Chapter 41: The Free Doll

Yu Sheng was completely dazed.

In the instant he saw Irene suddenly "cut off" and fall out, he even thought the doll had died from using a shoddy shell—fortunately, a voice from behind interrupted his terrifying speculation in time.

Holding Irene's shell in his hand, Yu Sheng stiffly raised his head, looking toward the large table previously used for processing clay.

The classical oil painting with its ornate frame rested quietly against the table's edge; inside the painting, Irene was staring with wide eyes, looking this way with a panicked expression.

"I, I don't know what happened either!" Noticing Yu Sheng's gaze, Irene immediately waved her hands vigorously, "One second I was running forward, then I opened my eyes and I was back here. What's going on, this..."

A slightly grating, low chuckle came from the frame, seeming to mock, yet also carrying a hint of sympathy.

It came from that plush teddy bear; this time Yu Sheng finally saw it laughing with his own eyes.

Irene's personality couldn't stand this; she immediately stamped her feet and rushed to the red velvet chair, grabbing the toy bear on it by the neck and shaking it hard: "You're still laughing! You're still laughing! Did you do this! I'm back here again!"

However, a thoughtless toy bear couldn't respond; it continued to giggle in Irene's hands, making the doll increasingly furious.

Seeing this, Yu Sheng hurried forward, preparing to coax the doll Miss in the painting: "Hey, don't get so excited, let's think of a way to..."

He had only spoken half of it when the doll Miss in the painting, who was holding the toy bear in a chokehold, executing an over-the-shoulder throw and a crucifix, suddenly vanished; immediately after, Yu Sheng felt the doll body in his hand snap upward violently. Before he could react, this 66.6-centimeter-tall little thing threw itself onto his arm and, by inertia, attempted a triple combo of chokehold (failed), over-the-shoulder throw (failed), and crucifix (failed).

But her strength was considerable, squeezing the flesh on Yu Sheng's arm until it hurt.

Yu Sheng had to struggle to pry Irene off his arm, lift her before his eyes, and shake her hard: "Wake up, wake up, it's Yu Sheng, you're out again."

Irene gradually came to her senses at this point, hovering in mid-air with a blank expression for a moment, then raised her head to scan the surroundings, her gaze finally focusing on Yu Sheng's face: "... Ah?"

Then the two of them both looked up toward the frame not far away, simultaneously falling into a daze and contemplation.

A moment later, Yu Sheng silently carried Irene backward, retreating all the way to where the other party had fallen; accompanying his final step, the doll body in his hand instantly went limp like a power outage, its vitality dissipating.

Irene's figure abruptly appeared in the painting; she glanced around, then looked up blankly at Yu Sheng: "I'm back again, so indeed..."

Yu Sheng casually lifted the doll body in his hand toward the painting, bringing the two closer together.

Thus, that body suddenly came alive, as if the earlier "power outage" had never happened; Irene's voice came from within, continuing the half-sentence she hadn't finished in the painting: "... is it a matter of distance?"

"Seems like it." Yu Sheng frowned slightly watching this scene, then moved the doll a bit farther away, watching the doll body in his hand "power out" again; Irene's voice came from not far away: "Then this..."

Yu Sheng pushed the doll forward again.

Irene: "... This is a bit troublesome... Can you stop playing! In the time it takes me to say one sentence, you've broken me into several pieces!"

Yu Sheng sheepishly brought Irene to a place closer to the painting, explaining at the same time: "I mainly wanted to confirm exactly how far your 'signal' distance is."

"Is there a difference between five or six meters? At most that's just two steps!" Irene, held by the collar, flailed her arms and legs, then suddenly felt something was wrong, raising her eyes to glare at Yu Sheng, "Put me down! Why are you always holding me up!"

Hearing this, Yu Sheng quickly put the increasingly ill-tempered Young Lady doll on the ground, then stared eye-to-eye with her.

Irene then realized she almost had to tilt her head back ninety degrees to speak with Yu Sheng.

However, her dignity wouldn't allow Yu Sheng to squat down to communicate with her—moreover, even if Yu Sheng squatted down, she would still have to look up.

"Stand there and don't move," the doll suddenly said.

Yu Sheng was stunned: "What are you doing?"

The next second he knew what Irene wanted to do—the doll directly hugged his leg and started climbing up, scampering up in a few moves like climbing a tree, agile as a monkey, then sat directly on his shoulder.

Yu Sheng was a bit stunned but dared not move randomly, fearing he might drop Irene: "I haven't agreed yet..."

Irene spoke with righteous indignation: "When you were holding me to test the signal just now, you didn't ask if I agreed either."

Yu Sheng was instantly speechless.

The two returned to the large table and began studying that oil painting.

