Chapter 38 一 The long-awaited <Light Years> is finally about to begin~
After Bai Ruogu’s words were transmitted into the space and decoded by Su Mou, there was a “zizi” sound was emitted from the inside.
Su Mou stared blankly at Bai Ruogu, his body teleported backward, a tone of voice intermittently sounded.
“This is a violation of human morality. You already have your lover, and I’m just an applicant.”
Bai Ruogu suppressed his laugh while pretending to be in a dilemma, playing with his fingers, “Hey, there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world. So many positions aren’t just given away.”
Su Mou’s eyes flickered, but Bai Ruogu leaned in further, “What are you worried about? You’re an AI, you don’t have to worry about human morality. I just need to keep it from my lover, right?”
Su Mou paused for a moment, seemingly analyzing the pros and cons, “But can you keep it a secret?”
Bai Ruogu grinned, showing his teeth. “As long as you don’t tell, and I don’t tell, how would he know?”
Su Mou: …
It seems to make sense, but why are some of the programs in the space messed up?
He blinked, feeling like there was a lush green field over his head. But considering his current identity, wasn’t it Bai Ruogu’s lover who was supposed to be green? What did it have to do with him?
With some hesitation, he reached out his arm, struggling to undo his collar.
He should have felt ashamed, logically speaking, for using his looks to gain a position. But why should he be ashamed? He wasn’t human.
As he removed each piece of clothing, Bai Ruogu’s playful eyes straightened, staring at Su Mou’s actions in astonishment.
Was his lover undressing?
Bai Ruogu’s heart was beating rapidly. After so many years, He still didn’t know what his lover had learned. It seemed that even the inside of the body had been simulated now?
As the virtual clothes fell away, it felt like shedding an iron shell, revealing a dazzlingly clean interior reflecting silver light.
Silver light…
The metallic-looking tubes, the wires, the faint glimpse of chips inside, and even the engines humming away.
Bai Ruogu: …
He really should not have thought about everything so beautifully.
This wasn’t just undressing, it was stripping away a layer of skin.
“Are you done with the unspoken rules?” Su Mou asked him.
Bai Ruogu nodded blankly, and Su Mou quickly dressed again. Layer upon layer of clothing piled up, completely concealing the mechanical interior.
Who would have thought that this guy was simulating not a person, but a robot?
Bai Ruogu: …
A new vice president named Su Mou has been parachuted into Xingsu, and he has demanded that he be consulted on all matters, big or small, within the company. As soon as this news came out, the whole company was in an uproar, and everyone was speculating about the identity of this new vice president.
“I heard he’s a relative of President Xiaobai, and President Xiaobai specially opened the back door for him,” two employees whispered in the restroom.
The other person was somewhat surprised. “Is it that serious? I remember President Xiaobai is usually the most difficult to talk to. Did he just open the back door like that?”
In the corridor, two people whispered.
“What’s Vice President Su’s background? I heard he doesn’t even attend meetings, just lets us send information directly to his smart brain.”
“Isn’t that too overbearing? The key is, President Xiaobai even allowed it?!”
“Let’s not bother, anyway, it doesn’t affect our salary.”
In the employee cafeteria, a few people huddled together, quietly discussing.
“I’m just curious, what kind of relative can make President Xiaobai delegate authority like this? He practically gave half the company to him.”
“Hey, there’s news. I heard there are no relatives with the last name Su in President Xiaobai’s family. So what’s this about Su Mou?”
“Ah~~”
“I see~ I see~”
“So that’s it~”
“Oh, you understand? Tell me!”
“So that’s the kind of relationship they have.”
“This Su Mou is really skillful, I wonder how he managed to convince President Xiaobai. President Xiaobai, with such a strict and decisive appearance, actually got ensnared.”
“Others know how to play, there must be some new tricks that we don’t know about.”
If Bai Ruogu heard this, he would definitely spit out three liters of blood.
What new tricks? As soon as you take off your clothes, you see a bunch of mechanical parts. Maybe the advantage is that you’re easier to reflect light than others.
After Su Mou parachuted into the management, people initially speculated about his relationship with Bai Ruogu. However, in just two days, his agility in handling information made everyone in the company dare not even breathe.
Su Mou was really powerful, to the extent that as soon as they sent the documents, corrections came back within seconds, with specific annotations in red circles.
Oh my! Is he still human? Could it be that he’s a robot over there?
The network operations team also found that their newly built website had been revamped, changing from high quality to top quality.
They rubbed their eyes, and before them was a smoother page, a more high-end design, clearer categorization…
They almost knelt down, scanning from above, only to see two words in the corner——
Su Mou.
Boss!!
They no longer questioned Su Mou’s abilities, and even marveled at where Bai Ruogu had found such a genius.
Everything was proceeding briskly, and the company was back on track.
A few days later, summer vacation arrived.
Summer vacation was the peak period of people flow, with a surge in numbers for anything related to leisure and entertainment.
Nowadays, there were more and more movies in the market aimed at making money, with all sorts of trendy elements thrown in just to grab attention, while truly good works were becoming scarce.
