Recaps

During a night patrol, Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White discussed her approaching adulthood and the newly arrived child who might become the next Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood invited Yu Sheng to visit the orphanage the next day, and the chapter ended with her finding a child’s wish to grow up.

• Snow White joined Little Red Riding Hood on patrol and said the new child might be the next Little Red Riding Hood because she feared wolves in storybooks.
• Little Red Riding Hood reassured Snow White that she might experience something good as adulthood approached.
• Little Red Riding Hood told Snow White that Yu Sheng, a Spirit Realm Detective familiar with the Fairy Tales, would visit the orphanage at noon the next day.
• Snow White warned that people who had tried to help before had died, but Little Red Riding Hood said she knew what she was doing.
• Little Red Riding Hood found a wish card reading, “I want to grow up,” and Snow White turned off the activity room lights.

Yu Sheng visited the hidden orphanage where Little Red Riding Hood lived and learned how Fairy Tales and the Crossroads Affairs Council cooperated to care for children affected by supernatural curses. He left understanding that the orphanage was largely self-governed by Fairy Tales, while the Special Operations Bureau had a more limited role.

• Yu Sheng woke after Eileen had calmed his restless dreams, and he prepared breakfast before setting out to meet Little Red Riding Hood.
• Yu Sheng bought candy and snacks to bring to Little Red Riding Hood’s home, then traveled there with Huli and Eileen (P2), while Eileen (P1) stayed home.
• Yu Sheng followed Little Red Riding Hood’s directions to a secluded orphanage enclosed by a wall and sealed off by Special Operations Bureau nodes.
• Little Red Riding Hood introduced Cinderella, who was keeping watch, and explained that Fairy Tales ran the orphanage while the Crossroads Affairs Council provided facilities, funding, and practical support.
• Yu Sheng asked why the Special Operations Bureau did not administer the orphanage, and Little Red Riding Hood explained that Fairy Tales handled most supernatural incidents themselves and dealt with the bureau mainly on business matters.

Yu Sheng visited the Fairy Tale orphanage with Little Red Riding Hood, Huli, and Eileen, learning how its children lived and why the council had not taken it over. Little Red Riding Hood began explaining Fairy Tale and the Black Forest, but first discovered Yu Sheng had not studied the Otherworld database.

• Huli asked why the council or Special Operations Bureau did not run the orphanage, and Little Red Riding Hood explained that Fairy Tale disliked adults and that an earlier supervised-care plan had failed.
• Little Red Riding Hood showed Yu Sheng the orphanage buildings and grounds, explained that it housed seventy-six children, and described how Fairy Tale selected and eliminated them.
• Yu Sheng offered sweets and biscuits to the children, whose noisy rush into the reception room was quickly settled by Little Red Riding Hood and Huihui.
• Yu Sheng asked about Fairy Tale and the Black Forest, and Little Red Riding Hood began by asking how many types of Otherworlds existed.
• Yu Sheng admitted he had not read the relevant database section and claimed he had been busy, then said the Special Operations Bureau had contacted him to discuss Dark Angel.

Little Red Riding Hood explained the four types of Otherworlds and revealed that Fairy Tales was an Anomaly-type Otherworld made up of story-like subsets. She described how Fairy Tales first erupted at the orphanage and how the Special Operations Bureau learned that it rejected adults.

• Little Red Riding Hood explained the Wilderness, Kingdom, and Fortress types, identifying Nightfall Valley, the museum, and Yu Sheng's home as examples.
• Little Red Riding Hood described Anomaly-type Otherworlds as manifestations of abstract things such as emotions, memories, sounds, and stories.
• Little Red Riding Hood explained that Fairy Tales contained subsets such as the Black Forest, Dorothy's Wilderness, Rapunzel's tower, Cinderella's ball, and fictional settings like a castle or treasure hoard.
• Little Red Riding Hood revealed that Fairy Tales first erupted at the orphanage, where the Special Operations Bureau initially evacuated affected children before the phenomenon spread across the Crossroads.
• Little Red Riding Hood said the Bureau's attempts to contain Fairy Tales brought heavy losses, and investigators eventually established that Fairy Tales did not like adults.

Yu Sheng learned why orphans were especially vulnerable to Fairy Tales and why its stories could not simply be suppressed. As he decided to investigate the Black Forest, Long Hair reported that a newly arrived child had disappeared.

