New Star Year 245, early spring.
Gu Yumian followed the navigation on his computer and finally found the Starry Sky Building. He looked at the sign above his head. A large poster read: "The spring breeze never fades, the starry sky never ages."
Yes, it's here.
He walked towards the hall.
Through the revolving glass doors, one enters a grand and bright lobby. Office workers are rushing about, a husky running by with a briefcase in its mouth, a female office worker wearing glasses and a pair of hamster ears, and the ragdoll cat manning the front desk taps its paws on the keyboard.
In the hall, a woman was waiting.
Her name was Ke Li, and she was a staff member at the Xingkong Live Streaming platform, primarily responsible for liaising with the anchors. She checked her watch, then glanced toward the door. The agreed time was approaching, but Mr. Gu was nowhere to be seen, and she felt a little impatient.
"That's why I don't like humans," Keli couldn't help but think. "They're unpunctual, narrow-minded, and short-sighted... No wonder humans are almost extinct. Maybe this is the legendary survival of the fittest?"
She's not racist, it's just that some things are written in genes.
Many years ago, an apocalyptic catastrophe struck ancient Earth. During this catastrophe, animals awakened their spiritual powers and supernatural abilities, significantly increasing their intelligence, while humans did not. Thus, animals became equals to humans.
This delicate peace didn't last long. After the apocalypse, due to resource issues, humans and animals began a century-long war. In the end, the war ended with the victory of the animals, but the hatred and disgust caused by the war did not disappear, and was written into the blood of each generation.
When colleagues heard that Kelly was going to discuss a contract with a human anchor today, they all sympathized with her.
"I heard humans stink. Be careful not to get vomited by them."
"Humanity hasn't gone extinct yet?! It's been tough on you, Keli."
"Humans are cunning and short-sighted. I've come into contact with two humans, and talking to them made me sick to my stomach."
“…”
Her colleagues' exaggerations were so extreme that even though she hadn't seen anyone yet, she was already feeling anxious and regretful. Within a minute, Keli glanced towards the door for the fifth time... and then her eyes lit up.
A young man walked through the glass revolving door and towards the front desk.
He was wearing the most ordinary white linen shirt, tall and long-legged, with lips that naturally smiled, half a dimple on the side, and his most striking feature was his eyes.
His pupils were the light brown of Asian descent, warm as honey about to flow, giving people a soft and charming feeling, with a kind of heart-pounding handsomeness.
"Hello," Gu Yumian walked up to Ke Li while she was in a daze and smiled, "Ms. Ke? Sorry, I'm not familiar with this place and I'm late."
His voice is also very nice, clear and gentle.
"N-Never mind."
Ke Li came back to her senses and shook hands with him wordlessly. Gu Yumian's fingers were long and slender, and his palm was warm when he shook hands with her. It was a very comfortable and clean touch.
After half a minute, there was an awkward silence.
Gu Yumian looked at Ke Li, who had no intention of letting go, and smiled awkwardly but politely: "Ms. Ke?"
“…Oh, sorry.”
Only then did Ke Li reluctantly let go of her hand.
She was still in shock, her mind still unable to process the information.
The moment she saw Gu Yumian, she felt like little fireworks were going off before her eyes. It wasn't the kind of infatuation that came with love, but a purer, more joyful emotion. To be frank, she even wanted to transform into her original form, rub against Gu Yumian's palm, and sleep there.
But, doesn’t everyone say that humans are annoying?
Cory's worldview was shaken. Had she been living a lie all her life?! That wasn't right. This wasn't her first time seeing humans. She'd had a brief encounter with them during her internship, and she'd truly disliked them.
But Gu Yumian is completely different.
"Let's go in and talk." It took a long time for Keli to remember the important matter. She wanted to fix her hair, but when she touched the top of her head, she found that the cat ears she had put away had come out.
Ke Li: “…”
They were required to maintain their human form while working, and everyone was very skilled at it—unless they were really excited. Kelly pressed her ears back awkwardly.
During the few steps from the lobby to the elevator, Ke Li didn't care about the issue of politeness and kept staring at Gu Yumian, feeling that every second less of watching would be a loss.
But Gu Yumian was not used to being stared at so enthusiastically, and could not help but ask:
"Miss Ke, is there any problem?"
"Mr. Gu, you're very special," Ke Li praised him sincerely, "You... really don't look like a human at all."
Gu Yumian: “????”
In the interstellar age, 'human' seems to be a derogatory term, so this is a compliment.
Gu Yumian said slowly: "Thank you...thank you."
After the shock, Keli began to feel surprised.
What surprised her was that she had never seen such a special person like Gu Yumian, but she was happy that he was about to become a Starry Sky anchor. She was sure that the profits that Gu Yumian would bring to the platform in the future would be immeasurable.
Ke Li took Gu Yumian into the elevator. Inside was another orange cat colleague from the operations department. This orange cat always hated humans and was unwilling to ride in the same elevator with anyone.
"I heard they signed a human streamer before," Orange Cat complained to his colleagues, "A human streamer? Oh my god, what are they thinking? They're definitely losing money. How could a human be popular—"
The moment Gu Yumian stepped into the elevator, it suddenly became quiet.
When the orange cat saw the human, he was about to step out of the elevator with a sour face, but when he passed by Gu Yumian, he stopped in his tracks.
He slowly turned his head and looked Gu Yumian up and down, his eyes gradually becoming strange. Not only him, but all the animals in the elevator were like this.
