Chapter 46

Chapter 46: The Door Opened Wider

Irene’s decision to bolt the moment she turned around did catch Yu Sheng off guard—and the little doll’s short legs really were fast.

Except she was only 66.6 cm tall.

A doll barely over sixty centimeters could kick up as many afterimages as she wanted, but there were limits. Before she even reached the doorway, the picture frame strapped to her back snagged on a chair leg. She’d meant to slip under the chair and forgot she was carrying something behind her.

Yu Sheng crossed the room in two steps and caught Irene while she was still pedaling furiously in midair.

“You can’t hold a grudge like this!” Irene flailed, punching and kicking at the air. “And wasn’t that to wake you up?! Sure, I admit the method was a bit too creative, but didn’t you wake up in the end?! Hey, put me do—”

“I didn’t say I was going to do anything,” Yu Sheng cut in with a laugh and set her back on the floor. “I just wanted to tell you: next time, don’t bite so hard. Even with my healing, it’s been this long and it still hurts. That had a little payback in it. And if you can not bite at all, that’d be even better.”

Irene blinked, genuinely surprised. “Huh? You’re not mad?”

“Yeah. Because I’m not ungrateful.” Yu Sheng snorted and headed for the door. “Go get ready. We’re heading to the valley.”

Irene stood there, dazed, for a beat. Then she hurried after him on her tiny legs. “You remember the ‘features’ over there?”

“Perfectly.”

…

“I’m starting to think this place is actually pretty peaceful,” Xu Jiali said, sitting by the window and chewing on the jianbing guozi Li Lin had bought that morning. He watched the street outside with a sigh. “It’s great. Way more comfortable than the lawless star zone, and there aren’t any angel cultists on the street…”

“Compared to what you deal with on field ops, of course it’s comfortable,” Li Lin said, seated beside him and sipping hot soy milk. “Treat it like half a vacation. The mission is just surveillance anyway. If something truly nasty shows up, the bureau will send backup.”

“But I keep seeing Little Red Riding Hood looking jumpy as hell,” Xu Jiali said, glancing out the window. “She’s just a kid, and she’s wound up like a tightened spring. I was the same way when I first came out of the station platform.”

Not far away, on a rooftop near the building, a girl in a dark red coat crouched in a corner, watching the street. A sausage hung from her mouth. Around her, the phantom of a wolf pack flickered in and out of the air.

As if she sensed their gaze, Little Red Riding Hood lifted her head warily and looked toward the window. After confirming there was nothing wrong, she nodded faintly, checked the street again, then pulled notebooks and pens from her backpack and bent over her homework.

The wolf pack watched in her place.

Li Lin studied the dark red figure on the rooftop and muttered, “I hear the name Fairy Tale all the time, but she’s the only member I’ve ever seen in person… She doesn’t even look grown. And she’s out here doing something this dangerous?”

“More than half the members in Fairy Tale are about her age,” Xu Jiali said with a tired sigh. “And they mostly come from the same place.”

Li Lin startled. “All of them? Wh—”

“Because kids are more likely to fall into Fairy Tale.” Xu Jiali waved him off. “And once they grow up, a lot of the organization members can’t survive in Fairy Tale. If you’re really curious, go check the archives later. Don’t ask her about it to her face.”

Li Lin caught something in his colleague’s tone. He gave a thoughtful, quiet “oh” and turned his attention back to the calm old street outside.

“Looks like nothing will happen today,” he said, taking another sip of soy milk.

Xu Jiali frowned at his empty hands. “I’m not full. Where’s your instant noodles? I’m grabbing a pack.”

“Under the bed in the back room. Boil the water yourself. The kettle’s in the kitchen. The water dispenser in the living room is busted and doesn’t give hot water.” Li Lin waved. “Oh—and make me a pack too.”

…

Yu Sheng stared at Irene by the door, suspicious. “This is your preparation?”

Irene stood on the shoe bench in the entryway, puffing out her chest like she was trying to look capable. In her hands was a kitchen cleaver she’d stolen from the kitchen. The handle was too big for her, so she had to brace it with both hands just to keep it steady.

“I’m being prepared,” she said firmly. “An extra self-defense weapon makes me feel better. If there’s a real fight, just watch my super-strong magic power.”

Yu Sheng’s face twitched. “You’d be better off with a fruit knife. It’d be easier for you to hold.”

“A fruit knife has no presence.”

