Chapter Summaries

Yu Sheng spoke with Little Red Riding Hood about the lessons her late guardian had taught her before the girl woke from his dream. He then rushed to the kitchen, where Eileen had accidentally set her cooking on fire, and rescued her before the house was damaged.

• Little Red Riding Hood explained how her former guardian had encouraged her to study and hold on to hope despite the children’s short lives.
• Yu Sheng told Little Red Riding Hood how to leave his quiet dream, and she decided to stay until she woke naturally.
• Yu Sheng smelled something burning, woke from the dream, and rushed to the kitchen after landing on Huli’s tails.
• Yu Sheng rescued Eileen from the stove, extinguished the wok fire, and ventilated the kitchen.
• Huli explained that Eileen had insisted she could use the gas stove and had tried to toss a wok that was nearly as big as she was.
• Yu Sheng dried Eileen, then carried her toward the bathroom for a bath and said he would check the kitchen before lunch.

Yu Sheng discovered that Huli’s bizarre-looking cooking tasted surprisingly edible, and Huli was pleased that he and the chicks enjoyed it. After dinner, Yu Sheng agreed to mend Eileen’s dress and buy her new clothes, while the household settled back into its usual bustle.

• Yu Sheng filled the bathtub for Eileen, who asked for a smaller showerhead and a low valve before going to bathe.
• Huli proudly served Yu Sheng a strange-looking stew made from all the foods she liked, and he found it unexpectedly edible.
• Huli fed the stew to White Cut and Salt Baked, who ate it happily alongside her and Yu Sheng.
• Yu Sheng wondered whether Eileen had drowned, but she called out from the living room that she was drying her hair.
• Eileen showed Yu Sheng the holes she had burned in her dress, and he agreed to mend it and buy her more clothes.
• Eileen brought Yu Sheng a hair dryer and asked him to dry her hair.

Yu Sheng prepared to enter the Black Forest that night with Huli and Eileen to help Little Red Riding Hood, and decided to strengthen Eileen beforehand. Their attempt to make her a sturdier body in the valley hit an unexpected snag when Yu Sheng forgot to bring a welding torch.

• Yu Sheng told Eileen he planned to return to the Black Forest that night to help Little Red Riding Hood, and Eileen insisted on joining him.
• Yu Sheng messaged Little Red Riding Hood to contact him before she went to sleep, and she agreed while thanking him.
• Yu Sheng brought Huli and Eileen to the valley and prepared a ritual to strengthen Eileen with a rebar frame.
• Yu Sheng realized he had forgotten to bring a welding torch, and Eileen attacked him for the oversight.
• Huli cut and welded the rebar with foxfire, prompting Yu Sheng to marvel at her argon fox welding.

Yu Sheng and Huli built Eileen a new body from a rebar skeleton and living soil, intending to make it 1.67 meters tall. Eileen successfully took control of it, but it immediately shrank to 66.6 centimeters, leaving her furious and Yu Sheng wondering what went wrong.

• Huli welded a life-sized doll skeleton from rebar while Eileen watched and complained that the work was not alchemy.
• Yu Sheng used blood and the valley’s soil and rock to form a body around the skeleton, then awakened it and guided Eileen into it.
• Eileen entered the new shell, but it shrank to just over half a meter tall as soon as she took control.
• Both Eileens circled Yu Sheng and complained about the body’s size until Huli restrained them with her tails.
• Yu Sheng blamed the materials and mentioned buying supplies from a five-yuan store, prompting the rebar-bodied Eileen to break free and grab his arm.

Yu Sheng, Eileen, and Huli joined Little Red Riding Hood in the Black Forest to explore it together. They set off toward a patch of light and encountered the squirrel whose warnings had once guided Little Red Riding Hood.

• Little Red Riding Hood fell asleep and entered the Black Forest in a dream, where she summoned her wolves and waited for Yu Sheng.
• Yu Sheng opened a doorway into the forest and arrived with Eileen and Huli, carrying a blood-soaked rebar weapon he called the Tetanus Staff.
• Yu Sheng explained that the weapon and his scratches were by-products of making dolls, then led the group toward the light.
• A squirrel leaped from the bushes and began reciting a warning about Little Red Riding Hood before noticing the group and exclaiming that things had gotten weird.

Yu Sheng’s group entered the Black Forest’s lamp-lit path and learned that the Hunter was dangerous and might appear wherever Wolf Grandma did. The chapter ended when two gunshots sounded nearby, revealing that the Hunter was close.

