Chapter 484: Strange Thing

The living doll named Malin left with her "Wind-Up Maid," and this time she left Yu Sheng a way to contact her before going.

Before leaving, she also pulled Yu Sheng aside to a quiet place and talked more about the Alice Doll who had gone missing over three thousand years ago, the one named "Ailin." She said that after returning, she would continue investigating information about that doll within the dedicated matrix network for Alice Dolls, and at the same time, keep collecting any clues that might be related to the "Omens."

According to her, within the current "Garden" network, there was very little data about the "Ailin" who had disappeared three thousand seven hundred years ago. The main reason was the immense passage of time—over these three thousand-plus years, the Garden matrix had undergone countless rounds of iteration, upgrades, and node renovations. Even upgrades at the level of a complete network overhaul had been carried out no fewer than ten times. Through these successive upgrades, some data that was too old and never accessed might have already sunk into certain "Information Dark Zones," where conventional methods couldn't search at all. Everything depended on luck.

Of course, for Yu Sheng, just hearing this information today was already a huge gain.

The sleek black car turned at the intersection in the distance and disappeared into the streets of the old city. Yu Sheng turned and walked back into the house, where he saw the little doll sitting on the coffee table, holding the remote and watching TV.

What was playing on the TV was still the same low-quality variety show—a bunch of guests with exaggerated acting skills performing an abstract program with a script you could see through at a glance. Yet Ailin watched with rapt attention, craning her neck as if she wanted to crawl into the screen. Even the Omen Star drifting around her head seemed affected, spinning noticeably slower than usual.

Another Ailin was sitting cross-legged on the arm of the sofa, happily fiddling with her phone watch. It was hard to tell if she had figured it out or not.

Yu Sheng walked over, sat down on the sofa, and looked thoughtfully at the little doll on the armrest. She only raised her eyelids once before going back to her business.

It wasn't until a few more minutes passed that Ailin finally couldn't help but lift her head, her scarlet eyes staring straight at Yu Sheng. "Why you staring at me?"

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then reached out and pressed down on the doll's head. "Not what I expected."

Ailin: "What's not what you expected? Suddenly coming out with something so random..."

"You finally got in touch with the sisters from Alice Cottage—but you're still here," Yu Sheng said unhurriedly. "If it were back when I first met you, I would have thought for sure you'd leave."

Ailin stopped what she was doing, staring blankly at Yu Sheng for a moment. Then, with a sudden motion, she grabbed his finger and bit down hard.

Yu Sheng yelped and jumped up, the little doll dangling from his hand, flailing around like a windmill. "Hey, hey hey! Let go! Let—stop biting!"

Ailin flipped over and wrapped herself around Yu Sheng's arm, clinging like an octopus, holding tight. She raised her head and glared: "Where am I supposed to go? The 'Cottage' has already relocated to the edge of the knowable universe. The Garden is just a network you can only connect to remotely. I don't have that secret key. I don't know any of the bases Malin mentioned, and I don't know any other Alice Dolls—where am I supposed to go?"

"I was just talking about back when I first met you," Yu Sheng said, rubbing his finger as he sat back down, looking both amused and exasperated at the little doll still clinging to his arm. "I was talking about what I thought back then."

But Ailin didn't keep chattering. Instead, she suddenly fell into deep thought. After a long while, she looked up thoughtfully, muttering as if to herself: "That's right... I did want to 'go back' at first... But I've just been thinking that all along. Now that I think about it, I don't even know where I'm supposed to go back to... Where should I go?"

The little doll crawled down from Yu Sheng's arm, sat on the armrest again, and swung her body back and forth. She suddenly looked a little lost—after the thing she had been longing for finally happened, she realized she had never really thought about what came next. Even the act of "finding other Alice Dolls" itself seemed different from how she had originally imagined it.

Seeing this normally carefree little thing suddenly fall into such confusion, Yu Sheng didn't quite know what to do either. After hesitating for a long time, he reached out and poked the little doll. "Uh... if you can't figure it out, don't think about it for now..."

Ailin: "Okay!"

And with that, she perked up instantly, flipped open her phone watch's face, and showed it off with glee: "Yu Sheng, look! This is how you take a picture!"

Yu Sheng: "..."

Wait, isn't that a little too easy to coax?!

While he was still staring blankly, a ball of silver-white fluff ambled over from the side, and Huli's voice reached his ears: "Sir, why are you spacing out? It's not like she's been like this for just one day."

Yu Sheng thought about it. "...Well, I suppose."

...

"Someone sneaked into the 'Castle's' kitchen? And they even ate and took things and broke the kettle?"

In the Fairy Tale Town, Little Red Riding Hood frowned slightly as she looked at Rapunzel, who had come to report to her.

