Chapter 176 – No. 66 Wutong Road: A Place of Outstanding People

Yu Sheng suddenly felt a bit of regret about creating so many Eileens.

Especially when three Eileens pounced on him all at once, shrieking and scratching in a cacophony of chaos. When there had only been two dolls, he could still manage to raise his hands and press them back down with relative ease. But with three, he found himself completely overwhelmed. One of them was even made from rebar and stone, and the force of her pounce was like having a bag of cement slammed against his skull. Thank goodness he’d been eating well lately and his body was reasonably sturdy. If he still had an ordinary person’s constitution, one tackle from Eileen would be enough to knock him out cold…

Moments later, Yu Sheng had several sets of teeth marks on his forehead, three still-chattering dolls hanging off his body, and a look of utter despair on his face.

“Get off me,” he said, glancing at the three dolls—one clinging to his leg, one perched on his shoulder, and one gripping his collar and dangling against his chest. He let out a sigh. “Especially the one wrapped in the towel. Your towel’s about to fall off.”

Eileen finally let out a yelp, and together with Eileen and Eileen, jumped off Yu Sheng’s body. The little doll still wrapped in a towel as a makeshift nightgown stood on the bed, tilting her head up: “Oh right, where are my clothes!?”

Yu Sheng casually pulled a mended dress out of the nightstand drawer and tossed it over. “Here. I found time to alter it for you. I cut away the burned parts and used some of the decorative pleats from the hem to patch up the obvious spots. The craftsmanship isn’t great, so make do for now. I’ll buy you a new one in the next couple of days.”

“Oh, okay.” The towel-wrapped little doll happily caught the dress, hopped off the bed, and ran toward the bathroom. “I’m going to change! Don’t you dare peek!”

“…Why on earth would I peek at you? I sculpted all three of your bodies myself!” The corner of Yu Sheng’s eye twitched violently as he shouted toward the bathroom. Then he turned back, locking eyes with the remaining two Eileens standing on the floor in an awkward staring contest.

Just then, Yu Sheng suddenly remembered something and slapped his forehead. “Ah, I forgot to tell Little Red Riding Hood about Xiaoxiao! I knew it—I kept feeling like I’d forgotten something.”

“Xiaoxiao? That kid from the orphanage?” Eileen looked startled for a moment but quickly recalled the name. “What happened to her?”

“She entered that ‘strange dream’ of mine too—the one with the wasteland,” Yu Sheng explained. “And it seems like she accidentally ‘fell’ into it while trying to escape the wolves when a nightmare dragged her into the Black Forest…”

He then recounted his recent experience in the dream to the dolls before him, and even mentioned seeing the apparition of the Hunter in passing—though he left out the detail about nearly “putting on” that hunting outfit. Eileen listened to Yu Sheng’s account with widening eyes, a look of astonishment gradually spreading across her face. She held it in for a long time but ultimately couldn’t resist the urge to quip: “How is it that even your dreams are this absurd?”

“How should I know?” Yu Sheng spread his hands honestly. “It’s not like I can control it.”

Both Eileens looked up at him with suspicion. After a moment, one of the little dolls finally looked away and, with great solemnity, propped her chin on her hand in a thinking pose: “That said, your theory about that ‘strange dream’ does have some merit… Based on what’s happened these past few times, it really could be an independent special consciousness space—not generated by your dreams, but something you just happen to ‘connect’ to when you’re dreaming…

“As for Little Red Riding Hood, Xiaoxiao, and that silly fox, they were probably affected by your blood and ‘borrowed’ some kind of access from you, which is why they can connect to that place too.”

“So what exactly is that wasteland?” Yu Sheng furrowed his brow. “Could it be another Otherworld?”

Both Eileens spoke in unison: “You’re asking me? Who am I supposed to ask? You don’t even know yourself!”

Then the little doll carrying the picture frame on her back waved her hand at Yu Sheng. “Forget it. Just sitting here thinking about it won’t get us anywhere. Next time you go to sleep, I’ll guide you through it and we can go in together for a proper look. Maybe we’ll find some clues.”

“Fair enough,” Yu Sheng said, then glanced up at the sky outside the window. The daylight was already beginning to fade. “Little Red Riding Hood will be here soon. For now, let’s focus on that suspicious ‘museum commission.'”

Eileen’s expression visibly turned serious.

“I was just about to bring that up. Behind this whole thing… it reeks of conspiracy.”

Yu Sheng didn’t speak, merely raising an eyebrow.

“You must have sensed it too,” Eileen said, noticing the shift in Yu Sheng’s expression. She nodded unhurriedly. “If nobody had died and it were purely a case of a ‘fake commission,’ it could easily be chalked up to an association member cutting corners in the process to privately pocket museum artifacts. But now the person who issued the commission is dead—and that’s not even the biggest red flag. The thing that really bothers me about this whole affair is actually the ‘sacrifice’ inside the museum.”

Yu Sheng furrowed his brow. The scene he’d witnessed in the museum that day was still etched clearly in his memory.

