Chapter 124: Savoring Life

Yu Sheng's consciousness drifted in an endless darkness, that familiar void and oppressive feeling flowing silently at the edge of his perception; his thoughts slowed to a crawl, and in this lonely yet familiar "afterlife," he even began to feel a bit of enjoyment in this quiet.

How to put it... things happened without much suspense.

A wolf bigger than a house pounced down, and Yu Sheng was gone on the spot, not lasting any longer than that squirrel.

Of course, the main reason things ended so quickly was that Yu Sheng didn't dodge at all; not only did he not dodge, he even actively offered himself up—offering his blood, his flesh, his spirit, his... all pure and burning joy and curiosity.

He lay quietly in this darkness of death.

He flowed quietly within the wolf's spirit and flesh.

He seeped quietly into the Black Forest, searching for the "fairy tale's" tentacles within the Black Forest.

Yu Sheng controlled his thoughts, preventing himself from being affected by the bizarre notions and fragments of memory in the darkness.

For him, every death was a "practice"; from initially completing rebirth in complete confusion, to later becoming aware of the existence of this surrounding darkness, to later perceiving the process of returning to the "human world," and now, he could not only maintain clear thinking in the darkness but also attempt to control this most extreme, purest "thought" of his current state, unburdened by a physical body.

He actively tempered the power of this thought, attempting to calculate time in the darkness, and even attempting to perceive things "outside" in reverse.

He knew his body was actually still sleeping in the real world, with Erin and Hu Lizheng accompanying him; this time, only his soul had died—just like when he was swallowed by the entity-Hunger during direct contact last time.

But there was a clear difference from last time.

This time, Yu Sheng could vaguely feel his torn soul fragments gradually decomposing, gradually becoming part of another individual, like a swallowed seed sprouting, the sprout turning into winding, growing tentacles—he perceived one of those tentacles, so in the darkness he tried extending his will, gently... "tweaking" it.

He saw "himself" running through the forest, blind, furious, draped in an endless night, casting a massive shadow.

He could even vaguely feel his fur, feel the night wind of the Black Forest blowing past his ears, wolf howls rising around him, invisible wolves following him, running endlessly in this night.

He could feel that these wolves fed on fear—that was the most original, most essential function of the fairy tale at its birth: to intimidate, to press down, to use many terrifying and sinister images to make children listening to stories fear the wilderness and strange environments, making them stay obediently at home.

This fear grew in the Black Forest, transforming into these wolf packs that fed on fear.

But now they were starving.

Because they had gained no nourishment in that hunt just now—swallowing the flesh and blood of a strange intruder, they felt only fearless emptiness, and some joy and curiosity the wolves couldn't identify, which left them quite confused.

The huge evil wolf crossed the forest clearing, its muddled mind unable to understand why this had happened—eating shouldn't be like this; whatever was swallowed, no matter what, should have some fear, yet the thing it had just eaten showed no fear at all; even... that "food" looked more like a ravenous eater.

Had it swallowed that "human," or had that "human" drilled into its body, eating it from the inside out?

The wolf didn't understand; the wolf would only run through the forest by instinct, patrolling every place Little Red Riding Hood might appear, searching those hiding spots, destroying those hiding spots.

"Are you just going to keep running like this?"

A voice appeared abruptly—Yu Sheng whispered beside the wolf, whispering to it using the wolf's low whine.

The giant wolf suddenly stopped, lifting its head in a daze, scanning the Black Forest, which differed little from its memory.

It still couldn't understand where that voice came from, nor could it connect it to its recent "meal."

But it could feel that something... had "appeared," something vaguely familiar, like prey—or like a hunter.

The howls rising and falling around also gradually quieted; the invisible wolf pack prowled uneasily in the forest, beginning to search for that equally invisible intruder by instinct.

Grass and trees swayed, wind blew through the treetops, leaves spun past the giant wolf's face; in the gaps between the spinning leaves, an eye full of curiosity stared at it.

"You... taste good?"

The leaves vanished, and the giant wolf felt that strange "thing" disappear from its perception as well; it lowered its head, emitting a confused and chaotic low growl; the wolf pack around it began to whine, the whining gradually rising in pitch, and howls rising and falling echoed throughout the entire Black Forest.

In a bush far away, a pair of nervous eyes stared tightly at the scene, emitting a tiny cry: "It's getting weird, it's getting weird..."

Yu Sheng suddenly plummeted in the darkness, and then that familiar sensation of crossing a certain "boundary" struck; in the final stage of the fall, he regained perception of his body, and with the soft touch of the bed beneath him, he suddenly opened his eyes.

