Chapter 121 – The Cabin

Chapter 121 – The Cabin

The squirrel’s neurotic chatter made Yu Sheng instinctively perk up his ears and listen for any movement outside the cabin, but all he could hear were faint, distant sounds of wind.

The fire in the fireplace crackled and popped, while the wind outside the doors and windows was so faint it was nearly inaudible. These delicate sounds only made everything seem all the more quiet, a peaceful and serene atmosphere filling the cabin’s candlelight.

The layout of the cabin was plain to see at a glance. Upon entering, one could see a simple square table draped with a blue checkered tablecloth, with two chairs placed beside it. Against the opposite wall stood a wooden shelf cluttered with various sundries, along with a person-tall wooden wardrobe. In the corner was a single bed, layered with thick quilts that looked as though they would be quite comfortable.

On the wall to the left of the entrance was a window, its glass reflecting the firelight from the fireplace and candlesticks, as well as the silhouette of the squirrel bouncing about.

Yu Sheng walked toward the window and cautiously peered outside. The old wooden floorboards creaked beneath his feet. Beyond the window he saw nothing but the dense, boundless forest nightscape. The time must have been shortly after dusk, just as night was falling — the sky still retained a faint trace of twilight, but the dense tree canopy blocked out that limited light, and beneath the canopy everything was cloaked in shadow like a curtain of night.

Whether it was his imagination or not, Yu Sheng couldn’t shake the feeling that countless pairs of cold, sinister eyes lurked within those shadows, that innumerable predators were hiding in the darkness, surrounding this little cabin in tight rings, waiting for the right moment.

“Stop looking, stop looking. The more you look, the more afraid you’ll get. The things you imagine will always crawl out of the darkness, and the only thing you can imagine here is wolves,” the squirrel said, pacing back and forth across the wooden table with its paws clasped behind its back. “Oh, nuts!”

It suddenly spotted a plate of acorns on the table and immediately hopped over with glee, scooping one up in its paws. It even turned back to look at Yu Sheng. “Want one? Good stuff!”

“No thanks.” Yu Sheng waved his hand. His attention was still mostly focused on observing the cabin — he noticed that the cabin also had those red scraps of cloth and string, like some kind of protective decoration. Red cords and strips of cloth were tied around the doors and windows, hung beneath the ceiling, and some torn, broken pieces of fabric and loose thread ends lay scattered in a messy pile in the corner.

The squirrel suddenly leapt down from the table, scurrying to the corner and rummaging around. It found a long red strip of cloth, then haphazardly wound it around its own body.

“Good omen, good omen!” it squeaked in a shrill voice.

Yu Sheng was somewhat curious. “What are you doing?”

“Doing something lucky,” the squirrel said, wrapped in the red cloth strip, looking ridiculous yet utterly self-satisfied. “Red is a lucky color. A squirrel needs its own lucky color — especially a squirrel as adorable as me, so damn cute it’s practically criminal. Damn, how is there not even any wine in this cabin… I’m a bit thirsty.”

It scurried back onto the table, picked up an acorn, and tapped it hard against the tabletop before lowering its head to gnaw on it.

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then stepped over to the table and sat down in one of the chairs. He watched the squirrel gnawing on its acorn. “Can you tell me about Little Red Riding Hood?”

“Which one? Which one do you mean?” The squirrel looked up, candlelight reflected in its eyes. “Oh, I’m guessing you mean the most recent one, the one who’s still alive… But why should I tell you? You’re just some grown-up who barged in out of nowhere.”

“…I’m her friend. I want to know about her,” Yu Sheng said, knowing this squirrel was neurotic and difficult, but he had plenty of patience. “You helped me earlier. I think you’re a good squirrel, and you might be willing to keep helping me and my friend.”

“Good squirrel — now you’ve hit the nail on the head. I am indeed a good squirrel,” the squirrel said, looking quite pleased. It took a couple of steps across the table. “But I don’t know where to start… What’s there to say? I don’t know how she lives out there, and I don’t really understand what she’s thinking. Anyway, I just remember that when she first arrived, she was about…”

The squirrel trailed off, glancing around the cabin rapidly, then raised a paw and pointed at the chair beside them. “About this tall. A little taller than the back of the chair. Crying in the pitch-black forest, not knowing how to find her way, not knowing how to hide. I came out to talk to her, and all she could do was keep saying over and over that she’d never run off again — and then? Then she was eaten by wolves almost immediately, in the blink of an eye. Wolves are fast, and the more afraid you are, the bigger they get.”

The squirrel waved a paw, seeming quite displeased about what had happened back then, but quickly shifted its tone.

“She was terrible at first, but she gradually got better. She was caught by the wolves many times, cried even more times, but soon she could run toward the light while crying and following me. Later, she learned to cry without making a sound. After that, she learned not to cry at all. And then, she said she’d found the ‘Organization,’ though I can’t remember exactly what she said about it. Anyway… she seemed to have learned a lot of things.”

The squirrel slowly came to a stop, as if lost in thought.

