Chapter 40

Chapter 40: Things Didn’t Go as Expected

Irene cried until it made Yu Sheng’s chest ache.

He didn’t try to comfort her. First, he honestly had no idea how. Second… he was afraid she’d get worked up and snap. If he said the wrong thing, he’d only set her off, and then she’d jump up and bite him.

Right now, she really could jump up and bite people.

That was the good news, at least. Back in the painting, all she could do was yap.

After a long time, Irene finally managed to calm down a little. Yu Sheng hurried over to the desk, hovering as he searched for the right words.

“Hey… don’t be so upset. Next time, I’ll make you a new body. A normal-sized one. For now… just make do with this, okay?”

He swallowed and added, “If it doesn’t work, tomorrow I’ll get you another—”

“This is the only one I can use for now.” Irene sniffled, eyes red with grievance and fury. “Just… just go with this. Don’t bother. Even if you make me a new body tomorrow, I still won’t be able to switch right away. A living doll’s soul can’t handle constantly changing containers. At least… at least it takes a few months…”

The sadness surged back like a tide. She looked ready to burst into tears again.

Yu Sheng reacted on instinct. He grabbed a small glass bottle and held it up to her face.

“What are you doing?” Irene choked out, staring at him like he’d lost his mind.

“A living doll’s tears,” Yu Sheng said solemnly. “Next time I make you a body, we’re going to use high-grade materials. Over the next few months I’ll gather everything we need, and then I’ll make you one that shines with golden light…”

Irene thought about it for half a second, then wailed, “Yu Sheng, your uncle’s—ah!”

It took another long stretch of time before the doll’s mood finally settled again.

Irene climbed onto a stack of old books and sat on top, staring into space like she was contemplating the meaning of existence. Yu Sheng sat by the desk and kept her company, staring into space with her.

“At least… at least it’s better than before,” Irene muttered. It was hard to tell if she was talking to him or to herself. “At least now I can move around on my own.”

“And you can watch TV on your own,” Yu Sheng said quickly. “That’s way more convenient than before, right?”

Irene let out a long sigh. She clearly meant it to sound heavy and profound, but coming from someone only 66.6 centimeters tall, it didn’t land with much weight.

Yu Sheng turned and quietly studied her new body. His gaze caught on her exposed wrists and knees.

The distinctive ball joints were impossible to miss.

“It was a clay doll as the container,” he said thoughtfully, “but it still ended up like this. Like a puppet.”

“Obviously.” Irene shot him a look. “How is a movable doll supposed to move without joints? This is what’s recorded in my soul, so no matter what shape the container was originally, after the soul finishes reshaping it, the body becomes this. If you don’t like ball joints, there’s nothing I can do.”

“Oh, that’s not it.” Yu Sheng waved it off, then hesitated. “But if it’s what’s recorded in your soul… your soul also remembers that you were originally 1.67 meters tall…”

Irene instantly sprang from the book stack onto his arm. She hugged his thumb and tried to pry it upward with sheer brute force. “Can you stop saying the one thing you absolutely should not say?!”

Yu Sheng yelped and jumped back, scrambling to peel this tiny, freakishly strong doll off his arm. “I’m just curious! Curious! You said the reshaping felt normal—so where did it go wrong? Your face didn’t change at all, so how did your body shrink this much?”

“I have no idea!” Irene ended up dangling in midair by her collar. “There shouldn’t have been any problem. The reshaping felt completely normal, and yet the final size went off—hey! Put me down first!”

“Promise you won’t bend my fingers again,” Yu Sheng said, holding her by the collar with a stern face.

Irene nodded through clenched teeth. Only then did he put her back on the desk.

“Forget it.” Irene sighed, pacing a few steps across the desktop. “Thinking about it won’t fix anything. We still need a way to contact the sisters from Alice Little House. If I can go home, the sisters will definitely have a way…”

Yu Sheng’s curiosity flared. “You keep bringing up Alice Little House and the dolls. Where are those sisters usually? Are there other dolls in this city besides you? And that ‘organization’ of yours… what do you actually do?”

He’d wanted to ask for a while, but one headache after another had piled up until now.

