Chapter 205

Chapter 205: The Second Blood Bestowal and the Old Building Search

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood talked at length about the Squirrel and the hidden “Descent” eighty six years ago.

Little Red Riding Hood also told Yu Sheng old stories about the orphanage and a few things about the inner workings of the Fairy Tale Organization.

“See that silly brat with the natural curls over there, chatting with Rapunzel? He’s the Red Dragon that fell earlier. He’s like the ‘King,’ a classic story figure without a single specific tale behind him. His codename is ‘Dragon Slayer.’ He’s not a real dragon, of course. Why is his own form a dragon? Because the ‘dragon slayer becomes the evil dragon.’ Sometimes when he enters a nightmare he fast forwards straight into Evil Dragon form. He actually can’t fly. He turns into a defeated Evil Dragon and his only move as a Red Dragon is to fall from the sky in different poses and crush things. Sometimes he plays the Dragon Slayer before becoming the Evil Dragon. Then his power is to summon a defeated Evil Dragon from the sky. Still just falling and crushing.

“Sleeping Beauty doesn’t talk much. She loves sleeping. Day, night, always sleeping. I’m jealous of her sleep quality, but she says it feels like she’s awake even while asleep, so she’s tired every day. Her biggest wish is to get the best pillow ever and sleep to death on it.

“Dorothy can talk to all kinds of machines. Even if a machine doesn’t have a Machine Spirit, it reacts like it does when she talks to it. Yeah, ‘the Tin Man gets a heart’ kind of symbol. Dorothy can give steel a will for a short time. She often uses it to trick a vending machine into dropping an extra drink, or to keep calling when her phone is out of credit. I’m jealous of that too.

“The one I envy most is the Mermaid. She didn’t come today. She sings beautifully. She doesn’t need to go out on missions. She streams with a virtual avatar and, after half a day of singing, earns more than I do in a week. Me? I’m tone deaf.

“She’s got her troubles though. She sheds scales in the shower for no reason, and they clog the drain. Even in human form, scales keep showing up in the bathroom. Also, she can’t swim. Didn’t expect that, huh?

“Oh, and that one over there, the ‘Little Match Girl.’ Longest codename. She’s a top notch arsonist. In winter, when the orphanage’s heating runs weak, we rely on her. I heard the municipal heating pipes in our area will be replaced next year, so she won’t need to fire the boiler in winter. Don’t cross her. She’s pretty hot tempered when she lights things.”

Little Red Riding Hood chattered on, sitting with Yu Sheng atop a high dirt slope as they watched the others. A small smile stayed on her face. She looked like the oldest sister of a big family, introducing her siblings’ silly stories to a friend, part proud and part fond.

After a while, the teens and kids lit a big bonfire on the plain.

They used the thorny rose thickets that Sleeping Beauty had summoned as fuel. The bursting roses burned fiercely, and the flames lit up the gray, chaotic wasteland. Just as Yu Sheng had guessed, this quiet, afterlife-like land felt lively for the first time.

The Cursed Children gathered at this Sanctuary shouted and whooped around the bonfire, singing and dancing. Most were gloriously off key, their scratchy howls mixing with the King’s meows.

Soon, Foxy and Irene rushed in to join the fun. The little doll circled over the flames, looking a second away from setting her own frame on fire. Foxy snapped out arcs of Fox Fire into the sky like fireworks. Yu Sheng was dragged over too, serving as a good luck mascot in front of the bonfire.

He felt like he was at a strange, rowdy sacrifice, surrounded by cheering “devotees,” and also like a parent dragged to a school event while the kids ran wild. He could only stand in the middle with an awkward but polite smile.

[It wasn’t the worst feeling.]

In the end, the first gathering of the Cursed Children in the Sanctuary Wasteland wrapped up just like that.

Early the next morning, Yu Sheng arrived at the orphanage. According to plan, today was the “Blood Bestowal inoculation” for the younger Cursed Children.

He sat in the orphanage cafeteria’s back kitchen and watched Snow White solemnly stirring a huge pot of oddly colored “nutritious vegetable soup.” He couldn’t help doubting it: “Is this really going to work? It doesn’t look appetizing at all.”

