Chapter 14
At the same time the next day, Xia Anran started her stream right on schedule.
This time, the location was a three-story villa in the capital, specially allocated to her by the state. Director Huang and the production team had come straight here after yesterday’s broadcast.
Although the villa wasn’t far from the city center, the surrounding greenery was excellent, enveloped by a large forest. The front yard had been filled with transplanted flowers overnight, and the backyard was planted with fruit trees and flowers. The entire courtyard was meticulously arranged to have a very pastoral feel. Even the courtyard walls were covered in climbing, purplish-red morning glories. It was clearly a custom-made set designed to appeal to their interstellar fans.
Minister Qiao personally led her in, introducing the location as he walked. “This villa will be the production team’s base in the capital from now on, and it’s also the headquarters for our Project Liuhe. At the same time, the Chief has decided to assign this property to you.”
Xia Anran: “…Assign?”
“It means your name is on the property deed,” Minister Qiao said with a smile.
Xia Anran sucked in a sharp breath. She now owned a villa in the heart of the capital, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold?
It was already past eleven at night when Xia Anran returned to the villa. The house was still brightly lit. The moment she stepped inside, she saw Director Huang holding a meeting with the production team.
They were reviewing the recording of today’s stream over and over again. Director Huang led everyone through a post-mortem of the broadcast’s pacing and camera control. They were also combing through the countless bullet comments, trying to find useful information and understand what interested the interstellar audience. They had been at it until eleven o’clock.
Furthermore, with the system upgrade, the broadcast time had now been extended to half an hour. All their previous plans had to be scrapped and redone. So, the moment they returned, the production team had started working overtime, preparing with feverish intensity.
The group was still full of energy and high spirits. When Xia Anran entered, Director Huang was in the middle of a final, booming motivational speech for tomorrow’s shoot.
“Throughout the history of cinema, in our Hua nation and even globally, there has never been an opportunity like this to connect with an interstellar civilization and future humanity! I’m over sixty, and I never imagined I’d encounter such a miracle. So, everyone, perk up! Don’t lose face!”
Xia Anran: …Looks like Director Huang is also a fan of the Yongzheng Dynasty.
After the team responded with enthusiastic agreement, the late-night meeting finally concluded.
Director Huang collected a large pile of notes filled with everyone’s ideas for the stream and turned to see Xia Anran standing at the door.
“When did you get back?”
Seeing everyone so energized and with assigned tasks, Xia Anran asked, “Director Huang, is there anything I need to prepare?”
Otherwise, it would seem like she was just lazing around!
Director Huang suddenly leaned in, sized her up for a moment, then circled her twice. With a grand wave of his hand, he said, “Your task right now is to go straight to bed! Look at your dark circles; they’ll be impossible to cover up tomorrow! Also, I’ll have the nutritionist come over to plan your three meals. You’re thin, but you still need to work on your figure. More exercise from now on!”
I shouldn’t have even asked, Xia Anran thought. She made a quick escape before Director Huang could say anything more.
…
At eight o’clock the next morning, Xia Anran was fast asleep when she was shaken awake by Sister Wang.
“Alright, little missy, stop sleeping. If you sleep any longer, your eyes will get puffy, and I won’t be able to do your makeup.”
Drowsily, Xia Anran saw that the female colleagues from the costume and makeup team had already arrived. Makeup cases and outfits were piled in front of the vanity mirror.
…Why does this suddenly feel like clocking in for a job?
After washing up, Xia Anran sat down obediently and let the ladies work their magic. Midway through, Director Huang came in, watched for a while with satisfaction, nodded, and handed her a folder.
Xia Anran opened it and glanced at it. “…A script?”
It contained the content for today’s stream and some of her general transitional lines. Director Huang, considering the unpredictable nature of a livestream and the fact that Xia Anran wasn’t a professional actress, knew that a 30-minute, single-take performance would be too much to ask of her. So, he had only planned the general content, leaving the rest for her to improvise.
“What kind of script is this? It’s just an outline,” said Little Yan, who was braiding Xia Anran’s hair, glancing at it with a smile. “Director Huang’s real scripts are as thick as books. No matter how big the star, they’re not allowed to miss a single word of their lines.”
Xia Anran quickly said she didn’t have that kind of ability. Memorizing half an hour of lines verbatim was basically impossible for her. This was a livestream; she would have to talk from beginning to end. Just thinking about the volume of lines made her scalp tingle.
Director Huang muttered under his breath that he hadn’t expected her to, then turned with his hands behind his back and went out to prepare for the broadcast.
Sister Wang, standing by, was afraid Xia Anran’s feelings were hurt and quickly explained, “Little Xia, don’t take it to heart. The director is just like that when it comes to work. He’s very direct and doesn’t spare anyone’s feelings.”
“A couple of days ago, when he got back from the northwest, he had a fight with Little Ji. They still haven’t made up.”
“Little Ji?” Xia Anran thought for a moment. There didn’t seem to be anyone with the surname Ji on the production team.
“He’s the apprentice the director personally trained. For over ten years. He’s like a son to him.”
Xia Anran hadn’t expected such gossip. Although she wanted to ask for more details, the scheduled broadcast time was approaching, so she had to put it aside for now.
….
At nine-thirty, Xia Anran’s livestream went live on the interstellar network right on time.
[The door is open, finally open!]
[Anran, I’ve suffered waiting for you! I demand a hundred honey peaches as compensation!]
[The entire stream demands it!]
[Here, here, watching the stream on time!]
[Are there honey peaches today? I want to see!]
