Chapter 196 The Secret of the Stage
Seeing the strange girl in red rushing into the hut, Yu Sheng paused for a moment and then rushed in as well.
The moment he stepped through the wooden door, he felt as if he had passed through something thin and cold, like water mist, and then many sounds around him disappeared in an instant. The wolf howling that had always been around and even seemed to be chasing him suddenly disappeared, and the sound of the wind also faded away. Only the sound of a baby crying, which only he could hear and which continued as long as he entered the Black Forest, was still ringing, but it seemed to be blurred as if there was a thick barrier between them.
Yu Sheng carefully held the weapon in his hand, looked around, and then frowned unconsciously.
He did not see the hanging red cloaks.
There was not a single red cloak on the walls or on the ground.
The only touch of red in the room was the girl in red who was sitting on the ground gasping for breath.
Yu Sheng and Hu Li walked over to the girl and tried to wave their hands in front of her eyes, but the latter still did not react.
At this moment, Hu Li seemed to have discovered something. She frowned and sniffed, and suddenly whispered, "My benefactor, there is no smell."
Yu Sheng didn't understand for a moment: "What?"
"She has no smell," Hu Li explained.
Yu Sheng frowned, looking thoughtful. Then, he seemed to suddenly sense something and immediately opened the wooden box containing the angel's umbilical cord.
The umbilical cord was still lying quietly at the bottom of the box, but at some point, part of the shriveled umbilical cord had filled up, as if it had regained blood and vitality - although the "alive" part only accounted for less than one-fifth of the entire umbilical cord, it looked extremely conspicuous.
Irene noticed the changes in the umbilical cord at a glance and immediately gasped. She grabbed Yu Sheng's hair, then quickly turned her head to look at Hu Li: "Quick, quick... take out the dipping sauce or something hidden in your tail..."
"Stop it," Yu Sheng interrupted the puppet's disturbance, "It hasn't reached that stage yet."
Then he saw the chili powder and barbecue sauce that Hu Li had taken out of his tail, and his eyebrows couldn't help but jump: "Take it back."
The girl in red sitting on the ground was unaware of what was happening "beside her". She seemed to be a projection in another time and space, just recreating some things that had happened in front of Yu Sheng and others.
After Yu Sheng confirmed that the angel's umbilical cord showed no signs of further recovery, she seemed to have finally rested enough and began to struggle to get up, as if she wanted to check the situation in various parts of the cabin.
From her eyes, Yu Sheng judged that she was quite unfamiliar with this cottage and was wary of it.
The next second, Yu Sheng noticed that the girl's condition seemed a little abnormal.
She struggled to stand up, but her legs and arms seemed unable to straighten and were bent at weird angles. She seemed to be mumbling something, but only hoarse, weird growls came out of her throat. She staggered forward two steps, and then involuntarily wanted to crouch down - fine hair began to grow from her cheeks and wrists, her ears gradually lengthened and became pointed, her eyes became like a wolf, and then she began to grow sharp fangs and claws.
It was as if the long accumulation had finally crossed a critical point, and she was turning into a wolf at an alarming speed.
It seemed that even her thinking was affected. The girl did not notice the changes in herself until this moment. She lowered her head in horror and saw that her body had begun to twist and deform. She opened her mouth, but what came out of her throat was not the cry of human fear, but only a sad whimper.
“Fuck…” Yu Sheng finally couldn’t help it. Even though he had guessed that the girl in front of him might just be an illusion and that she didn’t seem to be in the same time and space as himself, he still subconsciously put the mace aside and rushed forward, wanting to help the other party.
But his arm went straight through the other person's body.
The girl in red fell down, and in front of Yu Sheng, she was finally completely transformed into a twisted, half-human, half-wolf monster.
But she didn't seem to have completely lost her mind. After panting for a long time, she struggled to get up and slowly crawled to a corner of the hut on all fours.
The sound of nails scratching on the floor broke the silence in the cabin.
She was carving words with her sharp nails.
“This forest is alive.
“The chaotic noise became a clear whisper.
“There is a huge thing, it is dreaming, it is hiding in the common dream of all the children in the orphanage, I can’t see clearly what it is, but it has already entered my brain.
"I can't go back. I'm tired, cold, hungry, and I can't remember how long I've been here...
"I found a room, but it was cold there too, and it would have been nice to have a fire...
"The wolves are outside, they are waiting for me outside...
"I am... 'Little Red Riding Hood', the first one, but I'm afraid not the last. I have seen that 'it' is selecting new targets. Good luck to those who come here after me..."
