Chapter 127: Orphanage

That night, Yu Sheng slept in a deep, dazed stupor.

Probably because there had been too many things happening recently, consuming too much of his energy, he had fallen asleep quite quickly, but once asleep, he began to have a whole bunch of chaotic, bizarre dreams—sometimes dreaming of that museum, sometimes of the appearance of his hometown in his memories, sometimes of that black forest. He felt as though he had woken up several times in between, even hearing Erin muttering in her sleep, but those few awakenings seemed to be nothing more than another bizarre dream.

This uneasy sleep continued until the second half of the night, when he suddenly felt a wave of relaxation in his spirit; all the chaotic, indistinguishable dreams of reality and illusion seemed to suddenly tame themselves, and he slept peacefully in a gentle, comfortable shallow dream until the next morning.

Then, the moment he opened his eyes, he saw two Erins pressing down on his arms, one on each side; both arms had already gone numb and lost all sensation.

Yu Sheng took a long while to recover before finally managing to yank his arms out; the tingling, aching, and painful sensation immediately made him grimace.

Erin also slowly woke up, sitting up with a head full of messy hair, rubbing her eyes: "Good morning... yawn, why did you sleep so uneasily last night?"

Yu Sheng, who had been swinging his two arms in a bad mood, paused upon hearing the little doll's muttering, then immediately realized: "You helped me in the second half of the night?"

"Your dreams disturbed me," the two Erins muttered simultaneously as they stood up, straightening their clothes and hair, "It was too annoying, so I went in and calmed you down."

Yu Sheng let his arms hang limply, his expression somewhat subtle; after a short while, he cleared his throat twice: "Ahem, ahem, well, thanks."

"It's not a big deal—come help me comb my hair."

"You've been pressing on them all night, my arms are still numb; do it yourself," Yu Sheng helplessly shook his two arms, "I bought you two small combs; they're on the bedside table. Anyway, with your two bodies now, it's very convenient for you to comb each other's hair."

"Oh."

The two dolls climbed over to the bedside table together, found the small combs Yu Sheng mentioned, and began to mutter while taking turns combing the other's hair: "That's why human bodies are so inconvenient; they break down so easily. If you press or bump anywhere, it's either numbness or pain. Look at us dolls; we're much more convenient. Even if we shatter into pieces on the ground, we don't make a sound..."

Yu Sheng listened to Erin's rambling in a daze, but didn't pay much attention to the content of her chatter.

Bright morning sunlight streamed through the window; two identical Gothic dolls sat in the sunlight, taking turns combing each other's hair and arranging their dresses—actually, if you could just stuff their mouths, this scene would be absolutely aesthetic.

Yu Sheng stared at the scene, lost in thought, and suddenly couldn't help but think: if two dolls waking up in the sunlight were already this aesthetic, then if he really managed to get a whole room full of Erins later on, it would be...

... what a mess it would be.

Yu Sheng's aesthetic imagination in his mind stopped at a scene of Erins crawling everywhere on the floor, writhing in the shadows, jumping up and down, and screeching; he immediately shook his head: The pity is that these dolls have mouths—now there are two of them.

After tidying up and washing, Yu Sheng's arms finally recovered. He simply went to the kitchen to make breakfast (it was actually not very early anymore), fed the Hu Li who had been wandering around the house foraging as soon as it woke up, and then prepared to go out to keep the appointment according to the address Little Red Riding Hood had left for him.

"Shouldn't we bring some kind of gift or something?" Just as he was about to leave, Yu Sheng suddenly remembered this point. "This is the first time visiting, after all; it would be strange to go empty-handed."

"I guess so?" Erin, who had already climbed into Hu Li's arms with practiced ease to "disguise," lifted her head upon hearing Yu Sheng's words. "Bring some cookies or candy or something? It seems like there are a lot of children over there..."

"Wouldn't that be a bit cliché?"

"You can't exactly give everyone a tube of blood when you meet—though that wouldn't be cliché; they'd call the police."

Yu Sheng thought for a moment and agreed that Erin was right.

So he took Hu Li and Erin (P2) out of the house. Before hailing a taxi, he first went to a small supermarket at the intersection, bought a bunch of candies and snacks to carry, and then directly hailed a taxi on the roadside, heading to another district according to the address Little Red Riding Hood had left.

By the way, Erin (P1) stayed home to watch TV—this doll was now truly getting more and more accustomed to the life of having two bodies.

Jie City was huge, but fortunately the address Little Red Riding Hood left wasn't too far; after spending more than half an hour on the road, Yu Sheng and his group arrived near the destination.

After getting out of the car, the first thing Yu Sheng felt was... the scarcity of pedestrians around.

Moreover, the further he walked forward according to the address Little Red Riding Hood left, the fewer people there were on the road.

The drop-off point was an intersection on a main road. When sending the address, Little Red Riding Hood had specifically marked a short walking route required after getting out of the car. Yu Sheng left the main avenue and walked along a quiet, slightly old path into the old residential area behind the commercial district. This place looked slightly newer than the district where No. 66 Wutong Road was located, but not by much. After walking for about ten minutes, he noticed that there were no passersby nearby anymore.

