After Baili Qing had arranged everything, Yu Sheng began to tell the female director in front of him detailed information about his investigation.
Including how Old Zheng might have obtained the "Angel Umbilical Cord," the "unsuccessful Descent" that happened long ago, the fairy tale book that was sent away, and Anka Aela's possible current state.
Baili Qing's ironclad expression was hard to maintain throughout this stream of information.
She furrowed her brows tightly and interrupted while listening to Yu Sheng recount the "squirrel's" memories: "Are you saying that a child living in an orphanage, without any development of spiritual talent, directly heard the voice of the Dark Angel and even established communication with it — and remained completely sane throughout?"
"At least the 'squirrel' believes so," Yu Sheng nodded, "We cannot rule out that it might have been influenced by the Angel and experienced auditory hallucinations, but the fairy tale book it sent out is definitely linked to the current 'fairy tale realm,' and the book's impact on Anka Aela is real."
"A fairy tale book affected the process of the Angel's Descent; even if you tell me this personally, I still find it hard to believe," Baili Qing said slowly, "But if this is true, it might suggest that the 'Dark Angels' were not as 'invulnerable' as we imagined, or at least in the early stages of their first Descent, their 'operation' was quite fragile and could be influenced by certain methods..."
She paused for a moment, then continued thoughtfully: "What's even more surprising is another point. If the 'squirrel' provided accurate information, Anka Aela might even possess rationality, which subverts our understanding of the Dark Angels."
In this world, a rational Dark Angel capable of communication had never appeared, leading many scholars to treat them as a type of "natural disaster." Without Baili Qing's reminder, Yu Sheng knew the intelligence he had brought would greatly impact those researching Angel Descent phenomena.
After a while, the conversation returned to the "fairy tale realm" itself.
"According to the squirrel, the 'stage' of the Black Forest has been constantly evolving. Each generation of Little Red Riding Hood brings new 'elements' or 'rules' to the forest, resembling the gradual establishment and refinement of a 'story' from an outline," Yu Sheng said while thinking, "First the foundational world view and 'big map,' then the introduction of characters and items, followed by the connections between story elements... This reflects the dynamic nature of the 'fairy tale.'
"On the other hand, considering Snow White and the seven... uh, Thunderbolt Titans, and Xiao Xiao's encounter with the Wolf Grandmother, we can confirm another aspect of the fairy tale's dynamic nature: each 'main character' triggers corresponding 'mutated dungeon' subsets. When two Little Red Riding Hoods of distinctly different strengths appear simultaneously, the Black Forest may even generate two different 'versions' of the Wolf Grandmother.
"All of this, as the first Little Red Riding Hood mentioned in her will, 'this forest is alive,' and in fact, it's not only the Black Forest that's alive; the entire 'fairy tale' is alive, exhibiting high 'interactivity' with the 'characters' trapped within.
"This point might help us understand Anka Aela's current state."
Baili Qing listened thoughtfully and suddenly murmured to herself: "It is still 'reading' that book."
"Yes, it is still 'reading' that book and trying to 'understand' it, but clearly, the Dark Angel's process of 'understanding' is entirely different from human reason and cognition," Yu Sheng nodded lightly, "On the other hand, as an 'exotic realm,' the existence form, birth method, and 'related state' between the 'fairy tale' and 'Anka Aela' are also completely different from our previous understanding.
"As a 'cage,' it was essentially 'woven' by Anka Aela itself, the entire 'fairy tale' very likely built upon the Dark Angel itself, almost like its...
Yu Sheng frowned, pondering a more suitable word, and then continued: "almost like its 'exoskeleton.'
"So, the Deep Dive Team that had an accident probably accidentally touched Anka Aela's body while piercing through the fairy tale's exoskeleton," Baili Qing immediately connected the dots, "Then those 'corpses' suddenly standing up wobblingly mentioned in the action record...
"Could have been Anka Aela 'leaking' into the real world," Yu Sheng pulled at the corner of his mouth, "Be thankful, considering it now, the 'leak' must have been unconscious, Anka Aela hasn't truly awakened."
