Eileen cried her heart out.
Yu Sheng did not try to console her, primarily because he truly didn’t know how, and second... he was afraid that the doll would be so heartbroken she might lose her senses, and if he tried to comfort her, she might suddenly attack him out of shock.
At this moment, she really had to jump up to bite someone.
Of course, the good news was that she could bite now; in the past, she could only chirp in her painting.
After a long while, Eileen’s sadness finally calmed down a little.
Yu Sheng hurriedly took a couple of steps toward the table and hesitantly spoke up, “Well... don’t be sad. Next time, I’ll make you a new body, one of normal size. For now, you can just make do with this one? If it doesn’t work, I can get you a new one by tomorrow...”
“This, for now, can only be used temporarily,” Eileen sniffled a couple of times, her face full of indignation. “Let’s just go with this for now; you don’t need to go through the trouble. Even if you make me a new body tomorrow, I won't be able to switch into it right away. The soul of a living doll can't handle constant changes of vessel. At least it needs a few months...”
As she spoke, her sadness resurfaced, and it looked like she might start crying again at any moment.
Yu Sheng quickly grabbed a small glass bottle and held it up to Eileen's face.
“What are you doing?” Eileen asked through her tears, looking at Yu Sheng’s strange behavior.
“Collecting the tears of a living doll,” Yu Sheng said seriously. “Next time I make your body, let’s aim to use high-quality materials. I’ll gather some materials over the next few months, and I’ll make you a shiny new body...”
Eileen thought for a moment, then exclaimed, “You, Yu Sheng… ah—”
After a long while, the doll’s feelings of sadness finally settled again.
Eileen climbed onto a stack of old books nearby, sitting on top and lost in thought about life.
Yu Sheng sat by the table, accompanying her in contemplating the meaning of life.
“Well, at least it’s better than before,” Eileen muttered quietly, not sure if she was speaking to Yu Sheng or herself. “Now I can at least run around by myself.”
“And you can watch TV by yourself too,” Yu Sheng quickly agreed, “that’s much more convenient than before, isn’t it?”
Eileen sighed deeply, attempting to sound serious and solemn, but due to her small stature (66.6cm), her sigh lacked any heaviness.
Yu Sheng then turned his head to secretly examine Eileen.
His gaze landed on her exposed wrists and knees.
The characteristic ball joints of the doll were particularly prominent.
“It’s funny how I used a clay doll as the vessel, and it ended up turning into this puppet-like ball joint,” he mused.
“Of course! It’s a movable doll; how could it move without joints?” Eileen shot a glance at Yu Sheng. “This is how my soul is recorded, so no matter what the original form of the vessel was, after the soul is reshaped, the body will turn out this way. If you don’t like the ball joints, there’s nothing I can do.”
“Oh, that’s not quite it,” Yu Sheng replied casually. “But speaking of the form recorded in your soul... it still has you as one meter sixty-seven tall...”
Eileen immediately jumped from the pile of books onto Yu Sheng’s arm, tugging at his thumb as she pulled it upwards with all her might. “Could you not bring up something that’s better left unsaid?!”
Yu Sheng yelped and sprang up, struggling to pull the small (66.6cm) yet surprisingly strong doll off his arm while hastily explaining, “I was just curious! I just wanted to know what went wrong in your reshaping process. Your appearance came out right, so why did your size shrink so much...”
“How would I know!” Eileen exclaimed as she was pulled down from his arm, now hanging in mid-air by the collar. “Everything felt normal during the reshaping process, yet the final size ended up deviating... Hey! Can you let me down first!”
“Only if you promise not to tug on my fingers anymore,” Yu Sheng replied seriously as he held Eileen by her collar and waited for her to nod before setting her back on the table.
“Ugh, forget it then, thinking too much is pointless,” Eileen sighed again, walking back and forth on the table for a bit before shaking her head. “I still need to find a way to contact my sisters from the Alice Cottage. If I can get home, they would surely find a way...”
Yu Sheng, curious, asked, “You keep mentioning the Alice Cottage and your doll friends... where do those sisters usually stay? Are there other dolls in this city besides you? By the way, what exactly does this ‘organization’ of yours do?”
He had wanted to ask these questions for a long time, but with recent troublesome events following one after another, he finally found the chance to speak up.
