WS - Chapter 112
Chapter 112
"The Wilderness Journey livestream continues. Click {here} to enter!"
Such standard advertising language practically provoked everyone who was still lingering in these dark windows, glued to their Danmaku.
What kind of outrage was this!
What vile humanity drove them to use such words to attract eyeballs and guide traffic!
Everyone in the interstellar age, even elementary schoolers, knew the basics of a Yaoxing Storm— now, seeing those lines after lines of linked text, seeing those advertisements trampling on the lives of the people they cared about, they wanted to reach through the StarNet from this end and beat those disaster-profiteering scoundrels to death on the spot!
But before they could type out their angry, heartbroken, even cursing words...
"The Wilderness Journey livestream continues. Click {here} to enter!"
Row after row of Danmaku with the same text quickly washed away all other words on the screen, even filling every window on The Wilderness Journey Livestream Page.
"Let's see what utterly heartless product this is— today you'll be shut down on the spot!"
Many viewers who typed a bit slower, carrying resentment and hatred, clicked the link forcefully.
The link redirected. The newly loaded interface was different from The Wilderness Journey Livestream Page, which was packed with promotional photos, personal bios, ten or twenty video windows, small video compilations with keyword highlights, viewer icons, and all sorts of features.
The new page was clean.
On the spotless page, there were only six video windows.
Viewers who had watched The Wilderness Journey livestream, especially those who had been following the part where they entered the cave that afternoon, immediately recognized the people and place in the videos.
In the StarNet era, information spread like fireworks— as long as there was enough material, even a single spark could ignite a blazing prairie fire.
Soon, the URL for the new The Wilderness Journey livestream spread across the entire StarNet, with massive reposts and an overwhelming volume of visits.
Meanwhile, Ye Liu and her people were passing through the Farm Estate tunnels, heading toward another Farm Estate. Fortunately, Ye Liu and her team had provisioned enough capacity beforehand; otherwise, such a torrential surge of traffic arriving at the same time would have likely crashed the newborn site instantly.
Viewers almost immediately clicked open and enlarged all six video windows, one by one, and watched them through.
The six windows, however, corresponded to only two scenes.
Both scenes appeared to be inside the very cave that the guests and Production Team had been passing through on Wilderness Planet right before the Yaoxing Storm.
Based on the experience of watching the livestream videos over the past several days, these six video windows were very likely, just as the earlier advertisement had claimed, the continuation of The Wilderness Journey livestream.
So here was the question.
Everyone knew the basics of a Yaoxing Storm. If The Wilderness Journey livestream could still continue now, had the earlier Yaoxing Storm been real or not? Or was it just a gimmick by the Production Team, to push the show into a position that everyone across the stars would be paying attention to?
In truth, it wasn't fair to blame some viewers for letting their minds wander. After all, the interstellar variety-show industry was quite advanced— so advanced that pre-recorded variety-show scripts and tropes had become rampant, which was what had driven the popularity of live variety shows. Compared to pre-recorded shows, livestreams at least offered less artifice and more sincerity, and The Wilderness Journey, which also placed the accompanying Production Team under the scope of the livestream, had been a breath of fresh air in the livestream variety world for some time, earning itself quite a few fans as a result.
Still, letting their minds wander was one thing, but right now the Livestream Page, with its five different angles of the same scene, instantly seized their attention with a firm grip.
Such a massive piece of stone, with a young woman pinned beneath it... Could this be a gimmick as well?
And their injuries...
The resumption of the livestream brought an enormous wave of attention, but precisely because the livestream could resume, it also brought many questions.
These questions, mixed among heaps of concerned words, became part of the Danmaku on the new Livestream Page.
Of course, they were quickly scolded by fans until they no longer dared show their faces.
But questions were still questions— and questions that could not be controlled, that were spreading.
Yet whether it was the half-hearted defenses or the steadily proliferating questions, all of it came to a temporary halt the moment Song Shiyue let out a "One."
Even the very first viewers who had entered this Livestream Page had only managed to catch Song Shiyue's final round of instructions before she began lifting the stone.
Once "One" was called, everyone would soon know whether this was hype or reality.
At that moment on Wilderness Planet, Song Shiyue crouched halfway down, firmly gripping the two load-bearing points she could hold onto on the stone. She could never have imagined that the livestream had actually restarted and that she was now under the gaze of millions.
