Chapter 183: Yu Sheng’s Temporary Plan
Yu Sheng wasn’t surprised by Little Red Riding Hood’s response, as he himself didn’t have any concrete ideas.
Instinctively, he felt that the two events were connected. After all, both Little Red Riding Hood and Old Zheng had entanglements with the ‘Fairy Tale’ Otherworld, and the Angel Cultists had clearly targeted both of them. The sacrificial ritual in the White Exhibition Hall was evidently part of a carefully orchestrated ceremony, one with an unmistakable purpose.
However, as Little Red Riding Hood pointed out, there was still a crucial missing link: the ultimate goal of the Angel Cultists. What were they aiming for through the sacrifice? Choosing Little Red Riding Hood as the target had to have a reason.
Suddenly, a vague memory surfaced in Yu Sheng’s mind—something he had overheard when speaking with the sacrificial victim inside the White Exhibition Hall. The Angel Cultists had repeatedly murmured a single phrase during the ritual—
“Deliver the Savior from suffering…”
Little Red Riding Hood caught Yu Sheng’s quiet mumble and instinctively turned her head. “What did you say?”
“The Angel Cultists’ goal—‘Deliver the Savior from suffering’—you remember that, right? And also, ‘Aid His descent’. Is it possible that some unique characteristic of the ‘Fairy Tale’ Otherworld could help a ‘Dark Angel’ break free from some sort of confinement? Or even… could the entire ‘Fairy Tale’ Otherworld itself be the sacrificial offering needed to summon the Dark Angels?”
Little Red Riding Hood’s eyes widened slightly, taken aback.
“Just a theory,” Yu Sheng said calmly. “I’ll mention it to the Special Affairs Bureau when I visit. Either way, resolving the ‘Fairy Tale’ Otherworld has just gained another reason.”
Little Red Riding Hood nodded in agreement.
It was time to go back.
The Cursed Children at the Orphanage were waiting for their Guardian, and Yu Sheng needed to check whether Doll and Foxy had caused any chaos back at home.
“Need me to give you a ride back?” Little Red Riding Hood asked, shadowy wolves flickering around her.
“No need,” Yu Sheng waved his hand dismissively. “I’ll just open a Door.”
As he was about to leave, something else came to mind. “Oh, right—I forgot to mention—Xiao Xiao entered my ‘dream’ too.”
Little Red Riding Hood, who was just about to ride her Wolf, froze in place, looking puzzled. After a few seconds, realization dawned. “You mean that gray wasteland?”
“Yes,” Yu Sheng nodded. “It was around noon. She said she was taking a nap and ended up in the Black Forest, being chased by wolves before somehow escaping to that wasteland. I spent some time with her there. Surprisingly, the little girl wasn’t afraid. In the end, she even avoided the Black Forest’s corruption—so I guess that’s a good thing.”
Little Red Riding Hood blinked, a thoughtful expression crossing her face. “Now that you mention it, Xiao Xiao was already awake when I left earlier. She was enthusiastically telling her friends about some weird dream she had, but I was in a hurry and didn’t pay much attention.”
Yu Sheng tilted his head, curious. “Do you remember how you ended up in that wasteland yourself?”
Little Red Riding Hood frowned in concentration. “I think… I was in the Black Forest too. Wolves were around, and I tried to hide. Just as I dashed out a few steps, my vision blurred, and suddenly I was standing on an unfamiliar grassy plain.”
The two of them exchanged glances, each lost in thought.
A shimmering Door appeared out of thin air as Yu Sheng stepped through, finding himself back at home. No sooner had his feet touched the floor than Foxy’s cheerful, muffled voice rang out from the side, “Benefactor, you’re back!”
Turning his head, Yu Sheng saw Foxy at the dining table, twirling noodles with chopsticks into a tight bundle and gnawing on it like a drumstick, her face smeared with sauce.
Then came Irene’s voice from behind. “How did it go? Any new clues after I left?”
Yu Sheng glanced back and saw three Irenes gathered at the coffee table. Two of them were hunched over a computer—one typing on the keyboard, the other gripping the mouse with both hands—working together at an impressive speed. The third Irene was looking up with curiosity.
“Old Zheng’s case turned out to be quite complicated,” Yu Sheng replied, hanging his coat on the rack and walking over to wipe Foxy’s messy face. As he wiped, he couldn’t help but frown. “Did you wipe your mouth with your tail again?”
Foxy looked up, eyes wide with innocence. “Benefactor, how did you know?”
“Seriously? The tip of your tail is practically marinated in sauce!”
“…Hehe,” Foxy giggled sheepishly, yanking the soiled tail off and trotting off to throw it into the washing machine.
Yu Sheng stood there in stunned silence. “Wait… you can wash your tail in the washing machine?”
Foxy gave him a confident nod. “Of course! A tail mustn’t be an inconvenience.”
