Chapter 238

Chapter 238: Planning the Future

The meeting ended.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood sat together on the highest roof of the castle, watching the camp below. They watched little kids, so sleepy they could barely keep their eyes open, get carried back to their rooms by brothers and sisters. They watched the guardians drift out of the castle, yawning as they passed the barracks.

After a long while, Yu Sheng finally looked away and lifted his head to the thin clouds above.

“They all went back to sleep,” he said. “You’re not tired?”

“The excitement hasn’t worn off. I can’t sleep,” Little Red Riding Hood said, flopping onto the slanted roof. “…In a few days I can go take the driver’s test.”

Yu Sheng thought for a moment. “What do you want for your birthday?”

“A car?”

“Can’t afford it.”

Little Red Riding Hood laughed and shook her head. “Honestly, I haven’t even thought about it… how would I have the mood for that? I’ve actually been scared for a long time. Don’t laugh at me, okay? I’m really scared.”

“Yeah,” Yu Sheng said softly. “I know.”

They fell quiet, letting the brief, clear tranquility settle over them.

After a while, Little Red Riding Hood spoke again. “By the way, I thought carefully about what you said earlier—about the future of the fairy tale organization. Developing members. Passing down identities. It actually feels kind of exciting.”

“Oh?” Yu Sheng raised a brow. “I thought the words ‘new Little Red Riding Hood’ would give you a complex.”

“A little,” she admitted. “But because it’s always been a weight in my heart, I’m actually looking forward to the change.”

She smiled, gaze distant, and her voice warmed as she talked.

“Think about it. All this time, in the fairy tale organization, whether it was Little Red Riding Hood or Princess Snow White, everyone was an orphan forced into a nightmare. But from now on, a new Little Red Riding Hood might just be a fresh grad in mysticism who comes in through normal recruitment. Or a spirit realm detective rookie who submits a resume on purpose.

“No fear of a shortened lifespan. No endless pain and loneliness. They’re here for a long-term, stable job, and we train them like teachers. Work normally. Take vacations normally. When they put on the red cloak, they’re the organization’s employee and apprentice. When they take it off, they go home to their family.

“Of course, the first person I train might be Xiao Xiao. That kid’s talent is really good, and she’s already built a few preliminary communications with the black forest. If I train her, I can probably figure out quickly how to teach a rookie to control a wolf pack without Anka Aila’s influence. That experience will be useful for everyone else too…”

She kept going, smiling the whole time, as if she could already see the future: a normal, steady working life for the next Little Red Riding Hood. Even if the job itself was insane by ordinary standards, for members of the organization it was a life so smooth it almost felt unreal.

Yu Sheng didn’t interrupt. He listened until her voice gradually softened, until the words blurred, until she finally drifted into quiet, even breathing.

A streak of gold appeared at the edge of his vision.

Yu Sheng glanced over and saw two tufts of golden hair swaying on the eaves like antennae. Then a sheet of gold began creeping up the roof like some gloomy slug. Princess Rapunzel’s head popped up at the roof edge, and the hair-monster greeted him cheerfully.

“Bro! I’m here to find Red Hood!”

Yu Sheng pointed beside him. “She’s asleep.”

“I knew it.” Princess Rapunzel wrinkled her nose. A wave of golden hair slid along the roof, carefully wrapping the sleeping Little Red Riding Hood and lifting her away. “I slept in the same room as her for years. The look she had when the meeting ended meant she’d crash within half an hour. Guaranteed.”

Yu Sheng stared, stunned, eyes following that huge mass of hair crawling along the roof in a dark, unsettling way. “You’ve got long golden hair. In stories, that’s always the elegant, pretty style. Why do you look like a goblin that just crawled out of a cave, slithering around like this?”

“What’s the point of pretty?” Princess Rapunzel shot back. “Does it debuff demons when I fight them, or boost my movement speed when I’m running around the tower? At least I don’t twist it into a single rope and fire it like a cannon…”

Yu Sheng shut up immediately. “….”

Princess Rapunzel hesitated, then spoke again, quieter this time.

“Bro… our orphanage is really gone?”

“From the on-site photos Li Lin sent me, it’s basically leveled,” Yu Sheng sighed. “Only the little guard booth is still standing, and the rising barrier at the gate. Just the base.”

“Oh,” Princess Rapunzel said, then tried to patch it with a joke. “So Sleeping Beauty’s workstation is still there.”

But the seriousness came back fast. “So that means we’ll be living here for a long time, right?”

