Chapter 59: The Repair
(This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation)
About half an hour later, Yu Sheng stood beside the small alchemy table, watching Irene with anxious eyes. The tiny doll, now only a few centimeters tall, lay motionless before him. She smelled faintly of lotus, and he couldn’t help but worry about what would happen next.
At last, Irene slowly pushed herself upright with her delicate hands. Her eyes looked a bit distant and empty, as if she were thinking very hard about what had just taken place. Yet, beneath that strange calm, there was no mistaking it—the experiment had worked.
For the longest time, Yu Sheng just stared, trying to decide what to say. Irene seemed perfectly all right, which helped him feel a bit more relaxed. Eventually, he managed to speak in a hopeful tone, “See? I told you it would work. You said once that using flour could help fix you, so why not lotus roots?”
Irene cut him off, raising one hand to signal her frustration. “Just be quiet for a moment and let me think,” she snapped, her voice sharpened by confusion. She turned her gaze on her own hands, her eyes wide with disbelief. “I can’t make sense of this at all… How did something so ridiculous actually succeed? How could a lotus root become part of my arm? None of this makes sense!”
Yu Sheng shrugged helplessly, feeling a bit put out. “But you told me to try,” he reminded her. “Now that it’s worked, you don’t believe it?”
Irene glared at him, her tiny cheeks puffing up, her anger making her look like a small, furious chipmunk. “I never wanted you to truly succeed!” she exclaimed. “I only said that so you’d see how impossible your so-called alchemy was. I expected you to give up and realize how silly it all was. But then you actually managed to attach a lotus root to me! How… how is this even possible?!”
Yu Sheng blinked, speechless for a moment. He’d had no idea that Irene’s earlier agreement had been nothing but a trick. He scratched the back of his neck, looking embarrassed. “I didn’t know,” he said softly. “I really thought you were supporting my research. I had no idea you were just teasing me.”
Irene looked as if she would have liked to bite him right then and there. She tried to leap at him, but her legs were still damaged, so she couldn’t move much. Frustrated, she sat there on the table and shouted, “Research? Don’t make me laugh! What kind of research turns my arm into a lotus root limb?! What are we supposed to do now? It’s properly attached! How could this have happened? Did you fix me with sheer wishful thinking?”
Yu Sheng considered this. Perhaps it really had been the power of some strange, wishful intent. Still, he hadn’t expected her to be so upset. After all, her arm was repaired, wasn’t it? He felt a flicker of guilt as he remembered how little he actually knew about alchemy. He had merely followed Irene’s instructions, mixing his blood into the lotus roots and guiding his spirit power, never once thinking it was impossible. And because he hadn’t thought it was impossible, it had worked—at least that’s how it seemed.
“Sorry…” he said at last, voice quiet. “Maybe we can fix it again? I could go downstairs and find an axe and—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish that thought. Irene aimed a deadly glare at him, her tiny eyes full of warning.
“Right, never mind,” Yu Sheng said hurriedly, raising his hands in surrender. “I didn’t say anything.”
Irene sighed, looking at her new arm in defeat. “What’s done is done,” she said wearily. She lifted the newly attached limb and carefully curled and uncurled her fingers, one by one. She seemed as nervous as a person testing out strange mechanical tentacles, half expecting them to go wild and strangle her. To her surprise, the arm responded perfectly, moving as naturally as it ever had—except that it was made from lotus root, of course.
Yu Sheng watched her for a moment, relieved that she seemed unharmed, and asked, “So… is that it, then? Does it feel all right? It doesn’t hurt, does it?”
Irene let out a long breath. “No, it’s fine,” she admitted. “It doesn’t hurt at all.”
Yu Sheng felt some tension slip away from his shoulders. “Well, that’s good. No need to scare me like that,” he said, managing a shaky smile. Then, remembering her legs, he added, “Now let’s fix your legs, shall we? Let’s see what’s wrong there.”
Irene seemed to be calming down, though she still glared at him a bit. “Wait,” she said, eyebrows raised in suspicion. “What do you plan on using this time? Don’t even think about using lotus root powder. I swear, if you try anything like that again, I’ll make sure you get flattened by a truck tonight.”
Yu Sheng looked confused. “But I don’t understand,” he said honestly. “Your body is made of clay, right? You never had a problem with flour before. Why not something similar now?”
Irene jabbed a tiny finger at his nose, making a gesture that might have been threatening if she were larger. “You humans keep pets, right?” she retorted. “But you don’t keep cockroaches as pets. You eat healthy, natural food, but that doesn’t mean you’d eat just anything.”
Yu Sheng quickly waved his hands, understanding her point. “All right, all right, I get it!” he said. “Don’t worry, I have something better in mind.”
