Chapter 176: No. 66 Wutong Road: A Land of Outstanding People and Spiritual Energy

Yu Sheng suddenly felt a bit regretful for creating so many Ailins.

Especially when three Ailins pounced together, screeching and clawing wildly—originally, when the number of dolls was below two, he could still relatively easily raise his hand and push them back, but with three, he found he couldn't hold them off, especially since one of them was made of rebar and stone; the force of her pounce was simply like a bag of cement crashing onto his head. Fortunately, his diet had been balanced lately and his body was still quite sturdy; if he still had the physique of an ordinary person, one pounce from an Ailin would truly leave him speechless...

Moments later, several tooth marks appeared on Yu Sheng's forehead, three dolls still chattering incessantly hung from his body, and he felt utterly hopeless.

"Get off me," he said, looking at the three dolls hanging on his legs, sitting on his shoulder, and clutching his collar against his chest, and sighed, "Especially the one wrapped in a Mao Jin, your Mao Jin is about to fall off."

Ailin finally let out a gasp, and Ailin and Ailin jumped off Yu Sheng. Then the small doll, who was still wrapped in a Mao Jin as a nightgown, stood on the bed, looking up: "Yeah, where are my clothes!?"

Yu Sheng casually pulled the mended skirt from the bedside table and threw it over: "Here, I took some time to modify it for you. I cut off the burnt parts directly and used the decorative ruffles from the hem to patch up the obvious spots. My craftsmanship is average, so just make do with it for now; I'll buy you a new one in a couple of days."

"Oh, okay," the small doll wrapped in the Mao Jin happily took the skirt, jumped off the bed, and ran toward the bathroom, "I'm going to change! Don't peek!"

"... Do I need to peek at you? I molded all three of your bodies!" Yu Sheng's eye twitched violently as he shouted toward the bathroom, then withdrew his gaze and stared eye-to-eye with the remaining two Ailins standing on the floor.

Just then, Yu Sheng suddenly remembered something, slapped his forehead, and said, "Ah, I forgot to tell Little Red Riding Hood about Xiaoxiao's matter. No wonder I always felt like I forgot something."

"Xiaoxiao's matter? The child from the orphanage?" Ailin was stunned by the words, but quickly recalled the name, "What happened to her?"

"She also entered that 'Strange Dream' of mine, the one with the wasteland," Yu Sheng explained, "And it seems she accidentally 'fell' in while trying to escape the wolves' pursuit when she was being dragged into the Black Forest by a nightmare..."

Immediately, he told the doll before him about his recent experience in the dream, and also mentioned seeing the hunter illusion—though he didn't mention the details of how he almost "put on" that hunter's outfit. Ailin listened to Yu Sheng's account with a dazed expression, her face gradually showing surprise, and after holding back for a long time, she finally couldn't resist complaining: "How is it that even your dreams are so absurd?"

"I don't know," Yu Sheng said frankly, spreading his hands, "It's not something I can control."

The two Ailins looked up at him suspiciously together. After a while, one of the small dolls withdrew her gaze and, with great seriousness, raised her hand to support her chin in a thinking pose: "But to be honest, your speculation about that 'Strange Dream' does have some merit... Based on the situations these few times, it really could be an independent special consciousness space, not generated by your dream, but rather you just happen to 'connect' with it while dreaming..."

"As for Little Red Riding Hood, Xiaoxiao, and that silly fox, they must have been affected by your blood, 'borrowing' some kind of authority from your side, so they can also connect to that place."

"So what exactly is that wasteland?" Yu Sheng frowned. "Could it be another Otherworld?"

The two Ailins spoke in unison: "You ask me, who should I ask? You don't even know clearly yourself!"

Immediately, one of the small dolls carrying a picture frame waved her hand at Yu Sheng: "Forget it, anyway, thinking about it won't make it clear. Next time you sleep, I'll give you a 'guidance,' and we'll go in again to observe that place carefully; maybe we can find some clues."

"That works," Yu Sheng said, looking up at the sky outside the window and seeing the daylight beginning to dim. "Little Red Riding Hood will be here soon; for now, let's focus on that suspicious 'Museum Commission'."

Ailin's expression visibly became serious.

"I wanted to say it just now; behind this matter... the scent of conspiracy is very strong."

Yu Sheng did not speak, only raising an eyebrow.

"You must have felt it too," Ailin noticed the change in Yu Sheng's expression and nodded slowly, "If no one had died and it was simply a 'fake commission,' it would be easy to attribute it to an Association member acting out of greed, tampering with the process to privately hoard museum artifacts. But now the person who issued the commission is gone—and that isn't even the biggest suspicious point. What really makes me feel something is wrong with the whole matter is actually that 'sacrifice' in the museum."

Yu Sheng frowned; the scene he witnessed in the museum that day remained very clear in his mind.

The victim bound by iron thorns into the "Lamentor" posture, the white exhibition hall dyed red with blood, the eerie and terrifying "security guard" entities, and... the out-of-control incident Little Red Riding Hood encountered.

