Chapter 68
The interstellar audience had been in a rather foul mood for the past few days. The reason was that Host Anran had once again posted a leave of absence on her homepage, stating she would be taking a three-day break.
Three days! Three whole days! How were they supposed to live without Host Anran?! Everyone was biting their little handkerchiefs and frantically leaving comments on her channel, begging her to come back quickly.
And then, someone suddenly discovered that a new section, “[Classic Hua Nation Film & TV],” had been quietly added to her channel.
Hmm? What’s film and TV? Although they didn’t know, they decided to click and see.
The moment they opened the video, a melodious and somewhat cheerful piece of music began to play, accompanied by flashing frames of nature, food, and people. It finally settled on a golden wheat field, with a continuous pink mountain range in the background.
The large characters for A Bite of Hua Nation appeared on the screen.
[The Hua nation has the largest population and also the world’s most rich and diverse natural landscapes: plateaus, mountains, forests, lakes, and coastlines. This geographical and climatic span is conducive to the formation and preservation of species. No other country has such a wealth of potential food ingredients.]
Accompanied by the narration, the vastly different natural scenery of the Hua nation and the various culinary delights from different regions—steaming, pan-frying, deep-frying, stir-frying—were presented one by one on the screen.
The eyes of the interstellar viewers who had clicked on the video began to slowly glaze over. Holy crap! What is this amazing thing?!
[People gather, dig, pick, and fish, all to receive this gift of nature. Through the four seasons, we will see the story of people and nature behind the delicious food.]
The five words “Gift of Nature” appeared on the screen, clearly the title of this episode.
Director Li Sheng had also opened the video to watch at the first opportunity. Seeing this, he clutched his chest, his heart about to leap out. The people and nature of Earth! Isn’t this the topic the interstellar era is most concerned about?
Director Huang had deliberated for a whole day before finally choosing this documentary because it was not just a food documentary, but a perfect combination of humanity and nature through food. Releasing it to the interstellar era would allow the viewers to better understand how the people of Earth lived, grew, and survived.
The forty-minute-plus documentary felt like it was over in the blink of an eye for the interstellar audience. And then, almost everyone’s first reaction was: Hmm? That’s it?? Release some more!
That’s right. After their discussion, they had chosen to release it daily, not putting up the entire series at once.
[Ahhh, what is this amazing thing!]
[Everyone, go watch the latest video Anran uploaded! You’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t!]
[Sob, although I’ve said it countless times, I still have to say it: Earth is too wonderful!]
[Gift of Nature, so romantic.]
[People and nature… the interstellar era has no nature at all [crying]]
[Give me back my happy old home!!! I want to go back!]
[The filming is so good too! My drool has already flowed for several kilometers.]
[The soundtrack is also great!]
[Is no one going to praise the narrator? His voice is so nice! Now, whenever I hear his voice, I start drooling reflexively.]
[I’ve already re-watched it five times. When is the second episode coming out…]
[Anran, how can we live without you? Come back and stream quickly, or update the second episode of A Bite of Hua Nation!]
[Isn’t this the idiom Anran taught us a few days ago, ‘when the map is unrolled, the dagger is revealed’?]
After just a few short hours, A Bite of Hua Nation had already garnered over ten billion views, shooting straight to the top of the StarNet’s most popular videos.
In truth, the interstellar era did have an entertainment industry. Livestreaming and music were also very popular. But in terms of film and television production, it was rather lackluster, especially documentaries like this, which were almost extinct. In the current era of highly advanced technology, interstellar travel was commonplace, and whether it was the United Star System or the Interstellar Empire, people’s lives were highly similar, with basically no difference. The Beastman race was different from humans, but before Xia Anran’s livestream had appeared, they almost never interacted with humans, and no one had the guts to go to the Beastman home planet to film.
So, after watching one episode of A Bite of Hua Nation, the love for life in the hearts of the interstellar audience was instantly ignited. The people in the video lived in all sorts of different regions, leading completely different lives. Some were farmers, some were fishermen, and many more worked in bustling cities or lived a quiet life of “working at sunrise and resting at sunset” in the countryside. A hundred different faces of life were thus displayed before the interstellar people, who lived the same life day after day.
Especially when they saw the people of the Hua nation gathering various ingredients from nature and processing them into delicacies using different cooking methods, their envy was practically overflowing. Their current food… was all from factory production lines. In other words, all scientifically proportioned. Of course, this was also because there was basically nothing edible in the interstellar era.
After living like this for tens of thousands of years, seeing such a vivid and vibrant scene of all things thriving on Earth was simply torture for them.
The Beastman race, in particular, was itching to move when they saw the cattle and sheep leisurely strolling on the prairie, eating the lush green grass, and the animals hunting. This is the kind of life they should be living! This is the place where they Beastmen should reside!
And so, the complaint and suggestion boxes of the various nations were once again filled with a snowstorm of letters. The staff in charge of managing them were already numb. They even wanted to submit one themselves.
The ordinary citizens were in it for the food, while the scientists were more interested in the insights it revealed about the Hua nation’s culture, society, and their relationship with nature. Director Li, in particular, had almost worn out the video from re-watching it so many times. He had even specially made a communication call to Ye Yuxing at the 115th Squadron.
He had rarely contacted him since he had gone to the squadron. One, because it was highly classified, and two, because ever since he had told Qin Feng about his relationship with Ye Yuxing, having a second person know his secret, he always felt a little awkward when interacting with him.
