Yu Sheng earnestly introduced Little Red Riding Hood and the long-haired princess to his construction plans in the valley, which included the grand Great Temple he envisioned and a series of subsidiary buildings that would be built around the platform—although he wasn't quite sure what those buildings would be used for, the idea was to build them first and figure it out later—then he casually explained why the square house next to the platform wasn't a restroom.

The two girls listened very seriously, especially when they tried to hold back their laughter in the second half.

Yu Sheng also felt helpless about this—because he too thought the first phase of the construction did look a bit like a restroom...

He could only awkwardly end the topic and tried to divert his guests' attention.

"These chickens are raised by Hu Li," he told Little Red Riding Hood and the long-haired princess, introducing other things in the valley, "Once the ecology here is restored, they can run around outside."

Little Red Riding Hood reacted just like Erin did initially, her eyes widening instantly: "You let a fox raise chickens?!"

"It's a Fox Demon—there's a big difference," Yu Sheng seriously corrected, "Honestly, she's taken really good care of them."

While he spoke, Hu Li had already filled the chicken coop with water and feed, and carefully checked the condition of the chicks before happily walking over, digging into her tail, and pulling out two chicks to show Little Red Riding Hood: "Their names are White Cut and Salt Roasted, I plan to make them the leaders of the flock~"

Little Red Riding Hood responded blankly for a long time before realizing that White Cut and Salt Roasted were the names of the chickens.

And before she could speak, Yu Sheng excitedly took her to see other places: "This area, I'm planning to use for growing vegetables. See that water channel over there? It's brought over from the foot of the mountain for irrigation. I'm also planning to build a water storage pond in one corner of the platform. I'm considering raising pigs in another field, but I don't have time for that yet. Further away, did you notice that open space? I plan to set up a permanent 'portal' there, but that's just a preliminary plan, and how to implement it still needs to be studied. Right now, my main focus is on farming and building houses…"

Little Red Riding Hood and the long-haired princess were both stunned, just nodding blankly as they listened to Yu Sheng's series of introductions, especially Little Red Riding Hood—her impression of this place was still stuck on when they were experiencing "Hunger," and with every project Yu Sheng introduced, her mind subconsciously repeated "This place is an Exotic Realm," her worldview flipping back and forth as if she was lying up and down in a coffin.

But Yu Sheng didn't think that much, and after proudly introducing everything, he happily looked at the two girls and asked eagerly: "What do you think? How is this valley?"

The long-haired princess opened her mouth, struggling to utter: "What kind of valley is this! Isn't this Stardew Valley?"

Yu Sheng thought about it and felt that the conclusion was quite accurate, but he didn't have the copyright, so he couldn't use that name.

A fresh breeze came blowing through the depths of the valley, carrying the scent of slight grass and earth, as well as Xiao Xiao's cheerful laughter—she was running around on the grass, vigorously playing and chasing with Erin.

Erin was also excited, running and shouting, "Is there anyone to take care of this wild child!? Aren't dolls' rights being taken care of by anyone?! Ah!?"

"I'll look after her," the long-haired princess said, glancing up with a helpless smile, and then picked up Xiao Xiao's little backpack and walked briskly towards her, "Xiao Xiao! Take a break and have some water before playing!"

Yu Sheng sat down with a smile on the edge of the platform, watching the long-haired princess taking care of the child, Xiao Xiao excitedly talking, and Erin trying frantically to communicate with the wild child, then turned to look at Little Red Riding Hood beside him: "Do you feel like looking forward to tomorrow?"

Little Red Riding Hood was also quietly watching the distance, and after hearing Yu Sheng's words, she paused before speaking: "The Black Forest... and other subsets of 'Fairy Tales', can they become like this, too?"

Her voice was very soft, as if afraid a little louder would shatter a glimmer of light.

"I still don't know how to confront the 'core essence' of Fairy Tales, but at least we can start with the Black Forest. For now, the Black Forest is still a 'Consciousness Space', but it still follows the general rules of the Exotic Realm, and the entities it generates—mainly wolves—are not invincible, and they can be influenced by my blood," Yu Sheng said at a measured pace.

"The key question now is, how to find the most core, the most essential part of Black Forest—I suspect that it is not a 'wolf.'"

Little Red Riding Hood slightly widened her eyes: "Not the wolf?"

"What's so special about a wolf in the story of 'Little Red Riding Hood'?" Yu Sheng calmly countered.

Little Red Riding Hood was stunned, seemingly unable to keep up with the other's train of thought.

