Chapter 131

Chapter 131: A Childhood Cut Short?

From Little Red Riding Hood’s reaction and the look on Rapunzel’s face, Yu Sheng could guess what that meant.

His brow tightened, but before he could speak, Little Red Riding Hood lifted a hand, urgent. “Wait here. I… I’ll be right back.”

“No.” Yu Sheng stood without giving her a choice. “I’m going with you.”

Beside him, Foxy pulled Irene back into her arms and stood as well.

“This is something inside ‘fairy tale’, and we’ve already been through this process many times,” Little Red Riding Hood said, her face dark and heavy. “Thank you for caring, but—”

“There’s no ‘but’.” Yu Sheng cut her off. He knew exactly what to say to make her stop being stubborn, so he brought up old business without hesitation. “Your wolf bit me. I’ve already been dragged into ‘fairy tale’. Next time I dream, I might end up in that Black Forest again. So I need to know more.”

Little Red Riding Hood stared at him for a moment. Whatever she wanted to argue, it didn’t come.

She finally nodded, small and reluctant.

Rapunzel looked at Yu Sheng’s group, clearly full of questions, but she swallowed them. With one more glance at Little Red Riding Hood, she turned and led the way.

The moment they stepped into the hall, Yu Sheng saw children gathered in clusters.

Some were six or seven—some even younger. Others looked twelve or thirteen. They stood in groups along the corridor, and at the age when kids should have been loud, they were frighteningly quiet.

A little girl in a blue dress saw Little Red Riding Hood and hesitated before approaching. She tugged gently at her sleeve. “Teacher Su said… Xiao Xiao graduated today. Is that true?”

Little Red Riding Hood pressed her lips together, then crouched and patted the girl’s head. “Yes. She left today and went somewhere else.”

“Will she still come to the classroom this afternoon?”

“I made her a gift…”

“Give it to Teacher Su. She’ll pass it on for you.” Little Red Riding Hood kept her voice soft. “A child who graduates leaves very quickly, so she probably won’t have time to say goodbye. But… I’ll go see her off for you.”

“Oh…” The girl’s shoulders sank.

Little Red Riding Hood stood and hurried down the corridor with Yu Sheng and the others.

Only after they were out of the children’s sight did Yu Sheng ask quietly, “You said this has happened many times?”

“Many times.” Little Red Riding Hood nodded. “Some children were already unstable when they arrived. Some… already had mental illnesses, and ‘fairy tale’ makes it worse.”

Her voice went thinner. “We don’t face a death crisis only when we come of age. Throughout childhood, there are hurdles everywhere.”

Irene lifted her head from Foxy’s arms. “They don’t know the truth?”

“The youngest kids don’t,” Little Red Riding Hood said. “Extra tension and fear of the unknown will worsen ‘fairy tale’s’ influence. But around thirteen or fourteen, they start to understand through dreams what will happen next. They begin to grasp the power that ‘fairy tale’ gives them.”

“We call that node awakening,” she added. “After that, they become guardians… and we have a mature guidance process.”

Irene burrowed her face back into Foxy’s shoulder, voice muffled. “…This is the first time the phrase ‘mature process’ has ever made me feel sick.”

Yu Sheng didn’t answer. His expression had turned so grim it looked like anger—like something stubborn and sharp was slowly taking shape inside him.

Irene glanced up at him, worried, but said nothing.

They moved quickly through East Building. Under Little Red Riding Hood’s lead, they crossed the connecting corridor between two buildings and entered West Building.

The moment Yu Sheng stepped inside, the atmosphere changed.

A faint pressure seemed to fill the air. The hallway was so quiet it tightened his nerves. The lights were bright, yet it still felt like dim corners lurked everywhere—darkness in the mind itself, as if West Building was infested with things the light couldn’t drive away, splitting the place into scattered fragments.

“This building has a lot of seals and isolation measures,” Little Red Riding Hood said softly, noticing his expression. “You can treat it as our containment and research facility. Children who have incidents have to receive safety processing here before they can be sent outside.”

Yu Sheng nodded, silent.

He followed Little Red Riding Hood and Princess Rapunzel down the uncomfortable corridor. Sunlight from outside left broken, mottled shadows on the walls. At the end, they stopped at a heavy iron door.

