Chapter 328

Chapter 329: Luna also has an Identification Card

Little Red Riding Hood sat up in bed and squinted at the sunlight pouring in through the window. She worked to clear her head, then turned to see Rapunzel in her room and asked: “My head hurts. Also, why are you in my house?”

Rapunzel tilted her chin and said: “We’ve been dorm mates for years. Now I’m not allowed in your house?”

Little Red Riding Hood rubbed her forehead and said: “That’s different. Didn’t you build yourself a bunker next door? You said you would never live high up again and wanted to be a safe, stable cave-dweller.” She groaned and added, “Ow, it still hurts. I’m never touching alcohol again. It really isn’t healthy. Did I black out last night?”

Rapunzel nodded and said: “Yeah. It was glorious. Our brother carried you home. I also changed your clothes. You threw up as soon as you came in, and we cleaned for ages.” She came over holding a bowl and said, “Your head hurts, right? I heard that happens after drinking. Drink this while it’s hot.”

Little Red Riding Hood took the bowl and peered inside, mumbling: “What is it?”

Rapunzel waved a hand and said: “Hangover soup.”

“Thanks,” Little Red Riding Hood said. She took a sip, froze for two seconds, smacked her lips, and said, “This is instant noodle broth.”

“Yep. See? One sip and you’re clear-headed.”

“Where are the noodles?”

“I ate them,” Rapunzel said, righteous as ever. “I even added two sausages. The ones you stock aren’t good. They chew like rubber. Next time get the Sanliang Shifu brand. They have a corn sausage…”

“You stole my instant noodles again, and added two sausages? I usually only add one,” Little Red Riding Hood cried. “You ate a whole box of Immortal Spirit Pills last time and I didn’t even make you pay me back.”

Rapunzel just kept grinning without a trace of shame.

She was always like this. Little Red Riding Hood was used to it, so after two quick complaints she let out a long sigh, set the bowl on the nightstand, and sat in a daze for another minute. Then she suddenly remembered something big.

In the next second, she shot out of bed and shouted: “I have class this morning.”

She scrambled to get dressed and pack her bag, but as soon as she grabbed her coat, Rapunzel said calmly behind her: “Don’t rush. We already asked for leave for you.”

Little Red Riding Hood froze and turned to stare at Rapunzel, suspicious: “You can get leave approved for a senior in high school? What reason did you give?”

“Birthday party, group drinking, and still hungover.”

Little Red Riding Hood stood in the middle of the room like she had been struck by lightning. Her eyes went green with anger: “And then?”

“Your homeroom teacher is easy to talk to,” Rapunzel said. “They told me you don’t need to come in today.”

Little Red Riding Hood’s eyes went completely green. She lunged and shouted: “Big Blondie, I’m going to end you.”

Rapunzel scooted aside with a giggle and instantly turned into a river of gold hair that slid across the floor and shot out through the window crack. She had clearly planned this escape for a while.

Little Red Riding Hood grabbed nothing but a hard object. She looked down and found Rapunzel’s phone.

The screen wasn’t locked. It was still on the last played videos.

Little Red Riding Hood blinked, then tapped.

In 4K clarity came a long wolf howl, followed by a loud, confident line: “From now on we’re dog-and-fox pals.”

…

As he flipped through his photo album, Yu Sheng shivered. A chill rose from nowhere.

Foxy, who had been yawning on a floor mat, shot up, ears twitching. She said: “Benefactor, killing intent?”

Irene glanced over from the coffee table where she was watching TV and said: “Killing intent, my foot. That’s you getting the shivers. Is your spiritual intuition jumping again?”

“I don’t know what that was,” Yu Sheng said, scratching his hair. He let the strange chill go and focused on a figure nearby.

Luna, wearing a nun’s head veil, was standing by the stairs to the second floor. In fact, she had been standing there for an hour.

Irene followed his gaze and spread her hands: “She’s zoning out. Started right after she woke up. She only moved once when Foxy mopped the floor. If no one talks to her, she just stands there like a statue.”

Yu Sheng frowned, then waved Luna over.

She walked to the sofa and stood there like a statue again.

He said: “You don’t have to stand guard at the stairs. If you want to do something, go do it. If you want to rest, rest. This is your home. At home, you should relax.”

Luna stood blankly. After a while, she said slowly: “Being relaxed is very good.”

