Chapter 197 Squirrel's Story
"You, which Little Red Riding Hood are you?"
Yu Sheng stared into the squirrel's eyes, his tone more serious than ever.
The squirrel began to shake its body restlessly, using its hind legs to support its weight, and then quickly scratched the fur on its face: "I... I am a squirrel..."
Yu Sheng was not moved at all: "Okay, then which Little Red Riding Hood is the squirrel?"
squirrel:"……"
"Answer my question," Yu Sheng remained calm and firm, "You should have noticed that I am bringing about 'changes' in this Black Forest - if you really want to help Little Red Riding Hood, this may be your closest chance to success."
The palm-sized "little animal" finally stopped shaking its body. It stared at Yu Sheng. After a long while, it seemed to have finally made up its mind, or it had finally reached a point where it could no longer retreat. It lowered its head in resignation and said, "The zeroth one."
Yu Sheng frowned immediately: "…What does this mean?"
"You've seen that the first Little Red Riding Hood brought the first fire and candlelight to the Black Forest. The Black Forest gradually evolved and became what it is today," the squirrel twisted his claws tightly and kept his head down. "Have you ever thought about an earlier time? When the 'Black Forest' didn't even exist? Maybe... all of this has a starting point."
Yu Sheng didn't say anything, but just used his eyes to encourage the squirrel to continue speaking.
"I... am the original mistake. Everything... started with me," the squirrel said slowly. Its attitude was still very resistant, as if every word it said would bring great entanglement and pain. "I am the squirrel in the Black Forest, the first living thing on the stage, and... the bad boy who handed out the fairy tale book... I, I didn't know it would be like this later..."
Yu Sheng suddenly opened his eyes wide, as if a thunderbolt had struck his heart. After realizing what information the squirrel had revealed, he immediately said, "Hand out the fairy tale book? To whom?"
"I don't know what it is, nor where it came from. I... I can't remember the situation clearly." The squirrel was startled by Yu Sheng's sudden increase in voice, but this time, it finally did not run away, but seemed to have made a decision. "I only remember seeing something falling from the sky. It was after the lights were turned off in the welfare home. Everyone was sleeping at the time, and I should have slept too, but I didn't sleep. It... it fell into the yard without making any sound, as if it melted into the ground...
"I was very scared and didn't dare to say anything, so I hid in bed. Then a glowing object floated over from the windowsill and swayed in front of my eyes. It said it came for help. Its child was in a bad condition and needed comfort. It came to this place with many children and wanted to find someone to help... I was so scared at the time and didn't know what to do, so I gave it the fairy tale book on the bedside...
"I told him to read a story. When the children in the courtyard couldn't sleep, the teacher would read us a story...
"I should have been sleeping, I shouldn't have looked out the window, I...
"I wish I had fallen asleep at that time. I should have slept well..."
The squirrel muttered more and more unclearly, and in the end it seemed to become unconscious again. The content of its muttering became a constant repetition, and it kept saying that it should have gone to bed obediently that year - just like a child who was trapped in the shadow of his childhood and has not grown up after decades, and still firmly believes that as long as he could eat on time, sleep well, and learn to dress himself, he could live an "originally" happy life.
Yu Sheng could finally be sure.
The squirrel in front of us is also a child in that "orphanage" - a child who lived in that orphanage a long, long time ago, earlier than the deep diving operation 70 years ago, and even before the first outbreak of the "fairy tale".
And there is a lot of information that can be inferred from what the squirrel said.
Yu Sheng calmed himself down, put aside those unverifiable conjectures for the time being, reached out and gently touched the squirrel's body, waking up the "little animal" that had once again fallen into a trance.
"I have another question," he said seriously, "What does that thing that 'fell from the sky' look like?"
The squirrel's body shuddered, and it finally broke free from the last "dead loop". After hearing Yu Sheng's question, it fell into a difficult memory, and it spoke again after a long while: "...It was hard to see clearly, that thing was glowing, I...I only remember that there was an oval outline in the light, like an 'egg' with strange patterns, it was very big at first, and when it fell, it seemed to be able to flatten half of the welfare home, but then it became smaller, and when it landed in the yard, it was only as big as a small iron house for tools.
"It burrowed into the ground in an instant without raising any dust or making any sound. At first I thought I was seeing things."
Yu Sheng listened carefully, looking thoughtful.
It glows around, has strange patterns, and looks like an "egg"...
The reason for the "growing bigger and smaller" phenomenon mentioned by the squirrel is unknown, but he has an impression of the shape described by the other party.
"Did the voice that was talking to you tell you its name?"
The squirrel scratched the fur on his cheek.
"I, I don't remember, but he seems to have said it. It's been too long, too long. Squirrels don't have very good memories. They can't remember what the teacher taught them... but, but there is a syllable that starts with An... it seems to be An or something..."
