Chapter 205: The Second Blood Bestowal and the Investigation of the Old Building

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood talked at length about squirrels, as well as the "Descent" from eighty-six years ago that no one knew about.

And Little Red Riding Hood told Yu Sheng quite a bit about the old days of that orphanage, as well as some internal situations of the "Fairy Tale" organization on a daily basis.

"See that silly kid over there with the slightly naturally curly hair? The one chatting with Long Hair? He's the red dragon that fell just now. His situation is similar to the 'King's'; he also represents a type of 'classic story image' with no clear direction, and the 'subset' behind him isn't a specific 'story'. His codename is 'Dragon Slayer'... Of course, he's not a real dragon, not that powerful."

"Why is the image of the 'Dragon Slayer' itself a dragon? Because 'the dragon slayer eventually becomes the evil dragon', so sometimes after entering a nightmare, he fast-forwards directly into becoming an evil dragon... Actually, he can't fly; he just transforms directly into a defeated evil dragon. Under the red dragon form, his only ability is to fall from the sky in various poses, mainly relying on dropping down to crush people. Sometimes he also plays the role of the dragon slayer before becoming an evil dragon; at that time, his ability is to summon a defeated evil dragon from the sky... Still relying on dropping down to crush people."

"Sleeping Beauty doesn't talk much usually; what she likes most is sleeping. She sleeps during the day and sleeps at night too. I've always envied her sleep quality, but she says that even while sleeping, she always feels like she's awake, actually feeling sleepy and tired every single day. Her greatest wish is to get the most comfortable pillow and then sleep to death on it."

"Dorothy can communicate with all kinds of machines; even if those machines have no machine souls, they will produce reactions similar to machine souls when she communicates... Yes, 'the Tin Man got a heart', that's the symbolism. Dorothy can make steel temporarily develop a will; she often uses this ability to trick vending machines into dropping an extra drink for her, or to keep making calls when her phone bill is overdue—I'm quite envious of that too."

"But what I envy most is the mermaid—she didn't come today. Her singing is so beautiful; usually, she doesn't even need to go out to take missions, she just uses a virtual avatar to livestream, and singing for half a day earns her more than I do in a week... Me? I'm tone-deaf."

"But she has her worries too... Scales fall out of her inexplicably when she takes a bath, often clogging the drain; even while maintaining human form, scales always appear in the bathroom. By the way, she actually can't swim... Didn't expect that, did you?"

"Oh right, and that one over there, 'The Little Match Girl', the one with the longest codename, an arson expert, a super expert. When the orphanage's heating wasn't warm in winter, we relied on her, but I heard the municipal heating pipes in our area are being replaced next year, so she won't have to burn the boiler in winter... Don't offend her, she gets very irritable when lighting fires."

Little Red Riding Hood chattered on like this; she and Yu Sheng sat together on a high earthen mound, looking at their companions not far away, a faint smile always on her face, like the eldest sister in a big family, proudly and affectionately introducing her younger siblings' many embarrassing stories to a friend.

A while later, the boys and girls lit a grand bonfire in the wilderness.

The fuel they used was the thorny rose bushes summoned by Sleeping Beauty—the blooming rose bushes burned fiercely in the flames, the towering firelight illuminating this chaotic, gray wilderness; just as Yu Sheng had predicted before, this desolate plain, silent and monotonous like a world of the dead, became so lively for the first time.

The older children gathered at this sheltered place shouted and yelled around the bonfire, singing and dancing; most of them were tone-deaf, screaming hoarsely, interspersed with the King's "meow meow meow".

Then, Hu Li and Erin also ran over to join the fun; the small doll floated in circles above the fire, as if it would set its own picture frame on fire the next second, while Hu Li was firing fox fire up into the sky with a crackling sound, just like setting off fireworks—Yu Sheng was also dragged over to serve as the mascot in front of the bonfire.

He felt like he was attending some strange and lively sacrificial ritual, surrounded by excited "believers" chirping and screeching, or like a "parent" dragged into some school event, with a crowd of children dancing wildly all around—he could only maintain an awkward yet polite smile in the middle.

That feeling wasn't too bad.

Then, the children's first gathering on this sheltered wasteland ended just like that.

Early the next morning, Yu Sheng arrived at the orphanage—according to the plan, today was for "blood inoculation" for the smaller children.

He sat in the orphanage kitchen, watching Snow White seriously stirring a large bucket of strangely colored "nutritious vegetable soup", and couldn't help but doubt: "... Is this thing really feasible? It looks unappetizing..."

"Trust my cooking skills—though the presentation is average, the little ones usually love drinking this," Snow White said, looking up at Yu Sheng while stirring the ladle in her hand, "Wait a moment, let the soup cool down a bit before adding the 'ingredients', otherwise the blood will get cooked..."

