Chapter 276: It Just Passed

For ordinary people, 66 Wutong Road is invisible.

But for Special Bureau agents with certain spiritual aptitude and specialized training, the "No Trespassing" vacant lot occupied by 66 Wutong Road and the eerie wall at the far end of that lot are visible.

And now, both that vacant lot and the wall at its end have vanished, disappearing into the calm night—without making a sound, as if they had never existed.

Two Special Bureau agents burst out of the station almost like they were teleporting, then stood gaping at the narrow alley before them; facing the cold night wind, sweat streamed from the back of their necks all the way down to their feet.

Their specially trained sharp observation skills allowed them to quickly assess the situation of the several buildings around them in the night, confirming that all these houses had undergone varying degrees of displacement and deformation; some structures originally on the other side of the lot had now shifted to within arm's reach, and some originally unconnected vacant houses had become row houses, and the feeling this gave everyone...

... was as if the space here had originally been forcibly "stretched open" by something, and now that "foreign object" stretching the space had suddenly departed, so the spacetime in this area, which had long been in a deformed state without anyone noticing, silently returned to normal.

One of the Special Bureau agents wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, turned to look at his companion: "... What do we do?"

"What else can we do? Report it, report it up," the other Special Bureau agent's face wasn't any better, "Anyway, this matter will definitely alert the Director."

"... Damn, how do we even say that?"

"Just say what you saw; this has already exceeded our two people's authority," the young agent sighed, then immediately looked tense again, "It shouldn't be because we did something that made them angry and leave, right?"

"It shouldn't be that bad; when Yu Sheng took Hu Li out for a walk, I even greeted them; they looked in a very good mood at the time..."

Thick fog flowed and surged on the streets, like some kind of viscous fluid with substance, but all the fog stayed a few meters away from 66 Wutong Road, where a clear "boundary" had formed; not a single wisp of fog had "seeped" in.

"It really works!" Yu Sheng was quite happy, turned to say to Erin and Hu Li who had come over to watch the spectacle, "As soon as we opened the door, we arrived on this foggy side!"

But Erin didn't speak immediately; she first cautiously stepped two paces out of the house, after looking around, she turned back to look, then looked at Yu Sheng with a face full of doubt: "I'm saying... did you really just open a door? Why do I feel the atmosphere... is wrong? Wait, the whole house is still standing right here! And I see the things around here are a bit awkward too; that telephone pole over there should originally have been a bit further to the left..."

Yu Sheng then focused his gaze on the surroundings, frowned as if sensing something, and only after a long while touched his chin uncertainly: "Maybe I opened it a bit crooked."

Erin seemed to have realized it by then: "... What did you open crooked?!"

"The house."

"... Holy crap?!"

"If the theory is correct, I should have successfully 'landed' the entire 66 Wutong Road on this foggy side; the whole process was controllable," Yu Sheng scratched his head, explaining to the small doll what he had done, "It's not that the whole house was falling into the alien realm; I thought that since this house can 'descend' into the alien realm just like a person, it means it is really 'moving' just like a person; perhaps it's what you said, people have human souls, machines have machine souls, houses have house souls; then I decided to try and see if this process could be actively guided and controlled; so when opening the door, I treated the entire 66 Wutong Road as part of the door frame..."

Erin's eyes almost popped out: "... This actually works?!"

Then she looked around again, and immediately darted back two steps: "You're not kidding me, right? It's not really just 'the shadow of 66 Wutong Road existing on this foggy side'? But you really brought the house's physical body over here?"

Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow: "Do you think 66 Wutong Road would form a projection in this thick fog like other ordinary buildings?"

"... Uh, that seems right too; 66 Wutong Road is at least an alien realm, and the most special kind," Erin scratched her head, "And you even opened it crooked..."

"No need to emphasize that part."

"Benefactor, what do we do next?" Hu Li blinked her eyes, turned to look at Yu Sheng; she didn't look nervous at all, those big eyes instead held a hint of eager expectation, a pile of big tails swaying back and forth, "Are we going out?"

"Wait, let's go back first," Yu Sheng didn't rush to go out, but closed the door first, "Go check the situation in the valley."

"The valley? Ah, right!" Erin suddenly realized, "You moved the entire 66 Wutong Road away! I don't know if the connection to the valley has been affected!"

Soon, Yu Sheng brought the fox and the doll to the basement, then pushed open that fixed portal leading to the valley.

The silent valley under the "Night Curtain" came into the view of the three.

