Chapter 158 – Contact, Assessment, Judgment

Chapter 158 – Contact, Assessment, Judgment

The elevator descended smoothly and silently, the cabin remarkably quiet.

Baili Qing was the first to break the silence: “Regarding the matter of Hu Li’s ‘homeland’ possibly being located in the ‘outside world,’ it’s best if no one speaks of it.”

Yu Sheng didn’t say anything, merely glancing at her with a slightly questioning look.

“Due to the influence of the Twilight Angel, the people of this world are extremely nervous about ‘visitors from other lands,'” Baili Qing said without beating around the bush. “Official organizations like the Special Operations Bureau are manageable—we can approach this matter with caution and rationality. But there are other organizations… that aren’t quite so level-headed.”

Yu Sheng nodded gently. “Alright, I understand.”

When they returned to that small room, Eileen and Hu Li were still inside, waiting obediently.

The moment she saw Yu Sheng walk in, Hu Li immediately beamed with joy, carrying a plate of cake as she rushed over. With the kind of momentum that looked like she was about to commit an assassination, she thrust what she was holding toward Yu Sheng. “Benefactor! This is for you to eat—it’s delicious!”

Yu Sheng was nearly knocked over by the girl and her plate, hastily stepping back half a step before steadying himself. He glanced down at what was on the plate and saw a cream cake no bigger than a palm, squeezed and twisted completely out of shape, with nuts piled on top in quantities that clearly exceeded any normal amount. The forcibly crammed-in nuts looked like they were even larger in volume than the cake itself.

Looking at Hu Li again, he saw that her face and hands were covered in cream, with even a small smear on her ear. He had no idea how she’d managed to get it on her ear… Had she shoved her head into the cake?

The fox girl was still smiling happily, watching Yu Sheng with eager anticipation. He hesitated for a moment but still accepted the clearly “customized” cake. Eileen, standing nearby, even offered an explanation: “Just eat it. The silly fox saved it especially for you. She said you like nuts and raisins, so she crammed half a jar of toppings in there for you.”

Before coming in, Yu Sheng’s head had been full of Twilight Angels, homeward journeys from foreign lands, dark fairy tales, and deep-seated grudges. But now, looking at Hu Li’s warm and joyful smile, those worries instantly melted away by half. The only problem was the cake in his hand, which made him wince—in all honesty, he was quite touched, but the thing had been “processed” into something rather unsightly, and he felt like his blood sugar was already spiking just from looking at it…

But it was the fox girl’s heartfelt gesture after all, and one couldn’t refuse such generosity. Plus, Baili Qing was standing off to the side with an expressionless face that somehow still gave the impression she was enjoying the show. So Yu Sheng could only steel himself, say thank you, and use a fork to pick at the cake and take a bite.

Then he nearly lost half a tooth.

“What the hell is this?!” Yu Sheng exclaimed in shock, digging through the lump of cake and extracting a gleaming, rock-hard substance. He looked up at Hu Li.

Hu Li smiled happily. “It’s a raisin.”

Yu Sheng: “…?”

“I couldn’t fit any more in at the end, so I squeezed them a bit.”

Yu Sheng: “…?”

A raisin, my ass—this lump had practically been compressed into a brick. The silly girl might not have much common sense, but she sure had a hell of a grip!

Yu Sheng reluctantly ate two bites of the parts he could actually swallow, then gave the remaining cake back to the fox girl, claiming he’d already had snacks while he was out walking around and wasn’t hungry now, but was still very grateful for the thought. Hu Li didn’t think twice about it, happily took the cake back, and started eating. When she chewed on the raisin brick, it sounded like an industrial crusher.

Yu Sheng could have sworn he even saw sparks flying from her mouth.

“Let’s head home after you finish eating,” Yu Sheng said, pulling out a tissue to wipe the cream off Hu Li’s ear. “There’s still a lot to do when we get back.”

“Done with the ‘tour’?” Eileen stood on the table, tilting her head up to look at Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng smiled and patted Little Doll’s hair. “Tour’s done.”

“Alright then,” Eileen casually pushed away Yu Sheng’s arm and nimbly climbed up to his shoulder with practiced ease, then added as an afterthought, “Oh, what about that ‘iron lump’ you brought over? No results yet? You’re just leaving it here?”

Yu Sheng turned to look at Baili Qing.

“That will likely take some time,” Baili Qing said calmly. “We need to conduct detailed scans of its internal and microscopic structure, and that can’t be completed in a day or two. If you’re comfortable with it, you can leave it here.”

“…That works,” Yu Sheng thought about it only briefly before readily nodding. “It’s just sitting around at my place anyway. Just make sure you notify me promptly when you have any findings—Hu Li! Don’t wipe your mouth with your tail!”

Baili Qing watched the scene before her.

Strange, incongruous, absurd—yet somehow perfectly natural when it came to this particular group.

An imperceptible smile surfaced in the depths of her eyes.

“I’ll arrange for someone to take you home,” she said suddenly.

“Oh, no need, we can get back on our own,” Yu Sheng said while wiping Hu Li’s mouth, hands, face, and tail with tissues. He glanced back at Baili Qing, then quickly added, “Since I’m right in front of you, I won’t bother reporting via phone this time.”

