Chapter 59: Repair

Thirty minutes later, Yu Sheng watched the little doll lying on the "alchemical platform" with a hint of nervousness.

Aileen propped herself up with her hands and slowly sat up, her eyes staring blankly as she contemplated life.

A doll, 66.6 centimeters tall, emitting the scent of lotus root.

Success.jpg.

After watching her for a while, Yu Sheng felt that nothing seemed wrong with Aileen, and his confidence grew bit by bit. "See? I told you it would work. If you can use flour, why wouldn't you be able to use lotus root..."

"Don't talk, let me process this first," Aileen interrupted him with a wave of her hand, looking at her own hands with a strange expression. "I just don't get it. How could it work? This isn't logical, you know? How did this actually work...?"

Yu Sheng curled his lip. "You told me to try it, so why are you doubting it now that I've finished?"

"I shouldn't have let you try! How was I supposed to know you'd actually succeed! Now my arms are literally made of lotus root!" Aileen glared at him, looking indignant. "I just wanted to see you fail! Your ridiculous 'alchemy' couldn't possibly work! I just wanted to see you give up... No, how did you succeed, huh? How did it work?!"

"I don't know," Yu Sheng said, also a bit dazed. "You agreed to let me try, so I tried. You didn't say you were just doing it to mock me; I thought you actually supported my scientific research..."

Aileen felt like jumping up to bite him, but since her legs weren't fixed yet, she couldn't jump. She could only sit on the table and curse loudly. "Scientific research my ass! What kind of research is this?! You turned my arms into lotus root, now what? They're actually fused together! How did you do it? The power of thought? Huh?!"

Yu Sheng thought about it and concluded that it probably was indeed the power of thought.

However, Aileen's intense reaction was unexpected—he had no foundation in alchemy whatsoever. His entire process consisted of simply following the doll's instructions step by step. When he infused the two lotus root segments with blood and performed the soul-infusion, he hadn't thought about anything, nor did he realize he was performing a completely impossible, reckless operation. When the two lotus root segments, having undergone the ritual, suddenly twitched and transformed into limbs near Aileen's elbows, he simply felt that it was a normal occurrence.

He hadn't expected it to scare the little doll this much.

"Sorry..." Yu Sheng thought for a moment, feeling a sudden sense of unease. "How about we replace them? I'll go downstairs and find an axe..."

He was cut off by a glare from Aileen.

"Fine, forget I said anything."

"It's already like this, what else can we do?" The little doll lifted her arms dejectedly, looking exhausted and resigned. Then, she very cautiously clenched her fists and moved her ten fingers one by one. Her nervous demeanor made it look as if she had been grafted with tentacles from Dr. Octopus; she was terrified that any sudden movement might cause these arms, haphazardly attached by Yu Sheng, to lose control.

But she soon discovered that the two hands Yu Sheng had clumsily fashioned were actually quite functional.

Even if the raw material was lotus root.

"Um... are you done testing?" Yu Sheng watched cautiously from the side. Only after confirming the doll wouldn't suddenly lunge at him to bite him did he break the silence. "It should work normally, right? It doesn't hurt, does it?"

Aileen sighed. "Sigh, it works. No discomfort."

"If it works, then why the sigh? You gave me a fright," Yu Sheng finally relaxed, and his gaze shifted to Aileen's legs, which were unable to stand. "Now it's time to fix the legs. Let me see how bad the injury is."

Aileen gave a soft response, but then suddenly looked up and stared into Yu Sheng's eyes. "Wait, what are you planning to use to fix—I'm telling you, if you pull out a bag of lotus powder, you'll definitely get hit by a truck in your dreams today..."

Yu Sheng felt quite puzzled. "I don't understand. Your body is made of clay, and you don't even mind using flour as a substitute, so why are you so resistant to other similar materials?"

Aileen pointed a finger at Yu Sheng's nose, but because her hand was so small, the gesture lacked any sense of intimidation or provocation. "You humans usually keep pets, so why don't you keep cockroaches? You usually eat organic matter, so why don't you eat s—"

"Alright, I get it, you don't need to say more," Yu Sheng quickly interrupted the doll, simultaneously realizing just how vast the gap in perception between different races could be. "Don't worry, I have proper repair materials."

As he spoke, he opened a drawer on the other side of the table and took out a small jar of epoxy putty.

"Theoretically, it's best to use the same type of clay to repair a clay doll, but since we're out of clay, this will do. The important thing is to treat it with alchemy, right?" He confirmed with Aileen. "I just need to smooth it out with a spatula, right?"

