Chapter 258

Chapter 259: A Good Place

When Yu Sheng explained why he had come, Little Red Riding Hood’s eyes lit up at once. She clapped her hands and asked: “Oh! You’re finally going to open a dedicated The Door for us? Great! Teacher Su said yesterday that having to look for you after work to do Door Opening feels awkward, and Rapunzel nags me about it all the time. Where do you plan to open it?”

Yu Sheng pointed nearby and said: “This side is easy. We just need a wide, stable spot near the settlement. I can stick The Door right in the town’s open ground and we’re done. The tricky part is the ‘outside’ Door. It has to be in the real world, hidden from ordinary people, but not too far away. We have to think about your daily trips out and staff like Teacher Su commuting.”

Rapunzel cut in brightly and suggested: “Open it at Green Source Plaza. They have lots of milk tea shops.” Nobody responded.

Little Red Riding Hood lowered her head, thought in silence, then looked up with a plan as she said: “Let’s open it at the Orphanage’s old site. First, we know that place well. Even though we live in our new home now, if the ‘home Door’ opens near the Orphanage’s old entrance, going out won’t feel different from before, and staff like Teacher Su won’t have to change their routes to work. Second, that Orphanage lot has always been covered by a Node Device. The Dark Angels incident just ended, so the Node is definitely still there. If we tell the Special Affairs Bureau, we can set the Door there without worrying that regular people will see the Portal, and we won’t need to build a new shielding Node.”

She paused, then added honestly: “The only problem is that it was leveled. It might still be a field of ruins. I’m not sure if there’s a spot to place the Door.”

Yu Sheng’s eyes lit up and he said with real admiration: “High school brains are sharp. That makes perfect sense. How about we go check it out now?”

Little Red Riding Hood nodded: “Yes. I want to see what it looks like now anyway.”

Rapunzel bounced over and chirped: “Where are we going? Our ‘old home’? I’m coming too! I haven’t gone back since everything ended. I left so many things behind. Piles of novels, and several figures. Hey, are you taking me or not?”

Yu Sheng had already opened a Door to the Orphanage’s old site. Standing at the threshold, Little Red Riding Hood turned and scolded her roommate: “If you keep dawdling, we really won’t take you. If you want to come, then come. Why so much chatter?”

Rapunzel beamed and hurried over as she said: “Okay!”

Stepping through The Door took only a moment. The view flipped from the sunlit Paradise of the Valley to the entrance of the old, worn Orphanage. Of course, it no longer matched memory. The mottled, towering wall had been crushed to rubble in the Dark Angels’ final eruption; broken bricks and shattered tile lay piled by the road. The two main buildings that once became the Angel’s Fetus’s Umbilical Cord were now huge, slumped carcasses among the ruins after the cord was severed. The outdoor play area where the Cursed Children used to laugh and run had once been soaked in nightmare matter; now that the nightmare had faded, the swings, slides, and see-saws remained as broken fragments, charred like coal.

The big sandbox had shrunk into a black, hardened hollow.

Little Red Riding Hood stared at the scene for a long time without speaking.

Rapunzel, stepping out behind them, widened her eyes at the wreckage. After a while she forced a careless grin, took a deep breath, and patted Yu Sheng’s shoulder as she said: “Bro, it’s just like you said. All collapsed. Yup, all collapsed.”

Yu Sheng said nothing. He just patted Little Red Riding Hood’s back.

It wasn’t only ruins. Special Affairs Bureau teams worked the site. Technicians tested the environment. Agents in full gear still kept watch. Construction crews cleared the wreckage, and heavy machines pounded and roared.

Yu Sheng spotted a familiar face among the watch teams: Li Lin. Li Lin saw him too and strode over quickly. Wearing protective gear and carrying a rifle, Li Lin looked more solid than ever. He greeted them, then glanced at Little Red Riding Hood and asked: “Here to take a look today?”

Little Red Riding Hood nodded. Yu Sheng got to the point as he said: “Not just to look. I want to open a Permanent Portal here.”

Li Lin’s expression turned crisp at once as he repeated: “A Permanent Portal?”

