Chapter 289

Chapter 290: Visit

When the morning sun slipped through the window and fell across the bedroom, the first thing Yu Sheng saw as he opened his eyes was four Irenes sprawled every which way on his bed, while half his own body was already hanging off the edge.

To be fair, a 66.6 cm doll does not take much space. Even if she spins like a top in her sleep, the damage is small. But four dolls rolling around is a different story; each one can run through more than twenty sets of drunk boxing in a single night and, from time to time, throw a sudden flying kick or a headbutt. No one could take that.

Thinking of the many punches and kicks he had suffered, he sighed and wondered if saying yes to building this small doll a new body had been a mistake. He sat up with a sore back, and just as he was about to wash up, four sleepy little voices came from under the blanket, one after another: “Good morning, yawn.” “I dreamed I was in a fight.” “Why are you up so early?” “I got wrapped in the blanket! Get me out!”

He sighed again, turned, and rescued the tiny thing that was squirming and struggling inside the quilt, while muttering: “You need to sleep somewhere else. At least move a few bodies out.”

He was met by four-channel protest at once: “Why? Your room is so big. You can leave me some space.”

He glared: “Look how many bodies you have now! Between my bed and the nightstand, there isn’t enough room for your chaos. I almost woke up on the floor.”

Only then did the four Irenes look around. Their four bodies stared at each other on the bed, then scratched their hair in awkward unison: “Don’t be so serious. Let’s make do for now. When I have more bodies later, I’ll move a few to the attic.”

He waved her off and cut in without mercy: “Save it. I’ll order you some doll storage boxes in the next couple of days. From now on, you leave one main body on the bed and the rest sleep in boxes. Quietly stealing my sleep space like this is not happening.”

He was not surprised when the small doll launched into another round of four-channel looping nagging. He was used to it and knew that if he ignored her for three minutes, the world would go quiet again.

And sure enough, by the time he finished washing up, Irene had forgotten she was about to be packed into a box for sleep and was happily running all around the room again.

One Irene, though, was clearly moving slower than the others.

Yu Sheng looked at her with some surprise: “Your Pro Max body isn’t back to normal yet?”

Mostly recovered, she stretched her limbs while grumbling: “It’s mostly fine, just feels heavier than the other bodies. Maybe I overdid it too much before. I probably need to be fully charged to recover completely.”

He frowned without thinking: “Your charging speed is ridiculously slow. You’ve been charging since yesterday and it’s still not full.”

She spread her hands, helpless: “I can’t help it! I don’t understand what Foxy means by that ‘ancient method of cultivation,’ and I don’t know how to gather the heaven and earth spirit energy. I can’t refine spirit power from food like Foxy can. Should I just chew on power cables instead?”

Yu Sheng laughed: “Go on, try it. When you blow yourself black, I’ll toss you into the washing machine.”

With a yelp the little doll pounced, but this body’s reactions lagged. She slipped as soon as she jumped and did a full body slide, ending up face-first at his feet.

He was used to her unreliability. He bent, picked her up for a quick wash, then frowned again, a little absent-minded as he looked out the window.

Seeing this, Irene forgot she was supposed to be mad and asked with curiosity: “What are you looking at?”

He hesitated: “I don’t know. From the moment I woke up, I’ve felt uneasy.”

She tilted her head: “Your spiritual intuition is bouncing again?”

He shook his head after thinking it over: “Not spiritual intuition, just plain gut feeling. I keep thinking something is going to happen. There’s no sense of danger though, so it probably isn’t bad.”

Her eyes lit up: “Then let me do a divination for you?”

He blinked: “You can do that?”

She puffed up with pride: “Of course. I’m Alice’s Doll. My occult talent is maxed out.” With that, all four bodies ran to the nightstand, worked together to open a drawer, pulled out a deck of cards, sat in a ring on the floor, and started shuffling and drawing while muttering to herself: “Listen, I’m great at divination. Card divination and crystal divination are just the basics. I can also do divination by divine wine. You use a golden cup, plating is fine, pour in sacred wine, cooking wine is fine, light some incense, a mosquito coil is fine, and watch the visions in the drink.”