“Trust my cooking. It doesn’t look great, but the little ones love it,” said Snow White, stirring as she glanced at Yu Sheng. “Wait a bit. When the soup cools down, we’ll add the ‘special ingredient.’ Otherwise the blood will cook.”

Yu Sheng nodded: “Oh.”

Beside them, a gentle young miss of about sixteen or seventeen with long hair draped over her shoulders muttered: “I still think we should mix it into strawberry smoothies. Low temperature helps cover the iron smell, and the color won’t look weird.”

“It’s winter, ma’am. In weather below minus ten, you want to give each kid an ice smoothie first thing in the morning? They’ll be happy. Will the bathrooms be enough?” Snow White rolled her eyes. “Sounds to me like you’re the one craving a smoothie.”

The gentle miss smiled, a little embarrassed. Yu Sheng kept stealing looks at her. She seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place her. After a while he asked: “Who are you again?”

“We met last night,” the miss said shyly, pointing at herself. “By the bonfire in the wasteland. I stood behind Rapunzel. Earlier I was on the Giant Beanstalk.”

Yu Sheng thought hard, and a figure came to mind: someone laughing wildly amid the sea of fire on Jack’s Giant Beanstalk.

He clapped his hands: “Oh, oh, oh! The one who wanted everyone to see their great grandmother in the flames…”

He didn’t finish before the girl flushed bright red and waved frantically: “I’m not usually like that. I just lose control when I light fires…”

Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched: “Your codename is the Little Match Girl, right? Abilities are arson and Illusion Technique.”

“That codename is too long. Most people just call me ‘Little Match Girl,’” she said, smiling sheepishly. The warm, gentle girl in front of him was nothing like the figure laughing in the fire. “Little Red Riding Hood must have spiced me up when she introduced me to you.”

“She spiced up everyone when she introduced you all,” Yu Sheng recalled last night’s summaries about each person in the Fairy Tale Organization and couldn’t help smiling. “But you can tell she likes you.”

The young miss laughed, bright and kind.

Snow White finally set down the ladle. She tested the soup’s temperature, then looked at Yu Sheng with a half smile: “Brother, time to add the blood.”

Yu Sheng blinked: “Brother?”

“At first Rapunzel and I wanted to call you ‘uncle,’ but Little Red Riding Hood said you’re not much older than us, so ‘brother’ fits better,” Snow White said, eyes crinkling as she lifted a nearby cleaver. “Will you cut yourself, or should I help?”

He glanced at her smile and the cleaver flashing with chilling light, and a cold sweat broke out: “I’ll do it myself. I’ll do it myself…”

…

At the same time, in the West Building’s underground levels, Little Red Riding Hood frowned slightly at the old, worn corridor and then at the old papers in her hand.

A silent “mercenary” stood beside her, clad in heavy armor. His face was hidden by a thick helmet, and a Kitty head crest was engraved on his chest plate. The “King” perched proudly on the mercenary’s shoulder, peering around with curiosity.

“Is this the place?” the King suddenly asked.

“Hard to say,” Little Red Riding Hood replied, shaking her head. “The Squirrel’s clue wasn’t very clear. She said the drop point was at the center of the orphanage courtyard’s Open Ground, but the orphanage layout eighty six years ago wasn’t the same. The ‘courtyard’ back then overlaps in part with today’s West Building. We don’t know how much, where the center was, or where the edges were.”

As she spoke, she lifted the old paperwork for the “King” to see.

“This is the West Building’s original layout. It’s the most reliable thing we found in the records room. We’re probably here. If I didn’t miscalculate, this also lines up with the ‘courtyard’ in the Squirrel’s memory… right above us.

“And this point is where I saw the ‘Briar Shadow.’ It’s a little east of north, above us, on an outer wall of the West Building.”

The King craned his neck to study the page, then tapped it with a paw: “Why show me this? I’m just a cat. I can’t read.”

“Don’t play dumb. I saw you take Snow White’s physics exam for her.”

The King turned away, embarrassed: “She bribed me with Cat Stick Treat.”

Little Red Riding Hood gave the tabby a look of pure disdain, then waved a hand.

“Can you sense anything? Use that ‘Kitty intuition’ you always brag about.”

“Sense… not really,” the King muttered, stretching lazily on the summoned mercenary’s shoulder. “But don’t you think it’s odd? There isn’t a single mouse here…”