Chapter 125

Chapter 125: Dinner

After sending the message, Yu Sheng went downstairs. He cooked while he waited. Little Red Riding Hood was always online. Even if she was in class, her wolf would carry the phone to receive messages at once.

But a long time passed without a reply.

Yu Sheng wasn’t worried. She would call back.

He quickly fried the meat sauce, then while the water boiled he sliced a big plate of cucumber shreds. Fried sauce noodles were simple and fast, and Foxy loved them.

The kitchen door opened a crack. A pair of fluffy white ears poked in first and twitched smartly in the air. Yu Sheng turned and saw the Fox Maiden sniffing, her eyes bright.

“Almost ready. Fried sauce noodles for dinner,” Yu Sheng said, then glanced at the Nine Tailed Fox’s tails, which were swishing so fast they left afterimages. “Hungry?”

As he spoke, he could not help a thought: [How does she swing nine tails in all directions and never get them tangled?]

Foxy nodded hard. Her tails fanned into a wall of silver behind her.

From the dining room he faintly heard Irene yelp: “Whoa, why is there wind in here?”

Yu Sheng scooped a small half bowl of meat sauce and grabbed a cucumber, handing them to the starry eyed Fox Maiden: “Go eat. And don’t bring the bowl back later. Use it for your noodles.”

Foxy left, happy with her sauce and cucumber.

At almost the same moment, Yu Sheng felt his phone buzz in his pocket. A clear ringtone sounded.

He checked and, not surprised, saw Little Red Riding Hood’s name. She hadn’t messaged-she was calling.

Yu Sheng picked up. He barely got the phone to his ear before a tense, urgent voice rushed at him: “I wrote a long message, but I think calling is clearer. What happened? Are those things you said true?”

“You know I couldn’t make that up,” Yu Sheng said, cutting in gently, steady as ever. “Don’t rush. Listen to me. Remember what happened in the museum? An Evil Wolf crawled out of your shadow and bit me. Remember?”

“Yes, of course,” she said at once.

“It touched my blood-swallowed some,” Yu Sheng said, tucking the phone under his chin. He dropped a handful of noodles into the boiling water, then cleaned the cutting board and knife from the cucumbers. “Maybe not much. And it came through you, so it was indirect. You might not feel anything yet. But from my experience, it’ll ‘kick in late’ for you too. For now, it looks like I’ve linked to the ‘curse’ in you, or, to put it another way…”

Yu Sheng paused, thought a moment, then said: “To put it another way, I connected first to the part in you that belongs to the wolf.”

Little Red Riding Hood said nothing. He only heard her breathing grow quick all of a sudden.

With her smarts and her Spirit Realm Detective experience, she should understand his meaning, though she was still shaken.

“See? You did ‘take a bite’ in the end, even if it happened by accident,” Yu Sheng said. He stirred the noodles and waited by the stove. “Don’t worry. I know you’re nervous, but don’t be scared. It won’t hurt you. Before anything else, I want to talk about the Black Forest.”

She was quiet for a while before she spoke: “What do you want to know?”

There was a tired note of acceptance in her voice.

“The Squirrel. Do you know where it came from?”

“I… don’t. The first time I fell into the Forest, it was already there. I was mixed up then and don’t remember how it appeared,” she said. “It told me many things about the Black Forest. In my judgment, it’s also a special entity born in the Black Forest, another way the Fairy Tale rules show themselves.”

She paused, like she was sorting her thoughts, then went on: “There have to be bad people who hurt children, and there also have to be friends who help children. That’s what a fairy tale is. You understand, right?”

“Easy to get. I didn’t stay long in the Black Forest, but I could feel its rules,” Yu Sheng said. Then he hesitated and asked straight: “Also, the Squirrel got eaten by the wolf… Things were messy and I didn’t stop it. If it’s an entity the Black Forest made, it should be fine, right?”

“Don’t worry. The wolf has eaten it more than once,” she answered, proving his guess. “And me too. I’ve been caught by the wolf many times. The Squirrel will be fine. Next time it’ll show up near the path again.”

Yu Sheng hummed, then, after a small pause, asked outright: “Tell the truth. Are you close to a big problem?”

“The Squirrel even told you that?” she asked.

“It talked in circles, but it wasn’t hard to follow,” Yu Sheng said. He turned off the fire, lifted the noodles, and rinsed them under cold water. Then he leaned on the counter. “The Black Forest is swallowing you. And you aren’t the first Little Red Riding Hood. That’s the curse, right? What happens next? What about the other Fairy Tale members? Are they the same?”

Silence.

Yu Sheng didn’t mind. After two or three seconds, he asked calmly: “How much time do you have?”

She stayed quiet again, but this time she answered in the end: “Next month. My eighteenth birthday.”

Yu Sheng drew a small, sharp breath.

He had guessed her situation might be bad. He hadn’t guessed it would be this bad.

“I won’t necessarily die. Dr. Lin said my case is the best one,” she added quickly. “My odds of making it to adulthood are high. And I’ve stayed hidden well. The number of times the wolf caught me…”

“The Squirrel said the worst danger isn’t getting caught. It’s becoming part of the wolf pack,” Yu Sheng cut in. His face and tone turned very serious. “We need to meet. I have to know everything about the Forest. Not just the Forest, the Fairy Tale. As I understand it, the Fairy Tale isn’t only the Black Forest, right?”

There was a pause on the other end. After a few seconds, the girl’s voice came through: “Why are you this invested? This had nothing to do with you. I don’t mean anything else by that. I’m just curious.”

Yu Sheng thought for a second: “We’re sort of friends, aren’t we?”

“We’ve only known each other a few days. If you don’t count that time in the Valley, we’ve only worked together once,” she said, very serious. “I don’t think that counts as much of a bond. Not enough to care this much.”

“Don’t be that stiff at your age. I’m an adult and I’m looser than you,” Yu Sheng said lightly. “I do what I want. No need for reasons. And you have helped me a lot. Plus, the wolf in your shadow bit me. Now I’m tied to the Black Forest. I can’t dodge it.”

That last point was very convincing.

After a short silence she sighed: “True. Then let’s meet tomorrow. I’ll send you an address. It’s our home. You can come see us.”

“Okay.”

The call ended.

Yu Sheng stood by the stove for a few seconds, lost in thought. Then he sighed, lifted the stainless steel basin of noodles, and called out: “Dinner time. Foxy, come help carry the dishes.”

“Okay!”

Dinner began.

Little Red Riding Hood set down her phone and stood there for a moment, dazed, until someone patted her back.

“What are you spacing out for?” asked a short girl with ear length hair. “Dinner. Come help.”

Little Red Riding Hood snapped back to herself and looked at the long table.

The youngest children already sat in a neat row on the other side. The older ones were carrying bowls and plates. At the end of the long table, beside a steaming soup pot, Cinderella and Dorothy were ladling soup for the Cursed Children. They smiled as they worked and also kept an eye out so no overly naughty brother or sister crawled under the table.

Night had fallen. By the rules, the hired helpers sent by the council left before sunset. Night was when the Fairy Tale was most active. The “employees” who came here had training, but unless it was needed, they did not have to risk staying in the Orphanage after dark.

Little Red Riding Hood breathed out, went over to correct the smallest kids’ grip on their chopsticks, and kept part of her attention on a very quiet girl sitting at the far end of the table.

The child looked about six or seven, very cute, with black hair that curled a little on its own. She wore an old dress and sat with lips pressed tight among kids her age, stiff and wary.

Little Red Riding Hood hadn’t gone to school this afternoon-she took half a day off.

Because a new child had arrived. As a “parent,” she had to come home to host the welcome dinner.