Chapter 9: A Glimpse of Truth
The sudden voice in his mind startled Yu Sheng, who had been dazed by the chilling wind blowing through the Valley. He froze, then froze even more when he realized the voice was familiar.
It wasn’t until Irene shouted into his mind for the second time that Yu Sheng snapped back to his senses.
“…Irene?” Yu Sheng blinked, cautiously surveying the Valley as he crept toward the crumbling, desolate old temple in search of a temporary shelter. He couldn’t help but respond inwardly, “How are you… contacting me? I mean, talking directly inside my head…”
“Is that so surprising?” Irene’s tone was indignant and matter-of-fact. “I’m Alice’s Doll!”
Yu Sheng thought for a moment but couldn’t connect the dots. Did being Alice’s Doll mean having the ability to speak into people’s minds?
“I’ve already slipped into your dream once, haven’t I? Once you get in once, it’s easy to find your way again,” Irene explained patiently, as if sensing his confusion. Then her tone abruptly changed. “Wait, where the heck did you run off to? I can’t sense you at all…”
Yu Sheng paused for a couple of seconds, looking around the eerie, dense forest of the Valley. A creeping sense of dread settled over him as if at any moment a towering beast would emerge to triumphant, rousing music. He felt a chill run down his spine. “…I might have wandered pretty far through the Door, and getting back doesn’t seem very likely…”
There was a brief silence from Irene’s side before her incredulous voice came through. “Didn’t you just go out to throw out the trash? Did the garbage truck carry you off or something?!”
Yu Sheng couldn’t fathom how Irene’s imagination worked that way… but he had to admit that hearing her voice helped ease the panic that had threatened to overtake him when he found himself in this desolate wilderness.
The mere fact that Irene could still reach him proved that his connection to the original world hadn’t been completely severed. Since Irene managed to contact him, there was still hope of returning—though he had no clue how or why. He had to cling to that belief.
For now, his priority was ensuring his own safety.
The Valley remained ominously quiet, the only sounds being the occasional hollow gusts of wind. Yet, a sense of discomfort gnawed at him, as if something unseen, devoid of warmth, was watching him hungrily and endlessly scanning the area. This oppressive feeling fueled his urgency to find cover. Standing in the open like this was reckless.
The only shelter within sight was the partially collapsed old temple—the distant forest seemed even more sinister, dense, and oppressive. Venturing into the forest at night was the epitome of bad horror tropes, and he wanted nothing to do with it.
Yet, stepping into the ruined temple felt equally ominous. One led to the risk of feral beasts, the other to restless spirits. Both seemed guaranteed to cue dramatic, heart-pounding music.
Gritting his teeth, Yu Sheng moved toward the relatively intact corner of the temple ruins.
As he cautiously advanced, he mentally relayed his situation to Irene, though there wasn’t much to explain. Even he didn’t understand how he had ended up here—all he did was open a Door.
After hearing his story, Irene was silent for a long time before finally speaking with uncertainty. “Sounds like you’ve fallen into an ‘Otherworld’ or something?”
Yu Sheng froze amid the ruined temple, realization dawning on him. “Otherworld? You’re calling this place an Otherworld? You know where I am?”
There was a hint of confusion in Irene’s voice. “Huh? There are tons of Otherworlds out there—how am I supposed to know which one you landed in…”
Yu Sheng furrowed his brows. Irene’s muttering hinted at something crucial—he had just learned more about the ‘supernatural domain’ than he had ever known before. More importantly, he realized a vital truth: perhaps he wasn’t in a completely different world. Instead, he might have encountered some kind of natural phenomenon that Irene found unremarkable.
Realizing his own lack of knowledge, Yu Sheng couldn’t help but feel his thoughts racing. Meanwhile, Irene’s doubtful voice echoed in his mind once more. “…Don’t tell me you’ve never even heard of ‘Otherworlds’ before?”
Yu Sheng’s expression twisted with confusion. “…Should I have heard of it? Is this something everyone just knows?”
