Chapter 198 – Prisoner Without a Heart

Yu Sheng felt certain that it was precisely because he had been carrying that “Angel’s Umbilical Cord” that he had witnessed all those strange phenomena upon entering the Black Forest this time—the vanishing “path,” the phantom of the original Little Red Riding Hood, and the first igniting of the hearth fire and candlelight. These were like the Black Forest’s “early memories,” things that should have remained sealed deep within this subset all along, but the umbilical cord had “activated” them.

Of course, there was another possibility—that these memories were actually recorded within the Angel’s Umbilical Cord itself, and that entering the Black Forest had “released” them.

Regardless, the reason he had been able to see those things today was undoubtedly connected to the Angel’s Umbilical Cord’s influence.

But if what Squirrel said was true—that this was merely a “counterfeit”—what kind of power and purpose did the real “Angel’s Umbilical Cord” possess? If he actually found it, what would happen?

Yu Sheng’s expression grew solemn. Without realizing it, he had sunk deep into thought, reviewing every clue related to Fairy Tale that he currently knew of, trying to find any intelligence that might connect to the real “Angel’s Umbilical Cord.” But in the end, he came up empty.

After some unknown length of time, he snapped back to awareness and saw Squirrel still crouching on the windowsill, head hanging low in dejection, seemingly mumbling something under her breath.

Only after leaning closer did he make out what she was mumbling—still repeating, over and over, that she should have gone to sleep earlier that night, that she should never have handed that fairy tale book to that voice. It was like being trapped in a recurring nightmare, leaping from one infinite loop into another, gradually going mad again within this unending cycle of repetition.

Yu Sheng furrowed his brow slightly.

He understood perfectly well where Squirrel’s guilt came from, and he could empathize with why she felt that way. But based on the intelligence he had gathered recently and his own reflections on the Fairy Tale Otherworld, he had a somewhat different perspective.

“You believe… that it was because you handed that fairy tale book to ‘that voice’ that the Fairy Tale Otherworld came into existence, is that right?” He looked earnestly into Squirrel’s eyes. “You think all of this is your responsibility?”

“What else could it be? Whose responsibility could it possibly be?” Squirrel rubbed her paws together miserably, then scratched at the fur on her cheeks. “Squirrel isn’t a likeable child—not smart, not obedient, and I even lost the fairy tale book… That was the one thing I should never have done…”

Yu Sheng’s expression was utterly serious. “But have you ever considered that perhaps it was precisely because of your fairy tale book that a Twilight Angel in a weakened state was sealed away—prevented from fully entering the dimension of reality?”

Squirrel’s paw-rubbing froze mid-motion. She stared at Yu Sheng in stunned disbelief.

“There’s a group of lunatics called the ‘Angel Cultists’ who have been very active lately. They call themselves servants of ‘An-Ka-Ai-La’ and have been causing all sorts of trouble, all for a single purpose—to rescue their ‘Lord,'” Yu Sheng said, unhurried. “Their ‘Lord’ is imprisoned within ‘Fairy Tale.'”

Squirrel stood frozen in place. After a long while, her tail finally drooped slightly. “Is that… true?”

“I don’t know whether there’s a definitive causal link between the fairy tale book you handed over back then and the current situation—but if you believe that a single fairy tale book led to the creation of the Fairy Tale Otherworld, then An-Ka-Ai-La being imprisoned within Fairy Tale can naturally be attributed to that book as well,” Yu Sheng said calmly. “This world is full of countless choices, but for events that have already occurred, every fork in the road has already become inevitable—it’s just that we can never resist standing at the outcome and looking back, imagining whether certain things could have been different.”

He paused briefly, then continued. “I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the term ‘Twilight Angel,’ but I need to tell you—what you witnessed that night was the moment an angel pierced through the world and descended into reality. Every coincidence converged on that single point in time: you, that fairy tale book, that moment, the ‘angel,’ the exchange… every piece was indispensable.

“Based on your description, that window of opportunity may have lasted less than a minute. And in that one minute, you were the only child in all of the Borderland who witnessed the angel’s descent and had the chance to make a choice. You chose to hand over the only fairy tale book within reach… Do you know what might have happened if you hadn’t?”

Squirrel shook her head hesitantly. “I… I don’t know. I don’t even know what this ‘Twilight Angel’ you’re talking about is. I’m, I’m just a…”

“In the worst-case scenario, there might not be a Borderland at all anymore,” Yu Sheng cut her off. “Even in the luckiest possible outcome, Boundary City’s order would have been shattered. The number of people who would have died in that instant would exceed every name you could hear in your entire lifetime combined.”

Squirrel was completely stunned. Her mouth hung open, but she couldn’t utter a single word. Only her tail trembled slightly, as though she had been thoroughly frightened by the picture Yu Sheng had painted.

