Chapter 145: Chapter 143: Are You Sure This Place Isn’t a Sweatshop?

"Today, I’m going to show you all something new... something that might make you question your reality~ Shhh."

Wen Ying was being mysterious.

[Shhh! Doctor Wen seems a little different today, but we’re not supposed to say that, are we?]

[The difference is: Doctor Wen is streaming in her pajamas today?]

[Pajamas my ass, how is that any different from a t-shirt and shorts?]

[Doctor Wen’s face is just so naturally beautiful, even without a lick of makeup! But it seems like I’ve never heard anyone hype up her looks?] 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

[With skills like hers, why would anyone need to hype up her looks?]

[How is no one curious about what this is? She said it’ll make us question reality, how is everyone so calm?]

[Doctor Wen already said "shhh," what more do you want to ask? Just wait and see.]

Newcomers to the stream saw this unfold and couldn’t help but marvel at how massive Doctor Wen’s influence was.

The stream had no moderators, but it was as if most of the viewers had spontaneously taken on the role themselves.

The atmosphere was truly harmonious. And Doctor Wen was truly beautiful.

SWISH!

Suddenly, all the viewers saw was Doctor Wen vanish from the stream. The once-bright room was now gloomy and dark.

A gloomy place which, seen through the camera, also seemed boundless.

[What is this place? No, wait! Is Doctor Wen streaming a movie for us?]

[Use your brain, user above, okay? Do you see a screen anywhere? Besides, don’t you guys feel like this place is being broadcast live, not filmed off a screen?!]

[I get that feeling too, like this place actually exists. Seeing this picture so late at night is making me a little antsy!]

[What on earth is Doctor Wen doing? Can she tell us where this is?]

But their comments received no response from Wen Ying.

At that moment, Wen Ying, just like them, was also watching the feed.

The high-tech drone camera’s feed was split in two, presenting one view to the livestream audience and a separate one just for Wen Ying.

[This thing is creepy as hell, but I want to know where a place like this is.]

[An unmarked graveyard? No, that’s not it. Haven’t film crews shot movies in unmarked graveyards before? I think those were made with post-production special effects, and they looked dozens of times worse than this!]

[Doctor Wen’s stream is all about authenticity!]

A dim sky and dark earth, boundless and endless. Blackness filled this world.

[Why does it kind of look like a sandstorm? This place feels completely uninhabitable!]

[I just want to know where Doctor Wen went. Wasn’t she just in her room? How did she suddenly end up in a place like this? Is it because it’s too dark, so we can’t see her and she can’t see us?]

[Be a little bolder with your guesses. I don’t think this place is real.]

[Not reality, not a movie, not a documentary... could this thing be the underworld?]

[But the world below should have people and buildings and stuff, right? There’s nothing but black in this video! You can’t even see the ground!]

Indeed, it was an endless, overwhelming black, as if black was all this world had to offer.

Just as everyone was buzzing with discussion, a beam of light suddenly appeared on camera.

It wasn’t electric light; it was more like the light of a fire.

The crimson glow brought a small measure of color to this world.

The light gradually grew, and in the distance, vast swaths of flickering shadows seemed to be moving.

The sound of someone shouting "Work harder!" seemed to emerge in the stream. The sound was faint, but everyone heard it.

[Did I just hear someone say "Work harder"? This isn’t some illegal sweatshop, is it? In this environment, could those people all be held against their will? Is Doctor Wen becoming a champion of justice once again?]

[I’m thinking the same thing as the user above. That’s why Doctor Wen can’t appear on camera or make a sound. She must be looking for evidence! To take down this entire dark industry in one fell swoop!]

[That’s our Doctor Wen, all right!]

[Damn it! What time is it? They’re still making the workers work! These kinds of sweatshops should all be dragged out and sentenced to death by a thousand cuts! How much suffering must these captive people be going through?!]

[Why do you all think it’s a sweatshop? Hasn’t anyone considered that this might not be the Mortal World?]

[User above, have you been watching too many horror movies? Or did watching cultivation fantasies rot your brain? Not the Mortal World? Don’t tell me this is a place for ghosts and monsters?]

[I know you guys don’t believe me, but... how do I put this... my constitution is naturally more yin, and for certain reasons, I’ve been able to see things others can’t since I was a kid.]

[So what you’re saying, user above, is that you can see ghosts? Why not just say it directly instead of beating around the bush? Don’t tell me your family also runs a sweatshop, and you’re trying to whitewash them?]

[Fine, don’t believe me. But do you not believe Doctor Wen? This place really doesn’t look like somewhere living people would be. And that sound you heard earlier, plus those things in the distance now... if I’m not mistaken, those should be thatched huts.]

[PFFFT HAHAHAHA! Now we’re talking about thatched huts? Why don’t you just say it’s Yama Hall?]

[Kiddo! Eighth-grade syndrome is a disease, and it needs to be treated! Why don’t you let Doctor Wen take a look at you?]

[Why don’t you believe me? Those really are a row of thatched huts!]

Just as the chat was getting ready to call out the person who mentioned thatched huts, the video feed seemed to zoom in!

The angle changed this time, too. Filming from high above, rows and rows of... thatched huts appeared on screen.

The camera seemed to be messing with them...

[I suspect the stream’s camera has become sentient!]

[Same suspicion here +1. We had just started saying they weren’t thatched huts, and the next second, the camera shows us thatched huts. A camera this trollish has definitely become sentient!]

[Subtly throwing shade... can’t say it’s Doctor Wen, so we have to blame the camera, huh!]

[See! Everyone saw that, right? I wasn’t lying to you!]

The previously doubted viewer, [Different from childhood], felt a sense of vindication, but then he, too, began to wonder, ’Just what is this place?’

He could see *those things*, but only a few times, and always at the village well or by the unmarked graveyard.

’I’ve never seen a place like this!’

Once, courting death, he had run to a cluster of tombs in the middle of the night and ended up scared half to death.

[Different from childhood] turned off the lights in his room and turned on his computer screen. The faint light in the dark room seemed to fill it with an even eerier atmosphere.

Suddenly, he thought he saw a familiar face in the livestream. It was just a flash, but the face left a deep impression on him!

[Let me just hesitantly say this... I think I saw my grandpa.]

[You mean your grandpa is in the livestream video??? Are you sure you’re not joking? We haven’t seen anything but thatched huts.]

[This... is suddenly a little terrifying. I’m not going to take a side just yet, afraid of being proven wrong.]

[Don’t you know whether your grandpa is at home or not?]

[My grandpa died three years ago.]