Chapter 7
Xia Anran was already unfamiliar with this livestreaming system, and now, with a row of top national leaders standing right beside her, she was even more flustered.
“Hello, everyone. Um… I didn’t stream for the past few days because I was busy. The place I’m in right now is…”
She picked a few of the most frequently asked questions from the comments and answered them. When she saw the interstellar viewers asking where she was and why it looked so beautiful, she froze. She couldn’t very well say she was in the Great Hall in the capital, could she?
The top leader, having just recovered from the shock of the holographic projection that had appeared out of thin air, caught Xia Anran’s plea for help. He smiled and waved his hand, signaling for her to just improvise.
“I’m at a hotel right now. Haha, I haven’t been streaming because I’ve been traveling.”
Struck by a flash of inspiration, Xia Anran wove a story that tied everything together.
The projection screen displayed the livestream with perfect clarity. The scrolling bullet comments were all clearly visible and remarkably stable. The fact that it could produce such a sharp image in mid-air without any kind of screen or backdrop, powered only by what looked like a completely normal smartphone, fascinated the professors present. They all cautiously leaned in for a closer look and began to whisper among themselves about the underlying principles, completely oblivious to their surroundings.
“What does ‘hotel’ mean? I know what a ‘store’ is, but what’s ‘wine’?”
“The person above me clearly didn’t pay attention in Ancient History. Wine is a beverage ancient humans made by fermenting plants! I bet a ‘hotel’ is a store that sells wine!”
“More likely an Imperial. They don’t study ancient history.”
“What’s wrong with Imperials? It was your United Star System that came to us for cooperation.”
“Heh, even low-level droids know it was the Empire that came begging.”
“Imperials know nothing about ancient history. What are you even doing here? Go take a few United Star System ancient history classes first.”
“Can we stop fighting for a minute? Aren’t we all here to see the fruit?”
“Traveling? Interstellar travel? Can you stream it for us?!”
“Ancient humans didn’t have interstellar travel… They were very primitive, you know.”
“AHHH I WANT TO SEE PLANTS! I WANT FRUIT! MY PSYCHIC POWER IS ABOUT TO GO HAYWIRE, HOST, HURRY!”
“FRUIT! FRUIT! I want to see!”
“Anran is so pretty! Long time no see!”
The information scrolling by in the comments was being transcribed by several recorders who had been summoned at some point. Seeing that another argument was about to break out, Xia Anran quickly interjected, “A hotel is a place you stay temporarily when you travel. We also call them inns, guesthouses, and so on. As for interstellar travel, that’s not something we can do right now, so I’ve just been traveling within my own country. I’m currently in our nation’s capital.”
“As for the fruit, I don’t have any with me right now, but I’ll be sure to show you all next time.”
Xia Anran had instinctively mastered the art of “next time for sure,” and began making promises to her audience.
Since the broadcast time was still only ten minutes, just as she was about to ask for more details about the interstellar era, a large, bold, golden-red bullet comment flashed across the screen.
[Science Academy, History Dept., Li Yuechang]: Is “inn” also a term for a hotel? Host, could you please explain in detail? This has never been mentioned in our research on ancient Earth’s history.
The researchers at the United Star System’s Science Academy were still gathered in small groups, watching the stream. Li Yuechang was the most respected professor in the Ancient History department, having spent over fifty years studying Earth’s history. He had seen the word “hotel” in ancient texts, but “inn” was a term he had never encountered in any source material.
During the last stream, the group from the Science Academy had showered Xia Anran with gifts. As a professor of ancient history, Li Yuechang was extremely interested in this broadcast from their ancestral mother planet. In a single day, he had spent several months’ salary, catapulting himself to the top of the rankings, which was why his comments now appeared in this highly conspicuous chat box.
Xia Anran was a little confused by the question. What did he mean, it had never appeared “in the research on ancient Earth’s history”?
The leaders beside her were clearly quicker on the uptake. One of them wrote a few lines on a piece of paper and held it up for her to see. Xia Anran glanced at it and quickly composed her response.
“An inn is what we called hotels in ancient times,” she said. After a pause, she continued, “Mr. Li Yuechang, what did you mean just now by ‘research on ancient Earth’s history’?”
The top leader’s expression grew solemn as he conferred with the other leaders beside him, seemingly having realized something.
Li Yuechang was delighted that his question had been answered and immediately began typing a reply on his photon-computer.
[Science Academy, History Dept., Li Yuechang]: Hello, Miss Xia Anran! We are from the United Star System, nearly sixteen thousand years after your time. We are extremely interested in the history and biology of our mother planet, Earth. We hope you can communicate more with us. If you’re interested, you can send me a private message!
Humans from sixteen thousand years in the future?
Xia Anran’s pupils practically quaked. She had always thought her livestream was just connected to some interstellar era. She never imagined she had connected with future humanity! And in the future, humans had started living among the stars.
