Chapter 88: Opening the Trial Run Slots

Chapter 88: Chapter 88: Opening the Trial Run Slots

Liam heard Isabella and Benjamin call the person on the other end of the line Eldest Uncle.

Thinking of Eldest Uncle, Liam thought of his Papa’s family, then remembered Elijah, remembered what Elijah had been through. So he felt wretched again, and once he felt wretched he had to cry.

"Hic, hoo hoo hoo!!!" Liam burst into sobs.

"My little ancestor, do stop crying. You are going to dehydrate and die!" Isabella held Liam in anguish. Benjamin rubbed his forehead with a headache.

Theodore on the other side heard earth-shaking weeping come through the microphone and was frightened out of his wits, firing off question after question: "Who is crying? Is that Elijah?"

The moment Elijah was mentioned, sure enough...

"Waaah!!!" Liam opened his mouth to let out a howl that echoed on all four sides, startling half the souls out of Camila and Daniel who were standing talking outside. They rushed straight in. Daniel ruffled his hair in frustration:

"Heavens above, why is he crying again?!!! Crying on and on like this will ruin his eyes!!!"

Benjamin had no choice but to stand up and go outside, saying to Theodore: "Eldest Uncle, something has come up on our side. Once we have dealt with it I will call you back."

Having said that he swiftly cut the call, carrying on with the work of soothing his younger brother. Theodore, on the other hand, could not be calm. He was certain that something had happened on the Martinez siblings’ side. Theodore immediately placed a video call to his second younger brother.

Lincoln and Julian were sitting on a ship heading for the planet Sirius when they suddenly received a call from their eldest brother. Without something serious, Theodore would not normally call them. Lincoln pressed to answer tensely, switching on screen sharing while he was at it.

"Eldest brother?"

The moment the call connected, Theodore’s image appeared. He spoke in a rush: "Lincoln, are you and Julian very busy, can you spare a little time to go and look in on Benjamin and the others? A few months ago the boy Benjamin contacted me, but I only read the message today. I just called him, and I heard very loud crying, it seemed to be Elijah crying, crying most pitifully."

Hearing Elijah’s name, Julian’s heart wrung tight. He took hold of his second brother’s hand, pulling the image towards himself: "Brother, you say Elijah was crying? Has something happened to the boy?"

Theodore started at the sight of his youngest brother’s deathly pale face, knitting his brows as he said: "Whether something has happened to Elijah I do not know, but you look more like something has happened to you! Number four, why does your face look so bad?"

Lincoln patted Julian’s arm, after that he drew his hand back, looking straight at his eldest brother: "Brother, we are on our way to the children now. Perhaps there is something hidden behind that business all those years ago, Julian and I have to go and ask until it is clear. Brother, when can you come back?"

Theodore shook his head: "I do not know for the moment. I have a mission on me, at present I am not inside the meteorite belt."

Lincoln knitted his brows: "Not inside the belt? Is that not extremely dangerous? That is the insectoid race’s territory!"

"This area has already been cleared, it is not dangerous to that degree." Theodore said seriously: "First of all the two of you just go and see how the children are, do not bring up the old business yet. If the situation really is all right then ask them afterwards."

"Yes, I understand." Lincoln nodded: "Once it is settled we will call you."

Lincoln cut the call, looking over at his youngest brother who had not moved all this while. He only patted his younger brother’s shoulder lightly, without speaking.

On the other side, Liam had stopped crying. It was not that everyone had succeeded in soothing him either, but because Leonardo had arrived, reporting that the works had completed their final inspection step, and the tourist area could go into operation.

Work had pulled Liam’s attention out of his grief over Elijah, he sniffed and stood up, saying hoarsely: "I am going to inspect and sign off the works."

The whole crowd quietly let out a breath of relief. Daniel went outside with Liam, leaving only Benjamin and Isabella sitting to one side with their faces screwed up. Isabella rubbed her two arms, pulling a face as she said:

"Oh, is a pregnant Omega really that frightening? Liam has cried as much just now as in his whole life put together, has he not?"

Camila said with a bitter laugh: "This is pregnancy psycho-physiological disorder. Each Omega has a different cycle of disorder and a different degree of it. If the Omega has an Alpha beside him for company, the cycle ends sooner. But Liam... Haizzz!"

Once again the two Martinez siblings ground their teeth in hatred of the one who had made their younger brother’s belly big. The textile fibre factory called Isabella, the Arts Committee called Benjamin, and the two of them immediately scattered to take their calls. Once they had finished, the two of them were off busying themselves with preparations for the opening of the tourist planet, having thrown their own eldest uncle clean out of their heads.