Baili Qing was momentarily stunned, but the next second she realized what he meant. She quickly picked up the phone and sent a notification to the monitoring department, then looked at Yu Sheng with an odd expression. “Now… is it okay?”

Yu Sheng smiled, and right there in front of Baili Qing, he reached out and pulled at thin air. A faintly glowing, ethereal door materialized out of nothing, and on the other side was the living room of No. 66 Wutong Road.

“Want to come in and sit for a bit?” Yu Sheng stood at the doorway, instinctively being polite to the Bureau Chief before him. “Since you’re already at the front door and all…”

Baili Qing found the remark awkward no matter how she parsed it. She kept a straight face and shook her head. “No thank you, I still have work to do.”

“Suit yourself. We’ll be going then. Thanks for the hospitality. We’ll be in touch,” Yu Sheng said with a nod, then turned and walked through the door with the doll on his shoulder and the fox by the hand. “Bye-bye.”

“Mm, goodbye…”

The words had barely left her lips before the ethereal door had already dissipated. The guests were gone—just like that, sudden yet entirely natural, as if they had never been there at all.

Baili Qing stood quietly in the small room, gazing at the spot where the ethereal door had vanished. After a long while, she finally took a deep breath, her eyes settling into calm composure.

She picked up her phone and dialed a number. When it connected, she spoke evenly: “How are things on the monitoring team’s end?”

Song Cheng’s voice came through the receiver: “We’re tracking and recording manually. The spatial displacement phenomenon just subsided.”

“…The spatial stabilization device has been running the entire time, correct?”

“…Yes, at full power.”

“The headquarters building’s internal calibration system and spatial shielding network were also active?”

“Those two systems never shut down. You know that.”

“The transition jammer…”

Song Cheng’s voice carried a hint of resignation: “Also running. Today we specifically set it to maximum power with blanket coverage. The customs office and transit station downstairs had to temporarily shut down because of the interference.”

Baili Qing was silent for two seconds.

“…He opened a door and walked away right in front of me. He didn’t even show the slightest hint of confusion. I believe he didn’t even notice that any ‘obstacles’ existed here.”

A soft click came through the phone—the sound of a lighter igniting a cigarette.

“Bureau Chief,” Song Cheng said, a note of weariness in his voice, “I should remind you—him opening a door and walking away in front of you is the minor issue. The fact that next time he could open a door and come here—that’s what you need to be mentally prepared for.”

“I know. It was an anticipated scenario.”

“Isn’t the risk a bit high?” Song Cheng couldn’t help asking. “We invited him directly to headquarters today… Now he knows the coordinates of this place.”

“Trust my judgment, Xiao Song,” Baili Qing exhaled lightly and said calmly. “Having him treat the Special Operations Bureau as a ‘friend’ offers far more benefits than risks. Especially after today’s in-depth contact with him, I’m even more certain of this judgment.”

“…Understood. I trust what those eyes of yours have seen. I’ll go back to keeping watch on the monitoring team then.”

“Good.”

Just before hanging up, Song Cheng suddenly remembered something: “Oh right, there’s another piece of news to tell you. Good news.”

“Go ahead.”

“The technical department has made progress. The research team in the special task force successfully filtered and compiled the signal characteristics of ‘Door Opening’ that we’ve recorded so far. They should be able to add automatic filtering and auto-tagging functions to the spatial early warning system soon,” Song Cheng said with a smile in his voice. “If that thing works properly, things will be much easier from now on.”

“Outstanding Employee of the Year, Outstanding Team, Star-Level Special Task Expert, Technical Star Medal, official commendation—if it works out.”

“…Bureau Chief, the year isn’t even over yet…”

“Consider it decided,” Baili Qing said coolly. “Unless someone actually manages to save a world in the last month before year’s end.”

“Alright then…”

The call ended. Baili Qing tossed her phone casually onto the table, let out a weary breath, and leaned back in her chair to rest. She tilted her head slightly, gazing through the wide window that overlooked the laboratory on the other side.

On the surface of the polymer barrier that emitted a faint blue glow, a pair of pale, faded eyes had quietly appeared at some point.

Those eyes watched her silently.

“…Has that person left?”

“He has.”

“Oh.”

“Are you going to keep staring at things you shouldn’t?”

“Yes.”

Baili Qing’s expression didn’t change one bit. She merely sighed.

The somewhat mechanical, stilted voice continued to echo in her mind: “I can’t help it. You should know—it’s my instinct.”

“Suit yourself,” Baili Qing said. Then she paused for a moment before asking offhandedly, “Did you notice anything of interest? You were overly reckless this time, but regardless, you completed a close-range observation.”

“He has humanity,” those eyes said.

Baili Qing said nothing, clearly unsurprised.

“Intense, genuine humanity—not mimicked,” those eyes continued. “Furthermore, he is likely not an ‘entity,’ or at least not one ‘generated’ by No. 66 Wutong Road.”

Baili Qing’s expression finally showed a flicker of change.

“How did you determine that?”

“His shadow. The shadow he casts in the spirit realm is even more vast than No. 66 Wutong Road itself. Rather than saying No. 66 Wutong Road generated him, it would be more accurate to say… he generated No. 66 Wutong Road in the Borderland so that he could reasonably ‘exist’ in our world.”

(End of Chapter)