Chapter 9: A Bit of Truth
(This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation)
A cold wind swept through the valley, causing Yu Sheng’s mind to drift and his eyes to glaze over. He stood there, lost in thought, until a sharp cry jerked him back to the present. He blinked and realized that Irene’s voice—though he couldn’t see her anywhere—had called out to him twice already.
“…Irene?” he whispered, feeling both startled and cautious. He was creeping toward the ruins of a toppled old temple huddled against the valley’s rocky slope. He needed a place to hide, and that half-collapsed building was the only shelter in sight. The strange part, though, was Irene’s voice inside his head. “How did you… how are you speaking to me like this? I can hear you inside my mind.”
“What’s so confusing about that?” Irene’s voice rang out clearly in his thoughts, calm and self-assured. “I’m one of Alice’s dolls!”
Yu Sheng froze, brow furrowing. He had no idea how being one of Alice’s dolls let someone talk directly into a person’s mind. Did that mean all of Alice’s dolls could do this sort of thing? Or was Irene special?
“Remember, I sneaked into your dream once before,” Irene went on, as if reading his confusion. “Now that I know the path, speaking into your mind again is quite simple. But where exactly are you right now? I can’t sense your location at all…”
Yu Sheng kept quiet for a few moments, peering around at the ghostly trees and thick, gloomy woods that surrounded the valley. A strange terror pressed against him from all sides, as if some huge, lurking creature might burst from the shadows at any moment. The sense of danger made his heart sink. He managed a shaky answer. “I… I think I’m very far away. I’m not sure how to get back.”
Irene fell silent, then her voice returned, sounding puzzled. “Didn’t you say you only stepped out to throw out the trash? Did you somehow hop onto the garbage truck and get whisked off somewhere weird?”
Despite the tension, Yu Sheng almost smiled. Irene had quite the imagination.
But even if it seemed silly, hearing her voice gave him a spark of comfort. At least this proved he still had some link to his original world. If Irene could reach him here, maybe there was a chance—no matter how slim—that he could find a way home. He had no proof, no plan, but he clung to that tiny, fragile hope.
For now, survival came first.
The valley was deathly quiet. The only sound was the hollow moan of the wind drifting over fallen stones. Yu Sheng shivered at the feeling that something was nearby—something cold and watchful, waiting like a predator ready to pounce. He had to find cover and couldn’t just stand out here, exposed.
The ruined temple loomed close by, its wooden beams and stone pillars half-broken. The forest beyond was darker and even less inviting. Wandering into a creepy forest at night felt like the worst idea from any horror story he’d ever heard. Yet hiding in the remains of an old temple after dark hardly seemed safer. Either choice might lead him straight into the jaws of some unspeakable terror. Still, he had no better plan. Taking a deep breath, Yu Sheng decided to slip into the crumbling corner of the temple that looked stable enough for now.
As he moved, he tried to explain his predicament to Irene—though there wasn’t much to say. He had opened a door and ended up here. That was it. He understood no more than she did.
Irene went quiet, listening carefully. After a pause, her voice turned hesitant. “It sounds like… you might have ended up in what we call the ‘Otherworld.’”
Yu Sheng had just reached the temple’s cracked foundation when he stopped in his tracks. “The Otherworld? Is that what this place is called? Do you know where I am, then?”
Irene sounded baffled. “Huh? There are lots of Otherworlds. How would I know which one you’re in?”
Yu Sheng’s face fell. He had learned something new: apparently, these bizarre realms were not unique. But more than that, he realized that Irene didn’t find his situation utterly impossible. She treated it like something unusual, yet not beyond imagination.
Irene picked up on his surprise. “Wait… Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of the Otherworld before.”
Yu Sheng grimaced. “Should I have? Is it supposed to be something everyone knows about?”
“Most ordinary people never learn about it,” Irene admitted. “They can live their whole lives without ever encountering it. But you should know. It’s strange that you don’t.”
