Chapter 46: The Door Opens Wide
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcattranslation.
Irene’s decision to spin around and sprint away caught Yu Sheng slightly off guard. He had not expected the tiny doll to dart off so suddenly, and he had to admit, for someone so small, she ran rather fast. Still, it was hard to ignore the simple fact that she currently stood only a few centimeters tall. Even if she was a good runner for a doll, a figure barely sixty centimeters high, with such tiny legs, could never cover much distance in a hurry.
True enough, Irene dashed under a nearby chair, but she had entirely forgotten about the picture frame strapped to her back. The frame snagged on the chair leg with a dull, scraping sound. She kicked and wriggled, still trying to crawl forward, but the more she struggled, the more stuck she became.
Yu Sheng stepped forward without much haste. He reached out calmly and plucked Irene from beneath the chair, holding her up while her little legs flailed wildly in the air. She waved her arms about, throwing tiny punches and kicking at nothing but empty space.
“You’re holding a grudge, aren’t you?” Irene shouted, her voice high and indignant. “And besides, I was only trying to wake you up! I might’ve used a slightly… unusual method, but it worked, didn’t it? You woke up. So put me dow—”
“I never said I was going to do anything to you,” Yu Sheng interrupted, smiling as he gently placed her back on the floor. “I just wanted to suggest that next time you don’t bite so hard. It took forever for that bite to heal, and it still hurts. It felt like payback, you know. Of course, if you could avoid biting me at all, that would be much better.”
Irene blinked up at him, clearly startled. “Wait, you’re not angry?” she asked, her head tilting slightly, confusion plain on her tiny face.
“Of course not,” Yu Sheng said, rolling his eyes before turning away. “I’m not ungrateful. But we should get going now, since we need to head out to that valley.”
For a moment, Irene just stood there, stunned by his calm response. Then she hurried after him, her tiny footsteps tapping lightly on the floor. “You remembered all the details of that place?” she called, looking up at him anxiously.
“Every single one,” he replied, without turning around.
Meanwhile, in another part of the city, Xu Jiali sat by a window, nibbling thoughtfully at a pancake roll. She peered out onto the street below, where everything seemed peaceful and calm. “This place is so quiet,” she said, sounding almost surprised. “It’s much nicer than the chaotic star zones. No cultists wandering around on these streets either…”
Sitting beside her, Li Lin took a sip of his hot soy milk and nodded. “Compared to the intensity of your field missions, this city is obviously quieter,” he said. “Think of it like a half-vacation. Our mission right now is just to keep watch. If something really big happens, the Bureau will send in backup.”
Xu Jiali lowered her pancake roll and stared out the window with a thoughtful frown. “But that Little Red Riding Hood out there always looks so tense,” she murmured. “She’s just a kid, wound up like a spring. She reminds me of how I was when I first left ‘the Platform.’”
On a rooftop not too far away, a slender girl in a deep red coat crouched in a corner, keeping an eye on the street. She held a sausage in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. In the shifting shadows around her, wolf-like figures flickered in and out of sight, as if stepping through folds of darkness. Feeling a gaze upon her, Little Red Riding Hood lifted her head and scanned the windows across the way. She didn’t see anything suspicious; after a brief nod to herself, she returned her attention to the street.
With a calm, practiced motion, she pulled out notebooks and papers from her bag. Placing the sausage aside, she started working quietly on her homework. Meanwhile, the wolves kept watch for her, their keen senses taking in every detail of the street below.
Li Lin observed this scene through the window. He spoke in a low voice, his tone thoughtful. “I’ve heard a lot about ‘Fairy Tale,’ but she’s the only member I’ve ever actually seen in person. She doesn’t look old enough for such dangerous work.”
Xu Jiali sighed softly, tapping her fingertips against the windowsill. “More than half of ‘Fairy Tale’s’ members are around her age,” she said. “Most of them come from the same place. They’re all… unlucky kids.”
Li Lin’s eyes widened in surprise. “All of them? But why—”
“Because it’s easier for children to fall into ‘Fairy Tale,’” Xu Jiali said quietly. “The adult members don’t survive long. If you’re curious, you can look it up in the archives when we return. But don’t ask her about it directly.”
Hearing the seriousness in her voice, Li Lin nodded, his expression growing more thoughtful. He turned his attention back to the view outside, to the still, ordinary-looking street.
“Seems like nothing’s going to happen today, either,” he said softly, exhaling and sipping his soy milk again.
After a moment, Xu Jiali tapped his shoulder. “I’m still hungry. Where are your instant noodles? I want a pack.”
“Under the bed in the other room,” Li Lin answered. “You’ll have to boil your own water, though. The kettle’s in the kitchen. The hot water dispenser in the living room is broken—no hot water there. And while you’re at it, make a pack for me too.”
Back at Yu Sheng’s apartment, he raised an eyebrow at Irene, who stood proudly by the door. She had climbed up onto the shoe bench by the entrance and was puffing out her tiny chest to look more impressive. In her two small hands, she held a kitchen knife so large that she had to grip it with all her strength just to keep it from wobbling.
“That’s your big ‘preparation’?” Yu Sheng asked, sounding both amused and a bit concerned.
Irene nodded, looking extremely pleased with herself. “Better safe than sorry!” she said brightly. “Having a weapon makes me feel more confident. If a fight breaks out, just wait until you see my amazing magic power!”
Yu Sheng looked at the oversized knife and twitched slightly. “You’d be better off using a fruit knife,” he suggested, half-laughing. “It’d be easier for you to hold.”
