Chapter 68: Hu Li's Hometown Memories

A pretty black-haired Miss with clear eyes, wearing ill-fitting men's clothes, walking down the street looking around curiously, holding in her arms a gothic doll that radiated an eerie, dead-stare atmosphere — such a combination appearing in a busy public place was honestly a bit of an eyesore. To be frank, Yu Sheng felt he had probably underestimated the "difficulty" of this outing with both Hu Li and Eileen.

He had already lost count of how many curious glances had swept past them along the way. Part of those gazes, of course, landed on the wide-eyed Hu Li, but the other half were all on him.

But Yu Sheng still had to brace himself and keep the fox girl beside him company, because she truly didn't understand anything.

She didn't even know what money looked like in this world — in fact, it was already impressive enough that she knew buying things required money, and that was only because she had, many many years ago, also lived in some kind of civilized society.

On the other hand, the differences between the social order in Hu Li's memories and that of Boundary City always brought unexpected trouble.

For example, when they passed a parking lot, she was especially curious about why so many "immortal carriages" could be parked inside and still be so quiet, and why those vehicles were all so patient — honestly, when that question first popped out of her mouth, Yu Sheng couldn't even process what she meant for a moment.

"Back in my hometown, carriages, ships and boats all have spirit-constructs, and the spirit-constructs of transportation tools are mostly restless and lively — they mostly refuse to just sit obediently outside the mountain gate," Hu Li explained quietly to Yu Sheng. "So back home, when an immortal or demon wanted to stay in one place, they'd hand their carriage or ship over to the steward, and the steward had to take the vehicle around to 'run about' nearby. There's also this kind of big venue with its own little heaven-and-earth inside, where you could put the carriages and ships in and let them run about and play on their own — that's called a 'self-service parking lot'…"

As she spoke, she raised her hand and pointed at a car by the road that looked like a new driver was at the wheel, unable to park in the spot after ages: "This one, so dull and stiff — back home, it would be laughed at by children's bamboo horses."

Yu Sheng quickly pressed the fox girl's hand down: "It's different here from your hometown, don't point at things."

Hu Li nodded in confusion. "Oh."

Yu Sheng silently wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, suddenly very curious about what the fox girl's hometown actually looked like — when he first met Hu Li, he had assumed her hometown was that classic kind of immortal-demon cultivation civilization, but then the tour-guide immortal showed up, and then "several hundred public-order immortals surrounding and arresting the great demon fox who violated the mountain-forest protection law and sentencing her to five hundred years" showed up, and now even children's toys (bamboo horses) came with artificial intelligence (spirit-constructs). He felt his brain was a bit overwhelmed, always feeling that…

The fox girl's hometown's style was a bit hard to imagine.

Could this really be something a normal universe could give birth to?

Unfortunately, however, Hu Li herself couldn't clearly describe what her hometown actually looked like — not only because she was still young when she left home, but also because that long ordeal in a foreign realm had made her forget many things long ago.

"I don't remember much; I only recall the elders saying the hometown wasn't always like this," Hu Li said, trying to describe her long-faded, hazy memories of home to Yu Sheng. "It was when the 'Celestials,' beings of immense divine power, suddenly arrived. They enlightened the warring creatures on the ground, and after a long time, we began living alongside the Celestials, traversing billions of miles among the stars in an instant. I still remember the elders saying the stars in the sky shifted position every few years—that was the Celestials adjusting some kind of navigation channel... My father also worked on the navigation channel; his job was to push intruders out of the channel and then issue them fines..."

At this point, the fox girl got a little excited: "My dad could pilot an especially especially big 'immortal shuttle,' bigger than a whole building! He said it was called a 'Star Ship.' The Star Ship's spirit-construct was even more amazing — you only needed one person to lie in a pool inside the Star Ship and give the spirit-construct orders, and the thing could fly. It could grab things faster than light, using a treasure called something like… Moon-Front Coil-Breaking Art…"

Yu Sheng listened in a daze, turned his head to glance at Eileen being held in Hu Li's arms, pretending to be an ordinary doll without moving, and muttered in his heart: "Can you understand any of this?"

"Can't understand a word," Eileen's voice came from the bottom of Yu Sheng's heart. "You actually took it seriously? She's probably just making it up… I suggest you wait two months until Hu Li's mental state stabilizes before asking her about these things, by then the version might have changed again."

Yu Sheng frowned. He also somewhat doubted the truthfulness of the wildly imaginative things Hu Li described, but felt that if this girl were really still confused in the head, she wouldn't be able to fabricate such an imaginative and "meticulously constructed" story.

