Chapter 33: Delayed Activation?

Chapter 33: Delayed Activation?

Yu Sheng thought that his blood apparently could not affect Irene.

Perhaps the oil painting that served as her sealing medium prevented the blood from penetrating. Perhaps Irene, as a doll, was simply unaffected by it. Or perhaps...

Hu Li had been the special case all along.

After waiting for a long time with nothing happening, Irene finally lost patience. Looking up at the top of the frame, she muttered, “Then wipe the blood off. This is where I live, after all. Having blood smeared all over it is bad luck...”

Yu Sheng said, “...You’re a creepy doll sealed inside an oil painting and you’re worried about that? Just having you sitting here is already bad luck enough!”

Irene immediately became dissatisfied.

“Who says I’m bad luck?! I’m this pretty, how could I be bad luck? Some people cover entire walls with plastic figurines. You can lean a painting of a beautiful girl against the wall and still call it bad luck?!”

Yu Sheng was left stunned by the sheer density of nonsense she had somehow packed into a single paragraph.

Still, he waved his hand.

“Makes no sense at all...”

Muttering to himself, he stood up, grabbed a wet wipe, and prepared to clean the blood off the frame.

It would not come off.

Yu Sheng froze.

The wet wipe had absolutely no effect. He rubbed harder against the frame, though he avoided applying too much force to the canvas itself for fear of damaging it.

The bloodstains remained completely unchanged.

But more than the stains themselves, Yu Sheng noticed something else.

There was not even the slightest trace of red on the wet wipe.

No matter how difficult a stain might be to remove, it should not behave like this.

Irene could not see the condition of the wipe. She only saw Yu Sheng suddenly freeze and immediately grew uneasy.

“Uh... what happened?”

“It won’t come off,” Yu Sheng said blankly as he stared at the bloodstains, which seemed to have become part of the frame itself. “Not because it soaked in. It’s more like... this was the frame’s original color all along.”

Irene did not respond.

Confused, Yu Sheng lowered his head.

The doll in the painting was staring at him blankly, as if her brain had suddenly disconnected.

Two or three seconds later, her expression gradually shifted from vacant confusion to horror.

As though she had suddenly remembered something, she pointed at Yu Sheng and let out a shrill scream.

“Ahhh! Yu Sheng, you, you died, died, died, died...”

Yu Sheng froze for a second before immediately realizing what had happened.

Seeing Irene continue screaming, he calmly sat down in the chair opposite her.

“Stop saying ‘dead’ so many times. It’s bad luck. Though, admittedly, the actual count is a bit high.”

Irene abruptly stopped.

She looked at Yu Sheng.

Then she resumed screaming.

Yu Sheng had no choice but to get up and figure out how to calm down the terrified doll.

She was far less composed than that fox.

Unfortunately, verbal reassurance had limited effect.

Perhaps because the blood’s delayed activation had delivered an even stronger shock, she seemed especially agitated.

Fortunately, Yu Sheng suddenly had a terrible idea.

The next second, he grabbed Irene’s painting, shook it vigorously through the air, spun it around several times, tossed it upward, caught it, spun it a few more times, and finally set it back on the table.

Then he watched as Miss Doll struggled mightily to climb back onto the chair covered in red velvet.

Irene stopped screaming.

Irene’s insults became spectacularly vicious.

Fortunately, Yu Sheng was already quite experienced at handling this.

Eventually he managed to calm the doll down. Amid her lingering angry muttering, they finally sorted out what had actually happened.

At the same time, Yu Sheng finally confirmed that his blood was indeed effective on Irene even while she remained sealed.

Although the blood seemed to affect only the frame, for some reason Irene had unquestionably been influenced by it and experienced the same thing as Hu Li.

She remembered the event in which she had witnessed Yu Sheng’s Death.

However, up to this point, Yu Sheng still had not experienced the same perception of thoughts and memories that he had shared with Hu Li.

He glanced at the still-irritated doll.

He did not dare say aloud that he privately suspected Irene was somewhat lacking in both departments.

Irene remained grumpy, but regardless, the shock of Yu Sheng’s return from the dead far exceeded the impact of the earlier amusement-park treatment.

Her attention remained focused on his resurrection.

“You’re saying... this isn’t even the first time?” she asked, her tone still full of disbelief.