• Little Red Riding Hood explained that Fairy Tales preyed on orphans with weak social ties and could reach children even without their encountering its stories.
• Huli recounted how people in her hometown had defeated a story-bound demonic cultivator by turning his legend into memes.
• Little Red Riding Hood warned that destroying Fairy Tales’ entrances could make the Otherworld more dangerous, and that no one had found a way to stop it.
• Yu Sheng decided to start by investigating the Black Forest despite Little Red Riding Hood’s warning.
• Long Hair arrived and told Little Red Riding Hood that the new child had left suddenly.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood visited a child who had transformed into a wolf during a nightmare and appeared to have died. After touching the bloodstains on her body, Yu Sheng sensed that she was still alive.

• Little Red Riding Hood explained that children in the Fairy Tale could suffer dangerous changes before coming of age, and she led Yu Sheng, Huli, and Eileen to the West Building.
• Teacher Su told Little Red Riding Hood that the incident had happened during class and that she had failed to notice it sooner.
• The group found a child lying motionless on a bed, covered in bloodied red lines, and Rapunzel explained that she had briefly transformed into a wolf.
• Little Red Riding Hood said the child might have become the next Little Red Riding Hood and described this as the end of her childhood.
• Yu Sheng touched the blood near the child's neck and concluded that she was not dead.

Yu Sheng realized Xiao Xiao was still alive in a deathlike dream and prepared to enter the Black Forest to find her. Eileen sent Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood into the dream together, while Rapunzel and Huli remained behind.

• Yu Sheng insisted that Xiao Xiao had not truly died and smeared his blood over her wounds, explaining that apparent signs of death could be misleading.
• Yu Sheng told Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel that they had three hours to reach Xiao Xiao and pull her back from her dream.
• Yu Sheng asked Eileen to guide him into the dream, and Little Red Riding Hood volunteered to go with him.
• Eileen wove threads over Xiao Xiao's body and sent Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood into the Black Forest.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood entered the Black Forest together to find Xiao Xiao, while Eileen stayed outside to monitor them. The squirrel revealed that Xiao Xiao had already reached the forest’s deepest part, beyond the reach of its lights.

• Yu Sheng entered the Black Forest and met Little Red Riding Hood, whose shadowy appearance suggested she was not doing well.
• Eileen told Yu Sheng she would remain outside and explained that Huli could not enter because the forest required a special connection or ability.
• Yu Sheng tested whether he could open a door inside the forest, then set the experiment aside to search for Xiao Xiao.
• The squirrel appeared, panicked at seeing Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood together, and calmed down after Little Red Riding Hood kicked it.
• Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood asked the squirrel to help find Xiao Xiao, and it said she had already gone alone into the forest’s deepest part.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood ventured into the Black Forest to find a lost child while the evil wolf watched them from hiding. They discovered an unlit cottage deep in the forest and cautiously approached it.

• The squirrel warned Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood that the child had gone into the pathless depths of the Black Forest, but Little Red Riding Hood led the way anyway.
• As wolves howled around them, Yu Sheng sensed the hidden evil wolf watching and noticed Little Red Riding Hood trembling.
• Yu Sheng took Little Red Riding Hood's hand and told her the evil wolf had tasted his blood and would become his prey, easing her fear.
• The squirrel explained that Little Red Riding Hoods were often lured into the forest by enticing flowers, mushrooms, and shiny things that turned out to be the wolf's teeth and claws.
• Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood spotted an unlit cottage that should have disappeared into the darkness, then carefully approached it.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood searched an abandoned cottage in the deepest part of the Black Forest, where they found countless ruined red cloaks but no sign of Xiao Xiao. Yu Sheng sensed a hidden presence above the bed and cut into it, revealing that Wolf Grandma was concealed there.

• The squirrel panicked near the cottage, bit Yu Sheng, and fled while warning them that the wolves were coming.
• Yu Sheng entered the cottage first, then let Little Red Riding Hood join him when he saw its interior.
• Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood found the cottage filled with tattered red cloaks and discussed how Little Red Riding Hood had to wear red to keep her condition stable.
• The pair searched the cottage but found no sign of Xiao Xiao.
• Yu Sheng sensed a hidden presence above the bed and sliced through empty air, drawing blood and declaring that he had found Wolf Grandma.

Yu Sheng rescued Xiao Xiao from the wolf he killed in the little house, then sent Little Red Riding Hood and the girl out of the Black Forest with Eileen’s help. Left behind, he investigated the house and found a past Little Red Riding Hood’s cryptic message before the howls outside fell silent.

• Yu Sheng killed Wolf Grandma and cut open its belly, freeing Xiao Xiao while Little Red Riding Hood watched in shock.
• Yu Sheng asked Eileen to forcibly send Little Red Riding Hood and Xiao Xiao out of the Black Forest, and they vanished from the house.
• The shadow wolves disappeared with Little Red Riding Hood, but the wolf pack’s howls drew closer and then stopped outside the house.
• Yu Sheng searched the house and found scratched writing beneath the bed, apparently left by a previous Little Red Riding Hood, including the fragments “is alive,” “it is dreaming,” and “I am.”
• Yu Sheng considered what the message meant as the wolf’s corpse went still, pale starlight entered the house, and the howls outside ceased.

