Chapter 128 – The Children

Even with Little Red Riding Hood’s explanation, Yu Sheng still found it difficult to understand or imagine life in this orphanage, or what its daily “operations” actually looked like. He couldn’t imagine what the children living here thought about or did each day, couldn’t imagine what specific duties those “Council employees” assigned here had, couldn’t imagine how the Council that governed all of the Borderland viewed such a special orphanage.

Because at the end of the day, he didn’t even understand how this enormous Boundary City actually functioned, nor did he understand the mysterious Council. The only “official” body he’d ever dealt with was the Special Operations Bureau, and the entire Bureau was really just one part of the Council.

There were too many things about the Borderland that felt incongruous to him. The place where Little Red Riding Hood and her friends lived was simply one more addition to the pile of questions already in his mind.

Hu Li, who had been following along silently since they entered, suddenly spoke up: “Why doesn’t the Special Operations Bureau or the Council set up a dedicated department to take over this entire orphanage?”

Little Red Riding Hood looked at the Fox-Spirit Girl with some surprise.

Hu Li blinked, scratching her hair a bit nervously: “Did I… say something wrong?”

“No… you’re right,” Little Red Riding Hood quickly returned to her usual expression and shook her head. “It’s perfectly natural to think that way. But do you know how many groups or organizations similar to ‘us’ exist across the entire Borderland?”

Hu Li opened her mouth but couldn’t produce an answer.

“As I’ve mentioned before, most Spirit Detectives and investigators only ‘changed careers’ after getting caught up in Otherworld incidents. And the children of the Fairy Tale Organization were similarly affected by the ‘Otherworld — Fairy Tale.’ In essence, every child you’ll see here shortly is either a future or currently active Spirit Detective. We’re just one of hundreds, even thousands, of extraordinary organizations in the Borderland, so many things have to be handled the way extraordinary organizations handle them.

“Of course, the Special Operations Bureau did once consider giving ‘special care’ to children like us. That was a long time ago… Just as you suggested — they established a ‘Special Orphanage’ fully supervised by the Council and directly managed by the Bureau, gathering all children affected by Fairy Tale for centralized protection and guidance, with ‘adults’ taking care of everything, instead of the self-governance we have now. But later… something very serious happened.”

Yu Sheng furrowed his brow slightly, and instantly seven or eight scripts from horror movies, TV shows, thriller novels, and horror games popped into his head: “…The children were treated inhumanely, and then ‘Fairy Tale’ went out of control?”

“No, quite the opposite,” Little Red Riding Hood shook her head. “The Bureau and the Council aren’t fools. They knew that when an ‘Otherworld’ wants to take lives, it doesn’t play by any ‘human rules.’ So according to the records, they did nothing wrong at the time — they were attentive in their care, took every child’s situation into account, and nothing inhumane occurred. But they overlooked one thing.”

Eileen poked her head out from Hu Li’s arms: “…Overlooked one thing?”

“‘Fairy Tale’ doesn’t like adults,” Little Red Riding Hood said flatly.

Yu Sheng looked thoughtful, feeling as though he understood what she meant.

After a moment of thought, Hu Li also nodded gently, as if she too grasped the crux of it.

Eileen also pondered hard for a moment, then raised her head: “Wait no, what does that mean… How do you all seem to just get it? What did you get?”

Nobody paid her any attention.

“Up ahead is the East Building,” Little Red Riding Hood raised her hand and pointed at the structure in front of them, introducing it to Yu Sheng. “The orphanage’s main buildings consist of two structures. The East Building you see when you first enter is the primary living and activity area — the main cafeteria and the ‘classrooms’ for the younger children are also here. The other one over there is the West Building, which has… some safe rooms and a treatment room. Sometimes when the children’s conditions aren’t very stable, they go to the West Building.

“The two buildings used to be connected by two passageways, but later the Underground one developed some problems, so it was locked up. Now you can only get across through the elevated Corridor. Of course, the West Building also has other regular entrances and exits.

“That Open Space over there is where the children usually play. Those slides and swing sets were all built by us, and we dug the sandbox ourselves too. The sand was brought in by truck courtesy of the Bureau — free of charge. There was actually a bit of a fuss at the time. We dug the sandbox way too big and deep. The original plan was one truckload, but in the end three trucks came in and still barely filled it. The Bureau people were convinced we were scamming sand to sell…

“And over there — see those trees? We planted those by hand too. I had just turned ten at the time… The ‘guardian’ who was with me planting those trees is no longer here.”

Yu Sheng listened quietly. From the corner of his eye, he noticed several curious gazes peeking out from the entrance of the East Building. A few older children accompanied by several smaller ones crowded near the doorframe, sneaking glances at the “guests” who had appeared in the orphanage, occasionally pointing and whispering, probably discussing or guessing about something.

Then a taller girl emerged from behind and shooed all the children back inside.

“How many children are here?” Yu Sheng asked curiously. “Uh, I mean including you ‘guardians.'”

“Seventy-six,” said Little Red Riding Hood. “Fewer than you imagined?”

“Indeed… a bit fewer than I expected.”

