Chapter 138: After Waking Up

The illusory door slowly opened, but on the other side was only a chaotic darkness, not the definite scenery one usually sees when opening a door in the real world or a "normal otherworld."

Yu Sheng did not rashly cross through the door; instead, he first carefully observed while sensing the door's "connection."

He had only confirmed earlier that a door could be opened in the Black Forest, but had never actually crossed it; now, the wolf pack outside the cottage had temporarily withdrawn, the hunter was gone, the surroundings had grown quiet, and even the squirrel had vanished—Yu Sheng finally had a peaceful opportunity for study.

As he had anticipated, the "door" opened in the Black Forest was peculiar.

"Fairy Tale" is an anomalous otherworld built upon a "story collection"; as a subset of Fairy Tale, the Black Forest's "spatiotemporal structure" is clearly abnormal—here, the power of "consciousness" is unprecedentedly heightened, while the visitor's physical body remains anchored in the real world; correspondingly, the "door" opened here seems unable to perform precise "customization" or "tuning" as usual.

Yu Sheng could sense that this door led to a fixed location: his own "body," which still slept in the west building of the orphanage.

This seemed to answer one of his earlier questions—

After entering the Black Forest with his consciousness, if he then opened a door within the Black Forest leading to some distant location in the real world, what would happen when his consciousness "passed through the door" and escaped the Black Forest? Would his consciousness return to his body, or would it truly arrive at that distant real-world location and become a disembodied soul?

The answer now seemed confirmed: in an "anomalous" otherworld—or more precisely, at least in an anomalous otherworld like "Fairy Tale—Little Red Riding Hood"—a door opened while in a state of consciousness could only lead to one's own physical body in the real world.

At least, that was all he could achieve for now.

Yu Sheng lowered his head, looking at the wolf leg gripped in his hand—now only one question remained.

Could things obtained in the Black Forest while in a state of consciousness be brought outside?

He took a light breath, maintaining the door in its most stable state, then grabbed the corpse of the big gray wolf and stepped across.

A brief dizziness, then the sensation of suddenly falling from a great height—as if abruptly waking from a deep dream—Yu Sheng instantly felt his body, and the soft touch beneath it.

He snapped open his eyes—and saw a tail.

And a fox's ears.

He realized he was lying amid a pile of fluffy tails, even covered by two of them; the fox girl turned her head from between the tails, smiling happily: "Savior! You're awake! I was afraid you'd catch a chill…"

Yu Sheng remained stunned for two more seconds before fully coming to, then scrambled out of the pile of fluff with hands and feet, muttering as he crawled: "Catch a chill? Not likely—just too hot—I finally understand why you sleep hugging your own tail every day; this thing is genuinely warm!"

The fox girl immediately wore a smug expression.

Ai Lin bounced over from the side, walking toward Yu Sheng while talking nonstop: "She originally planned to pluck all your tails and pile them on you—I had to remind her that even if it didn't scare you, it'd suffocate you! Oh, you should've seen it—piled up like a grave, you lying there so peacefully in the middle, lifelike—I even thought of finding a plaque to stick beside you, but couldn't find one. Anyway, enough about that—Little Red Riding Hood and the others are waiting outside; I'm just going to—ah!"

Ai Lin's words cut off abruptly as a massive shadow descended from above—boom—crack—and crushed the doll to the ground, completely covering her.

It was a giant wolf.

Yu Sheng instantly sprang up, took two steps forward, and checked the situation.

It was indeed the big gray wolf that had died during dissection.

"It really can be brought out…" Yu Sheng's expression grew thoughtful; he then checked his body and indeed found the soiled scrap of paper that had fallen from the "hunter" in his pocket. Relieved, he still felt puzzled: "What's the principle behind this…?"

One of Ai Lin's hands emerged from beneath the big gray wolf's corpse, twitching twice in midair, then firmly giving a middle finger.

"Yu Sheng, you bastard!" the doll's voice muffled from beneath, "Is now the time to study principles?! I'm still crushed down here!"

Yu Sheng grinned, then went over and pulled the doll out from under the wolf's corpse.

He mainly did it to get revenge for "lifelike."

Ai Lin jumped up to kick Yu Sheng's knee, but bounced up three times and was pushed down three times; she could only scowl: "You're such a petty person…"

Then the doll girl promptly forgot her annoyance and turned her attention to the broad-minded big gray wolf.

