Chapter 147

Chapter 147: A Wild Meal

With a ground-shaking blast, a huge fireball shot up over the Black Forest. Light and heat were quickly swallowed by the endless darkness, but the shock was enough to make the rising and falling wolf howls pause for a moment.

Yu Sheng knew the howls would return soon. The Forest would heal. The Black Forest would keep running on its own script and rules. The “source” hiding behind the stage and weaving dreams would keep whispering its nightmare.

Let it whisper. He did not care right now.

He had already led Foxy back through the Door into the Valley.

Irene ran over, csheepering up his pants as she chattered: “I saw a huge boom through the Door just now! You didn’t start a forest fire, did you?”

Yu Sheng steadied her and said: “It would be nice if it could really burn, but that bit of firepower is far from enough to set the whole Black Forest ablaze. Don’t worry. It’s not time to launch a full attack yet. I still have not dragged out the thing behind the stage. But soon. Very soon.”

Foxy tugged Yu Sheng’s sleeve and said shyly: “Benefactor, I’m a little hungry. When do we go home to eat?”

Yu Sheng, who had been busy planning a project he jokingly called [Cyber Fox Immortal wallops children’s stories], checked his phone and said: “Oh, you’re right, it’s almost dinner time. The sky never changes here, so it’s easy to forget the time.”

Irene, riding his shoulder, asked curiously: “You’re not running more tests? Didn’t you say opening the Door to the Black Forest was only the first one?”

Yu Sheng rubbed his forehead, hesitated, then sighed and said: “I wanted to try building a Door that stays open without me holding it, but let’s leave that for next time. All those failed Door Opening attempts made my head spin. I’m done for today.”

Irene whistled and said: “Amazing. You can actually get tired of tinkering.”

Yu Sheng ignored the noisy doll, pulled out his phone, and called Bai Li Qing. He said: “Yeah, it’s me. I’m done with the experiment on my end. Thanks to the staff on duty. I’ll tell you ahead of time before the next run. By the way, there may be one or two more signals later. That will just be me Door Opening home. Nothing else. I’ll hang up now. Bye.”

Irene stared and said: “You’re getting slick. You don’t even give them a chance to curse you in their hearts.”

Yu Sheng ruffled her head and then looked at the fox beside him, saying: “Let’s eat something fresh tonight. Take out the Big Bad Wolf from your tail. I’ll handle it. It’s too big for our kitchen at home.”

Foxy’s mouth watered. She quickly pulled the huge wolf corpse from her tail. Then, as a bonus, she pulled out a cleaver, a bone-chopping knife, a wok, two stock pots, two spatulas, a cutting board, cooking wine, soy sauce, peppercorns, star anise, and a drum of peanut oil.

Yu Sheng had been about to Door Opening home to grab supplies. Seeing the pile, he went wide-eyed and finally blurted out: “When did you start carrying all this?”

Foxy lowered her head and said softly: “When we came out through the Door, I grabbed them on the way.”

Yu Sheng stared and said: “You grabbed the whole kitchen?”

Foxy waved both hands and said: “No, not the gas stove.”

Yu Sheng snorted and said: “Of course not, it’s attached to the pipe! You’d take it if you could. Wait, hold on. Does this mean every time you come out with me, you pocket the kitchen?”

Foxy nodded fast and said: “Mm, mm.”

Yu Sheng asked: “And every time we go home, you rush ahead of me into the kitchen to put everything back?”

Foxy kept nodding and said: “Mm, mm.”

Yu Sheng’s face went blank and he asked: “Why?”

The fox stuck out her tongue and muttered: “I thought we might need them. Maybe we’d have to cook outside, like a picnic. See? We needed them this time.”

Yu Sheng considered telling her that a “picnic” should not be this wild. But after thinking, he decided it was actually pretty good.

Look at this place: blue sky, green grass, mountains and water. The real world outside was almost dark, but here the light was still bright. In a wide, breezy place like this, why not grill a Wolf Granny for fun?

As a little after-show for exploring the Black Forest, leading his crew to carve up Wolf Granny right in base camp was very fitting.

