Night had fallen deeply.

The orphanage was enveloped in the darkness of night, and the outside corridor gradually quieted down. The children had exhausted their energy in the day's plays, and most of them had fallen asleep by now. The "parent" on night duty walked through the corridor with a flashlight, occasionally, a glimmer of light flashed from the observation window on a door, accompanied by deliberately slowed footsteps.

Little Red Riding Hood had changed into her nightgown, leaning against the headboard, listening intently to the sounds outside.

She was attentive to any short cries in the night, any unusual shrieks, her wolves sniffing in the shadows for scents of fear and unrest, detecting anything that shouldn't appear as the night unfolded into reality.

Even on days when she didn't have to patrol, she had developed such habits.

After a while, she finally sighed softly and lay down on the bed.

The first hour after lights out was the likeliest time for trouble, but tonight seemed to be a peaceful one.

From the upper bunk, there were creaking sounds, and a head peeked over the edge, curious: "Red Hat, going to sleep this early? Have you really been getting more sleep lately?"

"Hmm, started feeling sleepy," yawned Little Red Riding Hood, a hint of drowsiness in her voice, "and I have a meeting tonight."

The long-haired princess in the upper bunk seemed confused at first, not quite understanding what she meant, but after a few seconds, she recalled a recently familiar name, "...That Uncle Yu Sheng?"

"He's not that old, you should call him 'Brother'," Little Red Riding Hood rolled her eyes, "Yes, him. He's asked me to meet him in the Black Forest."

"Alright, big brother," the long-haired princess replied with a slightly strange expression, "Meeting you in the Black Forest... Well, even though I know what it's about, it still sounds really bizarre. We've always been stuck in our own 'subsets', but your piece of the Black Forest has indeed become 'livelier' recently..."

Little Red Riding Hood lifted her eyelids: "Jealous?"

The head at the edge of the bunk tilted, then withdrew after a moment: "No thoughts."

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth as if to say something but eventually swallowed the words back. Soon after, she picked up her phone and composed a message as sleepiness crept up on her—

"Good night, see you later."

She drifted unknowingly into sleep after a long while.

Darkness, cold, emptiness, and then layers upon layers of shadows emerged before her eyes. The forest at dusk revealed itself from those shadows, accompanied by distant wolf howls.

Little Red Riding Hood opened her eyes in the Dream Realm, greeted by the familiar "scenery."

"...Really back at this place again."

She sighed softly in resignation, but her nerves were gradually tensing.

The fear and tension rooted since her childhood had almost become an innate instinct, not something that could be countered by any prior mental preparation or courage training; the calm on her face and jest in her tone were only self-deceiving, she was still afraid—at this, she was clearer than anyone.

As her nerves tensed, she summoned her wolf pack, then scanned her surroundings.

She was on guard for any Evil Wolves emerging from the darkness, also looking for the figure who had promised to explore the Black Forest with her.

Almost at the same moment the Wolf Pack was summoned, Little Red Riding Hood saw black silk threads suddenly materialize in the air nearby and heard a voice from somewhere:

"Hey hey she's fallen asleep... don't rush, still positioning, need to find a way to open right next to her, it's a precise job... connected, hey, it's through! Let's set the door here, open it, open up..."

The next second, Little Red Riding Hood watched in astonishment as those threads in the air suddenly condensed into a thorn-like "doorframe," and a shimmering, ethereal door formed at the center of the thorn thicket. The door opened, and three familiar figures stepped through.

Yu Sheng was carrying Erin, with the fox girl alongside.

"Good evening," Yu Sheng greeted the girl cheerfully as soon as he arrived, "Hope we're not too late? Erin said you had just fallen asleep a few minutes ago."

Following that, Hu Li and Erin also waved their hands and greeted, all looking cheerful.

It was as if they hadn't entered the dangerous Black Forest, but had gone on a picnic in the park.

Little Red Riding Hood suddenly felt like her emotions couldn't quite connect; she thought she should still be nervous, but the atmosphere was completely shattered by the cheerful attitudes of the three people, leaving her only able to open her mouth and finally squeeze out a sentence: "Uh... I just came in."

Then she saw Yu Sheng fishing something out from behind the still-open door, bending over to pull a long piece of threaded steel into the room—it was more than a meter long, with a thumb-thick front end bent into several loops, and welded with a pile of rusty nails, blade pieces, and broken steel bars. In the twilight near sundown in the Black Forest, this thing shone with a chill light, making it look like it could give someone tetanus at just a glance...

