Chapter 121

Chapter 121: Little House

Squirrel’s nervous babbling made Yu Sheng instinctively tilt his head and listen, but he only heard a distant, faint wind.

The flames in the fireplace crackled. Outside the doors and windows, the wind was so faint it was hard to make out. Those tiny sounds made everything feel even quieter, and a peaceful calm filled the candlelight of the little house.

The layout of the room was clear at a glance. As soon as you entered, there was a plain square table covered with a blue checkered cloth, with two chairs beside it. Against the far wall stood a wooden shelf piled with odds and ends, and next to it a wardrobe as tall as a person. In the corner was a single bed with a thick mattress that looked genuinely comfortable.

On the wall to the left of the entrance was a window. In it were reflected the firelight from the fireplace and candlesticks, as well as Squirrel hopping around.

Yu Sheng walked to the window and peered outside cautiously. The old wooden floor creaked under his feet. Outside, there was only the heavy, endless nightscape of the forest. It should have been the short moment just after dusk, when a sliver of daylight still remained, but the dense canopy blocked that limited light. Beneath it all were shadows like a curtain of night.

Maybe it was just in his head, but Yu Sheng kept feeling as if countless pairs of cold eyes were hidden in those shadows. Countless predators seemed to be lurking in the night, surrounding the little house and waiting for an opening.

“Stop looking,” Squirrel said, pacing on the wooden table with its paws behind its back. “The more you look, the more scared you get. In the dark, the things you imagine always crawl out—and the only thing you can imagine in here is wolves. Oh, nuts!”

It suddenly spotted a plate of acorns on the table and bounced over happily. Hugging one in its paws, it looked back at Yu Sheng. “Want one? Good stuff!”

“No, thanks.” Yu Sheng waved a hand. Most of his attention was still on observing the little house.

He noticed there were red cloth strips and cords inside too, like some kind of shelter decoration. Red strings and talisman-like strips were tied to the doors and windows and hung under the roof, while broken scraps and tangled thread ends lay in a messy pile in the corner.

Squirrel suddenly jumped down from the table and rummaged through the pile. It found a long red cloth strip and wrapped it around itself in a messy spiral.

“Good omen, good omen!” it cried.

Yu Sheng was curious. “What are you doing?”

“Doing lucky things,” Squirrel said, wrapped in the red cloth strip and looking ridiculous yet oddly proud. “Red is a lucky color. A squirrel needs its own lucky color—especially a squirrel as cute as me. Cute enough to burst. Damn it, how is there not even any wine in this house? I’m thirsty.”

It ran back to the table, picked up a big acorn, knocked it hard on the tabletop, and lowered its head to gnaw.

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then walked to the table and sat down, watching Squirrel chew. “Can you tell me about Little Red Riding Hood?”

“Which one? Which one do you mean?” Squirrel looked up, candlelight reflected in its eyes. “Ah, you mean the newest one. The one that’s still alive. But why should I tell you? You’re some grown-up who barged in out of nowhere.”

“…I’m her friend. I want to know about her,” Yu Sheng said. He knew this Squirrel was neurotic and hard to deal with, but he had patience. “You helped me earlier. I think you’re a good squirrel. Maybe you’d be willing to keep helping me—and my friend.”

“A good squirrel—now you’re talking. I am a good squirrel,” Squirrel said, looking pleased as it paced a couple of steps on the table. “But I don’t know where to start… What is there to say? I don’t know how she lived outside, and I don’t really understand what she was thinking. I just remember that when she first came here, she was about…”

Squirrel darted its gaze around the room, then lifted a paw and pointed at the chair beside it. “About this tall. Just a little higher than the back of the chair.

“She cried in the pitch-black forest. Didn’t know how to find the way. Didn’t know how to hide. When I came out to talk to her, all she could do was keep saying she’d never run off again—and then? Then the wolves ate her, just like that. They’re fast, and the more scared you are, the bigger they get.”

Squirrel waved its paw, clearly unhappy about what had happened back then, but its tone shifted quickly.

“She was awful at first, but later she gradually got better. The wolves caught her many times, and she cried even more times, but soon she could cry while still following me toward the light. After that, she learned how to cry without making a sound. After that, she learned not to cry.

“And then she said she found an ‘organization.’ I don’t remember exactly what she called it, but… she seemed to learn a lot.”

Squirrel slowly stopped moving, as if it had fallen into thought.

Yu Sheng waited patiently. After several seconds, he urged softly, “And then?”

