Chapter 140

Chapter 140: A Message That Can’t Be Passed On?

Bai Li Qing sat behind her desk, her eyes a little vacant; [maybe it wasn’t only her gaze that had gone blank].

After a long while she muttered to herself: “How does he always manage to do something no one expects?”

Sitting across the desk, Song Cheng lowered his head and pretended he hadn’t heard.

Two seconds later, Bai Li Qing repeated, a little louder: “How does he always manage to do something no one expects?”

At last, Song Cheng forced a small smile and answered: “Well… he’s an unexpected person to begin with, right? Anyway, we found another cause for the anomalous time-space misalignment, and the Technical Department’s logged feature parameters will get adjusted to be more accurate, which is good.”

Bai Li Qing nodded and said: “Yes, it’s good. We also learned he can even open a passage inside an anomalous Otherworld. But let’s leave that for now and continue what we were discussing. What’s the conclusion on the samples we sent last time?”

Song Cheng straightened up and slid the folder he’d brought across the desk.

He said: “This is the analysis report on the hairs. We sent the ‘fox fur’ to three different labs for independent analysis, then shared the data with major organizations including the Academy. The conclusion… you should read it yourself.”

Bai Li Qing took the file, skimmed the key points, and her expression grew more serious bit by bit.

She looked up and asked: “Nothing in the known universe matches any species?”

Song Cheng shook his head and said: “It’s not just that no species matches. We couldn’t even find any kind of biological tissue that fits the microscopic structure of those hairs. In other words, if we weren’t sure they came from a talking, moving, feeling, thinking humanoid, the analysts would suspect we were playing a nasty joke on them.”

He tapped a paragraph in the file and said: “The ‘material’ that makes up these hairs isn’t a metabolic or growth product any known life can produce. Also, while over ninety percent of it is clearly organic, it’s mixed with several unexplained inorganic impurities. We don’t know what these impurities do inside a living body, and… we still haven’t identified what elements they are.”

Bai Li Qing pressed her lips together, then whispered after a long pause: “How does he always manage to do something no one expects…”

Wiping a light sweat from his forehead, Song Cheng said: “Uh, strictly speaking, this one isn’t his doing.”

“But he’s the one who brought her out,” Bai Li Qing said tiredly, rubbing her temple with a fingertip. “What about the other side? Did organizations like Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain reply?”

Song Cheng nodded and said: “Yes. They teamed up with several influential The Door factions and ran a wide survey. They screened all fox-type sentient clans. Because we thought that Foxy’s past might involve time tunneling, they made it extremely broad. They checked anything even slightly related, not just those already in the interstellar age, but cases that lived hundreds or thousands of years ago and might live hundreds or thousands of years in the future.”

He pushed over a list and added: “Here’s their sample list. Besides fox demons and fox-type demi-humans in the usual sense, they included people with only partial beast traits-fox ears, fox tails, a little fox-like fur. According to the messenger who delivered it, they practically wanted to pin down anyone with a fox-like body odor just to make them fill out a form before letting them go. The conclusion is still no match.”

Bai Li Qing’s hand paused on a page. She looked up and asked: “How did they stir up such a big operation? They’ve never been this eager when we asked for help before.”

With a helpless shrug, Song Cheng said: “Simple. Word is, a fox clan appeared that can take the whole tribe up and down across worlds, and their home is full of Immortals. Everyone urgently wants to know who hid a mass ascension from the rest. You know how intense their competition is in that domain. Most seekers at the awakening stage won’t start a fight over it now, but the way Yu Sheng described Foxy’s homeland… that’s still a huge trigger for them.”

“It’s a big trigger for us too,” Bai Li Qing exhaled, set the file down, and said: “I’ve got the picture. Keep the follow-up investigation going and treat it as a long-term task. If that fox really comes from ‘outside’…”

She paused, then gave him a small nod and said: “You know what I mean.”

Song Cheng replied: “Yes, I understand.”

…

On the way back from the orphanage’s west wing to the east wing, Yu Sheng told Little Red Riding Hood what he had found while investigating alone in that dark Little House, including the carved marks on the floorboards under the bed and his detailed encounter with the hunter.

