Chapter 190 – Consistently Performing Like a Madman

In the reception room of the East Building, Little Red Riding Hood fell into a long contemplation after hearing the intelligence Yu Sheng had brought.

Several minutes later, she finally let out a long sigh. “There might be a Twilight Angel hidden deep within Fairy Tale. That’s truly the worst news I’ve heard in recent days—so you’re saying that the ‘trap’ targeting me in the White Exhibition Hall was actually those cultists attempting to free their ‘Lord’?”

“It was a probing attempt, but there’s no telling what form the next one will take,” Yu Sheng said, slowly nodding. “Thinking about it now, their methods in the Museum were actually quite crude. The process of using the sacrificial ritual to induce you to lose control had too many uncertainties. What if you’d failed to reach the White Exhibition Hall and retreated? What if you’d changed your mind at the last minute that night? And then there were those ‘security guards’ that got activated and started wandering around—they blocked your path, and I’m guessing that definitely wasn’t what those cultists wanted to see.”

“So they were probably just collecting some ‘materials,’ testing whether inducing a subset to lose control could pry open Fairy Tale’s structure,” Little Red Riding Hood said, brow furrowed tightly. “If it worked, great. If it failed, the trail would dead-end at Old Zheng’s side—if it weren’t for your bizarrely unusual ‘Commune with the Dead’ ability, the Special Operations Bureau would’ve had a hard time tracing things back to the Angel Cult.”

Yu Sheng nodded. “In fact, the Special Operations Bureau has already run into new trouble. They only caught those two exposed Angel Cult members. Apparently the arrest teams staked out the south side of the city for a long time without finding any trace of other members—it seems that the day after you walked out of the Museum alive, those cultists knew their plan had gone sideways. Everyone severed ties and went into hiding. Those two who got exposed probably just didn’t expect their information to be leaked so thoroughly, so they didn’t manage to run.”

“…You dug around inside that cultist’s head and still couldn’t find any leads on his accomplices?”

“No. That guy had his mind incredibly well-protected. Even after Eileen punched through his subconscious defenses, he was still able to blur out his accomplices’ faces in the dream,” Yu Sheng said with a curl of his lip, clearly somewhat annoyed. “Honestly, if the ritual in his dream hadn’t gone wrong, maybe I could’ve discovered something if I’d lurked a bit longer. But the guy woke up… Apparently the whole fiasco of using counterfeit materials that caused the ritual to fail really left a deep impression in his head.”

The moment he finished speaking, Eileen, who had been sitting obediently on the sofa, immediately sprang to her feet. “That left a deep impression on me too, you know! You bought materials from a five-yuan shop to cobble together my body—I even suspect you and those cultists shopped at the same brand…”

Yu Sheng’s face went stiff and he clamped his mouth shut. There was something he was holding back that he was too embarrassed to say—the fact was, the ‘alchemical materials’ he’d bought for Eileen were actually worse than the shoddy products those cultists had used. The same items had cost the cultists several yuan more than what he’d paid.

He was afraid that the instant he said this, Eileen would launch herself at him and bite. The body she’d gone out with today was made of rebar—one chomp would carry about 1.5 pliers’ worth of force…

That was when Little Red Riding Hood spoke up again. “Those Angel Cult members will definitely make another move, but now that the Special Operations Bureau has been alerted, the cultists will certainly be more covert. They probably won’t attack our members again using something as easily traceable as a fake commission. But I’m worried that since their minds aren’t exactly normal to begin with, they might resort to even more unhinged methods…”

“So you all need to stay on high alert during this period,” Yu Sheng said in a grave voice. “Whether it’s members going out on assignments or those staying behind at the Orphanage, everyone needs to be careful. Watch for any suspicious people or objects appearing nearby. Check the identity of everyone entering and leaving the Orphanage—even familiar faces. If possible, Organization members should compare notes on their recent commissions to look for anything suspicious. If it really comes down to it, call me over to help. We don’t have any jobs anyway…”

Yu Sheng trailed off mid-sentence. He noticed the girl across from him watching him with a half-smile, and he scratched his nose awkwardly. “What are you looking at me for?”

“What a nagging grown-up,” Little Red Riding Hood laughed. “You used to say I was the one who was always nagging.”

Before Yu Sheng could respond, she waved her hand. “Relax. Fairy Tale may be made up of ‘children,’ but we’re also a veteran organization that’s been active in the Borderland for years. We know how to deal with people who mean us harm.

“Also, you just mentioned ‘suspicious’… I actually did encounter something suspicious today.”

Yu Sheng perked up immediately. “What did you find?”

“A strange shadow, shaped like a thicket of thorns, on the exterior wall of the building by the outdoor activity area. It flashed once and then vanished, but I’m certain I really saw it.”

Little Red Riding Hood spoke with a completely serious expression, not dismissing the matter just because it was minor or because there wasn’t enough intelligence at this stage—sharing every discordant clue with allies without omission during a cooperation was an unwritten ‘rule’ among Spirit Detectives and investigators in this peculiar line of work.

