Chapter 199

Chapter 199: Your Good Friend Yu Sheng Brought You New Work

The phantom doorway opened, and Yu Sheng returned to the living room at Wu Tong Road 66.

The baby’s crying that always hovered at the edge of his hearing faded away. Warm light and the familiar comfort of home chased off the Black Forest’s cold pressure. Yu Sheng drew a deep breath, easing the tightness in his chest.

Foxy couldn’t help looking back to the spot where the door had vanished. “Is it really okay to leave Squirrel in there like that?”

“We can’t exactly bring it out,” Yu Sheng said, shaking his head. “Squirrel entered the Black Forest a very, very long time ago. It’s become part of it. If we drag it out without thinking, who knows what would happen.”

He softened his voice a little.

“But don’t worry. It’s lived in that forest for years. It’ll be fine.”

Irene climbed down from his shoulder, talking as she went. “Yeah. And honestly? It felt like Squirrel was more relaxed today. Before, it always seemed half-crazy. It’s still not normal, but it’s better than it was.”

Yu Sheng hummed. He didn’t argue. He only looked down at the fake angel umbilical cord and the Hunter bullet he’d brought back.

Outside the Black Forest, the cord had already returned to its original shriveled state, lying quietly in the box again.

As for the Hunter bullet… he never saw Hunter in the end.

Looks like next time he’d have to bring Little Red Riding Hood into the Black Forest with him. If nothing else, he’d need to use the stage’s rules to “farm” Wolf Granny first. Only then would he have a chance of meeting Hunter.

But another thought slid in right after.

If he entered the Black Forest with Little Red Riding Hood while carrying the angel umbilical cord… what would happen?

Would Little Red Riding Hood get dragged into those early memories, too? Would she see the phantom of the first Little Red Riding Hood—see the Black Forest before it was complete?

Or had those echoes been a one-time thing?

Or would the cord unlock other eras—other buried records?

Yu Sheng stood there for a long time, thoughts spiraling, until Irene bumped her head against his leg. “Hey. What are you spacing out about now?”

Yu Sheng blinked back to the room. “Nothing. I was just thinking about going into the Black Forest with Little Red Riding Hood next time. I want to test whether the umbilical cord has any other use.”

“Fine. Next time,” Irene said. “What about now?”

Yu Sheng pulled out his phone. “First I need to tell the Special Operations Bureau what we found—especially about Anka Aila, and the umbilical cord.”

He scrolled through his contacts. He saw Li Lin and Xu Jiali, hesitated, then found Song Cheng.

This was bigger than any of them.

He frowned and tapped a different name. “No. For this, I need Bai Li Qing.”

“They’re a director and they’re taking your calls every single day,” Irene complained. “At this rate, your harassment frequency is on par with someone selling insurance. Good thing they have manners and haven’t cursed you out.”

“This is Dark Angel-level intel!” Yu Sheng snapped. “For intel like this, she’d probably want—”

He didn’t realize the call had already connected.

Bai Li Qing’s voice came through the speaker, sharp and urgent. “What intel did you just say?!”

“Uh—” Yu Sheng coughed and gathered himself. “Dark Angels. About Anka Aila. It’s a long story, but I’ve made new progress, and I need your help pulling records. That’s why I’m calling.”

“Give me the gist first so I can arrange things.”

“It starts with how I got an angel umbilical cord—”

A soft intake of breath sounded on the other end.

“We’ll talk in person,” Bai Li Qing said, crisp and decisive.

The next second, Bai Li Qing looked up and saw Yu Sheng push open her office door, stroll in, drop into a chair like he owned the place, and nod at her. “Sure. In person.”

For a moment, even Director Bai Li Qing—famous for her iron control—looked genuinely blank.

After several seconds, she asked, carefully, “…Did you file a report?”

“I did,” Yu Sheng said, holding up his phone. “Your phone works great.”

“…Good,” Bai Li Qing said, expression strange. Then she glanced behind him. “Irene and Foxy. They didn’t come with you this time?”

“It’s just a conversation,” Yu Sheng said, waving it off. “I don’t need to bring everyone every time. Besides, your place is close now.”