“Fruit knives aren’t intimidating,” Irene insisted with a stubborn toss of her head.
“At your size, even a dragon-slaying saber wouldn’t be intimidating,” Yu Sheng said, exasperated. “Just try not to break that knife, all right? I actually like it—it’s perfect for cutting meat.”
“Fine, fine, stop nagging,” Irene grumbled, still gripping the knife as if it were a precious treasure. “Open the door already. We need to see what’s on the other side.”
Yu Sheng sighed and moved his hand toward the doorknob, glancing down at the supplies he had gathered at his feet. There was quite a heap of food intended for Foxy. The last time he had crossed into that Otherworld, everything on him had come along—even the garbage bag he’d been holding.
This time, though, he had much more to bring. Besides all the food, he also had Irene. He was not entirely sure if carrying so many items—and a tiny person—would affect his ability to cross over successfully. He had tested such transitions on a small scale inside his apartment, walking through the door with objects in hand, but traveling into the Otherworld might be another matter entirely.
Still, there was no better way than to try. If it failed, it would simply become another test.
Dressed in an oversized coat, Yu Sheng’s pockets bulged with compressed biscuits, bread, and a few cans of eight-treasure congee. He planned to open the door as wide as possible, pushing the supplies through first, then stepping through with Irene. To manage that, he needed to “open” the passage in a larger, more stable way than ever before.
He still didn’t fully understand how this worked; he had to rely on feeling and instinct. Yu Sheng narrowed his eyes and remembered every detail he had gleaned from Foxy’s perceptions—the chill of the night wind, the stench of decay, the maddening hunger that seemed to seep through the very stones, and most importantly, that subtle yet vital “aura” required for spiritual guidance.
All these features must blend together into a kind of “frequency.” By locking onto that frequency, he hoped to shape the Otherworld’s image on the other side of the door. He tried to focus intensely, determined to create a wide, stable path that would let him, Irene, and all the supplies step directly into that mysterious valley—and find Foxy waiting there.
Slowly, he turned the doorknob. A cool breeze drifted through the widening gap. The air felt strangely crisp, as if he were already halfway to that other place.
A passageway—far larger than any he had formed before—took shape in front of him.
How large was it? Large enough that, at that very moment, Director Bai Li Qing and the squad leaders at the Special Affairs Bureau jolted to attention in their offices. They felt the shift instantly, as if a bell had rung on a secret wavelength only they could hear.
A low, peculiar humming spread through the entire Wutong Road neighborhood. Ordinary people would never detect it, but those with heightened senses of the “other world” felt it keenly. It sounded like a distant, hollow note, resonating beneath everyday reality.
In the apartment where Xu Jiali and Li Lin kept watch, Xu Jiali stepped out of the kitchen carrying two bowls of instant noodles. Just then, he sensed the strange hum. Startled, he rushed to the window and peered outside. To his amazement, the bright daylight began to dim. It looked as if a heavy, dark curtain were descending over Boundary City, and beyond that curtain, everything—streets, buildings, cars—started to turn faint and hazy.
As Xu Jiali watched, these solid, familiar shapes became more and more transparent, until at last a strange valley seemed to stretch out where the street had once been. The cityscape vanished, replaced by dark stone and twisted trees.
On the nearby rooftop, Little Red Riding Hood snapped to attention. Her wolves whined softly, their ears twitching. A sudden cold wind rose, stirring the pages of her math notebook and making it flap restlessly.
Li Lin, who had only just been remarking how peaceful it all was, leapt to his feet with a startled shout. “Holy—! What on earth is going on?” he cried, nearly spilling his soy milk.
Xu Jiali pushed up beside him, still holding the noodles. As the world shifted around them, he realized something crucial. “No,” he said urgently, voice low. “It’s not that the outside world is changing. It’s us—we’re being dragged into the Otherworld!”
Li Lin spun around, confusion and alarm mixing on his face. “What do you mean?” he demanded, but Xu Jiali was already darting toward their gear box. He grabbed his light blade and protective equipment, his face grim.
“We’re observing the change from the inside! We’re the ones slipping through!” he said hurriedly. “Call the Bureau right now, before we lose the signal. Hurry!”
Li Lin lunged toward the phone, but he was too slow. The pull of the Otherworld was faster and stronger than anything they had ever encountered. In an instant, the apartment walls dissolved like mist. Before Li Lin’s fingers could even reach the phone, the room vanished.
They found themselves standing not in their rented apartment, but in a valley shrouded in darkness. The air smelled damp and cold. The ground felt uneven and rough beneath their feet. The comforting hum of the city was gone, replaced by a hollow, echoing silence. Xu Jiali clutched his blade, scanning the area. Li Lin still held the bowls of instant noodles, which now seemed utterly out of place.
The only familiar presence was the girl in the dark red coat, standing nearby with a serious look on her face. She had come through as well. Little Red Riding Hood’s wolves hovered like silent shadows, their eyes gleaming faintly.
“We’ve ended up in the Otherworld,” Xu Jiali said at last, breaking the uneasy silence.
Little Red Riding Hood nodded. “Yes,” she agreed quietly, her voice steady. “Judging by the scale and the way things look, it’s most likely a ‘wilderness’ type manifestation.”
Li Lin looked from Xu Jiali to the girl and then down at the steaming bowls of noodles in his hands. Unsure what else to do, he held one out awkwardly. “Um,” he said, clearing his throat, “would anyone like some instant noodles?”