Tangtang's mother scoffed. "What else could there be? It's all laid out on the floor!"
The viewers in the livestream were also very displeased.
[Yeah, I really don't get this streamer.]
[She's just being needlessly mysterious!]
[I've been watching for ages and still can't figure out what's going on.]
[I'm not so sure. What if there's a huge reveal coming?]
As if emboldened by the support, Tangtang's mother regained her confidence. But when her eyes met Su Nian's faint, knowing smile, an even greater panic surged within her.
"Dear, it seems there's something unclean in your phone."
The moment Su Nian finished speaking, the phone began to vibrate eerily, as if on cue.
It was as if someone was controlling it. The screen flickered, and just as if a finger was tapping it, numbers began to appear one by one.
3141...
The lock screen was bypassed. It was as if an invisible hand, hidden from everyone's view, was secretly navigating the phone, tapping its way into the photo album.
Until it landed on a video...
"SOB... Uncle, please stop hitting me!"
"Damn it! I'm beating you, you little idiot! You made the water this hot, are you trying to scald me to death?!"
"Alright, alright, just ignore her. Chen Zhaodi, hurry up and make dinner!"
Three voices played in sequence from the phone: a crying child, a furious man, and an impatient woman.
Those few short seconds of video made Tangtang's mother feel as if she had been plunged into an icy abyss.
"No, no, it's not like that!"
She frantically tried to shield the phone, attempting to cover the screen with her hand.
But then she saw Su Nian's lips move slightly, as if she were reciting an ancient story in some archaic tongue.
"Neither forward nor back, neither left nor right. By hand reversed and silent rite. Crushed by the mountain, vanish from sight. By the Seven Stars' power and endless night... Freeze!"
"Stop your act! You're just a fraud—"
Su Nian's hands formed a series of gestures. With a single point of her finger, she shouted, "Freeze!" Across from her, Tangtang's mother stopped mid-sentence. She was completely immobile—unable to speak, lift her hands, or even twist her body.
Tangtang's mother was frozen in a bizarre pose.
The look of disgust remained on her face, her lips slightly parted as if she were about to continue her tirade.
One hand was shielding her phone, her head tilted slightly upward.
She had been holding this pose for several seconds now.
[WHOA! Holy crap!]
[What was that chant the streamer just said?!]
[What the hell is happening?!]
[Is this staged?]
What was even stranger was that Tangtang's mother was clearly covering the phone with her hand.
But now, it began to levitate, rising bit by bit.
The video started playing again.
A young man grabbed the frail girl's head and slammed it into the sofa, leaving a bloodstain. The footage also showed him secretly planting a pinhole camera inside a stuffed bunny.
And through it all, Tangtang's mother played the part of the doting mother, acting as if she were completely uninvolved and unconcerned.
And all of this had been recorded on this very phone.
The most unsettling part was that no one knew who recorded it. The video's perspective was shaky, like a small child stumbling around while holding the phone.
At times, the footage would even blur and go out of focus.
Tangtang's mother was on the verge of a breakdown. The livestream was behaving strangely—she couldn't exit it, and for some reason, she was still completely paralyzed!
[Someone investigate this! I don't think she's acting!]
[If this is staged, I'll eat my own shit standing on my head!]
[Poor Tangtang!]
[This woman was always talking about donations, but all she cared about was exploiting her daughter! I hope you get hit by a car the moment you step outside!]
All sorts of furious comments were typed out by the enraged viewers.
By the time all the videos had finished playing, the viewers' fury was about to overwhelm the livestream.
A dense flood of comments filled the screen, completely obscuring Su Nian's face.
Only then did Su Nian release the immobilization spell.
"You monster! What did you do to me!"
Tangtang's mother's first words were a vicious curse directed at Su Nian.
But when she saw the screen flooded with "Die, Tangtang's mother," she panicked and tried to explain herself.
"No, I didn't know about any of this! I'm innocent!"
[Die, Tangtang's mother!]
"I really don't know anything!"
[Die, Tangtang's mother!!!]
"I really—"
[DIE! DIE! DIE!!!!]
Besides the flood of comments, she was also getting all sorts of private messages, and notifications were popping up from her various social media apps.
But without exception, they were all cursing her. In a rage, she smashed the phone on the ground, shattering it into two pieces. Even so, Su Nian's voice still reached her ears.
"You never liked this daughter. The only reason you kept her around was because her father died, and raising her got you a house."
Just hearing this sent the livestream into another frenzy.
[She got a house for raising her daughter?]
[She only raised her daughter for a house?]
[Didn't she say something else about the father before? Now he's dead?!]
[This world is too messed up. I can't even comprehend it anymore.]
[I only have one thing to say: Tangtang's mother needs to die!!!!]
Su Nian continued, "But you never treated her well. You forced her to do chores starting when she was three, and whenever you were in a bad mood, you would either beat her or scream at her. That scar on her back? You caused it by pouring boiling water on her. Do you admit it or not!"
[So besides that man, she abused her own child too!]
[Okay, I completely believe the streamer now!]
[That poor child is so pitiful!]
[What kind of monster is she! I've really seen everything now!]
A cold sweat beaded on Tangtang's mother's forehead, and her hands trembled uncontrollably.
Her entire body went limp, and she crumpled to the floor.
'It's over. It's all over!'
But even then, she desperately tried to defend herself.
She screamed hysterically at the shattered phone.
"I was drunk at the time! I didn't know anything!"
"It was her own fault anyway! She insisted on making me noodles. She boiled the water herself, so it's not my fault she got scalded."
"Besides, I told her to run it under cold water and handle it herself! Why should I be blamed for it!"
[She really is an animal! Her daughter was only five!]
[At first, I thought this might be an act. But anyone who can say things like that can't be a good person.]
[What about that scumbag boyfriend?!]
[And to think she said she wanted to find the 'culprit'!]
[I bet you were just hoping your daughter wouldn't die fast enough.]
As the comments scrolled by frantically, she seemed to realize she had misspoken.
"I... I was just talking nonsense! It's all fake! None of that happened!"
[So she did abuse her own child?]
[And made a five-year-old treat her own major burns?]
[And she still put on that act of being a great mother. It's nauseating.]
[How can such a disgusting woman exist!]
[Die, Tangtang's mother!]
The subsequent comments all fell into formation, spamming the same message over and over.
[Die, Tangtang's mother!!!]
"I didn't! That was all nonsense! Heavenly Venerable Bailian, I'll give you a hundred thousand. Please, just let me leave the livestream!"
She knelt on the ground, sobbing, the color completely drained from her face.
[Heh, so these are her true colors!]
[Master Bailian, don't let her get away with this!!]
Su Nian's expression was unchanged, but her eyes held an endless chill. "I won't dirty my own hands. Besides, everyone's fate is sealed. Where there is cause, there will be retribution."
Hearing this, a flicker of relief crossed Tangtang's mother's face. But Su Nian's next words plunged her back into an icy abyss.
"You think you've escaped your fate? Your daughter... is standing right behind you."
Su Nian's voice drifted eerily from the screen.