• Little Red Riding Hood grabbed the panicking squirrel, and Yu Sheng asked it where to find the Hunter.
• The squirrel warned Yu Sheng that the Black Forest had become unstable and said the Hunter would come wherever Wolf Grandma appeared.
• Little Red Riding Hood explained the forest cottages’ dangers and described the lightless cottage covered in red capes, which frightened the squirrel.
• Yu Sheng’s group followed a streetlamp-lit path, and Eileen explained that its lights acted as a temporary safe object rather than the path being a safe zone.
• A gunshot rang out beyond the path, and Huli located its direction before a second shot followed.

Yu Sheng's group ignored the Black Forest's gunshot lure and fought through the wolf pack with Huli's missiles and foxfire. They carved a path toward the distant lamplight, heading to find Wolf Grandma as the forest summoned ever more wolves.

• Yu Sheng recognized the hunter's gunshots as bait and led the group onward along the path.
• As the lamps dimmed and the wolf pack gathered, Yu Sheng directed Huli to fire Fox Carrot Missiles at the source of the evil wolf's gaze.
• Huli and Yu Sheng blasted through the wolves and forest while Little Red Riding Hood's shadow wolves finished off those that got past them.
• Yu Sheng ordered Huli to open a path toward the distant lamplight so they could reach Wolf Grandma.
• The squirrel panicked at the group defying the forest's rules, while Little Red Riding Hood said she was glad to see it.

Yu Sheng led Little Red Riding Hood, Huli, Eileen, and the squirrel through the Black Forest, battling wolf packs and setting the woods ablaze before reaching the protective cabin. They rested inside as the wolves withdrew, though the Big Bad Wolf survived and circled nearby.

• Yu Sheng and the others fought through multiplying wolf packs as Huli fired Fox Carrot Missiles and Yu Sheng battered wolves with his Tetanus Staff.
• Yu Sheng led the group toward the lit cabin, where the wolf packs retreated and dissolved in the lamplight.
• Yu Sheng knocked and called for Wolf Grandma, then opened the silent cabin door and brought everyone inside.
• Eileen hit her head on the low doorframe, easing the group's tension, and they settled down to rest while Huli ate dried meat.
• Yu Sheng told Little Red Riding Hood that the Big Bad Wolf had survived and was circling nearby, then offered her some of Huli's dried meat.

Yu Sheng helped Little Red Riding Hood confront her fear of wolves by having her eat jerky made from Wolf Grandma, then sent her out of the cabin before Wolf Grandma appeared. He learned that the evil wolf, Wolf Grandma, the wolf pack, and the Black Forest were intertwined, and prepared to face the creature at the door.

• Yu Sheng offered Little Red Riding Hood jerky made from the Wolf Grandma he had killed, and she overcame her reluctance enough to eat it.
• Yu Sheng questioned Squirrel, who explained that Wolf Grandma, the evil wolf, the wolf pack, and the Black Forest were aspects of one tangled nightmare centered on Little Red Riding Hood.
• Yu Sheng sensed Wolf Grandma forming outside the cabin and sent Little Red Riding Hood away with Eileen.
• Wolf Grandma knocked, and Yu Sheng opened the door and swung his wolf-fang club at the monster.

Yu Sheng fought Little Red Riding Hood's Wolf Grandma with Eileen and Huli’s help, then tore out the monster’s heart and let its venom enter his body. Wolf Grandma collapsed, while Yu Sheng remained at the little house’s doorway clutching the withered heart.

• Yu Sheng used black threads to restrain Wolf Grandma while Eileen held the monster in place, then smashed open its chest with his mace.
• Wolf Grandma attacked through its expanding shadow, but Eileen ensnared the shadows and Huli burned them away with foxfire.
• Yu Sheng climbed a webbed staircase to Wolf Grandma’s exposed heart and smashed through the ribs regrowing around it.
• Yu Sheng tore out the heart and pressed it against his chest, allowing its venom and the Black Forest’s malice to enter his body.
• Wolf Grandma shrank and collapsed into rotten mud as its heart weakened, and Yu Sheng fell beside the little house clutching the heart.

After killing Wolf Grandma, Yu Sheng stayed behind in the Black Forest while wolf venom slowly killed him, hoping to meet the hunter. When the hunter arrived, Yu Sheng showed it a photograph of twelve armored people, but it raised its rifle and shot him instead of answering.

