Chapter 216 Overflowing Nightmare
Yu Sheng almost didn't hear clearly what the little doll said. He stood there for two or three seconds before he reacted, but by then he was too busy to complain about Irene.
Because another strange sound suddenly came from deep in the underground passage.
The sound sounded like a series of light flute notes, sometimes far away and sometimes near, as if the player was right in the corridor.
Then, the flute sound disappeared again, replaced by dense footsteps. Yu Sheng saw many wet footprints suddenly appearing on the ground in front of him, as if a group of children were running happily past here - the footsteps then turned into the sound of a carriage rolling over the cobblestone road, the lights in front dimmed in the blink of an eye, and the smell of gunpowder filled the air.
But this only lasted for a few seconds, and then thick layers of fog rose up all around, and many shadowy figures emerged in the fog. The underground corridor seemed to have turned into an unfamiliar street in an instant. There were crooked and tall houses on both sides of the street, and pedestrians were walking hurriedly in the night. The cold winter night fell, and the temperature around dropped sharply. Yu Sheng noticed that the breath he exhaled turned into ice crystals in the air in the blink of an eye, and the pedestrians on both sides of the road almost turned into countless lifeless ice sculptures in an instant.
And in the corner of his eye, he saw a bright flame lighting up from the corner of the street. The flame was growing bigger, higher, brighter and warmer.
Yu Sheng shook his head vigorously, trying to distinguish the original outline of the underground corridor from the layers of fog in front of him. He lowered his head and walked through the cold wind, through the pedestrians who had turned into ice sculptures and the crooked and weird streets, and hurriedly walked through this nightmare that leaked into reality. The winter night wind almost pierced his bones, but then, the warm firelight spread to the vicinity. A figure with long hair and shawl walked over in the firelight, looking at him with some confusion and surprise: "...Brother, why are you here?"
"Your nightmare is leaking into reality," Yu Sheng saw that the other person's figure was fading quickly. He didn't have time to explain in detail and could only speak quickly, "Advance the progress of tonight's 'stage' as soon as possible, or go directly to the Sanctuary Wasteland and find Irene..."
Before he finished speaking, the illusion of the "winter night" in the underground passage began to shake and fade rapidly. Yu Sheng was not sure whether "Match" heard what he said clearly. The last scene he saw was that the sky in the deep winter night was suddenly lit up by something, and the girl was raising her right hand in the flames, as if she was summoning a white phosphorus bomb...
The underground passage was temporarily restored to its original state, and Yu Sheng ran quickly towards the exit - it might take some time for Little Red Riding Hood to gather the children, but the real world was guarded by the "King's" Knights, so nothing should go wrong. Irene was watching over the Sanctuary Wasteland, and there was no need to worry too much about the fairy tale members who were defeated in the "subset". But for some reason, Yu Sheng always felt a sense of uneasiness spreading in his heart, as if he had unconsciously overlooked something, or... something was happening right under his nose, and he couldn't see it.
Just as this feeling of uneasiness became more and more obvious, a slight pain suddenly came from the back of his hand, causing Yu Sheng to subconsciously turn his head back.
The thorny bushes scratched the back of his hand, and the low branches caught his clothes. The tangled trees in the Black Forest came into view, and he saw that the corridor he came from had been replaced by lush trees and bushes.
He suddenly turned around again and looked in the direction he was originally going to go, only to find that the entire corridor had disappeared. There was only an endless black forest in front of him. The continuous trees extended infinitely in the shadows, and the dense treetops blocked the evening glow in the sky. The hollow sound of the wind echoed in his ears, and in the wind was the sound of wolves howling.
The roof, floor, walls... of the corridor all disappeared. Unlike the previous situation, the situation before him did not seem to be an illusion leaking into reality, but rather that he had really stepped into the black forest.
After realizing that he seemed to have really "walked into" the Black Forest, Yu Sheng stopped abruptly and watched vigilantly any movement around him.
He heard the faint sound of a baby crying, as if it came from deep in the forest, intermittent and vague but never stopping.
Then, he heard a tiny voice coming from behind a nearby bush, cautiously: "Here, here, hey, I'm here--"
Yu Sheng immediately looked in the direction where the sound came from, and saw a hint of brown behind a group of low bushes not far away. It was the squirrel's tail.
He immediately walked over and squatted down beside the bushes. He saw the squirrel hiding behind a pile of branches and leaves, grabbing two fallen leaves to cover its body in a funny posture, while looking out cautiously.
"Squirrel, you..."
"Shh!" The squirrel immediately made a gesture to keep quiet, then carefully moved in front of Yu Sheng and lowered his voice, "Ankaela is here."
