Erin's curses were truly something to behold.
Yu Sheng couldn't fathom how a doll sealed within a painting could possess such a rich vocabulary.
Even as she slid down the stairs, her insults flowed seamlessly, not a breath taken in between.
Perhaps it was because her original form was a doll, which meant she didn't need to breathe at all.
Regardless, Yu Sheng remained unfazed.
Once Erin reached the bottom of the stairs, he let her rant while he took his time, leisurely holding onto the railing.
His back ached and he couldn't move too quickly.
Upon reaching the first floor, he bent down with some effort and lifted Erin's frame.
"Are you out of your mind?!" Erin yelled, her eyes wide with rage as she clutched a plush bear in the painting, her clothes and hair a mess.
"How can you throw someone down from upstairs like that? What if the painting gets damaged?!"
"My back hurts; your painting is too heavy for me to carry down," Yu Sheng replied calmly as he slowly made his way toward the dining room.
"I've observed it thoroughly. Your frame is quite sturdy. Who knows, if I accidentally break it, you might just escape from this predicament."
"Do you think it would be that easy to get out of here if I could?!" Erin snapped, sulking back into her chair.
"Ah, my head is spinning…"
Suddenly, Yu Sheng stopped, lowering his gaze and looking seriously at the girl in the painting.
Erin felt a shiver from his gaze.
"What… what do you want? I’m telling you, if you toss me down the stairs again, I won't let you off so easily. I'll invade your dreams while you sleep. If you dream of an exam, I'll ring the bell; if you dream of video games, I'll pull the plug. If you dream of going out, I'll chase you in a dump truck; and if you dream of romance…"
This unfortunate doll sure knows how to talk trash!
Yu Sheng suppressed the urge to drag Erin upstairs and throw her down again, forcing a serious expression.
"I just wanted to ask, what’s the principle behind this ‘seal’? You mentioned needing assistance to escape… what exactly do you need for that?"
Erin didn't expect Yu Sheng to ask this.
She froze for a moment, then after two to three seconds, her disbelief turned to realization.
"You… you agreed to help me escape from here?!"
"Didn’t you say you needed someone to help you get out?" Yu Sheng frowned slightly before adding quickly, "I was just asking, I haven't agreed yet…"
But it seemed Erin didn’t hear the latter part of his statement.
She hurriedly continued, "There are three… no, two ways! The first and best method is to find my original body. I don't know where it is now, but it must be somewhere nearby… perhaps not far from this painting.
Just getting close to it would let me escape from this damned painting…" But if we can’t find it, or if my original body has been destroyed, then we have to resort to the second method, which is to create a new one.
However, the new body wouldn't be as good as the original and would be harder to adapt to…
"Yu Sheng listened attentively but couldn't help interrupting,"Create a new one?
How do we do that? Can I just buy a ready-made one from a doll store?
""Of course not!
"Erin shot back immediately."
I’m an ‘Alice doll’! Do you understand? A living doll blessed with a gift!
How can I be compared to those cheap dolls in stores?!
"She paused for a moment, then continued with a serious tone."
Living dolls are birthed from the garden of Alice's cottage.
Our original bodies come from there, but I've lost connection to the garden and can't leave the painting, so I can’t return to be reborn there.
Even without the garden, we do have a method to create temporary shells in this world… but even those aren’t easy to make.
"First, you need to find hair that grows on its own, soil that moves like a living creature, bones from the dead that can break and heal, and a drop of a living doll's tear—two drops would be better to improve the skin quality. Then you must use alchemy to reactivate these materials, and finally, you need to apply your blood… Hey, why do you look like that?"
Yu Sheng looked at the girl in the painting, sighed deeply after a long pause.
"Let’s focus on finding your original body instead."
Erin blinked in surprise.
"You… don’t know alchemy?"
"Isn’t alchemy something everyone should know?! “ Yu Sheng's expression turned somewhat frantic. “And can we talk about finding those bizarre materials? Where on earth am I supposed to find those things? Did you pull this from some third-rate fantasy magazine? Living doll's tears… if I could find another living doll, I'd just hand you and the painting over to her instead! Wouldn’t it be easier for your sisters to take you home than for me to mess around here?"