“We? We are a group created by the ancestors of dolls. Our mission... well, we don’t have much of a specific mission. Sometimes we confront foreign beings, and sometimes we assist other organizations with tricky situations. But most of the time, we dolls just do the things we enjoy,” Eileen recalled, speaking thoughtfully. “Most of my sisters don’t operate in the human world, but there should indeed be contact points somewhere in the realm... I just don’t remember where, and after all these years, the methods and personnel must have changed as well...”
She climbed back onto the stack of old books, resting her chin on her hands as she continued, “When we operate in the human world, we often disguise ourselves. Living dolls look quite similar to humans, so it’s easy for us to blend in. This city is so vast that without specific methods to contact or identify certain people, it won’t be easy to find the hidden living dolls...”
Yu Sheng listened, and even though he had considered the possibility of various strange beings hidden throughout this city, he still felt a bit astonished. “Incredible... I always thought the residents in this city were only humans...”
“Not a chance,” Eileen rolled her eyes at him. “This is a border realm.”
“A border realm, huh…” Yu Sheng whispered the phrase.
“In a border realm, anything is possible to appear. Just look at this old district where someone like you, who thinks they are human, is hiding,” Eileen waved her hand and jumped down from the stack of old books. “Let’s head downstairs! I’ve had enough of this place. Now I have the ability to move freely; I want to explore this big house~”
“True,” Yu Sheng sighed, patting his face to perk himself up, “Just making your body took a good half-day. I’m hungry; let me go downstairs and make something to eat.”
As he spoke, he turned to walk towards the attic’s exit.
Just as he stepped out a couple of paces, he heard Eileen shout behind him, “Hey, wait! I’m still not down!”
When Yu Sheng turned around, he saw Eileen running a few steps on the table, jumping onto the old creaky chair.
Then, she painstakingly climbed to the edge of the chair, using both hands and feet to grasp the chair legs as she slid down slowly.
After a while, she finally made it safely to the floor...
Yu Sheng: “...”
Eileen was hustling her little short legs over toward Yu Sheng’s feet.
When she noticed his gaze fixed on her, she immediately looked up, putting her hands on her hips and trying to strike a dignified pose. “What are you looking at me for?”
“Nothing,” Yu Sheng shook his head, “I just think it's kind of cute...”
He almost blurted out the word “adorable.”
Eileen paused, not realizing the suspicious pause in Yu Sheng’s statement. “Is, is that so?”
Then she followed Yu Sheng forward.
After walking a couple of steps, she reached out and tugged at his pants. “By the way, thanks.”
Yu Sheng looked down, pulling at his waistband with a puzzled expression.
“Thank you for preparing my body. Things were so chaotic a moment ago, and I didn’t properly thank you,” Eileen said seriously.
Yu Sheng couldn’t help but take a look at the small doll (66.6cm) before him.
After holding back for a while, he finally couldn’t resist saying, “You’re in this state, and you still want to thank me?”
“That’s different. The size issue was something I didn’t realize went wrong while reshaping, but the body was indeed crafted with care by you,” Eileen said, looking up earnestly (though not overly so), “even if it’s a bit ugly.”
“... You can leave out that last part.”
“Anyway, what I promised you still stands,” Eileen hurriedly replied. “In the future, I’ll help you with whatever you need, whether it’s in battle or needing assistance with mystical matters; I’ll be very useful. Even if I find my other sisters and return to the Alice Cottage, I’ll come back to help you...”
She paused for a moment, thinking carefully.
“How about we just say a hundred years for now?” She looked at Yu Sheng, confirming cautiously, “You should die of old age by then, right?”
Yu Sheng: “... I’ll do my best.”
“Then it’s settled for a hundred years,” Eileen smiled happily, seemingly in jubilant spirits all of a sudden.
She then turned and hurriedly ran toward the attic exit with her little short legs. “Let’s head downstairs quickly...”
Her voice suddenly cut off as she leaned forward, tumbling head over heels, just like a puppet suddenly having its strings cut, falling far into the momentum of her run until she crashed into the opposite wall.
The smile on Yu Sheng’s face froze at the moment Eileen fell.
“Wha... what the hell?!”
He was momentarily stunned before rushing to Eileen's side, bending down to pick up the little doll from the floor.
The doll was tightly keeping her eyes closed, her body completely limp, feeling like clay that was once warm just moments ago but was now cold.
The only thing maintaining a soft and active touch was her skin, yet there was no sign of life within.
Yu Sheng felt completely dazed.
Then he heard Eileen’s voice coming from the large table not too far away—
“Yu Sheng! I... I’m back in here!”
(Chapter End)