Chapter 39: It Worked, But Not Completely

Chapter 39: It Worked, But Not Completely

Irene looked rather heartbroken.

Yu Sheng glanced at the “masterpiece” he had spent several hours sculpting, then tried putting himself in her shoes. He felt that if one day his soul left his body and he had to resurrect himself inside a shell like that, he would probably be able to cry too...

Still, Irene’s reaction stung him a little. Suppressing his embarrassment, he maintained a serious expression as he looked at the doll in the painting.

“I already tried pretty hard. Look, at the very least, the eyes are symmetrical...”

That finally made Irene burst into tears.

“But the head isn’t symmetrical!”

Yu Sheng turned his face away.

“Uh... that’s true. I’m definitely not very experienced. Next time I’ll do better. Practice makes perfect, practice makes perfect...”

“There’d better not be a next time,” Irene said lifelessly, waving a hand. Then she seemed to remember that today was supposed to be the day she finally escaped her predicament and that she ought to be happy. She pulled hard at the corners of her mouth, trying to force a smile.

She failed.

In the end, a thousand words condensed into a single sigh.

“Well, it’s a body at least. I can definitely feel the connection has already been established. Fine. It’ll do.”

She took a light breath, jumped down from the chair inside the painting, and walked forward two steps. Then she seemed to remember something and looked down at the stuffed teddy bear she was holding.

After standing silently for several seconds, she hugged the bear tightly and set it back on the chair as though saying goodbye.

Yu Sheng was curious.

“You’re not taking the bear?”

“I can’t bring it out. It’s... another individual sealed inside this painting. Its consciousness disappeared long ago. I don’t even know where it came from,” Irene said softly, shaking her head as she patted the teddy bear’s head. “It can only stay here. But I won’t throw away this painting, so it’s basically the same as keeping it with me.”

“Oh.”

Yu Sheng nodded and then watched Irene’s next actions with a mixture of nervousness and curiosity.

He was very interested in how she intended to come out of the painting and how she planned to come alive inside the ugly little doll body sitting on the table.

Then he saw Irene begin to... dissolve.

The scene was bizarre and horrifying.

It was as though Irene had suddenly become a wax figure being roasted over a fire. Her entire body gradually entered a molten state, losing all color and detail almost instantly. Within just a few seconds, she transformed into a softening black substance that collapsed inside the frame and slowly overflowed from the bottom edge of the painting, beginning to flow across the tabletop.

A faint hissing sound arose from the table, as though it were being rapidly corroded by some powerful acid.

The black substance flowing from the painting was initially like thick sludge. Then it abruptly became as fluid as water.

The next second, it transformed into a strange black mist that remained gathered together without dispersing. It floated around the doll body on the table and gradually seeped into the lifeless clay.

Yu Sheng stared wide-eyed at the scene.

Perhaps it was his imagination, but he felt a certain chill emanating from the floating black mist.

If he had not witnessed the mist originate from Irene with his own eyes, he would have found it sinister and dangerous. The entire scene looked extraordinarily evil. Even knowing its origin, however, he still found the mist profoundly unsettling. That lingering coldness felt like malice leaking into the world from some distant black abyss.

It simply did not match Irene’s usual carefree and harmless personality.

Yu Sheng shook his head, throwing aside the random thoughts cluttering his mind. Watching the mist accelerate its infiltration into the clay, he suddenly found himself entertaining some absurd ideas.

What would happen if he blew on the mist right now?

Or poked a finger into it?

Irene would probably curse him out spectacularly...

In the end, Yu Sheng managed to suppress the urge to do something stupid.

At that moment, the mist’s infiltration rapidly reached its conclusion.

The doll body on the table began visibly changing.

The crude clay figure, rough enough to be called ugly, suddenly seemed to acquire the qualities of a living creature. Its coarse surface became smooth in an instant. Its crooked limbs rapidly balanced and reformed. Texture and coloration resembling real skin spread across it. The distorted facial features melted back into the head, then reformed inside the clay and gradually emerged upon the face...

Yu Sheng thought about it and decided that, out of courtesy and respect, he probably ought to turn around.

Before he could do so, however, an exquisite black dress had already grown out from the doll’s body as though it were part of her flesh, covering her form.

Mimicry?

The word instinctively appeared in Yu Sheng’s mind.

Then, all at once, he sensed some kind of connection between himself and Irene.

The feeling vanished in an instant.

Before he could determine whether the dreamlike whisper he heard had really been Irene’s voice, the connection fell silent.

Yu Sheng frowned.

Recalling the blood he had mixed into the clay while sculpting the body, he suspected that fleeting connection had something to do with it.

Suddenly, he became worried.

His blood seemed somewhat unusual.

