Erin truly possessed many miraculous abilities, something Yu Sheng deeply understood when he followed this little puppet into Hu Li’s dream.
Yet, it's worth mentioning that this unfortunate puppet often had too many shortcomings, making it easy to overlook this fact.
"Now there's only one thing left, the most critical part," Yu Sheng said seriously while sitting on the sofa, looking at the little puppet beside him.
"We need to find a way to recreate the door that leads to the foreign valley."
"Are you still planning to rely on exhaustive guessing?" Erin asked curiously, "You mean trying each 'frequency' you think is close?"
Yu Sheng sighed, "It seems like the only way. After all, when I first entered the valley, I didn’t truly grasp the 'door-opening' technique and overlooked too many details back then."
Erin turned to look at Yu Sheng, and the little puppet seemed to be thinking hard.
After a moment of hesitation, she spoke up, "Actually... I have an idea."
Yu Sheng leaned forward eagerly, "Oh? Do you have a way?!"
"It might not work, though, because I don't really understand how you 'open the door' and I have no clue what you mean by 'frequency'," Erin said as she turned around on the sofa cushion.
"But from what I understand, you need a 'characteristic' that helps you 'lock on' to your destination, right? Or some kind of navigation signal?"
"… I guess that sounds about right?" Yu Sheng replied, feeling a bit uncertain himself.
"I’m not quite sure either; after all, I’ve been figuring it all out randomly, relying on my 'feelings.' But your term 'navigation signal' is surprisingly fitting—at the moment I open the door, the destination on the other side is completely random. But if I can accurately 'remember' some 'characteristic' of the place beyond the door, the passage will collapse into a unique one. Something like that, I think."
"So that means if we set up a navigation point on Hu Li’s side, you could directly recreate the passage?"
"That should be the case," Yu Sheng nodded, though he felt puzzled, "But where could we get such a navigation point? I'm worried because I can’t find the way to the valley; if I could leave a navigation point there, I wouldn’t be worried at all..."
"From the dream?" Erin suddenly suggested.
Yu Sheng was taken aback but soon grasped the little puppet's meaning.
Erin continued explaining, "Last time when we sank into Hu Li’s dream together, I established a weak connection with her. If we enhance that connection further, maybe I can link to her senses—then I can pull you in, and you'd be able to directly perceive the aura of that valley through Hu Li. Isn't that like establishing a 'navigation point'?"
Yu Sheng listened intently to Erin's plan, feeling more and more that this little puppet's wild ideas might actually be feasible.
"There are two difficulties in this process," Erin continued.
"First, Hu Li has to cooperate. She must be willing to open her mind to you. But I don’t think that will be a problem; you can just explain it to her properly. She should trust you. The second difficulty is a bit... dangerous."
Yu Sheng didn't interrupt, merely signaling with his eyes for Erin to go on.
"The second difficulty is that Hu Li’s mind no longer contains just herself," Erin’s expression became a bit more serious as she looked directly into Yu Sheng's eyes.
"Entity-Hunger has already seeped deep into her psyche, so once you establish a deep connection with Hu Li, it’s equivalent to connecting with Entity-Hunger as well... I can’t be sure what will happen then. While theoretically, short-term contact should be bearable for you, I’m worried that Hunger's influence might take root in your heart. If you really enter the valley and face that monster, that part of you might explode at any moment..."
Yu Sheng fell into deep thought.
Seeing that he had fallen silent, Erin tilted her head, her eyes darting around before reacting, standing up from the sofa with her hands on her hips (though still not as tall as Yu Sheng sitting down), "Don't even think about trying to die first to see if you can clear the influence! I tell you, that mindset is dangerous. If you die and come back but can't shake it off, you'll really be in trouble..."
Yu Sheng awkwardly adjusted his sitting posture, "I never said…"
"I can see it!"
Yu Sheng: "…"
This little puppet usually didn’t think clearly; why was her intuition so sharp at this moment!
"I get it, I get it, I’ll push the 'dying' thought to the back of my mind under any circumstances," Yu Sheng said, feeling uncomfortable under Erin’s red eyes, managing to surrender with a wave of his hand.
He then forcefully steered the conversation back on track, "But I’ve still decided to try your plan. There's indeed a risk in directly contacting Entity-Hunger, but I think... it’s worth the risk."
Erin's crimson eyes continued to stare at Yu Sheng, and after a few seconds, she opened her mouth, "Alright, it seems you really want to save that fox, and her situation really can't be delayed anymore. So let’s go with this plan."
But at that moment, Yu Sheng suddenly remembered something else.
"However, there's another problem."
"Huh?"
