Chapter 237
Chapter 237: Now, You Have a Very Long Future
Hearing Yu Sheng’s complaint, Little Red Riding Hood looked a little embarrassed. She fought to keep a straight face.
“It was sent by the Special Operations Bureau, so it’s hard to be picky,” she said. “We actually planned to remove the big spinning dish, but there’s an axle going through the tabletop. If we take it out, it leaves a huge hole, which looks even worse. And the King accidentally fell in once…”
“…That is a very practical reason,” Yu Sheng said. His mouth twitched, and he forced himself to move on. He sat down at the round table and looked around.
Seeing that, Little Red Riding Hood immediately began introducing the place.
“That door on the left leads to our temporary storage room. Most of the supplies from the Special Operations Bureau are piled in there. The corridor outside the next door leads to the backyard. We plan to clean that side up properly later and make a small garden or something. The rooms on the right aren’t decided yet. For now, they’re dorms for Teacher Su and the others…”
Yu Sheng nodded as he listened. “What about the second floor?”
The teens around the table fell into an awkward silence. A few people closest to him hesitated, mouths half open. In the end, Princess Rapunzel broke it.
“Bro,” she said, “you didn’t leave a staircase to the second floor…”
Yu Sheng froze. “….”
“We still haven’t decided with the engineering crew and Engineer Sun where to cut the stairwell,” Little Red Riding Hood added quickly. “So if you ever have time…”
Yu Sheng felt like his toes were about to scrape a hole through his shoes.
He didn’t answer. He just lifted his chin at a forty-five-degree angle and stared at the ceiling light with all the dignity he could muster.
A soft crack and creak came from the back of the hall.
A moment later, he blinked, forced his face into something neutral, and nodded toward Little Red Riding Hood. “There’s a stairwell in the back of the hall now.”
Princess Rapunzel clapped immediately. “Bro, you’re amazing!”
Yu Sheng coughed and straightened. “…Next time there’s something inconvenient or unreasonable like this, tell me. A lot of this was rushed, so I didn’t have time to make everything that precise.”
He absolutely refused to admit that this place had once been his carefully crafted masterpiece. From this day onward, he would take that secret to the grave.
Luckily, nobody seemed to care much. Yu Sheng steered the conversation back where it belonged.
“Simply put, I already fused fairy tale with this valley. You’ve probably seen the two main fusion points. One is the black forest. The other is the high tower. They’re at opposite ends of the valley.
“Other stage locations were fused too, but time was tight, so I didn’t build a valley connection point for each one. Most subset connection points are inside the black forest and the high tower. I’ll put together a detailed node map later for you to reference.
“Think of it like this: the fairy tale otherworld is now part of this valley—meaning part of Wu Tong Road 66. It still exists, but like the old Nightfall Valley, its nature has been completely reshaped. In Director Bai Li Qing’s words, all harmful entities inside have been cleared. It’s now an empty shell attached to my backyard.
“Fusion brings huge changes. The biggest one is that all stage locations have been rendered harmless. Since Anka Aila’s nightmare has stopped, dangerous entities will no longer appear on any stage. Yes—from now on, fairy tale is safe. Completely.”
Yu Sheng paused.
Little Red Riding Hood drew a deep breath. Princess Rapunzel swayed like she couldn’t contain herself. Even the King purred softly, squinting in bliss.
Yu Sheng smiled and continued.
“Another change is that fairy tale, as an otherworld, has shifted from abnormal type to wilderness type. Its subsets are now real pocket spaces attached around this valley, so you can enter them with your physical body instead of falling into nightmares. Yes—you can just walk over. Walk into the black forest. Walk into the tower. Like exploring anywhere else in the valley…”
He noticed most of the faces around the table looked complicated.
“I know what you’re thinking. Those stage places didn’t leave you with many good memories, so I’d actually recommend you go look when you have time. Go look at the places that used to scare you. It helps clear away the shadow that’s built up over the years. Trust me—it’s necessary, because…”
Yu Sheng paused again. His gaze swept across every face at the table.
He spoke his next line more seriously than ever. “Because each of you has a very long life ahead.”
Many people froze.
Even the ones laughing a moment ago went dazed, like they’d been struck.
Yu Sheng wasn’t surprised.
After a long nightmare ended, that warm sense of reality surfaced little by little. Even if you thought you understood what came next, even if you believed you were ready, there were tiny details you’d never experienced and never imagined—details that could hit you out of nowhere and leave you stunned, forcing you to realize just how much had changed.
