Chapter 119: The Small Path

The wolves are coming.

Yet Yu Sheng could not see the wolves' exact forms—he could only hear the sounds of snapping branches and rustling vegetation constantly coming from behind him, hear the occasionally suppressed low whimpers, and for several moments, he could even smell a rotting stench mixed with the scent of blood drifting through the air; a chill was spreading through the forest, like an unrelenting winter drawing near, gradually stripping away life and warmth.

The howling of wolves rang out again, rising and falling, emanating from every tree, every bush, every shadow around them; the wolf pack was right beside them, surrounding their prey, constantly tightening the encirclement.

"Run! Don't stop! Run!"

The squirrel had climbed from Yu Sheng's neck to the top of his head; this small rodent waved its paws vigorously forward, letting out sharp, shrill cries.

"Run to the small path! Run to where there is light! Run to where the wolves dare not go!"

Yu Sheng couldn't help but glance back, yet he could see only layers of shadows in the dim dense forest; vaguely, something was indeed chasing him through the woodland shadows, yet he still could not make out the form of a single wolf.

But that presence was right behind him; he was even beginning to feel the currents of air generated by those stinking, bloodied maws breathing beside him.

"Where are the wolves?" he couldn't help but shout loudly, "I can't see them!"

"Not seeing them is a good thing; not seeing them means they still can't catch up to you!" the squirrel shrieked, "It would be disastrous if you saw them; they would keep chasing, keep chasing, keep chasing, until you can no longer run, until you become an exhausted adult... an adult... wait! You are an adult!"

As if suddenly discovering something, the squirrel looked down in shock at the running Yu Sheng, gripped his hair tightly, and yelled, "So how the hell did you get in here!"

Yu Sheng, however, had no time to respond to this squirrel, because he suddenly noticed several bleeding wounds appearing on his arm.

Those were marks left by scratches from invisible sharp claws.

He was beginning to see those hazy shadows now; between the dense trees, those emaciated, starving predators seemed endless.

Yu Sheng suddenly exerted force with his feet, stepping on the thick layer of fallen leaves and rotting soil, and continued to charge fiercely in the direction the squirrel had indicated.

He was not afraid of death, nor worried about being trapped in this place, but he had not yet figured out what was going on here, had not understood what had happened to "Little Red Riding Hood"—he could not simply be eaten by wolves here in vain.

And just then, a glimmer of light suddenly caught the corner of his eye.

Deep within the dense forest, amidst the boundless spreading darkness, some warm bright lights abruptly appeared, and under the illumination of those lights, one could vaguely make out a small path.

"Run, run, run! Right there! Aha! You adult actually runs faster than a child!" the squirrel shouted excitedly, "Good, good! Adults are always heavy-footed, yet you run just like they did when they first entered—they can't catch up to you, they can't catch up to you!"

Amidst the squirrel's hysterical shrieks, Yu Sheng burst out of the shadows lurking in the forest; he charged toward that warm light, and almost the instant the light fell upon him, those chilling presences chasing him seemed to melt into the glow, vanishing instantly.

The wolves had disappeared, vanishing beside the small path in the woods.

Yu Sheng panted heavily, leaning against a withered tree stump by the roadside; after quite a while, he finally lifted his head to look at this small trail cutting through the dense forest.

It had appeared so abruptly in the great forest, paved with earth and stone; the winding path seemed to have no end, extending between the great trees into the depths of darkness, while on both sides of the road stood bright streetlamps—Yu Sheng did not understand how those lamps were lit; they looked like nothing more than spheres hanging from curved branches, with no wires and no visible flames inside, yet they cast a soft light down, illuminating this woodland path.

The squirrel jumped down from his head, hopped a few times onto the rough, curved wooden railing beside the path, squatted down, and let out a long sigh: "Phew—almost became a delicious meal."

"Are those the 'wolves' that have been hunting Little Red Riding Hood?" Yu Sheng, having caught his breath and steadied himself slightly, came before the squirrel and looked seriously at this seemingly knowledgeable... "small animal," "Was that largest, strongest 'evil wolf' among them as well?"

"Evil wolf? Don't mention the evil wolf!" The squirrel seemed suddenly terrified; it leaped up in fright, extending its paws as if to cover Yu Sheng's mouth, "The Hunter hasn't appeared yet; we cannot attract the worst and biggest wolf over—you have no gun in your hand; it would swallow you whole in one bite! Swallow you whole!"

Listening to this, Yu Sheng continued to stare at the other party: "Where exactly is this—I know it's a forest; I mean to ask, is this Little Red Riding Hood's dreamscape, or some kind of... otherworld?"

