Chapter 15: Xiang Xue’s Binge-watching Journey
After dinner, the three children had the kitchen AI prepare a large serving of French fries and a large pot of juice to bring to the entertainment room.
As soon as they arrived at the entertainment room, Brother Xiang Qi turned on the big screen and performed for his two sisters by showing off his feat of single-handedly killing cosmic shrimp without taking a single hit.
Why seafood again? Xiang Chuan clapped her hands on the sofa at the back with a complicated expression.
“Brother Xiang Qi is so awesome. No wonder the uncles on the military escort ship are so eager for you to join the army.”
Xiang Xue watched the blood bar on the big screen that hadn’t dropped at all, her eyes shining brightly.
“Scores in simulated battles and games are just talk on paper and don’t really count.”
Although he said this humbly, Brother Xiang Qi couldn’t help but let the corners of his mouth curl up. Being praised by his sister still made him feel great.
“Brother Xiang Qi, are you planning to go to Father’s company?”
Xiang Chuan asked casually, but unexpectedly hit the nail on the head. Brother Xiang Qi opened his mouth but suddenly got stuck.
He was now studying finance major at the university directly under the Third Fleet. Although he would continue studying for a few more years for the diploma, he would eventually graduate and start working.
During this spring break, he was still following his parents to learn some workplace knowledge, but he hadn’t considered his own future direction.
What did he want to do in the future?
Brother Xiang Qi suddenly felt he should think carefully about this issue. Feeling preoccupied, he picked up a potato wedge and stuffed it into his mouth without any sauce.
Seeing her brother not speaking, Xiang Chuan didn’t interrupt. Her brother’s current status had already changed greatly compared to his previous life, so she couldn’t judge or point fingers at him based on her impression from his previous life. But the atmosphere suddenly turned awkward. Based on her memory, she took out the screen controller from under the coffee table and switched to the video signal channel.
[Diplomatic work between this fleet and the First Fleet is proceeding smoothly. Today the fleet commander gave a formal speech…]
[Spring break is about to end. For security maintenance around the campus, the safety department has announced…]
[Brand new room lighting, adopting the design from the famous art festival of the Dionysus fleet, with wattage reaching…]
[No escaped creatures from the Demeter fleet nature reserve today…]
Xiang Chuan expressionlessly put down the controller. She now understood why there was no habit at home of watching TV while eating. The video signal was full of news and ads—no variety shows, not even a single drama to watch. Her own parents moved in government high-level circles, and after a day of work, who would want to watch this stuff?
“Sister, don’t watch the video signal. There’s nothing good to see.”
Xiang Xue complained.
“You’re right. Let’s watch something good then.”
With that, Xiang Chuan took out her terminal. Relying on her memory, she connected to the storage space built into the big screen and transferred over the thing she had downloaded before taking a bath yesterday.
How could there be snacks without something to binge-watch!
[Severing emotional ties but the heart remains in turmoil
Thousands of thoughts still entangled
Handing over the rivers and mountains
Lowering the brows in love with the beauty…]
As soon as the music started, it immediately caught the attention of Brother Xiang Qi and Xiang Xue. The two looked at the screen, where the people were wearing never-before-seen clothes and hairstyles. Although the two couldn’t appreciate the hairstyle with half the head shaved bald, but…
“Xiao Chuan, what is this?”
Brother Xiang Qi tremblingly pointed at the screen. Unlike Xiang Xue, who was purely enjoying the music and opening montage, he clearly realized this absolutely couldn’t be a modern product because the editing marks were too obvious. The resolution looked somewhat blurry even under the big screen’s built-in automatic repair function. If this were posted on the current network, it would definitely be nitpicked, but… for some reason, it matched the music so perfectly? And what was this music? What language was it singing in?
“I don’t know. I found it in the information turbulence. It looked pretty good, so I saved it.” Xiang Chuan answered casually, then handed the controller to Brother Xiang Qi. “Brother, help me set up the translation subtitles. I can’t understand some of the characters.”
