Chapter 023

Chapter 23: Suspicious Points

After a quick check, Yu Sheng found the TV had only frozen.

It was the classic issue with cheap smart devices used too long: “Oh no, I have been running for two hours. My CPU is smoking, my memory has errors, my power is overheated, or I just feel like dying for a bit…”

He even felt a little nostalgic for the old, sturdy TVs. The appliances back then were not as fussy as these “smart” ones. Sure, they had fewer features, but the modern ones with all their bells and whistles were not that useful. Half the so-called AIs acted like fools.

He flipped the switch and said, feeling a bit sentimental: “Cut the power, wait two minutes, and turn it back on. That is all. The quality is not great. If you keep it on too long, it freezes.”

Irene’s eyes lit up and she said: “Then get a new one. Get one with voice control. I could change channels myself. When you are not home, I can still watch TV.”

He stared and said, half amused and half annoyed: “You really dare make demands? You are freeloading in my place, and now you want a new TV? You paying for it or working it off?”

Her face really turned a bit red as she stammered: “I… I do not have money, but I keep filling you in on the Otherworld. I count as some kind of consultant.”

He curled his lip and said: “This consultant’s memory is not great. You never sound sure if what you say is right. If I hire you as a consultant, I need another consultant to advise you.”

She flushed, then ran out of ways to argue and looked down in a sulk. But her mood bounced back fast. She lifted her head and said: “Then when you get me out, no matter how you do it, I will work and pay you back. Also, you will deal with the Otherworld again in the future, right? I can be your helper. I can fight for you.”

He had not thought about that. In fact, he had not even thought about what would happen if Irene really came out of the painting one day. He raised a brow and said: “You? You sure?”

She put her hands on her hips and stood up on her chair, full of pride as she said: “Hey, do not look down on me. I am one of Alice’s Dolls. A living doll carries a blessing. In the Otherworld I can fight better than those so-called investigators or any Spirit Realm Detective.”

He said without mercy: “And yet someone still pressed you into a painting.”

Irene’s eyes turned redder, though they were already red, as she said: “You… you just wait until I get out. Do not turn away!”

He waved a hand and laughed as he said: “Okay, okay, I believe you.”

He had not planned to make a fuss with her. She lived in a painting, ate none of his food, took up hardly any space, and if he hung her on the wall, she was not in the way at all. Aside from watching TV, she used almost nothing. Their bickering even passed the time. And she had filled in a lot about the “other world.”

As for working to pay him back or becoming his helper after she got out, he would take it as true for now.

The screen lit again. Yu Sheng tapped the remote a few times until he found a mindless city drama.

Irene was not picky about shows. Teletubbies would be more fun than staring at wallpaper.

But as he watched the screen, Yu Sheng suddenly thought of something he had ignored.

He looked at the doll in the painting and said: “Irene.”

She answered: “Yeah?”

He said: “I remember you said you have been sealed in the painting for a long time, right?”

She said: “Yes. Many, many years. I do not even remember when I came in.”

He asked very seriously: “Then how do you know so much about modern things? You even know about voice controlled smart TVs.”

He had found a gap in Irene’s words.

It was not a big deal; there were many possible answers. She might say she learned by watching nearby people’s dreams. Or she had hung in other modern houses before this one. He felt her reply would be something like that.

Instead, Irene gave him a blank “Huh?”

The portrait doll seemed lost. It looked like she had never thought about this either. After staring for a long time, she turned slowly and said: “I… do not know why.”

He said, surprised: “You do not know why?”

She said: “No. I really have been locked in this painting for a very long time. It could be decades. But… I just know what the world is like now. I do not know how I know it. I…”

She stammered and began to doubt herself. Words trailed off.

Yu Sheng watched her face closely, hoping to find a sign of a lie.

He asked: “Do you remember how you were sealed inside this painting? What about before that? Do you remember anything?”

She hesitated and said: “I… only remember a curse. This painting is also a kind of entity. I should have come to solve it, but I was sealed inside instead. As for the details, I do not remember. And what happened before… before I was sealed…”

The doll fell silent. Broken pieces of memory tangled her thoughts. She searched in a daze for a long time, then spoke like she was talking in a dream: “I am Irene from Alice’s Little House, one of Alice’s Dolls.”

She lifted her head, uneasy, and said: “Yu Sheng, that is all I remember.”

Yu Sheng frowned deeply.

In an instant, he imagined a lot of things, from eerie to conspiratorial to just plain silly, but none of them felt solid.

He had no proof or clue to solve Irene’s puzzle.

Irene looked extra nervous. She hugged her teddy bear so tight it squashed out of shape and said: “Is my brain broken?”

Yu Sheng crossed out all the conspiracy ideas in his head. [Then he bumped up the silly possibility by ten percent.]

He exhaled and shook his head as he said: “Do not force it. At least not now. Maybe you were sealed too long, and your memory and logic got scrambled.”

She paused, then actually looked relieved as she said: “Right, maybe so.”

Yu Sheng fell silent. [Why did hearing that her memory and logic might be broken make her relax? Did anything I just said actually comfort her?]

Even so, her natural reaction still washed away many of his doubts.

Honestly, if the portrait doll had offered a perfect reason for how she knew modern things, he might have been more suspicious. But her heartfelt “Huh?” made her whole story feel clearer.

He shook his head and walked toward the stairs as he said: “Watch TV downstairs. I am going up to catch some sleep.”

Irene waved and said: “Okay, go ahead.”

Yu Sheng left the dining room, climbed the stairs, and yawned his way toward his bedroom. The tiredness from Night Valley weighed on him. A good sleep was exactly what he needed after a full meal.

But when he reached his bedroom door, he stopped and looked toward the end of the hallway.

The door that had once been sealed by an unknown force stood there.

That was where he had found Irene.

He frowned and walked over.

At once, he noticed the handle had changed position. The hinges and handle had been swapped to the “correct spot,” the way he had finally discovered that let the door open.

He hesitated, then took the handle and turned it.

With a soft click, the door that used to be impossible to open now swung easily, just like any other room.

He pushed it wide, and the room came into view.

The furnishings were plain and ordinary. On the left by the wall, a single bed and a bedside table. On the right by the wall, a wardrobe, a desk, and a chair. The old wooden floorboards looked a bit faded. Pale blue wallpaper covered the walls.

Above the desk was a window. Bright sunlight poured in and made the whole room warm and glowing.

On the wall straight across from the door, where Irene’s painting had once hung, there was now a mirror.

The mirror showed Yu Sheng’s face, growing more and more shocked.