Chapter 172

Chapter 172: Information

The door flickering with faint light opened out of nowhere. Yu Sheng stepped through and, at a glance, saw Foxy standing in the living room, already turning his way. On the sofa opposite, three Irenes sat in perfect rows.

Yes. Three Irenes now.

“Benefactor, you’re alive again!” Foxy ran over first, delighted, grabbing Yu Sheng’s hand and shaking it hard. “All better? It doesn’t hurt anymore, right?”

The demon fox girl’s grip strength was terrifying. Yu Sheng’s shoulder creaked on the spot.

“All better, all better,” he groaned. “Stop shaking me. You’re about to pull my arm off…”

Only then did the three Irenes speak in unison. “You met Hunter?”

Yu Sheng rubbed the fur behind Foxy’s ear, then walked to the other sofa and sat down with a tired sigh. “Yeah. I met them.”

“Then why are you sighing?” One Irene leaned forward, confused. “What, negotiations didn’t go well? How’d you two talk?”

Yu Sheng waved a hand, face dark. “One shot. What’s there to talk about?”

Irene hesitated, then caught what he meant and immediately frowned. “Hunter shot you? That isn’t right… Didn’t you show them the group photo? They saw it and still shot you? Thought you were scamming them? Or you hit a nerve and they snapped?”

“Not so many words.” Yu Sheng poked the talking Irene in the forehead. His finger didn’t budge her at all—instead, he hurt his own fingertip. This one was clearly the rebar-and-stone version. “I think they mistook me for a wolf. I was contaminated by Wolf Granny’s blood at the time, remember? Maybe it was too much.”

Irene’s face went stiff. “…Huh? That works?”

“Otherwise there’s no explanation.” Yu Sheng leaned back wearily. Even though he’d healed completely after “resurrection,” the mental exhaustion of letting Wolf Granny contaminate him—and of forcing his way into the black forest’s loop—wasn’t so easy to shake. “I didn’t do anything extra. I only showed them the photo. No matter how you look at it, that picture shouldn’t be a reason to shoot.”

He trailed off, frowning.

The scene replayed in his mind: the empty hood, that gaze that felt present yet unseen, the rifle.

He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but he kept feeling that Hunter firing wasn’t so simple. It was as if the other side had tried to communicate—and that shot itself might have been the message.

Yu Sheng just couldn’t understand it.

He was still frowning when his phone vibrated in his pocket.

The moment he reached for it, he remembered what he’d forgotten. He glanced at the screen and—sure enough—there were missed calls and messages from Little Red Riding Hood. Over a dozen texts. Seven or eight missed calls.

Cold sweat broke out on his back.

Beside him, Irene craned her neck to peek at the screen and immediately let out an “Ooh,” launching into a stream of chatter. “You’re done. You kicked her out clean back then, and now the debt collector’s here. I’m telling you, humans at sixteen or seventeen are the worst to deal with. Especially this type—full of pain and grudges, proud, tough since childhood, young lady like that. The moment you booted her from the team, you should’ve known—”

Yu Sheng casually shoved the doll aside.

All three Irenes toppled like dominoes, and the room filled with triple the profanity.

Yu Sheng ignored the chorus and answered the call with a grimace.

Before he could speak, Little Red Riding Hood’s voice burst through, furious and worried all at once. “Why are you only picking up now? Where the hell did you die!”

Yu Sheng went awkward. “…In the house.”

“…?”

Clearly she’d piled up a stomach full of questions and a mountain of complaints while she couldn’t reach him, but his single sentence choked them all back down.

A few seconds passed. When she spoke again, her voice was lower—careful, almost reluctant. “You really… died again?”

She wasn’t used to saying it. She kept her voice down, like someone nearby might overhear.

“It’s nothing. You’ll get used to it.” Yu Sheng tried to sound comforting. “That’s not important. What matters is we successfully killed Wolf Granny once—after you left.”