The weather was perfect, with clear skies. The nine o’clock evening sun wasn’t too harsh. Director Huang didn’t even prepare a reflector board; the natural light was bright and soft.
The stream began with a beautiful establishing shot. The white walls and black tiles of the house were covered in blooming morning glories. Green leaves and small, lovely purplish-red flowers cascaded down the wall. At the base of the wall, a grape trellis was laden with round, purple grapes. Further on was a patch of blooming China roses.
“Alright, sprinkle some water,” Director Huang said quietly through his walkie-talkie.
On his command, a staff member turned on a pre-prepared mister. A fine mist instantly filled the air, refracting the light into a rainbow of colors. Water droplets landed on the flowers, making the already vibrant plants look even more fresh and dewy.
[!!!! So many flowers and fruit!]
[Where is this place? It’s too beautiful, sob.]
[I want to live here! I don’t care, I want to live here!]
[Ahhhhhh I can’t take it, how can such a beautiful place exist?]
[There are flowers and fruit. Earth is too wonderful.]
[Wow, rainbow water! Is that real?]
[Why does the water have so many colors?! It’s magical!]
[My grandpa didn’t lie to me! Ancient humans all have magic!]
[So dreamy. I feel like I’m in a dream.]
“Okay, pan the camera!”
Following the director’s command, the camera slowly panned, moving past the blooming flowers towards the center of the courtyard. Xia Anran had her hair in a side braid, with a translucent glass grape hair accessory clipped in. The style the team had created for her today was “pastoral comfort.” She wore a simple white long dress, and her makeup was light and fresh.
She sat at a white stone table in the center of the courtyard, with a plate of fruit and a few books on it.
“Hello, everyone! We’re meeting right on time!”
Xia Anran waved at the camera, greeting her interstellar audience with a sweet smile.
“I have something to apologize for. There was a small problem with the 200 honey peaches from yesterday’s lottery, and only one was sent out. So, it will be a few days before I can ship them. As compensation, I will prepare two peaches for every lucky winner. I hope you can all understand.”
The moment the stream started, Xia Anran rushed to explain the delay in yesterday’s lottery. After she left the top leader’s place, Professor Gong had received the news and came running over. He had clutched the boxes and refused to let go, his eyes gleaming as he moved them all back to the Academy of Sciences. It was unlikely they would be returned for at least two or three days.
Meanwhile, the unlucky Yao Jiayin, the only one to have received her peach, was still being interrogated in a United Star System interrogation room, weeping behind bars.
The head of the United Star System’s security, who was watching the stream, blinked uncomfortably and quietly instructed his subordinate to stop the interrogation and release her.
Yao Jiayin, who had been interrogated for nearly a day and was in a daze, was still disoriented when she was released. It wasn’t until the officer returned her personal belongings and escorted her out that she came to her senses.
“Where’s my peach?!”
It was a gift from Anran! She had won it fair and square! And she had been thrown in jail for it!
The officer handed her the empty spun glass packaging. “Ms. Yao, we have confiscated the honey peach in the name of the government. You will receive corresponding compensation later.”
…Her world had collapsed.
Yao Jiayin: I’m taking this to the Central Government! I’m suing!
Xia Anran’s stream was still ongoing. The moment Yao Jiayin was released, she quickly connected to her photon-computer and saw that Anran was live. Feeling more and more wronged, she rolled up her sleeves and started typing furiously.
[I’m the one who received the peach! I was taken away by the police yesterday and was just released! [Crying]]
[They even stole my peach!]
The security chief, who had just breathed a sigh of relief and settled back to watch the stream, shot up from his chair. “Arrest her! Arrest her again!”
His subordinate: “…”
Xia Anran caught the comment and immediately asked with concern, “Are you okay now? Why did they take your peach?”
Just as Yao Jiayin was about to continue her tirade, she found that her network connection had suddenly been cut. Looking up, she saw the United Star System police standing in front of her.
“Miss Yao, you are overly emotional. The chief has requested you come in for a talk.”
The officer in charge of taking her away was also helpless. The woman hadn’t even made it out the front door of the police station. One had to admit, she was brave.
And so, Yao Jiayin, who had been free for less than five minutes, was once again weeping behind bars.
Xia Anran saw that Yao Jiayin had stopped replying. Just as she frowned, feeling a little uneasy, a golden-red bullet comment flashed across the screen.
[Citizen-Safety-Is-Paramount]: Hello, Miss Anran. I am Luo Sheng, the head of United Star System Security. Please rest assured that Miss Yao Jiayin is in no danger. We were merely conducting a reasonable inquiry and have already apologized to Miss Yao for the inconvenience and thanked her for her cooperation.
[Citizen-Safety-Is-Paramount]: The retrieval of fruit is a new regulation in the United Star System. All citizens of the United Star System are obligated and have voluntarily agreed to cooperate with the government’s work. But please be assured that we have provided corresponding compensation to all citizens from whom fruit was confiscated.
I should have known that even if they won the lottery, the fruit would be confiscated by the government, Xia Anran thought with a sigh of resignation. If the United Star System was like this, the Interstellar Empire was probably the same.
Sure enough, many citizens immediately appeared in the comments, attesting to their “voluntary cooperation.”
[Voluntary, heh.]
[Give me back my fruit!! Give me back my cherries!]
[Get him out of here, get him out! He’s disgusting!]
[So the United Star System is like this too, hahaha. The Empire and the System really are good brothers now.]
[I will curse you in my dreams!]
[Those good-for-nothing wastes at the Science Academy haven’t produced anything in so long! Why are they still confiscating our fruit!]