Chapter 131: A Childhood Cut Short?
From Little Red Riding Hood’s reaction and the expression on the newly arrived girl’s face, Yu Sheng quickly guessed what had happened.
His brows furrowed instantly, but before he could speak, Little Red Riding Hood waved her hand hurriedly. “Wait here for a moment, I… I’ll be right back.”
“No, I’m coming with you.” Yu Sheng stood up without room for argument. Beside him, Miss Foxy also reached out to hold Irene in her arms and rose to her feet.
“This is an internal matter of the Fairy Tale Organization. We’ve already… gone through this process many times,” Little Red Riding Hood’s expression was dark and heavy. “Thank you for your concern, but…”
“No ‘but’. I know what you mean—but your Wolf bit me,” Yu Sheng cut her off directly. He knew exactly what to say to make this stubborn Young Lady back down. Without hesitation, he brought up the past. “I’ve already been dragged into the Fairy Tale. Maybe the next time I dream, I’ll end up in that Black Forest again. So I need to understand more.”
Faced with such reasoning, Little Red Riding Hood indeed lacked the strength to persist. She gave Yu Sheng a complicated look and finally nodded.
The Long Haired Girl looked somewhat confused at Yu Sheng and the others, clearly holding many questions, but under Little Red Riding Hood’s gaze, she swallowed her words and turned to open the Door.
As soon as they stepped out of the reception room, Yu Sheng saw many children gathered in the hallway.
Some looked only six or seven years old, or even younger. Others seemed to be around twelve or thirteen. They clustered in small groups in the corridor, the typical age for noise and chatter—yet now they were eerily quiet.
A little girl in a blue dress hesitantly approached Little Red Riding Hood when she appeared and tugged gently at her clothes. “Teacher Su said… Xiao Xiao graduated today. Is it true?”
Little Red Riding Hood pressed her lips together and bent down to pat the girl’s head. “Mm, she left today. She’s going somewhere else.”
“Will she come to class this afternoon? I made her a gift…”
“Just give the gift to Teacher Su. She’ll pass it on for you—children who graduate leave quickly. There’s often no time for goodbyes. But… I will say farewell on your behalf.”
“Oh…”
Little Red Riding Hood stood up and hurriedly led Yu Sheng and his group through the hallway.
Once they were out of the children’s sight, Yu Sheng frowned and whispered, “You said this kind of thing has happened many times?”
“Many times,” Little Red Riding Hood nodded gently. “Some children are already very unstable when they arrive here, and others… already suffer from mental illnesses. The Fairy Tale exacerbates their condition. We don’t only face death crises during the ‘coming of age’. The whole of childhood is full of obstacles.”
Irene lifted her head from Miss Foxy’s arms. “They don’t know the truth?”
“The youngest don’t. Additional stress, fear of the unknown, and confusion worsen the Fairy Tale’s effects on them. But around the age of thirteen or fourteen, they start to perceive what’s coming from within the ‘dreams’ and gradually begin to wield the powers granted by the Fairy Tale—we call this moment the ‘Awakening’. After that, they become Guardians… We have a well-established guidance process.”
Irene buried her face back into Miss Foxy’s embrace, her voice muffled and low. “…This is the first time a phrase like ‘well-established guidance process’ has made me feel so uncomfortable.”
Yu Sheng remained silent. His lips were tightly pressed, his expression grim, as if a fire simmered within him—alongside something brewing: intense and unshakable resolve.
Irene sensed something. She quickly glanced up at Yu Sheng, but said nothing.
They passed swiftly through the East Building, then followed Little Red Riding Hood across a skybridge connecting two towers, entering a structure known as the West Building.
The moment they stepped inside, Yu Sheng immediately sensed a shift in the atmosphere.
A faint, pervasive feeling of suppression filled the air. The corridors were so quiet it became unsettling. Though the lights were bright, Yu Sheng kept feeling as if dim shadows lurked in every corner—not physically dark, but psychologically. As if this entire building was infested with things that even light couldn’t dispel, fracturing the space into broken, disjointed pieces.
“There are many seals and isolation measures here,” Little Red Riding Hood seemed to notice the change in Yu Sheng’s expression and offered a soft explanation. “This place is our Containment Facility, more or less—children who have incidents must first undergo certain safety procedures here before they can be sent out.”
