Irene's expression looked quite sad.
Yu Sheng looked at the "masterpiece" he had spent several hours making, and then put himself in her shoes. He felt that if one day his soul left his body and he had to be resurrected in such a shell, he would probably really cry…
But Irene's reaction still hurt Yu Sheng a little. He endured his embarrassment and kept a straight face as he looked at the doll in the oil painting, trying to make his appearance look more serious. "I've already tried my best. Look, at least the left and right eyes are symmetrical…"
This time, Irene really cried. "But the head is not symmetrical…"
Yu Sheng turned his face away. "Uh… I'm indeed a bit inexperienced. I'll definitely do it better next time. Practice makes perfect, practice makes perfect…"
"Let's not have a next time," Irene waved her hand with a look of despair. Then she probably thought that today was the day she could finally escape, so she should be happy. She forced a smile—but failed. So a thousand words finally turned into a sigh. "Sigh, at least it's a body. I can indeed feel that the connection has been established. Alright, let's go with it."
She took a light breath, jumped down from the chair in the oil painting, walked two steps forward, and then as if she had remembered something, she looked down at the plush teddy bear she was holding.
After standing silently for a few seconds, she hugged the little bear tightly, turned around and placed it on the chair, as if saying goodbye.
Yu Sheng was a little curious. "You don't want the bear?"
"I can't take it out. It… is another individual sealed in this painting. Even its consciousness has long since dissipated. I don't even know where it came from," Irene shook her head lightly and reached out to pat the teddy bear's head. "It can only stay here, but I won't throw this painting away, so it's equivalent to keeping it by my side."
"Oh."
Yu Sheng nodded, and then watched Irene's next move with a trace of nervousness and curiosity.
He was very concerned about how this doll would eventually "come out" of the oil painting, and how she would "come alive" in the ugly "doll shell" on the table.
Then, he saw Irene in the oil painting begin to… "dissolve"!
This scene was strange and terrifying. Irene seemed to have suddenly turned into a wax figure being roasted by flames. Her whole body gradually showed a molten state, and almost in the blink of an eye, she lost all color and detail. In just a few seconds, she turned into a continuously softening black substance, collapsed in the frame, and overflowed from the lower edge of the frame, and began to flow onto the tabletop!
The tabletop made a slight hissing sound, as if it was being rapidly corroded in some strong acid. The black substance flowing out of the frame was initially like viscous mud, then it became as thin as water, and in the next second, it turned into some kind of… non-dispersing black mist, began to float up and down around the doll's body on the table, and gradually seeped into the lifeless clay.
Yu Sheng's eyes were wide open as he watched this scene. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he felt a kind of… coldness from the floating strange black mist.
If he hadn't seen this mist transform from Irene with his own eyes, he would definitely feel that this thing was strange and dangerous. The style of the whole scene was very strange. But even if he knew, he still felt that this black mist was extremely strange. That lingering coldness was like the malice that had seeped into this world from a distant dark abyss. It really didn't match Irene's usual carefree and harmless appearance.
Yu Sheng shook his head, threw the miscellaneous thoughts aside, and looked at the black mist that was accelerating its infiltration into the clay. He suddenly had some absurd thoughts—
What would happen if he blew on the mist at this time? Or what would happen if he poked his hand into the mist?
Irene would probably curse very badly…
Yu Sheng finally controlled the urge to be mischievous. And just then, the infiltration of the mist quickly came to an end.
The doll on the table began to change visibly—this crude clay figure that could be described as ugly seemed to have suddenly been given the characteristics of a living thing. The rough surface became smooth in the blink of an eye, and the originally crooked limbs were quickly balanced and reorganized. It began to be dyed with the texture and color of skin. The crooked facial features were melted into the head, and then regenerated in the clay ball, and gradually emerged on the face…
Yu Sheng thought for a moment and felt that out of politeness and respect, he should turn his back.
But before he could turn around, he saw an exquisite black Western-style dress "grow" out of the doll's body like a part of flesh and blood, covering the surface of Irene's body.
Mimicry?
This word subconsciously appeared in Yu Sheng's mind. And just then, he suddenly felt a certain… connection between himself and Irene.
That feeling was fleeting. He didn't even have time to distinguish whether that dream-like whisper was Irene's voice or not before the connection fell silent.
Yu Sheng frowned, thinking of the blood he had added to the clay when he was shaping the doll's body just now. He felt that this momentary connection might be related to that.
He was suddenly a little worried: his blood seemed to be a bit special. Would this affect Irene's "regeneration"?
But soon, his worries were dispelled.
