IUILBRC Chapter 32: Players

Chapter 32: Players

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Sulo

 

… Of course not.

The adoption measure for endangered species was introduced last year, but it was limited to endangered species that are ‘not aware and had no independence’.

Many animals that once lived on Ancient Earth failed to adapt well to the changes of the interstellar era. At first, they were able to awaken their spiritual powers. Later, their offspring gradually degenerated into ordinary animals. This kind of degeneration would be manifested as ‘albino species’ or some other forms. These species that could not live independently could be adopted.

For example, the Tibetan antelope and alligator snapping turtles,  ¹ which were two endangered species, had completely degraded to ordinary animals, and some families in the Upper Urban City had adopted them.

How could an adult, self reliant human male be adopted? It was nonsense. Even if the other side was His Majesty…

No, maybe.

In ancient times, there were war dramas on Earth.

Fennick was a little afraid that His Majesty would change the law for this reason, and the cabinet group might die of anger. With a cold sweat on his head, he considered how to express his words to convey his meaning without offending His Majesty. “In theory, it is not possible. Mr. Gu does not meet the conditions for adoption.”

Fortunately, the Emperor didn’t seem to be very persistent about it.

Shuo Han casually said, “I don’t know what I’m thinking.”

The Emperor had been in a good mood recently. The frequency of anger and outrage had plummeted. The two words ‘gloomy’ and ‘violent’ had nothing to do with him now. This was the only time Fennick had seen it in the twenty years he had assisted him.

Shuo Han was very quiet.

With his eyes slightly closed, he could hear the cicadas in the evening. The moonlight shone on the wooden corridor, and the catnip planted by his man swayed its branches and leaves in the wind. When he stayed at home, he was reluctant to think too much.

Yes, he called it home.

It was not the vast and expensive Imperial Palace in the Upper Urban District, nor every place where he lived when he was a child. It’s just here, beside Gu YuMian.

“It doesn’t have to be an adoption,” Shuo Han whispered.

He didn’t want to be a father, son, relative or servant with his human. He wanted Gu YuMian to be Gu YuMian all the time, to do what Gu YuMian wanted to do, to be the person Gu YuMian wanted to be.

And at the same time, belong to him.

“…”

Fennick realized what His Majesty wanted to say, “Your Majesty, can you…”

Five minutes later.

Fennick then regretted it. It was a bad idea. If the cabinet knew, they would tear him up. But Shuo Han was very satisfied, and said lightly, “Not bad.”

Then, the communication line ended.

Gu YuMian got up in the middle of the night and poured himself water to drink. He found that the snow leopard was not there. He yawned and put on his slippers to find the cub.

“TuanTuan? …Why are you here?”

The little snow leopard nestled lazily in the wooden corridor pressed his young child’s optical computer under his claws and glanced at Gu YuMian for some unnatural reasons.

Gu YuMian was in a daze. He didn’t think about anything. He picked him up, kissed his ears, and headed back to sleep.

 

While Gu YuMian was sleeping with his children, the search frequency of ‘Gu YuMian’ on Star Network’s micro-blogs was soaring. Although several previous live broadcasts, including the initial spontaneous promotion of ‘There’s a Cloud’, accumulated some popularity for Gu YuMian, it was a drop in the ocean in the population of Capital Star.

It was not until the three points of official publicity, advertising broadcast, and rookie competition were gathered together that the first small peak of popularity was officially ushered in the media for the first time.

There were two distinct categories of comments. One was from the people who hadn’t seen the live broadcast, who were curious or had a wait-and-see attitude because of the ‘human.’ The other were all fans who had finished watching the live broadcast and were blowing rainbow farts on their micro-blogs.

… The number of the latter was even more than that of the former.

[Rose War: Go to see it. If it doesn’t look good, I will wear green when I go out tomorrow! Head of the grassland! Former boyfriends are all promoted and paid to marry!]

[Anna: @ Rose War Sister is so fierce [hugging]. But really look at it! Ah ah ah ah!! Immortal, absolutely immortal, for three hours of the live broadcast, I seriously saw from the first second that the last second and was not tired, and I was very disappointed when he ended the broadcast.]

