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"I am very lucky, really very lucky, to be among the first ordinary people in the world to walk on the moon with my eldest son."

Seriously, if anyone still doesn't believe me, go to Fish and ask about lucky Richard. I'm sure my coworkers will tell you my story.

"When it comes to lotteries, who can really say for sure? Right, Thomas?"

Facing the cameras on the spaceship, Richard stroked the child's hair and spoke fluently and confidently.

Despite his reading difficulties, Richard has never lacked a desire to perform.

Of course, this is also thanks to the education provided by Xida University, since the educational model they received from childhood has encouraged them to express themselves bravely.

It's okay if your understanding is wrong. But first, you must dare to express yourself, and you've actually done a good job in that respect.

The only problem is that a bunch of people with very low cognitive abilities have emerged long ago, but they still dare to express themselves.

In Chinese parlance, they were probably foolish yet overconfident.

This is probably why the flat Earth theory has such a large following at Western universities. They even dare to hold a world-class conference and solemnly tell everyone that the round Earth theory is just a conspiracy...

They might even widely distribute the conference videos on internet platforms.

It can only be said that everything has its advantages and disadvantages.

In comparison, Thomas, who had received Chinese education, was more reserved.

When his father reached out to stroke his hair, he simply gave the camera a shy, sunny smile. He didn't try to express anything extra or steal Richard's thunder.

Richard did not actually tell Thomas about Qiao Yu's promise.

This situation is probably simply because Thomas, who is good at science, is not very interested in performing in front of the camera.

"As everyone who watched this live broadcast already knows, before coming to China, we had already started filming a documentary called 'Richard's Family'."

It's just a record of our family's life. Actually, our life is really quite boring; for example, this is the first time I've gone on vacation abroad since Lisa and I got married.

After saying that, Richard John smiled sheepishly.

"But the director of this documentary, Michael, told me that the theme he wanted to film was change."

Let me tell you how a family that used to work three jobs a week and still couldn't make ends meet achieved their current affluent lifestyle.

I think this topic is very meaningful. After all, ordinary people like us don't have many opportunities in our lifetime.

If you miss an opportunity, things might stay the same forever. So today I want to talk to you all again about the topic of opportunity…”

……

The three-day voyage was actually quite boring for Richard and Thomas.

Although there is actually a lot of work to be done on the spaceship every day.

Routine maintenance, recording, and observation of waterways, etc.

However, a month of special training was only enough for the father and son to initially adapt to a short stay in outer space.

All the work was done by the other two people. So their main task was to do the live stream.

Richard also enjoys his job.

All you need to do each day is appear in front of the camera, greet the viewers in the live stream, and chat about random topics.

By the way, I'll demonstrate how to drink water in zero gravity, and you'll receive lots of online gifts...

Moreover, according to the agreement, after this voyage, he and Thomas will split half of all the gifts received during the live stream after they are converted into cash.

In addition, live streaming has been the best way to attract popularity and let everyone know him during this period.

In the future, when he actually starts walking toward the white house, whenever people see him on screen, they will think of "Lucky Richard," a kind of fame that money can't buy.

Yes, Qiao Yu's advice to him was to start seizing every opportunity to emphasize his "good luck" in public right now!
This is Richard's character design.

What he needs to do is ensure that, no matter how he appears in public in the future, the first thing that comes to everyone's mind is, "This lucky guy!"

That's just how mysterious it is.

This is almost a perfect persona.

Even if Richard really did step forward and start causing trouble, people would subconsciously feel that a lucky person might bring them luck as well.

So Richard's luck will continue to be this good.

As for how it's possible for someone to always have good luck, that's not some kind of metaphysics.

In fact, with enough strong backing, an individual's luck can be truly good enough to make everyone envious...

Fortunately, Qiao Yu, as a backer, has access to a wealth of resources, enough to ensure Richard's continued good fortune.

During his three-day trip to the moon, Richard kept sharing interesting stories from his life with his online friends.

Many details reveal just how lucky he is...

For example, a tragedy that shocked the entire Xida University occurred at the school he attended when he was a child.

He was just centimeters away from death, but he escaped.

Okay, we have to admit that a lot of things are fabricated, but when the power behind him is able to stitch together events from decades ago so perfectly, then whatever is fabricated becomes the truth.

Collective memory can always be altered. Especially in the internet age, discussions, debates, and public opinion in society are updated in real time.

When everyone can participate through the internet and cultural narratives become more diverse, it also means that collective memory will be unconsciously altered by mainstream perceptions.

It's similar to how historians are often misled by a bunch of unofficial histories.

Ordinary people might even argue endlessly online about whether the lyrics of a song refer to "fifty-six ethnic groups" or "fifty-six constellations".

In short, Richard may not have realized that his path to living in the white house actually began from this moment.

But actually, this isn't bad. For him, there's both short-term expectation—the gift rewards from the live stream—and long-term expectation—striving for the future, so naturally, he's highly motivated.

Richard's live streams can indeed pique the interest of most ordinary people around the world.

After all, this is the world's first live-streamed interstellar journey. This is a unique event.

Even if someone wasn't initially interested in these things, they might gradually develop an interest under the massive onslaught of media and online public opinion.

There's no way around it; when you open a short video app, whether it's Facebook, X, or TikTok, etc., after scrolling through a few videos, it will start recommending this moon landing trip, making it hard to resist clicking to watch.

This is especially true for Xida University.

Open Google, and every day the trending topics are filled with controversial statements by Richard, enough to get even more people involved...

In addition, there were behind-the-scenes manipulators deliberately stirring up various controversies, ensuring that this trip was never short of topics.

Thus, the long three days were not boring for the father and son.

