Huayu: From charlatan to great entertainer

Chapter 476 Return and Departure

According to the original plan, the washing machine was supposed to be followed by "rapid light".

However, Xiao Liu did not feel safe about having sex with him on the ship. Even though the cabin and work area were completely separated, it was still not as reassuring as being in a traditional place for sexual intercourse.

She was sometimes influenced by the lecherous director to become a bit more open-minded, and it was inevitable that she wanted to please her lover and cater to him sexually.

But deep down, conservative ideas still prevail.

After a night of turmoil, the Sanshique Raider returned to Beagle Bay harbor in the early hours of the morning, and the group returned to the hotel under the stars.

After witnessing the aurora, these two ordinary humans absorbed the essence of the sun and moon and seized the opportunity to engage in intense dual cultivation.

Perhaps because she's not old enough, the situation is still one of male dominance and female subservience. Xiao Liu's sensitive nature means that every time she tries to provoke someone with a fierce yet end up being as soft and yielding as mud.

On the morning of the 5th, both of them unusually remained asleep until after 9 a.m., when it was dawn. Ushuaia, which is close to the Antarctic Circle, has very short days, and locals often don't really start their day until 9:30 a.m.

It was Liu Xiaoli's "twelve golden tablets" that woke up Liu Yifei.

The elderly mother excitedly told her amidst a barrage of urgent calls:
Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt have all arrived in Beiping, and Uncle has also officially started working in Beiping. Now they are just waiting for the two children to come back to do something important.

After patiently dealing with her mother, Liu Yifei finally woke up her fiancé, who was still fast asleep.

She silenced him with her mouth and pinched his nose, completely forgetting that she was the one who made the bed rule that kissing was forbidden without brushing one's teeth.

Only after being pinned down by the washing machine and thoroughly ravaged by it, did she finally get down to business.

"Mom said everything is ready except for you and me." The girl smiled and said, "She has arranged all the welcoming and farewell ceremonies, as well as the meals for the day."

"But the main point is that you said you wouldn't invite outsiders, so it's very simple."

Little Liu exclaimed excitedly, "Oh, right, my dad will be coming back too!"

Lu Kuan was surprised: "Is it so easy for him, an overseas posting worker, to take leave?"

"I heard from my mom... he seems to be getting a promotion?"

"Huh?" Boss Lu suddenly thought of Jin Jing during the torch relay in Paris.

If there was any reason for the change in Ankang's career trajectory in this life, this was the only thing he could think of if he could control the variables.

Overall, with the Olympics having just ended less than two weeks ago, it is a busy period for recognizing and rewarding achievements.

Whether it was his own appointment as the director of the advisory committee for the "Film Promotion Law," the further advancement of leaders like Liu, or the collective third-class merit awarded to the personnel from various military units involved in the performance—

Clearly, Xiao Liu's elderly father also benefited from this opportunity.

Seeing him deep in thought, Liu Yifei asked, "What's wrong? Is there a problem?"

Boss Lu twirled her earlobe and said, "No problem, this is good news!"

"I hope he gets a high-ranking position, especially in the diplomatic field. Maybe he can help us export our works and promote them overseas at a crucial moment."

Xiao Liu feigned displeasure: "What do you mean? Are you looking down on me because of my humble background and think I'm not good enough for you? That I haven't helped your career?"

Lu Kuan knew she was joking: "Where did you learn to be so sarcastic and sarcastic?"

He paused, then pondered carefully, and said, "But you know what, there might actually be room for maneuver in this matter. I'll visit Leader Liu when I get back to Beiping."

Liu Yifei pursed her lips. She had no intention of commenting on these matters, but she actually wanted to add, "Do your best, and don't let it affect you!"

The "splashed water" is about to become someone else's beloved wife, and naturally, one's perspective and viewpoint on the issue will change.

Boss Lu wanted to learn more about Ankang's situation and assess the feasibility of this matter: "Qianqian, after Uncle An and Aunt Liu separated, what happened to his personal life..."

Fearing that Xiao Liu might be feeling down, he gently held the girl in his arms and leaned her against the headboard.

The faint morning light filtered through the sheer curtains of the French windows, casting dappled shadows on the wall above the bed.

The morning air in Ushuaia carried the crispness characteristic of the Southern Hemisphere, yet it couldn't penetrate the warm, comforting space. As Lu Kuan listened to the gentle narration of the person in his arms, he subtly pulled the blanket up to cover Liu Yifei's bare shoulders.

She said calmly, "My father later had a new family, and I have a younger sister named An Jialing."

"I've only met him once or twice over the years, and we've had almost no contact. I don't know much more about him."

Lu Kuan planted a kiss on his fiancée's forehead: "Do you feel anything in your heart?"

