Chapter 500 - 498: New Drama Arrangements

Jiang Qin didn’t tell any of her partners that she had let the big tree stay.

She only informed the Chief, telling him that the Cosmic Beast had been taken care of.

After some consideration, everyone who had evacuated the Main Star came rushing back. It turned out to be a false alarm.

The only difference, perhaps, was the sprout of grass now sitting on top of Jiang Qin’s head.

She tried to tactfully negotiate with the big tree a few times, but it insisted that it loved this spot and didn’t want to move.

So she had no choice but to accept it, ending up with a sprout on her head like the village chief from Sheep Village.

The big tree was reasonable, though. Whenever she entered her room, it would hop out the window on its own and take root under the eaves.

It didn’t intrude on her privacy too much.

After all, it just wanted Jiang Qin to hum a song for it now and then. It didn’t want to be her permanent accessory.

For instance, just now, Jiang Qin was playing with Zhaozhao, who was just learning to walk.

A genderless voice suddenly came from on top of her head. "Jiang Qin, are you tired right now?"

Hearing the question, Jiang Qin didn’t even bother to answer. She just started humming a song.

The sapling on her head swayed gently.

The staff from Tianwen Entertainment, everyone from Muzhao Entertainment, and even her bodyguards had all been evacuated from the Main Star.

Now that the alert was lifted, everyone had returned, and work resumed.

The three series that had finished filming were scheduled for a phased release.

*Little Li’s Flying Saber* was given the prime time slot and would begin airing in three days. *Heavenly Marriage Dress* was scheduled for the afternoon slot, set to air once students were on vacation.

*Mute Bride* was scheduled to air after *Little Li’s Flying Saber*, taking over its time slot.

...

Since filming for all the shows was complete, Jiang Qin had to purchase new scripts for the company.

This time, she acquired the *Immortal Sword Series*. She bought the scripts for all three installments and handed them over to a director she had worked with before.

Life was back on track.

Not even the Federation knew that the tree was still with Jiang Qin. They all assumed it had already left.

After all, no one ever imagined that a Cosmic Beast that had lived for who-knows-how-many-years would choose to live among humans.

「Three days later.」

*Little Li’s Flying Saber* premiered.

Even with the popularity of short-form dramas, everyone was still eagerly anticipating full-length series, especially those written by Jiang Qin.

So, almost everyone was eagerly waiting for the premiere to start.

"So rare, this mastery of skill,

Yet the trials of love, I cannot pass.

Cannot break through sweet tenderness,

A wild swing of the sword brings nothing but loss..."

As the opening theme song played, viewers got a glimpse of scenes from the show.

The male lead, in particular, looked impossibly handsome as he threw his flying daggers.

This made everyone even more excited for the story.

"Looks like this is another martial arts drama. Awesome!"

"The martial arts dramas from Jiang Qin’s studio always have better attention to detail. With the copycats, I watch nine out of ten of them and just want to gouge my eyes out."

The teahouse where the story began was a perfect recreation of ancient aesthetics.

You could only see teahouses like this in historical dramas. The replicas in the Interstellar era were, in the end, far too modern.

"That must be the male lead, right?"

The male lead, dressed in a white robe with long, wavy black hair, sat drinking tea at a table.

The screen was filled with the image of a classical, handsome man exuding a heroic aura.

The fight scenes that followed were incredibly exhilarating.

The patrons quietly watching the show in a bar began to murmur. "When it comes to fight scenes, no one does it like Jiang Qin. I heard she personally choreographed the action sequences for this series, too."

"That flying dagger going right for the throat... Tsk, tsk. So cool!"

Following that, the appearance of the "Number One Beauty of the Central Plains" stunned everyone. For a long time afterward, her hairstyle—with her hair wrapped in a cloth scarf—became a popular trend across the Interstellar.

But one thing struck everyone as odd. "Li Xunhuan and Lin Shiyin are cousins? Isn’t their relationship a little... intimate?"

"I know about this. In ancient times, a lot of cousins married each other to strengthen family ties."

"What?! Cousins?!"

The Interstellar People were stunned into silence.

To be fair, even though the Interstellar era had a severely imbalanced ratio of males to females, there had never been any rumors of incest.

So it was no wonder they were so shocked.

"This... This counts as being close relatives, right?"

"The ancients didn’t know any better. All they cared about was strengthening family ties, and they already knew each other’s family background.

A lot of them were male and female cousins who grew up together. Once they hit puberty and developed a vague curiosity about the opposite sex, they would naturally turn their attention to the people closest to them."

Everyone thought about their own sisters and female relatives and shuddered.

But the two episodes were over before they knew it. Those who couldn’t get enough decided to rewatch the recording.

Meanwhile, those with a sharp business sense had already started contacting Jiang Qin’s studio.

Toy factories wanted to produce custom flying dagger toys, accessory shops wanted the rights to the headpieces, and clothing boutiques wanted the design patterns for the outfits.

In short, every new show launched a craze for related merchandise.

For collaborations like these, as long as the company had a good reputation and agreed to her profit-sharing terms, she would almost always accept.

However, even after striking a deal, she would still send people to conduct quality control on the final products.

She was worried they might try to cut costs to increase their profits.

...

Afterward, the topic of every conversation turned to *Little Li’s Flying Saber*.

"Hey, have you guys noticed? All those great heroes seem to dress so casually."

"It’s more than that! Their whole look is casual. Their hair is all messy, and some of them even have beards."

"So, to become a great hero, does that mean the first step is to let yourself go?"

Someone listening in on their discussion immediately shot them a look as if they were idiots.

He watched, dumbfounded, as these few idiots decided they would also adopt an unkempt look to show off their "masculine charm."

Whether that look was actually charming was a different story. He was quite certain that if they let themselves go, they would never find a female master in their lifetime.

It seemed they had completely forgotten their teachers’ constant reminders in school: that males had to groom themselves and look clean and sharp to be more attractive to females.

「A few days later.」

When Jiang Qin went out, she was completely stunned to see the streets filled with males in ragged clothes and with disheveled hair.

"...Is the Federation having an economic crisis?"

Long Hao, standing beside her, was just as shocked. "I have no idea. I haven’t heard a whisper."

He knew the Federation always seemed a bit poor, but it couldn’t have regressed a thousand years overnight, could it?

Were these slovenly males the same ones who usually wanted every single strand of their hair to gleam with a perfect shine?

Messy hair was one thing, but some were even wearing tangled wigs.

And that male who just walked by... he couldn’t have been an adult yet, but he had a huge fake beard stuck to his face...

Jiang Qin quickly logged onto the Star Network and searched: "Has the Federation gone bankrupt?"

The search returned tens of thousands of results denying it.

She lowered her head, thinking... ’Could this be some kind of retro performance art?’

’Are people trying to experience what it’s like to be a beggar?’