Theodore sat waiting on and on for his nephew’s call without getting one, and then got word that that certain person’s mental power had begun to run wild again. He had no choice but to set his private affairs aside and hurry to the isolation room.

That evening, the personal channels of Liam, Benjamin, Isabella, Daniel, Logan and Alexander all shared a notice at once from a channel named "Sirius Eco-Tourism Planet".

#Notice of the free trial programme for eco-tourism services on the Sirius Eco-Tourism Planet. Quantity 300 tickets. Opening time: 7:30 in the morning of 15/12/3094. Registration time: from the posting of this notice until the tickets run out. We respectfully invite you to come to our planet to experience life.#

The moment the notice came out, the whole network exploded again.

[Huh? Eco-tourism? What kind of tourism is that?]

[The 15th of December falls exactly on a Sunday, I can come.]

[Damn it all, are you lot out robbing people?!! I blinked once and the bloody tickets are already gone?!!!]

[Son of a bitch!!!]

[Son of a bitch +1]

[Son of a bitch +99999]

Liam’s group’s channels and the tourist planet’s official channel were bombarded with message after message demanding they open more trial slots. The planet’s customer care team politely refused: [We are sorry, the trial tickets have run out. Please wait for the trial period to end, and the official ticket gate will open.]

No matter how everyone howled, run out meant run out. Anyone wanting to know whether this planet was round or flat could only wait patiently.

Harper’s younger brother sat reading the comments, snorting a laugh as he said to his sister: "Sister, luckily we had the wit to buy a monthly pass beforehand, otherwise at the rate these network dwellers snatch up tickets our whole family would not be getting to Sirius again for a long time."

Mrs. Voss put an arm round her daughter’s shoulders, asking curiously: "Is that planet really so good? You come back and go on remembering it without end?"

Harper nodded with a bright smile: "It really is beautiful and peaceful, it lets my mind relax completely."

Mr. Voss grudged the money: "I hear that monthly pass not only used up your entire fee from the film, Jace had to make up the rest besides? For a holiday a few days would be enough, what was the point of spending money on a monthly pass..."

Jace Voss bared his teeth in a grin: "Of course it was so that Father and Mother could have a proper rest. If the tickets had not been so very expensive, I would have wanted to buy a whole year."

Harper spoke up as well: "My younger brother is right. Father and Mother have worked hard enough for us, you ought to rest for a while."

Mr. Voss let out a sigh, yet in his eyes he could not hide the pride of having two filial children.

This same scene appeared in thirty other households. They were all actors and staff of the crew of The Love Song on the Rooftop. They had managed to buy tickets because they went through the back door.

Among the twenty-four actors, sixteen signed long-term contracts, formally becoming permanent staff of the New Generation Film Producers Studio.

After the film was released, Natalie’s parents both stopped going to work and stayed home, clinging to their daughter all day long. On many nights, Mrs. Joe would even bolt upright drenched in sweat and rush over to her daughter’s room to check. Seeing her daughter still there, healthy and safe, only then would Mrs. Joe let out a breath of relief.

Natalie felt very guilty. She was a grade-E Beta, and after graduating from vocational school she had never been able to find work. Out of pity for how hard her parents worked, when she read the film studio’s recruitment notice Natalie had risked it and gone to audition.

She had not expected that after reading the screenplay, after taking on the character herself, Natalie would find that she loved this work of playing another person enormously.

She was the one who played Ella directly, and she had not collapsed yet while her parents had collapsed first. Natalie felt terribly guilty, so after signing the formal contract with the Studio, she had brazenly asked to buy a monthly tourist pass for her family, deducted straight from the commission she would receive on the revenue.

Luckily the owner of the tourist area was her boss’s younger brother, and he had very generously given the lot of them a discount. So once the monthly pass was bought, Natalie still had a fair amount of money left over.

Natalie was very happy, and the people who had won trial tickets were very happy too. When Liam’s group had just posted the notice, instead of asking questions this way and that, they had gone straight in and booked a ticket without reading. Only once the booking was done did they learn what a bargain they had got. Watching the whole crowd who had failed to book cursing up a storm on the network, they decided to keep it quiet, to avoid the moment this pack of mad dogs came charging in to tear them apart.

Liam was very happy as well, because the little one had just given him a kick. Very faintly, like a curious kitten’s paw setting itself down on its master’s belly. He smiled, placing a hand on his belly, saying gently:

"You are happy for Papa too, aren’t you? Papa’s dream of lifting the Martinez family back up is about to come true..."