Chapter 30: The Gatekeeper
(This novel is translated and hosted on Bcattranslation.)
A soft evening glow fell across the quiet old street as Yu Sheng stood before the convenience store, its familiar glass door just inches away. He had hurried here, eager to buy a few things and head back home, but now he found himself rooted in place, his mind spinning. Everything that had happened in the last few moments was nearly impossible to believe.
Only seconds ago, that very door had led to a scorching, danger-filled place where two armored soldiers had threatened him. Moments before that, he had glimpsed a strange woman—almost like an elf—connected to mechanical devices, and then a boy in a brown robe who seemed to think Yu Sheng’s head had popped out of a cauldron. Yet now, the door looked ordinary, as if nothing unusual had ever happened.
Yu Sheng swallowed hard, feeling his heart still racing. He stood on the sidewalk, the door closed firmly, and took a long, shaky breath. The street itself seemed perfectly normal. A few people strolled by, but nobody paid him any attention. No one looked alarmed. No one seemed to have noticed anything strange. It was as if Yu Sheng alone had slipped into another world—no, several other worlds—and then snapped back again.
His thoughts drifted as he gazed at the front of the store. He had visited this shop many times in the past two months. It was in the Old City District, a quiet place where not much happened. The shopkeepers, a young couple, sold simple everyday items: rice, cooking oil, soap, and small household tools. Yu Sheng had grown somewhat friendly with them, sharing a few words now and then. Nothing about the store’s appearance suggested anything unusual. Through the large glass window, shelves crowded the inside, and brightly colored signs advertised sales and discounts. A small sign on one half of the glass door read, “This Door is Broken.” He could see the owner inside, rearranging some bottles. Everything about it looked perfectly ordinary, harmless, and completely real.
Yet Yu Sheng knew what he had seen. He could still feel the lingering heat on his face and recall that faint smell of sulfur from moments earlier. Even if the air here felt normal and safe, the memory of what lay beyond that door moments ago was burned into his mind. He wanted to push the door open and go in—he needed cooking oil and some other supplies—but he was afraid. His experiences with strange doors these past few weeks had taught him to be careful. He’d learned to hesitate before stepping through any doorway, to consider that what waited beyond might not be what he expected.
At first, he reached out but paused, remembering how strange everything had been. Was it still dangerous? Could the door lead somewhere else again? He stood there a moment, breathing deeply, before deciding to test it. Slowly, he turned the handle just a crack and peeked through the opening.
Inside, he saw the neat little store he knew so well. The shelves were in their proper places, packed with all sorts of goods. The owner moved about, busy with his tasks, seemingly unaware of Yu Sheng’s presence. Everything looked normal—no heat, no desert soldiers, no elf-like woman with mechanical arms. Just a quiet convenience store getting ready for the evening.
Yu Sheng eased the door closed again. Then, as if he needed to prove something to himself, he pulled the door open quickly once more. He had to be sure. He needed another look, to confirm he hadn’t imagined those other worlds.
But this time, what he saw was nothing like the store at all. Instead of shelves and a familiar face, he found himself looking at a tall, graceful woman with long golden hair. Her shimmering silver robe flowed around her, and from its hem extended something like a spinning wheel and mechanical arms that held all sorts of tools. Long, delicate ears peeked out from beneath her hair, and from behind them, shining cables and wires stretched backward, connecting her to something unseen.
Yu Sheng’s eyes widened. She was absolutely beautiful, but also utterly strange. She didn’t seem human at all. She noticed him just as he noticed her. Her eyes grew wide in alarm.
A voice called out from somewhere beyond this bizarre scene, “Boss! The customer wants to know if the ultra-core from last week is fixed yet!”
The golden-haired woman didn’t answer. She stared at Yu Sheng for a long, startled moment before shrieking, “How the heck did you get in here?!”
In a flash of panic, Yu Sheng slammed the door shut. His heart thumped so loudly he thought it might burst. He struggled to catch his breath. Was that really an elf? Had he just seen a person with mechanical limbs in some kind of workshop?
He couldn’t leave it at that. Shaking, he opened the door again, determined to get a better look and understand what was happening.
This time, he was met not by a silver-robed woman, but by a young boy dressed in a coarse brown robe. The boy’s face was smudged with soot, as if he had been tending a fire or working with something messy. He held a fan in his hand, half-raised as if trying to cool himself. When he saw Yu Sheng, the boy’s eyes went round as saucers. He dropped the fan with a clatter, then backed away in terror.
“Master! Master!” the boy shouted, turning and darting off. “Senior Brother’s cauldron worked! It produced a human head! It’s got a nose and eyes! And it’s breathing!” His voice echoed, fading as he ran.
Yu Sheng’s mouth fell open. A human head from a cauldron? Was the boy talking about him? His mind reeled at the idea. He let out a strangled sound and quickly slammed the door shut again. Then he stumbled backward, nearly tripping over his own feet. He glanced around, trying to calm down and make sense of it all.
