cheeky grin, “You know I’ve built over thirty water well engines in the past two years, right?”
左大师嬉皮笑脸的道：“你也知道我这两年造过三十多个水井引擎吧？”
“I’ve heard plenty.”
“如雷贯耳。”
“Pfft, you’re just humoring me. But really, every single one of them ‘succeeded’—they just didn’t produce spring water. Does that make sense if I put it that way?”
“切，你就寒掺我吧。不过嘛，实际上它们每一个都‘成功’了，只是产出的不是泉水而已，我这么说你能理解吗？”
Master Zuo lifted his head with a hint of pride.
左粪大师有点骄傲的抬起头。
“So this is how you’ve been convincing yourself over the past two years?”
“你这两年就是这么说服自己的？”
Yang Zicang naturally understood what he meant. Except when one insisted on drinking water, those thirty-plus engines were indeed all “successful.”
杨子藏当然知道他的意思，若非执着于饮用水，那三十多个引擎确实都“成功”了。
With that in mind, this rock really did have some merit.
这么说起来，这岩石的确很有些门道。
“Something so amazing shouldn’t it be better protected?”
“这么厉害的东西，不应该更好的保护下吗？”
Zuo Feixian chuckled. “I think so too. But it doesn’t have a good appearance. If I hadn’t taken you here, you might not have even noticed it, right? That’s not the real main reason, though.”
左非闲嘿嘿一笑：“我也觉得。但它卖相不好，如果不是我带着你，你可能不会注意到它的存在对吧。不过这都不是最关键的原因。”
“Oh?”
“哦？”
“Because similar stone tablets… well, let’s call them tablets, actually exist in many places.”
“因为类似的石碑…算是石碑吧，其实在很多地方都有。”
He raised his hand and pointed at the various shacks surrounding the small clearing, their backs turned to it.
他抬手指向周围背对着这小片空地的各种棚户。
“The reason people first gathered here is exactly because someone sensed this tablet back then, so they chose to settle here. Traces of them can be found in many places across this land, and in those places, shacks always gather to form settlements.”
“大家最初选择在这儿聚集，就是当时有人感应到了这块石碑的存在，从而选择在此。在这片大地上好些地方都有它们的踪迹，而在那些地方，也总有作棚们聚集，形成聚落。”
“Hey, it’s cool enough here, and you still have the leisure to come look at rocks?”
“喂，这么凉快你们还有闲情逸致来看石头啊。”
From the small window on the second floor of a building a dozen meters away, Encampment Chief Ning Yang’s head appeared.
十几米外的两层楼小窗内，露出宁洋棚主的头。