Chapter 224

Chapter 224: Startled Awake

After he saw the next few scanned pages, Yu Sheng’s brow tightened.

There were normal story paragraphs and illustrations, but there were also obvious layout mistakes and misprints, even blank gaps where whole parts were missing. The first pages looked fine, but the problems got worse the further he scrolled.

He left the image viewer and started to type a message to ask what was going on, but before he could finish, a message from Bai Li Qing popped up first: “Did you see them?”

“I did,” Yu Sheng typed back at once, “but what happened to the later pages? I’m seeing a lot of layout errors and missing prints.”

“Cheap printing,” Bai Li Qing replied quickly, as if she knew he would ask, “that batch was mostly recalled and destroyed back then, but obviously the Council couldn’t watch every corner of Boundary City. A few copies stayed at the far edge of the market, and one of them ended up donated to the Orphanage of that time, maybe to pad a charity report, maybe just by accident.”

A moment later she sent more: “We found a record in an old Council file from when the Orphanage changed hands, an asset list with an entry for this ‘socially donated book.’ To be honest, it was hard to find. We only got the title and release period there. The images I sent came later, crossmatched from other databases.

“But because most public copies disappeared, the book later turned into a cold rare item among collectors. The Special Affairs Bureau is trying to locate surviving copies. The last one seen through official channels was sold a month ago by a private collector to a branch charity under the Sunshine Foundation. We’ve already contacted them. We hope to find the book, even if we still don’t know how useful it will be…”

Her messages were long. Yu Sheng took a while to scroll through them. He frowned without meaning to. [That rough ‘story book’ was once Squirrel’s most treasured thing?] The thought made him uncomfortable. Just then, Little Red Riding Hood, who had leaned over to peek at the phone, suddenly went: “Huh?” and snapped him out of it.

Yu Sheng turned his head: “What is it?”

“Sunshine Foundation… I feel like I heard that name recently,” the girl said, frowning as she tried to remember, “like in the last two days, I think…”

Her eyes sharpened. A high schooler’s mind flashed bright.

“Snow White!” Little Red Riding Hood raised her voice toward the camp, a bit urgent: “Snow White, where are you?!”

In the next second, Snow White poked her head out from a nearby Little House: “What’s up?”

“Did a batch of donated books arrive at the Orphanage not long ago, through the Sunshine Foundation?”

Snow White froze for a beat, then stepped out and nodded while closing the door behind her: “Yeah, that happened. The Sunshine Foundation sent a pile of books. Moving them to the reading room almost killed me. Why?”

Then she noticed Yu Sheng standing nearby and waved happily: “Hey, did you eat?”

Her smile fell when she saw the serious, heavy look on both Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood’s faces.

Her expression turned tense: “Did that batch have a problem?”

Little Red Riding Hood stared into her eyes: “You really checked them carefully? No book was strange?”

“I checked them. I looked through each one. I even showed you the list…”

Little Red Riding Hood frowned and thought hard. She remembered seeing that list after the donation. The title they wanted was not on it.

But for so many things to match this well still made her suspicious.

“Where are the books now?” Yu Sheng said sternly. “I need to inspect them.”

“In the cabinet at the northwest corner of the reading room on the second floor, the one called The End Web,” Snow White said in a hurry, “I haven’t had time to put them on the shelves, they’re still stacked there as is. So what exactly…”

“Eighty six years ago, ‘Zhao Le Le’ gave a Fairy Tale book to ‘Anka Aila,’ who had just descended into this world,” Little Red Riding Hood said, her face solemn. “Based on recent collector trades, a copy from the same batch and edition as that Fairy Tale was ‘happily’ bought a month ago by a unit under the Sunshine Foundation. And a few days ago, the Sunshine Foundation donated a batch of books to the Orphanage. All unusual events began after that day.”

She drew a tight breath. “Coincidences exist, but do you believe in coincidences this exact?”

Yu Sheng already had his hand lifting toward the air: “Whatever it is, I’ll go check first…”

Halfway through his sentence, a sharp, shrill “noise” stabbed into his mind and cut him off.

It was a baby crying, plus piercing alarms and layered buzzing. For a moment it drowned the world and roared through his head.

Yu Sheng gasped and looked toward the camp.

Cursed Children were running between the simple Little Houses. The older kids and the “parents” didn’t seem to notice anything wrong.

Foxy flinched at his face and movements: “Benefactor, what’s wrong?”

“The ‘noise’ of Anka Aila, very clear, very close,” Yu Sheng said fast. The sound kept rising in his head in wave after wave. “I feel it trying to punch into the real world… no, it’s about to break through! Get the Cursed Children back to their rooms, now!”

He felt something else and looked up in a rush, then snapped to Little Red Riding Hood: “You go back too. Everyone inject the Sanity Blocking Agent. Have the Special Affairs Bureau and the Council staff take over the camp, immediately!”

Little Red Riding Hood could not hear the “noise,” but Yu Sheng’s reaction told her it was urgent. She didn’t hesitate at all and ran for the camp. Snow White followed a step behind. The two of them disappeared into the shelter area.

The camp reacted almost at once, as if an invisible alarm sounded. The playing Cursed Children regrouped and ran to their rooms under the older kids’ and parents’ direction. Council caregivers brought enough Sanity Blocking Agent in the shortest time and passed it to every house. The near adults injected themselves first, then helped the younger Cursed Children based on each sibling’s level of erosion. It all ran like a drill done countless times, fast and precise.

Yu Sheng, Foxy, and Irene rushed into the camp.

Black threads slid through the air.

Perched on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, Irene raised her hands and flicked them fast. Filaments like Spider Silk drifted out, weaving into a huge net like living hair above the camp. The net widened and widened as it spread, and thin strands hung down as it grew.

“No pollution yet, but some kids are going under without control. Someone has already started dreaming,” the little Doll said, voice tight. “Yu Sheng, can you sense that ‘Anka Aila’? Is it breaking into the Valley? Is it in?”

“Don’t panic, I’m tracking it back,” Yu Sheng said, waving fast. He forced his focus, chasing the noise in his mind. The power of blood tied his senses to the whole Valley, and to every child in it. He felt what was happening in camp, and he scanned the Valley for any sign of an Angel breach. After several sweeps, he still found no trace of Anka Aila.

He knew that breath. He had faced that huge shadow in the Black Forest.

But it had not come here.

The noise grew sharper. Anka Aila was waking up…

Yu Sheng lifted his head and looked over the houses where the Cursed Children hid.

One by one, those houses went quiet.

The children slipped into sleep, one after another. Night had come to the real world. The power of the Fairy Tale was rising fast in the dark. The baby’s crying sounded clearer. The awakening of Anka Aila was speeding up. It felt like it had broken through some barrier. It felt like it had entered a…

[Container.]

The word popped into Yu Sheng’s mind again.

The Cursed Children were all under the protection of the Blood Pact. The Sanctuary Wasteland could at least protect their minds.

There was no sign of any Angel breach in the Valley. Anka Aila did not seem to have found this place.

Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White, the two most eroded Fairy Tale members, had been stable, and Irene was monitoring everyone’s minds. Even this impossible Doll had found no trace of pollution.

Was the chosen container not one of these kids?

It couldn’t be Squirrel, trapped in the Black Forest with no body in the real world.

Then was it that boy they had barely met once, Old Zheng’s nephew?

The phone rang hard and fast. Yu Sheng picked up on reflex. The screen showed Li Lin’s name.

He answered and heard the young Special Affairs Bureau agent’s urgent voice.

“…What do you mean, ‘the Orphanage stood up’?”