Chapter 118: In the Forest
This time, Yu Sheng fell asleep almost instantly. Perhaps it was because his energy had been utterly drained. Once the adrenaline from earlier wore off, he collapsed onto the bed and sank straight into slumber.
What followed were a series of bizarre, fragmented dreams—so strange they defied memory.
He drifted in a foggy haze, his consciousness suspended above a shimmering surface of water. Peering down through the veil, he saw himself asleep on the bed, saw Wutong Road No. 66, saw Irene fiddling with the TV remote, saw Miss Foxy scrubbing her tail beside the sink—then hanging each freshly cleaned tail one by one on the balcony railing, neatly in a row…
Yu Sheng found it increasingly difficult to distinguish reality from dream. He wasn’t sure if he was dreaming or actually “seeing” these scenes. His consciousness wandered aimlessly, slowly sinking into a murky trance until—he felt something solid beneath his back.
Yu Sheng’s eyes flew open.
What he saw first were towering trees all around.
The boundless Forest. An endless expanse of trees, their interwoven canopy obscuring the dim sky above. Beneath that dark boughs lay a twilight-like gloom. Vines, dark and tangled, crawled across the trunks, and bushes grew wild across the clearings. Unnamed flora bloomed abundantly, yet all appeared coated in a dim, ashen hue, spreading across the ground between the great trees.
Yu Sheng rose with confusion, realizing he had been lying on a thick bed of fallen leaves and damp, decaying soil.
With his movement, the entire Dense Forest seemed to awaken. The cries of strange beasts echoed from within the trees. Something darted across a clearing, wingbeats fluttered in the canopy, and from afar came a howling—a Wolf’s call, but with a twisted timbre that sounded eerily human.
Yu Sheng froze, brain clearing rapidly, and one thought surfaced: [Where the hell did I wake up this time?]
Was this a dream? Or had he ended up in some strange “Otherworld” again?
He pinched his thigh and felt a numb pain. Then he tried to call out to Irene within his mind, but only a hollow whistle like wind through a Valley echoed in response.
Every abnormality raised Yu Sheng’s guard.
At once, he reached into the air. Moments later, a faintly glowing phantom Door shimmered into view.
Thankfully, the “Door” still worked.
He let out a breath of relief, dispersed the Door, and gathered his focus, stepping cautiously forward.
He had to figure out where this place was.
It felt different from the Night Valley he had stumbled into before. He could tell he was dreaming, but this wasn’t a normal dream. He couldn’t say for certain if it was linked to the Otherworld, but this Forest definitely didn’t belong in his subconscious.
Walking across the spongy carpet of fallen leaves, Yu Sheng heard the soft rustling of the undergrowth beneath his steps. He proceeded carefully for a long while, crossing an open glade and stepping over two fallen trees. Yet the scenery remained unchanged, the Dense Forest stretching endlessly. Walking on foot in this infinite woodland seemed futile.
Then he heard a rustle.
He turned sharply.
A large, fluffy Squirrel was perched on a dry, cracked tree stump nearby, staring at him with glossy black eyes.
It looked like an ordinary forest creature, curious about the unexpected visitor.
Despite the eerie atmosphere, Yu Sheng couldn’t help exhaling softly and even offered a small smile to the seemingly harmless Squirrel.
The Squirrel looked at him, swept its bushy tail across the stump, and spoke in a high, sharp voice: “Don’t stray from the path…”
Yu Sheng’s smile froze. His eyes widened. “Holy shit! It spoke!”
“Didn’t even get to the second line,” the Squirrel muttered, slapping the stump with its tail and rising on its hind legs. “Damn it, what was next again…? Oh! Don’t get distracted by the pretty flowers and mushrooms. Quickly return to the path, that’s the only way to safely get home before nightfall~ Yep, gotta end it with a cute note. So damn cute.”
Yu Sheng: “…”
The Squirrel puffed up proudly, hugging its little paws, staring directly at him with exaggerated importance.
Yu Sheng pinched his thigh again, harder this time, as if trying to confirm whether he had just hallucinated—had that deceptively adorable little creature really said what he thought it did?
