Chapter 6: The First Step of Friendly Communication

Chapter 6: The First Step of Friendly Communication

The girl in the painting who called herself Irene and Yu Sheng outside the frame stared each other down, neither of them having established even the slightest trust in the other so far.

Yu Sheng had no way of confirming whether anything this “person in a painting,” which resembled some kind of cursed object, was saying was true. It was his first time hearing about Alice’s Cottage or her claim of being sealed inside a painting. Because of that, when Irene said she had no idea why she had appeared in this house, he did not dare believe a single word.

On the other hand, Irene also felt that this human named Yu Sheng was definitely still harboring thoughts of setting her on fire with that lighter. Her gaze never strayed far from it.

“I still think you bought this painting yourself and hung it up at home, then turned around and forgot about it...” Irene repeated. “Doesn’t that happen all the time? You humans see something unusual and want to collect it, then you buy it and leave it gathering dust at home...”

What she said actually made Yu Sheng feel a little uneasy, because he truly could not be certain where anything in this house had come from. After all, he had only really arrived “here” two months ago. It was not just that he was unfamiliar with this world, he was unfamiliar with himself. Who knew what this house, and the owner of this house, had been like before those two months?

Would that have been another “Yu Sheng”?

The thought only flashed through his mind for a moment. Faced with the crimson eyes of the girl in the painting, Yu Sheng still instinctively shook his head and replied, “No way. That painting of yours looks expensive. It doesn’t seem like something I could afford.”

“Hey, what if it was cheap?” Irene scooted forward while hugging her teddy bear. “There are fake bottles, fake fans, and fake paintings everywhere these days. Maybe some seller bought me wholesale together with a bunch of other paintings from a fake antique dealer for one and a quarter yuan per half-kilo, and then resold me. Or maybe some middleman just didn’t recognize what he had.”

Yu Sheng’s expression became strange. “That frame is solid old timber. There are gold inlays along the edges.”

Irene thought for a moment. “Rosewood veneer with resin poured inside! Iron wire plated with copper on the outside.”

Yu Sheng: “...”

“Then the production cost is already way above one and a quarter yuan per half-kilo.”

“Fine, two and a quarter yuan. No higher. If it’s any higher, nobody would buy it.”

Yu Sheng: “...”

Irene stared at him with her crimson eyes. “Hey, why aren’t you saying anything?”

Squatting in front of Irene’s frame, Yu Sheng suddenly found it amusing.

Then he actually laughed.

He dropped onto the floor, laughing so hard that he leaned halfway onto his back while staring at the ceiling.

Never in his life had he imagined experiencing something like this.

Squatting in an empty room, arguing nonsense with a doll sealed inside an oil painting, discussing whether the frame imprisoning the doll was fake junk sold wholesale by weight at one and a quarter yuan per half-kilo or two and a quarter yuan per half-kilo.

And not long ago, a frog that had spawned in freezing rain had dug out his heart.

All of this was just too damn hilarious.

Irene, however, became unnerved by Yu Sheng’s sudden burst of laughter.

After being taken off the wall, both she and her frame had been placed on the floor. From her position she could see only the bare ceiling and hear the laughter nearby.

Unable to endure it any longer, she shouted, “Hey, stop laughing! What’s so funny about this?”

Yu Sheng gradually stopped laughing.

He scooted forward and looked at Irene inside the frame. His expression suddenly became serious.

“That strange dream I had before, was that your doing?”

He was referring to the dream where he had hacked at a locked door with an axe and heard strange laughter coming from behind it.

Now it seemed obvious that the bizarre dream was connected to the girl in the painting before him.

Oh, right.

He had also thrown out his back in that dream.

It still hurt.

“No!” Irene immediately shook her head.

Then she paused, hesitating.

“Well... not entirely no...”

“What does that mean?” Yu Sheng frowned. “You’re talking in circles.”

“The dream itself was your own, but I really did enter it,” Irene explained patiently. “Originally, I only sensed that someone was dreaming and wanted to use that method to find someone who could help me. I wasn’t planning to do anything bad! I just didn’t know you couldn’t open that door. And your temper was so bad. You forgot your key and started chopping the door with an axe...”

Listening to Irene’s rambling explanation, Yu Sheng gradually understood.

“So the door wasn’t locked by you? And the dream wasn’t caused by you? You just have the ability to enter other people’s dreams?”

“Exactly! Actually, I can do lots of other things too!” Irene nodded proudly.

The pride quickly faded.

“But now that I’m sealed inside this painting, this is practically the only ability I have left...”

Yu Sheng remained only half-convinced by Irene’s explanation, while also developing more questions and thoughts about what he had experienced in that strange dream.

Then a second question occurred to him.

“You said you were trying to find someone through dreams to help you. Help you with what?”

“Naturally, helping me get out!” Irene replied as though it were obvious. “Getting me out of the painting would be best. If not, at least get me out of this room. This place is completely empty. I’d settle for a television hanging on the opposite wall. Voice control would be even better. Remote controls are inconvenient for me. There’s one brand that’s pretty good...”

Yu Sheng had figured it out.