Irene replied casually, “Oh, it’s normal for ordinary people not to know about the Otherworld. After all, most people go their entire lives without encountering such things.” But her next words made Yu Sheng freeze. “But you shouldn’t be clueless about it.”
“Me? Why would I know?” Yu Sheng looked bewildered. “I’m just an ordinary guy…”
“…But you live in the Otherworld every single day.”
…
Shadows prowled through the dark night, and from within them, hunters took shape. A savage Wolf leapt out of the shadows, effortlessly navigating the uneven rooftops of the old district before landing soundlessly on an empty street, its fierce gaze darting left and right.
“Get back here!” A slightly annoyed female voice echoed from the shadows between old brick buildings.
The Wolf instantly shrank its head, letting out a muffled whimper before trotting obediently into the cover of a nearby building’s shade.
A girl wearing a dark red coat and a black skirt stood in the narrow gap between two old houses. She reached out and patted the head of the Wolf that had just returned, then raised her eyes to observe the end of the old street.
The street was short, housing only a few dozen families. With its clear, unobstructed view, she could easily assess the situation without even relying on the Wolf’s vision.
The girl furrowed her brows, and just then, her phone rang—an unmistakable classic, the opening theme of the 1986 version of Journey to the West. She picked up just as the Monkey King flipped his second somersault. “It’s me. Yes, I’m in the Old City, over on Wutong Road.”
A middle-aged man’s voice, muddled by overwork, mumbled through the phone. Little Red Riding Hood listened patiently for a while before tugging at the corner of her mouth. “I’m here, but I haven’t found anything—my Wolf has scouted the entire street three times. There’s no sign of an Otherworld breach, and nothing seems to have come out.”
The line went silent for a couple of seconds before the voice responded, sounding tired. “But the monitoring team confirmed an Otherworld reaction on Wutong Road. There must have been a temporary portal…”
“I believe it,” Little Red Riding Hood replied with a hint of exasperation. “I trust the professionalism of the Special Affairs Bureau’s monitoring staff. But I also trust my Wolf. Maybe a portal did appear briefly, but it’s definitely gone now. Considering how unusual it is for an Otherworld to disconnect from reality so quickly, someone else might have intervened.”
“There aren’t many forces capable of severing an Otherworld connection that fast. Most of them are registered with the Bureau and maintain contact channels,” the voice on the phone grumbled. “But I haven’t received any communication tonight…”
“Maybe it was someone from the Hermit Society. They’re always acting mysterious…” She tossed out the guess casually, fully expecting another round of the man’s muttering on the other end. She sighed, nodding repeatedly. “Yes, yes, I know. They’re all venerable Scholars. I’ve always respected the Scholars. Fine, fine. I’ll take my Wolf pack and scour the shadows again. The street only has sixty-five doors; it’s no big deal to check once more…”
As the call ended, peace finally returned to her ears. Little Red Riding Hood glanced at the phone’s darkened screen, sighed, and looked down at the shadowy wolves surrounding her, their heads popping up from every corner. Another sigh slipped from her lips.
“I haven’t even done my homework yet… Sigh, the life of a freelancer is tough…”
…
Yu Sheng sat in the corner of a dilapidated temple, huddled against a seemingly sturdy wall, feeling the cold wind blow through the gaping holes in the structure. He looked up at the bleak, clouded night sky, trying to empty his mind, but his thoughts kept racing.
Just now, he had learned a harsh truth.
The one stable haven he had in Boundary City—the safest and most ordinary place in his chaotic world—was, in reality, an anomaly known as the ‘Otherworld.’
As Irene explained it, the ‘Otherworld’ is a domain beyond normalcy—a dimension on the edge of rationality. The orderly world in which most people live is like a solid mountain, its structure appearing robust. But in reality, the tiniest gaps within that mountain are portals leading to irrational, chaotic realms.
For most people, these gaps never matter—they go their whole lives without glimpsing the fantastical scenes beyond. But some see faint glimmers of light seeping through, and from that moment on, their lives are irreversibly changed.
—Even for someone as well-versed as the Doll Lady, it was still a little absurd for anyone to live in the Otherworld for so long without realizing it…