A few people on the street noticed him this time—just enough to give him puzzled looks. They must have wondered why he kept opening and closing that door and recoiling as if he’d seen a ghost. But since Yu Sheng shut the door each time so quickly, no one else had gotten a glimpse of these strange worlds. To them, it looked as if he were acting odd for no reason at all.
Trying to appear calm, Yu Sheng took a few slow steps away from the store. He leaned against a cement wall at the street corner. He waited, breathing deeply, until no one was staring at him. Only then did he let out a trembling sigh.
He couldn’t believe what he’d just experienced. How many worlds were behind that door? He thought about the scorching planet with armored soldiers, the strange elf-like woman with mechanical limbs, and the soot-faced boy who believed Yu Sheng was some strange creation from a cauldron. None of them seemed like they came from the Otherworld he knew. They were all different, stranger than anything he’d ever encountered. It wasn’t just one unusual world he could step into now—it seemed he could go anywhere.
The more he thought about it, the more he realized that whatever these strange doorways were, they didn’t lead to the familiar Otherworld he had visited before. These were different places entirely, each with its own people and mysteries. If he had to guess, he would say that all these worlds were unique and separate from each other and from his own.
Yu Sheng remained there for a good seven or eight minutes, trying to calm his thoughts, which swarmed like a flock of startled birds. He felt as if a thousand tiny voices were shouting inside his head, none of them making any sense. He needed to focus. He had to think carefully. He took deep breaths and forced himself to consider what he knew:
The door in front of him sometimes led to normal reality—his world.
But at other times, it led to strange and unexpected worlds.
This wasn’t happening only at home; it could happen anywhere, even in the middle of a street in the Old City District.
He recalled what it felt like to open a door to one of these strange places. It was like feeling a handle appear from thin air, as though he could reach out to any surface and imagine a door there. He had done this at home, opening a hidden door at the end of his hallway that led him into the Otherworld. He had even reached out into empty space under a nighttime sky and found a handle there, returning him to his own world afterward. Now it seemed he could do this anywhere. He stepped closer to the plain cement wall beside him, closed his eyes, and imagined a door handle forming under his fingertips. Incredibly, he felt it, as if the handle were truly there. He could almost see a faint, shimmering outline of a door, waiting for him to push it open.
“This is insane!” he muttered, pulling his hand away as if burned. The invisible door vanished, leaving only solid cement. His heart hammered wildly. The power to open doors to other worlds—was that what he possessed now?
He needed help. He needed to talk this through with someone, anyone. Irene’s voice drifted into his mind. She was the only person who really knew a bit about the odd things he’d experienced. She wasn’t an expert, but she was better than no one.
“Irene,” he called out in his thoughts, feeling uncertain and overwhelmed.
“Yes?” came Irene’s cheerful reply. She sounded as if she’d been waiting for him. “I was just about to check on you. You’ve been out for quite a while, and I know the store is just around the corner. Did you get lost or buy too much to carry?”
Yu Sheng hesitated. He didn’t want to explain everything just yet. “I… haven’t gone inside yet,” he said quietly.
“Did you get lost?” Irene asked, puzzled.
Yu Sheng tried to steady himself. He didn’t feel ready to share the whole truth about these doors. “I just wanted to tell you I’ve decided not to move out after all,” he said, speaking slowly.
“What?! Really?” Irene sounded surprised and pleased. “Why the change of heart? You said the house was weird, that you never know where you’ll end up when you open a door.”
Yu Sheng sighed softly. “It’s nothing. I just realized… maybe the problem isn’t the house. Maybe the problem is me.” His voice trailed off. He knew how strange that must sound.
“Um…?” Irene said, clearly baffled. Yu Sheng could picture her blinking in confusion, waiting for him to explain.
He didn’t want to dive into the whole story right now. “It’s complicated,” he said. “I’ll explain it later, if I get the chance.”
Irene, sensing his reluctance, only said, “Oh, okay.” She kept her curiosity to herself, trusting Yu Sheng’s judgment.
Yu Sheng ended the connection with a sigh. He knew Irene might be able to help him think this through eventually, but first, he had to sort out his own thoughts and memories. He needed to remember everything clearly before telling her. She might not have any solutions, but at least he wouldn’t be alone with this secret.
He took a few more minutes to calm himself. As the sky grew dimmer, the air cooled a little, and the normal hum of the street felt comforting. The convenience store’s lights shone warmly through the window. Despite his fears, Yu Sheng realized he couldn’t run from doors forever. He would have to face them, to accept that his life was now tangled up with something incredibly strange.
Finally, he gathered his courage, straightened his shoulders, and stepped away from the wall. He headed back to the convenience store. This time, he approached the door with deliberate care. He focused on how the handle felt, on the image of the store beyond it, and tried to ignore the memory of strange worlds. He opened the door very slowly, as if moving in slow motion, braced for anything.
But the door opened normally. The familiar store owner stood behind a set of crowded shelves, a friendly smile on his face. Everything inside looked exactly as it should—no strange creatures, no mechanical elves, no frightened apprentices. Just a young man eager to help a customer.
“Oh, what can I get for you today?” the owner asked kindly, as if nothing at all had happened.