Chapter 109

Chapter 109: Construction

It turned into a pleasantly successful shopping run—especially after Yu Sheng realized how many things were cheaper than he’d expected.

By the time they were done, he’d lost track of how many times they’d had to “store away” goods. He led Foxy and Irene to a quiet corner once more and had Foxy bring out her tail so they could tuck the chicklings inside.

Foxy practically glowed with excitement as she carefully took each tiny chickling and slid it into her tail as if it were precious treasure.

Yu Sheng watched with conflicted feelings.

Irene, temporarily perched on his arm, was too tired to complain properly. “You actually bought them… You really plan to raise chickens in the valley.”

“Why not?” Yu Sheng said. “It’s huge. We won’t have to worry about them getting lost, and we won’t have to worry about wild dogs carrying them off. Just scatter them all over the hills—free-range chickens.”

He couldn’t help imagining a bright future.

“Let me tell you, I couldn’t find piglets. Otherwise—”

“Otherwise you’d want to raise free-range pigs too,” Irene cut in with a long-suffering sigh. “You’re planning way ahead. Those chicks are tiny and you already want to scatter them. And that place only just started growing grass. Are you sure you can raise animals?”

“That’s future planning,” Yu Sheng said, scratching his hair. “For now we’ll keep them in a cage when we get there. In the meantime, I’ll study how to speed up and catalyze the valley’s ecosystem. I’ll also find a couple books and learn how to grow vegetables and raise chickens.”

Irene froze.

“…So you don’t actually know how?”

Yu Sheng kept his face perfectly straight. “Of course not. Do I look like someone who knows? I only have rich theoretical knowledge and imagined experience.”

“Then why are you so excited?” Irene muttered. “Watching you plan like this, I thought you were some kind of professional—like you were going to turn that night valley into an otherworld farm-stay.”

“You don’t understand,” Yu Sheng said mysteriously. “Farming is the soul.”

“I don’t understand because dolls don’t even need to eat,” Irene shot back. “The doll progenitor never taught us this kind of knowledge. When Sister shared stories remotely, I never heard of any doll studying farming.”

“That’s why I keep saying your prenatal-education-to-kindergarten-correspondence-school method is unreliable—”

“I’ll bite your skull open in one bite!” Irene snapped. “Is that how you describe a lady?!”

Foxy, who’d been listening quietly, hesitated, then asked in a small voice, “Benefactor… can I raise them?”

Yu Sheng blinked. “Can you?”

Foxy nodded hard. “I can! School taught me!”

Something about that sounded slightly alarming, but Foxy’s eyes were sparkling, and Yu Sheng didn’t have the heart to refuse.

“Then I’ll leave it to you,” he said.

Irene stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “…You’re letting Foxy raise chickens?!”

Only then did Yu Sheng realize what had been bothering him. He hurried to clarify, “Raise them first, then eat them.”

Foxy’s eyes curved into happy slits. Yu Sheng had no idea if she’d actually heard the second half. She just nodded over and over, smiling. “Mm-hm~”

Yu Sheng had a sudden, chilling sense that he might never see this batch of chicklings grow up and run freely through the valley.

He could only hope Foxy would at least remember to cook them first.

“We’re done buying things,” Yu Sheng said. He checked the shopping list he’d made before leaving, and after confirming nothing was missing, he let out a long breath. “We’re also skipping the building materials market.”

Then he looked down at Irene on his arm. “How about you? How’s the body you left at home?”

“Great,” Irene said immediately. “We’ve come this far and there’s no sign of disconnecting at all. I’m trying to make that body walk around the room.”

As she spoke, she pushed herself up slightly, moving hands and feet as if practicing. “At this distance, controlling each body hasn’t changed. I’m getting more skilled at controlling them separately. I can mostly adapt and tell the two views apart. But I still can’t really move freely here. If we want deeper testing, we need to go to the valley.”

“Alright,” Yu Sheng said. “Then we go home, sort everything out, and head to the valley.”

“How are we getting back?” Irene lifted her head, tone wary. “Taxi? We won’t happen to run into a ride from the Special Operations Bureau again, right…?”

Yu Sheng’s lips twitched into a faint smile. “To go back, we use door-opening. You two wait a moment. I’ll notify the Special Operations Bureau.”

He pulled out his phone.

