Chapter 039

Chapter 39: It Worked, But Not Fully

Irene looked truly hurt.

Yu Sheng glanced at the “masterpiece” he had spent hours on, then put himself in her place. If his own soul had to enter a shell like this to come back to life, he would probably cry too. Even so, her reaction stung a little. He straightened his face and tried to sound serious as he told the doll in the painting: “I really tried. At least the eyes are symmetrical.”

Irene did cry then: “But the head isn’t symmetrical.”

Yu Sheng turned his face away: “Yeah… I’m still not good at this. Next time I’ll do better. Practice makes perfect.”

Irene went deadpan and waved weakly: “Let’s not have a next time. But it is a body. I can feel the link now. Fine. We’ll use it.”

She drew a small breath, jumped down from the chair inside the painting, walked forward two steps, then looked at the plush bear in her hands. She stood in silence for a few seconds, hugged the little bear tight, and set it back on the chair as if saying goodbye.

Yu Sheng asked with a curious tilt of the head: “Not taking the bear?”

Irene shook her head and patted the bear: “I can’t. It is another being sealed in this painting. Its mind faded long ago, and I don’t even know where it came from. It can only stay in here. But I won’t throw this painting away. That means it will stay by my side.”

“Oh,” Yu Sheng said, then watched with tight nerves to see what she would do next. He cared a lot about how the doll would come out of the painting and how she would wake up using that ugly clay shell as her container.

Then, right before his eyes, Irene in the painting began to dissolve.

It was eerie and shocking. She turned into something like a wax figure heated by flames. Her color and details drained away in seconds. In only a few heartbeats, she became a mass of melting black matter that collapsed inside the frame, overflowed the lower edge, and dripped onto the table.

The tabletop gave a soft hiss, like metal thrown into strong acid. At first, the stuff was as thick as mud. Then it ran thin like water. A moment later, it turned into a clinging black mist that circled the clay body, rose and sank, and finally seeped into the lifeless clay piece by piece.

Yu Sheng’s eyes went wide. He felt a chill come off the drifting mist. If he hadn’t watched the mist come from Irene, he would have thought it was evil and dangerous. The whole scene had a creepy vibe that didn’t match the cheerful, harmless Irene he knew at all.

He shook his head and pushed the thoughts aside. He watched the black mist begin its last push to seep into the clay and felt a wild urge bloom in his mind. [What if I blow on it right now? Or poke it with a finger?] He swallowed. [She would roast me alive with words.]

He managed to keep his hands to himself. Just then, the Infiltration reached its end.

The doll on the table began to change in a way he could see. The rough, ugly clay suddenly took on the traits of a living thing. Its coarse surface smoothed in a blink. The crooked limbs evened out and settled into balance. Skin tone and texture spread across it. The warped features sank back into the head, and new features formed inside the clay and slowly appeared on the face.

Yu Sheng hesitated, then decided that out of respect he should turn around. [Be polite, at least.] Before he could, a neat black dress grew from the body itself like part of her flesh, covering Irene from neck to hem.

[Mimicry?] The word popped into Yu Sheng’s mind. In the same moment, he felt a faint thread between himself and Irene. The feeling flashed by, and a sleepy whisper brushed his ear. He wasn’t even sure it was Irene before the link went quiet.

He frowned, remembering he had mixed some of his blood into the clay. [Is it because of that? My blood might be special. Will it mess with her Regeneration?]

His worry faded quickly.

The doll lay quiet on the table, skin like a real person, hair dark as ink, features as delicate as a work of art.

Under Yu Sheng’s tense gaze, the doll’s eyelashes trembled. Then her eyes slowly opened.

Scarlet pupils stared blankly at the ceiling for a moment, then lit up. Irene lifted her hands a bit clumsily and stared at them like she couldn’t believe it. She opened and closed her fingers slowly, as if feeling the weight of the air.

After a few seconds of wonder, the doll began to smile. The smile looked bright, but it held something like a burst of tears.

Yu Sheng spoke softly from the side: “Congratulations, Irene.”

“Mm,” Irene said as she pressed both hands to the table and pushed herself up. She wobbled, then stood on the tabletop and turned to Yu Sheng with a bright grin. She flung her arms wide like she was asking for a hug: “I’m alive, Yu Sheng! Thank-”

Miss Doll stopped midword. She seemed to notice something late. Arms still wide, she stared at Yu Sheng beside the table.

Yu Sheng blinked: “…?”

Irene slowly tipped her head back to look up at him: “Why do you look… so tall?”

Yu Sheng thought for a second: “Maybe it’s because you’re short?”

Irene froze, then jerked her gaze down to her body. She looked at the desk lamp nearby, gasped, and ran to it. She held a hand flat over her head and compared it to the lamp. Then she twisted back stiffly to stare at Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng felt a knot tighten in his chest. [Something’s wrong.]

Irene’s voice went dazed: “Why… why am I so short?”

Yu Sheng swallowed and tried to keep calm: “Doll size. You know, a big one. I mean the one-third scale type. Wait, did I mess up?”

“One-third scale my foot.” Irene stomped, the small doll barely as tall as the lamp as she yelled: “People are standard human size. Living Dolls are like humans. I am one meter sixty-seven. Where are my long legs? Huh? Huh?! I’m as tall as this lamp. I can’t even reach that chair.”

Yu Sheng gaped, then frowned like he remembered something: “But you watched me mold the body. You saw the size with your own eyes. Why didn’t you say anything?”

The tiny doll paused, then looked lost: “Right. I watched it.”

She pattered back to the three concentric circles, glanced at the painting, and thought hard. Bits of memory rose up as she muttered to herself: “Your build steps were fine. The clay shell is just a medium, a temporary place for the soul. Even if the size was off, my soul should have adjusted the body during the remolding. Even if the adjustment is limited, it should change some. There is no way I should end up lamp-high.”

Irene measured her head with a hand, then hopped twice in place, like she hoped she could jump taller by sheer effort.

It didn’t work, of course.

Yu Sheng watched nervously and finally asked in a small voice: “So the ritual went wrong? The body remolding didn’t adjust the size? Then this isn’t on me, right?”

Irene lifted her chin, eyes shining with tears and fury: “Ruler.”

Yu Sheng blinked: “What for?”

Irene ground out the words: “To measure my height.”

“Got it,” Yu Sheng said. He dashed downstairs and came back with a tape measure. He had thought about bringing a straight ruler, but [if she sees that, she might jump up and bite me], so he didn’t dare.

A minute later, Irene stood stiff and straight on the table with an old book on her head. Yu Sheng stretched the tape beside her.

Irene tried to tilt the book. Yu Sheng pressed it flat with one hand.

She asked in a tiny, careful voice: “How tall?”

Yu Sheng squinted at the numbers and answered with sympathy: “Sixty-six point six centimeters. I counted every bit, even the point six.”

Irene finally broke and burst into tears.