Chapter 189

Chapter 189: Briar Shadow

Before leaving the Special Affairs Bureau, Yu Sheng also shared the details he had dug up from Old Zheng.

After hearing what happened to Old Zheng, Song Cheng scowled with real anger. Even with the boss present, he couldn’t help cursing: “Damn it, these Angel Cultists never do anything human.”

Bai Li Qing listened in silence, thought for a moment, and frowned slightly: “The ‘spirit-calling rite’ those cultists taught Old Zheng, the blood-drawn pattern, did you record it?”

Yu Sheng paused, looking awkward: “Uh, I honestly can’t remember it. The pattern had been scrubbed once. It was extremely faint. I couldn’t-”

He hadn’t finished when Irene blinked and raised her hand, pleased: “I wrote it down.”

The little Miss Doll glanced at Yu Sheng, then added: “When you were spacing out, the pattern on the ground lit up for a moment. It was brief, but I remembered it.”

Bai Li Qing immediately pulled paper and a pen from the desk and passed them to the Miss Doll: “Can you draw it?”

Irene wrestled with a pen nearly as long as her forearm: “I think so. I’ll try.”

She bent over and began to outline, very carefully, a complex ring of bizarre symbols and curls. At first she was clumsy, not used to the pen, but soon her strokes grew fluid, and a ring array that made the eyes swim slowly took shape under her hand.

Yu Sheng stared, stunned, then blurted: “Wait, your memory is this good? I’ve never seen you remember anything important!”

Without looking up, Irene kept sketching as she said: “I forgot a lot because of the seal. That doesn’t mean my brain got broken. Normally my memory is great, okay? Ugh, my hands are too small. This is such a pain to draw. Yu Sheng, when are you going to get me a body that’s a normal size?”

Hearing her mutter, Yu Sheng’s first reaction was to glance at her head, and a question popped up in his mind: [There are three Irenes. One was molded out of clay and lotus root, one was built from rebar and stone… does she actually have a thing like a ‘brain’ in there?]

While Yu Sheng was thinking that, the Miss Doll was almost done with the array. Just as she was about to finish the last segment, Bai Li Qing broke the silence: “Do not complete the final segment. Draw that part on a separate sheet.”

Irene said okay, hurried to another sheet, and continued carefully. Yu Sheng was surprised and looked up at Bai Li Qing. [As expected of a pro. I didn’t even think about safety at that level.]

“At last. I’m beat,” a bit later, the Miss Doll finished and sat up, then handed over the two sheets. “This should be right.”

Bai Li Qing received them with care and studied the two drawings, her face serious.

“It does have the basic features of a Spirit Summoning Technique. But a key Node has been altered, likely to ‘point to’ that sleeping Dark Angel. This might help us understand its nature. It’s very important intelligence. Thank you.”

Irene straightened her back at once. Pride crept onto her face.

Little Red Riding Hood strolled across the Open Ground between the east and west buildings. Passing the outdoor play area, she stopped, distracted by something in the distance.

Near the sandbox where the Cursed Children were playing, a bright-colored swing set caught her eye.

She couldn’t help remembering the drawing in Old Zheng’s notebook and the young woman smiling in front of a swing.

This should be the place from Old Zheng’s memories, but the swing here wasn’t the same one from twenty years ago. The old one had been replaced a few years back because it was too worn and unsafe.

Little Red Riding Hood hesitated, then sat on the swing and rocked gently.

Winter was cold, and with the evening wind, swinging outside wasn’t exactly fun. She soon stopped. Just then, something flickered at the edge of her vision.

In the red light of dusk, a patch of shadow seemed to float along the outer wall at the corner of the east building. Its outline looked like a mat of briars pressed to the wall, climbing from the base up to about a meter high.

She frowned, pulled out her phone, snapped a photo, then hopped off the swing and ran over. Her figure seemed to skip through the shadows, and she reached the corner almost at once. But when she got there, the briar-like shadow was gone.

