Hu Li firmly told everyone that she had buried her parents deep beneath the ground of this forest.
No matter how many small and large pits were scattered around on the surface, the place she buried them must still be there.
Now, she started to dig.
With the strength of a fox spirit, and not affected by hunger, she dug quickly even with her bare hands.
The soft soil was constantly tossed out of the pit.
Yu Sheng and Ai Lin stood nearby, silently watching this scene unfold.
Not far away, Li Lin and his companions, although unaware of the situation, were beginning to grasp something.
Ai Lin sat on Yu Sheng's shoulder, watching Hu Li dig below, unable to resist speaking again, “How about we try again another time? It’s been a while now. Who knows, the Entity of Hunger might emerge again soon and we’ll have to fight it off once more...”
“No, I can feel it... I can sense when it will appear. I’ve been here for many years,” Hu Li said, lifting her head from the big pit. “It’s not in this pit, it should be… nearby.”
Saying this, the fox girl climbed out of the pit and stood in the barren land to judge the direction.
Soon, she continued to dig with great effort at a spot on the ground nearby.
Ai Lin opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, but Yu Sheng gently patted her arm.
“Enough talk, let her dig. If she doesn’t find it, even if she leaves, she’ll be trapped here forever.”
Ai Lin pressed her lips together, but her voice echoed in Yu Sheng’s heart, “I’m not worried about what she might dig up; I’m worried that she won’t dig anything at all.”
“I know,” Yu Sheng answered in his heart.
“Then you...”
“But I believe she will find it.”
Ai Lin fell into silence for a moment. “But you’ve seen her state before. During the worst of the 'Hunger' influence, she could hardly think straight. And considering the scenes from that dream…”
Yu Sheng simply shook his head.
Then he stepped closer to Hu Li, “Do you need help?”
Hu Li shook her head stubbornly while digging rapidly, “No, I can do this myself. I saw… the cloth I buried before, just a bit deeper down.”
Yu Sheng nodded and took two steps back, “Alright, I’ll wait for you here.”
He then brought Ai Lin a bit further back, to a place where they couldn’t see the bottom of the pit, quietly waiting for the fox girl to finish what she needed to do.
Yu Sheng didn’t know how long he had waited.
He calmly and patiently stood by, but slowly felt that every passing second stretched like a year.
He couldn’t help but want to check the situation in the big pit, yet it felt as though his legs were increasingly rooted to the ground.
He wasn’t sure if Ai Lin on his shoulder felt the same; he sensed that the little doll had been tense since a while ago.
“I’ll fix your body for you when we get back,” Yu Sheng broke the silence, trying to divert Ai Lin’s attention.
“Okay, sure,” the doll replied absently.
“But we might not have enough clay at home. I guess we’ll need to use some flour or something. You don’t mind, do you?”
“No, I don’t mind.”
“What about using two sections of lotus root instead?”
“I don’t mind.”
“Are you sure? I mean two sections of lotus root.”
“I don’t… oh wait, I do mind!”
Ai Lin immediately reacted, glaring at Yu Sheng as though she had just realized something.
At that moment, she suddenly noticed the sound of digging had stopped at the bottom of the pit.
It had grown very quiet.
No more soil was being thrown out, and there was no sound from Hu Li either.
Ai Lin froze, turning to Yu Sheng with wide eyes, “Oh no! What if it’s truly empty down there?”
Yu Sheng didn’t say a word and dashed toward the big pit.
He saw Hu Li there.
The fox girl was quietly curled up at the bottom of the pit—her body curled in, holding two fluffy tails, while the rest were wrapped around her like a blanket.
Beside her were two neatly arranged skeletons.
She lay there between the two skeletons, her body gently rising and falling like a young beast nestled beside its mother, fast asleep.
Yu Sheng exhaled quietly and sat down on a pile of rubble next to the pit.
Ai Lin also let out a sigh, resting her head directly on Yu Sheng.
After a few minutes, the fox curled up at the bottom of the pit slowly got up.
She glanced at the two skeletons beside her, and then looked up at Yu Sheng sitting above, a faint smile spreading across her face.
Yu Sheng looked at Hu Li, “Shall we go?”
“Mm, let’s go.”
The fox spirit nodded, then bent down carefully to pluck a sharp, non-human tooth from each skeleton before standing up and coming over.
“Is it alright to just take these?” Ai Lin curiously asked, looking at the two teeth tightly clenched in Hu Li’s hand. “What about the rest...”
Hu Li shook her head, “Just the teeth will do. Mom and Dad said that for foxes… when you bring back the teeth, it means you’ve returned home.”
