Chapter 122

Chapter 122: Irene Who Came Through

To be fair, getting back in touch with Irene really let Yu Sheng breathe easier, and even though this little Miss Doll could be a bit mouthy, the info she brought this time was very useful.

His real body in the waking world was still “asleep,” but not in the normal way. Irene believed his mind was “lost,” which meant…

Yu Sheng lifted his head, looked around this cozy Little House, then peered through the window at the endless night outside.

This “Forest” was a mental space that existed somewhere. It was whole and sealed, like a trap. It pulled a dreamer’s mind inside and cut off contact with the outside.

Thinking of that, he had to admit Irene was impressive: [She actually managed to find me even here?]

While Yu Sheng’s thoughts flashed by, Irene finally got to the point after a burst of rapid chatter and asked: “Yu Sheng, what exactly is going on over there? How did you get ‘lost’ after just falling asleep? Where is your mind right now?”

He answered, choosing his words: “I’m in a Black Forest. If I’m right, it should be Little Red Riding Hood’s Black Forest.”

Irene sounded confused as she echoed him: “What do you mean ‘Little Red Riding Hood’s Black Forest’?”

He tried to explain, keeping it simple: “It’s a long story. Back at the Museum, the Evil Wolf that crawled out of Little Red Riding Hood’s shadow took a bite out of me. Looks like I formed a link with it. Little Red Riding Hood told me once that a Fairy Tale is an Otherworld, and her power is a curse. The place I’m in now should be what’s trapping her.”

He told Irene exactly what had happened on his side, including the invisible Evil Wolf hunting him and the talking squirrel he met on the road. [He kept quiet about the tempting scenes he had seen along the way.]

Irene blinked, stunned, then blurted: “You mean… you’re with a squirrel right now?” Miss Doll clearly never imagined that even a nap could turn into such drama. She hurried on, her tone turning serious: “So what’s it like outside your Little House? Are you safe? Can you get out on your own?”

Yu Sheng glanced out the window and answered: “It’s quiet now, but I can feel eyes on me. The wolves are gathering in the Black Forest. Still, I think I’m fine for the moment. This house seems safe, and if things go bad I should be able to run. Even in this ‘dream,’ I can still do Door Opening.”

Irene made a thoughtful sound, went quiet for a few seconds, then asked in his mind: “Do you have a frame or a drawing board there?”

Yu Sheng looked around and said: “No… why?”

“I want to try to ‘squeeze’ over to your side,” Irene said. “You aren’t in your own dream, so I can’t just go straight to you. I need a medium, like the ‘coordinates’ you use when you do Door Opening. If there’s no frame or board, is there anything you can draw with? A pen, paper, anything.”

Yu Sheng got up and searched the Little House. At last, he found a few black chunks of charcoal by the fireplace.

The squirrel stood on the table hugging an oversized acorn, staring at him, baffled. It finally asked: “What are you doing?”

Without looking up, Yu Sheng said: “A friend wants to visit.”

The squirrel froze and squeaked: “What?”

Yu Sheng ignored it and told Irene: “There’s nothing here, just a few pieces of charcoal.”

To his surprise, the doll answered at once: “That works. Draw a frame on the floor.”

Yu Sheng muttered under his breath: “Why are your ‘second-best options’ always the worst ones?”

“This is an emergency,” Irene said cheerfully. “A ritual is about the process, especially in dreams. Sincerity matters, or maybe it doesn’t, but as long as it has symbolic meaning, it can point the way.”

[What kind of ritual is that.] Yu Sheng swallowed the snark, picked up a piece of charcoal, and went to the open space in the middle of the Little House. He drew a frame as Irene had said, then asked: “Okay, the frame is done, now what?”

“Now draw an invincibly pretty, cute, elegant, and mature lady, just like me.”

Yu Sheng said nothing.

Irene’s voice dropped: “It doesn’t have to be that pretty. Just try to make it look like me.”

He still said nothing.

Miss Doll sighed and gave in: “Fine, draw a person, then write my name underneath it. Use the letters I taught you to spell it.”

