Chapter 257

Chapter 258: New Clothes

As soon as Yu Sheng’s face changed, Irene slid her head over, glanced at the screen, and understood; the little Doll lifted her chin, eyes full of nosy excitement as she teased: “Oh ho, so it goes like this: you refuse to meet your online friend, and your online friend comes to meet you.”

Yu Sheng had no time to deal with the Doll’s sarcasm; staring at the messages, he sucked his teeth and looked worried as he muttered: “I’ve got a bad feeling, a really bad one.” [This feels ominous.]

Irene asked, eyes bright: “Is your Spiritual Intuition jumping?”

Yu Sheng waved it off and said, serious yet tangled: “Not that, but maybe this is out of my usual range. Or maybe I’m overthinking it. There can’t be such perfect coincidences in the world, right?” [Maybe I’m imagining things.]

Irene folded her legs and sat on the table, studying him with interest as she asked: “So how do you reply? Make an excuse and skip it? You two aren’t that close anyway. Or just open The Door to some empty planet and do survival for a few days, then say you were out on a survey. If it really is a coincidence, that would be too awkward.”

Yu Sheng shot the Doll a glare and said, grumbling: “Easy for you to say. I’d rather face the online friend with a knife than do wilderness survival on some birdless planet.” Then he took a breath and firmed up: “Fine, I’ll meet them. What’s the worst that could happen? Maybe it won’t be a coincidence. And if it is, even better; I won’t have to keep thinking about it.”

He typed back on Border: “Okay. Having someone who knows the field to chat with sounds great. Where should we meet? Do you need an address? My place is off the beaten path, most people can’t find it.”

In a moment, Wicked Disciple 4000 replied: “No problem. I have some ties with the Special Affairs Bureau. When my disciple arrives, I’ll ask them to help set it up. Wait for news.”

After a few more exchanges, Yu Sheng set the phone down and let out a long breath. [It felt like a burden finally dropped.]

The little Doll leaned close, peering at Yu Sheng’s face, then announced with mock solemnity: “You’re headed for blood and bad luck.”

Yu Sheng brushed Irene’s hands away and said, deadpan: “I get bloody every other week. That doesn’t count as bad luck.” He picked up a tiny dress he had just sewn and handed it over as he added: “Try this. I loosened the back, and I took off the hot glue and stitched it with thread. It should feel like normal clothes now, not scratchy.”

Irene brightened at once and hugged the dress as she said: “Okay!” She hopped down, then froze halfway: “Ah, there’s no changing space in the attic. I still have to go downstairs.”

Yu Sheng grabbed a big cardboard box that once held clutter, turned it upright, and set it on the floor as he said: “Change in here. I’ll leave a slit on the side, and there’s no light inside.”

Irene wagged a finger and warned: “Then you are not allowed to peek!”

Yu Sheng just waved a hand, helpless.

The Doll burrowed into the box to change. After some rustling, Irene strutted out in a purple new dress and twirled proudly in front of Yu Sheng as she asked: “Do I look good?”

Yu Sheng nodded and said, casual but warm: “Good, good. I already saw you in it last time, and it fits great. Still itchy?”

Irene grinned and scrambled back up his leg onto the desk as she said: “Not itchy anymore! Your skills are pretty good; maybe you could be a professional Doll maker one day?”

Yu Sheng chuckled and replied: “You’re getting ahead of yourself. I know my limits. Patching you up and molding a barely workable body is already impressive for me. If I tried being a Doll maker for real, I’d starve.”

Irene thought for a second, then jumped to a new topic as she asked: “Right, that wicked disciple guy, did he tell you when his disciple is coming?”

Yu Sheng raised a hand and said: “At least five or six days. Not just because it’s far, but there’s paperwork and stuff. I’ve never traveled far by The Door, and I’ve never lived outside the Borderland. I don’t really get their process. Sounds like it’s a pain for an outsider to come to Boundary City.”

Irene nodded and said, matter-of-fact: “It is the Borderland after all. This is probably the most secure region in the whole universe.”

Over the next two days, Yu Sheng finally had a stretch of calm, at least with no sudden incidents. The online friend from across the stars was still handling paperwork. The Special Affairs Bureau had no new updates. The room called The End Web at the far end of the second-floor hall stayed quiet. No Otherworld opened a random Door in the street, and no Entity barged straight into the kitchen at Wutong Road 66.

Foxy lived the easy life of eating, then waiting to eat again, and going to Yu Sheng for tail grooming when bored. Irene threw herself into a daily loop of arguing with dumb netizens, getting banned, getting unbanned, and arguing again; sometimes she binged new low-budget web dramas or cheap variety shows. Life was oddly full.

