Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Irene’s Escape Plan

Irene’s cursing was vicious.

Maybe it was because her real body was a doll, so she didn’t even need to breathe. Either way, Yu Sheng stayed calm. After Irene slid to the bottom and kept swearing, he let her. He held the railing and walked down slowly, mostly because his back hurt too much to move fast.

When he reached the first floor, he bent down with effort and picked up the frame.

“Are you sick?!” Irene glared from inside the painting, hugging the teddy bear. Her clothes and hair were a mess. “Who throws someone down the stairs like that? What if you broke the painting?!”

“My back hurts,” Yu Sheng said evenly as he carried the frame toward the dining room. “Your painting is too heavy. I couldn’t carry it down.”

Then he stopped, lowered his head, and looked at Irene very seriously.

Under that stare, Irene bristled. “Y-you… what are you trying to do now? I’m telling you, if you throw me down the stairs again, I won’t let you off. Every day I’ll sneak into your dreams. If you dream about exams, I’ll ring a bell. If you dream about gaming, I’ll pull the plug. If you dream about going out, I’ll drive a dump truck after you. If you dream about dating, I’ll—”

Why did this unlucky doll have so much trash talk?

Yu Sheng forced down the urge to drag her back upstairs and toss her down again. Keeping his face tight, he said, “I just want to ask—how does your ‘seal’ work? You said you were looking for help to escape. So what would it take?”

Irene froze. Two seconds later, she blurted, stunned, “Y-you’re going to help me get out?!”

“I’m asking,” Yu Sheng corrected, frowning. “I didn’t agree yet.”

Irene seemed not to hear the second half.

“There are two ways!” she said, words rushing out. “The first is best: find my body. I don’t know where it is now, but it’s definitely somewhere. Maybe not far from this painting. If you find my original body and bring me close to it, I can get out of this damn painting.”

She took a breath she didn’t need.

“But if you can’t find it, or it’s been destroyed, then there’s only the second way—make a new one. A new body won’t work as well as the original, and adapting to it will be a pain…”

Yu Sheng listened, then couldn’t help cutting in. “Make a new one how? Can I just buy a doll from a shop?”

“Of course not!” Irene snapped at once. “I’m one of Alice’s dolls! A living doll blessed by blessing, got it? How could I be like those cheap store dolls?”

Then, as if realizing she should sound more serious, she adjusted her posture.

“Living dolls are born from the garden of Alice Little House. Our original bodies come from there too. But I’ve lost my connection with the garden, and I can’t leave the painting, so I can’t go back to be reborn. Still, even without the garden, we have an emergency method to make a temporary body in the real world…”

She spoke faster, getting excited.

“First, you need self-growing hair, living soil, self-healing dead man’s bone, and one tear from a living doll—two tears is fine too, my skin would look better—then you use alchemy to reactivate the materials, then smear them with your own blood…”

She paused mid-rant.

“Hey, why are you making that face?”

Yu Sheng stared at her, expression stiff. After a long moment, he let out a slow breath.

“How about we talk about finding your original body instead?” he said.

Irene blinked. “…You don’t know alchemy?”

“Is this something everyone is supposed to know?” Yu Sheng looked like he might actually lose it. “And forget alchemy—those materials you listed, where am I supposed to find them? Are you sure you didn’t copy that from some third-rate fantasy magazine? And living doll tears… If I could find another living doll, I’d hand you over—painting and all. Wouldn’t it be better to let your sister take you home instead of having me fumble around?”

Yu Sheng knew he didn’t understand much about this world. But even with his limited knowledge, Irene’s “materials” did not sound like things an ordinary person could get. Yet she’d listed them like they were as common as flour and salt.

Seeing his reaction, Irene looked awkward too. She shifted on the chair and lowered her voice.

“Actually… other materials work too,” she admitted. “Like ordering clay and paints and wigs online…”

Yu Sheng: “…?”

He stared at her with a look that said, Are you messing with me?

Irene shrank back. “I just want the temporary body to work as well as possible. But if I can’t craft legendary gear, then a basic starter build is fine.”

She hurried on, like she was trying to repair the damage.

“But even with normal materials, the last step still needs your blood. And a little alchemy skill. I can teach you. It’s very simple. Even an ordinary person can do it…”

Yu Sheng didn’t answer right away. He went quiet, thinking. After a few seconds, he asked, “Earlier you were going to say there were three ways, weren’t you? Why didn’t you mention the third?”

Irene waved a hand, suddenly honest. “That way isn’t very good. There’s a price. You probably wouldn’t agree, and I don’t want you to try it either. We’re not close…”

“If you know we’re not close, then stop talking so much nonsense,” Yu Sheng said, giving her a glare.

Irene pursed her lips and studied him, wary now, like she’d finally learned what nervous felt like.

“Then…” she asked carefully, “are you going to help me? The second way is actually pretty easy. You can pinch a body into shape. It doesn’t matter if your workmanship is bad. If the ritual is right, once I enter the body, I can reshape it… just don’t make it too ugly. At least make it look like a person.”

This time, Yu Sheng didn’t bicker. He thought in silence for nearly half a minute, then answered solemnly.

“I can’t agree right now. I need to think.”

He didn’t trust her. Not completely.

She seemed sincere. She was talkative and annoying, but she didn’t feel malicious. Still, those were surface impressions formed in less than a day. Underneath, she was a creepy thing sealed inside a painting.

Yu Sheng wasn’t about to get charmed by a cute face and craft a new body for a “ghost in the painting” without weighing the risk. What if she got out and immediately turned ruthless? What if she raised that teddy bear and carved him up?

He’d died once not long ago. He didn’t feel like dying again.

But Irene didn’t argue. She only stared at him for a moment, then nodded as if it made perfect sense.

“Oh,” she said. “I understand.”

Yu Sheng blinked, surprised. He’d expected a fight.

“Because we’re not close yet, right?” Irene smiled and blinked at him. “Once we’re closer, I’ll ask again.”

“…Fine,” Yu Sheng said. “We’ll talk later.”

He carried the frame into the dining room, propped it upright on the table against the wall, then turned and headed into the kitchen.

“I haven’t eaten dinner yet,” he said over his shoulder. “I’m going to cook.”

“Okay,” Irene replied. Then, immediately: “Hey, can you turn on the TV across from the table? I want to watch.”

“You’re so demanding.”

Yu Sheng turned on the TV and started preparing dinner with the vegetables and seasonings he’d bought earlier.

He actually loved cooking. Ever since he’d come to this familiar-yet-strange Boundary City, he’d cooked almost every meal at home. In a place like this, a warm stove and a steady routine were the only things that made him feel grounded.

He didn’t mind running into lanky ghosts while traveling outside.

But not while he was cooking and eating.

Those were serious events.

…Even though now this “safe house” also had a creepy Irene inside it.

Still, compared to the shadows in the streets, the freezing rain, and frogs that tore out hearts, a miserable doll trapped in a painting was almost cute.

At least she hadn’t tried to dig out his heart.