Baili Qing did not speak for a moment, only her faded eyes flickering slightly, and outside the wide floor-to-ceiling window behind her, those blurry eyes quietly appeared.
A mechanical, indifferent voice echoed in her mind: "Unexpectedly, after seventy years, the action record from back then can still be updated."
Yu Sheng had already seen those eyes earlier, but he knew it was Baili Qing's sister, so he wasn't surprised, and just smiled and waved at her in greeting.
The eyes blinked, appearing a bit flustered — probably still not adapted to being casually noticed by an "outsider," forgetting for a moment that they weren't invisible to Yu Sheng...
At that moment, the telephone on the oval office desk suddenly rang.
Baili Qing picked it up and listened for a few moments, nodding: "Very good, bring it over directly."
Then she set down the phone, her expression relaxing slightly, and looked up at Yu Sheng: "They found records from the orphanage."
Yu Sheng was a bit surprised: "So fast?"
Baili Qing's face showed a faint smile: "Smoothly than expected, although it's nearly a century-old record, it is indeed archived in the Council's archives — the Special Service Bureau and the Council archives coordinate mechanisms for review."
A moment later, the duty secretary knocked on the office door and delivered the freshly printed and organized documents to Baili Qing's desk.
Yu Sheng immediately moved closer to review the documents with Baili Qing.
A photo quickly caught his eye.
It was a child, looking about seven or eight years old, wearing a somewhat ill-fitting dress, nervously standing in front of a blackboard.
Very thin, a bit dark, with plain braids, an overall ordinary appearance, not particularly cute, showing an almost rigid expression in the photo — as if suddenly asked by the teacher to stand on the platform for a photo, leaving this picture behind before understanding what was happening, with a hint of bewilderment and nervousness in their eyes.
"Disappeared before the initial explosion of the 'fairy tale,' at an age capable of independently reading a fairy tale book, this is the only one that fits," Baili Qing's voice came from beside him, "It's been eighty-six years."
Yu Sheng's face was grave, staring at the photo for a long time, then seeing her name — Zhao Lele.
Even the name was ordinary.
So ordinary that it seemed it shouldn't appear in a convoluted story — but on some night eighty-six years ago, just like the beginning of every story, "that moment" found her.
"Disappeared at night, then the orphanage called the police, but of course, nothing came of it. Not much records remain about the incident itself, and the only data left related to this child is this photo and her age and name at the time of disappearance; why she became an orphan, where she came from, is unknown," Baili Qing slowly said, "If it wasn't for the Council's rule that any child disappearance must be reported and remain open until found, this photo likely wouldn't have been preserved."
Yu Sheng silently put the document away, Baili Qing didn't stop him.
"Additionally, we are looking into the situation of the 'fairy tale book' from back then," Baili Qing continued, "Now we have a general range, and if we're lucky, we might find the same version of the old book still preserved..."
"Could it really be found?" Yu Sheng asked out of curiosity, "Nearly a hundred years ago, a lost book, it would be recorded?"
"Loss records may not exist, but it's possible to find what books were in the orphanage at that time," Baili Qing nodded, and then paused slightly, "How many books do you think those children in the orphanage had back then?"
Yu Sheng: "..."
"In theory, even if the orphanage management was lax at that time, basic asset registration and private donation records should exist, and during the brief period when the Special Service Bureau temporarily took over the orphanage, we took over all the records and archived them. However, these records typically don't have further indexing mechanisms established, so detailed records are challenging to check and require manual search."
Yu Sheng nodded lightly.
"It's going to be hard work for you."
"Just performing our duties," Baili Qing said plainly, then pointed to the documents on the desk, "Additionally, these are various monitoring records of the orphanage and surrounding areas recorded by the Special Service Bureau, and according to the records, no abnormal energy explosions were captured, nor any reported sightings of 'silent falling luminous objects' as you mentioned."
"Hmm," Yu Sheng sighed, "Not surprising."
"From an optimistic viewpoint, not recording any 'phenomena' is the greatest fortune Boundary Land had that night eighty-six years ago," Baili Qing said, "A Dark Angel silently piercing through our world — if the Descent had truly happened, each 'data' we recorded would likely be filled with countless human lives."
If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.