Yu Sheng’s eye twitched. At that moment, he finally understood why freshly washed clothes had been mysteriously covered in Fox fur lately.
Yu Sheng had long grown accustomed to strange and peculiar situations, so he just mumbled a few words to himself before addressing Doll Lady and Demon Fox Maiden. “Alright, whether you’re eating or gaming, pause for a moment. I’ve got something to discuss.”
“No need to pause here,” said Irene, the little doll with the oil painting frame on her back, leaping off the coffee table with a series of tiny taps. She ran over to Yu Sheng and looked up at him. “What’s the matter?”
Yu Sheng’s expression grew serious. “I may have found a temporary way to protect Little Red Riding Hood and the other Cursed Children in the Orphanage from the influence of the Fairy Tale… Or rather, a way to grant them ’emergency shelter’ when they’re on the verge of being ‘corrupted.’ It’s just a theory at this point.”
Irene’s eyes widened with surprise. “Huh? What kind of method?”
Yu Sheng sat down beside Foxy and spoke earnestly. “Do you remember when Xiao Xiao also entered my ‘dream’? Just now, I cross-checked the situation with Little Red Riding Hood and found that she also jumped into that wasteland when entering the Black Forest and being pursued by the Wolf. Back then, Foxy also appeared in that wilderness when she was on the brink of being consumed by Hunger. This led me to a bold hypothesis…”
Irene was quick to catch on. “You mean to say that individuals who have established a ‘connection’ with you and gained ‘access’ to that wasteland will have their consciousness forcibly transferred there when faced with fatal danger?”
“That’s just a guess for now,” Yu Sheng nodded cautiously. “The exact mechanism and reliability still need verification, but so far, it seems Foxy, Little Red Riding Hood, and Xiao Xiao all entered the wasteland under similar circumstances.”
Foxy’s ears perked up as she looked at Yu Sheng curiously. “Benefactor, are you saying…”
“We may not yet be able to deal with the entire ‘Fairy Tale’ Otherworld, but if we can at least protect the Cursed Children currently affected by it, that would be a huge breakthrough,” Yu Sheng replied. “Even if it doesn’t work, there’s no harm—at most, I’ll just have to drink a couple more bowls of brown sugar water when I’m back.”
The casual tone of that last line left Irene speechless, and she muttered under her breath, “Two bowls might not be enough—you’d be better off taking a half-hour nap.”
Yu Sheng just waved it off. “That’s a minor issue.”
“Alright then, minor issue,” Irene glanced at him skeptically. “Let’s talk about the major issue—how exactly do you plan to ‘execute’ this?”
“Execute?” Yu Sheng looked blank. “What else? The simplest way—just let them touch my blood.”
Irene immediately gave him a look as if he had lost his mind. “You’re saying you’ll gather dozens of underaged kids together, maybe even line them up in a circle for efficiency, and then walk around bleeding all over them to paint them with your blood… Right?”
Yu Sheng remained clueless. “What’s wrong with that?”
Irene raised a brow. “Try picturing that scene again.”
After a moment of thought, Yu Sheng’s face began to register a hint of understanding. Foxy gently patted his arm with her tail. “Benefactor, back where I’m from, even proper blood rituals don’t work that way. Doing it like that is usually the domain of heretic practitioners—you’d get dragged off by the Peacekeeping Immortals before you were halfway done, sentenced to at least three centuries.”
Yu Sheng finally realized how bizarre it sounded, his expression turning blank. “That… does sound a bit off. Even if the Cursed Children in the Orphanage are fine with it, the security personnel sent by the Council would definitely report me…”
“We need a more reasonable approach,” Irene spread her hands. “At least something that doesn’t look so deranged.”
Yu Sheng furrowed his brows in deep contemplation.
After a long period of thought, inspiration struck him like a dark flash. “What if we gathered the Cursed Children together and made them eat a dish of bloodied spicy hotpot?”
Irene stared at him, utterly dumbfounded. Moments later, she snapped out of it and shouted, “Why does that sound even more deranged?!”
Yu Sheng just gave a nonchalant shrug and looked toward the Fox Girl next to him. “What do you think?”
Foxy was already drooling, her gaze fixed on him. “Benefactor, can I taste it first?”
Irene just stood there, eyes wide with disbelief. As the self-proclaimed pillar of sanity on Wutong Road No. 66, she couldn’t help but feel that this entire conversation had gone completely off the rails—though that wasn’t entirely unusual in this chaotic household.
Fortunately, just before Irene could leap up in frustration, Yu Sheng suddenly smacked his forehead. “Wait a minute. We need to think this through more carefully—bloodied spicy hotpot might not be suitable.”
Irene breathed a sigh of relief. “I knew it—you finally realized…”
Yu Sheng cut her off. “The kids probably can’t handle spicy food.”
Irene froze in place, at a complete loss for words. “What kind of illness do you even have?!”