Chapter 322: Laborious Communication

In the past, Yu Sheng had witnessed exactly this bewildering scene: Xiaoxiao and several children stood helplessly beside the vegetable patch, while the artificially created Saintess, with her terrifying appearance, diligently weeded the field. Her metallic shell was smeared with mud and grass clippings, suggesting she had been busy at it for quite some time.

"Uncle Yu... Brother!" Xiaoxiao, seeing Yu Sheng appear at the door, immediately ran over to complain, not forgetting to change her address during the greeting, "She stole our labor class assignment... Who is this big sister?"

Yu Sheng was still dazed; he didn't know what was going on either, but hearing Xiaoxiao's words, he cleared his throat twice, raised his hand to rub the other's head, and said, "Uh, she's a new guest... It's fine, you kids go play somewhere else. I'll explain to Teacher Su later."

Xiaoxiao half-understood, made an "oh" sound, and led the other children away. Meanwhile, the iron doll not far away seemed to finally notice the situation here. She slowly straightened up, turned her pale face with its vacant smile toward Yu Sheng, and then stood motionless right where she was.

Yu Sheng faced the other across a distance of ten meters: a silent steel doll and a "Resurrected One" who had been killed by the other twice. Neither broke the silence; they only let the breeze blow from the depths of the valley, rustling the leaves by the road nearby, occasionally accompanied by the sounds of children playing and shouting, sweeping over the field ridges along with the wind.

After a while, Yu Sheng tried speaking to the other: "Uh, hello... Can you hear me?"

He waited a few seconds before seeing the Artificial Saintess nod gently.

"Can you walk over?" Yu Sheng said again. "That patch of land was specially cleared for the children in town to tend together—I know you want to help, but they seem to dislike it."

After another few seconds of slightly awkward standoff and silence, the Artificial Saintess finally nodded again, stepped out of the vegetable patch, and with some hesitation and caution, slowly approached Yu Sheng.

Her posture remained as elegant as when they first met, but Yu Sheng clearly felt the other's reactions seemed somewhat sluggish.

With a thoughtful expression, he observed the other carefully, trying to discern some trace of "human" warmth from this beautiful yet hollow shell lacking expression and temperature, while curiously asking, "Do you still remember me?"

The Artificial Saintess hesitated for a moment, raised her hand, pointed at Yu Sheng's arm, then pointed at his chest.

Yu Sheng: "..."

That was a bit awkward.

"Uh, right," Yu Sheng said with a mix of laughter and helplessness, touching his nose, thinking that the other indeed remembered him, but this memory point was somewhat outrageous, "Two cuts, eight holes... Hey wait, where's your blade?"

Only then did he notice that the iron doll's hands were in their normal form, and her original half-meter-long "finger blades" were nowhere to be seen for some reason.

Hearing Yu Sheng's question, the Artificial Saintess stood dazed for a moment, tilted her head slightly as if trying to understand. After a while, she finally seemed to grasp it, lowered her hands to her sides—accompanied by a faint mechanical click, a hidden compartment in her legs flipped open, blades popped out, and merged with her fingers.

She raised both hands, flexed those sharp blades, and very seriously showed them to Yu Sheng.

Seeing the other's two hands with ten blades waving right in front of him made Yu Sheng feel the need to be extra cautious; he quickly waved his hands: "Okay, okay, I get it, no need to show—by the way, your blades are actually detachable?!"

The iron doll slowly nodded, retracted all the blades, and then continued to stand silently in front of Yu Sheng as before.

Of course, it was more likely that her body simply lacked the function of speech.

Yu Sheng gradually felt a bit of pressure—mainly due to unfamiliarity.

After all, normally just one Erin had four mouths; for matters as trivial as a sesame seed, the little dolls could chatter non-stop all morning. When paired with Hu Li, it was chaos with chickens flying and dogs jumping, never a moment's rest. The daily liveliness at No. 66 Wutong Road was comparable to the bustling vegetable market at the execution ground, which meant he had long adapted to a rhythm where one sentence from him would trigger four channels of echoing responses (sometimes adding Hu Li, making five channels). Now, encountering someone who not only didn't speak but also reacted half a beat slow...

To put it simply, it felt like switching from a ten-gigabit fiber connection to carrier pigeons. When staring blankly face-to-face with the Artificial Saintess, he often suspected the other had actually crashed...

Fortunately, just as he felt this situation of speaking once and waiting half a day was particularly awkward, someone finally came to the rescue.

Accompanied by the sound of a giant animal running, a familiar cacophony of squeals and shouts came from afar: "Hey hey! Yu Sheng! Hu Li and I are here! What's the situation? You suddenly said in the mental connection that the Artificial Saintess woke up? Hey Hu Li, slow down, slow down! Oh my god, slow... Ah!"

