Chapter 165

Chapter 165: Black Forest Rascal Club takes shape

Night was deep.

Darkness covered the orphanage. The hallways outside grew quiet. The cursed children had spent all their energy playing in the day and were mostly asleep. A “parent” on night patrol walked the corridor with a flashlight. Now and then a beam slid past the window of The Door’s observation slot, matched by slow, careful footsteps.

Little Red Riding Hood put on her nightgown and leaned against the headboard, listening to the sounds outside.

She listened for short cries in the dark, for strange screams. Her wolf sniffed the fear and unease that hid in the shadows, sniffing for things that shouldn’t be here, sneaking into reality under the cover of night. Even when it wasn’t her turn to patrol, she had built this habit.

After a good while, she finally let out a slow breath and lay down.

The first hour after lights-out is when trouble happens most easily. Looks like tonight will be calm.

The top bunk creaked. A head peeked over the edge, face curious: “Red Hood, sleeping this early? You’ve been sleeping a lot lately.”

“Yeah, I’m getting sleepy,” said Little Red Riding Hood with a yawn. “And I made plans for tonight.”

Rapunzel, who slept on the top bunk, blinked, then caught on a few seconds later. A new name popped into her head: “…that guy named Yu Sheng?”

“He’s not that old. Call him brother,” Little Red Riding Hood rolled her eyes. “Yes, him. He asked to meet me in the Black Forest.”

“Alright then, big brother,” Rapunzel said, looking a little weirded out. “Meet you in the Black Forest… I know what you mean, but it still sounds odd. We’re all stuck in our own ‘subsets.’ Your Black Forest has gotten busy lately…”

Little Red Riding Hood lifted her eyelids: “Jealous?”

The head tilted, then withdrew: “No real thoughts about it.”

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth like she wanted to say more, but swallowed the words. She grabbed her phone and, as drowsiness rolled in, sent a text: “Good night. See you soon.”

She drifted into dreams.

Dark. Cold. Empty. Then layers of shadow rose before her. A forest at dusk surfaced from the gloom, and with it came a distant wolf’s howl.

In the dream, Little Red Riding Hood opened her eyes and saw a familiar “view.”

“…back here again.”

She sighed softly with no choice, but her nerves pulled tight inside. Fear planted in childhood had sunk into the bone. It wasn’t something you beat with practice or pep talks. Her calm face and teasing tone only fooled herself. In her heart, she was still afraid. [Stay calm.]

As her nerves tightened, she summoned her Wolf Pack, then looked around.

She watched for the Evil Wolf to appear from the dark and also searched for the person who promised to explore the Black Forest with her.

Almost the instant the Wolf Pack appeared, black threads suddenly wove and stretched in the air nearby. A voice came from nowhere: “Okay okay, she’s asleep… don’t rush me, I’m locking the position. We want to pop up right next to her. Precision work… there, connected. Set The Door here. Open, open…”

The next second, the threads compressed into a thorny doorframe, and a shimmering phantom door took shape in the middle. The Door swung open, and three familiar figures stepped through.

Yu Sheng came in carrying Irene, with Miss Fox at his side.

“Good evening,” Yu Sheng said cheerfully as soon as he entered. “We’re not late, right? Irene says you fell asleep a few minutes ago.”

Foxy and Irene waved, smiling like they were out for a park picnic, not walking into a dangerous Black Forest.

Little Red Riding Hood’s emotions couldn’t keep up. Part of her still wanted to be tense, but their easy mood smashed the atmosphere in an instant. She opened her mouth and finally squeezed out: “Um… I just got here.”

Then she saw Yu Sheng reach back through the still-open Door, bend, and pull something in from the other side. It was a length of rebar over a meter long. The thumb-thick bar had a few loops bent at the front, and those loops were welded with rusty nails, blades, and sharp-edged rebar burrs. In the dusk sliding toward night, the thing gleamed with cold light. One look made you think of tetanus.

Yu Sheng gave the tetanus staff a couple of test swings like it weighed nothing, though it was nearly two meters long. Little Red Riding Hood finally asked: “What… is that?”

“A weapon,” Yu Sheng said, happy but a little embarrassed. “I don’t have a weapon that fits me, and I don’t have fighting skill. Usually all I’ve got is brute strength and selling blood. Foxy has her Fox Radish set, and Irene has a pile of magic toys. I can only make do with this.”

He spun the thing twice more, a brutal club that could make a normal person bleed a lot and catch tetanus from a single scrape, then sighed: “I don’t think this will work well on the Evil Wolf, but having a stick beats going in bare-handed or throwing rocks.”

Little Red Riding Hood stared, stunned. She finally caught up with his train of thought and felt a touch of awe, not because the stick was super strong.

To be fair, as a Spirit Realm Detective she had seen plenty of dangerous weapons, and there were countless killer oddities in the Otherworld. This rebar spiked club wasn’t high-grade at all. What made it scary was the style. All those spikes and hooks and blades screamed the maker’s malice and grit. The weapon’s killing vibe outclassed its actual killing power.

And for some reason, the longer she looked, the more she felt a creeping fear.

She sniffed, saw those blades flash with chilling light, and figured out why.

“…is that soaked in blood?” she asked, eyes widening as Yu Sheng turned to shut The Door.

“Yes,” Yu Sheng smiled. “A lot.”

In the Black Forest’s shadow, that smile looked purely happy.

Little Red Riding Hood stood there, at a loss for words. In her short life and simple worldview, she couldn’t find the right line. After a while she managed: “Is that… your blood? Isn’t that kind of…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Yu Sheng waved her off before she finished. “The whole stick is leftover scraps from making dolls. Think of it as a by-product.”

Little Red Riding Hood: “…?”

Yu Sheng didn’t explain more. He hefted the tetanus staff onto his shoulder and looked toward the Deep Forest.

“Let’s not stay where the shadows are heavy. Like that squirrel said, head for the light. I think I see a glow up ahead. Let’s move and see whether the squirrel or the wolves show first.”

He started walking. Little Red Riding Hood hurried after him. After a few steps she noticed nail marks like a cat scratch on his arm and small bite marks on his head. She asked, curious: “Then what happened to those? They look like cat scratches…”

Yu Sheng’s pace slowed. His face twitched in embarrassment: “Uh… also a by-product of making dolls. Don’t worry. They’ll heal soon.”

Perched on his other shoulder, Irene snorted, trying to look angry. It had no bite at all. In the end she even reached out to touch the bite mark on Yu Sheng’s head, looking torn.

Little Red Riding Hood: “…?”

Just then, bushes rustled nearby, and everyone stopped.

The next moment, a small figure leaped out of the shrubs.

It was a squirrel with a fluffy big tail, a strip of red torn cloth tied around it. Hugging an acorn it had found who knows where, it hopped onto a thin branch at the top of the bush, proud and loud in a high voice: “Ah, dusk! The forest is getting dark, and Little Red Riding Hood walks alone on the country road. Good children must control their curiosity and must not be drawn to the wildflowers and mushrooms by the side of the-”

The squirrel froze, staring at the group.

Yu Sheng, grinning, carrying a tetanus staff.

A doll only 66 centimeters tall that somehow felt like an Outer God.

A Demon Fox with a bunch of tails and Fox Fire floating around her.

Little Red Riding Hood, embarrassed for no clear reason.

The squirrel stared for a few seconds. The acorn slipped from its paws and fell with a plop.

“…this just got weird!”