Chapter 355

Chapter 356: Rapunzel also has her own ideas

Sometimes, when you open The Door too many times, the most reasonable yet unexpected things happen. The big nephew who got yanked to Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain on his first day at work is one example. Another is when he was being chased through the Valley by Little Red Riding Hood, sprinted out the Door at 66 Wutong Road, looked up, and saw Rapunzel on a cloud sea mountain like something from a myth.

“I thought I smacked my head when I pushed The Door,” Rapunzel said as she hid behind the couch and chugged her drink, then finally looked up during a break to breathe: “I figured the view I saw after fainting was pretty great. All this misty mountain stuff looked like the Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain promo clip people forwarded on Border… and then it turns out it really is Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain?!”

Yu Sheng didn’t speak. He watched the girl with a half smile. [She really is something.]

Rapunzel didn’t care if anyone answered. She took another swig, twisted around, and asked: “Bro, did you move?”

“…You accept things fast,” said Yu Sheng, trying not to laugh. “Couldn’t it just be that I redirected the Door?”

Rapunzel stared and pointed at the living room window: “The view outside changed!”

“You’re observant,” Yu Sheng said, amused. He waved a hand: “I moved a few days ago to visit a friend and handle some, uh, work stuff.”

“Ah? Oh,” Rapunzel said as she hugged the bottle and sat cross?legged on the sofa like she understood everything: “So this is the ‘hotel’ business model? Hmm, a moving office is also mobile work… Great, I thought it was because Little Red Riding Hood wanted to live on another planet and you two came early to scout for her.”

When she mentioned Little Red Riding Hood again, Yu Sheng couldn’t hold back: “Why are you still being hunted by Little Red Riding Hood? Didn’t she delete everything off your phone?”

Rapunzel sighed: “She found my cloud drive.”

“You even kept a copy there?!” said Yu Sheng.

“I was afraid of losing it,” Rapunzel rolled her eyes, then gave Yu Sheng a sideways glance: “Just say it, did you back yours up too?”

Yu Sheng coughed: “That reminds me…”

A familiar voice sounded behind him: “Reminds you of what?”

He turned and saw a short?haired girl in a red jacket smiling at him and at Rapunzel on the sofa.

“Oh my gosh!”

Rapunzel yelped, sprang up like a bolt of gold, and shot for The Door, but an illusion appeared out of thin air and blocked her. She collided head?on with a Shadow Wolf.

Little Red Riding Hood pressed her friend back into the cushions and sighed: “You really…”

She flipped lightly over the sofa back, sat cross?legged, and glanced at Yu Sheng: “And you too…”

“It’s part of growing up,” Yu Sheng said with a straight face: “People go through three stages: they write cringe youth?pain literature, they get caught, and then they make peace with it.”

“Delete it,” said Little Red Riding Hood.

“Okay,” said Yu Sheng.

Rapunzel peeked up at Yu Sheng, then at Little Red Riding Hood. Seeing she was not in mortal danger, she relaxed and, grinning, poked her friend’s arm with a lock of gold hair: “Don’t be mad. Look outside.”

“Outside?” Little Red Riding Hood looked up at the window and froze.

“We’re at Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain!” Rapunzel threw her hands up and declared: “Another planet! Bro moved the house to Xuan Che’s hometown!”

Little Red Riding Hood kept staring outside. After two more seconds she processed it, and her blank gaze slid to Yu Sheng: “You really moved the house?!”

Yu Sheng nodded: “Yep.”

Now Rapunzel was the stunned one. She looked from Little Red Riding Hood to Yu Sheng, eyes narrowing: “Hold on… Red Hood, you already knew?”

“He mentioned it last time,” Little Red Riding Hood said, pointing first at Yu Sheng, then at the window, “but I didn’t think he’d actually do it.”

“So you both kept it from me?” Rapunzel pouted, but she didn’t seem to mind for long. She sprawled on the sofa and stared toward the window, zoning out. After who knows what ran through her head, she sprang up again: “Hey! I have an idea…”

Irene turned her head at once: “Why does that sound so familiar?”

“Let’s tell everyone the news,” Rapunzel said, grabbing Little Red Riding Hood’s arm, eyes sparkling. “The dollheads at home are planning a Door field trip these days. Snow White and the others still can’t decide where to go. The Valley has lots of fun places, but you can’t use The Door there, and Boundary City isn’t nicer than the Valley. I just saw a huge platform outside like a plaza, with the cloud sea on one side and mountains and water on the other. Let’s invite everyone to come hang out!”