Princess Rapunzel rubbed at her eyes and muttered, “Bro, stop it… I’m about to cry…”
As the big sister of the group, Little Red Riding Hood stayed the calmest and clearest. Even she had blanked for a heartbeat, but she recovered quickly.
“So there won’t be any more little children in the Borderland getting swallowed by the nightmare brought by fairy tale,” she said slowly, “and there won’t be new Little Red Riding Hood or new Princess Snow White anymore, right?”
Yu Sheng thought for a moment. “Is your wolf still there?”
“Yeah,” Little Red Riding Hood said. A shadow wolf surfaced beside her. She casually rubbed its head. “Snow White’s Thunder Titan is still here, and the King’s people are still here too. Nobody’s abilities disappeared.”
“And honestly, if these abilities disappeared, we’d feel weird,” Dorothy muttered from across the table. “I haven’t charged my phone in two months…”
“Good grief,” Princess Snow White grumbled. “The machine spirit must have the worst luck.”
Yu Sheng ignored the muttering and focused on the problem. “In theory, now that fairy tale has shifted from a nightmare collection into a harmless pocket space, it won’t actively pull people from the Borderland to create new roles. But your abilities are still here, which means part of fairy tale is still operating normally. So, still in theory, you should be able to raise the next generation of Little Red Riding Hood and Princess Snow White…”
Little Red Riding Hood listened, dazed. It was obvious she’d never even considered that direction.
Every member of the organization had only ever wanted the endless nightmare loop to stop for the role they carried. Actively raising… that was something that simply wouldn’t have occurred to them on its own.
Yu Sheng’s reaction suggested he’d expected exactly that.
“This is what I meant earlier about the future of the fairy tale organization,” he said, gaze steady as it swept the table. “It’s time to think about what comes next. All this time, fairy tale was an organization formed by orphans huddling together for warmth. But after the nightmare ends, what do you plan to do with your future? What about the future of the organization? Should fairy tale keep operating as a spirit realm detective organization? For how long? Should there be new members? Every question needs serious thought.”
“We…” Princess Rapunzel started, then hesitated. “Okay, yeah, we really haven’t thought about it. I haven’t even thought about next year. I…”
“I can’t do anything else,” Princess Snow White said, rocking back in her chair, arms folded. After a long pause, she finally forced it out. “My grades suck. And even though everyone’s supposed to go to school and take exams like normal, I never once thought I’d live to graduate. I never thought about what I’d do after graduation either. I guess I’ll still be a spirit realm detective. The pay’s pretty good.”
“The orphanage still has to run,” Little Red Riding Hood said, but her voice wasn’t as smooth and confident as usual. “There are so many brothers and sisters. At least we have to raise them. But after that…”
She lifted her head, thought carefully, then smiled in embarrassment. “I don’t think I can do much else either. I’ll probably be a spirit realm detective for life.”
“I—I—I can sing!” A petite, lively girl raised her hand excitedly. “I’m a big influencer now. I gained tens of thousands of followers this week…”
Princess Rapunzel glared at her instantly. “Shut up! You’re the worst one in a fight!”
“Ahem.” Yu Sheng coughed twice, dragging their attention back. “So it’s pretty obvious. The fairy tale organization still needs to operate as usual, and it’ll probably be long-term. Just remember: the nightmare is over. From now on, fairy tale will be a truly healthy, stable, safe, controllable organization. So you have to think about fresh blood and succession. I’m only giving you a heads-up. These are future problems.
“But you can also start by studying your own power, and studying the subtle changes in the fairy tale otherworld and how they affect you. After all, I only fused two otherworlds. The people who truly understand fairy tale best are still you.”
Yu Sheng went on for a long time. At some point, he realized the table had gone completely quiet. Bright eyes were watching him seriously, and the weight of those looks made even him feel a little pressure.
He stopped, awkward. “Am I being kind of long-winded?”
“Not as long-winded as Red Hood,” Princess Rapunzel said casually. “She can talk forever in meetings.”
Little Red Riding Hood smacked Princess Rapunzel on the back, then looked at Yu Sheng with real seriousness. She smiled.
“Not at all,” she said earnestly. “Because you’re also a fairy tale guardian now—the biggest one.”
Princess Rapunzel, freshly smacked, saw the mood was perfect and immediately stood up to stir trouble.
“Come on! Everyone call him bro! I’ll go first—brother~”
Yu Sheng didn’t even have time to react before everyone around the table stood up.
The teens laughed, deliberately out of sync, shouting in a messy chorus—
“Brother!”
“Bro~”
“Uncle Yu!”
“Grandpa Yu!”
Yu Sheng’s head snapped up. “…Who yelled that last ‘Grandpa Yu’?!”