Yu Sheng waited patiently. After several seconds, he gently prompted, “And then what?”

“Don’t rush, don’t rush. I’m just a squirrel, I need to think carefully… The previous Little Red Riding Hoods were about the same, all about the same. Ah, right — she learned a lot of things. Like making traps while evading. Like how to recover her humanity as quickly as possible after being eaten by wolves. Like lurking and observing the patterns of wolf pack activity. Then one day, she successfully caught a wolf. Then a second, then a third…”

“The wolves hunted her, and she hunted the wolves. Sometimes she succeeded, sometimes she was devoured. She gradually became part of this forest. Eventually, she could safely pass most nights here, but she also became more and more deeply bound to this place. Sometimes she would even become somewhat wolf-like, sprouting claws and a tail, running through the darkness outside — now the hunter occasionally appears along the Small Alley out there, startling her awake with gunshots. And when the hunter appears often enough, she sometimes starts to feel that she herself is also a hunter…”

The squirrel spoke more and more slowly, a somber atmosphere settling over the little creature. Then it suddenly tugged at the red cloth strip messily wrapped around its body, raised its head, and stared straight into Yu Sheng’s eyes.

In those eyes reflecting candlelight, there flickered a light that was almost human.

“You have to help her. She… her condition has actually started to deteriorate. The other Little Red Riding Hoods were the same way — gradually getting used to this forest, gradually becoming one of them. The more times she turns into a wolf, the harder it becomes to go back. That most vicious, most terrible Big Bad Wolf is getting closer and closer to her, but for her, the most dangerous moment was never when the Big Bad Wolf opens its jaws — it’s when she herself sprouts fangs… You’re her friend, right? You’re her friend — you have to help her!”

Yu Sheng rapidly processed every word the squirrel said to him. He had vaguely guessed at many things, and now he suddenly asked, “What exactly should I do? How do I help her?”

But the squirrel suddenly became dejected. It retreated two steps, its two little paws wringing together with difficulty. “I don’t know. I… I’m just a damn squirrel…”

Yu Sheng didn’t give up. “Would killing the ‘Big Bad Wolf’ work?”

“It’s no use, no use. It always comes back,” the squirrel said, shaking its head sadly. “When Little Red Riding Hood arrives, the Big Bad Wolf arrives too. That’s how everything in this forest works. As long as there’s a Little Red Riding Hood, there will always be wolves, there will be a grandmother, there will be a hunter, there will be a long Small Alley, and at its end a cabin that may or may not be safe. It’s all predetermined. It doesn’t matter how many times you kill them… Only when Little Red Riding Hood disappears does the forest fall briefly quiet…”

“Quiet for a while, until a… new Little Red Riding Hood appears.”

“There have been many Little Red Riding Hoods before, haven’t there?” Yu Sheng finally asked the question he had been wanting to ask. “When one Little Red Riding Hood dies, a new ‘victim’ enters, is that right? How many have there been now? When did the first one happen?”

“There’s always a new one, always a new one, because the forest needs a Little Red Riding Hood,” the squirrel said, then suddenly shuddered. “I — I can’t remember the exact number. Stop asking me, stop asking. I’m just a squirrel… Say too much, and the wolves will be drawn here.”

Yu Sheng felt there was something odd about the squirrel’s reaction. It didn’t seem to be merely afraid of the “wolves” — it seemed to fear something else as well. But the neurotic little creature had already begun refusing to answer any more of his questions — it just kept circling around and around on the table, as if caught in some kind of stress response.

And just then, Yu Sheng suddenly felt a stirring deep in his heart.

Immediately after, he heard a faint, indistinct calling voice.

The sound was blurry and distant, but when he focused his attention, the voice suddenly became clear — Eileen was calling out from deep within his consciousness.

“Yu Sheng! Yu Sheng, where’d you fall asleep to! Answer when you hear me!”

“Eileen?” Yu Sheng started, immediately responding through his consciousness. “Good lord, I can finally hear your voice… I was trying to call you earlier, but you didn’t respond either.”

“Hey hey, I can hear you, I can hear you! Finally found you!” The Little Doll’s voice instantly brimmed with delight, words pouring out in a rapid-fire stream. “I heard you earlier, and I immediately tried to find you but couldn’t. Couldn’t find you in your dreamscape either. I could clearly sense you were dreaming, but I just couldn’t connect to your consciousness — it was like you’d gotten lost inside a dream… Hey, Hu Li, stop pacing! Found your ‘savior’ — Hu Li is right here next to me, she’s been bristling for ages. Pacing so much she’s making me dizzy. She even wants to perform some soul-summoning ritual on you… We’re both by your bedside right now. And honestly, I gotta say, it really does look like we’re paying respects to a body at a viewing — you look so peaceful lying there… OW OW OW, the dumb fox bit me!”

The corners of Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched twice as he listened to the Little Doll’s rambling chatter, a mix of emotions welling up inside him.

That punchable energy — it was as heartwarming as a bolt from the blue.

(End of Chapter)