They set out from the Ruijin memorial. The car was a Xingtu Lanyue, a domestic seven-seat SUV. The back row was mostly for a cameraman and gear.
"Teacher Chu came alone. He didn't even bring a life assistant," executive director Director Jiang said, genuinely surprised.
Lead director Sun Danfang nodded. "I figured his team would come ahead to set things up. Didn't expect he'd really come solo. Feels, well, free."
The other two guests weren't alone. Jiang Zengyue had a life assistant, a makeup artist, and a managing agent. Fang Yi brought an assistant. By the usual logic, the bigger the name, the bigger the entourage, so Chu Zhi should've had the most people.
"Minister Xi said the show's focus is retracing the Long March. Let's not miss the point," Sun Danfang reminded.
Director Jiang nodded. As the executive director, it was his job to make sure camera, art, and all the backstage teams carried out the director's intent.
Counting the guests' car, the production had five vehicles. The executive and lead directors shared one, the command hub. Two cars were for filming, one for tech support, and one for the guests' assistants and agents.
The cars kept a low profile. No CCTV logos, different models too. From a distance, you'd never guess they were together.
They rolled out around ten in the morning toward Yizhang County, the route laid out plain as day, Ruijin to Yudu to Xinfeng to Dayu to Rucheng to Yizhang.
At first, the van was chatty. Rou Rou even played a demo for Chu Zhi, a melody without lyrics.
"The lyrics are somewhere in this Long March," Rou Rou said.
Fang Yi, unlike her, didn't write. He leaned on whatever good songs the company could find. That was a big reason he'd gone quiet for so long.
An hour later, conversation thinned. No one's a fountain of small talk. You can't force it.
By twelve-thirty, after roughly two hundred kilometers, they found a roadside diner. The crew booked the whole place.
They still filmed while eating, but it was just the three guests and the academic advisor, Cheng Yu.
"It's been a long time since I drove this long. My neck's stiff," Fang Yi said. "I usually take the subway or a ride-hailing car."
He tossed a topic. "Rou Rou, Xiao Jiu, Teacher Cheng, do you drive when you go out?"
Ever since the morning when Chu Zhi suggested Fang Yi as captain, Fang Yi had subconsciously shifted from "Teacher Chu" to "Xiao Jiu."
"I got my license three or four years ago, but I've probably driven fewer than thirty times," Chu Zhi said. "Still, please don't worry, my driving's fine."
"I'm usually in a nanny van, so I don't get chances to hold the wheel," Jiang Zengyue said.
By the show's plan, each guest would drive four hours a day, twelve hours total as a team.
"I drive myself," Cheng Yu said. "The institute's a ways from home. I go back and forth every day, about fifty to a hundred kilometers."
"That's got to be tiring," Fang Yi said.
Time for the academic advisor to shine. Cheng Yu continued.
"Driving a hundred kilometers is nothing. In May 1935, during the battle to seize Luding Bridge on the Long March, the Red Army's Fourth Regiment force-marched two hundred forty li in less than a day to capture the timing for attack. Now that's tiring."
The pivot was abrupt, but the story was shocking enough to carry it.
"Less than one day, and all of it mountain roads," Cheng Yu added.
Chu Zhi picked it up. "Less than one day, even a full day's only twenty-four hours. That's more than five kilometers per hour with gear on mountain trails, and they had to hold that for twenty-four hours. Every soldier in that unit was built like iron."
"I panted after a three-kilometer hike last time," Jiang Zengyue said, then asked, "We're passing Luding Bridge, right?"
"Of course," Cheng Yu nodded. "The flying seizure of Luding Bridge was one of the most important battles of the Long March."
She nodded. Good. She wanted to pay her respects.
Over lunch, she and Fang Yi barely ate. She ate less than a cat. Chu Zhi, on the other hand, ate heartily and with real joy.
At one-thirty, they climbed back into the Xingtu and pushed forward.
By six, they reached the first day's target, Daoxian County.
Day one was about easing the guests in. The driving was simple.
No time to relax though. The main task waited. They visited the Long March National Cultural Park, only finished this year.
The tour guide recited, "The Long March National Cultural Park is a site for patriotic education, revolutionary tradition, and national defense education…" No wonder the show needed guests. Even Chu Zhi felt sleepy listening to such official lines.
