Yu Sheng was completely dumbfounded.
The instant he saw Irene suddenly go "offline" and tumble forward, he had even feared the doll had dropped dead from using such a shoddy vessel—fortunately, a voice calling out from behind him in the nick of time broke that terrifying train of thought.
Holding Irene's vessel in hand, Yu Sheng turned stiffly and looked back at the large table previously used to shape the clay.
The classical oil painting with its ornate picture frame rested quietly against the table's edge. Inside it, Irene was staring wide-eyed, looking in his direction in utter panic.
"I—I don't know what happened either!" Catching Yu Sheng's glance, Irene waved her hands frantically. "One second I was running forward, and the next, I opened my eyes and I was already back here! What is going on? What..."
A raspy, low chuckle drifted out of the frame, sounding mocking yet tinged with a sliver of pity.
It came from that plush teddy bear. This time, Yu Sheng finally saw it laughing with his own eyes.
With Irene's temper, she couldn't take that lying down. Stamping her feet, she stormed over to the chair draped with the red velvet blanket, hoisted the teddy bear by its neck, and shook it violently. "You're laughing! You're still laughing! Is this your doing?! I'm back in here again!"
Yet the mindless teddy bear could offer no answer. In Irene's grip, it simply kept giggling without pause, driving the doll into an even greater fury.
Seeing this, Yu Sheng hurriedly stepped forward to soothe the doll girl in the painting. "Hey, don't get so worked up. Let's think of another—"
Mid-sentence, the doll girl inside the painting—who had been putting the teddy bear through a chokehold, shoulder throw, and armbar—abruptly vanished. Immediately, Yu Sheng felt the doll body in his hand twitch violently. Before he could react, the sixty-six-point-six-centimeter creature lunged onto his arm, executing a momentum-fueled combo of chokehold (failed), shoulder throw (failed), and armbar (failed).
Yet her strength was formidable, digging painfully into the flesh of his arm.
Yu Sheng had to pry Irene off his arm with some effort, dangling her in front of his face and shaking her firmly. "Wake up! Wake up! It's me, Yu Sheng! You're back out!"
By then Irene had come to her senses. Suspended in midair, she blinked blankly, looked around, and finally focused on Yu Sheng's face. "...Huh?"
Then both looked up at the picture frame not far away, lapsing into dumbfounded contemplation.
After a moment, Yu Sheng stepped backward in silence while holding Irene, retreating until he reached the spot where she had fallen earlier. With his final step, the doll body in his hand went limp as if severed from power, all signs of life draining away.
Inside the oil painting, Irene's figure abruptly rematerialized. She glanced around her and stared up blankly at Yu Sheng. "I'm back again. So it really is..."
Yu Sheng lifted the doll body toward the painting, bringing them closer together.
Instantly, the vessel sprang back to life as though the power cut had never happened. Irene's voice came from it, finishing the sentence she had started in the painting: "...a distance thing?"
"Looks like it." Yu Sheng frowned slightly as he watched. He moved the doll farther away, watching its body lose power once more. From not far away, Irene's voice called out from the painting: "Then this is..."
Yu Sheng moved the doll closer again.
Irene: "...a bit troublesome... Could you stop messing around?! In the time it takes to say one sentence, you've chopped me up into pieces!"
Yu Sheng sheepishly brought Irene closer to the painting, explaining, "I just wanted to confirm exactly how far your 'signal' reaches."
"Does five meters or six meters make a difference? At most, it's just a few steps!" Irene flailed her limbs as she dangled by the collar. Then, realizing something was amiss, she glared up at Yu Sheng. "Put me down! Why are you always holding me up by the collar like this?!"
Hearing that, Yu Sheng promptly set the foul-tempered doll lady on the floor, and the two stared at each other.
Only then did Irene realize she practically had to tilt her head ninety degrees upward to speak with him.
Yet her pride refused to allow Yu Sheng to crouch down to converse with her—not to mention that even if he did crouch, she would still have to look up.
"Stay right there and don't move," the doll ordered suddenly.
Yu Sheng blinked. "What are you doing?"
A second later, he realized what she was after—the doll seized his pant leg and began scrambling up, shinnying up him like climbing a tree in a few deft moves, as nimble as a monkey, before planting herself right on his shoulder.
Yu Sheng was startled, not daring to move for fear of dropping her. "I haven't agreed to this yet..."
Irene retorted self-righteously, "You didn't ask for my permission when you dangled me around to test the signal earlier, did you?"
Yu Sheng was left speechless.
The two returned to the large table to study the oil painting.
