Yu Sheng was completely dumbfounded.
The moment he saw Irene suddenly "disconnect" and fall, he even thought that this doll had died suddenly due to using a low-quality shell—fortunately, the voice coming from behind in time interrupted his scary association.
Yu Sheng held Irene's shell in his hand, raised his head somewhat stiffly, and looked at the large table that had just been used for processing clay.
The classical oil painting with a gorgeous frame was quietly leaning against the edge of the table. Irene was staring in the oil painting, looking over here with a panicked face.
"I, I don't know what's going on!" Noticing Yu Sheng's gaze, Irene immediately waved her hands vigorously. "One second I was running forward, but when I opened my eyes, I was already back. What's going on, this…"
A slightly harsh, low-pitched laugh came from the frame, as if in mockery, but also with a hint of sympathy.
It was from the plush teddy bear. This time, Yu Sheng finally saw it smile with his own eyes.
Irene's personality couldn't stand this. She immediately jumped up and rushed to the red velvet chair, picked up the teddy bear on it, and shook it vigorously by the neck. "You're still laughing! You're still laughing! Was it your doing! I'm back again!"
However, the teddy bear without a mind couldn't respond. It just kept giggling in Irene's hands, making the doll more and more furious.
Seeing this, Yu Sheng quickly walked forward, preparing to persuade the doll girl in the oil painting, "Hey, don't be so agitated. Let's think of a solution…"
He had just said half of it when the doll girl who was holding the teddy bear and performing a chokehold, shoulder throw, and cross armbar in the oil painting suddenly disappeared. Then Yu Sheng felt the doll's body in his hand suddenly bounce. Before he could react, this 66.6 cm tall little thing pounced on his arm and inertially performed a chokehold (unsuccessful), shoulder throw (unsuccessful), and cross armbar (unsuccessful) in a row.
But her strength was quite great, and she squeezed the flesh on Yu Sheng's arm painfully.
Yu Sheng had to forcefully remove Irene from his arm, hold her in front of his eyes, and shake her vigorously. "Wake up, wake up, I'm Yu Sheng. You're out again."
Irene also gradually reacted at this time. She was dazed for a moment while suspended in the air, then raised her head and looked around. Her gaze finally focused on Yu Sheng's face. "…Huh?"
Then the two of them looked up at the frame not far away at the same time and fell into a daze and thought.
A moment later, Yu Sheng silently retreated with Irene in his hand. He retreated to the place where she had just fallen. And as his last step was taken, the doll's body in his hand instantly hung down as if it had been powered off, and its vitality dissipated.
Irene's figure suddenly appeared in the oil painting. She looked around, then looked up at Yu Sheng in a daze. "I'm back again, so as expected…"
Yu Sheng casually held up the doll's body in his hand towards the direction of the oil painting, bringing the two closer.
Then the body suddenly came to life, as if the "power outage" just now had never happened. Irene's voice came from it, and she continued the half-sentence she hadn't finished in the oil painting, "…is it a matter of distance?"
"It seems so." Yu Sheng frowned slightly at this scene, then moved the doll a little further away, and watched the doll's body in his hand "power off" again. Irene's voice came from not far away, "Then this is…"
Yu Sheng sent the doll forward again.
Irene: "…a bit troublesome… can you stop playing! You've taken me apart several times in the time it takes to say one sentence!"
Yu Sheng sheepishly brought Irene to a place closer to the oil painting and even explained, "I mainly wanted to confirm how far your 'signal' distance is."
"Does it matter if it's five or six meters? It's at most these two steps!" Irene was held by the collar and flailed her arms and legs. Then she suddenly felt that something was wrong and glared at Yu Sheng. "Put me down! Why are you always holding me!"
Hearing this, Yu Sheng quickly put the increasingly grumpy little doll on the ground and stared at her.
Only then did Irene realize that she had to almost tilt her head back ninety degrees to talk to Yu Sheng.
However, her dignity did not allow Yu Sheng to squat down and communicate with her—not to mention that even if Yu Sheng squatted down, she would still have to look up.
"Stand there and don't move," the doll suddenly said.
Yu Sheng was stunned. "What are you doing?"
The next second, he knew what Irene wanted to do—the doll directly hugged his leg and began to climb up, like climbing a tree, she scurried up in a few moves, as nimble as a monkey, and then sat directly on his shoulder.
Yu Sheng was a little dazed, but he didn't dare to move, for fear of dropping Irene. "I haven't agreed yet…"
Irene said理直气壮, "You didn't ask me if I agreed when you were testing the signal with me just now."
Yu Sheng was suddenly speechless.
The two returned to the large table and began to study the oil painting.