“With your height, even if you carry a dragon-slaying sword, it still won’t have presence.” Yu Sheng sighed. “And I’m telling you—don’t break it over there. I really like this knife. It cuts meat like a dream.”

“Enough nagging. Why are you so worried?” Irene rolled her eyes, still gripping the cleaver with both hands. “Hurry up and do door-opening. At least confirm what’s going on over there first.”

Seeing that, Yu Sheng stopped arguing. He took the door handle and, at the same time, checked the pile at his feet again.

Food for Foxy.

Last time, when he entered the Otherworld, everything he carried—even the trash bag in his hand—got dragged through the door. But now he was carrying far more: not just a heap of supplies, but also Irene. With that much extra load, he honestly wasn’t sure it would work.

He’d tested it, sure—but only with short-range door-opening inside his home. Traveling to the Otherworld wasn’t the same as moving a few meters in the real world.

So he prepared more. If it failed, he’d treat it as another experiment.

He wore an extra-large coat, the inside and outside pockets stuffed with compressed biscuits, bread, and several cans of eight-treasure porridge. When he opened the door, he’d hold it as wide as he could, send the supplies through first, then cross the passage with Irene.

For that, he needed to open the door wider than he ever had.

He still didn’t understand the principle behind the process. He could only go by feel.

Yu Sheng narrowed his eyes and recalled the valley’s features as he’d recorded them through Foxy’s senses: the cold night wind, the stench of rot, and that bone-gnawing hunger saturating the Otherworld.

Most of all, he recalled the “scent” required by his spiritual guidance.

All of it became the frequency of the door-opening—the image he held of what waited on the other side.

He focused, pushing all his attention into this single attempt. He had to open a door large enough and stable enough to bring Irene over, to bring everything over, and to arrive precisely at Foxy’s side.

The handle turned.

A chill slipped through the crack of the slowly opening door into the entryway…

A passage far larger than any before took shape.

As for how big?

Big enough to make Bai Li Qing—the director of the Special Operations Bureau—and every team captain in the office let out a shrill scream.

Bzz—

A strange, low hum suddenly echoed through the entire Wu Tong Road block. It was far beyond what ordinary human hearing could catch. Only those trained—those with extraordinary sensitivity to the power of the Otherworld—could hear the continuous tremor deep in their spirituality.

Xu Jiali, carrying two bowls of instant noodles out of the kitchen, sensed it instantly. He looked up in shock and stared out the window.

Daylight outside was dimming fast, like a heavy curtain lowering over the boundary city. Beneath that curtain, the buildings outside turned transparent and vanished, and a hazy, eerie valley-like landscape began to grow out of the street itself.

On the rooftop, Little Red Riding Hood snapped her head up. The wolf pack whined uneasily in the shadows. A cold wind rose from nowhere, flipping her math workbook.

A moment ago, Li Lin had been marveling at how calm and peaceful the street was. Now he sprang up with a sharp, unfiltered, “Holy shit! Holy shit! Something happened outside!”

Xu Jiali rushed to the window with the noodles—and realized the truth.

“No,” he said, voice tight. “Something isn’t happening outside.”

Li Lin whipped around. “What do you mean?”

“We’re the ones observing the change.” Xu Jiali’s eyes narrowed. As a seasoned deep diver, he judged it instantly. “We’re falling into the Otherworld!”

He shoved the noodles into Li Lin’s hands, dashed to his gear case, and yanked out a beam dagger and protective equipment. “Call the bureau, while the signal still—”

But they sank even faster than he expected.

A pulling force beyond anything he’d experienced yanked his and Li Lin’s perception across the limits of common sense in a blink. His vision flashed. He barely had time to grab his gear before hollow wind began to howl.

Everything changed.

The rental room dissolved like a dream. A valley under a night sky snapped into place.

Li Lin only had time to glimpse his phone screen lighting up on the table. The director’s number flashed for a split second—

Then all he could see was black stone and black forest.

The two Special Operations Bureau agents lifted their heads, disoriented, exchanged a look, and then heard a low wolf growl nearby.

They turned.

A girl in a dark red coat stood beside them, face grim.

“We fell into the Otherworld,” Xu Jiali said after a beat, voice low.

Little Red Riding Hood nodded. “I know. Judging by the scale and features, it should be a wilderness type.”

Li Lin looked at Xu Jiali, then at the girl, and felt like he should contribute something.

He glanced down at what he was still holding, then raised a hand. “Want instant noodles?”