The wolves are coming.

However, Yu Sheng couldn't see the exact shape of the wolves—he could only hear the continuous sounds of branches being stepped on and bushes being brushed past from behind, the occasional muffled whimpers, and at times, he could even smell the rotten fishy scent mixed with blood carried by the air, a frigid breath spreading through the forest like the approaching cold winter, gradually stripping away the vitality and warmth.

The howling of wolves surged again, rising and falling, emanating from every tree, every bush, and every shadow around, with the Wolf Pack circling the prey, constantly tightening the encirclement.

"Run! Don't stop! Run!"

The squirrel had already climbed from Yu Sheng's neck to the top of his head, this small rodent vigorously swinging its paws forward, letting out a sharp cry.

"Run to the path! Run to the place with lights! Run to where the wolves dare not go!"

Yu Sheng couldn't help but look back, but he could only see layers upon layers of faint figures in the dim dense forest, vaguely something seemed to be chasing after him in the shadows, yet he still couldn't see the appearance of any wolf.

But the breath was right behind him, he even started feeling the air currents produced by those foul-smelling bloody mouths breathing beside him.

"Where are the wolves?" he couldn't help but ask loudly, "I can't see them!"

"Not seeing them is good, not seeing them means they can't catch up to you!" the squirrel shrieked, "Seeing them would be bad, they will keep chasing, keep chasing, until you can't run anymore, until you become an exhausted Adult… Adult… Wait! You are an Adult!"

The squirrel seemed to suddenly realize something, looking down in shock at Yu Sheng who was still running, it grabbed his hair tightly, yelling loudly: "So how the hell did you get in here!"

Yet Yu Sheng couldn't care about responding to the squirrel, because he suddenly noticed several bleeding wounds appearing on his arm.

Those were traces left by invisible sharp claws that had scraped him.

He began to see those blurred shadows now, among the dense forest, those lean, ravenous predators seemed endless.

Yu Sheng suddenly exerted force under his feet, stepping on the thick fallen leaves and decayed soil, and continued sprinting in the direction pointed out by the squirrel.

He wasn't afraid of dying, nor worried about being trapped in this place, but he still hadn't figured out exactly what this place was, hadn't figured out what happened to "Little Red Riding Hood"—he couldn't just let himself be eaten by wolves here.

And just then, from the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw a trace of light.

Deep in the dense forest, amidst the sprawling dimness, a warm light unexpectedly appeared, and under the illumination of these lights, it was faintly visible that there was a path.

"Run run run! Just ahead! Ah ha! You, an Adult, are running even faster than a child!" the squirrel yelled excitedly, "Good, good! Adults always have heavy steps, but you're running like when they first came in—they can't catch up to you, they can't catch up!"

Amidst the frantic screams of the squirrel, Yu Sheng burst out from the shadows enveloping the forest, he rushed towards that warm light, and almost the moment the light shone upon him, the cold aura chasing him seemed to melt away instantly in the light.

The wolves disappeared, vanished beside the path in the forest.

Yu Sheng, panting heavily, supported himself on a section of dead tree stump by the path, and after a while, he raised his head and looked at this path winding through the dense forest.

It appeared so abruptly in the great forest, paved with mud and stone, this winding path seemed to have no end, extending into the darkness among the big trees, and along the road, there were bright street lamps—one after another—Yu Sheng didn't understand how those lamps were lit, they looked just like spheres hanging on the bent tree branches, without wires, nor could you see any flame inside, yet they cast a soft light, illuminating this forest path.

The squirrel jumped down from his head, in a few leaps landed on the roughly curved wooden handrail beside the road, it squatted down, taking a long breath: "Phew—almost turned into a delicious meal."

"Are those the 'wolves' that have been relentlessly hunting Little Red Riding Hood?" Yu Sheng caught his breath, steadied himself, then went up to the squirrel, staring seriously at this little "animal" that seemed to know a lot, "Was that biggest, strongest 'Evil Wolf' among them?"

"Evil Wolf? Don't mention the Evil Wolf!" the squirrel seemed suddenly frightened, it jumped up, extending its paws as if it wanted to cover Yu Sheng's mouth, "The Hunter hasn't appeared yet, we can't attract the worst, biggest wolf here—You don't have a gun, it could swallow you whole! Swallow you whole!"

Yu Sheng listened and continued to watch the other party: "Where exactly is this—I know it's a forest, but I mean, is this Little Red Riding Hood's Dream Realm? Or some kind of... Exotic Realm?"