Yu Sheng explained: “The Fairy Tale group has moved to my backyard. This is for them, a convenient passage to reality. I brought it up with your Director before, but we never settled on an address. We talked just now and think this place fits best. The Nodes around here aren’t dismantled yet, right?”

Li Lin nodded quickly and said: “Of course not. Even if you didn’t come, the Nodes would stay. An Angel once parasitized this area. The whole zone needs to be blocked for at least ten years before we can even evaluate redevelopment. You really want the Door here?”

Yu Sheng nodded, easy and steady; he knew Anka Aila’s situation best. Following the Bureau’s process made sense, but he also knew this spot was actually safe now. He asked: “I don’t know your cleanup progress. Is there a spot where I can ‘work’?”

Li Lin grew visibly tense, maybe a little excited, and fired off questions as he asked: “What do you need to open a Fixed Gate? How big a site? What materials? Should we clear everyone out? Want me to call Engineer Sun to throw up a temporary shed for you?”

The barrage made Yu Sheng blink. For a second, it felt like the Door was for Li Lin’s own house. He blurted: “Engineer Sun handles this too?”

Before Li Lin could answer, Irene muttered from his shoulder: “That’s how our civil engineer bro is.”

Yu Sheng rubbed his nose and said: “No need to go that far, and no need to clear the place. Just find me an open ground that’s already cleared and won’t be in the way later. As for materials, the main thing is a door, just a regular door as the carrier. The rest is simple.” He paused and took a breath.

A spike of dread flickered across Li Lin’s face. If he knew more fancy words, he might have said his Spiritual Intuition was bouncing.

Yu Sheng listed it out in one go as he said: “Five bundles of Ritual Candles. Three barrels of Rose Essential Oil, 2.5 liters each. Twelve jin of Crystal Dust. Two thermoses of Spirit Communion Ink. And four roast chickens, twenty buns, twenty steamed rolls, two cases of ham sausages, and twenty skewers of grilled mushrooms.”

Rapunzel shot her hand up and added, dead serious: “I also want one ticket to a Youth Form concert!”

Little Red Riding Hood elbowed her and scolded: “What do you want that for? We can ask the Mermaid to sing for you. She can even recreate the crowd screaming. Close your eyes and it’s just like being there.”

Rapunzel huffed and insisted: “It’s not the same!”

Li Lin stared, stunned, then checked what he’d typed and managed: “Brother Yu, I need to report this to the leadership.”

Yu Sheng thought of who his leader was and grinned as he said: “Go ahead.”

Li Lin asked, a bit dazed: “Report exactly what you said?”

Yu Sheng smiled wider and said: “Report.”

Li Lin stepped aside and called Captain Song: “Hello, sir? Here’s the situation. Yu Sheng wants to open a Fixed Gate and asked for ‘a few’ materials. How did you already know about the grilled mushrooms?” He returned a minute later wearing a strange look as he said: “Approved.”

Yu Sheng just smiled at him.

Li Lin cleared his throat, getting back on track as he said: “We have plenty of doors here. The wreckers pulled out lots of intact ones, fully usable. The other materials will be delivered soon. Using the ‘shortcut,’ they’ll arrive in a bit over half an hour. As for the open ground,” he raised a hand and pointed to a corner of the Orphanage ruins as he said: “That patch should work. It’s one of the few spots in the yard that didn’t get hit. Funny enough, when the Umbilical Cord snapped and debris rained down, nothing landed there. You can place the Door first. Later, we’ll ask Engineer Sun to build a canopy over it to block the wind and rain, or even a small house. That can be the new Fairy Tale headquarters’ reception room.”

While Li Lin talked, Yu Sheng followed his finger and saw an intact open ground near the edge of the old play area. A tree stood there, somehow unscathed. Nearby, a brick wall had half collapsed, leaving one stubborn section still standing beside a fallen swing set.

Yu Sheng looked at that place for a long time. He remembered that long ago, there had been a Cinderella who lived to twenty-six; she stood by that brick wall and the swing, smiling quietly at Old Zheng when he was still Little Zheng. He remembered a younger Little Red Riding Hood planting a sapling with a young Wang Jia Jia on that very open ground. The tree had grown up now.

In the future, a Door would stand here too, opening toward the sunny Valley.

Yu Sheng smiled slowly and said: “Okay. I think this place is great.”