Chapter 173

Chapter 173: Morning

After sending the message, Yu Sheng looked out the window at the sky.

It was only just starting to brighten. Work was still far off, so Bai Li Qing probably wouldn’t respond for a while.

Yu Sheng didn’t sit and wait. He found a small box that used to hold cookies, put Hunter’s “bullet” inside for now, then went to the kitchen to make something to eat.

Foxy and Irene followed naturally—Foxy to mooch food, and Irene because she clearly still hadn’t figured things out.

“How did Hunter know you could bring the bullet outside?” Irene asked, baffled, trailing behind him. “They shoot you once and somehow know you’ll not only live, but cough the thing up? And then you’ll find someone to analyze where it came from? Who delivers a message like that?”

Yu Sheng worked at the stove without looking up, brow furrowed.

It was exactly what he’d been thinking about.

Whether that bullet was truly “information” was still unclear, but one thing was obvious: in the black forest, Hunter had fired without hesitation, straight at his heart. Whatever else the motive might be, that shot looked like it was meant to kill him.

“So the biggest possibility is…” Yu Sheng said at last, breaking the silence, “they didn’t know.”

Irene blinked. “They didn’t know?”

“An entity wandering in the black forest can’t possibly know my resurrection ability.” Yu Sheng spoke slowly. “And they probably didn’t know I entered the black forest directly from reality through the door, either. So when Hunter fired, in theory they had no idea I could survive and bring the bullet back out afterward.”

“Then they really wanted to kill you.” Irene frowned. “But Little Red Riding Hood said Hunter doesn’t misjudge. They had no motive to shoot you…”

“I can’t figure that out either.” Yu Sheng shook his head. “But no matter what, next time I go into the black forest, I’m bringing that bullet with me.”

He finished shredding a cucumber and casually handed the remaining half to Foxy, who’d been waiting like a starving child. After a brief pause, he added, “Since Hunter ‘gave’ me a bullet, I’ll carry it properly and see what changes it causes.”

Irene muttered, “Oh,” and right then Yu Sheng’s phone started ringing in his pocket.

“It’s Bai Li Qing,” Yu Sheng said after checking the screen. He picked up at once. “Up this early? You saw what I sent you?”

Bai Li Qing didn’t bother with greetings. She went straight to the point. “That’s a standard-issue exorcist bullet used seventy years ago by deep-dive team members and Special Operations Bureau agents. It’s been updated and replaced now.”

Yu Sheng wiped his hands on a towel, told Foxy to watch the pot of boiling noodles, and told Irene not to climb onto the stove again. Then he stepped aside.

“…All right. Just like I thought.”

“The bullet head came from the black forest?” Bai Li Qing’s voice sharpened. “Another leftover taken from Hunter?”

Yu Sheng got briefly stuck on whether a bullet fired into his chest counted as “left behind” or “given.” After two seconds, he shoved that ridiculous thought aside.

“Pretty much. The process was complicated, but it was definitely Hunter’s—something they were using.”

“Then we can basically confirm it.” Bai Li Qing inhaled softly, her tone turning serious. “Hunter came from that twelve-person deep-dive team seventy years ago.”

Yu Sheng went quiet.

“Have you established contact with them?” Bai Li Qing asked. “Is that old soldier… still willing to help us?”

Yu Sheng sighed. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t communicate with Hunter. I showed them the group photo, but I don’t know if it meant anything to them.”

“Not a single word exchanged?”

Yu Sheng paused. “Didn’t get the chance.”

Bai Li Qing fell silent for a beat. “…Then how did you get Hunter’s bullet? Something like that should be a warrior’s personal item.”

“They shot it into me,” Yu Sheng said.

Silence stretched longer.

His words had clearly hard-locked her brain.

“I mean it literally,” Yu Sheng added.

This time, the director’s voice turned hesitant. “…Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Yu Sheng said. She didn’t know he couldn’t truly die, so all he could do was brush it off. “Just a scratch. And I still feel like they can communicate. This method just wasn’t right.”

“You still want to try contacting Hunter?” Bai Li Qing sounded surprised. “That could be very dangerous.”

