Chapter 82

Chapter 82: Bai Li Qing’s Judgment

Irene had long since accepted that Yu Sheng had an endless supply of strange ideas—and, worse, the drive to actually carry out the most outrageous ones. She’d been sure of that since the day he’d pulled two lotus roots out of a drawer.

And compared to things like “cutting a piece of meat off an Entity to see how it tastes” or “trying to use lotus root to make a body for the doll,” growing vegetables in a calm otherworld almost sounded reasonable.

After wandering through the valley a bit longer and confirming the space boundary from the other side, the three of them decided to return to the real world for now.

They stepped through the door. The familiar living room came into view, warm and brightly lit. Outside the window, night still lay deep over the city.

Standing by the glass, Yu Sheng felt oddly dazed.

“It’s still bright over there,” Irene said, climbing onto the windowsill and peeking out. “I forgot it’s still nighttime over here.”

“After that Dark Angels thing left, the whole valley’s been like daytime the entire time,” Yu Sheng said, nodding. “We stayed there for so long and didn’t see the light change even once.”

“There isn’t even a sun over there. Where the light comes from is still a mystery,” Irene said lightly. She hopped down from the windowsill onto Yu Sheng, then crawled down his leg to the floor with practiced ease. “If that’s the case, it should be called the Daytime Valley instead…”

Yu Sheng’s eye twitched as he watched her climb so smoothly. “Hey. Aren’t you a little too good at that?”

“Am I? Yeah?” Irene tilted her head, shameless. “Maybe practice makes perfect?”

Yu Sheng opened his mouth, ready to retort—when his phone rang.

He took it out, and, unsurprisingly, Bai Li Qing’s name flashed on the screen.

“I’ll take this,” Yu Sheng said, waving at Irene and Foxy as he walked into the dining room.

The moment the call connected, Bai Li Qing’s calm voice came through.

“Back already?”

So flat it almost sounded like she was standing in the room, watching him with her own eyes.

“Uh, yeah. I’m back,” Yu Sheng said, feeling oddly awkward. “Did you… get more movement over there again?”

“Mm. We’re used to it,” Bai Li Qing replied, and went straight to the point. “So, you saw the Nightfall Valley? What’s its situation now?”

“I saw it,” Yu Sheng said. Then he asked, “It sounds like you can’t track it anymore. Doesn’t the Special Operations Bureau have methods to search for or enter otherworlds?”

There was silence for two seconds.

“It failed,” Bai Li Qing said, direct enough to startle him. “After the Hunger incident ended, we tried sending investigators, but they didn’t find the Nightfall Valley.”

“Didn’t find it?” Yu Sheng latched onto the wording. “You mean not couldn’t enter, but couldn’t find it at all?”

“Yes. Literally,” Bai Li Qing said. “By all standard detection methods, the Nightfall Valley has effectively vanished. So when I heard you could not only locate it but enter it at will, I was very surprised.”

Yu Sheng paused. He had never actually seen surprise on that poker-faced woman, but he did respect her blunt honesty.

“Then I’ll tell you what I saw. First, I think that place needs a new name,” he said. “After those Dark Angels left, the whole valley hasn’t had nightfall even once. I think this might be what it originally looked like.

“Second, Entity-Hunger is gone. It should be permanent.”

On the other end, Yu Sheng heard a sharp intake of breath—an unmistakable, suppressed gasp. For the first time, he could actually feel her surprise.

The next second, her voice came back, slightly hurried. “I want to confirm this. You said permanently gone? Do you… understand how Entities and otherworlds operate? Don’t misunderstand; I’m simply asking.”

“I know. As long as an otherworld persists, Entities persist,” Yu Sheng said. “But Entity-Hunger is indeed gone. And from what I can tell, the nature of that valley has changed, too. I don’t have your professional equipment, but I think… by a broad definition, the Nightfall Valley otherworld is gone. What’s left is a calm pocket of space. Do you get what I mean? It’s like—”

He got stuck, searching for words.

Bai Li Qing answered for him.

“An empty shell left after being eaten out. Is that it?”

Yu Sheng blinked. He hadn’t expected such a precise description.