“Then that’s good,” Yu Sheng nodded, then raised his hand to prepare to open the door to the mortal realm.
But just as he was about to do so, Hu Li seemed to remember something and tugged at his sleeve, “Benefactor, wait a moment, there’s also…”
Without waiting for her to finish, Yu Sheng suddenly remembered and slapped his forehead, “Oh right, there’s something I almost forgot. You all wait for me a moment.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he directly opened another door and slipped inside, leaving Li Lin and his companions stunned.
But he hadn’t been gone long—just a dozen seconds later, another door appeared where the previous one was.
Yu Sheng came out carrying Ai Lin, holding a slightly damaged plastic bag.
Inside were the leftover food items they had found in the ruins of the broken temple.
“Some of it has been spoiled by those monsters, but I brought back whatever was still intact.”
Hu Li’s face lit up with a joyful smile, and she quickly took the plastic bag, counting the items inside twice to ensure everything was there before relaxing.
“Alright, now there’s truly nothing missing. Let’s go home,” Yu Sheng smiled, then reached out his hand to the air beside him, pulling to reveal a door that led to 66 Wutong Road.
The vibrating illusion at the center was the familiar living room. “Li Lin, you three hurry over, let’s head back together.”
“Uh… okay!” Li Lin hurriedly replied, quickly walking over with Little Red Riding Hood.
Xu Jiali followed behind, unable to suppress a strange expression as she glanced at the door Yu Sheng had just opened, momentarily lost in her thoughts before finally speeding up to join them.
As they passed through the door, the chilly wind from the Valley of Hunger was blocked to the other side.
The familiar scent of home brought a sense of peace, making Yu Sheng take several deep breaths as soon as he returned.
Unknowingly, he felt this really was home now.
Hu Li’s eyes widened as she looked around, marveling at this strangely peculiar place.
She had lived in that desolate valley for far too long, and now she found it hard to adjust to this “house.” The intact roof and bright lights left her feeling somewhat disoriented.
After staring for a few seconds, she placed the food she had been holding down and cautiously sat on the floor beside it, keeping an eye on the instant noodles, cookies, and eight-treasure porridge, while occasionally stealing glances around or focusing on Yu Sheng.
Li Lin, Xu Jiali, and Little Red Riding Hood were also observing the place with caution.
They confirmed through the street-facing windows that this was indeed somewhere deep in the old neighborhood of Wutong Road, but judging from their perspective looking outside...
Even the professional special operations agent Li Lin couldn’t recognize which house on Wutong Road this was.
At the same time, an instinctual intuition kept flickering in their hearts, warning them that this place was not truly stable and still harbored an unusual nature.
The three of them exchanged glances, and from their expressions, a hint of contemplation and seriousness was evident.
This place didn’t seem right.
But they couldn’t brazenly take out any device to measure the environment—though the person named “Yu Sheng” appeared friendly enough, the strange methods he used when disposing of the Entity of Hunger and his bizarre ability to open doors to other realms at will all reminded them of one fact: this person was powerful and dangerous.
Provoking someone so enigmatic was unwise.
If this seemingly friendly "human" were truly angered, none of them would likely leave this place alive.
“Is this… your home?” After hesitating for a long time, Li Lin finally broke the silence.
“Yes,” Yu Sheng nodded. “You all can find a spot to sit. I’ll get you some water—today was unexpected, so I didn’t prepare anything for guests. Please don’t mind.”
“Oh, it’s no trouble,” Li Lin quickly waved his hand.
The more friendly Yu Sheng acted, the more unsettled he felt—after all, the scene of the hungry entity devouring itself left a deep impression. “We’ll leave soon, we’ll leave soon…”
He paused and casually added, “By the way, where is this place? Is it still in the city?”
“Of course it is,” Yu Sheng replied, sounding as if it was the most obvious thing. “You can figure it out by looking outside—Wutong Road. Didn’t you come here to watch me?”
Li Lin’s cold sweat broke out: “Um… please don’t mind, we didn’t grasp the situation at that time…”
“It’s no big deal,” Yu Sheng waved his hand, genuinely unbothered. “I was actually trying to find you all but never could.”
Li Lin and Xu Jiali both froze, speaking in unison, “Huh?”
“You were looking for them, right?” Little Red Riding Hood quickly caught on, pointing at Xu Jiali and Li Lin. “I’m just a part-time worker…”
“No, I’m looking for all of you,” Yu Sheng’s expression grew serious. “People like you, ‘professionals.’”
(End of this chapter)