The moment he opened his eyes, he saw two Erin heads pressed together right in front of him, two pairs of scarlet eyes staring unblinkingly at him.

Yu Sheng, just revived, saw this scene and almost got sent off by this little doll again; instantly, the whole person was not good: "Ah, damn! You scared the life out of me!"

But Erin made an even bigger fuss; the two dolls saw Yu Sheng suddenly open his eyes, let out a howl and jumped up—then promptly fell from the bedside to the floor, making two loud thuds.

Just hearing it hurt.

"You scared me!"

"And you have the nerve to say that? Is this how you stare so closely? Luckily I opened my eyes before getting up; if I had jumped up suddenly right now, there'd be at least two bumps on my head!" Yu Sheng looked impatiently at Erin, who was climbing onto the bed hands and feet, then saw the fox Miss standing obediently by the bedside, offering him a gentle smile, "Look how sensible Hu Lizheng is; she just knows to stand quietly nearby and greet with a smile..."

As soon as Erin climbed onto the bed, hearing Yu Sheng's latter half, she immediately put her hands on her hips and tattled: "She's smiling because she's guilty!"

"... Huh?"

"She ate all the meat filling! There are no buns tonight!"

Yu Sheng listened, stunned, turned his head to look at the fox girl; the smile on the latter's face finally began to stiffen, then she lowered her head, her tail and ears drooping together: "... I just wanted to taste a bit of the saltiness..."

"Then you took one bite, found it salty, drank water, found the water too bland, so you took another bite of meat filling, right?" Erin stood proudly at the head of the bed, "A whole basin! You ate it all!"

Yu Sheng, just awakened, ran into a mess of trouble; his mind was chaotic for several seconds before he finally figured it out, turning to look at Erin: "Then what about you? Hu Lizheng stole the meat filling, what were you doing?"

Erin spoke with righteous indignation: "I was pouring her water! Afraid she'd choke."

Yu Sheng slapped his forehead.

He must have owed those two clowns in his past life.

"Benefactor... I'm sorry..." Hu Lizheng saw Yu Sheng say nothing, thinking the other was truly angry, and immediately grew a bit nervous, approaching, "I won't eat it all next time."

As she spoke, a silver-white, fluffy big tail draped itself in front of Yu Sheng.

"Here's my tail for you to pet; don't be angry."

Yu Sheng looked up, his mouth twitching.

"Well, having me pet your tail is fine, but you don't need to pull it off and give it to me... that looks a bit creepy."

"Oh."

"Forget it, I'm not angry either; I'm just a bit confused since I just 'came back to life,' and I can't react to all this commotion," Yu Sheng sighed, casually picking up the still-warm fox tail and handing it back to Hu Lizheng, "I'll go cook some noodles in a bit; I guess you definitely haven't had enough to eat yet—you two go downstairs and wait for me; I'll rest a bit more."

Hu Lizheng said "Oh," then got up to leave; Erin walked to the bedside and suddenly turned her head back: "By the way, you haven't said how things went on your end—judging by the time you woke up, did you really 'kick the bucket' again?"

Yu Sheng smiled slightly: "That thing's front teeth were thicker than my thigh; what do you think?"

Erin made a strange expression: "... Then I see your mood is quite good."

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, as if savoring something; after a long while, a smile of ambiguous meaning appeared on his face: "Yes, quite good; although I didn't get to taste it, it seems... quite something to look forward to."

Ailin blinked her eyes, and once she caught on, she immediately shrank her neck: "Oh damn, just as expected of you."

She hopped off the bed and went scampering off down the hall after Hu Li, shouting as she ran: "Hey! Silly fox, listen to me! In a few days we might be adding to the menu!"

"Huh? Adding what to the menu?"

"Probably wolf meat…"

Listening to Hu Li and Ailin's voices gradually fade down the corridor, Yu Sheng unconsciously let a faint smile float onto his face, then he let out a long breath, his body relaxing as he leaned back against the headboard.

After a while, he reached out and picked up the phone on the bedside table.

He opened Border Communications and found Little Red Riding Hood's avatar — as a Gao Zhongsheng, she should still be at school right now.

Although Yu Sheng always felt it was a bit odd that a spirit-world detective like her would obediently go to school, after meeting her a few times he had gotten used to it.

This border city had never lacked all sorts of strange and unusual characters.

He quickly composed a message and sent it to the girl who was with the wolf—

"I entered the Black Forest, saw those formless and tangible wolves, and also saw the path in the woods, the cabin, and that squirrel — do you have time to talk?"

(End of chapter)