Bai Li Qing went silent, then took a slow breath. “Fair. Now tell me. This ‘angel umbilical cord’—did you bring it?”

“It’s right here. I figured you’d be interested.” Yu Sheng walked over and set a wooden box on her desk. “Do a simple check. If you need a small sample, that’s fine, but don’t damage the overall integrity. And when I leave, I’m taking it with me. I still need it.”

Bai Li Qing watched him place a box containing an angel umbilical cord on her desk with a heavy thunk. Her eyebrow twitched.

She opened it carefully and studied the contents with her pale, almost faded-looking eyes.

In the air behind her, something like a second pair of eyes seemed to form, staring with the same quiet curiosity at the cord in the box.

When Yu Sheng said he still needed it, Bai Li Qing finally dragged her gaze away and looked up at him. After a pause so long it bordered on weird, she blurted, as if possessed, “…Soak it in liquor?”

Yu Sheng stared. “…No. What is wrong with you people?”

“People?” Bai Li Qing repeated.

“Irene said it too!” Yu Sheng snapped.

Bai Li Qing didn’t respond for a moment. Then, with visible effort, she snapped back into her usual professional mask.

“I’ll have dispatch send a recovery team right away,” she said. “The lab will do a fast analysis. We’ll follow your requirements. After that, you can take it whenever you want.”

Yu Sheng nodded.

The recovery team arrived almost immediately, as if they’d been stationed in the hallway all along. Heavy footsteps pounded outside, and then several tall figures in the same full-body protective suits Yu Sheng had seen in the analysis lab filed into the office.

Wrapped head to toe like armored mannequins, faces hidden behind thick visors, they took the wooden box and sealed it inside a special container before leaving.

Only after the door shut did Bai Li Qing look back at Yu Sheng. “Now. Tell me what you need.”

“I’ll start with that,” Yu Sheng said. “First: it’s about the orphanage Little Red Riding Hood came from. I need you to look for records from before the first outbreak of Fairy Tale—and even earlier than that.”

Bai Li Qing’s gaze sharpened.

“See if there were any reports of a falling object, an impact, or mass hallucinations,” Yu Sheng continued. “Rough description: an oval, glowing object fell from the sky. The fall was silent. It shrank, then vanished. I need any witness statements that match.”

He didn’t pause long.

“Second: in that same period, check whether the orphanage or the surrounding area detected any abnormal signals. I don’t know how else to describe it, but it should be the omen of an angel’s descent.”

He met her eyes. “Anka Aila might have tried to descend back then, but the process was interrupted. If the Bureau recorded anything at the time, it might look like spider-silk traces—without anyone realizing what they were.”

Bai Li Qing listened with a tightening expression. She typed orders into her computer as he spoke, but she still couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Wait. You’re saying Anka Aila already tried to descend back then, and it was interrupted? By what?”

“A child,” Yu Sheng said plainly. “With a fairy tale book.”

He lifted a hand, anticipating the disbelief. “I know how it sounds. The main reason, I think, was that Anka Aila was in a special state. The child who handed over the book only pushed things at the critical point—without understanding what they were doing.”

He took a breath and went on.

“That’s the other thing I need you to investigate: disappearances at that orphanage. Before the first outbreak of Fairy Tale, there should’ve been a missing child. A fairy tale book went missing with them.”

Bai Li Qing kept typing, rapid and efficient, sending the requests to different departments. Then she looked up, warning him, “I should tell you in advance—these records will be hard to find.”

Yu Sheng didn’t blink.

“Especially the missing child and the fairy tale book,” Bai Li Qing continued. “The coming-of-age operation was seventy years ago. The first outbreak was about eighty years ago. What you’re asking about happened even earlier.”

She exhaled. “Back then, technology and record systems weren’t what they are now. And that orphanage… its management was chaotic.”

Yu Sheng frowned. “Chaotic enough that if a child went missing, there might not even be a record?”

“In theory, it shouldn’t be that bad,” Bai Li Qing said. After a pause, she let out a quiet breath. “Either way… let’s hope it goes smoothly.”