Chapter 16
Clicking on the news video revealed a woman sobbing—it was Lu Yan.
She cried while making accusations. The main content darkly implied that her current streaming partner—Tang Yu— used to be her boyfriend. Over their two-and-a-half years together, she claimed she sacrificed everything for him, had five abortions for his sake, and was ultimately dumped brutally.
By the end, Lu Yan said she had developed severe depression (yùyùzhèng). She was on the verge of suicide at any moment—if not for friends stopping her, she would have died many times already.
After watching, Tang Yu felt like the world had gone insane.
What a perfect reversal of black and white! Pure nonsense!
She had zero evidence—just threw out wild claims, and now he was getting mass cyberbullied!
This left Tang Yu extremely frustrated and depressed.
Were some netizens nowadays just surfing without brains?
Suppressing his rage, Tang Yu patiently tried to explain to the viewers: "Everyone, that's not what happened at all."
Then, he laid out the full truth—everything Lu Yan had done to the original owner, step by step.
The viewers saw how detailed and consistent Tang Yu's story was. It actually sounded believable.
Now, they were confused.
Tang Yu vs. Lu Yan—who was lying?
{Wait—this is messed up. Lu Yan sounds super convincing, but you also sound convincing. Who do we believe?} {Still denying? If you didn't scam her, show proof!} {Shrimp-head guy, writing little essays with no evidence?} {No wait—Lu Yan posted the first essay, right? I kinda believe the host. He's handsome—doesn't look like a bad guy.} {Heh! Women would never joke about their own chastity.} {......}
The chat descended into total chaos. Feminist-leaning viewers naturally sided with Lu Yan. Male viewers mostly stood with Tang Yu.
Of course, most were just popcorn-munching drama enjoyers— they didn't care who was innocent. They just wanted to fan the flames. The more Tang Yu and Lu Yan fought, the more excited they got.
On the other side, Zhao Xiaozhen and Lu Yan were monitoring Tang Yu's stream through alt accounts.
Seeing him get flamed so hard, the two women felt secretly thrilled.
Especially Zhao Xiaozhen. She curled her lips into a sinister smile: "Fight me? You're still too tender!"
Lu Yan couldn't help giving her a thumbs-up. "Sister Zhen, your move is genius. We barely had to do anything—the netizens just jumped in blindly and started cursing him. Hahaha!"
"Netizens are like that. I'm used to it," Zhao Xiaozhen said. "As women, we have to know how to use our gender advantage to fight for our rights."
Lu Yan nodded deeply, feeling she still had a lot to learn.
"Start your own stream now," Zhao Xiaozhen suddenly said, patting Lu Yan's shoulder.
Lu Yan blinked, then immediately understood.
Tang Yu's room had high traffic right now. With the scandal tying her to him, if she went live… she could easily siphon his audience.
Thinking this, Lu Yan opened her stream.
Meanwhile, Zhao Xiaozhen started stirring the pot in Tang Yu's room.
{Lu Yan just went live—sounds like she's about to attempt suicide. Everyone go check on her!}
The moment that message appeared in Tang Yu's chat, it caught everyone's attention.
{WTF! For real? I'm going to see.} {No way… If she really wants to die, why stream it?} {Interesting… I'm heading over too.} {....}
Less than five minutes later, Tang Yu noticed his viewer count had dropped by more than half.
This left him extremely frustrated.
Hu Tao puffed out her cheeks in anger. She snapped: "Tang Yu is innocent! Why won't you believe him?"
Seeing Hu Tao upset while defending him, the remaining fans quickly comforted her and started spamming gifts.
Hu Tao's mood finally improved a little.
Time passed quickly. It was soon 11:30 PM.
After streaming all afternoon, Tang Yu and Hu Tao were exhausted. After saying goodbye to the viewers, they quickly ended the stream.
"Let's go—to Wangsheng Alley," Hu Tao said immediately after going offline. Without waiting for Tang Yu to check the backend stats, she grabbed his hand and pulled him out the door.
Seeing how eager she was, Tang Yu sighed helplessly and followed her out.
Outside, the streetlights were bright, but a slight breeze still carried a chill.
Tang Yu flagged down a taxi on the road and told the driver the destination. The driver immediately frowned.
"What are you two going there for at this hour?" the driver asked suspiciously, eyeing Tang Yu and Hu Tao.
He knew about the taboo surrounding Wangsheng Alley.
"We have something to do," Tang Yu replied vaguely, not wanting to explain.
The driver didn't press further. But in his mind he muttered: "Probably young people looking for thrills in the old district. Kids these days… always doing outdoor stuff."
The driver thought this because recent news stories about young couples getting intimate in parks, classrooms, etc. were all too common. For them, excitement came first—everything else second.
Forty minutes later, the taxi dropped Tang Yu and Hu Tao off just outside Wangsheng Alley.
Before leaving, the driver gave them a meaningful look: "Have fun, you two."
Hu Tao didn't catch the driver's double meaning. She watched the taillights disappear and giggled: "Tang Yu, that driver was actually pretty nice!"
Tang Yu: "......"
The main road still had a few working streetlights, casting yellowish, sickly glows. Inside Wangsheng Alley, all the streetlights had long since burned out—no one bothered to fix them.
The alley was pitch black, like the open maw of a monster waiting to swallow anyone who entered.
Just looking at it made Tang Yu's scalp tingle.
He turned to Hu Tao: "How about we come back tomorrow? We didn't bring flashlights. Let's do it tomorrow night?"
Hu Tao looked up at him: "Are you scared?"
Tang Yu wanted to act tough, but his voice lacked conviction: "Not scared… I'm just worried there might be rats. If you get scared by one, it'd be embarrassing."
Hu Tao pushed him into the alley with one hand. "Rats? I'm not even afraid of slimes—why would I be scared of rats?"
And so, half-pushed, half-willing, Tang Yu turned on his phone's flashlight. Together with Hu Tao, he walked to the shop door.
Creaaaak…
Hu Tao gently pushed the door open. In the dead of night, the old wood let out a piercing groan.
In the back hall of the house, several faint, illusory human shadows heard the sound and turned toward the entrance in unison.
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