Chapter 112 – A Packed Schedule

Eileen felt that even among Yu Sheng’s enormous collection of outlandish ideas, this newly proposed one was particularly outlandish.

But on the other hand, every single idea this guy came up with carried that irresistible pull of the bizarre—after the initial shock and amazement, the Little Doll found herself unable to suppress an intense interest in this “creative concept.” Though it sounded so absurd, so strange, so contrary to the “basic rules of doll-making” and “alchemical theory,” still…

Could she really not give it a try? Trying it… wasn’t exactly a bad thing.

“See, you think it’s a good idea too,” Yu Sheng guessed her thoughts the moment he saw the change in Eileen’s expression, and immediately looked pleased with himself. “And it’s not just the skeleton that can be swapped for rebar—I’ll also try using cement to cast a set of parts for you. That stuff mixes into blood way easier than lotus root…”

Eileen’s expression froze again. After a moment’s hesitation, she spoke in a small voice: “Isn’t this a bit too outrageous?”

Yu Sheng’s face was perfectly serious: “Clay is earth. Concrete is also earth. That’s my position.”

Eileen: “…I-Is that so?”

“I knew I should’ve made a trip to the building materials market when I went shopping,” Yu Sheng said with some regret. “Could’ve grabbed a bag of cement and some rebar while I was at it… oh, and I’d need some proper equipment too—a welder, an angle grinder, stuff like that. No idea if they’re expensive.”

The more Eileen listened, the more she felt none of these were terms that should appear in alchemy.

But Yu Sheng didn’t dwell on the topic for long. He quickly waved his hand: “No worries, there’s no rush this time anyway. Get familiar with this extra body you’ve got now, and while you’re at it, put together any improvement suggestions. Next time I make you a new body, I’ll aim for something even better.”

He seemed full of enthusiasm, as if the whole endeavor brought him tremendous enjoyment.

Then he walked over to the edge of the platform and beckoned Hu Li over, pointing to an open area beside the crude stone house that looked like an oversized matchbox.

“Let’s raise the chicks over here. I’ll put together a simple chicken coop first, and once they’ve grown up and I’ve ‘encouraged’ the valley’s vegetation to come back, we can let them roam free.”

As he spoke, the surface of that open area trembled slightly, and then stone grew up from underground, quickly forming a ring of fencing. Inside it appeared a water trough and a feed trough—crude, but functional.

Hu Li blinked, rummaged around in her tail, and placed a flock of chicks inside the enclosure. Then she added food to the feed trough and filled the water trough with clear water—that tail of hers truly had everything.

As she did all this, the Fox-Spirit Girl’s face was full of earnestness and joy, even carrying a hint of tender affection.

It was the tender affection one reserves for future braised drumsticks, roasted wings, mouth-watering chicken, smoked chicken, roast chicken, and stewed free-range chicken.

“Later I’ll divert a water channel from nearby,” Yu Sheng said, watching Hu Li carefully tend to the chicks as he laid out his upcoming plans. “There’s a water source over where the Small Grove used to be—not too far from here. Next time we come, we can also bring some tools and materials to improve this camp. From now on, this valley will be our inn’s base of operations…”

“Having a base is great and all, but the troublesome part is that only you can open the door each time,” Eileen muttered from the side. “In the future, even when Hu Li comes to feed the chickens, she’ll need you to open a door for her. Isn’t that a bit inconvenient?”

Yu Sheng’s brow furrowed slightly.

This was indeed something he’d been unable to stop thinking about lately.

It was true that the Door Opening ability was very convenient, but if he had a team, and a “team headquarters” like this valley, then a door that only he could open would actually become a limitation. If Eileen and Hu Li couldn’t come and go from this valley on their own, then strictly speaking, this place couldn’t really be considered a base for all members of the “inn.”

“I’ve been mulling this over too,” Yu Sheng said while thinking. “It would be great if I could set up a permanently open passage for this valley—one that doesn’t need me to maintain it, one you could all use.”

“Can that even be done?” Eileen blinked. “Doesn’t sound like there’s any clear approach.”

“First of all, this is an Otherworld, and all Otherworlds originally have methods of entry—it’s just that this valley’s original access channel was destroyed and overwritten by me,” Yu Sheng analyzed with a serious expression. “So the key is how to re-establish this kind of ‘public channel.’ And as for an approach… it’s not like I have zero ideas.”

At this, not only Eileen but even Hu Li, who had been earnestly counting chicks nearby, perked up her ears and turned a curious gaze toward Yu Sheng.

“Benefactor has a way?”

