Chapter 139: The Puzzling Piece of Paper

The scene described by the little girl made Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood, the two "involved parties" who had just returned from the small house deep in the Black Forest, frown in unison and fall into serious thought.

After several seconds, Yu Sheng was the first to look up and break the silence: "Can you see those people's faces clearly? Besides telling you to run fast, did those people wearing red cloaks say anything else to you?"

Xiaoxiao only shook her head, looking nervous again.

"It's okay, it's okay, if you can't remember, don't think about it," Yu Sheng saw the situation and quickly waved his hands, comforting the little girl who was still shaken, "Tell us again later when you remember something."

Xiaoxiao blinked her eyes and hesitantly nodded, not knowing how much she had actually heard.

"You take her to the East Tower classroom to show your face first, and explain the situation to Teacher Su," Little Red Riding Hood said to the long-haired Princess beside her, "But there are no classes this afternoon; let her rest well in her room."

"Okay."

The Princess took Xiaoxiao's hand, and the two figures, one tall and one short, walked out of the room like that.

The room fell silent again. Little Red Riding Hood looked in the direction they had left, pressed her lips together, and didn't know what she was thinking. Only after a long time did she softly break the silence: "This child is the first one to be sent into this room and then walk out alive."

She raised her head, her gaze resting quietly on Yu Sheng.

"Thank you. 'Fairy Tale' owes you a big favor. From now on, I will be your most steadfast friend."

"This is just the beginning. My goal is to eliminate the entire Fairy Tale Otherworld. The first step is at least to resolve that Black Forest," Yu Sheng said with a serious expression.

"Can such a thing really be done?" Hearing the other party bring up this goal again, Little Red Riding Hood finally couldn't help but ask. But this time, a hint of wavering was clearly added to her doubt—Yu Sheng's operation of rescuing a "dead" child from the Black Forest and bringing them back to the human world had obviously caused a huge impact on her worldview, to the point that some of her deeply rooted ideas about the "Otherworld" began to waver.

Yu Sheng did not answer this question directly. Instead, he quietly gazed into the girl's eyes and spoke after a moment: "No amount of explanation is as good as letting you see it directly. After confirming that the child's condition is completely stable, I will take you to a place."

Little Red Riding Hood nodded with a hint of confusion and curiosity. Then Yu Sheng rummaged in his pocket again and pulled out a dirty piece of paper that looked quite old.

"This fell off that 'Hunter'. Do you know what this is?"

Upon hearing this, Little Red Riding Hood's expression immediately became serious. She carefully took the piece of paper and examined it closely for a long time, but finally frowned: "... I am not an expert in item identification, and I have never seen anything similar in the Black Forest..."

Yu Sheng was not very disappointed with this answer. He just carefully put the piece of paper away again and curiously asked: "How much contact have you had with that 'Hunter'?"

"Not much. Wolves appear most frequently in the Black Forest, followed by the small house and the path. The Hunter only appears when the Wolf Grandmother appears, and only for a very short time each time," Little Red Riding Hood thought and explained to Yu Sheng with great patience, "And saying 'contact' is not rigorous... In fact, every time I 'act' in the Black Forest, it is not like today."

"Not like this?" Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. "Then how is it?"

"Confused, like a pile of discontinuous dreams. Many times it is difficult to control myself, and my identity is not always 'Little Red Riding Hood'," the girl sighed softly, her voice low, "When the situation is worse, I even run through the forest from the wolf's perspective. And when I meet the Hunter, I occasionally observe the wolf pack from their perspective. It's as if I simultaneously possess many identities: human, wolf, grandmother, Hunter. My 'self-awareness' jumps between these identities. And recently, my time as a 'wolf' has obviously increased, and the Hunter's appearance frequency... has also increased accordingly."

This was the first time she had described her situation in that Black Forest to Yu Sheng in such detail.

Yu Sheng frowned as he listened. The first word that came to his mind from Little Red Riding Hood's description was—fall.

In those discontinuous dreams and the chaotic switching of perspectives, in the repeated shaking and replacement of "self-awareness," Little Red Riding Hood was obviously gradually losing her true "self."

What swallowed her was not just the wolf, but the entire Black Forest. Turning into a wolf was just a certain "manifestation" of this process.

"Sounds like a mess." Erin's comment was very straightforward.

"Yes, a mess. And this chaotic experience is the norm for being trapped in the Black Forest," Little Red Riding Hood spread her hands, a self-mocking smile on her face. "Being so clear-headed while passing through the forest like today, then leaving clearly, and being able to immediately confirm my human cognition after waking up is actually a very incredible experience for me. In my memory... there were probably only similar experiences when I was a child, before I was so deeply influenced by the Black Forest."