He turned away and pulled open a drawer on the far side of the table. Inside, he found a small jar of epoxy putty, something he had discovered by chance. “We’re out of clay,” he explained, showing the jar to Irene. “This epoxy putty should work just fine. Once I treat it with alchemy, it should function just like the original material. After all, the key is the alchemical process, right? With a bit of smoothing, it’ll be as good as new.”
Irene looked at the jar with reluctant curiosity. “I… I guess it should be fine,” she said slowly. “Where did you get that?”
“It came as a free gift when I bought the clay,” Yu Sheng replied, recalling the day he had purchased his supplies. “It was hidden at the bottom of the box, and I only just noticed it. Anyway, let’s see what’s wrong with your leg.”
As Irene prepared herself, she sat back and carefully lifted the lacey hem of her tiny skirt. Then she rolled down the long sock on her right leg, revealing an ivory-colored limb marred by black cracks. Some of these cracks stretched across her knee and up toward her thigh, jagged lines that looked frighteningly serious.
Yu Sheng gasped at the sight. “That looks awful!” he blurted out, horrified at the damage.
Irene shrugged, trying to sound lighthearted despite the grim appearance. “At least it’s not completely broken,” she said. “If it were, you’d probably try sticking lotus root there too.”
“That’s not the point!” Yu Sheng exclaimed. “How can you act like it’s nothing? Doesn’t this hurt?”
Her wounds distressed him more than any injury to himself ever had. There was something terribly unsettling about seeing these cracks running through her delicate doll-like limb, as if she might crumble apart at any moment. He gently touched the hardened edges of the cracks, feeling how the material had become stiff and unyielding. He understood that this part of her was losing its spiritual connection. If they didn’t fix it soon, it would break down completely, just as her arm had done before.
Irene gave a short laugh, trying to ease the tension. “It… it doesn’t really hurt that much,” she said, half smiling. “All right, maybe just a little.” She held up her fingers to show just how small that “little” was. “It mostly just tickles.”
Yu Sheng sighed heavily, picked up a knife, and made a shallow cut on the back of his hand. He let a few drops of his blood fall into the epoxy mixture. As he stirred the blood into the putty with a spatula, he grumbled softly, “This is so strange and frightening. I can’t pretend to understand your body’s secrets, but please, tell me next time when you’re in such bad shape. I’m the one who has to fix you, after all.”
Irene rolled her eyes at him. “You look scary enough when you’re dying,” she said lightly, “but you don’t see me making a fuss about it.”
Yu Sheng scowled but said nothing more, focusing on his task. He dipped the spatula into the mixture, then carefully spread the blood-infused putty along the cracks in Irene’s leg.
Irene shivered slightly, biting her lip. “That tickles,” she said in a tiny voice.
“Try not to move,” Yu Sheng told her, keeping his hand steady. “I need a smooth finish.”
“All right,” Irene agreed, forcing herself to stay still.
For a few moments, they worked in silence. Before long, Irene grew bored and struck up a conversation again. “You know, I was thinking earlier about those two agents we met today. I almost wanted to talk to them. Maybe they could help me get in touch with the sisters at Alice’s Little House. The Special Affairs Bureau sounds like the sort of organization that might have connections in Borderland.”
Yu Sheng paused, eyes fixed on her leg as the mixture sizzled softly, melting into the cracks and darkening into a faint, smoky haze. It slowly fused with her flesh, looking more and more like her original form. “Then why didn’t you talk to them?” he asked, curious.
Irene frowned slightly. “I don’t really know,” she said. “I just felt uneasy. Maybe it’s because we’ve only just met them, or maybe it’s because I’ve been away for so long. The outside world has changed, and I don’t know who to trust. I’m not even sure what’s going on in Borderland between all the different factions and groups. It’s hard to make a decision like that when everything feels so uncertain.”
Yu Sheng considered her words, then looked up at her face. “If we meet them again, do you want me to mention you?” he asked. “They’ve already seen you. I’m sure they’ll put something about you in their report—an odd living doll is worth noting, right?”
Irene shook her head thoughtfully. “It’s not the report that worries me,” she said. “I doubt anyone in their line of work would be shocked by a magical doll. They’d just think I’m some kind of alchemical creation. That’s probably not unusual for them. As for what we do next… I’m still not sure. If they’re truly from an official organization—something we can trust—then maybe they can help us. If they could help me find my sisters, the other living dolls hidden in this city, it would mean a lot. I’d feel safer if I knew where they were and that they were okay.”
Her uncertainty made Yu Sheng’s heart ache. He imagined what it would be like to wake up after decades, only to find that everything he knew had changed, that he was surrounded by unfamiliar faces and unknown dangers. He understood why Irene was so cautious. She’d been trapped and alone for so long—asking for help now required more than courage. It required trust, something in very short supply.
Yu Sheng exhaled softly, then set down the spatula. He gently guided Irene’s knee joint back into place, pressing and smoothing the spot he had just mended.
“All right,” he said softly, giving her an encouraging nod. “Try standing up now.”