Chapter 169 – Confronting Fear

Delicious meat.

Yu Sheng held the jerky up in front of Little Red Riding Hood’s eyes, wearing a bewitching smile on his face. The strip of jerky had an alluring dark-red color, and it smelled… wonderful.

Yet Little Red Riding Hood instinctively sensed something strange about it, and even more so detected something in Yu Sheng’s smile. The girl furrowed her brows slightly: “Wait, what exactly is this…”

“The ‘Grandmother Wolf’ from before,” Yu Sheng made no attempt to hide it, nodding directly the moment she asked. “The one we killed in that lightless cabin last time—I brought it back, then tried processing it various ways and found the flavor was pretty decent.”

Little Red Riding Hood’s eyes went wide in an instant, her breathing even halting abruptly.

Yu Sheng was still introducing the cuisine: “…The rib meat is good pan-fried or clear-stewed, the leg meat is very tough and needs to be boiled for a long time, the parts with more subcutaneous fat taste great roasted and are very fragrant, and some of the organs are good for hot pot, though they have a gamey smell if not prepared properly. Also, the Grandmother Wolf was just too big—eating it for several meals in a row gets tiresome fast, so I turned most of the rest into this kind of jerky, rubbed in with spices and salt for flavor, then smoked and roasted over Fox Fire. It’s a bit tough to chew, but the edges have a wonderful crispness to them, and the overall flavor is excellent. You can eat it straight or use it in soup.”

As he spoke, Yu Sheng pushed the jerky forward a bit more, smiling as he looked at the red-clothed girl before him: “Give it a try. Once you accept where it comes from, it actually tastes quite good.”

Little Red Riding Hood visibly shuddered, instinctively scooting back a little. Her eyes were a jumble of confusion, nervousness, and even a touch of horror. She stared at Yu Sheng in shock, her mind churning in chaos for a long while before she finally managed to form words: “You… you people ate the Grandmother Wolf?!”

“Currently eating it. Haven’t finished yet,” Yu Sheng said casually. “Is it really that surprising? You saw a plate of garlic shoots stir-fried with the Hunger before, remember?”

The corner of Little Red Riding Hood’s eye twitched immediately, clearly recalling that the man before her had done other horrifying things as well. She suddenly felt that him turning Grandmother Wolf into jerky wasn’t all that unexpected after all. But unexpected or not, looking at that dark-red strip of meat, the strangeness and faint dread in her heart hadn’t diminished in the slightest.

Meanwhile, the Squirrel standing on Little Red Riding Hood’s shoulder, upon realizing exactly what this jerky was made of, simply rolled its eyes back, didn’t make so much as a peep, and toppled over stiff as a board.

The fox girl gnawing on jerky at the dining table looked up at them, the cluster of tails behind her swaying back and forth: “Try some, it’s really good.”

Have a bite. It smells so good.

It really does smell good.

Little Red Riding Hood’s breathing gradually grew rapid.

It was as if many voices had suddenly risen from the depths of her heart, unhurried and calm, yet whispering ceaselessly—Yu Sheng’s voice, her own voice, and even… the voice of a wolf.

Just try it. One bite.

Urged on by those voices in her heart, she finally reached out her hand with hesitation. Accompanied by the contradictory feelings of anticipation and resistance surging up simultaneously, she took the dark-red strip of meat.

She saw a radiant smile bloom on Yu Sheng’s face. Within that smile, the strange and wonderful aroma of the jerky wafted into her nostrils wave after wave.

“Fear is very hard to eliminate, especially fear that has taken root in your heart since childhood,” she heard Yu Sheng say softly to her. “But from today onward, you will always remember that this fear born of wolves… tastes like five-spice pepper salt.”

Little Red Riding Hood froze for a moment, then looked at Yu Sheng with a peculiar expression: “What kind of bizarre logic is that…”

“Rather than confronting fear head-on, a better way to fight fear is to give it a texture and a flavor,” Yu Sheng said, his smile unchanged. “Don’t you think that makes perfect sense?”

Yes. Perfect sense.

Little Red Riding Hood stuffed the jerky into her mouth as though completing a mission that involved life and death itself, squeezed her eyes shut, and bit down hard.

It really was tough—a bit of an effort to chew—but… it was indeed just meat. Nothing more than meat.

From deep within the distant forest, a faint and muffled wolf howl suddenly drifted over.

But Little Red Riding Hood couldn’t tell whether that howling had truly occurred, or had merely surfaced in her mind like a hallucination.

She chewed the chunk of meat in her mouth, grinding her teeth with fierce determination. She swallowed it, feeling the rough texture slide down her throat.

Yu Sheng raised his head and looked out the window. He sensed the Evil Wolf’s gaze, staring fixedly in their direction. It had been prowling about restlessly before, but in this moment, it had suddenly stopped moving.

Though only for a few seconds.

The Squirrel that had fallen onto the bed slowly came to. This unfortunate little rodent, who had already suffered multiple severe frights today, lifted its head and glanced up—only to see Little Red Riding Hood tearing into Grandmother Wolf’s flesh. It promptly let out a strangled “gak” and passed out again.

But Yu Sheng casually picked it up and shook it in the air a few times, forcibly rousing it: “Wake up, Squirrel. I have questions.”

“The Squirrel doesn’t want to answer!” the little creature shrieked, struggling frantically the moment it came to.

