《“Marked as Property, Stolen by the Alpha”》全部章節：第 171 章 - 第 180 章

The problem with seeing the title of the next chapter of your life is that you immediately become curious about tomorrow.And the day after tomorrow.And every tomorrow after that.The problem becomes worse when an impossible library is involved.Naturally, nobody stopped talking about it.For exactly nine hours.Then the city distracted us again.As cities often do.The morning after our visit to Elowen's library, the Hall of Found Things received a delivery.A very unusual delivery.No sender.No destination listed.Just a wooden crate sitting outside the entrance.The crate wasn't large.About the size of a chair.Possibly a suspicious chair.Guardian scanned it."No danger detected."Hope poked it."Now?""No danger detected."Excellent.I opened it immediately.Inside rested a small brass telescope.Silence.The Hall quieted around us.Visitors paused.Lantern flowers swayed gently near the windows.The telescope looked old.Beautifully old.Brass polished smooth by countless han

The city lasted exactly four days before turning the Arrival Lanterns into a festival.Four.Honestly, that's longer than I expected.The idea appeared during a town meeting.Which was dangerous already.Town meetings in this city rarely stayed normal.Someone suggested a welcome gathering for new arrivals.Someone else suggested music.Another suggested food.Then Hope suggested "an emotionally overwhelming celebration visible from space."And somehow—that became the official plan.The Festival of Arrivals was scheduled for the first evening when ten Arrival Lanterns had reached the city.Nobody thought that would happen quickly.Three days later, the tenth lantern arrived.The city immediately panicked.Happy panic.The loud kind.Preparations began everywhere.Bridges were decorated with silver ribbons.Lantern flowers lined every street.Memory Constellations shimmered brighter each night as new stories joined the sky.The Hall of Found Things remained crowded from sunrise until

Nobody slept that night.Again.At this point, sleep had become more of a suggestion than a lifestyle.The map occupied the entire Arrival Gallery.The silver lanterns remained arranged across the floor exactly where Aria had placed them.Visitors had been politely redirected elsewhere.The Hall of Found Things closed early.An event so rare people immediately assumed destiny was involved.Unfortunately, they were correct.The family gathered around the map long after sunset.Lantern light shimmered across the silver paper lanterns.The routes connecting them glowed faintly.Like rivers of memory.Like roads made from stories.And at the center—the empty place waited.No lantern.No marker.Just absence.Yet somehow it felt more important than anything else.Hope lay flat on the floor staring at it.A strategy she claimed improved thinking.The creator refused to comment.Then Elowen arrived.The room immediately quieted.Not because she demanded attention.Because every time she app

The question reached every corner of the city within a day.Would we go?Simple question.Impossible answer.The Hall of Found Things remained crowded from sunrise until midnight as people came to see the message beneath the star.Some cried.Some laughed.Some simply stood there staring at the glowing words.As though afraid they might disappear.They never did.The silver message remained etched across the gallery floor.A promise.A greeting.A call.And eventually—a decision had to be made.Three nights later, the city gathered beneath the lantern tree.Not just the family.Everyone.Residents.Travelers.New arrivals.Old friends.People who had built this place together.The rooftop garden couldn't possibly hold them all.Yet somehow it did.Perhaps because hope had always been better at making room than architecture.The lantern tree shimmered above us.Silver branches stretching toward the Quiet Stars.Blue starbells glowed around its roots.The returned lantern rested among

The appearance of a magical starship created a new problem.A significantly larger problem.Who was going to sail it?The city became alarmingly enthusiastic about volunteering.By the second morning, the Hall of Found Things contained a waiting list.By the third morning, the waiting list had its own waiting list.By the fourth morning, someone had started taking applications for the waiting list.Civilization had clearly gone too far.The Wayfinder remained beneath the lantern tree.Silent.Beautiful.Patient.Its lanterns glowed softly each night.Its sails shimmered with faint starlight.And every evening, citizens gathered beneath the branches to stare at it.Sometimes for hours.Nobody blamed them.The ship looked like something pulled directly from a dream.A particularly hopeful dream.Unfortunately, dreams still required logistics.The city council, the Hall, and approximately half the population gathered beneath the lantern tree to discuss the expedition.The meeting lasted