Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 262 - Chapter 262 Chapter 262 Life is So Beautiful

Chapter 262: Chapter 262: Life is So Beautiful Chapter 262: Chapter 262: Life is So Beautiful Glizerians’ eyes are structured slightly differently from those of humans, they prefer to live in dimmer light, and their perception of colors is also a bit distinct. As a result, all movie images were actually processed by a computer. Subtitles and the audio were also translated into text that humans could understand.

After such handling, the entire movie somehow resembled a computer-generated animated film.

Glizerians look similar to pangolins–neither cute nor ugly. For humans, with countless animated films featuring lions, cats, mice, bears, and other animals, it isn’t impossible to empathize with them.

But soon, a sense of historical profundity transformed the initial strong curiosity of the viewers into an immersive feeling of living through the experiences themselves.

Failure, pain, mockery, seeing one’s cherished things selectively forgotten by others, the strange yet familiar urban environment, the intoxicating allure of wealth, losing oneself yet feeling a sense of sudden realization…

After many years, the elderly Ah-Qiang ended up achieving nothing and returned to the familiar countryside of his youth.

He discovered his old teacher had long passed away but had left behind a letter indicating he too had tried his luck in the city and encountered the same fate as Ah-Qiang.

At the end of the film, Ah-Qiang chose to pass on the art he loved to the next generation…

Several village children, upon encountering these novel things, involuntarily burst into joyful laughter. In their hearts, traditional artists were nothing less than heroes.

Ah-Qiang also managed a wry smile and turned his gaze toward the distant horizon…

What beautiful days they were when there would always be descendants who appreciated these ancient treasures.

But predictably, the next generation still fell into the same cyclical pattern.

One day, when there were no descendants left, this form of art would ultimately vanish from the world…

That’s where the story ended. The closing credits brightened the screen, displaying the list of the director, cast, translators, and technicians involved in the production.

The “thump thump thump” of the alien song, like the tapping of a wooden fish, struck deep into people’s hearts.

For a while, no one left their seats. A movie from the Gleize Civilization, 50,000 years prior, had managed to evoke such empathy.

Wang Junpeng glanced at his girlfriend, who was eating popcorn and wiping away tears…

Girls are always so easily moved, which makes them all the more adorable.

Well, he had seen this movie before, during an interstellar diplomatic visit, as the Glizerians were always sleeping, giving them ample free time to observe these things.

This movie was born 800 years after the Gleize Civilization acquired the Universal Factory, before the creation of Happiness Element, when productivity was making exponential progress, but the uneven distribution of production resources was leading to a growingly severe culture of materialism…

Hence, the primary conflict still centered around the immense destruction of traditional ideologies by oligarchic politics and hedonism.

Throughout the development of a civilization, various startlingly brilliant individuals would inevitably emerge. These geniuses, keenly aware of the changing world, attempted to awaken the dormant common people and resist the myriad problems arising in civilization.

The director of this movie was no different, having created this masterpiece during such chaotic times, the artistic standard was exceptionally high, but looking at the actual results, it had still failed.

The movie ended, and many of the audience members came out with their heads hung low as if they had just sat through an educational lesson.

Miss Cha wiped her eyes and commented, “The film was indeed very good to watch, with funny moments and also parts that made you think deeply, but overall, it felt so heavy! I didn’t expect the Glizerians’ emotions to be so rich… And that… the puppet show was quite interesting too, why did it become extinct?”

Wang Junpeng sighed, “Times will always change, even our own civilization, in the course of development, has abandoned some old things. It’s hard to say if this kind of abandonment is a good thing or a bad thing.”

“Um, Mr. Wang… are there more movies like this? Can I inquire about them privately?” Miss Cha asked curiously.

“Of course there are, and quite a few at that. However, they need to be technically processed first, and some content that is not suitable for broadcasting will be cut out, so you might as well not think about it for now.”

Miss Cha immediately seemed a bit downcast, “If they could produce such movies, why did they fall into the trap of mediocrity? There are still many thinkers in the civilization, discussing serious culture, so why did they end up this way?”

Due to the highly sensitive nature of their history, the common people were unaware of the specific history behind the Gliese Civilization. The government simply hinted that this civilization fell into mediocrity due to excessive entertainment.

Wang Junpeng thought for a moment and said, “You should know that pointing out a problem, knowing the problem, doesn’t necessarily mean you can solve it. Does Earth Civilization not know its own problems? Earth people know, Professor Aiding, such a great person, had long pointed them out, but even knowing it doesn’t mean we can solve them. Or rather, to solve a problem, it would require the joint effort of the vast majority of the civilization, which is simply impossible.”

“That’s the scariest part of the mediocrity trap.”

“Wow, you know so much, that makes sense!”

“Of course, who do you think I am? I’m an interstellar diplomat!” Wang Junpeng felt a little proud internally and quickly began to boast even more, “Hey, even if such a movie is made, what can it do? The most deafening voice will still be drowned in the currents of history… A movie can hardly truly change anything…”

Well, using one’s toes to think, one would know that the government would never show purely recreational movies for entertainment. Stuff that you would forget the next day is meaningless, especially since this movie was meant to satirize hedonism, possibly deepening thought and sparking discussions.

Just as Wang Junpeng began to brag endlessly, Miss Cha clenched her fists and suddenly looked up to ask, “Do you still have to go on a diplomatic mission to that Alien Planet… the Gliese Civilization? Next week, or maybe next month?”

“Ah, of course!” Wang Junpeng came out of his thoughts, “But don’t worry, there won’t be any danger. I still have a long vacation ahead of me.”

“… The Glizerians have a different work and rest system than ours. They live long lives and work very slowly, only about three days of work in a month, so, I have at least half a year to a year of vacation… But it’s not really a vacation, but rather staying on the spaceship to work, organize some archival documents, and participate in remote dialogues.

“Um… let’s have dinner together tonight, I heard there’s a new restaurant that just opened.”

“Mm-hm! Keep it up!” Hearing that the other party had such a long rest period, Cha Zi was very happy, even though she still had a bit of worry.

But she knew what she needed to do now was to support, not to stop the other’s work.

A civilization always needs people to do these jobs.

Wang Junpeng clearly felt that the wrist being held by the other party had tightened a bit more, that soft feeling of being relied on made his mind start to wander…

Life, truly beautiful!

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