“Don’t rush, don’t rush. I’m a squirrel, I have to think…” Squirrel rubbed its face. “The old Little Red Riding Hoods were probably the same. Pretty much the same. Ah, right—she learned a lot. Like making traps while escaping. Like regaining her humanity as quickly as possible after being eaten. Like hiding and observing the patterns of the wolf pack.

“Then one day, she managed to catch a wolf, then a second, then a third… The wolves caught her, she caught wolves. Sometimes she succeeded, sometimes she got eaten. Little by little, she became part of this forest.

“Later, she could make it through most nights here safely, but she also became more and more bound to this place. Sometimes she even started to look a bit like a wolf, growing claws and a tail and running through the darkness outside. Now the Hunter would sometimes show up by the path and wake her with gunshots. And when the Hunter appeared more often, sometimes she even started to feel like she was the Hunter too…”

Squirrel spoke slower and slower, a heavy mood settling over the little creature. Then it suddenly tugged at the red cloth strip wrapped around its body and lifted its head to stare straight into Yu Sheng’s eyes.

In those candlelit eyes, a light that looked almost human flickered.

“You have to help her,” Squirrel said, voice tight. “Her condition has already started getting bad. The other Little Red Riding Hoods were like this too—they slowly got used to this forest, and slowly became it. The more times she turns into a wolf, the harder it is to go back. The cruelest, most vicious Big Bad Wolf is getting closer and closer to her, but the most dangerous moment is never when it opens its mouth. It’s when she grows fangs herself…”

It swallowed, then pushed on, almost pleading. “You’re her friend, right? You’re her friend—you have to help her!”

Yu Sheng processed every word at high speed. He vaguely guessed a lot of things, and then asked abruptly, “What exactly should I do? How do I help her?”

But Squirrel suddenly looked dejected. It took two steps back, its paws awkwardly twisting together. “I don’t know. I… I’m just a damn squirrel…”

Yu Sheng didn’t give up. “Would killing Big Bad Wolf work?”

“No. No. It always comes back,” Squirrel said sadly, shaking its head. “When Little Red Riding Hood comes, Big Bad Wolf comes too. Everything in this forest is like that. As long as there’s Little Red Riding Hood, there will be wolves, there will be Grandmother, there will be Hunter, there will be a long path, and at the end of the path there will be a little house that may be safe or may not be safe. It’s all set. Killing them any number of times won’t matter…

“Only when Little Red Riding Hood disappears will the forest be quiet for a short while. Quiet for a while, until… a new Little Red Riding Hood appears.”

“There have been many Little Red Riding Hoods before, right?” Yu Sheng finally asked what he’d wanted to ask earlier. “When one Little Red Riding Hood dies, a new ‘victim’ comes in, right? Which number is this one? And when did the first one happen?”

“There’s always a new one, always a new one, because the forest needs Little Red Riding Hood,” Squirrel said, then suddenly shivered. “I… I can’t remember the exact number. Don’t ask me. Don’t ask. I’m just a squirrel… If I say too much, I’ll draw the wolves.”

Yu Sheng felt Squirrel’s reaction was strange. It seemed afraid not only of wolves, but of something else. Yet the neurotic little creature had already started refusing to answer. It paced around and around on the table as if caught in a stress loop.

And right then, Yu Sheng suddenly felt something stir in his chest.

A moment later, he heard a faint call.

The voice was blurry and far away, but when he focused, it suddenly became clear—an unmistakable shout inside his mind.

“Yu Sheng! Yu Sheng, where the hell did you fall asleep? Answer me!”

“Irene?” Yu Sheng jolted and immediately answered in his head. “Damn, I can finally hear you. I called you earlier and you didn’t respond.”

“Hey, hey, I hear you! Finally found you!” Irene’s voice burst out, delighted and rapid-fire. “I heard you just now, then I went looking and couldn’t find you. I couldn’t find you in your dream either. I could tell you were dreaming, but I just couldn’t connect to your consciousness—like your dream got lost halfway…

“Hey, Foxy, stop shaking! We found your benefactor—Foxy’s right here, she’s been fluffed up forever, shaking me until I’m dizzy, and she was even trying to do some spirit-summoning ritual for you… We’re both by your bed, and wow, it really does look like we’re paying respects to a body. You’re lying there so peacefully…

“Ow, ow, ow! Silly Fox, stop biting me!”

Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched as he listened to Irene’s nonstop chatter, his feelings a mess.

That punchable vibe felt weirdly familiar—like getting struck by lightning in a way that somehow warmed the heart.