Chapter 74 – Departure

Chapter 74 – Departure

Hearing Yu Sheng’s muttering, Baili Qing’s expression turned somewhat peculiar for a moment, but she said nothing, merely continuing to observe the “man” across from her with mild curiosity.

Whether it was answering questions or helping resolve minor troubles, all of that was secondary. The most important thing about today was the “contact” itself.

She had made contact with a great many entities—all kinds of them. She had killed them, exiled them, conversed with those strange beings that possessed reason, even cooperated with them. She had deceived them, and been deceived by them in turn. But never had any entity—not even the most human-like among them—sat across from her like this, discussing these kinds of things under these circumstances.

This “person” sitting before her even seemed genuinely interested in becoming a spirit detective or investigator.

Setting aside the thoughts swirling through her mind, Baili Qing broke the silence: “So, you want to…”

“Can I register a group?” Yu Sheng looked at Baili Qing with a hint of anticipation. “I’m not working solo over here—I’ve got two others with me.”

“You mean the doll named Eileen, and the ‘fox spirit’ you brought out of the Otherworld?” Baili Qing said, then suddenly furrowed her brow. “But they don’t currently have legal identities in the Borderland.”

“Then how about getting them ID cards first?” Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then immediately blurted out, “Oh wait, getting them ID cards won’t require having a job first, will it? And then to register for a job you’d need an ID card first, and then you’d just be stuck in a loop?”

Baili Qing was visibly taken aback this time. “Of course not. Why would you worry about something like that?”

“Oh, that’s fine then,” Yu Sheng said with an awkward laugh. “I was overthinking it.”

“I’ll make the arrangements,” Baili Qing said without dwelling on it, though she silently added another note to Yu Sheng’s observation report in her mind: “Possesses a certain degree of humor.” She then raised her wrist and glanced at her watch. “It’s about time.”

“Ah, you’re leaving?” Yu Sheng instinctively stood up. “Then what about my…”

“Someone will come find you soon to handle the necessary registration procedures for you and your two friends,” Baili Qing said as she rose to her feet. “You’ll just need to fill out a few forms. Keep your phone accessible over the next couple of days.”

“Oh… okay.”

Baili Qing nodded, but just before leaving, she seemed to suddenly remember something: “Right, there’s one more thing.”

“What?”

“About the Night-shrouded Valley—the Otherworld region you encountered before. Have you gone back to check on its condition since then?”

Yu Sheng was somewhat puzzled. “That valley? I haven’t been back since… Is something wrong with it?”

“The situation is precisely ‘unclear,'” Baili Qing shook her head. “So if your ‘door’ can still lead there, you might want to go take a look.”

From Baili Qing’s expression, Yu Sheng couldn’t glean anything useful, but he vaguely sensed… this matter probably wasn’t as casual as the Bureau Chief was making it seem.

The fact that she specifically brought it up right before leaving felt more like she was emphasizing something.

After a brief moment of puzzlement and thought, Yu Sheng gave a slight nod.

He honestly had no desire whatsoever to return to that eerie valley, nor any interest in dealing with “Hunger” again. But from Baili Qing’s attitude, he realized the valley might have developed problems beyond just Entity-Hunger.

And in that blink of an eye, the café stretching infinitely in both directions quietly collapsed before his gaze.

Baili Qing’s figure vanished amid the cascading collapse of the scenery. The café returned to normal in an instant—the sounds of the real world flooded back into his ears, and everything felt as though it had been nothing more than a bizarre dream. Only a faint trace of perfume lingering in the air could prove that someone had truly been here just moments ago.

Yu Sheng sat dazed for a moment, then looked around and found that no one seemed to have noticed anything unusual. Little Red Riding Hood’s thick stack of worksheets still lay quietly spread across the table, waiting for him to keep working.

“She really does just come and go as she pleases…”

Yu Sheng shook his head, muttered under his breath, and sat back down to continue doing homework for the high schooler.

But this time, he simply couldn’t settle his mind.

The many things discussed with the “Bureau Chief of the Special Operations Bureau” swirled through his mind like uncontrollable whirlpools. A wealth of new knowledge about this world churned restlessly within him, interwoven with anticipation and imagination about the future, about distant horizons. He felt it had been many years since he’d last experienced this kind of eager excitement mixed with a touch of nervousness about tomorrow.

And then there was the matter Baili Qing had specifically raised before leaving—the Night-shrouded Valley. What had happened to that valley?

Just then, a voice suddenly came from nearby, interrupting Yu Sheng’s thoughts.

“We’re back!” Little Red Riding Hood’s voice sounded cheerful. “Yu Sheng, how much did you finish?”

Yu Sheng immediately looked up at the sound, and the first thing he saw was the black-haired girl standing next to Little Red Riding Hood.

