Chapter 076

Chapter 76: The Odd People Living in the Otherworld

Standing at the door of Wutong Road 66, Yu Sheng raised his hand and pointed at the old townhouse ahead, then spoke to Foxy and the Irene in her arms: “Can you two see the house in front of us?”

Foxy nodded like it was normal and said, “Sure, it’s right there. We could see it when we left the door, and we can see it coming back too.”

Yu Sheng looked at Little Red Riding Hood and asked: “Can you see it?”

Little Red Riding Hood stared at the empty space ahead and the low wall with abstract graffiti at the far end of the open ground, then turned to Foxy and Irene with doubt in her eyes and asked, “You two can really see it?”

Yu Sheng understood at once and said, “Looks like you can’t. Even if I gave you an invite, you still can’t see it from here.”

Little Red Riding Hood spread her hands.

Yu Sheng fell into thought.

He was curious about many things: his own condition, the Otherworld, the Special Affairs Bureau, that Night Valley, and of course this strange mansion he had lived in for two months. With a bit of what he called a necessary research spirit, he had invited Little Red Riding Hood home today to test how weird this so called nonexistent Wutong Road 66 really was.

Now he had an early result.

Foxy and Irene could see Wutong Road 66. Little Red Riding Hood could not, even with the owner’s invite.

Yu Sheng thought a moment and found the biggest difference between Foxy and Irene on one side and Little Red Riding Hood on the other.

He lifted his head and said, eyes moving between them: “So this is probably about blood, right?”

Foxy and Irene had both accepted his blood before. It created a delicate link between them, and through that link they could even sense his resurrection. Little Red Riding Hood hadn’t had that experience.

[That seems like the most likely reason.]

Little Red Riding Hood did not notice Yu Sheng’s expression. She was busy looking around with curiosity.

The sun was sinking. In the shadows along the buildings, wolf shapes flickered in and out. Her Wolf Pack watched the whole block, serving as her eyes and ears.

She noticed something strange: from the moment they stepped onto Wutong Road, the closer they walked toward this open ground, the fewer people there were. When they reached the open ground where Wutong Road 66 should be, there were no pedestrians at all.

It was like an invisible force was keeping ordinary people away from the mansion.

Yet even her Wolf Pack could not tell how that force worked. The whole street felt clean, unnaturally clean, almost like a vacuum under the sight of the supernatural.

Just then, Little Red Riding Hood felt a gaze on her. She turned and found Yu Sheng watching her seriously.

She felt a little awkward and asked, “Uh… do you need something?”

Yu Sheng reached out his hand and asked with a straight face: “Want a bite?”

Little Red Riding Hood blinked and said, “Huh?”

“Blood. Irene and Foxy have both come into contact with my blood. They changed a bit afterward, and now they can see Wutong Road 66,” Yu Sheng explained carefully. “So I’m thinking you could try it too. Treat it like an experiment.”

Little Red Riding Hood’s face grew visibly odd. She even stepped back half a step, eyes bristling like a startled wolfdog. After she was sure Yu Sheng was acting out of pure research spirit, her guard eased a little, but she still said with a firm shake of the head, “No.”

“It won’t hurt you,” said Yu Sheng. He had guessed she would refuse. Inviting someone to take a bite out of you was sudden, after all. He still tried to persuade her and said, “Don’t you want to see what Wutong Road 66 looks like from the outside?”

“I’m not a cat, why would I have that much curiosity?” Little Red Riding Hood took another small step back, then turned to Foxy and Irene and asked, “Why does he just act on impulse like this?”

In Foxy’s arms, Irene wiggled a little. After she made sure no one else was around, she finally took the chance to speak and said, “That’s how he is. He acts on impulse and calls it research spirit. Don’t mind him.”

“How can you say that,” Yu Sheng complained. “Am I really that bad?”

Irene said nothing and just released a quiet scent of lotus from Foxy’s arms.

Yu Sheng fell silent.

“If you don’t want to, forget it,” he said after two or three seconds of awkward quiet. He waved her off with a dry laugh, stepped to the front door, and turned the lock. Then he remembered something, moved aside, and called to the fox maiden behind him: “Come try opening this door.”