The victim bound into the posture of the Weeping One by Iron Thorns. The White Exhibition Hall stained red with blood. The eerie, terrifying “security guard” entity. And… the loss of control that Little Red Riding Hood had experienced.

It had happened precisely when Little Red Riding Hood was about to “come of age,” about to face the Black Forest’s devouring—the very moment when her entire state was at its most unstable.

…

The wolves’ silhouettes leaped and darted between the shadows of buildings, moving from the bustling main road into the quiet Old City District, and finally arriving at the stretch of ground deep within No. 66 Wutong Road that could genuinely be called “seldom visited.” Little Red Riding Hood’s figure emerged abruptly from among the wolves as she looked up ahead. Upon seeing the large house standing quietly in her line of sight, the girl’s expression went slightly blank.

Although she had mentally prepared herself, knowing that she had been affected by Yu Sheng’s “blood,” actually seeing this “Fortress-type Otherworld” that even the Special Operations Bureau couldn’t detect just standing right there before her eyes still felt somewhat unbelievable.

In her memory, this place had previously been nothing more than an empty stretch of open ground, with nothing at the far end but a low wall covered in graffiti.

The wolves faded silently into the shadows. Little Red Riding Hood took a soft breath and stepped toward the old house.

Before she could raise her hand to knock, the plain-looking front door was already being opened from inside.

Yu Sheng stood in the doorway with a smile. “I spotted you from the second-floor window. Come on in.”

Little Red Riding Hood let out a delayed “oh” and followed Yu Sheng inside.

This was the third time she’d set foot in this place. From her first visit filled with bewilderment, to the second tinged with nervousness, to now—Little Red Riding Hood actually felt she was becoming somewhat familiar with this ordinary-looking old house.

And then she saw three Eileens walking down the stairs in a line, taking turns greeting her as they descended.

Little Red Riding Hood froze on the spot. She raised her hand and rubbed her eyes hard, then looked again—still three dolls. Two of them had already run off to watch TV, while the remaining one had walked over and was now looking up at her.

“You’re spacing out!” the little doll said.

“…How is there another one again!?” Little Red Riding Hood whipped her head toward Yu Sheng, her voice full of disbelief.

“Yep, another one. The one who went with you to the Black Forest last time was the new one, though it seems you didn’t notice,” Yu Sheng nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Combat-specialized model, built specifically for dealing with malignant entities like the Hunger and the Big Bad Wolf. I call her Eileen MK-II…”

Little Red Riding Hood listened in stunned bewilderment, while the Eileen beside her immediately protested: “Don’t go giving me random model numbers! If you absolutely have to, at least pick something cool—like ‘Valkyrie Type’ or something…”

Yu Sheng kept a straight face, thinking to himself that a 66.6-centimeter doll calling herself a Valkyrie was really something—even a Valkyrie’s shield come to life would probably be taller than her. But he didn’t dare say that out loud. It wasn’t because the little doll’s insults were too harsh to endure, but rather because there were now three Eileens in the house, and when they arranged themselves into attack formation and charged at him, he genuinely couldn’t win…

And so, still somewhat dazed, Little Red Riding Hood was led by Yu Sheng to the living room.

Hu Li came over carrying a plate of freshly washed fruit, which she set on the coffee table.

Yu Sheng immediately checked the fruit for teeth marks—after all, this was for a guest, and having Hu Li secretly nibble on them wouldn’t do. But then it occurred to him that if Hu Li had actually snuck a bite, there certainly wouldn’t be any bitten leftovers making it to the plate. More likely, she had washed a whole basin in the kitchen and only brought out a single plate’s worth…

Little Red Riding Hood had no idea what Yu Sheng was thinking. She simply thanked Hu Li, but then her peripheral vision caught something odd among the fox’s mass of tails—while all the other tails were perked up and lively, one was drooping limply on the ground, looking as if it were broken.

Yu Sheng noticed the dragging tail at the same time and couldn’t help frowning. “What’s wrong with your tail? Is it hurt?”

But hearing this, Hu Li’s face actually lit up with delight. She scurried over and draped her massive bundle of tails across Yu Sheng’s lap. “Benefactor, look! No more static electricity, right?”

Yu Sheng was puzzled for a moment, then reached out to stroke Hu Li’s tails. Realization dawned, and he turned to nod at Little Red Riding Hood, who still had a face full of question marks. “Don’t worry. It’s a ground wire.”

Little Red Riding Hood’s entire being was in a state of bewilderment. “…?”

She suddenly realized that the sense of familiarity she’d developed toward No. 66 Wutong Road had been premature. Everything here exuded that particular brand of bizarreness. But then again, on second thought, this actually fit her impression of the place perfectly. The defining feature was “a place of outstanding people”—every single thing in this big old house radiated a profoundly unhinged spiritual energy. For instance, a new Eileen seemed to appear here every so often. For instance, the Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit who lived here would drag one tail on the ground as a ground wire to deal with winter static electricity…

And just then, a sudden remark from Yu Sheng interrupted the girl’s wandering thoughts.

“Little Red Riding Hood, have you ever made enemies with anyone?”

(End of Chapter)