It was Hu Li, wearing new clothes.

The weather had already turned cool, so Little Red Riding Hood had bought her a white insulated jacket and a cotton skirt. The outfit itself was quite simple, yet it suited Hu Li unexpectedly well. The fluffy material at the collar, serving both as decoration and a windbreak, even reminded one of Hu Li’s own furry ears and tail—the same silvery white, understated elegance carrying a hint of soft allure.

The fox girl stood there somewhat stiffly, her expression looking a bit dazed. She didn’t seem accustomed to wearing properly fitted clothes yet, or perhaps after wandering so long through a place full of strangers, she still hadn’t recovered. It wasn’t until Yu Sheng waved her over that she suddenly blinked as if startled awake, grabbed the several large shopping bags, and hurried over.

“Um… Yu Sheng,” Hu Li said nervously, standing on the other side of the table. She managed to remember that in places with many strangers, she should use Yu Sheng’s name. “The new clothes—they fit well.”

“Yes, they look great,” Yu Sheng said with a smile. He could tell the girl was happy, but his gaze fell to her skirt. “The temperature’s dropped these past couple of days—aren’t you cold in that?”

“She’s wearing thermal leggings underneath,” Little Red Riding Hood said as she sat down right next to Yu Sheng, leaning over to peer at the table. “Let me see how much you’ve done… Hmm, doesn’t seem like much?”

“Something unexpected came up earlier and held me up for quite a while,” Yu Sheng said, touching his nose with some embarrassment. Then he looked curiously at Hu Li and Little Red Riding Hood. “Wait, where’s Eileen?”

“Oh, right here!” Hu Li instantly perked up, reaching down to lift a large shopping bag from the ground and show Yu Sheng. “We bought so much stuff in the middle of the trip that I couldn’t hold her anymore, so I put her in the bag.”

Yu Sheng leaned over and saw the little doll lying inside the shopping bag—Eileen lay atop a pile of clothes with the light gone from her eyes, the entire bag radiating the doll’s grievances.

The resentment was so thick the shopping bag was practically becoming a cursed object.

“Are you okay?” Yu Sheng leaned in and asked mentally.

The little doll: “Okay my foot! Get me out of here! I stared at the ceiling the entire way through the mall, and when we came outside, still more ceiling! Halfway through, Little Red Riding Hood tossed her unfinished drink into the bag! Then the snacks she bought went in too! At one point I fell to the bottom of the bag and they didn’t even notice! I protested the entire time, but that stupid fox was so dazed from shopping she completely ignored me!”

Yu Sheng hastily reached in and extracted the grievance-filled Miss Doll from the shopping bag, placing her on the chair beside him while offering a torrent of mental consolation.

Little Red Riding Hood casually flipped through her homework, then turned to Yu Sheng with some curiosity: “What kind of unexpected thing happened?”

Yu Sheng didn’t hide it, only lowering his voice: “A woman suddenly showed up looking for me. She said her name was Baili Qing, the Bureau Chief of the Special Operations Bureau.”

Little Red Riding Hood, who had been flipping through her math papers, froze instantly. Two or three seconds passed before she stiffly turned her head. “…What?”

Yu Sheng glanced around, then whispered to Little Red Riding Hood: “Is that really so surprising?”

“The Bureau Chief! Baili Qing! That big shot!” Even Little Red Riding Hood’s voice had changed, though she didn’t dare speak loudly enough to draw attention. “What—why did she suddenly show up, and come to find you personally?! She…”

Little Red Riding Hood paused, her expression suddenly turning anxious. “She doesn’t think you’re a dangerous element and came to deal with you herself, does she?”

Probably because she’d spent the entire half-day taking Hu Li around the mall, she now spoke to Yu Sheng much more familiarly than before—nothing like the obvious nervousness and caution she’d shown when they first met.

Yu Sheng paid no mind to this subtle shift in Little Red Riding Hood’s attitude. He simply recalled his conversation with Baili Qing and shook his head. “No, nothing like that. She just came to learn about my situation. She asked me a few questions, and I asked her a whole bunch—honestly, I thought she was pretty easy to talk to.”

Little Red Riding Hood stared blankly, almost doubting her own hearing—

Baili Qing? Easy to talk to?

Now that was a novel combination of words.

…

Inside a certain office at Special Operations Bureau headquarters, accompanied by a cascade of collapsing and warping light, a pale humanoid outline abruptly appeared behind the desk. The pale outline rapidly took form and was imbued with subtle color, resolving into Baili Qing’s figure.

She sat quietly behind the desk, motionless for a long time, as if lost in thought.

After an indeterminate stretch of time, she finally looked up and reached out to press a button on the desk: “Notify Second Squad’s Song Cheng and Classified Records Division’s Luo Zheng—report to my office immediately.”

(End of Chapter)