The leaders and professors looked at each other, clearly taken aback by this result. The subjects of the broadcast had just gone from aliens to their own descendants…
The bullet comments were now scrolling at a frantic pace.
“He wants to private message the host! Shameless, shameless!”
“Anran doesn’t know she’s an ancient human?”
“I’ve never seen Professor Li be so cute! Is this the same old fossil from class?”
“Person above me, be careful or they’ll track you through the StarNet!”
“…I was wrong, please spare me.”
“That’s right, we migrated from Earth. Our mother planet that we’ve never met π_π”
“I still want to see the fruit. I’m going to die without fruit.”
“FRUIT! FRUIT!”
“AHHH HOST, PLEASE NOTICE US FRUIT LOVERS!”
“How to identify an Imperial in one second.”
“They know nothing about Earth, what are they even doing here?”
“Of course low-level System dwellers with no psychic power wouldn’t understand the importance of fruit, heh.”
“It’s a waste for System dwellers to watch this stream.”
“Fruit is a specialty of our Earth, thank you very much.”
“Imperials are as annoying as ever!”
“Anran, show us more of Earth! I’m so excited, sob.”
The high-ranking officials of the Interstellar Empire, who were also watching the stream, were feeling a bit awkward. Emperor Phileas coughed twice and looked at Director Hukeni beside him. “Teacher, it seems we’ll need to organize our citizens to learn some history about the United Star System’s mother planet.”
Being completely ignorant of the planet where Xia Anran lived would greatly affect her impression of their Interstellar Empire. For example, the Imperials and System dwellers who were clearly about to start a flame war in the comments were giving Phileas a headache. It was incredibly disrespectful to Host Anran.
Director Hukeni didn’t look up. He snorted and forcefully hit the send button on his comment.
[Imperial Academy Director Hukeni]: We Imperials are not only interested in the fruit, but also in Earth’s history. We hold the utmost respect for the host’s planet.
“Hey, that old coot is popping up again! Who asked him?!” Director Li Sheng of the Science Academy bristled, his beard trembling. With a grand wave of his hand, he immediately commanded his staff to launch a counter-attack. The ordinary interstellar viewers in the comments also descended into a free-for-all. In between frantic declarations of love for Xia Anran and Earth, a few lines of the routine trash talk between the United Star System and the Interstellar Empire were mixed in.
Xia Anran: “…”
The top leader stood by with his hands behind his back, watching for a long time. He even put on his glasses. “Hehe, it seems our ‘descendants’ are quite passionate!”
In the top right corner of the stream was a ten-minute countdown. Seeing less than a minute remaining, Xia Anran quickly said, “Alright, I’ve seen everyone’s requests. Next time, I’ll introduce other fruits and plants, and I’ll also consider doing an outdoor stream to show everyone our capital city.”
“I’ll see you all in the next stream!”
The moment she finished speaking, the screen went black. The ten-minute broadcast time was up.
Xia Anran let out a long sigh of relief. The flustering livestream was finally over. Doing it in front of so many top leaders had been incredibly dramatic.
The recorders who had been called in on short notice each had a thick stack of paper in front of them, densely covered with information from the comments. Even in such a rush, their handwriting remained neat. Xia Anran stole a few glances and marveled silently. As expected of people who work for the top leader. Every single one of them is a pro.
“Chief, time was short. This is all we were able to record.”
A capable-looking young woman in a beige professional suit collected all the notes and placed them on the leaders’ table. She pushed up the glasses on her nose and continued, “We only transcribed some of the key information. Some parts may need to be reconstructed from memory later.”
Xia Anran looked at the five or six stacks of paper, which together were almost a meter high, and fell silent.
This was just “some”? Were these people superhuman?!
“This is already very good. Thank you for your hard work,” the top leader said with a nod and a smile. “Little Song, you can take everyone to organize the notes now. Just do your best.”
As she watched them leave in an orderly fashion, Xia Anran quietly asked Professor Gong, who was standing beside her, “Professor, can’t you record it?”
A video recording would be much faster and more accurate than manual transcription.
“We tried that from the beginning. We found that any footage filmed through a camera lens is blurry and unclear, so we had to call people in on short notice.”
“These are the leaders’ dedicated simultaneous interpreters and conference recorders. Each one has first-rate memory and reaction speed. They’re the only ones who could possibly remember it all.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the top leader, who beckoned to Xia Anran with a smile. “Little Xia, come here.”
Xia Anran was worried her performance hadn’t been good enough and didn’t know what to say. She could only ask, “Chief, I’ve already promised them I would stream the capital city. Is that alright?”
“Of course.” The leaders exchanged a smile. An old general laughed heartily and joked, “We must let these descendants see our country. Even though they’re in space now, they can’t forget their roots.”
After a few more jokes, the top leader waved his hand and gently raised a question that Xia Anran had never considered. “They claim to be future humans from Earth, but we don’t know for certain if they are the descendants of our Hua nation’s people.”