"Ankaela," Yu Sheng said slowly, but he tensed up as soon as he finished speaking. But after a moment, he found that there seemed to be no movement in the forest, and the small box in his hand was still quiet. He breathed a sigh of relief and continued, "Is this the name?"
The squirrel was startled, and then jumped up in shock: "...Yes! Yes! This is the pronunciation! But you, how do you know?"
"I have recently found out this." Yu Sheng reached out and gently pressed the squirrel's body. He felt that the squirrel was trembling all over. He felt that if he did not comfort it, this "little animal" might get nervous and become stressed. "Relax, relax first. I still have questions."
The squirrel subconsciously shrank back, but seemed not to dare to really retreat: "But, the squirrel doesn't want to answer, the squirrel is tired."
"One last question."
“…Well, then.”
"What does the 'child' of the voice that is talking to you look like? Have you ever seen it? Or has it ever described it to you?"
"No," the squirrel answered very quickly this time, "I can be sure that I have never seen it, nor have I heard it described."
Yu Sheng stared into the squirrel's eyes, and after a few seconds, he nodded slightly.
"Okay, I understand."
The squirrel finally seemed to relax.
It let out a long breath, paced slowly on the windowsill, then sat down again. It took out a thin stick from somewhere, rubbed a flame with the tip of its tail, lit it, put it to its mouth and sucked hard.
This was not the first time it had "smoked" in front of Yu Sheng, and the latter had long been accustomed to it.
It is no longer the child who lived in the orphanage many years ago. It is now a squirrel in the Black Forest, a squirrel that is so cute that it's bubbling.
So Yu Sheng just sighed and ignored the other party. Instead, he opened the wooden box containing the "angel umbilical cord" and confirmed the condition of the umbilical cord.
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The thing still just lay quietly on the red velvet base, with no further signs of "resurrection".
Yu Sheng breathed a sigh of relief, and just as he was about to close the lid, he suddenly felt a surprised gaze from the side.
When he looked up, he saw the squirrel staring at the wooden box in his hand with wide eyes in astonishment.
It didn't even notice that the cigarette butt in its paw had fallen to the ground.
"You...how did you get this?!" the squirrel screamed.
"You know this thing?" Yu Sheng was also shocked. "Do you know what it is?"
“Umbilical cord!” The squirrel yelled, but then lowered his voice as if afraid of disturbing something. “I’ve seen this, but I don’t remember exactly when I saw it. It should have been a long time ago, when the Black Forest just appeared. Later… Later, Ankaela lost it. She kept looking for it, but couldn’t find it… Later, she didn’t show up anymore. She hid in a very deep place…”
Yu Sheng couldn't help but frown when he heard this. He didn't doubt Song Shu's words, but a question arose in his mind - Ankaela lost her umbilical cord? Then why did Lao Zheng get this thing during the sacrifice to Ankaela? At this time, Song Shu also took two steps forward boldly, leaned forward and looked carefully at the umbilical cord in the wooden box.
After a moment's hesitation, it made a puzzled sound: "Hmm? No, that's not right... This looks different from what I've seen."
"no the same?"
"Well, it just looks similar, but it's more like a fake," the squirrel said hesitantly, "The real umbilical cord is longer and not shriveled, and although it's soft, the texture is like metal. The one in your hand... is a fake."
"Fake?" Yu Sheng was a little surprised, "Are you sure?"
"I feel like this," the squirrel quickly changed his words to a more serious one, "I'm just a squirrel... I can't remember a lot of things..."
Yu Sheng frowned and said nothing, just looked up at Irene and Hu Li beside him.
The two of them hadn't spoken a word since just now - because they were afraid that any interruption would stress out the already somewhat neurotic squirrel.
"Old Zheng prayed to the Dark Angel, and the Angel gave him a fake umbilical cord..." Irene frowned, her expression a little subtle, "Why does this feel so weird? What's the purpose?"
Hu Li also frowned and thought seriously for a while, then said uncertainly: "Make a fake sample and ask Lao Zheng to help find it?"
Irene was stunned: "...Are you serious about this answer?"
"Yes," Hu Li nodded confidently, "If I lost something, I would definitely ask for help in the same way."
Then she turned her head and looked at Yu Sheng: "Right, benefactor?"
Yu Sheng thought about it and nodded: "I think it makes sense."
Irene: “……?”
"Anyway, a fake obviously has its own power," Yu Sheng did not dwell on this topic. He just looked thoughtfully at the "fake" angel umbilical cord in the wooden box, and then looked up at the cottage illuminated by the original fire and candlelight. "Perhaps it is because of it that we can see the phantom left by the original Little Red Riding Hood in the Black Forest."
(End of this chapter)
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