Chapter 7: Irene's Escape Plan

Irene’s cursing was incredibly foul.

Yu Sheng couldn't fathom how a doll sealed inside an oil painting could possess such an extensive vocabulary—and one that allowed her to curse continuously while sliding down the stairs without even pausing for breath.

Perhaps it was because her true form was a doll, so she lacked the function of breathing altogether.

However, Yu Sheng remained indifferent. After Irene slid from the stairs to the floor, he let her curse away. He continued to walk down slowly and unhurriedly, holding onto the railing—mostly because his lower back hurt, so he couldn't move fast anyway. Only after reaching the first floor did he laboriously bend down to pick up Irene’s frame.

"Are you sick in the head?!" Irene, clutching her plush bear inside the oil painting, glared with wide eyes, her clothes and hair a mess. "Who just throws someone down the stairs like that? What if you broke the painting!"

"My back hurts, and your frame is too heavy to carry down," Yu Sheng said with a calm expression, carrying the frame slowly toward the dining room. "I’ve observed it; your frame is sturdy enough. Besides, if it really did break, maybe you’d be freed?"

"If it were that easy to get out, would I still be sealed in here until now?!" Irene sat back on her chair in annoyance. "Ugh, my head is spinning..."

Yu Sheng suddenly stopped and looked down at the girl in the oil painting very seriously.

Irene felt a bit unnerved by his gaze. "You... what do you want now? I’m telling you, if you throw me down the stairs again, I won't forgive you. I’ll sneak into your dreams every time you sleep. If you dream of taking an exam, I’ll ring a bell; if you dream of playing games, I’ll pull the plug; if you dream of going out, I’ll drive a dump truck to chase you; if you dream of dating, I’ll..."

How could this unlucky doll have so much trash talk!

Yu Sheng resisted the urge to drag Irene back to the second floor and throw her down again. He kept a straight face, trying to look serious. "I just wanted to ask, what is the principle behind your 'sealing'? You mentioned finding someone to help you get out... so what exactly does it take to free you?"

Irene hadn't expected this to be what Yu Sheng wanted to say. She was stunned for a moment, and after two or three seconds, she spoke in disbelief: "You... you’re agreeing to help me get out of here?!"

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

Irene seemed not to have heard the second half of his sentence. Before he could finish, she spoke hurriedly: "There are three... no, two ways! The first way is the best: find my original body. I don't know where it is now, but it must be somewhere... perhaps not far from this painting. In short, if we find my original body, everything will be easy. Just 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 there’s only the second way: build a new one. But a newly built body definitely won't be as good as the original, and it’s a hassle to adapt to..."

Yu Sheng had been listening very carefully and couldn't help but interject: "Build a new one? How? Can I just go to a doll shop and buy one off the shelf?"

"Of course not!" Irene said immediately. "I am 'Alice’s Doll'! A blessed living doll, understand? How can I be the same as those cheap store-bought dolls?"

She paused, her expression turning slightly serious. "Living dolls are born in the garden of Alice’s Cottage, and our original bodies come from there too. But I have lost my connection to the garden and cannot leave the painting, so I can't return to the garden to be reborn. However, even without the garden, we have a set of methods to create a temporary vessel in the mortal world for emergencies... but even a temporary vessel is not easy to make.

"First, you need to find hair that grows on its own, soil that wriggles like a living thing, dead men's bones that break and heal, and a drop of a living doll's tear—two drops would be better, my skin would be nicer—then you must use alchemy to re-animate these materials and smear your own blood on them... Hey, why are you making that face?"

Yu Sheng stared at the girl in the painting with a deadpan expression. After a long while, he sighed. "...Can we talk about the plan to find your original body instead?"

Irene blinked. "...You don't know alchemy?"

"Is this something everyone is supposed to know?!" Yu Sheng’s expression was frantic. "And forget about alchemy! Where am I supposed to find that list of absurd materials? Are you sure this isn't a setting copied from some third-rate fantasy magazine? 'Living doll's tears'... if I could find another living doll, wouldn't I just hand you and the painting over to her? Wouldn't it be better to let your sister take you home than to have me mess around with this?"