“That I can do,” Yu Sheng said at last. He bent over the frame and began to sketch Irene’s outline and her true name with the charcoal, grumbling as he worked: “[You know my drawing skills. Don’t ask for the impossible right from the start.]”

The squirrel had been watching him the whole time, curious. Now it saw him drawing on the floor and writing strange letters. It panicked and squeaked: “Hey, hey, you-what are you doing? Is that witchcraft? I’m warning you, don’t mess around. The Black Forest already has enough deadly stuff in it!”

“I told you, a friend is coming,” Yu Sheng said without looking up. “Relax. This isn’t some demonic ritual. My friend is sealed in a cursed oil painting. I need a special method to summon her.”

The squirrel almost choked, its big tail slapping the table as it hopped up and down, but it was too scared to interfere.

Just then, Yu Sheng finished the last step of his rough “artwork.”

The squirrel stopped moving.

It stared at the charcoal sketch on the floor, then let out a very human sigh of relief: “You scared me. I thought you were an evil wizard. Turns out you’re doing abstract art. With something that ugly, what can you even summon…”

A faint glow washed over the drawing on the floor.

The squirrel bit its own tongue and swallowed the rest of its sentence.

An old, solemn painting rose out of the glow. The charcoal lines on the floor melted and drifted away like steam as the painting formed fully in the air.

It floated in front of Yu Sheng and the squirrel. Inside the frame, Irene stood with her hands on her hips and said with pride: “Yu Sheng! I came to help!”

The squirrel gave a sharp squeak and flopped over on its back, paws up, tail twitching.

Yu Sheng rushed over and nudged it awake: “Hey, hey, what’s with you?”

The squirrel came to, saw the painting floating behind Yu Sheng, and caught sight of the gothic doll in the frame peeking this way. It shuddered again, its tail curling tight, and muttered: “Are witches these days really not picky? You drew something that looks like a wild goblin and still summoned it…”

Irene eyed the little creature with interest, then glanced at Yu Sheng and asked: “It’s kind of cute. It even has a strip of red cloth tied around it. By the way, what did it mean by ‘wild goblin’?”

Yu Sheng coughed and said, changing the subject: “Probably a local specialty of the Black Forest. Anyway, introductions first.” He pointed to the Miss Doll in the frame and said to the squirrel: “This is my friend. Her name is Irene. She’s also a friend of Little Red Riding Hood.”

Irene gave the squirrel a polite nod and added: “We also have a fox friend. She can’t get in, so she’s guarding outside.”

The squirrel stared, then clawed at its own face and started speed-walking in circles on the table, muttering: “What is going on, what is going on. It wasn’t like this before. This has never happened in the Black Forest. Strange, so strange…”

Irene leaned toward Yu Sheng’s ear and whispered: “Is this squirrel okay? It doesn’t look mentally stable.”

“It has been like this since the moment I met it,” Yu Sheng whispered back. “It even smokes. And come on, a talking squirrel, how normal can it be?”

The circling squirrel stopped suddenly. Maybe it heard them. It pointed at itself and declared: “I am a squirrel.”

Irene jumped, then nodded: “Uh, yes, I can see that. You are a squirrel.”

“Does Little Red Riding Hood have a lot of friends,” the squirrel asked at once, staring hard at the doll in the frame, “friends like you, strange and powerful, who can come into the Black Forest?”

Irene hesitated, then admitted: “I don’t know if she has many friends. We haven’t known her long, and we haven’t met the others yet.” Her chin lifted, and she bragged: “But if you mean skill, we’re strong. I’m a doll from Alice’s Little House. We even have a fox who can shoot her tail, and when she shows her true form she takes up two parking spots.”

The squirrel barely listened. It suddenly brightened and scampered around the table, muttering excitedly: “The important part is that you can come into the Black Forest. If you can come in, she doesn’t have to walk the path alone. This has never happened here. It’s outside the rules. An ‘accident.’ If there’s an accident, there’s a chance. Maybe…”

Yu Sheng frowned at that and traded a look with Irene.