Chapter 136 Traces of the Past
Grandma Wolf lay on the bed in the cottage, hiding her paws, ears and tail, and she swallowed Little Red Riding Hood whole, and then...
The hunter did not show up.
The person who came was a cook.
Yu Sheng felt something struggling instantly. In the air, the invisible wolf grandmother suddenly let out a shrill howl. Blood gushed out of nowhere where the knife had passed. The cut fur, fat and muscle rolled and tore apart, floating in the air along the direction of the blade. Suddenly, a gust of wind pressure and a sense of threat appeared from the side. It was the wolf's raised front paws and head.
It’s a pity that it wasn’t the evil wolf that Little Red Riding Hood feared, and that had grown bigger than the house.
It was just what a six-year-old girl imagined a big bad wolf to look like - it was strong, but not as strong as Yu Sheng, it was fast, but not as fast as a full-grown man, it was vicious... but Yu Sheng had dealt with uglier meat.
Yu Sheng suddenly stretched out his hand, held down the invisible wolf's head, then pressed its neck with his arm, pressing it on the small bed, and the knife in his other hand continued to cut the beast's flesh. Amid the spreading blood and increasingly shrill howls, the wolf's figure appeared - much larger than an ordinary wolf, big enough to swallow a child, with a thin body, wearing a ridiculous apron and soft-brimmed hat, with a hideous and twisted head, and a swollen belly.
Now it is dying, the light in its ferocious eyes is slowly fading, a hoarse sound comes from its throat, its limbs are twitching, and its final struggle is about to come to an end.
"Quiet, quiet, it's almost over..." Yu Sheng bent down and stared into the wolf's eyes. His eyes were filled with joy and his words were gentle and expectant. "I have to cut slowly - after all, I have to be careful not to hurt the child. But you can't struggle too hard. If your muscles are too tense, it will affect your usefulness later... OK, cut it open."
The wolf's belly was completely cut open, and as a layer of strange membrane-like structure was neatly cut by the second stroke of the blade, a thin girl rolled out of its belly.
The girl's eyes were closed and there was no blood on her body, as if she had just fallen asleep on the small bed and had a dream from which she could not wake up.
Little Red Riding Hood immediately took a step forward and caught the girl who was about to fall to the ground with both hands. At the same time, she unconsciously widened her eyes and looked at the wolf lying on the bed with its belly ripped open and its limbs still twitching slightly, and Yu Sheng who was putting away his knife: "You...how did you see it? Why didn't I see it before?"
"It's hard to explain - I now have some extra 'perspectives' that allow me to observe things that only the wolves in the forest know," Yu Sheng wiped the blood off the knife on the wolf's fur, turned his head and said to Little Red Riding Hood, "As for why you can't see it... maybe it's because this isn't your wolf grandmother?"
Little Red Riding Hood was stunned for a moment, a thoughtful look on her face.
Just as she was about to say something else, a series of howling sounds suddenly came from outside the cabin, interrupting her current train of thought.
Seven or eight wolves formed by shadows suddenly appeared around her, confronting the howling wolves outside the hut, making the same hoarse and terrifying howls, protecting their "master".
"The wolves were alarmed, and they don't sound very happy." Yu Sheng immediately raised his head and glanced at Little Red Riding Hood, who was tense all over. "You'd better take her away from here quickly. We have already cut her out of the wolf's stomach. Now we just need to let her return to the real world, and the child will wake up."
"But the time is not up yet!" Little Red Riding Hood was a little anxious and spoke quickly, "You need to stay in the Black Forest for a certain amount of time before you can leave..."
Yu Sheng frowned and immediately called the puppet in his mind: "Erin, drag them out by force - use the one you are best at."
"Okay," Irene responded immediately, "but what about you? You're not going out?"
"I'll observe for a while to see if there are any other changes here. Don't worry about me."
"Oh...if you're going to die, tell me in advance."
"Can't you say something nice?"
Little Red Riding Hood didn't know what Yu Sheng was doing, but she instinctively felt that there was some kind of... interference in her connection with the Black Forest. An external force was quickly stripping her away from here. The unknown change made her subconsciously ask: "What did you do..."
"Irene will send you out," Yu Sheng nodded to her, "but the process may be quite exciting - don't vomit on me later."