“Us?” Irene leaned back, searching her memories. “We’re people created by the doll progenitor. Our mission… honestly, we don’t really have one. Sometimes we deal with the Otherworld. Sometimes we help other organizations handle tricky entities. But most of the time, we dolls just do what we like.”

She climbed back onto the stack of old books, propped her chin in her hands, and continued. “Most of my sisters don’t move around in the human world, but there should be a contact point in the boundary city. I just don’t remember where. And after all these years, the contact method and the liaison probably changed too…”

“When we operate in the human world, we always use disguises. Living dolls look a lot like humans, so it’s easy to blend into a crowd. This city is huge. If you don’t have a specific way to make contact—or you can’t find the right liaison—it’s not easy to find a hidden living doll like that.”

Yu Sheng listened, still surprised despite himself. He’d always suspected there were strange things hiding in the city, but hearing it said out loud hit differently.

“Unbelievable,” he murmured. “I always thought the only residents here were humans.”

“How could that be?” Irene rolled her eyes at him. “This is the Borderland.”

“The Borderland…” Yu Sheng repeated under his breath.

“In the Borderland, anything can show up.” Irene waved a hand, utterly dismissive. “Forget everything else—doesn’t this old quarter have a weird guy like you hiding in it? Someone who thinks he’s human.”

Then she hopped down from the book stack, energy returning to her voice. “Come on. Let’s go downstairs. I’ve had enough of being cooped up here. I finally have the ability to move freely, so I’m going to take a good walk through this big manor.”

“Yeah.” Yu Sheng exhaled and rubbed his face to wake himself up. “Just shaping your body ate most of the day. I’m starving. Let’s go cook something.”

He turned toward the attic exit. Two steps later, Irene yelled behind him, “Hey! Wait up! I’m not down yet!”

Yu Sheng turned around.

Irene took a running start on the desk, leaped onto the creaking old chair, crawled to the edge, then clung to the chair leg with both hands and feet and slowly slid down. It took her a while before she finally made it safely to the floor.

Yu Sheng stared.

Irene pumped her little legs and sprinted to his feet. Only then did she notice his expression. She tilted her head back and tried to plant her hands on her hips, forcing herself into what was clearly meant to be an imposing stance. “What are you looking at?”

“Nothing.” Yu Sheng shook his head. “It just feels pretty… cute.”

He very nearly said funny.

Irene blinked, missing the suspicious pause entirely. “I-is that so?”

She took two steps with him, then reached out and tugged on his pant leg. “Oh, right. Thanks.”

Yu Sheng looked down, baffled, and tugged at his waistband on reflex.

“Thanks for preparing my body,” Irene said, face unexpectedly serious. “Things were too chaotic earlier, so I didn’t properly thank you.”

Yu Sheng looked her up and down—this 66.6-centimeter doll—and held it in as long as he could. He failed. “You’re like this, and you’re still thanking me?”

“Separate issues,” Irene said firmly. “The size problem is something that went wrong when I reshaped myself. But the body really was something you prepared for me with care… even if it’s a bit ugly.”

“…You didn’t have to add that last part.”

“Anyway, what I promised you still counts.” Irene hurried on before he could argue. “I’ll help you from now on. Whether you need help fighting or you need mysticism support, I’ll be useful. Even if I find other sisters in the future and go back to Alice Little House, I’ll come back to help you, I’ll…”

She paused, thinking hard.

“Let’s… let’s set it to a hundred years?” she asked carefully, glancing up at him. “You should die of old age by then, right?”

Yu Sheng: “…I’ll do my best.”

“Then a hundred years!” Irene grinned, and her mood lifted for no obvious reason. She turned, pumped her little legs, and ran toward the attic exit. “Then let’s hurry downstairs—”

Her voice cut off.

She pitched forward like a puppet with its strings severed, flying several meters on her momentum before crashing into the opposite wall.

Yu Sheng’s smile froze.

“Holy… holy shit?”

For a second he went blank. Then he rushed over and scooped the little doll up from the floor.

Irene’s eyes were tightly shut. Not a single muscle was engaged. The limbs that had been warm a moment ago were now cold, like ordinary clay. Only her skin still held that soft, living texture, but there was no sign of life inside.

Yu Sheng was completely stunned.

Then Irene’s voice came from behind him, from the big table not far away.

“Yu Sheng! I… I’m back inside here!”