Irene cried very sadly.
Yu Sheng didn't try to comfort her. Firstly, he really didn't know how to comfort her. Secondly… he was afraid that this doll, in her excessive grief and confusion, would be stimulated by his comfort and jump up and bite him.
She really had to jump up to bite him now.
Of course, the good news was that she could bite him now. Before, in the painting, she could only babble.
After a long while, Irene's sad mood finally calmed down a little. Yu Sheng quickly took two steps forward to the table and said hesitantly, "Well… don't be sad. I'll make you a new body next time, a normal-sized one. For now… just make do with this one? If not, I'll make you a new one tomorrow…"
"For, for this period of time, I can only use this one," Irene sniffled and said with a grief-stricken expression. "Let's just leave it at that. You don't have to bother—even if you get me a new body tomorrow, I can't change into it for now. The soul of a living doll can't withstand constantly changing containers. At, at least for a few months…"
As she spoke, she was overcome with grief again and was about to cry.
Yu Sheng quickly took a small glass bottle and held it to Irene's face.
"What are you doing?" Irene asked as she sniffled, looking at Yu Sheng's inexplicable action.
"The tears of a living doll," Yu Sheng said with a serious face. "Next time I make a body for you, let's try to use high-grade materials. I'll collect some materials in these few months. I'll make you a golden one…"
Irene thought for a moment and wailed, "Yu Sheng, you bastard… ah—"
After another long while, the doll's sad feelings finally calmed down again.
Irene climbed onto the stack of old books next to her and sat on top of the pile, staring blankly and contemplating life. Yu Sheng sat by the table and contemplated life with her.
"At least, at least it's better than before," Irene muttered in a low voice, it was unknown whether she was speaking to Yu Sheng or to herself. "At least I can run around by myself now."
"And you can watch TV by yourself," Yu Sheng quickly chimed in. "This is much more convenient than before, right?"
Irene let out a long sigh, as if trying to appear more solemn and serious. But because she was too small (66.6cm), this sigh didn't express any solemnity at all.
Yu Sheng turned his head and secretly sized up the current Irene. His gaze fell on her exposed wrists and knees.
The unique ball joints of a doll looked particularly conspicuous.
"Although a clay doll was used as a container, it still ended up with this kind of ball joint similar to a puppet," he said thoughtfully.
"Nonsense. It's an articulated doll. How can it move without joints," Irene turned her head and glanced at Yu Sheng. "This is the appearance recorded in my soul, so no matter what the original form of the container is, the body after the soul has been reshaped will become like this—if you don't like ball joints, then there's nothing I can do."
"Oh, that's not it," Yu Sheng said casually. "But speaking of the appearance recorded in the soul… your soul also records that you were originally 1.67 meters tall…"
Irene instantly jumped from the pile of books onto Yu Sheng's arm, and forcefully held his thumb and tried to bend it upwards. "Can you not bring up what's better left unsaid!!"
Yu Sheng let out a cry and jumped up. While forcefully pulling this small (66.6cm) but surprisingly strong doll off his arm, he quickly explained, "I'm just curious, curious! What went wrong with your reshaping process? Your appearance didn't deviate at all, but why did your body size shrink so much…"
"How would I know!" Irene was pulled off Yu Sheng's arm. At this time, she was being held by the collar in mid-air. "There shouldn't have been any problems. Everything felt normal during the regeneration process, but the final body size was off… hey! Can you put me down first!"
"Then you have to promise me that you won't bend my fingers anymore," Yu Sheng held Irene by the collar and said seriously to the doll. He only put her back on the table after she nodded.
"Sigh, forget it. It's useless to think so much," Irene sighed again and walked back and forth on the table a few times before shaking her head. "I still have to find a way to contact my sisters in Alice's Cottage. If I can go home, my sisters will definitely have a way…"
Hearing this, Yu Sheng was a little curious. "You keep mentioning Alice's Cottage and the dolls… where are those sisters of yours usually? Are there other dolls besides you in this city? By the way, what does your 'organization'… usually do?"
He had always wanted to ask these questions, but the tricky things recently had been one after another. It was only now that he finally had the chance to ask.