"... This is the 'Wolf Grandma'?" she stared in astonishment at the corpse, far larger than a normal wolf, her face filled with disbelief: "So huge—no wonder it could swallow a six-year-old child whole… The limb proportions are weird, kind of creepy."

The fox girl also walked over, crouched beside the wolf's corpse, and began staring blankly.

"Savior," after two seconds of blankness, the fox girl turned to Yu Sheng, "I've never eaten this."

"Neither have I; we'll have to try several cooking methods later," Yu Sheng said casually. "The tender meat on the ribs can be stir-fried or fried directly; the leg meat can be stir-fried or cured—anyway, if all else fails, the pressure cooker always works wonders. I just don't know how to handle the organs."

Halfway through, the fox girl's saliva was already dripping.

Ai Lin stood silent for a long while, utterly stunned; only when Yu Sheng was about to start discussing how to cook Wolf Grandma's brain did she finally jump up: "You two just casually started talking about this?! And you're talking about THIS?!"

Yu Sheng snapped back to reality, quickly shelving his mental recipe book, then grabbed the fox girl's tail to wipe her drool: "Right, we need to get back to business—go call Little Red Riding Hood and the others in."

Ai Lin gave Yu Sheng and the fox girl another wary look before stepping toward the door, but halfway there, she stopped, hesitantly glancing at the terrifying "wolf" on the ground.

"Would seeing this be too shocking for Little Red Riding Hood and that child named 'Xiao Xiao'? Would they… uh, have a trauma reaction?"

Yu Sheng frowned slightly.

He knew what Ai Lin was worried about—and honestly, though this doll was often unreliable, her concern had some merit.

Little Red Riding Hood might be fine—she'd already fought against the wolf in her nightmares for so long; at least intellectually, she could control the growing fear in her heart. But that child, "Xiao Xiao"… perhaps she wasn't ready yet.

After all, he didn't even know what her current mental state was.

"True," he exhaled, nodding to the fox girl. "You'd better hide this away… don't sneak a bite! It's still raw!"

He couldn't resist adding one last warning—after all, if no one watched, this girl might very well devour the entire Wolf Grandma whole—raw, bones and all.

The fox girl "oh"ed obediently, walked over to the giant wolf corpse, pulled down the tail she normally used for storage, and waved it casually—Yu Sheng didn't even see what happened, and the corpse on the ground vanished.

Ai Lin then went out and brought Little Red Riding Hood and the long-haired Princess inside.

And a small girl who looked nervous and shy, cautiously following behind Little Red Riding Hood.

It was Xiao Xiao.

The symptoms of "death" had vanished from her; her once-shattered flesh had completely healed, her torn heart and brain as if never injured, vibrant life swirling around her; through the faint connection forged by blood, Yu Sheng could even sense each strong beat of her heart.

As if sensing something, Xiao Xiao suddenly stopped, lifting her head to look at Yu Sheng.

Within a second, her attention fell on the fox girl with the pile of tails.

The girl's face lit up with wonder, and she let out a tiny gasp.

"Everything's settled," Yu Sheng smiled, stepping toward Little Red Riding Hood, who walked at the front. "How are you two doing?"

"If you're asking about right after I woke up… I'd rather be dead," Little Red Riding Hood's expression turned peculiar, as if merely recalling the "sudden awakening" made her suffer for hours. "You said it'd be intense, but I never imagined it'd be that intense."

"Alright, you're already able to complain—looks fine," Yu Sheng nodded, his gaze falling on the little girl walking beside Little Red Riding Hood. "Xiao Xiao… right? Any discomfort left?"

The girl looked shy; despite the faint blood connection, she instinctively shrank back slightly upon hearing Yu Sheng's voice—but soon stepped forward again, raising her head, eyes wide open.

"No pain."

"Mm, no pain," Yu Sheng smiled, gently patting the child's hair. "Good. No pain is good."

"Actually, I still feel this is a bit unreal," the long-haired Princess, who had remained silent until now, broke the silence. "The wounds on her body suddenly vanished, as if... nothing had ever happened, and then she opened her eyes and said she had a dream."

"A dream?" Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow, looking down at Xiaoxiao. "What did you dream about?"

"Many people," the little girl said, head bowed, her voice so faint it sounded like a hum. "Many people surrounded me, all wearing red cloaks, telling me to run quickly, but I couldn't move... and then I don't remember anything else."

(End of Chapter)