Chapter 123

Chapter 123: A Giant Wolf

Squirrel’s muttering made Yu Sheng think of loopholes that might exist in the forest, and the possibility of helping Little Red Riding Hood break her curse. But before any of that, he was even more curious about Squirrel itself.

“You… seem like you’ve always wanted to help Little Red Riding Hood escape the forest,” he said, voice serious. “Why?”

“Why what?” Squirrel froze. “Do I need a reason?”

“Aren’t you also an entity born in this forest?” Yu Sheng asked bluntly. “You helped me earlier—why would you choose to help a human ‘invading’ this place?”

Squirrel stood there blankly, rubbing its face with a paw. “Yeah… why… why would I help…”

It went still, like its mind had crashed.

Yu Sheng’s heart sank. This little rodent’s brain capacity clearly wasn’t enough—entity or not. That one question might have bugged it straight into a hard freeze.

But just as he worried Squirrel would get stuck forever, it twitched, like it had rebooted. It threw both paws high and screamed in a sharp voice, “I am Squirrel!”

Yu Sheng blinked. “Uh, yeah. I know you’re Squirrel…”

“I’m a Squirrel that’s cute enough to bubble over! A little animal in the forest!” Squirrel shrieked. “A story has to have a little animal like this, a carefree little animal in the forest that helps children who are about to get eaten. Yes! It has to have a little animal like that!

“And it’s best if it can sing too. I can’t, but I still have to help children who get lost in the forest, because—I am Squirrel!”

It held its paws up high, shouting excitedly, as if it had suddenly found—or refound—the meaning of its own existence. It looked incredibly happy.

Irene leaned toward Yu Sheng again and whispered, “Is it actually sick? It really looks unwell.”

“An entity spawned by the black forest,” Yu Sheng murmured. “What do you think? This is probably one of the forest’s rules. Or rather, one of the fairy tale rules.”

“Why do you say that?”

“In a fairy tale, you always need two things: a threat that tries to kill the protagonist, and a friend that tries to help the protagonist,” Yu Sheng said. “And in the forest, that friend usually takes the shape of a little animal.”

“I-is that so?”

Just then, Squirrel suddenly stopped shrieking. It rose onto its hind legs as if listening, then jumped onto Yu Sheng and quickly climbed onto his shoulder.

Irene stared, then reacted a beat late. “Hey! That spot is mine!”

“Shh!” Squirrel lifted a paw. Its whole body was tense, and Yu Sheng could feel it trembling slightly. “Listen outside. Listen to what’s happening outside.”

Yu Sheng signaled Irene to be quiet and went to the window, listening hard.

Silence. A stillness like death. Even the distant wind and the faint wolf howls that had been circling the little house were gone.

Dead silence smothered everything—and then sudden knocking erupted, sharp and piercing, ripping through the quiet night.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The knocking was unhurried, methodical, as if it were striking directly at the heart.

“The wolves are here! The wolves are here! The fire is about to run out!” Squirrel trembled all over, speaking fast and low. “How is it burning out so quickly? We’re done, we’re done, we’re done…”

From the corner of his eye, Yu Sheng glanced at the fireplace. The flames were indeed shrinking rapidly. Even though there was still plenty of fuel stacked inside the hearth, the fire seemed to be draining away into thin air.

Yu Sheng turned to Irene. “In your current state, can you fight?”

“Probably not.” Irene’s frame wobbled side to side. “I’m a projection that squeezed in through a loophole, did you forget? You summoned me with a charcoal stick figure. How much power do you think I’ve got? At best I can cheer you on. Try not to die too horribly, okay? I’ll have nightmares.”

Yu Sheng nearly choked. This doll was great in every way—so why did she have to have a mouth?

Bang. Bang. Bang—

The knocking came again, and it grew like thunder. The entire little house shook, the walls creaking, the roof wobbling.

Squirrel let out a terrified shriek. Somehow it produced a dry, stiff pine needle and gripped it like a one-handed sword, while its other paw held an acorn like a shield in front of its body. “Squirrel is ready! Squirrel knight is ready!”