"I am indeed out. I can feel that my 'soul' is in this body now," Irene frowned and looked at her former "cell" with a tangled expression. "But…"
"But from the looks of it, this painting still seems to be your 'foundation.' Your current body is like being remotely controlled. It disconnects when it's out of range," Yu Sheng said frankly.
Irene lowered her head, looking particularly dejected.
But this time she didn't cry—perhaps it was because the series of blows were too great, and a brain-dead-like mental resistance had been established in a short period of time.
Seeing this doll's calm reaction, Yu Sheng panicked and quickly comforted her, "Don't be too pessimistic. Maybe this body is just not working well? I'll practice my skills later. The next time I reshape your body…"
"You said," Irene suddenly spoke, interrupting Yu Sheng's rambling. The expression on the little doll's face was very complicated, making it impossible to tell what her emotions were at this time. "If you run around carrying your own prison, are you breaking out of prison or not?"
Yu Sheng was taken aback. After thinking for a moment, he said, "I've seen someone who ran around carrying his own prison before. His end was quite tragic. But he was 'inside' his own prison. You're at least outside…"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Irene muttered, and then jumped down from Yu Sheng's shoulder. She jumped onto the table, and with a complicated expression, she came to the oil painting that sealed her. She reached out and grabbed the frame, lifted it slightly, then put it down, turned around and tried to carry it on her back.
However, the oil painting was very large—although it was easy for Yu Sheng to carry it with one hand, for Irene, this thing was almost as tall as her.
"…Is there a rope at home?" the doll raised her head and asked.
"Yes!" Yu Sheng immediately nodded. "Wait a minute, I'll go get it right away!"
A dozen minutes later, Irene watched Yu Sheng carefully tie a knot on the oil painting frame and adjust the position of the buckle. When the preparations were almost done, she stepped forward. "I think it's okay."
"Here, you try it," Yu Sheng nodded, stood the frame up, and watched Irene somewhat awkwardly put her arms through the back rope. "How is it? Is the position of the buckle suitable? Do you need it to be tighter?"
Irene tugged at the buckle on her shoulder, carried the frame on her back, and walked two laps on the table. She nodded with satisfaction. "No, it's very suitable!"
"Is it heavy?"
"Not at all. I'm very strong!" Irene said, and even jumped on the spot with the frame on her back. Then she began to run in circles around the edge of the table.
A small doll (66.6cm), carrying an oil painting frame that was almost as tall as her, running around on the table. This scene looked somewhat… strange.
But as Yu Sheng watched this scene, he gradually smiled.
Because he saw that Irene was also smiling. The doll seemed to have gotten rid of her bad mood just now and was gradually becoming happy.
She was more optimistic than Yu Sheng had imagined.
"It's still quite light!" Irene stopped at the edge of the table and said to Yu Sheng with a smile. "This way, I don't have to worry about the 'distance' limit. I'm so smart!"
"You're really optimistic," Yu Sheng said with sincere emotion. "I thought you'd be depressed for a while."
"People have to look forward—so do dolls," Irene happily jumped down from the table and climbed up Yu Sheng's arm to his shoulder—this time, she didn't climb as nimbly as before, because she had to pay attention to the frame on her back to prevent bumping into the chair and hitting Yu Sheng's head. "Compared to before, at least I can move freely. I'll just carry it. The guy who stayed in the painting doesn't seem to want me to go too far… let's go, let's go downstairs. You haven't had dinner yet—I want to watch TV!"
Yu Sheng was stunned for a moment, turned his face slightly, and looked at the doll who was smiling and seemed to be full of expectations for the future with the corner of his eye.
"Okay, let's go cook," he raised his hand to support Irene and got up from the chair. "And tonight, we'll start studying the passage back to the valley."
"Yes," Irene also seemed to be full of fighting spirit. With a bright smile on her face, she pointed forward with high spirits. "Giddy up!"
Yu Sheng conveniently picked up the little doll from his shoulder again. "I'm going to throw you down."
Irene immediately shrank her body. "Don't, don't. It was just the atmosphere…"
Yu Sheng shook his head with a mixture of amusement and exasperation, put the doll back on his shoulder and carried her, and walked forward.
Outside the window, the night was gradually sinking. The streetlights in the old district lit up in sequence in the night, and a hazy and warm light flowed in the old streets and alleys, filling the air with a sense of tranquility through the window.
"Yu Sheng, it's completely dark outside."
"Yes."
"Hehe, I'm a little excited…"
"Excited about what? The darkness?"
"No, I'm just a little excited. It has nothing to do with the darkness~"
"…I don't understand."
"Tsk."