The Squirrel, however, appeared increasingly impatient. Watching Yu Sheng remain motionless, it thumped its fluffy tail against the tree stump with a series of loud thwaps. “Move it, dummy! You gonna stand there and die before even taking your first step in the Black Forest?”
Now thoroughly convinced he hadn’t misheard, Yu Sheng didn’t follow the Squirrel’s suggestion to “get back on the path and keep moving.” Instead, curiosity pulled him closer. With wide eyes full of wonder and confusion, he asked, “Who… are you? And what is this place?”
The Squirrel gave him a hard stare, tiny arms crossed over its chest. “Are you blind or something? I’m a Squirrel! Duh. And this? This is the Forest. The Black Forest. Huge. Dark. Creepy. Infinite. Seriously, what’s with the dumb look?”
Even as it talked, this foul-mouthed but strangely cute creature scurried a few steps sideways, glancing around cautiously while muttering under its breath, “Weird… That one ain’t dead yet… So how the hell did a new one show up already… Unless the current one’s about to die? But wait—why’s this one a guy?”
Yu Sheng’s ears caught the murmurs, and something in them made his heart skip. He instinctively asked, “Die? Who’s about to die?”
“Little Red Riding Hood, duh,” the Squirrel said, wiping its face with its paw nonchalantly. “Dunno which one this is anymore—Eighteenth generation? Twenty-eighth? Who keeps count?”
Yu Sheng’s eyes widened as something clicked inside him. His heart pounded as he lifted his gaze toward the endless Black Forest, ears straining to catch the faint, eerie howls beyond the trees.
A lullaby played in his mind. A melody long forgotten but oddly familiar. The image of a small figure cloaked in red, walking the winding forest path. The flowers and mushrooms deep in the Dense Forest that lured her off track. And the Evil Wolf that stalked her from the shadows…
Then, Yu Sheng felt it—a stinging pain on his shoulder, followed by a bloom of warmth. He glanced down and saw blood, crimson and blooming against his clothes, stark against the murky gray of the Forest.
That was the spot where the Evil Wolf had bitten him—back during the Night at the Museum, when it lunged from Little Red Riding Hood’s shadow.
The blood faded, vanishing as if it had never been, but Yu Sheng understood now.
His blood had forged a bond with Little Red Riding Hood. The Evil Wolf chasing her… could it be part of her? Was this entire place… her dream?
Thoughts spiraled rapidly through his mind until the Squirrel’s sudden cry interrupted them.
“No! No, no, no!”
Yu Sheng jumped. “What? What’s wrong?”
“The current Little Red Riding Hood isn’t dead yet! She’s not even close to dying!” The Squirrel was bouncing on the stump now, flailing in agitation. “The Wolf hasn’t found her yet—it’s still hunting through the Forest. So who the hell are you?! How did you even get in here?!”
Yu Sheng froze. The final question… it sounded oddly familiar.
But he didn’t dwell on it. “I’m her friend! What did you say just now? That she’ll die? And what did you mean by which one? How many Little Red Riding Hoods are there?”
“Friend?! What friend? She walks the forest path alone—there are no friends in the Black Forest!” The Squirrel was practically shrieking now, hopping and darting around in frenzy. “Something’s off! Something’s very off! The Forest isn’t supposed to change! If it’s changing, everything gets harder! Don’t mess with a Squirrel! We’re already overworked! This place—”
The Squirrel suddenly stopped. Its ears perked. It tilted its head.
Yu Sheng instinctively asked, “What is it?”
“Shh—” The Squirrel raised a paw like a person would. “Listen…”
Silence.
The distant howls of the Evil Wolf… were gone. And the usual rustle of birds and beasts… had vanished too.
A dead, unsettling quiet smothered the Black Forest.
Yu Sheng’s nerves screamed at him.
The Squirrel launched from the stump and, in a blur, leapt onto Yu Sheng’s shoulder, screeching in a high-pitched voice: “RUN! The Wolf is here!”
Yu Sheng barely had time to react. He spun around and bolted, body already in motion before his mind could catch up.
Only then did the true horror hit him—the delayed sense of creeping dread, the soul-piercing chill, the crushing weight of an overwhelming malice bearing down on him like a tidal wave of death.
The Evil Wolf had arrived.