The bonfire party lasted until very late—Yu Sheng even felt that if it weren't for the fact that even children's energy had its limits, Little Red Riding Hood and her siblings could have played for three days and nights without rest.

After all, the "night sky" that "Brother Yu Sheng" manually created for everyone could go on indefinitely.

But no matter what, happy times are always limited, and eventually, the bonfire party came to an end—exhausted children were carried back to their rooms one by one, some had even fallen asleep on the grass or by the roadside from sheer exhaustion. They were all found and brought back by the night watchmen summoned by the King, and dumped onto their beds. The half-grown children of thirteen or fourteen struggled to help adults clean up, but they were quickly shooed away by Teacher Su and the others, on the pretext that "not sleeping at night affects development."

The long-haired princess shot off the fireworks and still wasn't satisfied. She came over to discuss with Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood about having another similar event soon. However, her stash of explosives had clearly alarmed Little Red Riding Hood, who kept questioning her about where she got so many fireworks and where she had hidden them, without getting any answers.

Baili Qing left the party early—not because she didn't fit in or felt awkward, but because her job was so special that every day, every hour, and even every minute had to be meticulously planned. To take two hours off today just to watch fireworks and have a barbecue with the kids was already a rare luxury in her schedule.

The squirrel and the hunter returned to the Black Forest after the party.

Actually, Yu Sheng wanted them to just stay in the "town" since everyone here was more than willing to accept these two new "neighbors" from the forest, but the squirrel and the hunter insisted on going back.

It seemed they had grown accustomed to life in the Black Forest—the squirrel said she needed to smell the mix of dirt and fallen leaves to fall asleep, and needed to go out daily looking for acorns to feel secure. She now liked listening to the wind rustling through the leaves and watching the sunlight speckle through the canopy... Without these, she'd feel very anxious.

The hunter's ties to the Black Forest ran even deeper. He wanted to go back to take care of the house deep within the forest—the one decorated with red capes.

He and the squirrel lived together in that little house now, both planning to renovate it so that it could be a "rest stop" for children adventuring into the forest. And those red capes, they would be collected and brought to the "town" to be displayed in a new memorial hall at the orphanage.

Nevertheless, they both promised to visit the "town" often, just like friends who moved away but still lived nearby, showing up every weekend at the doorstep.

Yu Sheng felt this arrangement was great, as long as they genuinely enjoyed their current situation—that was all that mattered. He believed there was no need to forcefully revert everything back to a perfect form in memory, because memories ultimately change with time. And now... there were things in the present worth cherishing and appreciating.

The surroundings quieted down, the great bonfire in the plaza was almost burnt out, with only embers glowing faintly in the breeze. Hu Li was skewering some pieces of meat on a stick she found who-knows-where, seriously grilling them over the lingering heat of the bonfire.

Yu Sheng lay down on the grass at the edge of the plaza, found a comfortable position on the slope, and looked up at the "night sky."

The sound of a skirt brushing through the grass came from beside him.

Three small puppets tiptoed over like thieves, seemingly planning some mischief, but upon seeing that Yu Sheng was awake, they immediately grinned awkwardly and lay down neatly on his left side.

For the record, Erin, who carried a picture frame, lay on her stomach—because once she lay down, she couldn't get back up.

"Ah, finally some peace and quiet," Erin muttered, "those kids, jeez."

"But you seemed to be having a lot of fun," Yu Sheng glanced sideways, "there were two kids not chasing you, so you deliberately sent another body over to pat them."

"Tsk!" Erin squeezed a sound from between her teeth and nudged towards Yu Sheng's arm, staring at the sky.

After a while, the puppet sighed, "Ah, the quiet night is really nice, too bad there aren't many stars tonight."

"Of course not! This night was handcrafted by me!" Yu Sheng looked at the puppet like she was an idiot, "If you want to see stars, I'd have to manually poke holes in the clouds."

"... then poke them, I want to see stars."

"Too lazy to poke."

"Tsk!"

Yu Sheng ignored the puppet. He waved to Hu Li, called out "Give me a tail," and borrowed a warm, fluffy tail from the demon fox girl, then fell into a deep sleep on the grass with the tail in his arms.

