Chapter 38: Sculpting

Chapter 38: Sculpting

The kitchen doorknob turned, then the door silently swung open. Carrying several large shopping bags, Yu Sheng stepped out through the doorway and greeted the dumbfounded Irene not far away.

“I’m back.”

Irene’s eyes widened. Clearly, she couldn’t process what had just happened.

“Didn’t you go out shopping? How did you come back from...”

She suddenly stopped, as if something had clicked.

“No way! You used a door just to get home from the shopping mall?!”

“I thought about it. Since this door doesn’t just lead to the Other Domain, but can also connect to some distant place in reality, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be able to go somewhere nearby too,” Yu Sheng said proudly. “While I was at it, I also tested carrying objects and living creatures through the door. As long as the door remains stable, both can pass through without any problems...”

Irene listened in a daze. When she heard the words “living creatures,” she became curious.

“Living creatures?! Where did you get a living creature? Where is it?”

Yu Sheng held out a hand.

“Before coming back, I caught a mosquito...”

Irene: “...?”

Miss Doll gained an entirely new understanding of Yu Sheng’s creativity. Then her attention inevitably shifted to the several large shopping bags he had brought back.

The first thing she noticed was a whole case of eight-treasure porridge.

Yu Sheng began unpacking the bags. After setting down the case of porridge, he showed Irene the remaining contents.

“I found lightweight clay. Since I bought so much of it, the shop gave me some tools for free. Though we probably won’t need them, they’re all meant for making small dolls. To make your body, we’ll need this instead. I bought a rolling pin...

“Over here are the hair materials and paints. I bought good-quality ones. Not the absolute most expensive, but pretty close.

“Oh right, I couldn’t find suitable clothes for you. What do you think...”

“No need,” Irene waved her hand. Watching Yu Sheng continue unloading supplies, her face was already full of anticipation and excitement. “I can sculpt the clothes myself. I told you, this body is mainly a medium and a temporary container... Wow, that’s a lot of stuff. Yu Sheng, you really put effort into this.”

“Of course. If we’re doing it, we might as well do it properly,” Yu Sheng said, but then he frowned and shook his head. “Though honestly, this still probably isn’t everything. I heard there are clay drying ovens, various fillers, softening oils, primers, makeup tools, and all sorts of other things. But from what I saw, either they’re only useful for small dolls, or they’re things I couldn’t possibly learn to use in a short time. Besides, there’s another problem. Clay needs time to dry. Without a drying oven, half a day isn’t enough for large pieces to harden properly...”

“It’s fine. None of that matters. As long as we can build the framework,” Irene said cheerfully. Even her tone had become unusually gentle. “The important part is the ritual. Yes, the ritual. Otherwise I could’ve just had you buy a ready-made doll body. Why go through all this trouble?”

“Good enough for me,” Yu Sheng let out a breath and began sorting the supplies into categories. “Then let’s do it in the attic. It’s spacious up there, and there’s a big table.”

Irene nodded vigorously. Then she suddenly noticed another bag nearby. It looked strangely familiar.

“...What’s this bag of lotus roots for?” Miss Doll asked, her face full of confusion.

Yu Sheng froze mid-motion. He looked up at Irene, then down at the bag of lotus roots. Two seconds later, he gave an awkward chuckle.

“Well... that’s a backup plan in case my craftsmanship turns out terrible. At least, that’s how I understood it...”

Irene tilted her head and thought for a long time before finally catching up with his train of thought. She immediately jumped up from her red velvet chair.

“No!”

“No?” Yu Sheng sounded disappointed. “I thought the shape of the lotus roots was pretty perfect. I spent quite a while picking them out.”

“Of course not!” Irene’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Listen, pre-made food is already bad enough. If you start using pre-made components on me too, I’m going to have serious objections...”

“Fine, fine.” Yu Sheng sighed and carried the bag of lotus roots into the kitchen. “Then we’ll use them to make fried stuffed lotus root later.”

A sense of foreboding suddenly rose in Irene’s heart.

She felt that her journey toward freedom today might not unfold quite as smoothly as she had imagined...

Yu Sheng, on the other hand, was now brimming with confidence. After organizing all the tools and materials needed for sculpting the doll body, he picked everything up with one hand, tucked Irene’s painting under his arm, and reached for the kitchen doorknob.

This time Irene reacted quickly.

“...You’re using a door just to get to the attic?!”

Yu Sheng considered it and realized that might indeed be laziness taken a little too far. He laughed awkwardly, then carried the materials and Irene toward the staircase leading upstairs.

