Chapter 179

Chapter 179: The Secret Letter

The tired young man closed the door behind him, and the apartment fell silent.

After a few seconds, Yu Sheng spoke first. “He’s obviously giving us a chance.” He looked around. “Where do we start?”

Little Red Riding Hood didn’t answer. She walked straight to the low cabinet, lifted the urn down, and held it out.

“Try.”

Yu Sheng hesitated. “…We’re really doing this?”

“This is also for Old Zheng,” Little Red Riding Hood said, calm and steady. “If he still had something he never got to say, this might be the only chance.”

Her seriousness pushed aside Yu Sheng’s last bit of discomfort. He took a quiet breath and reached toward the urn.

A moment later, he shook his head.

“So it really doesn’t work…” Little Red Riding Hood blinked, a hint of regret slipping through. But she exhaled and accepted it quickly. “Makes sense. The world isn’t full of easy answers.”

She carefully set the urn back on the cabinet, then bowed toward it—deep, solemn, and sincere.

Only then did she turn back to Yu Sheng. “Still… I’m a little surprised. You usually act like you don’t think about consequences at all. Like you don’t even care much about your own life. Why are you so cautious and serious right now?”

“This is different,” Yu Sheng said, his voice steady. “An ordinary person only dies once. That one-and-only life and death is a serious thing.”

Little Red Riding Hood stared at him for a few seconds, as if seeing the person in front of her anew. Then she looked away and pointed toward the bedroom.

“Let’s see what’s in there.”

They stepped inside and quickly found what the young man had mentioned. On the desk by the window sat a stack of old books, a few notebooks, and a scatter of labels, stationery, and scraps.

Yu Sheng picked up one notebook and flipped it open. The handwriting was neat and clear, the kind that hinted at the writer’s habits.

He lifted his gaze and spotted something else: along the wall on the other side of the room, rows of tidy wooden shelves held various crafts—ceramic vessels, metal ornaments… and even two anime figurines.

Little Red Riding Hood noticed where he was looking and waved him off. “Don’t bother. A deviant collectible like the ‘weeper’ statue wouldn’t be kept here.”

Her tone sharpened. “In fact, that statue is missing now. The Curiosities Association is looking, too. Either it’s hidden at one of Old Zheng’s secret storage sites, or it’s already slipped into the black market.”

“I’m just impressed the guy had such wide-ranging hobbies,” Yu Sheng muttered. “Those two figurines don’t look cheap.”

“…I don’t really get it,” Little Red Riding Hood said under her breath, then returned her attention to the desk.

Yu Sheng followed suit.

Most of the books were about art collecting. Two of them had been read so often the covers were worn, and the pages were crowded with notes. Old Zheng had written his own comments beneath the entries he cared about.

The notebooks were messier—daily trivia mixed with work reminders—and most of it looked ordinary.

Yu Sheng’s gaze shifted to the scraps and letters.

He was surprised that in this day and age, someone still used paper letters to communicate. And some of the stationery was very new, like it had been received recently.

He picked up the letters, especially the most recent one by date, and skimmed it.

The top and bottom edges were slightly wrinkled, as if someone had gripped the paper too tightly. Yet the content was nothing but ordinary greetings and talk of certain collectibles. The date was three days ago, and the signature was clearly a fake name.

“Is there something on that letter?” Little Red Riding Hood asked, glancing over.

“The content doesn’t look wrong,” Yu Sheng muttered, frowning. But the unease wouldn’t leave him. He turned the sheet over and over, and still couldn’t find anything.

His spiritual intuition was practically jumping out of his skull. He couldn’t ignore that thin thread of wrongness.

“Heat it with fire? Or soak it in water?” Little Red Riding Hood suggested. “Those are old tricks for hidden messages, but…”

“No.” Yu Sheng shook his head. “If this is a specially treated secret letter, we might destroy a real clue.”

He scowled. “We should’ve brought Irene. She always has some weird knack for mysticism.”

Little Red Riding Hood hesitated. “Then should we bring her now? There’s no one around, and your door is pretty convenient, isn’t it?”

Caught up in the moment, Yu Sheng realized she was right. “Actually… that makes sense.”

He pulled out his phone and first reported the situation to the Special Operations Bureau. Then he reached into the empty air beside him. Under careful control, a phantom door—much smaller than usual—opened in his hand.

