Hu Li was full and packed the remaining plates of food into her tail. She then let out two satisfied belches, rolled over into a fluffy little fox, curled up on Yu Sheng's lap, and started to doze off.Erin suddenly became interested in the serving hatch set up next to the dining table. When the conveyor inside stopped, she took advantage of people's inattention and directly crawled into the passageway. Less than 10 minutes later, she was brought back from the kitchen.
Yu Sheng was already accustomed to these spontaneous actions of the little one. He absentmindedly stroked the head of the little fox curled up on his lap, looking at Baili Qing across from him. "I bet you have a ton of things you want to say."
Baili Qing opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Bai Lixue floated to the edge of the table in front of Yu Sheng. "This time you've really become the living dad of Boundary Land!"
Yu Sheng's expression visibly twitched. He resisted the urge to pull out a bottle of essential balm from his pocket, looking at those big blinking eyes on the table. "…Have you been a bit too lively lately?"
Baili Qing tapped her fingers on the table, slightly warning her "sister," before nodding lightly to Yu Sheng. "I just remembered something… A long time ago, I had someone investigate your records, and we discovered something strange. There is a record of you in the population management files of Boundary Land, but your registration date is bizarrely early… even before the archive management system was activated."
Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow.
"You've never told me about this situation. What else did you investigate?"
"We checked everything you can think of," Baili Qing exhaled softly, feeling a peculiar relief that finally everything had been said to the "main subject" in front of her. "Regarding yourself, No. 66 Wutong Road, the articles you published on the platform, your life trajectory...
"Many things either couldn't be investigated or seemed to 'naturally' appear in seemingly reasonable places the moment we started our investigation, as if…"
Baili Qing paused, seemingly at a loss for a suitable way to describe it, and at this moment Bai Lixue filled in the latter half of the sentence for her—
"It's as if the entire Boundary City is helping you 'complete the setting.' No matter what we want to investigate, this city would make your existence seem reasonable at the first opportunity. Sometimes, it's so reasonable that it makes things appear strange… So later, as we investigated, we stopped. Afraid of not finding anything and equally afraid of finding something."
Yu Sheng stroked his chin, his expression enigmatic. "Seems like I've really caused quite a bit of trouble for you."
Baili Qing thought for a moment and decided to stay silent.
Yu Sheng on the opposite side suddenly changed the topic. "Let's not talk about this for now. Let's discuss the Fault. Any changes recently? Have things been coming up from below these last couple of days?"
This was just a casual question, but he hadn't expected Baili Qing to nod her head immediately as soon as he finished speaking. "Yes."
Yu Sheng: "Oh… really?!"
"It's not large-scale erosion like the Lodaxim High Wall, but small 'drifting objects' have been appearing intermittently over the last couple of days," Baili Qing nodded earnestly. "Including some damaged armor fragments, some suspected man-made structures falling off from buildings, and some… indefinite shadows."
As Yu Sheng listened, his expression turned serious, and he leaned forward slightly. "Has that Knight identified them?"
Baili Qing nodded. "Identified, some of the items can be confirmed to originate from the 'Kingdom' behind the Lodaxim High Wall, but some items are too severely twisted, so they couldn't be recognized."
"By the way," Bai Lixue added, "he seemed very anxious when he saw those fragments."
Yu Sheng pinched his chin, his expression slightly gloomy. "I'd be anxious too. These items seem bad news…"
"Yes, judging from the fragments that have emerged from the Fault over the last couple of days, we suspect that the Knight's homeland might be undergoing some… dire changes," Baili Qing slowly explained. "According to Kant, he believes that the space-time behind the Lodaxim High Wall might be disintegrating… perhaps it has already disintegrated."
"Based on the conclusions reached at the Captain's side, the things emerging from the Fault now are either escaping from the Old World, or the Dark Angel burrowing into the Old World is starting to fragment and disintegrate. The 'Lodaxim High Wall' is likely the second situation," Yu Sheng pondered aloud while speaking. "…I need to check it out. Is it possible to enter the Fault now?"
"It requires a little preparation time," Baili Qing immediately replied. "The directors just finished a 'clean-up,' and need some time to stabilize the 'Requiem' system of the Council Tower. It shouldn't take too long, within a day."
"A day… that'll work," Yu Sheng nodded. "We can take some rest at home too. I'll head back and wait for your message."
"Alright."
Yu Sheng stood up, holding the already snoring fox ball, and also called to Freyia still floating in the air. Then, he casually opened a door leading to No. 66 Wutong Road.
Just like usual, he left with his "family," picking up a packet of napkins from the table on the way out.
