"Little Red Riding Hood, you’ve grown up so fast. Grandma has recently been reminiscing about when you were very, very small."
"At that time, you were still in swaddling clothes, and when your parents brought you to live on the mountain, you were just... this tiny. I was worried you might not survive, but you turned out to be really tough and gradually grew up..."
The elderly lady gestured with her hands, recalling the old times.
Little Red Riding Hood was also visibly moved, her lips trembling as if she wanted to speak, but then she seemed to think of something and hesitated before closing her mouth again.
The old lady looked a bit disappointed to see this.
"It’s getting dark. Little Red Riding Hood, you should go down the mountain with these brothers and sisters. Grandmother’s wooden hut isn’t a good place to spend the night."
"I’ll eat the pastries on the table in a while... I won’t waste your mother’s kindness..."
The old lady turned to Su Li and the others with a request, "It’s getting dark, and the road down the mountain is difficult. Could you help me take Little Red Riding Hood down?"
"I would be grateful to you."
Si was the first to say, "Of course, we will protect Little Red Riding Hood and make sure she’s not carried off by the big bad wolf."
Little Red Riding Hood glanced at the food on the table and seemed reluctant to leave, but at Grandma’s stern expression, she couldn’t muster any words of rebuke and gloomily agreed.
The girl who couldn’t help but scream earlier had already been eager to leave.
As it grew darker, the whole forest was eerily silent, raising fears that something might pounce on them from the dark shadows at any second.
"We should hurry up; it’s getting darker by the minute," the girl couldn’t help but say.
Emotions are infectious, and with one jittery girl among them, the men were still okay, not easily swayed by other’s feelings.
But the girls couldn’t help but also become tinged with nervousness.
At that moment, a sudden change occurred.
Just like the last time, they heard a rustling sound, but before anyone could heighten their alertness, the event had already taken place.
A medium-sized black dog burst out from the dark woods.
Before anyone could react, the wolf leapt from the open window into the wooden house.
What happened next was utterly astonishing.
The wolf neither attacked Little Red Riding Hood nor the old lady inside the house; instead, it wolfed down the food on the table, stuffing it all into its belly.
"This wolf seems a bit different..." Anian muttered to himself, dumbfounded.
Everyone present was shocked by the wolf’s peculiar behavior.
Could it be that animals have started to like human food now?
Only Su Li noticed that the young wolf looked back at the old lady with a reluctant gaze.
Indeed, the seemingly large wolf was actually an underage cub.
Judging by the cub’s shiny fur, it seemed to have been well cared for.
Startled twice in one day, plus colossal exertion and no sustenance, the group of outsiders was already exhausted.
They managed to get Little Red Riding Hood back to the village with the last of their energy, and then Si and the others were too tired to take another step.
Exchanging a few belongings for some silver coins, they immediately rented a large communal room nearby to settle down for the night.
By that time, there wasn’t much choice but to simply wash up quickly and lie down.
The next day, after Su Li and the others got up, they hadn’t even had a chance to fill their bellies.
No sooner had they stepped out of the small inn than they heard the elated voice of a hunter who had gone to the outskirts early in the morning.
"Lucky day, I stepped out and found a wolf that must have eaten something and died from poisoning."
"Look at this fur, skinning it would surely fetch a high price."
The street vendors, who had already set up their stalls waiting for business, also became eager and started inquiring about the hunter’s find.
"People were saying that they saw a wolf’s shadow in the outskirts, but I never thought it was true, and that you would actually catch it. You’ve done a service to the people."
The hunter, too, happily chatted with the people around him, saying, "Exactly, I just heard that there were wolves in the outskirts, so I set out early in the morning to take a look. I never expected it wouldn’t take much effort, the wolf met its own demise."
A group of outsiders, standing at the door of the small inn, looked on with a vacant expression, their eyes fixed on the wolf slung over the hunter’s back.
Yanyan couldn’t help but be the first to speak, "This, this wolf couldn’t be the one we saw yesterday evening... It ate a lot of human food..."
Rourou followed in a daze, whispering, "That hunter just now said... this wolf was... poisoned... "
Si and the others trembled at Rourou’s words, as the image of the wolf devouring the old lady’s food on the table flashed through their minds.
The more they thought about it, the more terrifying it seemed. It couldn’t be as they were imagining, could it?
All morning, these Little Cuties were dispirited, silent, and spoke to no one.
Even when they were so hungry they could hardly stand it, and finally got to eat steaming-hot food, they all chewed as if it were flavorless wax.
Except for Su Li, who ate heartily and carefree, the rest of them had profound worries in their hearts.
By afternoon, the residents on the street were spreading the word again.
The old lady who lived in the little wooden house on the mountainside outside town was gone.
Mr. and Mrs. Green from West Street had already rushed over, and Little Red Riding Hood had also put on the Little White Hat.
Oh, that old lady was Mrs. Green’s own mother. They say she fell seriously ill, couldn’t bear it for a moment, and hung herself from the house beam.
But this old lady, as plain as she seemed, actually had some assets.
They say Mrs. Green would inherit a sum of money, not too small an amount.
Everybody was sighing that Mr. Green wouldn’t need to have a finger chopped off by the casino people anymore, and those bad debts of their family could now be paid off.
It was hard to tell whether this was good or bad.
Hearing everyone on the street discussing it, Si suddenly said, "Let’s go take a look too."
Nobody objected, following Si silently and headed over to the little wooden house they had visited just the day before.
In the little wooden house, the kind old lady who used to smile at them was no more. Instead, there was a pair of unfamiliar middle-aged men and women, as well as the familiar Little Red Riding Hood...
No, it was Little White Hat now; her hat wasn’t red anymore.
The couple must be Mr. and Mrs. Green the people on the street talked about.
Mrs. Green was genuinely sobbing, tears streaming down, seemingly unstoppable.
Little White Hat had a face filled with sorrow, while Mr. Green looked impatient, his eyes roving restlessly through every corner of the wooden house.
Suddenly, he got up and began rummaging through the house, "Who knows what else the old hag might have hidden away besides what she left us..."
Mr. Green’s words immediately infuriated Mrs. Green, who flew at her husband as if mad, beating him.
"It’s all your fault, all your fault, if it weren’t for you, my mother wouldn’t have..."
Mr. Green was angered too, pushing Mrs. Green to the ground and shouting loudly, "How can you blame me? You’re the one who did it all... but to be honest, that old hag lived long enough, living any longer would just be a waste of food; better she gives us a helping hand one last time."