Chapter 217

Chapter 217: Emergency Transfer

Princess Snow White spotted Yu Sheng first. She waved at him so hard her whole arm swung. A ripple went through the hall as the children turned to look—and only then did they start reacting like normal kids, their restraint cracking into surprise and curiosity.

Whispers turned into chatter. Questions flew. A few children who had met Yu Sheng before shouted with delight.

Yu Sheng strode forward. He didn’t have time to care about the nickname. He stepped past the little dollheads and went straight to Little Red Riding Hood, scanning her from head to toe.

His expression made her startle. “What’s wrong?”

“Where is Xiao Xiao?” Yu Sheng asked.

“In that line,” Little Red Riding Hood said, pointing. “At the edge. That one.”

Yu Sheng followed her finger and saw the skinny little girl among a line of five- and six-year-olds. A small backpack was strapped to her back. A pink water bottle hung from her neck, bouncing as she waved hard at him.

“I got pulled into the black forest just now,” Yu Sheng said, lifting a hand to wave back at Xiao Xiao. When he turned to Little Red Riding Hood again, the weight returned to his face. “I thought you or Xiao Xiao might have accidentally fallen into the ‘subset.’”

Little Red Riding Hood’s mouth fell open. For a moment, she couldn’t speak.

“It looks like the leak conditions are changing,” Yu Sheng said, voice low and urgent. “Even if the ‘protagonist’ hasn’t entered dream entry, their corresponding subset is already starting to leak into reality. Is everyone here?”

“Everyone we could wake is awake,” Little Red Riding Hood replied. “But the ones still in nightmares can’t be forced awake. These children, plus the guardians, make twenty-two people. The King’s royal guard knights are guarding those rooms. If we have to… we’ll carry them out.”

Yu Sheng caught the strain in her expression immediately. “Is it dangerous?”

“Forcing someone who’s in a nightmare state to move, or shocking them too much, can destabilize them,” Little Red Riding Hood said, speaking fast but precise. “The fairy tale corrosion accelerates, and the odds of running into a strong enemy inside the ‘subset’ rise a lot. It’s like stimulation in the real world turning into fear inside the nightmare.”

She pressed her lips together, weighing it in a single breath. “But the situation is urgent. We probably can’t worry about that anymore.”

Then she forced herself to steady. “Anyway, you have your ‘shelter’ now. Even if they run into something strong in the nightmare, they can retreat into the Wasteland. We’ll give each one a shot of sanity-blocking agent to suppress the corrosion for now, and take them by force. Compared to this, the blocker’s side effects are a small problem.”

Yu Sheng frowned, but nodded. “Okay. You handle it.”

On this, he chose to trust the professional.

He walked straight to the hall’s front door. Dozens of eyes followed him—tense, confused, excited, uneasy. Yu Sheng drew a quiet breath and wrapped his hand around the handle.

[Irene.]

“Yeah yeah, I’m here,” Irene replied instantly. “How’s it going over there?”

“You’re at the valley site now?” Yu Sheng asked.

“But you told me to go to the Wasteland…” Irene froze for half a second, then reacted fast. “Oh, right—I’m at the site! I’ve got a body at the site! The person in charge here heard the children were transferring early and freaked out. They’re setting up a temporary kitchen and tents. The purifier and generator are already hooked up. If you’re hungry, there’s instant noodles—”

“It’s fine,” Yu Sheng cut her off. “The children brought snacks. I’m about to do a Door Opening here. Be ready on your side and guide them in first. Take the children to the platform area. Just watch that the little ones don’t get hurt.”

He paused, thinking of how disorienting the valley would feel. “It’s midnight in the real world, but it’s daytime over there. When the little ones arrive, they might get too excited. Don’t let them run wild.”

“Okay, okay! I’m ready!” Irene said.

Only then did Yu Sheng loosen his shoulders. He felt the door in his hand connect, a temporary line drawn between here and the valley.

He pushed.

Bright, clean daylight poured in.

Endless grassland. Mountains in the distance. A narrow river winding at their feet. And Miss Doll standing right in the doorway, smiling and waving.

The children gasped, then burst into chatter.

It was loud—and it should have been. This was what a crowd of children, from preschoolers to teens, sounded like when the world stopped holding its breath. That earlier silence during the lineup had never truly matched kids their age.

