Yu Sheng felt completely confused.
When he saw Erin suddenly “disconnect” and fall out, he even thought that the puppet had died due to a poor-quality shell—luckily, a voice from behind interrupted his alarming thoughts just in time.
Holding Erin's lifeless shell, Yu Sheng awkwardly looked up at the large table where he had been working with the clay.
A classical oil painting with a splendid frame quietly leaned against the edge of the table, and within it, Erin was wide-eyed, looking in a panic at this side.
"I—I don't know what happened either!" Noticing Yu Sheng's gaze, Erin quickly waved her hands.
"Just a moment ago, I was running forward, and the next moment, I opened my eyes and I was back here! What is going on?"
A slightly harsh, low laugh came from the painting's frame, as if mocking but also carrying a hint of sympathy.
It was the plush teddy bear who had made the sound.
This time, Yu Sheng finally witnessed it laughing.
Erin, unable to endure the mockery, hopped angrily over to the red velvet chair, grabbed the teddy bear by the neck, and shook it violently, "You’re still laughing! Is this your doing? I’m back again!"
However, the lifeless teddy bear could not respond; it continued to giggle uncontrollably in Erin's hands, which only fueled her rage further.
Seeing this, Yu Sheng hurried over to comfort the puppet girl in the painting, "Hey, don’t be so agitated. Let’s think of a solution..."
Just as he got halfway through his sentence, the puppet girl, who had been wrestling the teddy bear, suddenly vanished.
Yu Sheng then felt the puppet body in his hands jerk sharply, and before he could react, this 66.6 cm small figure leaped onto his arm, instinctively trying to perform a chokehold (failed) and a shoulder throw (failed) in a series of failed attempts.
But she was quite strong, making Yu Sheng's arm ache.
He had no choice but to pry Erin off, shaking her in front of him, "Wake up, wake up! I’m Yu Sheng! You’re out again."
Gradually, Erin came to her senses, looking around in confusion before her gaze settled on Yu Sheng's face, "…Huh?"
The two then looked at the painting not far away, both frozen in thought for a moment.
After a while, Yu Sheng silently backed away with Erin in his hands, until he reached the spot where she had fallen earlier.
With his last step, the puppet body in his hands suddenly went limp, as if the power had been cut off, its vitality fading away.
Erin's figure abruptly reappeared in the painting.
She looked around, then stared blankly at Yu Sheng, "I’m back again, so it really is..."
Yu Sheng raised the puppet body in his hand towards the painting, bringing the two closer.
Suddenly, the body sprang to life, just like the "power cut" had never happened.
Erin's voice drifted out, continuing from the incomplete sentence she had left in the painting, "…Is it because of the distance?"
"It seems like it," Yu Sheng frowned slightly as he watched the scene unfold.
He pulled the puppet away a bit, only to witness the body go limp again, Erin’s voice coming from not far away: "Then this is…"
Yu Sheng pushed the puppet forward once more.
Erin: "…a bit troublesome… Can you stop playing around? You keep breaking me apart with just one sentence!"
Yu Sheng, feeling a bit sheepish, brought Erin closer to the painting and explained, "I just wanted to confirm how far your 'signal' can reach."
"Does five or six meters really make a difference? It’s only a couple of steps!" Erin was being held by her collar, flailing her arms, then suddenly felt something was off.
She glared at Yu Sheng, "Put me down! Why are you holding me like this?"
Hearing her, Yu Sheng quickly set the increasingly disgruntled puppet lady down on the floor, then they exchanged glances, both surprised.
Erin noticed she had to tilt her head nearly ninety degrees to talk to Yu Sheng.
But her dignity wouldn't allow her to ask Yu Sheng to squat down to talk to her—besides, even if Yu Sheng did squat, she would still have to look up.
"Stay still," the puppet suddenly said.
Yu Sheng blinked, "What are you doing?"
In the next moment, he realized what Erin intended—she clung to his leg and began to climb up, scrambling up like a monkey, nimbly reaching his shoulder.
Yu Sheng was a bit dazed but didn’t dare move, for fear of dropping Erin.
"I haven’t agreed to this yet…"
Erin confidently replied, "You didn’t ask for my permission when you were testing the signal earlier."
Yu Sheng immediately fell silent.
The two returned to the large table, beginning to study the oil painting.
"I really did come out. I can feel that my 'soul' is in this body now," Erin said, frowning, looking strained at her former "prison."
