As he entered the kitchen and shut the door behind him, the noise of the exhaust fan drowned out the chaos around him, and Yu Sheng gradually found peace in his heart.
It was as if the thin wooden door and the clattering sounds of the fan had helped shield him from the bizarre and tumultuous outside world.
He felt he had returned to a place that belonged entirely to him, even pretending that he wasn’t in the colossal and strange "Boundary City" but back in the familiar warmth of his true "home."
This large house was different from his original home in every way, yet this little kitchen closely resembled the structure etched in his memory.
After settling into this new world, he did his best to arrange the kitchen to look familiar.
Every day while cooking, he pretended he was still in his real home, pretending he hadn’t stepped through his own door that morning and into an unfamiliar city filled with bizarre shadows.
Sometimes, while busy in the kitchen, he would almost believe that simply lifting his head would show him the familiar street outside, bathed in the orange and red glow of the sky, with the rosy sunlight dancing upon the exterior walls of his old apartment building...
But the scenery outside would shatter these fleeting illusions.
Now, looking out the window, all he could see was a barren plot of land and some old, low houses nearby.
There were no tall apartment buildings around, just a chaotic mess of utility poles.
The warm, pleasant sky he remembered had not graced his sight for quite some time.
The city’s skies were either glaringly bright or dark and oppressive, leaving him feeling heavy with despair.
Yu Sheng sighed, pulling down the blinds outside, trying not to focus on the night's eerie gloom that never seemed to fade.
He began to wash and chop the vegetables, heating the oil in the pan.
With the aroma of scallions filling the air, he tossed the ingredients into the sizzling pot, and amidst the sounds of cooking, he heard the faint sounds of a TV program coming from outside.
This peculiar city offered various ways to access information, including TV and mobile phones.
In the beginning, his understanding of this “Boundary City” came mostly from TV shows and mobile news.
Even now, this remained one of his vital ways to learn about this "world."
“Yu Sheng! Turn up the TV! I can’t hear it!” a girl’s voice suddenly broke through, startling him so much that he nearly dropped his vegetables out of the pan.
He had almost forgotten about Erin, who was waiting outside.
When he used to cook in the kitchen, nobody would chatter outside!
“Just a minute!” Yu Sheng replied rather bluntly, then couldn’t help muttering under his breath, “... She is quite familiar, isn’t she?”
However, he quickly pulled the corners of his mouth up into a somewhat resigned smile.
Well, it was nice to have some "liveliness" in the house; at least there was some noise.
After a while, Yu Sheng brought out steaming dishes of food and set the plates on the dining table.
He gently increased the volume of the TV by two notches before facing away from it, sitting across from Erin's frame.
He had no habit of watching TV while eating, but he would leave it on as background noise, knowing it wouldn’t bother Erin, who could only see it from a fixed angle.
Erin peeked out from her painted frame, stretching her neck to see the food.
Her gaze flitted from the program to the table as she muttered, “Looks quite lavish...”
“Just home-cooked dishes,” Yu Sheng replied casually. “I enjoy cooking.”
“Oh.” Erin acknowledged, then returned her attention to the TV.
But as Yu Sheng started eating, she couldn’t resist leaning closer again.
After holding back for a while, she finally spoke, “Are you just eating while I watch?”
Yu Sheng lifted his eyes and wiggled his chopsticks in front of Erin's frame, “Want a bite?”
Erin’s eyes widened, but then she hung her head, sulking.
“... Alright, alright, just a formalities.” Seeing her reaction, Yu Sheng sighed and went back to the kitchen, grabbing an empty bowl.
He served some food from his own bowl into it, then placed the offering in front of Erin’s frame, saying, “I left you some—just smelling it’s fine; I’ll eat in the end, anyway.”
Erin frowned at the bowl before her, thinking it over as she jumped off her chair and leaned toward the edge of the frame.
Half her face filled the frame as she looked earnestly at Yu Sheng. “Alright then—thank you, you are quite considerate...”
Yu Sheng nodded as he ate, replying in a muffled voice.
When he raised his head again, he met Erin’s face showing only part of her head visible through the frame.
His gaze shifted back to the bowl of food, and suddenly he felt that something was off...
Erin didn’t notice anything strange.
She found Yu Sheng’s sudden daze puzzling. “What are you spacing out for?”
