Chapter 201 – The Yu-Style Fixed Door Experiment

Chapter 201 – The Yu-Style Fixed Door Experiment

Exchanging information at the Special Operations Bureau and waiting for the lab to finish sampling the “umbilical cord” had taken longer than expected. By the time Yu Sheng returned home, the sky had already gone completely dark—and the moment he pushed open the door and stepped inside, he was greeted by a sight so horrifying it nearly gave him cardiac arrest:

Hu Li and Eileen were huddled together at the kitchen doorway, discussing what to make for dinner.

Eileen’s suggestion was to fry stuffed eggplant boxes and stew the half chicken left in the fridge.

Hu Li’s suggestion was to stew everything remaining in the fridge, including two newly purchased jars of chili sauce.

When Yu Sheng pushed through the door, the two of them were in the middle of a show-of-hands vote—Eileen, fighting dirty, had raised six hands.

But Hu Li had raised two hands plus nine tails.

Fortunately, Yu Sheng arrived just in time to once again successfully avert a fox-in-the-kitchen disaster, preventing a spectacular explosion in the Borderland on this peaceful, tranquil winter evening.

“Didn’t I tell you two not to go into the kitchen when I’m not home!” Yu Sheng said with an exasperated expression as he tied on his apron. “Have you already forgotten the iron-pot-braised-Eileen incident, or the spatula that got warped beyond recognition?”

The fox and the doll sat pitifully side by side on chairs at the kitchen doorway, heads bowed as they listened to Yu Sheng’s lecture. Then Eileen lifted her head: “I—I wasn’t planning to go in this time. I was just remote-controlling Hu Li…”

“I can cook,” Hu Li hurried to raise her eyes too, carefully lifting her hand. “Benefactor, have you forgotten that the stew I made last time was actually pretty good?”

Yu Sheng paused for a moment, recalling the pot of mysterious substance the fox demon girl had stewed last time. He did somewhat acknowledge her “culinary skills,” but still quickly and cautiously shook his head: “Even so, only when I’m home—you’re too easily swayed by Eileen’s nonsense. The risk of her ‘remote-controlling’ you is too high.”

Hu Li nodded immediately: “Oh.”

Eileen: “Hey, why is the risk too high only when I’m directing?!”

But Yu Sheng had already stopped entertaining the little doll’s protests.

He needed to hurry up and make some food to feed Hu Li, who had been waiting for him on an empty stomach for quite a while.

And while he was busy cooking, the doll’s protests at the kitchen doorway finally died down. A few seconds later, Eileen sauntered in as if nothing had happened, climbing onto his shoulder while saying in a seemingly offhand manner: “Judging by the look on your face, did they find something at the Bureau?”

Yu Sheng didn’t even look up: “They found Squirrel’s original name, and also confirmed the exact time when the Twilight Angel ‘An-Ka-Ai-La’ first descended—there’s a piece of paper in my pants pocket, you can take a look.”

So Eileen nimbly climbed back down, hanging off Yu Sheng’s leg as she rummaged through his pocket.

Yu Sheng couldn’t help but glance down at the little doll and her impressive acrobatic skills, thinking to himself that she was the one who looked more like a squirrel…

“…Eighty-six years ago, Zhao Lele, eight and a half years old when she went missing…” Eileen quickly found the piece of paper Yu Sheng had mentioned. She unfolded it and glanced over it, unable to help muttering in a rather peculiar tone, “Tch, you really can’t tell from the photo that she’d turn into that twitchy, chain-smoking, foul-mouthed thing.”

“It’s been eighty-six years,” Yu Sheng sighed softly. “She’s long since stopped being that eight-and-a-half-year-old child.”

“…Who knows what she’ll end up becoming,” Eileen mumbled, quickly folding the A4 paper and stuffing it back into Yu Sheng’s pocket. Then, seeing that he’d finished stir-frying, she nimbly climbed back onto his shoulder and reached out to help turn off the range hood. “Any plans after dinner? Head straight to the Orphanage to tell Little Red Riding Hood and the other ‘guardians’ about the current situation? You’d better choose your words carefully—after all, the Twilight Angel is pretty terrifying…”

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, shaking his head as he plated the food: “No, lights-out at Little Red Riding Hood’s Orphanage is at ten-thirty. I’m planning to wait until they’ve fallen asleep and entered the Wasteland before telling them about this. By then, once we’ve verified that the ‘sanctuary’ mechanism is working, everyone will have some peace of mind, and bringing up the Twilight Angel won’t cause them to panic too much. Before that, you and Hu Li come with me to the Valley first.”

“The Valley? What are we going there for?”

“To finish an ‘experiment’ I’ve been putting off. There should be enough time,” Yu Sheng said casually, picking up the plate and heading for the door. “Hu Li! Dinner’s ready!”

…

After dinner, Yu Sheng tidied up briefly, then first took Eileen and Hu Li down to the basement.

No. 66 Wutong Road had a very spacious basement. As if mirroring the oversized attic at the top of the building, this underground structure also had nearly half the area of the first floor. A staircase in the living room led directly down here, and aside from one wall that was piled high with miscellaneous items, half the basement was completely empty.

Yu Sheng normally came down here even less frequently than he went up to the attic.

