Thirty minutes later, Yu Sheng nervously watched the little doll lying on the "Alchemy Platform."
Eileen slowly propped herself up with her hands, her gaze vacant as she pondered the meaning of life.
The doll was 66.6 centimeters tall and emitted a faint scent of lotus.
The experiment had succeeded.
After staring for a long while, Yu Sheng felt more confident when he realized Eileen seemed to be fine: “See, I told you it would work. If you can use flour, why can’t lotus…?”
“Hold on, let me sort through my thoughts,” Eileen interrupted him, raising a hand.
She looked at her hands strangely. “I don’t understand how this even worked. It doesn’t make sense, you know? How did this really happen…?”
Yu Sheng forced a smile. “You let me try, so how can you not believe it after I did?”
“I shouldn’t have let you! How was I supposed to know you could actually succeed! Now my arm has turned into lotus!” Eileen glared at him, clearly upset. “I just wanted to see you make a fool of yourself! Your ridiculous ‘alchemy’ was never supposed to work! Why did you succeed?!”
“I don’t know,” Yu Sheng replied, a bit dazed. “You agreed to let me try, and you never said you just wanted to see me fail. I thought you really supported my research….”
Eileen wanted to jump up and bite him, but her legs weren’t fixed yet, so she could only sit and curse, “Research, my foot! What part of this is research? Now my arm is a lotus! What are we going to do?! How did this even happen? Is it because of thinking too hard? Huh?!”
Yu Sheng thought for a moment and figured it might just be the power of thinking that made it happen.
But Eileen’s intense reaction was beyond his expectations—he had no background in alchemy.
All he did was follow the doll’s instructions step by step.
When he infused blood into the two lotus pieces and conducted the spiritual infusion, he didn’t think about it at all, nor did he know that it would be a complete mess.
When the two infused lotus pieces suddenly twitched and turned into limbs near Eileen's elbow, he thought it was perfectly normal.
He never imagined it would frighten this little doll so much.
“Sorry…” Yu Sheng thought about it and started to feel a bit uneasy. “What if we just switch it out? I can go downstairs and get an axe…”
Before he could finish, Eileen shot him a look.
“Alright, I’ll pretend I didn’t say anything.”
“Now that it’s like this, what more can be done?” The doll reluctantly raised her arms, looking exhausted and resigned.
Then, she cautiously clenched her fists and moved her fingers, her demeanor tense, as if her body had been fitted with octopus tentacles, afraid that the arms connected by Yu Sheng’s haphazard operations would suddenly go out of control.
But soon she discovered that the two arms Yu Sheng had clumsily made were actually quite functional, even if the raw material was lotus.
“So… is the testing over?” Yu Sheng watched carefully, confirming that the doll wouldn’t suddenly bite him before breaking the silence. “It should work fine, right? Doesn’t hurt?”
Eileen sighed, “Well, it does. It’s not uncomfortable.”
“If it’s fine, then why sigh so much? You startled me,” Yu Sheng truly relaxed.
He then turned his gaze to Eileen's legs that couldn’t stand. “Now it’s time to fix your legs. Let me see how badly they’re hurt.”
Eileen replied with an “oh” but suddenly raised her head to stare into Yu Sheng’s eyes. “Wait, what are you planning to use for the repair?”
Yu Sheng felt confused. “I don’t get it. Your body is made of clay, and you didn’t mind using flour as a substitute, so why are you so against using other similar materials?”
Eileen pointed at Yu Sheng's nose, but because her hands were too small, it lacked any intimidation or provocation. “You humans keep pets, why not cockroaches? You eat only organic matter, why not eat s…”
“Alright, I get it. You don’t have to say more,” Yu Sheng quickly interrupted her, instantly understanding the gap in perceptions between different races. “Don’t worry, I have proper repair materials.”
As he spoke, he opened the drawer on the other side of the table and took out a small jar of epoxy putty.
“Theoretically, it’s best to use the same kind of clay to repair a clay doll, but we’re out of clay now. This will do, since the key is to use alchemy, right?” He confirmed with Eileen, “I’ll just smooth it out with a scraper, okay?”
“This… will work,” Eileen finally nodded hesitantly, then looked a bit curious. “When did you prepare this?”
