Chapter 173 – Early Morning

Chapter 173 – Early Morning

After sending the message, Yu Sheng looked up and glanced at the sky outside the window.

Dawn was just breaking, still early before working hours. It might be a while before Baili Qing could respond.

So he didn’t just sit around waiting. After sending the message, Yu Sheng found a small box that had originally held cookies, stored the “bullet” from the Hunter in it, then headed to the kitchen to fix himself something to eat.

Hu Li and Eileen followed along quite naturally—the former looking to mooch some food, the latter clearly still having some unresolved questions.

“How did that Hunter know you could bring the bullet to the ‘outside’?” Eileen asked, puzzled, as she trailed behind Yu Sheng. “They just shot you like that, confident that not only would you survive afterward, but that you’d be able to extract the bullet? And that you’d even have a chance to find someone to analyze its origins? Who delivers a message like that?”

Yu Sheng busied himself at the stove. Hearing Eileen’s words, his hands didn’t stop moving, but he furrowed his brow slightly, his expression tinged with thought.

The question Little Doll raised was exactly what he’d been mulling over since earlier.

Whether that bullet constituted a “message” was hard to say, but one fact was quite clear: back in the Black Forest, the Hunter had shot at him without hesitation, aiming straight for his heart. Setting aside other motives, that shot clearly seemed more like an attempt to kill him.

“So the most likely explanation is… they didn’t know.” After a moment of contemplation, Yu Sheng broke the silence.

Eileen blinked. “They didn’t know?”

“An entity wandering the Black Forest couldn’t possibly know about my ‘resurrection’ ability,” Yu Sheng said slowly. “And they probably also didn’t know I entered the Black Forest directly from reality through Door Opening. So theoretically, when the Hunter fired, they didn’t know I could survive and bring the bullet back to the real world.”

“Then they really were trying to kill you? But Little Red Riding Hood just said the Hunter doesn’t misjudge—they had no motive to shoot you…”

“I can’t figure that part out either,” Yu Sheng shook his head. “But regardless, the next time I enter the Black Forest, I’m bringing that bullet with me.”

He deftly julienned a plate of cucumber, then casually handed the remaining half to Hu Li, who had been waiting beside him for quite some time. After a brief pause, he continued, “Since the Hunter ‘gifted’ me a bullet, I should keep it close and see what kind of changes it triggers down the line.”

Eileen let out an “oh,” and just then, a ringtone suddenly sounded from Yu Sheng’s pocket.

“It’s Baili Qing,” Yu Sheng pulled out his phone and glanced at it, rattling off the words before quickly answering the call. “You’re up this early? Did you see the message I sent you?”

Baili Qing dispensed with all pleasantries and cut straight to the point: “That’s a standard-issue exorcism round used by deep-dive operatives and Special Operations Bureau agents from seventy years ago. It’s been phased out and replaced since then.”

Yu Sheng wiped his hands on a towel, told Hu Li to watch the pot of noodles cooking on the stove, told Eileen to stop climbing onto the counter, then stepped aside. “…Well, that’s about what I expected.”

“The round came from the Black Forest?” Baili Qing’s voice came through the receiver. “Another ‘remnant’ obtained from the ‘Hunter’?”

Yu Sheng instinctively mulled that over for a moment—mainly pondering whether, in the process of someone shooting you, the bullet counted as something they “left behind” or something they “gifted” you. After two seconds of deliberation, he hurriedly shook his head to cut short this rather absurd train of thought. “More or less. The acquisition process was rather convoluted, but it’s definitely something belonging to the ‘Hunter’—and something they were actively using.”

“Then we can essentially confirm that the Hunter came from that twelve-person deep-dive team from seventy years ago,” Baili Qing’s tone shifted subtly, carrying an almost imperceptible gravity. She then took a light breath. “Have you established contact with them? Is this old veteran… still willing to help us?”

Yu Sheng couldn’t help but fall silent. After a moment, he let out a sigh. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to successfully establish communication with the ‘Hunter.’ I did show them that group photo, but I’m not sure whether they had any reaction to it.”

“You didn’t exchange a single word?”

Yu Sheng thought about it. “There wasn’t time.”

Baili Qing went quiet for a moment. “…Then how did you obtain the Hunter’s bullet? That kind of thing should be a warrior’s personal possession…”

“They shot it into me.”

Baili Qing’s silence lasted considerably longer this time.

She had clearly been stunned into deep thought by that single sentence from Yu Sheng.

“I mean that literally,” Yu Sheng added by way of explanation.

This time the Bureau Chief finally understood. The voice on the other end of the line suddenly grew hesitant: “…Are you… alright?”

“I’m not dead,” Yu Sheng said—what else could he say? After all, the other party didn’t know about his inability to die, so he could only brush it off. “Just a graze. And I have a feeling the other party should still be open to communication—it’s just that my approach this time probably wasn’t quite right.”

“You’re going to try contacting the ‘Hunter’ again?” Baili Qing sounded somewhat surprised. “That could be very dangerous.”

