Chapter 194

Chapter 194: Angel Umbilical Cord

The moment Yu Sheng said “umbilical cord,” Little Red Riding Hood’s expression shifted, as if a memory had snagged on the words.

Then she frowned slightly. “It feels like… this isn’t the first time I’ve heard that phrase.”

“The first time was when I went to the Special Operations Bureau to look up the records of that ‘coming-of-age’ operation seventy years ago,” Yu Sheng said, face unusually serious. “I told you about it afterward. The file recorded that one of the deep divers who returned to the real world kept repeating ‘a baby’s cry’ and ‘umbilical cord’ right before dying.”

Little Red Riding Hood inhaled quietly.

Yu Sheng looked down at the shriveled cord in the box again.

Why did Old Zheng have this?

What exactly was this so-called umbilical cord?

Whose was it?

And what did it have to do with Fairy Tale?

The answers hovered just out of reach. Yu Sheng frowned hard, trying to connect scattered clues into a single shape. “If this umbilical cord is really connected to the dark angels trapped inside Fairy Tale…”

“That sentence alone is terrifying,” Little Red Riding Hood murmured.

Then she looked up, uncertainty tightening her features. “The point is… Old Zheng was just an ordinary person who studied odd items and collections. At most, he knew a few tricks to protect himself from supernatural influence. Something like an angel umbilical cord is mind-blowing even in the Bureau. How could it end up in his hands?”

Yu Sheng didn’t answer right away. His mind flashed back to Old Zheng’s bedroom—the spirit ring, and the black tentacle that had crawled out of a crack in the ceiling after he touched it.

Back then, the tentacle had waved through the air, like it was searching for something.

“What if he didn’t ‘find’ it,” Yu Sheng said slowly, “but the dark angels gave it to him?”

Little Red Riding Hood’s frown deepened. She understood at once. Her expression twisted into a helpless, complicated smile. “Old Zheng… Old Zheng…”

She looked at Yu Sheng, bitter amusement in her eyes. “Do you remember those spirit-calling runes Old Zheng left behind?”

Yu Sheng nodded.

“Rough and crude,” she said. “Clumsy work, even for a rookie. But he used those runes and easily contacted the dark angels—ones those cultists might never even get to see no matter how hard they grovel and bleed for their ‘lord.’ And now there’s this umbilical cord…”

Her smile sharpened with irony. “Do you know how ridiculous that is? Those angel cultists treated Old Zheng like a disposable tool. They even killed him because they thought he would ‘taint’ their lord. But if you follow their own logic, Old Zheng might’ve been the chosen one of Anka Aila.”

She swallowed. “At least in terms of distance to that dark angel, he was closer than every cultist.”

“For an ordinary person, being born with a tie like that isn’t a good thing,” Yu Sheng said, then closed the box. “What those cultists chase is exactly what normal people should run from.”

He turned to Old Zheng’s nephew. “We’re taking this with us. If you find anything else suspicious among your uncle’s belongings, contact us immediately.”

“Okay—yeah,” the young man said quickly. “I will.”

Little Red Riding Hood paused, then pulled out a small notepad and pen. She wrote down an address, tore off the page, and handed it to him. “Also, over the next couple of days, you may have nightmares. That’s normal after touching a contaminated item. The influence is shallow, so there shouldn’t be any aftereffects.”

She tapped the paper lightly. “If the nightmares keep happening, go to this address. Find a doctor with the surname Lin. Just say Little Red Riding Hood sent you. She’ll help.”

The young man took the note with both hands. “Oh. Okay. Thanks. I’ll remember.”

After they left Old Zheng’s place, Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood didn’t return to the orphanage right away. They walked slowly down a quiet side road near the apartment building.

“After we get back, I’m making another trip to the Black Forest,” Yu Sheng said, weighing the wooden box in his hand. “I’ll bring this umbilical cord. And the bullet Hunter gave me last time. We’ll see what happens.”

Little Red Riding Hood rolled her eyes. “I swear every step you take is stomping directly on the taboos of spirit realm detective work. Do you know how many safety rules you broke in that one sentence? If you were a normal spirit realm detective, you’d have died several times already.”

Yu Sheng chuckled. “I’m not a normal spirit realm detective. And I’ve still died several times anyway.”

Little Red Riding Hood smacked her forehead. “…Right. I forgot about that.”

