Chapter 258: New Clothes

As soon as she saw Yu Sheng's expression change, Erin instantly popped her head over, glanced at the screen, and immediately understood what was happening. The small doll lifted her head, her eyes full of the look of someone who loves a spectacle: "Oh ho—so what's the deal? You won't go meet your online friend, so your online friend is coming to meet you..."

At this moment, Yu Sheng had no time to deal with the doll's sarcasm. He looked at the message on the screen, gnawing on his teeth in distress, looking as worried as could be: "Let me tell you, I have a very ominous premonition, a really ominous one..."

"Your spiritual intuition is tingling?"

"Not exactly, but it might be out of range," Yu Sheng said with a serious yet conflicted expression. "Or maybe I'm overthinking it. The world doesn't necessarily have such coincidences, right..."

"Then I can only agree, since you're worried like this," Erin sat cross-legged on the table, looking at Yu Sheng with curiosity. "So how do you plan to reply? Find an excuse not to meet? After all, it's not a very close relationship—why not just open a door and go survive in the wilderness of some godforsaken planet for a few days, saying you went out for an inspection? After all, if it really is that coincidental, it would be too awkward then."

"You make it sound easy. Surviving in the wilderness of a godforsaken planet is no better than facing an online friend coming with a knife," Yu Sheng immediately glared at the doll, then made up his mind. "Ah, let's just meet. What's the worst that could happen? Not to mention it might not be that coincidental. If it really is, that's even better; then we won't have to worry about this matter anymore."

While speaking, he replied to a message on the Border Communications: "Sure, it's definitely a good thing to have someone knowledgeable to chat with, but where shall we meet? Do you need an address? My place is a bit remote; ordinary people can't find it..."

In a short while, 'Disciple Four Thousand' sent a reply: "No problem. I have some connections with the Special Bureau. Once my disciple arrives, I'll have them help arrange it. Just wait for the news."

After exchanging a few more words, Yu Sheng put down his phone and let out a long sigh.

It felt like a wish had been fulfilled, bringing a sense of profound enlightenment.

The small doll approached, peering left and right at Yu Sheng's face, and after a long while blurted out: "You are destined for a blood disaster!"

"I have blood disasters every few days; it doesn't even count as a disaster anymore," Yu Sheng reached out and slapped away Erin's two paws, then picked up the newly sewn small dress from the table and handed it to her. "Try it on. I loosened the back a bit for you, and I took apart the hot-melt glue spots and re-sewed them with thread. Now it should feel as comfortable as normal clothes."

"Oh, okay!" Erin instantly became happy, hugged the dress, and jumped down from the table. "I'll change... change... ah, there's no place to change clothes in the attic; I have to go down."

"What a hassle," Yu Sheng casually grabbed a large cardboard box that had once been used to store miscellaneous items, stood it upright, and placed it on the floor. "Why not change inside here? Leave an opening on the side; there's no light inside."

"Oh, then you're not allowed to peek!"

Yu Sheng helplessly waved his hand.

The doll then crawled into the box to change clothes. After a rustling sound, Erin emerged from inside wearing the new purple dress, smiling broadly, and spun around proudly in front of Yu Sheng: "Looks good, right?"

"Good, good. I've already seen it once before; it fits quite well," Yu Sheng casually complimented her. "Is it still itchy?"

"It's not itchy anymore!" Erin said happily, climbing back onto the table along Yu Sheng's leg. "Your craftsmanship is impressive; maybe you could become a professional doll maker in the future?"

"Thinking of one thing and then another—I have some self-awareness about my skills. Being able to repair and patch you up and occasionally mold a passable body for you is already quite an achievement," Yu Sheng said casually. "If I really became a doll maker, I'd starve to death."

Erin thought for a moment, then immediately jumped to a new topic: "By the way, did that 'disciple' or whatever tell you when his disciple is coming?"

"He said it would take at least five or six days, not just because of the long journey, but also because of paperwork and such," Yu Sheng said, waving his hand. "I've never been far from home, and I've never lived outside the Borderlands, so I don't understand their process. But it sounds like it's quite troublesome for an 'outsider' to come to this Border City."

"After all, it is the Borderlands... I suppose this is the place with the highest security level in the entire universe."

For the next two days, Yu Sheng finally enjoyed some stable days, or at least days without any emergencies.

The "online friend" from the other side of the Star Sea was still on the way with their paperwork, the Special Bureau had no new news for the time being, the room at the end of the second-floor corridor was temporarily quiet, no otherworldly realm suddenly opened a door on the street, and no entity crashed headfirst into the kitchen at No. 66 Wutong Road.

Hu Li lived a leisurely life of eating until full and then waiting for the next meal, and when idle, finding Yu Sheng to groom his tail. Erin, on the other hand, spent her days in a cycle of "confronting stupid online friends -> account banned -> account unbanned -> confronting stupid online friends," living every day with high spirits. Occasionally, she got addicted to new stupid web dramas or low-budget variety shows, making her life quite fulfilling.

