24: Chapter 24 Elegance and Down-to-earth Approach, Dinner Party and Bestseller

Filming for "echo gallery" had entered its most grueling stage. Alex felt like an ascetic monk chasing after light and shadow; he was either waiting for that one perfect streak of side lighting or agonizing over how to make a rusty iron gate look like it had "the texture of memory." High-end artistic creation might be prestigious, but it was truly exhausting.

That afternoon, while shooting a close-up of a dusty teddy bear in an old toy store window, he spent nearly an hour making adjustments, yet it still felt like something was missing. It was not a technical issue; the feeling just was not right. Feeling a bit irritable, he set down his camera and rubbed his sore eyes.

His Mental Pillar prevented him from truly losing his temper, but the sense of creative frustration was very real. He needed to catch his breath and clear his head.

Sitting on the curb, he idly scrolled through his phone to see what was currently trending on YouTube. In his feed, alongside the usual cats, dogs, and gaming videos, a title suddenly popped up: "How Much Trouble Can You Cause with a Supermarket Shopping Cart? Challenge Starts Now!"

On a whim, he clicked on it. The video was posted by a channel called "California Silly Fun Duo," and the content was simple and crude: two guys in a Walmart parking lot attempting various absurd things with a shopping cart—using it as a scooter, playing "shopping cart bowling" (using empty bottles as pins), and even trying to build a makeshift ramp to make it "fly." The footage was raw and the editing amateur, but that pure, goofy energy and the hilarious moments of failure caused the comments section to be flooded with "hahaha," and the view count was surprisingly high.

Alex watched those two guys laughing heartlessly on the screen, along with the chaotic scene of the shopping cart clattering into a row of water bottles, and suddenly paused, then could not help but chuckle.

"Damn, that actually works?"

But after laughing, a switch in his brain seemed to have been flipped with a "clatter." A completely different, restless creative urge surged up. He had been posturing as an artist chasing light and shadow all day; it was time for something simple, crude, and purely fun! "echo gallery" required delicacy and melancholy, so for the next video, he would make something heartless and carefree!

He had an idea almost immediately, and the title would be: "What If Public Facilities in Los Angeles Suddenly Decided to Give Up on Life..."

The concept was simple: use forced perspective and a bit of fun editing to make common public facilities in Los Angeles "come alive" and do nonsensical things. For example:

· Traffic lights: The red light figure does stretches, the green light figure sprints, and the yellow light figure anxiously jumps from side to side in the middle.

· Fire hydrant: When a passing dog "pees" on it (using forced perspective for the spray), it shoots out angry steam from its top (added in post-production), then "depressedly" lowers its head and "drips water."

· Parking meter: When time is almost up, the numbers on the dial start jumping around in a "panic," and when it finally hits zero, the whole meter "wilts" and tilts over (using a fishing line for a slight tug).

· Mailbox: When the slot receives an especially thick letter, it makes a "choking" shaking motion (using a small vibration motor inside).

The cost was extremely low, relying almost entirely on creativity and clever camera angles. The technical difficulty was far lower than AR Parkour, but the humor and viral potential were likely high. This was purely to give the channel a change of pace and to loosen the strings of his own tightly wound nerves.

He got straight to work. He temporarily pushed the exquisite composition of "echo gallery" to the back of his mind, grabbed his lightweight camera, and started wandering around the filming location. He looked for suitable traffic light intersections, scouted for a fire hydrant with a "vivid" expression, and built a rapport with a mailbox that looked good-tempered (which was actually just observing the light and shadow).

The filming process was full of unexpected joys and goofy laughter. To film the traffic light figure "sprinting," he had to run a short distance the moment the green light turned on, all while keeping his expression from looking too distorted. When fiddling with the small vibration motor to make the mailbox "choke," he was almost mistaken for a vandal by a passing patrol officer. These clumsy yet authentic moments brought back a long-lost, pure sense of creative joy.

It only took one afternoon and a bit of the evening to shoot most of the footage for "Public Facilities Giving Up on Life." Editing was even faster; there was no need to consider deep emotions, just hit the rhythm, add some upbeat, funny sound effects, and some jaunty electronic music.

