Chapter 492: Calm Waters

Ai Lin happily waved her stone ball around, showing it off to the two people on the castle rooftop—even though she didn't know why she was showing off, she just inexplicably felt very happy.

The sunlight made her happy, the green grass made her happy, the many sounds around her made her happy, having someone waiting for her in the distance, knowing her actions would get a response… all of this was worth being happy about.

Yu Sheng and Hu Li jumped down from the castle. Ai Lin, with practiced ease, climbed onto Yu Sheng's shoulder, then let go of the Mourning Star, letting it continue circling around her head.

But suddenly, Yu Sheng frowned and turned to look at the stone ball floating beside the little puppet's head.

Whether it was an illusion or not, he felt that when he shifted his gaze to it, the stone ball's rotation seemed to pause for a moment.

Ai Lin grabbed his hair randomly: "What's wrong?"

"This ball… it seemed to be buzzing just now," Yu Sheng said with a furrowed brow. "Didn't you hear it?"

"No," Ai Lin shook her head. "This thing has been completely quiet the whole time."

Yu Sheng stared at the Mourning Star for a while, then finally looked away. After a moment of serious thought, he spoke: "Ai Lin."

"Hmm?"

"Ma Lin sent over some information from deep in the 'Garden' network—it's about… you. Specifically, it's the last memory you uploaded before losing contact with Alice's Cabin. Do you want to take a look?"

Ai Lin froze for a moment, then immediately nodded vigorously without hesitation: "Yeah, yeah! I want to see it!"

The little puppet's answer was expected.

There was no way to hide the information about that 'blonde Ai Lin' or the subsequent investigations into the mysterious tower, the Goddess of Misfortune, and even the 'Black Star' from Ai Lin. Moreover, Yu Sheng himself had no intention of keeping it from her.

Because he knew that even though Ai Lin usually seemed careless and indifferent to many things, she also had a sharp side, her own thoughts and personality. If she were overly 'protected' from the truth, when the day came that something was discovered, it might be even harder to handle.

On the other hand, after being exposed to so much information related to the Goddess of Misfortune and seeing a 'normal' Alice's doll like Ma Lin, although Ai Lin seemed the same as usual, she must have thought about some possibilities in her heart—spending every day with this little puppet, Yu Sheng could tell that the time she spent spacing out had been getting longer.

Outside the Fairytale Town, by the riverbank.

The sun was bright, a gentle breeze brushing past. The riverbank was very quiet at this hour. Yu Sheng sat on a large stone by the water, and Ai Lin sat cross-legged on his lap, the little puppet holding the phone, which was huge for her, earnestly reading the information Ma Lin had sent.

She read it several times over, then paused the screen and pointed at the back of the blonde figure.

"Is this me?"

"The only possible match after screening," Yu Sheng said slowly. "The other dolls named 'Ai Lin' have been ruled out."

"My hair doesn't look like that," Ai Lin tugged at her own hair. "And my face doesn't seem to match either… my face is rounder! And I'm way cuter!"

"Yeah, yeah, you're very cute—but after three thousand seven hundred years of sealing, plus the mutual interference between memories and spirits, changes in appearance are very possible," Yu Sheng said carefully, choosing his words while pinching the little puppet's cheek. "Besides, your current body was modified by me. You know that anything I modify changes a little bit."

"Oh, that's true…" Ai Lin muttered, obviously wavering for a moment. Then she quickly ignored that detail and suddenly remembered something else. "Ah, and you said before that in the mirror on the second floor, you saw a shattered blonde doll… could it be…"

Yu Sheng took a light breath. He knew Ai Lin would catch on, so he just nodded calmly: "Mm, it's basically confirmed now. That was actually you."

Ai Lin was silent for a while, just staring at the phone for a few seconds. Then she vigorously lifted her head to look at Yu Sheng. Her eyes were very large, and her scarlet pupils seemed to glimmer faintly, with the deep, distant sky reflected in their depths.

"…Whoa," she blinked, then lowered her head again. No one knew what she was thinking at that moment. After a long pause, she suddenly broke the silence: "Looks like my body was completely wrecked. Maybe if we find it later, I'll need to put myself back together?"

Hu Li came over from the side and looked at Ai Lin seriously: "I'll put you together with you."

"Then you have to wash your hands first—just licking your fingers won't cut it; you eat everything all the time," Ai Lin said immediately with great authority. She thought for a moment and added, "You should comb your tail too, so you don't get fur mixed into my body—that would be prickly."

Hu Li squinted and nodded repeatedly: "Mm-hmm, mm-hmm."

The two of them seriously discussed the matter of 'putting the doll back together' in the future, ignoring Yu Sheng's slightly odd expression. Then Ai Lin turned her attention back to the phone.

