Chapter 21
It was on the way to meet the leaders that Xia Anran saw the news about the Academy of Sciences’ absolute zero announcement. She opened WeChat, found the profile picture of a little black flower breaking through the soil and making a “V” sign, and sent a message.
[Anran]: Wow, Professor Gong, I just saw the news! Have we really conquered absolute zero?
Xia Anran hadn’t expected a busy man like Professor Gong to reply immediately. She was about to switch apps when his reply came in seconds later.
[Professor Gong]: Yes, it happened yesterday. After discussing it with the leadership, we decided to make it public.
[Professor Gong]: [Happy-Hook-Bear.jpg]
Xia Anran never thought Professor Gong would have such a cute sticker. She promptly stole it.
[Anran]: Haha, that’s great! I’m in the car now, on my way to see the Chief. I have things to report too.
[Anran]: [Happy-Hook-Bear.jpg]
[Professor Gong]: ?
[Professor Gong]: [I-Want-to-Tattle.jpg]
“Anran, we’re here.”
Xia Anran was cackling at Professor Gong’s stickers and didn’t notice they had arrived. Yu Xue thoughtfully reminded her from the side.
It was the same secluded courtyard as last time, only this time the leaders weren’t waiting in the reception room but were having a meal in the main hall.
The moment Xia Anran entered, the top leader beckoned her over. “Little Xia is here! Have you had lunch? Come, have a bite with us.”
He pulled out a chair right next to him. Xia Anran had no choice but to walk over and sit down. “Chief, I’ve already eaten.” And she had eaten quite a lot.
“Yes, I did send Old Guo over to you. His cooking is truly exceptional,” the top leader said with a smile.
The meeting this morning must have been a high-level one. There were seven or eight leaders at the table; almost the entire top brass was present. Marshal Yue was also there today and greeted her with a cheerful smile.
There was a plate of fruit on the table. The top leader pushed it in front of Xia Anran and said, “Let’s eat and chat. This isn’t a formal meeting, so everyone can be casual.”
Xia Anran didn’t stand on ceremony, forking a few pieces of mango. Her eyes instantly lit up. It was sweet and tender.
“Little Xia, what did you mean on the phone about an official contact from their side?”
Xia Anran swallowed the mango in her mouth and explained about the [United Star System Consulate] ID that had appeared during the morning’s stream. “This account replied to the issue of forcibly confiscating fruit from citizens. It seems to be their official organization.”
The top leader nodded. “That is indeed a significant gain. It’s best if we can establish contact with their officials.”
A kind-looking grandmotherly woman sitting to the top leader’s left smiled and said, “It seems our fruit is indeed very important to them in the interstellar era.”
“This is a very big advantage for us.”
Everyone nodded in agreement. In their previous intelligence analysis, they had already roughly figured out why the interstellar people were so fanatical about Xia Anran’s livestream. Besides the fact that for the United Star System, this was their ancestral planet, for the other interstellar inhabitants, the immense boost to their psychic power from the fruit was undoubtedly a huge draw.
The top leader suddenly seemed to remember something and specifically instructed Xia Anran, “Speaking of the fruit for the public, don’t delay what you promised for too long. I’ll give the Academy of Sciences a call later to hurry them along. We’ll try to get it sent back to you in a couple of days.”
Having the top leader step in was truly a blessing. The thought of trying to pry something out of the hands of those old professors at the academy made Xia Anran’s scalp tingle.
Subsequently, Xia Anran mentioned that based on the comments, green plants like flowers also seemed to have an effect on psychic power, as well as their peculiar reaction to Journey to the West.
“‘Primitive Beastmen’?” The top leader pondered for a moment, then put down his soup bowl. “Could it be that the same species can arise in two different star systems?”
The animals on Earth had evolved over hundreds of millions of years. Could the interstellar Beastmen really be so similar to Earth’s animals? That would be truly magical, or even too much of a coincidence.
“Hard to say. Aren’t there humans in the interstellar era too?” Marshal Yue chimed in.
“That’s a good point,” the top leader said with a smile. “Hurry up and eat. After we’re done, we’ll have Little Xia show us that private messaging function.”
At the mention of this, everyone’s curiosity was clearly piqued. After quickly finishing their meal, the group moved to the reception room. Xia Anran took out her phone. The private message function was still lit up, with five minutes of access remaining.
Fortunately, the livestream system wasn’t a complete scam. The five-minute timer started from when the other party replied, not when they sent the message. If the other party happened to be away and missed the five-minute window, it would have been a huge loss. Of course, even so, there was still some risk. No one knew when the other party would reply, and this group of top leaders couldn’t just wait here day and night. But for now, there was no better way, so they had to try. The top leader’s idea was that if this attempt was unsuccessful, they could at least set a time for a meeting next month, which would still be a gain.
