Inside the transparent glass chamber, the treatment pod slowly opened, revealing a delicately beautiful young girl. Her eyelashes fluttered slightly, and when she opened her eyes, there was a brief moment of dazed confusion in them…
Yu Nianqing abruptly sat up. She had not submitted her paper to her professor yet. The M0922 star system she had discovered definitely existed!
Moreover, she had even observed the main planet of the M0922 star system, Planet N21-0.
At that moment, a woman walked into the hospital room, her expression extremely serious. “Nianqing, the public backlash caused by this explosion has put you in a very unfavorable position.”
Yu Nianqing suspected she had not fully regained consciousness. She did not even know where she was now, but this place clearly was not an observation base.
“What explosion?”
Xiao Xiao immediately pulled up a video on her smart terminal. It showed a young girl livestreaming when an explosion occurred because she had improperly used an ancient Earth cooking appliance. That girl was none other than Yu Nianqing herself.
Yu Nianqing’s mind went blank for a moment. She could not understand why the girl in the video had used natural gas in an extremely enclosed space, or why she had lit a candle on her birthday cake while doing so.
It was obvious that she had not properly learned basic life skills and lacked even the most fundamental knowledge of fire safety.
But…
This person was none other than Yu Nianqing herself.
Xiao Xiao closed the video and swiped her hand through the air. Another interface appeared before Yu Nianqing’s eyes.
“Right now, the entire Star Network is full of people cursing you…”
On the interface, a character in the form of an animated animal was expressing its opinion. “Yu Nianqing is just putting on a show. She doesn’t know the first thing about how people lived on ancient Earth. We don’t want to see hypocrites like her!”
This was the Star Network’s anonymous avatar system. Whenever someone chose to post anonymously on the Star Network, a random animal avatar would appear on the public’s smart terminals.
“Wait…” Yu Nianqing asked the question that even she herself found a little too clichéd. “What year is it now?”
“Year 2021 of the New Era.”
Hearing the year 2021, Yu Nianqing breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, it was still 2021.
…
A day later, Yu Nianqing had only just managed to accept the fact that she had arrived on an unfamiliar planet. She clumsily began using her smart terminal to learn about this era.
“So Dr. Du’s research on smart terminals really did become a reality,” Yu Nianqing remarked.
She did not even need to move her hands. All she had to do was finish reading a page, and the interface before her eyes would automatically turn to the next one.
Before the New Era, humanity had already completely abandoned the way of life of ancient Earth. This was related to the star system itself. Under the influence of mutagenic factors, all plants and animals had mutated, resulting in significant changes to their nutritional content and taste.
As a result, humanity developed nutrient solutions to meet people’s daily nutritional needs, eliminating the need to obtain nutrients through cooking.
Over time, the art of cooking gradually disappeared as well.
The original Yu Nianqing had been a wealthy heiress. On a whim, she had started a livestream on the Star Network and, to attract attention, had actually claimed that she knew how to cook the way people on ancient Earth did.
In the end, she had failed because of her lack of even the most basic life skills.
Just as Yu Nianqing was learning about all this, a video call popped up on her smart terminal. The caller’s note read Father.
After Yu Nianqing accepted the call, the image of a middle-aged man in a well-tailored suit appeared before her. His expression was particularly stern, and his tone was far from pleasant.
“Yu Nianqing, how much longer are you going to keep embarrassing yourself out there? Your brothers have spoiled you rotten! I’ve cut off your supply of star coins. If you don’t want to starve to death out there, get home and get married immediately!”
After saying this, the man ended the call without even waiting for Yu Nianqing to respond.
Yu Nianqing had never expected this. Being pressured to get married in the twenty-first century was one thing, but why was she still being pressured to marry in the New Era?
Unlike before, she now wholeheartedly agreed to go home and get married. Otherwise, she really would starve to death. She had absolutely no survival skills for the interstellar era!
Yu Nianqing checked her star coin balance: 12.