"I did come out; I can feel it, my 'soul' is in this current body," Irene frowned, looking at her former "prison" with a conflicted expression, "But..."

"But from the performance, it seems this painting is still your 'foundation'; your current body is like being remotely controlled, and the connection cuts off if you go beyond the distance." Yu Sheng stated his view frankly.

Irene lowered her head, looking exceptionally depressed. But this time she didn't cry out—probably because the series of blows were so severe that she had built up a brain-death-like mental resistance in a short time.

Seeing the doll's so calm reaction, Yu Sheng panicked instead and hurriedly comforted her: "Don't be too pessimistic; maybe this body just isn't working well? I'll practice my skills later; next time I reshape the body..."

"Tell me," Irene suddenly spoke, interrupting Yu Sheng's rambling; the expression on the little doll's face was complex, making it impossible to tell what emotion she was feeling at that moment, "Carrying your own prison around everywhere, does that mean you've escaped or haven't escaped?"

Yu Sheng was stunned; after thinking for a moment, he said, "I once saw someone carrying their own prison around everywhere; the ending was quite miserable, but he was 'inside' his own prison; at least you're on the outside..."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Irene mumbled, then jumped down from Yu Sheng's shoulder; she jumped onto the table, approached the painting sealing her with a complex expression, stretched out both hands to grab the frame, lifted it slightly with force, then put it down, turned around, and tried to carry it on her back.

However, the painting was large—although easy for Yu Sheng to hold with one hand, for Irene, this thing was almost as tall as she was.

"... Do you have rope at home?" the doll asked, raising her head.

"Yes!" Yu Sheng nodded immediately, "Wait a moment, I'll go get it right now!"

Ten-plus minutes later, Irene watched Yu Sheng carefully tying knots on the painting frame and adjusting the position of the buckles; when the preparations were nearly complete, she stepped forward: "I think it's ready."

"Come, try it," Yu Sheng nodded, stood the frame upright, and watched Irene somewhat clumsily thread her arms through the back straps, "How is it? Is the buckle position suitable? Do we need to tighten it more?"

!.

Irene tugged at the buckle on her shoulder, hoisted the frame onto her back, walked two laps on the table, and nodded very satisfied: "No, it's perfect!"

"Is it heavy?"

"Not heavy at all, I'm very strong!" Irene said, then bounced in place on the table with the frame on her back, immediately starting to trot in circles around the table's edge.

The tiny doll (66.6cm), carrying an oil painting frame almost as tall as herself, running back and forth on the table; this scene looked somewhat... strange.

But watching this scene, Yu Sheng gradually smiled.

Because he saw Irene smiling too; the doll seemed to have shaken off the bad mood from before and was gradually becoming happy.

She was more optimistic than Yu Sheng had imagined.

"It's actually quite light!" Irene stopped at the table's edge and said to Yu Sheng with a smile, "This way I don't have to worry about the 'distance' restriction; I'm so smart!"

"You are indeed optimistic," Yu Sheng sighed sincerely, "I thought you'd be depressed for quite a while."

"People must look forward—dolls are the same," Irene happily jumped down from the table, then climbed along Yu Sheng's arm up to the latter's shoulder—this time she climbed less agilely than before because she had to pay attention to the frame on her back, preventing bumps against the chair and collisions with Yu Sheng's head, "Compared to before, at least I can move freely now; carrying it is fine; besides, the fellow left inside the painting doesn't seem to want me too far away... Let's go, let's go downstairs, you haven't had dinner yet—I want to watch TV!"

Yu Sheng was stunned for a moment, turned his face slightly, and looked at the doll with a full smile, seemingly full of expectation for the future, from the corner of his eye.

"Okay, let's cook," he raised his hand to support Irene, stood up from the chair, "and then tonight we'll start researching the passage back to the valley."

"Mm," Irene also looked full of fighting spirit, a brilliant smile on her face; she raised her hand and pointed forward with high spirits, "Giddyup!"

Yu Sheng casually lifted the small doll back up from his shoulder: "I'm going to throw you down."

Erin immediately shrank her body: "No, no, it was just the atmosphere that got to that point..."

Yu Sheng shook his head, half laughing and half crying, placed the doll back on his shoulder, and strode forward.

Outside the window, night had already deepened; the streetlamps in the old district lit up in sequence within the darkness. Hazy and warm light flowed through the old streets and alleys, and through the window, a sense of tranquility spread forth.

"Yu Sheng, it's completely dark outside."

"Yes."

"Hehe, I'm a bit excited..."

"Excited about what? The darkness?"

"No, I'm just a bit excited; it has nothing to do with the darkness~"

"... I don't understand."

"Tsk."

(End of this chapter)