"I've definitely escaped. I can feel my 'soul' is inside this body," Irene said with a scowl, looking conflicted as she stared at her former "prison." "However..."
"From the looks of it, though, this painting is still your 'foundation.' Your body right now is like a remote-controlled drone—move out of range, and the connection drops," Yu Sheng offered frankly.
Irene hung her head, looking utterly dejected.
This time, however, she didn't burst into tears—likely because after so many heavy blows in succession, she had developed a numb, brain-dead mental resilience in a short span.
Seeing her take it so quietly, Yu Sheng grew nervous instead and quickly tried to console her. "Hey, don't be so pessimistic. Maybe this body is just clumsy? I'll practice my craft, and next time we reshape a body..."
"Tell me," Irene interrupted his rambling, her small face displaying an expression so complex it was impossible to tell what she was feeling. "If someone runs around carrying their own prison on their back, does that count as a prison break or not?"
Dumbfounded, Yu Sheng pondered for a moment before saying, "I once saw a story about someone who ran around carrying their own prison cell on their back, and he met a miserable end. But he was inside his cell. At least you're on the outside..."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Irene muttered. She hopped down from Yu Sheng's shoulder onto the table. With a conflicted look, she walked up to the oil painting that had sealed her, gripped the picture frame with both hands, lifted it with a slight grunt, set it down, and turned around to see if she could hoist it onto her back.
The painting was large, however. While Yu Sheng could easily carry it with one hand, to Irene, the thing was nearly as tall as she was.
"...Do you have rope at home?" the doll asked, looking up.
"Yes!" Yu Sheng nodded immediately. "Hold on, I'll go grab some!"
About ten minutes later, Irene watched as Yu Sheng meticulously tied knots around the picture frame and adjusted the strap loops. Once preparations were complete, she stepped forward. "I think that'll do."
"Come give it a try." Yu Sheng nodded and propped the frame upright. He watched as Irene awkwardly slipped her arms through the shoulder straps. "How is it? Are the straps in the right position? Do they need to be tightened?"
Irene tugged at the straps on her shoulders, hoisted the frame, and walked two laps across the table, nodding in satisfaction. "No need, it fits great!"
"Is it heavy?"
"Not heavy at all! I'm very strong!" As she spoke, Irene even hopped in place on the table with the frame on her back, then started trotting in circles around the edge.
A tiny doll (66.6 cm) scurrying around a tabletop carrying a picture frame nearly as tall as herself—the sight looked rather... bizarre.
Yet watching her, a smile gradually crept onto Yu Sheng's face.
Because he saw Irene smiling too. The doll seemed to have shaken off her foul mood, steadily cheering up.
She was even more resilient than he had imagined.
"It's pretty light after all!" Irene stopped at the edge of the table and grinned at Yu Sheng. "Now I don't have to worry about 'range' limits. I'm so smart!"
"You're certainly optimistic," Yu Sheng remarked from the bottom of his heart. "I thought you'd be moping for quite a while."
"A person has to look forward—and so does a doll!" Irene hopped happily down from the table and clambered up Yu Sheng's arm back onto his shoulder. She moved less gracefully this time, careful not to bump the frame against the chair or Yu Sheng's head. "Compared to before, at least I can move around freely. So what if I have to carry it? Besides, the fellow left in the painting doesn't seem to want me too far away either... Come on, let's head downstairs. You haven't eaten dinner yet—and I want to watch TV!"
Yu Sheng paused, turning his head slightly to catch a glimpse of the smiling doll out of the corner of his eye, radiating hope for the future.
"All right, let's go make food," he said, steadying Irene with one hand as he stood up from the chair. "And tonight we'll start studying that pathway back to the valley."
"Mm!" Irene was brimming with fighting spirit. Flashing a radiant grin, she thrust a hand forward with grand bravado. "Giddyap!"
Yu Sheng casually plucked the little doll off his shoulder by the scruff of her neck. "I'm throwing you off."
Irene immediately curled inward. "Don't, don't! The mood just took me there..."
Yu Sheng shook his head in wry amusement, settled the doll securely back on his shoulder, and strode forward.
Outside the window, dusk had deepened into night. The streetlamps of Old Town flickered on in sequence against the dark, their hazy, warm glow spilling through the old streets and alleys, filtering through the window in a quiet wash of peace.
"Yu Sheng, it's pitch-black outside now."
"Yeah."
"Hehe, I'm kind of looking forward to it..."
"Looking forward to what? The dark?"
"No, I'm just looking forward to things. Nothing to do with the dark~"
"...I don't get you."
"Tch."
Chapter 41