Chapter 031

Chapter 31: Passing By

He opened the supermarket door and walked in.

It was a simple, normal process, but after the shocks from opening doors just now, he could hardly believe it. He even felt aftereffects. Seeing the shelves and the owner, his mind started making wild guesses.

[What if this looks like the supermarket I remember, but it’s really some creepy nest copying the place? The shelves look normal, but the jars might all hold eyeballs in formalin. The owner will say hi and then pull a chainsaw sword from his pocket, charge me, and chop me under the register.]

Luckily, those wild thoughts just drifted by. Yu Sheng calmed down, first confirming he was really inside a normal store, then figuring out when he could open doors in a normal way. He nodded to the young owner and said: “I’m here to buy some things. Do you have instant noodles and compressed biscuits by the box?”

“Instant noodles, yes. Unopened boxes are stacked under the stairs to the second floor. Pick what you want,” the owner said, pointing to a metal stair. He thought Yu Sheng’s blank stare at first was odd, but he let it go and added: “No boxes of compressed biscuits left. Middle row on the left shelf, see it? That’s all we’ve got. People don’t buy them much, so I don’t stock many.”

“Okay, pack all the biscuits for me. I’ll grab the noodles,” Yu Sheng said, then added: “And two packs of hot dogs, the big ones.”

“Got it,” said the owner.

He took a big shopping bag, started loading the biscuits, and chatted as he worked: “Buying this much instant noodles and biscuits at once? Living on these isn’t good. My wife nags me about it all the time.”

“Just stocking up at home,” Yu Sheng said.

The owner didn’t push it. He filled a large bag and headed to the register. Right then the glass door was pushed open again. Both panels swung, and one hinge let out a tooth-grinding squeal.

The owner looked up from counting biscuits: “Hey, that door’s broken. There’s a sign on it.”

“My bad, I didn’t notice,” said a young man with black hair in casual clothes. He glanced back, a little embarrassed, at the half of the glass door that no longer swung back on its own, then turned his face forward: “Do you have instant noodles by the box?”

Yu Sheng was walking between two shelves with a box of noodles in his arms. Hearing the voices at the counter, he looked up for a second, then looked away.

“That kind is fine,” said the black-haired guy, pointing at the noodles in Yu Sheng’s arms: “I’ll take a box too.”

“Under the stairs on your right,” said the owner without looking up: “Grab it yourself. I’ll check this customer out first.”

Yu Sheng brushed past the young man, paid at the register, then walked out into the darkening evening with one hand holding the big shopping bag and the other balancing the noodle box on his shoulder.

Li Lin found the boxes of noodles under the stairs the owner had mentioned. As he bent to lift one, his phone buzzed. He checked the screen and saw a message from Team Rapunzel.

He glanced toward the counter, then lowered his head and typed: “I’m settled in. Out buying supplies.”

The phone buzzed twice. A new message popped up: “Any unusual signs?”

Li Lin typed: “None. Tomorrow I’ll walk the streets and talk to locals.”

After sending, the young Special Affairs Bureau officer hesitated and added another: “When will the Deep Diver arrive? Who’s coming?”

This time the reply took longer. Then the phone buzzed again: “Xu Jiali. On station tomorrow.”

Li Lin stared at the message for a second. He was about to ask more when the lead sent another: “He just got back from Aimein-IX. Something happened there, he wrapped early. He’s reporting in and doing full checks now. We’ll send him to you tomorrow.”

Li Lin’s mouth twitched. He typed fast: “No time off after a field job? Not even half a day?”

“Xu Jiali asked for it,” the lead wrote: “His last case was unusual. He has some post deep dive side effects and needs to wear a stabilizer for a few days. Your area should be quiet short-term. He can treat this like rest. You two can talk tomorrow.”

Li Lin smirked, sent “Okay,” and carried the box to the counter.

The owner looked up and, while aiming the scanner, repeated himself: “Living on this stuff isn’t good. My wife nags me every day…”

Li Lin laughed: “Then I shouldn’t buy it?”

“That’ll be 62.8 yuan,” the owner said.

Irene heard the front door open. Someone had come in from outside, but when she leaned out of the frame toward the entryway, Yu Sheng didn’t show up for a while.

After a bit, he finally poked his head in, mumbling to himself. He peered around for a long moment, then, moving like a thief, he stepped in, put a pile of goods by the door, and turned to close it.

Irene watched in silence. When he finished closing the door, she finally asked: “What are you doing? Why are you coming home like a burglar?”

“Don’t bring it up,” Yu Sheng said as he changed his shoes: “I’ve got a serious psychological shadow about opening doors now. I don’t move forward unless I confirm things three times.”

Her eyes went to the heap by the door: “You bought a lot,” Miss Doll said with some surprise: “You should use a little cart, like a camping wagon. They’re great.”

Yu Sheng didn’t answer at once. He looked down at the noodles, hot dogs, and biscuits by the door, then slapped his forehead: “I should have bought liquid food. She’s been hungry too long to eat this right away. No, tomorrow morning I’ll go back for a case of eight-treasure congee… or should I go now?”

Irene listened, and when she saw he was about to open the door and head out again, she spoke up: “Tomorrow.”

His shoes were back on. One hand on the handle, he looked over his shoulder: “She’s still starving…”

“Even if you buy it now, can you deliver it to that fox right this minute?” Irene stared at him and added: “And I mean this. Even if you bring food, it only eases things for a while. The real problem over there isn’t the lack of food. It’s the entity called Hunger.”

Yu Sheng stopped.

After a moment’s thought, he changed back into his house shoes, went to the table, and sat across from Irene.

“You’re right. Hunger is the main problem. Feeding her for now still helps, but we can do it tomorrow. No rush. First we need to find a way to enter that valley steadily,” he said.

Hearing the serious note in his voice at the end, Irene linked it to the hints from their earlier call and sensed something.

“What happened?” she asked: “Do you… have a way into the valley?”

“Strictly speaking, not a way into the valley,” Yu Sheng said, then raised his hand in front of her and grabbed at the air.

His fingers closed around a handle. A door popped into view out of thin air. The door itself looked plain, but its edges trembled like a mirage. Under Irene’s shocked gaze, Yu Sheng gave it a pull.

The phantom door flew open. On the far side stood the grease-stained elf woman with mechanical limbs on her back and a wheel-like lower body, still wearing a silver robe.

She was in front of some huge machine tool, eyes going wide as she turned this way.

Her mechanical limbs behind her kept adjusting a big device on the platform that glowed with flowing light. She stared at Yu Sheng for two seconds, then shouted: “So what are you even…”

Yu Sheng slammed the door.

“I didn’t expect to link to the same place twice,” he said, surprised and thoughtful: “Hold on, this might be… I should try to reproduce it…”

He had barely started mumbling when Irene exploded. She looked like she would jump out of the painting to bite him: “What was that? What was that? Huh?!”

“As you saw,” Yu Sheng exhaled: “A door.”

“I know it was a door,” Irene said, taking a deep breath and springing to her feet: “But what exactly is it? What is that?”