CSGM - Chapter 71
Chapter 71: The Reporter's Interview
Seeing the reporter approach, Ren Zhi subconsciously circled behind the crowd and left Chu Xi's side.
She lowered her head and walked over to the bus, where her assistant handed her a hat and a mask. After putting them on to conceal her identity, she returned to the edge of the crowd to watch from afar.
Chu Xi took in all of her little movements and couldn't help but curl her lips into a smile.
She's quick to hide.
She occasionally glanced over at Ren Zhi's location, but it didn't affect her focus on the eight screens in front of her in the slightest.
A female reporter squeezed through with great effort, holding up a microphone to question the two people standing beside Chu Xi-
"Hello, I'm a reporter from the Gaoya District TV station in Rong County. May I ask about the current distribution of frontline rescue personnel and the status of the rescue efforts?"
The person who answered her was a team member in a firefighter's uniform. He stated that the teams participating in the rescue included not only the fire department, but also police officers from the local public security sub-bureau and public officials from the sub-district office who were helping with the search.
It was a very standard, by-the-book answer. When asked about the rescue's status, he simply stated that the search was ongoing.
"Oh, okay." The female reporter quickly ended her conversation with him. She hadn't squeezed her way in here to interview him in the first place, and his answer was exactly what she had expected.
It was merely a matter of polite convention that a reporter's interviews had to follow a certain order; otherwise, she would probably be reprimanded by the local station.
The next second, the female reporter turned to Chu Xi, and the cameraman behind her, with perfect coordination, focused the camera's lens on her.
Chu Xi was in front of several phones, taking turns giving commands.
From time to time, she would lower her head and use a marker to make a few black dots on the paper in her hand.
One moment she was telling a team on a video call to change direction, the next she was telling a trainee to move the camera closer. The same reply came from the other end of every video call-
"Okay, okay!"
Everyone else remained as quiet as possible, allowing her voice alone to land clearly in the air.
The female reporter waited for a moment, but when Chu Xi never glanced her way, she had no choice but to wait for a brief pause after Chu Xi finished a sentence and seize the opportunity to extend her microphone.
"Hello, Teacher! I'd like to ask, are you currently on calls with the frontline rescue teams and the lost individuals?"
And she rattled off a series of questions.
"Mm."
Chu Xi stood still, her reply as brief as could be.
Just as the female reporter was about to speak again, Chu Xi's gaze suddenly sharpened, and she shouted at one of the screens, "That's enough! Zhang Zhongyi, stop walking!"
The next moment, she turned to the members of rescue team four and said, "There should be three people to your northwest. Move a little faster and see if you can meet up with them."
The members of team four remained extremely cooperative and trusting. "Okay! Understood!"
Their loudspeaker continued to broadcast sound, the camera on their end began to shake violently, and the rustling sound of running through clumps of grass came through.
Everyone's attention was unconsciously focused on the two screens Chu Xi had just been directing.
Are they finally going to meet up with someone?
Are they about to find the lost trainees?!
Everyone waited with bated breath. The female reporter's heart was also in her throat as she awaited the outcome.
Suddenly, a shout erupted from the trainees' video feed!
"We think we hear a loudspeaker!"
"Yes, yes, yes! We really do hear a loudspeaker!"
The three of them stood their ground and shouted at the top of their lungs, "We're over here! Over here!"
Chu Xi looked down, locked onto two points on the paper, and said to the three screaming individuals, "Walk toward that tree with the peeling bark."
They still couldn't determine the exact direction the sound was coming from, but after walking for a while in the direction Chu Xi had indicated, their tone grew even more excited.
"It's this way! Chu Xi! The sound is louder!"
It looked like one of the rescue teams was about to successfully make contact!
In the crowd behind Chu Xi, some people couldn't contain their premature excitement, and someone even blurted out, "YES!"
Someone else scratched their head and wondered in a low voice, "Is Chu Xi some kind of navigation spirit?"
The female reporter also reported this good news to the camera with relief, relaying that a rescue team was about to successfully reach a group of people lost in the mountains.
The camera turned back to Chu Xi. "Teacher," the reporter asked, "do the eight video feeds you're currently directing have any distinct features? It seems you've been giving directions to the people on the other end this whole time. How are you able to distinguish their locations? Are you a local who frequents this mountain forest?"
The cameraman focused on the eight phone screens as the female reporter added, "As we can see, each video feed shows a different part of the mountain forest. We understand these are the locations of four rescue teams and four groups of lost individuals. The surroundings are densely wooded and look very similar, yet their locations are completely different. Fortunately, this time we have a professional on-site to act as the overall commander-"
The camera turned back to Chu Xi-the "professional" the reporter had just mentioned.
"We hope this teacher can also share some techniques for navigating in the mountains," the female reporter said with a smile, holding the microphone out to Chu Xi.
She had clearly mistaken Chu Xi for a local, a professional explorer, or an outdoor enthusiast with extensive knowledge of the mountain.
"..." Chu Xi paused. In her peripheral vision, she saw Ren Zhi standing at the very edge of the crowd, making a "zip your lips" gesture at her.