[Soft: I’m curious whether you’re a water army or a villain. It’s a bit too much to boast about.]

[Winnie: I could die happy. It’s really beautiful. One can’t describe it, you have to see it for yourself!!]

It was enough to attract people’s attention if the new anchor had such adverse data, plus the label of ‘human’ and a large number of rainbow farts with the same caliber — no one who went to see it didn’t say anything wrong.

At two o’clock in the morning, who didn’t know who Gu YuMian was? The tag even briefly reached the top ten of the hot search.

“…”

Li Yun was a sophomore at Capital University of Science and Technology. Because her home was close to the school, she would go home every weekend. It was Friday. After dinner at six o’clock, she turned on her cell phone and started surfing the Internet as usual. Recently, Starry Sky’s live broadcast of the rookie competition has been very popular. She occasionally watched the live broadcasts on Starry Sky, so she decided to watch as usual.

Eh, human anchor? Why was the popularity so high? Was it fake?

In an hour.

“Ah ah ah ah!!! Gods!!!” Li Yun rolled on the bed with her optical computer, revealing a pair of Shiba Inu ears ², “I’m going to steal that human!!!”

Click.

When the light in the bedroom was turned on, Mother Li came in with a fruit tray. Seeing the mess in the bedroom, she could not help frowning and scolding her daughter. “What’s the hell? Seriously? If you do the same in your dormitory, how can your roommate tolerate you?”

Although Mother Li lived in the middle of the city, she and her husband worked in the Academy of Sciences in the upper part of the city. Their family were all intellectuals. The Li parents were even more rigid. Mother Li glanced at the screen of Li Yun’s personal optical computer floating in the air and scolded habitually, “What are you looking at? A live broadcast? Are you looking at these useless things every day? You should read more books when you have time. Write your final paper. Haven’t you started it yet?”

The questions hit directly home.

Li Yun suddenly wilted, “…Mom, I’m hungry.” She touched her stomach. Although she had just had dinner, she was hungry after watching the live broadcast. “This anchor really gives me a very good and gentle feeling, and his food is good and fresh. I haven’t heard of Dongpo meat before.”

At this time, the live broadcast was going to the tasting stage of Dongpo meat. The bright red Dongpo meat was placed on the white porcelain and thick sauce was poured on it. They could see that the rock sugar liquor was boiled to the taste and the texture of the pork belly was crisp, mellow and tender.

Mother Li was shocked, “Dongpo meat? —Oh, he’s human?”

Their project team was currently engaged in the research and restoration of Ancient Earth knowledge, because many things from the end of the world had been lost. They had recently just taken up a study on the aspect of diets. Dongpo pork was a famous dish in ancient China, but they found only a few references.

In theory, it should be lost.

But she didn’t think about crossing time and space. Even in the most cutting-edge area of science and technology, she didn’t know that Gu YuMian could cross time and space.

A little more thought would make them understand. After all, humans were not extinct. This anchor was human, and obviously Asian. Maybe there had been some secret inheritance in the family.

“Where can I see this?” This Dongpo meat aroused Mother Li’s curiosity, “Let me see what is more attractive than your final paper.”

Li Yun, “…” Help me. Can you forget about the paper?

“On Starry Sky live, just search for ‘Gu YuMian.’ Mom, when you look at it later, remember to put on the holographic device. “

Mother Li, “Okay.”

Another hour later.

Li Yun was watching the live broadcast with relish. Now it was time to drink the soymilk. One after another, the special effects of fireworks popped up. Suddenly, her eyes flashed, and she caught a sentence in the vast wave of gifts.

[Wang Lizhen 3425: Good drink. Sending fireworks.]

Wang Lizhen was her mom’s name.

Li Yun: ???? Yesterday, I said I wanted to buy a new skirt. Mom said she had no money. Now she has money to give gifts? WTF?!

Wang Lizhen soon recommended the studio to her circle of friends. Her Red Sunset Sister group and many descendants of the Academy of Sciences all came over.