The house had a very large attic above the second floor. Calling it an attic was not entirely accurate. It was more like an extra level that had been partitioned off because the original ceiling had been built too high. It occupied roughly half the area of the second floor and had two street-facing windows and a skylight.

That was also why the house appeared to have three stories when viewed from outside.

Other than during cleaning, Yu Sheng rarely visited the attic.

There was almost nothing there. Aside from a large table that seemed to have been stored upstairs because there was nowhere else to put it, there were only two old chairs that creaked whenever someone sat in them. At night, or on overcast days when the lighting was poor, the overly spacious attic always felt eerily unsettling.

But now it was perfectly suited to serve as a workshop for sculpting Irene’s body.

Yu Sheng made two trips. He also fetched some potentially useful tools from a storage room on the second floor, an old desk lamp, and various strange items that Irene claimed would be needed for the ritual. Everything was carried up and arranged on the large table in the attic.

Irene’s painting was placed in one corner of the table, propped up against a stack of old books serving as a temporary stand. She quietly watched Yu Sheng bustle back and forth. She was quieter than ever before, though no one could tell what she was thinking.

Yu Sheng sat down at the large table. The old chair creaked beneath him as he awkwardly experimented with the clay and sculpting tools, trying to familiarize himself with their properties.

Irene suddenly broke the silence.

“Yu Sheng.”

“Hm?”

“I’m really going to come out of this painting.”

“That’s right. Assuming everything goes smoothly.”

“...I never thought a day like this would actually come,” Irene muttered softly. “Honestly, I stopped hoping for it years ago...”

“You’re getting sentimental about it now?” Yu Sheng looked up at the doll in the painting, who suddenly seemed unusually emotional.

Sitting in her chair, hugging her teddy bear, Irene gently rocked back and forth.

“It’s nothing. I just wanted to thank you.”

“Save the thanks until after we’ve succeeded.” Yu Sheng exhaled lightly, seemingly trying to ease some nervousness in his heart. “For now, tell me. What’s the first step?”

“Candles. Place them at the four corners of the table. Then light another one and put it beside my painting. The most basic part of the torso must be completed before that candle burns out.”

Irene’s expression became serious as she began guiding Yu Sheng through the process of creating a container for a living doll.

This was the first time she had ever taught the knowledge of Alice’s Cottage to a... human.

“Draw three concentric circles on the table. That will define your working area. Then extend a line from each corner candle so they intersect at the center of the circles... Try to make them round... Actually, forget it. Just don’t draw them as squares...

“Write my name at the center. Irene. Use the Old World common language... Ah, you don’t know it. Find a piece of paper first and I’ll show you how to write it. Don’t make any spelling mistakes.

“We’ll also need your blood. Just a little. Mix it into the clay, then add the tea powder and rose oil we prepared beforehand. Don’t use too much or it’ll affect the shaping process. Place the prepared clay in front of me first. I’ll guide the initial spirit infusion.”

One instruction after another flowed from Irene. Yu Sheng carried them out with meticulous care.

A calm, focused atmosphere gradually settled over the attic.

The usual bickering between them disappeared, replaced by steadily growing cooperation.

...Though, in truth, it wasn’t especially coordinated. Irene’s contribution was mostly broad-minded tolerance, while Yu Sheng’s was mostly confidence.

The process proved even more exhausting than Yu Sheng had initially imagined.

Not merely physical fatigue, but mental exhaustion as well.

He could feel the ritual Irene had mentioned gradually taking effect. The arrangements he could not understand were beginning to operate according to some incomprehensible laws and powers.

As an ordinary person performing such a ritual for the first time, even though Irene handled most of the spirit infusion herself, Yu Sheng could still sense a kind of mental energy draining away from him.

But Irene had warned him about this before the ritual began.

So he did not panic.

Instead, he maintained his condition as best he could and completed each step Irene requested with as much precision as possible.

Gradually, the body of a doll took shape beneath his hands.

Crude.

Simple.

Crooked.

The legs were even different lengths.

One arm broke in the middle at one point and had to be reattached with wire and water.

Yu Sheng felt that he probably lacked any talent whatsoever in this field.

But regardless, everything was finally approaching its conclusion.

“You can extinguish the last candle now,” Irene said. From within the painting, she calmly gazed at the body on the table, her expression more solemn and serious than ever before. “Then place me directly in front of it, at the position of the head.”

“Okay.”

As Yu Sheng rose to carry out the instructions, he casually asked,

“And then?”

“Then I need a minute to comfort myself and strengthen my resolve...”

Yu Sheng: “…Why?”

Irene looked as though she were about to cry.

“It’s so damn ugly... Even if I can reshape it later, it’s still so damn ugly right now.”