Over the New Year, the Empire’s film awards ceremony sent an invitation to Jiang Qin.

However, just like last year, Jiang Qin didn’t attend any ceremonies or New Year’s galas.

She even had Manager Jiang from her company accept the awards on her behalf.

The organizers didn’t dare to complain. After all, the film’s numbers were plain for all Interstellar People to see.

The impact of Farewell My Concubine was even greater than that of a horror film.

Even when females rewatched it for a second or third time, they still felt heartbroken.

As a result, the film topped the box office charts throughout the entire New Year period, and its numbers continued to climb.

Meanwhile, the few other films released at the same time were all unremarkable and failed to make a splash.

One of these films primarily depicted life in the slums.

Although it was touching and tragic, most people still weren’t very interested.

After all, everyone was already accustomed to the existence of such class divisions. They could sympathize with the humans of ancient times but were unable to empathize with Half-beastmen.

The people who made this film, therefore, had miscalculated.

They thought Jiang Qin’s works were so popular because she was playing on people’s sympathy.

In reality, that wasn’t the case.

Interstellar People recognized the pure humans of ancient times as their ancestors, but they did not consider Half-beastmen to be their own kind.

In their eyes, Half-beastmen were failures.

...

This year’s New Year celebration was just as heartwarming as the last.

After the New Year, Jiang Qin went to the hospital for a checkup.

When she saw the test results, a knowing look appeared on her face.

Yun Xie, who was waiting outside, saw her come out and immediately rushed forward in concern. "What is it? What did the doctor say?"

Jiang Qin smiled faintly, leaned close to his ear, and whispered, "I’m pregnant."

"What?!" Yun Xie exclaimed in delight.

"How far along?"

"A month and a half."

"A month and a half..." Yun Xie mentally calculated the due date as he carefully helped Jiang Qin sit down.

"Let’s rest for a moment before we head home. Did the doctor say we need to be careful about anything?"

Jiang Qin shook her head. "It’s nothing. The baby is healthy, and there are no problems. We just need to be as careful as we were when I was pregnant with Zhaozhao."

"Okay."

When the two of them returned home, they announced the good news.

Everyone was overjoyed.

Ever since Zhaozhao was born, everyone felt that the atmosphere in the house had changed.

So they all adored having a little one around and secretly wondered which of them was the father of this new baby.

The others didn’t know, but Jiang Qin did.

She stroked her lower abdomen, silently concealing her private preference deep within her heart.

***

Despite being pregnant again, Jiang Qin didn’t just lie around at home. Instead, she continued with her work.

With three television series filming simultaneously, she had to supervise all of them, which kept her very busy.

She basically spent one day with each production crew.

For Little Li’s Flying Saber, she had to supervise the fight choreography.

For Heavenly Marriage Dress, she needed to guide the cinematographic style required for an idol drama.

She also had to keep a close watch on Mute Bride, fearing that a story with such a traditional setting would be shot in an overly modern style.

In short, she was swamped.

She also had to start preparing her films; the goal was at least one movie a year.

On top of that, the production team for Searching for Lost Sounds also invited her to participate in the second season.

After some consideration, Jiang Qin declined.

She was preparing to enter a composer competition organized by the Myriad Races. She’d heard the organizers had invited many veteran composers out of retirement.

The reason she wanted to participate was that the grand prize was a new model of starship from the Mechanical Clan.

Whether she kept the starship for her family’s use or dismantled it so Yuan Ling could use its materials to build something new, it would be incredibly useful.

Materials like that were very hard to come by.

It even involved a new type of ore recently discovered by the Mechanical Clan.

Not even the Empire possessed this material.

The Empire could trade other materials with the Myriad Races to get it, but the Federation had no special resources to offer in an exchange.

In the interest of researching new starships, the government had also contacted numerous composers, requesting their participation in the competition.

Jiang Qin, of course, was one of those contacted.

However, she hadn’t accepted the government’s invitation. Because there was a Mechanic in her family, her first thought was that Yuan Ling would love this new material.

Mechanics were the type of people to become obsessed over new materials.

None of them could resist the allure of new Energy Ore.

So, her plan was to give it to Yuan Ling first. Once he no longer needed it, she could then trade it with the government for something else.

Of course, that was all assuming she could win first place.

If that didn’t work out, second and third place weren’t bad either. While there was no starship, the second-place prize was a new model Mecha, and third place was a new model Flying Car—both excellent prizes.

As for why the Mechanical Clan was hosting a composer competition, it all came down to their latest research.

Apparently, they were conducting research on sonic waves.

They had already studied all the songs currently available but wanted something new.

That’s why they specifically organized this competition: to get people to compose music according to their specifications.

Jiang Qin had a feeling this competition was going to be difficult.

Rumor had it that even the Insect Race was among those invited.

The High-level Insect Clan could speak and, naturally, could also sing.

...

In early March, filming for all three television series successfully wrapped.

Jiang Qin wouldn’t be involved in post-production, and she left it to the company to handle the release schedule.

As for her, she was already on a starship bound for the territory of the Mechanical Clan.

Although a total of six composers were heading to the competition, they didn’t travel together, instead making their own way there.

The other five were all veteran composers who had mostly retired, and Jiang Qin didn’t know any of them.

That was just how the circle was. Even though she was incredibly popular now, in the eyes of some of the old guard, she was still just a junior dabbling in their field.

Therefore, they had no intention of socializing with her; after all, they didn’t consider her one of them.

During the journey, Yun Xie and the others took excellent care of Jiang Qin.

All of her partners had come along to make sure she was well looked after.

Even Lan Yuyan had dragged his father back to the company so he could take time off for himself.

Right now, he was teaching Zhaozhao how to talk.

"Say, Mama~"

"Momo~"

"It’s Ma... ma!"

Zhaozhao giggled, revealing a few tiny teeth, and stubbornly insisted, "Momo~" 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Lan Yuyan sighed and gently pinched her little cheek. "You little rascal."

Jiang Qin laughed. "She’s just teasing you. She learned to say ’Mama’ and ’Daddy’ a while ago. Just the other day she was calling for Daddy Shi and Daddy Yun."

"Zhaozhao, you’re breaking Father Cang’s heart! You haven’t called for Father Cang yet~"

"Hehehe~ Dada~~"

"That’s right, Daddy. We’re all your daddies." Cang Hong teased, making the little girl’s eyes curve into smiling crescents.

Her azure eyes looked like they held a clear blue sky.

"We’re almost there. Let’s pack everything up so we don’t leave anything behind."

Hearing this, Shi Lichuan quickly gathered up their daily necessities and put them into his Space Button.

When the announcement came that the starship had arrived at the dock, everyone disembarked in an orderly fashion.