Chapter 322

Chapter 322: A Difficult Conversation

What Yu Sheng saw when he walked closer was exactly the kind of scene that broke a person’s mind.

Xiao Xiao and a handful of small children stood beside the vegetable patch, looking helpless, while the terrifying-looking Artificial Saintess carefully cleared weeds from the soil. Dirt and grass clippings clung to her metal shell like she’d been at it for a while.

“Yu Sheng un—Brother!” Xiao Xiao spotted him and ran over at once, ready to complain, remembering to correct himself mid-address. “She stole our labor-class homework! Who is this big sister?”

Yu Sheng was still stunned, but he cleared his throat and patted Xiao Xiao’s head. “Uh… she’s a new guest. It’s fine. You all go play somewhere else first. I’ll explain to Teacher Su later.”

Xiao Xiao gave a half-understood “oh,” then left with the other kids.

The iron doll finally seemed to register what was happening. She slowly straightened, turning that pale face with its hollow smile toward Yu Sheng, and then went perfectly still.

Yu Sheng stood about ten meters away.

One was a silent steel doll. The other was the man she’d killed twice and who’d “revived” anyway.

Neither of them spoke.

A breeze blew through the valley, rustling leaves along the road. Every so often, children’s laughter drifted over the ridges.

After a long while, Yu Sheng tried. “Uh… hello. Can you hear me?”

He waited.

The Artificial Saintess gave a small nod.

“Can you come over here?” Yu Sheng said, careful with his tone. “That patch is something I set up for the town’s kids to take care of together. I know you wanted to help, but… they don’t seem to want that.”

Another pause.

Another nod.

She stepped out of the patch and approached, hesitant and cautious, as if each motion needed checking. Her posture was still elegant, almost ceremonial, but her reactions felt half a beat slow.

Yu Sheng studied her, searching for even a trace of human warmth in that beautiful, empty shell. “Do you remember me?”

The Artificial Saintess hesitated. Then she raised a hand, pointed at Yu Sheng’s arm, and then at his chest.

Yu Sheng coughed. “…Right. Yes.”

Awkward.

He rubbed his nose and gave a helpless laugh. “Two stabs, eight holes. Got it. Uh… where’s your knife?”

Only then did he notice her hands looked normal. Those half-meter-long fingertip blades were gone.

She stared for a moment, as if processing.

Then, with a faint mechanical click, compartments in her legs flipped open. Blades sprang out and fused with her fingers.

She lifted both hands and flexed them, very earnestly showing him ten gleaming knives.

The sight of two hands full of blades waving in front of his face made Yu Sheng feel like he needed to grow extra brains. He waved both hands fast. “Okay, okay. I believe you. No need to demonstrate—wait. Your blades are detachable?!”

She nodded slowly, then retracted them all and returned to stillness.

Yu Sheng started to feel pressure—mostly because he wasn’t used to it.

One Irene meant four mouths. Little Doll could ramble for an entire morning over nothing. Add Foxy and it became chaos with no pause. The daily noise level at Wu Tong Road 66 could rival a street market at peak hours. He was used to saying one sentence and getting four audio channels of commentary—sometimes five.

Now he was facing someone who not only didn’t talk, but reacted with a delay.

It felt like going from a fiber line to carrier pigeons. Standing there, Yu Sheng kept half-suspecting she’d crashed.

Luckily, just as the silence started to make his skin crawl, salvation arrived.

Footsteps pounded like a charging beast, and a familiar shrill voice screamed from the distance. “Hey, hey! Yu Sheng! Foxy and I are here! What’s going on? You suddenly said on the spiritual link that the Artificial Saintess woke up?

“Hey, Foxy, slow down! Slow down! Oh my god slo—ah!”

Yu Sheng turned just in time to see a giant white fox sprinting in from the portal platform, kicking up dust. At the last second, Foxy remembered to brake. She planted her front paws, swung her body sideways, and snapped her nine tails like auxiliary thrusters for an instant reverse stop.

It worked.

