Chapter 276: That's It?

For ordinary people, Wutong Road No. 66 was invisible.

But for the Special Affairs Bureau agents who had a certain level of spiritual talent and had undergone focused training, the empty lot occupied by Wutong Road No. 66—the one that seemed to say "no entry"—and the eerie wall at the end of that lot were visible.

And now, both that empty lot and the wall at its end had vanished, disappearing into the calm night—without making a sound, as if they had never existed.

The two Special Affairs Bureau agents practically flashed out of the station and stood there, dumbfounded, staring at the narrow alley before them. Facing the cold night wind, sweat trickled from the backs of their necks all the way down to their feet.

Their keen observational skills, honed through training, quickly allowed them to assess the condition of the surrounding houses in the night. They confirmed that every single one of them had shifted and deformed to varying degrees. Some buildings that were originally on the other side of the empty lot were now just a few steps away. Some empty houses that hadn't been adjacent before were now connected in a row. And the feeling of all this...

It was as if the space here had been forcibly "pried open" by something, and now that "foreign object" that had been prying it open had suddenly left. The space-time that had been deformed and unnoticed for so long had silently returned to its original state.

One of the agents wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and turned to his companion. "...So what do we do?"

"What else can we do? Report it, of course," the other agent said, his face just as pale. "Either way, this is definitely going to reach the director."

"...Fuck, how do I even put this?"

"Just say what we saw. It's beyond our authority to handle anyway," the younger agent sighed, then tensed up again. "It's not because of something we did that made them leave, is it?"

"Probably not. I even said hi to Yu Sheng and Hu Li when they went out for a walk earlier. They seemed to be in a good mood..."

...

The thick fog churned and undulated over the streets, like some kind of viscous fluid with substance. But all the fog remained several meters away from Wutong Road No. 66, forming a distinct "boundary" where not a single wisp of fog "seeped" through.

"Hey, it actually works!" Yu Sheng said happily, turning to Ai Lin and Hu Li, who had come over to watch. "As soon as I opened the door, we're on the foggy side!"

Ai Lin didn't answer right away. Instead, she carefully stepped two paces out of the house, looked around, then turned back to glance behind her. Then she looked at Yu Sheng with suspicion. "Hey... are you sure you just opened the door? I feel like the atmosphere is... off. No wait, the whole house is standing right here! And the stuff around me looks a bit weird too. That power pole over there should have been more to the left..."

Yu Sheng then took a closer look around and frowned, as if sensing something. After a long moment, he rubbed his chin uncertainly. "Maybe I opened it a bit crooked."

Ai Lin seemed to have caught on by now. "What did you open crooked?!"

"The house."

"...Holy shit?!"

"If my theory is correct, I successfully 'landed' the entire Wutong Road No. 66 on this foggy side. The whole process was controllable," Yu Sheng scratched his head and explained to the little puppet what he had done. "I mean, since the whole house is falling into the other realm like a person would, that means it's really 'moving' just like a person. Maybe it's as you said—people have souls, machines have souls, houses have souls. So I decided to try to see if this process could be actively guided and controlled. When I opened the door, I treated the entire Wutong Road No. 66 as part of the doorframe..."

Ai Lin's eyes nearly popped out. "That's fucking possible?!"

Then she looked around again and immediately scurried back two steps. "Are you kidding me? Are you sure it's not just 'a shadow of Wutong Road No. 66 exists on this foggy side'? Did you actually bring the house itself over here?"

Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. "Do you think Wutong Road No. 66 would project into this thick fog like any other ordinary building?"

"...Uh, that's true. Wutong Road No. 66 is at least a different realm, and the most special kind," Ai Lin scratched her hair. "And you even opened it crooked..."

"You don't need to keep emphasizing that."

"Benefactor, what now?" Hu Li blinked, turning to look at Yu Sheng. She didn't look tense at all; in fact, there was a hint of eager anticipation in those big eyes, and her big tail was swaying. "Are we going out?"

"Hold on, let's go back first," Yu Sheng didn't rush out. Instead, he closed the door. "Let's check on the valley."

"Valley? Oh, right!" Ai Lin suddenly realized. "You moved the whole Wutong Road No. 66! I wonder if the connection to the valley was affected!"

Soon, Yu Sheng led the fox and the puppet to the basement and pushed open the fixed portal leading to the valley.