"'Little Red Riding Hood,' with quotation marks," Yu Sheng continued, voicing his own thoughts, "Given that the essence of 'Fairy Tales' is a 'collection of stories,' with each subset being a story, this means that any 'element' of the story cannot independently represent the whole story. A single wolf won't do, a single Hunter or a single Little Red Riding Hood won't do either, even the Black Forest itself... cannot represent 'Little Red Riding Hood.'"

Little Red Riding Hood finally showed a thoughtful expression, appearing to understand what Yu Sheng meant by "essence."

"This Black Forest is different from this valley—'Hunger' is the only core of this valley, everything here, even the environment of the whole valley, is built around 'Hunger.' This is also the characteristic of most 'conventional' Exotic Realms. However, that Black Forest, its rules are exceptionally complex, any 'role' in the forest, including Little Red Riding Hood, the big gray wolf, Grandmother, the Hunter, or even that chattering squirrel, they are just 'links' under this set of rules, just the 'surface' part."

As Yu Sheng said this, he gently waved his hand in the air, and accompanying the sound of soil and rock friction, Little Red Riding Hood watched in astonishment as the ground at the edge of the platform suddenly bulged, and that patch of ground then formed a small "Stage", some ugly and crude things made of stone rolled and ran on the stage, some quickly disintegrated, but new "actors" emerged from within the stage, continuing in blind and meaningless motion.

"It was after my encounter with Xiao Xiao that I thought of these things, and you, the party concerned, are limited by the 'Little Red Riding Hood' perspective, which makes it hard for you to notice," Yu Sheng, while manipulating the crude little stage, continued to speak to the girl beside him, "Your attention always falls on that 'Evil Wolf,' naturally, you see the wolf as the only and ultimate 'villain' in the 'Black Forest subset,' but from a perspective outside the story... I realize that what I have to kill is not the villain in the story.

"Or to put it another way, I've already successfully killed a 'villain' once—that Wolf Grandmother that swallowed Xiao Xiao, it is the 'ultimate villain' from Xiao Xiao's point of view, but in the process of killing it, all I felt was... emptiness, Black Forest did not change because of the death of a Wolf Grandmother, the Wolf Pack is still there, the forest is still there, I can feel those stares, Xiao Xiao will still fall into the forest next time, and a new Wolf Grandmother... will still be waiting for her at the end of darkness.

"Because for this 'story,' its script has not been damaged at all from the beginning to the end."

The platform became quiet, and Little Red Riding Hood looked at the rolling stone "actors" on the stage, finally speaking out of contemplation: "So what needs to be killed is the 'story' itself..."

"Right, the story, it's just that it might not necessarily be 'killing' it, because the story might be indestructible, but perhaps we can find a way to control it, to subvert it, even to dismember it, and to do these, we can't fix our gaze solely on the 'actors' on the surface of the story, but we need to find the 'vulnerability' of the whole story," Yu Sheng lightly nodded his head, extending his hand towards the crude stage, "Just like this stage—what do you think its real 'essence' and 'core' is?"

Little Red Riding Hood paused, her expression contemplative, but it seemed she couldn't find the answer at the moment.

"The answer is right in front of you," Yu Sheng started to laugh, raising his hand to point at his own head, "It's me."

With that, he waved his hand once more, and thus the crude stage of soil and rocks promptly disintegrated, transforming back into clumps of earth and stone, rapidly merging into the ground.

Little Red Riding Hood suddenly realized, inhaling sharply: "You mean, behind Black Forest... there's a 'storyteller'?!"

"Not necessarily a person, but there has to be a 'source,' That could be the actual body of 'Fairy Tales,' or it could be a tendril extended from 'Fairy Tales,'" Yu Sheng said calmly, "From the first time I entered that Black Forest, I have been looking for this 'tendril,' originally we thought we found it in the deepest part of the forest at the 'Special Hut,' thinking that the tendril was there. Turns out it wasn't, it was just a special corner of the stage—We are still circling around the 'front' of the stage, but that thing shaping Black Forest is hiding 'behind' the stage."

"I... didn't expect you to have thought so much," Little Red Riding Hood looked at Yu Sheng with a surprised expression, "I've never considered things about Black Forest this way before."

Yu Sheng laughed: "Because I'm a hateful adult, hateful adults always use this uninteresting rational thinking to poke through children's stories, the most common thing we say is—'It's all made up by people.'"

Little Red Riding Hood was stunned for a moment, then also laughed: "That's why Fairy Tales don't like adults."

"It's fine, I'm not here to be 'liked' by it," Yu Sheng stood up, clapping his hands, "Alright, the time for outing is over, children should go home now."

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