There were powerful moments. One stop left him unsettled, the memorial hall for martyr Chen Shuxiang.
After finishing the mission to cover the Red Army's main force crossing the Xiang River, he ran out of bullets, got wounded, and was captured. While the enemy carried him toward Changsha, he lay on a stretcher, reached into his wound when they weren't looking, pulled out his intestines, twisted them hard, and died rather than be taken.
"He was only twenty-nine," Chu Zhi said, chest tight. Break the gut, but never the spine.
Jiang Zengyue's face stayed blank, but her tears streamed. Ripping your own guts out, how much must that hurt. She couldn't even imagine it.
"I can't do this part. I can't look," Fang Yi turned from the camera. He wasn't about to let them film him crying.
"When we passed Guanyang earlier, there was a martyrs' cemetery with a monument for unknown soldiers," Cheng Yu said softly. "They worship more than a hundred Red Army soldiers there."
"The Xiang River battle was the hardest of the Long March. Over a hundred severely wounded soldiers couldn't be moved in time and were pushed into the 'Wine Sea Well' by the enemy. They had no names. Based on excavated remains, the youngest was fifteen, the oldest not even twenty. They shared one thing, all of them were thin, even frail. The shortest skeleton was just one meter thirty-seven."
Cheng Yu studied this for a living. He'd seen too many heroes, so he could speak calmly. The guests and crew could not. Many cried openly. Those small bodies, barely taller than the Hanyang-made rifles in their hands.
"Most Red Army soldiers weren't even twenty," Cheng Yu said. He meant that martyr Chen Shuxiang dying at twenty-nine wasn't unusual among the fallen.
"They all didn't have names?" Chu Zhi knew it was a pointless question, but he couldn't help asking.
Cheng Yu shook his head. For soldiers persecuted and killed by the enemy like that, most couldn't leave names behind. There were more than 290,000 unnamed martyrs' graves across the country.
Night fell. They checked into a hotel in Daoxian, under two hundred yuan per person. It was probably the plainest place Chu Zhi had stayed while appearing on anything, but he felt it was normal. He wasn't here with an event mindset anyway. He'd come to "make a pilgrimage." The Emperor Beast didn't follow any religion. In his heart, the "saints" were those who died for the nation.
Knock knock knock. A clear rapping on the door. Chu Zhi opened it and found Fang Yi and Jiang Zengyue standing there.
They blinked. He hadn't changed into comfortable pajamas at all. He'd changed into formal wear. The three eyed each other. They were dressed almost the same. Clearly, they'd had the same idea.
They headed out without calling the crew. This was their private trip. Fang Yi hired a car. Jiang Zengyue bought three bouquets.
"Guanyang's Monument to the Unknown Martyrs is only seventy or eighty kilometers away," Fang Yi said. "We can make a round trip. It won't take long."
"No matter how long it takes, I want to go," Jiang Zengyue said.
Chu Zhi didn't speak. He was tidying a small box in his hands. What was in it? Jiang Zengyue was about to ask when the driver cut in.
With a Hunan lilt to his Mandarin, the driver asked curiously, "You three heading to the martyrs' monument in Guanyang this late?"
Fang Yi, riding shotgun, answered, "We passed it in the day. Only realized after."
"Oh, that's thoughtful," the driver said. "But can you even get in at night? The Red Army memorial park closes at five in the afternoon."
That made Fang Yi and Jiang Zengyue jolt. They truly hadn't thought of it. Their brains had pictured a monument standing alone in the hills that you could visit anytime.
The next second, they heard Chu Zhi say, "Thanks for the heads-up, master. I called the park administrators earlier, so we can enter."
The Monument to the Unknown Martyrs stood inside the Xiangjiang Campaign Xinwei Blocking Action Wine Sea Well Red Army Memorial Park in Guanyang County. People came from all over to mourn, especially on Martyrs' Day, so of course it had to be managed.
Open hours were Tuesday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For the admin to let them in late at night, Chu Zhi had clearly used a few methods.
Rou Rou and the captain both exhaled. They'd nearly eaten a closed-door refusal.
"Young was young, but he handled things steady." Fang Yi made a note of it.
They took the Xiarong Expressway and reached the park in about an hour.