The doll, which had been completely reshaped, lay quietly on the table. Her skin was like a human's, her hair was as black as ink, and her delicate face was like a work of art.
Under Yu Sheng's somewhat nervous gaze, the doll's eyelashes suddenly trembled slightly.
Then, those eyes finally slowly opened.
The scarlet eyes looked at the ceiling with some blankness, but the next second, they were filled with life again. Irene clumsily raised her hands and looked at them with an incredulous gaze. She slowly clenched and unclenched her hands, as if she were feeling the texture of the air.
After being stunned for a few seconds, the doll slowly smiled, but her smile seemed to be suppressing an intense emotion that was about to cry.
Yu Sheng's voice sounded from the side, "Congratulations, Irene."
"Yes," Irene reached out and pressed the tabletop, propping up her body with force. She stood up on the table, swaying, and then looked at Yu Sheng who was standing on the side with a bright smile. She opened her arms wide, as if to give a hug. "I'm alive! Yu Sheng! Thank…"
The little doll suddenly stopped, as if she had belatedly discovered something. She just maintained this posture of open arms, staring blankly at Yu Sheng beside the table.
Yu Sheng: "…?"
Irene slowly raised her head. "Why do you look… so tall?"
Yu Sheng thought for a moment. "Could it be because you're shorter?"
Irene was stunned for a moment. She suddenly looked down at her body, and then looked up at the desk lamp not far away—she suddenly sucked in a breath of cold air, ran over with a pitter-patter, and reached out to compare her height with the desk lamp. Then she stiffly turned her neck.
Yu Sheng began to feel that something was wrong.
"Why…" Irene's eyes were blank, and she muttered to herself, "Why am I so short…"
"Uh… the size of a doll, the large size," Yu Sheng was actually starting to panic at this time, but his face was still very tense. "I mean that kind of 1/3 scale doll… wait, was it a mistake?!"
"…1/3 scale my ass! Human, standard size human! Living dolls are the same as humans! I'm 1.67 meters tall!" The little doll Irene, who was only as tall as a desk lamp, jumped up and down on the table and shouted, "Where are my long legs! Huh? Huh?! Why am I as tall as this desk lamp now! I… I can't even reach the chair next to me!"
Yu Sheng was completely dumbfounded, but then he felt that something was wrong. "That's not right. You were watching when I was making the body just now. You could see the size yourself. Why didn't you say anything then?"
The little doll who was jumping up and down on the table was stunned when she heard this. She seemed to have reacted again belatedly. "Hey, that's right. I was watching…"
She ran pitter-patter to the middle of the concentric circles where she had just made the doll's shell, and then looked back at the oil painting where she had previously lived. She thought hard in her mind, and some vague memories emerged from her heart.
"That's right… yes, there's no problem with your operation. The clay shell is just a medium, used to temporarily accommodate the soul… even if the size is a bit off, my soul should have been adjusted when I was reshaping the body…"
Irene stood on the table and muttered to herself, sometimes looking down in thought, sometimes looking up at the ritual arrangements around her, and from time to time she would pinch her current body, muttering non-stop.
"Because the size difference is too big? So the adjustment is limited? That's not right… no matter how limited it is, there should be some changes… no matter what, it's impossible to be only as tall as a desk lamp…"
Irene reached out and gestured at her head, then jumped up and down in place, as if trying to make herself taller with this futile method.
It was obvious that it didn't succeed.
"So… the ritual still had a problem?" Yu Sheng watched nervously from the side, and finally asked cautiously, "The body reshaping was not adjusted properly? Then this shouldn't be my fault…"
Irene raised her head, and the grief-stricken, tearful look on her face startled Yu Sheng.
"A ruler."
The doll, who was only as tall as a desk lamp, held out her hand to Yu Sheng, her voice gritting her teeth.
"What for?"
"To measure my height!"
Yu Sheng said "oh" and quickly ran to the second floor to find a tape measure.
Actually, he wanted to get a straight ruler at first—but he felt that Irene would probably fly up and bite him if she saw a straight ruler, so he didn't dare.
A moment later, Irene stood up straight on the table, with an old book on her head. The rest of Sheng on the side pulled out a tape measure and measured the little doll's height.
Irene secretly tilted the book a little, but Yu Sheng held it down.
"How… how tall?" the little doll asked cautiously.
"…66.6 centimeters," Yu Sheng glanced at the ruler, his tone filled with sympathy. "I tried my best to count it as high as possible. I even counted the 0.6 centimeters after the decimal point for you."
Irene finally really cried.