Living in a county town, starting as a stock market maker...

A small blackboard, bought from the school's stationery store, has been added to the office.

Four large characters were written on it in white chalk: "Narrative Warm-up".

The three sisters, nicknamed "Spiritual Little Sisters," stood straight in front of the blackboard, listening to their boss's instructions.

"Did you all understand?"

Gu Ming tapped the blackboard with his finger and continued:

"Let me repeat myself, don't make those simple flaunting videos, they're too low-class. What we need to do is release some snippets of information before the videos are published, to make the whole internet curious about what we're going to do next. This process is called narrative warm-up."

"Our goal is to consistently dominate the trending topics list. So, starting today, the 'Spiritual Little Sister' account will be the official channel for revealing details about our project."

Wang Min, Liu Liu, and Zhang Hong were completely confused.

Information fragments, narrative build-up, trending topics domination...

They couldn't understand any of the words, but they didn't dare to ask.

Looking at Gu Ming's confident demeanor and listening to him utter various incomprehensible but seemingly impressive words, their admiration for him grew even stronger.

"Alright, class is over. Now, let's begin execution."

Gu Ming clapped his hands to bring them back from their reverie, and then began assigning tasks.

"Wang Min, you are our team's social media officer."

Gu Ming handed her a spare phone; the screen displayed a picture he had edited.

"Now, use the account 'Mental Little P Girl' to post this picture."

Wang Min leaned closer to look. It was a very cinematic photo, with a small, silvery-white, curved piece of metal as the main subject and a blurry blue sky as the background.

She couldn't tell what it was at all.

"Boss, what's this?"

"The wing of a Gulfstream G650 business jet."

Gu Ming said, "You don't need to understand what this is, just come up with the copy. I've already thought of the copy for you, just write: A crazy plan is about to set sail."

Wang Min took the phone, half-understanding it, and posted the update as Gu Ming instructed.

"Liu Liu, Zhang Hong."

Gu Ming then turned to the other two people, "You are the field production team."

He took two documents out of the printer and handed them to them.

The document header, printed in bold, read "Star Media Co., Ltd. - Location Scouting Letter for Outdoor Filming," and was followed by the company seal.

"Take this and go find the property manager of one of the tallest office buildings in the city."

Gu Ming pointed to the address on the document.

"Just say that we are a professional film crew and want to shoot a time-lapse video of the night view of Hegang from the rooftop. We need to test the light pollution index of the rooftop first and ask them to cooperate."

"Light...light pollution index?"

Liu Liu stammered as she repeated the unfamiliar word.

"right."

Gu Ming nodded. "Show them the photos you took last night. Tell them the preliminary survey wasn't ideal and we need to go up to the roof for an on-site inspection. Remember, be professional and don't look timid."

An hour later, downstairs at the International Trade Building, the tallest building in downtown HG, Liu Liu and Zhang Hong clutched the "Site Survey Letter" tightly, their palms sweating.

"Liu'er, what's that word again? 'Light...light filth'..."

Zhang Hong asked nervously.

"Light pollution index!"

Liu Liu lowered her voice to correct her, "And that, time-lapse sequences! Don't get it wrong!"

The two rehearsed Gu Mingjiao's lines seven or eight times downstairs before finally mustering the courage to enter the building.

Facing the property manager, who was dressed in a suit and had a serious expression, Liu Liu took a deep breath and tried to make her voice sound professional, mimicking Gu Ming's usual tone of voice.

"Hello manager, we are from Star Media. This is our location scouting request. We plan to shoot a series of city night scene... uh... time-lapse photography sequences on the roof of your building, so we need to go up there to test... um... the light pollution index."

The property manager looked at them with a mixture of belief and skepticism, then at the seemingly legitimate letter.

Zhang Hong nodded vigorously beside her and added:

"Yes! The index!"

In the evening, Gu Ming returned home.

The mother, Meng Xiaoyan, was sitting on the sofa watching TV, but her eyes kept glancing towards her son's bedroom door.

Watching her son leave early and return late every day, then immediately bury himself in his room, writing and drawing on the computer while muttering things like "flight routes" and "camera crew," she always felt uneasy.

"You're back?"

Seeing Gu Ming come out to pour water, Meng Xiaoyan quickly turned off the TV and brought out a plate of sliced ​​apples from the kitchen.

"Have some fruit."

She placed the fruit plate next to Gu Ming, hesitated for a moment, and then spoke in a consultative tone.

"Son, this afternoon at school, Li Li's mother came to see me again."

Gu Ming paused for a moment while drinking water.

"She said..." Meng Xiaoyan carefully chose her words, "She said that Li Li has been in a bad mood lately and often spaces out. She also said that she regretted her terrible attitude when she went on that blind date with you last time."

"Her mother subtly asked me if my company was still hiring. She said that Li Li had come to her senses, didn't want to waste her time at school anymore, and wanted to...want to work for me."

Observing her son's expression, Meng Xiaoyan continued:

"Look, a public school teacher is willing to give up a secure job to work for you. This shows that they believe in you and know they were wrong."

"Mom thinks...shouldn't you start thinking about your own life? All this stuff you're doing, with the airplanes and the photos, it all sounds so risky. Maybe...you should just accept Li Li's offer?"

"You young people can look out for each other when you're together. At least, that person has a respectable job, someone you know well, which is better than what you're doing now, right?"

His mother's words left Gu Ming feeling uneasy.

She cared for him using the values ​​she had accumulated over decades of living in this small county.

In her view, it was already an extraordinary achievement for her son to be able to get a full-time teacher to give up a secure job and come to join him.

The things her son was doing that she couldn't understand were all vague and uncertain, things that could fail at any moment.

Gu Ming simply smiled at his mother's suggestion.

"Mom, I understand."

He put down the cup, his tone gentle.

"I know what I'm doing."

He neither argued nor explained.

He knew that the two of them were thinking completely different things, and explaining wouldn't help.

He returned to his room and closed the door.

He turned on his computer and clicked on the "Spiritual Little Sister" account homepage.

The photo of the airplane wing that Wang Min posted has already received dozens of comments.

Gu Ming read through them one by one.

The comments didn't reflect the curiosity and anticipation he had expected; instead, they were mostly filled with confusion and sarcasm from longtime fans.

"What is this? It's all so mysterious, I don't understand it at all."

"Have these girls gotten too big for their britches now that they're famous? Are they starting to act all high and mighty like other people?"

"Seriously, what's all this about? Why not use that time to go to a rescue center and check on the cats and dogs?"

"I still prefer the way you guys used to eat big loaves of bread on the train, that was real. Now, it feels like I don't recognize you at all."