Chapter 38: Shaping

The kitchen doorknob turned, then the door pushed open silently; Yu Sheng walked out from inside carrying several large bags and greeted the stunned Erin not far away: "I'm back."

Erin's eyes widened greatly, clearly unable to process what was happening at once: "Didn't you go out to buy things? Why are you coming from..."

She suddenly stopped, as if she had just figured it out.

"No way! You went shopping at a mall and still had to 'open the door' to get home!?"

"I thought about it; since this door leads not only to another realm but also to some 'distant place' in reality, there's no reason it couldn't go to a closer place," Yu Sheng said to Erin with a proud expression, "By the way, I also tested carrying objects and living creatures through this door. It seems that as long as the door remains stable, they can all pass through smoothly..."

Erin listened, stunned, and became curious upon hearing the words "living creatures": "Living creatures?! Where did you get them? Where are they?"

Yu Sheng held out his hand: "Before coming back, I caught a mosquito..."

Erin: "...?"

The Young Lady Doll gained a new understanding of Yu Sheng's creativity, then her attention inevitably fell on the several large shopping bags he had brought back.

The first thing she saw was a box of eight-treasure porridge.

Yu Sheng started taking things out of the shopping bags, first placing the box of eight-treasure porridge, then showing the rest to Erin: "I bought lightweight clay. Because I bought such a huge amount, the shopkeeper even gave some tools as a gift, but these tools probably won't be needed; they're for making small dolls. For making your body, we need this—I bought a rolling pin..."

"Over here are hair and paint. I bought good ones; although not the most expensive, they're close enough."

"By the way, I couldn't find suitable clothes for you. What do you think about..."

"No need," Erin waved her hand. As she watched Yu Sheng unpacking things, her face was now full of expectation and excitement, "I can 'shape' the clothes myself. I said, this body is mainly a medium and a temporary container... Wow, there really are a lot of things. Yu Sheng, you really put your heart into this, didn't you?"

"Of course. At least do it once; either don't do it, or do it as well as possible," Yu Sheng said, but then frowned and shook his head, "But to be honest, this stuff is probably still incomplete. I heard there are clay drying ovens and various fillers, softening oils, primers, makeup tools, and so on, but I took a look; either they're only for small dolls, or I won't learn them in a short time. And I have another problem: clay needs time to dry. Without a drying oven, large-volume components won't be dry and hardened in half a day..."

"It's fine, none of that matters; as long as we can make a framework," Erin seemed in an extremely good mood, her tone when speaking to Yu Sheng even softer than usual, "What matters is the ritual part, yes, the ritual part—otherwise I could just have you buy a ready-made doll and bring it back; why would we need such trouble."

"That's good," Yu Sheng sighed, then started sorting the huge pile of things by category, "Then let's go to the attic to do it. It's spacious up there and has a big table."

Erin nodded vigorously, but suddenly she noticed another bag of things nearby; that thing looked somewhat familiar.

"... What's this bag of lotus roots for?" the Young Lady Doll looked puzzled.

Yu Sheng's hands paused; he looked up at Erin, then looked down at the bag of lotus roots. Two seconds later, he let out a dry chuckle: "Well, this is a backup plan in case my skills are too terrible. That's how I understand it..."

Erin tilted her head and thought for a long time, finally catching up with Yu Sheng's train of thought. She immediately jumped up from her red velvet chair: "No!"

"No?" Yu Sheng sounded a bit disappointed upon hearing this, "I was saying the lotus root's shape was quite perfect; I spent ages picking it."

"Of course not!" Erin's eyes almost popped out, "Let me tell you, pre-made dishes are already bad enough; if you give me pre-made parts, I'll have serious objections..."

"Alright, alright," Yu Sheng sighed, carrying the bag of lotus roots to the kitchen, "Then we'll use them to make fried lotus root boxes later."

Erin suddenly had a bad feeling; she felt her escape journey today might not develop as smoothly as she imagined...

But Yu Sheng, at this moment, felt extremely confident. After organizing the tools and materials needed to shape the doll's body, he picked up the items in one hand, tucked Erin's picture frame under his arm, and reached out to grasp the kitchen doorknob.

Erin reacted quickly this time: "... You're even going to 'open the door' just to go to the attic!?"

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, feeling this seemed a bit too lazy, so he smiled awkwardly, turned around with the materials and Erin, and walked toward the stairs leading upstairs.