She began to twitch.
The words carved by the fingernails became lighter and thinner, and finally could not be continued.
She stopped panting, turned over, and lay on the floor with her deformed and twisted body. Her eyes passed Yu Sheng and stared fixedly at a corner of the hut.
"It's so cold... I wish there was a fire..."
Yu Sheng sat down next to her and put his hand on her bent and deformed arm, but he couldn't give her any warmth. Hu Li also came over and placed several of her tails next to the wolf-like girl, but this also couldn't give the latter any warmth.
But suddenly, the girl's eyes brightened for a moment. She seemed to really feel some kind of warmth being transmitted. A smile appeared on her face, and she let out a final sigh: "It's getting warmer..."
Then, she turned into a flowing shadow and gradually dissipated.
A slight "crackling" sound suddenly rang out in the hut, breaking the dead silence.
Yu Sheng looked up in astonishment, looking in the direction where the sound came from, but saw a spark bursting out of the dark fireplace in the corner of the cabin.
Then there was a second crackling sound, and the sparks turned into flames.
The warm fireplace was burning, with hot and bright flames jumping in the hearth. A candlestick appeared on the table in the middle of the cabin. The candlelight was lit silently. The cold retreated from the house, and warmth filled the small room like a miracle that came quickly.
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Yu Sheng looked at this scene in astonishment, and suddenly, he seemed to understand something.
Almost at the same time when he thought of the answer, he heard a slight sound coming from the windowsill, and then the familiar voice of the squirrel came into his ears -
"The first Little Red Riding Hood died, bringing the first fire and candlelight to the Black Forest."
Yu Sheng suddenly looked up and saw the squirrel standing on the windowsill. He didn't know when it had come in - or maybe it had been here from the beginning.
"It is true... The original Black Forest did not have these 'shelters', right?" Yu Sheng looked at the squirrel in front of him thoughtfully, "What I am seeing now is a 'record' from a long time ago?"
The squirrel wiped its face with its paws, but unlike its usual nervous appearance of jumping up and down at every turn, it seemed unusually quiet today, as if even it could be preoccupied with something.
"Yes, there was nothing in the Black Forest originally. In the beginning, there were only forests and wolves, and also, there were dark cabins..."
Yu Sheng slowly frowned: "Then, Little Red Riding Hood, the 'protagonist' of the story, appeared. Did the stage of Little Red Riding Hood finally begin to become complete?"
The squirrel raised its upper body, but its eyes were not on Yu Sheng. Instead, it seemed to be looking at somewhere far away.
It spoke slowly—
"…the second Little Red Riding Hood died, and so there came into being those red strings and strips of cloth that were entangled in many places, and that slowed down the process of transformation into a wolf.
“After the third Little Red Riding Hood died, food and water to replenish the body began to appear in the cottage.
“After the fourth Little Red Riding Hood died, a trail finally appeared in the forest. When walking on the trail, the probability of encountering a wolf will be very low, and a shelter hut will always appear at the end of the trail.
“The fifth Little Red Riding Hood lights the lamps along the trail—now, the wolves won’t approach the trail unless the lamps are out.
"The sixth Little Red Riding Hood died without bringing anything new, but after that, all 'Grandma Wolf's' had to 'knock on the door' first - although this might only delay for a moment, before that, Grandma Wolf actually spawned directly in the hut.
"Now, all Little Red Riding Hoods have an increased chance of escaping by about one tenth after Grandma Wolf 'knocks on the door'.
"The seventh Little Red Riding Hood... She was here for a short time, but she was very powerful. After she left, the 'evil wolf' would no longer appear at dusk. All dangerous periods are now compressed into the night..."
The squirrel spoke slowly, as if speaking to Yu Sheng, or just talking to himself in his memories. Finally, he pulled at the red rag wrapped around himself and looked up at the three people in front of him: "So I have always been curious, which Little Red Riding Hood brought you here? You... don't belong to this forest."
"Sorry, we are the uninvited adults," Yu Sheng stepped forward and looked into the squirrel's eyes calmly, "Just like the 'hunter' who was also uninvited - you just ignored him on purpose, didn't you?"
The squirrel tugged at the cloth on his body again but did not speak.
Yu Sheng did not ask any further questions. He was just silent for a few seconds, then asked abruptly, "What about you?"
"……What's the meaning?"
Yu Sheng looked into the squirrel's eyes and said word by word: "You, which Little Red Riding Hood are you?"
(End of this chapter)
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