Chapter 269

Chapter 269: Afterward

One by one, the group filed through the door to the real world. As usual, Yu Sheng stayed at the end. Before stepping through, he turned back and looked one last time at the mirror block covered in thick fog.

The self-repairing trait of otherworld had already begun to take effect. The street that had been torn up by the battle was slowly restoring itself inside the haze. No new entities appeared. Everything was quiet—so quiet it was hard to believe the noisy swarm and the brutal fight had been real at all.

After a brief moment of thought, Yu Sheng bit his finger hard, flicked a few drops of blood onto the road, and marked the coordinates for Door Opening again in this unfamiliar otherworld. Only then did he step through and return to reality.

In front of Myriad Plaza Mall, the Special Operations Bureau’s special “ambulance” had already arrived on the plaza. The young man who’d narrowly escaped death was taken into the vehicle the moment he came through.

First came an emergency check to confirm whether any mental contamination or other aftereffects remained. Then a safety scan to make sure nothing that shouldn’t enter the real world had followed him out. They cleaned the remaining resin off his body and had a professional provide psychological support, explaining the precautions after first contact with otherworld and entities.

The biggest precaution was simple: keep your mind steady.

The bureau’s process was, in fact, extremely professional.

By the time Yu Sheng and the others saw the young man again, an hour had passed.

He sat in the cabin with a cup of medicinal tea that supposedly had a gentle calming effect, sipping slowly. His eyes still looked unfocused. Only when Yu Sheng’s trio and Little Red Riding Hood sat across from him did he snap back and force a smile, still shaken and exhausted.

“How do you feel now?” Yu Sheng asked.

“My whole body is still sticky,” the young man sighed. “That resin won’t wipe clean. When I get home, I want to shower right away. And I’m tired. Like I ran three thousand meters… Actually, I ran way longer than that. A bunch of weird stuff chased me in the fog.”

“A bunch?” Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. “What did they look like?”

“I didn’t see clearly,” the young man said miserably. “And I can’t remember. I don’t even dare think about it now. It was scary…”

He swallowed. “I just remember that in the end I got caught by this big tree with legs. It looked like an old lady. It swung a branch and smacked me to the ground, then spat all over me. When I opened my eyes again, you guys were there… and that young lady next to you was still a three-to-four-meter-tall fox…”

He glanced at Foxy again, lingering fear flickering across his face. Then he realized what he was doing and hurried to apologize. “Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean anything. I was just scared back then…”

Foxy didn’t care. She was busy rummaging for cookies in Yu Sheng’s pocket.

Even though she stored plenty of food in her tail, digging snacks out of Benefactor’s pockets had always been her favorite thing.

“He still looks like he has some speech issues and short-term sluggishness,” Little Red Riding Hood whispered to Yu Sheng. “The medicine probably hasn’t worn off yet. Even diluted again and again for ordinary people, it’s still his first time taking it. The effects will last a while.”

Yu Sheng nodded, then looked back at the young man. “Big Nephew, do you remember how you fell into the other side?”

“The bureau already asked me in the car,” he said apologetically, “but I really can’t remember the details. I don’t even know when things started feeling wrong. I’m the kind of person who spaces out a lot, and I didn’t notice anything when I came this morning…”

He paused, then forced himself to recall. “I just remember walking into a side entrance of the mall. I think that door was newly opened. I went in with my head down, thinking. After a while I noticed it was really quiet. I looked up and saw everyone had turned into blurry shadow figures, and fog had risen around me.”

His grip tightened on the tea cup. “Then I blinked, and those people disappeared. Even the shadows were gone. The mall was suddenly empty except for me. My phone had no signal. I tried calling a bunch of numbers, but nothing went through…”

Yu Sheng listened closely. Then Irene asked, “Do you remember knocking on the display window outside the mall? Did you hear anything? Besides the sound, did you see anything?”

“I didn’t even hear it clearly,” the young man said. “Everything that happened in the fog felt like a hallucination. I just felt like the glass moved, so I went over and knocked. You couldn’t see anything through it—just fog on the street.”

He tried for a long moment, then shook his head. “I can’t recall anything else.”