Little Red Riding Hood went silent for a long time.

When she finally spoke, her voice was low and flat. “It’s useless. It’ll show up again.”

“Yeah. It’ll show up again.” Yu Sheng kept his tone steady. “But we weaken it every time. Next time you face it, it might be less dangerous. More importantly, I’ve found some clues about what’s behind the black forest. I’ve managed to plant a backdoor into its loop system. We got a lot today.”

A soft inhale came from the other end.

Yu Sheng continued, “Now I have a question.”

“Ask.”

He hesitated. “When you dealt with Hunter… did they ever shoot you?”

“Hunter shot you?!”

“How do you think I died at the end?” Yu Sheng sighed. “One shot. That’s how.”

“…Hunter only shoots wolves,” Little Red Riding Hood said slowly. “Usually that means Wolf Granny. And in theory, if Wolf Granny has already been killed by you, Hunter will lower their weapon. Normally their aggression isn’t that high…”

“Then what if I was contaminated by Wolf Granny’s blood at the time?” Yu Sheng pressed. “Could Hunter misjudge and treat me as a wolf too?”

To his surprise, she answered quickly and firmly. “Of course not.”

“You’re that sure?”

“Hunter can identify wolves accurately. They won’t misjudge over something as small as blood. I don’t know the exact method, but the accuracy is certain.” Her tone held absolute conviction. “Hunter has pointed a gun at me many times. I’ve been swallowed by Wolf Granny, swallowed by Big Bad Wolf, and contaminated by their blood too. If we’re talking about wolf components, I’m definitely higher than you. But Hunter’s bullets have never been wrong…”

Yu Sheng listened in silence.

After a while, he nodded to himself. “I understand. Then I’ll need to think this through more carefully.”

They spoke a little longer, confirmed everyone was safe, and Yu Sheng endured a few more complaints before hanging up.

The three Irenes had already climbed back onto the sofa like nothing had happened. One leaned over. “So what’s the verdict? What did that shot mean?”

Yu Sheng shook his head. He opened his mouth to answer—

—and suddenly his throat itched.

He coughed twice. The itch didn’t fade. It got worse.

Then he started coughing violently, uncontrollably, like he was about to cough his heart out and tear his lungs from his chest.

Irene and Foxy panicked and lunged in to pat his back. Foxy’s tail fur exploded. “Benefactor, are you okay? Benefactor, are you allergic to my tail—”

Irene was just as frantic, smacking Yu Sheng’s back while yelling, “Holy shit, I think you’re going to cough yourself to death! What’s happening all of a sudden… Don’t tell me you’re dying again? You just revived!”

Yu Sheng gagged dryly several times before he finally managed to stop. Panting, he waved Foxy off and shoved Irene’s arm away.

“Stop patting me,” he rasped. “You’re going to pat me to death… And next time, don’t use this body. Who pats someone’s back with rebar?”

Irene’s eyes widened, ready to protest.

Yu Sheng straightened, still catching his breath, and opened his right hand.

Something small and metallic sat in his palm.

Foxy stared. “What is that?”

Irene went blank. “…A bullet?”

Yu Sheng didn’t answer. He just stared at it.

It really was a bullet head, streaked with bright red blood. But it looked strange—short and thick, with spiral ridges on the tip. It wasn’t like a standard rifle round, not like shotgun pellets, and it was larger than a pistol bullet. Around the base were dense, layered patterns, like machine-pressed markings that weren’t mere decoration. They carried a kind of… mysterious, transcendent symbolism.

As the discomfort in his chest eased, his breathing smoothed out.

Irene tightened her grip on his wrist and looked up. “So this is…”

“Hunter’s message to me,” Yu Sheng muttered.

Irene frowned. “Then how do we handle th—”

Before she could finish, Yu Sheng had already picked up his phone.

Photo. Edit the message. Send it to Bai Li Qing.

All in one smooth motion.