Yu Sheng felt he hadn't been in this "world" long enough to understand those eerie shadows and the supernatural realm behind them. But judging from the information he had encountered so far, the "materials" Irene mentioned were definitely not things an ordinary person in this world could access. How could she say it so matter-of-factly?

Irene’s expression seemed a bit awkward after seeing Yu Sheng’s reaction. She shifted her position on the chair, changed her posture, and lowered her voice. "Actually, other materials would work too, like buying some clay, paint, and a wig from the internet..."

Yu Sheng: "...?"

He looked at the girl in the painting with an expression that said, *Are you kidding me?* Irene couldn't help but shrink back on the chair. "I just hoped the temporary vessel would be as good as possible... but if we can't make a 'gold-tier' one, a 'white-tier' one is fine.

"But even if we use those ordinary materials, the final step still requires your blood and a little bit of alchemy technique. I can teach you; it’s very simple, even an ordinary person can do it..."

Yu Sheng didn't speak at first, falling into a silent contemplation. After a few seconds, he suddenly asked, "You wanted to say there were three ways at the beginning, right? Why didn't you mention the third one?"

"...That way isn't very good, there’s a price to pay," Irene waved her hand, looking honest. "You probably wouldn't agree, and I don't want you to try it either, since we aren't that close..."

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

Irene pursed her lips, looking at Yu Sheng with a bit of restraint (she knew how to be restrained now). She asked carefully, "So... are you going to help me get out? The second way is actually quite easy. You can just mold a body however you like; it doesn't matter if the craftsmanship is poor. As long as the ritual process is correct, I can reshape it once I enter the vessel... just don't make it too ugly. At least make it look like a person."

This time, Yu Sheng didn't bicker with Irene. He thought very seriously, for nearly half a minute, before giving a very solemn response: "I can't agree right now. I need to think about it."

He didn't trust this girl in the painting, at least not entirely.

Although she seemed honest and sincere, a bit chatty but not malicious, with a distinct personality and harmless demeanor—not appearing to have any bad intentions—all of this was just a superficial impression from knowing her for less than a day. Stripping away these "human-like" impressions, Irene’s essence remained a strange, eerie object sealed in an oil painting.

Yu Sheng wasn't about to be fooled by her cute appearance into building a vessel for this "ghost in the painting" and letting her out without a second thought—what if, once she got out, her face changed, and she raised her hand and dropped her bear to cut him down under her gothic dress...

Yu Sheng had died once not long ago, and he didn't want to die again just yet.

Irene didn't say anything after receiving his reply. She just stared at Yu Sheng for a while, then nodded naturally. "Oh, I see."

Yu Sheng was surprised. He had expected to bicker with the girl in the painting for a long time over this, but he hadn't expected her to be unexpectedly... generous.

"We aren't close yet, right?" As if seeing through Yu Sheng’s doubts, Irene suddenly smiled and blinked at him from outside the painting. "When we get closer, I’ll ask again."

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

Yu Sheng also smiled. He carried Irene’s frame to the dining room, placed it upright against the wall on the dining table, and turned toward the kitchen.

"I haven't had dinner yet. I'm going to cook."

"Okay... hey, can you turn on the TV across from the table? I want to watch some TV..."

"You're really a handful."

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

He was actually someone who loved to cook, and ever since coming to this familiar yet strange "Boundary City," he felt at ease only when he cooked every meal himself at home—after all, only in this big house were there no eerie shadows lurking to disturb him.

He didn't mind encountering some Slenderman-like figure while traveling outside, but not while cooking or eating, because these two things were major events in his life.

...Although now, even this "safe house" had an extra eerie "Irene."

But compared to the ghosts, freezing rain, and frogs lurking on the city streets, an unlucky doll who could only chatter inside an oil painting was much cuter—at least she wouldn't dig out his heart.

(End of chapter)