Yu Sheng quickly turned to look and saw a giant white fox rushing toward him from the direction of the teleportation platform, kicking up dust. Only when very close did it belatedly remember to slow down, so it planted its two front paws, swung its whole body sideways, and used its nine tails like auxiliary thrusters to perform an instant reverse-thrust brake—it actually worked. Hu Li stopped instantly, but the four Erins were flung into the air like projectiles from a catapult, flailing wildly.

Fortunately, Yu Sheng was quick-eyed and quick-handed; he dashed forward in one stride and caught the little doll.

But he only caught one; the other three uniformly stuck headfirst into the vegetable patch. Number One, carrying a picture frame on her back, flew the farthest because the oil painting on her back acted as a glider.

The scene fell silent for two brief seconds. Yu Sheng looked down at the Erin in his arms; Erin also lifted her head somewhat dazedly, and the two locked eyes.

The next second, the doll in his arms let out a "Awooo!" and leaped up, jumping to the ground and charging toward the big white fox who was strolling over with unhurried steps: "Stupid fox, you did it on purpose! Normally when you carry Yu Sheng, you use your tail to shield him!"

Yu Sheng reached out to stop her but couldn't. Just then, his peripheral vision caught the Artificial Saintess, who had been standing motionless since earlier, suddenly reacting again. The iron doll looked left and right, seemed to think seriously about something, then stepped toward the vegetable patch. She pulled out each Erin who was still buried in the soil, struggling to move her short legs, and didn't forget to help shake off the dirt before casually tucking the still-frantically struggling little doll under her arm...

A moment later, she walked back and placed the three little dolls neatly on the ground in front of Yu Sheng.

For some reason, Yu Sheng was reminded of radishes neatly piled at the head of the field.

Except this pile of "radishes" was cursing terribly. As soon as the three Erins hit the ground, they started jumping up and down, spewing foul language, and had to take breaks to vigorously shake the dirt from their hair and clothes. After struggling for a while, they looked up and saw the C-shaped buckle standing motionless nearby, looking down on them. The smile on the latter's face was like mockery, causing Erin to feel the sky had collapsed: "Humiliation! I, a living doll of Alice... Stupid fox, I'm not done with you!"

Hu Li, in her demon fox form, also walked over. The only Erin Yu Sheng had caught was currently hanging in mid-air by a tuft of fur on her chin. This made Hu Li feel awkward, but she dared not shake her head directly, so she gently tapped the little doll, who was still trying hard to pull out a tuft of fur, with her front paw: "Next time I'll buy you a new dress with my allowance."

Erin immediately let go: "That works."

Thus, the grudge was erased.

As for Yu Sheng, in such a short while, he felt his familiar atmosphere had returned. The chaotic noise of chickens flying and dogs jumping around his ears made him feel completely refreshed...

He turned his head and saw the Artificial Saintess still standing in the same spot. The commotion suddenly caused by Erin and Hu Li didn't seem to provoke any reaction from her, but soon Yu Sheng noticed the other's posture seemed slightly more constrained compared to before, as if... helpless? Or perhaps a bit nervous?

At this moment, one of the Erins finally turned her attention to the iron doll. She strutted over proudly, looking up: "Hey! C-shaped buckle!"

However, the other gave no response.

The little doll turned her head to look at Yu Sheng: "Yu Sheng, why is she ignoring me?"

Yu Sheng quickly explained: "Her reaction seems a bit slow."

"Oh, is that so?" Erin paused, then turned her head back, and indeed saw the Artificial Saintess lowering her head, seemingly responding to her earlier greeting.

"Alright, looks like there might be some aftereffects? Or maybe related to mental fracture?" Erin, with a broad mind, muttered a couple of times and put this detail aside, introducing herself to the other: "My name is Erin! I'm the second-in-command of the 'Inn'! The big fox beside me is Hu Li, the third-in-command of the Inn—do you understand? Oh right, and this is Yu Sheng, our boss!"

The Artificial Saintess kept her head down. After a while, she slowly nodded, as if truly understanding Erin's meaning.

Erin then turned to look at Hu Li beside her: "Hey stupid fox, why are you still in this state? Won't you change back?"

Hu Li didn't respond; she just carefully examined the Artificial Saintess a few more times, as if judging something, and finally made an "oh" sound. Accompanied by a rising glow of light, she transformed from her demon fox form into her usual human form.

"Hello," she politely greeted the iron doll before her.

The Artificial Saintess nodded in response.

"Why don't you ever speak?" Erin finally noticed the other's oddity. "Can't you speak?"

The Artificial Saintess hesitated slightly, nodded gently, but immediately shook her head.

Erin stood stunned for a moment, then turned to look at Yu Sheng: "Why is communicating so difficult?"

"It was like this just now too," Yu Sheng helplessly spread his hands. "Perhaps, as you said, it's an aftereffect."

Saying this, he raised his head and looked again at the distance.

More and more children were gathering to watch the spectacle.

"This isn't the place to talk; let's go home and figure it out."

(End of Chapter)