Yu Sheng came to the portal platform, looked up at the sky—the artificial night curtain created by thick clouds covered the entire valley; that was, of course, created by him.

Now he was already experienced at doing this; every day when the outside real world got dark, he would "draw the curtains" in the valley, and the next morning he would let the sky out again; using this simple and direct method to maintain the normal day-night cycle in the valley—simultaneously solving the two major problems of vegetables not growing properly and the Doll Heads not sleeping properly at night.

Even the vegetable greenhouses were saved.

Then, Yu Sheng sensed the situation of the portal in the "Town" again.

"It's fine; it seems the 'movement' of 66 Wutong Road won't affect the portals that have already been established," he nodded, saying very satisfied, "The environment of the valley itself hasn't changed either."

The group returned to the living room. Yu Sheng took out his phone and looked at it again: "The signal is also perfectly normal."

"The whole house fell to the 'other side', yet the phone still has signal?" Hearing this, Erin was surprised, leaned her head over to take a look, her face full of disbelief, "What exactly is the situation with this house..."

"How would I know," Yu Sheng shrugged, "From the very beginning, the fact that there was signal in this house was already an unsolved mystery; now you want to solve it?"

"Solving it or not doesn't matter much; I just suddenly remembered something," Erin thought for a moment, suddenly thought of something, "You directly put the whole house into 'this side'; isn't it necessary for the Special Bureau side to..."

Yu Sheng was stunned: "Oh crap! It really is like that..."

Before he could finish speaking, he heard a series of urgent phone rings.

The caller was none other than Bai Li Qing—the top entry in Yu Sheng's recent call records.

Erin glanced at the screen: "You should really open a family number with her; you could even save some phone bills."

Yu Sheng waved his hand to silence this beeping machine, then cautiously answered the phone, wearing an awkward and guilty smile (although the Director Sister on the other end couldn't see it): "Uh, good evening, Director Bai Li."

Whether it was an illusion or not, as soon as his polite "Director Bai Li" came out, a sighing sound faintly came from the other end, as if Bai Li Qing had suddenly relaxed over there.

!

Then that cold, calm voice came from the receiver: "I received a report; the Wutong Road station says... um, says the entire 'plot of land' where your house is located has disappeared."

Yu Sheng: "..."

To be honest, he really didn't expect this "phenomenon"—the entire plot of land disappeared? That powerful?

He thought at most the Special Bureau side would just receive another alarm or something; after all, this time he opened the door in a rather unique way, and that newly launched automatic filtering system might not be able to recognize it.

In Yu Sheng's momentary silence, Bai Li Qing spoke again: "What happened?"

Yu Sheng looked up, looked at the foggy street scene outside, tried hard to think about how to arrange the words as logically as possible to form a sentence that was as accurate and faithful to the facts as possible; after carefully weighing it several times, he finally broke the silence: "I just saw fog outside, the abnormal kind of fog, so I came out to check the situation."

"... Uh, so?"

"Brought the house along with me."

Bai Li Qing: "...?"

Erin, sitting nearby, was about to jump off the coffee table: "You held your breath for so long just to come up with that one sentence?!"

"I know this is hard to understand, because I just figured out this new function," Yu Sheng tugged the corner of his mouth, explaining to Bai Li Qing, "Rest assured, nothing happened; I'm fine here—and my house is fine too."

Bai Li Qing's silence was deafening.

Erin sat cross-legged on the coffee table, nodded with a face full of understanding, translating this silence: "She's cursing, the really nasty kind, with a relative radius of at least three generations."

Yu Sheng ignored this doll.

He heard the female Bureau Chief on the other end of the phone let out a soft sigh.

"Coming back?" Baili Qing asked with exceptional calm, then added in a slightly awkward tone, "I mean, are you and your... house, both coming back?"

Yu Sheng replied with equal awkwardness: "Uh, yes, coming back."

"Approximately when?"

"Maybe... before tomorrow morning?" Yu Sheng thought for a moment and said uncertainly, "Mainly because I want to go out and check the situation right now; you have no idea, the fog outside is incredibly thick, and I don't know if things will go smoothly..."

"Do you need support? I can dispatch the Deep Diving Unit over there."

"That won't be necessary; I'm just taking Erin and Huli anyway; fewer people will make it more convenient."

"Alright—then remember to activate the environmental recording function in 'Border Communication.' Also, send a message once you're back."

"Uh, okay."

(End of Chapter)