Chapter 177: Traveling with the Wolf Pack

Did you offend someone before?

Yu Sheng's sudden question left Little Red Riding Hood momentarily stunned; after a few seconds, she realized why he was asking. She frowned: "Are you suggesting the museum incident was a trap set specifically for me?"

"Don't blame me for conspiracy theories, but there are many suspicious aspects to this, the most suspicious being why it fell on you—remember the 'sacrifice' inside? If I, Hu Lizheng, and Irene hadn't delayed that evil wolf emerging from the shadows for a while, you would have truly lost control," Yu Sheng said with a serious expression. "And the reason you went to the museum, the reason you stepped into the white exhibition hall at that moment, was because you accepted a commission to return an artifact, one with a time limit. Now that it's been investigated, the commission was fake... so this 'coincidence' is highly suspicious."

"The ones who created the sacrifice incident were two Angel cultists," Little Red Riding Hood's face suddenly turned very pale, as she always disliked anything related to those madmen. "Are you saying those madmen who follow the Dark Angel specifically set up a scheme to deal with me? Why? That makes no sense..."

"That is why I asked if you offended anyone."

"... How could I offend anyone to the point of attracting the attention of those madmen?" Little Red Riding Hood's brows knitted into a knot. "You know I never deal with anything related to the Dark Angel. Normally, I only accept small to medium commissions through official channels, and more than half of them come from the Special Bureau. The 'Fairy Tale' organization is also very cautious in its external communications. We might have competitors in the supernatural detective line of work, but it absolutely doesn't extend to 'enemies'."

"Then there is another possibility: you didn't offend any Angel cultists, but you possess 'value' that attracted their attention," Yu Sheng pondered. "After all, you said they are a bunch of madmen. Madmen's logic differs from normal people's; perhaps they felt you could help their 'cause' and simply acted."

Little Red Riding Hood fell silent, seemingly lost in thought and suspicion.

Yu Sheng also knew his train of thought had wandered too far, and figuring out the Angel cultists' motives wasn't something to be solved by pondering here. So, he quickly cleared his throat twice to bring the topic back.

"Ahem, let's talk about the commission itself. What situation do you have under control now?"

"I contacted that client directly. Thinking back, because I was very familiar with the other party, I indeed did not carefully verify the details of the commission issuance this time," Little Red Riding Hood sighed lightly, speaking with a serious expression. "The electronic commission file I received did bear the Strange Objects Association's mark and a one-time serial number, but it was not released directly by the Association's liaison department. Instead, the client forwarded it to me using a personal account—we've done this before, so I didn't overthink it this time."

Yu Sheng frowned: "Would a large organization allow such a flawed operation?"

"In principle, of course not, but in reality, it's hard to avoid. Because it's the end of the year, large organizations like the Strange Objects Association have very tight deadlines for outsourced orders. So, every year-end, those responsible for outsourcing try to get the orders assigned before the deadline just to say they did. This way, they can use the timestamp of the assignment to jump the queue during settlement. After all, everyone is under KPI pressure..."

Yu Sheng: "... It's actually such a realistic reason?!"

Little Red Riding Hood fell silent for two seconds, then raised her hand to point at the Nine-Tailed Fox dragging its tail on the ground as it walked.

"Isn't your fox dragging a tail on the ground to walk also for a very realistic reason?"

"... Reasonable," Yu Sheng immediately reconciled with reality, yet couldn't help but lean back on the sofa and sigh, "The world is a huge makeshift stage; the truth value of that statement is truly high."

He rubbed his brow, thought for two or three seconds, then looked up: "So, does that mean we still can't confirm whether the original commission was forged by that contact personally, or if there was a higher-level 'insider' within the Strange Objects Association who deleted the corresponding records after issuing the commission?"

Little Red Riding Hood shook her head: "We can't confirm, but the Special Bureau will definitely launch an investigation on this. Regardless, such flawed operations usually happen behind the scenes when nothing goes wrong. Now that something has actually gone wrong, it will be brought to the forefront, and an investigation will inevitably be conducted from top to bottom."

"Then we'll have to ask around with the Special Bureau later," Yu Sheng muttered, then asked, "What about that contact who had the incident? What is their situation? What exactly happened?"

"The specifics are still unclear. Based on what I heard, it seems he fell from a high place, unfortunately hit his head, and died on the spot," Little Red Riding Hood said. "I have already made arrangements; we will go to his house tonight. He always lived alone, and now a nephew is there handling the funeral affairs."

"I'll go with you," Yu Sheng said immediately.

Little Red Riding Hood hesitated for a moment, looking at him: "Do you want to..."

"What if we can still 'ask' something out of it?" Yu Sheng's expression was serious. "Just like that time in the museum. Although I don't know what restrictions apply to that kind of 'conversation with the dead' situation, we can at least try our luck."

Little Red Riding Hood thought for a moment, then finally nodded: "Alright... shall we set off now?"

