Chapter 61: Assessment

Yu Sheng and Erin took Hu Li downstairs.

The most pressing matter now was to arrange a place for the fox-girl to sleep.

"There is an empty room on the second floor and one on the first," Yu Sheng stood in the second-floor corridor, pointing at the door opposite his own room. "This room is opposite mine; no one has lived in it, so it was temporarily used to store some clutter, but it is still relatively clean. The empty room on the first floor has no clutter, but it has no furniture and hasn't been cleaned for a long time. There is also a basement, but although spacious, it is very damp and unsuitable for living."

"Whatever arrangement the Benefactor makes is fine," Hu Li nodded, then casually pulled a cookie out from her tails, placing it in her mouth to nibble on in small bites. "No matter what, it's better than in the valley."

Yu Sheng's gaze involuntarily fell on the fox-girl's pile of fluffy large tails; to this day, he still couldn't figure out how this Miss managed to hide things inside them.

Just as he couldn't figure out how Hu Li's tails emerged from her clothes—it looked as if those tails were like phantoms passing directly through her fabric, without needing a hole in her pants, yet those tails swept around, occasionally touching surrounding objects, clearly being physical structures.

One could only say, foxes are truly magical.

"What is that room for?" At this moment, Hu Li seemed to suddenly discover something, raising her hand to point at the door at the end of the corridor and asking.

"Over there... theoretically, it is Erin's room," Yu Sheng glanced in the direction the other person pointed, his expression slightly strange. "But that room has a small problem right now..."

"A small problem?" Hu Li pulled out half a pack of instant noodles from her tails again, stuffing the noodle block into her mouth while chewing chew chew, and asked curiously.

"The situation inside the room isn't very stable after opening the door; I still need to observe it for a while," Yu Sheng said, seeing Hu Li's constant action of pulling things out from her tails, his eye finally twitched. "... How much stuff have you stuffed in there?"

"After I took a bath, I passed the living room and packed all the food the Benefactor gave me into it," Hu Li held the instant noodles, a satisfied smile on her face. "I didn't touch anything else."

Then she looked at the room at the end of the corridor and seriously remarked, "The Benefactor's cave dwelling is very magical."

Yu Sheng stared blankly at Hu Li's pile of tails, thinking that this Miss was far more magical than his own "cave dwelling"... How did she stuff that huge bag of stuff in there? Was this thing the pocket of that round-handled blue fat one?!

He mused on this in his heart for a long time, finally putting these questions aside for now, and pointed to the room opposite his own: "Then you can stay in this room for now. Besides some clutter, there is ready-made furniture inside; later, move all that messy stuff to the basement with me... I'll find you a set of clean bedding."

Hu Li immediately nodded happily: "Okay!"

Erin nearby also joined in the fun: "Great! Moving things, moving things, I like cleaning!"

"Don't just blindly join in the fun," Yu Sheng looked down at the small doll (66.6cm). "You're not even as tall as a box; if you roll down the stairs while carrying things later, your arms and legs might break and need repairing."

Upon hearing this, Erin instantly flew into a rage, rushed over, jumped up with great force, and kicked Yu Sheng on the knee: "Yu Sheng, you damn it!!"

Yu Sheng let out a howl, jumping much higher than Erin.

Hu Li nearby looked at this scene somewhat blankly, but soon realized this was just friendly daily communication between the Benefactor and Erin; her brief look of worry turned into a happy smile—then she pulled a ham sausage out from her tails again.

Deep in the old district, inside a private clinic that looked utterly ordinary from the outside, Lin Yi, with shoulder-length dark brown hair and wearing a white coat, frowned tightly, looking at the young girl's right arm.

Little Red Riding Hood, wearing a sleeveless T-shirt, sat opposite Dr. Lin, resting her arm on the table; the dark red coat missing one sleeve hung on a coat rack near the door.

"Dr. Lin, is the situation serious?" Seeing the doctor opposite remain silent for a long time, Little Red Riding Hood finally couldn't help but ask.

"This time it's not serious—but your problem is serious," Lin Yi raised her head, her gaze carrying some annoyance. "How many times has this happened? Your injuries have never stopped; if this continues, your mutation aftereffects will have almost no breaks, leaving your body and mind no time to recover. This time is fine, but in the future, there will definitely be a time when a major problem occurs."

"I know, but the situation at that time was really urgent; there was truly no other way," Little Red Riding Hood's gaze shifted evasively. "We were chased by an entity with a danger level above three, one with a tendency toward spiritual pollution; being able to come out alive and intact was already a miracle..."

Lin Yi looked deeply at the young girl before her, said nothing more, simply took a sharp scalpel from the side, and without hesitation sliced it across her own arm.