"But…"
"But from how it appears, this painting seems to still be your 'foundation'; your current body feels like it’s being remotely controlled. If you go past a certain distance, the connection breaks," Yu Sheng expressed his thoughts calmly.
Erin drooped her head, looking particularly dejected.
But surprisingly, she didn’t burst into tears—perhaps the continuous setbacks had built up a mental resilience akin to a state of mental numbness.
Seeing the puppet's calm reaction made Yu Sheng anxious.
He hurried to comfort her, "Don’t be too pessimistic. It might just be that this body isn’t very good? I’ll practice my skills, and next time when I reshape the body…"
"You know," Erin suddenly cut in, interrupting Yu Sheng's ramblings, her expression complex, revealing nothing of her current emotions, "Running around with my prison on my back—did I escape or not?"
Yu Sheng was taken aback.
After a moment of thought, he spoke, "I once saw someone running around with their prison on their back, and it didn’t end well for him. But he was 'inside' his prison; you at least are outside…"
"I don’t know what you’re talking about."
Erin muttered, then jumped off Yu Sheng's shoulder onto the table.
With a complicated expression, she approached the painting that had sealed her, reached out both hands to grab the frame, and tried to lift it.
However, the painting was large—though it was easy for Yu Sheng to hold with one hand, for Erin, it was nearly as tall as she was.
"…Do you have a rope at home?" the puppet looked up and asked.
"I do!" Yu Sheng nodded immediately, "Wait here, I’ll go get it!"
After about ten minutes, Erin watched as Yu Sheng carefully tied knots on the painting frame and adjusted the position of the rope buckle.
When the preparations were nearly done, she took a step forward, "I think it’s ready."
"Here, give it a try," Yu Sheng nodded, propping the painting up, watching Erin awkwardly fit her arms through the shoulder straps.
"How is it? Is the buckle in the right place? Does it need to be tighter?"
Erin tugged at the buckle on her shoulder, lifting the painting frame and walking around the table.
She nodded happily, "It’s fine! Just right!"
"Is it heavy?"
"Not at all; I’m very strong!" Erin boasted, bouncing on the table with the painting frame still on her back, then she began to jog around the table’s edge.
The petite puppet (66.6 cm), carrying a painting frame almost equal to her height, running around the table—it looked rather… peculiar.
Yet as Yu Sheng watched, he slowly broke into a smile.
He saw Erin smiling too, seemingly shaking off her earlier gloom and starting to feel happier.
She was even more optimistic than Yu Sheng had imagined.
"It’s really quite light!" Erin stopped at the edge of the table, smiling at Yu Sheng, "Now I don’t have to worry about the ‘distance’ limitation. I’m so clever!"
"You really are optimistic," Yu Sheng sincerely remarked, "I thought you'd be down for a while."
"One must look forward—puppets too," Erin gleefully jumped off the table and climbed back onto Yu Sheng’s shoulder—this time, she didn’t climb as agilely because she had to be careful about the painting frame on her back, avoiding bumps against the chair or accidentally hitting Yu Sheng’s head.
"Compared to before, at least I can move freely now. Carrying it is fine; it seems that the one still in the painting doesn’t want me to go too far… Let’s go downstairs; you haven’t had dinner yet—I want to watch TV!"
Yu Sheng was taken aback for a moment, slightly turning his face to steal a glance at the smiling Erin, who seemed full of anticipation for the future.
"Alright, let’s go cook," he lifted his hand to support Erin and stood up from the chair.
"Then tonight, we’ll start researching the path back to the valley."
"Okay," Erin appeared full of spirit, her face radiant with joy, as she pointed forward with determination, "Let’s go!"
Yu Sheng casually lifted the tiny puppet from his shoulder again, "I might just drop you."
Erin immediately shrank back, "No, no, it was just the atmosphere back then…"
Yu Sheng shook his head, both amused and helpless, placing the puppet gently back on his shoulder as he stepped forward.
Outside, the night had already fallen.
The streetlamps of the old town lit up one by one in the darkness, their soft, warm light flowing through the old streets and alleys.
Through the window came a sense of tranquility.
"Yu Sheng, it’s completely dark outside," Erin broke the silence.
"Yeah."
"Hehe, I’m a bit excited…"
"What are you looking forward to? It’s dark out."
"Not that, just a bit excited. It has nothing to do with it being dark~"
"…I don’t understand."
"Tch."
(End of Chapter)