Switching on the light, Yu Sheng began rummaging through the large heap of junk along the wall for what he needed, while Eileen watched curiously with wide eyes: “Hey, I thought we were going to the Valley?”

“Just some prep work,” Yu Sheng said without looking up. “I remember seeing it around here somewhere… oh, found it.”

As he spoke, he finally found what he was looking for among the dust-covered clutter. Under Eileen’s surprised and bewildered gaze, he happily bent down and heaved up a large object with effort—

It was a battered old wooden door, still attached to its frame…

Eileen stared in stunned disbelief: “What do you need that thing for?!”

“I want to try building a fixed door,” Yu Sheng said as he carried the door out from the pile of junk. “Didn’t we talk about this before? Right now the only way in and out of the Valley is through me using Door Opening, which is pretty inconvenient. Since I have some time now, I want to test whether an idea I had earlier will actually work.” As he spoke, he had already leaned the door against the bare wall at the far end of the basement. Then he grabbed a rag to roughly clean the dust off the door, took out a pen, and began sketching and drawing on the floor nearby.

Eileen recognized at a glance that Yu Sheng was drawing a simple Alchemy Array for Spirit Infusion—the only alchemical formula he knew.

The little doll instantly understood what he was planning.

“You’re going to use a physically existing door as a medium, and then… solidify the ‘portal’ you open as if it were an alchemical effect?!”

Yu Sheng nodded: “That’s the plan.”

The little doll opened her mouth, momentarily at a loss for words. She instinctively turned to glance at Hu Li beside her, wanting to see what this “silly fox” thought about it. The fox’s reaction, true to form, did not disappoint—the moment Hu Li heard Yu Sheng’s idea, her eyes lit up and she clapped her hands together: “The Benefactor’s path of artifact refinement follows the heart’s desire, taking the road of reducing complexity to simplicity, pursuing the very source of all things…”

“Is that really how it works?” Eileen looked at the fox with a face full of doubt. “You don’t even know alchemy.”

Hu Li turned and shot back a question: “Do you understand the Benefactor’s Path of the Netherworld?”

Eileen: “…”

The little doll was rendered speechless by the fox demon girl’s single retort for quite a while. In the end she could only wave her hand dismissively, and turning to see Yu Sheng still drawing away, she finally couldn’t help but walk over: “Fine, fine, let me help. Just drawing like that won’t work—an Alchemy Array this size already counts as mid-scale. You can’t simply enlarge the small-scale array I taught you; every node needs additional amplification… let me show you how to do it.”

Yu Sheng hesitantly handed the pen to the doll, watching as she began making additions and adjustments to the rough, simple Alchemy Array, listening as she muttered while drawing: “Actually, just drawing it like this still isn’t enough. Proper alchemy requires special ink when drawing larger arrays, but since we’re using your blood as the material, the difference in effect from skipping that step shouldn’t matter too much… Pay attention to these runes—they’re the amplification nodes. Every time the array’s complexity doubles, you need to add this kind of pattern at every line intersection…”

Yu Sheng listened in a daze, watching Eileen struggle to grip the pen shaft that was a bit too thick for her with both hands. Then he heard a flurry of footsteps from the direction of the stairs—two more Eileens came down from above, each carrying a pen, and they began helping together.

Three little dolls scurried back and forth across the floor around Yu Sheng, and the massive, intricate Alchemy Array rapidly took shape.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that… she was actually enjoying herself quite a bit.

After that, Eileen extended some of the runes onto the old door’s frame, and only then was the job finally complete.

“All done!” Eileen, shouldering a pen like it was a beam, turned around and declared proudly to Yu Sheng, “This is the basic array pattern—did you memorize it? From now on, anything with a radius over one meter needs this kind of amplification… Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Uh, it’s just that you suddenly seem pretty reliable,” Yu Sheng said honestly. “You look like a real alchemy expert.”

“I am an alchemy expert! And when have I ever not been reliable?!” Eileen glared with her crimson eyes, her tone irritated. “Anyway, I’ve drawn the array for you, but I can’t guarantee whether it’ll actually work—after all, nobody’s ever tried this idea of yours before, and I don’t even know what the true nature of your ‘portals’ is. Just don’t blow this place up, that’s all I ask…”

Yu Sheng quickly waved his hands: “Don’t worry, don’t worry. I know what I’m doing. I can precisely sense the entire process of Door Opening—if it doesn’t feel right, I can abort at any time.”

As he said this, he pulled out his phone.

First on his frequent contacts list: Baili Qing.

Looking at that name, Yu Sheng pursed his lips, hesitated for two seconds, then dialed.

The other end picked up quickly.

“Ahem,” Yu Sheng cleared his throat twice. “Bureau Chief Baili…”

But the moment those words left his mouth, a cool, composed voice came through the receiver: “Experiment?”

Yu Sheng: “…Yeah.”

“How long?”

Yu Sheng: “Probably two or three hours…”

“Alright, arrangements are made. Let me know when you’re done.”

Yu Sheng blinked in confusion, blurting out instinctively: “Oh, than— wait, how did you know I was going to…”

“The throat-clearing, the honorific—you’re not usually this polite when you open doors.”

Yu Sheng: “…”

(End of Chapter)