"Ah!" A bloodcurdling scream came from the television.
Amid a hiss like electromagnetic interference, white static filled the screen. The next moment, a gaunt old ghost with wild hair appeared, the wall behind her covered in bloody handprints!
Xia Lun picked up his coffee and took a sip. The picture switched to a woman whose face was twisted with terror.
"Why are you chasing me!?"
"You... dropped this."
The sinister old ghost suddenly pulled out a pack of chewing gum. The colors turned warm, the music grew cheerful, and both she and the woman flashed gleaming white teeth.
The scene changed again. The ghost and the woman sat on the steps, chewing gum together with blissful smiles.
"Chew Lotus Arrow and run fast—don't let regret catch you!" an earworm of a slogan rang out. "Leave regret behind. Choose Lotus Arrow!"
"..." Xia Lun's mouth twitched. For a moment, he had no words.
The joke in this gum commercial was somehow even worse than his own!
He sighed, relaxed against the back of his chair, and continued watching the ads with narrowed eyes.
Unlike Whitewash TV, where spectacularly disastrous broadcast mishaps could happen at any moment, Hermaniel TV was relatively "normal." In other words, between its extremely short programs, there were nothing but ads...
Anyone who watched television regularly would have grumbled and changed the channel. Xia Lun rarely watched it, though, so he enjoyed the commercials.
Hermaniel TV might have been full of commercial ads, but those ads contained plenty of useful information.
After half an hour of watching with keen interest, Xia Lun had gathered quite a bit.
"Hermaniel City's Founding Day is coming up. There'll be a huge celebration the day after tomorrow." He wrote the information down. "There's also a once-in-a-century meteor shower that night, right on