The noise lasted only a moment. They quieted quickly, reorganizing into several lines with the older children at the core. Pair after pair of eyes turned to the nearest guardians.

This was an emergency. They knew to wait for instructions.

“Think of it like a field trip,” Yu Sheng said, breaking the hush with a smile. “Go on. It’s a good place.”

“Come on, everyone follow me!” Princess Rapunzel called. Leading the first group, she headed through the doorway into the valley. “Listen to directions. Once you’re over there, don’t run around. Stay behind the older kids and go together to the assembly point!”

The children filed through. Each group moved with a guardian in the middle like a stabilizing node, while the half-grown kids on both sides counted heads and watched faces as they passed.

A few minutes later, the royal guard knights summoned by the King arrived. Without a word, the massive armored figures lifted the still-sleeping children and carried them through the doorway at a steady, careful pace.

And even with the transfer underway, Yu Sheng could still hear the orphanage groaning with leftover wrongness—strange sounds drifting from underground corridors, from behind walls, from somewhere upstairs.

Off-key music. Knights shouting. Singing. Gunfire.

Light flared outside a nearby window. In that flash, it looked as if a grand feast was being held. A prince was about to marry a mysterious princess rumored to have slept in ruins for a hundred years. They would banquet on the plaza in front of the castle, and the bonfire would blaze until the whole city turned to ash.

Bells rang. A huge ship docked in the night sky. Sailors murmured secrets of the sea. They warned that a half-human, half-fish creature had mixed into the crowd. The smell of brine drifted under the deck. Soldiers lit braziers fueled by whale oil onshore. The hunt would begin the moment the ship settled.

A line of soldiers marched across the hall’s ceiling, tabards patterned like playing cards, and vanished into a corner of the roof.

Children with small backpacks and water bottles held hands in neat lines. The older kids started a tune; the little ones followed, singing a nursery rhyme. Their messy, off-key voices mixed with court dances, horns, whistles, and gunfire as group after group passed through the leaking scenes—past sailors, soldiers, a talking lion, flames and seawater creeping across the floor—toward the bright, sunny valley.

Small hands clung to big hands.

“Don’t look to the sides! Don’t let go of your friends’ hands! Follow the older kids—only let go after you pass through the door!”

Big hands tightened around small hands.

“The last group—Jack,” Little Red Riding Hood called. “You go with Rapunzel and help keep order. Once you’re over there, follow Irene’s arrangements.”

The illusions began to fade again. Sounds that didn’t belong in the real world thinned and vanished like mist.

“The King,” Little Red Riding Hood ordered, “take your knights and check every floor again. Be quick.”

With that final command, the orphanage slowly quieted. The youngest children had all passed through the door. Only a few guardians remained in the hall, and as the last lines disappeared into daylight, Yu Sheng felt the restless atmosphere finally settle.

His spiritual intuition calmed.

It felt like tonight’s “leak” had stopped.

“It’s quiet…” Princess Snow White whispered, listening to the building. “Did it stop?”

Yu Sheng drew a breath and asked in his mind, [Irene, how is it over there? Did anything abnormal appear in the valley? What about the Wasteland?]

“Everything’s normal here,” Irene replied. “After the children got here, they’re in good spirits. There’s been no leak in the valley. The sleeping children and guardians have been moved into several temporary tents.”

After a short pause, she added, “The Wasteland is fine too. From what they said, each ‘subset’ seems to be calming down fast.”

The tension in Yu Sheng’s shoulders finally eased. He turned to Little Red Riding Hood with a tired smile. “Good news. The valley’s isolation works.”

Little Red Riding Hood and Princess Snow White both let out shaky breaths.

“Should we evacuate too?” Princess Snow White asked. “Before it changes again.”

“Upstairs and downstairs are checked,” the King’s voice called from the stairwell. “Everything’s normal. No one was left behind.”

Only then did Little Red Riding Hood nod. “Okay. We pull out.”

The two girls and the cat hurried through the doorway into the valley.

Yu Sheng stayed behind, of course. He was the one responsible for Door Opening.

After Little Red Riding Hood went through, he finally let out a quiet breath. Before following, he took one last look at the now-silent hall.

He froze.

A hollow figure in hunter’s garb stood quietly in the distance.

Yu Sheng blinked.

The Hunter vanished in the instant his eyes closed.