Alien Hotel.

Chapter 498 Eileen Has a Safe Haven
"She fell asleep right away."

Looking at the little doll lying peacefully asleep on the sofa cushions, clutching the ominous star, Hu Li couldn't help but mutter something to herself.

Luna walked past the sofa, glanced at it, and slowly said, "Because it's time."

“Her schedule is quite regular,” Hu Li glanced at the clock on the wall, casually stuffed the yarn back into her tail, stood up and stretched, “I’ll take her back to her room.”

"Don't wake them up," Luna warned, "it'll be very noisy."

"I can't be woken up, I'm perfectly steady~"

Hu Li said smugly, then used his tail to curl up the little doll on the sofa and took the little guy upstairs.

Luna glanced at the TV and saw a robot vacuum cleaner commercial running in the middle of the program. She watched it for a moment, then casually turned off the TV, muttering to herself, "Really impressive, Lenovo..."

When Hu Li arrived at the master bedroom on the second floor, he found a row of neat boxes in the corner, put the little doll curled up in its tail into one of the boxes, and carefully took out the stone ball that the doll was holding and placed it on the bedside table, tiptoeing without making a sound.

After finishing, she straightened up and looked around, sniffed hard, and found another sleeping Erin under the bed—she looked like she had fallen asleep while studying the flashlight function of her phone watch.

Afterwards, the fox spirit searched around the house again, finding one in the umbrella bin and another on the shelf in the attic. Like collecting fragments, she finally collected all of Eileen's items and put the sleeping dolls into the box.

She carefully finished all the work, and only after closing all the boxes did she let out a long sigh of relief. She stood up and looked at the fruits of her labor, a happy and proud look on her face: "I'm really reliable."

As soon as Hu Li finished speaking, her two big ears on her head twitched reflexively, as if she had heard some subtle noise. Then her eyes lit up, and she turned around and darted out of the house like a gust of wind, rushing into the living room—just as Yu Sheng entered the house and turned to close the door.

Yu Sheng only felt a blur before his eyes, heard a whoosh of wind, and the next second a ball of silvery-white fur began to spin around him, so fast it left afterimages, while he heard 360-degree surround sound.
"My benefactor, you're back~~~"

"My benefactor, are you hungry? I've cooked some stew!"

"Eileen's asleep! She fell asleep instantly!"

“My benefactor, why have you been gone for so long? Eileen has been saying that…”

"My benefactor, you smell like a cat! Sniff... It's the King!"

Yu Sheng was dizzy from the swirling tail in front of him. He reached out and grabbed it several times before finally managing to press down the fox girl's head. He looked helplessly at the obviously overly excited fox demon: "Something unexpected happened in that alley and we were delayed... Stop spinning, it's making me dizzy. Did Eileen cause any trouble?"

“No, she’s actually quite quiet, compared to when she’s at her most boisterous,” Hu Li said happily, then reached out and pulled Yu Sheng’s arm toward the dining room. “Let’s eat first, let’s eat first~ I stewed a huge pot today, it tastes so good!”

Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng's stomach did indeed rumble—Little Red Riding Hood and the King went straight to the night market after leaving the "dark alley," and were probably showing off their grilled skewers. He was so worried about the little rascals at home that he came back alone first, and hadn't even had dinner yet.

On the table sat a steaming pot of "fox stew"—a wisp of fox fire swirled around the pot, keeping it warm, and a soft bubbling sound could be heard from inside. Next to the large pot was the inner pot of a rice cooker, with a quarter of the rice remaining. There was also a pot of chilled tea on the table, brewed using some unknown method and ingredients, but the tea shimmered with a subtle iridescent sheen and emitted a refreshing aroma.

Yu Sheng walked over unfazed, lifted the lid of the stew pot, peeked inside, greeted the stew in the pot, and then sat down to eat.

Hu Li also served herself a bowl of stew and happily ate it beside her.

Yu Sheng, Hu Li, and the stew—the three of them had a wonderful meal.

"It's rare to have such a quiet mealtime," Yu Sheng couldn't help but remark as he ate. "I'm actually a little unaccustomed to the lack of squeaking and chattering."

“Eileen doesn’t usually eat, but she always runs onto the table and causes trouble when others are eating,” Hu Li muttered, slurping her soup. “Last time she even fell into the stew pot and got beaten up by the vegetables—I told her the stew I made that day was a bit irritable…”

Yu Sheng coughed twice and then shoveled rice into his mouth.

Hu Li suddenly looked up at him curiously: "My benefactor, did you find anything in the 'dark alley'?"

“We did find some clues,” Yu Sheng paused in his eating and nodded slightly, “That place… is indeed connected to the ‘Goddess of Omens’.”

He then told Hu Li about his experiences in the "dark alley" in detail, without hiding the details of the spiderwebs deep inside the large hole in the old bookstore wall and beyond the dark alley.

