Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Irene’s Skill

Irene could slip into other people’s dreams—and, according to her, she could do more than just show up. She claimed she could nudge a dream’s direction, too: ring the “turn in your papers” bell in a nightmare and summon a dump truck on cue.

In theory, it sounded like a terrifyingly useful ability. Suggestions, mental parasites, reshaped memories—any number of high-level tricks.

In practice, Yu Sheng doubted how much of the doll’s boasting was true. From what he’d seen, she was useless even inside a dream. She couldn’t even hide properly in the bushes.

And even here, she was still trapped inside the painting.

Irene’s frame floated in front of him. The doll girl inside looked faintly awkward, and the longer Yu Sheng stared at her hovering state, the more uncomfortable he felt. Somehow, dangling in midair looked even worse than being hung on a wall.

“So even in a dream, you can only stay in the painting?” He tugged at the corner of his mouth. “I thought once we were in a mindscape, you’d at least be able to come out and run around…”

“That’s why it’s called a curse,” Irene said, sounding helpless. “I’m trapped in the painting in reality, and the spirit world is no different. No matter where I go, I can’t leave this frame unless I find a suitable vessel. Freedom? I don’t even get that in a dream.”

“That’s… miserable.”

Yu Sheng couldn’t help the sympathy in his voice.

“Hey, dreams are still a little different from the real world!” Maybe she heard the pity and felt her pride bleed out, because she hurried to save face. “I’m freer here than I am awake. Look, I can float around… Don’t laugh! And—and there’s more!”

Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. “More than that?”

Irene thought for a moment, then struck a pose like she was powering up in KOF ’98. Inside the painting, she strained so dramatically that Yu Sheng almost believed her. He watched the portrait closely, and in the next second a layer of dreamy light rippled across the canvas.

As his eyes widened, the painting finally went bang—and turned into an ’80s-style poster.

Irene stood in the poster’s washed-out movie colors, staring at him with wide eyes.

“I can change the art style,” she announced.

Yu Sheng stared back. “…”

“You laughed out loud!”

“I didn’t.”

“Your inner voice did!”

Yu Sheng decided not to argue with a doll about the sound of his thoughts. The big fox was still lying nearby, and he still hadn’t figured out what was going on with her.

Irene looked wounded. When she realized he was ignoring her, she floated off to the side and started muttering, “I can turn into other things too, you know. Prints, scrolls… I’m even researching how to become a relief. Then I’ll have thickness, and you won’t be able to say my character is thin anymore…”

Yu Sheng finally snapped and turned to her. “First, when did I ever say your character was thin? Second, that’s not how you use the phrase ‘thin character’—and even if you turned into marble, it wouldn’t make your personality any deeper.”

Irene opened her mouth to retort.

Then she went bang and snapped back into her original painting.

Yu Sheng blinked. Her transformation had lasted less than three minutes.

He already knew she was useless even in a dream. He just hadn’t expected her to be useless to this extent.

This time, Irene didn’t look discouraged at all. Instead, she finally noticed the white fox on the grass—no, more accurately, she noticed how wrong the fox looked compared to everything around her.

Curiosity immediately won. “So what’s up with this fox? Why is her color different from everything else?”

Yu Sheng frowned, clearly not following.

In an oddly patient tone, Irene explained, “In a normal person’s dream, everything shares one overall tone. Even if the dreamer can’t tell, I can see it as an outsider. Like your dream—the sky and grass are all gray and gloomy. That’s the baseline tone. But this fox… she looks like she wandered in from a different set.”

She paused, then eyed Yu Sheng suspiciously. “How did something this weird show up in your dream?”

Yu Sheng looked at the sleeping white fox. “Her name is Foxy.”

“I know. She’s obviously a fox.”

“I mean her name—Foxy.” He sighed. “Remember when I told you about being trapped in an otherworld? I met a fox. White fur, red eyes, a bunch of tails…”

Irene froze. For once, her unreliable memory actually turned over the right stone, and her face went theatrical.

