Chapter 102
Chapter 102: Exit
The applause crashed over them as if a crowd of invisible people sat in the void and cheered for a perfect scene, which made Little Red Riding Hood freeze before she blurted: “This works?!”
Yu Sheng was even more confused as he scratched his head and said: “I don’t know, I only brought up a plan and didn’t get to do anything…”
But the applause was real. While Little Red Riding Hood and Yu Sheng stared in shock, the entire Museum seemed to tremble, and then everything began to change: with a rumble the room broke apart, the solid roof and walls turned into fake backdrops and simple props, then sank quickly into darkness and nothingness, the color drained from the floor to reveal a dusty stage, the dark gathered from every side, and with the thump of relays, lights dropped from above to flood the stage and the seats around it.
The theater grew bright, and the empty rows kept clapping on and on; after ten more seconds the applause finally faded.
Yu Sheng glanced around fast to make sure everyone was there, then caught Little Red Riding Hood’s odd look.
Feeling awkward, he rubbed his neck and said: “Um… I just had a bold idea and figured a big stir might meet the ‘curtain call’ condition, but I never did it in the end…”
Little Red Riding Hood shook her head, thoughtful as she answered: “No, I think you really found a way to exit that fits the Night at the Museum rule, even if it’s a little… extreme. Night at the Museum’s in-and-out rule meshes with this ‘theater’ exit. The nature of leaving at curtain call is to create a ‘deviation value.’ The more what happens strays from the ‘stage,’ the easier it is to trigger the ending. I’d say ‘detonating a lot of Fox tails inside a Museum’ counts as a severe off-script event, the sort of thing that would be too much even if the ‘actors’ only mentioned it.”
Yu Sheng blinked and asked: “Really?”
She curled her lip and said: “Who can say for sure? The Otherworld is full of things that are hard to explain. If this really is the reason, then no one else can copy the method anyway, since not everyone has an… abstract Nine-Tailed Fox following them like you do.”
Yu Sheng reached out to stroke the fur behind Foxy’s ear, and Foxy squinted happily, then muttered that she was hungry and pulled a big flatbread from her tails to start munching.
“You burned a lot of energy today,” Yu Sheng said, then suddenly remembered something and added: “Wait, we popped out so fast. Did you forget the tails you left in the white Exhibition Hall to control those ‘guards’?”
Foxy nodded briskly and replied: “I brought them out. The moment that illusion collapsed, the tails turned back into demon power and returned.”
“That’s really handy,” Yu Sheng said with honest admiration.
“Let’s leave this place,” Little Red Riding Hood breathed out as she looked at the theater still lit by lights from nowhere and said: “We’ll go back the way we came. When we return to the ticket booth, the effects of Night at the Museum will officially end.”
“Got it,” Yu Sheng answered, and he glanced at the “The Weeper” statue still in his hand.
By Museum rule, anything held at the moment of “curtain call” or the end of “the night show” could be carried out of the Otherworld safely. Now it was his first trophy as a new Spirit Realm Detective.
It was light, much lighter than he expected, and the material didn’t feel like stone or any natural substance. If he had to say it: the surface felt suspiciously like skin, as if a sheet of pale hide had been stretched tight over something hard, with a faint, ghostly warmth.
Under the overhead lights, the veiled, weeping woman statue gave off a strange aura. Yu Sheng didn’t know how much “art” it held or why the client wanted it. [If it were up to me, I’d never put this thing in my home.]
They left the stage, passed the empty seats, and walked through the same passage they had used to enter-light from no clear source kept their path lit all the way back to the Old Theater’s entrance hall. Little Red Riding Hood tapped on the glass of the dark ticket window, and the theater lights snapped off at once.
Yu Sheng had noticed her wolves prowling, sniffing everywhere along the way, and now a few still paced near the ticket window and another corridor that led deeper into the theater. Curious, he asked: “What are they doing?”
“Checking for anyone else’s scent,” Little Red Riding Hood whispered. “This Node didn’t sound an alarm, but people did enter the Museum. They couldn’t have gone in out of thin air… unless someone else can ‘Door Opening’ in and out of the Otherworld whenever they like, same as you.”
Yu Sheng waved both hands at once and said: “That’s unlikely. My Door Opening will still trigger alarms-and I hear it’s pretty loud. But didn’t you say we should avoid getting tangled up with the Angel Cultists?”
“…Yes, that’s true,” Little Red Riding Hood said after a brief pause with a small nod. The wolves pacing the area slipped back without a sound and hid themselves in the shadows at her feet.
They left the Old Theater through the front door and stepped back into the city night.
