As Wenren Feng finished speaking, applause erupted.
"Thank you, Mr. Wen, for your explanation, especially that final remark, which gives us all food for thought.
No matter what it is, nothing can withstand the erosion of time. I hope everyone will attach great importance to this and refrain from random graffiti or vandalism on murals and places of historic interest.
Certain chemicals accelerate the rate of erosion on rock walls, and if this continues, our descendants will never get to witness such a magnificent spectacle.
At the same time, today's episode of Composing China's Rivers and Mountains comes to a close.
At the same time next week, we will head to Tangyin County and take you all to appreciate the hometown of Yue Fei.
Goodbye, everyone."
Zhu Shi waved goodbye. The camera swept across the scene, and all the guests along with the three mentors waved in unison.
Immediately, the livestream ended.
The viewers in the livestream room stared blankly at the ending screen, and then the comment section exploded like a pot of boiling water.
"Damn! Why is it over just like that? I haven't finished watching yet!"
"Who's first and who's second? It's over already? Where can I watch the replay? I didn't get enough of that song Watching the Murals!"
"Check out my profile, I've already clipped Watching the Murals!"
"Wuwuwu, where did my little lucky charm go? I haven't seen enough yet!"
"You have to hand it to CCTV, a big star like our little lucky charm, and they only give him that tiny bit of screen time!"
....
....
In front of the Dunhuang Grottoes.
Staff members were busy dismantling the backdrop and set pieces.
Xu An walked over to the side, approached the assistant director, and gave a light cough.
The assistant director was busy directing the crew to carry boxes of mural replicas when he suddenly heard the light cough. Turning around in surprise, he discovered it was actually Xu An.
Seeing Xu An, the assistant director quickly turned around, raised a hand to pat him on the shoulder, and praised, "That song just now was simply amazing. We might need to go into the city to record the song in a bit, and I'm really going to be in for a treat."
Xu An had originally intended to ask about the payment. After all, the task he had agreed to was already done—when were those twenty thousand yuan coming?
Hearing the other party suddenly mention recording a song, Xu An was somewhat dazed: "Record a song? What song?"
Was this included in the terms?
Seeing that Xu An did not seem to be faking it, the assistant director slapped his own forehead: "Look at this mess. I was too busy and didn't get a chance to tell you.
Now that the recording for the first episode is complete, we need to have you all record the songs you performed today in a recording studio, and then release them on Huaxia Music Network."
This was supposed to be part of the plan all along, but since Xu An was a last-minute addition, it was normal that he didn't know.
"Wait, wait, wait a minute, record a song in a recording studio? Didn't I only sign up for one episode? Do I still need to record this?"
It wasn't that Xu An was resistant; on the contrary, he was rather pleased, since once the song was recorded and released, he would get a cut of the profits.
He knew Huaxia Music Network; all the songs on it used a ten-cent buyout system, and the revenue-sharing ratio was three to seven—three for the website, seven for the singer.
Don't underestimate that ten cents. You have to remember that the population of China in this world exceeded two billion! Even if only a third of the people listened, that would still be a hefty chunk of income!
And that was just the website's song revenue; other hidden earnings weren't even factored in.
A conservative estimate, excluding taxes, was that a single person listening to the song could bring him close to fifty cents in returns.
He was in desperate need of money right now, so he certainly wouldn't turn down such a good opportunity.
"The response to this episode should be pretty good. You'll continue participating in the next episode, no problem, right?" The assistant director's hand gave a gentle squeeze on Xu An's shoulder.
"Um... may I ask, does our show take a cut from this?" Xu An asked cautiously.
As far as this show was concerned, whether he participated or not didn't really matter, but if there was money to be made, not participating would make him a fool.
"Take a cut?" The assistant director's eyes showed confusion, not quite understanding the term.
"Ahem... It's about uploading to Huaxia Music Network. I mean, will the production team take a cut from the Huaxia Music Network revenue share?"
Though it felt a bit awkward at first, that feeling quickly vanished.
This was money he earned through his own strength, what was there to be awkward about!
The assistant director finally understood and chuckled: "Don't worry, the production team wouldn't take a cut on this. Whatever your share is will automatically show up in your Huaxia Music Network backend account.
We'll have you release it under your own accounts, just remember to tag it with the show's category. Oh, and if you don't have an account yet, remember to register one when you get back."
With a smile and a shake of his head, the assistant director turned and left, never expecting that Xu An would think along those lines.
This was CCTV, for crying out loud! Would they be short on this little bit of cash? Taking on just about any random commercial paid more than a percentage cut.
Watching the assistant director walk away, the realization finally dawned on Xu An.
Wait a minute.
What about my twenty thousand yuan?
Why is nobody mentioning it anymore?
That's deader than Zhao Si's old man!
He returned to the RV from earlier.
This was prepared for Du Hui by the production team. Since Du Hui wasn't around, Xu An simply and shamelessly took it over.
While waiting for the crew to finish packing up, Xu An returned to the RV, kicked off his shoes, lay down on the bed, and sorted out his thoughts in his mind.
First, he had time-traveled.
Second, the original owner seemed to have left him with the task of taking care of his girlfriend.
Well, for now, just those two points.
Xu An first got a grasp of this world. To put it simply, it was identical to Earth, and some city names were even the same.
The only differences were historical legacies and various celebrities and works related to culture and entertainment.
There was no Mozart, Chopin, Malzahar, Guli Nazha, or anyone like that at all.
Classic works like The Collected Poems of the Birds or Moonlight Sonata were also completely missing.
As for classical poetry and the like, while some were similar to Earth's, a small portion was still entirely absent.
So if he wanted to show off using classical poetry in the future, he would need to check in advance whether it existed in this world.
Otherwise, he'd end up looking like an idiot instead of impressing anyone.
As for the relationship between the original owner and his white moonlight, sorting through the memories made him feel as if he had been struck by lightning.
The story was simple: the original owner saw his white moonlight enter a high-end hotel together with a man.
Then the original owner called to interrogate her about whether she had betrayed him. Though his white moonlight was somewhat airheaded, she wasn't stupid.
She shot right back with, "If we truly love each other sincerely, can't we even have a shred of trust?" and then hung up the phone.
In a fit of anger, the original owner directly demanded a breakup, blocked her on WeChat, and even unfollowed and blacklisted her on Doushou.
The final result was that the original owner learned from one of the white moonlight's friends that the man who had gone into the hotel with her was actually her father.
Her father had come to Beijing to visit her at the time, and the two of them happened to enter the hotel just as the original owner spotted them.
Coming back to his senses, the original owner wanted to beg for his white moonlight's forgiveness, but before he could even start, Xu An took over his body.
That was the whole story, plain and simple.
Third-rate Korean drama plotlines, tropes that female-oriented web novels had completely worn out, playing out in real life.
As for why Xu An felt like he'd been struck by lightning upon knowing the cause and effect?
It was because he and his own white moonlight had gone through a strikingly similar plot.
Except the roles needed a little swapping.
The original owner's white moonlight went to the hotel with her father.
Whereas Xu An's white moonlight went to the hotel with her mother.
To this day, Xu An still couldn't understand why a woman would rock a buzzcut, love wearing men's clothing, and stand one meter eighty tall!
......