Chapter Summaries

Yu Sheng discovered that the endless mountains around the valley were spatial reflections and that crossing their boundary returned him to the center. He helped Huli bury her parents again, and the group settled into the valley as Yu Sheng began imagining it as a future base.

• Yu Sheng tested the valley’s invisible boundary with stones, crossed it, and returned to the center with Eileen.
• Yu Sheng explained that the surrounding mountains were reflections and that the valley had no outside.
• Yu Sheng rebuilt Huli’s parents’ graves, and Huli marked them with a metal instrument her parents had given her.
• Huli described burial customs from her distant civilization and said she was glad she could visit her parents’ graves.
• Yu Sheng leaned against Huli’s tail and imagined using the valley as a base, eventually proposing that he grow vegetables there.

Yu Sheng told Baili Qing that Entity—Hunger had permanently vanished and Nightfall Valley had become a peaceful pocket dimension, prompting the Special Operations Bureau to request an investigation. Baili Qing arranged cautious contact with Yu Sheng while the bureau struggled with an inexplicable problem in his records.

• Yu Sheng returned from Nightfall Valley with Eileen and Huli, then answered Baili Qing's call about the valley's condition.
• Yu Sheng reported that Entity—Hunger had permanently vanished and that the former Nightfall Valley was now a peaceful pocket dimension; Baili Qing asked to send investigators with Yu Sheng's approval and supervision.
• Yu Sheng agreed to consider the Special Operations Bureau's request over the next few days.
• Baili Qing instructed Song Cheng to strengthen his agents' relationship with Yu Sheng and to send a suitable person to deliver registration forms to No. 66 Wutong Road.
• Director Wu reported that Yu Sheng's records could neither be modified nor deleted, and Baili Qing ordered the bureau to stop trying to alter them and to consult the Academy.

Yu Sheng struggled to work on his overdue manuscripts before Ren Wenwen from the Special Operations Bureau arrived to process identity cards for Huli and Eileen. She began preparing their registrations and explained that Yu Sheng’s independent team members needed legal identities first.

• Yu Sheng tried to write but procrastinated by browsing videos and forums, then opened a game instead.
• Eileen teased Yu Sheng about avoiding his work, while Huli finished the dishes.
• Ren Wenwen called Yu Sheng and said Director Baili Qing had sent her with registration forms.
• Yu Sheng let Ren Wenwen into No. 66 Wutong Road and introduced her to Huli and Eileen as the person processing their ID cards.
• Ren Wenwen set up forms and equipment to register Huli and Eileen, and Yu Sheng offered to fill out Huli’s form because she could not read it.

Yu Sheng and Eileen helped register Huli and Eileen as special residents of the Crossroads, discovering how the Bureau handled beings with unusual forms and lifespans. After the clerk began processing their photos, she gave Yu Sheng the registration documents for his own organization.

• Yu Sheng learned from Ren Wenwen that the Special Operations Bureau used special registration forms for nonhuman long-term residents of the Crossroads.
• Yu Sheng struggled to fill in Huli's age, origin, and species, while Ren Wenwen suggested flexible answers and suitable classifications.
• Eileen completed her form and noted that she came from Alice's Cabin.
• Ren Wenwen found that Eileen had no fingerprints or blood to sample, then offered to rewrite parts of her form and take photos.
• Huli removed her ears and tucked them into her tail, startling Ren Wenwen.
• Ren Wenwen handed Yu Sheng the registration form for independently operated organizations in the Crossroads, and he began filling it out.

Yu Sheng registered The Inn with Eileen and Huli as its founding members, then received a communications phone from Ren Wenwen on behalf of Director Baili Qing. Ren Wenwen revealed that she had read Yu Sheng’s writing and asked for an autograph, then named a pairing that left him stunned.

• Yu Sheng named his organization The Inn and listed Eileen and Huli as its founding members, recording their unusual educational backgrounds.
• Ren Wenwen completed the registration process and gave Eileen and Huli their identity cards.
• Ren Wenwen gave Yu Sheng a special communications phone as a personal gift from Director Baili Qing and told him to contact the bureau if he needed help.
• Ren Wenwen recognized Yu Sheng as the author of The Blizzard Mystery Case and asked him to sign her notebook.
• Ren Wenwen said her favorite character was Lin Qi and that she shipped him with Night Blade, making Yu Sheng's hand tremble.

After registering as a Spirit Realm Detective, Yu Sheng explored the Special Operations Bureau’s new communication platform and asked Little Red Riding Hood for advice. Eileen used his computer to play a game, got banned for insulting everyone, and realized she had done it on Yu Sheng’s account.