"…Actually, it looks pretty cool," she seemed to accept things quickly, nodding at the blonde figure on the screen. But then she got a bit puzzled, "Speaking of which, what's with the frying pan? Why was I carrying a frying pan to fight an enemy back then?"

"Ma Lin said that's the 'standard weapon' of you Alice dolls—don't look at me like that, I don't know how to explain it either. Your sister said the reason behind it is complicated…"

"Really?" The little puppet looked suspiciously into Yu Sheng's eyes, then finally looked away after a long moment. "I don't remember any of it. Ugh, amnesia is such a pain…"

The image on the phone finally stopped at the dome of the tower. Beyond the shattered dome crouched a massive shadow in the chaotic deep void, one that seemed to crouch beyond dimensions, from another world.

Even though this was already footage 'processed' by Ma Lin, and even though it was just a blurry silhouette, Yu Sheng could still feel the terrifying power radiating from that shadow through the screen.

Outer god? Alien god? Or…

Dark Angel.

Yu Sheng couldn't help but recall what Bai Liqing had once told him about the Special Affairs Bureau's 'judgment criteria' for Dark Angels. Excluding traits like "comes from outside the world," "cannot be killed by conventional means," and "operates beyond reason and logic"—which are hard to determine from footage alone—the most important criterion left was: something indescribable in words, yet naturally perceived as 'holiness' upon witnessing it.

Once this thought surfaced, it clung to his mind like living thing, refusing to leave. He couldn't help but observe the details of the massive shadow in the image repeatedly, as if searching for decisive evidence of whether that colossal being was or wasn't a Dark Angel within the blurry frame.

Ai Lin placed the phone on her lap, using her fingers to zoom in until the two balls of scarlet radiance on the shadow's head almost filled the screen.

Then she closed the entire interface.

"Here you go." The little puppet looked up, holding the phone with both hands and handing it to Yu Sheng.

"Any thoughts after reading it?" Yu Sheng took the phone and asked casually.

"I was pretty impressive back then," Ai Lin thought for a moment, looking up. "And I was definitely one meter sixty-seven!"

Yu Sheng: "That's all you thought of?"

Ai Lin thought again carefully.

"I want to go back and watch TV!"

"Don't you have three bodies left at home?"

"Two are playing games, and one is trash-talking with some idiot—they're all busy!"

Yu Sheng: "…"

He looked down at the little puppet on his lap, and she looked up at him. Those scarlet eyes were clear as a mirror, without any shadow.

"Alright, let's go back and watch TV."

"Yay!"

…

Bai Liqing's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly as she looked at the documents just delivered to her.

After a long silence, she looked up at Song Cheng: "What else did that 'Alice's envoy' say?"

"She hopes to have further contact with Yu Sheng and Ai Lin. Additionally, she hopes the Special Affairs Bureau will assist her in investigating the situation regarding that 'tower'—the materials she sent us contain a lot of footage of investigators evacuating from around that tower. Although the images are blurry and chaotic, those investigators are indeed wearing the attire of borderland city-states from the classical era."

"Classical era…" Bai Liqing's gaze swept across the computer screen, which displayed a scene of many investigators and spirit detectives evacuating from around that strange, broken tower. "If this footage really comes from three thousand seven hundred years ago—at that time, the Special Affairs Bureau hadn't been established, and everything in the borderlands was unprecedentedly chaotic. I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to find anything from such ancient history."

"That Alice's envoy said she understands the situation and is only making a request. Best if we get results, but she can accept it if we don't—those were her exact words."

"Mm…" Bai Liqing thought for a moment, then nodded slightly. "I understand. Tell her we will do our best to assist. Matters related to 'Misfortune' are now among the top concerns of the Special Affairs Bureau."

Song Cheng nodded: "Alright."

Then he hesitated a little: "Also…"

Bai Liqing looked at him calmly: "Speak freely."

"Regarding that 'individual' that appeared at the top of the tower at the end," Song Cheng carefully chose his words, "from various characteristics, it doesn't seem to be an ordinary 'entity' generated from the foreign realm. And based on the intelligence we've gathered so far, if this thing really comes from 'outside,' then that small puppet at 66 Wutong Road could very likely…"

He didn't finish his sentence, just looked at the bureau chief with a grave expression.

Bai Liqing was silent for a long moment, just quietly watching her subordinate. Just when Song Cheng began to feel a little uncomfortable, she suddenly broke the silence: "In your opinion, which is more dangerous—the Dark Angel, or Yu Sheng?"

Song Cheng opened his mouth, but for a moment, he was stuck.

"Both are dangerous, but fortunately, the more dangerous one thinks he is human right now—so don't ever wake him up," Bai Liqing said unhurriedly. "The same principle applies to that doll."

"Yes, I understand."

(End of chapter)