Chapter 127: Orphanage
That night, Yu Sheng slept in a daze.
Perhaps it was the overwhelming number of recent events draining his energy, but he fell asleep quickly—only to plunge into a whirlwind of bizarre, chaotic dreams. At times, he wandered the Museum. Other times, he drifted through fragmented memories of his hometown. Sometimes, he found himself wandering the Black Forest. He was certain he woke up several times, even hearing Irene talking in her sleep, but those moments of waking felt like dreams themselves.
The restless sleep lasted well into the night. Then, suddenly, something in his spirit relaxed, and the turmoil of distorted dreams seemed to be soothed. He slipped into a soft and calm half-dream, resting peacefully until mid-morning.
When he opened his eyes, he was greeted by two Irenes, each sprawled on one of his arms—both of which were completely numb.
After some struggle, Yu Sheng finally yanked his arms free. The tingling, sore pain made him wince.
Irene stirred awake, her hair a chaotic mess as she sat up rubbing her eyes. “Good morning… yawn. You were tossing and turning all night.”
Yu Sheng, still flapping his arms in pain, paused when he heard the little doll mutter. Then, realization dawned. “You helped last night, didn’t you?”
“Your dreams were too noisy,” both Irenes grumbled in unison as they sat up and tidied each other’s clothes and hair. “It was too much. I had to slip in and calm them down.”
Yu Sheng’s expression turned a bit awkward. After a moment, he coughed lightly. “Ahem… thanks.”
“It was nothing. Now help me with my hair.”
“You crushed my arms all night. They’re still numb. Do it yourself,” he muttered while shaking his limbs. “I bought you two little combs—they’re on the nightstand. And with two bodies, it’s pretty convenient now, isn’t it?”
“Oh.”
The two Dolls crawled over to the nightstand, found the combs he mentioned, and began brushing each other’s hair while muttering away.
“See, Human bodies are just so inconvenient. Press on something wrong and it goes numb or hurts. Dolls like us, we can shatter into pieces without making a sound…”
Yu Sheng listened to Irene’s chatter in a daze, paying little mind to the actual words.
Morning sunlight poured through the windows, and the two identical Brother-class Dolls sat in the golden rays, carefully combing each other’s hair and straightening each other’s clothes. If only their mouths were shut, it would almost be a scene of pure elegance.
Yu Sheng found himself staring. [If two Dolls waking up in sunlight is already this picturesque… what if I really ended up with a whole room full of Irenes?]
His daydream crashed under the mental image of dozens of Irenes crawling everywhere, twitching in the shadows, jumping around, and chattering incessantly. He shook his head. [The tragedy is, these Dolls have mouths… and now, two mouths.]
After cleaning up and washing, the sensation returned to Yu Sheng’s arms. He made a simple breakfast (though it was already quite late), fed Foxy—who had been sniffing around the house looking for food—and got ready to head out to the address left by Little Red Riding Hood.
“Should I bring a gift or something?” he suddenly asked before leaving. “It is a first visit, after all. Feels wrong to go empty-handed.”
“Probably?” Irene had already snuggled into Foxy’s arms to prepare her usual “disguise,” but now peeked up. “Cookies and candies, maybe? I think there are a lot of kids there.”
“Isn’t that a little too cliché?”
“Well, you could hand out tubes of blood instead, but that’s not cliché—it’s criminal. They’ll call the cops.”
Yu Sheng considered that and decided she had a point.
So, accompanied by Foxy and Irene (Pro), he left the house. Before hailing a cab, he stopped at a nearby corner store to buy a pile of candies and snacks. Only then did he flag down a taxi and head for another district, following the address Little Red Riding Hood had provided.
For reference, Irene (Steel) stayed behind to watch television—she was growing more and more adept at managing life with two bodies.
Boundary City was vast, but fortunately, the destination wasn’t too far. It took about half an hour before they arrived near the location.
As soon as he got out of the cab, Yu Sheng immediately noticed something—there were hardly any people around.
And the closer they walked to the address, the fewer people there were.
The stop where they disembarked was a crossroads along the main road. When Little Red Riding Hood had sent the address, she had thoughtfully included a small walking route to follow after getting off. Departing from the boulevard, Yu Sheng turned onto a quiet and somewhat aged path that led into the Old Residential Area Behind the Commercial Zone. This area looked a touch newer than the neighborhood around Wutong Road No. 66, but not by much. After walking for nearly ten minutes, he noticed there wasn’t a single pedestrian in sight.
