Yu Sheng quickly shook his head, setting aside the jumbled guesses in his mind for the moment.

Whether this is a special Consciousness Space or truly his "Dream Realm," what he really needs to think about now is why Xiao Xiao has appeared here.

Naturally, Yu Sheng thought of the other two who had also been here: Little Red Riding Hood and Hu Li.

If one were to include someone, Erin would also be added—though the little doll entered on her own thanks to her "Dream Entrance" ability.

...Is it because of a blood connection?

Xiao Xiao was still standing by, blinking and looking this way with a bit of confusion.

Yu Sheng reached out to rub the little guy's head. He didn't know how to explain this place to a six-year-old child and simply decided not to: "You're dreaming."

"Then, Uncle, are you someone I dreamt about?" The little guy was full of curiosity.

Yu Sheng was startled and had to pluck up his courage: "…Yes, I'm in your dream."

"Can you turn into a X Rider, Uncle?"

Yu Sheng finally realized the conversation was taking a turn he hadn't anticipated: "…No."

The little girl thought for a moment: "Superman is also okay."

Yu Sheng couldn't hold back anymore, squatting down to meet Xiao Xiao's eye level, and said earnestly: "Even though this is a dream, there are still things you can't do in a dream..."

"Oh."

The little girl uttered an "oh," seemingly finally giving up on that whimsical idea.

A few seconds later.

"What about Rainbow Little House..."

"Can't do that either."

"Alright, then don't change."

Xiao Xiao sat down where she was, plucked a few blades of grass nearby, and began earnestly tying knots in the leaves.

Yu Sheng couldn't help but recall Little Red Riding Hood's complaints about this place; he squatted down next to Xiao Xiao: "Do you find this place a bit boring?"

The little girl nodded but then shook her head vigorously.

"There are no wolves here," she whispered, "I feel it's better than other dreams."

Yu Sheng paused, then pondered.

But just as he was about to say something else, he suddenly faintly heard a noise.

It took him a moment to realize that it was a sound coming from the real world.

"Uncle is going to leave," Yu Sheng quickly considered and turned to say to Xiao Xiao, "You should stay here afterward, and the teacher will wake you up when nap time is over. Don't be scared, it's very safe here."

Xiao Xiao blinked and politely waved to Yu Sheng: "Goodbye, Uncle."

Yu Sheng then let go of his control over his consciousness, allowing his thoughts to tumble out of this "Dream Realm" and be pulled back into reality by the sound in his head.

The next second, he suddenly felt pressure all over his body, and the weight on his chest was almost breath-stoppingly uncomfortable. Opening his eyes, he, of course, saw three dolls—two Erins pressing on his arms and a leg, while another Erin was sprawled out on his chest...

Even though the three dolls looked identical, he could instantly tell that the one lying on his chest was Threaded Steel Erin...

"Get off, get off, you're almost crushing me to death." Yu Sheng hurriedly used his hands and feet to get the Erins off of him, feeling like he was devising clever plans against a bunch of koalas. By the time he finally freed himself, feeling half his body wasn't his own, he even suspected that he might have been actually crushed to death by this creature and was now freshly resurrected—then he quickly reached for the ringing phone on the nightstand. Picking it up, he found it was a call from Little Red Riding Hood.

Ignoring the dolls X3 mumbling complaints in their half-asleep state, Yu Sheng casually answered the phone: "Hello?"

Little Red Riding Hood got straight to the point, but Yu Sheng was quite surprised by what she said: "Do you remember our last operation in the museum?"

Yu Sheng was momentarily stunned. He had been thinking about Xiao Xiao sneaking into his "dream," and he also thought Little Red Riding Hood was contacting him because of some anomaly found at the orphanage. Unexpectedly, what she brought up was their last museum operation. After a moment, he nodded: "Ah, I remember."

"Do you also remember that the 'compensation' for that operation never came through?"

"Ah, I would've almost forgotten if you hadn't mentioned it!" Yu Sheng quickly reacted, "So our compensation has never come through... What's the problem? Have you gone to demand payment? Are they defaulting on the debt?"

While discussing this, he still felt a bit strange, since lately, when contacting Little Red Riding Hood, the topics had always been about "Fairy Tales" and the Exotic Realm, either focusing on the Black Forest or the Big Bad Wolf. Suddenly bringing up the museum incident from quite a few days back, he found the subject change somewhat jarring.

But the other party's next sentence instantly shook off any discomfort Yu Sheng was feeling—

"My commissioner is dead."

"...What?!"

"Since I hadn't received the compensation from the Curious Object Association, I found it odd and tried to reach out, only to discover all the contact methods left by the commissioner were unreachable," Little Red Riding Hood began to explain the details to Yu Sheng, "So today, I got in touch with some other acquaintances at the Curious Object Association, and they told me that my commissioner had an accident a few days back and has already died."