Little Red Riding Hood: “Ah?”
Then she and the girl "Xiaoxiao" disappeared in the cottage at the same time.
Disappeared along with Little Red Riding Hood, also disappeared were the seven or eight wolves formed from shadows.
The howling of wolves outside the cottage did not disappear after Little Red Riding Hood left. Instead, it instantly became more frequent, more imminent, and more... hostile.
"Sure enough, you're coming for me." Yu Sheng frowned, not surprised at all. He knew that he was a "story destroyer" here, and according to the "rules" shown in fairy tales, people who destroy stories are definitely not welcome here.
What’s more, he is an adult who ruins the story, and what fairy tales hate most is adults.
But after remaining vigilant for a few seconds, Yu Sheng noticed that although the howling of wolves outside the cabin had gotten much closer, it eventually stopped at a certain distance outside. The invisible wolves were just prowling there, but for some reason they did not directly "attack" the cabin.
Yu Sheng frowned slightly and once again looked around the cottage that was covered with red cloaks and where the fire and candlelight seemed to have been extinguished many years ago.
He still remembered what the squirrel had said before, and the situation of the cabin where he had hidden last time - after the candlelight and the fire were extinguished, the cabin would be swallowed up by the forest, just like the paths that could be swallowed up by the forest at any time. The essence of this "shelter" seemed to be just an "illusion" temporarily illuminated by the firelight.
But what about this cabin?
Is this really the "end of the story" as Little Red Riding Hood said? So it won't be swallowed up, but will forever fall into the deepest part of the forest and become the burial place of all Little Red Riding Hoods?
The howling of wolves outside the house was somewhat annoying, but Yu Sheng still forced himself to ignore their interference. After rescuing the people, he felt much more at ease. Now he decided to study this place carefully.
He carefully searched every corner of the cabin, even lifting every red cloak to check if there was anything hidden underneath them.
He found a stick and used it to dig into the cold fireplace, examining the ashes carefully.
Finally, he simply pushed the dead wolf off the bed and turned the whole bed over.
Yu Sheng suddenly narrowed his eyes.
After moving the cot, he discovered something.
On the floor under the bed, there are many fine, curved lines that look like scratches.
Yu Sheng lay down, his eyes almost touching the floor, and carefully examined the carving marks.
The light in the hut was dim, but his eyes were glowing like a wolf. He saw that the marks were crooked handwriting, but they were extremely messy and twisted, almost unrecognizable.
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He tried to read it for a long time, but could only discern some messy and fragmented information from it.
"... is alive... it is dreaming... hidden in all... common..."
Yu Sheng frowned. The information in the text was too fragmented and he couldn't make out anything meaningful, so he didn't do too much meaningless thinking. He just stretched out his fingers and slowly touched the surface of the carvings, guessing how these words were "carved".
It seems like it was "picked" out bit by bit with very sharp fingernails.
It was a human finger, but the nails must have been very hard and sharp, just like a wolf's.
He continued to feel his way downwards, noticing that the scratches became smaller and shallower as he went further back.
"Very tired, very cold, very hungry...
“I can’t remember…how long…
“The wolf is outside.
"I am……"
Messy and fragmented words were mixed in among the almost unreadable carvings. The last traces were so light that only very fine lines remained, as if the person who carved them had finally exhausted his strength and stopped moving after writing the last two words "I am".
Yu Sheng frowned and slowly raised his body.
He thought it must have been left behind by a Little Red Riding Hood in the past - he didn't have many alternative answers on this matter.
But which one? Why did she leave these behind? Why here?
If this is really where all Little Red Riding Hoods "end", then how did Little Red Riding Hood, who left these messages here, stay sane and write them down at the last moment? What did she discover? Yu Sheng's eyes once again fell on the beginning of those words.
“…It’s alive…”
The idea here is that "something" is alive, but what exactly? What is alive? What is dreaming?
Yu Sheng raised his head.
The body of the big bad wolf had completely stopped twitching, and the blood in its stomach had almost drained out. Next, it should become good meat.
Not far away, a layer of faint starlight had sprinkled in from the window of the cottage at some point.
The howling of wolves around the house disappeared at some point, and now there was deathly silence outside.
(End of this chapter)
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