Yu Sheng nodded: "Oh."

Another young woman with long hair draped over her shoulders, looking sixteen or seventeen with a gentle and soft temperament, couldn't help but mutter: "I still think it would be better to put it in strawberry smoothies—the low temperature could mask the smell of blood, and the color wouldn't look so strange."

"It's winter, big sister, giving these little ones a cup of smoothie each early in the morning when it's minus ten degrees or below, they might be happy, but will there be enough toilets?" Snow White rolled her eyes upward, "I think you just want to eat it."

The gentle-tempered young woman with long hair smiled somewhat awkwardly; Yu Sheng couldn't help but look at her a few more times—he always felt the other person looked familiar, but couldn't quite place it at first; after looking for a while, he couldn't help but speak up: "Which one were you again?"

"We met last night," the young woman said shyly, pointing to herself, "by the bonfire in the wasteland; I was standing behind Princess Long Hair back then—earlier, I was standing on the beanstalk."

Yu Sheng thought hard, and finally an image of someone laughing wildly in the sea of fire on Jack's beanstalk popped into his mind.

He immediately slapped his hands together: "Oh oh oh! The one who wanted everyone to see their great-grandmother in the flames..."

Before he could finish speaking, the young woman in front of him already turned red, waving her hands vigorously while speaking: "I, I'm not usually like that, I just can't control myself when lighting fires..." Yu Sheng's mouth twitched: "Codename Little Match Girl, right... abilities are arson and illusion."

"That codename is too long; generally they call me 'Match'," the young woman in front of him said with an embarrassed smile; this shy and gentle appearance was indeed completely different from the figure laughing wildly in the sea of fire, "Little Red Riding Hood must have added a bunch of things when introducing me to you."

"... She added quite a lot when introducing each of you," Yu Sheng recalled the "characteristics" mentioned by Little Red Riding Hood when she introduced the general situation of everyone in the "Fairy Tale" organization last night, and a smile couldn't help but appear on his face, "But it's clear she likes you all."

The young woman with long hair in front of him smiled, her expression gentle and bright.

Snow White finally put down the ladle in her hand, tested the temperature of the vegetable soup, and turned her head to look at Yu Sheng with a half-smile, half-serious expression:

"Brother, time to add the blood."

Yu Sheng was stunned: "Brother?"

"Long Hair and I initially wanted to call you Uncle, but Little Red Riding Hood said you're not much older than us, so calling you Brother is more appropriate," Snow White said with a smile, one hand already picking up the kitchen knife placed nearby, "Do you want to cut yourself, or should I help you cut?"

Yu Sheng looked at the smile on the other person's face and the kitchen knife flashing with cold light in her hand, and cold sweat immediately broke out: "I'll do it myself, I'll do it myself..."

At the same time, in the underground structure of the orphanage's west building, Little Red Riding Hood frowned slightly, looking at the dilapidated underground tunnel before her, then looked down at the old documents in her hand.

Please... collect... 6... 9... Book... Bar...!

A "mercenary" wearing heavy armor, with dark skin and a muscular build, stood silently beside her; the mercenary's face was obscured by a heavy helmet, with a cat-head crest engraved on his chest plate, while the "King" squatted proudly on the mercenary's shoulder, curiously looking left and right.

"Is this the location?"

The King suddenly asked.

"Hard to say," Little Red Riding Hood shook her head, "The clues provided by the squirrel weren't very clear to begin with—the drop point she mentioned was in the center of the orphanage courtyard, but the layout of the orphanage eighty-six years ago was different from now; the 'courtyard' back then overlapped partially with the current west building, but exactly how much they overlapped, where the center point was, where the boundaries were, none of that is certain..."

While speaking, she picked up the old documents in her hand to show them to the "King".

"This is the layout map from when the west building was constructed; it's the most reliable document we could find in the archives—we are probably at this location now; if my calculations are correct, this should indeed be the direction of that 'courtyard' in the squirrel's memory... right above our heads."

"Also, this point is where I previously saw the 'Thorn Shadow'; it's a bit north of east, above us, on an outer wall of the west building."

The King stretched his neck and looked carefully at the documents Little Red Riding Hood handed over for a while, then patted them with his paw: "Why are you showing me this? I'm just a cat; I can't read."

"... Stop pretending; I saw with my own eyes you doing Bai Xue's physics exam paper for her."

The King awkwardly turned his head away: "... She bribed me with cat treats."

Little Red Riding Hood looked disdainfully at this tabby cat, then waved her hand.

"Can you feel anything? Use your 'cat intuition' that you boast about daily."

"Feel... actually nothing special," the King muttered, stretching on the shoulder of the summoned mercenary, speaking in a lazy tone, "But don't you find it strange? There isn't even a single mouse here..."

(End of Chapter)