Dimensional Hotel

After dropping Irene off early, Yu Sheng returned to the living room, where Little Red Riding Hood was chatting with a young man in his twenties seated on the sofa. The young man still looked exhausted, evidently worn out from the days spent handling his relative’s funeral arrangements without proper rest.

Noticing Yu Sheng emerge from the bedroom, the young man stood up slightly and greeted him, gesturing toward the steaming cup of milk tea on the coffee table. “Thanks for your hard work. I just bought this.”

“Uh… thank you,” Yu Sheng replied without much ceremony, settling beside Little Red Riding Hood. The two of them sipped the milk tea together.

The young man broke the silence. “Did you find anything?”

Yu Sheng exchanged a glance with Little Red Riding Hood, who, after a brief moment of thought, nodded slightly. “We did uncover some clues… but first, I want to confirm something. How much do you know about your uncle’s ‘work nature’? Specifically, about the ‘peculiarities’ of the items he collected and the situations he dealt with regularly?”

“I know a bit. He mentioned the Association of Strange Objects and even showed me some… relatively ‘safe’ items,” the young man nodded. “I know he dealt with unusual things, sometimes even dangerous ones. Honestly, I’ve always been interested in it. I almost joined the Special Affairs Bureau through their external recruitment program, but my uncle wouldn’t let me. He said I was too curious and had something he called… oh, a spiritual aptitude. Apparently, I’m high-sensitivity, low-stability, which would make it dangerous for me to pursue this field.”

“Your uncle was right,” Little Red Riding Hood sighed. “High sensitivity combined with low stability and excessive curiosity? You’d never make it past the probation period. It’d be far too risky. Since you already know this much, I’ll give you a rough idea of what we’ve discovered. Old Zheng likely became entangled with extremely dangerous contamination and had contact with illegal cults. However, it seems he was merely a victim in all of this. That’s all I can say for now. The Special Affairs Bureau might share more details with you as his ‘family’ in due time.”

The young man sat quietly, saying nothing, or perhaps not knowing what to say. Yu Sheng broke the silence. “In the last period of his life, did your uncle interact with any suspicious individuals or exhibit unusual behaviors? For example, did he suddenly gain new ‘friends’ or develop habits or taboos he never had before?”

“I’m not sure,” the young man said, shaking his head slowly. “My uncle rarely kept in touch with family for over twenty years. He used to volunteer at an orphanage, but something happened—some say it was a relationship issue; others think he was scared by something. After that, he moved here to live alone. I was too young to remember much back then. Everything I know comes from what the older family members told me.”

“A notebook?” Yu Sheng’s interest piqued instantly. “Did you find it? Did you bring it here?”

“I did,” the young man replied. He stood up and went to the TV cabinet, rummaging through a black suitcase. Moments later, he retrieved a thick notebook with a deep blue cover from the very bottom and handed it to Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood. “This is it—I haven’t looked at the contents. It’s exactly as I found it.”

Yu Sheng exchanged a look with Little Red Riding Hood and immediately took the notebook, which was already over twenty years old, and began flipping through it. Most of the entries seemed to be mundane, filled with daily reminders and accounts of his time as a volunteer at the orphanage. Some passages provided a glimpse into the orphanage’s circumstances from two decades ago, but these seemed unrelated to Old Zheng’s death or the current investigation.

Was this notebook merely a “memento” of an aging Old Zheng’s youth, something he wanted to revisit for nostalgia’s sake? As Yu Sheng pondered this, his eyes were drawn to a page he had just flipped past. He quickly turned back to it.

It was a drawing—a pencil sketch made by the notebook’s owner. Though the technique wasn’t particularly skilled, the effort and earnestness behind it were evident.

On the slightly yellowed page, a young woman, perhaps in her mid-twenties, stood by the orphanage’s swing set. She wore a simple long dress and smiled peacefully and gently.

Yu Sheng frowned deeply, his mind instinctively piecing together who this young woman sketched in the notebook could be, how she connected to the late Old Zheng, and why she had appeared in the orphanage where Little Red Riding Hood had once lived. Despite being clearly an adult, she hadn’t worn the attire of a Council employee.

Before Yu Sheng could voice his questions, Little Red Riding Hood suddenly let out a surprised “Huh!”

Without waiting for him to ask, she quickly pulled out her phone and dialed a number. “Long-Haired Girl, can you do me a favor? Go to the East Building’s exhibition hall and take a picture of the photo in the center of the wall. Yes, the one of *Cinderella.’ Take it and send it to me as soon as you can.”

