CHAPTER 479: CHAPTER 479: THIS PUPPET HAS A FEW TRICKS UP HER SLEEVE

After leaving the Special Service Bureau, Yu Sheng didn’t go straight home. Instead, he wandered around the city center for a while.

It had been quite a long time since he returned—although when he was in the Feiyu Star Domain, he could open a door to Boundary City at any time, the series of events there left him with little free time. Even those few times he came back were rushed, often just appearing at the Special Service Bureau before returning, leaving no time to wander leisurely here.

He felt quite sentimental about this—he vividly remembered how, when he first arrived in this eerie giant city, everything was so unfamiliar and dangerous to him. Even every street, every building, every shadow seemed to exude an indescribable eeriness and coldness to him. Yet, as days passed by one after another, he somehow got used to living here.

The shadows of those buildings hid strange anomalies invisible to the naked eye, yet there were also many bustling ordinary people just trying to make a living. At night, the city seemed like a vast, eerie living entity, but now, the "living" parts of it no longer repelled him. There were Exotic Realms, entities, and many inexplicable phenomena here, but aside from those, there was also vibrant life flowing vigorously.

Yu Sheng liked this lively place—he had always liked vitality, so when he saw greenery in the valley before, he was genuinely happy.

He first went to a supermarket to replenish some groceries and daily necessities for home. He also bought new fur care lotion for Hu Li—a lot of bottles at once, because caring for nine tails is really tedious, and that silly fox would use half each time while eating half, making it consume exceptionally fast.

Later, he went to a home improvement store and picked out a few simple doors on sale to "enchant" in the future, leaving the delivery address as the collection point next to No. 66 Wutong Road.

With time to spare, he also went to a mall, planning to buy some small gifts for Erin.

He was now standing at the counter, waiting to pay.

It was summer vacation, and also the weekend, so the mall was extraordinarily lively. Everywhere he looked, there were young people out shopping during their break, and quite a few of them even looked like middle school students. Yu Sheng stood at the back of the line somewhat bored, observing the surrounding crowd, wondering if he might spot Changfa and Snow White—

Of course, he didn’t see them, since such coincidental matters weren’t likely to happen every day.

But as he was looking around restlessly, Yu Sheng suddenly felt a gaze fall upon him.

He sharply detected this gaze and looked up to see the owner of the gaze standing not far away without any attempt to hide, just staring at him from a few meters away.

It was an unfamiliar young woman—her long black hair cascaded over her shoulders, her skin white as porcelain, her features refined and dignified, her appearance outstanding, even to a somewhat... unreal extent.

Of course, if she were simply a pretty young lady, it wouldn’t be a big deal, considering that the Nine-Tailed Fox at home was prettier than the one in front of him. What Yu Sheng really cared about was another point—

First, she was staring this way; second, on this scorching day, the stranger was wrapped tightly all over, wearing a long black dress with long boots, even wearing long black silk gloves on her hands, only her head exposed outside, making her look somewhat out of place; third...

She wasn’t breathing, nor did she have a heartbeat.

Yu Sheng raised his eyebrows.

Having returned from life and death multiple times, frequently replenishing his vitality with Hu Li’s cooking, and regularly consuming all sorts of peculiar items, his physique had long become extraordinary, along with his perception abilities—although not reaching the level of Hu Li’s Divine Sense projection or Luna’s radar sweep, detecting a "non-human" entity in such close proximity was still possible.

Especially such characteristics closely related to "vitality" like breathing and heartbeat.

The lady, as delicate as a porcelain doll, took the initiative to walk over—she evidently noticed the change in Yu Sheng’s gaze yet approached calmly, extending her hand: "Hello, Mr. Yu."

Yu Sheng hesitated, cautiously raising his hand while frowning: "Do we know each other?"

"Not yet, but we will soon."

The black-haired lady smiled, the arc of her smile so perfect, yet seemingly lacking the warmth of a living person.

Yu Sheng happened to grasp the other person’s hand at this moment, but he instantly froze.

Through the thin silk glove, he felt the same temperature as a normal person, and... the unique sensation of ball joints.

"My name is Marin, from Alice’s Cottage."

Yu Sheng’s eyes widened slightly, but just as he was about to say something, the black-haired lady before him disappeared like a dream in a moment of daze.

In the next second, the noisy sounds of the mall and the music returned around him, and Yu Sheng only then belatedly realized that the area around him seemed to have been in some kind of eerie stasis earlier—it seemed to have happened the instant the black-haired lady walked over, yet he hadn’t noticed it at the time.

