Ch 121: The Cannon Fodder Won’t Play Along Anymore [QT]

Mu Xing was seriously answering the audience’s questions, but he didn’t expect that this action would directly trigger some kind of tipping buff. The glow of donations in the live room almost never stopped.

He froze for a moment before thanking them: “Thank you all for the donations, but don’t tip blindly. My current income is enough.”

[Not blindly, not blindly, just a bit of pocket money.]

[I’ve freeloaded off the roses for a whole week. Today I finally tipped ten credits. Do you think I’m being blind? (dog head)]

[Good guy, ten credits, a fortune! I only tipped five star coins!]

[Brother Xing, I’m watching your stream with my parents. They agreed to let me spend a little pocket money to tip you. They said later I can visit Red Moon and see the flowers I raised there.]

[I’m not tipping, I just placed an order for five thousand desert pines, to support a little.]

[I bought some flower seedlings and sent them over. I can’t grow flowers anyway, so let the streamer handle it for me.]

[??? Where are you all sending them? Red Moon is so big, I don’t know what address to fill in.]

[Didn’t you see the news earlier? The original residents of Red Moon have already all been relocated. That means only the streamer lives there now. Just fill it in however.]

“……”

Mu Xing didn’t realize until he received a call from the starport that lots of viewers had already sent over a huge number of packages.

“There are already over a thousand. After scanning, most are plants, but there are also some other things.”

Mu Xing: “……”

Fortunately, with current express technology, scanning, inspection, and distribution are all integrated in one step. Otherwise, just dealing with those parcels would be enough to exhaust a lot of people.

He instructed the robots to accept some of the ordinary plant packages. Any rare and expensive plants, valuable items, or joke items were all returned.

The next day during the stream, he mentioned this again.

Mu Xing didn’t reject the good intentions. Red Moon was just too vast.

He was willing to spend money, and the smart machines were efficient, but for such a huge Red Moon, it was never enough. It had to be taken step by step, slowly.

Besides, based on his experience, right now was when viewers were at their most enthusiastic. After a few days, when the excitement cooled off, they wouldn’t be so over the top.

Mu Xing exited the live room.

His stream had already been granted 24-hour permission. Although StarNet still limited him, as a minor streamer, to personally entering the room only three hours a day, the room itself could stay open, divided into several holographic zones.

Viewers, whether they wanted to see roses, planting, or basic construction, could freely watch at any time.

His stream had stabilized, and the construction of Red Moon was now mostly being managed under the planning of StarNet and the professional team Old Master Mu had found. They would send Mu Xing progress updates regularly.

The outside construction and planting were basically all gene-optimized evergreen species able to adapt to harsh climates.

Mu Xing knew what the audience wanted to see most.

Once he had more free time, the viewers discovered that the stream now had an extra section.

[What place is this?]

[Haven’t seen this area before. It’s huge.]

Mu Xing wore a little straw hat, simple dark clothes, holding a green plant in his left hand and a small spade in his right.

After the viewers entered the holographic stream, they saw that aside from Mu Xing, a few other Mu family members were there, dressed much the same.

Behind them were a number of round, chubby smart robots.

Mu Xing squatted down before the loosened black soil.

He used the little spade to dig a hole, placed the plant roots inside, and pressed the soil down.

[??? Planting trees?]

[No wait, I recognize this. Gardenia. I have a few pots at home.]

As he planted, Mu Xing replied, “Yes, this is gardenia. In a little while it’ll be gardenia’s blooming season. Planting now, they’ll bloom next month.”

The interstellar age lacked flowers, but never lacked plants.

Long ago, when humans realized that plants would no longer flower or bear fruit, they preserved all existing plant gene samples through biotechnology.

No flowers, no seeds—so they just endlessly replicated finished products.

Because of this, almost every flower Mu Xing knew of could be bought on StarNet, and often very cheaply.

[??? Did I just hear that right? Gardenia?]

[So this is called gardenia? I always thought it was called gardenia tree.]

[They’ll bloom next month???? Are you kidding?]

[Bragging doesn’t have to be this exaggerated, right? There’s only a basic circulation system here. How can flowers grow in this?]

[I just tipped a few hundred star coins the other day… Now I feel like I was stupid. I waited so long for flower planting, and this is it? Are you just playing house?]

The comments were almost all skepticism.

The Mu family members, as the stream’s moderators, could see it all. They felt uneasy and looked at Mu Xing with worry.

Mu Xing found their reaction strange. “Isn’t planting flowers just like this? Because the climate is bad here, I turned on the circulation system, and the soil’s been turned and watered. Gardenia is a hardy species. This is fine.”

He looked completely baffled, as if he had no idea what they were even saying.

The viewers, however, were far more worked up:

[Surviving and blooming—those are two different things!]

【Although I know rationally that covering all of Red Moon with green plants is a great achievement, I’m still a little disappointed. I really hoped to see the streamer grow real flowers again.】

【Disappointed, angry! I can accept that you can’t grow flowers again, but I can’t accept you planting them so carelessly. This is disrespectful to flowers! How could someone like you possibly have grown such beautiful roses!】

Mu Xing: “…”

It took him a moment to realize what the audience was angry about.

Because flowers were far too rare in the interstellar era.

People here had already treated them as something akin to a national treasure in their hearts.

So they thought Mu Xing’s attitude toward flowers was far too casual, that he didn’t respect them.

He laughed and shook his head. “She’s a plant. With sunlight, soil, and water, she can live. Believe me, there’s no need to bathe and burn incense, or whisper sweet words to her every day.”

After a pause, he added, “I like them, and they like me too.”

【??? I didn’t see whether the gardenia tree likes you, but I can see you’re very confident.】

【I was about to unfollow, but I’ll wait and see just how much they like you.】

【Heh, with that attitude, if flowers bloom, I’ll livestream myself doing a handstand and eating a whole gardenia tree.】

【Hilarious. Are you going to say the roses in your yard bloomed because they liked you too?】

On Mu Xing’s shoulders, where the viewers couldn’t see, Mai Mai and Mao Mao hovered one on each side.

Mu Xing wanted them to sit, but these two little ones always thought their weight would burden him—he had no idea why they had such a wrong impression.

Still, he accepted the goodwill of the two little Iya people.

Ever since hearing that Mu Xing bought Red Moon and planned to plant many trees and flowers so the Iya people could live there in the future, Mai Mai and Mao Mao had been moved to tears.

Xing Xing really was the best human of all; they would always like him most.

The two little ones even tried to find others of their people who were still sleeping.

But those Iya people had never met Mu Xing, disliked or even rejected humans, and refused to come out.

Mai Mai and Mao Mao could only give up for now. They followed Mu Xing every day, watching him work busily, feeling both distressed and happy.

They could understand human speech, and right now they were furious.

Mai Mai couldn’t speak, so Mao Mao spoke for her:

“These people are so annoying! We don’t like being crammed into those crowded greenhouses, and we don’t like hearing them nag and sing at us all the time. They’re not Xingxing, hmph!”

Mao Mao rolled his eyes. “My friends can grow just fine with sunlight, water, and soil. Xingxing isn’t bragging— they all like him very much and are happy to bloom the most beautiful flowers for him.”

He leaned close to Mu Xing’s ear and whispered, “Don’t listen to those people, and don’t get upset. They’re all fools.”

Mu Xing felt a little tired. He put down his tools, stood up, and went to sit aside to rest.

“Mm.” He whispered back as well. “Ignore them.”

“Humans are always good at eating their own words.”

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