But no matter what, everything Hu Li had described to Yu Sheng ultimately left a very deep impression on him.

"Alright, stop thinking," Eileen's voice came from the bottom of his heart, interrupting Yu Sheng's wild thoughts. "You'd better hurry up and get Hu Li a set of more normal clothes — your challenge has arrived."

Yu Sheng's face immediately turned bitter at hearing this.

Many things always seem like they'll go smoothly when you start planning, but once execution reaches the point where you have to consider details, the troublesome part arrives.

How would he know how to pick out girls' clothes! He had never even set foot in a shop that sold women's clothing!

Yet he could only brace himself and go — he was the one who had said he'd take Hu Li in back then, no use regretting it now.

But just as Yu Sheng led Hu Li into the mall with a resolute attitude as if marching to his doom, a familiar figure suddenly flashed past the corner of their eyes.

It was a petite-looking girl with short hair, seventeen or eighteen years old, lips pressed together, her appearance carrying a silence and maturity slightly at odds with her age.

Yu Sheng didn't recognize her at first, only feeling a sense of familiarity. After two or three seconds, he finally realized where that familiarity came from.

It was the girl who called herself "Little Red Riding Hood" — she wasn't wearing that dark-red outfit today, but had changed into a brightly colored jacket, making her unrecognizable at a glance.

Yu Sheng immediately knew he had found his savior.

And almost at the same time, "Little Red Riding Hood" walking on the opposite side of the road also sensed the gaze falling on her, and immediately raised her head — for one brief instant, her eyes were like an alert wolf.

But that wolf-like gaze vanished in an instant, so brief no one could detect it. She saw Yu Sheng clearly, and a slightly surprised expression appeared on her face.

Little Red Riding Hood quickly crossed the traffic to come over, looking at Yu Sheng with a hint of surprise, sizing him up for several seconds before blurting out: "…You're out shopping too?"

"…Is it strange for me to be out shopping?"

"Ah, sorry, I just felt it was a coincidence." Little Red Riding Hood realized her words were a bit off, and immediately apologized cleanly with a bow of her head, yet the doubt in her eyes had not diminished in the slightest —

Because she already knew that Yu Sheng lived in a foreign realm called 66 Wutong Road.

The moment she left that foreign realm, she had guessed that this "human" who called himself "Yu Sheng" was likely short on human content, and that his extremely realistic human mannerisms were probably some kind of "mimicry."

She truly hadn't expected that she could actually see, on the street… this "person" who lived long-term in a foreign realm come out to shop.

…Could this guy actually eat human food?

Such an outrageous (in her opinion) thought involuntarily popped into Little Red Riding Hood's mind.

Then she noticed Hu Li standing beside him, and the doll held in Hu Li's arms.

Little Red Riding Hood frowned slightly, took a moment to recognize Hu Li's face, then immediately raised her hand and pointed at Eileen, who wasn't moving and had even lost the highlights in her eyes.

"This one, dead?"

Yu Sheng then saw Eileen's eyes almost regain their highlights — the little doll stirred slightly in Hu Li's arms, and immediately a torrent of furious bird-song-and-flower-fragrance came through his mind: "She's the one who's dead! She'll explode and ascend on the spot eight hundred times! She %¥¥%#— Yu Sheng! Insult her! Insult her back for me!"

"She's cursing you," Yu Sheng raised his hand and pointed at Eileen, who still didn't dare move, and said calmly to Little Red Riding Hood, "Really nasty stuff, I'm a cultured person, I can't even bring myself to say it."

Eileen immediately cursed even more viciously.

Little Red Riding Hood couldn't hear it either.

But she could imagine it.

"You guys… that's pretty creative," she couldn't help sizing Eileen up several times, "you can actually bring her out in broad daylight using this method… By the way, looking at your setup, are you here to buy clothes for her (pointing at Hu Li)?"

"You hit the nail on the head," Yu Sheng spread his hands, directly blocking out the ongoing blabbering from Eileen's side. "I was just worrying about it, didn't expect to run into you — do me a favor?"

"I can roughly guess what the favor is," Little Red Riding Hood took less than two seconds to figure it out, her gaze sweeping over Hu Li's obviously ill-fitting outfit, a smile appearing on her face. "This is… indeed something I haven't experienced before."

Yu Sheng's eyes lit up: "You agree?"

Little Red Riding Hood looked completely indifferent: "Of course, it's nothing — but you'll have to do me a favor later too."

(End of chapter)