Chapter 118 – In the Forest

Chapter 118 – In the Forest

This time, Yu Sheng fell asleep extraordinarily fast. He had probably exhausted far too much energy, and once the adrenaline-fueled excitement that had been sustaining him faded away, the moment he lay down on the bed he plunged almost instantly into sleep.

What followed was a series of bizarre, fragmented shallow dreams whose details were impossible to recall.

He drifted in a haze, feeling as though his consciousness were floating above a layer of misty water. He looked down through the surface and saw himself lying on the bed, saw No. 66 Wutong Road, saw Eileen fiddling with the TV remote, saw Hu Li scrubbing her tails by the sink—then hanging the freshly washed tails one by one on the balcony clothesline, a neat row of them lined up in perfect order…

Yu Sheng gradually lost the ability to distinguish reality from illusion, unable to tell whether he was dreaming or truly “seeing” these visions. His consciousness drifted like this for a long time, sinking slowly through an ever-deepening haze of chaos, and then suddenly—he felt something solid pressing against his back.

Yu Sheng’s eyes snapped open.

The first thing he saw was towering trees encircling him on all sides.

A boundless forest, endless trees, dense canopies layered and intertwined overhead, blotting out a murky, chaotic sky. Beneath the canopy lay shadows reminiscent of dusk. Dark-colored vines wove and tangled through the dense woods, thickets sprawled unchecked across clearings, and unknown flowers and grasses—lush, yet all coated in a grayish, hazy texture—carpeted the open ground between the enormous trees.

Yu Sheng sat up in confusion, feeling thick layers of fallen leaves and rotting soil beneath him.

And as he moved, this dim, seemingly boundless forest appeared to further “come alive” around him. He began hearing the calls of unknown birds and beasts emanating from the woods. Something darted swiftly across a clearing between the trees, the sound of flapping wings echoed through the canopy, and there were distant howls… wolf howls, yet carrying a strange, almost human-like quality to their tone.

Yu Sheng froze for a moment as his mind gradually cleared, and a thought popped into his head—Well damn, where the hell did sleeping send me this time?

Was he dreaming? Or had he fallen into some strange “Otherworld” again?

Yu Sheng reached down and pinched his thigh hard, feeling a somewhat numb pain. He then tried calling out to Eileen in his mind, but all he heard was a hollow, whistling sound—like wind blowing through a valley—echoing in the depths of his consciousness.

These various abnormalities instantly put Yu Sheng on high alert.

He immediately reached his hand toward the empty air. A moment later, a faintly glowing, phantasmal door materialized hazily in the air.

Good—the “door” still worked.

Only then did Yu Sheng breathe a sigh of relief. He waved the door away, mustered every ounce of his alertness, and cautiously began walking forward.

He needed to figure out where exactly this place was.

He could vaguely sense that this place was different from the Night-shrouded Valley he had stumbled into before. He should still be dreaming, but this was definitely no ordinary dream. He couldn’t say what connection this place had to the “Otherworld,” but this forest was absolutely not something that should be appearing in his own dreams.

Treading on thick layers of decaying leaves, a sensation of finding no solid footing accompanied by a faint rustling sound, Yu Sheng cautiously walked forward for a very long distance. He crossed a small clearing and climbed over two large trees that had fallen to the ground, yet the surrounding scenery never changed. The forest seemed infinite, and traveling on two legs through this boundless dense woodland appeared utterly pointless.

And just then, a faint rustling sound suddenly reached Yu Sheng’s ears.

His alertness spiked instantly, and he whipped around toward the source of the sound.

A large, fluffy-looking squirrel stood on a nearby dried-out tree stump, staring at him with beady little black eyes.

It seemed to be just a small forest creature that had curiously ventured out from its hiding spot to observe this uninvited guest.

The atmosphere around him was eerie, but after seeing this harmless little squirrel, Yu Sheng couldn’t help but let out a breath and crack a small smile at it.

The squirrel glanced at him, swept its big tail across the stump, and spoke in a high-pitched voice: “Don’t leave the path…”

The smile on Yu Sheng’s face froze instantly, and the next second his eyes went wide: “Holy shit! It talked!”

“I wasn’t done with my lines,” the squirrel smacked its tail hard against the stump and stood upright. “Damn, what was the next part again… Oh right—don’t let the pretty flowers and mushrooms catch your eye, hurry back to the path, so you can get home safely before dark~ Right, and there’s supposed to be a cute little lilt at the end. So damn cute.”

Yu Sheng: “…”

The squirrel nearby stood with its paws crossed, full of swagger, staring straight at him.

Yu Sheng pinched his thigh hard again, as if confirming whether he had just been hearing things—what had that seemingly harmless cute creature just said?