"One... two... three..." As Song Shiyue counted to three, her hands rose as well. Her legs pushed hard to stand, her back straightened, and the enormous weight in her hands seemed almost to make her joints produce creaking sounds.
After counting to three, Song Shiyue felt the weight in her hands and couldn't help but curse inwardly.
She had originally thought that with others helping, of the seventy-to-eighty-percent certainty, she'd only need to bear fifty percent herself. She had not expected these people to be even more useless than she imagined... why did it feel like seventy percent of it was on her hands.
However, the stone had already been lifted slightly. If Song Shiyue gave up and stopped applying force now, the stone would likely have no choice but to come crashing back down.
The smell of blood began spreading the moment the stone was raised a little.
Fresh blood could be an expression of life, but it could also be an omen of death.
And so... the most troublesome thing was having seen it.
The Apocalypse had hammered and tempered a person a thousand times over, yet when it came to the innocent, Song Shiyue still had a soft spot.
Most of the time, she wished she could be blind to it. As long as she couldn't see, it would just pass.
But she had seen it, she had stepped in, and now she was just this close...
"Put more force into it!" Without much hope, Song Shiyue still added this one remark, and then, regardless of the others, she applied more than a hundred percent of her strength from her own hands to lift.
When Song Shiyue opened her mouth again after counting one-two-three, Ni Jinghe nearly rushed forward. It was only because Ning Chuyang pulled her back that the two of them heard clearly that the sound Song Shiyue had made was "more" and not "pull."
Ning Chuyang was anxious too, but she also understood Ni Jinghe's state of mind at this moment. She said nothing, merely raising a hand to pat Ni Jinghe's hand reassuringly.
Anyone who had been running in the dark, was shouted at to "Watch out" and pushed, then woke up from unconsciousness to find their own head bleeding and the person who had pushed them crushed by a rock like this... anyone would be shaken and sink into confusion over how to repay such a debt...
Ning Chuyang could understand Ni Jinghe's urgency right now, but what they needed more at this moment was the calmness to follow orders.
And Song Shiyue had no attention to spare for the little commotion beside her.
Strength exceeding a hundred percent— the excess portion could not simply fall from the sky.
It was like borrowing: you could borrow it, but what you borrowed belonged to your future self.
Still, in the end, she had seen it...
Song Shiyue clenched her teeth. Both arms strained until they grew hot and burning. To conserve strength, even the instinctive shouts that came with overexertion were choked back in her throat.
The side of the stone pressing down on Feng Qianqian, under the steadily increasing force Song Shiyue poured in, rose slowly and steadily a bit higher.
Veins bulging on both sides of her forehead, Song Shiyue looked down once, steadied her breathing, and then delivered another fierce upward burst of strength.
"Pull..."
That single, indistinct word, practically squeezed out from between Song Shiyue's lips and teeth, struck Ning Chuyang's and Ni Jinghe's ears like a thunderclap.
The two of them stepped forward together, squeezed in between Song Shiyue and Zhao Da, reached out, and dragged Feng Qianqian out.
At this moment, they had no time to worry about whether Feng Qianqian would feel pain, or whether such rough movement would scrape against her wounds again.
They could not even imagine such an enormous stone. They could only blindly trust that Song Shiyue's idea could work.
And now that it truly had worked, this was no time to fuss over minor details and waste time.
The two of them moved with extreme speed. In barely two seconds, Feng Qianqian was pulled free.
"Let go." Seeing that Feng Qianqian was out, much of the tension in Song Shiyue's heart dispersed, but she could not be the first to release her grip. She only said this while slowly lowering the stone herself.
A rustling sound rose around her. Song Shiyue felt the weight in her hands dip slightly once more and, knowing the others had already let go, she released her grip without the slightest hesitation.
Since the stone was already very close to the ground, when it dropped there was only a slight tremor.
"Qianqian." Mu Xingzhou dashed over to where Ni Jinghe and Ning Chuyang were.
Zhao Da clapped the dust from his hands and slowly walked over to Zhao Er's side.
"Teacher Song, are you alright?" Zhuang Jiachuan glanced toward Feng Qianqian's side, saw that there was no room to squeeze in, and so walked over to Song Shiyue first to ask.
Borrowing— what was borrowed must be repaid.
The strength that had been sustained on nothing but a bit of jerky was dissipating on one side, being expended on another, and still being borrowed from yet another...
Somewhat drained of strength, darkness surged before Song Shiyue's eyes in waves. Hearing Zhuang Jiachuan's question, she only braced herself against the stone, stood, and shook her head.