Little Red Riding Hood’s heart moved at once. The fairy?tale landscape outside made her itch to go too, so she turned to Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng didn’t answer. Her suggestion sparked an idea in him too, but as a calm and responsible adult, he also realized a more serious problem: “…If we do this, is it illegal border crossing?”

The living room went quiet.

A moment later, Irene broke the silence first. The little doll hopped onto Yu Sheng’s neck and hugged his head: “You open Doors all over the place, and now you care about this?”

“I’ve been filing my Door Opening reports lately!” Yu Sheng said with perfect righteousness. “And what do you mean ‘all over the place’? Every time I open a Door I have a good and just reason. Also, me going alone and bringing dozens of people are not the same.”

Rapunzel tugged his sleeve: “But bro, we’re just going from our backyard to the front Door to play. That can’t be called smuggling, right?”

Little Red Riding Hood reminded him: “Except our backyard is in Borderland, and the front Door is at Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain.”

Rapunzel thought, then corrected herself: “Strictly speaking, the backyard is in Otherworld Valley, the back door opens to Borderland, the front Door is at Otherworld 66 Wutong Road, and the front Open Ground is Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain.”

Yu Sheng’s eyes widened as she spoke: “…Wow, that’s true… Why is it so messy?”

“Hah, serves you right for always glitch?hopping,” Irene said from the sofa arm, laughing so hard she almost slid off. “Now you glitched yourself.”

“Hold on,” Yu Sheng said. “I’ll check with the steward here.”

He pulled out his phone, found Wicked Disciple 4000 on Border, and started a voice call.

The line connected fast. Immortal Yuan Ling’s voice came through: “Yu Sheng?”

“I have a question,” Yu Sheng said, getting straight to the point. “I moved my house onto the Cloud Viewing Terrace. Some kids want to come play, but they’re still in Borderland with no passports or passes. If they just step out through my home’s Door to your side without customs or going through the Border, does that count as illegal entry?”

Silence on the other end.

Immortal Yuan Ling, a senior of the Immortal world, Grand Void master of talismans and medicine, a respected researcher and heir, and the grandmaster of Medical Brawl Exploding Fist, now faced the same headache as the Director of Borderland’s Special Affairs Bureau.

But a master is a master. After a few seconds, the Immortal replied: “First, this can be handled as a special case.”

He paused, then added: “Second, it seems you didn’t complete procedures when you came either.”

“…” Yu Sheng had actually forgotten that.

“Given the special situation, no one has ever crossed realms the way you do,” Immortal Yuan Ling said, a smile in his tone. “Roads are made by walking. If it’s just a few children coming as guests, they are welcome. Let them come. I’ll send disciples to register them and give each of the Cursed Children a Guiding Jade Token. That way we can know where they are and keep them safe. These are tall mountains and deep forests, so we must be careful.”

“Thank you so much,” Yu Sheng said, brightening. “I’ll have them wait on the Cloud Viewing Terrace.”

“Good,” said Immortal Yuan Ling. Then he thought of something and asked, “By the way, how many children do you have?”

“More than seventy.”

The silence roared.

Yu Sheng rushed to explain: “Not my biological kids. They’re from the orphanage. I’m the ‘head of the house.’”

“Oh, I see,” Immortal Yuan Ling said, finally relieved. “I’ll send disciples right away.”

“Thanks, thanks.”

Yu Sheng hung up, then looked at Little Red Riding Hood and at Big Blondie-Rapunzel was sitting cross?legged, wrapped in her own hair like a blanket: “All set.”

Rapunzel’s eyes lit up: “We can come out and play?”

“Yes, but everyone gathers first on the Cloud Viewing Terrace-the big plaza outside,” Yu Sheng said. Seeing how excited she was, he couldn’t help nagging: “Someone will come register you. Everyone wears a Guiding Jade Token. It’s like a locator and a temporary ID. Only with it can you move around. Even then, follow directions. This is someone else’s home. Don’t wander into the deep woods. Don’t step into places that look like vegetable patches; those are medicinal gardens. Don’t chase wild animals. They might be Beast Taming Peak students’ final projects. Or they might be the Beast Taming Peak disciples themselves…”

Before he finished, Rapunzel had already zipped off in a streak of yellow toward the stairs, shouting as she ran: “Yeah, yeah, got it! Bro, you nag just like Red Hood!”