Chapter 7: Erin's Escape Plan

Erin cursed quite foully.

Yu Sheng didn't know how a doll sealed inside an oil painting could have such a rich vocabulary—especially while sliding all the way down the stairs, cursing continuously without even taking a breath in between.

Perhaps because her original form is a doll, she simply lacks the function of breathing.

Nevertheless, Yu Sheng remained utterly calm. After Erin slid from the stairs to the floor, he let her curse; he continued to hold the handrail and stroll down leisurely—mainly because his waist hurt, so he couldn't walk fast. Only after reaching the first floor did he struggle to bend down and lift Erin's picture frame.

"Are you sick!" Erin, inside the oil painting, clutched her teddy bear with eyes wide in fury, her clothes and hair a mess. "Is this how you treat someone, throwing them off a building like that? What if the painting gets broken!"

"My waist hurts. Your painting is too heavy to carry down the stairs," Yu Sheng said with a calm expression, lifting the frame and walking slowly toward the dining room. "I've observed that your frame is very sturdy. Besides, if the frame actually breaks, maybe you'll be freed from your confinement?"

"If it were that easy to get out of here, would I still be sealed until now?!" Erin sat back down on the chair in irritation. "Ah, my head feels dizzy..."

Yu Sheng suddenly stopped, looking down intently at the girl in the oil painting.

Erin felt a bit numb under that gaze: "You... what do you want to do again? I'm telling you, if you throw me down the stairs again, I won't forgive you. I'll sneak into your dreams every day while you sleep. If you dream about an exam, I'll ring the bell. If you dream about playing games, I'll pull the plug. If you dream about going out, I'll chase you with a dump truck. If you dream about dating, I..."

Why does this unlucky doll have so much trash talk!

Yu Sheng barely suppressed the urge to drag Erin back to the second floor and throw her down again. He kept a straight face, trying to appear serious: "I just want to ask, what is the principle behind this 'seal'? You mentioned finding someone to help you escape... so how can we help you escape?"

Erin didn't expect Yu Sheng to say this. Hearing his words, she was stunned for a moment, then spoke after two or three seconds, somewhat incredulously: "You... you agreed to help me get out of here?!"

"Didn't you say you needed someone to help you escape?" Yu Sheng frowned, then added, "I'm just asking first; I haven't agreed yet..."

But Erin seemed not to hear his latter words. Before he could finish, she spoke hurriedly: "There are three... no, there are two methods! The first method is the best: find my body. I don't know where it is now, but it must be somewhere... perhaps not far from this painting. Anyway, once I find my original body, everything will be easy. Let me get close to it, and I can get out of this damn painting..."

"But if we can't find it, or if my original body has already been destroyed, then the only option is the second method: create a new one. However, a newly created body definitely won't work as well as the original, and adapting to it will be trou..."

Yu Sheng had been listening very seriously, but now he couldn't help but interrupt: "Create a new one? How? Can't I just go to a doll shop and buy a ready-made one?"

"Of course not!" Erin immediately replied. "I am 'Alice's Doll'! A blessed living doll, understand? How can I be the same as those three-part or four-part dolls in the store?"

Pausing briefly, she continued with a slightly serious expression: "Living dolls are all born from the garden of Alice's Cottage, and our original bodies also come from there. But I have now lost contact with the garden and cannot leave the painting, so I cannot return to the garden for rebirth. However, even without the garden, we have a method to create a temporary shell in the mortal world for emergencies... but although it is an emergency temporary shell, creating it is not easy."

"First, you need to find hair that grows automatically, mud that wriggles like a living creature, broken yet healed bones of the dead, and a tear from a living doll—two tears work too; that would make my skin a bit better. Then you must use alchemy to reactivate the above materials, and then smear your own blood on them... Hey, why do you have that expression?"

Yu Sheng stared at the girl in the painting with a stern face, sighed after a long moment, and said: "... Let's talk about the plan to recover your original body instead?"

Erin blinked: "... You don't know alchemy?"

"Is this something everyone should know?!" Yu Sheng's expression was slightly frantic. "And forget about alchemy for now! Just the list of ridiculous materials you mentioned, where am I supposed to find them for you? Is this whole bunch of stuff really just settings copied from some third-rate fantasy magazine? A living doll's tear... If I could find another living doll, I'd just hand you over, doll and painting included, to her! Wouldn't it be better for your sister to take you home than for me to mess around blindly?"