Yu Sheng didn't respond immediately, but from Little Red Riding Hood's words, he sensed something fishy about this matter.

After a moment, he latched onto what exactly felt off about it: "...Wait, what about the commission involving the 'Wailer Statue'?"

"It seems you've thought of it too," Little Red Riding Hood spoke gravely, "The Curious Object Association is a well-established organization with great influence. For commissions issued by them, even if the executor encounters an accident, there should be a process in place for someone else to take over. It shouldn't be the case that once the person in charge of the contract dies, the subsequent compensation just disappears. So I went straight to check on that particular commission... guess what the result was?"

"Do I need to guess?" Yu Sheng already knew the answer hearing all this, "With what you've said... the commission doesn't exist, right?"

"Right, it doesn't exist. There's no record of any commission concerning the 'Wailer Statue' in the public commission listings of the Curious Object Association," Little Red Riding Hood sighed, "But I don't know if it's because the commission was fake from the beginning, or if someone recently deleted its record."

Listening to the last thing she said, Yu Sheng's eyebrows unconsciously furrowed tighter.

It had been many days since the museum operation. Although unexpected situations involving cult sacrifices and Angel Sect believers followed, in Yu Sheng's view, at least for him and Little Red Riding Hood, the case was closed. However, now, this already concluded case was stirring up some new and unsettling ripples, giving him a faint whiff of a... "scent of conspiracy."

If the commission had been fake from the get-go, the matter would be somewhat simpler—perhaps it was just a member of the Curious Object Association attempting to circumvent oversight and privately hoard an "exhibit" from the "Museum" for profit, only for the person to vanish while acquiring the object, keeping this within a "personal" scope. However, if the commission was really issued by the Curious Object Association but all information was recently erased, then this matter... just got a lot more complicated.

"I felt something was off about this, and since there's also no follow-up on the compensation we agreed to split, I thought I should contact you to explain," came Little Red Riding Hood's voice from the phone, sounding apologetic, "Sorry about this. You've put in a lot of effort and it's been dragged out for so long, and now it's turned into this mess..."

"Don't talk about that right now," Yu Sheng cut her off, "What are you planning to do next? We need to continue investigating this, right?"

"...Yeah, at least I have to figure out how my commissioner met with an accident," Little Red Riding Hood hesitated, then added, "I've been collaborating with him for several years. He was the one who initially helped me make connections within the Curious Object Association. Even... the previous 'Little Red Riding Hood' received his assistance. Anyway, I can't believe he would do such a thing for personal gain, and his death was really strange, too suspiciously like..."

Yu Sheng calmly interjected: "Too suspiciously like he was silenced, right?"

"...Yes."

"Let's meet and talk," Yu Sheng exhaled lightly, "Should I come to you, or are you coming to me?"

Little Red Riding Hood seemed surprised, taking a moment before quickly responding, "Ah? I didn't plan to trouble you, I was just informing you about the compensation situation, and I intended to..."

"Nonsense, after all you've said, now I'm curious," Yu Sheng interrupted her again, "And the situation is too despicable, even cheating child labor out of money..."

Little Red Riding Hood: "..."

It was evident from her momentary silence that she wanted to retort but couldn't.

Yu Sheng grumbled indignantly for a bit and then suddenly remembered something else, "Right, let me ask you something. Is the Special Service Bureau handling this?"

"Of course they are, after all, it's a commissioned task with a record on the Border Communication platform. If there's a breach of contract or issues involving the hiding and transfer of Mysterious Objects, the officials will definitely investigate, not to mention that now there's been a death. However, their direction and methods of investigation will definitely differ from that of a Spirit Realm detective."

"Then let them do their investigation, and we'll do ours," Yu Sheng waved dismissively, "You haven't answered yet. Should I come to you, or are you coming to me?"

After a two-second silence, Little Red Riding Hood finally spoke, "...I'll come to you. I'm nearby right now, about half an hour away."

"Okay, I'll wait for you at home."

"Alright, and... thank you."

The call ended, and Yu Sheng watched as the screen gradually went dark, exhaling softly.

Then, as he looked up, he saw three little figures sitting neatly on the bed, staring straight at him.

"Trouble~again~"

All three Erins sang in unison, deliberately elongating the tune.

Yu Sheng glared at them and pointed to the one in the middle, "You, not allowed on the bed to sleep anymore."

"Why the hell not?!"

"Why? Because you almost squashed me to death!" Yu Sheng glared, "Besides, threaded steel atop solid rock, dropping from a meter and sixty-seven down to just over sixty centimeters, I'm afraid you'll jump on the bed and put a hole through it. Get down right now."

He wouldn't have mentioned it, but once he did, Erin's eyes instantly reddened (though they were already red), and with a "raow" she pounced on him...

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