Yu Sheng blinked, awakening from the brief dazed moment as if from a dissipated dream, subconsciously searching for the self-proclaimed "Marin" Alice Puppet, but couldn’t find her figure, nor a trace of her presence.

But then he felt something was amiss, looking down only to find himself clutching an item—that was the puppet’s hand encased in a long black glove.

Yu Sheng was completely dumbfounded.

...Wait, what’s going on here? What happened? What does this mean?!

In that moment, three existential questions popped into his mind, as he couldn’t figure out why a girl resembling an Alice Puppet came over, greeted him, and then vanished without a trace, leaving something behind in her wake—was there some hidden meaning here? Or is this some unique company culture at Alice’s Cottage? Like leaving a souvenir on a first encounter...

Before he could figure it out, he was interrupted by an urging voice from behind, so he quickly snapped back to reality. Realizing that no one around seemed to notice the earlier scene, he swiftly stuffed the item into his pocket, then headed to the cashier to check out with his recently purchased goods.

...

At No. 66 Wutong Road, Yu Sheng pushed the door open and entered his home.

Hu Li was in the dining area wielding a broom, cleaning while picking up her own recently shed fur. Luna was nowhere to be seen, judging by the time she was probably farming in the valley. Sounds of the TV came from the living room, occasionally interspersed with the mindless chortling of a small puppet.

As soon as Yu Sheng stepped inside, Hu Li was the first to greet him, her tail swishing with the wind: "Savior, you’re back! Did you..."

Before she could finish, Yu Sheng had already thrust the large bag of snacks he was carrying into her hands.

The demon fox girl’s eyes immediately lit up like stars, and as she received the snacks her tail spun like a wind-fire wheel, in an instant scattering the dust and fox fur she had just swept away all over the floor...

Yu Sheng could only smile wryly, ruffling her fox head, before turning to walk into the living room—Erin, who was on the sofa, had already heard the commotion. A small head peeked out from next to the TV cabinet, and the sound of the puppet came from the staircase direction: "Yu Sheng, you’re finally back! I have to tell you, this rock ball is simply indestructible..."

The main theme here is misdirection; she’s literally everywhere.

Yu Sheng was still thinking about the Alice Puppet he encountered at the mall, but watching Erin pop out from every corner of the house, he couldn’t help but relax. With a smile, he bent down and picked up the little puppet who was clambering up his leg—judging from the weight, it was probably made of super-light clay—and brought her over to the sofa.

After a moment’s hesitation, he decided not to mention the puppet who called herself "Marin," and instead pulled a small box out of the shopping bag, placing it in front of Erin.

"What’s this?" Erin asked curiously, her eyes lighting up visibly with excitement, "...Is this for me?!"

"Yeah, it’s a phone watch, the best one available," Yu Sheng said with a smile. "Originally I wanted to ask the Special Service Bureau for something similar to the high-tech gadget I have, but Baili Qing said there’s never been a Spirit Realm detective or investigator exploring Exotic Realms while wearing a kid’s phone watch, so there’s no demand for one..."

But by this point Erin was too engrossed in her new gift to pay attention to Yu Sheng’s explanation. She quickly unboxed it and started fiddling with the contents—a children’s phone watch that was almost as big as her hand, with the watch face covering nearly a third of her face, yet the proportions were just about the same as ordinary people holding a phone.

The little puppet turned on the watch and began poking at the screen. Those tiny touchscreen icons, which might be too small and challenging for adult humans to operate, were a perfect fit for her.

After all, her fingers were as slender as thicker bean sprouts...

The little puppet was enamored with her new gift.

Although she didn’t usually display good manners, she was anything but hesitant in expressing gratitude: "Thank you, Yu Sheng, you’re so nice! I love it!"

Yu Sheng chuckled, patting the little puppet on the head, then hesitated for several seconds before finally speaking up: "There’s one more thing."

Erin was still engrossed with her phone watch, fiddling around without looking up: "Hmm?"

"I met someone at the mall today, a puppet."

Erin’s head snapped up instantly: "...What?!"

"A puppet, who claimed to be from Alice’s Cottage, named Marin."

Erin was momentarily stunned, then the puppet who had been watching TV next to her leaped over: "Really? Truly one of the sisters from the Cottage?! Oh my gosh, finally someone’s here—so what happened next? Did you tell her about me? Didn’t she come back with you?"

Yu Sheng was bombarded with her flurry of questions, and it took him a while to get a word in: "Hang on, let me explain—she approached me first, but before I could say anything, she just vanished."

Erin froze: "...Vanished?"

"Yeah, vanished, but she left something behind, literally..."