He’d hidden plenty: the details of how he’d caused the grand feast, his connection to the valley, the changes his blood could trigger, the quiet vitality now starting to appear inside that space. Most of what Bai Li Qing knew had to come from Li Lin and Xu Jiali’s reports—yet she still reached the core.

The director’s judgment was frighteningly sharp.

“About that shell,” Bai Li Qing continued, “the Special Operations Bureau hopes to send people to investigate in person. Of course, we need your help and your consent.”

Yu Sheng hesitated.

He didn’t feel hostility toward the Bureau. So far, every interaction had been… fine. But people kept secrets for a reason, and the valley was now bound tightly to him.

Bai Li Qing seemed to catch his hesitation immediately.

“You can take your time. We won’t force you,” she said, still calm, but with a careful edge that sounded like sincerity. “If you’re willing to open the door, you can choose the investigators, set the number of people, set a time limit, and supervise the entire process. We only hope to collect key data. After all, this has never happened—the first known case of an otherworld and Entities being truly eliminated. I don’t need to emphasize what that means to people like us.”

With her laying it out like that, Yu Sheng couldn’t refuse outright.

“All right,” he said. “I’ll think about it over the next couple of days.”

…

Watching Bai Li Qing stand by the window and speak on the phone, Song Cheng leaned closer to the slightly balding, chubby middle-aged man beside him.

“Hey, Director Wu,” he whispered. “Do you think the director used to be this easy to talk to?”

“You tell me,” Director Wu whispered back. “You deal with her way more than I do. You know what the Information Center is like—we’re basically invisible. We only get to exist during summary meetings. Your ops people even call us ‘server-room cave dwellers.'”

Song Cheng grinned. “Not gonna lie, it fits.”

Director Wu glanced at him, then carefully looked up at Bai Li Qing. “But still… this is the first time I’ve seen the director talk so gently to someone, and for so long. That Yu Sheng… is he really that important?”

“Not important. Just creepy,” Song Cheng said with a shrug. “Your whole department’s been running nonstop until now, and you still haven’t felt it?”

Director Wu winced. “…Don’t remind me.”

Song Cheng pulled at the corner of his mouth, about to crack another joke—

A chill ran up his spine. His entire body went taut.

A calm, oppressive gaze had landed on him.

“Entity-Hunger is permanently gone,” Bai Li Qing said flatly.

That bland sentence killed every wild thought in Song Cheng’s head, leaving only a single, echoing: Huh?

His mouth opened. No words came out.

“When your two agents return from leave, arrange for them to have more contact with Yu Sheng,” Bai Li Qing continued, as if she hadn’t just dropped a bomb. “Yu Sheng has human emotions and behavior logic. His emotional responses are genuine. We need someone to build relatively stable trust and friendly relations with him. Your two agents performed well.

“Also, tomorrow, send someone to Wu Tong Road 66 to deliver the registration forms. Be careful about who you pick. Don’t send someone who turns grim and hostile the moment they hear otherworld and Entity. Pick someone clever and likable.”

Song Cheng finally snapped out of it. “Yes, Director.”

Bai Li Qing nodded, then looked to the man beside him.

Director Wu—the head of the Special Operations Bureau’s Information Center—straightened instinctively.

“How are things on your end?” Bai Li Qing asked.

“We’ve checked every possibility. At least at the system level, there shouldn’t be any reason this kind of loophole exists,” Director Wu said quickly. “We even tried deleting Yu Sheng’s file and registering it again, but nothing worked. Those entries are like they’re floating in the database. They won’t accept calls or edits, but they also won’t throw errors. Honestly… if the system doesn’t raise an alarm, I’m about to call the police myself.”

“Calling the police isn’t as good as calling the Academy professors,” Song Cheng said helpfully. “Their incense for soothing machine spirits and their binary prayers are perfect for this kind of creepy problem. Last time, one of Fourth Squad’s transport trucks got depressed and they cured it.”

“I’ll contact Terra and have them send people to take a look,” Bai Li Qing said with a small nod. “But if even the Academy professors can’t do anything, then we end it there. In any case, from today on, don’t keep trying to change any data about Yu Sheng in the records system.”

“Yes, Director,” Director Wu said, voice tight.