"That... should be fine," Aileen finally nodded reluctantly, then added curiously, "When did you prepare this?"

"It was a free gift from when I bought the clay. I tucked it at the very bottom and didn't notice at the time," Yu Sheng said casually while studying the instructions on the packaging. "Alright, now let me see your wound."

Only then did Aileen feel relieved. She slowly pulled up her intricately ruffled skirt and slid down the long sock on her right leg.

On her ivory-like calves, there were black cracks of various sizes. Some cracks even ran through her knees and extended up toward her thighs.

Yu Sheng was startled. "...Holy crap!"

"At least they aren't broken," Aileen said, seemingly unconcerned. "If they were, you'd have to graft another segment of lotus root onto them."

"It's not a question of whether they're broken, why are you so indifferent... Does it really not hurt at all?" Yu Sheng's voice tightened. Although he had grown accustomed to blood over the past two days, and had even seen his own flesh and blood mangled, seeing the shattered state of Aileen's legs caused his heart to skip a beat for some reason. It was a different kind of shock than seeing himself pierced by a monster.

Perhaps it was because the sight was too grotesque and terrifying, even more so than the doll's severed arms.

He reached out to touch the cracked areas on Aileen's legs and felt that the areas near the cracks were as hard as wood. Aileen's normal limbs were as soft as a human's; this hardening indicated that the structure near the cracks had begun to lose "soul synchronization." If delayed any further, the next step would be for them to shatter and break apart, just like her previous arms.

Aileen, however, actually laughed. "Haha, stop rubbing, it tickles... It doesn't hurt, not at all... Okay, maybe just a tiny bit, very, very lightly."

Aileen gestured with her hands, bringing her two index fingers very close together as if to emphasize just how slight the pain was.

Yu Sheng sighed, sliced open the back of his hand with a knife, and began mixing his blood into the repair material. He mumbled to himself while smoothing it on with a spatula, "This is too scary. I don't know what the physiological structure of a living doll is like, but next time you're injured, please don't be so calm. If it's serious, say so early. After all, I'm the one repairing you..."

Aileen rolled her eyes. "You look pretty scary when you're dying, and I didn't say anything about that."

Yu Sheng curled his lip, completed the subsequent material processing, and carefully applied the putty to Aileen's wounds with the spatula.

"Ah, it tickles..."

"Hold still. Don't move."

"Okay."

Aileen was quiet for a while, but then, perhaps finding the waiting process boring, she couldn't help but start chattering again. "Those two Special Bureau agents I saw today... I actually wanted to talk to them to see if they had a way to contact the sisters at Alice's Cottage—though I don't remember the specific details of this Special Bureau, I assume they are an 'official agency' of Boundary City, so they should have contact with Alice's Cottage..."

"Then why didn't you say so?" Yu Sheng said without looking up, his hands still carefully performing the repairs.

The spatula spread the putty, filling the cracks in the doll's legs. The repair material mixed with blood emitted a faint hissing sound as soon as it was applied, then melted into a black sludge and mist, gradually merging with the doll's skin and restoring a flesh-like texture and elasticity.

"I don't know, I just suddenly felt a bit uneasy," Aileen said. "A spiritual warning, a feeling of instability... Maybe because I just met those two and don't quite trust them yet? Or maybe it's because I've been disconnected from the outside world for too long. I'm not sure what the current situation is between the various factions in the Boundary..."

Yu Sheng paused his movements and looked up at the doll. "Next time I meet them, should I mention your business to them? They've seen you today; they'll likely report it when they get back..."

"I'm not afraid of reports. There are no 66.6cm tall living dolls in this world. Even if they report it, they'll probably just think I'm some kind of alchemical creature similar to a living doll; that's not rare in their eyes. As for the next meeting..." Aileen paused, looking into Yu Sheng's eyes. "It depends. If they are who they say they are, and are definitely from an official organization, then I'll ask them about Alice's Cottage. If they can act as a bridge to help me find other living doll sisters in this city, that would be even better. Seeing my own kind... I should feel much more at ease."

Yu Sheng rarely saw this doll look so anxious about gain and loss.

But he felt he could understand this hesitation and vacillation.

If he had been sealed for half a century or even longer, and was suddenly released to face a completely unfamiliar world—not knowing what his once-familiar things had become, nor the current world order and power structures—then seeking help from other factions... would indeed become a matter that required extreme caution.

Yu Sheng exhaled softly, put down the spatula, and gently reset Aileen's knee joint.

"Try to stand up."