Irene's cursing was foul.
Yu Sheng had no idea how a doll sealed in an oil painting could have such a rich vocabulary—and she could even curse continuously while sliding down the stairs, without even stopping for breath.
Probably because her real body was a doll, so she didn't have the function of breathing.
But Yu Sheng remained calm. When Irene slid to the bottom of the stairs, he let her curse. He still walked down slowly with his hand on the railing, unhurriedly—mainly because his back hurt, so he couldn't walk fast. After reaching the first floor, he bent down with difficulty and picked up Irene's frame.
"Are you crazy?!" Irene, in the oil painting, hugged her teddy bear and glared at him, her clothes and hair a mess. "Is this how you treat someone, just throwing them down the stairs? What if you break the painting!"
"My back hurts. Your painting is too heavy. I can't carry it down the stairs," Yu Sheng said with a frank expression, carrying the frame and slowly walking towards the dining room. "I've observed it. Your frame is very sturdy. And if you really broke the frame, maybe you'd be free?"
"If it were that easy to get out of here, would I still be sealed up to this day?!" Irene sat back in her chair angrily. "Ah, my head is spinning…"
Yu Sheng suddenly stopped, looking down at the girl in the oil painting very seriously.
Irene was a little unnerved by his gaze. "You… what are you thinking of doing now? Let me tell you, if you throw me down the stairs again, I won't let you off. I'll sneak into your dreams every night when you're sleeping. If you dream of taking a test, I'll ring the bell. If you dream of playing a game, I'll pull the plug. If you dream of going out, I'll drive a dump truck after you. If you dream of dating, I'll…"
Why does this damn doll have so much trash talk!
Yu Sheng suppressed the urge to drag Irene back to the second floor and throw her down again, forcing his face to remain serious. "I just wanted to ask, what's the principle behind this 'seal' of yours? You said you were looking for help to escape… so how can I help you escape?"
Irene didn't expect Yu Sheng to say this. She was stunned for a moment, then spoke with some disbelief after two or three seconds, "You… you agree to help me get out of here?!"
"Didn't you say you were looking for help to escape?" Yu Sheng frowned, then added, "I'm just asking first, I haven't agreed yet…"
But Irene seemed not to have heard the second half of his sentence. Before he could finish, she spoke hastily, "There are three… no, two ways! The first way is the best, which is to find my body. I don't know where it is now, but it must be somewhere… maybe not far from this painting. Anyway, if we find my original body, everything will be easy. Just let me get close to it, and I can get out of this damn painting…
"But if we can't find it, or if my original body has been destroyed, then we'll have to use the second method: make a new one. But a new body will definitely not be as good as the original, and it'll be a hassle to adapt to…"
Yu Sheng had been listening very carefully. At this point, he couldn't help but interject, "Make a new one? How? Can I just buy one from a doll shop?"
"Of course not!" Irene said immediately. "I am one of 'Alice's Dolls'! A blessed living doll, you understand? How can I be the same as those BJD dolls in the shops?"
She paused here, then continued with a slightly serious expression, "Living dolls are born from the garden of Alice's Cottage. Our original bodies also come from there. But I have now lost contact with the garden and cannot leave the painting, so I can't return to the garden for rebirth. However, even without the garden, we have a way to create a temporary body in the mortal world for emergencies… but even though it's an emergency temporary body, it's not easy to make.
"First, you need to find hair that grows on its own, soil that writhes like a living creature, a dead person's bone that has been broken and healed, and a teardrop from a living doll—two drops are also fine, it will make my skin better—then you need to use alchemy to reactivate the above materials, and then smear your blood… hey, why are you making that face?"
Yu Sheng stared at the girl in the painting with a straight face, then sighed after a long time. "…Why don't we talk about the plan to find your original body instead?"
Irene blinked. "…You don't know alchemy?"
"Is this something everyone is supposed to know?!" Yu Sheng's expression was a little frantic. "And let's not even talk about alchemy, where am I supposed to find all those ridiculous materials you mentioned! Isn't this pile of stuff just a setting copied from some third-rate fantasy magazine? And a living doll's tear… if I could find another living doll, I'd just hand you over, painting and all, to her! Letting your sister take you home is better than me messing around, right?"