All the details left Little Red Riding Hood shocked.

She said with a sigh: “I’ve dealt with that Black Forest for many years, but I’ve never suddenly learned this much in one day. The many Little Red Riding Hoods before me were swallowed by the ‘story’ in the same ignorance.”

Swaying on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, Irene said: “Or maybe they did discover something but had no way to pass the message back to the real world. Those marks under the bed were obviously left by some Little Red Riding Hood a long time ago.”

Yu Sheng said: “Those carved marks are bothering me. I suspect similar traces might exist in other places in the Black Forest, and maybe… not only inside the Black Forest.”

Little Red Riding Hood considered it and asked softly: “You mean…”

Yu Sheng stopped walking and said: “Other ‘subsets’. Like you mentioned: Cinderella’s ball, Rapunzel’s tower. Aren’t similar things happening in those subsets too? Maybe some other Cinderella or Rapunzel found something at their dream’s The End Web, but just like in that Little House covered in Red Cloaks… the ones who uncovered the truth never had the chance to pass the message to the real world.”

Little Red Riding Hood fell into thought. After a moment, Yu Sheng sighed and said with a faint smile: “Come to think of it, that actually fits how childhood works.”

Little Red Riding Hood blinked and asked: “Why do you say that?”

Yu Sheng said: “You write your childhood secrets in a diary and carefully lock it. But when you grow up, you can’t remember the password that once meant so much to you. Childhood memories stop at the childhood’s The End Web and can’t be passed on to the grown-up you. Lots of people are like that.”

For the first time, Little Red Riding Hood looked a bit dazed and said: “Is… it really like that?”

Yu Sheng laughed and said: “It is. That’s when you need a hateful, meddling, unreasonable lord to pry the notebook open. Often, you become that hateful lord yourself. But since it’s hard for you all to grow up, I’ll do it.”

She frowned slightly and said: “You make yourself sound like a bad person.”

Yu Sheng said: “To Fairy Tale, I am the bad person. It doesn’t like me.”

Just then, a burst of noise came from the hallway ahead and cut off their talk.

A group of little kids came tearing down the corridor, and even a few older ones were mixed in.

Yu Sheng and the others looked up and quickly hurried toward the commotion.

Little Red Riding Hood grabbed one of the older kids as she ran past and asked with full grown-up authority: “What happened?”

The teen girl, tense and wide-eyed, pointed ahead and said: “Teacher Su fainted! They already sent her to the infirmary!”

Yu Sheng asked, confused: “Teacher Su fainted? Why?”

“I don’t know, I only heard it,” the girl-thirteen or fourteen at most-said quickly. “It seems she was in the Activity Room playing with the other kids when Xiao Xiao pushed the door open to say hi, and then she fainted on the spot.”

Yu Sheng said nothing.

Little Red Riding Hood also said nothing.

Irene murmured: “Uh-oh.”

With a wince, Little Red Riding Hood said: “I didn’t think of that. I was just too happy at the time. We should have sent someone to give Teacher Su a heads-up.”

Yu Sheng could only spread his hands with a wry smile and say: “Saying that now won’t help. Let’s go see how she is.”

They headed for the infirmary. By the time they arrived, Rapunzel had already coaxed and shooed the curious Cursed Children away.

The young council employee lay on the cot. She was awake now, a bit pale, but otherwise looked fine.

The girl named Xiao Xiao sat in the chair beside her, head drooping. She hunched like she had made a huge mistake, and it looked like she had cried. [Yu Sheng guessed she burst into tears when the teacher fainted.]

Rapunzel came over and said: “Nothing serious. The doctor checked her. It’s emotional shock and fright. The advice is to lie down a bit longer. Everything’s clear. No need to worry. This is partly on me. I shouldn’t have just let Xiao Xiao push the door open and go in.”

Propping herself up, Teacher Su waved her hands and said: “I’m fine, I’m fine! It scared me then, but now I’m just happy.”

As she spoke, she sat up and looked at Yu Sheng.

She said: “I remember… your name is Yu Sheng, right? I have something I want to tell you.”