Chapter 23: Suspicion
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation.
Yu Sheng gave the television a quick once-over and discovered it had simply crashed.
Typical of cheap smart devices used for too long—the classic scenario: Oh dear, I’ve been working nonstop for two hours! My CPU is overheating! Memory error! Power supply too hot! Or maybe I just felt like crashing…
He couldn’t help but reminisce about the sturdy old TVs from his memories. Back then, home appliances weren’t as finicky as today’s smart gadgets. Sure, they had fewer functions, but he didn’t think all these fancy smart features nowadays were all that useful—each so-called “artificial intelligence” acting more like “artificial stupidity.”
“Just unplug it, wait two minutes, and restart,” Yu Sheng mused as he casually switched off the TV. He turned to Irene and said, “This thing isn’t very reliable. If it’s on too long, it crashes.”
“Then why don’t you get a new one?” Irene’s eyes lit up immediately. “Get one with voice control! Then I could change the channels myself. Even when you’re not home, I could watch TV…”
“You’ve got some nerve making demands!” Yu Sheng looked at her—this girl who acted like she owned the place—and found himself both amused and slightly annoyed. “You’re squatting in my house, and I haven’t even said anything. Now you want a new TV? Are you paying for it or helping out?”
“I…” Irene opened her mouth, and her face actually turned a bit red. She stammered, “I… I don’t have any money, but I’ve been helping you learn about the Otherworld! That counts as being a consultant, doesn’t it?”
“This consultant’s memory isn’t that great, is it? You can’t even be sure if what you say is reliable,” Yu Sheng smirked. “If I hire you as a consultant, I’d need to hire another consultant to advise you.”
Irene’s face flushed even redder, but after a moment, she couldn’t find a retort. She lowered her head, sulking. However, she had a good attitude; after brooding for about three seconds, she perked up and looked at Yu Sheng. “Well, once you get me out of here—no matter how you do it—I’ll work to pay you back. And since you’ll be dealing with the Otherworld in the future, I can be your helper! I can fight for you—that should be useful, right?”
Yu Sheng hadn’t really thought about this—in fact, he hadn’t considered what would happen if Irene actually came out of the painting one day. He raised an eyebrow at her words. “You? Really?”
“Hey, don’t underestimate me! I’m Irene, one of Alice’s dolls!” Irene put her hands on her hips and stood up from her chair, looking extremely pleased with herself. “Living dolls are blessed! In the Otherworld, I’m much stronger than those so-called investigators or spirit detectives…”
“And yet you got yourself sealed into a painting, didn’t you?”
Irene’s eyes immediately widened (though her eyes were already large and expressive). “You… you… you… Just wait until I get out! Don’t turn away from me!”
“Alright, alright, I believe you,” Yu Sheng chuckled, turning away while waving his hand helplessly.
Actually, he had never taken the doll’s boasts seriously. After all, she was confined within the painting. Though she was staying in his house, she didn’t eat his food or take up much space—even if laid flat on the floor, the painting wouldn’t occupy half a square meter, and hanging it on the wall was no trouble at all. Aside from watching TV, she hardly consumed any resources, and chatting with her could be entertaining. Moreover, she did provide him with quite a bit of knowledge about the Otherworld.
As for her talk of working to pay off debts or becoming his sidekick after getting out of the painting… He might as well take it as a sincere offer.
The TV screen lit up again. Yu Sheng picked up the remote, pressed a few buttons, and found a mindless soap opera.
Irene wasn’t picky about TV programs—after all, even watching paint dry was more interesting than staring at wallpaper.
But just then, as Yu Sheng looked at the TV screen, a thought suddenly occurred to him—something he hadn’t noticed before.
“Irene,” he turned around, looking at the doll girl in the painting.
“Yes?”
“I remember you said you’ve been sealed in that painting for a long time, right?”
“Yes, a very, very long time. I can’t even remember when I got in…”
“Then how do you know so much about modern things?” Yu Sheng asked seriously. “You even know about voice-controlled smart TVs?”
He had found a discrepancy in her story.
But it wasn’t necessarily a big problem. There were many possible explanations—for example, she could have learned about the world by observing the dreams of people nearby, or perhaps before entering this house, she had been hung in other modern homes. Yu Sheng thought Irene would probably give such an explanation.