Seeing Song Shiyue like this, Zhuang Jiachuan rubbed his hands together, hesitating between helping her up and not.
Just then, after bracing against the stone and taking several deep breaths, Song Shiyue felt the dizziness and lightheadedness ease slightly.
"How is Feng Qianqian?" Song Shiyue walked several steps over to behind Ni Jinghe and looked down at Feng Qianqian's legs.
Although the new Livestream Page used new Signal Channels and receivers, in terms of data processing, it still employed the StarNet AI computation method. That is to say, without manual control, the cameras followed the people— when footage more valuable than the subject being followed appeared nearby, the computation would select and switch to that subject.
At this moment, on the new Livestream Page, out of six cameras, four were broadcasting Feng Qianqian's legs.
A bloody, mangled mess, with shattered bone visible deep within.
The uncensored footage smacked full-screen viewers in the face. After the instant shock, what followed was more than that— the involuntary heat that rose around their eyes.
A large part of what makes humans human is the capacity for empathy.
This was not a movie or TV show using special effects and makeup, nor was it archival documentary footage from ancient history.
This was reality. This was a livestream. This was a living, breathing person enduring such suffering right now.
A young woman who looked so soft and delicate, whose very name seemed slender and easy to break...
In the Danmaku, no one questioned any longer that this was some grandstanding stunt staged by the Production Team.
Blood could be faked, wounds could be painted, but those ghastly white bones, visibly shattered— surely those could not be a joke.
Or rather, they would rather it were... only a joke.
Their hearts felt as though they were being torn in two directions.
One side, through tears, cried out: "Why must it be so cruel! Why must such suffering be shown to everyone!"
The other side still held onto reason— at least... they would not be like those people on Pinggu Prime over sixty years ago, who had disappeared without anyone ever knowing why.
It really was too hard.
For the first time, they felt that being a viewer could also be this hard.
But however hard it was to be a viewer, it could not compare to the hardship of those still on Wilderness Planet.
The moment she pulled Feng Qianqian out, Ni Jinghe's hands trembled as she swiftly checked the wounds.
What the massive stone had crushed were Feng Qianqian's two calves. Although she had been pressed down face-first, the ground was uneven and the stone was immensely heavy, so each leg had fractures in more than one place. While she had been pinned, the blood vessels had likely been compressed as well, so the blood loss had not been terribly severe. But now that she had been pulled free, with so many wounds, the bleeding was becoming somewhat alarming.
"Multiple fractures, many surface wounds, blood loss is also somewhat dangerous. I need to set her bones now— debride the wounds, apply styptic Medicinal Powder, bandage her, put on splints..." Ni Jinghe struggled to stay calm, answering Song Shiyue's question with a tearful voice while pulling medicines out of her bag.
Song Shiyue looked at the bottles and jars Ni Jinghe was pulling out, frowned, and asked again: "How much styptic medicine do you have on you?"
The hand Ni Jinghe was using to feel for the medicines paused. She grabbed the flashlight, lifted her eyes to look at Song Shiyue with something of an appraising gaze, and after about one second of hesitation, replied: "With this many wounds, that Medicinal Powder might not even be enough just for her..."
"Mm." Song Shiyue nodded, but stopped Ni Jinghe's hand as she was about to debride Feng Qianqian's wounds. "If there isn't enough for two rounds, then don't debride and apply medicine now. No one knows when an aftershock might come, and no one knows how much longer that passage through the pile of rocks outside will hold. We need to get out first, and then we can clean and bandage her properly after we're out. For now, tie something around her knees to stop the bleeding. If we move fast getting out, it should be fine."
"But." Ni Jinghe reflexively wanted to object.
But Ning Chuyang promptly pulled her back, then turned to Song Shiyue and said: "You're right. If an aftershock comes, everyone will be in danger. Let's use clothes to give her a simple bandage now. It'll be quick."
Right... the gauze for bandaging might also run short.
Song Shiyue glanced at the gauze wrapped around Ning Chuyang's and Ni Jinghe's heads. Without further words, she took off her backpack, pulled out a spare clean T-shirt from inside, and with both hands tore forcefully a few times, turning it into strips of irregular cloth.
While Song Shiyue was tearing the T-shirt, Ning Chuyang also took out the T-shirt from her own bag. When Song Shiyue finished tearing the cloth strips and handed them over, Ning Chuyang said: "Tear this one in half and lay it over the wounds."
