Chapter 194 – The Angel’s Umbilical Cord

Chapter 194 – The Angel’s Umbilical Cord

The moment the words “umbilical cord” left his mouth, Yu Sheng noticed that Little Red Riding Hood’s expression visibly turned a bit strange.

She furrowed her brows slightly. “I feel like… this isn’t the first time I’ve heard that term.”

“The earliest mention was when I went to the Special Operations Bureau to look through the files on that ‘Coming of Age’ operation from seventy years ago,” Yu Sheng said with a slight nod, his expression exceptionally grave. “After I came back, I mentioned it to you. The records stated that one of the Deep-Dive Agents who returned to the real world kept repeating two phrases over and over before he died — ‘the crying of an infant’ and ‘umbilical cord.'”

Little Red Riding Hood drew a sharp breath.

Yu Sheng couldn’t help but turn his gaze back to the “umbilical cord” lying inside the box.

…Why would Old Zheng have had something like this? What exactly was the story behind this so-called “umbilical cord”? Whose umbilical cord was it? And what connection did it have to the “Fairy Tale”?

The answer seemed to hover just at the edge of clarity. Yu Sheng’s brows were tightly knitted as he tried to piece those vague, scattered clues and threads of thought into a complete loop. Mid-thought, he spoke haltingly: “If this ‘umbilical cord’ really is connected to that Twilight Angel trapped inside the ‘Fairy Tale’…”

Little Red Riding Hood involuntarily sucked in another breath. “What you just said is kind of terrifying, you know.”

Then she paused for a moment before continuing uncertainly: “The thing is… Old Zheng was just an ‘ordinary person’ who studied and collected curiosities. At most, he knew a few minor tricks for protecting himself against supernatural forces. Something on the level of an ‘angel’s umbilical cord’ would be explosive even for the Special Operations Bureau — how could it have ended up in his hands?”

Yu Sheng didn’t speak for a moment, but his mind couldn’t help but drift back to the “spirit-communication ring” he’d seen in Old Zheng’s bedroom, and the black tentacle that had wormed its way out of a crack in the ceiling after he’d touched that ring.

That tentacle had been swaying through the air, seeming to search for something the entire time.

Lost in thought, he ventured hesitantly: “What if this umbilical cord wasn’t something Old Zheng ‘found’ somewhere, but something the Twilight Angel actively gave to him?”

Little Red Riding Hood’s brows drew tightly together. She understood what Yu Sheng meant by that. Her expression grew stranger and stranger, until gradually that strangeness transformed into a sort of helpless, complicated smile. Wearing that bitter smile, she muttered: “Old Zheng… oh, Old Zheng…”

She raised her head and looked at Yu Sheng beside her, her smile tinged with bitterness. “Do you remember those ‘spirit-communication’ runes Old Zheng left behind? Crude and rudimentary — even by amateur standards, they’d be considered shoddy work. But with just those runes, he effortlessly made contact with a ‘Twilight Angel’ that those cultists couldn’t necessarily reach even after exhausting every effort. And now there’s this umbilical cord too… Do you realize how ironic this is?

“Those Angel Cult followers treated Old Zheng as a disposable tool. They even killed him because they thought he would ‘defile’ their Lord. But in reality, by their own theology, Old Zheng might have actually been An-Ka-Ai-La’s true chosen one — at least in terms of ‘proximity’ to that Twilight Angel, he was closer than every single cultist.”

“For an ordinary person, being innately connected to a Twilight Angel isn’t exactly a good thing,” Yu Sheng sighed and closed the lid of the box. “What those Angel Cult followers desperately pursued is the very thing normal people would flee from in terror.”

“We’re taking this with us,” Little Red Riding Hood said with a nod to Old Zheng’s Nephew. “If you find anything else suspicious among your uncle’s belongings later, contact us immediately.”

Then she paused, fished a notepad and pen out of her pocket, scribbled down an address, and handed it to him. “Also, you’ll probably have some nightmares over the next couple of days. That’s a normal reaction after exposure to a ‘contaminant,’ but the effects are shallow, so there won’t be any lasting aftereffects. If the nightmares persist, go to this address and find a doctor surnamed Lin. Tell her ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ sent you — she can help.”

The young man hurriedly took the slip of paper. “Oh — oh, thank you, I’ll remember that.”

After leaving Old Zheng’s place, Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood didn’t head straight back to the Orphanage. Instead, they walked slowly along a quiet path near the apartment building.

“When I get back, I’m going to make another trip into the Black Forest,” Yu Sheng said, hefting the wooden box in his hand. “I’ll bring this ‘umbilical cord’ with me, along with that bullet the Hunter shot me with last time, and see what happens.”

“…I swear, every single thing you just listed is dancing right on the line of taboo for Spirit Detectives,” Little Red Riding Hood couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Do you have any idea how many safety protocols you just violated in that one sentence? If you were an ordinary Spirit Detective, with habits like yours you’d have died several times over already.”

Yu Sheng chuckled. “I’m an extraordinary Spirit Detective and I’ve already died several times over.”

Little Red Riding Hood smacked her forehead. “…Fair point. I forgot about that.”

Yu Sheng laughed, let out a long breath, and looked up at the sky. “Alright, we’re done here. Time to head our separate ways — want me to walk you back first?”

