Chapter 259: A Good Place

Yu Sheng told Little Red Riding Hood his purpose, and the girl's eyes immediately lit up.

"Oh! Are you finally going to open a 'dedicated door' for us? That's great! Teacher Su told me yesterday that it feels troublesome to have to find you to open the door after work, and Long Hair has been nagging me about it all day... Where do you plan to open it?"

"This side is easy," Yu Sheng said, pointing his finger toward a spot not far away, "Just find a spacious and stable place here at the resettlement point, poke the door in, and that's it. I think the open ground in the middle of the town is quite good. The key is the door on the 'outside'—it needs to be opened in the real world, invisible to ordinary people, yet not too remote, taking into account your future need to go out, and the convenience for 'employees' like Teacher Su to commute."

"Open it at Green Source Plaza," Long Hair Princess, who was standing nearby, chimed in, "There are so many milk tea shops over there—"

However, no one paid her any attention at all.

Little Red Riding Hood lowered her head and thought seriously for a moment, seeming to have already formed an idea.

"How about opening it at the old site of the orphanage?" She raised her head, looking very serious. "You see, first, we are already familiar with that place. Although we now live in a new home, if the 'home door' is opened near the old gate of the orphanage, going out daily won't be much different from before, and Teacher Su and the others won't need to change their commute routes. Secondly, our orphanage has always been a plot shielded by the Node device. Now that the Dark Angel incident has just ended, the Node must not have been dismantled yet. If we tell the Special Operations Bureau, we can directly set up the door there, without worrying about ordinary people seeing the portal, and we won't need to build new shielding Nodes."

"Of course, the only problem is that the place has been flattened; it should still be a ruin now, and we don't know if there's a place to install the door..."

Hearing the girl's analysis, Yu Sheng's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but sigh: "High schoolers' brains are useful. Now that you mention it, it really is... How about we go take a look there first?"

Little Red Riding Hood thought for a moment and nodded gently: "Mm, just right... I also want to see what it looks like there now."

Hearing this, Long Hair Princess jumped out again from the side: "Where? Our 'old home'? Hey, I'm coming too! I haven't gone back to look since the incident ended... Sigh, I had so many things I didn't have time to bring out, so many novels and several figurines... Hey, are you guys taking me?"

By this time, Yu Sheng had already casually pulled open a large door leading to the orphanage (old site). Little Red Riding Hood stood at the doorway, turning her head to look at her roommate who was still muttering endlessly in place: "If you dawdle any longer, I really won't take you—just come if you want, why talk so much nonsense?"

Long Hair Princess immediately beamed with a smile and walked over quickly: "Hey! Okay!"

Crossing the door took only an instant; the scenery before the group's eyes changed, and they had already returned from the valley like a paradise to the gate of that old orphanage.

Of course, everything before their eyes was no longer the way it was in their memories.

That mottled and towering wall was almost crushed into fragments in the Dark Angel's final explosion; now only countless broken bricks and tiles lay collapsed by the roadside. The two main buildings in the courtyard, which had once become the umbilical cord of the Angel's womb, had now, with the breaking of the umbilical cord, turned into huge wreckage collapsed in the ruins. The original outdoor activity area, where children had once laughed and played, once soaked in nightmare matter; now that the nightmares had receded, those swing sets, slides, and seesaws had all become broken fragments, presenting a texture like charred coal.

And that big sandbox now only remained as a blackened, hardened depression.

Little Red Riding Hood looked at the scene before her and remained silent for a long time.

Long Hair Princess, who had just walked out of the door behind them, opened her eyes wide looking at this ruin. After a while, she forced out a carefree-looking smile, took a deep breath, and patted Yu Sheng's shoulder: "Brother, it really is just as you said, it's all collapsed. Perfect, it's all collapsed."

Yu Sheng said nothing, only patting Little Red Riding Hood's back.

Of course, there was not only ruin at the scene.

There were also Special Operations Bureau personnel here—cleanup personnel.

There were technicians responsible for environmental testing, Special Operations Bureau agents fully armed and still maintaining a state of alert, as well as construction teams cleaning up the ruins, and large demolition equipment rumbling loudly.

Among those Special Operations Bureau agents on site maintaining the cordon, Yu Sheng saw a familiar figure: Li Lin.

The latter saw him too and immediately walked over quickly toward this side.

Li Lin, wearing a full set of protective equipment and armed with a loaded gun, looked much more reliable than usual. After coming over, he first greeted Yu Sheng and the others, then his gaze fell on Little Red Riding Hood: "Here to take a look today?"

Little Red Riding Hood nodded, and Yu Sheng, standing beside her, spoke up: "Not just to take a look; there's another matter—I plan to open a permanent portal here."

Li Lin's expression instantly became serious: "Permanent portal?"

"'Fairy Tale' has been moved over to my backyard as a whole, right? It's prepared for them, opening a convenient passage to the real world," Yu Sheng explained. "I mentioned this to your Director before, but the location hasn't been decided. We just discussed it and felt this place is still suitable—the surrounding 'Nodes' haven't been dismantled yet, have they?"

