Chapter 125: Dinner

After sending the message, Yu Sheng went downstairs and began cooking in the kitchen while waiting patiently—Little Red Riding Hood was always online; even when she was in class, her wolf would carry her phone to receive new messages at any time.

However, the other party did not reply for a very long time.

Yu Sheng was not in a hurry anyway; that Miss would definitely reply.

He skillfully fried the meat sauce, then, while the water was heating, sliced a large plate of cucumber strips—Zhajiangmian was simple and quick to make, and Hu Li liked it very much.

The kitchen door was pushed open cautiously; a pair of fluffy white big ears poked in first, twitching alertly in the air. Yu Sheng turned his head and saw the fox Miss sniffing with her nose, her eyes shining.

"It'll be ready in a moment; we're having Zhajiangmian for dinner," Yu Sheng said casually, then glanced at the pile of tails behind the Nine-Tailed Fox that were almost blurring into afterimages. "Craving it?"

As he spoke, he couldn't help but be curious—how did this Miss manage to flick all nine tails in various directions without them tangling together?

Hu Li immediately nodded vigorously, her tails behind her swishing into a silver-white background wall.

Faintly, one could still hear Irene's exclamation: "Holy crap, why is there wind in the dining room?!"

Yu Sheng casually ladled half a bowl of meat sauce, picked up a cucumber, and handed it to the demon fox girl whose eyes were flashing with Jin Guang: "Take it and eat—later, you don't need to bring the bowl back; just use it to serve your rice."

Hu Li held the meat sauce and cucumber and went out happily.

At almost the same time, Yu Sheng felt his phone vibrate in his pants pocket, and a pleasant ringtone sounded simultaneously.

He took it out and, unsurprisingly, saw Little Red Riding Hood's name—she hadn't sent a message but had called directly.

Yu Sheng answered the call; before he could even speak after putting the phone to his ear, the girl's urgent and nervous voice came from the other end: "I just wrote a very long message but felt it would be clearer to call directly. What is going on?! Is what you said just now true..."

"Those things couldn't be made up out of thin air, you know," Yu Sheng, having expected Little Red Riding Hood's reaction, interrupted the other party, his tone calm and steady. "Don't panic first; listen to me. Do you remember what happened in the museum before? A evil wolf crawled out of your shadow and bit me—do you remember?"

Little Red Riding Hood on the other end of the phone paused for a moment, then quickly replied: "Yes, I certainly remember."

"It touched my blood—it ate it," Yu Sheng clamped the phone under his neck, dropped a handful of noodles into the pot of boiling water, and casually said while cleaning up the cutting board and knife he had used for the cucumber, "The amount might not be much, plus it was indirect absorption, so you haven't reacted yet. But based on my experience, it will eventually 'take effect with a delay' on you too. As for the current stage... it seems I first established a connection with the 'curse' on you, or to put it another way..."

Yu Sheng paused, thought briefly, and said: "To put it another way, I first established a connection with the part of you that belongs to the 'wolf'."

Little Red Riding Hood did not speak for a moment; only her suddenly rapid breathing could be heard.

With her intelligence and experience as a Spirit World detective, she should have been able to understand what Yu Sheng meant, but obviously she was still a bit confused.

"You see, you ultimately 'took a bite', although this process was a bit unexpected," Yu Sheng stirred the noodles in the pot and continued speaking while waiting by the stove, "Rest assured first; I know you must be a bit nervous right now, but don't be afraid, there will be no harm. Before this, I want to talk to you about that Black Forest."

Little Red Riding Hood was silent, and only spoke after a long while: "What do you want to know?"

Her tone carried a helpless resignation.

"Do you know the origin of that squirrel?"

"I... I don't know. It was there the first time I fell into the forest, but I was very confused then and don't remember how it appeared," Little Red Riding Hood said. "It told me many things about the Black Forest. In my judgment, it should also be a special entity generated within the Black Forest, another manifestation of the 'Fairy Tale' rules."

She paused here for a moment, seemingly organizing her thoughts, then continued: "There must be bad people who hurt children, and friends who help children; that is what fairy tales are like. You... understand, right?"

"Easy to understand. Although I didn't stay in the Black Forest for long, I can roughly feel its patterns," Yu Sheng said, suddenly hesitating a bit again. "Also, that squirrel was eaten by the wolf... uh, the situation was very chaotic then, I couldn't stop it. If it is also an entity generated by the Black Forest, it should be fine, right?"