The quiet valley under the shroud of "night" came into view.

Yu Sheng stepped onto the portal platform and looked up at the sky—the artificial night created by thick clouds covered the entire valley. Of course, he had made that.

By now, he was a pro at this. Every day when night fell in the real world outside, he'd "pull the curtains shut" in the valley. In the morning, he'd let the sun back in. He used this simple direct method to maintain a normal day-night cycle in the valley—solving both the problem of crops not growing properly and the doll heads not sleeping well at night.

He didn't even need a greenhouse.

Then, Yu Sheng checked the status of the portal in the "town."

"Not bad. It seems moving Wutong Road No. 66 doesn't affect the portals we've already set up," he nodded, satisfied. "The valley environment itself hasn't changed either."

The group went back to the living room.

Yu Sheng pulled out his phone and checked it. "Signal is normal too."

"The whole house has fallen to the 'other side,' and you still have signal?" Ai Lin was surprised and leaned in to take a look, full of disbelief. "What the hell is up with this house..."

"How would I know?" Yu Sheng shrugged. "It's been a mystery that this house has had signal from the very beginning. Are you trying to solve it now?"

"It's nothing to solve or not solve, but I suddenly remembered something," Ai Lin thought for a moment, then something occurred to her. "You've directly moved the whole house into 'this side.' Shouldn't you... inform the Special Affairs Bureau?"

Yu Sheng paused. "Oh crap! I guess you're right..."

But before he could finish, a rapid phone ringtone sounded.

The caller was none other than Bai Li Qing—recently the top of Yu Sheng's call log.

Ai Lin glanced at the screen. "You should get a family plan with her. You'd save on phone bills."

Yu Sheng waved his hand to silence the chatterbox, then cautiously answered the phone. His face wore an awkward and guilty smile (even though the director lady on the other end couldn't see it). "Uh, good evening, Director Baili."

Maybe it was his imagination, but as soon as he politely said "Director Baili," he seemed to hear a faint exhale from the other end, as if Bai Li Qing had suddenly relaxed.

Then the cool, calm voice came through the receiver. "I received a report. The Wutong Road station said... well, said that the entire 'plot of land' your house was on has disappeared."

Yu Sheng: "..."

To be honest, he really hadn't expected this 'phenomenon'—the entire plot of land disappeared? That intense?

He'd thought that at most, the Special Affairs Bureau would have received some kind of alert, since this time he'd opened the door in a special way, and the newly launched automatic filtering system might not recognize it.

During Yu Sheng's brief silence, Bai Li Qing spoke again. "What happened?"

Yu Sheng looked up at the foggy street outside and tried to think of how to arrange the words in a logical way to form a sentence that accurately described the situation. After carefully deliberating several times, he finally broke the silence. "I just saw fog outside—the abnormal kind of fog—so I came out to check."

"...Uh, and then?"

"I brought the house along with me."

Bai Li Qing: "...?"

Beside him, Ai Lin nearly bounced off the coffee table. "You thought that over for so long and that's all you came up with?!"

"I know it's hard to understand, but I just figured out this new function," Yu Sheng twitched the corner of his mouth and explained to Bai Li Qing. "Don't worry, nothing happened. I'm fine—and my house is fine too."

Bai Li Qing's silence was deafening.

Ai Lin sat cross-legged on the coffee table, nodding with an expression of deep understanding as she translated the silence. "She's cursing you out, and it's nasty. At least three generations of relatives involved."

Yu Sheng ignored the puppet.

He heard the director lady on the other end of the line let out a soft breath.

"Are you coming back?" Bai Li Qing asked, unusually calm. Then she added, a bit awkwardly, "I mean, are you and your... house coming back?"

Yu Sheng felt a bit awkward answering as well. "Uh, yes."

"About when?"

"Maybe... before tomorrow morning?" Yu Sheng thought about it, then said uncertainly. "Mainly because I want to go out and check the situation now. You have no idea how thick this fog is out there. I don't know how smoothly it'll go yet..."

"Do you need support? I can send a deep-dive unit."

"No need. I'm just taking Ai Lin and Hu Li. Fewer people are more convenient."

"Alright—then remember to turn on the environmental recording function in 'Border Communications.' Also, send me a message when you get back."

"Uh, okay."

(The chapter ends)