A Research Study of Male Actors [Interstellar]

[Completed 7/21. This novel is participating in the no-CP Infinite Flow writing contest. Well, why wouldn't a repeated, in-depth historical experience course count as a kind of mental Infinite Flow? Please show it lots of love!]

(The author is currently revising the novel. See the revision notes at the end. The revisions have caused the comments and main text to become misaligned.)

Volume One blurb (rescue complete, Volume One finished):

In the year 3000 of the Blue Star Era, Chen Shaoning, a creative writing major, reads a message from the System.

[System No. 2345 of the Creative Writing Program at Interstellar United University reminds you: Full-dive simulations are not an approved method of gathering material through personal experience.]

[Chen Shaoning, you have not yet submitted an application for this semester's Comprehensive History course. Please choose a historical era and a range of public events as soon as possible.]

Since AI actors have taken over the future, she is intensely curious about how real actors worked in the past. So she chooses to observe an actor who died unexpectedly: Meng Yu.

Meng Yu is not perfect. He is not very tactful, and he does not always do as he's told.

He keeps refusing jobs that other people consider "perfectly normal."

But he is gentle, resilient, and talented.

Chen Shaoning originally just wants to see what his life was like.

But as she looks into it, she discovers that Meng Yu's schedule was changed,

messages were intercepted, and his refusal to accept unreasonable demands was made out to be a loss of control.

Even the explanation for his death seems to have been prepared in advance.

Rather than dying in an accident, Meng Yu seems to have been gradually pushed toward death.

The System tells her she can only observe, not change anything.

Chen Shaoning looks at Meng Yu, still alive, and falls into thought.

Now that she's back here, wouldn't it be a little rude not to try to save him?

Volume Two, an extra story blurb:

In the year 3000 of the Blue Star Era, Chen Shaoning travels back to 2026 to study history through an observation-based time-and-space history course.

History is rich and fascinating. She travels back to the past full of anticipation, only to be stunned by what she sees:

Job seekers mumbling as they memorize their resumes,

workers with dark circles under their eyes like pandas,

advertising and marketing staff staying up all night to revise proposals,

programmers still hammering away at their code with six or seven coupon coffees on their desks.

Chen Shaoning never imagined that people in the past lived such fragmented lives.

Did everyone really have to work this "hard" just to get by?

She has seen so many people feel ashamed for stopping to rest.

She thinks of how she only has to open her eyes, without spending a single penny.

A technologically advanced utopia, where food, clothes, housing, and transportation are all taken care of,

was nothing more than a dream in the past.

The time-and-space course assists Chen Shaoning with her fieldwork.

Since AI actors have completely replaced real actors,

she is intensely curious about what real actors are like.

Chen Shaoning decides to observe an actor who died unexpectedly.

Meng Yu is not a perfect actor.

He is gentle, resilient, and talented, yet seems to have been pushed to the margins of the world.

But rather than dying in an accident, Meng Yu seems to have been killed.

To uncover the truth, Chen Shaoning takes two in-depth time-and-space history courses.

First she becomes a teacher working alongside Meng Yu in a rural school,

then she becomes Furi, the stray cat he takes in...

Reader's guide:

1. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. If you ask, there is no real-life inspiration! No real-life inspiration! No real-life inspiration! This is all fiction! *Bows.*

2. Chen Shaoning studies for two degrees over eight years at Interstellar United University, in an era where communism has been fully achieved.

Her first degree is in creative writing, a major with a unique Comprehensive History course. System No. 2345 of Interstellar United University's Creative Writing Program takes Chen Shaoning back to the past to gather material for her novel.

Her second degree is in Public Civilization. Students in this major must write a thesis on a historical figure. Meng Yu is the subject Chen Shaoning chooses to observe. She travels back to the past to conduct fieldwork and social research, using history as reference material. That is why Volume Two is also called Chen Shaoning's Thesis Research Report.

3. On all platforms and Weibo, I'm @Furui the King of Cute Cats! I'll share pictures related to the novel later. I've commissioned some illustrations!

Revision notes:

1. Part of Volume Two was originally Volume One when the novel was first serialized. The story focused more closely on the narrative approaches of "archival-style observation" and "slice-of-life ensemble storytelling." It was told from a limited third-person perspective, entering only one person's thoughts per chapter while maintaining an overall third-person narration and preserving the characters' emotional intimacy. However, the pacing was slow. Although I like that style, it was too slow in both readability and pacing for the web-novel scene, so I planned a complete rewrite before the novel went premium.

2. The revised Volume One has a stronger pace, and Chen Shaoning now has her own role, which lets her interact with all the characters. (Volume One is the completed main story.) Volume Two is an extra. After graduating in creative writing, Chen Shaoning goes on to study Public Civilization. This major has two courses, [Observation-Based History] and [In-Depth History]. She uses both courses to visit Meng Yu again.

As for why Chen Shaoning keeps studying:

The interstellar era has been communist for thousands of years.

Food, clothing, housing, transportation, medical care, and education are all free. If you enjoy studying, you can keep doing it forever.

(A wish: Let me be born in the year 3000 in my next life, too.

I want to live in a wonderful communist interstellar era with vastly advanced productivity,

where nobody has to pay for food, clothing, housing, transportation, medical care, or education,

and where we can all travel through space!)

Premise: Stories of justice are remembered in history.