Hu Li listened quietly to the sound, then suddenly looked up and glanced towards the second-floor stairwell.

“Let’s bring Eileen next time,” she said, holding her bowl. “Otherwise, she’s always nagging at home and scratching things everywhere.” “Okay, I’ll bring her next time,” Yu Sheng finished the last bit of food in his bowl, put it down, wiped his mouth, and let out a satisfied burp. “It tasted good—I’m full.”

Hu Li cheered up and quickly began tidying up the table: "I'll tidy up, my benefactor. You should go to bed early tonight—exploring foreign lands is tiring."

……

Yu Sheng tiptoed upstairs to the second floor and returned to his room. In the dim light of the nightlight, he saw four boxes neatly arranged against the wall.

A small piece of skirt was pressed into the gap in the lid of one of the boxes.

He smiled and shook his head, then stepped forward and gently tapped the lid of the wooden box.

The lid of the box was slightly pushed open from the inside, and a pair of bright red eyes peered out from under the lid.

“That silly fox put me all in the box—she doesn’t even know I need a body to sleep in,” Eileen muttered inside, seemingly trying to sound like she was complaining. “I won’t be able to sleep like this.”

Yu Sheng opened the box, and the next second Eileen jumped out of it, then leaped onto the bed and started rolling around on it as usual, wriggling in the blankets, pushing herself sideways against the pillow with her head, then climbing to the headboard and jumping towards the middle of the bed...

The entire process was completely meaningless; Yu Sheng could only interpret it as the startup animation when the little doll came out of the box...

He watched silently from the side until Eileen's startup animation finished playing. Only after confirming that the little doll wouldn't suddenly kick him in the back did he dare to sit on the edge of the bed. Then he breathed a sigh of relief, turned to look at Eileen, who had wrapped herself up in the blanket like a ball, and said, "I should go to that 'dark alley' again in a couple of days. You can come with me then."

The little doll, with only its head sticking out from under the blanket, said: "Okay."

“That ‘otherworld’ has clearly been invaded by external forces, and it’s related to that ‘Goddess of Omens’.”

"Ah."

“Based on the current clues, your connection with the ‘Goddess of Omens’ may be deeper than we thought—the ‘mutual destruction’ three thousand seven hundred years ago transformed you into the form depicted in the oil painting. Perhaps, you are no longer just ‘Eileen’ from Alice’s Cottage, but rather in some… more ‘complex’ state,” Yu Sheng said bluntly, “If that’s the case, what are your plans for the future?”

Eileen blinked from inside the ball of blankets, staring intently at Yu Sheng.

After a long while, she suddenly spoke: "You rescued me."

Yu Sheng paused for a moment, seemingly understanding something, and nodded slightly: "Of course, no matter how the lingering influence of that 'Goddess of Omens' develops, I will definitely find a way to deal with it. I am an expert in the field of angel combat, and I can definitely save you..."

“I told you I was wrapped in a blanket, and you took me out—you wrapped me in too many layers.”

Yu Sheng's emotional outburst abruptly ended as he stared blankly at the little doll he had wrapped himself in the blankets and couldn't get out.

The latter stared blankly at him, her small eyes filled with great innocence.

Yu Sheng's lips twitched. He reached out, grabbed the blanket, and shook it hard. The little doll rolled out of it and then crawled back onto the bed on its hands and feet.

“I haven’t thought about my future plans at all!” Eileen stood in the middle of the bed, hands on her hips, speaking with self-righteousness, and she hadn’t forgotten the question from earlier. “You help me think of such complicated questions.”

Even Yu Sheng, whose nerves had become unusually thick recently, was a little unsure how to react. He could only look at the little one next to him with a tense expression and ask, "Are you serious?"

“Yeah, right,” Eileen continued confidently, “How would I know what to do in the future? Besides, we don’t even know what the ‘Goddess of Omens’ is, what her intentions are, or what her abilities are. I don’t remember anything either, and I have no clues. How am I supposed to make any plans? I might as well go to sleep early.”

Yu Sheng was stunned by the little puppet's words, but then suddenly felt that every word it said made sense. After standing there for a few seconds, he laughed self-deprecatingly.

“It seems… I guess I was overthinking it,” he sighed, feeling somewhat relieved. “Let’s just take it one step at a time. Thinking things through too much isn’t the hotel’s style… Move over, there’s no room for me.”

"I want to sleep in the middle—you can sleep on the edge, that's more authentic~~"

Yu Sheng completely ignored the little doll's arrogant attitude, grabbed her by the collar and put her on the edge of the bed (at least he didn't throw her), and then occupied the largest part of the bed.

A moment later, he fell soundly asleep amidst the little doll's screaming, scratching, and babbling protests.

(End of this chapter)