The moment he unlocked it, his eyebrows rose. “Border Comms popped up a software update notification.” He tapped confirm without thinking. “What could this thing even be updating…?”

The update finished almost instantly. Border Comms restarted and returned to the main screen.

“Doesn’t look any different… Huh?”

A new button sat in the bottom-right corner of the home screen.

Irene leaned in, curious. “What updated? Let me see.”

Yu Sheng pointed at the new button, face blank.

“‘Door-opening’ one-tap filing?” Irene froze, then looked up at him. “A special update made just for you?”

“I’m guessing other people’s Border Comms don’t have this.” Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched. “Looks like that midnight call to Bai Li Qing had quite an impact.”

He pressed the one-tap filing function, then opened the door to Wu Tong Road 66.

Back home, he had Foxy dump out the mountain of goods from her tail so they could sort everything. Rice, flour, and cooking oil went into the kitchen first. Then he carried Irene upstairs to the second floor, went into the bedroom, and checked on Irene’s situation.

Even he had to admit that saying it out loud sounded vaguely wrong.

Irene was pacing circles on the master bedroom floor, looking like she was having the time of her life.

She didn’t look anything like she had that morning, when she couldn’t even stand steady.

“I think I’m almost finding the trick to controlling two bodies at once,” Irene said—both shells speaking at the same time, one perched on Yu Sheng’s shoulder and the other walking on the floor. “And I think there might be an easier way than direct control. The shell acting as the secondary body doesn’t seem to need super detailed commands to run. Look—”

The Irene on the floor suddenly stopped.

Her expression went blank—blank in a way that made Yu Sheng’s skin crawl. But she didn’t collapse. After a beat of emptiness, she wobbled… and continued walking toward him in stiff, jerky steps.

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Yu Sheng said quickly, hair rising. “But that’s kind of creepy.”

A handful of horror movies flashed through his mind. He hurriedly signaled her back to normal, then bent down, lifted the floor Irene, and set her on his other shoulder.

With one Irene on each shoulder, he carried them downstairs.

The moment he entered the living room, he saw Foxy leaning against the dining table, wearing a goofy grin. Two chicklings pecked at a handful of millet on the tabletop, utterly unaware of danger.

Foxy was even chatting with them. “Eat more, okay? Grow up fast. I have big plans for you… Bai Qie, Yan Ju.”

Yu Sheng stared for a beat before his brain caught up. Cold sweat broke out immediately.

“You named them?”

Foxy narrowed her eyes happily. “Yep~”

“…Alright.” Yu Sheng’s face twitched. “As long as you’re happy. Bring your Bai Qie and Yan Ju. We’re going to the valley.”

“Yeah!” Foxy said brightly.

Just as Yu Sheng expected, it was still daytime inside the valley.

A clear sky with thin clouds spread above the wide open land. Bright daylight outlined the rugged shapes of distant mountains, with no hint of dimming.

By now, Yu Sheng had entered the valley at different times on different days. He could basically confirm it: this place truly had no day-night cycle.

The valley stayed in the same sunny, comfortable-temperature state all the time.

It had pros and cons.

The upside was obvious—comfort. At least it was better than before, when it was always night, the wind cut like knives, and rot stank in the air.

The downside was just as obvious: he wasn’t sure whether an environment like this could support his big vegetable-growing project. Plants needed day and night cycles to grow properly.

That was a problem for later.

For now, he needed to clear a plot of land—and clean up that broken temple ruin, which probably wouldn’t take long. If he was going to be active in this valley often, he wanted to set up a rough “camp” here first. Then he could take Irene through the testing projects he’d planned.

The broken temple ruin had gone through the grand feast. There was almost nothing left—just crumbled bricks and shattered tiles mixed into the pitted soil, useful for nothing except getting in the way.

Under Yu Sheng’s influence, the ground began to wake.

The soil wriggled and swallowed, breaking down and burying bricks and tiles as if it were digesting them. Stones of all sizes shifted, gathering into a pile at the edge of the clearing. A flat stretch of land formed beneath Yu Sheng’s feet and slowly spread outward, sketching the shape of a field.

He stood at the edge of the open ground, carefully feeling the connection between himself and the valley. He felt the soil, the stone, even the air and waterflow bending to his will in a process that was equal parts wonderful and unsettling.

Before he realized it, his control over this place had taken another step forward.