• Ren Wenwen left, and Yu Sheng explained to Eileen that the “Night Blade” in his novel was the male lead’s motorcycle.
• Yu Sheng examined the new phone from Baili Qing and explored Border Communication, where he found his account already registered.
• Yu Sheng messaged Little Red Riding Hood, who advised him to study the Bureau’s files, check public channels, and look for assistance requests.
• Yu Sheng told Little Red Riding Hood that his registered team was called The Hostel, then ended the conversation to study the database.
• Eileen played a game on Yu Sheng’s computer and insulted players until her account was temporarily banned.
• Yu Sheng laughed at Eileen, who realized she had been playing on his account.

Yu Sheng, Eileen, and Huli investigated a loud bang from the suspicious room at the end of the second-floor corridor. They found melting snow and an unknown metal component, while the mirror showed a snowy cave superimposed over the room.

• Yu Sheng punished Eileen for tampering with his things by hanging her from the balcony clothes rack, then let her down when a loud bang sounded upstairs.
• Yu Sheng, Eileen, and Huli cautiously approached the room at the end of the second-floor corridor and found no movement inside.
• Yu Sheng opened the room and felt a frigid draft, though its furnishings appeared unchanged.
• Eileen spotted piles of snow and melting patches by the doorway, and Huli identified the scent of living creatures on the snow.
• Yu Sheng found an unfamiliar metal component beneath the table and noticed that the mirror reflected a snowy cave beyond the room.

Yu Sheng investigated a mirror that had released snow and a strange metal object into his room, then posted photos of the object on Border Communication. A user named Nietu Sanqian could not identify it but suggested that someone at the Academy might be interested.

• Yu Sheng, Eileen, and Huli saw a snowy cave reflected in the mirror, but the image and its icy chill disappeared after Yu Sheng touched it.
• Yu Sheng noted that snow and a metal device had remained in the room after the mirror image vanished, then locked the strange room and warned Eileen and Huli not to enter it alone.
• Yu Sheng photographed the metal device and posted its description in the Ancient Artifacts and Curiosities Discussion Group and the Anomalous Phenomena Discussion Group on Border Communication.
• Nietu Sanqian asked Yu Sheng about the object’s surroundings and whether it came from an Otherworld with signs of intelligent life.
• Yu Sheng described No. 66 Wutong Road as an ordinary, peaceful home with intelligent life-forms, and Nietu Sanqian replied that the object’s strange inscription might interest someone at the Academy.

Yu Sheng learned that the Academy might appraise the strange device he found in No. 66 Wutong Road, and he realized he could potentially sell harmless objects from an Otherworld. Little Red Riding Hood warned him that collectors would not want ordinary household junk, while her roommate Long Hair recognized that Yu Sheng had found a loophole.

• Yu Sheng examined the device’s strange inscriptions after Nietu Sanqian stopped replying, then asked Little Red Riding Hood whether she recognized it.
• Little Red Riding Hood advised Yu Sheng to stop asking about the device on Border Communication and suggested that the Special Operations Bureau or other major organizations could appraise it.
• Yu Sheng realized an appraisal might let him sell objects from No. 66 Wutong Road to support Huli and Eileen.
• Little Red Riding Hood warned Yu Sheng that collectors wanted rare-looking objects with a story, not ordinary household belongings.
• Little Red Riding Hood told her roommate Long Hair about Yu Sheng’s plan, and Long Hair realized that he had found a loophole.

Yu Sheng accepted Little Red Riding Hood’s Curiosity Association commission to retrieve an object from a museum, bringing Huli and Eileen along to begin their adventure. Their ride arrived, and they discovered that the driver was Xu Jiali.

• Yu Sheng considered selling household items but set the idea aside when Little Red Riding Hood offered him a risky, well-paid museum commission.
• Little Red Riding Hood explained the job and its expenses, then arranged for Yu Sheng’s group to leave that night before the deadline.
• Yu Sheng agreed to go, and Huli eagerly prepared to join him while Eileen came along.
• Yu Sheng called a rideshare and promised to give Huli his old phone, prompting Eileen to ask for one too.
• The group waited for their car and watched a battered vehicle arrive, driven by the familiar Xu Jiali.

Yu Sheng and his companions rode with Xu Jiali in his old car, which possessed a machine soul, to the location Little Red Riding Hood had provided. They arrived safely and found a girl in a dark red coat waiting beneath a streetlight.

