Chapter 239: About To Arrange The Next Drama
Originally, upon learning that they would be boarding the same shuttle as the first year high school students from Nongda Affiliated High School, the class cadres of Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School all tensed up.
Young people, unlike adults who prioritize interests and interactions, care more about face and act on emotions. The rumor storm caused by Sasha and An Su Chun previously even spread throughout the entire class cadres chat group of Caida Affiliated High School, and fearing that this matter would affect interactions between the two schools, cadres from other classes actively organized their classmates to interact with students from Nongda Affiliated High School, nipping the hidden danger in the bud.
In the end, after going back and forth, the communication between students from the two schools gradually became closer, even making the principals and board members of the two schools think about cooperating on this military escort ship visit activity.
Originally, Nongda Affiliated High School’s military escort ship visit activity was scheduled for the second half of the year, and the reason, as everyone in Class Eight had said before, was that there were too many activities for first year high school in the first half of the year, and too frequent outdoor activities would make teachers worry that students couldn’t study peacefully at school.
However, some teachers also believed that if all outdoor activities were arranged in the first half of the year, and then the second half was dedicated entirely to studying, it might be more effective in improving students’ learning efficiency.
And this time, when the Caida Affiliated High School principal proposed that the two schools jointly cooperate on the military escort ship visit activity, it perfectly matched their intentions.
Under the joint promotion from both sides internally and externally, Nongda Affiliated High School’s principal finally nodded.
——
Time returns to now.
On the shuttle.
Since the destination this time, the Third Military Escort Ship, was located at the foremost position of the fleet, it would take nearly an hour from departure at the port to reach the destination.
This time, the seats arranged for Class Eight were not by the window, so Xiang Chuan could only pull out the light screen of her personal terminal to browse SNS and Xiang Xue’s TV series website “Drama Watching Fun” (Xiang Chuan’s personal comment: Modern people are a bit too straightforward, I think calling it “IQ Yi” or “NET Fly” would actually be more fitting, but modern people wouldn’t get these references!), and after nearly three weeks, the on-demand views for the TV series on the website were astonishing, and the number of paid members had broken through the 800 million mark.
According to chats between Xiang Weiguo and the uncles and aunts from the Information Bureau, basically everyone in the entire Third Fleet had registered as members and purchased paid packages, except for low-grade elementary school students who couldn’t really understand complex content, and some stubborn folks who sneered at ancient literary products.
Meanwhile, in Xiang Xue Live Stream Room, Xiang Xue, who had already achieved financial freedom due to the excessively high paid member conversion rate without even knowing it, was excitedly advancing toward the final episodes of My Own Swordsman together with Lin Ming, and had given Xiang Chuan a task: find the next TV series.
Actually, after finishing the visit summary and agricultural information last month, Xiang Chuan had already started looking for the next show for Xiang Xue Live Stream.
After airing the two ancient TV series Empresses in the Palace and My Own Swordsman, Xiang Chuan felt it was time to let modern people try a different flavor. For domestic dramas, modern background ones seemed like a good priority choice, and the ones she first eyed were war dramas and anti-corruption dramas with great reputations like My Leader My Regiment and In the Name of the People, and some earlier Hong Kong and Taiwan crime dramas were also on her candidate list.
Xiang Chuan had also dragged Xiang Xue and Lin Ming to discuss it several times after dinner, showing them a few stills. If she wanted to play clips, she’d need to convert formats and apply for authorization, which Xiang Chuan found too troublesome, so she just took screenshots and showed them the stills.
Xiang Xue listened to Xiang Chuan’s introductions and was full of curiosity about these new types of TV series that seemed unrelated to romance or comedy; the clothing styles were even somewhat similar to what they wore now, instantly sparking her interest. Lin Ming, however, after looking at stills from a few dramas, asked a question:
“Sister Xiang Chuan, are all the dramas over there made by yellow people? Or do dramas by other races look about the same as those by yellow people?”
This question stunned Xiang Chuan, and she touched her chin at the time: right, all the ones she recommended seemed to be domestic dramas.
In the 21st Century, there were actually quite a few excellent overseas dramas, and those that made it domestically were mostly workplace and crime dramas, like the long-running American drama SCI, Japanese and Korean workplace dramas, and such.
Showing modern people dramas from other countries seemed pretty good too?
Thus, the drama selection dragged on until now.
Xiang Chuan opened another light screen, pulled up the Geegle page, and checked through several American dramas she had added to her list.
It wasn’t that she favored American dramas, but because American dramas generally had fewer episodes, even if each episode was long, for modern audiences recently accustomed to the lengths of domestic dramas, they might have some discomfort with the episode count.
If it weren’t for the fact that Neon Gold were also yellow people, Xiang Chuan might have considered showing them those special effects dramas that started at 50 episodes easily, but… what if they developed some weird misconceptions about people from the past after watching? As the resource provider, she had to take responsibility!
Moreover, looking at the current SNS craze for “Zhen Huan style” and “My Own Swordsman quotes,” Xiang Chuan had no doubt that if she pulled out those special effects dramas, by summer vacation there’d be a bunch of people on the streets in leather suits shouting “Tuo” or Ultraman with two egg heads on top.
Still, better to wait for a chance to explain animation, manga, special effects, and these two-dimensional cultures to people who knew nothing about 21st Century culture, then plan from there.
——
Like Xiang Chuan, everyone in Class Eight Grade One was also plunged into worry.
“Sigh, why hasn’t Sister Xiang Chuan’s restaurant opened on the escort ship yet?” Chou Manman sighed, “It’s fine on the production escort ship; if ingredients run out, you can just buy fresh ones directly, but on the military escort ship, where can you buy rice?”
“And there’s no yeast here either, can’t make buns. Tsk, I shouldn’t have eaten so fast just now.”
Thinking that the buns they just ate might be the last bite for these two days, the gluttons of Class Eight all looked like they were pounding their chests in regret.
Xiang Chuan looked up from the light screen at this moment and said to them, “Then just eat noodle dishes that don’t need yeast, right? Dough drops, pulled noodles, or if worst comes to worst, make some flatbreads to dip in soup. Besides, conditions at the nature reserve were even harsher, and we didn’t hear you complaining?”
“Seems… like it?”
Everyone in Class Eight scratched their heads; yeah, that seemed to be the case.
“Two days without rice won’t kill anyone; at most cooking is a bit more trouble. If we can apply for temporary authorization from the canteen, I can send over this batch’s recipes; if not, we’ll just make it ourselves.” Xiang Chuan pursed her lips and smiled, “Anyway, to fill up on carbs is enough; if you can’t make noodles, at least you can make egg pancakes, right?”
Speaking of egg pancakes, everyone thought of the school anniversary, and they all simultaneously looked toward Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School.
The people over there had been secretly staring at Class Eight Grade One, and now they bumped right into their gazes, instantly making the unprepared Class One Grade Three a bit embarrassed.
“Hey, Xiang Chuan’s right, and maybe if we make it well, we can even sell to other classes to earn some pocket money.” Long Xiaoxian looked at the cowering appearance of Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School and snorted disdainfully, “And take some certain people’s money in the process.”
This kid really was money-grubbing. Xiang Chuan thought.
But it was actually a pretty good idea.