This house had a very large attic right above the second floor. Calling it an attic was a bit of a misnomer; it was more like an extra floor that had to be partitioned separately because the ceiling height was left too high during construction. Its area was about half the size of the second floor, and it had two street-facing windows and one skylight—that's also why, from the outside, the house appeared to have three floors in total.

Except when cleaning, Yu Sheng actually rarely went to the attic.

Because there was almost nothing there. Besides a large table that seemed to have been placed there simply because there was nowhere else to put it, there were only two old chairs that creaked. Every night or on cloudy days with poor light, the overly spacious attic always looked eerie and somewhat frightening.

But now, it was perfectly suitable to serve as the "workshop" for shaping Erin's body.

Yu Sheng made two trips, found some tools that might come in handy from the second-floor storage room, an old desk lamp, and various strange things required for the "ritual" that Erin had requested, and transported them all to the large table in the attic. Erin's picture frame was placed in one corner of the table, leaning against a stack of old books temporarily serving as supports. She quietly watched Yu Sheng running around busily, appearing quieter than at any time before, and no one knew what she was thinking.

Yu Sheng sat in front of the large table; the old chair creaked. He clumsily fiddled with the clay and spatula, starting to try and familiarize himself with their "performance."

Erin suddenly broke the silence: "Yu Sheng."

"Hmm?"

"I'm really going to come out of this painting, aren't I?"

"Yes, if everything goes smoothly."

"... I never thought such a day would actually come," Erin murmured softly, "Actually, I stopped hoping for it many years ago..."

"Why suddenly bring up this sentiment now?" Yu Sheng looked up, glancing at the painted doll who seemed suddenly sentimental.

Erin sat in the chair, hugging her teddy bear and slowly rocking her body: "Nothing, I just wanted to thank you."

"Then save the gratitude for after success," Yu Sheng sighed lightly, as if relieving a bit of nervousness in his heart, "Now tell me, what's the first step?"

!.

"Candles, placed separately at the four corners of the table, then light one and place it beside my picture frame—the most basic body part must be completed before the candle burns out."

Erin's expression became serious as she began guiding Yu Sheng on how to use a pile of everyday materials to complete the shaping of the "living doll's" container.

This was the first time she was imparting knowledge belonging to "Alice's House" to a... "human."

"Draw three concentric circles on the table; their range is your operating space. Then extend a line from each of the four corner candles, intersecting at the center of the concentric circles... Try to draw them round... Actually, just don't draw them square..."

"Write my name in the center, Erin, using the Old World Common Tongue... Ah, you don't know it. Then find a piece of paper first; I'll tell you how to write it. Absolutely do not misspell this."

"Also, I need your blood, just a little. Mix it into the clay, then mix in pre-prepared tea powder and rose oil. Don't put too much of either; it will affect the shaping. Put the prepared clay ball in front of me first; I will guide the first 'spirit infusion'."

Erin gave instructions one by one, and Yu Sheng executed them meticulously. A quiet and focused atmosphere gradually enveloped the attic. Between the two, there was no more usual bickering, only a gradually developing tacit understanding in their cooperation.

... Actually, it wasn't that much of a tacit understanding; Erin mainly relied on her open-mindedness, while Yu Sheng mainly relied on his confidence.

This process was more tiring than Yu Sheng had initially imagined, not just physical exhaustion, but also mental depletion.

He could feel that the "ritual" Erin mentioned was gradually taking effect. Those arrangements he couldn't understand were beginning to operate according to some "law" and "power" he couldn't comprehend. And as an ordinary person executing such a "ritual" for the first time, even though most of the spirit infusion process was completed by Erin, Yu Sheng still felt a "loss of power" on a spiritual level.

But this was a situation Erin had warned him about before the ritual began, so Yu Sheng did not panic. Instead, he tried his best to maintain his state and complete every step required by Erin as precisely as possible.

A doll's body gradually took shape in his hands.

Rough, crude, crooked, with even the two legs being of different lengths—the arms had broken once in the middle and were reconnected with wire and water.

Yu Sheng felt he might not have any talent in this area.

But regardless, everything was finally nearing its end.

"Now you can extinguish the last candle," Erin in the picture frame gazed calmly at the body on the table, her expression more solemn and serious than ever before, "Then place me directly in front of the body, at the head position."

"Okay," Yu Sheng stood up to complete this process while casually asking, "And then?"

"Then I need a minute to comfort myself and strengthen my conviction..."

Yu Sheng: "... Why?"

Erin looked as if she were about to cry: "It's too damn ugly... even if it can be reshaped, it still looks too damn ugly right now."

(End of this chapter)