Yu Sheng quickly focused again, stuffing a couple more bites into his mouth before glancing back at Erin’s frame—
The dark frame, the dark background, the doll-like girl’s face, and the bowl of food in front of the painting.
It felt as if the echoing voice and smiling face from a picture had come to life.
His muscles twitched, but ultimately he couldn’t bring himself to voice the thought lingering in his heart—mainly because Erin could curse quite terribly.
At this point, he could only eat while pretending everything was fine.
Under Erin’s puzzled gaze, he buried himself in his food, trying very hard not to look at the figure representing the unbothered doll across from him...
The atmosphere felt like a funeral gathering.
After finishing his meal with great difficulty, Yu Sheng wiped his mouth and hurriedly cleared away all the cups and dishes in front of Erin’s frame, tossing them into the kitchen sink to soak until he could wash them in the morning.
His back was still hurting; bending over to wash dishes at this point was somewhat burdensome for him.
But while he could afford not to wash the dishes, he certainly couldn’t leave the trash behind.
This time of year, kitchen trash bags couldn’t stay overnight in the house.
He endured the ache in his back and tidied up the refuse, grabbing the bag as he headed for the door.
Curiously peeking from the TV, Erin asked, “Hey, it’s late, where are you going?”
“Do I really have to report to you in my own home?” Yu Sheng replied, annoyed with the overly familiar painting, but he still raised the trash bag for her to see, “Just throwing out the garbage.”
“Oh, come back soon,” Erin’s gaze shifted back to the TV. “In such a big house, I’m scared alone. What if a thief comes in?”
Yu Sheng rolled his eyes, thinking in a ghastly house like this, should someone break in, the first thing they’d see is a ghostly silhouette flickering inside a frame.
The thief would be more likely to flee before Erin even had a chance to scream...
Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to express this in front of Erin.
Shaking his head, he murmured a few complaints before arriving at the door.
He put on his shoes for going out and grasped the doorknob.
With a light twist, he pushed the door open.
For some reason, he suddenly recalled an ordinary morning from two months ago, one of those mornings that felt like any other in his mundane life.
He had been just like now, opening his front door and stepping outside into a massive, breath-stealing, bizarre city he still hadn’t been able to return from—
The strange reflection passed through his mind, and Yu Sheng chuckled at the absurdity, shaking his head as he stepped through the door.
The crisp sound of breaking twigs shattered the silence in the valley.
The cold night wind swept in, carrying with it an unsettling scent of decay and something foul, making Yu Sheng, clad in only a thin shirt, shiver involuntarily.
It took him several seconds to get his abruptly halted mind back in motion.
He stood among the desolate and crumbling rubble, surrounded by what seemed to be an eerie forest cloaked in night, with towering mountains on either side, standing like silent, grotesque giants.
They loomed over the valley, creating a heavy and unbearable sense of oppression.
Yu Sheng felt rigid in the cold night and slowly turned back to where he had come from.
Before him lay a pile of dilapidated bricks and ruins, looking as if it had been an abandoned temple fallen for decades.
A broken door—perhaps it could only be described as a crooked doorframe holding part of a door—stood alone in the ruins, and as the night wind blew, hollow wails drifted from the cracks between the door and the rubble.
Yu Sheng gaped, “What on earth is this...”
Gradually, it dawned on him.
With his motion of "opening the door," everything that had happened two months ago was replaying.
He had again been thrown into an unfamiliar place.
And this time, it was even worse—though that giant and strange "Boundary City" was different from the city he had grown up in, at least it was a modern urban environment that allowed for survival.
But now, the situation was simply grim.
He had been cast into a wilderness.
Before him lay dense forests, with treacherous mountains on either side, and behind him stood a crumbled temple that had likely been in disrepair for who knows how many years.
Yu Sheng glanced around, thinking that this place deserved to have at least thirty to fifty bandits or several wolf demons or fox spirits lurking in this terrain...
And in his hand, the only thing he had was a bag of kitchen garbage he had just brought from home...
“Incredible,” Yu Sheng cursed silently.
But just at that moment, before his fragrant and elegant thoughts could fully emerge, a sudden voice interrupted from deep within his mind—
“Yu Sheng! The TV has no signal! When are you coming back?”
(End of Chapter)