"Let's set off now," Yu Sheng said, standing up from the sofa. He then looked down at Irene. "You and Hu Lizheng wait at home; I'll go alone this time."

Irene immediately stood up and spoke: "Huh? Why?"

Yu Sheng rolled his eyes: "... We are going to a dead person's house to inquire about the situation. Do you think it's appropriate to be carrying a doll?"

Irene immediately bared her teeth, looking very dissatisfied, but ultimately had to agree with Yu Sheng's reasoning. She sat back down on the sofa: "Alright then, I'll stay home... I'm going to use your computer to play games!"

"Whatever—but you must use your own account, and you are not allowed to touch my private files!"

"Got it." After arranging the small doll, Yu Sheng turned his head and saw Hu Lizheng standing behind him with a worried look: "Benefactor, do you really not need to take me? I can help fight."

Yu Sheng's eye twitched involuntarily. He had to emphasize to Hu Lizheng again that this time he was going to a dead person's house to conduct an investigation, so fighting wasn't needed—whether fighting with the deceased's family or fighting with the deceased in their funeral hall would be quite inappropriate...

Little Red Riding Hood, listening to Yu Sheng's exchange with Hu Lizheng nearby, was momentarily stunned, gaining a deeper understanding of the mental state of the people in the Inn.

After instructing Hu Lizheng that there were leftovers in the refrigerator, telling her to heat them up and eat if she got hungry, but warning her absolutely not to burn down or dismantle the house, Yu Sheng finally changed into clothes for going out and stepped out of 66 Wutong Road with Little Red Riding Hood.

On this short stretch of road from the front door to the opposite side of the street, Yu Sheng looked back three or four times.

This made Little Red Riding Hood somewhat puzzled: "So worried?"

"This is the first time I'm going out alone while leaving Hu Lizheng and Irene at home," Yu Sheng's tone indeed carried a bit of worry. "I'm even worried that when I return, the house might have been dismantled by them."

"That is a Nine-Tailed Fox, not a Husky with nine tails," Little Red Riding Hood sighed. "And I feel Irene is quite steady; at most, she is a bit impatient in her speech sometimes."

"... It's a miracle you can give her such a high evaluation—if you knew what she has done, you would absolutely not say that," Yu Sheng said with a sigh. "With no one watching her, she could stew herself; do you dare believe that? And last time, she almost set the house on fire; the very first thing she set on fire was even herself."

Little Red Riding Hood: "...?"

"Someday, you will witness it," Yu Sheng waved his hand. "Let's not talk about this for now—how shall we go?"

Reading the original text!

The "contact" Little Red Riding Hood mentioned lived in another district somewhat distant from Wutong Road, closer to the city center. Taking a taxi there would take over forty minutes.

Moreover, Yu Sheng had never been to that place—without recorded coordinates, he had no way to open a door and arrive directly.

Thus, to save time and avoid unnecessary complications, Little Red Riding Hood proposed a special invitation to Yu Sheng.

To travel with her wolf pack.

In a corner of an inconspicuous alley, Yu Sheng looked with some unease at the giant wolf before him, whose entire body seemed composed of shadows with an undulating outline.

"To be honest... this thing doesn't bite?" he said with full doubt. "And can this really carry people?"

"Of course it can carry people," Little Red Riding Hood looked helplessly at the nervous Yu Sheng. Feeling the simple emotions transmitted by the Shadow Wolf even more helplessly, she spoke with a complex mood. "And you are worried it will bite you? It is worried you will bite it!"

"What kind of talk is that!" Yu Sheng widened his eyes upon hearing this. "Am I the kind of person who is so undiscriminating about food?"

Little Red Riding Hood: "..."

Seeing the girl's reaction, and recalling that he had previously persuaded her to eat the meat of the Wolf Grandmother, Yu Sheng finally felt embarrassed. He gave up the idea of continuing to argue and honestly imitated Little Red Riding Hood's posture to ride on the wolf's back.

"Is it really working? Your wolf is shaking. Can it not carry heavy loads?"

Little Red Riding Hood turned her head to look at Yu Sheng, then slapped the head of the wolf beneath the other person: "Coward."

Afterwards, she shook her head and directly issued the command to the wolf pack: "Set off."

Yu Sheng was just about to ask how to control the wolf he was riding and how to jump and transfer between shadows like Little Red Riding Hood, but before he could open his mouth, he suddenly felt a flash before his eyes.

The next second, the world in his eyes changed appearance.

Colors turned into varying shades of black and white; the buildings standing in the city became various silhouettes with only outlines. Roads disappeared, replaced by discontinuous "bridges" between shadow clusters. The normal and orderly scenery in his field of vision a second ago suddenly seemed reflected in a shattered mirror. Then, the city curled up; the broken, floating buildings became a three-dimensional maze in this black-and-white world, like a chaotic, mapped scroll where the distance and size of everything were reorganized in an instant.

The wolf pack started off lightly, flying into that bizarre and colorful shadow.

(End of Chapter)