Chapter 33: Delayed Effect?
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation
Inside the small kitchen, Yu Sheng stood before Irene’s oil painting, feeling both curious and a bit disappointed. He had thought that his strange blood might have some special effect on Irene—just as it had with Foxy—but nothing seemed to be happening. The thick layer of paint sealing her inside the portrait might have stopped the blood from reaching her, or maybe it was because she was a doll and not a living being. Or perhaps Foxy had been a special case all along.
He waited quite a while, but still saw no reaction. Inside the painting, Irene grew impatient. She lifted her gaze toward the top of the frame and muttered in a huffy voice, “Could you wipe off that blood already? This is my space, and having your blood there is not what I’d call pleasant.”
Yu Sheng sighed and rolled his eyes. “You’re a creepy doll sealed inside an oil painting,” he said, sounding annoyed, “and you’ve got time to complain about bloodstains? Your presence alone is spooky enough.”
Irene was obviously offended. She frowned, pouting in her painted chair. “Who are you calling creepy? I’m beautiful! Some people fill entire walls with plastic figures, and here you are complaining about a single painting of a lovely lady!”
Her sudden burst of indignation took Yu Sheng by surprise. He hadn’t expected her to fire back like that. He shrugged, mumbling, “Not the same thing,” before grabbing a wet wipe to clean the blood off the frame. He rubbed carefully, not wanting to damage the canvas, but the red stains refused to budge.
He paused, puzzled. The blood wasn’t coming off at all, and even stranger, there was no red smudge on the wipe itself. It was completely clean, as if he hadn’t touched anything. That made no sense—any normal stain would leave at least a faint mark.
Irene couldn’t see the wipe from her angle, but she noticed that Yu Sheng had suddenly gone quiet. Growing nervous, she asked, “Um, what’s going on?”
“It won’t come off,” Yu Sheng said softly. His eyes remained fixed on the frame. The blood looked as if it had always been part of the painting’s original colors. “It’s not just stuck. It’s like it’s always been there, as if the frame was originally painted with that shade of red.”
Irene didn’t reply. Yu Sheng looked down and saw that her expression had grown strangely empty, as though her mind had shut down for a few seconds. Then, quite suddenly, her blank stare twisted into panic. She pointed a trembling finger at Yu Sheng and shrieked, “Ahhh! Y–y–you’re d–d–dead!”
Yu Sheng blinked, startled by her outburst. He realized what must have happened. The blood’s effect, slow as it had been, must have finally reached her. Just as Foxy had once remembered witnessing Yu Sheng’s death, Irene had now experienced something similar.
While Irene kept screaming, Yu Sheng calmly walked over to a chair and sat down, folding his arms. “Stop shouting ‘dead’ so many times,” he said dryly. “Not exactly good luck, you know. Though I suppose it’s not entirely untrue, given what’s happened before.”
Irene froze for a moment, gave him a quick, uneasy glance, and then went right back to screaming. Her wailing cries were even louder than Foxy’s had ever been. Yu Sheng tried soothing her with gentle words, but nothing seemed to help. She was far too frightened and confused.
Feeling desperate, he decided on a different tactic. Without warning, he picked up the framed painting of Irene and started shaking it up and down, as if trying to rattle some sense into her. He even tossed it lightly into the air once and caught it again, giving it a few extra shakes before carefully placing it back on the table.
This wild treatment had Irene scrambling inside her painted world, trying to climb back into her plush, red-velvet chair. She stopped screaming, though now she was swearing loudly, unleashing a stream of furious complaints.
Yu Sheng took advantage of the moment. With Irene’s terror broken, it was easier to calm her. Soon enough, she settled down, grumbling under her breath. Only then could they have a proper conversation about what had just happened.
From their talk, Yu Sheng confirmed that his blood truly had an effect on Irene’s sealed form, just as it had on Foxy. While Foxy had been able to share her memories and thoughts with Yu Sheng, Irene hadn’t done the same. Even so, just like Foxy, Irene had seen Yu Sheng’s death. Yet this time, Yu Sheng had not felt any direct sense of Irene’s thoughts or memories. He wondered if perhaps Irene simply didn’t have the same depth of recollection.
For the moment, he kept that suspicion to himself. Irene was still fuming, but it was clear that her shock at seeing Yu Sheng come back to life was far more troubling to her than being tossed around. Her main focus was fixed on this peculiar “resurrection” ability of his.