“What’s the relationship between the ‘Evil Wolf’ and the ‘Grandmother Wolf’?” Yu Sheng paid no attention whatsoever to the Squirrel’s reaction, simply asking on his own. “Are they the same thing?”

The Squirrel stared at Yu Sheng with its beady eyes. Yu Sheng stared calmly back at the Squirrel.

Yu Sheng could even feel the little animal’s heartbeat through his palm—rapid as a drumroll.

“…Grandmother Wolf is one face of the Evil Wolf,” the Squirrel finally spoke, though whether it feared Yu Sheng more or the wolf watching this place was impossible to say. “When it enters the cabin, it’s Grandmother Wolf. When it devours you outside, it’s the Evil Wolf. When it chases you, it’s the wolf pack… All wolves are faces of the Evil Wolf, and the Evil Wolf is a face of the Dark Forest…”

Its body trembled slightly, its neck shrinking again and again. “Everything here is tangled together like this, like a ball of yarn, like blood vessels, like nerves, and then everything winds itself around the Little Red Riding Hood trapped in this nightmare,” it rambled on, its voice shrill and quavering. “The Hunter is part of this place too, has been for as long as I can remember. The Squirrel doesn’t know what you want the Hunter for, but they won’t help you. They don’t help anyone. They only shoot at wolves…”

Listening to the Squirrel’s answer, Yu Sheng fell into thought.

He carefully perceived the information flowing through the blood link, sensing the wolf pack’s movements outside the cabin’s protective range and the shifts in the Evil Wolf’s gaze.

The wolf pack receded from his perceptive range. The Evil Wolf’s attention was now focused on the doorway, where something was appearing, gradually taking form.

A Grandmother Wolf was being generated.

The Dark Forest’s order continued to operate, the stage arranging the next “actor” to appear according to the script. His rampage here seemed not to have affected the stage’s overall functioning.

Yu Sheng’s expression didn’t change, as if he hadn’t noticed the shift in the aura outside the door. He simply tore off a small strip from the jerky with calm composure and held it out to the Squirrel: “Eat up.”

The Squirrel thrashed wildly free, leaped onto the bed, and stared in terror at the thing in Yu Sheng’s hand.

“I… I’m a squirrel! I’m just a squirrel! No no no, the Squirrel doesn’t want that…”

“You should also confront the fear in your heart,” Yu Sheng said, looking at it with genuine sincerity. “Little Red Riding Hood already ate it. Now it’s your turn.”

“The Squirrel… the Squirrel Knight knows no fear!” the Squirrel shrieked. “The Squirrel Knight… please, I’m begging you, don’t do this…”

Yu Sheng casually tossed the small strip of meat aside: “Fine, I won’t force you.”

The Squirrel froze, apparently not expecting Yu Sheng to let it off so easily, momentarily unable to believe it.

Yu Sheng paid no mind to the Squirrel’s reaction and simply turned to Little Red Riding Hood: “Alright, you’ve rested long enough. It’s time for you to go back.”

Little Red Riding Hood looked up in surprise, not processing this right away.

Yu Sheng raised a hand and pointed at the doorway.

A shadow was solidifying into a physical form outside the door. Heavy breathing emanated from there.

“Grandmother Wolf is here,” Yu Sheng said unhurriedly. “Staying here any longer will be dangerous for you. I’ll have Eileen take you out first.”

Little Red Riding Hood blurted out instinctively: “Wait, you didn’t mention before that—”

“Bringing you here was mainly to trigger this key plot event,” Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. “This step is all we needed—teamwork means everyone has their own task.”

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth as if wanting to say something more, but Eileen, sitting on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, had already extended her palm toward her.

A chilling aura invisibly seized Little Red Riding Hood’s consciousness, then wrenched it violently “outward.”

The girl’s figure vanished from the wooden cabin in the blink of an eye.

Yu Sheng was silent for a moment, then turned his head toward his shoulder: “Seriously, can’t you improve the comfort level of that trick? Every time you wake someone up, it feels like they’ve died and come back to life…”

“Oh please, if it didn’t feel like sudden death, how could it unconditionally wake someone up?” Eileen rolled her eyes. “She’s awake now, and she’s cursing up a storm. Want me to relay it?”

“No need,” Yu Sheng waved his hand dismissively, then stood up and stretched his limbs, casually picking up the Tetanus Staff leaning beside the door. “Get ready.”

The next second, knocking reached everyone’s ears.

Bang bang bang, bang bang bang—the pounding on the wooden door felt as though it were striking directly against the depths of one’s heart, carrying an unsettling urgency.

“Grandmother Wolf is here!” the Squirrel shrieked, leaping up and running in circles on the little bed. “The Squirrel… the Squirrel Knight needs to prepare, needs to prepare!”

Bang bang bang—the knocking rang out again, rapid and urgent.

The Squirrel watched in horror as a radiant smile spread across Yu Sheng’s face. Gripping that savage spiked club, he strode over and flung the door wide open: “Here we go!”

The cabin door opened to reveal a hunched figure wearing a soft cap—gaunt, elongated, twisted in form, its entire body covered in short black fur. A grotesque aberration stood in the doorway, blocking every exit.

A thin, bizarre appendage that could barely be called a wolf’s claw anymore reached inside, grabbing at Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng swung his club down—

“So YOU’RE the one they call Grandmother Wolf?!”

(End of Chapter)