Yu Sheng stared blankly at the little girl with gray-white hair in front of him, gazing at the sharp horns on her head and those familiar, almost colorless light gray eyes, taking at least ten seconds to analyze what exactly was going on before him.The little girl merely looked up at him blankly, her face gradually showing a puzzled expression.
Yu Sheng realized that the girl couldn't see him—she was certainly aware but couldn't see the "stranger" standing before her.
The girl withdrew her gaze, lowered her head, and continued diligently scribbling on the carpet, using a watercolor pen to sketch yet another pair of crooked eyes.
Yu Sheng frowned, suddenly remembering something, and immediately turned to look in the direction from which he came.
The door of the room was tightly shut.
Yet he distinctly remembered that he had pushed the door open to come inside... When did the door close?
Yu Sheng withdrew his gaze and squatted down in front of the girl, reaching out to wave his hand in front of her face.
She showed no reaction.
Yu Sheng lowered his gaze again, looking at the eyes drawn on the carpet by the girl.
For a moment, he seemed to feel as though those eyes had come to life, as though they possessed a certain spirituality, and gazed emptily at the ceiling.
But in the next instant, everything returned to normal.
Half a minute later, realizing he couldn't establish communication with the white-haired girl, Yu Sheng slowly rose to his feet and began moving around the room, curiously observing the space.
The room was simply and warmly furnished, not spacious and not filled with belongings; most of the furniture and daily items were within sight.
Yu Sheng stopped in front of a small table in the corner, seeing a small pencil case and an open notebook on it—the notebook contained handwriting, crooked and skewed.
"Meat, tastes good, broccoli, not good, cola bursts in the mouth, tomorrow going out to play."
Yu Sheng hesitated in front of the desk for quite a while, ultimately unable to bring himself to look through any other contents.
Moreover, judging by the contents of this diary page, Yu Sheng estimated that what was recorded in the rest of the diary might not be very meaningful either...
A faint sound was heard near his ear, and the little girl diligently doodling on the carpet suddenly stood up, clutching the watercolor pen tightly, and staring blankly in the direction of the desk.
Yu Sheng was shocked for a moment, thinking she might have seen him, instinctively raising his hand: "I wasn't peeking at your diary, it's just that this notebook is turned open..."
But the little girl only stared blankly in his direction for a few seconds, then abruptly turned and swiftly ran towards the door, yelling loudly at a small device next to the door:
"Sister Hong! There's a ghost in my room!"
Yu Sheng: "..."
Yu Sheng's expression instantly faltered, then swiftly realized what the "Sister Hong" she called out might mean, as his mind raced, he saw fine prisms suddenly appear in the air in a corner of the room.
The glimmer rapidly expanded, transforming into several intersecting mirror surfaces at angles, and then the mirror rotated, stretching into a vortex-like shape—a slender, pale young woman emerged from within, her black long hair cascading to her ankles, dressed in a white long gown, it was none other than Yu Sheng's acquaintance, the Boundary Affairs representative, Red.
"Ah Qing? What's happening? You said there's something in the room?" The black-haired girl with tightly shut eyes slightly furrowed her brows, "looking" at the little girl before her.
"There's a ghost!" The gray-white-haired little girl (Yu Sheng could now confirm she was childhood Baili Qing) said loudly, "It's wandering around me, and it's peeking at my diary!"
Red slightly furrowed her brows, her perception encompassing everything in the room, yet there was no unfamiliar figure.
"There's no one else here—what does the 'ghost' you mentioned look like?"
"...I don't know. I can't see it." Baili Qing (dragon kid) lowered her head, muttering.
Red seemed momentarily speechless, and then her gaze suddenly landed on the animal carpet covered with eyes.
"...Why are you drawing these eyes again?" Her tone suddenly turned somewhat serious, not reproachful but with a hint of concern.
"I, I saw it again in my dream," Baili Qing (dragon kid) lowered her head, "I saw her crawling toward me, the cocoon breaking from the outside bit by bit... It got darker and darker around, I saw... I just saw her eyes..."
Red suddenly reached out her hand, placing it on the gray-white hair of the little girl.
"Later, you should go to the examination room and tell the doctor there what you've been seeing in your dreams recently."
"...Will there be injections?" Baili Qing (dragon kid) nervously shrank her neck, "Can I just take medicine?"
Red's expression showed a touch of helplessness: "...No injections, no medicine, just a check-up."
"After the check-up, can I have ice cream?"
"No, you've already had far too much recently. Staff members said you've learned to exploit time gaps and specifically go to each person during shift changes to ask for ice cream, eating as many as a dozen a day—continuing like this will upset your stomach."
"But dragons aren't afraid of stomach aches!"
"You're not a dragon yet, you're just a dragon kid."
"Oh..."
Yu Sheng listened to the two of them conversing beside him, his expression becoming indescribably strange.
Especially when he couldn't help but visualize Baili Qing's face with the ironclad expression.