“It’s always around that number, with only occasional single-digit fluctuations,” Little Red Riding Hood said, leading Yu Sheng through the East Building’s entrance toward the “reception room.” “New ones come, old ones leave. ‘Fairy Tale’ only accepts children who meet its requirements, and it doesn’t hesitate when eliminating old members. So relative to our numbers, this facility is actually rather extravagant — many rooms above the fifth floor here in the East Building are empty, and most of the West Building is empty too.

“Of the seventy-six children, sixteen are ‘guardians.’ Of the rest, roughly half are between eight and fourteen years old, and the other half are younger. Overall, girls make up about three-quarters, and boys only one-quarter…”

“I noticed that too. Most of the ones I just saw were girls,” Yu Sheng nodded, then asked with some curiosity, “Why?”

Little Red Riding Hood showed a faint smile: “Because princesses are always more likely to fall into peril — and ‘village girls’ like Little Red Riding Hood are the same. You need to learn to analyze this place through the lens of ‘Fairy Tale.'”

Yu Sheng looked thoughtful.

Under Little Red Riding Hood’s guidance, he, Eileen, and Hu Li arrived at the reception room at the end of the East Building’s Corridor.

Yu Sheng noticed several more prying gazes at the doorway. Small figures darted back and forth in the hallway outside, clearly brimming with curiosity about today’s new visitors yet not daring to come closer.

“I brought some gifts for the children,” Yu Sheng said, noticing this, and held up the cookies and candy he’d been carrying. He nodded to Little Red Riding Hood. “Want to have them share these?”

“Thank you — that’s really thoughtful of you,” Little Red Riding Hood didn’t stand on ceremony, thanked him happily, then waved over one of the older children near the door. “Huihui, take these to the cafeteria first and pass them out to everyone at dinner.”

The girl called “Huihui,” who looked about thirteen or fourteen, immediately ran over happily. Several children who appeared to be five or six also took the opportunity to slip into the room, darting around the table. Some excitedly shouted: “I want chocolate! I want the gold ones!” “Are there any gummy bears?” “Thank you, mister!” “Huihui-jie! Yaya stepped on my foot!”

Then a tiny, rosy-cheeked little one suddenly crawled out from under the table, staring at Yu Sheng and Hu Li with wide eyes before pointing at Eileen: “I wanna hold that one too!”

Eileen instantly spread her arms and bared her teeth: “I’m not a gift!”

The little one froze for a second, then burst into wailing on the spot.

A whole swarm of tiny humans scattered in all directions, shrieking and howling, running every which way, crying bloody murder — exactly like the scenario Yu Sheng had imagined that morning of a room full of Eileens.

He went completely numb on the spot.

But the chaos lasted only a brief moment. Little Red Riding Hood immediately stood up and quieted the little ones with just a few words. Then Huihui smoothly took charge of the group of toddlers, coaxing and cajoling them back into the hallway, closing the door behind her as she went.

Yu Sheng stared dumbfounded at this scene that had erupted into chaos one instant and settled down the next. After a long pause, he finally came back to his senses and turned to glance at Little Red Riding Hood: “…You’re… pretty impressive.”

“You get used to it. The children here are actually very well-behaved. Though they have the same little quirks as normal kids their age, most of them can calm down faster than ordinary children, better understand instructions from the older kids, and appreciate the necessity of following rules,” Little Red Riding Hood said with a faint smile. “We all grew up this way.”

For some reason, hearing this actually made Yu Sheng feel a bit more uncomfortable inside.

“Tell me about ‘Fairy Tale,'” he shook his head and quickly changed the subject. “I mean that ‘Otherworld’ — and the Dark Forest I saw. What’s the deal with that?”

“The Dark Forest is a ‘sub-entity’ of ‘Fairy Tale,’ but before I explain its structure in detail, I want to discuss some more fundamental things with you first,” Little Red Riding Hood said unhurriedly. In this moment, Yu Sheng seemed to see once again the precocious, calm, and composed Spirit Detective he’d met when he first got to know her. “Let me confirm something first — do you know how many types of ‘Otherworld’ there are in total?”

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, his expression equally serious: “No idea.”

Little Red Riding Hood: “…”

“I’m pretty sure that was covered near the beginning of the database,” she said, looking at Yu Sheng with a somewhat peculiar expression. “Didn’t I tell you to review that material as soon as possible?”

Yu Sheng felt a bit embarrassed too: “I’ve just been especially busy these past two days.”

“Busy with what? Did the Bureau have more assignments for you?”

Yu Sheng kept a straight face and quickly ran through what he’d actually been doing the past two days.

Pioneering in the Otherworld, growing vegetables, grinding monsters, raising chickens, petting Hu Li at home, researching how to make Eileens with Eileen, and contemplating how to use rebar and #42 cement to produce even more Eileens…

He felt like the moment he said any of that out loud, his dignity as an adult would be gone.

“Yeah, the Bureau came to see me. About the Twilight Angel situation.”

Yu Sheng’s face was perfectly serious. Not a single word was a lie.

(End of Chapter)