"I might not be able to dream about a dream that contains Hu Li," Yu Sheng spread his hands, "Last night, I didn't even dream at all. I don’t know how to control my own dreams."
Upon hearing this, Erin started laughing, her smile filled with pride and arrogance.
"I can," the little puppet proudly stood on the sofa (66.6 cm tall), crossing her arms.
"You just need to dream; the rest is up to me—let me tell you, after breaking free from that painting, I’m practically terrifyingly strong now! I even feel like I might..."
Before she could finish, Yu Sheng adjusted his posture on the sofa, causing the cushion to shift.
Erin, standing on the edge of the cushion, stumbled and shouted, "Hey!" as she fell off the sofa, getting stuck between the painting frame on her back and the coffee table, hanging there.
The puppet flailed awkwardly, like she wanted to fly and bite someone.
Her curses were quite vulgar.
Yu Sheng reached out to pick up the painting frame.
"Looks like you’re still pretty bound, huh?"
"You laugh... you keep laughing, and I won’t help anymore!" Erin complained, her arms stuck between the straps of the frame, having turned into a cross shape from Yu Sheng lifting it.
"Put me down! You... ox, my arms, my arms are stuck! Can you just... twist them a bit..."
Yu Sheng silently looked at Erin, reaching out to pluck her from the frame while enduring her frantic yelps as he helped her unstick her limbs.
At night, Yu Sheng prepared everything for sleep.
Yet Erin was still rampaging around his bed like a little rocket.
"Hey, can't you be quiet for a moment?" Yu Sheng lay on the bed, staring at Erin bouncing around nearby, looking helpless.
"I’m trying to go to sleep.”
"Your bed is so big!" Erin joyfully ran towards the head of the bed, then hopped onto the nightstand, shaking the lamp there, completely ignoring what Yu Sheng was saying.
"Hey! This lamp is shorter than I am! Look, Yu Sheng! This lamp is shorter than me!"
"I'll buy an even smaller night light next time, shorter than you!" Yu Sheng rolled his eyes, exasperated, reaching to pick Erin off the lamp.
"Did you forget what you should be doing? If you keep this up, I’ll lock you in the wardrobe!"
Only then did Erin finally quiet down, smiling sheepishly.
"I was just a bit too excited... Alright, alright, you sleep, you sleep, I'm not going to cause trouble."
Yu Sheng, feeling utterly drained, sighed and set Erin down.
"Go help turn off a light."
The puppet boldly replied, "I can't reach!"
"…Move a chair!"
"Oh."
The world finally fell silent.
Yu Sheng let out a long breath, enjoying the momentary peace in the darkened room as he tried to adjust his state of mind to prepare for sleep.
Then, when he turned his head, he spotted two blood-red eyes staring at him in the dark.
Erin was hanging off the edge of the bed, gripping the mattress like a tree kangaroo, staring straight at Yu Sheng.
"…You like this way of watching me? It's harder for me to sleep like this," Yu Sheng said, feeling resigned.
"By the way, why do you have to come to my room? You used to stay downstairs and could enter my dreams, right? Is it really necessary to follow me here?"
"The closer, the better the signal."
The puppet proclaimed with a tone of authority, sounding utterly sincere.
But at least she understood Yu Sheng's meaning and finally jumped down from the bed's edge to sit on a nearby chair.
Yu Sheng sighed again.
He knew Erin was still watching him, and he had no idea what this puppet (if it even had a brain) was thinking, but it seemed that at least tonight, he couldn't get rid of her.
He could only do his best to ignore the crimson gaze from the darkness, trying to clear his mind of distractions and brew a sense of drowsiness.
He didn’t know how long he had tossed and turned in bed—perhaps an hour, perhaps longer.
When his fatigue reached its peak, he finally sank into a blurry darkness.
Dreams arrived, and in the haze of the dream, Erin's soft voice came through, "You’ve finally fallen asleep... come, follow me this way."
Yu Sheng instinctively turned towards the sound, and in the next moment, the mist parted, revealing shapes in the darkness.
He saw once again that dark and desolate expanse, a gloomy sky hovering over the earth, the distant nameless hills, and the silvery fox still sleeping in the wilderness.
Yu Sheng stepped forward, and right after, he noticed the "guide" floating beside him.
That was Erin, leading his dream.
Yu Sheng halted, gazing strangely at the painting in midair.
In the painting, Erin was staring wide-eyed at him.
Yu Sheng exclaimed, "…Why do I feel like that painting is your true form!"
Erin looked down at herself, then scanned her surroundings, finally catching up with reality.
"How did I get back into the painting again?!"
(End of this chapter)