Far too many people had lost their lives dealing with the Otherworld or entities because they’d overlooked just the tiniest bit of intelligence.

Yu Sheng was puzzled by the shadow Little Red Riding Hood described.

As a ‘rookie,’ he naturally couldn’t figure out what it might be.

It was Eileen who broke the silence. “Have you seen anything similar within the Orphanage grounds before?”

“If you’re asking about ‘hallucination’-like phenomena, those aren’t unusual. Countless nightmares and things trying to interfere with reality are active here. Voices suddenly coming from a classroom at night, or lights turning on and someone dancing in a locked room—those things have all happened. But a shadow specifically identical to that thorn thicket? That’s a first,” Little Red Riding Hood said thoughtfully. “And it happened at such a sensitive time, too.”

Yu Sheng didn’t speak for a while. He lowered his head in thought, and a long time passed before he broke the silence. “Well, that’s good timing. Let’s talk about the other matter I wanted to bring up with you.”

Little Red Riding Hood looked at him curiously.

“I have a plan that might temporarily ‘protect’ all the children in the Orphanage,” Yu Sheng raised his head and said to the girl with a solemn expression. “But it requires your cooperation, and… the process might be just a tiny bit strange.”

Little Red Riding Hood’s eyes went wide. “Huh? Are you serious?! There’s a way to do that?”

“Remember that ‘wasteland’ that both you and Xiaoxiao entered?” Yu Sheng didn’t beat around the bush. “You both took shelter from an attack in the Black Forest there.”

Little Red Riding Hood blinked. “…You’re saying this process can be ‘replicated’ on a large scale?”

“It should be possible. Just repeat what happened with you and Xiaoxiao on everyone else,” Yu Sheng said, holding up one finger. “Simply put… take a bite.”

The excited, expectant expression on Little Red Riding Hood’s face suddenly froze into a blank stare. “…”

She realized what he was getting at.

“Let me confirm something,” the girl said, staring at Yu Sheng with a conflicted expression. “The entire Orphanage—over seventy people—you’re planning to give each of us ‘a bite’?”

“Yes.”

“…Do you even have enough blood?”

“The dosage shouldn’t be much,” Yu Sheng said with complete seriousness. “Back then, Hu Li just scraped a small wound on my hand with her teeth and it worked—and if it’s really not enough, I can split it into two sessions.”

Little Red Riding Hood still felt the whole topic was bizarre. “So how exactly are you planning to do this? Having the children participate in some kind of ‘blood communion’ ritual is definitely not a good idea. We’re a legitimate organization, first and foremost…”

“Currently the main options are: spicy blood curd hotpot, cold blood sausage salad, blood tofu, my-blood vermicelli soup, and mixing it into water for a water gun blood fight… but I vetoed that last option on my way here, mainly because it’s winter.”

Little Red Riding Hood listened to this string of plans in stunned silence, her expression looking like her rationality had completely evaporated. A good two minutes passed before she processed what she’d heard, and her eyes nearly bulged out of her head at Yu Sheng. “You owe me compensation for having to listen to those ‘options’—I’m going to need at least two shots of Rationality-Blocker tonight before I can fall asleep!”

Hearing that she still had the mood to joke, Yu Sheng knew that while his proposals had been quite the shock, she’d actually taken them in. A smile crept onto his face.

But he’d only half-smiled when the fox, who had been quiet this whole time, suddenly spoke up. “Benefactor, I’ve actually been wanting to ask—does blood… still work after it’s been cooked?”

The smile on Yu Sheng’s face and the dumbfounded expression on Little Red Riding Hood’s face both froze in place simultaneously.

Then Yu Sheng thought about it and began discussing the matter with Hu Li. “But raw blood is too gamey—the younger kids wouldn’t be able to handle it… And applying it to the skin takes effect too slowly, and the results aren’t stable.”

“What about adding some cilantro? I love cilantro.”

“That probably won’t work—most kids don’t like cilantro.”

Little Red Riding Hood’s eyes darted back and forth between Yu Sheng and Hu Li a good dozen times before she finally couldn’t hold back. “Excuse me, how can you two discuss something this bizarre so matter-of-factly?!”

“You get used to it,” Eileen sighed with an air of feigned maturity. “They’re always like this. Yu Sheng will entertain any idea, and Hu Li will go along with anything.”

Fortunately, this bizarre discussion didn’t last much longer.

“I think we should test the effects in small batches first,” Yu Sheng said, turning to Little Red Riding Hood with a serious expression. Without caring whether her rationality was ready, he continued, “Start with the ‘caretakers’ like you, since you’re already at a very unstable stage—a high-risk group. Establishing your ‘protection mechanism’ first yields the highest returns. As for the children… most of them are still in the early stages of their nightmares, so they can wait a bit. What do you think?”

Little Red Riding Hood sat there in a daze, her mind drifting somewhere far away. After quite a while, her eyes suddenly refocused and she spoke hesitantly. “…But how do I explain it to them? What reason do I give to gather everyone?”

“…Just tell them you ordered takeout.”

Little Red Riding Hood: “…?”

(End of Chapter)