The livestream app on Xia Anran’s phone was invisible to others when not broadcasting, so only she could operate it. After explaining the function’s settings in detail again, she turned her head and asked nervously, “So, what should I write?”
The top leader smiled. “No need to be nervous. A simple greeting and expressing our desire for a meeting will suffice.”
In the end, Xia Anran carefully worded the message, read it aloud for all the leaders to hear, and then pressed the send button.
[Anran]: Hello! I am the host Anran, from the Hua nation. I was wondering if you would have time for a brief meeting with our Hua nation. I apologize for contacting you without prior arrangement. The time limit is only five minutes. If by chance we are unable to communicate this time, we will initiate a private message again at the same time next month.
“Hey, I can see it!” Marshal Yue suddenly exclaimed. Xia Anran turned and saw that the leaders were all staring intently at her phone.
So, once the private message was initiated, the people around her could see it too. Xia Anran breathed a sigh of relief. This was great. Otherwise, if a real conversation started, she would have had to relay messages while typing, which would have been a huge waste of time.
….
United Star System Consulate
The StarNet account for the United Star System Consulate was currently managed by a new employee named Chen Yu. The time of Xia Anran’s livestream happened to be evening in the interstellar era. Just as Chen Yu was finishing his final checks and preparing to get off work, a dialog box suddenly popped up on the official account’s feed.
Your specially followed host, Anran, has sent you a private message. View?
Chen Yu: !!!
What? He looked again. It really was a private message from Host Anran!
Chen Yu dropped what he was holding, shot open his photon-computer, and after reading the message, jumped up and immediately dialed his supervisor’s communication line. This was not a decision he could make.
Out of caution, the United Star System did not reply to the message immediately. By the time the message reached the Consul General, a full ten minutes had passed.
Upon receiving the news, the Consulate convened the consuls from all the planets with extreme speed. Fortunately, due to the Beastman invasion, the consuls had all been in meetings on the main planet for the past few days, so they were all assembled in no time.
“What? Host Anran contacted us on her own initiative?!”
Director Li Sheng also rushed over. The moment he arrived, he hurried to the Consul General’s side, eager to see the message. The other consuls were also a mix of shocked and pleasantly surprised. The Consul General raised his hand, signaling for everyone to be seated first, then displayed the message from Xia Anran.
“Excellent, excellent! This is absolutely wonderful news for our United Star System,” Director Li Sheng said, grinning from ear to ear. He had a mountain of questions he wanted to ask Anran.
“Not long ago, the Beastmen also withdrew from the Fourth Planet’s star sector,” the consul of the Fourth Planet said in a low voice. “It’s hard to say it wasn’t because of this livestream.” The appearance of Earth’s animals in today’s stream must have been a huge shock to the Beastmen.
….
Back in the Hua nation, Xia Anran sat at the forefront, staring at the private message screen. Nearly twenty minutes had passed with no reply. The leaders, however, weren’t very anxious. They were still chatting about some international situations. Since it was a text-based conversation and not a video conference, everyone was relatively relaxed.
But Xia Anran was under immense pressure, praying in her heart for a quick reply.
Finally, twenty-six minutes after the message was sent, the chat box moved. A message from the other side had finally arrived!
[United Star System Consulate]: Hello! We are delighted that you have contacted us! We are incredibly honored by the appearance of Host Anran’s livestream on the United Star System’s network. As people of Earth from sixteen thousand years in the future, our excitement at being able to connect with our mother planet in this way is beyond words!
Sure enough, the moment the United Star System replied, a five-minute countdown appeared on the private message page.
The United Star System side also saw the countdown. Director Li exclaimed, “So that’s what the five minutes meant! Thank goodness, thank goodness, we should still be able to contact them.” He had been worried for a long time that the time had already passed and they wouldn’t be able to reply.
Soon, a reply came from the other side.
[Host Anran]: As time is limited and we have many questions to ask, please forgive us for any offense.
[Host Anran]: May I ask, for what reason were the people of Earth forced to travel to the stars sixteen thousand years ago? Is there a specific time and process?
This was the first question the top leader had instructed her to get an answer to. It concerned the very survival of the entire Earth.
Director Li Sheng, as an expert who had studied ancient history for many years, volunteered to answer this question.
[United Star System Consulate]: The specific time and process can no longer be verified. After arriving in the interstellar era, the people of Earth experienced a severe internal conflict and hostility from other interstellar races, so many records were destroyed during that turmoil. Current research can only roughly confirm that the migration of Earth’s people was around the year 2100, and the reason for the migration was a planet that was about to explode near Earth.
[United Star System Consulate]: Some surviving historical records state that while the interstellar humans were still drifting in space, before reaching their current location, it was confirmed that Earth was indeed annihilated in that explosion.
A silence fell over the reception room after this reply came through. Xia Anran sucked in a sharp breath.
Around the year 2100? Isn’t that only sixty or seventy years from now?
In just a few decades, the Earth is going to be destroyed?