Chapter 134 – The House in the Darkness

Chapter 134 – The House in the Darkness

The squirrel, having calmed down, began telling Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood about what had happened in the Dark Forest.

“She came in a few hours ago. At first I didn’t even notice her—she wasn’t crying or making a fuss, completely different from the other children who first enter,” the squirrel said, standing on Yu Sheng’s shoulder and sighing as it spoke. “This might be her first time ‘truly’ entering the Dark Forest, but before today, she’s probably been having nightmares related to the Dark Forest for a very long time…”

“Which direction did she go?” Little Red Riding Hood interrupted the squirrel’s rambling from the side. “Take us there.”

“This way.” The squirrel raised a paw and pointed in a certain direction, but then immediately shook its head. “I don’t think there’s any point in you chasing after her. It’s too deep in that direction, and there are no paths or lamplight from any houses. Without shelter in the darkness, you’ll just get swallowed by wolves for nothing…”

Little Red Riding Hood paid absolutely no attention to the second half of the squirrel’s words. She was already striding forward. “We’ll judge for ourselves.”

“Hey, hey, you…” The squirrel immediately cried out, bouncing up and down on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, then suddenly lowered its voice. “Don’t tell me you don’t know your own situation?”

Little Red Riding Hood stopped and turned her head to glance back. “I know.”

Yu Sheng followed alongside Little Red Riding Hood, heading deeper into the Dark Forest, while the squirrel chattered non-stop the entire way. It jumped from Yu Sheng’s shoulder to Little Red Riding Hood’s shoulder, looking both nervous and anxious. “You’re taking a huge risk! Walking deliberately toward a place with no light is guaranteed to attract the wolf pack! Even that big bad wolf will find you soon enough!

“At the very least, go rest on the Small Path or in a house for a few minutes first. At least get yourselves back in shape—especially you, Little Red Riding Hood. You need to regain your stability right now…

“Hey, you over there, the adult—aren’t you her friend? Talk some sense into her…

“I swear you’re all just making life difficult for a little squirrel! Nobody ever listens to a squirrel’s opinion!

“Why is this world so cruel to squirrels—especially one as adorably bubbly as me!”

The squirrel raised its paws high and shrieked. But just before it could continue its meltdown, Little Red Riding Hood suddenly reached out and grabbed the noisy little rodent. “You’re too loud. Keep this up and I’m tossing you into a thornbush—the kind with thorns.”

The squirrel instantly fell silent. After a few seconds, it spoke up reluctantly. “You can’t go down the path of self-destruction.”

“I’m not being self-destructive,” Little Red Riding Hood pressed her lips together, her tone suddenly very serious. “I mean it—I’m calmer right now than I’ve ever been… at least calmer than every time I’ve ‘entered the dream’ recently.”

The squirrel stared blankly at Little Red Riding Hood, then looked up in confusion at Yu Sheng walking beside her, as if wanting to ask something, but its mind was too muddled to speak for a long while.

Yu Sheng hadn’t said much the entire way. He simply walked quietly beside Little Red Riding Hood, his mind fully focused.

He was trying to sense things—sensing every rustle of wind and grass around them, sensing those connections that might exist through blood, sensing the movements of the wolf pack, sensing… that largest and most vicious wolf.

Faint howls drifted from the dark depths of the forest, rising and falling, coming from every direction.

The dim yellowish light that had lingered in the sky had faded away at some unknown point. Night began to envelop the forest, though this darkness wasn’t completely pitch-black—a more sinister dimness pervaded the spaces between the trees, laced with an icy, watching presence.

“The wolves have noticed us, the wolves have noticed us…” The squirrel immediately began muttering at a neurotic pace, while somehow producing a dry, stiff pine needle from somewhere. “This is insane. We’re going to be eaten by wolves in a place with absolutely no light! This is terrifying, absolutely terrifying.”

Yu Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly. Amid the rising and falling wolf howls, he sensed certain subtle… “currents.”

A gaze was sweeping across the vicinity. In a certain instant, he could even see his own figure through that gaze.

But the owner of that gaze had not yet appeared. The wolf remained hidden in the forest, seemingly still waiting for something.

Yu Sheng kept his attention fixed on that gaze, then suddenly noticed that Little Red Riding Hood’s pace beside him had slowed.

The girl’s body seemed to be trembling involuntarily.

“Are you alright?” Yu Sheng asked immediately.

“I’m fine,” Little Red Riding Hood’s tone remained calm, and even her expression and eyes seemed unchanged. “I just need to stay alert when walking this deep into the forest.”

Yu Sheng watched Little Red Riding Hood, whose demeanor appeared perfectly normal.

That gaze from the depths of the forest was also watching Little Red Riding Hood.

Sweet, delectable fear—rooted deep in childhood, growing in darkness, amplified by memory, permeating the forest.

Yu Sheng suddenly stepped forward and grabbed Little Red Riding Hood’s hand.

She was startled. “What are you—”

“Don’t be afraid.”

