Chapter 2
The moment I finished speaking,
silence held the group for two seconds. Then everyone burst out laughing.
Zhuang Qiu laughed the loudest. “You’re trying much too hard, Wan Youling. Did you really make up such a pathetic lie just to compete with me?”
A lie?
But the Ailao Mountains everyone feared were my home.
What the world didn’t know was that an ancient kingdom had once existed deep within these mountains.
I was a descendant of that kingdom.
I had simply spent many years studying and working away from home.
And to protect my homeland, I never mentioned it to anyone.
I couldn’t be bothered explaining further, so I lowered my head and packed my things.
Before long, we set off into the mountains.
I trailed at the back of the group, looking preoccupied.
When Zhuang Qiu’s little entourage noticed, they began whispering about me.
“Look at her. She claimed she was a native, but we’ve barely entered the mountains and she’s already scared stiff.”
“She won’t drag us down, will she?”
“If she does, we’ll leave her behind…”
“Shh. Today’s show is livestreamed from beginning to end. The audience will tear us apart if we abandon a teammate on purpose.”
“Are you stupid? We can just pretend she wandered off on her own…”
Before they could finish,
an eerie laugh drifted from deep in the forest, sinister enough to chill the blood.
Everyone froze. “What was that?”
“Th-there wasn’t any sound. You must have imagined it.”
“It came from Wan Youling’s direction.”
Zhuang Qiu turned around and clicked her tongue at me impatiently.
“Wan Youling, are you deliberately trying to scare everyone?”
“No.”
“I know you have a problem with me. Take it out on me if you must, but don’t hurt the other guests. As team leader, I have a duty to protect them.”
Her declaration sounded so righteous that she had “convicted” me without appearing to do a thing.
Comments swept across the livestream.
“AHHHH, THAT WAS SO COOL!”
“ALL HAIL BOSS QIU!!!”
“Wan Youling is disgusting, pulling a cheap trick like this.”
“Can the production team please just dump What’s-Her-Name Wan here?”
I wasn’t angry. Instead, I pointed above Zhuang Qiu’s head.
“It really wasn’t me. It was that.”
At that very moment,
something was hanging upside down from a branch.
It slowly raised its head,
revealing a pale human face.
And it wasn’t alone.
Pale faces silently emerged throughout the surrounding forest.
Together, they began closing in on us.
“Aaaah!”
Zhuang Qiu screamed.
The guests and film crew scattered in terror.
Zhuang Qiu ran faster than anyone.
Someone got in her way.
Without a second thought, she shoved the woman aside.
The guest fell and twisted her ankle. “Boss Qiu, save me!” she screamed.
But when she looked up,
the person who had knocked her down was Zhuang Qiu herself.
Zhuang Qiu ignored her completely and kept running for her own life.
The whole scene descended into chaos.
Filming? Livestreaming?
No one cared about any of that now.
I alone remained where I was.
They were only a troop of monk-faced monkeys.
You could find them in plenty of zoos.
Their bodies were covered in black fur, except for their strange, almost human faces.
The ones before me just happened to be abnormally huge—nearly monstrous.
I looked at their leader and walked toward it.
At the time, I had no idea
the crew had secretly tucked a miniature camera into every person’s collar.
That way, the livestream could continue even if we became separated.
Everything Zhuang Qiu had just done had gone out live.
So had everything I was doing.
The comments were going insane.
“What is Wan Youling doing? RUN!!!”
“Stop going closer! Stop!”
“Holy crap, I can’t watch. Is that monster about to kill her??”
But in the next instant,
the viewers saw every giant monk-faced monkey stop.
Then, in sudden submission, they bowed their heads to me.