A young woman in a light gray coat—maybe in her twenties—stood there, leaning against the wall like she’d been holding herself up by sheer stubbornness. Exhaustion sat on her face.

An adult.

Yu Sheng froze, then remembered what Little Red Riding Hood had told him.

An employee sent by the Councilor Council.

“This is Teacher Su,” Princess Rapunzel said in a low voice. “She’s responsible for caring for children under seven. She was sent by the Councilor Council. The children all like her.”

Teacher Su blinked as if she’d been pulled out of a trance. Her gaze went straight to Little Red Riding Hood.

“It happened during class…” she said softly. Even though she was an adult, in front of Little Red Riding Hood she looked like a child who’d made a terrible mistake. “I… I should’ve noticed sooner…”

“Even if you had, it wouldn’t have helped,” Little Red Riding Hood said, shaking her head. “It might have already been too late before she was sent here. We’re going in to see.”

Teacher Su swallowed. “…Okay.”

Then her eyes finally landed on Yu Sheng, Irene, and Foxy. “Wait—who are they?”

“With me,” Little Red Riding Hood said, and pushed open the iron door. “Also my friends.”

Teacher Su went still.

Yu Sheng walked past her and stepped inside. Before he disappeared through the doorway, he turned and gave her a polite nod. “Hello. My name is Yu Sheng, from ‘Hotel’.”

Foxy copied him immediately. “My name is Foxy, ‘Hotel’s’ Foxy.”

“I’m Irene! ‘Hotel’s’ Irene!”

Before Teacher Su could react, the three of them were already inside. The iron door shut behind them, leaving her in the hallway, staring.

The room was brightly lit.

But that dimness that crawled up from the mind felt heavier here than in the corridor.

The huge space held almost nothing. No furniture. Only a small single bed sat in the center.

A thin, small figure lay beneath a light blanket, as if she were sleeping deeply.

Something in Yu Sheng resisted. Still, he stepped forward.

The child’s face looked peaceful.

But she wasn’t breathing. Her chest didn’t rise even a fraction.

Fine, unsettling red lines covered her neck, arms, and calves. Between those lines were traces of blood, as if her body had once shattered and been forced back together.

Yu Sheng instantly remembered what he’d seen in the valley—the change in Little Red Riding Hood’s arm.

“We handled it in time. No other children saw it,” Princess Rapunzel said softly. “She briefly turned into a wolf in her nightmare. Just for an instant—and it was already too late.”

“At least at the last moment, she returned to a human shape,” Little Red Riding Hood murmured. “At least we can send her off as a human.”

“A wolf?” Yu Sheng stared at her, stunned, something clicking into place. “Her symptoms were turning into a wolf too? So…”

“You didn’t know?” Princess Rapunzel pointed at the child on the bed. Her expression sank. “She might have been the next Little Red Riding Hood.”

She shook her head. “But it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“You’ve seen it,” Little Red Riding Hood said quietly to Yu Sheng. “This is how the story ends. Her childhood is over.”

“You’ll be like this one day too?” Yu Sheng asked.

“Yes.” Little Red Riding Hood didn’t flinch. “One day I’ll be like this too. If I’m lucky, it’ll be in human form. If I’m not… it’ll be another form.”

Yu Sheng said nothing. He stared at the child, then at the girl in red, his face unreadable.

Minutes passed.

Then Yu Sheng moved.

He reached out and touched the blood marks near the child’s neck.

Princess Rapunzel’s eyes flew wide. She stepped forward. “What are you doing?”

Yu Sheng didn’t look up. “I want to know what she saw at the last moment. If I can, I want to say a couple of words to her.”

Princess Rapunzel froze, about to argue, but Little Red Riding Hood raised a hand and stopped her.

Almost at the same time, Yu Sheng made a soft, puzzled sound.

Irene blurted, “What’s wrong?”

Yu Sheng didn’t answer at first. He kept his fingers on the blood marks, standing there for more than ten seconds like he was listening to something no one else could hear. Then he blinked and drew a sharp breath.

“…She’s not dead,” he said, voice low and uncertain.

He looked around at all of them, as if needing to convince himself as much as anyone else.

“I think… she’s not dead.”