Chapter 40: The Situation Was Not as Expected
Irene was crying heartbreakingly.
Yu Sheng didn’t try to comfort her—firstly because he genuinely didn’t know how, and secondly… he was a little scared that the Doll might lose her mind from excessive sadness and suddenly jump up and bite him.
Right now, she really would have to jump to bite him.
Of course, the good news was that she could bite him now. Back when she was stuck inside the painting, she could only chirp and complain.
After a long while, Irene’s sorrow finally subsided a little. Yu Sheng quickly shuffled a few steps closer to the table and hesitantly spoke:
“Um… don’t be so upset. I’ll make you a new body next time, a normal-sized one. For now… just make do with this one? If it really doesn’t work, I can make you another one tomorrow…”
“This… I’ll just have to use this for now,” Irene sniffed twice, her face full of grief. “No need to go through the trouble—it wouldn’t work even if you made me a new body tomorrow. A Living Doll’s soul can’t withstand constant container switching. It would take… at least a few months…”
As she spoke, sorrow once again welled up in her heart, and it looked like she was about to start crying again.
Yu Sheng hurriedly grabbed a small glass vial and held it up to her face.
“What are you doing?” Irene looked at Yu Sheng’s inexplicable action through her sniffles.
“Living Doll tears,” Yu Sheng replied with a serious expression. “Next time I make you a body, we’ll aim for high-quality materials. I’ll spend these months gathering supplies, and when I’m done, I’ll craft you one that practically glows with golden light…”
Irene thought about it for a moment before suddenly wailing again:
“Yu Sheng, you bastard… Ahhh—”
It took quite a while for the Doll’s overwhelming sadness to finally calm down once more.
Irene climbed onto a nearby stack of old books, perching at the top, lost in thought as she pondered the meaning of life. Yu Sheng sat by the table, accompanying the little Doll as they both mused over existence.
“At least… it’s better than before,” Irene muttered softly, not sure whether she was speaking to Yu Sheng or just to herself. “At least now I can run around on my own.”
“And you can watch TV by yourself,” Yu Sheng chimed in enthusiastically. “Isn’t that way more convenient than before?”
Irene let out a long sigh, clearly trying to sound solemn and dignified, but given her current size (66.6 cm), her sigh came off as anything but imposing.
Yu Sheng couldn’t help but steal a glance at Irene’s current form, his eyes landing on her exposed wrists and knees.
The distinctive ball joints characteristic of Dolls stood out conspicuously.
“Even though I used a clay Doll as a container, it still ended up turning into something like a wooden puppet with ball joints,” he murmured thoughtfully.
“Of course. It’s a movable Doll—how could it move without joints?” Irene shot Yu Sheng a sideways glance. “This is how my soul is recorded, so no matter what form the container originally has, the body will always reshape itself this way once the soul settles in—if you don’t like the ball joints, there’s nothing I can do.”
Yu Sheng casually remarked, “Oh, that’s not it. But speaking of your soul record… it still has your original height of 1.67 meters…”
Instantly, Irene leapt from the pile of books and clung to Yu Sheng’s arm, fiercely prying his thumb upward. “Could you just not mention the one thing I hate?!”
Yu Sheng yelped and jumped up, struggling to pry the tiny (66.6 cm) but surprisingly strong Doll off his arm. Hastily, he explained, “I was just curious! Curious! I’m just wondering what went wrong during your reconstruction. Your appearance is spot on, but your body size shrunk so much…”
“How would I know!” Irene snapped as Yu Sheng finally managed to pull her off and held her up by the collar, leaving her dangling in the air. “Everything felt normal during the regeneration process. It shouldn’t have gone wrong, but somehow my body size turned out like this… Hey! Put me down already!”
“Promise you won’t bend my fingers again,” Yu Sheng demanded, holding her by the collar with a serious expression. Only after she nodded did he set her back on the table.
“Sigh… no point in overthinking it,” Irene muttered, pacing back and forth on the tabletop before shaking her head. “We need to find a way to contact my sisters from Alice’s Little House. If I could get back home, I’m sure they’d know what to do…”
Yu Sheng’s curiosity piqued. “You keep mentioning Alice’s Little House and your sisters… Where are they usually? Are there other Dolls besides you in this city? What exactly does your ‘organization’ do?”