At least 100,000 people are always watching the live stream whenever it's open, leaving all sorts of questions in the chat area. Even as the spacecraft gets farther and farther away from Earth, and the latency increases, it doesn't dampen the enthusiasm of netizens around the world.

Chinese netizens, however, mostly seemed quite calm. This is likely due to the fact that there hasn't been much effort put into promoting it domestically.

The three-day journey finally came to an end, and the spaceship arrived at the transit station in lunar orbit.

The spacecraft docked successfully, and they stayed at the transfer station for a short two-hour stay.

The main task is to wait for the manned spacecraft to separate from the cargo hold and dock with the landing ship.

Then came the most exciting moment, the moment that countless viewers in the live stream had been waiting for!
It's not just about the historic event of Richard and Thomas landing on the moon; the most important thing is that they can follow Richard's lens to see the first extraterrestrial building constructed by human civilization—the lunar research base.

Yes, although the fact that China has landed on the moon and plans to build a base there is already known worldwide.

Even the last manned lunar landing was broadcast live, but six months have passed and China has not announced the progress of the lunar research base construction.

No images or videos of the lunar base have been leaked.

There have already been many rumors circulating on the internet both globally and in China, discussing whether China's lunar research base construction plan has failed.

So they kept the situation on the moon a secret.

But in fact, in the past six months, the eight people who initially landed on the moon have all returned to Earth.

There are currently eight people operating the lunar base on the moon, taking turns to carry out construction.

Just like Richard's trip to the moon, the two engineers who came with the ship will stay on the moon for a month.

When they return in 24 hours, two other engineers who have been on the moon for nearly two months will accompany them back to Earth for a performance review...

These things have not been officially released by the Chinese government.

There are indeed many considerations involved. Most importantly, releasing construction updates so frequently while the lunar base is still in its infancy can lead to viewer fatigue.

Even when the research base is officially completed, it won't bring much of a shock to ordinary people.

That's just how people are; they tend to have more expectations for things they want to see but can't.

Moreover, this sense of anticipation can be accumulated. Only when it is released all at once can it bring the greatest shock to everyone.

Therefore, choosing this time to hold this event is quite meaningful.

This is a perfect opportunity to show the world humanity—no, I should say, China's first base on the moon.

This can also be seen as a declaration to the world of China's sovereignty over the moon.

Although international law stipulates that the moon belongs to the common property of all mankind.

But in this era, no country other than China could send so many people and supplies to the moon, so those documents naturally became worthless.

Many people are even grateful that China built a research base rather than a military base.

The landing module quickly and successfully landed at the pre-programmed location.

The scene that shocked everyone in the live stream finally appeared...

It can only be said that China's speed is indeed well-deserved; they actually leveled a piece of land on the moon to serve as a landing pad!

Although it looks to be no more than 200 square meters, the tower on the east side and the eye-catching light signs around the helipad gave everyone in the live broadcast room a strong shock!
Some people even left comments with bizarre and unconventional ideas in the live chat...

"This can't be fake, right? They're still on Earth and haven't left at all?"

Yes, although it has been half a year since the last live broadcast of the moon landing.

But this is the moon after all...

The moon, more than 300,000 kilometers away from Earth! All kinds of construction materials can only be transported from Earth, and the journey takes three days each way.

Not to mention, we can't just send construction materials. People are living here, so we also need to bring all sorts of living supplies!

If it were just a single, isolated building, it would be enough to shock people.

But surprisingly, China still has surplus resources to build a helipad here...

They even prepared a special welcoming ceremony to greet Richard's arrival.

Four resident staff members in spacesuits arrived. As the spaceship door opened, the live stream switched to the view from the camera built into Richard's helmet, and everyone saw two confetti cannons being fired.

A pile of colorful confetti was flying wildly in the air.

Unlike Earth, these confetti paper pieces did not fall rapidly or scatter with the wind, but floated in the air like two colored straight lines before slowly falling.

When Richard led Thomas off the spaceship, it was almost like walking under a colorful archway, a scene brimming with fairytale charm.

This is mainly because the moon has almost no atmosphere, so there is no air resistance, and its gravity is only one-sixth that of Earth.

This causes the confetti to not be slowed down or changed direction quickly during flight.

Similarly, because there is no air on the moon, sound cannot travel, and without that "bang" sound, the color seems a little lonely.

But it is precisely this solitary color palette that accentuates the light and beautiful feeling.

There's no way around it; all the beauty in this world is subject to the laws of physics.

This also makes people subconsciously overlook the fact that when setting off confetti cannons, two people must work together because the heavy spacesuits are inconvenient to operate.

This is probably why four people specifically came to hold this welcoming ceremony.

Richard instinctively waved to the four people who came to greet him from the opposite side.

At this time, it is temporarily impossible to have a conversation or exchange.

However, it's enough for everyone to just make hand gestures.

Next, we returned to the base with the astronauts who came to greet us.

This once again gave Richard a novel experience.

Walking on the moon, with just a little effort, you could "fly"...

Fortunately, they had already conducted relevant training in the simulation zone on Earth.

Richard also deeply remembered the instructor's words and deeds: No movement on the moon should be rushed!

Because in a low-gravity environment, acceleration is easy, but deceleration and directional control are very difficult.

After carefully following the four astronauts who came to greet them for more than a hundred meters, he and Thomas had already gotten used to walking on the moon.

The two walked hand in hand, taking slow steps, yet their movements still gave the impression of leaping and bounding.

This feeling was very novel, quite different from the weightlessness on the spaceship. It was also more difficult to control, especially upon landing; the hard texture beneath his feet gave him a strange sensation…

This is the moon! (End of Chapter)