Yu Sheng had only recently arrived in this "world", and while he didn’t fully grasp the mysterious shadows and the realm of the extraordinary behind them, he could tell from what he had experienced that the “materials” Erin mentioned were certainly no ordinary items available to the common folk.
How could she speak of them so casually?
Seeing Yu Sheng's reaction, Erin looked a bit embarrassed.
She shifted in her seat and lowered her voice significantly.
"Actually, other materials would work too. For example, we could buy clay, paint, or a wig online…"
Yu Sheng: "…?"
He left an expression that screamed, "Are you kidding me?" at the girl in the painting.
Erin couldn’t help but flinch a little in her chair.
"But I just want the temporary body I create to be as effective as possible… If we can’t make it golden, a plain one would work too. But even with common materials, the last step still requires your blood. A bit of alchemy skill is needed. I can teach you; it’s easy. Ordinary people can manage it…"
Yu Sheng didn’t reply immediately.
He remained silent, seemingly deep in thought.
After a few seconds of contemplation, he suddenly said, "You mentioned three methods at first. Why didn’t you mention the third?"
"…That method isn't very good; it comes at a price," Erin waved her hands dismissively, looking honest.
"I doubt you'd agree to it, and I don't want you to try it since we don't know each other well…"
"Then stop wasting time with the nonsense," Yu Sheng said casually, giving the painting a sharp look.
Erin bit her lip and turned cautious (now she understood caution), carefully asking, "So… will you help me get out of here? The second method is pretty easy; you just need to create a body, even if you just mold something together. The craftsmanship doesn’t have to be perfect. As long as the ritual process is correct, once I enter the shell, I can be reshaped… just as long as it doesn’t look too ugly. It has to look like a person, at least."
This time, Yu Sheng did not retort.
He pondered seriously, finally coming to a solemn conclusion after almost half a minute.
"I can’t agree right now; I need to think."
He didn’t fully trust the girl in the painting—wasn’t ready to completely believe her.
Though she appeared honest and sincere, with a bit of a sharp tongue and a benign nature, all these impressions stemmed from their brief encounter of a mere day.
Stripping away the “human” layers, Erin remained an eerie entity sealed within a painting.
Yu Sheng wasn’t about to be charmed by her cute appearance and rashly create a shell to free this “ghost from the painting”—what if she transformed and turned on him unexpectedly?
Given he had just died not long ago, he had no intention of facing death once more.
Yet upon receiving his reply, Erin didn’t voice any complaints.
She simply stared at Yu Sheng for a moment before nodding naturally. “Oh, I understand.”
Yu Sheng was surprised; he thought he would have to argue with her for a long while, but she was unexpectedly… accommodating.
"After all, we don’t know each other well yet, right?" It was as if Erin had read his doubts.
She smiled suddenly, winking at him through the painting, "Once we’re familiar, I’ll ask again."
“…Alright, we’ll talk later.”
Yu Sheng smiled as well and took Erin's frame to the dining room, setting it on the table by the wall before turning toward the kitchen.
"I still haven’t had dinner. I’m going to cook."
"Okay… Hey, could you turn on the TV over there? I want to watch something…"
"Ugh, you’re so high maintenance."
Yu Sheng flipped on the TV across the dining table, then picked up the vegetables and ingredients he had left on the shelf from the supermarket to prepare his meal.
He was someone who loved cooking, especially since arriving in this familiar yet strange “Boundary City.” He felt reassured every meal he prepared himself at home—after all, it was only in this grand house that he didn’t have to worry about the eerie shadows lurking about.
He didn’t mind encountering slender ghostly figures while he was out and about.
But when it came to cooking or eating, it was a whole different matter, as these were significant moments in his life.
…Even if now, this "safe house" had a peculiar "Erin" too.
But compared to the phantoms prowling the city streets, icy rain, and frogs, a doll lamenting inside a painting was still much more endearing—at least she wouldn’t dig her own heart out.
(End of Chapter)