At the intersection of Provincial Road 201 and Township Road 520, night swallowed the park until it felt like part of the dark itself. It was so quiet you could hear your heartbeat.
Jiang Zengyue was scared of the dark. Anywhere else, she'd have screamed at a night like this. Right now, walking here, she didn't feel a bit afraid.
Chu Zhi called the admin as they approached, so not long after they entered the park, a beam of flashlight cut through the night. The administrator came to meet them.
"Thanks for the trouble, Master Li," Chu Zhi said.
"Not asleep yet, no trouble," the admin said, leading the way.
Each of the three carried a bouquet. Chu Zhi also gripped that little box.
"Xiao Jiu, what's in the box?" Fang Yi asked. Jiang Zengyue sneaked a look too. She'd wanted to ask in the car, then got sidetracked.
"I bought some candy," Chu Zhi said. "Teacher Cheng told us the youngest of the remains they recovered was only fifteen. Their average age wasn't high. Even the oldest were my age."
"This candy's for them. So many were still kids," Chu Zhi said.
"Still kids." Fang Yi had heard that phrase before, usually from bad parents defending bad kids. Right now, it stabbed straight into him. Tears slid down.
It was already dark. No one could see, so Fang Yi didn't have to hide it.
Right, Red Army soldiers fought for this country and its future, and so many were truly just kids. Inside, Jiang Zengyue's emotion shifted from respect to a deeper ache.
"Many of them probably never even tasted candy," Jiang Zengyue murmured.
The administrator said nothing. He just led them on, and in a moment, they arrived.
The Monument to the Unknown Martyrs bore the words, "Your names are unknown, your deeds will last forever."One bouquet. One handful of candy.
Chu Zhi, Jiang Zengyue, and Fang Yi paid their respects.
A hundred stars weren't as bright as one moon. That night the jade disk hung high. On the way back from the memorial, neither Jiang Zengyue nor Fang Yi could sleep. To be fair, Chu Zhi usually couldn't either, but he had a certain oddity that let him sleep soundly.
Elsewhere, Niu Jiangxue also couldn't sleep, this time from too many errands.
The Saint Petersburg International Cultural Forum was coming up again. As a member of the culture group, Chu Zhi needed to nominate guest invitees. The shortlist was giving Niu Jiangxue a headache. Per Chu Zhi's wish, they should try to lift up the younger generation.
There weren't many who truly fit. Niu Jiangxue went down the list her staff submitted and put an X through each one.
"This one's vocals aren't there yet. Worse, they get nervous easily. At an international cultural forum, one mistake's a disaster for a young singer."
"This one's got skills, but they're ungrateful."
"This one just had a bad scandal."
And so on…
Fifteen people in a row failed the selection. Niu Jiangxue stretched and glanced at her phone. It was already one in the morning.
"Forget it, I'll deal with the rest tomorrow. I'd better save a few strands of hair, staying up late like this makes it fall out."
But just as she was ready to crawl into bed, her stomach growled. She opened that damn food delivery app.
"The obesity rate among young people in China keeps going up, and honestly, a big reason is these delivery apps. In the past, even if I was hungry, I was too lazy to go out. But now? Just a tap of a finger and food's at your door." Niu Jiangxue poked at her own belly, muttering while scrolling, one hand tapping through the menu like a pro.
"Late-night hunger… the only people who can resist it are the true kings of laziness."
And what's a king of laziness? Someone who really wants food but is too lazy to even open the app. Clearly, Niu Jiangxue wasn't at that level yet. Her cultivation in laziness was still lacking.
So, midnight snack it was.
The next morning, she didn't crawl out of bed until nine. One of the perks of Aiguo Company's humane management was that as long as you didn't affect anyone else's work or delay your own progress, you got three "no punch-in" days per month.
In plain terms, if you arranged it with the company, you could even work from home.
After pulling an all-nighter, there was no way she could clock in on time, so she'd already planned ahead. Of course, she still had to head to the office before three in the afternoon, because that was when she had to receive Qatar's Ghazi.
October was coming, and with the World Cup in November, they had to finalize the details of Chu Zhi's appearance. If needed, they could even run a rehearsal on-site in advance.