“Yeah. It actually started before I met you,” Yu Sheng replied after thinking for a moment and recalling the frog in the rain. “But don’t ask me for the mechanism. Just like the door earlier, I only know that it happens. I have no idea why.”

“Any side effects or costs?” Irene immediately asked.

“So far... none that I’ve noticed,” Yu Sheng replied after a moment’s hesitation.

This time, he abandoned his usual carefree attitude and answered cautiously.

“Nothing physical or mental that I’ve detected.”

Irene continued staring directly into his eyes.

“Then you still need to avoid this kind of resurrection whenever possible.”

Yu Sheng sighed helplessly.

“I know.”

“The side effects might come far in the future. The cost might arrive in a form you can’t even imagine,” Irene said, seemingly afraid that he had not fully understood the warning. She patiently continued explaining. “Everything in existence tends toward balance. Things that exceed reason and order will eventually face retaliation from reason and order. And coming back from the dead... that’s among the most outrageous irrational events imaginable. You say you’ve found no problems, but I don’t really believe that.”

She paused.

Then she added seriously:

“It’s not that I don’t believe you. I don’t believe the appearance of this situation.”

“I understand, I understand,” Yu Sheng said with a serious nod.

Then he spread his hands helplessly.

“But that being said, do you think any of those times I died were voluntary?”

Irene said, “...Good point.”

“I just have a decent mindset. There wasn’t much else I could do in the Valley besides keep a positive attitude,” Yu Sheng sighed. “I understand your concern. Don’t worry. I know my limits.”

Irene continued staring at him for a long time.

Finally, she muttered and looked away.

“Fine. Just remember what I said... I’m still waiting for you to get me a body.”

Yu Sheng let out a breath of relief.

He had to admit, this doll’s ability to accept things was impressive.

Something this absurd, and she had ultimately accepted it so easily...

Suddenly, Irene looked up again, unable to hold it in any longer.

“No, seriously, I just can’t get over this. Are you actually human?! Are you absolutely sure you were born to human parents and raised on human food? Can’t you think back to your childhood and remember whether there was anything...”

Yu Sheng: “...”

He took back his previous thought.

The doll’s acceptance ability might not be that impressive after all.

After casually brushing her off with a few replies, Yu Sheng ignored her continued muttering.

Having finished testing the blood, he still remembered his original objective.

Continue familiarizing himself with the ability to open doors and understanding its properties.

Find a method to reproduce connections and accurately locate destinations.

Until he could open the door leading back to the Valley.

And bring food to Hu Li.

Irene gradually quieted down.

Watching Yu Sheng place his hand on the kitchen doorknob, she hesitated several times before finally asking:

“Even if you really find a door back to that Valley, have you figured out how you’re going to deal with Hunger afterward?”

Slowly turning the handle, Yu Sheng sensed the subtle feeling arising from somewhere deep within what he called his spiritual intuition.

Then he answered:

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“You haven’t thought it through at all!” Irene shouted. Without even turning around, Yu Sheng could tell she was glaring again. “Are you bringing food to Hu Li or bringing food to that monster?!”

“What I mean is this. If I can beat the monster, then I’ll fight it. Even temporarily destroying Hunger’s manifested form would probably help Hu Li break free from its influence. If I can’t beat it, then I’ll find a way to bring Hu Li out through a door. Though that has side effects, and Hunger might continue targeting her. If that doesn’t work either, then at the very least I can bring some food in and make her feel better. As long as I have a reliable method of opening doors, everything can be planned over the long term.”

“When I say we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, I mean I’ll choose among those three plans based on the situation. But as for how to actually deal with that entity... I genuinely don’t have any ideas right now.”

“Alright. If you’ve thought things through this much, then that’s not so bad,” Irene said, sounding relieved. “As long as you’re not charging in blindly and delivering yourself to that monster as a meal.”

After a moment’s thought, Yu Sheng decided not to mention that after eating him, the monster’s mouth and stomach would probably disagree on the accounting.

If he said that aloud, who knew how much more Irene would chatter.

While entertaining this unimportant thought, he slowly pulled open the kitchen door.

An endless expanse of darkness came into view.

Dim stars glittered in the distant void.

Apart from that...

There seemed to be absolutely nothing outside the door.

Yu Sheng stared at the empty scene beyond it in confusion.

A moment later, realization suddenly struck him.

Bang!

He slammed the door shut.

“Holy hell, it’s outer space!”