Xiao Liu had long since moved on from this childhood trauma, and said with a relaxed expression, "I used to have it, but my mother was always there for me, and I gradually forgot about it."

Having experienced a "huge change" in her family at such a young age, she clearly has her own unique understanding of these issues.

"Sometimes the connection between people is like the aurora borealis over the sea last night. When it's beautiful, even the most expensive camera can't capture the trail it leaves across the sky."

"My parents were just not meant to be. My dad and I also sometimes feel a bit estranged because we don't live together for a long time."

The girl breathed a sigh of relief: "In any case, good memories are etched in my mind, as for unhappy things, they stay on my retina. I should just forget them."

"Fortunately, I can only remember my parents arguing when I was very young, but I don't remember any of the scenes. All I can remember are the good ones."

Liu Yifei suddenly sat up straight from her boyfriend's arms, her delicate chin slightly raised, the morning light casting a soft glaze on her porcelain-white skin.

She raised her hand and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, her fingertips lingering briefly on her earlobe, as if touching some invisible anchor point of memory.

“I can’t interfere with my parents’ family, but now that I’m going to have my own family, I will protect it as carefully as I would my own eyes.”

“My children can suffer any setbacks, but I will not let them feel any lack in their family of origin. This is my determination.”

Lu Kuan looked at his serious-looking girlfriend and laughed, "It's probably hard to encounter setbacks, right?" He then teased Xiao Liu, "Jade must be carved to become a gem. I think we can create some setbacks for the kids in the future, and we can sit on small stools next to them, eat sunflower seeds, and watch the show."

Liu Yifei's face showed displeasure: "I'll beat you up! No way!"

The girl was annoyed by the washing machine's lazy appearance and deliberately provoked him: "Besides, I was talking about my child. As for you..."

"You vixen! What nonsense are you spouting?" Boss Lu glared angrily, reached out and ripped off her shoulder strap, startling the girl into giggling and causing her breasts to tremble.

At the ends of the earth, between beds, a washing machine beats up three celestial beings.

. . .

After a wild time, the two washed up and entered the hotel lobby fully equipped, arriving at 10:30.

Maria had been waiting for a long time, but she still maintained a professional smile.

She was actually trying her best to restrain herself, otherwise she would have grinned from ear to ear because of the tip from the lady who was so impressed by the aurora yesterday.

$5000! That's a huge sum for her. It was worth the meticulous service she provided, and the weather was perfect last night, with an excellent viewing experience.

"Sir, Madam, the helicopter to Deception Island is ready, but the weather is not very good today and the light is dim. The crew suggests returning earlier this afternoon."

Boss Lu nodded: "Safety first, nothing else matters. We can wander around the island on our own."

"Yes, then let's go to the helipad first."

As the group left the hotel, the feeling became even more pronounced.

The oncoming cold wind carried a biting damp chill, and Liu Yifei couldn't help but shrink her neck, instinctively hiding behind Lu Kuan.

She looked up at the sky. Although it was almost noon, the sky was shrouded in a thick, leaden gray curtain, giving it an eerie gloom.

The distant mountain ranges were indistinct, as if smudged by diluted ink, while the nearby clouds hung low, pressing down on one so much that it was almost impossible to breathe.

The sunlight was completely swallowed up, leaving only a hazy, almost twilight-like glow that barely outlined the building's silhouette.

The girl gasped, "I'm starting to feel like this is the end of the world."

Maria briefly explained the reason: "Sir, Madam, the aurora last night was very spectacular, but such intense aurora activity is usually accompanied by geomagnetic storms. Geomagnetic disturbances can cause changes in the electron density of the upper atmosphere ionosphere, leading to an increased probability of cloud formation."

"At the same time, Ushuaia is located in the aurora zone, and the residual effects of geomagnetic activity may cause more ice crystal particles to be suspended in the atmosphere, forming thin clouds that weaken the light intensity."

As everyone boarded the car, the young couple sat watching the changing street scene outside the window. Pedestrians kept slipping and falling, and the local authorities even turned on the streetlights and public lighting again.

Liu Yifei smiled at her boyfriend and said, "One or two days is fine, but if you can't feel the sun every day, you feel like your mood will become very bad."

Mr. Lu nodded: "That's why people in high-latitude countries like Sweden and Finland in Northern Europe have a high incidence of depression. People also need photosynthesis."

"It's probably because light exposure affects the rhythm of melatonin secretion by the pineal gland in the brain and can also inhibit the synthesis of serotonin. Imbalances in these neurotransmitters can lead to low mood."

Xiao Liu nodded: "The more beautiful the aurora, the darker the sky is today. Indeed, beauty comes at a price."