“It was a free gift when I bought clay. I buried it under other things and didn’t notice at the time,” Yu Sheng spoke while examining the usage instructions on the packaging. “Alright, let’s take a look at your wounds.”
Eileen finally felt relieved.
She slowly pulled up the complex lace of her skirt and took off the long sock on her right leg.
On her ivory-like calf, there were multiple black cracks of varying sizes, some even piercing through the knee, extending up toward her thigh.
Yu Sheng was startled, “…What the hell!”
“At least it’s not broken,” Eileen said casually, showing no concern. “If it had broken, you’d have to attach another lotus piece.”
“It’s not about being broken or not. Why are you so unconcerned? Does it not hurt at all?” Yu Sheng's voice tightened.
Even though he had become accustomed to blood and had seen his own gruesome injuries over the past few days, seeing Eileen’s badly damaged state sent his heart racing.
It was a different shock than getting a hole poked in him by a monster.
Perhaps it was because the sight was so strange and terrifying, even more so than the doll’s severed arms.
He reached out to touch the cracks on Eileen’s leg, feeling the hardened areas near those cracks—unlike her normal limbs, which felt soft and human-like, these hardened textures indicated that the structure nearby had begun to lose its “soul synchronization.” If left alone, she would end up like her arms, fracturing and shattering.
Eileen, however, began to laugh, “Haha, don’t scratch, that tickles… It doesn’t hurt at all… Well, maybe just a little, very very lightly.”
Eileen demonstrated, bringing her index fingers very close together, as if emphasizing just how minimal the pain was.
Yu Sheng sighed, took a small knife, and cut open the back of his hand, slowly mixing his blood into the repair material while muttering, “You’re way too alarming. I don’t really understand your biological structure, but could you please not be so calm next time you get hurt? If it’s serious, you should tell me early on. After all, I’m the one who has to repair you…”
Eileen rolled her eyes, “You look scary when you’re dead, I didn’t say anything to you.”
Yu Sheng pursed his lips, completing the subsequent material processing, and cautiously applied the putty to Eileen’s wounds with the scraper.
“Ugh, that tickles…”
“Bear with it. Don’t move.”
“Okay.”
Eileen quieted down for a moment, but probably feeling bored during the waiting process, she couldn’t help but start chatting, “The two special agents I met today, I actually wanted to talk to them about whether they could contact the sisters of Alice’s House—though I can’t remember the specific details about this special agent agency, it should be the ‘official organization’ of the boundary city, so they should have some communication with Alice’s House…”
“Why didn’t you say anything then?” Yu Sheng spoke without looking up, carefully continuing the repair work.
As the scraper spread the putty, filling the gaps in the doll’s leg, the mixture of blood emitted a faint sizzling sound.
Then it melted into black mud and mist, gradually blending with the doll’s skin, restoring its fleshy texture and elasticity.
“I don’t know, I just suddenly felt a bit anxious,” Eileen said. “My intuition is warning me that something feels off… Maybe because I just met those two people, I’m not sure if I can trust them yet? It could also be that I feel disconnected from the outside world for too long. I’m not clear on the current dynamics between the various powers in the boundary area…”
Yu Sheng paused the movements of his hands and glanced at the doll. “So, should I mention you next time we meet? They’ve met you today, and they’ll probably report it back…”
“I’m not worried about the report. In this world, there’s no such thing as a 66.6-centimeter tall living doll. They’ll likely just think I’m some form of alchemical creature, which isn’t surprising to them. As for next time…” Eileen hesitated, looking into Yu Sheng’s eyes. “We’ll see. If their identities are real, confirming they’re from the official organization, I can ask them about Alice’s House. If they can help bridge the connection and find other living doll sisters in this city, it would be great. Meeting my own kind… should make me feel much more at ease.”
Yu Sheng rarely saw Eileen show such a worried side.
But he felt he could understand her hesitation and reluctance.
If it were him, sealed for half a century or even longer, then suddenly released into a completely unfamiliar world, not knowing how things he once knew had changed, nor understanding the current world’s order and power structure, then seeking help from other powers… it would indeed require careful consideration.
Yu Sheng let out a soft breath, putting down the scraper, and gently realigned Eileen’s knee joint.
“Try to stand up.”
(End of Chapter)