Chapter 126 – Nightfall and Childhood

Chapter 126 – Nightfall and Childhood

The night was deep and dark.

Light from the streetlamps outside the courtyard filtered through the windows on the side wall, spilling into the orphanage corridor. The dim hallway was utterly quiet, as if the daytime clamor had never happened. Tonight’s darkness carried a kind of reassuring calm.

Little Red Riding Hood made her way slowly through the corridor, passing door after door. She paused briefly before each one, peering through the observation window to check the room inside, and only after confirming nothing was amiss would she continue onward with peace of mind.

The “guardian” on the first-half night shift had to patrol like this twice. The one on the second-half shift had to patrol three times, all the way until the sun rose and the darkness receded.

Footsteps came from the opposite direction. Little Red Riding Hood looked up and saw a petite figure slowly approaching through the darkness. The other person was small in stature with ear-length short hair, looking about two years younger than her — it was the girl who had chatted with her at dinner.

“Snow White?” Little Red Riding Hood was somewhat surprised. “It’s not your shift today — why aren’t you sleeping?”

“Couldn’t sleep, so I got up for a walk,” the thin, short-haired girl said casually. “Then I remembered you should be patrolling the east building right about now, so I came by to check on you.”

“Mm.” Little Red Riding Hood nodded without saying much more, simply walking on in silence alongside Snow White.

According to the Organization’s rules, everyone had to be back in their rooms and asleep by ten at night, but this restriction only applied to children under fourteen or those who hadn’t yet “awakened.” Snow White already counted as a “guardian” within the Fairy Tale organization. She knew what she was doing, and Little Red Riding Hood wasn’t going to say anything unnecessary.

“You rarely sleep these days, don’t you?” Snow White suddenly broke the silence.

Little Red Riding Hood only gave a soft “mm” in response.

“As adulthood approaches, sleep decreases significantly. Sometimes you only need two or three hours of rest a day, but in return, those two or three hours of sleep become extraordinarily dangerous… Peaceful dreams all but vanish, and the probability of entering a ‘fairy tale’ after falling asleep reaches nearly one hundred percent… Every single night becomes a trial,” Snow White said softly. “I heard from the King — last month you didn’t have this yet. It only started this month…”

Little Red Riding Hood’s tone was calm: “My birthday is next month. This is normal.”

Snow White pressed her lips together, and only after a moment did she ask quietly: “Are you scared?”

“A little, but it’s okay. My Wolf is with me,” Little Red Riding Hood said, gazing into the younger girl’s eyes in the darkness. “But what about you — why are you suddenly telling me all this? You don’t usually pay attention to these things.”

The corridor fell silent. After several seconds, Snow White finally spoke: “The new child who arrived today — did you notice her?”

“I did. She doesn’t talk much to people and seems very nervous,” Little Red Riding Hood nodded. “The transfer personnel said she’d been living in a public orphanage in the north district. She was sent here after having recurring nightmares that triggered some ‘anomalous phenomena,’ which caught the Special Operations Bureau’s attention — is there something wrong with her?”

“Match was responsible for looking after the new child today. She said… although the child still can’t accurately recall what she sees in her dreams, when reading storybooks, she clearly recoils from any images or text related to ‘wolves.'”

Little Red Riding Hood suddenly stopped walking, but after only a second or two, her expression returned to normal and she continued forward.

Snow White walked alongside her. After both of them had been silent for a very long time, she finally spoke again: “…That child might be the new ‘Little Red Riding Hood.'”

“Then you’ll need to take good care of her from now on, just like I took care of you back then.” Little Red Riding Hood’s expression was completely serious.

Snow White immediately furrowed her brow, putting on an indignant look: “You’re only two and a half years older than me!”

“And I was still your ‘guardian’ for two and a half years,” Little Red Riding Hood glanced at the thin girl beside her. “You should eat more at meals. You’re still as skinny as last year. If this keeps up, none of the kids will listen to you.”

“I do eat! It’s not my fault I can’t put on weight.”

They chatted like this, the way they always did, but then both fell silent at the same time, as if by some unspoken agreement.

In the end, it was Snow White who broke the quiet first: “…There have been more than a few records of members reaching adulthood in the Organization. Don’t be afraid. Like the King — converted to human years, he’s over forty. And the Cinderella before the last one supposedly even made it past her twenty-sixth birthday — I don’t think it’d be strange to have two Little Red Riding Hoods at the same time…”

Little Red Riding Hood listened quietly. In truth, she herself had been thinking about these things often lately. The words Snow White was saying to her now — Dr. Lin had said them too, and she had even said them to herself. But… what else could be done? Every Fairy Tale member approaching adulthood had heard similar words.