“Ah? Okay.” Foxy froze, then nodded, stepped up, and grabbed the handle.

With a click, the unlocked front door swung open easily.

In Little Red Riding Hood’s eyes, a door appeared out of thin air on the open ground, floating near the low wall covered with abstract graffiti.

“Good. At least you and Irene can come and go now without me opening it every time,” Yu Sheng said with relief. After learning that Wutong Road 66 was an Otherworld that outsiders could neither see nor enter, he had worried about many small things: delivery riders not finding the door, appliances never making it home, online orders with no address he could write, and the two residents not being able to come and go freely. Now one problem was solved.

He smiled, reached a hand to Little Red Riding Hood, and said: “Come in and sit. I’ll cook. Stay for dinner as thanks for taking Foxy and Irene out today.”

“It’s nothing. You already did half my homework,” said Little Red Riding Hood. Even so, she accepted the invite and walked into the mansion that did not exist in the real world.

Yu Sheng turned on the living room light. The bright glow pushed away the dusk and warmed the quiet house right away.

He quickly put away the things he bought, pulled out the ingredients for the evening, told Little Red Riding Hood to find a seat, and headed to the kitchen.

Little Red Riding Hood looked around carefully, with a mix of unease and curiosity.

This was her second time here, and this time she came as an invited guest.

She rarely visited other people’s homes. Her trips into Otherworlds far outnumbered her steps through anyone else’s front door. At the same time, she understood this ordinary looking home was itself an Otherworld. Today’s visit was, in essence, an Otherworld expedition.

It was the strangest expedition since she became a spirit realm detective. There were no twisted landscapes, no invisible pollution, and no phantoms pretending to be teammates. There was only bright light and a warm space. A gentle, friendly demon fox stood beside her. A happy doll ran off to turn on the TV. And the being who had swallowed Hunger in the Otherworld was in the kitchen cooking dinner.

She could even sit at the table and do homework while waiting for the food.

[There are so many things that don’t fit. I don’t even know which one to complain about first.]

But noisy little Irene soon left her no time to think. The doll shouted from the living room: “Come watch TV. The TV in the living room is bigger than the one in the dining room!”

“I have to catch up on homework,” Little Red Riding Hood said as she walked to the table. “I still have half a notebook to do.”

“You humans work so hard,” Irene sighed loudly from the sofa. She called toward the kitchen and asked, “Foxy, are you coming?”

Foxy waved and strolled toward the kitchen, saying, “I’m going to see if our benefactor needs help.”

She entered the kitchen, then came back out two minutes later with a braised chicken leg in her hand, chewing as she walked.

Just starting her homework, Little Red Riding Hood stared in surprise and asked, “Why are you out again?”

“I got kicked out. Benefactor said I was stealing spices. If I eat them all, he can’t braise the meat,” Foxy said with a straight face. Then she lifted the chicken leg proudly and asked, “Want a bite?”

Little Red Riding Hood hesitated and started, “Uh… I’ll just…”

Foxy pulled the chicken leg back at once and said, “If you don’t, I’ll eat it all.”

Little Red Riding Hood fell silent.

A savory stir fry smell drifted from the kitchen and made her hungry.

She took out her phone, thought for a second, and made a call: “It’s me. I won’t be home for dinner. I’m eating at a friend’s place. Yes, a new friend. Safe, safe. I’ll tell you when I get back. I’ll be home before ten. Okay, hanging up.”

When she turned her head, she found Foxy staring right at her while still chewing on the chicken leg.

“This can’t be eaten,” Little Red Riding Hood said, covering the phone by habit.

She had no idea why those words came out.

Foxy didn’t mind. She just asked with curiosity, “Were you calling your family?”

“Yeah.”

“Your father and mother?”

Little Red Riding Hood looked a bit stiff and said, “My parents passed away early. I was calling other family.”

“Oh,” Foxy said with a nod. After some thought that Little Red Riding Hood could not guess at, Foxy held out the almost finished chicken leg and asked, “Want a bite? Only a small one.”

Little Red Riding Hood stared in confusion.

She felt it was hard to understand these odd people who lived in the Otherworld.