"Can you two see that house up ahead?"
Standing before the front door of No. 66 Wutong Road, Yu Sheng raised a hand and pointed at the old little building in front of them, speaking to Hu Li at his side and to Irene, who was cradled in Hu Li's arms.
"Sure," Hu Li said with an easy nod. "Right there in front of us. I can see it when I go out, and when I come back, too."
Yu Sheng nodded, then looked at Little Red Riding Hood, who had come along with them. "Can you see it?"
Little Red Riding Hood opened her eyes wide and looked at the empty stretch ahead, and at the low wall at the far end of the vacant lot. Then she turned and cast a suspicious glance at Hu Li and Irene. "You two really can see it?"
"Looks like you can't," Yu Sheng said, understanding as soon as he saw her face. "Even after I issued you an 'invitation,' standing here you still can't see it."
Little Red Riding Hood spread her hands.
Yu Sheng, meanwhile, began to think.
He was curious about a great many things now—things about himself, things about the foreign domains, things about the Special Affairs Bureau, and things about that Nightfall Valley. And, of course, that included this strange mansion he had been living in for the past two months. So, out of a small measure of "necessary research spirit," he had invited Little Red Riding Hood along on his way home today, wanting to test just how many more oddities the "nonexistent No. 66 Wutong Road" still held.
Now he had his preliminary results.
Hu Li and Irene could see No. 66 Wutong Road; Little Red Riding Hood could not. Even with the "homeowner's" invitation, she was unable to detect its presence.
Yu Sheng mulled it over briefly, and found where the biggest difference between Hu Li and Irene, on the one hand, and Little Red Riding Hood, on the other, lay.
"So... it should be a matter of 'blood'?" He raised his head thoughtfully, his gaze shifting back and forth between Little Red Riding Hood and the other two.
Both Hu Li and Irene had "taken" his blood, which had established a subtle "link" between him and them—and it was through that link that the two of them had also been able to sense his "coming back from the dead." Little Red Riding Hood had no such experience.
That was the most likely reason Yu Sheng could think of at the moment.
Little Red Riding Hood, however, didn't notice the change in Yu Sheng's expression. She was busy looking around curiously.
The setting sun was slowly sinking. In the shadows of the roadside buildings, the outlines of wolves flickered in and out of view. The wolf pack kept watch over the whole block's movements, serving as the girl's eyes and ears.
She had noticed something: from the moment she entered Wutong Road, the deeper she went toward this lot at the far end, the fewer pedestrians there were around her—and by the time she reached the empty lot where "No. 66 Wutong Road" stood, there was no longer a single passerby to be seen.
It was as though some invisible force of repulsion were keeping ordinary people from coming near the mansion.
Yet even her wolf pack could not detect how that force worked. The "environment" of the entire block was so "clean" that, to supernatural sight, it was as clean as a vacuum.
Just then, Little Red Riding Hood suddenly noticed the gaze that had fallen on her. She turned at once, only to see Yu Sheng watching her with a perfectly serious face.
The girl felt a little awkward. "Uh... is something the matter?"
Then she saw Yu Sheng simply hold out his arm. "Have a bite?"
Little Red Riding Hood: "...Huh?"
"Blood. Both Irene and Hu Li have had contact with my blood, and after that some changes occurred, and now they can see No. 66 Wutong Road, too," Yu Sheng explained with great earnestness. "So I was thinking maybe you'd want to try it as well—just as an experiment..."
Little Red Riding Hood's expression turned visibly strange, and she even stepped back half a pace, her look like that of a bristling guard dog. Only after confirming that Yu Sheng truly was motivated by nothing more than pure "research spirit" did she relax a little, though she still wore a face of refusal. "No!"
"It won't upset your stomach," Yu Sheng said. He had actually expected that reaction—inviting someone to gnaw on him the moment he brought it up did sound rather sudden—but he still wanted to make one more try. "Don't you want to see what No. 66 Wutong Road looks like from the outside?"
"I'm not a cat—why would I have that much curiosity!" Little Red Riding Hood took another half step back and turned her head toward Hu Li and Irene. "How does he just come up with things out of nowhere like that?"
In Hu Li's arms, Irene twitched slightly. Confirming there was no one else around, she finally had her chance to speak. "That's just how he is, whatever pops into his head—and then he calls it 'research spirit.' Just ignore him."
"Now that's a bit harsh," Yu Sheng said, displeased. "Am I really that bad?"
Irene said nothing more, only quietly giving off the scent of lotus root from Hu Li's arms.
Yu Sheng: "..."
"Fine, if you don't want to, then don't." After two or three seconds of awkward silence, Yu Sheng gave a dry laugh and waved a hand at Little Red Riding Hood. Then he walked up to the front door of the house—but just as he had unlocked it and was about to open it and go in, he thought of something else. He stepped aside and beckoned to the fox girl following behind him. "Come here and see whether you can open this door."