Ghazi was one of the key coordinators. Something like this couldn't be handed to subordinates. He had to handle it personally.
Then again, "personal" wasn't the full story. After all, Princess Mayassa had gone back home after attending the Orange Festival, yet Ghazi was still lingering in China.
"Mr. Chu's not at the company?" Ghazi's disappointment was obvious when he saw Niu Jiangxue instead.
Hey, could he maybe hide that look just a little?
"Brother Chu left two days ago to film a show," Niu Jiangxue explained. "He won't be at the company for a while."
The second she said "for a while," Ghazi's expression soured even more. The rest of their discussion was half-hearted at best. Niu Jiangxue was speechless. You're a coordinator for the World Cup—could you try acting a bit more professional?
Meanwhile, the man he was longing to see, Chu Zhi, was still on the road.
The three guests weren't stuck in front of cameras twenty-four seven. Otherwise, why even bring assistants along? For instance, Jiang Zengyue was allergic to garlic, so a lot of the food during their journey had to be specially prepared off-camera.
Just then, Chu Zhi's phone buzzed. It was Minister Xi.
"Consultant Chu, has the theme song been finished?" Minister Xi asked over the line. "No rush, I just need to let the station's promo team know."
"I recorded it before joining the show," Chu Zhi replied. "It's in post-production now. I should be able to send it over in the next day or two."
"Thank you, Consultant Chu."
"I just hope it fits the program," Chu Zhi said humbly.
"With you writing it, I've got nothing to worry about," Minister Xi reassured him.
After the short call, Chu Zhi went back to filming.
That day's shoot took an unexpected turn when one of the crew's vans brushed against a truck on the highway. Thankfully, it wasn't the guest vehicle, but one of the camera cars. The truck driver had been speeding recklessly, and the whole crew was furious. Shooting paused for a bit.
By the time they got back to the hotel that night, Chu Zhi still had work to finish. He opened WeChat and saw a message from Wang Yuan. As always, it was about an Orang Home app event, where one lucky Little Fruit's wish would be granted.
The event had been running for three years now. The first year, Chu Zhi went to a fan's wedding and sang Sugar. The second year, a fan wished for a one-of-a-kind piece of merch.
This year's winner was "Chu Jia's Little Bunny," whose wish read: "My girlfriend is also a Little Fruit. I'm preparing to propose soon, and I hope Jiu-yé can record a video message to surprise her."
"…This ID is actually a guy?" Chu Zhi rubbed his forehead. "I really don't understand the internet anymore."
The wish wasn't unreasonable. If his schedule allowed, he'd even consider showing up in person. But the problem was…
"Is this proposal a natural next step? I mean, are they both truly ready to marry, just waiting on the proposal itself? Sister Wang, could you please check with him? This matters."
A public proposal, when both sides were in love, was romantic. It let everyone witness their happiness.
But if the relationship wasn't ready, then a big flashy proposal was just pressure in disguise. And nosy bystanders yelling "Say yes!" or "Kiss him!" only made it worse.
Since both of them were his Little Fruits, Emperor Beast didn't want to become part of that pressure.
At the same time, Niu Niu forwarded him a new plan written by Fei-ge: participation in the American version of The Masked Singer.
Chu Zhi had to admit, he kind of wanted to go.
Not for any noble reason. Mainly… it had been too long since he showed off. His hands were itching.
If he had to justify it, he did have one: last time he'd gone to South Korea, he hadn't won King of Singers. If he could go back, to South Korea's "dad" this time, and win it? That'd feel pretty damn good.
===
The Long March (长征, Chángzhēng) refers to a massive military retreat carried out by the Chinese Red Army (the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party at that time) between 1934 and 1936.
The Red Army was encircled by the much larger Nationalist (Kuomintang) forces during the Chinese Civil War.To avoid total destruction, around 80,000–100,000 soldiers broke out and began a desperate retreat. They marched over 9,000 kilometers (about 5,600 miles) across some of the harshest terrain in China: swamps, mountains, snow-covered passes, and raging rivers. The march took them through 11 provinces and lasted more than a year. By the time they finally reached their new base in northern China, only about 8,000–9,000 soldiers survived.