Yu Sheng listened to the little thing ramble and finally said, uncertain: “It looks to me like you’re just playing a card game with yourself.”

She, whichever version she was, tossed the cards to the floor and lifted her chin: “You don’t get it. With card divination, the form of the cards isn’t the point. The key is the diviner’s feel for fate. For example, from this game I can already see you have a blood omen today.”

He relaxed at once, because Irene says he has a blood omen every day.

At the same time, near the intersection by No. 66 Wutong Road, a tall, handsome young man in casual clothes walked out of an alley at an easy pace.

After a short walk, he saw the road was nearly at its end. Ahead there was only an open lot, with no more houses. He stopped, looked for a moment, then pulled a note from his pocket and checked the scribbled lines: “Yes, the address is right here.”

Putting the note away, he glanced around. Seeing no one, he stood at the corner, cupped his hands toward the open lot, swept one hand past his eyes, formed a few seals with the other, and in a breath his presence shifted.

Threads of hazy spiritual light pooled in his eyes. He opened them and slowly scanned the empty lot.

Before he could see anything appear on the lot, two people burst out of a small house with a “Parcel Pickup” sign. They rushed at him like a gust of wind and shouted as they ran: “Hey, hey, who are you? Don’t move!” “Restricted zone! Do you have a permit?”

The handsome youth froze.

After a brief exchange, he and the two Special Affairs Bureau agents, who had been temporarily assigned to the outpost here, stared at one another.

The younger agent kept a straight face and asked: “You’re saying you registered with the Special Affairs Bureau and came to visit the master of No. 66 Wutong Road?”

The handsome youth hurriedly pulled out his documents: “Yes. Here is my pass, and this one bears your Director’s personal signature.”

The agents checked the papers carefully, then pulled out a phone to confirm. Only then did they hand the papers back, though still puzzled: “You just came like this? By yourself?”

He nodded, calm, then added: “I came to Boundary City years ago, so I roughly know the old city. Also, this is a private errand my master arranged. It wouldn’t be right to trouble your bureau too much. I finished the forms and came alone.” He sighed with some feeling: “I just didn’t expect the expert’s way of living in seclusion to be this clever. There are taboos in the area. I was rash.”

“You were rash, all right. You should have checked before you came,” the other agent said, helpless. “Within one hundred meters of No. 66 Wutong Road it’s strictly forbidden to use any extraordinary power, and you cannot use any unusual means to spy on or probe this place. There are warning marks at the nearby intersections. Didn’t you see them?”

The youth looked embarrassed: “I came here using World Condensing Step.”

The two agents exchanged a look and muttered to each other: “Told you the warning signs should be posted farther out. One hundred meters isn’t enough.” “Moving signs won’t help. Better request a jamming device from upstairs.” “Could be. But we rotate off in a couple days.” “Still, file the report. Leave a trace.”

After waiting a while, the youth finally spoke up, polite as ever: “Sirs, could you please announce me first? I carry my master’s order.”

“Ah, right, right, sorry,” one agent said, nodding quickly. “Give us a moment. I’ll call the people inside.”

Moments later, the handsome youth, now a little puzzled, stood at the open lot at the end of the road. He stopped in front of one paving tile. On the ground, just before it, a bold red line had been painted. Below the line were fresh characters that read: “Door Opening, please watch out.” The paint was clearly new. In one corner, a little tuft of silver-white fur had stuck to it, probably from a passing cat or dog’s tail while the paint was wet.

Even now, he still could not sense the aura of any hidden dwelling.

[No wonder, this really is an expert.]

The next second, a door appeared before his eyes.

There was no sign, no aura. A plain door simply opened, and an equally plain figure stood in the doorway.

Xuan Che looked at the expert in the doorway.

Yu Sheng looked at the grand marshal standing in front of him.

They were quiet for several seconds.

Then they blurted out together, one after the other: “You?!” “Oh shoot, a blood omen!”