"Forest, this is simply the forest; I don't understand what you mean—dream? Little Red Riding Hood hasn't started dreaming yet; good children sleep at night, and she is still outside doing her own things... what was it called? Oh, she said it; she has to go to school," the squirrel shuffled its steps along the wooden railing, chattering incessantly, "If she had started dreaming, she should have entered here by now..."

The squirrel's manner of speaking was strange, giving one a sense of soliloquy and fragmented information, but Yu Sheng found it not difficult to understand; he quickly grasped the other's meaning and deduced the connection between this place and "Little Red Riding Hood."

This place should indeed be some sort of "otherworld," not merely Little Red Riding Hood's dreamscape; it has always existed, and only after Little Red Riding Hood falls asleep... does she fall into this forest.

Here, she accepts the endless pursuit of the wolf pack.

Thinking of this, Yu Sheng quickly furrowed his brows: "How can one completely escape the wolves' pursuit?"

"Escape? What are you thinking! Wolves will never give up, and the forest has no end," the squirrel rubbed its face with its paw, looking at Yu Sheng as if he were an idiot, "Run, just keep running constantly, from one safe small path to another safe small path, run into a warm house, and then run to another house before the darkness falls within the first house; as long as you can still run, there will always be places in the forest to hide temporarily—that's all, that's all..."

Were the rules spoken by this squirrel the guidelines for moving within this "forest"?

Yu Sheng thought rapidly in his mind, then steadied himself: "This forest... is it the curse created by the 'Fairy Tale'? Do you know anything about the curse?"

He did not know the origin of this squirrel before him, nor why such an intelligent, communicative "entity" would appear in what seemed to be an otherworldly black forest, but since it had just offered help, it indicated that it was at least not allied with the "curse" Little Red Riding Hood had mentioned.

However, upon hearing his words, the squirrel merely stared blankly for a moment, then paced two steps along the railing: "How would I know? I'm just a damn squirrel."

Then it raised its paw again, quickly scratched the fur on its face, and lifted its chin with great arrogance: "A damn squirrel so cute it's bubbling over."

Yu Sheng's expression became somewhat blank.

And that squirrel suddenly dug around on its body with its paw, somehow producing a thin stick-like object from who-knows-where; it held this thin stick in its mouth, rubbed its large tail against the railing beside it, and the tip of its tail suddenly "whooshed" into a small flame; it used this flame to light the small stick held in its mouth, took a deep breath, and exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"Want a puff?" The squirrel lifted its head, holding that small stick with its paw, "This thing will make you feel better, but you have to pinch it with the tip of your nail."

Yu Sheng's expression became even more blank.

"Oh, you're not interested; that's good—although you are an adult, this isn't a good habit," the squirrel said, putting the small stick back in its mouth, "Ah, truly unaccustomed; this is the first time I've seen an adult—normally the first ones to arrive here are little ones; they cry for a long time, and very few can evade the first hunt; they all get swallowed whole into the wolves' bellies. Honestly, I'm kinda nervous; you've made a squirrel bear pressure it shouldn't have to bear... zuo zuo zuo—hiss, phew—"

For a moment, Yu Sheng didn't know how to respond to this fellow; honestly, this squirrel's style was a bit beyond his comprehension.

Although he had a living puppet that could curse, a nine-tailed fox demon that could launch its own tail, and a "No. 66 Wutong Road" building invisible to ordinary people, he had always been a good young man with normal values and a healthy psyche—a smoking, cursing squirrel was not within his scope of expectation.

"Why aren't you speaking?" The squirrel finished sucking the remaining part of the small stick in one go, then casually tossed the still-smoking end into its mouth, chewed, and swallowed it, looking up at Yu Sheng, "Oh, scared stiff? That's normal; adults can also be scared stiff by the forest; come a few more times and you'll get used to it—get used to their hunting, get used to their predation.

"Then you will establish a connection with some of the wolves here, you will establish a connection with the entire forest; when you are both the lost person here and the hungry wolf here, and at the same time the forest, the Hunter, and the Grandmother, you will be fully adapted.

"By then you will have your own red cloak, coming in every night to run a bit; aha, very fulfilling... though I am curious, what kind of cloak will you get? After all, you are not a child, and you are a male..."

"I am not the new Little Red Riding Hood," Yu Sheng interrupted the squirrel's chatter, emphasizing once again with a serious face, "I am her friend."

The squirrel froze; it stared straight at Yu Sheng, as if trying to detect a trace of lying on the latter's face; after quite a while, it seemed to finally confirm something, straightened its upper body, and its thick tail swept uneasily back and forth on the wooden railing.

"Are you damn serious? You can't deceive a squirrel as cute and bubbling as me!"

"I am serious."

(End of Chapter)