Yu Sheng finally dragged out and finished a manuscript that had been overdue for a long time—this time, the protagonist in his story no longer rode a motorcycle. Although motorcycles were cool, he painfully replaced the male lead with an alpaca.

The editor in charge was obviously shocked, but what was even more shocking was that he actually approved the manuscript anyway. This made Yu Sheng momentarily suspect that the saying "delaying submissions increases the approval rate" might be true, and he decided to try replacing the male lead with a three-wheeled vehicle next time...

As for the other side, in that valley, the children of "Fairy Tale" were also living smoothly, with everything gradually getting back on track.

The aid engineering team had already withdrawn, and Little Red Riding Hood led a group of super middle school students to take over the subsequent home construction work. Actually, Engineer Sun was quite unhappy on the day he left; he felt that as an adult, he should be responsible until the end and not hand over something like "rebuilding the home" to a group of half-grown children. However, his simple idea was suppressed by half when he saw the "Royal Stonemasons Association" summoned by the King, and the remaining half was suppressed after seeing the efficiency of the seven Thunder Titans, who could lift mountains, when building houses.

After confirming that everything in the valley was back on track, Yu Sheng also prepared to complete a matter he had planned beforehand:

To open an additional stable portal to the outside world in the center of the "Town."

After all, Little Red Riding Hood and the others couldn't stay in the valley forever; there were always needs to go out. The council employees, represented by Teacher Su, also had to get off work every day. Currently, whenever anyone went in or out, they either had to ask Yu Sheng to help open the door, or they had to walk through the fixed channel on the portal platform and exit from the basement of No. 66 Wutong Road—neither of these methods was obviously a long-term solution.

Early that morning, Yu Sheng took Erin and Hu Li to the valley.

Near the temporary houses in the "Town," they saw a bustling construction site.

A large area of new foundations had already "grown" complete. A group of "Kingdom Craftsmen," dressed as if they had walked out of a storybook and behaving stiffly like puppets but working without flaw, were measuring the ground and marking lines. Bai Xue and several "parents" seemed to be discussing future building plans at the edge of the construction site. Meanwhile, the summoned Thunder Titans were stacking huge building materials onto the designated construction spots like building blocks. Those building materials included large trees from the Black Forest, massive stones from distant castles, and a large quantity of steel and concrete previously transported by the Special Bureau.

Yu Sheng also saw a giant wearing fine steel armor sitting beside the construction site, holding a tree trunk in one hand and using a "short sword" he carried with him to slowly carve the tree with the other, looking as if he were sharpening a pencil. He watched for a long time before realizing that the "wooden stick" the giant was carving was actually a roof beam...

There were several more sharpened roof beams beside the giant.

A voice sounded beside Yu Sheng: "I heard from the 'King' that these freshly processed wood materials can't be used directly; they need to be dried and dehydrated, then surface-carbonized and so on. Under normal circumstances, this takes a very long time, so we need to build a drying room first. One of the Titans summoned by Bai Xue knows how to play with fire and can go in to speed it up, but it requires precise control; just hearing about it gives me a headache... but he insists that this gives him a sense of achievement..."

Yu Sheng turned around and saw Rapunzel standing beside him, looking at the construction site direction with him.

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

The girl turned her head, revealing a bright smile: "Brother, here to find Red Hood?"

Yu Sheng was stunned: "How did you know?"

"You have an aura of someone coming to do serious business around you..."

Yu Sheng: "?"

Rapunzel bared her teeth, then turned toward the direction of the town and shouted at the top of her lungs: "Red Hood—Sister Red Hood—"

Then Yu Sheng saw a figure run out from the town, surrounded by shadowy wolves, and in the blink of an eye, it leaped to the vicinity: "What are you howling like a ghost and a wolf for! Can't you just send a message!"

Rapunzel pointed a finger: "Old brother is looking for you."

Yu Sheng smiled and greeted Little Red Riding Hood, then his expression froze.

The girl before him had changed her clothes today.

She was not wearing her signature red outer garment, but a thick blue-and-white jacket. The jacket had a simple style and a loose fit, with a row of characters embroidered on the chest—XX High School...

Yu Sheng: "..."

Little Red Riding Hood noticed the gaze falling on her, looked down, and when she looked up again, a bright smile appeared on her face: "How is it? This is my school uniform~~~"

Yu Sheng thought for a moment and said nothing.

Erin, however, spoke her mind directly: "To be honest, it's quite ugly."

"Yeah, it is quite ugly, haha," Little Red Riding Hood laughed happily. "But I occasionally want to wear it—after all, I used to wear that red jacket almost every day. Sometimes, if I changed into different clothes for a day, my fingernails would start to sharpen the next day... Now I don't have to worry about that anymore."

While speaking, she spun around on the spot.

"Hmm, indeed, it is quite ugly," she said happily.

(End of Chapter)