After Tan Ge had taught the newcomers how to disassemble food, Kevin Lin had no intention of continuing the live broadcast. According to his original plan, this dinner broadcast should have lasted 15 to 20 minutes. Only 10 minutes had passed since the start of the broadcast, which was shorter than expected.
Kevin Lin had no choice. Continuing the broadcast might damage his image, so he decided to pause it.
"Alright, thank you very much for your explanation, little comrade." Kevin Lin nodded his thanks to Tan Ge and turned to the camera with an impeccable smile. "Next up is mealtime. Time is precious, so I will stop the live broadcast. See you guys later."
Kevin Lin waved his hand at the camera and cut the recording. The smile on his face faded. He looked at the large chunks of uncooked worms on the table in front of him, and his expression turned even uglier.
The surrounding newcomers, who had joined the same batch as him, relaxed after the live broadcast ended. In order not to embarrass themselves during the live broadcast, they resisted the urge to vomit.
"The live broadcast was cut?" a newcomer asked a comrade beside him in a low voice.
"It was cut off. Didn't you see that reporter's face turn green? He must be feeling terrible too. "
"Phew — it's good that it was cut off. I was suffocating. When that person was explaining just now, my stomach felt like it was churning."
"I wonder if the camera was aiming at us just now. From where we are sitting, we should be able to see it, right?"
The newcomers were discussing in low voices. There were also people who curiously studied the food on their plates. Not everyone was unable to accept this. There were still people with outstanding adaptability, but they were in the minority.
Kevin Lin watched Fang Zhao peel off the edible parts and put them into his mouth. He could not help but say, "It has already been cut off. There is no live broadcast." Hence, there was no need to continue pretending.
He did not finish his sentence because Kevin Lin had not noticed Fang Zhao's disgusted expression. Fang Zhao only frowned as he chewed and did not vomit. He could not help but ask, "How does it feel?"
"Not bad. The earthy taste is rather strong," Fang Zhao replied and continued peeling off the second piece.
This time, Kevin Lin carefully observed Fang Zhao's reaction and realized that this fellow was not lying or pretending!
Far away in the chief editor's office of First Frontline, the chief editor in charge of Project Starlight, Buckley, was reading the reports from his five subordinates.
Just a moment ago, Kevin Lin, the last person to arrive at the enlistment point, had sent a message from planet Baiji. Now, he had all the real-time status information on the five celebrities.
After Frontline First announced their collaboration with Project Starlight, a survey was conducted online. The first thing the netizens wanted to know was the food at the various military bases.
Clothing, food, housing, and transportation had always been the focus of everyone's attention. In the statistics, food ranked first. So, Barkley had given his five subordinates a task. They were to report the food conditions of the various military bases as well as how the celebrities were adapting to the environment.
The five planets that had been included in the first phase of Project Starlight had all chosen the strategy of crying poverty without exception. This was within Barkley's expectations, and the situation of the five planets was not much different. However, Barkley raised his eyebrows in surprise when he read the report from his subordinates.
Barkley had seen the live broadcasts of all five channels and had a rough idea of the situation. However, what was shown on the screen might not be the truth. Don't be fooled by the fact that the celebrities had adapted well in front of the camera. From astonishment to patience to smiles, they had all been handled very well. They did not appear too abrupt and would not arouse the disgust of the audience. But Barkley could guess from his own experience that these people were probably faking it. He did not believe what was shown on the screen. He only believed the reports of his subordinates.
It was precisely because he felt that what was shown on the screen was fake that he was flabbergasted when he read the reports from his subordinates.
The summary of the reports in his hands was simplified as follows:
Channel S1 Li Xiaoxiao, slightly unwell.
Channel S2 Fritz, unwell.
Channel S3 Andre, slightly unwell.
Channel S4 Tianhao, slightly unwell.
Channel S5 Fang Zhao, well adjusted.
Barkley's gaze lingered on the last few words "well adjusted" for more than 10 seconds. Having been in this industry for so many years, he knew that these results were definitely refined. The so-called "slightly unwell" meant that there were obvious signs of rejection, and the "unwell" meant that the rejection was severe and extremely uncomfortable.
But this "well adjusted" … How much of it was an exaggeration?
Thinking about the mission assigned to him by his superiors, Barkley didn't hesitate to use up precious real-time communication time to contact planet Baiji's Kevin Lin.
Getting straight to the point, Barkley didn't beat around the bush and asked, "Kevin, isn't this' well adjusted 'a little too refined?"
Kevin Lin was already in a private lounge outside the canteen, so he did not have to worry about others overhearing their conversation. It was within Kevin Lin's expectations that Barkley would have doubts.
