Chapter 105: Number Two Body

Chapter 105: Number Two Body

The sun had already risen. The morning light had completely dispelled the gloom in the attic. From outside the window came the gradually increasing sounds of people and traffic on the streets, along with unknown birds calling from nearby rooftops, chirping incessantly.

But none of this interrupted Yu Sheng’s focus.

He was holding a nearly completed doll head. It was still a lump of relatively stiff clay. He carefully used a sculpting needle to press out the contours of the eyes and bridge of the nose on its surface. He spent a long time on this step, even redoing it several times, finally reaching a relatively satisfactory result just before the clay hardened too much for further work.

It was still far from perfect. Compared to professional models, it was definitely not on the same level. But Yu Sheng felt that the small head in front of him was at least no longer ugly enough to be endlessly criticized by Irene. At least… the little doll would not cry when entering it?

A faint smile of pride appeared on his face. He looked up at the candles on the table and saw that they had burned down by more than half.

It seemed the “makeup” step would definitely not be completed before the candles burned out. Completing the doll’s body components was already good enough for him at this stage.

He was not too disappointed. After all, aside from experimentation, this was also practice. Before making Irene’s next official body, it was good to familiarize himself with the entire process a few more times. Whether or not it had makeup did not matter much; the doll itself did not particularly care.

After all, Irene could “grow” her face into something beautiful on her own.

Yu Sheng exhaled lightly and pulled over the completed doll torso, preparing to place it at the focal point of the alchemical array on the table. Since this was a practice run, he intended to do the full set. Even though Irene was not here, he still wanted the ritual to be complete.

But after placing the torso at the center of the table, he frowned.

For some reason, he felt that the clay carried a faint, strange “elasticity,” along with a subtle warmth.

But when he looked again and reached out to touch it, the strange sensation vanished. It became an ordinary lump of clay, slightly dried on the surface.

Was it just because he had not slept enough and was hallucinating?

This thought surfaced in his mind, but he did not dismiss it so easily. Instead, while attaching the other parts of the doll using small amounts of clay mixed with softener and water, he carefully observed the changes in the “body.”

He quickly completed the assembly process. A crude doll prototype lay quietly at the center of the alchemical array formed by concentric circles and connecting lines. Candles burned silently around it. Aside from the absence of Irene’s painting as a “soul source,” the summoning ritual was complete.

Yu Sheng stared intently at the prototype. At one moment, he felt as if his eyes had deceived him.

Then he saw the chest of the body begin to rise and fall slightly.

Very faint, but real. It was breathing, as if a small life was sleeping within that lump of clay, not yet awake, but already “existing.”

Yu Sheng’s eyes widened instantly. After a second or two of stunned silence, he finally reacted and leaned forward, gently touching the doll prototype that was “breathing.”

“Wake up, wake up… are you really… alive?”

But the doll prototype did not respond as he expected. Although its chest continued to rise and fall steadily, the “activation” seemed to stop there, with no further sign of awakening.

It was as if it were just an empty shell, still waiting for something to fill it.

Yu Sheng inhaled softly, then suddenly shook his head hard. He turned toward the stairwell leading downstairs and shouted:

“Irene! Irene, are you awake?! Come up and see what I made…”

He only got halfway through before stopping abruptly.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed movement on the table.

The moment he said the name “Irene,” the doll prototype on the table suddenly changed.

As if the final step of the ritual had been triggered, the body tensed sharply. Flesh-like color rapidly spread across its limbs, full of vitality. Hair began to grow wildly. Facial features quickly became vivid and three-dimensional. Color returned. Then came the familiar black dress.

Within seconds, “Irene” was lying in front of him.

Yu Sheng stared in shock.

Then he saw the newly formed Irene snap out of her dazed awakening state, suddenly sitting up.

“What are you shouting for?! I was sleeping and you just—”

She stopped mid-sentence.

Her neck stiffened unnaturally as she looked around in confusion.

“Wait… where am I? I was in the bedroom… and why does this body feel… weird? I feel dizzy…”

The doll swayed, trying to stand, but immediately lost balance. Her vision blurred. She staggered toward the edge of the table.

“Hey— I can’t balance! Everything is double… pull me—”

She did not finish.

Yu Sheng had already reacted and caught her just before she fell.

At the same time, a loud thud came from downstairs.

Two identical voices cried out simultaneously:

“Ow—!”

One was clear and close, from the body in his arms. The other was distant, from downstairs.

“Yu Sheng, what’s happening? Why do I have two sets of vision? Am I in two places? No, wait… why do I have two bodies?!”

Yu Sheng froze.

Then he turned and ran downstairs without hesitation, carrying the doll in his arms back to the bedroom.

The doll in his arms clutched his sleeve tightly, afraid of falling.

He opened the door.

Inside the bedroom, Irene was holding onto the bedside cabinet, barely maintaining balance.

She looked up at the same time.

The doll in his arms and the one standing on the floor stared at each other.

“…Wow!”

Both spoke in unison.

“I have two bodies!”

Again in unison.

Yu Sheng’s head was starting to hurt.

He looked back and forth between the two identical dolls, then finally forced out a sentence:

“Irene… they’re both you?”

“Yes.”

Both nodded.

“No, I mean… is it still one consciousness?” Yu Sheng clarified quickly, “One consciousness in two bodies? Or are there two Irenes now?”

“One,” they said together again.

Then the one in his arms immediately shut up. The one on the floor pointed at herself and said:

“Just me. I just… suddenly have another body.”

She tried letting go of the bedside cabinet, swayed unsteadily for a few seconds, then grabbed her head.

“I’m dizzy as hell… I almost threw up earlier. At first I thought I just woke up in the attic, then I opened my eyes here too. Two sets of vision, two sets of senses all smashed together. The moment I stood up, I fell off both the table and the bed at the same time. Lucky you caught one of me…”

She spoke rapidly, then suddenly paused.

“Wait. Yu Sheng, why do I have two bodies? And why am I controlling both at the same time?”

Yu Sheng’s expression tightened. An indescribable awkwardness surged from his spine to his skull. He had not even had time to properly think about how to explain this.

After a long pause, he finally said:

“…If I say the attic developed doll spores, would you believe me?”

Irene blinked.

“…Oh?”

Yu Sheng: “……”

Why did she actually consider it?

He gave up on nonsense immediately.

He walked to the bed, placed the second Irene down, and then forced himself into a serious expression.

“Here’s what happened. I couldn’t sleep, got a sudden burst of scientific curiosity, and went upstairs to do a small experiment…”

He explained everything honestly, from start to finish, including his thought process while making a backup body for her.

Irene’s expression went from confusion, to shock, to confusion again, and finally to pure rage.

“Yu Sheng, you son of a—!”