Yet for some reason, Little Red Riding Hood — who had thought she was already fully prepared — found that hearing Snow White’s reassurance now stirred something different in the depths of her heart… a new “thought.”

She suddenly recalled the phone call she’d had with Yu Sheng today, and the things he had told her.

“Maybe…” she suddenly broke the silence in a soft voice.

Snow White, who had been racking her brain for lighter topics, barely heard Little Red Riding Hood speak. She rambled on for several more sentences before belatedly realizing: “Huh? What did you just say?”

Little Red Riding Hood collected herself and looked into Snow White’s eyes: “Maybe things really won’t be that bad. I mean, maybe… maybe some good things will happen.”

Snow White’s expression looked a bit dazed, but she noticed that deep within Little Red Riding Hood’s perpetually calm gaze, there seemed to be something new… a light that hadn’t been there in recent days.

She didn’t know why, but she nodded instinctively: “Well, it’s good that you can think that way.”

“A friend is coming over tomorrow. I invited him to visit our home.” Little Red Riding Hood said this very seriously.

“Ah — what?” Snow White’s eyes widened in surprise, though she quickly recovered. “Oh, sure, that’s fine. But this really is unusual — I never thought you’d be the type to invite friends over. I always thought only Rapunzel did that sort of thing — is it a classmate? You two will just be staying in the east building, right?”

“He’s an adult.”

Snow White froze.

“He’ll come around noon,” Little Red Riding Hood continued, “to avoid the most unsettled hours of morning and evening. He… knows some things about me. And since there happen to be no classes tomorrow, I’ll probably show him around the orphanage.”

“…You should have told everyone at dinner,” Snow White said after being stunned for quite a while, finally processing the news with a somewhat reproachful tone. “Now we’ll have to make arrangements tomorrow morning, move some of the unstable children to the west building…”

“No need. He’s also a Spirit Detective, and he’s worked alongside me before. He also knows some things about Fairy Tale,” Little Red Riding Hood shook her head. “I’ve mentioned him to you — it’s that ‘Yu Sheng.'”

“…The one who eats entities raw?!”

Little Red Riding Hood nodded: “Yes, the one who eats entities raw — though most of the time he does cook them first.”

Snow White suddenly went silent, as if her brain had frozen.

Little Red Riding Hood continued walking forward.

Snow White stood dazed for a few seconds before snapping back to reality, hurrying a couple of steps to catch up with Little Red Riding Hood, who had already walked several meters ahead. Then came a rapid string of questions:

“How does he know about Fairy Tale? Did you tell him? I thought you hardly ever told outsiders about this stuff?”

“What’s he coming for? Just to tour our orphanage?”

“You’re not thinking of dragging him into this, are you? That’s absolutely not okay — it’s too dangerous…”

“Does Dr. Lin know? Shouldn’t we discuss this with Dr. Lin first?”

Snow White peppered her with questions the entire way, but Little Red Riding Hood only gave her half-hearted answers. Before long, Snow White stopped asking. She simply watched Little Red Riding Hood walking beside her, and after a very long time, she murmured one last thing: “We may not have many rules here, but you should remember — everyone who tried to help in the past… they all died.”

This time, Little Red Riding Hood finally stopped and responded earnestly: “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”

Snow White pressed her lips together and said nothing more, instead turning to look ahead alongside Little Red Riding Hood.

Without realizing it, they had already passed the dormitory area and the dining hall. Ahead lay a large “classroom.”

The lights were on inside.

“Someone forgot to turn off the lights in the activity room again,” Snow White frowned. “Think of the electricity bill.”

Little Red Riding Hood pushed open the activity room door and peeked inside.

This was a space for the younger children to play and have their “lessons.” The spacious classroom was divided into several areas: the northeast corner held somewhat worn desks and chairs; the northwest corner had small bookshelves filled with picture books and some indoor toys. Near the doorway stood a small blackboard, still covered with the children’s doodles that hadn’t been erased. Many small slips of paper were stuck along the edges of the blackboard, bearing the somewhat clumsy handwriting of the younger brothers and sisters.

These were wish cards that the teacher had helped the children write during today’s class.

The cards had all sorts of wishes — wanting a piece of cake, wanting a new toy, wanting new clothes, wanting to go out and play, wanting to watch cartoons all day long.

The writing was mixed with pinyin, and some had simply drawn crude pictures.

Children’s wishes and ways of expressing themselves really were endlessly varied.

Little Red Riding Hood couldn’t help but smile. But just then, from the corner of her eye, she noticed one slip of paper that had been taken down and stuffed into the corner of a nearby teaching supplies box.

She reached over and pulled it out, carefully smoothing it flat.

“wo xiang grow up.”

That was what it said.

“Turning off the lights now.” Snow White’s voice came from nearby.

With a click, the wish on the slip of paper sank into darkness.

(End of Chapter)