It was a signal for her to watch her mouth and speak properly.
She hesitated for two seconds before saying to the reporter, "What I'm about to say might offend you."
Huh...? The female reporter froze in confusion.
That was, already, polite enough.
Chu Xi's next sentence was, "I'm not a professional. Things like paths... you just look at them once and remember. Is that supposed to be difficult? You don't need to be a professional, you just need to use your brain."
The female reporter's expression turned dumbfounded for a moment. "..."
That was a bit offensive!
The next moment, she followed up with another professional question, likely one that the audience watching on TV and in the livestream also wanted to know-
"To us, these parts of the forest look almost identical. So, how do you tell them apart?"
That's right. Some of the middle-aged and elderly viewers were indeed asking the same question as the reporter.
They left comments under the official account's livestream:
【The forest is so big, how am I supposed to know where I am?】
【Hoping for some tips on how to avoid getting lost in the forest so we can learn! /[Fist Clasp]】
【Why does every tree look the same to me? Am I getting presbyopia? /[Facepalm]】
The viewers at home-those eating dinner, peeling oranges, or pausing their dishwashing to come over and watch-were also very curious about this question.
So, what exactly is the difference between how a professional thinks and how we think?
Chu Xi let out a soft hiss, her expression conflicted. It looked like she was genuinely pondering the reporter's question...
"The species, shape, trunk, bark, grain, branching patterns, length and thickness of the branches, the number of leaves, the shade of color, and even the degree of damage from disease are all different. How could you possibly think all the trees are the same?"
Chu Xi frowned slightly, looking at the reporter with an expression that seemed to ask in confusion: Your question is very strange.
The female reporter's grip on the microphone unconsciously tightened. Wha-what...?
But what Chu Xi said seemed to make perfect sense, leaving the reporter unable to argue or figure out what to ask next. She had no choice but to change the subject.
"Then how do you determine the location of each team? We've seen that you've been the one directing their routes the entire time."
"Oh, that," Chu Xi said. "Points form lines, and lines form planes. We learned that in elementary school. I just treat the vegetation along the path as points, connect them into lines, and first form a two-dimensional map in my mind. Then I link it to the position of the setting sun and add angles to expand it into a three-dimensional space. And there's the map."
The female reporter: "...................."
One look was enough to confirm they were not the same species.
She quickly pulled the microphone back and smiled politely at the camera. "Okay, thank you to this teacher for sharing."
Chu Xi spoke with such an air of authority that some of the elderly viewers on the official account's stream actually took her just as seriously, asking earnest questions after she finished:
【Teacher, my granddaughter Zihan is also in elementary school. How come she can't do this?】
【Are the educational resources in our elementary schools too poor? Our textbooks don't have these kinds of extension exercises.】
【Could the reporter please ask which university this teacher graduated from? I want my grandson to get into that university too.】
【Everything she said makes sense, but we all know it's not easy to put into practice. Thank you for your hard work, Teacher! /[Thumbs Up]】
And one elderly viewer forwarded the official account's livestream, tagging the younger members of their family group chat-
【This is real-life math. I suggest everyone study it more!】
The younger generation clicked on the link, glanced at the thumbnail-something about being lost in the mountains? Boring. They didn't watch.
But they still replied dutifully-
【Okay, thanks Grandpa /[Fist Clasp]】
【Learned something new!】
【Our teacher already covered that in class, so I've already learned it /[Cute]】
Through the joint broadcast by the TV station and the disaster prevention and control official account, the provincial public security department also took notice of the incident within their jurisdiction.
After getting an update on the situation and hearing that a search for the lost individuals was underway, they saw an opportunity. They had just decided to launch a livestream on DouDou that very day, hoping to ride the 5G wave to educate the public on safety.
A colleague was already in the next office conducting the first night's broadcast.
The director was monitoring the stream's data. Perhaps because it was their first broadcast, or perhaps because an official account like theirs held little appeal for young people, the stream only had one hundred and thirty viewers after twenty minutes. One comment even read:
【The police officer is handsome, but his lecture is a little boring. Sorry, I'll come back and support you next time!】
Seeing this, the director pondered for a moment before making a bold decision-
They would pause the explanation of the next prepared case! They weren't going to use such a dry, lecture-like format anymore!
Since there was a live example right there, why not make use of a currently unfolding event?
So, they would switch!
They would immediately replace the next case in the script with the ongoing incident of the people lost in the mountains of Gaoya District, Rong County!
"Xiao Wu, come here. Quickly look up the office number for the Rong County TV station..."
On the mountainside where everyone was gathered, another male reporter, who was waiting for his colleague to conduct her interview, suddenly received a call from a provincial-level department. He answered the phone with a degree of trepidation.
After he understood the meaning of the call, his face lit up, a mixture of nervousness and immense excitement.
"Okay, okay... Understood. I'll get right on it. Yes, yes..."
After the call ended, the male reporter quickly opened the DouDou app, logged into the district TV station's official account, and entered the provincial public security's livestream.
Although there weren't many viewers yet, his hands were still trembling slightly with nerves as he began to rebroadcast the live situation to his superior's stream!
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