“There’s something you both remember, right—you can see and open the door at No. 66 Wutong Road,” Yu Sheng reminded them. “Strictly speaking, the door at No. 66 Wutong Road is essentially a similar kind of ‘access point’—leading to an Otherworld, invisible and intangible to others. But I hold the authority to ‘open the door,’ and after sharing my blood with you, you also gained the ability to open that door.”

“Right, right!” Eileen immediately caught on when Yu Sheng pointed this out, but then frowned. “But the door at No. 66 Wutong Road already existed to begin with. It has to be ‘standing’ there first before Hu Li and I can go open it. But there’s no similar ‘door’ in this valley—the passage we use to enter each time is something you create out of thin air on the spot, and it vanishes the moment you let go.”

“What if we used some method to anchor this door in place? Essentially handcrafting something similar to the door at No. 66 Wutong Road,” Yu Sheng said thoughtfully. “Using the alchemy techniques you taught me—imbuing power into an object—would that theoretically be feasible?”

Eileen listened in a daze and only reacted after a long pause: “There’s something like that in the alchemy I taught you?”

“Ahem, I may have exercised a bit of imagination,” Yu Sheng coughed twice. “I think it’s feasible—why not give it a try when we get a chance? It’s not like trying costs anything.”

When Eileen heard this, she thought to herself: sure enough, it’s Yu Sheng’s classic “let’s just try it.” It seemed all his outlandish ideas ultimately came down to this step.

One might call him the “Sovereign of Giving-It-a-Try.”

“Looks like I’ll be plenty busy for a while,” Yu Sheng said cheerfully, having made his decision. He mentally added several more items to his action plan. “Build Eileen a new body out of rebar and concrete, improve the camp in this valley, properly set up the vegetable plots and plant seeds next time we come, divert a water channel, construct a stable teleportation gate… when I think about it, the days ahead are going to be quite full.”

As he spoke, he walked to the far end of the platform and gazed somewhat absently at the vast, sprawling valley stretching into the distance.

The valley that had been devoured by Entity-Hunger was now continuously recovering—and under Yu Sheng’s deliberate catalysis, its recovery speed far exceeded what would occur naturally.

The ravines scarring the land were slowly filling in. The collapsed and fractured structures on the distant mountainsides now showed visible signs of healing. And those first hints of green that had poked through the ground around the ruins on that initial day… had spread to places far beyond, without anyone noticing.

A faint wash of green extended along the undulating terrain of the valley floor. Among the newborn grass shoots stood tender young shrubs—all remnants of the vitality this valley had once possessed. They had perished in the darkness deep beneath the earth, but now they pushed through the surface once more, embracing the light of the sky.

An inexplicable sense of groundedness welled up in his heart. Gazing at this scene, Yu Sheng couldn’t help the slight upturn at the corners of his mouth: “What a place… what a wonderful place.”

Footsteps approached from behind. Hu Li walked over cradling two chicks in her hands, looking at Yu Sheng with a touch of hesitation: “Benefactor, I’d like to bring these two home to raise. May I?”

Yu Sheng turned around and saw the Fox-Spirit Girl gazing at him expectantly, her golden-red eyes brimming with anticipation. The two chicks in her hands let out soft little peeps, perfectly carefree.

Yu Sheng was somewhat curious: “These two…?”

“Poached and Salt-Baked,” Hu Li said immediately.

Yu Sheng: “…”

These were names the fox girl had specially chosen for two of her chicks.

So she wanted to keep them as pets!

His own fox girl was not only in charge of raising the chickens but had named her two favorites Poached and Salt-Baked—even Yu Sheng found this bizarrely absurd. But under the fox girl’s innocent, expectant gaze, he ultimately swallowed the retort that was about to burst forth. He simply nodded with a straight face: “Fine. I’ll find you a cardboard box when we get back. You can raise them on the balcony.”

Hu Li immediately lit up with joy: “Thank you, Benefactor!”

Just then, Yu Sheng suddenly felt his pocket vibrate several times, followed by a series of ringtones.

He pulled out his phone and saw Li Lin’s name on the screen.

But before answering, Yu Sheng paused in surprise.

…There was signal?!

In this valley, his phone had signal?!

Yu Sheng remembered clearly that when this Otherworld had still been the Night-shrouded Valley, there had been no signal here whatsoever. Back then, when Little Red Riding Hood and Li Lin and the others had been trapped here, they’d had no way to contact the outside world.

But now there was signal? Was this another change that had occurred after the “feast”?

Countless thoughts flashed through his mind. Yu Sheng hesitated for two or three seconds before picking up the phone and answering: “Hello?”

(End of Chapter)