The squirrel, however, seemed to be growing impatient. Seeing that Yu Sheng hadn’t moved for a while, it “thump-thumped” its big tail against the stump several more times: “Move it! What are you standing there for? Don’t go dying in the Dark Forest before you’ve even taken the first step.”

Yu Sheng finally confirmed that he had not, in fact, been hearing things. But instead of doing what the squirrel said and “continuing on back to the path,” he walked toward the squirrel with intense curiosity, his face full of wonder and bewilderment: “Who are you? What is this place?”

“Are you blind? I’m a squirrel!” The squirrel crossed its paws without a trace of fear, staring straight into Yu Sheng’s eyes. “You can’t tell where this is? A forest. The Dark Forest. A big-ass Dark Forest with no end in sight—what, are you stupid or something?”

While speaking, this cute-looking but foul-mouthed squirrel shuffled a couple of steps to the side, looking around as if searching for something, muttering under its breath: “That’s weird… the current one isn’t even dead yet, so how’d a new one pop up… Is the current one about to die? But this new one’s a guy…”

Hearing the squirrel’s muttering, Yu Sheng felt something stir in his heart for reasons he couldn’t quite explain, and the words came out instinctively: “Die? Who’s about to die?”

“Little Red Riding Hood, obviously,” the squirrel said casually, wiping its face with a paw. “I’ve lost track of which one she is… the eighteenth generation? Or the twenty-eighth generation of Little Red Riding Hood…?”

Yu Sheng’s eyes went wide, his heartbeat suddenly racing several beats faster. Then, as if a sudden realization hit him, he raised his head to gaze at this endless forest, and tilted his ear to listen to those faint, eerie howls.

That distant, familiar nursery rhyme melody seemed to already be echoing in his mind—that tiny figure in the red cloak, that silhouette walking along the forest path, those flowers and mushrooms luring her from deep within the woods… and that big bad wolf.

Yu Sheng suddenly felt a faint stinging pain and a trace of warmth on his shoulder. He turned to look and saw that blood had seeped through at some point, the crimson color slowly spreading across his clothes, a jarring splash of color in this dim, gray forest.

It was the spot where the wolf that had emerged from Little Red Riding Hood’s shadow had bitten him during Museum Night.

The bloodstain slowly faded again, but Yu Sheng was beginning to understand what had happened.

His blood had ultimately established a connection with Little Red Riding Hood… Could the wolf hunting her also be considered a part of her? So this was actually her dream?

Thoughts raced through his mind, but the squirrel’s voice suddenly cut in, interrupting Yu Sheng’s racing thoughts: “No! No no no!”

Yu Sheng jumped with fright: “What’s wrong?”

“The current Little Red Riding Hood definitely isn’t dead yet! And it’s not her time to die!” The squirrel leaped up on the stump, looking somewhat panicked. “The wolf hasn’t caught up to her yet, the wolf is still searching in the forest… Who the hell are you? How the hell did you get in here?!”

Yu Sheng vaguely felt that last question sounded somehow familiar…

But he didn’t dwell on it, instead speaking rapidly: “I’m her friend—what did you just say? You said Little Red Riding Hood will die? And what did you mean about which generation? What does that mean?”

“Friend? Where did a friend come from! She walks alone on the forest path—there are no friends of Little Red Riding Hood in the forest!” The squirrel suddenly became agitated, bouncing up and down on the stump. “Something’s wrong, something’s very wrong. This forest isn’t supposed to change, and if it changes then things get even worse… Don’t make trouble for a squirrel! The squirrel is busy enough as it is! This place…”

It suddenly went still, as if it had heard something, and cocked its head to listen intently.

Yu Sheng instinctively spoke: “What—”

“Shh—” The squirrel raised a paw in a remarkably human gesture, signaling Yu Sheng to keep quiet. “Listen carefully… the wolf stopped howling.”

The forest had gone completely silent. The distant, muffled wolf howls had vanished at some point, and even the sounds of other birds and beasts that had been coming from nearby had gone quiet along with them.

An eerie, unsettling stillness blanketed the forest.

Yu Sheng’s nerves went taut. And in the very next second, the squirrel leaped down from the stump and shot like lightning onto his shoulder, shrieking: “Run! The wolf is here!”

The little creature’s sudden move startled Yu Sheng, but his body had already reacted long before that—he spun around and bolted. Only then did a belated, bone-deep chill and a cold that seemed to pierce his very soul finally catch up—a massive wave of malice and the premonition of impending death came crashing down, battering Yu Sheng’s mind, mingling with the howling wind, chasing at his heels.

The wolf was here.

(End of Chapter)