Eileen's expression appeared quite sorrowful.
Yu Sheng glanced at the "masterpiece" he had spent several hours creating, then thought for a moment.
If one day his soul were to leave his body and he could come back in a shell like this, he might very well weep...
Yet, Eileen's reaction still left him feeling a bit hurt.
He bit back his embarrassment and forced his expression to look serious as he stared at the puppet in the oil painting, trying hard to make himself sound more earnest.
"I've really tried my best. Look, at least the eyes are symmetrical...”
But this made Eileen cry even more, “But the head isn’t symmetrical...”
Yu Sheng turned his face away. “Um… it’s true that I’m a bit inexperienced. I promise I’ll do better next time; practice makes perfect, practice makes perfect…”
“Let’s skip the next time,” Eileen waved her hand in despair.
Then, feeling that today was her long-awaited chance to break free, she tried to smile by tugging at the corners of her mouth—but it didn’t work.
So, all her words of joy turned into a sigh. “Sigh, at least it’s a body. I can definitely feel that a connection has been established. Fine, let’s go with this one.”
She took a gentle breath, jumped down from the chair in the painting, walked two steps forward, then seemed to remember something.
Looking down at the plush toy bear she held, she stood still for a few seconds, hugged it tightly, turned, and placed it on the chair, as if saying goodbye.
Yu Sheng was a bit curious. “You’re not taking the bear with you?”
“It can’t come with me. It... is another individual sealed inside this painting. Even its consciousness has long faded away. I don’t even know where it came from,” Eileen shook her head lightly, patting the bear’s head. “It can only stay here, but I won’t abandon this painting, so in a way, it remains by my side.”
“Oh.”
Yu Sheng nodded, then watched, both nervous and curious, as he focused on Eileen's next actions.
He cared about how this puppet would finally “come out” of the painting and how she would live again through that rather unattractive “puppet shell” on the table.
Then, he saw Eileen in the painting starting to... “dissolve”!
This scene was strange and horrifying.
Eileen suddenly seemed like a wax figure being scorched by flames, her entire body gradually appearing to melt, and in almost the blink of an eye, she lost all color and detail.
Within just a few seconds, she transformed into a viscous black substance, collapsing in the frame and spilling out bit by bit from the lower edge, beginning to flow onto the table!
The table emitted a faint hissing sound, as if corroding rapidly in some strong acid.
The viscous black substance flowing out at first resembled thick sludge, quickly thinning like water, then in the next moment, it turned into a swirling... black mist, starting to drift around the puppet body on the table, gradually seeping into the lifeless clay.
Yu Sheng’s eyes widened at this bizarre sight.
He couldn’t shake off the chilling sensation that came from the floating black mist.
If he hadn’t seen with his own eyes that this mist transformed from Eileen, he would’ve definitely thought it was something malevolent and dangerous.
The whole atmosphere was oddly sinister, but despite knowing, he still felt something very strange about this black mist.
The chilling feel seemed to seep into this world like malice from a distant abyss, incongruous with Eileen’s usual carefree, harmless demeanor.
Shaking his head, he dismissed those tangled thoughts.
Watching the black mist hasten its way into the clay, an outrageous idea suddenly popped into his head—what would happen if he blew at the mist? Or poked it with his hand?
Eileen would probably curse at him...
In the end, he controlled the impulse to meddle, but at that moment, the mist's seepage quickly approached its conclusion.
The puppet on the table visibly began to change—the rough, ugly clay figure seemed suddenly imbued with the qualities of a living being.
Its coarse surface became smooth in an instant, while the crooked limbs quickly righted themselves and began to adopt the texture and hue of skin.
The distorted facial features fused back into the head and reformed within the clay, gradually taking shape on the surface...
Yu Sheng thought for politeness and respect, he should turn his back.
But before he could, he saw a delicate black dress as if it were growing from the puppet’s body, covering Eileen’s form.
Mimicking?
The term surfaced in Yu Sheng's mind, and at that instant, he felt a certain... connection with Eileen.
This feeling came and went in an instant; he didn’t even have time to discern if the whispering sound he heard was truly Eileen’s voice before the connection faded into silence.
Furrowing his brows, Yu Sheng recalled the blood he had mixed into the clay while shaping the puppet's body and wondered if this moment of connection might have something to do with that.
Suddenly, he felt a flicker of worry: his blood seemed a bit special.
Would it affect Eileen’s “rebirth”?
