Chapter 118: In the Forest

This time, Yu Sheng fell asleep very quickly. He was probably completely drained of energy, and once the excitement that had kept him going faded, he hit the bed and was almost instantly asleep.

A series of fragmented, shallow dreams—bizarre and hard to recall details—washed over him.

He was groggy, feeling as if his consciousness floated above a hazy water surface. Looking down through the water, he saw himself lying in bed, saw No. 66 Wutong Road, saw Ai Lin fiddling with the TV remote, saw Hu Li washing her tails by the sink before hanging them one by one on the balcony drying rack, neatly lined up in a row...

Gradually, Yu Sheng found it hard to distinguish reality from illusion, uncertain whether he was dreaming or actually "seeing" these scenes. His consciousness drifted like this for a long time, sinking into an increasingly murky chaos, until suddenly—he felt a solid pressure coming from behind him.

Yu Sheng's eyes snapped open.

The first thing that came into view were towering trees surrounding him on all sides.

An endless forest, limitless trees, dense layers of canopy intertwined, covering a murky sky. Beneath the canopy, there was twilight-like shadow, dark vines tangled among the thick woods, shrubs grew wildly in clearings, and unknown flowers and plants—lush yet covered with a layer of grayish sheen—crawled across the spaces between giant trees.

Yu Sheng got up in confusion, feeling thick fallen leaves and rotting soil beneath him.

As he moved, the shadowy forest, extending beyond sight, seemed to "come alive" further. He began to hear all kinds of unknown bird and beast sounds emerging from the woods—something darted across a clearing, the flapping of wings echoed in the canopy, and there was a distant howl... a wolf's howl, but with a strange, almost human-like tone.

Yu Sheng blinked, feeling his mind gradually clear. A single thought surfaced in his head—Damn, where the hell did I wake up to?

Was this a dream? Or had he fallen into another strange "otherworld"?

Yu Sheng reached down and pinched his thigh hard, feeling a somewhat numb pain. He tried calling out to Ai Lin in his mind, but only heard a hollow, whistling sound like wind passing through a valley echoing in his heart.

These anomalies immediately put Yu Sheng on high alert.

He reached into the air, and after a moment, a faintly glowing illusory door vaguely materialized in the air.

Good—the "door" was still usable.

Only then did Yu Sheng breathe a sigh of relief. He waved the door away, focused his attention, and cautiously walked forward.

He needed to figure out what this place was first.

He could vaguely sense that this was different from the "Dusk Valley" he had accidentally entered before. He was probably still dreaming, but this was definitely no ordinary dream. He couldn't say if it was connected to an "otherworld," but this forest was certainly not something that should appear in his own dreams.

His feet sank into thick fallen leaves, a feeling of no solid ground accompanied by a faint rustling sound. Yu Sheng carefully walked a long distance, crossing a small clearing, stepping over two fallen giant trees, yet the scenery around him remained unchanged. The forest seemed endless, and walking on two legs appeared meaningless in this boundless thicket.

Just then, a rustling sound suddenly reached Yu Sheng's ears.

He immediately tensed up and whipped his head toward the source.

A large, furry squirrel stood on a nearby dry stump, its little black eyes fixed on him.

It seemed like just a forest creature, curious, having come out of hiding to examine this "uninvited guest."

The atmosphere around was eerie, but upon seeing this harmless little squirrel, Yu Sheng couldn't help but exhale and gave it a slight smile.

The squirrel looked at him, swept its big tail across the stump, and produced a sharp, thin voice: "Don't leave the path..."

The smile on Yu Sheng's face instantly froze, and the next second, his eyes flew wide open: "Holy shit! It talks!"

"I wasn't done with my line," the squirrel said, slapping its tail on the stump in frustration and standing upright. "Fuck, what was the next part... Oh, 'Don't be distracted by the pretty flowers and mushrooms, hurry back to the path so you can get home safely before dark~' Yeah, and then I need a cute little lilt at the end, it's so damn cute."

Yu Sheng: "..."

The squirrel not far away stood proudly on its hind legs, paws folded, staring straight at him.

Yu Sheng pinched his thigh again, as if to confirm he hadn't been hallucinating—what the hell had that harmless-looking cute creature just said?

