Chapter 120: Oh. My. God.
Translated by me, edited by drpetro.
Harbouring the thoughts that no story was too big, the reporters walked through the passage, followed the guide signs to the main gallery, and rushed in with cameras blazing.
Of course, not all reporters were as anxious as this.
For example, the reporter from Nippon TV left the press release calm and collected, as if he had everything he needed to make a detailed report already.
Walking to the guide signs in the hallway, instead of going further, they began to perform equipment checkups in preparation for a live broadcast stream on their official site.
The reporter from Nippon TV solemnly believed that as soon as the stream went live, there would be countless people tuning in.
The two countries were pretty close geospatially, and with the many similarities in their cultures, naturally there would be a lot of people curious about this year’s science and technology exhibition in China, to see just how far they had come.
So naturally, the Nippon TV reporter who was there to create top stories, would bring everyone into the main gallery for a first hand look as soon as he was connected to the stream.
To let the audience take a first hand look at this year’s ridiculous metal pillars.
………………
The other reporters, after entering the passage, completely ignored all those intricately designed advertising posters and the AI assisted sweeping robots, as well as the smart trash cans.
And headed straight for the sky work main gallery!
Because they needed to post pictures and videos of the gallery onto their associated sites as soon as possible.
Then, just as they left the passage, the giant irregular angular shaped sky work appeared in their eyes. All that was needed now was one more step, and all the ridiculous metal pillars would be there for them to bash and burn.
Every reporter, cameraman, and professional photographer, suddenly slammed into an invisible wall.
The people at the back all crashed into the people in front, yet the people at the front just wouldn’t take that last step into this exhibition’s main gallery.
Because on both sides of the main entrance were two lush, majestic, ancient looking evergreens.
The two were of a silvery white color, with clear grains, and had countless amounts of leaves and interweaved branches in its crown.
The two clearly weren’t large, but they still had the the common umbrella like looks of all evergreens.
The reporters all had awestruck expressions upon seeing these trees, similar to having found an ancient tree after it had weathered the ages of stormy trials.
“Jesus, is this all made out of steel?” The NBC reporter cried marvelously: “Why, why is this clearly two meter tall tree giving me the feeling that it needs at least ten people to completely hug it?”
No one heard, or even bothered to answer his question, because every single cameraman and photographer were all jaw droppingly stunned. Their mouths were dropped open to the point where if bird droppings were to fall from the trees, then they would all land in their mouths.
En ~ that’s if there are birds on the tree.
Their thoughts were as if they had been pulled into the nine heavens by an invisible hand, and then shoved into the chaos.
‘This tree, why does it look so metallic?’
‘This tree, why does it look so lively?’
‘This tree, why’s it not large, yet still looks so massive?’
Their original thoughts were to rush into the main gallery as quick as possible, then use the time frame where guests couldn’t enter yet to photograph the entire gallery’s ridiculous metal pillars. Yet now they just didn’t want to give up their spots so that the ones behind them could clearly see and examine those two wonderful trees
Those two trees’ eye attracting abilities far far exceeded that of the thought to be ridiculous metal pillars.
If Ye Qing was here, then he would definitely try to explain why those two evergreens seem to appear so massive, so lively, and so ancient.
Because those two were based off of two 800 year old buddhist pines growing somewhere in Shanghai, which had been categorised under critical protection by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. [Tl: This actually exists IRL in the Jinshan part of Shanghai, pic here.]
Although the smelting center had shrunk its size, its age old scars from weathering all those storms were all kept intact. Moreover, they were expressed in a never before seen, even more unimaginable way.
With aluminum titanium alloy!
Within the shocked crowd, a brave soul (reporter) slowly extended his trembling finger towards the buddhist pine’s trunk.
The crowd suddenly held onto their breaths; just like the moment before a final judgment was delivered.
When his finger actually touched the trunk of the pine, the brave reporter cried out in marvel: “It’s really metal! It’s really made out of metal!”
“How is this possible? I have never seen anyone who’s able to create such realistic metal creations. This is practically alchemy!”
“Can it be some new kind of genetically modified tree specimen that looks and feels exactly like steel?”
The other reporters beside this one immediately took a step back, and looked at him like he was a complete retard.
“Alright people. Only seeing, no touching please.” Two suited up security guards popped out of somewhere, with expressions filled with rejoice and delight at those reporter reactions: “This is one of the main focal points of our exhibition. The leaves on these trees are all moveable, so what would happen if you guys were to stealthily pick one off?”
The reporters hated talking to them, but still complied with them by talking a couple of steps back.
*Whir click ~*
*Whir click ~*
*Whir click ~*
The photographers at the back finally had the chance to raise their professional cameras, and with great worship, began to take all kinds of photos from all angle of the two simple and unadorned metal pines.
As for the reporters at the back, no matter how anxious they were, they still weren’t able to squeeze pass the blockage.
No way to get past the blockage, then might as well as get into the gallery first. Those two metal trees definitely weren’t going to move, so why don’t they get in first, get pictures of those laughable pillars, and seize the opportunity for release a top story.
What a blessing in disguise!
When those reporters that were unable to get tree picture got past the sky work filled passage, they felt the coolness of the air conditioners, and looked into the main display gallery. They were just like they had witnessed a real life Transformer transform, as from their mouths all kinds of exclamations of shock and surprise, and famous curses, came out in all kinds of different languages.
‘Jesus christ!’
‘What am I seeing in the gallery?’
‘Trees! There are trees everywhere!’
Ingenious works, it was just like they were teleported into a world of trees, not a single duplicate tree, and not even a single duplicate kind of tree at that.
It was just like turning an extended umbrella upside down and fusing it together with the ceiling of the gallery.
Tree branches were placed in all kinds of postures, and the leaves moved just like wind chimes to the wind released by the air conditioners.
And most importantly, all of those trees were made out of pure metal.
‘What kind of exhibition is this! This is more like attending a grand banquet at an elven kingdom.’
‘I so want to take a bite out of those fruits on the fruit trees!’
…………………………
Outside of the gallery passage, Nippon TV reporting team’s cameramen had finally set up the necessary equipment and officially turned them on.
“Good afternoon everyone, and welcome all you wonderful guests to this year’s China Science and Technology Exhibition.” Nippon TV’s reporter, fully suited, started to report into his microphone while he leisurely walked towards the main gallery.
“Before I bring everyone into this year’s exhibition, I need to inform everyone on a little piece of important information.”
“According to our sources, there was an accident here at the exhibition center last night. This accident occurred within the gallery and caused serious damage to many of the attending companies’ display booths.”
“The exhibition safety crew, to prevent another similar accident from happening, could only ship in large amounts of steel pillars to reinforce the gallery.”
“Choosing to use several hundred steel pillars to support this exhibition’s sky works inside of Asia’s largest no support exhibition gallery, I think is a very ‘impressive’ idea.”
The cameramen followed closely as they filmed, and occasionally switched the camera to film the AI assisted sweeping robots and the smart trash cans that were in the hallway.
“Just before, at the pre-opening press release, the spokesmen even said that in a day’s time the might of science could allows us to do a lot of stuff, for example, use 300 pillars to support the building.”
“In that case, I will bring everyone along as we experience what it truly feels like to dodge steel pillars as we walk. To our gracious viewers, please kindly remind me to watch my back as we walk, so that I don’t actually slam into anyone of those poles!”
The Nippon TV reporter kept on talking as he walked. When he finally exited the passage, the camera’s field of view also widened up.
As the giant rhombus shaped sky work appeared on the screen of every single viewer!