Hearing Irene's request, Yu Sheng was a little surprised. He couldn't fathom why she was bringing this matter up so solemnly at this particular moment.
They had indeed spoken more than once about making a physical body for the painted doll, but nothing had ever been settled. On one hand, Yu Sheng and Irene still lacked mutual trust and understanding; on the other, far too many chaotic messes were happening right now, leaving Yu Sheng with no time to consider the matter of Irene's body.
Yet seeing the dead serious expression on Miss Doll's face now, Yu Sheng realized she wasn't bringing this up on a whim or a capricious impulse.
He gave Irene an inquiring look.
"I want to go with you," Irene answered simply. "Consider it having someone to watch your back."
"Are you sure?" Yu Sheng's expression turned slightly subtle. "Not that I'm doubting your strength, of course..."
"Listen," Irene cut him off, leaning right up to the edge of the picture frame until her face took up nearly two-thirds of the canvas. Her tone was exceptionally earnest. "I'm not joking with you. While I don't know how you plan on dealing with that 'entity,' the fact that you could bring back 'local souvenirs' from it proves you must have some skill. As for what specific skills those are, I won't pry. But you need to understand that when dealing with a foreign domain, being 'good in a fight' isn't enough. At least, it's not enough against a tricky entity like 'Hunger.'"
She drew back slightly as she spoke. "Build me a body and restore some of my mobility. It doesn't matter if it's crude. As long as I'm free from the confines of this damned oil painting, there's so much more I can do. I won't recover my full power, but I'm definitely far stronger than your average investigator or those so-called spirit realm detectives and foreign domain hunters. Even if I've forgotten most of my knowledge, I still have the instincts of a living doll."
Yu Sheng gazed steadily at Irene, and Irene held his gaze with her scarlet eyes.
"I can help you, Yu Sheng," Irene said in all seriousness. "We already worked together once when we went into Hu Li's dream."
This time, Yu Sheng pondered longer than ever before, and eventually he had to concede that Irene had a point.
His mind was set on returning to that valley to deal with Entity-Hunger, but he knew the odds of eliminating the monster just by blindly charging in on his own were slim. Granted, he didn't fear death, and he was growing stronger by gradually devouring Entity-Hunger, but that enhancement clearly had a ceiling—and "Hunger"... was not easy to destroy.
Relying on endless deaths to wear the monster down through corpse-dragging might work as a last resort, but it was undoubtedly the worst possible tactic. If he could truly have a capable fighter who understood supernatural powers by his side, that would undeniably be a huge help.
All it took was giving Irene a little trust and letting her out of the painting.
And that trust had already taken root back when they plunged into Hu Li's dream together, only to wake in fright and vomit at the sight of each other.
"Looks like I'll have to make a trip downtown," Yu Sheng let out a quiet breath, leaning back against his chair. "Materials like clay and wigs have to come from specialty craft shops. There aren't any around an Old Town like this."
The doll girl in the oil painting blinked. When the realization hit her, delight instantly lit up her face. "You... you agree?!"
"If your standards for body quality aren't high and you trust my craftsmanship," Yu Sheng waved a hand, "I can give it a shot."
"My standards aren't high at all! Anything in human shape will do—I can reshape it myself. Just don't mess up during the 'alchemy' step," Irene blurted out hurriedly, as if terrified that Yu Sheng would go back on his word if she took a second longer. Then she paused, turning her face slightly with a somewhat awkward expression. "And... and if you really can't find suitable materials..."
Yu Sheng looked at her curiously. "What if I really can't find suitable materials?"
"...Dough would work too."
Yu Sheng froze for two or three seconds before flashing the most flabbergasted expression he had shown since the day he met Irene. "Huh?!"
Irene explained in a tiny voice, "The material is just a medium. What actually works is the alchemy part—your blood and my soul..."
Yu Sheng's head was spinning. "Wait, no... Settling for second best is one thing, but aren't you scraping the bottom of the barrel?!"
Irene thought about it and decided to flash Yu Sheng an utterly harmless grin, attempting to act cute and brush it off.
It worked.
Even so, Yu Sheng still decided to go out and buy proper supplies.
"I'd better go buy some proper clay. Sculpting a body for you will take quite a bit, so let's not waste good food. Besides, I have a few other things to buy," Yu Sheng exhaled, standing up as he chatted casually. "You stay home and be good watching television. If anything happens, call me remotely—and if the TV freezes up again, just wait for me to get back."
With that, he picked up the remote and turned on the television for Irene. Inside the picture frame, Irene nodded obediently. "Oh... come back quickly, okay?"
Yu Sheng answered with a hum, threw on his coat, and walked over to the entryway.
