Chapter 147

Chapter 147: A Wild Meal

An earth-shaking explosion tore through the Black Forest. A burst of fireworks roared up into the air, light and heat swallowed almost immediately by the endless darkness, but the shockwave alone was enough to silence the overlapping wolf howls for a brief moment.

Yu Sheng knew the howls would return. The forest would heal fast. The Black Forest would keep running its script and its rules. That “source” hiding behind the stage would keep whispering in the nightmares it wove.

Let it whisper. Yu Sheng didn’t care about it right now.

He’d already pulled Foxy through the door and returned to the valley.

“I saw a huge commotion through the door just now!” Irene rushed over, grabbed Yu Sheng’s pant leg, and immediately started climbing up while chattering nonstop. “You didn’t start a forest fire, did you?”

“If it could really burn, that would be great,” Yu Sheng said casually, steadying the Little Doll, “but sadly, that little bit of firepower isn’t enough to ignite the Black Forest. Don’t rush. It’s not time for a full assault yet. I still haven’t dragged out the thing hiding behind the stage…”

He smiled faintly. “But it’s close. Very close.”

Foxy tugged on Yu Sheng’s sleeve, looking a little embarrassed. “Benefactor, I’m hungry. When are we going home to eat?”

Yu Sheng had been absorbed in planning how to make the cyber fox immortal beat up children’s literature. Foxy’s reminder snapped him out of it. He pulled out his phone and checked the time. “Oh—you’re right. It’s almost mealtime. This place doesn’t even change its lighting, so it’s easy to lose track of time…”

“Huh? You’re not doing more experiments?” Irene perched on his shoulder and asked curiously. “Didn’t you say opening the Black Forest’s door was just the first test?”

Yu Sheng hesitated, rubbed his forehead, then sighed. “I wanted to try building a door that could stay open without me maintaining it, but… let’s do it next time. Those failed attempts left me dizzy as hell. I’m not messing around anymore today.”

Irene sighed like she was witnessing a miracle. “Wow. Rare. You actually got tired of messing around.”

Yu Sheng didn’t bother arguing. He called Bai Li Qing.

“…Yeah, it’s me. I’m done with the experiment on my end. Sorry for the trouble for the on-duty staff… Mm. Next time I do this again, I’ll still tell you in advance. Oh, and there might be one or two signals later—that’ll be the noise when I door opening back home. Nothing else. I’m hanging up, bye.”

Irene stared at him. “You’re getting smoother and smoother. You don’t even give them time to curse you out in their heads anymore.”

Yu Sheng ruffled the head of the nonstop yapper, then turned to Foxy. “Tonight we’re eating something fresh. First, take that Big Bad Wolf out of your tail. I’ll process it. It’s too big—my kitchen at home can’t handle it…”

The moment Foxy heard that, she practically started drooling. She immediately pulled the huge wolf corpse out of her tail—and while she was at it, she also pulled out a cleaver, a chopping knife, a wok, two soup pots, two spatulas, a cutting board, cooking wine, soy sauce, peppercorns, star anise, and a jug of peanut oil…

Yu Sheng had been about to door opening home to grab supplies. He stared at the pile, then looked at Foxy like his brain had short-circuited. After a long beat, he finally blurted, “When did you start carrying all this with you?!”

Foxy lowered her head shyly. “When we left. I just… grabbed it.”

Yu Sheng: “…You ‘just grabbed’ an entire kitchen?!”

“No, no!” Foxy waved her hands quickly. “I didn’t take the gas stove…”

“Obviously! It’s connected to a pipe! You can’t take it even if you want to!” Yu Sheng discovered that humans really could laugh when they were speechless enough. Then he suddenly realized something else. “Wait. If that’s the case… every time you go out with me, you’re actually carrying the kitchen with you?!”

Foxy nodded rapidly. “Mm-hm.”

“And every time we get home, you always rush into the kitchen before me… so you can put everything back?”

More nodding. “Mm-hm.”

Yu Sheng stared at her. “…Why?”

“I just thought… what if we need it,” Foxy said, sticking out her tongue and mumbling softly. “What if we have to cook outside, like for a picnic… And look, we needed it this time, didn’t we?”

Yu Sheng thought about it. He wanted to tell this fox that picnics weren’t supposed to be this wild.

Then he looked around.

Blue sky, green grass, mountains and water. In the outside real world, it was probably already dark, but here it still looked bright and sunny. In a wide-open place like this, with soft grass and a breeze on your face…

How could you not roast a Wolf Granny to set the mood?

As an encore to exploring the Black Forest, dragging everyone out here to carve up Wolf Granny was almost too perfect.

