Chapter 5: Erin in the Painting
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation
From the moment that peculiar rain frog nearly emptied its guts onto him, Yu Sheng had felt a strange sort of calmness settle inside his heart. It was as if a messy knot of nerves had been quietly loosened. After that, everything seemed simpler. Even now, waking from a disturbing dream that didn’t feel quite right, finding himself in front of a locked door that led into a shadowy room, and discovering a painting that could talk—and not just talk, but hide something dreadful within it—he remained remarkably unruffled.
He walked right up to the painting, lifted it down from the wall, and held it carefully in his hands. The frame felt heavy, almost weighty enough to be valuable, and on closer look he spotted detailed carvings etched into the dark wood. These twisting, vine-like patterns spiraled inward, seeming almost like a strange language weaving around the edges of the painting.
Yu Sheng was no art expert, but even he could guess this piece was worth something. Everything about it, from the craftsmanship of the frame to the brushstrokes of the painting, gave off an air of great worth.
He knew someone was lurking deep inside the painting—a figure just out of sight. He caught a glimpse of what looked like the corner of a skirt retreating into darkness. Tilting his head this way and that, he tried to peer in, but the center was nothing but shadow.
“I know you’re in there,” he said, giving the frame a slight shake. “You can’t just hide forever and pretend I’m not standing here.”
There was a soft rustling from some distant corner inside the painting, but no real reply came forth.
Yu Sheng calmly set the painting down on the floor and crouched beside it. He took a lighter from his pocket, flicked it on, and watched the tiny flame dance. Without changing his calm expression, he brought the flame close to the wooden frame. “I’m going to count to three,” he said in a steady voice. “If you don’t come out by then, I’m setting this thing on fire.”
For a few long seconds, there was no answer. Then, at last, a small voice, sounding soft and childlike, drifted out: “…Ordinary flames can’t do anything to a painting like me.”
But Yu Sheng noticed something in that voice—a slight tremor, a hint of fear. Deciding to press his advantage, he touched the flame to one edge of the frame. “Is that so? Let’s test it, shall we—”
A shrill scream tore through the silence just as the lighter’s flame grazed the wood. “No! Stop! Are you really going to burn it?!”
Yu Sheng immediately snapped the lighter shut. Within the painting, a figure rushed forward, appearing in the very center of the canvas as if terrified he might dare try that again.
It was a girl, and she was dressed in a black, gothic-style dress trimmed with white lace. A tidy headband rested in her long, glossy black hair. Her skin looked as pale as freshly fallen snow, and she would have seemed rather lovely were it not for her unsettling, ruby-red eyes. They stared right at Yu Sheng, round and shining, as though she was still deciding if he would actually burn her world to ashes.
The sudden appearance startled Yu Sheng for a moment, and he had to admit, she was more striking than scary once you got over the shock. Still, the eerie backdrop of the painting, along with her sudden arrival, would have chilled anyone to the bone. And those red eyes—so bright, so intense—made her look like some strange creature peering out from a nightmare. At one point, she pressed her face right up close to the canvas’s surface, her enormous eyes filling his view until it was almost too eerie to bear.
“Don’t burn it,” she said firmly, holding his gaze. “This painting is the only place I have left to call home.”
“Take a step back first,” Yu Sheng said, instinctively stepping away himself. Those piercing red eyes felt as if they were tunneling into his thoughts, carving out a space to stay forever. He forced himself not to break eye contact, determined not to lose his cool. “I’ll put the lighter away if you move back.”
“Alright,” the girl agreed without fuss. She retreated toward the heart of the painting, finally perching herself upon a large red velvet armchair positioned at the center. She bent to pick up a teddy bear that had slipped from her grasp earlier, hugged it against her chest, and settled there, staring at Yu Sheng without a single blink.
For a moment, it felt like Yu Sheng was looking at how the painting might have originally appeared: a gothic girl in a fancy black dress, sitting in a velvet chair and clutching a teddy bear, all neatly posed. But something was off. As his gaze traveled down to her wrist, he noticed the way it curved. Her joint looked strangely round, too smooth and bulbous to be human. It reminded him of the joints of a doll.