In the next instant, a knife wound appeared out of thin air in the same position on Little Red Riding Hood's right arm; black-red blood instantly gushed out from the wound, but as if absorbed by some invisible force, it vanished in the blink of an eye.

The black patterns spreading across the young girl's arm began to fade rapidly and dissipate.

"Thank you, Dr. Lin..." Little Red Riding Hood lowered her head and thanked her very seriously. "I will transfer the consultation fee to you after the Special Operations Bureau settles the account."

"Forget it, consider this time helping you as a favor, no charge," Lin Yi sighed, looking at the young girl opposite with some helplessness, hesitated for a few seconds before continuing, "... I know you are their 'Guardian', but you should also keep some money for yourself; look how thin you are."

"Got it, got it." Little Red Riding Hood pouted, putting on an impatient look.

"Every time it's just this one sentence," Lin Yi shook her head, casually tossed the scalpel into a porcelain plate nearby, adjusted her posture in the chair, "Since you are here today, let's do an assessment on you in advance—when was the last time you 'dreamed'?" Little Red Riding Hood immediately adjusted her sitting posture, her expression becoming serious and solemn: "Three days ago."

"Was the perspective in the dream human, or wolf?"

"Two-thirds of the time human, one-third of the time wolf—there was a moment of 'Hunter'."

"Who did the Hunter shoot at?"

"At the wolf."

"Good, seems relatively stable," Lin Yi rummaged through a cabinet nearby, pulled out a form, took a ballpoint pen from the pen holder on the table, and scribbled on the paper; no ink came out. She took another one, still no ink; she immediately frowned. "... It must be those two new assistants; each of them writes characters as if carving stone steles, using so much force..."

She fumbled in her white coat pocket for a long time, finally finding a usable pen, and began recording on the form with a scribbling sound, continuing to ask questions while writing: "Did you see 'Grandma' at the end? Was she human or wolf?"

"... She was a wolf."

"Looking at your expression... you were caught?"

"I was caught, but this part of the memory is very chaotic; the last image I remember is escaping from the forest together with the wolf pack."

!.

Lin Yi stopped, frowned tightly, and impatiently tapped the table nearby with the ballpoint pen: "That still carries some risk. When you leave later, take a No. 2 Intervention Agent; inject it intravenously before going to sleep tonight. I'll put the cost on your account."

"Okay."

Next, Lin Yi asked several more questions in a row, and Little Red Riding Hood answered them all obediently.

This was the "assessment" she had to undergo every month; including her, every member of "Fairy Tale" needed to undergo this assessment regularly.

In the Borderland, there were actually many "doctors" capable of conducting this assessment and providing corresponding "treatment", but Dr. Lin was the one she was most familiar with.

The long "questionnaire survey" finally ended; Dr. Lin wrote a conclusion of "temporarily stable, under observation" at the end of the form and let out a long sigh.

Little Red Riding Hood saw the conclusion at the end of the form; although the young girl tried hard to keep her face composed and appear calm, a look of relief still slipped into her smile.

"You know to worry too?" Lin Yi glanced at Little Red Riding Hood. "If you are really this cowardly, then protect yourself properly; don't be like the previous Little Red Riding Hood..."

She suddenly stopped and said no more.

Little Red Riding Hood fell silent too; the clinic was plunged into a suffocating quiet for a moment.

After an unknown amount of time, Little Red Riding Hood suddenly felt a warmth transmitted to her hand.

Dr. Lin placed her hand on hers.

"Little Red Riding Hood, you are different from others—at least different from other 'Fairy Tale' members I have contacted," this young "Mutation Doctor" stared intently into the young girl's eyes, her tone serious and heavy. "Your wolves... the first few wolves you tamed, they are very close to you. Although I cannot feel it directly like you, I can see it; they are willing to protect you."

"Therefore, your success rate in smoothly passing adulthood, even passing 'Metamorphosis', is higher than others, but precisely because of this, you cannot squander this talent just because your condition is more stable than others. You must first find a way to survive, to live longer. Do you understand?"

Little Red Riding Hood remained silent; after a long time, she finally nodded gently: "... Mm."

In the shadows beside the young girl, several pairs of eerie green eyes quietly appeared; one pair moved closer, and a tongue extended from the shadow, gently licking her finger.

Lin Yi sensed the shift in the aura within the shadow, but she didn't glance that way. Instead, she rose from her chair, turned, and walked to the refrigeration unit in the corner of the room, taking out a vial of reagent that emitted a dim fluorescent glow.

"Here you go, No. 2 Intervening Agent. Coincidentally, this one's the last one left, so I'll charge you half price — once your wages come through, settle the bill right away. You already owe me several thousand."

"Thank you, Doctor Lin."

(End of chapter)