Yu Sheng shaped the rock under his feet to make a temporary table and stove. He told the fox to set up a makeshift kitchen, then lifted a kitchen knife and a bone cleaver and got to work butchering the huge wolf. As he worked, he muttered: “What a pity Little Red Riding Hood and Xiao Xiao already went back. I would have made them taste this.”

Irene planted her feet on the stone stove, hands on her hips, and said: “Aren’t you afraid of scaring people?”

Yu Sheng glanced up and said: “The best way to beat fear is to face it. And nothing is more direct than eating it. As for you, stop strutting on top of the stove or you’ll fall in the pot.”

Irene made a face at him and did not come down. She kept pacing on the stovetop, watching how Yu Sheng took apart a corpse two or three times bigger than a normal wolf.

Halfway through, Yu Sheng realized a problem and said: “Hold up. We don’t have fire.” He looked around. The open plain had some fresh green, but no trees yet, so no wood to gather. Gas was even more hopeless. He had no idea how to run a pipe from Wutong Road 66 to this star valley.

Before he finished speaking, Foxy came over and said: “It’s fine, benefactor. I have fire.”

She reached behind her, pulled out a tail, and rubbed the silver, fluffy tip against the stove like the Little Match Girl. A bloom of Fox Fire sprang up.

She smiled bright as sun and held out the flaming tail to him, saying: “Here.”

Yu Sheng stared and asked: “You can cook with that?”

Foxy nodded and said: “Yes. Just control the power. Turn it up and it can smelt steel. Turn it down and it’s a campfire.”

Yu Sheng said: “Then tuck it into the stove and boil a pot of water.”

“Okay,” Foxy answered, then turned back halfway and asked: “Do we fish Irene out of the pot first?”

Yu Sheng spun around. The little doll, soaked from head to toe, was clawing her way out of a stock pot. He blurted: “When did you fall in?”

Irene splashed and huffed: “When Foxy was striking the fire. I spaced out and fell. No laughing. No laughing, you two, got it?”

…

It was a peaceful night, at last. Calm and relaxed.

Little Red Riding Hood had not slept like this for a very long time.

As she neared adulthood, her sleep had been shrinking. Now she barely slept two hours a day. Those two hours were almost always spent inside the Black Forest’s terror and malice. She could not remember how long this had gone on. The Black Forest’s erosion had blurred her sense of time. In dreams, she even felt her life had always been this way.

But tonight she drifted off early and rose and fell through a string of light, gentle dreams.

She knew she was dreaming. She walked through scenes she knew. She wandered her old school memories. She strolled the orphanage corridors and yard. In shallow dreams, she wandered without the sky-covering trees or the circling howls. Sometimes the familiar, friendly Shadow Wolves paced beside her, relaxed.

Later, in one of those dreams, she saw herself turn into a narrow alley.

It was in the old town. It looked familiar. She had been there not long ago.

She did not remember why she had gone. She only saw herself and her Wolf Pack hurry down the lane.

Her wolves sensed something and growled ahead. She saw herself hurry to the end of the alley. There was a figure on the ground. Blood spattered everywhere. The face was one she knew.

In that deep dream, Little Red Riding Hood’s eyes went wide.

She saw Yu Sheng lying still in the alley. Yu Sheng, dead. There was a hole in his chest. Rain Frog had taken his heart.

Fear and confusion clutched the girl. In the dream, she stood frozen, staring at someone she knew already long dead in front of her. Suddenly, she saw the Forest at night. She saw Yu Sheng fall under an attack by Entity-Hunger.

Blood spread, and it spread onto her.

Little Red Riding Hood snapped awake, gasping for breath.

Morning light already filled the window.

A head poked down from the top bunk. Rapunzel stared and finally said: “You slept through the whole night! You haven’t slept that soundly in ages!”

Little Red Riding Hood did not answer. She kept breathing hard. After a long while, she calmed, but her eyes were still unfocused.

Rapunzel noticed and tensed up, asking: “What’s wrong? A nightmare? Or did you go into the Black Forest again?”

Little Red Riding Hood hesitated, then slowly shook her head and said: “No. I just remembered some things. Things that are hard to believe. Rapunzel, something’s getting weird.”

Rapunzel blinked and said: “Huh?”