"CP 1765, September 22. 71 days have passed since landing. Local time: AD 2016, October 27."

  "Today brings a reason to celebrate: the PCR machine is fixed!"

  "Maybe I shouldn't use the word 'fixed' — I fear no one truly understands what happened. Today, when I attempted to fix it once more, without making any changes, merely observing as I powered it on, the machine ceased its error alerts. Simple tests confirmed that it had indeed resumed functioning. A perplexing mystery, perhaps my two taps landed in just the right spots."

  "Research-wise, I am having some great progress with animal morphology and taxonomy. After all, this isn't Lierus; one can find as many gaps in species' evolutionary paths as one wants. The marsupials (creatures with pouches for raising offspring) here are a prime example. For their details, see my research notes. That peculiar pouch structure is a strange deviation from the most common biological structures and is not something that can easily co-evolved. Due to its sheer strangeness, the marsupial pouch has even spawned some interesting cultural phenomena here."

  "But from an anatomical and personal standpoint, I have no interest to try staying inside one. It's just too disgusting."

  "Given that most species here aren't overly bizarre in appearance, using them probably wouldn't work for writing something like 'Extraterrestrial Biology'. But 'If There Were a Second Lierus' would be a good idea. Unwittingly, 'The Biosphere of Chaos Effects' would also be fitting, though it's actually nothing of the sort..."

  "The"

  Before he can type the next word, Min's voice drifts out from the living room: "Xi P, my paper got a response!"

  Xi P sighs and gets up, heading towards the living room: "No, *my* paper."

  "Alright, yours. They said in their email that your manuscript is basically fine. We just need to make the suggested revisions. Barring any accidents, your paper will be in the next issue."

  Xi P moves in closer and gazes at the screen with Min. Although he is gradually becoming more proficient in verbal communication, he still finds written language challenging and cannot quite comprehend the writing of this acknowledgement. Nodding, he turns back to Min: "Accidents?"

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Accidents are when something you didn't want to happen happen."

  Pausing for a second, Xi P quickly shakes his head and corrects: "I mean, what kind of accidents could prevent the paper from appearing in the next issue?"

  "Eh, the journal has limited pages. If a better paper comes along, ours might get replaced."

  Xi P nods again. But, in his view, this wouldn't qualify as an accident. A true accident would be something like the headquarters of the journal being hit by a terrorist attack or flooding. 'Their definition of "accident" might be different,' he thinks.

  Scrolling down the screen, Min continues reading the confirmation notice. When he reaches the next paragraph, however, his face suddenly twists into a strange expression. This is a German journal!

  "Why would a German journal have an English website?" Min doesn't mention this detail to the highly intelligent alien beside him — a blunder like this would be embarrassing to let Xi P know about.

  Scrolling further down, he sees that the remaining sections are praise and critiques of the paper. While Xi P is there, Min reads the complimentary parts aloud:

  "Highly innovative and a solid piece of research. This is primarily reflected in its unique perspective and rigorous analytical reasoning..."

  It is clear that Xi P is pleased to hear these words. His slightly narrowed eyes and ears tilted back give him away. Resisting the urge to ruffle his head, Min proceeds to read the critical remarks:

  "...lacks detailed descriptions on... Some inferences require concrete evidence to support them, and there is a serious lack of proper citations... Why use the van der Kamp system?"

  Yet these criticisms hardly dampen Xi P's spirits. For the parts he can understand, they are all expected. He knows he will get better at it over time as the language barrier eases naturally. Cultural differences pose more of a challenge, but they aren't insurmountable — not least because he might live here for decades. Besides, he's not a folklorist anyway.

  "..."

  Seeing Min has nothing more to say, Xi P happily returns to his study and resumes writing his diary.

  "-The mice ordered for dissection should arrive tomorrow. Thankfully, they sell such things here, sparing me the need to actually catch and kill one myself. Coincidentally, rodents are the foxes' primary prey here. When I asked Min to buy them, his expression was truly revealing — he practically asked what seasoning I needed next."

  "Anyway, this means that tomorrow I'll finally get to dissect an alien creature — dissect an alien creature!! It's an essential part of landing on an alien planet, not to be missed! Have you ever seen a protagonist in any book pass up such an opportunity? Honestly, it feels a bit late that it's taken two months to get this chance. Studying organ diagrams is a completely different experience to actually dissecting an animal. "

  "For the 'dissecting an alien', part though... well, maybe just imagining it is enough…"