She checked the photo. Everything looked normal. No briar shadow by the wall.

A trick of the eye? Bad dusk light?

She dropped that thought at once. As a Spirit Realm Detective for years, she had learned one of the most important lessons: never dismiss those tiny flashes of wrongness as “just a mistake.” In mysticism, even if your eyes show you something that isn’t there, the instant you observe a scene, it carries real-world influence.

Footsteps came from the side. Little Red Riding Hood looked up at the sound. A small, short-haired girl who looked two or three years younger was walking by with a stack of books in her arms. Noticing her, the girl stopped, curious, and called out: “Sister Red Hood, what are you doing?”

In the Orphanage, the adults used codenames for each other. Only the kids who hadn’t passed their awakening period yet were called by their real names. It was an old rule said to stabilize one’s “role identity” after awakening. Whether it worked, no one knew.

Inside the Fairy Tale Organization, there were many rules like that. Nobody knew if they actually helped, but everyone hoped they could steady things and stretch out survival.

“I just saw a weird shadow, but it vanished when I looked again. Have someone patrol around this building a few extra times tonight,” Little Red Riding Hood said offhand, then noticed the stack of books in the small girl’s arms: “Snow White? Where did those come from?”

“Donations,” Snow White lifted her arm a bit. “Through the Sunshine Foundation. I’m taking them to the reading room.”

Little Red Riding Hood frowned and asked seriously: “Did you check the contents?”

“We checked. No boys’ love, no girls’ love. For age fourteen and up, it’s all normal straight romance. Under fourteen, no dating stuff at all.”

“I didn’t ask you to check for that,” Little Red Riding Hood glared at Snow White. “What are you even paying attention to lately?”

“Just kidding. You’ve been tense,” Snow White laughed. “We really did screen them. The content is fine, nothing swapped or altered, and nothing that might push the Cursed Children into mental instability.”

Little Red Riding Hood waved, helpless. Her phone suddenly rang. The monkey started flipping again.

Hearing the ringtone, Snow White couldn’t help teasing: “Sister Red Hood, seriously, won’t you change that ringtone? Where did you even get that song? It’s been years.”

“I met an Algladian on a mission back then. He shared it. He said it came from the Remote Sector,” Little Red Riding Hood said. “I like it, and I don’t want to change it.”

She answered. At once, Yu Sheng’s voice came through the receiver: “Hello, is this Wang Jia Jia?”

Little Red Riding Hood’s eye twitched. Snow White grinned: “Oh no, your real name got out?”

“Shoo,” Little Red Riding Hood waved her away, then coughed twice: “Ahem, I wasn’t talking to you. What’s up?”

“I’m back from the Special Affairs Bureau,” Yu Sheng said. “I told them about Old Zheng. Also, they caught the Angel Cultists who were doing the sacrifice in the white Exhibition Hall. I dug some things out of one guy’s head.”

“What did you find?” Little Red Riding Hood’s face changed at once. Her tone turned sharp.

“Are you at the Orphanage? I’ll come over and fill you in, and there’s something I want to discuss.”

“I’m here…”

She had just said that when a nearby Door swung open. Yu Sheng stepped out with Foxy, raised his phone, and waved it: “Perfect. Same room as last time?”

Irene poked her head out from behind Yu Sheng: “Hi hi, we’re back!”

Little Red Riding Hood stared: “…”

She held it in, then finally said: “Can you warn me before Door Opening?”

“I filed with the Special Affairs Bureau while I was calling you,” Yu Sheng said.

“I meant warn me,” Little Red Riding Hood glared. “What if I was taking a shower?”

Yu Sheng flushed with embarrassment and rushed to explain: “That wouldn’t happen unless it was random Teleportation. I can only Door Opening to places I’ve already been. You never took me into your bathroom. And I’m not a creep.”

Irene headbutted his knee and said: “Stop explaining. The more you explain, the more you sound like a creep.”

Yu Sheng fell silent: “…”