Yu Sheng finally dragged his feet across a very late draft and submitted it. This time, the hero of his story did not ride a motorcycle. Even though bikes are cool, he forced himself to swap it for a Llama. The editor was clearly shocked, but the bigger shock was that the piece got accepted anyway. For a moment, Yu Sheng suspected that the saying “missing deadlines boosts acceptance rates” might actually be true, and he even decided to try giving the hero a cargo tricycle next time.

Meanwhile, over in the Valley, the Fairy Tale Cursed Children were doing well, and everything was falling into place. The helping Engineering Team had withdrawn, and Little Red Riding Hood led a group of top students to take over the next phase of building their home. Engineer Sun had a hard time leaving on the last day. As the lord, he felt he should see it through and couldn’t hand something as big as rebuilding a home to a group of not-quite-grown kids. But half of that stubbornness melted the moment he saw the Royal Stonemasons Guild that King summoned, and the rest vanished when he watched the seven Thunder Titans raise buildings with ridiculous speed.

Once he confirmed the Valley was on track, Yu Sheng prepared to finish something he’d planned for a while: he would open a stable Portal to the outside world in the center of the little town. After all, Little Red Riding Hood’s group couldn’t stay in the Valley forever. People would need to go out through The Door for daily errands, and staff like Teacher Su needed to get off work. Right now they either had to ask Yu Sheng to do Door Opening each time, or they used the fixed channel on the Portal Platform and came out in the basement at Wutong Road 66. Neither option was a long-term solution.

Early the next morning, Yu Sheng took Irene and Foxy to the Valley.

Near the cluster of temporary houses in the town, they found a busy construction site. A wide patch of fresh foundations had already “grown.” A group of Kingdom Craftsmen who looked like they had stepped out of a storybook moved stiffly like puppets yet worked with zero mistakes; they measured the ground and marked lines. Snow White and several “parents” stood at the edge of the site, talking through the next wave of plans. The summoned Thunder Titans stacked massive building materials like toy blocks: giant trees from the Black Forest, boulders from a far Castle, and huge batches of rebar and cement shipped in by the Special Affairs Bureau.

Yu Sheng also noticed a steel-armored Giant sitting by the site. The Giant gripped a tree trunk in one hand and used his everyday “short sword” in the other to slice at the trunk steadily, like he was sharpening a pencil. Yu Sheng watched for a long while before realizing the “stick” the Giant was whittling was actually a house beam. Several finished beams lay beside the Giant.

A voice sounded at Yu Sheng’s side, calm and a bit amused: “King says the rough-cut lumber can’t be used right away. It has to be dried, the moisture removed, and the surface carbonized. Normally that takes forever. So first they’re building a drying house. One of the Titans Snow White summoned can handle fire, so it can go inside to speed things up, but the control has to be precise, which already sounds like a headache. Still, it insists that’s what gives it a sense of achievement.”

Yu Sheng turned and found Rapunzel standing next to him, gazing at the site.

Rapunzel flashed a sunny smile and asked: “Bro, here to find Red Hood?”

Yu Sheng blinked and asked: “How did you know?”

Rapunzel bared her teeth in a grin and declared: “You’re wrapped in the aura of someone here to do serious business.” [What does that even mean?]

Then she cupped her hands and yelled toward town: “Red Hood! Sister Red Hood!”

A figure sprinted out of town in reply, wolves swirling around her shadow. In a blink she landed nearby and barked: “Why are you howling? Ever heard of sending a message?” Rapunzel pointed at Yu Sheng and said: “Your big bro is looking for you.”

Yu Sheng smiled and greeted Little Red Riding Hood, then paused. Today, the girl had changed outfits. She wasn’t wearing her trademark red outer coat. Instead she wore a thick blue-and-white jacket, plain and boxy, with words embroidered on the chest: XX High School.

Little Red Riding Hood noticed his gaze, glanced down, then looked up with a bright grin as she asked: “Well? This is my school uniform.”

Yu Sheng considered and stayed quiet. Irene, blunt as ever, jumped in and said: “To be honest, it’s pretty ugly.”

Little Red Riding Hood laughed and agreed: “Yeah, it’s ugly, haha. But sometimes I want to wear it. I used to wear that red coat almost every day. If I changed clothes for just one day, my nails would start getting sharp the next day. Now I don’t have to worry about that.” She spun in place and then, still cheerful, concluded: “Yup, still ugly.” [She really thinks this is pretty?]