This night, Yu Sheng slept in a heavy daze.

Perhaps there had been too many things happening recently, draining him of his energy. He fell asleep quickly enough, but once asleep, he began to have a whole mess of bizarre dreams—sometimes he dreamt of the museum, sometimes of his hometown as he remembered it, and sometimes of the Black Forest. He felt like he had woken up a few times in between, even hearing Erin talking in her sleep, but those awakenings seemed to be just another strange dream.

This uneasy sleep continued until the latter half of the night when he suddenly felt a wave of relaxation. All the chaotic and indistinguishable dreamscapes seemed to suddenly tame down, and he slept calmly and comfortably in a light dream until the next morning.

And then he opened his eyes to see two Erins, one on each side, weighing down on his arms until they were numb.

It took Yu Sheng quite a while to finally pull his arms free, the tingling soreness immediately made him grimace.

Erin woke up leisurely too, sitting up with her hair a mess, rubbing her eyes, "Good morning... Yawn, you didn't sleep well last night, did you?"

Yu Sheng was just about to shake off his grumpiness from his numb arms, but hearing the little doll's muttering, he paused for a moment and then realized, "Was it you who helped in the latter part of the night?"

"Your dreams were disturbing me," the two Erins murmured simultaneously as they got up, tidying each other's clothes and hair, "It was so annoying, I just dived in to calm you down a bit."

Yu Sheng's arms hung limply, his expression a bit peculiar, and after a short while, he cleared his throat, "Ahem, thanks for that."

"It wasn't a big deal—now help me comb my hair."

"After being squashed by you all night, my arms are still numb. Do it yourself," Yu Sheng said helplessly, shaking his arms, "I bought you two small combs; they're on the nightstand. Anyway, now that you have two bodies, combing each other's hair will be very convenient."

"Oh."

The two dolls clambered to the nightstand and found the combs Yu Sheng mentioned, starting to mutter to each other while taking turns combing "each other's" hair, "Really, human bodies are so inconvenient, always having some kind of fault, squeezing this or bumping that, either numb or aching. Look at us dolls, even if we break into pieces, we won't utter a sound…"

Yu Sheng listened in astonishment to Erin's incessant chatter but didn't pay much attention to the content of her prattle.

The bright morning sunlight shone through the window. Two identical Gothic dolls sat in the sunlight, taking turns combing each other's hair, tidying their dresses—truth be told, if only their mouths could be gagged, this scene could almost be called picturesque.

Yu Sheng watched, a little lost in thought, then couldn't help but contemplate that if now, with two dolls waking up in the sunlight is already so picturesque, then if one day he really ended up with a room full of Erins, that would be…

A total mess.

The picturesque fantasy in Yu Sheng's mind stopped at the vision of Erins crawling all over the floor, shadowy and writhing, leaping up and down, and squeaking chaotically. He shook his head: too bad the dolls had mouths—now there were two.

After getting ready and washing up, Yu Sheng's arms finally regained feeling. He went to the kitchen and whipped up a simple breakfast(not so early now), fed Hu Li who woke up and was prowling around the house for food, and then got ready to head out according to the address Little Red Riding Hood had given him.

"Should I bring a gift or something?" Yu Sheng suddenly remembered just before leaving, "It's the first visit after all, wouldn't it be inappropriate to go empty-handed?"

"Yeah, maybe?" Erin, already adept at climbing into Hu Li's arms in preparation for "disguise," lifted her head when she heard Yu Sheng's words, "How about some cookies and candy? There seem to be a lot of kids over there…"

"Isn't that a bit cliché?"

"You can't exactly hand out vials of blood to everyone you meet—that would certainly be unconventional, but they'd probably call the police."

Yu Sheng thought it over and decided Erin was right.

So, he set out with Hu Li and Erin (P2), heading to a nearby convenience store before hailing a cab, bought a bunch of sweets and snacks to take along, and only then did he finally catch a taxi to another district in the city according to the address Little Red Riding Hood had left.

By the way, Erin (P1) stayed home to watch TV—this doll was really getting used to living with two bodies.

Boundary City was vast, but fortunately, the address Little Red Riding Hood had left was not too far away. After spending most of an hour on the road, Yu Sheng and his companions arrived near their destination.

After getting off the taxi, the first thing Yu Sheng felt was…the scarcity of pedestrians around.

And the closer he followed the address Little Red Riding Hood left, the fewer people there were on the streets.

The location where he got off was an intersection of the main road. Little Red Riding Hood had specifically marked a short walking route after getting off when sending the address. Yu Sheng left the boulevard and walked into a quiet and slightly old neighborhood behind the commercial area. The place looked just a bit newer than the district where No. 66 Wutong Road was located, but not by much. After walking for about ten minutes, he noticed there were no pedestrians in sight.