"Us? We are a race created by the ancestor of dolls. Our mission… actually, there is no mission. Sometimes we will deal with Otherworlds, sometimes we will help other organizations deal with some tricky entities. But most of the time, the dolls just do what they like," Irene recalled and said. "Most of my sisters don't operate in the human world, but there should be a contact point in Boundary City… but I don't remember where it is. And after so many years, the contact method and contact person should have been changed…"
She climbed back onto the stack of old books, propped her chin with her hands, and slowly continued in her memories, "We will do some disguise when we are active in the human world. Living dolls look very similar to humans, so it is easy to blend in with the crowd. This city is so huge. If there is no specific contact method or if you can't find a specific contact person, it is not easy to find a hidden living doll…"
Yu Sheng listened on the side. Although he had already thought that there might be all kinds of strange guys hidden in this city, he still felt a little surprised at this time. "Incredible… I used to think that the only residents in this city were humans…"
"How is that possible," Irene rolled her eyes at Yu Sheng. "This is the borderland."
"The borderland…" Yu Sheng repeated the word softly.
"In this place, the borderland, anything can happen. If nothing else, there's a strange guy like you who thinks he's human hidden in this old district," Irene waved her hand and jumped down from a stack of old books. "Let's go downstairs first. I've had enough of staying here. I've finally gained the ability to move freely. I'm going to walk around this big house properly~"
"That's right," Yu Sheng let out a breath and patted his face to wake himself up. "It took me more than half a day just to make your body. I'm hungry now. I'm going downstairs to make something to eat."
As he spoke, he turned and walked towards the exit of the attic. But just as he took two steps, he heard Irene shouting from behind, "Hey, wait for me! I haven't come down yet!"
Yu Sheng turned his head and saw Irene taking a few running steps from the table, and with a strong jump, she landed on the creaking old chair. Then she climbed to the edge of the chair, and used her hands and feet to slowly slide down the chair leg. It took her a while to finally land on the floor smoothly…
Yu Sheng: "…"
Irene ran to Yu Sheng's feet with her short legs. It was only then that she noticed the gaze on her. She immediately raised her head and tried to put her hands on her hips to look more majestic. "What are you looking at me for?"
"Nothing," Yu Sheng shook his head. "I just feel it's quite… cute."
He almost said the word "funny."
Irene was stunned for a moment, and didn't notice the suspicious pause in Yu Sheng's words. "Is, is that so?"
Then she followed Yu Sheng and walked forward. After taking two steps, she reached out and tugged at Yu Sheng's pants. "By the way, thank you."
Yu Sheng lowered his head, pulled at his waistband, and showed a confused look.
"Thank you for helping me prepare my body. The situation was too chaotic just now, and I didn't thank you properly," Irene said with a serious face.
Yu Sheng couldn't help but look up and down at the current doll (66.6cm). After holding it in for a long time, he finally couldn't help it. "You're already like this, and you still want to thank me?"
"One thing is one thing. The problem with my body size is that something went wrong with my own reshaping. But you did prepare the body for me with great care," Irene raised her head, looking particularly solemn (actually, it didn't show much). "Although it's a bit ugly."
"…You can leave out the last sentence."
"Anyway, anyway, what I promised you before is still valid," Irene said hurriedly. "I will help you in the future. Whether it's helping you fight or needing assistance in mysticism, I will be very useful. Even if I find other sisters in the future and return to Alice's Cottage, I will come back to help you, just…"
She paused for a moment and thought for a while.
"Just, let's set it for a hundred years?" she looked at Yu Sheng and confirmed cautiously. "You should be old and dead by then, right?"
Yu Sheng: "…I'll do my best."
"Then let's set it for a hundred years," Irene smiled happily. For some reason, her mood suddenly became very good. Then she turned around and ran towards the exit of the attic with her short legs. "Then let's go downstairs quickly…"
Her voice came to an abrupt end, and she fell forward, like a puppet whose strings had been suddenly cut. She fell a long way in the inertia of running, until she hit the wall on the opposite side.
The smile on Yu Sheng's face froze the moment Irene fell.
"What… what the hell?!"
He was stunned for a moment, then he rushed to Irene's side in a few steps and picked up the little doll from the ground.
The doll's eyes were tightly closed, and there was no strength in her body. The limbs that had been warm a second ago were now as cold as ordinary clay. Only the skin still maintained a soft and active touch, but no signs of life could be felt.
Yu Sheng was completely dumbfounded.
Then, he heard Irene's voice coming from the large table not far away—
"Yu Sheng! I, I'm back in here!"