The girl in the painting possessed the classic personality type that wandered wherever its thoughts pleased. If nobody interrupted her, her train of thought would always drift somewhere completely unexpected.

And usually in a direction that became increasingly carried away.

So he interrupted without hesitation.

“Then why were you laughing when you were looking for help? What was that mocking laughter I heard from inside while I was trying to ‘open the door’?”

“That wasn’t me!” Irene immediately waved her hands. Then she thrust the brown teddy bear she was holding forward. “It was laughing!”

Yu Sheng said nothing.

He simply stared at her expressionlessly.

His eyes clearly conveyed the message, Do you take me for an idiot?

“Really!” Irene was starting to panic. She shook the teddy bear vigorously. “It was sealed into this painting together with me. But it might have been too long. Its brain doesn’t work very well anymore. Now all it does is giggle stupidly. Usually it laughs strangely when I poke it, but sometimes it suddenly starts laughing on its own without being poked. It scares me all the time...”

Yu Sheng maintained a straight face while listening to Irene’s enthusiastic explanation.

After noticing the earnest look on her face, he became somewhat convinced.

At last, his gaze settled on the teddy bear.

After hesitating briefly, he nodded.

“Then make it laugh. Let me hear it.”

Irene immediately poked the teddy bear on the head.

The teddy bear did not react.

Irene froze.

Then she poked it again, much harder.

Still nothing happened.

She looked as if she were about to cry.

“S... sometimes this happens too,” the girl in the painting said miserably. “Sometimes I poke it and it doesn’t laugh...”

The corner of Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched.

“So in other words, sometimes it laughs when you don’t poke it, and sometimes it doesn’t laugh when you do poke it. Basically, whether you poke it or not, it may laugh or may not laugh...”

After reciting the analysis like a tongue twister, he arrived at a conclusion.

“So does whether the bear laughs actually have anything to do with whether you poke it?”

Irene blinked.

Then she nodded slowly.

“Y... yeah. You’re right.”

Yu Sheng was beginning to lose interest in talking to this apparently defective cursed painting.

And he no longer cared much about the mocking laughter he had heard in the dream.

A growling sound came from his stomach.

The dinner he had missed by collapsing into bed the moment he got home was finally making its presence known.

Yu Sheng smiled and shook his head before slowly standing up.

“Hey, are you leaving?” Irene’s voice immediately became anxious. “You’re not planning to leave me on the floor like this, are you? At least hang me back on the wall. From the wall I can still look at the wallpaper across from me. There’s nothing on the ceiling...”

Yu Sheng reached out and picked up Irene’s frame from the floor.

Then the pain in his back made him grimace.

“I’m taking you to the living room, so stop yapping,” he said casually.

Irene immediately brightened.

Hugging her teddy bear, she sat back down in her chair and watched Yu Sheng drag her frame toward the door.

“That’s good. You’re actually pretty nice. Oh right, is it dinner time now? What’s for dinner tonight?”

Yu Sheng looked down at her.

“Can you eat?”

“I can watch!”

Yu Sheng felt there was genuinely something wrong with him for continuing to talk to her.

Supporting his aching back, he carried Irene’s frame with some difficulty and slowly walked toward the staircase leading to the living room.

The stream of nonsense coming from the painting never stopped.

“Hey, your house is pretty big. So there’s this much space outside that room?”

“What’s that room across the way? Your bedroom? Hey, does anyone else live here?”

“Do I need to greet them? Will they be scared? Ordinary people probably haven’t seen talking dolls and oil paintings before...”

“Oh right, I never asked your name! What’s your name? Yu Sheng? That’s such a weird name. It’s not the raw fish dish, is it?”

“What’s wrong with your back? Your back’s already worn out at such a young age? I’m telling you, you need to take care of your back. Human joints are really troublesome, and you can’t just take them apart whenever you want... Huh? Why are you glaring at me? That’s a pretty scary look...”

At last, supporting his back, Yu Sheng made his difficult way to the staircase.

He looked down at the steps below.

Normally he would not have thought much of them.

But after throwing out his back and carrying an unusually heavy painting frame, the stairs suddenly looked exceptionally steep.

Originally, he had planned to carry Irene’s frame downstairs with both hands.

Now, however, he realized his physical condition would not allow it.

Yu Sheng lowered his head and silently considered the matter.

The noisy girl in the painting seemed to sense something.

Her voice gradually faded, and her expression slowly grew tense.

With lowered eyelids, Yu Sheng looked at a certain girl in the painting who had been talking nonstop the entire way and whose topics were becoming increasingly punchable.

“Irene.”

The girl in the painting jolted.

“Y... yes?”

“I feel like your frame is pretty sturdy.”

“I... it is?”

Silently, Yu Sheng placed Irene’s frame at the top of the staircase.

“It might shake a little. Sit tight.”

Irene finally realized what he meant.

Her eyes widened instantly.

“Hey, wait a second, don’t...”

“Off you go!”

The painting frame embarked on a grand clattering adventure down the staircase.

Accompanying it the whole way was Irene’s heartfelt expression of gratitude:

“Yu Sheng, you bastard, I... Aaaah! Waaaah! Aaaoooh! &%￥#...”