Afterwards, he saw the end of the path open up suddenly, and a large complex of buildings appeared in his line of sight.

It was a "compound" composed of two row houses and several small building structures. The gray-white buildings looked like they had been there for some years. A high wall enclosed all the buildings inside. The wall once seemed to have had bright murals, but now most of them had faded and peeled off, leaving only discolored wall paint.

A fence gate that looked specially reinforced stretched across in front of Yu Sheng, but what attracted Yu Sheng's gaze even more were... several familiar metal obelisk devices arranged along the wall on both sides of the gate.

Those were "Nodes" set up by the Special Operations Bureau.

The reason for the scarcity of pedestrians along the way, which gradually disappeared, was found.

The entire "base" of "Fairy Tales" had undergone cognitive isolation according to the standards of the Otherworld.

A red figure entered Yu Sheng's line of sight; he saw Little Red Riding Hood walk out from the guard post inside the gate. The girl opened a small door beside it and walked quickly towards them.

"You arrived earlier than I expected."

Little Red Riding Hood came to Yu Sheng's front, a slightly complex smile on her face—it seemed welcoming, yet also somewhat anxious and reserved.

It was the first time Yu Sheng saw such an unsteady look on the face of this precocious high school girl.

"I was worried about being late, so I left home a bit early," Yu Sheng smiled and nodded, his gaze passing over Little Red Riding Hood's shoulder to look at the entrance of that "compound."

On the wall next to the gate, several metal characters originally pasted on the wall had fallen off and been damaged, but the remaining traces were still visible, vaguely distinguishing the words "XX Fuli Academy." Apart from this, the enclosed compound had no other identifying markers.

An orphanage, hidden deep within the city, even requiring "Nodes" to be sealed off... an orphanage.

Yu Sheng did not feel surprised; before coming, he had actually already vaguely guessed some things.

"Come with me; I've already told my family," Little Red Riding Hood turned her body sideways, making a gesture of invitation. "I have no classes today, nor any other work, so I can show you around more."

Yu Sheng and Hu Li followed behind Little Red Riding Hood, stepping into this compound that looked somewhat old but not dilapidated.

As they passed the guard post, Yu Sheng noticed a Miss sitting inside, dozing off. She looked to be about the same age as Little Red Riding Hood.

"That's 'Cinderella'; she always looks like she can't wake up during the day, but she's actually very alert," Little Red Riding Hood introduced casually. "Usually during the day, there are dedicated 'security guards' here, staff sent over by the Council. But on weekends, the 'parents' here take turns standing guard—by 'parents,' I actually mean the older children, like me."

"People sent by the Council?" Yu Sheng frowned, his tone somewhat surprised.

"'Fairy Tales' is an independent organization, but a group of orphaned children who never grow up raising a group of even smaller children will inevitably encounter many practical problems they cannot solve. On the other hand, to screen out children affected by the 'Curse' as early as possible and concentrate them in safe facilities, a government organization like the Council must step in," Little Red Riding Hood explained slowly. "So we established a cooperative relationship—"

"This orphanage is nominally maintained and operated by the Borderland Council. They provided the venue and some funding, and regularly send 'employees' to help us solve many practical problems such as social identity, children's schooling, and seeking medical treatment outside. But in reality, the interior of the orphanage is self-governed by 'Fairy Tales.' We accept the children sent to us and use our methods to try to reduce their loss of control, or... even if they do lose control, to keep the matter contained within the scope of this wall."

Little Red Riding Hood paused here and summarized in one sentence: "In short, the ordinary belong to the ordinary, and the supernatural belong to the supernatural."

Yu Sheng listened quietly. After crossing the open space inside the wall with Little Red Riding Hood, he shook his head slightly after a moment of thought: "It's not quite what I imagined."

"Only after actual contact will you discover that all the seemingly strange situations have their reasonable reasons for formation," Little Red Riding Hood said indifferently. "At least for us now, this is the most comfortable state—we can live at the pace and in the way we like, and many things are under control. For the managers of the Borderland, 'controllable' is the return they expect most."

"No, I mean... I thought the Special Operations Bureau would handle these things. I thought they would be your 'management department,' after all, in the supernatural field, they are the professionals."

Little Red Riding Hood's steps paused slightly.

"... The Special Operations Bureau also deals with us frequently. You are right; they are indeed experts in handling supernatural incidents. But in most cases, the 'supernatural incidents' appearing in this facility can be handled by ourselves without extra help," she said slowly. "So the relationship between the Special Operations Bureau and us is generally limited to 'business dealings.' Conversely, in terms of the 'life' of most members of the orphanage, we are closer to those 'ordinary people' sent by the Council."

Yu Sheng pondered: "Is that so..."

"Yes," Little Red Riding Hood nodded. "After all, this large compound doesn't only have 'parents' like me; what is actually more numerous here are just children who have nightmares."

(End of chapter)