“No need. My wolves and I will take the shadow shortcut back. Running along the way will be a nice way to clear my head.”

“Okay, then I’ll head home first. Be safe on the road.”

“I know, I know — bye-bye.”

An ethereal door opened in the living room of No. 66 Wutong Road. Yu Sheng stepped through, and in the blink of an eye he’d returned home from the other side of the city.

The moment he walked in, he saw three Eileens huddled around the computer. One was clacking away at the keyboard, another was clutching the mouse and flinging it around so fast it left afterimages, and the third was solely responsible for watching the minimap. Not far away, Hu Li was hanging her freshly washed tails one by one on the drying rack on the balcony — neat rows of silvery-white fox tails gleaming in the sunlight.

Seeing this familiar, ordinary domestic scene, Yu Sheng felt himself relax. He casually hung his jacket on the coat rack near the entryway and called out to the busy doll and fox spirit: “I’m home.”

“Benefactor’s back!” Hu Li was the first to come running over happily, even circling Yu Sheng several times at high speed. “Did everything go smoothly?”

“Smoothly, smoothly,” Yu Sheng said, growing dizzy from the fox-spirit girl’s orbiting. He had to reach out and hold her still first, then glanced at the pile of tails she’d hung up on the balcony. “…By the way, you’ve been washing your tails a lot lately, and you always make such a big production of it.”

Hu Li’s expression was entirely earnest. “It’s winter — cold and dry. You have to take good care of your tails. Besides, after they’re washed and air-dried, they get all fluffy and soft. They’re so comfortable to cuddle with when you sleep!”

Yu Sheng honestly couldn’t quite understand the point. After all, even if Hu Li took immaculate care of her tails, the next time she got into a fight she’d just launch them all as a volley of missiles anyway. And she could grow new ones to replace them at any time. Was grooming them really necessary?

But seeing the happy, earnest look on the fox-spirit girl’s face, he decided not to ask. A cyber fox spirit was probably just like that…

At that moment, one of the Eileens walked over. She tilted her head up to look at Yu Sheng and asked curiously: “What’s that in your hand?”

Yu Sheng hefted the wooden box, his expression growing serious. “If I’m not mistaken, it should be a Twilight Angel’s ‘umbilical cord.'”

The instant those words left his mouth, all three Eileens froze.

A death sound effect promptly blared from the computer on the coffee table.

“Oh, come on…” The two Eileens at the computer let out a cry of dismay and immediately hammered away at their keyboards, using their few dozen seconds of respawn time to unleash a torrent of creative profanity directed at the game developers’ families.

The Eileen standing in front of Yu Sheng took an exaggeratedly large half-step backward. “What?! What did you just bring into this house?!”

Yu Sheng bent down and opened the wooden box to give Eileen a look.

“It was found among Old Zheng’s belongings. I made another visit to his nephew before coming back,” he explained the item’s origins. “I suspect Old Zheng actually had a very strong connection with that Twilight Angel trapped inside the ‘Fairy Tale,’ and he probably didn’t fully trust those Angel Cult followers either. So after obtaining this umbilical cord during some ritual, he hid it away. Now, this thing might be the key to unraveling the mystery of the Twilight Angel ‘An-Ka-Ai-La.'”

After seeing the shriveled umbilical cord inside the box, Eileen instinctively backed away. She wouldn’t actually be affected by psychic contamination, but she intuitively found the thing rather unsettling. After hearing Yu Sheng’s explanation, suspicion crept across her face, and she fixed him with a peculiar look. “You’re not going to steep it in liquor, are you?”

Yu Sheng: “…?”

Seeing his silence, Eileen’s expression grew even more complicated. “…You’re not going to steep it in liquor, right?”

“Is that really the impression you have of me? That I’ll eat literally anything?” Yu Sheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “I’m going to take this into the Black Forest and see how the Fairy Tale’s ‘subset’ reacts to this angel’s umbilical cord. Ideally, I can use this opportunity to figure out what state ‘An-Ka-Ai-La’ is actually in. Finding its weakness would be even better.”

Eileen stared blankly as she listened to Yu Sheng’s “plan,” then furrowed her brows. “How about you just steep it in liquor instead?”

Yu Sheng: “Is my plan really that unreliable?”

“It’s not about whether it’s reliable or not,” Eileen said, her expression suddenly turning serious as she spoke with genuine gravity. “It’s whether you’ve considered another possibility — what if bringing this ‘angel’s umbilical cord’ into the Black Forest ends up accelerating the Twilight Angel’s awakening or escape? We are talking about something like this, after all.”

Yu Sheng furrowed his brows.

“You’re right, there is that risk. So we need to be prepared to ‘sever’ this umbilical cord at any moment,” he said slowly, his tone grave. “But regardless, we have to try. We simply know far too little about the Twilight Angel ‘An-Ka-Ai-La’ right now.”

Seeing how serious Yu Sheng looked, Eileen actually felt somewhat reassured. But she still couldn’t help asking: “The plan sounds fine, but are you sure you can sever this umbilical cord’s ‘connection’ to the outside at any time? You should be completely clueless when it comes to sealing techniques…”

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then said with a perfectly straight face: “If worst comes to worst, I’ll eat it on the spot.”

The Little Doll froze instantly.

A few seconds later, she leaped into the air. “…So in the end you’re still going to eat it!?”

(End of Chapter)