Chapter 122

Chapter 122: Irene Who Crawled Through

To be fair, reconnecting with Irene really did make Yu Sheng breathe easier. And even if the doll ran her mouth in the most infuriating way, this time she had also brought truly useful information.

His real-world self was indeed still dreaming, but it clearly wasn’t a normal dream-entry situation. Irene believed his consciousness was “lost,” which meant…

Yu Sheng lifted his head, looked around the cozy little house, and then looked through the window at the endless night outside.

This forest was some kind of sealed mental space. Complete. Closed. Like a trap. It could pull a dream-entry person’s mind inside and, at the same time, cut off contact with the outside world.

Thinking about it that way, Irene seemed pretty impressive—she had managed to find him even under these conditions.

Thoughts flashed through Yu Sheng’s mind, and after Irene finished her rapid-fire rant, she finally got to the point. “Yu Sheng, what’s going on over there? How did you fall asleep and suddenly get ‘lost’? Where exactly is your consciousness right now?”

“…I’m in a black forest. If I’m not wrong, this should be Little Red Riding Hood’s black forest.”

Irene went quiet for a beat. “…What do you mean, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’s black forest’?”

“It’s complicated, but in short—back when I was in the museum, didn’t Big Bad Wolf bite me? The one that crawled out of Little Red Riding Hood’s shadowspawn?” Yu Sheng said, forcing himself to organize his thoughts. “She said ‘fairy tale’ is an otherworld, and her power is a curse. So the place I’m in now should be what’s trapping her…”

Yu Sheng told Irene everything that happened on his side, from being hunted by an invisible Big Bad Wolf to meeting a talking Squirrel—though, of course, he didn’t mention the details of the temptations he’d seen on the road.

“You’re saying… you’re with a Squirrel right now?” Irene sounded stunned, like she couldn’t believe Yu Sheng went upstairs to take a nap and somehow ended up in a story like this. “Then what’s it like outside your little house right now? Are you safe? Can you get out on your own?”

“It’s quiet outside now, but I can feel eyes on me. Those wolves are gathered in the black forest,” Yu Sheng said, glancing at the window. “But I don’t think it’s a big problem. This place looks pretty safe, and if things get bad, I should be able to run out. I still don’t understand the mechanics, but even in this ‘dream,’ I can still do door opening normally.”

Irene said, “Oh,” and after a few seconds her voice came into Yu Sheng’s mind again. “Do you have anything like a picture frame or a drawing board over there?”

Yu Sheng looked around on instinct. “No. Why?”

“I want to see if I can crawl over to your side,” Irene said. “You’re not in your own dream right now, so I can’t go straight to you. I need a medium, like the ‘coordinates’ you normally use for door opening. If you don’t have a frame or a board, do you have anything you can draw with? A pen and paper, anything at all.”

Yu Sheng got up and walked around inside the little house. In the end, he found a few blackened pieces of charcoal by the fireplace.

Squirrel stood on the table holding a huge acorn, watching Yu Sheng pace around with a baffled expression. Finally it couldn’t help asking, “What are you doing?”

“I’ve got a friend who wants to come take a look,” Yu Sheng said.

Squirrel went dumbfounded. “…Huh?”

Yu Sheng didn’t explain. Instead, he told Irene about the situation. “There’s nothing here. I only found some charcoal…”

“That works,” Irene replied immediately. “Draw a frame on the floor…”

Yu Sheng groaned. “How is it that every time you ‘settle for second best,’ you manage to settle for something this bad?!”

“This is an emergency, okay?” Irene said breezily. “Rituals are about process—especially dream rituals. Sincerity matters, and if you’re not sincere, that’s fine too. As long as it has a bit of symbolism, it creates direction…”

“…What kind of nonsense is ‘sincere works, not sincere works too’?” Yu Sheng had a whole pile of complaints stuck in his throat, but he still picked up a piece of charcoal, went to the open ground in the middle of the little house, and drew a frame on the floor like Irene told him. “Fine. The frame’s drawn. Now what?”

“Now draw an unbelievably beautiful, cute, elegant, mature lady who looks exactly like me.”

Yu Sheng said nothing and just stood there.

Irene’s voice dropped by an octave. “…Doesn’t have to be that beautiful. Just make it look as much like me as you can.”

Yu Sheng still didn’t say a word.

Irene accepted her fate. “…A human shape. Write my name under it, spelled in the letters I taught you.”