"No need to worry; it has been eaten by the wolf more than once," Little Red Riding Hood's answer confirmed Yu Sheng's guess. "Including me, I have been chased by the wolf many times too—the squirrel will be fine; it will appear near the path again next time."

Yu Sheng hummed, then hesitated for a moment before asking directly: "Tell me the truth, are you about to have a 'big problem'?"

"... Did the squirrel tell you even that?"

"What it said was jumbled, but not hard to understand," Yu Sheng turned off the fire, took the noodles out and rinsed them with cold water, then leaned against the cabinet. "The Black Forest is gradually devouring you, and you are not the first Little Red Riding Hood... Is this the curse you mentioned? What will happen next? What about the other Fairy Tale members? Is the situation the same for them?"

Little Red Riding Hood did not speak for a moment.

But Yu Sheng did not mind; after waiting two or three seconds, he calmly asked: "How much time do you have left?"

Little Red Riding Hood remained silent, but this time she finally spoke: "... Next month, on my eighteenth birthday."

Yu Sheng instantly took a light breath.

This answer left him a bit stunned—he had thought Little Red Riding Hood's situation might be bad, but he never expected it to be this bad!

"I won't necessarily die; Dr. Lin said my situation is the best one," Little Red Riding Hood quickly added. "My chances of successfully surviving adulthood are very high, and I have always hidden well; the number of times I was caught by that wolf..."

"That squirrel said the most dangerous thing is not being caught by the wolf, but becoming a member of the wolf pack," Yu Sheng interrupted the other party, his expression and tone becoming exceptionally serious. "We must meet to talk; I need to know everything related to that forest—not just that forest, but also matters concerning the 'Fairy Tale'. As I understand it, the 'Fairy Tale' should not include just one Black Forest, right?"

The other end of the phone was silent; after a few seconds, the girl's voice came through the receiver: "Why do you care so much? This matter originally had nothing to do with you... I don't mean anything by saying this; I'm just a bit curious."

Yu Sheng thought for a moment: "We are at least friends, right?"

"We've only known each other for a few days; excluding that time in the valley, we've only acted together once," Little Red Riding Hood's tone was very serious. "I don't think that counts as much of a bond—at least not enough to care so much."

"... Don't be so rigid at such a young age; I'm an adult and more flexible than you," Yu Sheng said casually. "I've always done whatever I wanted; there aren't that many reasons. Besides, you've helped me quite a bit. Moreover, the wolf in your shadow even crawled out and bit me—now I'm tied to that Black Forest too. What can I do? I can't hide."

Obviously, Yu Sheng's last sentence had extremely high persuasiveness.

After a moment of silence, the girl on the other end of the phone sighed: "True. Then let's meet tomorrow. I'll give you an address; it's our home. You can... come and see us."

"Okay."

The call ended.

Yu Sheng stood by the stove, staring blankly for a few seconds, then sighed, and picked up the stainless steel basin containing the noodles.

"Dinner is served—Hu Li, come help carry things."

"Hey!"

Dinner was served.

Little Red Riding Hood put down her phone, stood staring blankly for a while, and felt someone pat her from behind.

"What are you staring at?" a short girl with ear-length bobbed hair said to her. "Dinner is served—come help."

Little Red Riding Hood finally snapped out of it, looking up at the long table before her.

The smallest children were already seated in a row on the opposite side of the table; the older children were helping serve rice and dishes. At the far end of the long table, beside the steaming soup pot, Cinderella and Dorothy were serving soup to the children, smiling while making sure no overly mischievous younger brother or sister crawled under the table.

It was now night. According to regulations, the employees sent by the Council to help had left early before sunset. After nightfall, the 'Fairy Tale' was most active. Although the 'employees' coming here had also received training, they did not need to risk themselves in the orphanage after nightfall unless absolutely necessary.

Little Red Riding Hood sighed, walked over to correct the chopstick-holding posture of a few of the smallest children, while keeping a portion of her attention, paying special attention to the girl sitting at the far end of the table who looked somewhat nervous and silent.

That child looked only six or seven years old; her appearance was quite cute, with black hair slightly naturally curly. She wore an old dress, sat among a group of children of similar age with her lips pressed together, appearing restrained and alert.

Little Red Riding Hood actually hadn't gone to school this afternoon; she had taken half a day off.

Because a new child had come to the family today, as a 'parent', she had to return to host the welcome party.

(End of this chapter)