These were questions that had been bothering him for a while, but with all the recent chaos, he hadn’t found a chance to ask until now.
“We? We’re a race created by the Ancestor of the Dolls. As for our mission… it’s not much of a mission. Sometimes we deal with Otherworld threats, other times we help other organizations handle tricky Entities. But most of the time, Dolls just do whatever they enjoy,” Irene reminisced, resting her chin on her hands. “Most of my sisters don’t operate in the Human world, but there should be a contact point in Boundary City… It’s just that I can’t remember where. Plus, it’s been years, so the contacts might have changed by now…”
She clambered back onto the stack of old books, propping her chin up with both hands as she delved into her thoughts. “When we’re in the Human world, we disguise ourselves. Living Dolls look a lot like Humans, so it’s easy to blend in. This city is so enormous that without specific contact methods or personnel, finding a hidden Living Doll would be practically impossible…”
Yu Sheng listened intently, still fascinated despite having suspected that the city harbored all sorts of strange beings. “Unbelievable… I always thought the city’s residents were all Humans.”
“How naïve,” Irene scoffed. “This place is Borderland.”
“Borderland…” Yu Sheng whispered, repeating the word thoughtfully.
“This place, Borderland, can hide anything. For instance, even in this Old City district, there’s a weirdo like you who thinks he’s Human,” Irene teased, waving a small hand dismissively as she leapt off the pile of books. “Let’s head downstairs. I’ve been stuck up here long enough. Now that I can move around freely, I want to explore this Big Manor!”
“Yeah,” Yu Sheng agreed, slapping his face lightly to wake himself up. “Spent half the day putting your body together, and now I’m starving. Let’s get something to eat.”
As he headed for the attic exit, he heard Irene shout behind him, “Hey, wait for me! I haven’t even gotten down yet!”
He turned around to see Irene take a running start from the table, leap onto a creaky old chair, then clamber down the chair leg, slowly sliding her way to the floor. After an awkward struggle, she finally landed on the ground.
Yu Sheng: “…”
With stubby little legs, Irene jogged over to Yu Sheng’s feet, noticing his gaze on her. She immediately looked up, attempting to cross her arms and strike a dignified pose. “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing,” Yu Sheng replied with a shake of his head. “Just thought it looked pretty… cute.”
He almost said “pathetic.”
Irene blinked, not noticing the odd pause. “Really?”
She followed Yu Sheng downstairs, tugging at his pant leg. “By the way… thanks.”
Yu Sheng glanced down, adjusting his waistband with a confused look. “For what?”
“Thanks for preparing the body. Everything was so chaotic earlier, I didn’t get a chance to thank you properly.” Irene said earnestly.
Yu Sheng couldn’t help but look her over, his gaze lingering on the small, doll-like figure. “You’re seriously thanking me while looking like that?”
“Gratitude is gratitude,” Irene replied, her tone solemn despite her tiny size. “The body turned out weird, but that’s on me. You still put a lot of effort into preparing it. Though… it is a bit ugly.”
“…You could’ve left out that last part.”
“Anyway!” Irene quickly changed the subject, sounding flustered. “I promised I’d help you out before, and I still mean it. Whether it’s fighting or offering Mysticism support, I’ll be useful. Even if I find my sisters and return to Alice’s Little House, I’ll come back to help you… for… how about a hundred years?”
“A hundred years?” Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. “I might be dead by then.”
“I’ll hold you to it,” Irene grinned, suddenly in a good mood. She turned and hurried towards the exit with her short legs. “Let’s go downst—”
Her words were cut off as she abruptly toppled forward, as if a string had snapped, sending her rolling across the floor until she hit the opposite wall.
Yu Sheng’s smile froze as he saw her collapse.
“What the—?!”
He rushed forward and scooped up the little doll, finding her limp and cold to the touch, like soft clay without life.
Then, he heard Irene’s voice from across the room, coming from the large table.
“Yu Sheng! I-I’m back in here!”