Saying this, she shook her head, her gaze falling on Yu Sheng again.

"I'm sorry I can't help. I know very little about the 'Hunter'. In most cases, my contact with them lasts only as long as a gunshot. But I do have a suggestion."

"Tell me?"

"You can let the identification department of the Special Operations Bureau take a look at that piece of paper," Little Red Riding Hood said very seriously. "They might not understand the 'Hunter's' situation either, but their professional equipment can at least help you analyze more details from that piece of paper. Also, didn't you pick up a 'metal part' that fell from somewhere in your house last time? You can also have them identify that."

"Good suggestion," Yu Sheng thought it made sense and nodded. "Then I'll call Bai Liqing later and ask her to arrange it."

Hearing the other party so naturally mention the name of a certain big shot, Little Red Riding Hood's expression changed subtly. Hesitating, she reminded: "Um... shouldn't this kind of thing require direct contact with the Director of the Special Operations Bureau? Can't you just find Xu Jiali and the others?"

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, recalling the incident last time when he called Bai Liqing in the middle of the night and the "Border Communication" directly hot-updated an "Open Door Declaration" button the next day. He felt Little Red Riding Hood's reminder seemed to have some merit.

Just as he thought of this on his end, before he could say anything, he felt a vibration in his pants pocket. Immediately, his phone rang.

Yu Sheng took out his phone and looked. On the screen, the three characters "Bai Liqing" were clearly visible.

Little Red Riding Hood glanced over from the side and froze, her expression visibly subtle.

Yu Sheng pulled at the corners of his mouth, gave Little Red Riding Hood an awkward smile, raised his hand to answer the call and put it to his ear: "Ahem, good afternoon, Director Bai."

"Just call me Bai Liqing," the familiar yet cold voice came from the other end of the receiver. "The monitoring department just detected a very special space-time displacement. We couldn't find the cause anywhere, so I came to ask you—is it your situation?"

Hearing this, Yu Sheng's expression became even more awkward. He smiled sheepishly: "Uh, it is indeed my side. I just opened a door... When opening the door, people were in the Otherworld, the phone had no signal, and I didn't have time to report it."

There was silence on the other end of the receiver for two seconds: "... This monitoring signal is different from usual. Are you testing some kind of 'new function'?"

The monitoring signal is different from usual?

Yu Sheng's heart stirred. He quickly associated it with the special nature of "Fairy Tale" as an Otherworld and immediately spoke: "Not exactly. I went to a special place—I just returned from the subset of the 'Fairy Tale' Otherworld, the 'Black Forest'."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for another two seconds.

Whether it was an illusion or not, Yu Sheng always felt that every silence from Bai Liqing seemed to be stuffed with a hundred or eighty sentences—just held back and not spoken.

"Forgive my curiosity—what did you go into 'Fairy Tale' to do?" The voice of that female Director finally came through the receiver again, her tone a bit subtle.

Yu Sheng's head jerked. Not knowing what he was thinking, he blurted out: "... Do you believe me if I say I was just visiting?"

As a result, Bai Liqing's response was even more impulsive than his: "Ah, is there someone you know over there..."

Before the other party could finish, Yu Sheng quickly interrupted: "No, a child got lost. I went in to help find the child."

Bai Liqing: "..."

Every silence from the Director was so deafening. Yu Sheng felt that what was stuffed into these two seconds might be more than a hundred or eighty sentences.

After a moment, he clearly heard a soft intake of breath from the other end of the receiver. Then Bai Liqing's tone remained calm: "Did you find the child?"

"Uh, found her," Yu Sheng felt that this phone call had made his cold sweat come down. "She was snatched by a wolf, but she's not dead."

Saying this, he paused for a moment, then continued: "By the way, since you called, I happen to have something I'd like to ask the Special Operations Bureau to help with."

This time, Bai Liqing's response was quite fast: "Okay, go ahead."

"I brought something out from the 'Black Forest'. It is suspected to be a carried object from the physical 'Hunter' generated in the forest. I'd like to ask you to help identify it. By the way, I also have something else that spawned from the room at 66 Wutong Road. Can you take a look at that too? Is it convenient?"

There was silence on the other end of the receiver again: "..."

But this time Bai Liqing's silence was very short. A response came quickly: "No problem. I'll make arrangements. If the sample shows no signs of self-collapse, can you wait one more day? The comprehensive analysis laboratory needs some time to prepare."

"That's no problem. I'll wait for your news tomorrow."

"Okay."

The phone hung up.

Yu Sheng raised his head, looked at Little Red Riding Hood, and smiled awkwardly: "Well, in the end, the 'Director' arranged it directly."

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth, held back for a long time, and finally blurted out: "Alright, our 'ordinary people's' experience is useless to you..."

(End of this chapter)