"Of course they haven't been dismantled," Li Lin nodded quickly. "Even if you didn't come, those Nodes would have to be kept. This land was once parasitized by an Angel, after all; the entire area must be shielded for at least ten years before any development assessment can be made... You really want to open the door here?"

"Mm," Yu Sheng had no psychological burden, after all, he knew Anka Ela's situation best; the Special Operations Bureau following procedures was naturally no problem, but he knew even better that this place was actually quite safe. "I just don't know how the cleanup progress inside is now; is there a place for me to 'construct'?" Li Lin's expression visibly carried a bit of nervousness—perhaps also three parts excitement and two parts anticipation: "Uh, what are your requirements for opening a fixed door? How large a site? What materials? Do you need to clear the surrounding personnel first? Should we hurry and call Engineer Sun over to build a temporary shed for you or something?"

Yu Sheng was suddenly a bit dazed by this string of questions; he felt that the other person's excitement seemed as if the door wasn't being opened for the orphanage children, but for his own home. Immediately, he subconsciously asked: "Does Engineer Sun handle this matter too?"

Before Li Lin could even open his mouth, Erin, who was lying on his shoulder, spoke up in a low voice: "That's just how civil engineering brothers are."

Yu Sheng awkwardly rubbed the tip of his nose: "Alright then... but there's no need to make it so troublesome, and no need to clear the area either. Just find me a cleared open space that won't be in the way in the future, and that's it. As for materials, it's simple; the main material is a door, just an ordinary door, serving as the 'carrier'. Auxiliary materials..."

He paused here, taking a gentle breath.

Li Lin's ominous premonition suddenly "popped" up.

If he had a richer vocabulary, his spiritual intuition would be jumping around wildly at this moment.

Yu Sheng blurted out in one breath: "Five bundles of ritual candles, three buckets of rose essential oil, 2.5L size, crystal dust, twelve jin, spirit ink, two thermos flasks, and then four roasted chickens, twenty buns, twenty steamed buns, two boxes of ham sausages—and twenty skewers of grilled mushrooms."

"I, I, I," Long Hair Princess beside him raised her hand vigorously, "I also want a ticket to the X-Star concert!"

Little Red Riding Hood immediately poked Long Hair Princess's arm: "What do you want that thing for? Just have the Mermaid sing a performance for you later, won't that do? She can even restore the audience's screaming and yelling from the live show; close your eyes and it's just like being there."

"That's not the same!"

No mistake, one sentence, one release, one content, one look inside!

Li Lin was dumbfounded hearing this; holding his phone's notepad, he stared at it for a long time before squeezing out a sentence: "... Brother Yu, this... this I have to report to the leadership."

Yu Sheng thought about who the other person's leader was and immediately laughed: "It's fine, go ahead and report."

"I really will report all these things you said?"

"Report, report."

Li Lin walked to the side and dialed Captain Song's phone: "Hello? Leader, I have a situation here... Yu Sheng came to find me, saying he wants to open a fixed door and asked for 'some' materials... How did you know there were grilled mushrooms too?!"

A moment later, the young Special Operations Bureau agent returned with a strange expression: "The leadership approved it."

Yu Sheng just watched him and laughed.

"The door you want is right here," Li Lin coughed twice dryly and quickly adjusted his state. "If it's just an ordinary door, quite a few intact ones were dismantled from the ruins; they can all be used directly. As for the other 'auxiliary materials', they will be delivered in a while; taking the 'shortcut', it will arrive in half an hour or so. As for the open space you want..."

As he spoke, he raised his finger and pointed to a corner of the orphanage ruins.

"That side should be okay, right? It counts as one of the few places in the entire compound that wasn't damaged. It's also a coincidence; when the 'umbilical cord' broke, so many fragments fell from the sky, but none of them hit that place. You can put the door there first; later we'll have Engineer Sun come over to cover the door with a roof to shield it from wind and rain, or simply build a house. In the future, this will be the new 'Fairy Tale' headquarters' 'reception room'..."

While Li Lin chattered on the side, Yu Sheng followed the direction the other person pointed and saw an open space that remained intact amidst the ruins.

It was right at the edge of the original outdoor activity area. Beside the open space stood a tree, a tree that also hadn't been hit. Nearby was a brick wall; half of it had fallen, but a small section remained stubbornly standing beside the collapsed swing set.

Yu Sheng looked at that place for a long time.

He remembered that a long, long time ago, there was a Cinderella who lived to be 26; she stood in front of that brick wall and the swing set, smiling quietly, looking at Old Zheng, who was then Little Zheng.

And there was a young Little Red Riding Hood, taking Wang Jiajia, who was then still young, to plant a tree on that open space; now that tree has grown up.

In the future, there will also be a door here.

Leading to that sunny valley.

"Alright," Yu Sheng slowly smiled, "I think this place is quite good."

(End of this chapter)