Yet even the cheapest bottle of nutrient solution cost 50 star coins.
Yu Nianqing sighed. Wasn’t she an internet celebrity? Why was she so poor?
With no other choice, Yu Nianqing could only turn to Xiao Xiao, who had brought her home from the Federation Hospital yesterday.
“I’m sorry, Nianqing. President Yu won’t let me help you.” Xiao Xiao’s eyes were filled with guilt. She cautiously suggested, “Why don’t you go back to the Yu family? The public opinion on the Star Network is already working against your livestreams…”
Yu Nianqing sighed. How could she not know that? But her father had known perfectly well that his daughter had been injured in an explosion and hospitalized. Yet the moment he called her, he had launched into a scolding without a single word of concern.
It seemed there was little paternal affection to speak of.
After ending the video call with Xiao Xiao, Yu Nianqing resigned herself to figuring out how to survive on those 12 star coins.
Her smart terminal’s real-time monitoring system had already warned her that her body’s vital functions were deteriorating and that she needed to replenish her nutrients.
She opened the Star Shopping platform and discovered that although nutrient solutions were expensive, ingredients were not.
For example, five jin of genetically modified rice cost just one star coin, while purebred chicken eggs cost only one star coin per jin.
If she wanted to cook, she would also need seasonings. In the New Era of 2021, seasonings were almost nonexistent. Nobody cooked anymore, so who would bother buying them?
“Ugh!” Life was hard. Nianqing sighed.
Fortunately, salt was something that could be made quite easily.
“Seawater from Gemini Star, 5 star coins. Air from Lover’s Island, also 5 star coins.” Yu Nianqing noticed that the seawater had a monthly sales volume of just one. She was about to become the second fool to buy it.
After she paid for these items, the words 【Packing】 appeared on her smart terminal’s interface.
A minute later, her doorbell rang. Yu Nianqing opened the door and saw a pile of items waiting outside. The eggs and rice were fine, but what she hadn’t expected was…
The five-star-coin seawater had even come with a square glass fish tank, with a note attached to it.
“Thank you for your support, dear customer! Our shop has prepared two bluefin clownfish as a little gift for you. We hope you like them~” The shop owner’s anonymous avatar on the note smiled warmly.
As Yu Nianqing checked the items one by one, she suddenly realized a very serious problem.
“There’s no tomato for tomato and scrambled eggs?”
The Yu Nianqing of this world had been a true heiress to a wealthy family. Her villa was located in the affluent district of this planet. A fence separated each villa from its neighbors, and every villa had a small garden in its front yard.
Yu Nianqing discovered that there were actually tomato plants growing in her next-door neighbor’s garden!
Well, wasn’t this just falling into her lap?
“Ding-dong!”
“Hello, may I ask who you are?”
“Hello, I’m your next-door neighbor.”
The person who answered the door was the household butler. When he heard that Yu Nianqing was their neighbor, he showed no intention of inviting her inside.
It seemed this family was rather guarded!
“Please wait a moment. I’ll ask my master.”
Yu Nianqing nodded and watched the butler go inside with a beaming smile. The moment he disappeared from sight, she quickly slipped into the small garden next door. With swift, precise movements, she plucked several tomatoes and stuffed them into her pockets.
When the butler returned to the door, he apologized to Yu Nianqing. “I’m sorry, but our master isn’t receiving guests.”
“That’s all right. I’ve suddenly gotten hungry, so I’ll be off.” Yu Nianqing waved her hand and hurried back to her own house as if fleeing for her life.
Unbeknownst to her, a tall, well-built man stood before the floor-to-ceiling window on the second floor of the neighboring villa. The butler walked over to his side, where they had an unobstructed view of the entire garden below.
“Sir, this is the only purebred tomato plant on Kloss Star.”
Bo Chen stared at the sneaky figure. “How are the wedding arrangements coming along?”
The butler hesitated for a moment before answering, “Miss Yu’s recent antics on the Star Network… I’m afraid they may affect your public image.”