“What?!” She stared at the massive demon fox, opened her mouth a few times, and finally blurted, “How did you grab her and drag her into your dream? Wait—no. How do you have the power to lock someone into—”

“This isn’t something I dragged in,” Yu Sheng cut in. “And I don’t think she’s really ‘locked’ here either. It’s probably… something like a shadowspawn. I’m not sure. I saw her not long after I fell asleep, but I can’t wake her no matter what I try.”

Irene looked between him and the demon fox, eyes darting as she tried to make sense of it. It clearly wasn’t easy.

“I’ve never heard of something like this…” she muttered. Then she pivoted her frame and stared hard into Yu Sheng’s eyes. “Are you really human?”

Yu Sheng frowned. “What kind of question is that? If I’m not human, are you?”

Irene didn’t blink. For once, her expression was serious.

“All right. A human. An ordinary person. Living in an otherworld for a long time without realizing it. Then you run into another otherworld, meet a hostile entity, and not only survive—you cut a ‘local specialty’ off it, bring it back, stir-fry it, eat it, and stay lively as ever. Now you can even hold another mind inside your dream, while that mind’s body is still trapped somewhere else.

“After all that, you tell me you’re human? Ordinary?”

Under that unblinking crimson stare, Yu Sheng suddenly felt awkward. He looked away.

[You’re still missing “resurrection.” Compared to that, everything she just listed isn’t even the worst of it…]

“Yeah,” he said, scratching lightly at the back of his neck. “A lot of weird stuff has happened. I’m confused too. And if you really want to put it that way, you’re one of the newest ‘weird things’ in my life.”

He met her gaze again, helpless. “Stop staring at me. I don’t know what’s going on. I just can’t wake Foxy. If I could, I’d ask her what’s wrong.”

Irene stared at him a moment longer, as if confirming he wasn’t joking. Then she looked away and focused on the silver demon fox again.

She thought for a long time.

“I have an idea,” she said suddenly.

“An idea?” Yu Sheng perked up. “Let’s hear it.”

“I’ll try diving into this fox’s dream—if she’s dreaming right now,” Irene said, pointing at the sleeping demon fox. “Her state looks like a mind lock. But no matter how tight a mind lock is, it’s hard to defend against dreams. Maybe I can see something, and if I’m lucky, I can even wake her from this side.”

Yu Sheng blinked, genuinely surprised. A moment ago he was thinking she was useless. Now she was tossing out something that sounded… frighteningly professional.

“You can do that?”

“It’s not hard, as long as she’s dreaming. Even if she isn’t, your minds are clearly linked right now. I can still squeeze over and take a look.” Irene’s voice turned careful. “It’s just… risky. I’ll need your help.”

Yu Sheng’s expression hardened. “Tell me what to do.”

“Jumping between minds is like diving into unstable waters.” Irene looked straight at him. “If the connection between us goes wrong, I could get stuck on the other side. So I need a rope, and you can be that rope.

“You have to dive with me. We’ll sink from your dream down into the depths of her mind. You’ll take some of the pressure so I can spare attention to find the way. And if something goes wrong…” She paused. “I’ll use a more extreme method to wake you up.

“In this chain of dreams, your awakening has top priority. It’ll yank me back with you, and we both return safely. But I have to warn you—my wake-up method won’t feel nice.”

“How bad can it be?”

Irene’s gaze went distant, as if recalling something traumatic. “…Like dreaming you’re taking the college entrance exam, and before you even write your name the bell rings. Then a dump truck crashes into the exam room and turns you—and your most unforgettable first love from high school—into paper people. Flat ones. With really thin character.”

Yu Sheng didn’t understand a single word of that metaphor.

But in the end, it was just waking up. No matter how unpleasant it was, could it really be worse than dying?

What he wanted far more was to figure out what was happening to Foxy—and what was happening inside his own dream.

“No problem,” Yu Sheng said, drawing a steadying breath. He nodded solemnly at Irene. “Let’s start. What’s the first step?”

“Go over there,” Irene said. “Get close to her. As close as you can. Lie down on her tail.

“Then hold my frame, close your eyes, and we jump into the dream.”