We’re all obsessed with Chinese wuxia fiction, but the latest obsession taking over the Chinese internet hits differently. There’s no screenwriter, no production budget, and no studio greenlight. Just an AI, a roasted salted duck, the title “Saving the Fox,” and a collective online society deciding the story is far from over.

It all started as a standard riff on wuxia romance. A scholar saves a fox in a snowstorm, and she repays him with love. It’s a classic trope. But then, the internet asked a pivotal question: what about the duck he left in the snow? The duck he forgot. The duck that waited. Frozen all winter, that roasted duck gained sentience, and now, it wants blood.

This absurdist, slapstick premise quickly mutated into a container—a blank vessel the internet poured itself into. Every object the scholar abandoned eventually became the next episode. Leave a bomb behind? The bomb has abandonment issues. The ice mountain itself? It gets a revenge arc. There are now over 50 versions, each with its own bizarre flair and flavor, fueled entirely by AI video generation.

Culturally, this is fascinating. It’s what happens when AI hands the pen back to the crowd. It democratizes storytelling, turning a single ridiculous prompt into a collaborative, decentralized cinematic universe. It’s funny, completely bonkers, and a perfect snapshot of Gen Z’s chaotic digital humor.

But there’s a darker side to this flood of AI video slop. While the internet is busy laughing at a bloodthirsty duck, we are ignoring the massive ecological footprint of our entertainment. AI video generation is notoriously resource-intensive. Training and running these models requires staggering amounts of electricity and water to cool data centers. The carbon footprint of generating 50-plus high-definition iterations of a joke is far from healthy for our planet.

As we navigate this new era of collective, online creativity, we have to ask ourselves: at what point does internet gold become ecological waste? The salted duck might want revenge, but the real victim of this AI obsession might just be the environment. If you haven’t seen it yet, watch our video explanation of the above, courtesy of our one and only Alex Gostick, below:

Cover image via AsiaOne.