"Ah? Okay." Hu Li was taken aback for a moment, but she still nodded and stepped forward to grip the handle of the front door.
With a click, the already-unlocked front door swung open with ease.
But in Little Red Riding Hood's eyes, it was a door that appeared out of thin air in the middle of the empty lot, floating near that low wall with its many abstract scribbles.
"Good. At least that makes it easy for you and Irene to come and go without needing me to open the door." Seeing this, Yu Sheng let out a breath of relief. After learning that No. 66 Wutong Road was a "foreign domain" that outsiders could neither observe nor enter, he had begun worrying over a great many details, including but not limited to: no food deliveries could come to the door, no home appliances could be brought in, he couldn't leave an address for online purchases, and the two living with him couldn't come and go freely—and so on. But now he could finally set his mind at rest. At least one of those troubles was gone.
"Come, come in and sit for a while," Yu Sheng said with a smile, holding out a hand to Little Red Riding Hood. "I'll cook in a bit—let's have dinner at home, as thanks for spending the whole day out with Hu Li and Irene."
"It's nothing. You already did half my workbook for me." So Little Red Riding Hood said, but she nonetheless accepted the invitation and stepped into this mansion that did not exist in the real world.
Yu Sheng turned on the living room light. The bright glow scattered the dusk's dimness and quickly warmed the bleak atmosphere of the house.
Then he swiftly put away what he had bought, dug out the ingredients he would need for dinner from the shopping bags, told Little Red Riding Hood to find herself a seat, and turned toward the kitchen.
With a trace of unease and curiosity, Little Red Riding Hood cautiously looked around.
This was her second time coming to this place, and this time she was here as an "invited guest."
She rarely visited other people's homes; the number of times she had gone to various foreign domains far exceeded the number of times she had stepped through someone else's door. Yet on the other hand, she knew clearly that this ordinary-looking residence was in fact a "foreign domain," and that today's "visit"... was essentially a foreign domain expedition as well.
This really was the strangest "expedition" she had experienced since becoming a spirit realm detective. No eerie, twisted scenery. No all-pervading contamination. No illusions disguised as teammates. Only bright lighting and a warm environment, a gentle, friendly fox spirit standing beside her, a doll running off in delight to turn on the television, and the entity of the foreign domain... that powerful entity able to swallow "Hunger" whole... was cooking in the kitchen.
She could even sit at the dining table and do some homework for a while, waiting for the food to cook.
There were simply too many things that didn't fit. She didn't even know which one to gripe about first.
But the rowdy Irene soon left her no time to think much about it—the little doll's racket came from the living room: "Come watch TV! The one in the living room is bigger than the one in the dining room!"
"I have to catch up on my homework." Little Red Riding Hood shook her head, tossing the reply over her shoulder as she walked toward the table. "There's still half a workbook to go!"
"Ugh, you humans have it so hard." Irene, who had already clambered onto the sofa, sighed loudly. "Fox, you want to come?"
Hu Li waved a hand and ambled off toward the kitchen. "I'm going to see if my benefactor needs any help..."
And so she went into the kitchen—then, less than two minutes later, she pushed the door open and came back out, gnawing on a braised chicken drumstick in her hand as she walked.
Little Red Riding Hood, who had just started on her homework, saw this and looked astonished. "...Why are you back out already?"
"Got kicked out. My benefactor said I was sneaking the star anise—if I eat it all, there'll be no way to stew the meat," Hu Li said with an utterly innocent face, then held up the drumstick in her hand as if showing it off. "But my benefactor gave me a chicken drumstick. Want some?"
Little Red Riding Hood hesitated. "Uh... I'll just..."
Hu Li instantly pulled the drumstick back. "If you're not eating, then I'll eat it all."
Little Red Riding Hood: "..."
By now a trace of the fragrance of stir-frying had drifted out from the kitchen, teasing at the appetite.
Little Red Riding Hood thought about it, then reached into her bag, fished out her phone, and dialed a number.
"It's me. I'm not coming home for dinner—I'm eating at a friend's place. Uh, someone I just met; it's safe, it's safe. I'll tell you all about it when I get back. I'll definitely be home before ten. Bye, bye..."
After hanging up, Little Red Riding Hood turned her head and saw Hu Li staring fixedly at her—without ever pausing in her gnawing on the drumstick.
"You can't eat this." Little Red Riding Hood instinctively covered her phone.
She had no idea how that had slipped out.
Hu Li didn't pay that any mind, only asking curiously, "Were you just talking to your family?"
"Yeah."
"Your mom and dad?"
Little Red Riding Hood's expression turned a little unnatural. "Uh... my parents died early. It was someone else at home."
"Oh." Hu Li nodded. Little Red Riding Hood had no idea what had gone through the fox spirit girl's mind in those few seconds, and then she saw her suddenly hold out that nearly finished drumstick again. "Want a bite? Just one small bite."
Little Red Riding Hood: "...?"
She decided she really still found it very hard to understand these... "strange people" living in the foreign domain.
Chapter 76