Suddenly surrounded by the center of sight, Gu Yumian: "..."
Thinking that these 'people' were actually animals and that he was being surrounded and stared at by a group of small animals, Gu Yumian felt embarrassed and inexplicably sad.
——He recalled the time when he worked in a zoo in his previous life.
Yes, in the previous life.
Gu Yumian came from what they called "Ancient Earth." Back then, 5G wasn't even common, let alone spaceships, mechas, or even optical computers.
His family runs a pet hospital, and he learned how to feed kittens right after he learned to drink milk himself. He has loved animals since he was a child, and animals love and caress him. No matter how fierce or aggressive a cat or dog is, they will become docile and obedient when they meet him, asking for petting.
He studied animal science as an undergraduate and after graduation, he joined the city's zoo. His job was to keep giant pandas, but all the animals in the zoo loved him, and his colleagues often asked him for help in feeding and caring for them.
Gu Yumian graduated from a prestigious university and possessed strong professional skills, having participated in and led numerous rescue efforts for endangered species. Although a zookeeper, he published numerous papers in his spare time, making him a well-known figure in the industry at a young age.
A car accident happened suddenly, and when he woke up, he became 'Gu Yumian' in the interstellar era.
Gu Yumian never expected that the time travel often mentioned in novels and movies would actually happen to him.
This boy, who shared the same name and surname, bore a striking resemblance to him. The original lived alone, didn't attend school, and seemingly had no relatives or friends. For unknown reasons, he committed suicide. Gu Yumian woke up in the bathtub, a deep scar on his wrist.
Compared with all other problems, the issue of food and clothing was what troubled Gu Yumian the most.
——There were only 245 star coins in the original body’s personal account, which was approximately equivalent to 300 RMB.
He is a real pauper.
Gu Yumian originally wanted to return to his old job as a breeder, but he soon discovered that things were not that simple.
In this era, the main members of society are animals. Due to historical issues, animals hate humans, so how could they be willing to be kept by humans? Not only keepers, but also veterinarians, zoologists, and other professions all no longer exist in this era.
Just when Gu Yumian was worrying about how to make some money to at least maintain basic living, a call came from the Starry Sky Live Streaming Platform, contacting him to sign a contract.
It turned out that before committing suicide, the original body was in the process of negotiating a contract with the Starry Sky Live Streaming Platform. Live streaming has been the hottest entertainment industry in the interstellar world in recent years, and the Starry Sky Live Streaming Platform has the largest traffic volume. The popularity of top streamers is comparable to that of top celebrities, and they are flooded with endorsement advertising.
But Gu Yumian wasn't aiming to become a top anchor. He knew he wasn't cut out for that. He'd always been a mild-mannered person, not the type to attract attention.
What caught his eye was the "guaranteed salary" clause in the contract. In other words, even if he had no popularity or viewers, as long as he kept live streaming, he could still earn a fixed salary.
Although it’s not much, it’s enough to have enough food and clothing. Only with money can I make plans for the next step.
So the next day, he came to the branch of the Starry Sky Live Broadcasting Platform on this planet.
…
Memories come back.
The strange gazes of the animals continued to accompany Gu Yumian and Ke Li.
"Mr. Gu," Ke Li reminded him when the elevator chime sounded, "We're here."
As they stepped out of the elevator, a sense of depression spread among the animals in the elevator behind them.
Ke Li understood their feelings too well.
The two sat down at the conference table, and Kelly took out the contract she had prepared long ago. The contract had both a paper and electronic version. Kelly explained:
"Mr. Gu, since you have no previous livestreaming experience and you're the first human anchor signed by Star Sky... we don't know how the public will accept human anchors yet, so we can only offer you the lowest-tier Class E contract."
Even those in Category E have a guaranteed monthly salary of 1,000 Star Coins. Beyond that, rewards and various endorsement and copyright revenue are split 60% and 40% between the platform and the streamer.
"When your live broadcast room reaches a certain level of popularity, you will be assigned a recommended position. In addition, new anchors have a special recommended position, ranked by popularity. And we will also recommend interesting content in real time every day."
Generally speaking, Xingkong is quite friendly to new anchors. Gu Yumian listened carefully and nodded.
The following steps went smoothly. After reading the contract, Gu Yumian found nothing unreasonable and signed it.
It was such an ordinary and peaceful day, and the contract, which was hailed as the most influential in the history of Star Sky, was signed so casually.
Ke Li walked Gu Yumian down the elevator and returned to the office. It was lunchtime, and her colleagues were chatting and greeting her.
"Hey, Keli, what have you been up to? You're back so late."
"I just signed a contract with a human anchor." Thinking of Gu Yumian, Ke Li's face inexplicably smiled. "If you meet him, you will definitely like him. He is very charming."
“…”
"Yeah……"
My colleagues didn't object, but they all scoffed at the idea. Humans might be rare, but everyone must have seen them a few times over the years.
Not to mention liking humans, just restraining one's instincts and not going up to beat them up is already very difficult.
"By the way," a female colleague said, the topic seemed a bit heavy, so she started a different conversation. "Keli, while you were away, the boss came by and said that the content of the recent live broadcasts needs to be strictly reviewed."
Ke Li: "Huh? Another strict interrogation, why?"
The female colleague lowered her voice and answered her, "I heard that His Majesty is coming to our galaxy."
After saying this, she shook herself, and a layer of white fluff appeared on her smooth neck.
——Scared.
Thinking of the tyrant, everyone fell silent and shuddered at the same time.
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