Could that affect Irene’s rebirth?

The concern was quickly dispelled.

The fully reconstructed doll lay quietly upon the table.

Her skin looked human.

Her hair was dark as ink.

Her exquisite face resembled a work of art.

Under Yu Sheng’s nervous gaze, her eyelashes suddenly trembled.

Then those eyes slowly opened.

The crimson pupils stared blankly at the ceiling for a moment before regaining focus. Irene awkwardly raised her hands and stared at them in disbelief. She slowly clenched and opened them again, as though testing the texture of the air itself.

After remaining stunned for several seconds, the doll gradually smiled.

Yet beneath the smile, it seemed she was suppressing emotions so intense that she might burst into tears at any moment.

Yu Sheng’s voice sounded from nearby.

“Congratulations, Irene.”

“Mm.”

Irene pressed her hands against the table and forced herself upright. Swaying slightly, she stood atop the table before turning toward Yu Sheng with a brilliant smile.

She threw her arms wide open as though preparing to give him a hug.

“I’m alive again! Yu Sheng! Tha...”

Miss Doll suddenly stopped.

As though only now realizing something, she remained frozen with her arms spread, staring blankly at Yu Sheng beside the table.

Yu Sheng: “...?”

Irene slowly tilted her head upward.

“Why do you... look so tall?”

Yu Sheng thought about it.

“Could it be because you’re rather short?”

Irene froze.

She abruptly lowered her head to inspect her body, then looked up at the desk lamp nearby.

Suddenly, she sucked in a sharp breath.

Pat pat pat.

She ran over, stretched out her hand, and compared her height against the lamp. Then she turned her neck stiffly around.

Yu Sheng was beginning to sense that something was wrong.

“Why...” Irene muttered blankly to herself. “Why am I this short...”

“Uh... the doll’s size. A large one,” Yu Sheng said, already panicking internally while keeping a straight face. “I mean the one-third scale type... Wait. Did we get it wrong?!”

“...One-third scale my ass! Human size! Standard human size! Living dolls are the same size as humans! I’m one meter sixty-seven! I had long legs! Where are they?! Why am I the same height as this lamp now?! I... I can’t even reach that chair over there!”

The doll Irene, who was only as tall as the desk lamp, jumped up and down on the table while shouting.

Yu Sheng was completely dumbfounded.

Then he suddenly realized something.

“Wait, that doesn’t make sense. You were watching me sculpt the body the entire time. You could see its size yourself. Why didn’t you say anything then?”

The tiny doll, who had been running wildly around the table, froze.

Once again, she seemed to realize something belatedly.

“Eh? Right... I was watching...”

Pat pat pat.

She ran back to the center of the concentric circles where the doll body had been made. Then she glanced at the painting that had housed her before.

Thinking hard, she gradually dredged up some vague memories.

“That’s right... right. You didn’t make any mistakes. The clay body was only a medium, used to temporarily contain the soul... Even if the size was off, my soul should have adjusted things during body reconstruction...”

Standing on the table, Irene muttered to herself. Sometimes she looked down in thought. Sometimes she looked up at the ritual arrangements around her. Every so often she pinched her current body while continuing to mumble endlessly.

“Was the size difference too big? So the adjustment was limited? No, that doesn’t make sense either... No matter how limited it was, there should’ve been some change... There’s no way I should only be as tall as a desk lamp...”

She measured above her head with one hand and then jumped twice as hard as she could on the spot, apparently hoping this futile effort might somehow make her taller.

Needless to say, it did not work.

“So... the ritual still went wrong?” Yu Sheng finally asked cautiously from the side. “The body reconstruction didn’t adjust properly? That shouldn’t be my fault, right...”

Irene looked up.

The mixture of grief, outrage, and near tears on her face startled Yu Sheng.

“A measuring tape.”

The doll, only as tall as the desk lamp, stretched out a hand toward him and spoke through gritted teeth.

“What for?”

“Measure my height!”

Yu Sheng let out an “oh” and hurried downstairs to the second floor to fetch a tape measure.

At first, he had considered bringing a ruler.

But he felt that if Irene saw a ruler right now, she might actually fly up and bite someone.

A short while later, Irene stood ramrod straight on the table with an old book balanced atop her head. Beside her, Yu Sheng extended the tape measure and recorded her height.

Irene secretly tilted the book upward a little.

Yu Sheng immediately pushed it back into place.

“H... how tall?” the little doll asked cautiously.

“...Sixty-six point six centimeters,” Yu Sheng replied after looking at the tape. His tone carried a trace of sympathy. “I rounded up as much as possible. I even counted the last 0.6 centimeters after the decimal point.”

Irene finally burst into tears for real.