“Yeah, just like how your voice is hoarse right now.” “You’re going to kill me!” Liu Yifei’s ears instantly turned red, and she punched her boyfriend hard.

She has indeed been a bit indulgent these past two days, unlike when she was in Wenyuhe Mansion, when she sometimes thought about her elderly mother living in the villa next door, and whether she could hear her or not, she always carried a deliberate sense of suppression in her heart.

This time it's different.

The helicopter landing pad in Ushuaia is located in the military aviation base area on the east side of Beagle Bay and is specifically opened for Antarctic scientific research and high-end tourism.

Since September is still the off-season for Antarctic tourism, only two red Eurocopter AS350 B3 helicopters were on standby on the helipad. Their rotors had been preheated and their engines were idling in the low temperature.

The bearded owner of the helicopter rental company greeted the Asian tycoon politely and personally introduced his services and products.

"Mr. Lu, the AS350 B3 we specially prepared for you two is designed with high altitude and low temperature environments in mind. It took off and landed on Mount Everest in China in 2005 and still holds the world record."

He pointed to the rotor system: "The all-composite main rotor uses a special anti-icing coating, combined with an electric heating de-icing system, which can cope with the freezing fog weather common in Antarctica."

“Considering the volcanic environment of Deception Island,” the boss opened the hatch to show the dashboard, “we have installed a volcanic ash monitoring alarm. Once the PM10 concentration exceeds the standard, it will automatically switch to a closed-loop oxygen supply mode.”

Xiao Liu listened with great interest: "It sounds so cool to be able to fly a plane!"

Maria smiled and said, "Madam, you can go up and experience it first. We can set off once the fog clears up a bit."

"Okay!"

Liu Yifei excitedly climbed into the cockpit, while Boss Lu sat in the passenger seat, looking at the colorful instrument panel in front of him.

She curiously touched the control stick, and the captain smiled and handed her a spare headset: "You can listen to the tower call. They're broadcasting the weather code now. BR means light fog, which is as harmless to us as the foam on our breakfast coffee."

The captain, standing behind the two, pointed to the instrument panel: "This is our 'magic crystal ball,' which can see through the clouds."

He pointed to the terrain radar screen, where the outline of the Ushuaia mountains was glowing with fluorescent green. "When we fly over the Drake Passage later, it will turn into a sea-blue wave pattern."

The aircraft suddenly shook, and Xiao Liu grabbed her boyfriend's hand. He leaned out to look and said, "The ground crew is installing the skid-type landing gear. We haven't taken off yet."

"Weren't you pretty daring when you were speeding?"

Liu Yifei smiled shyly. The captain's walkie-talkie crackled to life, signaling the end of the ground crew's anti-icing fluid, anti-coagulant, and final checks.

The helicopter tour to the ends of the earth is about to begin.

Deception Island is separated from Ushuaia by the Drake Passage, and even by plane it takes three and a half hours, and by boat it takes even longer.

For a wealthy man like Mr. Lu, yesterday's long walk was far from the right way to spend his time.

Maria accompanied them today and fulfilled her role as tour guide very well, introducing the two of them to the origin and situation of Deception Island all the way until a circular island appeared before them.

Xiao Liu asked curiously, "Why is it called Deception Island?"

Maria explained, “In 1820, an American first discovered the island. From a distance, he felt that the island looked no different from any other mountainous island.”

"But after circling around, he discovered that there was a narrow gap a few hundred meters wide on the southeast side of the island. Once the boat went in, there was a hidden world inside, which turned out to be a wide open harbor."

"Later, this place attracted whalers from all over Europe to establish a base. At its peak, nearly a hundred whaling ships were docked here."

"Whaling?" Liu Yifei asked in surprise.

The helicopter landed smoothly, but the loud noise temporarily prevented Maria from providing an answer.

As the girl stepped out of the plane, the desolate environment and the huge abandoned man-made objects gave her a sci-fi feeling as if she were in an alien world.

Mr. Lu looked around: "These are the tin cans abandoned by whalers, aren't they?"

Xiao Liu was even more surprised: "Why would whaling need such a big iron tank? It looks like a chemical plant."

"At first, it was to fill their stomachs, but in the industrial age, they went after whale oil."

"The whale oil stored in the head of the sperm whale can provide a bright, stable, and odorless flame when burned, making it an excellent lighting fuel and also usable as a machine lubricant."

Whale oil is something whales evolved over millions of years for survival; it is not meant for combustion.

However, the very unfortunate characteristics that whale oil happens to possess become evidence of their crimes, leading to a collective death sentence for all whales by humans.

Among them, the West and the Japanese were the worst offenders.

Lu Kuan watched a documentary called "Bloody Bay," in which the image of a frightened baby whale dragging its mother's corpse was shocking and exposed the true face of so-called environmental organizations controlled by the West.