• Huli and Eileen helped the poisoned Yu Sheng into the cabin after Wolf Grandma temporarily died, and he sent them home with the Tetanus Staff and the shriveled wolf heart.
• Yu Sheng chose to remain in the Black Forest and wait for the hunter, while asking Eileen and Huli to prepare cold noodles for his return.
• Squirrel Knight found Yu Sheng dying from the wolf venom and panicked when it realized he might die in the real world too.
• As the venom clouded his mind, Yu Sheng glimpsed the structures supporting many storybook worlds but could not see their source.
• The hunter entered the cabin, and Yu Sheng showed it a photograph of twelve people in protective armor and asked whether it had been one of them.
• The hunter raised its rifle and shot Yu Sheng without answering.

After returning from the Black Forest, Yu Sheng told Huli and the three Eileens that the hunter had shot him, then discussed the attack with Little Red Riding Hood. The hunter’s bullet emerged from his throat during a coughing fit, and Yu Sheng sent a photo of it to Baili Qing.

• Yu Sheng returned home, reassured Huli, and told the Eileens that the hunter had killed him with one shot.
• Yu Sheng wondered whether the hunter had mistaken him for a wolf, but Little Red Riding Hood insisted the hunter could identify wolves accurately and would not be fooled by blood contamination.
• Yu Sheng told Little Red Riding Hood that they had weakened Wolf Grandma and that he had planted a back door in the Black Forest’s cycle system.
• Yu Sheng began coughing violently and brought up a strange, blood-streaked bullet that he identified as the hunter’s message.
• Yu Sheng photographed the bullet and sent it to Baili Qing.

Yu Sheng investigated the Hunter’s bullet and reported his encounter to Baili Qing, while Little Red Riding Hood watched the orphanage children settle into a peaceful morning. Baili Qing prepared the Special Operations Bureau for a possible deep-diving mission, believing the fairy tale’s core might soon be uncovered.

• Yu Sheng concluded the Hunter probably had not known he could survive, and decided to take the bullet back into the Black Forest next time.
• Baili Qing identified the bullet as an old standardized exorcism round used by a twelve-person deep-diving team seventy years earlier, and Yu Sheng told her the Hunter had shot him with it.
• Yu Sheng promised to send Baili Qing a detailed report and said he wanted to try contacting the Hunter again to help Little Red Riding Hood and the orphanage children.
• Little Red Riding Hood admitted to Rapunzel that she feared and looked forward to her birthday, then watched Xiao Xiao and the other children share a peaceful breakfast.
• After reading Yu Sheng’s report, Baili Qing ordered Song Cheng to ready another deep-diving squad and prepare the large pool at D2 Submergence Port.

Song Cheng learned that an arrest team had captured two Angel Cultists, while Yu Sheng encountered the Hunter in a strange dream and nearly put on its outfit. He then found Xiao Xiao in the wilderness, suggesting that the place was a persistent space of consciousness rather than an ordinary dream.

• Song Cheng reviewed Fairy Tale case files and heard from Ren Wenwen that the South City arrest team had captured two Angel Cultists but found no larger targets.
• Yu Sheng fell asleep after returning from the Black Forest and encountered the silent Hunter in a dark, dreamlike space.
• Yu Sheng noticed that his arm moved the Hunter's sleeve as if he were putting on the outfit, causing the space to shake and collapse.
• Xiao Xiao appeared beside Yu Sheng in the gloomy wilderness and said she had dreamed of a gray wolf, run until she tripped, and fallen into the place.
• Yu Sheng concluded that the wilderness was an existing space of consciousness that he could enter while dreaming.

Yu Sheng discovered Xiao Xiao in his dream before waking to Little Red Riding Hood’s call about their unpaid museum commission. They agreed to investigate the suspicious death of her client and the missing Curiosity Association records, while the chapter ended with Eileen pouncing on Yu Sheng after he banned her from his bed.

• Yu Sheng met Xiao Xiao in the dream, reassured her that it was safe, and returned to reality when he heard his phone ringing.
• Yu Sheng answered Little Red Riding Hood’s call and learned that her client had died and that the Curiosity Association had no record of the commission to recover the Weeper statue.
• Little Red Riding Hood suspected her client had been silenced, and Yu Sheng agreed to help her investigate.
• Yu Sheng learned that the Special Operations Bureau would also investigate, and Little Red Riding Hood agreed to come to his home.
• Yu Sheng scolded the three Eileens for crushing him and banned Rebar Eileen from sleeping on the bed, prompting her to pounce at him.

