Chapter 40: The Situation Was Not As Expected

Erin cried with great sorrow.

Yu Sheng did not try to comfort her, mainly because first, he truly did not know how to comfort her, and second... he feared that if this doll became too distraught and lost her wits, his attempt to comfort her might instead trigger her to jump up and bite.

She really had to jump up now in order to bite.

Of course, the good news was that she could bite now; before, inside the painting, she could only make beeping sounds.

After a very long while, Erin's sorrowful mood finally calmed down a little. Yu Sheng quickly stepped two paces toward the table and spoke hesitantly: "Um... don't be sad. Next time I'll make you a new body, the normal size kind. For now, just make do with this one, okay? If it doesn't work, I'll make another one for you tomorrow..."

"For this period, I can only use this one," Erin sniffled twice, saying with a face full of grief and indignation, "Let's just leave it at that. You don't need to trouble yourself—even if you make a new body tomorrow, I still can't switch into it right away. A living doll's soul cannot withstand constantly changing containers. At least... it takes several months..."

As she spoke, sorrow welled up in her again, and it looked as though she was about to cry again.

Yu Sheng quickly grabbed a small glass bottle and held it up to Erin's face to catch the drops.

"What are you doing?" Erin asked while sniffling, looking at Yu Sheng's inexplicable action.

"Tears of a living doll," Yu Sheng said with a serious expression. "Next time I make your body, we'll try to use high-grade materials. For these few months, I'll gather materials, and later I'll make you one that shines with Jin Guang..."

Erin thought for a moment, then let out a wail: "Yu Sheng, you damn... ah—"

After another long while, the doll's sorrow finally calmed down once more.

Erin climbed onto a nearby stack of old books, sat on top of the pile, and stared blankly, contemplating life. Yu Sheng sat beside the table, accompanying this doll, contemplating life together with her.

"At least, at least it's better than before," Erin murmured quietly, not knowing whether she was speaking to Yu Sheng or to herself. "At least now I can run around on my own."

"And you can watch TV on your own too," Yu Sheng quickly chimed in. "That's much more convenient than before, right?"

Erin let out a long sigh, seemingly trying to appear more solemn and grave, but because she was so small (66.6 cm), the sigh conveyed not an ounce of gravity.

Yu Sheng turned his head to secretly take a look at the current Erin. His gaze fell upon her exposed wrists and knees.

The spherical joints unique to dolls looked especially conspicuous.

"Clearly, a clay doll was used as the container, yet in the end it still turned into this kind of puppet-like spherical joint," he said thoughtfully.

"Nonsense, it's an articulated doll. How could it move without joints?" Erin turned her head and glanced at Yu Sheng. "This is the form recorded in my soul. So regardless of what form the container originally had, the body after the soul's reconstruction will always become like this. If you don't like spherical joints, there's nothing I can do about it."

"Oh, that's not it," Yu Sheng said casually. "But speaking of the form recorded in the soul... your soul also records your original height of one meter sixty-seven..."

Erin instantly leaped from the stack of books onto Yu Sheng's arm, gripping his thumb tightly and trying to bend it upward: "Can you please stop bringing up the wrong kettle at the wrong time!!"

Yu Sheng let out a yelp and jumped up, struggling to pull this tiny (66.6 cm) but incredibly strong doll off his arm while quickly explaining: "I'm just curious, just curious! Where exactly did something go wrong during your reconstruction process? Your appearance came out perfectly fine, so why did your body shrink so much..."

"How would I know!" Erin was pulled down from Yu Sheng's arm. Now she was held in midair by her collar. "There shouldn't have been any problem. During the regeneration process, everything felt normal. Yet in the end, the body size came out wrong... Hey! Can you put me down first!"

"Then you have to promise me not to bend my fingers anymore," Yu Sheng said seriously to the doll while holding her by the collar. Only after she nodded did he place her back on the table.

"Sigh, forget it. Worrying about it won't help," Erin sighed again. After pacing a few steps on the table, she shook her head. "I still need to find a way to contact the sisters at Alice House. If I can go home, the sisters will surely have a way..."

Hearing this, Yu Sheng felt somewhat curious: "You keep mentioning Alice House and the dolls... Where do the sisters you talk about usually stay? Are there other dolls in this city besides you? By the way, what exactly does your 'organization' usually do?"

He had always wanted to ask these questions, but recent troubles had come one after another, and only now did he finally get the chance to speak up.