Grasping the doorknob, the first thing he did was steady his nerves. Only after making sure the outside of the door wouldn't reveal a volcanic crater, a meteor shower, a sulfur lake, little green men wielding lightsabers, or a cybernetically enhanced elf lady did he take a deep breath, push the door open, and smoothly step out onto the old street of Wutong Road.
Yu Sheng suddenly found it rather amusing.
Heading off to the ends of the world was easy as pie for him (setting aside whether he could make it back or would die out there), whereas simply pushing open his front door and stepping out onto the street was far harder for him nowadays...
Walking toward the bus stop, Yu Sheng casually took in his surroundings.
Without him realizing when it had begun, his mindset while walking through this vast, unfamiliar city had shifted. The stifling unease of recent days had quietly faded. As he strolled along this street that couldn't quite be called his "hometown," what he felt in his heart—aside from peace—was actually a faint trace of... excitement and anticipation.
Even the sky, bright to the point of being somewhat blinding, now seemed like a cheerful, brilliant sunlight that lifted his spirits.
Vendors peddled goods at the intersection; sparse pedestrians strolled by; a child who had caused who-knew-what kind of trouble ran shrieking down the street, pursued by an adult shouting curses the whole way.
Yu Sheng wondered: Could any of these people be the "professionals" Irene mentioned? Those folks who protected the city from the shadows and fought against foreign domains—had any of them noticed that some minor "abnormalities" were lurking in this quiet, peaceful Old Town?
His thoughts even wandered as he began guessing which passersby looked unfamiliar, which looked like plainclothes agents, and which looked like spirit realm detectives or investigators.
That uncle frying jianbing at the corner seemed a bit suspicious; the vendor had been replaced today by someone with terrible technique. The auntie hanging up laundry on the balcony across the street was a possibility too; he hadn't seen her before. Could that rowdy kid who just ran past screaming be one? According to Irene, spirit realm detectives even had "tricks" to alter their appearance, remarkably versatile...
At any rate, that punk squatting on the ground nearby in a tank top with dyed yellow hair and his phone blasting on speaker definitely wasn't one. He didn't look the part in the slightest.
Humming a little tune, Yu Sheng strolled down the old street, brushing past Li Lin—who was squatting on the ground in a tank top with dyed yellow hair (a wig) and his phone blasting on speaker.
A short while later, Xu Jiali (male), standing nearly two meters tall, sauntered onto the street. He looked down at Li Lin on stakeout, then squatted down, lit a cigarette, and joined him on the curb like a giant punk.
"Is this getup of yours reliable?" Xu Jiali asked.
"Reliable as hell," Li Lin said offhandedly. "I always dress like this when doing field stakeouts. Even when our colleagues running jianbing carts blew their cover, I never did. I've even got an anime battle suit—that one's even more discreet. Once, I pinned down a border smuggler, and he still couldn't believe an anime otaku was an operative from the Special Affairs Bureau."
The burly man stared blankly. "What's an anime battle suit? Sounds like forcefield-type power armor. Aren't you forbidden from using that stuff in the boundary zone?"
"...I can't even explain it to you," Li Lin said with disgust, scooting aside. "Get away from me. You're too massive, don't blow my cover."
"Not a chance. With my vibe, I look way more like a vagrant than you," the burly man scoffed. "You, on the other hand—haven't found a single thing all morning, right? Honestly, even if something's hidden here, I doubt it could possibly be a 'person.' Most likely it's a bizarre entity or a foreign domain erosion site or something along those lines. That fits the clues you guys have uncovered here so far. Damn it, after such massive commotions in Jiecheng last night, who knows what's going on at the Bureau right now, yet the two of us are stuck sitting here like idiots, wasting time keeping watch on who-knows-what..."
Li Lin couldn't be bothered to respond to the burly man. He pulled out a hefty power bank, jammed it into his phone, and chose to crank the speaker volume even higher.
Two to three hours later, Yu Sheng had bought everything he wanted at a downtown shopping mall.
Now, lugging an assortment of bags and bundles, he slipped into a deserted spot and fell into thought.
He had bought quite a lot. The weight was no longer an issue for him now, but lugging it all onto a packed bus for the ride back would still be a hassle.
Therefore, he had a bold idea.
He felt it was well worth trying.
Yu Sheng looked up, verified once more that no one around was paying attention, and then silently reached out into the empty air beside him. A door took shape in his grasp.
Three seconds later, at a hidden "depth" deep within Jiecheng, countless operatives, clerks, squad leaders, and their director, Baili Qing—all working overtime to the point of delirium at Special Affairs Bureau headquarters—shot up from their chairs at the sudden blare of emergency alarms...
Yu Sheng arrived home carrying several large plastic bags.
Chapter 37