Chapter 1
The summer sun blazed. Xia Anran, having just returned from the orchard, tore off her sunhat and chugged a glass of cool water.
Uncle Li, who had been helping with the work, saw her and called out, “Just came in from the fields, don’t drink so much cold water!”
“I know, Uncle. Won’t you come in and sit for a bit?” Xia Anran said, putting down her glass.
Uncle Li was the Xia family’s neighbor and had watched Anran grow up. Now that her parents were gone, leaving their young daughter to take over the orchard, he helped out whenever he could.
He waved his hand dismissively. “It’s too hot out. You hurry on inside. Your Auntie is stewing pork ribs. I’ll call you over for dinner when they’re ready!”
Xia Anran agreed, watching Uncle Li leave the yard before she went into the house.
This was a small village called Yanshan, nestled by mountains and water. It was named for Mount Yan, a peak behind the village that seemed to pierce the clouds, and it was the place where Xia Anran had grown up.
Her hands were starting to blister. She washed them, then took out the medicine she’d gotten from the town clinic a few days ago. While applying the ointment, she called her university classmate, Li Xin.
The moment the call connected, Li Xin’s cheerful, booming voice came through. “Anran! How are things? Did you get home okay?”
“Everything’s fine. I just got back from our orchard.”
The villagers of Yanshan all made their living growing fruit trees. Since fruit was a valuable cash crop, everyone’s standard of living was quite good.
After asking a few more questions about Xia Anran’s situation, Li Xin couldn’t help but add, “You know, you could have had a great life staying in Liyang. You didn’t have to go back home.”
Xia Anran and Li Xin had been roommates, and both had studied to become teachers. According to Anran’s original plan, she was going to prepare for graduate school or take the teacher certification exams, then stay in the provincial capital of Liyang as a high school teacher.
But fate was unpredictable. On the eve of her graduation, her parents were killed in a car accident while on their way to deliver a shipment of fruit. As their only daughter, Xia Anran returned home in a daze to handle the funeral. When she finally went back to school, she decided that after graduation, she would return to her hometown and take over the family orchard.
Xia Anran had received nearly three million yuan in compensation, enough for her to live a comfortable, worry-free life in this small village.
Besides, she wanted to stay somewhere close to her parents.
Fortunately, the villagers of Yanshan were simple, honest people, and they were all willing to help this poor girl who had lost her parents.
Li Xin didn’t try to persuade her further. The memory of Xia Anran’s zombie-like state at school before graduation was frightening enough. At least now, back in her hometown, her mood seemed to have improved. It was better to let her rest and recover for a while.
After finishing with the ointment, Xia Anran invited her to visit. “The lychees and cherries in my orchard are ripe! Come visit when you have time, my treat!”
Li Xin agreed immediately, then something occurred to her. “Hey, I had an idea the other day. Why don’t you try livestreaming? You could promote your village’s fruit. I see a lot of people doing that online these days.”
Wholesalers came to Yanshan Village to buy fruit in bulk, but they were the ones who set the prices. For some reason, the prices this year were a bit low. The villagers had discussed it to no avail. Xia Anran had complained about it to Li Xin a few days ago, and after mulling it over, Li Xin had come up with the idea of livestream sales.
Xia Anran thought it was a great idea. She was one of the few young people in the village, and a university student at that. If she could really make Yanshan’s fruit popular, it would be another source of income for her fellow villagers.
A smile spread across her face. After chatting a bit more, she hung up and immediately opened a shopping website to buy some basic livestreaming equipment, planning to test the waters.
Just as Xia Anran finished setting everything up, Uncle Li came to call her for dinner. Auntie Li had bought some premium pork ribs and made two dishes: a stew with yam and another braised version. She had also stir-fried a few seasonal vegetables. Xia Anran ate until she was bursting with praise, and she stayed to chat with the elderly couple for a while before heading home.
By the time she left, the sun had completely set, leaving behind layers of orange and red staining the horizon. On the road, she ran into a few villagers carrying farm tools on their way home from work, and she greeted them all warmly.
The evening in the mountain village, filled with the chirping of cicadas and birds, was quiet and peaceful—a life you could never experience in the big city.
Back home, Xia Anran took a shower, washed her clothes, and then, dressed in her pajamas, went into the yard to water the flowers her mother had planted. Her mother had loved flowers and cleanliness. Their small courtyard was neatly paved with bluestone slabs, with just a border of soil left along the edges for planting all sorts of flowers.
As Xia Anran carefully tended to the plants, she couldn’t help but think of her parents again. She fought back her sadness and sat down on the recliner under the grape trellis, looking up tips for livestreaming online.
The villagers had helped her so much; she had to work hard to find a way to bring in more income for everyone.
A few days after studying online tutorials, her new equipment arrived.
Xia Anran figured that no amount of watching videos could beat hands-on experience. Besides, every beginner had to start somewhere.
Putting her thoughts into action, she picked some lychees and cherries from her own trees, ready to give it a try.
She spent the day preparing. Following the online guides, she arranged the fruit behind her, set up a small white table, and placed a sign that read “Yanshan Village Fruit” on it. Taking a deep breath, she opened the livestreaming app she had already downloaded.
In her haste, she didn’t notice that the familiar orange-and-red icon had quietly turned a shade darker.
When Xia Anran opened the app, a system prompt asked her to register. She frowned. Hadn’t she already registered when she downloaded it?
Though puzzled, she wasn’t very familiar with livestreaming software. She figured maybe she needed to register a separate host account to go live, so she dutifully went through the process again.
Soon, a channel named “Yanshan Fruit Recommendations” went live.
After starting the broadcast, Xia Anran adjusted the camera and saw that, as expected, the number of online viewers was zero.