Yu Sheng smiled, exhaled, and looked up at the sky. “All right. We’re done here. Time for each of us to go home. Want me to walk you back first?”

“No need,” Little Red Riding Hood said. “I’ll take a shadow shortcut back with my wolf pack. I’ll run a bit on the way—clear my head.”

“Okay. Then I’ll head home. Watch your step.”

“Yeah, yeah. Bye.”

A phantom door opened in the living room of Wu Tong Road 66. Yu Sheng stepped through, and in the blink of an eye he was home.

The moment he walked in, he saw three Irenes huddled in front of the computer. One hammered the keyboard, one whipped the mouse so fast it left afterimages, and one stared intently at the minimap. Not far away, Foxy was hanging her freshly washed tails on the balcony drying rack one by one. The neat silver fox tails shimmered in the sunlight.

Seeing the familiar, ordinary scene, Yu Sheng relaxed despite himself. He hung his coat on the rack near the entryway and called out, “I’m back.”

“Benefactor’s back!” Foxy dashed over, circling him in a happy blur. “Did everything go smoothly?”

“Smooth,” Yu Sheng said. Foxy’s spinning made his eyes swim, so he caught her gently by the shoulders to steady her. Then he glanced at the line of tails on the balcony. “…By the way, you’ve been washing your tails a lot lately, and every time it’s a whole production.”

Foxy looked offended by the question. “It’s winter. Cold and dry. Tails need proper care. And after washing and drying, they get fluffy. It’s really comfortable to hug them to sleep!”

Yu Sheng honestly couldn’t understand. Even if she took perfect care of this batch, the next fight would still have her firing tails off like a missile barrage—and she could always grow new ones anyway.

But Foxy looked so earnest and happy that he decided not to ask.

At that moment, one Irene peeled away from the group and walked over. She glanced at the wooden box in Yu Sheng’s hand. “What are you holding?”

Yu Sheng’s expression sobered. “If I’m not wrong, it’s the dark angel’s umbilical cord.”

All three Irenes froze.

A harsh “you died” sound blared from the computer.

“Oh, hell,” the two Irenes at the desk groaned at the same time. They started slamming keys while waiting to respawn, cursing the game designer’s entire family.

The Irene in front of Yu Sheng took an exaggerated step back. “What? You brought what thing home?!”

Yu Sheng crouched and opened the wooden box so she could see.

“This was in Old Zheng’s belongings,” he said. “I went to his nephew’s place again before coming back. I suspect Old Zheng had an unusually strong connection to the dark angel trapped inside Fairy Tale—and he probably didn’t fully trust those angel cultists.”

He kept his tone steady. “So after he got this umbilical cord during some ritual, he hid it away. Now it might be the key to unraveling the mystery of Anka Aila.”

Irene instinctively backed away again, even though mental contamination didn’t affect her. It was pure disgust on principle. Then suspicion crept into her face. She stared at Yu Sheng like he’d started speaking a foreign language. “You’re not going to soak it in alcohol, right?”

Yu Sheng paused. “…What?”

Irene’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not going to soak it in alcohol, are you?”

“Is that really how you see me?” Yu Sheng laughed, not sure whether to cry. “Like I’ll eat anything?”

He shut the box and straightened. “I’m taking this into the Black Forest to see how Fairy Tale’s subsets react to it. Best case, we figure out what state Anka Aila is in. If we can find its weakness, even better.”

Irene listened, stunned, her brows knitting tighter and tighter. “Or,” she said flatly, “maybe you should just soak it in alcohol.”

Yu Sheng stared. “Is my plan really that unreliable?”

“It’s not about reliability.” Irene’s expression suddenly turned serious, her voice unusually heavy. “Have you considered another possibility? What if you bring this angel umbilical cord into the Black Forest and it speeds up that dark angel’s awakening—or its escape?”

She didn’t blink. “It’s that kind of object.”

Yu Sheng frowned.

“True,” he said slowly. “That risk exists. So we’ll be ready to cut off the cord’s connection at any time. But no matter what, we have to try. We know far too little about Anka Aila.”

Seeing how serious he was, Irene eased a fraction—but she still asked, almost on instinct, “And you’re sure you can cut off its connection at any time? You don’t know anything about sealing, do you…”

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then said solemnly, “Worst case, I’ll just eat it on the spot.”

Irene froze.

A second later, she jumped in place. “…So in the end you’re still going to eat it?!”