Little Red Riding Hood’s expression turned a bit awkward. “…I’m not afraid.”

“Pretending to be calm won’t fool that wolf. It can see your fear directly,” Yu Sheng said, gazing calmly into her eyes. “It’s staring right at you.”

Little Red Riding Hood’s eyes widened slightly. She paused in confusion, then couldn’t help asking, “How do you know?”

The fear emanating from her receded somewhat. The wolf continued its cautious waiting.

Yu Sheng blinked. He knew the wolf was still watching them, but he was watching it too.

“That wolf has my blood on it,” he told Little Red Riding Hood. On this matter, he had always been straightforward. “Now you don’t need to be afraid. Sooner or later, it will become my prey.”

Little Red Riding Hood said nothing, only staring at Yu Sheng in a bit of a daze.

She was skeptical, hesitant—she couldn’t fully understand or believe what Yu Sheng had said. But the fear was indeed continuing to recede from her.

That was enough.

Yu Sheng let go of her hand.

He knew he couldn’t blame Little Red Riding Hood for her fear—because this fear had long surpassed the bounds of reason. In this Dark Forest, for Little Red Riding Hood, it was no longer merely an “emotional response.”

As a veteran Spirit Detective, she could perhaps venture deep into the Otherworld without batting an eye, perhaps stand firm against those grotesque and hideous entities, and even face her own life and death head-on. But the fear of the “wolf” had taken root in her psyche many years ago, becoming part of her very childhood. It had grown alongside her like poison clinging to bone, all the way to the present day—that wolf, larger than a house, was the very reflection of this fear.

No wonder the children of “Fairy Tale” could never escape the curse it brought.

The squirrel stood on Little Red Riding Hood’s shoulder, its beady black eyes darting back and forth between the two of them. Who knew what was running through its mind. It suddenly broke the silence. “She’s run into the depths of the forest before… Most Little Red Riding Hoods have had one or two experiences like that… in the beginning. Most of the initial fear comes from that.”

“Don’t say unnecessary things,” Little Red Riding Hood said, sounding a bit sullen.

“Was it because of the ‘lures’ beyond the Small Path?” Yu Sheng couldn’t help asking curiously.

Little Red Riding Hood kept her head down, walking forward in silence.

“What else could it be?” The squirrel let out a remarkably human-like sigh. “Little flowers and mushrooms by the roadside—and some shiny, glittering things. Those things are always so tempting, but in the end they turn out to be the wolf’s teeth and claws…”

Little Red Riding Hood looked up and glared fiercely at the squirrel. “I really will throw you into a thornbush.”

“…I ran into ‘lures’ too. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Yu Sheng thought for a moment and said to Little Red Riding Hood. “Look, I’m a grown adult, and the last time I came in, I actually almost couldn’t resist either. If it weren’t for the squirrel warning me, I might have wandered into the darkness too.”

Little Red Riding Hood looked at Yu Sheng with some surprise.

“…You were ‘lured’ by the sights beyond the Small Path too?” she asked hesitantly. “There’s actually something that can tempt you?”

The disbelief in her voice was palpable.

Just like the disbelief she’d shown when she first learned that Yu Sheng also ate regular human food.

Yu Sheng had a strong feeling that the Red-Clothed Girl was thinking some rather impolite things, but he had no proof.

“It’s perfectly normal. Everyone has moments of being tempted,” he said with a wave of his hand, completely unbothered. Then he asked casually, “What about you? What lured you into the depths of the forest back then?”

He didn’t mean anything by it. He simply hoped to redirect her attention while learning more about Little Red Riding Hood’s past experiences—it might help him free her from the Dark Forest’s influence.

But Little Red Riding Hood only pressed her lips tightly together, seemingly unwilling to answer the question.

Even the squirrel on her shoulder, which had been chattering nonstop in defiance of every warning, obediently shut its mouth this time.

“Alright,” Yu Sheng let out a breath and didn’t press further. “If you don’t want to talk about it, then don’t. Let’s just—”

He stopped mid-sentence.

Little Red Riding Hood also halted instantly.

In the dense forest ahead, a hazy outline had come into view for both of them.

It wasn’t the “lost” child—it was a small wooden house.

“Don’t go near it!” The squirrel immediately tensed up, its big tail trembling slightly. “Something’s wrong. The squirrel senses something’s not right…”

“It looks a lot like the house I saw last time,” Yu Sheng muttered under his breath. “The shape seems exactly the same.”

“It looks the same, but it’s not!” The squirrel spoke at breakneck speed, clutching its pine needle tightly. “See that? No light! This house has no lamp lit! No lamp, deep in the dark forest, and yet it hasn’t been devoured by the darkness! Strange—this is getting strange… A house should disintegrate and vanish once its light goes out… Is Grandmother inside? No, no—Grandmother’s house always has its lamp lit too…”

Listening to the squirrel’s anxious rambling, Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood exchanged a glance in unison.

Then they carefully made their way toward the little house standing silently in the darkness.

(End of Chapter)