“It is a bit dangerous, but it’s worth another try. I’ve already made some progress on my end. I’ll compile what happened last night and send it to you afterward—you’ve got more think-tank resources over there, so help me analyze it too. See if there are any details I’ve overlooked,” Yu Sheng spoke rapidly, not giving her a chance to interrupt. “Little Red Riding Hood doesn’t have much time left. There are still many children in that orphanage, and their time is running out too… You know what I mean.”

“…I understand. The Special Operations Bureau will provide full support. If you need anything, contact me at any time.”

The call ended. Yu Sheng leaned against the kitchen cabinet and let out a long, deep breath.

“Benefactor,” Hu Li’s voice came from the direction of the stove, interrupting Yu Sheng’s somewhat jumbled thoughts. “The noodles are done. Should I run them through cold water?”

“Yes, run them through cold water,” Yu Sheng quickly shook off his thoughts. When he looked at the eagerly anticipating Hu Li, the irritation in his heart gradually dissipated without him even noticing, and a smile had already crept onto his face. “Then it’s time to eat.”

…

The children were lined up at the wash basins, obediently taking turns washing their hands, washing their faces, and applying lotion. Those who had already finished were sitting at the long dining table, waiting for the “guardians” to serve their food.

Little Red Riding Hood stood by the wash basins supervising the little ones, glancing back now and then to check on the order at the dining table, her expression somewhat bored.

Rapunzel passed by carrying a large bucket of vegetable soup she’d just fetched from the kitchen. As she walked past Little Red Riding Hood, she looked up curiously at her. “Hey, you’re not still mad at him, are you?”

“Do I look like I’m angry?” Little Red Riding Hood felt rather bewildered by the question.

“Well, you look pretty serious at least,” Rapunzel nodded. “You looked the same way when I owed you twenty yuan last time.”

The corner of Little Red Riding Hood’s mouth twitched, and she had no idea how to respond to that.

“Come on, tell me what’s wrong,” Rapunzel pressed curiously. “All I know is you got ‘kicked’ out of someone’s dream, sat bolt upright in the middle of the night throwing up, and then sat there stewing. What exactly happened?”

“…It’s nothing. I just suddenly realized that I’m actually quite afraid of my birthday next month—but also somehow inexplicably looking forward to it,” Little Red Riding Hood was quiet for a few seconds, then let out a soft breath and waved her off. “Alright, stop wasting time with me here. If you don’t get that soup over there soon, the kids are going to start making a fuss.”

“Oh…”

Rapunzel walked off with the soup bucket, and Little Red Riding Hood’s gaze involuntarily followed the direction she’d gone, settling on that long table.

Children of all ages sat there, chatting and roughhousing.

Several adults in Council employee uniforms stood by the kitchen doorway, watching the scene with complicated smiles on their faces.

Xiaoxiao had fully regained her spirits. Just two days ago, she’d been so timid that she didn’t even dare speak loudly to others in the orphanage, but now she seemed to have made friends of her own. She was solemnly describing a strange dream she’d had to the child sitting next to her—it seemed to be a dream unrelated to the Black Forest, a bit odd, but mundane and peaceful.

The other children, who frequently suffered from nightmares, seemed quite envious of the scene Xiaoxiao described. Several of them had been drawn over to listen.

Little Red Riding Hood tilted her head up toward the sunlight streaming in through the window, growing gradually warmer, and narrowed her eyes slightly.

…

Her phone chimed with a notification. Baili Qing opened it and saw that it was a message from Yu Sheng.

The message described a bold venture into the Black Forest, a harrowing face-to-face confrontation with “Grandmother Wolf,” and what had transpired during his brief encounter with the Hunter.

There were also many of Yu Sheng’s personal speculations, along with intelligence about the current state of the Black Forest that had never appeared in any investigation report before.

The text was long, clearly composed on a computer and then forwarded over—every detail laid out with meticulous clarity.

Baili Qing stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, carefully reading this “report” that may or may not have qualified as one, and couldn’t help but mutter, “As expected of a novelist…”

A pair of eyes had materialized at some point behind her, hovering outside the floor-to-ceiling window. A mechanical, flat voice echoed in her mind: “Beautiful prose?”

“No, I mean reading what he writes is far easier to understand than listening to him talk,” Baili Qing sighed. “At least it doesn’t leave you… struggling to keep up.”

Those ethereal eyes blinked once, then joined Baili Qing in studying the text on her phone.

A moment later, Baili Qing dialed a number.

Song Cheng’s voice came through: “Bureau Chief?”

“Arrange an additional deep-dive squadron at headquarters. No need to deploy for now, but they must be ready to execute a mission at any time,” Baili Qing said evenly. “Begin preparations at the D2 Descent Port’s large-scale deep-dive pool effective immediately.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Song Cheng responded at once, though a hint of instinctive curiosity crept in. “Bureau Chief, has something happened?”

“Just a precaution,” Baili Qing said. “…The ‘core’ of the Fairy Tale—this time, it might truly be unearthed.”

(End of Chapter)