Foxy halted dead.

The four Irenes, however, launched into the air like catapult shots, limbs flailing.

Yu Sheng dashed forward and caught one.

Only one.

The other three plunged headfirst into the vegetable patch—and the Number One Unit with the picture frame flew the farthest, because the painting on her back acted like a glider.

Silence fell for two seconds.

Yu Sheng looked down at the Irene in his arms. Irene stared back, dazed.

Then she let out a feral howl, sprang down, and charged at the big white fox now strolling over as if nothing had happened. “Silly Fox! You did that on purpose! When you carry Yu Sheng, you always use your tail to block for him!”

Yu Sheng reached out to stop her.

He failed.

And then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Artificial Saintess—silent the whole time—react.

She looked left. Looked right. Considered, like she’d solved a puzzle.

Then she walked over to the vegetable patch.

One by one, she pulled the Irenes out of the soil as they kicked their little legs and cursed. She even shook dirt off them. Then she tucked the still-struggling Little Doll under her arm like a package.

A moment later, she returned and set three Little Dolls neatly on the ground in front of Yu Sheng.

For some reason, Yu Sheng thought of radishes lined up at the edge of a field.

Except these “radishes” swore like sailors.

The three Irenes hit the ground and immediately started hopping and spewing profanity, stopping every other second to shake soil out of their hair and clothes. When they finally looked up and spotted the Artificial Saintess standing nearby, that fixed smile on her pale face looked like pure mockery. Irene’s expression collapsed.

“Humiliation!” she shrieked. “I, Alice’s living doll… Silly Fox! I’m not done with you!”

Foxy padded over, looking awkward. One Irene was currently dangling from her chin fur, yanking like she was harvesting. Foxy didn’t dare shake her head too hard. She could only tap the Little Doll gently with a paw. “Next time, I’ll use my allowance to buy you a new dress.”

Irene let go instantly. “Fine.”

And just like that, an old grudge vanished.

Yu Sheng exhaled. In the span of seconds, the familiar chaos returned, and the noise around his ears somehow made his shoulders loosen.

He turned back.

The Artificial Saintess stood where she was. The commotion hadn’t provoked any obvious reaction, but her posture seemed… smaller, somehow. More restrained. Like she wasn’t sure what to do.

Or maybe nervous.

Then one Irene finally remembered to focus. She strutted up, chin high. “Hey! C Buckle!”

No response.

Irene turned to Yu Sheng, offended. “Yu Sheng, why is she ignoring me?”

“She’s slow to respond,” Yu Sheng said quickly. “It was like this earlier.”

Irene blinked. “I-is that so?”

Sure enough, a moment later, the Artificial Saintess lowered her head slightly, as if acknowledging the greeting after a delay.

“All right,” Irene muttered, instantly letting it go. “Maybe she has aftereffects. Or it’s something with the mind tear.”

Then she launched into introductions. “My name is Irene! I’m the second-in-command of Hotel! This big fox is Foxy—she’s the third-in-command. Do you understand? And this one here is Yu Sheng. He’s our boss!”

The Artificial Saintess kept her head lowered. After a beat, she nodded, slow but definite.

Irene poked Foxy with an elbow. “Hey, Silly Fox, why are you still in that form? Aren’t you changing back?”

Foxy didn’t answer right away. She studied the Artificial Saintess as if judging something. Then she gave a quiet “oh,” and with a burst of light shifted into her usual human shape.

“Hello,” Foxy said politely.

The Artificial Saintess nodded back.

Irene squinted. “Why do you never talk? You can’t speak?”

The Artificial Saintess hesitated, nodded lightly—then immediately shook her head.

Irene froze, then turned to Yu Sheng, exasperated. “Why is talking to her so hard?”

“It was like this earlier,” Yu Sheng said, spreading his hands. “Maybe it’s an aftereffect.”

He glanced around. More children were gathering, watching with fascinated eyes.

“This isn’t the place,” Yu Sheng said. “Let’s go home and figure it out there.”