He and his girlfriend were strolling on the island, in a relaxed mood, but what he said was exceptionally cruel: "Sperm whales have oil in their heads, and whalers drill holes in their heads and extract the oil..."

"Hey! Stop talking..." Liu Yifei gripped his hand tighter, never imagining that the discarded iron can in front of her was a scar of civilization left at the ends of the earth after the tide of capitalism receded.

shocking.

"You lived in New York when you were a teenager, so you must have seen environmentalist activities and the like, right?"

Xiao Liu nodded: "Schools have relevant courses, but they rarely expose the bad deeds in their own development."

"One of the major criticisms leveled against the opening ceremony of the previous Olympic Games by the West was its environmental impact, such as the fireworks, the materials used in the construction of the Bird's Nest, and the use of plastic bags and disposable chopsticks in China."

"But they are all lenient with themselves and strict with others."

Lu Kuan pointed to the huge oil tanks in the distance: "In 1956, there was a Western film called Moby-Dick, which transformed the bloody scenes of the whale blubber factory into an industrial epic."

"The boiling whale oil cauldrons, accompanied by a magnificent symphony, transform the fact that it takes six juvenile whales to extract one ton of oil into a visual spectacle of humankind's conquest of the ocean."

The young director laughed and said, "How about it? Once the narrative perspective changes, doesn't it feel like you're looking at this issue from a different angle?"

Xiao Liu nodded thoughtfully, his ambition and purpose of systematically building a universe of cultural products and tools, including Netflix and the Chinese mythology universe, becoming even clearer.

The importance of cultural products and the cultural front lies in their ability to subtly reshape public perception through narrative reconstruction and aesthetic packaging, transforming historical crimes and contemporary contradictions into “rational” narratives that conform to specific ideologies.

The West, through films, literature, and other media, glorifies bloody colonization and environmental plunder as an epic of human civilization, using romanticized visual language to cover up the cruel truth, thereby completing the ideological domestication of the people at the cultural level.

In reality, they exhibit malicious attacks and criticisms of countries like Tokyo University, and then use cultural products and public opinion to exaggerate and cover up their double standards.

People trapped in information cocoons often find it difficult to see the truth.

The cultural reflections sparked by the giant oil tanks on Deception Island are, at best, a minor episode.

Since the two were there for vacation, Mr. Lu didn't bring up any more serious topics and watched the group of penguins with hoods move out side by side with his girlfriend.

The two stood on the black sand beach, the volcanic ash beneath their feet sliding like fine black jade particles. The strong smell of sulfur, carried by the cold wind, filled their nostrils.

Near the shore, dozens of penguins burst out of the waves like black torpedoes, then folded their wings and staggered to their feet the instant they touched the shore.

Water droplets rolled down their metallic feathers, and the iconic black stripe on their necks looked like a wet ribbon.

Lu Kuan pulled her aside to make way for a group of penguins crossing the path; the lead penguin's beak was worn with gray spots.

The chick at the end of the line suddenly stopped. Frosty eyelids slowly opened and closed. In the distance, at the windy pass of the cliff, a dozen penguins, like black musical notes, were attached to the steep rock face. They let the cold wind ruffle their downy feathers and used their bodies to keep the eggs in the nest warm.

Liu Yifei couldn't resist these adorable creatures and watched them with great interest for over an hour. As the sunset painted the glacier golden red, the penguin colony began its migration to the deep sea.

Hundreds of black and white figures leaped into the water with the ocean current, transforming into swift silhouettes beneath the deep blue sea.

Xiao Liu nestled into her boyfriend's arms, watching the calling penguins finally disappear into the icy sea, and whispered, "They've gone with the story of summer in the Southern Hemisphere."

Lu Kuan tightened his arms around her, leaving only the imprints of penguin footprints carved on the beach, like an Antarctic poem written with claws.

The distant hum of a yacht engine reminded them that this fairytale at the end of the world was about to come to an end.

"It's time to go back." Lu Kuan gently kissed his girlfriend's hair. "Autumn in Beiping is waiting for us."

As Liu Yifei watched the last glimmer of golden-red sink into the Drake Passage, she suddenly felt that this frozen continent was like a calendar that had been turned over.

Those aurora borealis, penguins, and steam-filled volcanic lakes will become the most precious bookmarks tucked into the chapters of life.

Liu Yifei suddenly stood on tiptoe and wrapped her arms around Lu Kuan's neck. Her upturned face was bathed in a soft glow from the polar twilight.

A young couple from China shared a passionate kiss at the ends of the earth.

For a long time, the lips are divided.

The girl cheered: "Return! Jiefen!"

(End of this chapter)