"Just captured a few demons

And subdued a few monsters

Ghouls and goblins, evil sprites

Why are there so many of them..."

The moment the opening theme started, even before the show began, everyone’s hearts were already racing with excitement.

The interspersed scenes of the acrobatic Sun Wukong and the fleeting glimpses of the Immortals and monsters, with their unique makeup and costumes, pushed everyone’s anticipation to the absolute limit.

The first episode was about the birth of the Stone Monkey.

Tumbling waves crashed relentlessly against an upright stone.

Suddenly, after a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder, a monkey with golden fur, a pink face, and pink eyes leaped out of the stone.

As heaven and earth trembled, the scene shifted to the Heavenly Court.

Jiang Qin had the post-production team add labels next to the characters, indicating their titles.

For instance, the Jade Emperor, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King Li, and those responsible for gathering intelligence from the mortal realm, Sharp-Hearing Ear and Thousand-mile Eye, among others.

Although the Interstellar People didn’t understand the positions within the Heavenly Court, they could grasp a little from these labeled characters.

So, the researchers tasked with taking notes began to write frantically. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Soon, the first episode ended. Its main content was about the birth of the Stone Monkey and how he became the Monkey King.

Then came the second episode, where the Stone Monkey befriended the Bull Demon King, went to the Dragon Palace of the East Sea to obtain the Jingu Bang, and even barged into the Underworld.

King Yan’s line—"Of all living things, which one is not under my rule?

If I decree he dies at the third watch, he will not live to see the dawn!"—

—utterly stunned the Interstellar People.

"Hiss... This King Yan seems so imposing, even more domineering than the ones that appeared in Strange Tales."

"So the Book of Life and Death really records everyone’s date of death? Does something like that still exist in our Interstellar era?"

"Is that for real? Is everyone’s fate really predetermined from birth?"

"I don’t believe it! I don’t believe such a powerful being ever existed!!"

Although they didn’t believe it, they all watched with rapt attention. Before they knew it, two episodes were over.

They tried to click to purchase advance episodes, but as expected, that service wasn’t available.

They felt that Jiang Qin was great in every way, except for the fact that her shows never had an on-demand service, which was just too much of a tease.

Still craving more, the crowd could only go on the Star Network to find people to discuss it with.

Everyone was very curious why the main character was a monkey, and a monkey that popped out of a stone at that.

[Could it be that Miss Jiang Qin has a Beastman she likes, one with monkey Genes?]

[Probably not. With her Spiritual Power Level, what kind of male couldn’t she have? Would she really need to create a whole TV series for that?]

[Maybe that Beastman already passed away, so~ Miss Jiang Qin created a main character based on him.]

[Yeah, and maybe that Beastman wasn’t liked by his family, so she had him be born from a stone.]

Jiang Qin: "..."

She was speechless when she saw these comments.

Everyone’s imagination was so wild that she almost believed it herself.

Gossip about relationships really does travel the fastest. By the next morning, the trending topics had become:

#Click This Link to Uncover Who Jiang Qin Truly Loves#

#A Dead Lover Is the Most Invincible#

...

Although it was ridiculous, Jiang Qin didn’t bother to clarify.

After all, it was clearly a wave of free publicity, so she let them speculate.

Journey to the West had a total of 25 episodes. It started airing on December 18th, with two episodes per day, and finished just before the New Year.

With the viewership from its simultaneous broadcast in both the Federation and the Empire, it goes without saying that it easily took first place on the December charts.

After all, besides Journey to the West, forget about just December—there hadn’t been many TV series all year that could be broadcast in both nations simultaneously.

The Empire still looked down on the Federation’s cultural and entertainment productions, with Jiang Qin being the sole exception.

Whether it was her songs or her film and television dramas.

So, they were quite convinced when they lost to her again this year.

After all, it was plain for all to see how good Journey to the West was.

Recently, quite a few people had even started venturing out to the west, curious if there were truly any mysterious historical records there.

However, most people were actually searching for the mother planet.

They suspected that the mother planet might hold some ancient legacies that had yet to be unearthed.

Jiang Qin didn’t try to stop them.

This had been a research direction for the Federation for many years anyway, so with or without Journey to the West, they would have continued.

After all, pursuing history and investigating those seemingly absurd ancient texts was their lifelong research subject.

But in reality, the mother planet had already been excavated before. Later, after a global catastrophe, it became completely uninhabitable.

***

New Year’s was a very delicate day.

There was joy and anticipation, but even more so, there was melancholy.

The first thing Mo Chen did when his leave began was return to the Federation and go straight to Jiang Qin’s front door.

It was Cang Hong who opened the door late at night.

He was a little surprised. "Why are you here at this hour?"

It’s still snowing outside.

"I..." Mo Chen wanted to see Jiang Qin, and he wanted to see her child, so after getting off the starship, he had rushed straight over without even going home.

It was only upon arriving that he remembered it was late at night, and she was probably asleep.

"Come in first. I’ll arrange a guest room for you. You can see Qinqin in the morning."

"Okay, thank you."

After entering the house, Mo Chen’s heart was a mix of nervousness and excitement. After washing up, he lay in the completely unfamiliar room, tossing and turning.

Later, when he could no longer fight off his drowsiness, he finally fell asleep for a while, but the sky brightened soon after.

Then, when he came downstairs, he finally saw the adorable child in the living room.

Cang Hong was speaking in a high-pitched voice, shaking a small toy to make her laugh.

Shi Lichuan was preparing formula.

In the kitchen, Yun Xie and Lan Yuyan were preparing today’s lunch.

For Interstellar People, January 1st on the calendar was New Year’s Day, so today’s lunch would be more lavish.

Upstairs, Jiang Qin and Yuan Ling had just woken up.

The two of them were still washing up and getting dressed, while Long Hao was in the courtyard, supervising a robot that was clearing the snow.

Mo Chen felt a sense of warmth, but at the same time, a trace of awkwardness, as if he were an outsider.

It was only when Cang Hong saw him come downstairs and quickly waved him over to help entertain Zhaozhao that he finally relaxed.

Cang Hong’s eyes crinkled with a smile as he said, "Zhaozhao is adorable, isn’t she? She looks just like Qinqin."

"Yes, she really does."

The fair and tender baby was staring at the toy with wide eyes, grinning from time to time. She looked utterly adorable.

Although it was Mo Chen’s first time seeing her, he felt an indescribable emotion in his heart.

If he had to describe it, it was the sudden feeling of being a father—he couldn’t help but want to hold her, to take care of her.

But when he remembered that he was still just Jiang Qin’s boyfriend and not truly her father, he felt a pang of disappointment.

However, this feeling of disappointment didn’t last long.

Because Jiang Qin came downstairs.

The moment she saw him, surprise flashed in her eyes. "Mo Chen? When did you get back from Prison Star?"

"I arrived in the early hours of this morning."

"You came in the middle of the night? Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back today? If I’d known, I could have picked you up."