Rapunzel nodded repeatedly. "Yeah! And it started the day before yesterday. People kept finding things missing from the kitchen and cafeteria—from pastries stored in the cupboards to half-finished items in the freezer. Even the potatoes, green onions, and cabbages stored in the pantry were lost a lot. That thief is so bold, they even stole half a bottle of soy sauce..."

Little Red Riding Hood was fine listening to the first part of Rapunzel's report, but when she heard the last part, her eyelid twitched, and her expression turned strange. "Half a bottle of soy sauce? Are you sure?"

"How could I not be sure!" Rapunzel said, hands on her hips. "I just bought that soy sauce! It's been in the kitchen for just one day, and only half is left!"

As her voice fell, the Mermaid, who had come along to eavesdrop, stroked her chin and muttered: "...Sister Huli hasn't been around these past couple of days, has she?"

"Even if she came, she wouldn't need to steal! She always comes to eat openly," Rapunzel waved her hand. "And if it really were her, would there still be half a bottle of soy sauce left?"

"It can't be rats either. 'The King' is guarding the place. Besides, where would rats come from here?" The Mermaid frowned. "And it's even less likely to be one of our own... Wait, how could someone sneak in here in the first place? This is a domain!"

Rapunzel shook her head. "You're asking me? How would I know?"

"Take me over to take a look first," Little Red Riding Hood interrupted the exchange between Rapunzel and the Mermaid. Then she hesitated and added to the Mermaid, "Go to the security office and let Senior Yun know... I have a feeling that under normal circumstances, no 'outsider' should be able to enter the town."

"Oh, okay!"

A moment later, Little Red Riding Hood followed Rapunzel to the town's cafeteria and saw the scene in the kitchen, clearly visited by an uninvited guest.

The cabinets were in complete disarray. The eggs in the refrigerator were all gone. The barrels storing rice and flour showed signs of forced opening. Even the seasoning jars seemed to have been rummaged through.

"Ah, this..." Rapunzel, who had led the way, was also stunned when she saw the state of the kitchen. "It seems even messier than before?"

Little Red Riding Hood frowned, then sniffed the air, as if sensing something. But before she could say anything, a streak of light flashed into the kitchen.

Yun Qingzi's figure emerged from the light. "Just now, Fish Girl came to tell this old man that there was a thief in the town. I came to see what's going on—how could a thief get into this place?"

"Elder Yun, you came just in time!" Rapunzel immediately went up to him. "Look, there must be someone who..."

As she spoke, Yun Qingzi's gaze swept across the entire kitchen. The old man's expression showed slight confusion at first, then turned somewhat peculiar. "Ah, this... it really is a 'little' thing that got in. Quite interesting."

Rapunzel was taken aback. "Huh? You found it already?"

"No wonder you couldn't find it—the little thing that slipped in has some skill. But more importantly, its abilities run on a different track than yours," Yun Qingzi said cheerfully, waving his hand. "Don't panic. It's no villain. I know where it's hiding. Follow me."

Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood exchanged a glance, then immediately followed Yun Qingzi.

The two of them rode on the Shadow Wolf that Little Red Riding Hood had summoned, following Yun Qingzi out of town, then along the small river outside the town upstream. They soon reached a small grove not far from the town.

Yun Qingzi stood in a clearing in the woods, looked around a couple of times, then waved his hand at a spot that seemed completely empty. "Come out."

The next second, on that patch of ground that looked like there was nothing there, a large hidden clump of bushes and a messy pile of stones suddenly appeared. Rustling sounds came from within the stone hollow. Rapunzel stared in astonishment, and then saw a black shadow rise from behind the bushes—

A massive snake head rose from between the bushes and stones. It was a giant black python, as thick as a person. Then the python shrank its head at Yun Qingzi, obediently crawling out of its hiding spot.

And it really crawled out—because below the half-snake body were two long legs.

Yun Qingzi was still holding his hand out at that moment. The old man probably hadn't expected the big snake to come out looking like that, and he was momentarily stunned.

Rapunzel looked at Yun Qingzi, then at the half-human, half-snake creature standing on the ground. After a moment of thought, she yelled at the top of her lungs: "...There's a strange thing!!"

"There's a strange thing!" the big snake also screamed in fright, then started looking around. "Where's the strange thing?!"

Rapunzel nearly jumped. "I'm talking about you!"

"You said me..." the big snake kept screaming, but halfway through, it finally realized what was going on and quickly looked down at itself.

"Ah, damn, I turned it around wrong—"

Before the words finished, it crouched down, then with a "bang," a cloud of demonic mist dispersed, and the snake demon transformed into a form with the upper half of a human body and the lower half of a snake tail.

Rapunzel & Little Red Riding Hood & Yun Qingzi: "...?"

"Uh, I just learned this recently. Not very good at it yet," Snake Ji stuck out her tongue, looking a bit embarrassed. "Now it's fixed."