“That I can do,” Yu Sheng finally said. He lowered his head and began sketching Irene’s outline and true name inside the charcoal frame, muttering as he worked, “You know my hands-on skills. Don’t make inhuman demands from the start…”

Squirrel watched with curiosity. When it saw him draw on the floor and write strange rune-like letters, it froze completely, then suddenly shrieked, “Hey, hey—you! What are you doing?! Th-this… is this some kind of witchcraft?! I’m warning you, don’t mess around! There are already enough deadly things in the black forest…”

“I told you, a friend is coming,” Yu Sheng said without looking up. “Relax. It’s not evil witchcraft. My friend just happens to be sealed inside a cursed oil painting, and I need a special method to summon her over.”

Squirrel almost choked. It jumped up and down on the table, tail slapping hard, but it clearly didn’t dare get close enough to interfere.

And right then, Yu Sheng finished the last step of his crude “artwork.”

Squirrel abruptly stopped moving.

It stared at what Yu Sheng had drawn with those glossy eyes, and an oddly human look of relief appeared on its face.

“You scared me. I thought you were some wizard who can use devil magic. Turns out you’re into abstract art—with something this ugly, what could you even summon…”

A sheen of light suddenly rippled across the surface of the crude drawing on the floor.

Squirrel bit its tongue mid-sentence.

A solemn, antique painting slowly rose up from that shimmer. As the charcoal lines on the floor rapidly dissolved and steamed away, the painting formed fully in the air.

It floated in front of Yu Sheng and Squirrel. Irene stood inside the frame with her hands on her hips. “Yu Sheng! I’m here to help you!”

Squirrel let out a strangled sound and passed out on the spot, legs up, tail twitching.

Yu Sheng rushed over and shook it awake. “Hey, hey—what’s wrong with you?”

Squirrel came to slowly. When it saw the painting bobbing behind Yu Sheng, and the gothic doll poking her head out of the frame to look around curiously, it shuddered again, its tail curling tight. “…Witches these days are really not picky, huh? You can summon something even when it’s drawn like a wild goblin…”

“This is the Squirrel you mentioned?” Irene looked the little animal up and down curiously, then looked at Yu Sheng. “It’s kind of interesting. And it’s wearing a red cloth strip. By the way, what did it mean by ‘wild goblin’?”

Yu Sheng coughed twice and changed the subject fast. “Local specialty of the black forest. Forget it. Let me introduce everyone.” He raised a hand and pointed at Irene in the frame. “This is my friend. Her name is Irene—and she’s also Little Red Riding Hood’s friend.”

“Hello,” Irene greeted Squirrel politely, then added, “Actually, we’ve got a fox too. She’s also Little Red Riding Hood’s friend, but she can’t get in. She’s staying outside to keep watch.”

Squirrel listened in a daze, then suddenly raised its paws and scratched at its face hard. It began pacing in frantic circles on the table. “What is this? What is this? It wasn’t like this before… Nothing like this has ever happened in the black forest. It’s weird. It’s getting weird…”

Seeing that, Irene leaned toward Yu Sheng and whispered, “Is this Squirrel… not mentally stable? It looks kind of unwell.”

“It’s always like that,” Yu Sheng whispered back. “It was twitchy from the moment I met it. It even smokes. But think about it—a squirrel can talk. How normal did you expect it to be…”

The circling Squirrel suddenly stopped. It wasn’t clear if it had heard them, but it jerked its head up and pointed at itself. “I am Squirrel.”

Irene jumped and nodded blankly. “Uh… I can tell. You’re Squirrel.”

“Does Little Red Riding Hood have many friend?” Squirrel demanded right after, staring hard at the doll in the frame. “Many friend like you… weird, powerful-looking ones that can run into the black forest?”

“Well… we haven’t known her that long, so we haven’t met her other friends,” Irene said hesitantly. Then she immediately got smug. “But if you’re asking whether we’re capable, we’re super capable! I’m a doll from Alice little house! And we’ve got a fox who can shoot her tail off—in her true form she takes up two parking spaces…”

Squirrel didn’t seem to listen to most of it. It looked happy, pacing quickly while muttering to itself. “The important thing is you can get into the black forest. You can come in… Then she won’t have to walk that path alone… This is something that’s never happened in the black forest.

“Right. Something outside the rules. An accident. If there’s an accident, there’s a chance. Maybe…”

Yu Sheng frowned and exchanged a look with Irene.