Just as he was doing the final render of the video, a new email popped up on the laptop he used daily on his desk. The sender's address was very personal, and the content was a scanned handwritten invitation from Richard—that USC board member and well-known art patron. It invited him to attend an informal dinner party next Friday night in Beverly Hills regarding "Technology, Art, and Future Content Forms."

Alex stared at the elegant wording and the Beverly Hills address, blinking. He felt a bit split. A few minutes ago, he was racking his brain over how to make the fire hydrant spray "angry steam" funnier; a few minutes later, an invitation from the top social circle was sitting in his inbox.

He closed the render progress bar and carefully read the invitation. This was undoubtedly a very high level of recognition, a ticket to another dimension. He replied to the email cautiously, expressing his honor and confirming he would attend on time.

After handling this matter, he reopened the editing software. "Public Facilities Giving Up on Life" had finished rendering. He checked it once, and the effect was even better than he had anticipated; that kind of nonsensical joy was very infectious. He set the release time (for tomorrow noon) and gave it a title that was direct and had a bit of internet flair: "Have the Public Facilities in Los Angeles Become Sentient? Hilarious Interpretations of Their Little Moods!"

Only then did he reopen the rough cut sequence of "echo gallery." Looking at those quiet, melancholic, and textured images, and then thinking about the silly, fun video he had just finished, he suddenly felt that this "split" was quite interesting. Just like himself, he could settle down to polish artistic expressions that touched the soul, and also turn around and dive into creations that were the most grounded and purely for fun.

"This is probably what 'Alex's Wonderland' should look like." He muttered to himself and saved all the project files.

The next day at noon, "Public Facilities Giving Up on Life" was released on time. Alex did not specifically promote it; he just pushed it normally.

Then, the data began to soar with a momentum that was completely different from the "echo gallery" concept video, but equally fierce.

The view count broke 500,000 within a few hours!

The comments section completely turned into an ocean of joy:

"Hahaha, that traffic light one made me laugh until I threw up! A true portrayal of the working class!"

"Fire hydrant: I have endured the pressure I should not have had to at this age!"

"Creator, what kind of brain do you have? How did you come up with this angle!"

"Too real! The mailbox downstairs from me has this same dead look every time it gets stuffed with flyers!"

"I came here on my knees from 'Data Rift,' did not expect to be able to crawl out laughing! Creator, are you a polyhedron?"

Viral spread began. The video was shared extensively on social media, in family group chats, and between friends, because it was simple, easy to understand, and required no threshold to get the joke. The subscriber count saw another wave of impressive growth, and more importantly, the channel's audience profile seemed to become broader and more "grounded."

The system notification sound also rang; the gain in popularity was substantial. Although the "Core Influence" brought by such a purely entertainment-oriented hit was negligible, it solidified the foundation of "popularity" and made the brand "Alex's Wonderland" more three-dimensional and approachable.

That night, while Alex browsed the thousands of "hahahas" under "Public Facilities Giving Up on Life," he organized the materials he might need to prepare for the Beverly Hills dinner party (mainly brief introductions and conceptual expositions of several of his representative works). He felt he was speeding along two parallel tracks: one leading to the halls of light-and-shadow art and high-end social networking; the other connecting to the most direct joy and resonance of the vast majority of netizens.

His phone vibrated; it was a message from Sarah, with a link to "Public Facilities Giving Up on Life" attached: "Hahahaha, is this something new you made? You killed me! That parking meter is exactly my state before getting off work every day! PS: Beverly Hills dinner party? Cool! Do you need to borrow a tie? (Just kidding)"

Alex smiled and replied: "Thanks, I have a tie. Glad you liked the video."

He put down his phone and looked out the window. The city lights were as usual.

But he knew that some things were already different. The boundaries of his "Alex's Wonderland" were expanding rapidly, capable of encompassing both the most exquisite highbrow art and embracing the most lively, common folk entertainment.

And he himself was standing at the center of this ever-expanding world, holding an invitation to a dinner party from the top social circle in his left hand, and having just ignited a wave of nationwide joy with his right.

This feeling was very fulfilling and also very wonderful.