‘What was the self-sacrifice?’

“自我牺牲的是什么？”

‘I jettisoned half of a much loved and I think irreplaceable pair of shoes.’

“我放弃了一只我真心喜爱而且很可能无法替代的鞋子。”

‘Why was that self-sacrifice?’

“为什么这要算自我牺牲？”

‘Because they were mine!’ said Ford crossly.

“因为它们是我的！”福特气呼呼地回答道。

‘I think we have different value systems.’

“我想我们可能有不同的价值体系。”

‘Well mine’s better.’

“好吧，反正我的更好。”

‘That’s according to your… oh never mind. So having saved yourself very cleverly once you very sensibly went and jumped again. Please don’t tell me why. Just tell me what happened if you must.’

“那是你根据你的……哦，算了。那么说在非常机灵地救了你自己一命之后你又非常机智地跑去重新跳了一回楼。请别告诉我为什么。只告诉我发生了什么事就行，如果你一定要说的话。”

‘I fell straight into the open cockpit of a passing jet towncar whose pilot had just accidentally pushed the eject button when he meant only to change tracks on the stereo. Now, even I couldn’t think that that was particularly clever of me.’

“一辆喷射式林肯车刚好经过，我直愣愣地掉进了它的驾驶舱里。那个司机本来只想给收音机换个台，结果却一不小心把顶盖打开了。真的，就连我也没办法把这想成什么特别机灵的招数。”

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Arthur wearily. ‘I expect you probably sneaked into his jetcar the previous night and set the pilot’s least favourite track to play or something.’

“哦，谁知道呢。”阿瑟厌倦地说，“我猜你大概在前一天晚上溜进了他的喷射汽车里，把他的收音机调到了他最不喜欢的频道之类的。”

‘No, I didn’t,’ said Ford.

“不，我没有。”福特说。

‘Just checking.’

“只是问问。”

‘Though oddly enough, somebody else did. And this is the nub. You could trace the chain and branches of crucial events and coincidences back and back. Turned out the new Guide had done it. That bird.’

“不过奇怪的是，另外有人这么干了。这就是关键。你可以找到哪些决定性的偶发性的事件，沿着它们的链条，分支一直往前追溯，最后发现一切全是新《指南》搞的鬼。那只鸟。”

‘What bird?’

“什么鸟？”

‘You haven’t seen it?’

“你没有看见？”

‘No.’

“没有。”

‘Oh. It’s a lethal little thing. Looks pretty, talks big, collapses waveforms selectively at will.’

“哦，一个致命的小东西。模样漂亮，爱说大话，能选择性地随意瓦解波形。”

‘What does that mean?’

“什么意思？”