Why It's Famous
The Long March wasn't just a military retreat, it became a legendary symbol of endurance, sacrifice, and revolutionary spirit in Chinese culture. The Red Army soldiers overcame impossible odds, often marching on empty stomachs, barefoot in freezing conditions. Iconic battles and feats, like the Crossing of the Luding Bridge (泸定桥), became almost mythical stories of bravery. Politically, it was during the Long March that Mao Zedong rose to leadership of the Communist Party.
---
The Red Army usually refers to the armed forces of the Soviet Union during its early years.
Originally, it was called the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (formed after the Russian Revolution in 1918). It fought in the Russian Civil War (1918–1922), then became the main military force of the Soviet Union. During World War II, it was the Red Army that fought Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front, and later helped defeat them in 1945. In 1946, it was officially renamed the Soviet Army, but people often still called it the Red Army.
In Chinese history, the term Red Army also refers to the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (中国工农红军- Zhōngguó gōngnóng hóngjūn), the military force of the Communist Party of China during the 1920s–1930s, before it was reorganized into the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
=
So, a little random ramble from me ( ･ω･)ﾉﾞ
I rarely go searching for new novels to read ever since I started posting on Webnovel. If you haven't noticed yet, my favorite tags are NoCP first, then FemaleMC. Those two are my "core" tags, so whenever I go hunting for something new, I always start with those. After that, I'll look at "sub tags" or other tags that pair well with them, like #Infrastructure, #Historical, #Xianxia, #Rebirth, #Game, #Counterattack, #Transmigration, #System, #Apocalypse, #QT (quick transmigration), #BehindTheScenes, and #Entertainment. Basically, all those are genres I love, as long as they're built around a NoCP + FemaleMC setting.
It's already been 157 days since I uploaded my very first translation, I Became a Fairy and Lived Forever in the Fairy World, up to my latest project, The Cube Queen's Apocalypse Feast. And in all that time, I honestly haven't gone looking for new novels—I've just been focused on translating nonstop, from the moment I wake up at morning/noon until I crash at morning. I haven't had a job this whole time (◞‸◟;), so honestly, your donations on my Ko-fi and Patreon are my main source of income. That's also why I can pour all my time into translating. This is what my schedule has been like: I usually sleep around 4 am and wake up at 6 or 7. If I have something to do in the morning, I just sleep for those few hours. If I have no activities or my sleep quality was good, I go back to sleep and don't truly wake up until 2 pm in the afternoon.
Out of my ongoing projects, 3 are the ones that need the most attention: Troublemaker's Guide to Immortality and The Cube Queen's Apocalypse Feast both already have more than 200 chapters queued up in drafts, while True Heir of Chaos: From Villainess to Empress has around 100 (because I've been rushing to finish Mom's Apocalypse Survival Log and Reborn as the Fallen Idol, I Leaned Into the Chaos!). And for the 2 projects that are serialized, I've also stocked up plenty of draft chapters for those like what I said yesterday.
So, since I've been feeling a little "free," I wandered over to xxsypro, which is usually where I search for novels rather than other sites. The reason? The filters there are actually useful! You can pick "state" (all, serial, completed), "property" (all, free, paid), and even "renew" (last update within 3 days, 7 days, 15 days, or a month). There's also word count filters (like within 200k, 200k–300k, 300k–500k, 500k–1m, 1m–2m, or more than 2m), plus sorting options like "Comprehensive Popularity," "Best Seller," and "Most Favorites."
You can even narrow it down by "type" (Ancient Romance, Modern Romance, Fantasy Romance, Sci-fi, Fairy Tale, Short Stories, Game Competition, etc.), and "labels" (Popular Tags, Profession, Identity, Character, Background, Plot, School, Style). For example, under "Popular Tags" you'll see things like System Flow, Farming, Strong Women, NoCP, Game Alien World, Quick Wear, etc. Basically, the filters are complete, easy to understand, and—most importantly—actually clickable (unlike some sites that list categories/tags but don't let you click them… so annoying).
Anyway, since I was already there, of course my first stop was the NoCP section, and wow, there were tons of new novels with really interesting intros. And now I'm kinda tempted to add another serialized novel project to translate. Don't worry, if I do pick one up, it'll definitely be something with a smaller chapter count or word count. I'm not crazy enough to throw myself at a monster-length novel right now with the way things are (¬_¬;)