Yu Sheng encountered the Hunter after killing Wolf Grandma and rescuing the child, then discovered the Hunter was an empty outfit that acknowledged him before fleeing. He picked up a damaged scrap of paper and prepared to open a door from the Black Forest into the real world to bring it out.

• Yu Sheng hid as the Hunter entered the cottage and froze upon seeing the dead Big Bad Wolf.
• Yu Sheng learned from Eileen that Little Red Riding Hood and the child had awakened and were recovering after vomiting.
• Yu Sheng approached the Hunter, found no one beneath its clothes, and saw it nod when he explained that he had killed Wolf Grandma and rescued the child.
• The Hunter abruptly retreated from Yu Sheng and vanished, leaving behind a filthy scrap of paper.
• Yu Sheng asked Eileen to keep Little Red Riding Hood and the others away, then grabbed the wolf corpse and opened a glowing door to try bringing the scrap into the real world.

Yu Sheng tested whether he could bring things from the Black Forest into reality and returned with the Big Bad Wolf’s corpse and a hunter’s paper. After the others gathered, Xiao Xiao had recovered from her injuries and described a dream of red-cloaked people urging her to run.

• Yu Sheng opened a door in the Black Forest and confirmed it led to his sleeping body in the orphanage.
• Yu Sheng carried the Big Bad Wolf’s corpse through the door and awoke in a pile of Huli’s tails, confirming he could bring objects out of the Black Forest.
• Yu Sheng and Huli discussed cooking the wolf before Eileen reminded them that Little Red Riding Hood and Xiao Xiao were waiting.
• Huli stored the corpse, and Eileen brought Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and the recovered Xiao Xiao inside.
• Yu Sheng checked on Xiao Xiao, who said she felt no pain and recalled dreaming of red-cloaked people telling her to run.

After rescuing Xiao Xiao from the Black Forest, Yu Sheng learned more about Little Red Riding Hood’s struggle to retain her identity and asked the Special Operations Bureau to examine objects from the forest. The chapter ended with Baili Qing arranging an analysis for the next day.

• Xiao Xiao could not remember the faces of the red-cloaked people, so Little Red Riding Hood sent her with Rapunzel to rest and inform Teacher Su.
• Little Red Riding Hood thanked Yu Sheng for saving Xiao Xiao and described how the Black Forest made her shift among the identities of a human, wolf, grandmother, and hunter.
• Yu Sheng showed Little Red Riding Hood the hunter’s scrap of paper, and she suggested asking the Special Operations Bureau to analyze it along with the metal component from No. 66 Wutong Road.
• Baili Qing called Yu Sheng after the monitoring department detected an unusual temporal-spatial displacement, and Yu Sheng told her he had entered the Black Forest to find Xiao Xiao.
• Yu Sheng asked Baili Qing to arrange analysis of both objects, and she agreed to prepare a laboratory and report back the next day.

Baili Qing learned that neither the strange fox fur nor any fox-type being investigated by the sects matched a known species, and ordered the search to continue. Yu Sheng discussed how discoveries in fairy-tale subsets might be lost before reaching the real world, then went to check on Teacher Su after Xiao Xiao startled her into fainting; Teacher Su recovered and asked to speak with Yu Sheng.

• Song Cheng reported that laboratories found no known organism or matching biological tissue for the fox fur, and Baili Qing ordered a long-term investigation.
• Song Cheng told Baili Qing that Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain and other sects had investigated fox-type clans across past and future eras without finding a match.
• Yu Sheng told Little Red Riding Hood about the carvings under the cabin bed and suggested that other fairy-tale subsets might contain discoveries that could not be conveyed to the real world.
• Little Red Riding Hood learned that Teacher Su had fainted after Xiao Xiao surprised her, and Yu Sheng's group went to the infirmary.
• Rapunzel explained that Teacher Su had fainted from fright but was recovering, and Teacher Su asked Yu Sheng to speak with her.

Teacher Su told Yu Sheng to seek the Special Operations Bureau’s classified records from seventy years ago to investigate the Fairy Tale Otherworld, but fainted after realizing he had called Baili Qing. After regrouping with his companions, Yu Sheng invited Little Red Riding Hood to go somewhere with him.