The knocking struck a third time. The shelf and wardrobe toppled with a loud crash—and then rapidly vanished into the air. Only a faint glow remained in the fireplace. The whole house shuddered, cracks spreading across the walls—

And then a huge hole tore open in the roof.

Yu Sheng saw an eye—a wolf’s eye, glowing faintly. It pressed against the opening, and behind it was a long, narrow face covered in black fur.

The pounding sounded again. The wolf outside slammed the little house like it was beating on a drum about to fall apart.

The flame in the fireplace finally went out completely. The cabin shattered in an instant under the horrific blows. The red strings and cloth strips wrapped around the doors and windows tore with a shriek-like ripping sound—and then Big Bad Wolf’s massive shadow filled Yu Sheng’s vision.

It was far bigger than the Big Bad Wolf Yu Sheng had seen in the museum, the one that crawled out of Little Red Riding Hood’s shadowspawn. This one was bigger than a house. It stood so close that its body almost blocked the entire sky in Yu Sheng’s field of view. The tall, twisted creature slowly lowered its head. Its violent, crazed eyes stared coldly at the prey that had spilled out of the little house, as if savoring the final step of the hunt.

“It got bigger again! Bigger again!” Squirrel shrieked, clutching its “pine needle sword” and “acorn shield,” craning its head. “Little Red Riding Hood must be getting more and more scared! The more scared she is, the bigger this wolf gets!”

Yu Sheng whipped his head around. “You said—”

But he didn’t have time to finish.

Squirrel seemed to lose what little rationality it had left under the massive fear and tension. It shrieked, raised the pine needle high, and suddenly leapt into the air, as if running up an invisible road, charging straight at the giant wolf. “Squirrel knight is ready! Squirrel knight protects you!”

Yu Sheng gaped. “Holy shit, you—wait—”

But Squirrel didn’t respond. It shot toward that enormous shadow like lightning, the tiny pine needle thrusting straight ahead—

“Squirrel knight~ appeared on the forest~ path…”

Squirrel’s hoarse, off-key singing came from the air. The lyrics were weird. The melody was awful. Just like it had said, a story had to include a little animal that helped children, and it had to sing too—but it couldn’t. The song sounded like another nightmare.

“Oh oh oh~ it wants to help~ lonely Little Red Riding Hood~~”

It screamed and sang in a frenzy, and its tiny body vanished in the blink of an eye into the giant wolf’s mouth.

The wolf didn’t even tilt its head. It simply opened its mouth once, making Squirrel look like it had jumped in on purpose.

The shrill, awful singing stopped.

The wolf’s jaws opened and closed a few times. Faint chewing sounds came from between its teeth, and then it lowered its head. When it looked at Yu Sheng, its gaze seemed… a little puzzled.

To the entire forest, both Yu Sheng and Irene were intruders who “shouldn’t have been here.”

“That Squirrel is dead!” Only then did Irene react. She yelped in shock. “I thought it was going to explode with some hidden power at the critical moment… How did it just die like that?!”

A gale slammed in. The giant wolf’s paw smashed down toward where Yu Sheng stood.

Yu Sheng reacted before it landed. He stomped and shattered the ground beneath his feet, then sprang aside. Immediately after, he shot under the giant wolf’s body, trying to find a blind spot in its attacks. “Stop marveling! I’m going to die in a second too!”

Irene’s frame flew toward Yu Sheng. “Any last words you want me to pass on?”

Yu Sheng rolled to dodge another lunge and shouted, “Tell Foxy! We’re eating baozi tonight! Tell her to take the meat filling out of the fridge first!”

“Okay, got it,” Irene said, but her frame was already wobbling, her image starting to turn transparent. “I’m out—this place is starting to reject me!”

“Bye-bye. I’ll be back in a bit!”

Yu Sheng raised a hand and waved. Irene’s frame disappeared from his sight almost at the same time.

A violent wind rose. The giant wolf finally seemed furious at Yu Sheng, the annoying little prey darting under its belly. It shifted, its eyes locked on him, and raised its paw to pounce again.

Yu Sheng didn’t dodge. Instead, he bared his teeth in a grin.

“Come on! Try something good! Take one bite and you’ll be set for life, damn it!”