It was already midnight. Except for the distant sound of cars on a main road, everything around them felt unusually quiet.
Little Red Riding Hood took “The Weeper” from Yu Sheng, then found the big backpack she had hidden earlier in the shrubs near the Museum’s front door and tucked the statue inside.
“I’ll bring this to the Curiosities Association’s client and close the job, and I’ll also ask a few trusted friends to check if anything is off with this commission. Your payment can arrive as soon as tomorrow. Border communication has a transfer function; bind your bank card and withdraw the balance,” she said, and she added a bit of instruction: “Spirit Realm Detectives and Investigators usually only use Border’s channel, because offline deals aren’t protected by the Borderland Council, so you take your own risk.”
“Okay,” Yu Sheng said, though he sounded absent-minded, clearly thinking about something else. He rubbed his brow and started: “About what happened in the white Exhibition Hall…”
“I’ll report it,” Little Red Riding Hood said casually. “People from the Special Affairs Bureau will soon reach out for details. They already have you on record, and they’ll treat this very seriously. They may invite you to investigate more, or… tell you a few things about the Dark Angels. But remember what I said: avoid contact as much as you can. Plenty of veteran Investigators and Spirit Realm Detectives have stumbled on that kind of case and paid for it.”
She stopped mid-sentence, then gave a strange look and shook her head before adding: “Maybe I’m fussing. You’re not an ‘ordinary person.’”
“Thanks for caring,” Yu Sheng said with genuine gratitude, then couldn’t help adding with a small sigh: “I already said this once, but I have to say it again… you’re really used to looking after people.”
Little Red Riding Hood flinched, looking a bit unnatural as she replied: “Uh, I never noticed. But there are a lot of members younger than me in Fairy Tale. I probably picked up the habit.”
Yu Sheng smiled in understanding; from an angle she didn’t see, his eyes softened with respect. [She really does take care of people.]
They said goodbye at a corner near the Museum. Little Red Riding Hood and her Wolf Pack melted into shadow under the night; their afterimages flowed past like a light wind and vanished from sight in a blink.
Watching where she disappeared, Yu Sheng couldn’t help remarking: “That’s convenient, especially for traveling at night,” then he muttered with a grin: “Saves on cab fare.”
He had only said it offhand, but the little Fox beside him suddenly bowed her head in shame and said: “I’m sorry, Benefactor. I make too much noise when I travel. I can’t bring you home quietly…”
Yu Sheng waved fast and said: “No, no, I don’t mind.”
“How are we getting back?” Irene asked with curiosity as she wrinkled her nose. “Are we calling a cab? What if that Xu Jiali comes again-I don’t want to ride in his car.”
“Door Opening home,” Yu Sheng said lightly.
Irene gaped and asked: “Huh? Back in the Museum you said not to Door Opening in the middle of the night so you wouldn’t set off the Special Affairs Bureau.”
Yu Sheng took out his phone and said: “Use your head. We’re out, so the phones work now. If I call and give notice first, then I won’t scare anyone.”
He pointed at his shoulder as he spoke. The Giant Wolf that had leapt from Little Red Riding Hood’s shadow had bitten him there earlier. The wound was healed, but his clothes were still stiff and stained with blood. Under the streetlight, it looked especially alarming.
“And I look like this. If I call a car and a regular driver shows up, I might scare the poor guy.”
He dialed the number Bai Li Qing had given him.
A moment later, a voice that sounded like it had just been dragged from sleep came through the speaker and said: “Who is this?”
“It’s me, Yu Sheng,” he said quickly, then winced and asked: “Sorry, did I wake you?”
“…Yeah, I just fell asleep, but it’s fine,” Bai Li Qing answered with her usual cool tone, impossible to read. “What happened?”
Yu Sheng felt a little embarrassed and said: “I want to open The Door, so I thought I should tell the Special Affairs Bureau first. I wasn’t sure who to call, so I called you…”
There was two seconds of silence.
He had no idea what the female Director thought in those two seconds. When her voice returned, it was still calm as she said: “Okay, understood. I’ll notify the Monitoring Unit to skip the next alarm signals. In about two minutes you can do your Door Opening.”
Yu Sheng wiped cold sweat from his forehead. Even though her voice was calm, he felt a strange pressure as he said: “Oh, thanks… I won’t keep you then. Go back to sleep. Good night.”
“…All right. Good night,” she said.
Yu Sheng hung up and let out a long breath in the dark.
Perched on his shoulder, Irene poked his head with her finger and said: “She was cursing you for those two seconds.”
“You heard that?”
“Spiritual Intuition,” she said with pride.
“Your Spiritual Intuition can do that?”
“Yep!” she chirped.