• Teacher Su described the orphanage’s recurring disappearances and advised Yu Sheng to consult the Special Operations Bureau’s records of the failed operation from seventy years earlier.
• Yu Sheng called Baili Qing, and Teacher Su fainted after hearing her own insult about the director come through the speaker.
• Yu Sheng explained the incident to Huli, Eileen, and Little Red Riding Hood, who revealed that Baili Qing was one of the council’s five top councilors.
• Yu Sheng asked Little Red Riding Hood to accept his invitation, and she told Rapunzel and Xiao Xiao that she would go out for a while.

Yu Sheng brought Rapunzel and Xiao Xiao through his door to Nightfall Valley, where he revealed that the Hunger Entity and the rules that sustained it had been destroyed. Little Red Riding Hood realized the valley had become a safe, transformed place, while Xiao Xiao and Rapunzel explored it.

• Yu Sheng opened a door to Nightfall Valley and invited Rapunzel and Xiao Xiao to come through with Little Red Riding Hood, Huli, and Eileen.
• Rapunzel and Xiao Xiao marveled at the valley’s open skies and mountains, and Xiao Xiao happily picked a bundle of weeds for Little Red Riding Hood.
• Little Red Riding Hood recognized Nightfall Valley and learned that the Hunger Entity was gone and could no longer form there.
• Yu Sheng explained that the valley was now a harmless shell connected to No. 66 Wutong Road, and that he planned to use it as a production base.
• Little Red Riding Hood accepted Xiao Xiao’s weeds as flowers and quietly felt that life had become worth looking forward to again.
• Rapunzel called Yu Sheng’s unfinished structure a toilet, and he insisted it was Phase One of their club headquarters.

Yu Sheng showed Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel the valley’s development plans, then explained that the Black Forest’s true target was not one of its characters but the source behind its story. Little Red Riding Hood began to see how the forest might be changed, and Yu Sheng ended the outing by sending the children home.

• Yu Sheng introduced the valley’s planned temple, buildings, crops, livestock, and permanent door to Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel.
• Rapunzel went to watch Xiao Xiao and Eileen play while Yu Sheng asked Little Red Riding Hood whether she could imagine the Black Forest changing like the valley.
• Yu Sheng explained that the wolves and other characters were only parts of the Black Forest’s story, and that killing a villain such as Wolf Grandma had not damaged its script.
• Yu Sheng demonstrated a crude stage and argued that the Black Forest had a hidden source behind its story, somewhere beyond the visible stage.
• Little Red Riding Hood realized Yu Sheng was searching for the source that shaped the Black Forest, and he declared the outing over and sent the children home.

Yu Sheng tried to open a door from the outside world into the Black Forest, but the attempt failed and left him dizzy. He concluded that the forest could only be entered through dreams, though Wolf Grandma and the scrap of paper made him doubt that explanation.

• Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Xiao Xiao left Yu Sheng’s valley after he offered to host future outings for the orphanage children.
• Yu Sheng called Baili Qing to request access to old Special Operations Bureau records about the fairy tales and to warn her about his planned door-opening experiments.
• Yu Sheng tried to open a door directly into the Black Forest from the valley, but it shattered and caused a wave of dizziness.
• Yu Sheng tried again from an alley near No. 66 Wutong Road, but the door failed there too, confirming the problem was not caused by the valley.
• Eileen suggested that the Black Forest’s nature as an awareness space made it possible to leave but not enter directly, while Yu Sheng wondered whether Wolf Grandma and the scrap of paper disproved that idea.

Yu Sheng theorized that the Black Forest’s shifting dream-location caused his attempts to open a door into it to fail, and asked Eileen to guide his door through dreams. Eileen prepared to link their minds so they could try entering the Black Forest together.

• Yu Sheng questioned whether the Otherworld truly separated consciousness from matter, and Huli explained that both were interconnected forms of a universal wave.
• Yu Sheng slowly opened a door and sensed the Black Forest, but the connection shifted out of alignment and the passage collapsed.
• Yu Sheng realized that he had been searching for the Black Forest using space-time coordinates instead of navigating to its drifting location in dreams.
• Yu Sheng proposed that he open and stabilize the door while Eileen guided it through her dream-infiltrating abilities.
• Eileen agreed to help and instructed Yu Sheng to keep the door closed and trust her as she began linking their minds.

Yu Sheng and Eileen opened a door into the Black Forest, and Yu Sheng briefly saw the mysterious blond puppet during their mental connection. After entering the forest physically with Huli, Yu Sheng confirmed he could open doors back to the valley and prepared to greet whatever lay behind the Black Forest with twenty chicken legs.