Even the next day, Wang Lizhen quietly pulled her daughter over and asked, “Do you know how to contact him? I would like to invite that little Gu to our Academy of Sciences to cook for our group of children.”

The recent project of the Academy of Sciences had come to a critical juncture. In order to train new people and their old researchers, they didn’t manage much, but the young people worked hard. In particular, their newly appointed youngest chief had already lost several pounds to the naked eye.

Li Yun: “…??”

 

During the rookie competition, a lot of anchors chose to fight for a long time. The first round of competition had no rules, except for unfair competition — because the total ranking was to calculate the total popularity. In theory, if they had money, they could even pay to attract an audience, or stay live 24 hours a day.

But of course, Gu YuMian didn’t. First, he wanted to ensure the quality of the live broadcast and didn’t want to inject water. Second, even if he could, his children couldn’t stand it. So at 10 o’clock last night, though his popularity ranked second in all four districts, it was almost overtaken the next morning. As soon as he went online, he received a private letter from Sugar Sugar.

[Sugar Sugar: The second anchor is too cunning. He draws a prize every 20 minutes. The prize is a limited number of sneakers, red wine, performance tickets and so on worth more than 20,000 star coins!!! And there are still a lot of them.]

People love money, and the live content was not too bad, so the second anchor had a lot of total popularity.

Gu YuMian, “…”

Money players.

Gu YuMian comforted her, “Don’t worry, I don’t have money. I won’t do that.”

Sugar Sugar, ??? What is the point of comforting me?

It was Saturday.

The baby snow leopard and the baby panda were not awake. Gu YuMian got up and washed first. Gu YuMian’s winning and losing heart was not heavy. At this time, he was also very calm. His fixed live time was at night. At the end of the week, he’d better prepare for the day and play with the children. Besides, there were other things, such as little Tangyuan’s family.

“The only way to think about it now is to contact that agent,” Gu YuMian said to himself, “but that agent looks like a sharp, smooth person.”

He didn’t know the personality of the agent yet. He was sure he couldn’t tell the other party about little Tangyuan. But Gu YuMian seldom dealt with people. He was not sure that he could hide well and get the information he wanted.

In addition, contacting the agent was also a problem.

“…Ai.”

The cubs were all able to sleep. When the baby snow leopard and panda woke up, it was almost noon.

The baby panda sat on the quilt and rubbed his eyes. Looking up, he saw Gu YuMian, and he was very happy, making two sounds. The snow leopard strolled lazily and asked Gu YuMian to pick it up with his chin raised.

“Let’s have a change of taste today,” Gu YuMian scratched the chin of the snow leopard and touched the head of Tangyuan. “Let’s go outside and try the skills of a Capital Star chef.”

He was also tired of eating the food he made every day. After all, he was not a chef.

Gu YuMian wanted to take his family’s cubs out for a stroll. In recent days, he had been worried about the insecurity outside. He had only allowed the snow leopard and Tangyuan to move around at home, which was probably boring. As for the trait that would make the baby panda tired when they went out, Gu YuMian found a private room type restaurant. The dining space was completely private and independent, so there should be no problem.

Neither of the two children had a problem.

At 11:30 p.m., Gu YuMian, with the snow leopard and baby panda, arrived at Elbet Restaurant, the most famous restaurant in area A of the Upper Urban District. As the most famous restaurant in the whole downtown area, the environment of Elbet Restaurant would cause speechlessness. For Gu YuMian, a native of Ancient Earth, there was one word — shock.

The whole restaurant was a big circle, with small round private rooms floating in the air, transparent and dark. The dark private room was for privacy, and the transparent private room was convenient for customers to admire the scenery. The background was like two peas in the background of Starry Sky. The small private room seemed to float in the vast universe, and after a few minutes it would seem like it was floating in a deep sea. The mermaid, who was a fake projection, waved and kissed the customers.

“It makes sense to be so expensive,” Gu YuMian said. “It’s beautiful.”

Tangyuan, who became a human baby due to stepping out of the house, fell asleep and blew a snot bubble in Gu YuMian’s arm. The little snow leopard sat on Gu YuMian’s shoulder, his grey blue eyes glanced at him lazily and yawned.