Yu Sheng’s expression turned a bit odd as he asked: “Standing and spacing out counts as relaxing? Don’t you have anything else you want to do? Learn more about this world, read a book, take a walk in the valley, or at least watch TV with Irene.”

Luna turned to look at the silly game show on TV, then her gaze seemed to land on Irene. Though her face barely changed, Yu Sheng sensed a faint pity rise in the Artificial Saintess.

She said: “It affects thinking. It lowers quickness.”

Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched. [Great, the ball-joint versus C-buckle war at home is about to start again.] Two or three seconds passed without any explosions. He looked up and saw Irene still watching like nothing had happened.

She had to have heard it. She normally pounced on anything that involved her. The only reason, he guessed, was that Luna’s wording was too clumsy and Irene did not realize she had been roasted.

Yu Sheng had no idea what to say about that. He was about to talk with Luna about hobbies and normal life, but a phone ring cut in.

Irene turned on the coffee table and said: “Is it Bai Li Qing again?”

Yu Sheng glanced at the screen, and his face tightened a little: “It’s Ren Wen Wen.”

Irene jumped to her feet and said: “You finally wrote the male lead with the three-wheeler?”

“Go watch your show,” Yu Sheng said, rolling his eyes. “Now you’re quick to respond.” He answered the call and said carefully, “Hello, Ren Wen Wen? What’s up?”

Ren Wen Wen’s lively voice came at once: “Teacher Yu, I brought the registration forms, for Miss Luna. Please open the door.”

“Oh, right, that. Hold on. I’ll open the door,” he said.

He hung up and said casually: “They’re just here to register Luna’s ID.” He stepped over Foxy’s pile of tails and headed for the door, mumbling, “Should I install a doorbell? Calling every time is a hassle.”

“Where would you put a doorbell?” Irene said without turning. “On the door? No one can see it. That would be useless.”

“Make it remote controlled,” Yu Sheng said. “Set a post on the open ground by the door. Anyone who gets that close is either qualified or has a reason, so no need to worry about kids playing with it.”

He opened the door. Ren Wen Wen, in office attire with a bag in hand and a bright smile, stood there.

Before the champion door-knocker could speak, Yu Sheng said: “Today you’re here on your director’s business. We talk work only, not creative stuff.”

Ren Wen Wen’s face fell.

Yu Sheng’s heart gave a jump. From that reaction he knew she had come nine-tenths for “creative talk.”

She walked in and right away saw the two-meter-tall Artificial Saintess standing silent by the sofa. A flicker of tension crossed the well-trained Special Affairs Bureau employee’s face, but she smoothed it out almost at once.

Yu Sheng didn’t comment. He let Ren Wen Wen sit on the sofa and had Luna sit opposite.

He also shooed Irene off the coffee table, because he needed the space for paperwork.

Ren Wen Wen took two sets of forms from her bag and slid them over, saying: “These are for registering an identification card and for registering as an organization member. Fill this first, Miss Luna’s personal information. Then the Bureau will add her in the system and assign an ID number from the back end. After she has a number, we can fill the organization member form. You may fill on her behalf.”

“Okay, I’ll fill them,” Yu Sheng said.

Under Luna’s steady gaze, he picked up the first form. He still remembered filling out Foxy’s and Irene’s forms. Borderland had special identity forms for nonhumans at the door, strict and complex. He braced himself for piles of options and absurd notes.

He filled the first few blanks. When he reached the race field, he froze.

All the tiny options he remembered were gone. Only one box remained, already filled in:

Race: Hotel member.

Yu Sheng went silent for a moment, then looked up at Ren Wen Wen’s professional smile and asked: “Is this ‘race’ serious?”

Ren Wen Wen nodded and said: “We discussed it in a meeting. The director approved it. Don’t worry. It’s already set in the system. You can use it.”

Yu Sheng muttered: “They really pulled ‘Hotel member’ out as a race.”

Ren Wen Wen spread her hands and said: “We can’t write ‘creation of the Hermitage Order,’ right? And your situation is very special.”

“What about Foxy and Irene?” Yu Sheng asked.

“They don’t need to change,” Ren Wen Wen said. “But the director wants to be ready for the future.”

Yu Sheng thought about it. Something felt off, but he had no good argument.

He decided to let it go. Hotel member it was. After all, no one knew what race Luna had been before her transformation. In a place like Borderland, full of talent and very inclusive, whatever you filled in for race still counted as some broad kind of “person.”