Song Shiyue did as told.
Mu Xingzhou, who had been supporting Feng Qianqian's back this whole time, couldn't help raising a hand to feel his own empty back and felt a twinge of regret that, during the dash to go faster, he had thrown his backpack away midway.
Mu Xingzhou was not the only one who had abandoned his backpack.
Zhuang Jiachuan, present there, had also instinctively cast off anything that would weigh him down in the sprint toward the cave entrance.
And up ahead, Captain Yang, Director Zhang, and Wang Daming had done the same.
Even Feng Qianqian, lying on the ground, had no backpack on her.
Only, no one had expected that those who had thrown their bags and those who hadn't would now all be back on the same starting line.
Song Shiyue made her decision very quickly. Her irrefutable resolve paired with her swift actions— even the people in the cave were struggling to keep up, let alone the viewers watching the livestream.
"It's too hard... really too hard... I can't imagine what kind of decision I would make if I were in Sister Song's position."
"One side is one life, the other side is several. But this really isn't a decision you can make with numbers. I feel like I'd probably choose suicide."
"No, person above, you wouldn't. You're just saying that. But I also feel like I probably couldn't choose. I'm just not the kind of person who could be a decision-maker at a moment like this."
"Yeah... too hard. The person making the decision, once they choose wrong... I don't even dare imagine what kind of psychological burden that would be."
"But Song Shiyue's decision looked like it was made very easily."
"Easily? Say that again— easily?"
"My Sister Song lifted that stone until her veins were about to burst, and you're saying the choice she made concerning a life she poured all her strength into saving was easy?"
"Person above saying 'easily,' I really wish we could drop you on Wilderness Planet to try it yourself."
"Honestly, I wasn't a Song Shiyue fan before, nor a CP fan, but I'm genuinely a fan now. I hope people whose backs don't hurt from sitting around won't smear her, thanks."
"I hope everyone can get out safely, and that Feng Qianqian's injuries can heal!"
"Ah, who doesn't wish for that, but given the situation on Wilderness Planet..."
"So what exactly is the Mingtan Aerospace Bureau doing? Have they begun measuring how long this Yaoxing Storm will last? What if the residual force only lasts one day!"
"One day, don't dream about that... Let's just hope it's like the shortest Yaoxing Storm on record, lasting only a few months. In a few months the bones would have just healed, still in time to break them and set them again."
"Wait... I seem to have come in a bit late. There's no video replay here. Can I ask what happened before? When I came in, it was already the scene of Feng Qianqian being pulled out."
"Before that, Sister Song and a few other men lifted the stone together. We didn't see anything else either."
"Come to think of it, is this really the continuation of The Wilderness Journey livestream? I mean, the livestream continuing is correct, but... the StarNet just said that the Production Team of The Wilderness Journey on Mingtan Prime had all been taken away... so who's running this Livestream Page now..."
"Damn... suddenly feeling spooked."
"How could it be that supernatural! I just want to know if that was really a Yaoxing Storm before. If it was, where did the livestream come from? If not, crap, then send a rescue team over already!"
"I also want to know what happened between the two livestreams... there's a missing stretch. Was there an earthquake? It looks like there was an earthquake... if it was an earthquake, that should be the Yaoxing Storm situation, right..."
...
The viewers had many questions, and at this very moment, Ye Liu and her staff had gone up and down through the tunnels and Farm Estates many times. After passing through multiple Farm Estates, they had finally arrived at an underground location— a former shelter of the Yao Group.
The work officially commenced.
Just as all kinds of questions were being posted frequently on the new Livestream Page, the new page finally loaded a new feature.
Six videos, corresponding to footage captured by six camera positions from after the Yaoxing Storm occurred until before the new page's livestream began.
At the same time, the new Livestream Page also loaded its first announcement.
Those six videos were quite long. The viewers, for the moment, had no time to go through them one by one.
But the text announcement that popped up at the top of every Livestream Page, opening with a single click, was different— it was easy to click on and quick to read through.
The viewers had too much curiosity about this new page. Almost the instant the announcement appeared, the majority of viewers clicked into it.
When they clicked it open, the viewers had originally... merely assumed it would be a general introduction to the new page, perhaps also saying a bit about the Yaoxing Storm situation on Wilderness Planet and the Production Team's subsequent arrangements.
But what the viewers could never have imagined was that there would come a moment when a block of text announcement would blind them with shock.
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