"Us? We are a race created by the Ancestor of Dolls. Our mission... actually, there isn't much of a mission. Sometimes we deal with otherworldly realms, sometimes we help other organizations handle some tricky entities, but most of the time, the dolls just do what they like," Erin recalled and said. "Most of my sisters do not operate in the human world, but there should indeed be a contact point in the Border City... but as for the exact location, I don't remember. Moreover, after so many years, the contact methods and contact persons have probably already changed..."

She climbed back onto the stack of old books, propped her chin with both hands, and continued slowly while lost in memory: "When we operate in the human world, we always wear some kind of disguise. Living dolls look very much like humans, so it's easy to blend into the crowd. This city is so huge. Without a specific contact method or finding specific contact personnel, it's not easy to find a hidden living doll just like this..."

Yu Sheng listened from the side. Although he had already suspected that all sorts of strange characters might be hiding in this city, he still felt somewhat amazed at this moment: "Incredible... I always thought the residents of this city were only humans..."

"How is that possible?" Erin rolled her eyes at Yu Sheng. "This is the Borderland." "The Borderland..." Yu Sheng softly repeated the word.

"In a place like the Borderland, anything can appear. Not to mention anything else, isn't there a strange fellow like you, who thinks he's human, hiding right here in this old district?" Erin waved her hand and jumped down from the stack of old books. "Let's go downstairs first. I've stayed here long enough. Now that I finally have the ability to move freely, I want to walk around this big house properly~"

"True," Yu Sheng sighed, patting his face to perk himself up. "Making your body alone took most of the day. I'm hungry now. Let's go downstairs and make something to eat."

As he spoke, he turned and walked toward the attic exit. But after taking just two steps, he heard Erin shouting from behind: "Hey, wait for me! I haven't come down yet!"

Yu Sheng turned around and saw Erin taking a few running steps from the table, jumping hard onto that creaking old chair. Then she climbed to the edge of the chair, grabbed the chair legs with both hands and feet, and slowly slid down. It took a while before she finally reached the floor smoothly...

Yu Sheng: "..."

Erin trotted her short little legs, struggling to reach Yu Sheng's feet. Only then did she notice the gaze fixed upon her. She immediately looked up, tried to put her hands on her hips to appear dignified, and said: "What are you looking at me for?"

"Nothing," Yu Sheng shook his head. "I just feel it's quite... cute."

He almost said the word "cola."

Erin was stunned for a moment and didn't notice the suspicious pause in Yu Sheng's words. "Is, is that so?"

!.

Then she followed Yu Sheng forward. After taking two steps, she reached out and tugged at Yu Sheng's pants: "By the way, thank you."

Yu Sheng lowered his head, tugged at his waistband, and showed a puzzled look.

"Thank you for preparing the body for me. The situation just now was too chaotic; I didn't properly thank you," Erin said with a serious expression.

Yu Sheng couldn't help but look the doll up and down (66.6 cm). After holding back for a long time, he finally couldn't resist: "You're like this, and you still want to thank me?"

"One thing is one thing. The size issue is because something went wrong during my own reconstruction, but the body was indeed carefully prepared by you," Erin looked up, appearing especially solemn (though it didn't really show). "Although it's a bit ugly."

"... You could leave out that last sentence."

"In, in any case, what I promised you before is still valid," Erin hurriedly said. "I will help you in the future. Whether it's helping fight or needing assistance in mysticism, I will be very useful. Even if I find other sisters in the future and return to Alice House, I will come back to help you. Just..."

She paused here and thought for a moment.

"Just... let's set it for one hundred years first?" She looked at Yu Sheng, cautiously confirming. "By then, you should be dead of old age, right?"

Yu Sheng: "..."

"Then let's set it for one hundred years first," Erin said happily, smiling. For some reason, her mood suddenly improved greatly. Then she turned around, trotted her short little legs, and ran toward the attic exit. "Then let's go downstairs quickly..."

Her voice suddenly stopped. She fell forward violently, like a puppet whose string had suddenly been cut. She was thrown far away by the momentum of her run until she crashed into the opposite wall.

The smile on Yu Sheng's face froze at the moment Erin was thrown out.

"What the... what the hell?!"

He was stunned for a moment, then rushed over to Erin in a few steps, bent down, and picked up the small doll from the ground.

The doll's eyes were tightly shut. Every part of her body was limp. The limbs that had been warm just a second ago were now as cold as ordinary clay. Only the skin retained a soft, living texture, yet no sign of life could be felt.

Yu Sheng was completely stunned.

And then, he heard Erin's voice coming from the large table not far away—

"Yu Sheng! I, I have returned inside here!"

Thanks to Shang Nu for the Silver Moe~

(End of this chapter)