Yu Sheng didn’t respond. He simply nodded silently.
He followed Little Red Riding Hood and the Long Haired Princess through a corridor that stirred discomfort deep in his bones. Sunlight filtered through the windows, casting fragmented shadows on the walls. Eventually, they arrived before a heavy iron Door. Standing beside it was a young woman in a light gray coat, looking about twenty-something, her face worn with fatigue, leaning against the wall as if lost in thought.
An adult.
Yu Sheng hesitated at the sight, but quickly recalled what Little Red Riding Hood had told him earlier.
An “employee” sent by the Council?
“This is Teacher Su. She’s responsible for caring for the children under seven,” the Long Haired Princess softly explained, just as he expected. “Sent by the Council. The Cursed Children really like her.”
The woman called Teacher Su blinked herself back to awareness. She noticed the group, but her gaze passed over Yu Sheng, locking instead on Little Red Riding Hood.
“It happened during class…” she murmured. Despite being an adult, she sounded like a child who had done something wrong. “I… should’ve noticed earlier…”
“It wouldn’t have helped. By the time she was sent here, it might have already been too late,” said Little Red Riding Hood, shaking her head. “We’re going in to see the situation.”
“…Alright,” Teacher Su bit her lip and nodded, but then her eyes widened as she finally noticed Yu Sheng, Irene, and Foxy. “Wait, who are they?”
“Companions,” Little Red Riding Hood said, already pushing open the heavy iron Door. “They’re my friends too.”
Teacher Su was stunned. Yu Sheng passed by her with a nod. “Hello, I’m Yu Sheng from the Hotel.”
Foxy echoed, “I’m Foxy, also from the Hotel.”
“I’m Irene, from the Hotel too!”
Before Teacher Su could respond, the group slipped through the Door. It shut behind them with a metallic finality, leaving her staring blankly in the corridor.
Inside, the room was brightly lit.
Yet the oppressive darkness, clawing from within the soul, was worse than in the corridor.
The room was vast and empty, save for a single small bed in the center.
A frail figure lay under a thin blanket, seemingly asleep.
A strange resistance stirred in Yu Sheng’s chest, but he stepped forward anyway.
The child lay there with a peaceful expression.
But no breath stirred her chest.
Red, unsettling patterns covered her neck, arms, and legs—laced with dried blood. It looked as though her limbs had once been torn apart and then forcibly stitched back together.
Yu Sheng instantly remembered Little Red Riding Hood’s transformed arm back in the Valley.
“We acted quickly then, no other children saw it,” whispered the Long Haired Princess. “She turned into a Wolf during a nightmare, just for a moment, but it was already too late.”
“At least she returned to human form in the final moment,” sighed Little Red Riding Hood. “We can send her off as a human.”
“Wait, a Wolf?” Yu Sheng finally grasped something and stared at Little Red Riding Hood. “She had the same ‘symptom’? Then…”
“You didn’t know?” asked the Long Haired Princess, pointing to the child. “She might’ve been the next Little Red Riding Hood.”
She shook her head with a bitter expression. “But it’s meaningless to say that now.”
“Now you’ve seen it,” Little Red Riding Hood said, exhaling deeply. “This is the ending of the tale—her childhood is over.”
“Will that happen to you too?”
“Yes. If I’m lucky, I’ll look like a person. If not… it’ll be something else.”
Yu Sheng didn’t reply. He stared at the red-cloaked girl, then at the child on the bed. He stood still for a long time, lost in thought.
Minutes passed. Just as Little Red Riding Hood was about to speak, Yu Sheng moved.
He reached out and touched the dried blood near the child’s neck.
The Long Haired Princess gasped, stepping forward. “What are you doing?”
Yu Sheng didn’t lift his head. “I want to know what she saw at the last moment. If possible, maybe say a few words to her.”
The Long Haired Princess paused. But before she could reply, Little Red Riding Hood raised a hand to stop her.
At the same time, Yu Sheng gave a puzzled “Hmm?”
“What is it?” Irene asked instinctively.
Yu Sheng didn’t respond right away. He remained still for several seconds, hand resting on the bloodstain, as if sensing something unusual. Then he blinked, exhaled sharply.
“…She’s not dead.”
He spoke softly, with hesitation and confusion. As if to confirm, he looked around at everyone in the room and nodded firmly again.
“I think… she’s not dead.”