Sleeping under the open sky, with a fox tail as a blanket, under a night crafted by his own hands—while trying his best to block out the chatter of the three nearby puppets.

Yu Sheng slept quite soundly.

He didn't know how long he'd been in a daze, but it must have been several hours when he suddenly felt something in his sleep.

The sound of the wind, whistling, like cold winds blowing through a cave. Snow blew into the house, flickering at the edge of his perception.

The coldness spread.

Yu Sheng abruptly opened his eyes.

The coldness dancing at the edge of his perception suddenly weakened, warmth returned to his body. He saw that he was still lying on the grass in the valley. The distant bonfire had completely extinguished. The square and the "town" were quiet, with no anomalies.

Erin and the two others had fallen asleep sometime during the night, sprawled out on the grass in various positions. Beside him, a bunch of warm white tails were snuggling. Hu Li had curled up in the ball of tails, with only a small part of his body exposed, his head resting against Yu Sheng's arm, ears twitching slightly in the breeze.

Yu Sheng frowned. Even though he had woken up and could instantly distinguish between illusion and reality, the strange feeling that came abruptly in his sleep hadn't entirely dissipated, still flickering at the edge of his perception.

He carefully pushed Hu Li's tails away, sat up on the grass, and began to discern the source of the strange feeling.

Despite his cautious movements, Hu Li woke up instantly — the demon fox girl opened her eyes like a vigilant beast. Her golden-red pupils flashed a gleam in the night, but softened instantly upon seeing Yu Sheng's figure. She lazily stretched within the pile of tails, "Savior, you're not sleeping anymore?"

"Did you hear any sounds?" Yu Sheng asked softly, "Wind, blowing through a cave, woo-woo."

Hu Li immediately paused her stretching, her gaze sharpened.

She stood up, frowned, and listened for a while. Then she casually took her two ears off her head and held them high, sweeping them around like two radars. After a moment, she shook her head at Yu Sheng, "Didn't hear anything."

Yu Sheng's brow remained tightly furrowed.

In the next instant, a realization struck him, "…it's at home!"

He swiftly opened a large door and, while turning, threw a sentence to Hu Li, "Wake Erin up. I'll go home first. There's something in the room at the end of the second floor!"

Without waiting for Hu Li's response, he stepped through the door in one stride.

No. 66 Wutong Road was very quiet. Only the stairs and hallway lights, left on when he left, illuminated the space. Yu Sheng slowly made his way to the second floor. Confirming there were no anomalies elsewhere in the house, he directly approached the room at the end of the hallway.

The seemingly thin wooden door now felt as if it separated another world. However, he could still hear a faint whistling sound through the door panel and feel a slight coldness blowing in through the gap at the bottom of the door.

Yu Sheng grasped the door handle, took a deep breath to steady himself, then pushed the door open.

Cold, whistling wind hit him in the face, along with a few snowflakes carried by the airflow, slapping against his skin.

Yu Sheng stared at the scene within the room in shock.

The room was the same, with the roof, walls, and floor still in place. However, perpetual wind and airflow, like those leaking into a cave, swirled inside the room. Tiny snowflakes, like illusions, materialized out of thin air from the surface of the opposite wall, spiraled across the room, and accumulated in the corners. The snow, half-real and half-illusion, even covered one side of the wall.

Yu Sheng instinctively shivered, then quickly shut the door and went back to grab a down jacket before returning.

He entered the snow-filled room, observing those snowflakes materializing out of thin air from the wall and feeling the cold wind blowing through the wall's surface. His eyes soon fell on the mirror in the middle of the wall.

The mirror reflected his figure while overlaying another scene — a mysterious, snow-covered cave he had seen once before in this mirror.

This room at the end of the hallway had once again overlapped with a cave in an unknown location, and the cave entrance was just a few meters away on the other side of the mirror. Now, the cold wind outside the cave was howling, drifting snowflakes into the cave, and piling up in the room on No. 66 Wutong Road.

Yu Sheng tightened his clothes around him. As he walked past the mirror, his feet made crunching noises as if stepping on snow. This time, he did not hastily touch the strange mirror but went to the corner, carefully observing something fluttering there.

It was a ragged cloth strip.

He reached for the cloth, gently tugged it, and pulled it into "this side of the world."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.