On the other side was the living room of Wu Tong Road 66, facing the sofa.

Irene sat there, staring blankly at the TV. “…Huh? What?”

“Come help,” Yu Sheng said, reaching through the door and yanking the little doll out.

“Hey! What are you doing? I’m watching TV—”

She got as far as that before Yu Sheng plopped her onto the desk. The sudden scene change left her dazed for half a second.

Then she snapped out of it, eyes widening. “Yu Sheng, you—! Who does this?! You said you weren’t bringing me, and then you pull this! I was halfway through my show and you dragged me over! I was waiting to see which of those two idiots dies first—it’s about to hit the key plot point and you ruined it!”

Yu Sheng cut in fast. “Those two idiots die together in a minute. But in the next episode an even dumber villain shows up and keeps causing trouble. I’ve seen it. It’ll piss you off later. The female lead dies in a lovers’ suicide with the male lead’s second cousin. Then the male lead and the female lead’s maternal cousin end up relying on each other—and they die in the extras too.”

Irene stared at him, utterly blank.

Then she exploded, exactly as expected. “Who the hell wrote this show…?!”

She started to stand, but Yu Sheng pressed her back down. “What’s happening here is important. I can’t handle it. I need your help.”

That single sentence crushed Irene’s anger instantly. Her mood flipped so fast Yu Sheng barely had time to blink.

She sat up straighter, smug as a cat. “I knew you couldn’t do it without me. So what’s the problem?”

Yu Sheng pointed at the desk. “These letters. My gut says something’s wrong, but I can’t tell what.”

Irene glanced at the papers, looking genuinely confused. “If you think something’s wrong, then unfold it and take a look first.”

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood both froze.

“Unfold?” they said in unison.

Yu Sheng grabbed the letter again. “Isn’t it already unfolded? It’s just a sheet of paper. It only has this content—”

“It’s rolled up!” Irene looked at him like he was hopeless. “Can’t you tell?”

She snatched the paper and gripped both ends, one hand above, one below. Then she gently pulled.

A soft rasp of paper against paper filled the room.

A phantom flame shimmered over the surface.

The seemingly intact sheet was “unfolded.” Something hidden—like a second layer, tucked into an invisible fold—slowly stretched out. Yu Sheng’s eyes widened as lines of text emerged between the normal writing.

But before the hidden content could fully appear, Irene stopped.

Yu Sheng stared at her. “Huh? Why did you stop?”

Irene’s face crumpled. “…My arms aren’t long enough.”

Yu Sheng’s face twitched. “Then I’ll grab another one of you over here.”

“No!” Irene shot upright and grabbed his sleeve. “I’m in the middle of a team fight over there. You don’t need any special tricks. Just grab this side and pull it open slowly. An ordinary person can do it.”

She pointed sharply. “Yeah. Slower. This paper doesn’t feel sturdy. If you pull too fast, it might tear.”

Yu Sheng did as she said, carefully unfolding the letter from its strange, hidden state until it lay completely open.

The concealed paragraphs now showed clearly, filling the spaces between the harmless-looking text:

“Before X month X day, you must bring her into that white exhibition hall. A miracle and blessing await her there. The curse she suffers will be cut away, and her body and mind will be freed.

“We have already arranged the ritual. You need not worry about safety. Just as you care for those children, we too hope to remove that vicious curse from Fairy Tale in the safest and most effective way.

“We know your doubts these days, but the world misunderstands us greatly. Indeed, there are believers who went astray. Tempted by power and pushed by foolishness, those idiots misunderstood the messenger’s intent. Worse still, some followed the wrong, impostor messenger from the very beginning. They committed countless evils, and yet their infamy is placed upon all of us. This is sorrowful and unjust.

“But you have witnessed that there is also a messenger who is pure and supremely kind. We have shown you His power and intent. You have heard with your own ears and seen with your own eyes that He bears no malice, that He shelters children. He spoke to you through a mouth unseen, and you admitted you heard it. So you may put all concerns aside.

“If you have made your decision, then light the blank letter paper we left for you. Remember: use an aromatherapy candle mixed with rose essence.

“Note: Do not buy the ‘exquisite pavilion’ brand. They are shameless counterfeiters and deceivers. The messenger’s wrath will sooner or later descend upon the heads of such vile, shameless, greed-soaked merchants.

“- Humble and honest, servant of the angel.”