Chapter 41: The Free Doll

Chapter 41: The Free Doll

Yu Sheng was completely stunned.

The instant he saw Irene suddenly “lose connection” and fall over, he had even thought the doll had died on the spot because of her low-quality body. Fortunately, the voice that came from behind interrupted that alarming train of thought in time.

Holding Irene’s body in his hand, Yu Sheng stiffly raised his head and looked toward the large table that had just been used to work the clay.

The classical oil painting with its ornate frame rested quietly against the edge of the table. Irene was inside the painting, staring wide-eyed this way with a panicked expression.

“I... I don’t know what happened either!” Noticing Yu Sheng’s gaze, Irene immediately waved her hands vigorously. “One second I was still running forward, and then as soon as I opened my eyes I was already back here. What’s going on? This...”

A somewhat grating, low-pitched chuckle came from inside the frame, as though mocking her, yet also carrying a trace of sympathy.

It came from that stuffed teddy bear. This time, Yu Sheng finally saw it laughing with his own eyes.

With Irene’s personality, there was no way she could tolerate that. She immediately stomped over to the chair with the red velvet blanket, grabbed the teddy bear sitting on it by the neck, and shook it furiously.

“You’re still laughing! You’re still laughing! Was this your doing? I’ve been sent back again!”

But a teddy bear without thought could hardly respond. It merely continued giggling in Irene’s hands, making the doll increasingly furious.

Seeing this, Yu Sheng quickly walked forward, preparing to calm down the doll girl inside the painting.

“Hey, don’t get so worked up. Let’s think of another wa...”

He had only spoken halfway when the doll girl inside the painting, who was currently hugging the teddy bear while performing a chokehold, shoulder throw, and armbar, suddenly vanished. Immediately afterward, Yu Sheng felt the doll body in his hand jerk violently. Before he could react, the little thing, all 66.6 centimetres tall (~26.2 inches), pounced onto his arm and, propelled by inertia, executed a three-part combo: chokehold (failed), shoulder throw (failed), armbar (failed).

Her strength, however, was surprisingly great.

The flesh on Yu Sheng’s arm hurt from being squeezed.

Yu Sheng had no choice but to forcibly peel Irene off his arm. Holding her up in front of his face, he shook her vigorously.

“Wake up, wake up. It’s me, Yu Sheng. You’re out again.”

Only then did Irene gradually come to her senses. Hanging in midair, she stared blankly for a moment before lifting her head and looking around. Her gaze finally focused on Yu Sheng’s face.

“...Huh?”

Then the two of them simultaneously looked toward the frame not far away and fell into shared bewilderment and contemplation.

A moment later, without saying a word, Yu Sheng carried Irene backward. He kept retreating until he reached the spot where she had fallen earlier.

As he took his final step, the doll body in his hand instantly went limp as though the power had been cut, all signs of life disappearing.

Irene’s figure abruptly appeared within the oil painting. She glanced around, then looked up blankly at Yu Sheng.

“I’m back again. So it really is...”

Yu Sheng casually raised the doll body in his hand toward the painting, bringing the two closer together.

The body instantly came back to life, as though the previous “power outage” had never happened.

Irene’s voice came from it, continuing the unfinished sentence she had started inside the painting.

“...a matter of distance?”

“Looks like it.” Yu Sheng frowned slightly as he watched the scene. Then he moved the doll farther away again.

The doll body in his hand immediately “powered down” once more.

Irene’s voice came from the painting in the distance.

“Then this is kin...”

Yu Sheng pushed the doll forward again.

Irene continued seamlessly.

“...of troublesome... Can you stop playing around?! It takes me a whole sentence to say something and you’ve already split me into pieces several times!”

Embarrassed, Yu Sheng carried Irene back to a position closer to the painting.

He even explained himself.

“I mainly wanted to confirm the exact range of your... signal.”

“Does it really matter whether it’s five or six metres? At most it’s only a couple of steps!” Irene flailed wildly while being held by the collar. Then she suddenly sensed something wrong and glared up at him. “Put me down! Why do you keep carrying me around?”

Hearing that, Yu Sheng quickly set the increasingly irritated Miss Doll on the floor.

Then the two stared at each other.

Only then did Irene realize she had to tilt her head back nearly ninety degrees just to talk to Yu Sheng.

Yet her dignity would not allow Yu Sheng to crouch down for the conversation.

Besides, even if he crouched, she would still have to look up.

“Stand still.”

The doll suddenly spoke.

Yu Sheng was taken aback.

“What are you doing?”

The next second, he found out exactly what Irene intended.

The doll grabbed his leg and started climbing upward. Like a monkey climbing a tree, she scampered up in only a few moves, astonishingly agile.

Then she sat directly on his shoulder.

Yu Sheng was somewhat dumbfounded, yet did not dare move recklessly for fear of dropping her.

“I haven’t agreed to this yet...”

Irene replied righteously, “When you were carrying me around testing the signal earlier, you didn’t ask whether I agreed either.”

Yu Sheng immediately found himself speechless.

The two returned to the large table and began studying the oil painting.