“That’s the current plan,” Yu Sheng said, nodding. “You don’t have anywhere else to go right now. Of course, it still depends on what you want. If you decide to go elsewhere, the Special Operations Bureau and the councilor will definitely help. We just dealt with an angel descent-level incident.”

Princess Rapunzel’s eyes lit up. “Then… then can we keep living here and not move, but have the Special Operations Bureau give us relocation money based on the budget to rebuild an orphanage?”

Yu Sheng stared at her.

She hurriedly added, “A-and… also wire some to your Hotel.”

“You really just think of whatever pops into your head,” Yu Sheng said, then laughed helplessly and waved a hand. “Don’t worry about that yet. I still need to go to the Special Operations Bureau myself. There’s a lot to discuss. And if you really plan to live here long-term, I need to open a dedicated door from camp to the outside. You can’t have dozens of people entering and exiting through my basement forever.”

“…Oh.” Princess Rapunzel’s shoulders drooped a little. “Sounds like there really is a lot to do.”

Yu Sheng tilted his head. “Why did you suddenly ask?”

“On my way up, I ran into Princess Snow White and the King,” she said, still hanging off the eaves with her hair like a horror puppet while chatting. “They were talking about the future. They said if we’re staying long-term, we need to renovate the camp slowly. Everyone will build houses ourselves and move out of the temporary rooms. Then it’ll be like a little town.”

She brightened again, like the thought made her giddy.

“Princess Snow White said we’ll call it fairy tale town, and she wants to build the titan altar next to the town…”

Yu Sheng went dumbfounded—then he realized this was the meeting’s effect finally surfacing.

After being handed a long life, the children were finally planning a future with hope.

The only problem was that these super middle schoolers, the reserve super middle schoolers, and the super Kitty all seemed to have terrifying imagination and even scarier execution. Who knew what they’d turn this place into.

…It sounded insanely fun.

Yu Sheng’s mouth curled up.

“Bro, you’re smiling,” Princess Rapunzel said suspiciously. “Why?”

“I approve in advance,” Yu Sheng said. “I mean the titan altar. Just don’t build it on my vegetable patch.”

“Oh-oh!”

Then Princess Rapunzel carried Little Red Riding Hood away.

Yu Sheng watched as that huge golden fluff-ball wrapped them both up and crept along the camp road in that dark, crawling way, all the way into the little house they currently lived in. Honestly, he didn’t remember her having this vibe when they first met. Back then she even seemed like a quiet young lady…

But then he thought about the mental state he’d seen in Little Match Girl back then, compared to how she was normally, and he immediately felt fine.

A modern young man, and a young man dealing with fairy tale. Perfectly reasonable.

After that brief thought, he casually pulled open a door and stepped into Wu Tong Road 66.

The first thing he did was scan around and prick up his ears.

Not bad. Nothing was on fire. Nothing had been blasted into a crater. From the second floor came Irene’s cursing as she played games. The living room TV was running some trashy variety show, and Irene’s stupid giggling sounded clear and bright.

Yu Sheng finally let out a breath and walked inside.

Foxy’s delighted voice rang out from the dining room. “Benefactor! You’re back!”

Yu Sheng looked up and saw Foxy pouncing toward him—thankfully without rocket-boost. Just a normal leap.

Yu Sheng saved most of his ribs.

He caught Foxy and let that pile of tails clamp around him like hydraulic tongs for a long while before he finally pried out a hand and rubbed the fur behind her ear.

“I got held up in the valley for a while,” he said. “Mostly explaining the changes in the fairy tale otherworld to Little Red Riding Hood and the others. You waited a long time?”

“Mm, I waited a long time,” Foxy said, smiling. She loosened her tails and tugged him toward the table. “But Irene didn’t wait. She said you were busy, and then she went upstairs to play games and watch TV. But I made you breakfast!”

Yu Sheng stopped. “…Breakfast?”

“Yes. The one you ate last time. Irene said we can call it fox stew.” Foxy grinned as she pressed him into a chair. She lifted the pot lid and placed a basin of colorful, layered, bubbling solid-liquid mixture in front of him. “It’s really delicious!”

Yu Sheng’s face changed the moment he saw it. It looked even more horrifying than last time.

“Wait,” he said, pointing. “That thing is moving. And it’s even more colorful than last time!”

“Yeah!” Foxy looked proud. “This time Irene didn’t mess with it, so it’s way more successful. If I try a few more times, I think I can get it to taste six or seven parts like what my mother makes!”

Yu Sheng stared at the pot in silence.