Chapter 248: Wind and Snow Cross the Boundary

The bonfire party lasted until very late—Yu Sheng even felt that if not for the fact that even children's energy has limits, Little Red Riding Hood and her younger siblings could have made a ruckus for three days and three nights without rest.

After all, the night sky manually crafted by "Brother Yu Sheng" could last indefinitely.

But regardless, happy times are limited; the bonfire party finally ended—exhausted children were dragged back to their rooms one by one, some even falling asleep directly on roadside corners or grass after playing themselves into total exhaustion, and all were found from every nook and cranny by the night watchmen summoned by the King, then tossed onto beds one by one; the thirteen or fourteen-year-old half-grown children tried to muster their spirits to help the adults clean up, but were quickly driven back by Teacher Su and others with the excuse that "staying up late at night affects development."

After setting off the fireworks, Rapunzel still seemed unsatisfied, finally running over to discuss with Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood what pretext to use next time to hold a similar event so she could get her fix again, but the explosives she had stockpiled had obviously aroused Little Red Riding Hood's high alert—the latter kept asking where exactly the other had gotten so many fireworks and where they had been hidden before, yet got nothing out of her.

Bai Liqing had left before the gathering even ended—not because she truly couldn't adapt to the atmosphere there or because of any "dead air," but because her position was special; every day, every hour, even every minute had to be carefully planned, and being able to spare two hours to do nothing but accompany a group of children watching fireworks and eating barbecue was already a rare luxury in her schedule.

The Squirrel and the Hunter returned to the Black Forest after the gathering ended.

Actually, Yu Sheng wanted them to simply stay in the "Town"; everyone here was very willing to welcome these two new "neighbors" from the forest, but the Squirrel and the Hunter insisted on returning.

They seemed already accustomed to life in the Black Forest—the Squirrel said she needed to smell the scent of soil mixed with fallen leaves there to fall asleep, needed to go out every day searching for acorns to feel grounded; she now liked listening to the wind blowing through the leaves, liked watching sunlight filter through the canopy to cast mottled shadows... without these, she would feel very anxious.

The Hunter's connection to the Black Forest was even deeper than the Squirrel's, and he wanted to return to properly tend to that house deep in the forest—the house hung with red cloaks.

He and the Squirrel currently lived in that small house; the two were planning together to thoroughly renovate the small house so it could serve as a "rest room" for children exploring the forest in the future, while those red cloaks, they would pack up and send to the "Town," to be placed in the newly built memorial hall of the orphanage.

However, they both promised to appear frequently in the "Town" afterwards, like friends who moved but not too far away, still showing up at their doorstep every weekend.

Yu Sheng thought this was fine; as long as they truly liked things as they were now, that was good enough—he felt there was no need to forcibly mold all the changes of time back into the perfect shape in memory, because memory had inevitably changed over time, and now... there were things in the present worth cherishing and appreciating.

Silence had fallen all around; the large bonfire in the center of the square was nearly burned out, leaving only the lingering crimson in the ash pile slowly flickering in the breeze; Hu Lizheng was skewering several chunks of meat found from who-knows-where on a wooden stick, squatting beside the ashes, seriously roasting them using the residual heat from the bonfire pile.

Yu Sheng lay down on the grass at the edge of the square, finding a comfortable position on the slope, looking up at the "night sky" above.

The sound of a skirt brushing against the grass came from nearby.

Three little puppets crept over like thieves, seemingly intending to do something naughty, but upon seeing Yu Sheng's open eyes, they immediately gave a sheepish laugh in unison and lay down in a neat row on Yu Sheng's left side.

By the way, the one carrying the picture frame, Erin, was lying on her stomach—because once she lay down, she couldn't get up again.

"Ah, finally some peace, ah," Erin muttered, "those kids, ah."

"But I saw you having a great time," Yu Sheng glanced sideways, "when two kids stopped chasing you, you even split off a body to go pat them twice."

"Tsk!" Erin squeezed the sound out between her teeth, then burrowed closer toward Yu Sheng's arm, staring wide-eyed at the sky.

After a while, the little puppet sighed: "Ah, the quiet night is truly nice, pity there are no stars today."

"Nonsense! This night was hand-crafted by me!" Yu Sheng looked at the puppet as if it were an idiot, "If you want to see stars, I'd have to manually poke holes in the clouds."

"... Then poke them, I want to see stars."

"Too lazy to poke."

"Tsk!"

Yu Sheng stopped paying attention to this puppet; he simply waved at Hu Lizheng, called out "Give me a tail," borrowed a fluffy, warm, large tail from the fox demon girl, then hugged that tail and fell into a deep sleep directly on the grass.

