Chapter 13: Encounter
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Yu Sheng awoke to a familiar sensation—the weight of darkness pressing in all around him, as if he was sinking deeper and deeper into an endless, inky sea. His thoughts floated aimlessly, swirling like leaves caught in a storm, leaving behind nothing but a heavy exhaustion.
He had expected the road out of the Otherworld to be dangerous—maybe even life-threatening. But he hadn’t expected this. As he drifted in the suffocating blackness, fragmented memories began to surface. The last thing he remembered was a pair of golden-red eyes locking onto his, and those magnificent fox tails flaring like fireworks in the sky.
And then that headbutt. That supersonic headbutt.
Who was that girl anyway? Where did she come from? And why was she in that strange place? The questions kept circling in his mind, as if by thinking about them enough, he’d be able to untangle the mystery.
But that wasn’t all that troubled him. During the fight with the monster, something had changed inside him. His strength had surged, his movements had sharpened, and there was that overwhelming hunger. What was happening to him?
Yu Sheng’s thoughts spun in circles. With no body to ground him, his mind conjured strange, shifting images—snippets of memories and feelings: the creature made of countless limbs, the fox-eared girl crashing into him. Then suddenly, a different image appeared—a painting of Irene, shattered across a chair, her puppet-like limbs connected by delicate threads. In the background, a shadow lurked, faint but unmistakable.
And just as quickly, it was gone.
More memories floated to the surface—crimson skies, sunlight flowing like water down familiar streets and alleys. It was Boundary City, his home. He had left it only two months ago, but somehow these scenes felt distant, like memories from someone else’s life.
The images faded back into darkness, leaving Yu Sheng alone in silence.
For a moment, his mind cleared, and he tried calling out, “Irene.”
No response. Of course not. In this state of “death,” he must have lost his connection to her.
Yu Sheng tried focusing on something else. Could he move his limbs? Was there anything here to touch or see? He tried looking around, but all he found was an empty void. He was just a floating consciousness—without form, without a body.
For a while, he experimented in silence. The last two times he had “died,” he had no real grasp of what had happened. Each time, he came back to life in a daze. But this time was different. This time, he had some clarity—an awareness that allowed him to test the boundaries of this strange place.
It had all been a blur—an unfamiliar world, bizarre events, mysteries about his own body, and the fact that he had died and come back twice. None of it made sense.
But ever since Irene mentioned the “Otherworld,” Yu Sheng had set a new goal: to return to the normal world.
She had told him that sometimes, ordinary people would accidentally slip into the Otherworld. It could happen in the most mundane ways—stepping off the wrong bus stop, turning an extra corner, opening the wrong door. It wasn’t always permanent, and there were ways to come back.
According to Irene, there were even people who studied the Otherworld—experts who had mapped out some of its rules. Some had managed to return to their normal lives after slipping through the cracks.
This valley, where night never ended, was one such Otherworld. The house on Wutong Road, where Yu Sheng had stayed, was another. But Yu Sheng had a feeling that his journey into the Otherworld had begun even earlier—maybe the day he opened his front door two months ago was the day he first stepped into this strange reality.
Now, more than ever, he needed to understand. He had to figure out these strange occurrences, unlock the secrets of the Otherworld, and most importantly, find his way out.
With that resolve, Yu Sheng opened his eyes.
The cold night wind swept through the gaping hole in the wall, its sharp bite carrying through the half-collapsed roof and into the dim, murky sky beyond.
Yu Sheng sat in the corner of the ruined temple, not moving right away. He stayed perfectly still, frozen in the posture of someone who had just woken up. His senses were on high alert, carefully scanning everything around him. His mind scrambled to hold onto the memories and impressions that were slipping away, vanishing as quickly as they had come.
He was trying to recall that exact moment when he had woken up, to pinpoint where the line was between the darkness he’d emerged from and the “real world” he now found himself in.
Maybe, just maybe, this would help him understand what was really happening to him—the mystery of his constant “dying and resurrecting.”
At the very least, it could give him a clue to what lay behind it all.
Gradually, pieces of what he’d seen before waking up began to return to him. He remembered rising out of the darkness, crossing a foggy boundary, and then falling back toward reality. But after that? What had happened between the moment he descended toward reality and the instant his eyes opened? There was something important in that tiny sliver of time.
There had been fleeting images—brief, blurry scenes—yet a few had stood out, clearer than the rest. He saw the familiar path near his home, the gate of the house on Wutong Road, and this very corner deep inside the ruined temple.
Yu Sheng closed his eyes for a moment, letting his thoughts settle. He entertained some theories but decided to push them aside for now. Instead, he took a slow, deep breath and began flexing his hands and feet, testing his body.
This body felt strong and powerful. He could sense the energy coursing through his veins. His hearing was sharp, his vision clear, and his limbs brimming with strength—even though he had been nearly decapitated not long ago by a supersonic headbutt. Now, it was as if none of that had happened. He felt completely refreshed.
Standing up, Yu Sheng prepared to call out to Irene.
But then he froze.
There was a sound, faint but unmistakable, coming from beyond the broken wall.
For a brief second, Yu Sheng’s mind raced. That delicious-smelling monster… had it followed him into the temple?
But no. Something was wrong. That creature always made a lot of noise. Whatever this was, it was moving stealthily, almost cautiously.
Yu Sheng took a silent breath, letting his curiosity take over as he crept to the hole in the wall and peeked outside.
The night was deep, but he could still see clearly.
There, among the ruins, was a girl. She was picking her way carefully through the debris.
Her clothes were tattered—a gown that might once have been beautiful but now was little more than a ragged mess. Her white hair hung in tangled knots, covering most of her face. But poking through the disarray were two pointed, furry fox ears.
Yu Sheng’s gaze shifted behind her, and his eyes widened at what he saw: tails—fox tails, more than one. From his angle, it was hard to count exactly how many. The way her tails were tangled made it look like she only had one enormous one.
He knew who she was, of course.
The one who’d delivered the supersonic headbutt.
Yet, she seemed completely unaware of his presence. She moved cautiously among the ruins, sniffing the air as though searching for something. After a while, her eyes lit up, and she darted toward a specific spot.
The sound of rustling plastic echoed faintly in the night.
Yu Sheng’s jaw dropped.
It was the plastic bag—the one filled with kitchen scraps. He’d brought it with him when he’d been “thrown” into this valley earlier. Without thinking much of it, he had tossed it into the ruins.
Inside the bag were discarded vegetable peels, eggshells, and the leftovers he had cleaned out from the fridge.
He crouched lower, watching as the fox-tailed girl excitedly tore at the plastic bag, spilling its contents. Without a second thought, she grabbed a handful of scraps and stuffed them into her mouth, eating hungrily as though she hadn’t had a meal in ages.
Yu Sheng felt a strange tightness in his chest.
He wasn’t sure why, but it filled him with sadness. No one, he thought, should be left to starve like this.
Not even someone who didn’t quite look… human.
Even if she had headbutted him before. After all, she had been trying to save him.
Just then, the girl seemed to sense that she wasn’t alone.
She crouched there, frozen mid-bite, her eyes wide with surprise and nervousness.
Yu Sheng stood at the crumbling corner of the temple wall. Across the ruins, their eyes met.