Yu Sheng considered himself a newcomer to this "world," still not very familiar with those strange shadows and the supernatural realm behind them. But at least from the information channels he had access to so far, the "materials" Irene mentioned were definitely not something an ordinary person in this world could get their hands on. How could she just say it so casually?
And after seeing Yu Sheng's reaction, Irene's expression also seemed a little awkward. She shifted her position in the chair slightly, changed her posture, and her voice became much lower. "Actually, other materials are also fine, like buying some clay, paint, wigs, and stuff online…"
Yu Sheng: "…?"
He looked at the girl in the painting with an expression that said, "Are you kidding me?" Irene couldn't help but shrink back in her chair again. "I just want the temporary body to be as good as possible… but if you can't make gold-tier equipment, a white-tier one is also fine.
"But even with those ordinary materials, the last step still requires your blood, and a little bit of alchemy skills. I can teach you. It's very simple. Even an ordinary person can do it…"
Yu Sheng didn't speak immediately, just fell silent as if lost in thought. After a few seconds, he suddenly said, "You said at the beginning that there were three ways, right? Why didn't you mention the other one?"
"…That way is not good. There's a price to pay," Irene waved her hand, looking honest. "You probably wouldn't agree, and I don't want you to try either. After all, you and I are not familiar with each other…"
"If you know we're not familiar, then stop talking so much nonsense," Yu Sheng said casually, glaring at the girl in the painting.
Irene pursed her lips, looking at Yu Sheng with some restraint (she knew how to be restrained now), and asked carefully, "So… are you going to help me get out of here? The second method is actually quite easy. Even if you just casually make a body, it's fine. It doesn't matter if your craftsmanship is poor. As long as the ritual process is correct, I can reshape it after entering the body… just don't make it too ugly, at least it should look like a person."
This time, Yu Sheng didn't argue with Irene. He just thought very seriously, for nearly half a minute, before giving a very solemn response, "I can't promise now. I need to think about it."
He didn't trust this girl in the painting, at least not completely.
Although she seemed honest and sincere, a little chatty but not malicious, with a distinct personality and seemingly harmless, and didn't seem to have any bad intentions, all of this was just a superficial impression from knowing her for less than a day—after stripping away these "humanized" impressions, Irene's essence was still a strange thing sealed in an oil painting.
Yu Sheng wasn't so gullible as to be fooled by her cute appearance and agree to make a body for this "ghost in the painting" without a second thought—what if she really changed her expression and struck him down under her Gothic dress after she came out…
Yu Sheng had just died not long ago and didn't want to die again for the time being.
But after receiving the reply, Irene didn't say anything. She just stared at Yu Sheng for a while, then nodded very naturally. "Oh, I see."
Yu Sheng was very surprised. He had expected to have to argue with this girl in the painting about this for a long time, but he didn't expect her to be unexpectedly… magnanimous.
"After all, we're not familiar with each other yet, right?" As if seeing the doubt in Yu Sheng's heart, Irene suddenly smiled and winked at him from outside the oil painting. "When we get to know each other better, I'll ask again."
"…Okay, we'll talk about it later."
Yu Sheng also smiled, picked up Irene's frame and brought it to the dining room, casually placing it upright on the dining table against the wall, then turned and walked towards the kitchen.
"I haven't had dinner yet. I'm going to cook first."
"Okay… hey, can you turn on the TV opposite the table first? I'll watch TV for a while…"
"You're so demanding."
Yu Sheng turned on the TV opposite the dining table, then picked up the vegetables and seasonings he had bought from the supermarket and had casually placed on the shelf earlier, and went to prepare his dinner.
He was actually a person who loved to cook, and ever since he came to this familiar yet strange "Boundary City," he had almost insisted on cooking every meal himself at home to feel at ease—after all, only in this large house were there no strange shadows to disturb him.
He didn't mind encountering some slender ghost shadow while on the road outside, but not when he was cooking and eating, because these two things were major events in his life.
…Although now even this "safe house" had an extra strange "Irene."
But compared to the ghosts, freezing rain, and frogs that appeared on the city streets, a hapless doll who could only ramble on in an oil painting was much cuter—at least she wouldn't dig out his heart.