But Irene’s response was a blank “Huh?”
The doll in the painting seemed completely baffled by the question as if she had realized this issue for the first time. After staring blankly for a long while, she slowly turned her head. “I… don’t know why.”
“You don’t know why?” Yu Sheng looked surprised.
“Well… I really have been trapped in this painting for a very long time, really, maybe decades. But… but I just know what the world is like now, though I don’t know how I know. I…”
She stammered, and in the end, she seemed to start doubting herself, hesitating and unable to continue.
Yu Sheng watched her closely, trying to find any hint of deception on her face.
“Do you remember how you got trapped in the painting? And what happened before you were trapped? Do you remember that?” he continued to ask.
“I… I just remember it was a curse,” Irene said hesitantly. “This painting is some kind of entity. I was supposed to deal with it, but instead, I got trapped inside. But the specifics are blurry. And before I got trapped… before that…”
The doll slowly fell silent, like fragmented memories entangled her thoughts. She recalled in a daze, and after an unknown length of time, she finally murmured softly, as if in a dream, “I’m Irene from Alice’s Little House, one of Alice’s dolls…”
She looked up, unease written all over her face.
“Yu Sheng, that’s all I remember.”
Yu Sheng frowned deeply.
In that moment, countless possibilities filled his mind—from eerie to conspiratorial to downright absurd—but none seemed reliable.
After all, he had no evidence or clues to solve the mystery surrounding Irene.
Irene looked particularly uneasy. She hugged the teddy bear in her arms tightly, squeezing the plush toy until it was deformed. “Is… is my mind broken?”
Yu Sheng dismissed the conspiratorial theories swirling in his mind.
Then he glanced at Irene and increased the likelihood of the humorous possibilities by ten percent.
“Don’t force yourself to remember if you can’t. At least, don’t think about it now,” he sighed lightly and shook his head. “Maybe being trapped for so long has muddled your memories.”
“R-really?” Irene hesitated, then nodded, seeming somewhat relieved.
Yu Sheng was puzzled. Wait a minute. Why is she relieved to find out her memory and logic might be faulty? Doesn’t that mean her mind really is broken? Did anything I just said actually comfort her?
He was momentarily filled with confusion, but he had to admit that Irene’s current reaction did ease some of the doubts in his mind.
Honestly, if this doll had come up with a perfect explanation for her ‘modern knowledge,’ he might be even more suspicious. Instead, her genuine confusion made her seem more transparent.
Thinking this, he shook his head and, while heading toward the stairs to the second floor, casually said, “You stay downstairs and watch TV. I’m going up to catch some sleep.”
Irene waved her hand. “Alright, off you go.”
Yu Sheng left the dining room and headed upstairs. Carrying the fatigue accumulated from his time in that night-shrouded valley, he yawned as he made his way to his bedroom.
He was indeed exhausted and sleepy. After a good meal, his drowsiness only intensified. It was definitely time for a proper rest.
However, as he reached his bedroom door, he couldn’t help but stop and look toward the end of the hallway.
There, standing quietly in his line of sight, was the door that had once been sealed by an unknown force.
The room at the end of the hallway—it was where he had first discovered Irene.
Yu Sheng frowned slightly. An idea came to him, and he walked toward the door.
When he reached it, he noticed that the position of the door handle had changed. The hinges and handle had swapped sides, matching the “correct configuration” he had eventually found to open the door.
After a moment’s hesitation, he reached out and grasped the handle, turning it gently.
With a soft click, the door that had once been impossible to open now swung open as easily as any other door in the house.
He pushed the door wide open, and the scene inside unfolded before him.
A simple and ordinary setup. To the left of the door, against the wall, stood a single bed and a bedside table. On the right, also against the wall, were a wardrobe, a desk, and a chair. The old wooden floorboards looked somewhat faded, and the walls were covered with light blue wallpaper.
Above the desk was a window through which bright sunlight streamed in, filling the room with a warm glow.
And on the wall directly opposite the door, where Irene’s painting used to hang, there was now a mirror.
In the mirror, Yu Sheng saw his own increasingly astonished expression.