He liked it here? Then he’d buy it.

The private coffer of the Emperor had been useless for so many years. It could be wasted at will; decided at will. It was very like the old generation’s war drama.

At this moment, Gu YuMian didn’t know that because he praised the high-end chain restaurant, it would soon be purchased by the Royal Family and would become his property in the near future.

For the sake of little Tangyuan, he chose the light shielded private room, and the facilities inside the private room were also very warm, a little like a Japanese tatami room.  ³ After ordering, Gu YuMian took the snow leopard and Tangyuan, who had been transformed into a panda again, and——

A long wait began.

Ten minutes, twenty minutes, forty minutes… an hour.

The little snow leopard fell asleep, and the baby panda licked his paws out of hunger. Gu YuMian painfully took out a bottle of milk and fed him again, but the food still didn’t come up.

At half-past eleven, Gu YuMian couldn’t help but call the robot attendant, “Hello, why hasn’t our dish come up yet? We have been waiting for an hour.”

“I’m very sorry,” said the robot. “An hour ago, all fourteen of our chefs were poisoned and rushed to the hospital. The apprentice chefs are working hard to cook.”

Gu YuMian, “…Then, how long will it take?”

The robot stopped and said, “It’s expected to be finished in three hours.”

The chef apprentices have only studied for a month at the longest time. Now they were pondering how to heat the pot and how to thaw the meat.

Gu YuMian, “…”

The focus of the development of science and technology in the interstellar era was in heavy industry and military industry. While the kitchen systems for auxiliary cooking were developed not long ago, and automatic cooking was even more boundless, all of it simply depended on the cooks.

Gu YuMian didn’t expect that such a big restaurant would be so unreliable. How could all chefs get food poisoning? What’s the matter with this restaurant? There’s no crisis plan or compensation measures?

Since it was the end of the week, he had taken his children out to the restaurant happily. Even if Gu YuMian had a good temper, he was a little helpless.

“Can I have my money refunded, then?” Gu YuMian said, “I’m not going to eat any more.”

Robot, “Sorry, it’s in the cooking process, no refund.”

“What process?”

Robot, “Thawing.”

The baby panda had been drinking milk several times, but he was looking forward to the meal for a while, holding Gu YuMian’s hand and making two sounds. Although the little snow leopard was almost asleep, Gu YuMian guessed that he was also hungry. Now if he changed the restaurant or went home to cook, he didn’t know how long it would take for them to be able to eat.

“Fine,” Gu YuMian said, “Can I borrow your kitchen and deal with the ingredients myself?”

Twenty minutes later.

Gu YuMian ordered shrimp scampi with white sauce and some other dishes. Some dishes were very special. He was not a professional chef, and Gu YuMian didn’t know how to deal with them. But having food was enough. Gu YuMian didn’t dare to leave the snow leopard and Tangyuan in the private room alone. He asked if the kitchen ventilation was good and if there was a rest area, and brought them together.

When he walked in, the several chef apprentices were anxiously surrounding each other to discuss how to cut and how much oil to add. They looked at him with the same eyes as though they were looking at a savior, expecting to steal him as a teacher later.

One of them whispered, “Ah, isn’t this that anchor? He really has good looks.”

Gu YuMian, “…”

At present, the ingredients at his disposal were eggs, shrimp, chicken and various side dishes. Gu YuMian thought for a moment and soon had an idea.

The main course would be crystal shrimp dumplings, ⁴ kung pao chicken, ⁵ and a sauteed vegetable dish. 

He could drink the bubbly water here and add some minced pulp.

Anyway, if he had to cook, Gu YuMian decided he could broadcast it live, and even started it — because the chefs were in the hospital, there was no problem of disclosing the recipe technology.

Noon.

Gu YuMian opened his live studio, and countless viewers rushed in at once, much faster than ever before!

“Hello everyone, I’m anchor Gu YuMian,” Gu YuMian said, bending his eyes as he watched the rising audience. “Let’s make a quick lunch and have a taste.”