“It’s dangerous, but worth trying again.” Yu Sheng spoke quickly, leaving her no room to interrupt. “I’ve made some progress. Later I’ll organize what happened last night and send it to you. You’ve got more brains on your side—help me analyze it and see what details I missed. Little Red Riding Hood doesn’t have much time. That orphanage still has many children. Their time is running out too… you know what I mean.”

“…I understand,” Bai Li Qing said. “The Special Operations Bureau will fully assist. If you need anything, contact me anytime.”

The call ended. Yu Sheng leaned against the cabinet and let out a long breath.

“Benefactor,” Foxy called from the stove, snapping him out of his thoughts. “The noodles are done. Do we rinse them in cold water?”

“Yes. Rinse them.” Yu Sheng shook his head as if clearing it. Looking at Foxy’s eager face, the irritation in his chest eased without him noticing, and a faint smile crept up. “Then we eat.”

—

The children lined up at the sink, obediently washing their hands and faces. The ones who finished early sat at the dining table, waiting for the “guardians” to serve food.

Little Red Riding Hood supervised the dollheads by the sink, glancing back now and then to keep the table in order. She looked a little bored.

Princess Rapunzel walked past with a big bucket of vegetable soup fresh from the kitchen. As she passed, she looked up at Little Red Riding Hood with open curiosity. “Hey. You’re not still mad at him, are you?”

“Do I look like I’m mad?” Little Red Riding Hood asked, baffled.

“You just look pretty serious.” Princess Rapunzel nodded solemnly. “You looked like this last time you owed me twenty bucks.”

Little Red Riding Hood’s mouth twitched. She didn’t even know how to respond.

“Come on. Tell me what’s going on.” Princess Rapunzel leaned in, practically vibrating with curiosity. “All I know is you got ‘kicked’ out of a dream. You sat up in the middle of the night and started puking, then sat there sulking. What happened?”

“…Nothing.” Little Red Riding Hood was quiet for a few seconds. Then she exhaled and waved her away. “I just suddenly realized I’m kind of scared of my birthday next month—but also weirdly looking forward to it. Now stop wasting time. If you don’t bring the soup over, the kids are going to start making noise.”

“Oh…” Princess Rapunzel carried the bucket away.

Little Red Riding Hood’s gaze followed her, settling on the long table.

Children of all sizes sat there, chatting and fidgeting.

Several staff members in counselor uniforms stood at the kitchen door, watching with complicated smiles.

Xiao Xiao had fully recovered. Just a couple of days ago, she’d been timid and barely dared to speak above a whisper to anyone in the orphanage. Now she seemed to have made a friend. With a serious little face, she was describing a strange dream to the child beside her—one unrelated to the black forest. Odd, but ordinary, peaceful.

The other children who often had nightmares looked envious of Xiao Xiao’s dream. A few gathered around to listen.

Little Red Riding Hood tilted her head into the sunlight spilling through the window and narrowed her eyes slightly.

—

Bai Li Qing’s phone chimed with a new message. She opened it and saw it was from Yu Sheng.

It described a bold run through the black forest, a vicious face-to-face clash with Wolf Granny, and what happened during that brief contact with Hunter.

It also included Yu Sheng’s own guesses, and information about the black forest’s current state that had never appeared in any investigation report before.

The text was long—clearly drafted on a computer and forwarded over. Every detail was laid out with crisp clarity.

Standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, Bai Li Qing read the “report” that might not have been a report, and couldn’t help muttering, “No wonder he writes novels…”

At some point, a pair of eyes silently appeared outside the glass behind her, and a stiff, mechanical voice spoke directly into her mind.

“The wording is beautiful?”

“No,” Bai Li Qing sighed. “I mean it’s way easier to understand what he writes than what he says. At least it’s not so… hard to process.”

The phantom eyes blinked once, then studied the words on the phone along with her.

A moment later, Bai Li Qing dialed a number.

Song Cheng answered. “Director?”

“Arrange an additional deep-dive squad at headquarters. Don’t deploy them yet, but they must be ready to move at any time.” Bai Li Qing’s voice was even. “Starting now, prepare the large deep-dive pool at D2 dive port.”

“Yes,” Song Cheng replied at once. Then, reflexively, he asked, “Director, what happened?”

“As a precaution,” Bai Li Qing said. “…The core of fairy tale might actually get dug out this time.”