After ending the call, she didn’t have to wait long before her phone buzzed. Yu Sheng leaned in to see the screen, where an image appeared—a photograph of a woman in her twenties, almost identical to the one depicted in Old Zheng’s notebook.

“Who is this?” Yu Sheng asked curiously.

“An old Cinderella from many years ago,” Little Red Riding Hood explained softly, her gaze fixed on the smiling figure in the notebook. “She lived to be twenty-six, the longest lifespan of any orphanage child. After her death, the ‘Cinderella’ role remained vacant for ten years, until a new Cinderella emerged over a decade ago. People say she used her life to temporarily suppress the operation of the ‘Eternal Ball’ subset, though there’s no real evidence to support it.”

Little Red Riding Hood pursed her lips and continued, “It’s said that she was even considering trying a normal life.”

Yu Sheng listened in silence. His eyes drifted to the table not far away, where Old Zheng’s portrait stood quietly. The man, nearing fifty when the photo was taken, had skin that sagged slightly, wrinkles creeping into the corners of his eyes. His weariness seemed to tell the tale of a two-decade-long struggle.

For twenty years, he had sought Strange Objects in an attempt to break a ceaseless curse. In the end, he was defeated by a carefully orchestrated deception. He wasn’t the first to challenge the “Fairy Tale” curse, nor would he be the last.

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood rose to leave. She solemnly handed the notebook back to the young man across from them.

“Thank you for the clue,” Yu Sheng said gravely. “We will seek justice for Old Zheng.”

“Thank you,” the young man replied as he took the notebook. He seemed about to ask something, but perhaps recalling his uncle’s warnings, he held his tongue. Instead, he simply waved at the two detectives. “I won’t see you out. There’s still a lot to sort through here.”

“Alright,” Little Red Riding Hood nodded. Then, as if remembering something, she added, “There are some ‘things’ under the bedroom carpet. While they’ve theoretically lost their power, it’s best not to touch them. Wait for the professionals to handle it.”

“Understood.”

By the time they exited the apartment building, the sky had turned completely dark. Neon lights illuminated the massive, seemingly boundless city. Shadow Wolves escorted them to the rooftop of the nearest tall building. From there, Yu Sheng gazed out over Boundary City. Lights flowed like rivers among the forest of skyscrapers. Beneath the night sky, the vast city buzzed with life.

How many people lived in this strange city? Millions? Tens of millions? Among them, how many were ordinary citizens? How many were detectives and investigators who had encountered the “Other Side”? How many were the city’s protectors and enforcers? And how many lurked in the shadows between those lights, like the tendrils of some chaotic, formless entity, preying on careless victims?

For the first time, Yu Sheng felt that this unfamiliar, peculiar, and even eerie city was alive—breathing and pulsing like a living being.

Little Red Riding Hood broke the silence. “I’ll continue investigating after I get back. I need to visit the headquarters of the Association of Strange Objects and meet with other Spirit Realm detectives and investigators who had contact with Old Zheng.”

“Do you need me to come along?” Yu Sheng asked.

“No,” she shook her head. “I need you to visit the Special Affairs Bureau.”

Yu Sheng frowned slightly. “The Special Affairs Bureau?”

“Yes, to report Old Zheng’s case. While the involvement of Angel Cultist intelligence is sure to catch their attention, your personal presence will likely add weight to the matter.”

Yu Sheng hesitated, uncertain. “… Will it?”

The girl looked at him with exasperation. “Do you seriously lack that much self-awareness?”

Yu Sheng scratched his head with an awkward chuckle before nodding earnestly. “Alright, I’ll go tomorrow.”

The two fell silent for a moment. After a few seconds, Yu Sheng spoke again, thoughtfully. “Do you think there’s a connection between the ‘Dark Angels’ and the ‘Fairy Tale’ domains?”

Little Red Riding Hood pondered the question for a long while before shaking her head. “I have no leads. While many events seem to coincidentally occur simultaneously, the crucial ‘link’ between them is missing. Those Angel Cultists targeted Old Zheng, who sought to break the Fairy Tale curse, using him to lure me into the White Exhibition Hall. But the key question is: what were they after? Was it my identity as a member of the ‘Fairy Tale’ organization, or were they merely looking for a sufficiently potent ‘sacrifice’?

“Ultimately, there isn’t just one ‘Dark Angel’ in the world. We still don’t know which ‘Angel’ those cultists serve, let alone their true purpose.”