"The forest, this is just the forest, I don't understand what you mean—dream? Little Red Riding Hood hasn't started dreaming yet, good children should sleep at night, she's still out doing her own thing... what's it called? Oh, she mentioned it, she's going to school," the squirrel shuffled along the wooden railing, chattering away, "If she had started dreaming, then she should have entered here already..."

The squirrel spoke in a strange way, giving a feeling of talking to itself and fragmented information. However, Yu Sheng didn't find it too difficult to understand; he quickly grasped the meaning and deduced the connection between this place and "Little Red Riding Hood."

This place was indeed more like an Exotic Realm rather than merely Little Red Riding Hood's dream. It existed continuously, and only after Little Red Riding Hood fell asleep... would she fall into this forest.

Here, to be unceasingly hunted by the Wolf Pack.

Upon this thought, Yu Sheng quickly frowned: "How can one completely escape the wolves' pursuit?"

"Escape? What are you thinking! Wolves never give up, and this forest has no end," the squirrel rubbed its face with its paw and gave Yu Sheng a look as if he was foolish, "Run, just keep running, from one safe path to another safe path, running into a warm house, then before it gets dark in the house, run to another house, as long as you can still run, there are always places in the forest where you can take shelter temporarily—that would be good, just like that..."

Were these the rules of this "forest" as described by the squirrel?

Yu Sheng quickly pondered in his mind, then composed himself: "This forest… is it a curse created by 'Fairy Tales'? Do you know anything about the curse?"

He didn't know the origin of this squirrel nor why such a rational, communicative "entity" would appear in the seemingly Exotic Realm of the Black Forest, but since it had offered help earlier, it indicated that it wasn't in league with the "curse" Little Red Riding Hood had mentioned.

However, the squirrel just looked bewildered upon hearing his question and then strolled on the railing: "How would I know, I'm just a goddamn squirrel."

Then it raised its paw, quickly scratched its fluffy face, and looked up arrogantly: "A goddamn adorable squirrel to the point of bubbling."

Yu Sheng looked a bit dazed.

Then, the squirrel suddenly fished out a slender stick from somewhere on its body, stuck it in its mouth, rubbed its big tail against the railing next to it, and the tip of the tail sparked a small flame. It used this flame to light the small stick in its mouth, took a deep breath, and exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"Want a puff?" the squirrel lifted its head, holding the stick with its paw, "This thing can make you feel better, but you need to hold it with the tip of your nails."

Yu Sheng's expression became even more dazed.

"Oh, you're not interested, that's good—although you are an adult, it's not a good habit," the squirrel said, then put the stick back in its mouth, "Ah, it feels strange, it's my first time meeting an adult—usually, the first to come here are little ones, they cry a lot, and very few escape the first hunt, usually ending up swallowed by wolves in one gulp. Honestly, I'm kinda nervous; you're putting a pressure on a squirrel that it shouldn't have to bear...hss, puff—"

Yu Sheng didn't quite know how to respond to this fellow; frankly, the style of this squirrel was a bit over the top for him.

Although he had dealt with cursing living dolls, a Nine-Tailed Demon Fox that could launch its own tail, and a No. 66 Wutong Road that ordinary people couldn't observe, he was after all a mentally healthy good young man with normal values—a smoking, cursing squirrel wasn't something he had expected.

"Why aren't you speaking?" the squirrel chewed up the remainder of the stick and swallowed the still smoking end, looking up at Yu Sheng, "Oh, stunned? That's normal, adults can be stunned by the forest too, come a few more times and you'll get used to it—get used to their hunting, get used to their predation.

"Then you'll establish a connection with some of the wolves here, you'll connect with the whole forest, and when you're both the one lost here and the hungry wolf, and also the forest, the Hunter, and the Grandmother, you'll fully adapt.

"By then, you'll have your own red cloak, running here every night, ahaha, quite fulfilling... But I'm curious what kind of cloak you'll get, given you're not a kid, and you're also a guy..."

"I'm not the new Little Red Riding Hood," Yu Sheng interrupted the squirrel's rambling, emphasizing again seriously, "I'm her friend."

The squirrel paused, staring blankly at Yu Sheng as if trying to detect any trace of lying on his face. After a while, it seemed to finally confirm something, straightened its upper body, and swept its thick tail nervously along the wooden railing.

"You're actually telling the truth? You can't deceive an adorable squirrel like me!"

"I'm serious."

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