Then, he saw at the end of the lane, the space suddenly opened up, revealing a large building in his view.

It was a "compound" composed of two row buildings and several small structures. The grey-white buildings looked like they had been there for years, and a tall wall encircled all the structures within. The wall once seemed to have bright murals, but most of it was now mottled and peeled off, leaving only faded wall plaster behind.

A reinforced-appearing chain-link gate stood before Yu Sheng, but what drew his gaze more were the several familiar metal obelisk devices lined up along the walls on both sides of the gate.

Those were the "nodes" set up by the Special Service Bureau.

He had found the reason why the pedestrian traffic had thinned to extinction.

The entire "base" of "Fairy Tales" was cognitively isolated according to the standards of the Exotic Realm.

A red figure entered Yu Sheng's vision; he saw Little Red Riding Hood stepping out from a guard booth inside the gate. The girl opened a small door next to her and briskly walked towards him.

"You arrived earlier than I expected."

Little Red Riding Hood reached Yu Sheng with a smile that was slightly complex on her face—as if she was eager to welcome him, yet also somewhat nervous and restrained.

It was the first time he had seen such an unsettled expression on the face of this precocious high school girl.

"Worried about being late, so I left home early." Yu Sheng smiled and nodded, his eyes glancing over Little Red Riding Hood's shoulder toward the entrance of the "compound."

On the wall beside the fence gate, several metal letters that were originally mounted had fallen and been damaged, but remnants still lingered. The faint outline of "XX Orphanage" could be discerned. Beyond that, there were no other identifying features on the closed compound.

An orphanage hidden deep within the city, even necessitating "nodes" to block it off... an orphanage.

Yu Sheng didn't feel surprised; he had already speculated on some things before coming here.

"Come with me, I've already informed my family," Little Red Riding Hood turned slightly, gesturing an invitation, "I don't have classes today, neither do I have other engagements, so I can show you guys around more."

Yu Sheng and Hu Li followed Little Red Riding Hood, stepping into the compound that looked somewhat old, but not dilapidated.

As they passed the guard booth, Yu Sheng noticed a girl inside dozing off, who seemed to be about the same age as Little Red Riding Hood.

"That's 'Cinderella'. She always seems unable to wake up during the day, but she's actually very alert," Little Red Riding Hood casually explained. "Normally, there would be 'Security Guards' here during the day, staff members sent by the Council, but on weekends, it's the 'parents' of the place who take turns standing guard—by parents, I mean the bigger children, like me."

"People sent by the Council?" Yu Sheng raised his eyebrows, sounding slightly surprised.

"'Fairy Tales' is an independent organization, but a group of orphans who never grow up, taking care of even younger children, will inevitably encounter many practical problems they can't solve. On the other hand, to identify and concentrate children affected by 'curses' into a safe facility as soon as possible, an intervention from government organizations like the Council is essential," Little Red Riding Hood explained slowly. "So we've established a cooperative relationship—

"The orphanage is nominally maintained and operated by the Boundary Council. They provide the site and part of the funding, and regularly send 'employees' to help us with various real-life issues such as social identity, children's admissions, and medical treatment. But in reality, the orphanage is self-governed by 'Fairy Tales'. We take in the children sent over and use our own means to minimize their loss of control or... even if control is lost, to keep things within the walls."

Little Red Riding Hood paused, summarizing with one sentence: "In short, ordinary remains ordinary, and extraordinary remains extraordinary."

Yu Sheng listened quietly, walking through the open space within the walls with Little Red Riding Hood, and after a moment's thought, he shook his head slightly: "It's not quite what I imagined."

"Only after actual contact will you realize that all the seemingly bizarre status quo has its rational reasons for formation," Little Red Riding Hood spoke indifferently, "At least for us now, this is the most comfortable state—we can live in the pace and manner we like, many things are under control, and for the administrators of Boundary Land, 'under control' is the most desired return."

"No, I mean... I thought it would be the Special Service Bureau handling these matters, I thought they would be your 'management department,' since they are the experts in the Extraordinary Domain."

Little Red Riding Hood's steps paused slightly.

"… The Special Service Bureau also frequently deals with us. You're right, they are indeed experts in handling Extraordinary Events, but in most cases, the 'Extraordinary Events' that occur in this facility can be handled by ourselves without the need for additional assistance," she spoke slowly, "So the relationship between the Special Service Bureau and us is generally limited to 'business exchanges', whereas in most aspects of the orphanage members' 'lives', we are closer to the 'ordinary people' sent by the Council."

Yu Sheng pondered: "Is that so…"

"Yes," Little Red Riding Hood nodded, "After all, it's not just 'parents' like me in this big compound; there are many more kids here who just have nightmares."

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