Is it a mystical fungi? Or an unearthed species?
Unfortunately for this budding TV reporter, the strange, unearthed object that baffled villagers in a town called Liucunbu in Western China was in fact a sex toy.
Awkward.
The enthusiastic reporter – named as Ye Yunfeng – eagerly went about her interviewing duties after the fungi-like ‘mystery mushroom’ was discovered by local well diggers.
“The object looks very shiny and feels really fleshy and meaty,” Yungfeng quipped during the programme, while the diggers described it as having a nose and an eye.
Unbeknown to them that it was an X-rated double-ended sex toy.
“On this side, you can see what looks like a pair of lips,” added Yungfeng.
The unidentified object was thoroughly probed throughout the Xi’an Up Close news programme (at one point, the oldest resident in the village, an 80-year-old man, was asked to inspect it), with villagers innocently oblivious to its not-so-magical identity.
It was even ‘preserved’ in a bucket of water so villagers could keep an eye out for signs of life.
Although it was believed to be a rare lingzhi mushroom, which only grows underground, once the programme was aired viewers recognised the so-called mushroom’s real identity…
The video has since gone viral and no doubt, raised a few laughs.
Here’s what red-faced Xi’an Up Close said on their Sina Weibo profile (Chinese version of Twitter) after their blunder was made public:
“As our reporter was still very young and unwise to the ways of the world, this report has brought great inconvenience to everyone,” the post reads.
“We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for your criticism and correction.
“Please forgive our oversight!”