Thinking of this, Yu Sheng couldn't help but take another look at the white-haired girl in front of him, and ended up with a head full of question marks — such a normal child, who loves ice cream, doodles on the carpet, babbles nonsense, and doesn't like broccoli...
How could she turn into an Ironclad Expression in the future?
...Besides, speaking of which, what is this place? A time fragment from bygone years? A historical illusion sedimented beneath Boundary Land? Is this also caused by that solidified rift?
Yu Sheng quickly speculated in his mind, although he couldn't quite determine if the scene in front of him was a real "time fragment" or just some kind of illusion, there was no doubt that he ended up here due to the influence of that "solidified lightning."
Meanwhile, Sister Hong, standing in front of Baili Qing, waved her hand slightly.
A mosaic of mirrored chaos appeared in the air.
"I'm going to see Kant now. We've already decided to check again on that 'dormant pod' you were in before. Go to the examination room to see the doctor in half an hour, don't be late — if you see any illusions or hear any strange sounds before then, call me directly, and I'll come back immediately."
"Okay~"
Sister Hong nodded, turned, and walked into the mosaic of mirrored chaos.
The young dragon Baili Qing stood in place for a while, staring blankly without knowing what she was thinking, then suddenly bent her body slightly, bared her sharp teeth, grabbed a watercolor pen, and started waving it wildly at the air beside her, making low growling sounds.
Yu Sheng was stunned for about 10 seconds before realizing she was threatening the ghost in the room — she still thought there was a ghost in her room.
After swinging a few times like this, the girl casually tossed the watercolor pen aside, showing a thoughtful expression, then pushed the door open and walked out of the room.
Yu Sheng was left dumbfounded, finding himself completely unable to comprehend the thoughts of a child.
After hesitating for a moment, he decided to follow Baili Qing (the young dragon).
But just as he was about to step away, a slight movement in the corner of his eye suddenly made him stop.
Among the graffiti covering the carpet, there was a pair of eyes that just blinked.
Yu Sheng stood still, tilting his head slightly, with an expression as if he'd seen a zombie.
"Huh?"
The eyes on the carpet lay quietly, all motionless.
Yu Sheng thought for a moment and took a bottle of medicated oil from his pocket...
The pair of eyes among the carpet's graffiti suddenly blinked twice wildly, leapt off the carpet, and quickly climbed onto the opposite wall.
"You're human, huh!" The wobbly, slightly uneven and polygonal eyes drawn in watercolor spoke with Baili Xue's voice, "What were you thinking!"
"My travel agency has a pragmatic enterprise culture here," Yu Sheng put away the medicated oil, raised an eyebrow at the eyes, unable to suppress his curiosity and surprise, "Why can you see me?"
"I have good eyesight." The abstract doodle eyes wobbled on the wall.
"Baili Xue?" Yu Sheng frowned and tentatively confirmed, "Is it the Baili Xue I know?"
"...Yes."
"Why are you here?" Yu Sheng was somewhat surprised, "I mean, this time fragment..."
"I don't know," Baili Xue answered frankly, "I just got dazed for a moment and when I came around, I was already here, also seeing you sneaking around the room — I couldn't figure it out either, then I saw that vampire old lady suddenly rush in, and it made me not dare to speak or move..."
Yu Sheng's expression was difficult to maintain as he frowned, he glanced around and confirmed with the other party: "Is this really the place where you and Baili Qing lived as children? Was that scene just now really something that happened back then?"
"The situation... might be a bit more complicated than you think," Baili Xue's tone carried some hesitation for some reason, but still affirmed Yu Sheng's words, "We... Sister lived here for a long time."
Yu Sheng still frowned, and just as he was about to ask something more, he saw Baili Xue jump down from the wall and crawl quickly along the ground to his feet in an odd posture: "How about it? Wasn't my sister cute as a child?"
Yu Sheng: "..."
"Just say she was cute, turning out wrong happened later."
"...So how did she turn out wrong?" Yu Sheng finally couldn't hold back, "How did she become someone who keeps a straight face all day..."
"The old lady can't raise kids." Baili Xue quickly said.
Yu Sheng had a belly full of words he wanted to say, but they all got stuck in his throat and he swallowed them back down.
Then he started to consult with the other party about the current situation.
"What exactly is this place? Do you have any suggestions on what to do next?"
"This is a special containment facility established by the Council — at this time the Special Service Bureau hadn't separated out, it was still a special unit managed directly by the Council, as for what's next, I think we can..."
Baili Xue suddenly stopped speaking.
In that moment, Yu Sheng unexpectedly saw a sudden tension and panic in the abstract eyes drawn by a child.
"What hap..."
"Sister went to the examination room! The old lady went to find Kant, so this time she's going to the examination room alone...it's today, it's this time!" Baili Xue suddenly appeared extremely anxious, "Hurry, Yu Sheng, go find her — something's about to happen!"