Sleeping under the open sky with the fox tail as a blanket, under the night sky he had woven with his own hands—while also trying hard to block out the nagging of the three puppets nearby.

Yu Sheng actually slept quite soundly.

He didn't know how long he had been in a drowsy sleep, but it was definitely several hours, then he suddenly felt something in his dream.

The sound of wind, howling wind, like cold, biting wind blowing through a cave; wind and snow blew into the house, pulsing at the edge of his perception. Coldness spread towards him.

Yu Sheng suddenly opened his eyes.

That coldness pulsing at the edge of his perception suddenly weakened; warmth returned to his body; he saw he was still lying on the grass in the valley, the bonfire pile in the distance had completely extinguished, the square and the "Town" were quiet, with nothing unusual.

The three Erins had fallen asleep at some point, lying sprawled out on the grass nearby in a dead sleep, while a pile of warm white large tails cuddled beside him; Hu Lizheng herself was curled up inside the ball of tails, only showing a small half of her body outside, her head resting against his arm, her ears still twitching gently in the breeze.

Yu Sheng frowned; although he was already awake and his reason instantly distinguished between illusion and reality, the strange sensation that had suddenly come in the dream had not completely faded, but was still pulsing constantly at the edge of his perception.

He carefully pushed aside Hu Lizheng's tail, sat up on the grass, and tried to locate the source of that strange sensation.

Although his movements were very careful, Hu Lizheng woke up immediately—the fox demon girl suddenly opened her eyes like a vigilant beast, a flash of light passing through her gold-red pupils in the night, but upon seeing Yu Sheng's figure, that light instantly softened; she lazily wriggled in the pile of tails, stretching: "Benefactor, aren't you sleeping?"

"Did you hear any sound?" Yu Sheng asked quietly, "Wind, blowing through a cave, howling."

Hu Lizheng instantly retracted a half-stretched stretch, her eyes sharpening.

She stood up, frowned, tilted her ear to listen for a while, then casually plucked her two ears from the top of her head, held them high, rotated them, scanning around like two radars, before shaking her head at Yu Sheng: "Didn't hear anything."

Yu Sheng's brows remained tightly furrowed.

No mistake, one sentence, one release, one content, all in one view!

And the next second, a sudden movement in his heart, as if he finally thought of something: "... It's home!"

He suddenly pulled open a large door, while turning his head to throw a sentence at Hu Lizheng: "You wake up Erin, I'll go check home first; there's something in the room at the end of the second floor!"

Having spoken, he didn't wait for Hu Lizheng's reaction, but had already stepped through that door in one stride.

Inside No. 66 Wutong Road, it was quiet; only the lights on the stairs and in the hallway were still on because they had been forgotten when leaving; Yu Sheng slowly came to the second floor, confirmed that no other place in the house had any abnormalities, then went directly to the door of the room at the end of the hallway.

That seemingly thin wooden door now seemed to separate another world—but he could still hear the faint howling sound transmitted through the door panel, and the slight chill blowing in from the gap at the bottom of the door.

Yu Sheng gripped the doorknob, took a breath, steadied his mind slightly, then pushed the door open with one shove.

Cold, howling wind rushed to his face, along with a small amount of snowflakes swept up by the airflow slapping against his face.

Yu Sheng looked at the scene in the room in shock.

The room was still that room; the roof, walls, and floor were all there, yet continuous howling wind and airflow seeming to leak into a cave swirled within the room; tiny snowflakes appeared out of nowhere from the surface of the opposite wall like phantoms, spinning across the house, piling up in the corners on both sides; that snow accumulation was a mix of void and reality, even covering half of the wall surface.

Yu Sheng instinctively shivered—then quickly closed the door first, went back inside to put on a down jacket, before returning.

He entered this snowing room, looked at the snowflakes appearing out of nowhere from the opposite wall, felt the cold wind also blowing in from the wall surface, and his gaze quickly fell on the mirror in the middle of the wall.

The mirror reflected his figure, while simultaneously overlaying another "scenery"—the mysterious cave covered in snow that he had once seen in this mirror.

This room at the end of the hallway overlapped once again with a cave somewhere unknown; the cave entrance was about a few meters away on the other side of the mirror; right now, outside that cave, cold wind was howling, sweeping up snowflakes that blew into the cave and piled up in the room at No. 66 Wutong Road.

Yu Sheng tightened his clothes, walked past the mirror; his feet stepped on the floor but made creaking sounds like stepping on snow; this time he did not rashly touch that strange mirror, but went to the corner to carefully observe something constantly fluttering in the corner.

It was a piece of rag.

He reached out, grabbed that rag, gave it a gentle pull, and pulled it into "this side of the world."

(End of Chapter)