After a long while, her body finally moved again, and she murmured instinctively, “But… but Little Red Riding Hood…”

“Yes, Little Red Riding Hood. Many Little Red Riding Hoods, and their friends too—all those children who can’t live past eighteen. They are all the price of this, courtesy of ‘Fairy Tale,'” Yu Sheng said evenly. “Suffering is suffering. You can’t say that just because they avoided the mass casualties that a full ‘descent impact’ might have caused, living only a dozen-odd years should count as ‘lucky’—they themselves can choose to think that way, but at the very least, neither you nor I have the right to say it for them.

“But this is no longer a problem you can solve. It’s not even a problem you should be worrying about.

“This one’s on me.”

Squirrel stared at Yu Sheng. Her not-quite-sufficient little brain seemed to be churning through countless thoughts, her expression growing somewhat dazed again.

But Eileen suddenly patted Yu Sheng on the head. “Hey, don’t forget about me and Hu Li!”

Yu Sheng quickly nodded and added, “Oh, right, those two count as well.”

“Shouldn’t we count Little Red Riding Hood and the others too?” Hu Li thought for a moment and reminded him. “Their Orphanage has been working on solutions on their own this whole time.”

“Right, we should count the Fairy Tale organization too.”

“And the Special Operations Bureau,” Eileen said, counting on her fingers. “Li Lin, Xu Jiali, Song Cheng, that Baili Qing… they’ve all been a huge help too. And then there’s that squad from seventy years ago that got caught up in the incident—they might still be holding on. And also…”

Yu Sheng could barely keep a straight face. “That’s probably enough. We’ve got quite a lot of people.”

He figured that if he didn’t stop the little doll on his shoulder, she would finish counting her fingers and then conjure up over a hundred more assist credits—he had only said that because the moment felt right!

But by then, Squirrel seemed to have finally snapped out of it. Whatever she had been thinking during that dazed spell, she suddenly scratched her face hard and mumbled, “…Thank you.”

Then she quickly added in a small voice, “These secrets… I’ve never dared mention them to anyone before…”

“I understand,” Yu Sheng said with a gentle nod. “But after today, these secrets will be shared with many people—to deal with the threat lurking in the depths of Fairy Tale, we must first find a way to confront that ‘An-Ka-Ai-La.’ That will require a lot of help.”

Squirrel was silent for two or three seconds, then slowly nodded.

Yu Sheng raised his head and looked out the window.

The dusk above the Black Forest was about to end, and night was gradually falling. He had originally planned to wait here until Hunter appeared, but now he had changed his mind.

He needed to get this new intelligence about “An-Ka-Ai-La” out first, and at the same time, ask the Special Operations Bureau to urgently dig into the Orphanage’s earlier records. Perhaps the remarkably resourceful Bureau Chief Baili Qing might even be able to use this to unearth some lingering traces from the Twilight Angel’s descent.

He would also need to share the intelligence with the Fairy Tale organization and have Little Red Riding Hood and the others conduct a thorough inspection of the Orphanage—although many years had passed since that “incomplete descent,” and the entire Orphanage building had been repaired and even completely rebuilt more than once, what if they could still find some clue?

With that thought, Yu Sheng turned his gaze back to Squirrel and asked thoughtfully, “What was your original name?”

Such a simple question, yet Squirrel froze instantly. A long time passed before she responded, slow and confused. “…Name?”

The bewilderment on her face was as though she had suddenly been confronted with an entirely alien concept.

After a lengthy pause, Yu Sheng finally heard her hesitant, faltering mumble. “I’m… Squirrel.”

She stood on the windowsill, scrubbing at her face again with her paws, scratching at the fur on her cheeks, over and over and over.

“I’m Squirrel, I’m Squirrel, I’m…” she mumbled, but then stopped abruptly and looked up at Yu Sheng. “I’m sorry, I forgot. I had a name, but I forgot it. Squirrels don’t have good memories. I, I’m just a squirrel, I’m sorry… wahhh—”

The palm-sized little creature finally broke into heaving sobs.

It was as if only in this moment—realizing that she had once had a name and had now completely forgotten it—did she finally, belatedly, grasp that she was now “just a squirrel.” Only now did she perceive everything that had happened to her—perceive just how many years she had already spent in this Black Forest.

Yu Sheng hesitated for a moment, then slowly extended his hand and carefully cupped Squirrel up, letting her rest in his palm.

She cried like that, her body slowly curling into a tiny ball, as warmth came from all directions, seeping through her fur bit by bit, filtering into this dream from which she could never seem to wake.

How nice. Someone was holding her again.

Ever since she had lost that fairy tale book, Teacher had never held her again. Ever since she had turned into a squirrel in her dream, no one had ever held her again.

How nice. Someone was holding her again.

Even if it was only a palm.