Yu Sheng believed that since arriving in this "world" only recently, he didn't yet understand those eerie shadows or the supernatural realms behind them. But at least, judging from the information channels he had accessed so far, the "materials" Erin mentioned were definitely not things ordinary people in this world could access. How could this person just state them so matter-of-factly?

Seeing Yu Sheng's reaction, Erin's expression also seemed a bit awkward. She shifted slightly on the chair, changed her posture, and lowered her voice considerably: "Actually, other materials would work too, like buying some clay, paint, and wigs online..."

Yu Sheng: "...?"

He looked at the girl in the painting with an expression that said, "Are you kidding me?" Erin couldn't help but shrink back on the chair again: "I just hope the temporary shell can work as well as possible... but if we can't make a golden suit, a plain white one will do." "However, even with those ordinary materials, the final step still requires your blood and a bit of alchemy skill. I can teach you; it's very simple, even an ordinary person can do it..."

Yu Sheng didn't speak immediately; he remained silent as if lost in thought. After a few seconds, he suddenly said: "You wanted to say there were three methods at the very beginning, right? Why didn't you mention the third one?"

"... That method isn't very good; it has some costs," Erin waved her hand, looking very honest. "You probably wouldn't agree, and I don't want you to try it either, after all, we aren't very familiar..."

"If you know we aren't familiar, then stop talking so much nonsense," Yu Sheng said casually, glaring at the girl in the painting.

Erin pressed her lips together, looking somewhat reserved (she was actually aware of being reserved now) at Yu Sheng, and asked cautiously: "So... will you help me get out of here? The second method is actually quite easy. You can even just make a body out of thin air. If your craftsmanship is a bit poor, it doesn't matter; as long as the ritual procedure is correct, I can reshape myself after entering the shell... just don't make it too ugly; at least it should look human."

This time, Yu Sheng didn't argue with Erin. He simply thought very seriously, pondering for nearly half a minute before giving a very solemn response: "I cannot agree now; I need to consider it."

He did not trust the girl in the painting, or at least dared not trust her completely.

Although she looked honest and sincere, a bit chatty but fundamentally good-natured, with a distinct personality and harmless to humans, giving the impression of having no ill intentions, all of this was merely a surface impression gained from knowing each other for less than a day. After stripping away these "humanized" impressions, Erin's essence remained an eerie thing sealed within an oil painting.

Yu Sheng was not so easily fooled by her cute appearance that he would create a shell for this "ghost in the painting" without a second thought and set her free. What if, once she got out, she suddenly changed her appearance, raised her bear, and cut him down beneath her gothic skirt...

Yu Sheng had just died once not long ago and didn't want to die again for the time being.

!.

After receiving the reply, Erin didn't say anything either. She just stared at Yu Sheng for a while, then nodded very naturally: "Oh, I understand."

Yu Sheng was surprised. He had expected to argue with this girl in the painting about this matter for a long time, but he didn't expect the other party to be unexpectedly... generous.

"After all, we aren't familiar yet, right?" As if seeing through Yu Sheng's confusion, Erin suddenly smiled, winking at the outside of the oil painting. "When we are familiar, I'll ask again."

"... Okay, we'll talk about it later."

Yu Sheng smiled too, carried Erin's picture frame to the dining room, casually placed it upright on the dining table against the wall, and turned to walk toward the kitchen.

"I haven't eaten dinner yet; I'll go make food first."

"Okay... hey, turn on the TV across the table first; I'll watch some TV..."

"So many demands."

Yu Sheng casually turned on the TV across the dining table, then picked up the vegetables and seasonings he had bought from the supermarket and left on the shelf earlier to prepare his own dinner.

He was actually someone who loved cooking. Since arriving in this familiar yet strange "Boundary City," he felt at ease only if he cooked every meal himself at home. After all, only in this big house were there no eerie shadows appearing to disturb him.

He didn't mind encountering a Slender Man while traveling outside, but not while cooking and eating, because these two things were major events in his life.

... Although now, even in this "safe house," there was an additional eerie "Erin."

However, compared to the ghosts, freezing rain, and frogs appearing on the city streets, a unlucky doll who could only chatter inside an oil painting was definitely cuter—at least she wouldn't dig out her own heart.

(End of this chapter)