Little Red Riding Hood felt a huge question mark appear in her mind, watching as Yu Sheng pulled this Tetanus Wand from the door and waved it in the air a couple of times—the more-than-one-meter, nearly two-meter steel Wolf Fang Club seemed as light as a plastic stick in his hand, prompting her to finally ask: "What is... this?"

"Weapon," Yu Sheng explained cheerfully, seeming a little embarrassed at the same time, "Mainly because I didn't have any handy tool or any combat experience and skills, other than my brute force and selling blood, I have no other strengths, not like Hu Li with the Fox Radish Set or Erin with a bunch of magic stuff... so I just make do with this."

As he spoke, he swung the deadly club—that could make an ordinary person bleed and get tetanus with just a touch—around a couple of times, sighing, "Although I feel like this thing is useless against the 'Evil Wolf', having a stick is still better than going at it with bare fists or swinging a rock like before."

Little Red Riding Hood listened, stunned, and it took her a while to recover from the shocking "weapon" style to catch up with Yu Sheng's thoughts, then her expression couldn't help but show some awe—but not because this stick was really that powerful.

Frankly speaking, in her years as a Spirit Realm detective, she had seen far more dangerous weapons, and in the Exotic Realm, all sorts of deadly bizarre objects were countless, a piece of threaded steel welded with a bunch of blade fragments really wasn't anything special. However, what was terrifying about this thing was its style, the gleaming spikes and barbed blades were clearly the result of the designer's full malicious intent and ferocity, belonging to a weapon style where the aura filled with killing intent surpassed the weapon's own lethality.

Moreover, for some reason, she always felt a sense of... terror when looking at this thing, with the nervous feeling becoming more and more apparent, eventually making Little Red Riding Hood feel something was not quite right.

She suddenly sniffed, in the glinting light of the blades, she sensed the source of this unease.

"…Is there blood on this?" The girl's eyes gradually widened, stunned, as she watched Yu Sheng who was seriously closing the door.

"Yes," Yu Sheng laughed, "A lot of it."

In the shadows of the Black Forest, that smile seemed to radiate a pure and joyful light.

Little Red Riding Hood stood still, feeling that she should say something now, but she couldn't find the right words within her limited life experience and values, and after a while she only managed to blurt out: "Is... this your blood? Isn't this a bit…"

"No need to worry about it," Yu Sheng dismissed it with a wave of his hand before the girl could finish, "Anyway, this whole stick is just leftover trimmings from when I was assembling dolls, it can be considered as a by-product of making dolls."

Little Red Riding Hood: "…?"

Yu Sheng didn't continue to explain, but instead slung the Tetanus Wand on his shoulder and looked into the deep part of Black Forest.

"Let's not stay in this dense shadow, according to that squirrel, we should head towards where it's brighter; I think there's some light ahead—let's keep walking and see who shows up first, the squirrel or the wolves…"

As he spoke, he had already started walking on his own, and Little Red Riding Hood, catching up, noticed the nail marks on Yu Sheng's arm and the small tooth mark on his forehead (not knowing how the tooth mark ended up there), and couldn't help but curiously ask: "What about these wounds then? They look like you've been scratched by a cat..."

Yu Sheng's pace slowed down, his face twitching awkwardly: "Uh… this is also a by-product of making dolls. Don't worry, they'll heal soon."

Sitting on his other shoulder, Erin snorted, trying to act still angry, but it was not intimidating at all, and eventually, she even reached out to touch the tooth mark on Yu Sheng's forehead, looking particularly contorted.

Little Red Riding Hood continued: "…?"

Just then, a rustling sound suddenly came from the bushes next to them, causing everyone to instantly stop.

The next second, under several gazes, a small figure suddenly leaped out of the bushes—

A squirrel with a fuzzy large tail, wrapped in a strip of red cloth, proudly jumped to the top of a thin branch with an acorn it had picked up somewhere, and let out a thin scream: "Ah—Dusk! The forest gets dark, Little Red Riding Hood is walking alone on the rural path, good children should control their curiosity, must not be attracted by the wildflowers and mushrooms by the road..."

The little squirrel stopped abruptly, staring at the group in front of it.

Yu Sheng, carrying the Tetanus Wand with a smiling face.

A doll only 66 centimeters tall but somehow looking extremely impressive.

A demon fox with tails floating around emitting Fox Fire.

A embarrassed-looking Little Red Riding Hood who also seemed not sure why she was embarrassed.

The squirrel stared blankly at this scene, and after a few seconds, the acorn in its paw dropped to the ground with a snap.

"…Things are getting strange ahhh!!"

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