A new stream with no traffic. It was to be expected.
She waited for a moment, but when no one joined, she decided to leave the stream running and go get a couple of potted plants from the yard to decorate the room.
…
In the year 85,315 AD, Yu Yingkai, having just gotten off his shift at the monitoring center, drank two bottles of nutrient solution and lay down on his bed. He opened his photon-computer to the livestream interface, looking for something to pass the time.
He scrolled through the list. The current streams were all either mecha repair or Beastman performances. He was tired of all of them and didn’t click on a single one, continuing to scroll down boredly, hoping to find something interesting.
As he browsed aimlessly, he suddenly spotted a channel called “Yanshan Fruit Recommendations.” The host was a newly registered account named “Anran.” The stream’s cover photo was a strange object—a cluster of small, round, red things with bumpy surfaces, strung together with little purple spheres.
Fruit?
He knew what fruit was. They had special classes on it in school, learning that it was a type of plant from the ancient era, thousands of years ago when humanity still lived on Earth. It was said to have a sweet and sour taste.
Not that he had any idea what “sweet and sour” tasted like.
Nutrient solution only had one flavor, which he would describe as tasting like ionized engine oil.
This stream was probably just another gimmick to attract viewers, the kind that turned out to be an ancient language lesson once you clicked.
He was about to scroll past, but he couldn’t resist the novel species on the cover and tapped on it anyway.
If it was a scam, he could just leave. No loss.
When Yu Yingkai entered the stream, he was surprised to find the room empty except for a white table, on which sat two plates of the strange species from the cover photo.
It wasn’t a scam?! The things from the picture were real!
The room’s decor was also bizarre, completely different from the current style. It was filled with furniture he had never seen before.
Yu Yingkai thought for a moment and sent a bullet comment.
[Don’t-Wanna-Pilot-Mechs-Today]: Anyone here? Where’s the host?
Just as he sent it, he heard a creaking sound. A girl with a long, thick braid walked in, carrying two pots of lush green plants blooming with red and orange flowers.
Xia Anran struggled in with two pots of vibrant China roses in full bloom. She glanced at the screen and saw the viewer count was now at one. Not only that, but the viewer had even sent a comment asking where she was.
She quickly put on a smile and greeted her one and only audience member.
“Hello, um… ‘Don’t-Wanna-Pilot-Mechs-Today.’ I’m your host, Anran.”
Almost immediately, the viewer with the strange ID fired off several more comments in quick succession.
[Don’t-Wanna-Pilot-Mechs-Today]: What is that!! Is it a plant!
[Don’t-Wanna-Pilot-Mechs-Today]: Is this synthesized imaging? That’s illegal!
[Don’t-Wanna-Pilot-Mechs-Today]: Confess, now!
Xia Anran was completely baffled by his barrage of questions. She had just started a livestream. How was she breaking the law?
“Uh, yes, this is a plant. It’s a Pink Cluster Rose I grew myself. Synthesized imaging? No, I’m not using any AI. This is all real.”
She answered the strange viewer’s questions honestly. Why would she need synthesized imaging for a couple of potted flowers?
She figured it must be an internet troll trying to mess with her.
With that thought, she stopped replying and started her sales pitch.
“Hello everyone. Today, I mainly want to recommend our Yanshan Village’s specialty fruit: the freshest lychees and cherries of the season.”
Xia Anran pushed the fruit forward, ready to officially begin. In that short time, another person had entered the stream.
[Science-Academy’s-No.1-Seed]: Ahhh, what is this!!
[Science-Academy’s-No.1-Seed]: Where are the mods? Synthesizing plants is forbidden on livestreams! Ban this channel!
Xia Anran’s head was full of question marks. Was this the latest internet trend?
Feeling like she was a step behind the times, she decided to skip straight to the final step.
She couldn’t keep this stream going for another second.
The internet was a scary place!
She picked up a lychee, peeled it open to reveal the plump, pearly-white flesh, and took a bite.
“This is fruit from our own orchard. It’s very juicy and sweet. If you’d like to buy some, please click the link below. The prices are listed. Today I only have five pounds of lychees and five pounds of cherries. I’ll ship them out as soon as possible after purchase.”
Lying on his bed, Yu Yingkai was utterly stunned. This delicate-looking girl had actually opened that thing called a lychee and eaten it!
He could even see the juice!
Could it be that this really wasn’t a synthesis?
Before he could even process it, a purchase page suddenly popped up on the stream. He quickly clicked to order three pounds of lychees, but when he tried to add more, a notification told him they were out of stock.
He thought of the other viewer’s ID, “Science-Academy’s-No.1-Seed.” Dammit! They’d beaten him to it!
Xia Anran hadn’t expected these two viewers, who were clearly just there to cause trouble, to actually buy her fruit. Just as she was about to end the stream, she saw that both items she had listed were instantly sold out.
Were their words just for show?
Regardless, she had made her first sale. A bright smile lit up her face as she said, “To the customers who purchased, please leave your contact information in the…”
Before she could finish, the stream suddenly cut to a black screen.
Startled, Xia Anran quickly checked her phone. The phone was fine, but when she tried to go live again, it wouldn’t work. It just kept warning her: “Today’s balance is insufficient.”
Livestreams had a time limit? She’d never heard of that.
She fiddled with it for a while, but the stream absolutely wouldn’t start. She was frantic. The customers who bought the fruit hadn’t left their addresses. How was she supposed to ship their orders?
Taking money without delivering the goods was not an option.
As she was agonizing over this, two black boxes suddenly materialized out of thin air on her table. Taped to each was a piece of paper with a recipient’s name—the usernames from just now—and a note specifying how many pounds each person had ordered.
Xia Anran was completely frozen. What was this?!
Was her entire worldview being shattered?