Chapter 139

Chapter 139: A Puzzling Scrap of Paper

What the girl described made Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood-who had just come back from the Little House deep in the Black Forest-frown at the same time and think hard.

After several seconds, Yu Sheng looked up first and asked: “Could you see their faces? Besides telling you to run, did the people in red cloaks say anything else?”

Xiao Xiao only shook her head and looked nervous.

Yu Sheng lifted a hand quickly to calm her: “It’s okay. If you can’t remember, don’t force it. Tell us when something comes back.”

Xiao Xiao blinked, hesitated, and gave a tiny nod.

Little Red Riding Hood turned to Rapunzel and said: “Take her to the east wing classroom to show her face, and tell Teacher Su what happened. No classes this afternoon. Let her rest in her room.”

Rapunzel answered: “Okay,” then she took Xiao Xiao’s hand, and the tall and small figures left the room together.

The room grew quiet again. Little Red Riding Hood watched the door and spoke softly: “She’s the first child sent to this room who has walked out alive.”

She lifted her eyes and rested them on Yu Sheng: “Thank you. Fairy Tale owes you a big favor. From now on, I’ll be your firmest friend.”

Yu Sheng answered seriously: “This is only the start. My goal is to solve the entire Fairy Tale Otherworld. Step one is to deal with the Black Forest.”

Little Red Riding Hood finally asked what she had held back: “Can that really be done?” Her doubt had a crack in it now. Saving a child who was “already dead” and bringing her back from the Black Forest had shaken her view of the Otherworld.

Yu Sheng didn’t answer directly. He met the girl’s eyes and said after a moment: “Explaining won’t help as much as showing you. Once we’re sure that child is fully stable, I’ll take you somewhere.”

Little Red Riding Hood nodded, curious. Yu Sheng reached into his pocket and took out a dirty, timeworn scrap of paper.

He showed it and asked: “This fell off the Hunter. Do you know what it is?”

Little Red Riding Hood’s face grew serious. She took the scrap carefully and studied it for a long time. In the end she frowned: “I’m no appraisal expert, and I’ve never seen anything like this in the Black Forest.”

Yu Sheng didn’t seem disappointed. He tucked the paper away and asked: “How much contact have you had with the Hunter?”

Little Red Riding Hood thought and explained patiently: “Not much. The most common things in the Black Forest are wolves, then the Little House and the path. The Hunter only shows up when Wolf Granny appears, and only for a very short time. Calling it ‘contact’ isn’t even accurate. In fact, whenever I ‘move’ in the Black Forest, it’s not like today.”

Yu Sheng tilted his head: “Not like this? Then how?”

She sighed, her voice low: “Foggy and confused, like a run of broken dreams. Most of the time I can’t control myself, and I’m not always ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’ When it gets bad, I even run through the forest from a wolf’s perspective, and when I meet the Hunter, I sometimes watch the Wolf Pack from the Hunter’s view. It’s like I have many identities at once: human, wolf, grandmother, Hunter. My sense of self jumps between them. Lately I’m a ‘wolf’ more and more, and the Hunter appears more often too.”

It was the first time she had described her Black Forest state in such detail.

Yu Sheng listened with a frown. The first word that came to his mind was [falling]. In those broken dreams and messy switches, in the repeated shaking and replacing of her self, Little Red Riding Hood was losing who she really was. It was not only the wolf devouring her, but the whole Black Forest. Becoming a wolf was only a sign of the process.

Irene summed it up bluntly: “Sounds like a total mess.”

Little Red Riding Hood spread her hands with a wry smile: “Yes, a mess. That kind of confusion is the normal state when you’re trapped in the Black Forest. A day like today-walking through the forest clear headed, leaving clear headed, and waking able to lock in my human identity at once-is amazing for me. From what I remember, only when I was little, before the forest influenced me so deeply, did I have something similar.”

She shook her head, then looked back at Yu Sheng: “Sorry I can’t help. I know very little about the Hunter. Most of the time my contact with it lasts as long as one gunshot. But I do have a suggestion.”

Yu Sheng said: “Go on.”

She said seriously: “Ask the Special Affairs Bureau’s appraisal team to examine that scrap. They may not know the Hunter, but their equipment can at least pull more details off it. Also, last time at your place you found a ‘metal component’ from who knows where, right? Have them test that too.”

Yu Sheng nodded: “Good idea. I’ll call Bai Li Qing and ask her to set it up.” [That reminder made sense.]

Little Red Riding Hood’s expression turned subtle as she reminded him: “For something like this, you probably don’t need to contact the Director of the Special Affairs Bureau directly. You could just ask Xu Jiali and the others.”

Yu Sheng thought of the last time he called Bai Li Qing at midnight and how the next day Border communications hot updated a Gate-Opening Report Button. Her reminder did make sense.

Before he could say anything, his pocket buzzed and his phone started to ring.

He glanced at the screen. The name read: Bai Li Qing.

Little Red Riding Hood peeked and froze, her face going very odd.

Yu Sheng tugged a smile at her and answered the call: “Uh, good afternoon, Director Bai Li.”

A cool, familiar voice came through: “Just call me Bai Li Qing. The Monitoring Division just detected a very unusual space time misalignment. We can’t find the cause anywhere, so I’m asking you. Is it your side?”

Yu Sheng winced and gave a weak laugh: “Uh, yes. I just opened The Door. I was in an Otherworld during Door Opening, so my phone had no signal and I didn’t report.”

Two seconds of silence came through the receiver. Then she asked: “This signal isn’t the same as usual. Are you testing a new function?”

Different signal? He thought of Fairy Tale’s odd rules right away and answered: “Not really. I went to a special place. I just got back from the Black Forest, a subset of the Fairy Tale Otherworld.”

Another two seconds of quiet followed. [Every one of her pauses sounds packed with words.]

Her voice returned, a bit curious: “Forgive me for asking-why did you enter Fairy Tale?”

His brain slipped and he blurted out: “If I say I was going to meet someone through The Door, would you believe it?”

She replied just as fast: “Ah, is there someone you know over th-”

He cut in quickly: “No, a child went missing. I went in to help find her.”

Silence again. It seemed to roar in his ear. [Thunderous, even when she says nothing.]

After a moment he heard a soft inhale, then she asked in the same calm tone: “Did you find the child?”

He answered: “Uh, I did. A wolf carried her off, but she didn’t die.”

He paused, then added: “Since you called, I also want to ask the Special Affairs Bureau for a favor.”

She replied at once: “All right, go ahead.”

He said: “I brought something out of the Black Forest. It seems to be from the entity called the Hunter. I’d like your team to identify it. I also have another item that refreshed in the room at Wutong Road 66. Can you look at that too?”

Silence again, but shorter this time. Then she said: “Sure. I’ll arrange it. If the samples don’t self collapse, can you wait one more day? The full analysis lab needs some time to prepare.”

He said: “No problem. I’ll wait for your message tomorrow.”

She said: “Okay.”

The call ended.

Yu Sheng looked at Little Red Riding Hood and gave an awkward smile: “So in the end, the Director is arranging it.”

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth, thought a long time, and finally said: “All right. I guess the advice us ordinary folks give you doesn’t really apply.”