It happened precisely when Little Red Riding Hood was about to "come of age," about to face the Black Forest's devouring, when her entire state was the most unstable.

The figures of the wolf pack leaped and moved between the shadows of the buildings, entering the quiet old town from the bustling main road, and finally arriving at this so-called "desolate" empty lot at the deepest end of No. 66 Wutong Road. Little Red Riding Hood's figure suddenly emerged from among the wolves, looking up ahead. Upon seeing the large house standing quietly in her line of sight, the expression on the girl's face was slightly dazed.

Although she had been mentally prepared beforehand, knowing she had already been affected by Yu Sheng's "blood," seeing this "Fortress-type Otherworld," which even the Special Operations Bureau couldn't detect, standing right before her eyes, she still felt it was somewhat incredible.

In her memory, there was previously only a vast empty lot here, with nothing but a low wall covered in graffiti standing at the end of the lot.

The wolf pack silently faded into the shadows. Little Red Riding Hood took a deep breath and stepped toward the old house.

Before she could reach out to knock on the door, that seemingly simple large door was opened by someone.

Yu Sheng stood at the doorway with a smile: "I saw you from the second-floor window. Come in quickly."

Little Red Riding Hood made a slightly slow "Oh" sound and stepped inside, following Yu Sheng.

This was her third time stepping into this place. From the helplessness of the first time, to the slight nervousness of the second, to now, Little Red Riding Hood even felt that she was somewhat familiar with this seemingly ordinary large house.

Then she saw three Ailins walking down the stairs in a line, greeting her one by one as they walked.

Little Red Riding Hood was stunned on the spot. She raised her hand and rubbed her eyes hard. When she lowered her hand and looked again, there were still three dolls—now two of them had already run off to watch TV, and the remaining one had walked over, looking up at her.

"You're spacing out!" the small doll said.

Reading the original text!

"... How did another one appear?!" Little Red Riding Hood turned her head to look at Yu Sheng, her tone shocked.

"Yeah, another one appeared. The one who went with you to the Black Forest before was the new one, but it seems you didn't notice," Yu Sheng nodded with an air of obviousness. "Combat-specialized type, specifically created to deal with malignant entities like Hunger and the Evil Wolf. I call her Ailin mk-ii..."

Little Red Riding Hood listened with a dazed expression, while the Ailin beside her immediately spoke up in dissatisfaction: "Don't give me random model numbers! If you must give one, think of a more imposing codename, like Valkyrie type or something..."

Yu Sheng's face tightened. He thought to himself that it was ridiculous for a 66.6 cm doll to have a codename called Valkyrie; a Valkyrie's shield come to life would probably be taller than her—but he really didn't dare say it. It wasn't because the small doll's scolding was too harsh, but because there were already three Ailins in the house, and when they formed an attack formation and pounced on him, he really couldn't fight them off...

Then, while still somewhat dazed, Little Red Riding Hood was led by Yu Sheng to the living room.

Hu Li brought a plate of washed fruit over and placed it on the coffee table.

Yu Sheng immediately went to check if there were any tooth marks on the fruit; after all, it was for entertaining guests, and it wouldn't do if Hu Li had secretly nibbled on them. However, he soon thought that if Hu Li had really stolen a bite, she would absolutely not have brought up fruit with bite marks remaining—the more likely scenario was that she washed a basin in the kitchen and finally brought up a plate...

Little Red Riding Hood, unaware of what Yu Sheng was thinking, simply thanked Hu Li. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly noticed something strange among Hu Li's huge pile of tails—the other tails were very spirited, but that one was drooping on the ground, looking as if it were broken.

At this moment, Yu Sheng also noticed that Hu Li had one tail dragging on the ground and couldn't help but frown: "What's wrong with your tail? Injured?"

Upon hearing this, Hu Li's face showed a happy expression. She walked over in a few steps and draped the huge pile of tails behind her onto Yu Sheng's lap: "Benefactor, look! Is there no static electricity anymore?"

Yu Sheng was puzzled for a moment, reached out to touch Hu Li's tail, and then suddenly realized, turning his head to nod at Little Red Riding Hood, who still had a look of confusion: "It's nothing; it's a ground wire."

Little Red Riding Hood was completely baffled: "...?"

She suddenly realized that her slight sense of familiarity with No. 66 Wutong Road was premature. Every single thing here exuded that strange, uncanny vibe. But then she thought, this actually fits her impression of this place perfectly; it highlights the phrase "a land of outstanding people and spiritual energy." Every single thing in this large house displays a very neurotic state of mind—for example, an Ailin appears here every so often, and for example, the nine-tailed fox here drags one tail on the ground in winter to serve as a ground wire to solve static electricity...

And just then, a sentence suddenly spoken by Yu Sheng interrupted the girl's wandering thoughts.

"Little Red Riding Hood, have you offended anyone before?"

(End of Chapter)