Then, the path suddenly opened up, revealing a sprawling complex of buildings ahead.
It was a large compound formed by two adjoining buildings and several smaller structures. The grey-white buildings bore the wear of years, surrounded by a tall wall. Once, vivid murals had adorned it, but most had faded or peeled off, leaving only the discolored surface.
A reinforced metal gate blocked Yu Sheng’s path, but what caught his attention more were the familiar Metal Obelisk Devices flanking the gate and lining the perimeter.
They were Node Devices, installations of the Special Affairs Bureau.
The reason for the vanishing foot traffic was clear now.
The entire base of the Fairy Tale Organization had been cloaked in Cognitive Isolation, just like an Otherworld site.
A red figure stepped into view. Little Red Riding Hood emerged from the guard post inside the gate, unlocking a side door and hurrying over.
“You arrived earlier than I expected.”
She greeted Yu Sheng with a slightly complicated smile—warm, yet tinged with nervousness and restraint. It was the first time Yu Sheng had seen the usually composed high school girl look uncertain.
“Didn’t want to be late, so I left a bit early,” Yu Sheng replied with a nod, glancing past her toward the gate of the compound.
Faint remnants of once-prominent metal letters clung to the wall beside the gate, just enough to make out the words: “XX Welfare Home.” Beyond that, the closed-off compound bore no other signage.
An Orphanage, buried deep within the city, hidden so well that even Node Devices were needed to isolate it.
Yu Sheng wasn’t surprised. He had already begun to suspect something like this before arriving.
“Come with me. I already spoke to my family,” Little Red Riding Hood said, stepping aside and gesturing invitingly. “I don’t have school or any tasks today. I can show you around.”
Yu Sheng and Miss Foxy followed her through the gates into the somewhat worn, yet not decrepit, courtyard.
As they passed the guard post, Yu Sheng noticed a Young Lady inside, dozing off. She looked about the same age as Little Red Riding Hood.
“That’s Cinderella. She always looks half-asleep during the day, but she’s actually quite alert,” Little Red Riding Hood casually explained. “Normally, during weekdays, we have designated security here—employees sent by the Council. But on weekends, the Guardians take turns keeping watch. The Guardians are just older kids, like me.”
“The Council sends people here?” Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“Fairy Tale is an independent group, but a bunch of cursed orphans raising even younger ones… we run into all kinds of real-world problems we can’t solve alone. And on the flip side, if the goal is to identify and safely contain children affected by the Fairytale Curse early on, it takes an official body like the Council to step in,” she explained. “So we formed a partnership.
“Officially, the Orphanage is operated by the Borderland High Council. They provide the land, part of the funding, and periodically send personnel to help with identity registration, school enrollment, medical visits, and such. But within the walls, the place is self-governed by Fairy Tale. We take in the kids sent here and do what we can to reduce their instability. And if they do lose control… we try to contain it within these walls.”
She paused and summed it up: “Ordinary for the ordinary. Extraordinary for the extraordinary.”
Yu Sheng listened silently as they crossed the courtyard. After a moment of thought, he shook his head. “Not quite what I imagined.”
“Only after seeing it in person do you realize how every strange circumstance has a rational reason behind it,” Little Red Riding Hood said calmly. “At least for us right now, this is the most comfortable state. We can live at our own pace, in our own way. Everything is manageable. And for the Council, ‘manageable’ is the most valuable outcome.”
“No, I meant… I thought the Special Affairs Bureau would be the ones handling this. I figured they’d be your management division. They’re the professionals in the supernatural, after all.”
Her steps briefly faltered.
“…The Special Affairs Bureau does work with us, and you’re not wrong—they’re the experts in dealing with extraordinary incidents. But most of the time, we can handle the incidents that happen here ourselves. We rarely need outside help,” she said slowly. “So our relationship with them is mostly professional. Ironically, it’s the ‘normal people’ the Council sends who feel closer to us in our daily lives.”
Yu Sheng looked thoughtful. “I see…”
“Yes,” she nodded. “Because in this courtyard, there aren’t many like me—Guardians. Most here are just kids who suffer from nightmares.”