Kevin Lin sighed and replied, "My description was indeed a little too refined, but the truth is that he has adapted too well! Do you know how many plates he has eaten? Such a big plate … "
Kevin Lin drew a circle in front of him that could easily contain both of his faces. "Five plates! He has already eaten five plates! Five plates of those crudely processed, disgusting bugs that are only medium-rare! Of all the people who came on the first day, he ate the most! I only had one piece and couldn't eat anymore. The rest was all taken care of by him. He is still eating now! "
Hearing this, Barkley was silent for a moment. Squinting, he stroked his beard and asked, "How is his table manners?"
"Not considered elegant, but not rude either. He just eats too quickly. I haven't even finished a piece, and he has already finished a plate. " Kevin Lin felt that this was inconceivable. He had been assigned to follow Fang Zhao for so long, yet it felt like this was the first day he had met him.
"That doesn't matter. In the future, when we eat in the canteen, we can just start a live broadcast," Barkley said.
"Really … really going to broadcast this? Won't it cause discomfort to the audience? "Kevin Lin hesitated.
"This is what the higher-ups want. There's no choice. The other four haven't adapted yet. Only the one you are following can eat the most. If we don't broadcast a single one, people will suspect that this plan is just like those low-end entertainment programs of the past. They say one thing in front of people and another behind their backs to deceive people. "
Now, the higher-ups had already understood that no matter how many movies or dramas were produced, it could not compare to a live broadcast. It could let everyone personally witness the hardships of those places, let more people reminisce about the hardships, and raise their awareness.
Now, the other four channels couldn't adapt so quickly. Channel S5 was an exception. Of course, it had to be used as a role model!
"But won't we lose fans if we broadcast it? Channel S5 has the least viewers to begin with. If we broadcast these uncomfortable scenes, the number of viewers will be even lower. "Kevin Lin was still unwilling.
"Of course, we have considered what you have said. How about this: you broadcast the real-time situation during the meal, and I will apply to the higher-ups for an additional five minutes!"
Although five minutes seemed like a short time, for a live broadcast from such a long distance, even a minute was hard to come by. Five minutes was already the most Barkley could fight for.
"Kevin," Barkley said in a low voice, as if he were divulging a big secret to Kevin Lin. "Project Starlight is going very smoothly. The higher-ups are very pleased. Nowadays, people from all walks of life have donated quite a bit. Yesterday, the Ministry of Education even publicly announced that Project Starlight has epoch-making educational significance and that the impact of one project is greater than 10 movies. As of today, of the five channels in our newspaper's Project Starlight program team, four are making a profit. Only one is breaking even. "
"Our channel." Kevin Lin's voice was dejected. He had been paying close attention to the amount of donations. How could he not know? This was exactly what he had been worried about. Their channel S5 viewers were not people who could casually throw out large donations. Even if those retired veterans were willing to donate large sums, would they dare to do so publicly? Wouldn't they be afraid of being criticized by the masses for corruption?
Kevin Lin had to admit that Fang Zhao being able to help their channel break even was already not bad. Before the project had officially started, someone had said that as long as they did not lose too much, Fang Zhao's side would continue as encouragement for the younger generation.
But it just so happened that the other four channels were making a profit. Only their channel was breaking even. In comparison, their channel S5 seemed especially useless.
How impatient.
Unresigned.
Recently, Kevin Lin had been thinking of ways to increase viewership and viewership, but now his chief editor had asked him to broadcast content that might cause viewers to feel uncomfortable. He was mentally exhausted.
Sensing Kevin Lin's thoughts, Barkley chuckled and waved his hands. "It's not what you think. Although your channel is the only one out of the five that is only breaking even, I don't need to tell you who your channel's audience is, right? Don't say that your station is only breaking even. Even if you make a loss, you might still be able to continue! This is also a key project! "
Barkley's last sentence had a deeper meaning. He was telling Kevin Lin that channel S5's audience might not have the money, but they had the power! The newspaper office had already decided on the positions of the five channels. The other four channels were in charge of profits, while channel S5 was in charge of catering to the higher-ups. After all, this project was a joint military and commercial project. It had to be profitable and satisfy a certain group of people. Originally, it had been thought that it would be difficult to satisfy both sides, but progress had been good. At least from the looks of it, the development of Project Starlight had been rather smooth. Nothing uncontrollable had cropped up.
Kevin Lin understood. The company's decision was similar to what he had expected. All he could do was act pitifully in front of the chief editor. Since he could not resist, he could earn more live broadcast time and garner the attention of the higher-ups. This was a worthwhile trade.
"All right, I'll give it a try tomorrow."
Every second spent on real-time communications was burning money. After getting Kevin Lin's assurance, Barkley was satisfied and ended the call.
As soon as he ended the call, Kevin Lin recalled that the person in charge of the canteen had informed him that they would be given a tour of other parts of the canteen after lunch and that the people from the logistics department would also appear on the live broadcast. He had forgotten to ask the chief editor about this. If there were any scenes that might cause discomfort to the audience, should they censor them?
According to the newspaper office's usual practice, they should censor parts of the content that might cause discomfort to the audience. But from what the chief editor had said, he wanted them to broadcast as it was?
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