Ye Yuxing quickly answered the call. His fair and delicate face appeared on the screen. He was also a little surprised that his teacher was contacting him. “Teacher, is something the matter?”
Director Li was a little at a loss. He rubbed his nose, his gaze shifting. “How have you been in the squadron lately? Are you adapting well?”
Ye Yuxing nodded. “It’s fine.”
“That’s good, that’s good.”
“…”
After a period of silence, Director Li finally remembered the main purpose of his call today. “Ahem, that… how is your psychic power lately?”
With the help of tea, Ye Yuxing’s psychic power had indeed improved by leaps and bounds. But now, his various data were no longer synchronized with the Academy of Sciences but were analyzed by the professional staff within the 115th Squadron.
Ye Yuxing told him truthfully, “My current psychic power level can already support communication with Host Anran for over an hour.”
Director Li let out an “Oh,” and then the dagger was revealed. “Then can you help your teacher tell Host Anran to upload the second episode of A Bite of Hua Nation as soon as possible?”
Ye Yuxing: “…” Of course, he had also seen the video she had uploaded and had been conquered by the various delicacies and stories inside. “Okay, I will pass on the message, Teacher.”
Director Li was satisfied, and his mood improved a lot. He chatted with him for a few more sentences. “The video conference with the Earth side is also coming up soon. The Consul General has specially instructed that you should also attend.”
During this period, Ye Yuxing could be said to be the interstellar person who had communicated with Xia Anran the most. Whenever she had a question, she would contact him, and would even occasionally chat with him like a friend. Logically speaking, since he bore the great responsibility of communicating with Earth, the content and duration of his daily contact with her should be strictly recorded. But the United Star System side soon discovered that she didn’t seem to regard her chats with him as an official channel, and would from time to time chat with him like a friend. Plus, his psychic power was improving rapidly, so they didn’t have to be so stingy with its use. So, the consuls had turned a blind eye and no longer strictly monitored them.
Ye Yuxing thought of something and asked, “Teacher, what is the approximate number of people who have awakened their psychic power in the United Star System recently?”
Ever since they had obtained the Aler System and established a cooperative relationship with the Beastman race, the number of people who had awakened their psychic power had surged. Originally, all psychics would be concentrated and managed by the 115th Squadron, but now, it could no longer accommodate so many people. They only selected a portion of those with good potential to enter. Even so, the squadron was now severely over capacity and was no longer accepting new members. When he had chatted with Qin Feng a couple of days ago, Qin Feng had revealed that the Consul General intended to set up another team similar to the 115th to accommodate the extra people. So, he really didn’t know what the number of psychics had reached now. But according to the current news, his time and space-type psychic power was still the only one.
“The number of people who have awakened recently is indeed very large. There should be tens of thousands in the entire United Star System now,” Director Li said. This sounded like a lot, but the population base of the several planets of the United Star System added up to over four billion. In comparison, it wasn’t that much.
One had to say, the United Star System and the Hua nation had the same idea: to first promote the awakening of psychic power in the military.
“The armies of the various planets have been pretty much screened,” Director Li said. “The current number still hasn’t reached our ideal number. If we really have to go to war, it’s still too few.”
“The Interstellar Empire may not necessarily choose to go to war with us,” Ye Yuxing said, his eyes downcast. “According to the current situation, that would be the most unfavorable choice for them.”
Director Li nodded in approval. “Not bad. Inside news, the Interstellar Empire has already sought cooperation with us, but the Consul General and the various consuls are still in discussion.”
Qin Feng had already gone to the front lines and was stationed with the Beastman race’s Xuan Mo on the border between the United Star System and the Interstellar Empire. Even if a war were to break out, they were already prepared.
“There will probably be a result this afternoon. The Interstellar Empire has shown some sincerity this time. Their emperor, Phileas, will secretly come to the United Star System for a face-to-face exchange.”
The fact that Phileas could personally come to the United Star System now was enough to show their sincerity. Who knows, maybe the interstellar era could really nip the war in the bud this time. After all, no matter how many years had passed and how advanced technology had become, no one liked war.
…
At this moment, Xia Anran still didn’t know that the admin panel of her livestream had been flooded with requests for updates from her viewers.
She had painstakingly carved out these three days and had been running around to several military regions near the capital almost nonstop. The result was a little frustrating. After running around for three days, she had only found one more person with psychic potential. Geniuses were truly like finding a needle in a haystack.
The leaders, however, had a good attitude about it. When she reported the situation to the top leader, she was a little dejected. He had heard it in her voice and had comforted her. “Although our soldiers are all outstanding talents, they are not omnipotent. We still don’t know what psychic power is related to. Perhaps the people with this ability are not in the army. As the saying goes, masters are hidden among the people.”
Hearing this, she felt it also made sense. With a population of over a billion in the Hua nation, who knew where the talented ones were hiding? They had only screened a few tens of thousands of people.
The five people selected from the army had all completed their psychic awakening. Among them, the one with the best potential was indeed the only woman, Chu Yan. After her psychic awakening was over, the Qilin had awakened her beast race power. Fortunately, the two powers did not reject each other in her body, but instead promoted each other. Although she had only awakened a few days ago, her psychic power strength was already almost on par with Ren Yi’s.
Ren Yi exclaimed that the pressure was immense. For the past two days, besides selecting people in the various military regions with her, he had been training hard.
After chatting with the top leader for a bit, just as she was about to hang up, she saw a message from Ye Yuxing.
She paused and said, “Chief, the latest news from the United Star System. The emperor of the Interstellar Empire will also be participating in tomorrow’s video conference.”