Baili Qing remained by the dining table, staring quietly at the direction where the illusionary door vanished, silent for a dozen seconds, seemingly lost in thought or simply zoning out.
After Freyia left, the room grew dim. Bai Lixue floated to the door and clumsily hit the switch, turning on the chandelier in the booth, and then slowly floated back, swaying before her sister.
"Sis, what are you thinking?"
Baili Qing blinked, lowered her head, and absentmindedly nudged the dishes in front of her with chopsticks. "…Nothing, just too much information. I need to sort things out."
"Sis, have some broccoli. It's good for you."
"I don't like broccoli."
"Hehe…"
"Why are you laughing?"
"Nothing," Baili Xue swayed slightly, "I just think instead of you worrying alone here, it might be better to find a few more people to worry with you... Why not call the old lady first? Video call, video call~"
Baili Qing looked at those floating eyes beside her with a bizarre expression: "Why are you so eager?"
"I just want to see if such a big event can scare her into opening her eyes..."
"I advise you not to expect that," Baili Qing muttered as she pulled out her phone, "Nothing good ever happens when she opens her eyes."
As she spoke, she dialed Red's number. After two rings, the screen lit up with Red's somewhat pale face appearing on the screen. The background of the video showed a bedroom with scarlet tapestries, classic and gloomy.
"Ah Qing? Why did you suddenly decide to video call me?" The vampire girl's face bore a smile, her tone slightly teasing, "Miss me?"
"Red, I need to tell you something," Baili Qing said seriously, "Yu Sheng has returned from the Lost Home, and he's confirmed his ancient god nature there..."
Red: "...?!"
...
Just as Yu Sheng settled on the couch for more than two minutes, he sneezed a few times, startling the fox that was sleeping curled up on his lap. The little fox jumped up and rolled on the sofa, transforming into human form, and rubbed her eyes groggily at Yu Sheng: "Savior? Caught a cold?"
"No, no," Yu Sheng rubbed his nose vigorously, "Maybe some fur got in."
Hu Li hurriedly grabbed her big tail and checked it thoroughly: "...It's not shedding much lately."
Yu Sheng chuckled and reached out to pet the fox girl's head a couple of times.
He then got up from the sofa and walked towards the stairs.
Hu Li immediately followed: "Savior, where are you going?"
"To look at the second floor," Yu Sheng said casually, "The Fault isn't accessible for now, and we can't just wait around at home—since we're idle, might as well send a group message to the Angel cluster."
Upon hearing this, Erin, who was about to pick up the remote control to watch TV, instantly became alert, threw the remote to the side, and jumped to the floor: "I'm going too, I'm going too!"
Then, another Erin emerged from the sofa gap, picked up the remote, and continued watching TV on the coffee table.
Yu Sheng took Hu Li and the Little Puppet (the real one) upstairs to the second floor.
Walking along the once familiar staircase and corridor, looking at the furnishings and wallpaper that were particularly dear, things he had seen countless times, a peculiar... feeling emerged within Yu Sheng today.
Familiarity? Nostalgia? Comfort? Or all of the above?
This is No. 66 Wutong Road, where he lives, whether in the memory of that warm seaside town or in the boundless giant city he now finds himself in, he lives here.
Yu Sheng couldn't articulate the feelings that surfaced within him, but clearly, after going on the Lost Home, meeting that Captain, and learning many things... many things looked different in his eyes.
"Hey Yu Sheng!" The Little Puppet beside him called out noisily, "I just had a connection! From a mysticism standpoint, isn't this house kind of like your tomb?"
Yu Sheng: "..."
Apparently, many things looked different in the eyes of this noisy little creature too.
He casually picked up the Little Puppet and placed it on his shoulder: "What's the point of such good imaginative power?"
"Hehe!"
Ten minutes later, Erin and Hu Li were standing in the corner of an empty room at the end of the corridor, watching Yu Sheng busily at the mirror facing the door. He was bent over, drawing and doodling on the floor with a marker, creating a bunch of mysterious symbols that could astound the creator.
Erin: "...Do these drawings really work?"
"You have to believe in the power of belief," Yu Sheng said, squatting on the floor, drawing mysterious symbols without looking up, "Besides, you taught me this set of stuff, didn't you?"
"...I feel what I taught you initially wasn't quite like this," the Little Puppet stared wide-eyed, "Your creative freedom parts are too free... Not to mention, what does that string of curvy symbols in your arc mean?"
Yu Sheng stopped to look up, walked over, and added a series of content he found useful after the pile of runes.
"This section mainly reflects the author's longing for home..."
Erin: "...?"