So Yu Sheng shaped the rock beneath his feet, forming a temporary table and stove on the platform. He had Foxy arrange the makeshift kitchen, then picked up the cleaver and bone-chopping knife and started breaking down the massive wolf corpse.

As he worked, he muttered, a little regretful, “What a pity. Little Red Riding Hood and Xiao Xiao already went back. Otherwise I’d have dragged them both here to taste this…”

Irene stood on the stove made of stacked rocks, hands on her hips. “You’re not afraid you’ll traumatize someone?!”

“What do you know?” Yu Sheng lifted his eyelids and glanced at her. “The best way to defeat fear is to face it head-on. And what’s more face-to-face than eating it? Also, stop showing off up there. You’ll fall into the pot again.”

Irene made a face and didn’t climb down. She just kept pacing, watching curiously as Yu Sheng butchered something two or three times the size of a normal wolf.

Halfway through, Yu Sheng suddenly paused.

“Wait. There’s no fire here.” He looked around. The valley had grown plenty of green ground, but it was still far from growing trees, and there was no way he could find firewood. As for gas, forget it—he still had no idea how to run a pipe from Wu Tong Road No. 66 all the way to Star X Valley…

But the moment he said it, Foxy walked over. “It’s fine, Benefactor. I have fire.”

As she spoke, she casually pulled off one of her tails, hugged the silver, fluffy thing, and rubbed it against the stove like she was striking a match. With a soft whoosh, a clump of fox fire bloomed at the tip.

“Here.” She smiled—bright, sunny—and held out the burning tail to Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng stared. “…You can cook with that?!”

“Yeah. Just control the output. If it’s strong, you can smelt steel. If it’s weak, you can warm yourself or roast food.”

“…Then stuff it into the stove first,” Yu Sheng said, rubbing his face. “Boil a pot of water.”

“Okay.” Foxy nodded and carried the tail toward the pot. Halfway there, she turned back. “Benefactor, should I fish Irene out of the pot first?”

Yu Sheng froze and whipped his head around.

Sure enough, the Little Doll was drenched, using both hands and feet to claw her way up the side of the huge soup pot.

Yu Sheng went stiff. “What the hell—when did you fall in?!”

“Just now! When Foxy was making fire!” Irene spluttered, furious. “I got distracted and slipped. Don’t laugh! Don’t laugh, you two, did you hear me?!”

—

It was a steady night—long overdue, calm, and finally relaxed.

Little Red Riding Hood hadn’t slept like this in a long, long time.

As adulthood drew closer, her sleep had been shrinking. By now, she only slept about two hours a day, and in those short two hours, she spent almost all of it inside the horror and malice of the Black Forest. She couldn’t even remember how long it had been. The forest’s erosion blurred her sense of time, and sometimes, when she dreamed, it felt like her whole life had been like this from the very beginning.

But today, she fell asleep early, then drifted through a string of light, peaceful dreams.

She vaguely knew she was dreaming. She wandered through familiar scenes from daily life, through early school memories, through the corridors and courtyard of the orphanage. She moved through shallow dreams and saw no sky-blocking trees, heard no howls circling her.

Only sometimes did she see the familiar shadow wolves close by, walking with her in the same relaxed way.

Then, in some dream she couldn’t count, she entered a narrow alley.

It was an alley in the old quarter, oddly familiar—like she’d been there not long ago.

She couldn’t remember why she’d gone. She only saw herself moving fast through the alley with the wolf pack.

The wolves noticed something ahead and started growling, uneasy. She hurried deeper. And then she saw a figure lying on the ground, blood everywhere, and a face she knew.

Deep in the dream, Little Red Riding Hood’s eyes widened.

Yu Sheng.

He was lying still in the alley—dead. His chest was torn open, and a rain frog had taken his heart.

Fear and confusion seized her. She stood there in the dream, stunned, staring at someone familiar who had died in front of her long, long ago.

Then, suddenly, the night-dark forest surged back into view. She saw Yu Sheng fall under the attack of Entity-Hunger.

She saw blood spread—spreading onto her.

Little Red Riding Hood snapped awake, gasping hard.

The sky outside the window was already bright.

A head poked down from the top bunk. Princess Rapunzel stared over with wide eyes for a long moment before she finally spoke, disbelief thick in her voice. “You slept through the whole night! You haven’t slept this soundly in ages!”

Little Red Riding Hood didn’t answer. She kept gasping. Only after a long time did her breathing steady, though her eyes still looked unfocused.

Princess Rapunzel noticed right away. “What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare? Or… did you enter the Black Forest again?”

“…No,” Little Red Riding Hood said slowly, shaking her head. “I just… remembered something. Something I can’t believe. Rapunzel, things are getting weird.”

“Huh?”