Chapter 166: Chapter 164: What Role Exactly Did Doctor Wen Play?

Not knowing where to go, or even where she *could* go, Chaochao followed along.

After an unknown amount of time, the vast, black landscape around her began to change.

Chaochao was just walking along when she suddenly found herself on a... street?

Ever since she learned she was dead, she hadn’t seen anything resembling a street.

She had just been walking on and on through a vast, dark expanse, with no end and no destination.

To suddenly appear here now surprised her.

As she stood there in surprise, a familiar voice echoed in her ears, "Chaochao, can you hear Mommy’s voice?"

"My Chaochao, can you see Mommy?"

"Chaochao, Mommy is here waiting for you."

’It’s Mommy!’

Chaochao quickened her pace and started down the street.

But the little creature that had been guiding her vanished the moment the street appeared.

But Chaochao had no time to think about anything else. Her mother was waiting for her. She had to see her one last time, to tell her to live a good life, to keep on living.

And what appeared on the livestream camera was this little girl, who had come from nowhere, suddenly running down the street.

She wasn’t even wearing shoes, her face alight with excitement as she ran forward without a hint of hesitation.

[This shot is a little disjointed, but I feel like it’s trying to make me cry! I don’t know why, but just seeing this little girl makes me want to cry.]

[It feels like I’m watching a TV drama, what a tearjerker! Is this some kind of montage?]

[She’s not looking for the person we saw burning paper offerings and incense in the previous shot, is she? If that’s true, then this little girl... she’s...] 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Although the sentence was left unfinished, everyone in the stream knew what it implied.

[This is the first time I’ve ever hoped something like this isn’t true. I hope it’s just a beautiful misunderstanding.]

[The girl is moving so fast, I can’t tell if her feet are touching the ground, but it really does look like she doesn’t have a shadow...]

The scene shifted again. Chaochao’s mother was kneeling on the ground, crying as she burned the paper offerings.

Qin Hanyun felt a knot of complicated emotions. ’How long is this ritual going to take? Will it even work?’

’Why hasn’t Doctor Wen shown up yet?’

He was starting to feel uneasy.

He could feel gusts of eerie wind, but apart from that, there was nothing.

"Little White! What are you doing here?"

Qin Hanyun saw Little White running toward them, but Doctor Wen was nowhere in sight.

Little White was about to speak, but unsure if the mysterious livestream was still active, it kept its mouth shut. Instead, it just pointed a finger at Chaochao’s mother.

Qin Hanyun didn’t understand.

Little White leaped directly onto Chaochao’s mother’s shoulder and gave it a firm pat with its small paw!

A voice echoed in Chaochao’s mother’s mind: ’Chaochao is coming.’

Chaochao’s mother looked up at Little White, her eyes filled with gratitude.

She took a moment to fix her hair, smooth out her clothes, and tug at the corners of her mouth, trying to soften her stiff expression into a gentle smile.

Little White hopped down from her shoulder and stood to one side.

Still confused, Qin Hanyun leaned in and asked again, "Where’s Doctor Wen?"

[See! See! They know Doctor Wen! All those people saying they were up to no good on a ’dark and stormy night’ must feel pretty stupid now!]

[We already figured that out when the little fox showed up. You’re just getting it now?]

[This is clearly a ritual burning offerings for the dead. If Doctor Wen is involved, does that mean... they can actually see the deceased person?]

[Don’t tell me it’s really that little girl from earlier? Damn it, I cry easily, don’t do this to me!]

Little White shook its head. ’I can’t talk, so stop asking.’

Just as the chat was exploding with discussion, Chaochao appeared. She was finally standing before her mother.

"Mommy!"

"My Chaochao!"

[This has to be scripted! If these are real ghosts, let me ask: when the Ghost Gate opens, is there really only one ghost in the entire underworld?]

The moment that user’s comment appeared, the hundreds of thousands of viewers saw the once-empty street in the livestream fill with a dense crowd of—

[AHHHH! That scared the crap out of me! What the hell, is this scripted or not?!]

[Can content like this even pass review?]

[I don’t know if it’ll get approved, but I do know I’m never walking alone at night again!]

[To the jinx who posted earlier—could you just not talk anymore? We’d all be very grateful!]

And just then, a warning popped up in the stream.

[WARNING, WARNING, this livestream contains prohibited content]

SNAP!

The livestream went dark.

[There are mods online this late? Or did someone report the stream?]

[I’m wondering, was that scene for real? Honestly, I’ve seen plenty of stuff like it in TV shows, but they all pale in comparison to what we just witnessed.]

[If TV shows were filmed this well, they’d be massive hits! It’s a shame today’s actors don’t focus on their craft.]

[That girl just now... she looked kind of familiar. I might be wrong, but she looks a lot like a girl from my hometown who passed away a few days ago. Her death wasn’t big news at first—people die every day, after all—but the story spread because her grandparents tried to sell her body for a ghost marriage. I heard they got a lot of money for it.]

[Holy shit! That’s disgusting! What century are we living in? Ghost marriages? I thought we left that behind in the feudal era!]

[Why isn’t the government cracking down on this stuff? The child is already gone, and they’re still trying to exploit the value of her death?]

[People like that don’t deserve to be called family! They’re worse than animals!]

[Hey everyone, calm down. We felt the same way, but there was nothing we could do, it had nothing to do with us! But the follow-up to the story! You’ll never guess what happened. I don’t know the details, but overnight, that whole family got injured! The groom’s side called off the ghost marriage, and the girl’s mother and father got divorced! The point is, the marriage never happened! The little girl got a peaceful burial!]

[Wild guess, but this doesn’t have something to do with Doctor Wen, does it?]

[What do you guys think Doctor Wen is? All-knowing and all-powerful? Are you kidding me?! I admit Doctor Wen is incredible, but you can’t just link every weird thing that happens to him, right?]

[To the person above, are you from Xia Gan Village? I’m from the next village over! The elders in my village said that place was haunted that night! That family did too many wicked things, so they got what was coming to them! That poor little girl, couldn’t even rest in peace.]

[Wow, I didn’t realize so many people from our area watch Doctor Wen’s streams. I do too! I’ve got a rumor for you all: they say the little girl’s mother found an expert to help her! In any case, that expert did a really good thing!]

[Now that you mention it, I remember... I wasn’t sure before, I had my doubts, but now I’m certain. The woman burning the offerings is the mother of that little girl from our town! For them to both appear at the same time? And on Doctor Wen’s livestream, of all places? What on earth was Doctor Wen’s role in all this?]