“Then Big Nephew, you—”

“Uh… I have a name,” the young man finally said, awkwardly pointing at himself. “My name is Zheng Zhi…”

The moment he said it, the cabin fell silent. Somehow, the atmosphere got even more awkward than before.

“So you’re still Big Zhi-zai!” Irene hopped onto the seat, hands on her hips, righteous as ever. “Who named you that?”

“My grandma,” Zheng Zhi said innocently. “She hoped I could become an upright person…”

“Ahem.” Yu Sheng coughed twice and cut the topic off before it got worse. “Zheng Zhi, right? Fine. I’ll remember.”

He leaned back. “From how you look, you probably can’t recall anything useful anyway, so we won’t keep asking. Go home and rest. The bureau said they’ll arrange a car to take you back. If you remember anything later, contact us immediately.”

“Okay,” Zheng Zhi said quickly.

Then his expression turned hesitant. After a few seconds, he asked carefully, “Also… you saved me, so I should pay you, right? I heard about it. You’re professional Spirit Realm Detectives. Spirit Realm Detective work costs money…”

He hurried to add, “I have money. I do. Just… maybe not a lot. I don’t know your rates…”

He looked nervous, helpless, and painfully unsure of himself.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood exchanged a glance, both amused and a little speechless.

“Don’t think about that,” Little Red Riding Hood said, rubbing her forehead. “Spirit Realm Detectives aren’t heartless money machines. Unless someone signed a paid commission in advance and hired us to pull a person out of otherworld, if we run into someone like you who got trapped by accident, our rule is rescue first. Profit or not.”

She gestured toward the door. “Later, the Special Operations Bureau will reward us. They have an incentive system.”

Zheng Zhi let out a small “oh,” scratched his head, and gave an awkward smile.

“But I do have something to remind you,” Little Red Riding Hood added. “I don’t know if those bureau people already told you… but from now on, you need to be careful.”

Zheng Zhi’s expression changed. He forced a bitter smile and spread his hands. “They warned me.”

“Once you’ve dealt with the other side, you form a connection with things beyond the boundary of sanity,” Little Red Riding Hood said seriously. “That connection can’t be undone. From now on, you’ll have a higher chance of seeing things ordinary people can’t see—hidden entrances, and foreign objects trying to stay hidden. And since you already have that high sensitivity, low stability constitution, it may be even worse. There’s a high chance you’ll fall into otherworld again.”

“The bureau told me that too,” Zheng Zhi said, fingers clenched so hard his knuckles went white. “They said the community will register me. From now on I can get medicine from an anomaly doctor. After the adjustment period, I can use a reduced dose of sanity-blocking agent. It weakens my connection to the other side.”

He exhaled shakily. “They also said they’ll arrange follow-up training. Basic occult knowledge so I can do simple self-protection if I run into abnormal situations…”

He paused, eyes going distant. “My uncle was most afraid of this when he was alive. And now I still ended up catching it.”

“As long as you understand, that’s enough,” Little Red Riding Hood said gently. “I won’t add more pressure. After you go back, don’t overthink it. Shower, sleep, eat and drink normally. Being anxious won’t help.”

She met his eyes. “Trust the Special Operations Bureau and the councilor. If anything happens, call the emergency number they gave you first, or contact us directly.”

Zheng Zhi left with a troubled face, taken home in a bureau vehicle.

Yu Sheng stepped out of the cabin and watched him go. He couldn’t help muttering, “Man. What rotten luck…”

“It is rotten luck,” Liu Bing’s voice said from the side.

Yu Sheng turned and saw him walking over, face tired but steady. He looked at Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood as he spoke.

“I’ve already reported the basic situation to my superiors, and I filed the reward application too. You saved a person, and you also discovered a brand-new otherworld and collected raw data inside it. The bonus won’t be small.”

He paused, then added matter-of-factly, “Three to four hundred thousand is likely. It’ll be transferred directly into the accounts for Fairy Tale and Hotel later.”

The moment Yu Sheng heard that, the smile on his face was truly heartfelt.

He really was that simple and pure.