But the squirrel seemed impatient. Seeing that Yu Sheng hadn't moved for ages, it smacked the stump with its tail again. "Go on, what are you standing around for? Don't die in the Black Forest before you've even taken the first step."

Yu Sheng finally confirmed that he hadn't been hearing things, but instead of "continuing and returning to the path" as the squirrel had said, he curiously walked toward the squirrel, his face full of surprise and confusion. "Who are you? What is this place?"

"Are you blind? I'm a goddamn squirrel!" the squirrel said, completely unafraid, paws folded, staring straight into Yu Sheng's eyes. "You can't tell where this is? Forest. Black Forest. A Black Forest so big it has no end. Why do you look so dumb?"

As it spoke, the cute but foul-mouthed squirrel shuffled a couple of steps to the side, looking around as if searching for something, while mumbling, "Strange... that one isn't dead yet, so why did another new one show up... Is the current one about to die? But why's this one a guy..."

Hearing the squirrel's muttering, something stirred in Yu Sheng's heart. He couldn't help but blurt out, "Die? Who's about to die?"

"Little Red Riding Hood," the squirrel said, wiping its face with a paw casually. "I don't know which one this counts as... The eighteenth? Or was it the twenty-eighth Little Red Riding Hood...?"

Yu Sheng's eyes suddenly widened, and his heartbeat raced a few beats in that instant. Then, as if someone had connected a series of dots in his mind, he looked up at the endless forest, listened to the vague, strange howling.

The distant, familiar melody of a nursery rhyme seemed to echo in his head—the small figure in a red cloak, the figure walking the path through the woods, the flowers and mushrooms luring her deeper... and that wolf.

Suddenly, Yu Sheng felt a slight sting and a bit of heat on his shoulder. He turned his head and saw blood seeping out of his shoulder, a bright red color slowly staining his clothes, a glaring splash of color in this dim, gray forest.

It was the spot where the wolf that crawled out of Little Red Riding Hood's shadow had bitten him during Museum Night.

The bloodstain slowly faded, but Yu Sheng was gradually understanding what was happening.

His blood had indeed established a connection with Little Red Riding Hood... Could the wolf hunting her count as part of her? So, was this actually her dream?

Thoughts whirled through his mind, but the squirrel's voice suddenly cut in, interrupting his train of thought. "No! No no no!"

Yu Sheng jumped. "What's wrong?"

"The current Little Red Riding Hood isn't dead yet! And it's not even close to her dying time!" the squirrel jumped up on the stump, looking somewhat panicked. "The wolf hasn't caught her yet! The wolf is still searching in the forest... Who the hell are you? How the fuck did you get in?!"

Yu Sheng vaguely felt that the last sentence sounded a bit familiar...

But he didn't dwell on it. Instead, he quickly asked, "I'm her friend—what did you just say? You said Little Red Riding Hood would die? And what did you mean by 'which one'?"

"Friend? Where did a friend come from! She walks the forest path alone—there are no friends of Little Red Riding Hood in the forest!" the squirrel suddenly became agitated, bouncing up and down on the stump. "Wrong wrong wrong, this forest shouldn't be changing, and if it changes, it'll be even harder... Don't give a squirrel a hard time! Squirrels are already busy enough! This place..."

It suddenly stopped, as if hearing something. It paused and listened intently.

Yu Sheng instinctively asked, "What..."

"Shh—" the squirrel raised a paw very humanly, gesturing for Yu Sheng to be quiet. "Listen carefully... The wolf has stopped howling."

The forest fell into utter silence. The vague wolf howls from afar had vanished at some point, and even the sounds of other birds and beasts that had been coming from nearby had died down.

A strange, unsettling dead silence settled over the forest.

Yu Sheng's nerves tightened, and the next second, the squirrel suddenly leaped off the stump and, faster than lightning, scurried up to his shoulder, letting out a sharp cry: "Run! The wolf is coming!"

Yu Sheng was startled by the little creature's abrupt action, but his body had already reacted before his mind caught up. He turned and ran instinctively. Only then did a belated, spine-chilling coldness—as if piercing his soul—catch up. A massive malice and the premonition of imminent death crushed down, assaulting his mind, mingling with the howling wind, chasing his steps.

The wolf was coming.