But soon, his unease was dispelled.
The puppet, fully reformed, lay quietly on the table, her skin like that of a human, hair as dark as ink, with a face that appeared as exquisite as a work of art.
Under Yu Sheng’s tense gaze, the puppet’s eyelashes fluttered slightly.
Then, its eyes slowly opened.
The crimson gaze looked aimlessly at the ceiling for a moment, but in the next second, it regained its luster.
Eileen awkwardly lifted her hands, gazing at them with an expression of disbelief; she slowly clenched her fists and then opened them again as if feeling the texture of the air.
After a few moments of surprise, the puppet began to smile, but there was an intense mix of emotions beneath that joy, as if she was suppressing the urge to cry.
Yu Sheng’s voice spoke from the side: “Congratulations, Eileen.”
“Mm,” Eileen pressed her hand against the table, pushing herself up with some effort, wobbling as she stood, then beamed at Yu Sheng, spreading her arms wide as if to give him a hug. “I’m alive again! Yu Sheng! Thank you…”
Suddenly, the puppet lady stopped, as if realizing something, and froze in that open-armed position, staring blankly at Yu Sheng standing next to the table.
Yu Sheng: “...?”
Eileen slowly tilted her head back. “Why do you look... so tall?”
After contemplating, Yu Sheng replied, “Could it be because you’re shorter?”
Eileen paused for a moment, then quickly looked down at her body, then up at the lamp nearby.
She gasped in surprise, scampering over to measure her height against the lamp, then stiffly turned her neck.
Yu Sheng began to sense something was not right.
“Why...” Eileen’s gaze was vacant as she murmured, “Why am I so short...?”
“Uh... it’s the puppet’s size; it’s on the larger side,” Yu Sheng started to feel anxious, though his face remained taut. “I mean, that’s a three-point puppet... Wait, did I get it wrong?!”
“... Three points, your grandpa! A person, a standard-sized person! A living puppet just like a human! I’m one meter sixty-seven!” The tiny puppet Eileen jumped up and down on the table, shouting, “Where are my long legs? Huh? Huh?! Why am I the same height as this lamp! I... I can’t even reach that chair next to me!”
Yu Sheng was completely bewildered, but he quickly realized something was off. “But that’s not right; you watched me shape the body. You could see the size; why didn’t you say anything then?”
The little puppet, still jumping around on the table, paused for a beat and seemed to register it for a second time, “Oh right, I was watching...”
She dashed back to the center of where the puppet shell had been made, glancing at the oil painting she had just resided in, deep in thought.
Then, some vague memories began to bubble up from her heart.
“Yeah... right, your work is fine. The clay shell is just a medium to temporarily house the soul... Even if the size is a bit off, my soul should adjust during the body’s reformation...”
Eileen murmured to herself on the table, thinking deeply while glancing around at the ceremonial setup, occasionally pinching her own body and muttering endlessly.
“Could it be because the size difference is too great? So, the adjustment is limited? But that doesn’t sound right... Even if it’s limited, there should still be some change... It wouldn’t be possible for me to be lamp-height only...”
Eileen measured her head with her hand, then jumped twice in place, as if trying to grow an inch in a futile effort.
It was clear her attempts were in vain.
“So... did the ritual go wrong after all?” Yu Sheng, nervously watching from the side, finally asked tentatively, “Was the body reform not adjusted properly? This shouldn't be my fault, right...?”
Eileen looked up at him, her expression a mix of rage and sorrow that startled Yu Sheng.
“Ruler.”
The tiny puppet, only the height of a lamp, extended her hand toward Yu Sheng, gritting her teeth.
“What for?”
“Measure my height!”
Yu Sheng responded, “Oh,” and hurriedly went upstairs to find a tape measure.
Actually, he had initially thought of getting a straight ruler.
But he figured that if Eileen saw a ruler, she would likely fly at him in a rage, so he didn’t dare.
Moments later, Eileen stood upright on the table, a book balanced on her head, while Yu Sheng pulled out the tape to measure the little puppet’s height.
Eileen tried to tilt the book slightly, but Yu Sheng grabbed it to keep it steady.
“How... how tall am I?” The little puppet asked carefully.
“... 66.6 centimeters,” Yu Sheng looked at the measuring tape, his tone filled with sympathy. “I tried to round up for you, even counted the extra 0.6 centimeters.”
Eileen finally burst into tears.
(End of this chapter)