“So,” she said, eyeing him with disbelief, “you mean to say this wasn’t the first time you’ve died and returned?”
Yu Sheng nodded. “It started before I met you,” he explained, remembering the strange frog he had seen in the rain. “But I don’t know how it works. Just like that door I found earlier—I can pass through it, but I can’t explain why or how it chooses where to take me.”
“Are there any costs or side effects?” Irene pressed, studying him with narrowed eyes.
Yu Sheng hesitated, then answered as honestly as he could. “So far, no. I haven’t noticed anything off about my body or my mind.” He spoke with a sincerity he usually kept hidden.
Irene kept her eyes on him, her painted face showing deep worry. “Still, you should avoid this ‘resurrection’ trick whenever possible,” she said firmly. “Nothing in this world comes free. Maybe the price hasn’t appeared yet. Maybe the damage isn’t immediate. But coming back from the dead defies all reason and order. If you keep doing it, I’m certain something terrible will happen eventually. I’m not saying I don’t trust you,” she added quickly, “but I don’t trust this situation.”
Yu Sheng raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I get it, I get it. You think I want to die again? Those times it happened, it wasn’t a choice. I’ve just tried to stay positive, that’s all.”
Irene opened her mouth, then closed it again. “Well, you do have a point,” she said at last.
“I’ll be more careful,” Yu Sheng promised. He sighed, relieved that Irene seemed to be accepting the situation, if only a little.
Irene eyed him thoughtfully. “Remember,” she said, “you promised to help me get a real body. So don’t go doing anything reckless.”
Yu Sheng nodded. He felt somewhat impressed by how quickly Irene had adjusted to this strange turn of events. Just moments ago, she’d been shrieking her head off, and now she was calmly discussing his unusual ability.
But that calm didn’t last long. Suddenly, Irene’s curiosity flared up again, and she asked, “Are you certain you’re human? I mean, really human? Were you born to normal parents, ate normal food growing up? Was there never anything odd about your childhood?”
Yu Sheng had no answer to that. He remained silent, wondering how he should respond. Perhaps Irene’s ability to adapt wasn’t as strong as he thought—her shock still lingered, just showing itself in a different way now.
He distractedly gave her a few half-hearted replies, changing the subject in his mind. He still had work to do—he wanted to keep testing his strange “door” ability, to understand its properties and maybe learn how to control it. If he could figure it out, he could return to the valley where Foxy waited and bring her food.
Irene finally quieted down, watching as Yu Sheng walked back toward the kitchen door. He placed his hand on the handle and paused, gathering his thoughts. Just as he was about to turn it, she spoke up again, sounding worried.
“Even if you find a door that leads back to that valley,” she said, “do you have any plan for dealing with ‘Hunger’? You know that thing isn’t just going to let you stroll in and help Foxy.”
Yu Sheng began turning the door’s handle slowly. He tried to tune in to the strange feeling he had come to think of as his “spiritual intuition.” “I’ll deal with it when I’m there,” he replied evenly.
“‘Deal with it when you’re there’?” Irene exclaimed. “That’s not a plan! Are you bringing food for Foxy, or are you just feeding that monster out of sheer recklessness?”
Yu Sheng kept his focus forward, explaining calmly, “If I can fight it, I will. Even if I can’t kill it forever, maybe I can slow it down or temporarily break its hold on Foxy. If fighting isn’t an option, I’ll try to lead Foxy out through the door. That might be risky, though, because ‘Hunger’ might follow her. If both those options fail, at least I can bring her something to eat. Once I can reliably open these doors, I can try different approaches step by step.”
Irene listened carefully. “Well, at least you’ve thought it through a bit,” she admitted, sounding slightly relieved. “That’s better than rushing in blindly.”
Yu Sheng considered making a joke about how awful he would taste to a monster if it tried to eat him, but he decided against it. He didn’t want to provoke another of Irene’s annoyed lectures. Instead, he simply tightened his grip on the door handle and pulled it open.
On the other side, he saw nothing but an endless darkness filled with distant, twinkling stars. There was no ground, no walls—just a vast emptiness that stretched out into infinity.
His eyes went wide, and he quickly slammed the door shut. “Whoa,” he exclaimed, slightly breathless, “it’s outer space!”