“Why me? I’m just an ordinary person—”
“That’s the thing… you live in the Otherworld every single day.”
…
Meanwhile, in another place, shadows stretched across old rooftops as hunters took shape within them. A wolf, its eyes gleaming, leaped silently from one worn roof tile to another, then dropped soundlessly onto an empty street in the Old City. It raised its head, sniffing the air, ears pricked for any sign of movement.
“Get back here!” a woman’s annoyed voice echoed from a nearby alley, piercing the silence.
At once, the wolf lowered its head and let out a small whine. Obediently, it turned and padded back into the dim corner where the voice had come from.
A young girl stood there, half-hidden by the shadows between two old buildings. She wore a dark red coat and a black skirt, her hair neatly combed. She reached out and scratched the wolf’s head affectionately, then peered into the deserted street.
It was a short street—no more than a few dozen houses lined up in neat rows. Even without the wolf’s keen vision, she could see it all from her vantage point. There wasn’t the slightest hint of anything unusual tonight.
She frowned just as her phone began to ring. The familiar theme from an old TV show, Journey to the West, danced through the quiet alley. She answered before the Monkey King’s second flip in the intro. “Yes, I’m here. Standing right on Wutong Road in the Old City.”
A tired voice droned on at the other end of the line, explaining something in a weary tone.
The girl known as Little Red Riding Hood listened patiently, a small smile tugging at her lips. “I’m checking right now, but there’s nothing out of the ordinary. My wolf searched this whole street—three times, in fact—and not a single sign of an Otherworld opening. And no creature or person from beyond has appeared either.”
The voice on the phone paused, then insisted, “But the monitoring team is certain. They detected an Otherworld reaction on Wutong Road. A portal must have opened, even if it was only for a moment…”
Little Red Riding Hood sighed softly, her tone calm. “I believe you. Your team’s reliable. But I trust my wolf’s nose as well. Maybe there was a portal, but it vanished before leaving any trace. Usually, an Otherworld doesn’t close that quickly. Unless someone interfered…”
The speaker on the phone responded thoughtfully, “Hardly anyone can sever an Otherworld link so abruptly. Anyone who could manage that would be registered with us and should have contacted us right away. I haven’t received any calls tonight.”
Little Red Riding Hood shrugged. “Could it have been someone from the Hermit Society? They’re always sneaking about, playing wise scholars while keeping secrets.”
Her casual words made the voice on the other end begin another long lecture. She rolled her eyes, sighing as the voice went on and on. “Yes, I respect scholars, of course I do,” she replied at last, sounding rather bored. “Fine, I’ll search the shadows again with my wolves. Wutong Road has only sixty-five houses. It won’t take too long.”
After hanging up, she glanced at her phone in annoyance, then looked down at the shifting shapes in the darkness—her pack of wolves, their silhouettes blending into the shadows at her feet.
“I haven’t even done my homework yet,” she murmured miserably. “Freelance jobs aren’t as carefree as people think.”
…
Yu Sheng sat hunched in a corner of the ruined temple, pressing his back against a half-standing wall that seemed solid enough not to tumble down on him. The wind slipped in through a huge gap, and he could see the night sky through the temple’s broken roof. It was dark, like ink spilled across a canvas, with no stars or moon to comfort him.
He tried to focus, tried to calm the panic swirling in his head. It didn’t help much. He had just learned something extraordinary: the city he had thought of as normal—Boundary City—was actually one of these “Otherworlds.”
According to Irene’s explanation, an Otherworld was like a hidden dimension, quietly lurking beside the ordinary world everyone knew. The everyday world was like a great, solid mountain, while the Otherworlds were countless little holes and tunnels that riddled its interior. Most people never stumbled through those holes, never peered into the strange realms beyond. But if by some twist of fate, you did glimpse that weird, illogical space, nothing would ever seem normal again.
Even a curious doll like Irene found the idea of living inside an Otherworld day after day rather unbelievable.