Yu Sheng's nerves tensed up instantly. He took a deep breath and subconsciously looked around: "Where?!"
"You can't see it, and it probably hasn't seen you either. It's just its gaze that has come here - I don't know how to explain it to you, but I still remember this gaze, I remember... what it felt like to be stared at by it," the squirrel whispered, his voice trembling a little. "It seemed to be looking for something, and just now its gaze swept over here... The entire Black Forest was quiet for a moment, but now the wolves are getting restless again."
It's not just the Black Forest.
Ankaela's eyes swept across all the subsets of the fairy tale and all the stages.
Yu Sheng thought of this instantly, and his expression became solemn.
"What is it looking for? Is it still looking for the lost umbilical cord?"
"I don't know, but... maybe not." The squirrel shrank back under the leaves again. "It has been looking for the umbilical cord for many years. There is no reason for it to be so impatient now... Ah, why did you come here suddenly? And without any other friends?"
The squirrel gave a curious look.
"...part of the Black Forest 'overflowed' into the real world, and I walked in directly from the 'overlapping' part," Yu Sheng said seriously. He was not sure if the squirrel could understand him. Then he hesitated, gently reached out, held the squirrel in his palm, and touched her head. "Next...something may change. You need to find a place to hide - do you have a hiding place?"
The squirrel stared at Yu Sheng blankly and unconsciously threw away the two leaves in her hand. She was stunned for a long time before she nodded suddenly: "Yes! Squirrels can hide! There are many tree holes in the Black Forest, and every tree hole is a place for squirrels to hide..."
"Okay, then you hide in the tree hole. No matter what happens, protect yourself first. Also..."
Yu Sheng paused, then cut his fingers free without hesitation.
The squirrel seemed to be frightened. It looked at Yu Sheng who "suddenly committed self-harm" with some helplessness, and looked at the blood beads oozing from his fingers.
"You're bleeding!"
"Lick it." Yu Sheng said.
"……ah?!"
"Every child has this," Yu Sheng looked into the squirrel's eyes seriously, "This is the new 'rule' of the orphanage."
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The squirrel's expression was obviously a little dull, but her walnut-sized head was obviously not suitable for thinking about complicated problems at the moment. After a few seconds of trying to figure it out, she simply stopped thinking and licked Yu Sheng's finger in a daze.
Then she seemed to vaguely remember what "every child has" meant, and she looked nervous and embarrassed again - and a little bit surprised...happy.
Yu Sheng actually didn’t know what the use of doing this would be. He didn’t know whether the squirrel, which had long become a part of the Black Forest, could also get the “shelter” in the nightmare like the other children after coming into contact with his blood. He just thought that any help he could would be helpful. The situation was urgent now. All the children in the orphanage had a place to hide, but this squirrel... If he didn’t help, then she would really be the only one hiding alone in this endless Black Forest.
Then, the silhouette of the squirrel gradually faded in Yu Sheng's palm.
The surrounding dark forest scene also began to fade gradually and sank into darkness.
The dream began to fade away temporarily again. Yu Sheng stood up and saw that the walls and floor of the corridor were gradually emerging between the shadowy trees.
He quickly walked towards the shaky exit, found the stairs leading to the upper floor, and ran from the second underground floor to the first floor in one breath.
All kinds of short and bizarre illusions and strange sounds appeared and disappeared around him like the scenery and actors coming and going on the stage, seemingly fairy tale scenes, strange and distorted story characters, short and sharp trumpet sounds, brisk whistles, the roar of lions, the singing of princesses and princes - it was as if countless hands were trying their best to stop him in front of the last few steps. All these things appeared in just a few seconds, but were all left behind.
As a bored adult, Yu Sheng broke away from these illusions that emerged from the story without hesitation, and then saw many figures gathered in the hall on the first floor of the east building.
Several older children were directing and dispatching, the younger children were helping to maintain order and helping their younger brothers and sisters check their belongings and put on clothes, the younger children were lining up obediently, some were still sleepy, some were holding hastily brought out water bottles, and some looked nervous and a little frightened, but every child did not make a sound, and there were dozens of dolls crammed into the huge space, but there was not even a cry or shout.
The loudest sound in the hall was the rapid communication and arrangement between Little Red Riding Hood and several other "parents" -
"Put on your clothes. Did everyone bring their water bottles? There is clean water over there. Just bring your own water bottles. Okay, those who have finished the inspection, wait here."
"Bring food and blankets. There may not be beds or cooking facilities over there for the time being. It's too rushed..."
"Count the people once, and count them again - Long Hair, watch the team! The youngest ones are about to fall asleep again, don't fall behind."
"Brother is here! Open the door, brother!"
(End of this chapter)
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