• Xu Jiali explained that his battered car had a machine soul and that it had once chased the Special Operations Bureau captain around a parking lot.
• Eileen told Xu Jiali that she and Yu Sheng were going out to work, and he warned them to be cautious in the Crossroads and report anything suspicious.
• Huli offered to push Xu Jiali’s struggling car with one of her tails, but Yu Sheng refused.
• Xu Jiali drove Yu Sheng, Huli, and Eileen near their destination, then thanked his car, Number Ninety-Seven, for its hard work.
• Yu Sheng and Eileen discussed whether Xu Jiali’s appearance had been a coincidence, then spotted a girl in a dark red coat waiting under a streetlight.

Yu Sheng, Eileen, and Huli joined Little Red Riding Hood to enter the stable L-2 Otherworld known as the museum, learning its safety rules and how the Bureau monitored its entrance. The old theater’s abandoned ticket window came to life and printed four tickets for Museum Night.

• Little Red Riding Hood briefed Yu Sheng on the museum’s rules, depth, and Danger Level as they approached the abandoned theater.
• The group saw a Special Operations Bureau Constant Node Generator in the theater and registered their entry information.
• Little Red Riding Hood explained that destroying the known entrance could cause the Otherworld to open somewhere else.
• Little Red Riding Hood requested four tickets for Museum Night, and the abandoned ticket window lit up and printed them.

Yu Sheng, Little Red Riding Hood, Huli, and Eileen entered the Museum after its ticket machine issued only three tickets, apparently treating Eileen as a child who entered free. Museum Night began, transporting them onto a stage and transforming the theater into a maze-like museum, where Little Red Riding Hood explained the danger and its rules.

• The ticket machine gave Little Red Riding Hood only three tickets, and Yu Sheng guessed that Eileen qualified for free admission because she was under one meter tall.
• Little Red Riding Hood led Yu Sheng, Huli, and Eileen through the passage and into the theater, where they entered without hearing a warning shout.
• Applause began, and the four ticket holders transformed from audience members into actors on the stage as Museum Night opened.
• The theater rapidly transformed into a museum, and Little Red Riding Hood summoned her phantom wolf pack after the new surroundings settled.
• Little Red Riding Hood told Yu Sheng about Emorabi, an artist who died in the Museum, and explained that the Museum could turn victims into exhibits or works of art.

Yu Sheng, Little Red Riding Hood, and Huli searched Museum Night for the statue called The Weeper while Little Red Riding Hood explained the museum and its connected Otherworlds. Their search was interrupted when a group of aggressive security mannequins attacked, and the mannequins began reassembling after being torn apart.

• Little Red Riding Hood explained that The Weeper was a small statue kept in a separate white hall and described why people collected objects from Museum Night.
• Yu Sheng learned that the theater connected to Museum Night at night and to the more dangerous Manor Cold Case during the day.
• Huli heard breathing from a painting, so the group carefully went around it and continued through the museum.
• Yu Sheng found an exhibit labeled My Friend and My Endless Wealth, and Little Red Riding Hood explained that the museum imitated human institutions using works left by people it had eaten.
• Security mannequins entered the hall, blew a whistle, and charged at the group despite Little Red Riding Hood's belief that they would follow museum rules.
• Yu Sheng, Huli, and Eileen fought the mannequins, but the broken mannequins reassembled as more security guards appeared.

Yu Sheng and his companions escaped the guards’ attack by fleeing through an illusory door, then decided to keep investigating the museum’s unexpected behavior. They regrouped in a corridor beyond the guards’ sight, where Little Red Riding Hood recovered and the others prepared to continue.

• Yu Sheng discovered that damaged guards repaired themselves unless their limbs were merely broken, while Little Red Riding Hood explained that guards kept spawning as long as they could see intruders.
• Huli blasted the passage with her foxfire tails, giving Yu Sheng time to open a door and lead the group out of the encirclement.
• A guard grabbed Yu Sheng’s ankle, but he dragged it across the doorway and severed its arm as he closed the passage.
• The group found refuge in a corridor, where Little Red Riding Hood confirmed that escaping the guards’ sight had stopped the pursuit.
• Yu Sheng chose to investigate why the guards had attacked despite the risks, while Huli revealed that Eileen had named her tail attacks.
• Little Red Riding Hood watched Yu Sheng, Eileen, and Huli banter, then rested on a wolf as she recovered her strength.