• Yu Sheng and Eileen linked their minds to open a door to the Black Forest, and Yu Sheng saw a vision of the shattered blond puppet.
• Yu Sheng told Eileen about the vision, then asked her to stay behind and monitor the doorway while he and Huli entered.
• Yu Sheng and Huli passed through the door into the Black Forest, and Eileen confirmed their bodies had crossed over too.
• Yu Sheng reasoned that the Black Forest could interact with the material world and opened a door back to the valley.
• Yu Sheng told Huli they would leave after greeting whatever was behind the Black Forest with twenty chicken legs.

After testing a door to the Black Forest, Yu Sheng returned to Star Valley with Huli and prepared a meal from a giant wolf while Eileen helped—and fell into a pot. Meanwhile, Little Red Riding Hood slept peacefully for the first time in a long while, but woke after dreaming of Yu Sheng’s death and told Rapunzel that something was getting strange.

• Yu Sheng ended his Black Forest experiment, returned to Star Valley with Huli, and told Eileen he planned to investigate the force behind the forest later.
• Huli revealed she had been carrying cooking equipment on every outing, then took out a giant wolf carcass so Yu Sheng could prepare a meal outdoors.
• Yu Sheng built a temporary kitchen, and Huli lit the stove with foxfire from her tail.
• Eileen fell into a soup pot while watching Yu Sheng work, and Huli asked whether she should fish her out.
• Little Red Riding Hood dreamed of finding Yu Sheng dead in an alley and of Entity-Hunger killing him in the forest, then woke after a full night’s sleep.
• Rapunzel noticed Little Red Riding Hood’s distress, and Little Red Riding Hood said she had remembered things she could not believe and that something was getting strange.

Little Red Riding Hood remembered Yu Sheng’s resurrection after coming into contact with his blood, and Yu Sheng explained that she had joined Eileen and Huli in knowing his secret. He then prepared to visit the Special Operations Bureau with Eileen and Huli, leaving for the laboratory in Xu Jiali’s battered car.

• Little Red Riding Hood called Yu Sheng in a panic after remembering that he had died and returned, and Yu Sheng explained how the memory-restoring mechanism worked.
• Eileen learned that Little Red Riding Hood had also remembered Yu Sheng’s secret, while Yu Sheng reassured her that he would not deliberately frighten Xiao Xiao by dying in front of her.
• Baili Qing told Yu Sheng that the Special Operations Bureau’s analysis laboratory and expert team were ready, and Yu Sheng agreed to leave in thirty minutes.
• Yu Sheng discovered that Huli had eaten most of his refrigerated stew but had saved him a portion of breakfast, then set out with Eileen and Huli.
• Xu Jiali picked them up in a battered Xiali after their assigned car broke down, and she explained that the machine spirit was unwell and that machine spirits in The Crossroads were more like bros.

Xu Jiali brought Yu Sheng, Eileen, and Fox Girl to Special Operations Bureau headquarters by driving through an Otherworld shortcut, then showed them the bizarre, connected floors of the building. He explained that Yu Sheng’s door opening had triggered alarms throughout headquarters and its linked facilities, leaving Yu Sheng stunned by the chaos he had caused.

• Xu Jiali drove the group through a hidden passage in the parking garage and across Depth L-1, an Otherworld shortcut leading to the Special Operations Bureau headquarters.
• Yu Sheng read the elevator’s warnings as Xu Jiali explained the headquarters’ anomalous floors, strange inhabitants, and procedures for finding lost employees.
• The group reached Floor 54½, where Yu Sheng and Huli saw a rocky expanse and a snowy forest beyond a fissure outside the windows.
• Xu Jiali explained that the headquarters connected to numerous anomalous locations and had customs offices and a border transit station.
• Xu Jiali told Yu Sheng that his door opening had set off alarms across headquarters and connected facilities, prompting an emergency evacuation of half the building during the worst confusion.

Xu Jiali explained the Crossroads’ strange spatial structure and how Yu Sheng’s doors had created a new way to leave it. Yu Sheng brought two samples to the Special Operations Bureau’s high-security laboratory, where staff followed elaborate procedures to collect even his grocery bag and old newspaper.

• Xu Jiali told Yu Sheng that the Crossroads was spatially folded off from the outside world and could be entered or exited through natural passages.
• Xu Jiali explained that Yu Sheng’s doors had become another way to travel beyond the Crossroads and offered the Special Operations Bureau’s help with studying them.
• Xu Jiali escorted Yu Sheng and Eileen to a high-security laboratory assigned by the bureau chief.
• Yu Sheng handed over a scrap left by the Hunter and a metal object recovered from his home in the Otherworld.
• Laboratory workers sealed the metal object in a marked alloy container and solemnly collected Yu Sheng’s plastic bag and newspaper as its carrying materials.