Not understanding was a lie from Xiang Chuan. She could completely understand and hear the Chinese characters, but 30,000 years later, the Chinese characters used in the Third Fleet now had quite a few differences from the 21st century. If cooking and scraping drama resources could still be muddled through with information turbulence, being able to read ancient Chinese would probably really make her family notice something unusual.
“The red button in the bottom left of the controller… Is this ancient Chinese? Why does it feel a bit… unreadable?”
Brother Xiang Qi looked at the lyrics on the subtitles and muttered to himself doubtfully.
Because these are lyrics from the 21st century imitating ancient style. Xiang Chuan silently answered in her heart, lying on the sofa with Xiang Xue, happily starting to rewatch Empresses in the Palace for who knows how many times.
At the end of the second episode, when Zhen Huan was saying goodbye to her parents, the doorbell by the entertainment room door rang.
[Xiao Qi, it’s getting late. Have Xiao Chuan and Xiao Xue hurry back to their rooms to bathe and rest.]
Brother Xiang Qi was startled and checked the time—it had already been an hour and a half.
“Got it. I’ll have them go back to their rooms right now.”
Turning off the display screen, Brother Xiang Qi turned his head and met two protesting gazes, especially from Xiang Xue.
“There’s less than a week until school starts. Let us keep watching.”
Xiang Xue pleaded. Although she didn’t understand the background origins, the moving acting skills and story had just given her unparalleled spiritual satisfaction, but right when the next episode’s story was about to officially begin, it was being interrupted now—how could that not make her anxious?
“It’s precisely because school is starting that we need to control it properly. What if you stay up late, get up late, and then arrive late on the first day of school? That wouldn’t be good.” Brother Xiang Qi persuaded. To be honest, he also wanted to keep watching, but he still had to set an example. “Besides, neither of you boards at school. After school starts, won’t you still have time to watch every day after school?”
“Tch.”
Seeing her pleading didn’t work, Xiang Xue could only chug the orange juice in her hand and huffily turned off the big screen.
“By the way, Xiao Chuan, have you gone to the information bureau to apply for personal use certification for the information turbulence?”
Brother Xiang Qi suddenly asked.
“Personal use certification? What’s that?”
Seeing both sisters looking confused, Brother Xiang Qi had to start explaining.
Information turbulence is a gray area under the intellectual property rights jurisdiction of the Twelfth Fleet. Whether individuals who obtain content from it hold ownership of that knowledge was only formally legislated 10,000 years ago, recognizing personal property rights and usage rights. Profits gained from the information content must be taxed at the same proportion as modern intellectual property rights profits.
“When applying, you just need to bring a copy. For example, the things we’re eating now… French fries? That’s the name, right? And that Empresses in the Palace we just watched, all need to be reported personally at the information bureau.”
“Uh… so that means, whenever I find something new in the information turbulence, I have to go report it every time?”
Xiang Chuan frowned.
“You only need to go the first time. Subsequent reporting can be done directly through the government’s program interface on the terminal.” Seeing his sister looking unwilling, Brother Xiang Qi smiled. “Alright, alright. Tomorrow I’ll take you to handle it. I’m not comfortable with you going alone.”
“Hehe, brother is the best. Here, have some French fries.”
Seeing her brother relent, Xiang Chuan grinned and offered French fries. Looking at her beaming smile, Brother Xiang Qi could only smile and shake his head, taking one to accept her goodwill.
After returning to her room and taking a bath, Xiang Xue still couldn’t forget Empresses in the Palace. There were clearly no real sets or editing, but for some reason, all sorts of characters lingered in her mind and wouldn’t fade.
[Sister, I really want to watch the third episode. Send me the video file.]
Unable to hold back, Xiang Xue sent a private message to Xiang Chuan via her terminal.
[Be good. Wait until tomorrow when brother and I are back, then we’ll watch together.]
Xiang Chuan didn’t forget to add a smiling emoji at the end.
[But I can’t help wanting to see what happens next! Anxious x3]
Looking at the three anxious emojis after, Xiang Chuan laughed.
[Binge-watching is torment and also enjoyment. Enjoy the process, my dear sister~]
