So, when Ye Lan regained consciousness, he was no longer in Angela's Library. Endless darkness obstructed his view of the surroundings, but a suffocating, rotten stench constantly assailed his nostrils, telling him this was definitely not a good place.
Ye Lan looked around. There were no stars in the sky, not even the glow of a lamp. He figured he must have woken up during the few days Angela was reclaiming the remaining Seed of Light.
If that was the case, then unless Angela had been so angry with him that she'd deliberately thrown him into this unknown place, it must have been some kind of unforeseen accident.
As he mulled it over, Ye Lan reached out to feel his surroundings. His hand pressed down on something soft and viscous.
The slick, sticky texture, combined with the overwhelming stench, made him feel nauseous. Though he couldn't see, Ye Lan guessed he had probably fallen into a garbage dump, or even worse, some kind of corpse pit. It was best not to dwell on the specifics.
In any case, the most urgent thing for Ye Lan to do was to get out of here and find a place to wash off the filth he was covered in.
Pushing himself up from the unknown muck, Ye Lan fumbled in the dark until he found a wall. He followed it in one direction, and after what felt like a long time, he touched a door.
He had no idea what kind of person lived behind it, but people in the City were generally not the friendly type. Preparing himself for a fight with whoever opened the door, Ye Lan knocked.
Knock, knock, knock.
After what felt like a short wait, he heard very light footsteps on the other side of the door.
"P-please... who's out there?"
A faint, delicate voice came from behind the door. Judging by the sound, it was a young girl.
"Ah! Thank goodness someone's home. I'm a company employee. I was out on business during the few days when it was always bright, but then the whole City suddenly went pitch black."
"I couldn't make it home in time, so I was just fumbling around in the dark looking for a safe place, and I even fell into what might have been a garbage dump or something."
"I finally found your place. Please, I beg you, be kind enough to open the door and let me rest for a bit. Even just standing in the doorway would be fine."
Although Ye Lan's words were heavily embellished, it wasn't a complete lie. The little girl on the other side of the door had never encountered someone who could spin a tale so effortlessly. She quickly opened the door for him.
"Th-that... please, come in quickly."
Ye Lan felt the door he was leaning against being pushed open. Thankfully, he stepped back just in time, or he might have been knocked to the ground by the girl's unintentional push.
As soon as he entered, Ye Lan sat down by the door. A small, slender hand touched his face, then his head, before reaching for the doorframe. A moment later, he heard the sound of the door closing.
To put the little girl at ease, he said, "Thank you so much. I'll just sit here by the door. That way you won't have to worry about me doing anything."
Hearing his words, the little girl did seem to relax. Soon, Ye Lan heard the footsteps move deeper into the house, stopping about ten meters away from him.
He and this strange little girl would have to wait in this darkness for at most three more days.
He would be fine. His spy training at his former, unseen company included long-term endurance in darkness. And as a transmigrator who knew the plot, he knew exactly how long this darkness would last.
But the little girl who had let him in was different. For anyone who had seen that brilliant light, enduring this darkness was the ultimate torture.
He wasn't sure if she could last for three days. But from the fact that she had only moved away from him instead of returning to her room, he feared she might not make it until dawn.
She did help me out. That kindness is worth repaying, Ye Lan thought. He spoke out to the little girl, "Little one, are you still there?"
Although the girl didn't reply, the sudden noise of shifting furniture proved that she had heard him.
"You don't have to answer me. Just pretend I'm talking to myself," Ye Lan said, trying to soothe the likely nervous girl. "Who knows when this difficult darkness will pass. Let me just say something to distract us both."
"Let me think, what should I talk about?"
"Right, let's tell a story about a big and possibly bad wolf."
...
...
Time flew by as Ye Lan told his story, and the little girl soon became engrossed in it. In the darkness, Ye Lan had no idea how much time had passed, but his story was almost finished.
At that moment, the little girl finally spoke up and asked him a question. "But... why does the wolf have to be the bad guy?"
Ye Lan replied with a hint of melancholy, "Because that's how fairy tales are. People's stereotypes turned this poor, furry wolf into a ferocious, terrifying monster."
But for the little girl, understanding the critique of stereotypes behind the fairy tale was still too difficult.
In the end, this was her evaluation of the story: "So, as long as that bad thing 'stereotype' dies, the wolf doesn't have to be a big and bad and scary monster anymore?"
"Uh... you could put it that way," Ye Lan thought for a moment and continued. "But stereotypes aren't living things like us. They are... a kind of view people have of others."
"Mmm, I don't get it."
The story of the big bad wolf ended with their conversation. The little girl herself didn't even realize that the unbearable feeling of being swallowed by the lonely darkness had completely disappeared during their talk.
After the story ended, they were silent for a while. Then, the little girl asked Ye Lan to tell her another fairy tale.
And so, the long night slowly passed, one story at a time.
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