“I really did come out. I can feel it. My soul is inside this body right now.” Irene frowned and looked conflictedly at what had once been her prison. “But...”

“But judging from the situation, this painting still seems to be your foundation. Your current body is like something being controlled remotely. Once it exceeds the distance limit, the connection drops.”

Yu Sheng spoke frankly about his thoughts.

Irene lowered her head.

She looked particularly dejected.

This time, however, she did not cry.

Perhaps the continuous series of blows had been so severe that she had developed a kind of mental resistance resembling brain death.

Seeing such a calm reaction from the doll, Yu Sheng became worried instead.

He hurriedly tried to comfort her.

“Don’t be too pessimistic. Maybe this body just isn’t working properly. I’ll practise my craftsmanship. The next time I reshape your body...”

“You tell me.”

Irene suddenly interrupted Yu Sheng’s rambling.

The expression on the little doll’s face was complicated, making it impossible to tell what emotion she was feeling.

“If you’re carrying your own prison around on your back, have you escaped from prison or not?”

Yu Sheng froze.

After thinking for a moment, he answered, “I’ve seen someone who carried his own prison around before. His ending was pretty miserable. But he was inside the prison. At least you’re outside yours...”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Irene muttered under her breath.

Then she jumped down from Yu Sheng’s shoulder.

Landing on the table, she walked to the oil painting that had sealed her away. Wearing a complicated expression, she grabbed the frame with both hands, lifted it slightly, then set it down again. Turning around, she tried to carry it on her back.

The painting was huge.

Although Yu Sheng could easily lift it with one hand, for Irene it was almost as tall as she was.

“...Do we have any rope at home?”

The doll looked up and asked.

“Yes!”

Yu Sheng immediately nodded.

“Wait here, I’ll go get it!”

More than ten minutes later, Irene watched as Yu Sheng carefully tied knots around the frame and adjusted the positions of the straps.

When the preparations were nearly complete, she stepped forward.

“I think it’s ready.”

“Go ahead and try it.”

Yu Sheng nodded and stood the frame upright.

He watched as Irene somewhat awkwardly threaded her arms through the straps.

“How is it? Are the straps in the right position? Do they need tightening?”

Irene tugged at the straps on her shoulders.

Carrying the frame on her back, she walked two laps around the table.

Then she nodded with satisfaction.

“No need. It’s perfect!”

“Is it heavy?”

“Not at all. I’m very strong!”

As she spoke, Irene even bounced up and down on the spot with the frame on her back.

Then she started jogging around the edge of the table in circles.

A tiny doll, 66.6 centimetres tall (~26.2 inches), running around with an oil painting frame nearly as tall as herself strapped to her back...

The sight was, to some extent, rather... strange.

But as Yu Sheng watched, he gradually began to smile.

Because he saw that Irene was smiling too.

The doll seemed to have cast off her earlier gloom and was gradually becoming happy again.

She was even more optimistic than Yu Sheng had imagined.

“It’s actually pretty light!” Irene stopped at the edge of the table and said cheerfully to Yu Sheng. “This way I don’t have to worry about the distance restriction anymore. I’m so smart!”

“You really are optimistic,” Yu Sheng said sincerely. “I thought you’d stay depressed for quite a while.”

“People have to look forward. Dolls too.”

Happily, Irene jumped down from the table.

Then she climbed up Yu Sheng’s arm and onto his shoulder again.

This time she was not quite as nimble as before because she had to watch the frame on her back carefully, making sure it did not bump into chairs or smash into Yu Sheng’s head.

“Compared to before, I can at least move around freely now. If I have to carry it, then I carry it. Besides, the one staying inside the painting doesn’t seem to want me going too far away anyway... Come on, let’s go downstairs. You still haven’t had dinner yet, and I want to watch television!”

Yu Sheng paused.

Turning his face slightly, he looked at the doll from the corner of his eye.

She was smiling brightly, seemingly full of anticipation for the future.

“All right, time to cook.”

He raised a hand to steady Irene and stood up from the chair.

“And tonight we’ll start researching that passage back to the valley.”

“Mhm.”

Irene appeared equally full of fighting spirit.

Wearing a radiant smile, she dramatically pointed forward.

“Charge!”

Yu Sheng immediately grabbed the little doll and lifted her off his shoulder again.

“I’m throwing you downstairs.”

Irene instantly curled up.

“No, no. The atmosphere just felt right...”

Unable to decide whether to laugh or cry, Yu Sheng shook his head.

He put the doll back on his shoulder, secured her properly, and began walking forward.

Outside the window, night had already begun to settle in.

Street lamps throughout the old district lit up one after another in the darkness. Their hazy, warm glow flowed through old streets and narrow alleys.

Through the window came a sense of quiet tranquillity.

“Yu Sheng, it’s completely dark outside now.”

“Yeah.”

“Hehe, I’m kind of looking forward to it...”

“Looking forward to what? The dark?”

“No. I’m just looking forward to something. It has nothing to do with the dark~”

“...I don’t get it.”

“Tch.”