The girl seemed to sense his intense scrutiny. She frowned, pulling her teddy bear a bit closer. “Why are you staring at me like that?” she demanded.
Yu Sheng parted his lips as if to ask about her odd wrist joint, but he caught himself. He knew next to nothing about this bizarre world he had stumbled into. It might not be wise to reveal his ignorance just yet. Instead, he simply changed the subject. “Who are you?” he asked. “And why are you here, in my house?”
The girl hesitated, considering her words carefully. Then she spoke, adjusting her posture as if to appear more dignified. “My name is Erin,” she said. “Once, I belonged to a place called Alice’s Little House. I was one of Alice’s dolls… though that was a very long time ago.”
A doll. The word clung to Yu Sheng’s mind. He thought again about her strange wrist. Yes, it would make sense for a doll to have joints like that. But what was Alice’s Little House? And who were Alice’s dolls? The name “Alice” might have belonged to a person, and “Little House” sounded like it could be either a real home, a secret club, or some curious organization. Whatever it was, it seemed Erin had once been part of a whole group of these living dolls.
Yu Sheng imagined a collection of dolls like Erin, scattered who-knew-where—maybe lurking in people’s houses? His mind soared with the idea: an entire group of magical dolls, perhaps drifting into homes, causing strange happenings. Could they be deliberately trying to spook homeowners? Sneaking through halls to lower property values? The absurd notion almost made him chuckle, if it wasn’t so unsettling.
He grew quiet, so long in thought that Erin grew uneasy. “Why aren’t you saying anything…?” she ventured, hugging her teddy bear more tightly. “You’re not going to set me on fire again, are you?!”
“I need to ask you something,” Yu Sheng said at last, his tone turning serious. He locked eyes with her, and his expression made her stiffen in anticipation.
“Go on, then,” Erin said, sitting up a bit straighter.
Yu Sheng studied her closely. “This ‘Alice’s Little House’—is it some sort of company that specializes in lowering housing prices?” he asked. His tone was strangely earnest, and Erin looked completely thrown off.
“What?” she asked, blinking rapidly.
“I’m serious,” Yu Sheng went on, crossing his arms. “Do they send you dolls out to occupy homes, lock a few doors, scare the owner, and then leave everyone too frightened to pay full price for the place? Like a clever trick to make homes cheaper?”
For a long half-minute, Erin just gaped at him, speechless. Her wide scarlet eyes seemed stuck open, processing what he’d said. When she finally understood, her face flushed pink with anger. “You… you can insult me if you must,” she stammered, “but don’t you dare insult Alice or my sisters! We weren’t doing anything like that. We were part of something wonderful—”
“Then why are you in my house?” Yu Sheng cut her off, his voice rising. “And why did you lock that door? Also, what about that strange dream I had just now—was that your doing, too? And that creepy laughter I heard outside… what was that?”
He hurled one question after another at her, his frustration boiling over. He knew he should be careful—who could say what a being like Erin might be capable of—but his life had taken such a turn that a talking doll in a painting didn’t seem enough to shake him. He’d already died once, after all, and stared into nightmares more than once now. Still, something in the back of his mind whispered caution: this girl might not be as harmless as she seemed.
Yet instead of turning vicious, Erin seemed to shrink into herself, pressing the teddy bear so hard its plush belly folded inward. “I… I never meant for things to happen this way,” she said, her voice trembling slightly. “I wasn’t always stuck in this painting. A long time ago, there was an accident, and I ended up trapped here. I lost contact with the other dolls… I’ve been alone for so long.”
She cast her gaze around, as if seeing beyond the canvas frame into the dim room outside. “As for why I’m in your house…” She gave a small, helpless shrug. “I haven’t the faintest idea. I can’t control where I end up, you know. I’m trapped inside this painting. It’s not as though I chose to be here.” She tilted her head, frowning in confusion. “You’re certain you never bought this painting at some art exhibit, then hung it here yourself?”
Yu Sheng just stared at her, speechless.
Ohhh? Alice?
Considering in NU this listed as Deep Sea Embers sequel then this Alice is that Alice.