Yu Sheng and Eileen discussed Xiao Xiao’s entry into the strange wasteland dream and the suspicious museum commission, while Little Red Riding Hood arrived at No. 66 Wutong Road. Yu Sheng ended by asking whether she had ever offended anyone.

• Three Eileens pounced on Yu Sheng, and he gave the towel-wrapped doll her repaired dress.
• Yu Sheng told Eileen that Xiao Xiao had entered the wasteland dream, and Eileen suggested they investigate the strange space together next time he slept.
• Yu Sheng and Eileen agreed that the museum commission and the sacrifice there seemed suspicious, especially given Little Red Riding Hood’s loss of control.
• Little Red Riding Hood arrived at No. 66 Wutong Road and was surprised to find three Eileens and Huli using a tail as a ground wire.
• Yu Sheng asked Little Red Riding Hood whether she had ever offended anyone.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood investigated the suspicious fake commission that led to the museum incident and decided to question the dead Curiosity Association liaison. They rode with Little Red Riding Hood’s shadow wolf pack, entering a distorted black-and-white shadow version of the city.

• Yu Sheng suspected the museum sacrifice had been a trap targeting Little Red Riding Hood, but she could not think of any reason the Angel Cultists would target her.
• Little Red Riding Hood explained that the commission had reached her through a client’s personal account, and the Special Operations Bureau would investigate the Curiosity Association’s lax procedures.
• Little Red Riding Hood said the liaison had died in a fall, and Yu Sheng agreed to accompany her to question him at his home.
• Yu Sheng left Eileen and Huli behind, then traveled with Little Red Riding Hood to the liaison’s district on a shadow wolf.
• The wolf pack carried Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood into a warped black-and-white world where the city’s shadows formed a maze.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood visited the apartment of Old Zheng, a Curiosity Association liaison, to investigate his suspicious death. Old Zheng’s nephew revealed that his uncle had foreseen something happening and arranged to be cremated, leaving Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood to search his notes for answers.

• Little Red Riding Hood took Yu Sheng through the shadow world to Old Zheng’s apartment building and revealed that her real name was Wang Jiajia.
• Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood met Old Zheng’s nephew, who said Old Zheng had made arrangements for his death at least half a month beforehand and claimed no one had harmed him.
• Old Zheng’s nephew showed them the urn containing his uncle’s ashes, preventing Yu Sheng from using his blood-based ability to speak with the dead.
• Old Zheng’s nephew told Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood they could inspect the books, notes, and memos on the bedroom desk, and warned that he would leave in a few days.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood searched Old Zheng’s belongings for clues and discovered that a recent letter concealed a message when unfolded. The message urged Old Zheng to bring a cursed fairy tale to a white exhibition hall for a ritual, while claiming an angel would protect her.

• Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood failed to communicate with Old Zheng’s ashes, then searched his bedroom and found books, notebooks, and letters.
• Yu Sheng sensed something strange about a recent letter but could not identify the problem, so he summoned Eileen to examine it.
• Eileen recognized that the letter had been folded into a hidden plane and instructed Yu Sheng to unfold it carefully.
• The hidden message told Old Zheng to bring a cursed fairy tale to a white exhibition hall before a specified date and assured him that a ritual would remove her curse.
• The letter claimed a pure messenger protected the children and instructed Old Zheng to burn a blank sheet with a rose-scented candle, while warning him against buying candles from Linglong Pavilion.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood uncovered evidence that Old Zheng had been manipulated by the Angel Cultists, who targeted the fairy tale connected to her. When Yu Sheng touched the remnants of a blood-drawn summoning circle, he entered a strange space where Old Zheng’s thoughts appeared, and a tentacle emerged from a hole in the ceiling.

• Yu Sheng and Eileen concluded that Old Zheng had been deceived by the Angel Cultists and had unknowingly helped them lure Little Red Riding Hood to the white exhibition hall.
• Yu Sheng suspected the cultists had targeted the fairy tale behind Little Red Riding Hood rather than her personally, and he and Little Red Riding Hood searched Old Zheng’s room for clues.
• A shadow wolf led Little Red Riding Hood to faint traces of a blood-drawn spirit-summoning circle beneath the rug.
• Yu Sheng cut his hand and let his blood touch the circle, causing the room to shift into a dim, separate space.
• Old Zheng’s written thoughts appeared across the walls and floor, describing his desire to help children and his contact with suspicious people who claimed they could help.
• A hole opened in the ceiling, and a strange tentacle reached through and began moving toward Yu Sheng.