Chapter 160

Chapter 160: The Past

[A wolf howl?]

Yu Sheng’s first reaction was confusion, but the next howl made him think of recent events. He did not doubt that he was hearing things, because only a few seconds later another uneasy howl rose from far away, clearer than before.

Besides, he felt there is no such thing as a hallucination in a dream this lucid.

He frowned and headed toward the sound. In this lucid dream, he took only a few steps before thought carried him across the distance. In the blink of an eye he reached the place that felt wrong.

He saw the howling wolf.

It was a stiff, ghostly shadow floating above the grass. Like a bad projector with a loose wire, it flickered every few seconds. With each flicker, the rigid shadow changed to a new pose, as if a surveillance feed with heavy lag were refreshing the target every few seconds.

Staring in shock and curiosity at the projection inside his own dream, Yu Sheng watched it flicker again. In the next refreshed pose the wolf turned its head. It seemed to notice an uninvited guest approaching and aimed its gaze this way.

But it was only a shadow. Besides looking toward him, the wolf did not seem able to do anything else.

His first tension faded. He studied the “wolf” with growing curiosity, feeling for some reason that its eyes looked familiar.

Then a strange thought rose in his mind: this wolf could not be eaten.

Because there was humanity in its eyes.

[Humanity?] He jolted as he suddenly realized why the eyes felt familiar. Hesitating, he reached out, wanting to touch the projection hovering over the grass.

A cool, misty feeling pressed against his fingertips, like brushing a layer of fog. The wolf kept quietly watching him, but in the very next flicker it vanished.

At the same time, broken and messy fragments of memory that were not his own burst through Yu Sheng’s mind.

He saw yellowed, faded scenes. A string of quick flashes. A blurry figure stood among other equally blurred faces. They crowded around a small bed, like a silent farewell.

The next second, he saw that figure arguing with someone. The other person was taller. Their face too was unclear, yet from the memory Yu Sheng felt a warm, familiar pull. That person seemed very important. But now the owner of this memory was arguing with her. Bits of the argument drifted through:

“…why go to school! You are not going to grow up anyway!”

“…live like an ordinary child…go to school, make friends, read, play, worry, be happy…even if it is short, you still need to experience it…”

In that short fragment, Yu Sheng took a few steps forward without thinking, but new images rose before his eyes.

He saw the figure standing with many other shadows, all in a circle, clapping under someone’s lead. A voice came from the side: “…welcome Teacher Su, she will teach the kids from now on…Teacher Zhang is sick and will not come anymore…”

All the shadows vanished. The figure stood alone among low shrubs, looking even smaller than before. Suddenly a wolf, even blurrier than the last, appeared in front of her. The wolf lowered its head and let out a muffled whine. The small figure bent down, reached out with a hand, and, scared but trying to be brave, patted the wolf’s head: “From now on…you need to behave…”

The wolf disappeared. Yu Sheng saw the figure walking alone along a narrow path.

Now she was shorter still, only the size of a five or six year old. She walked while crying. Dim streetlights flickered on both sides. Beyond the light, a vast, shadowy dense forest stretched out. Rising howls and a sense of malice filled the Black Forest, as if countless hungry predators were waiting for prey.

The small figure stopped on the path and lifted her head to look into the dark beyond, as if something there had caught her eyes.

[Do not go over there.]

The thought jumped into Yu Sheng’s mind. The next second he saw the little figure leave the path almost without hesitation, walking straight toward the malice-soaked Deep Forest.

Yu Sheng knew this was a scene from the past, an Illusion Arts, and not his own. Still, his instincts made him try to stop it. In an instant he appeared beside the small figure and reached out to block her. But she walked straight through him and kept going into the dark.

Startled, he turned, seeing her run faster and faster, throwing herself toward two blurred Illusion Arts.

“Mom and Dad!”

Yu Sheng stood frozen.

Now he finally knew what Little Red Riding Hood had seen years ago on that path.

Maybe no matter how many times this happened, the six year old would always throw herself into that deep darkness.

Every child would.

Chewing came from the dark. A splash of bright red spread through the shadow like a glaring Red Cloak.

All the Illusion Arts vanished. The small figure was gone. The boundless dark Forest was gone. Everything blew away on a hollow wind. Yu Sheng stepped back twice without thinking and found himself again in the gray, endless plain. This time, the flickering wolf projection was gone. Only a girl in a red jacket stood not far away, a little dazed.

He paused, then walked toward her. She seemed to “wake up” and turned her head this way, unsure.

After a moment, the girl in red spoke first: “You saw all of that?”

Yu Sheng blinked. He had thought he was only watching another Illusion Arts, but she was actually here. He recovered quickly and nodded lightly: “I did not mean to see it.”

Raking her hair in frustration, Little Red Riding Hood grumbled: “See, you lords just love snooping on people’s privacy. What were you even curious about!”

“I said it was not on purpose,” Yu Sheng scratched his cheek, not sure how to ease the awkwardness, “and I did not drag you here.”

Little Red Riding Hood stopped scratching her hair and, peeking under her bangs, aimed a not-very-threatening look at him: “I was just about to ask. Where is this?”

After a beat of hesitation, Yu Sheng said: “Uh, my dream.”

The second he said it, he felt like he had just ruined his own explanation.

Her eyes went wide at once: “And you say it was not on purpose!”

“This is just a reflex,” Yu Sheng tried to explain without much confidence, “Foxy has been here too. Anyone who forms a blood bond with me might fall in. I do not know what the principle is.”

She studied him up and down, suspicious, like checking if he was lying. At last she asked again: “Really?”

Yu Sheng nodded with very sincere firmness.

The girl in red finally pulled her gaze back, half convinced and not pushing for now.

Only a few seconds later she turned again: “I just do not get it. Who dreams like this? A fixed space that can pull people in, and the people you pull in can chat with you?”

“I do not know either,” Yu Sheng sounded even more helpless than she did, “you know my situation. I cannot even figure out my own stuff…”

She stared at him for a while, then waved a hand, exhaled, turned around, and sat on the grass.

Yu Sheng walked over and, after a short pause, sat down beside her.

Curious, he asked: “Why are you dreaming in the middle of the day?”

“Chemistry class. I fell asleep,” the girl said in a muffled voice.

Two seconds later she added: “I do not usually sleep in class. I also have not slept much lately. I do not know why, but I was extra sleepy today. My mind wandered and I dozed off.”

“Sleeping in class is a normal part of student life,” Yu Sheng said whatever came to mind, “you are still growing. A little more sleep helps.”

“I am almost eighteen, not eight,” Little Red Riding Hood glanced at him from under her bangs, and her eyes seemed to smile, “tell me the truth, was I pretty dumb as a kid? I have never even seen what my parents look like, but back then I thought I saw my mom and dad…”

Yu Sheng said nothing. After a while he spoke with sudden calm: “I am going to take down the Black Forest, and the thing behind it.”

She paused, then asked softly: “You suddenly have a plan?”

“I went to the Special Affairs Bureau today and found some clues,” Yu Sheng said slowly, “step one is to find the Hunter inside the Black Forest. They might know where the road behind the Forest is.”

“Why do you think that?”

“The Hunter might be one of the Deep Dive Squad who went into the depths of the Fairy Tale seventy years ago and never returned. Or they might be all of them.”

Little Red Riding Hood froze. She stared at Yu Sheng for a long time, then blinked.

Just as she was about to speak, he cut in first: “It is enough that you know. Do not contact the Hunter on your own.”

“Why?”

“Because they have been in the Black Forest for too long.”