Yu Sheng used his blood to connect with the severed arm of a museum security guard and sense the guards’ locations. The group learned that most were gathered two junctions away, but Yu Sheng could not yet locate the white exhibition hall.

• Little Red Riding Hood explained that the museum’s security guards might have been activated by an intruder, though no one else was supposed to enter the museum.
• Yu Sheng smeared his blood onto the severed plastic arm, establishing a faint connection with the museum and its security guards.
• Yu Sheng sensed that most of the guards were gathered two junctions away, with a few scattered through distant exhibition halls, and that they were currently still.
• Yu Sheng said the connection was too shallow to reveal the museum’s exhibition halls or the white exhibition hall.
• Yu Sheng tested whether blood on the surrounding walls and floor would strengthen the connection, then joked that he might need to smear his whole body over the museum several times.

Yu Sheng led Little Red Riding Hood and the others through the museum while avoiding its security entities, then located the white exhibition hall they had been searching for. They discovered fresh blood inside and, unable to see what had happened without alerting the guards, considered ways to scout the room.

• Yu Sheng sensed safe routes through the museum and guided Little Red Riding Hood, Eileen, Huli, and the wolf pack past the security entities.
• Yu Sheng concluded that the white exhibition hall was likely surrounded by guards that had appeared there and had not begun to disappear.
• Little Red Riding Hood let Yu Sheng decide, and he chose to approach cautiously and observe the hall before deciding whether to retreat.
• The group found a white room beyond a guarded corridor, and Little Red Riding Hood and Huli detected fresh blood coming from it.
• Yu Sheng asked whether a drone or Little Red Riding Hood's wolves could scout the hall, but Little Red Riding Hood said the wolves could not because they were, in a sense, her.

Yu Sheng and his companions entered the exhibition hall by using Huli’s tails to block the mannequins’ sight, then discovered a blood-drained victim arranged like the statue of The Weeper. The sacrificial scene triggered Little Red Riding Hood’s transformation, and a wolf-like beast burst from her shadow and lunged at her.

• Yu Sheng reasoned that Huli’s tails could block the security mannequins’ sight, and Huli prepared a stockpile of tails for the plan.
• Huli guided the tails into the exhibition hall, wrapped them around the mannequins’ heads, and confirmed that the guards did not react.
• Yu Sheng and the others entered the hall and found a drained corpse bound to the platform in the same posture as The Weeper statue.
• Little Red Riding Hood stared at the sacrifice as her eyes reddened and fur emerged on her face and hands.
• A huge man-wolf creature crawled from Little Red Riding Hood’s shadow and lunged at her.

Yu Sheng and his companions stopped the evil wolf that emerged from Little Red Riding Hood’s shadow, then learned that her curse came from the Fairy Tale Otherworld. They turned their attention back to the sacrificed victim and the possibility that a human had staged the scene to trigger the museum’s security guards.

• Yu Sheng shoved Little Red Riding Hood out of the evil wolf’s attack and was bitten on the shoulder.
• Eileen bound the shadow wolf with threads, and Huli smashed it apart, but it quickly reformed.
• Little Red Riding Hood’s wolf cubs tore the shadow wolf apart, and it returned behind her as she regained control.
• Little Red Riding Hood explained that Fairy Tale was an Otherworld and that the sacrifice’s contamination had brought her cursed wolf briefly into reality; she injected a sanity blocker and offered Yu Sheng the operation’s reward.
• Yu Sheng declined the reward and asked to hear about Fairy Tale and the curse, while Little Red Riding Hood agreed to explain later.
• Little Red Riding Hood said the security guards would not have staged the sacrifice, and Yu Sheng suspected a human had replaced The Weeper and triggered the guards; he revealed he felt no contamination from the victim.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood investigated a sacrificial victim in the museum and learned that cultists were likely responsible. After Yu Sheng touched the victim’s blood, the corpse briefly spoke and identified its killers, leaving Yu Sheng to relay the clues to a baffled Little Red Riding Hood.

• Little Red Riding Hood explained that cultists and other groups performed sacrifices to gain supernatural power, and she questioned how intruders had bypassed the Node Network in The Crossroads.
• Yu Sheng decided to free the victim from the iron thorns, but Little Red Riding Hood persuaded him to preserve the scene for the Special Operations Bureau.
• Yu Sheng touched dried blood on the platform, and the hall turned monochrome as the corpse came to life and rapidly described its two Angel Cultist killers and their motives.
• Yu Sheng repeated the corpse’s clues to Little Red Riding Hood after the hall returned to normal, and she reacted with confusion.