In previous years at this time, major cinemas had become arenas for capital, with the number of screenings becoming a fiercely contested resource.
Originally, the profits for this year had already been divided up by the capitalists early on. Who knew that just before the summer vacation, a group of dark horses, no, artificial dark horses, would emerge.
The capitalists collectively twitched their mouths, almost foaming at the mouth in anger.
Where did this movie <Light Years> come from? It directly took 51% of the screening volume of the summer movie market?!
Damn it! This is almost exclusive treatment reserved for blockbuster hits during the summer vacation. Your damn movie hasn’t even been released yet, and you’ve already grabbed the market!
The capitalists were furious, wanting to confront the person responsible, but were immediately silenced by a mention of tax investigation, retreating home without a word.
Well, since they couldn’t reason, they had to see what kind of movie this was that could make the higher-ups speak for them!
As a result, they checked the personnel list, finding a director who flopped and a film poison.
Capitalists: …
Some people were so angry that they had difficulty breathing and were sent to the hospital the same day.
How dare such a lousy movie get so much attention?!
The audience was unaware of this incident, anyway, they could watch the movies they wanted, except for some tickets being tight, which didn’t affect them much.
<Light Years> was the first movie under Xingsu’s banner, and the entire company was gearing up for it, handling it with caution.
To avoid backlash from netizens, they didn’t aggressively promote the movie but subtly integrated it through other channels.
They started by hyping Bai Ruogu and Lin Chen, raising their popularity so that people would pay attention to their movie.
Later, they invited big shots to draw fan art, as long as the pictures were exquisite, many idle netizens would go and check them out.
The water army also followed suit, not directly promoting but pretending to be ordinary netizens and casually mentioning it.
Hey! Invisibly, everyone’s minds were invaded, and many people started paying attention to this movie, even thinking it was an unknown treasure. Little did they know, the entire StarNet was aware of it.
The movie premiered on August 18, with pre-sales starting on the 15th.
Just after midnight on the 15th, the ticket sales skyrocketed. Because the screening volume was large enough, there was basically no upper limit on the number of tickets.
In contrast, other movies, although heavily promoted in advance, had many audiences unable to buy tickets during pre-sales.
[How did <Zerg Wars> manage this? How are all the tickets sold out? I’ve been looking forward to it all semester.]
[Exactly, even <Mech Era> is also sold out, it’s driving me crazy.]
[Don’t be mad, I heard that <Light Years> next door is quite popular, should we go and see it?]
[Really? Many of my classmates have been discussing it, maybe we should check it out!]
The comments section under <Light Years> was also unanimously positive.
[I heard that many classmates bought tickets for <Light Years>. I was scared, but unexpectedly, I got one too!]
[Woohoo, I got one too! All the other tickets are impossible to get, hmph! I’m not watching those anymore.]
[There are so many tickets for <Light Years>. I bought one for each of my family of six, and we’re going together.]
[<Light Years> has a strong backer. I saw that the box office numbers displayed on it are so high, and I didn’t expect there to be any tickets left.]
This was Bai Ruogu’s first movie, and also the work Li Huai had been waiting for for so long.
The crew were all newcomers, full of anticipation. Everyone received Bai Ruogu’s invitation and gathered at Xingsu Entertainment the night before the premiere.
Inside the data room, large screens were all lit up, each with an operator behind.
Members of the public relations department were also working overtime collectively, to prevent any malicious comments from appearing.
Someone brought snacks and drinks for the crew, and everyone sat nervously on the leather chairs, staring at the screens above.
There was still an hour before midnight.
Some people found it hard to breathe, sweat beading on their foreheads, constantly scrolling through the smart brain, looking at the comments below the movie.
[I’ve been looking forward to this for months. Today, I specially invited my boyfriend to watch it with me.]
[Just from the trailers, it looks so interesting. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie with this kind of theme.]
[So sweet! The interaction between the two is so funny. Looking forward to it!]
[Hahaha, I heard it’s a BE? Bring it on! If it can abuse me, I’ll admit defeat!]
[Our whole family is here. This is the first time we’ve watched a movie together!]
[Looking forward to it.]
After receiving invitations from Xingsu, film critics also came to the cinema, taking out their notebooks to record their own journeys in the old-fashioned way.
At the same time, today’s meeting in the Interstellar Federation was also canceled. Some high-ranking officials took advantage of the short break to dress in plain clothes and go to the cinema to watch the movie.
In a dark room, the screens of the smart brain were lit up. A man with deep blue eyes sat quietly on the bed, holding a bottle of liquor tightly in his hand, watching the movie.
Time was almost up, just three minutes left.
On the distant planet Ketan, the Emperor sat alone in the Royal Cinema, silently watching the screen, with only a few memories wandering in his mind.
As time passed by, the girlfriend leaned on her boyfriend’s shoulder, counting down.
“Ten, nine, eight…”
The boyfriend looked bored. “It’s just a romance movie, what’s so interesting about it?”
“Three, two, one…”
The movie began.