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Then again, maybe being a doll meant she didn’t need to breathe at all.

Despite the noise, Yu Sheng stayed calm. Once Irene finally reached the bottom of the stairs, he let her continue venting while making his way down the steps, careful to mind his steps—not that he had much of a choice with the pain in his back. When he finally reached the ground floor, he crouched down with a groan and picked up the picture frame containing the raging doll.

“Are you completely out of your mind?” Irene demanded, clutching a small plush teddy bear inside the painting. Her eyes were blazing with fury, and her clothes and hair were all in disarray. “Who throws someone down the stairs like that? What if you’d broken the painting?”

“My back hurts,” Yu Sheng explained calmly, holding up the frame as he shuffled towards the dining room. “Your painting is heavy. I couldn’t carry it down the stairs. Besides, your frame seems sturdy. If it broke, maybe you’d be freed.”

“If it were that simple, do you think I’d still be stuck in here?!” Irene huffed, flopping dramatically into a chair within the painting. “Ugh, my head is spinning…”

Yu Sheng suddenly paused and looked intently at the doll in the painting.

Feeling uneasy under his intense stare, Irene stammered, “W-What are you up to now? I’m warning you, if you throw me down the stairs again, I won’t forgive you! I’ll haunt your dreams every night—set off alarms when you’re dreaming about exams, unplug your games when you’re about to win, chase you with a mud truck in your sleep when you dream about going out, and if you dream about dating, I’ll—”

How could this doll possibly have so much to say?

Yu Sheng resisted the strong urge to drag her back upstairs and throw her down again. Instead, he kept a straight face, doing his best to look sincere. “I just wanted to ask about the magic behind your ‘seal.’ You said you needed someone’s help to break free. So, how exactly can I help?”

Irene blinked, caught off guard. She stared at him for a moment before replying incredulously, “You… you’re offering to help me escape?”

“You said you needed help, didn’t you?” Yu Sheng frowned. “I’m just asking for more information. I haven’t agreed to anything yet…”

But Irene didn’t seem to hear his last sentence. Before he could finish, she rushed on excitedly. “There are two ways! The best option is finding my body. I don’t know where it is right now, but it has to be nearby—probably not too far from this painting. Once we find my real body, it’ll be easy! Just bring me close to it, and I’ll be out of this cursed thing in no time…”

She hesitated for a moment, then continued, “But if we can’t find my body or if it’s been destroyed… then there’s only the second way: create a new one. It won’t be as good as my original body, of course. It might take some getting used to…”

Yu Sheng, who had been listening carefully, couldn’t help but interrupt. “Create a new body? How would that even work? Could I just buy a doll from a toy store?”

“Of course not!” Irene retorted sharply. “I’m an Alice Doll—a blessed living doll! Do you think I’m the same as those cheap, mass-produced things in toy stores?”

She paused, her expression growing serious. “Living dolls like me come from the Garden of Alice’s Little House. That’s where my original body was made. But I’ve lost my connection to the garden and can’t leave this painting, so I can’t be reborn there. Even so, we living dolls have a way of creating temporary bodies in the real world. But it’s not an easy process.”

She continued, counting off on her fingers, “First, you’d need hair that grows by itself, soil that moves like it’s alive, bones from the dead that heal when they break, and, of course, tears from a living doll—two drops would be better; it’ll make my skin nicer. After that, you’ll need to use alchemy to reanimate everything and smear your own blood… Hey, why are you making that face?”

Yu Sheng stared at her, silent for a long moment, before finally letting out a sigh. “Why don’t we focus on finding your original body instead?”

Irene blinked, looking confused. “You… don’t know alchemy?”

“Is that something people just know?” Yu Sheng replied, exasperated. “And forget alchemy for a second—where am I supposed to find that weird list of ingredients? Are you sure you didn’t just pull that from some third-rate fantasy novel? And tears from a living doll? If I could find another living doll, I’d hand you over to her, frame and all! Wouldn’t it be easier for a friend of yours to help you than for me to mess around with this stuff?”

From everything Yu Sheng had gathered since arriving in this strange ‘world,’ it was clear that he was still far from understanding the eerie shadows and the supernatural forces behind them. Yet, he could easily tell that the materials Irene mentioned were nothing an ordinary person could find lying around. How could she list them off so casually?

Irene seemed to catch on to his skepticism. Shifting in her chair, she lowered her voice slightly as if embarrassed. “Well, I guess… other materials could work too. You could, you know, buy some clay or paint… maybe even wigs online?”

Yu Sheng just stared at her, utterly speechless.

His expression practically screamed, Are you kidding me?

Irene shrank back slightly under his gaze. “I just… wanted the temporary body to be of good quality, that’s all. But a basic model would be fine if we can’t make something premium.”

She hesitated before adding, “Even with regular materials, though, the final step still needs your blood and a little alchemy. But don’t worry, I can teach you. It’s not that hard… even for a beginner.”

Yu Sheng didn’t reply right away. He stood still, deep in thought. After a moment, he spoke again, but his question surprised Irene. “Earlier, you said there were three methods. What’s the one you didn’t mention?”

Irene’s face fell. She waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, that one… It’s really not a great option. It has some… consequences,” she said, her tone now cautious. “You probably wouldn’t agree to it anyway, and honestly, I don’t want you to. After all, we don’t really know each other that well.”

“If you know we’re not close, then cut the nonsense,” Yu Sheng shot back, his voice casual but sharp as he glanced at her.

Irene bit her lip, suddenly looking much more cautious, which Yu Sheng found oddly amusing. She hesitated before asking, her voice softer this time, “So… are you going to help me get out of here? The second method is actually quite simple. You could just make a rough body; it’s nothing fancy. As long as it looks like a person, I can work with it once I’m inside. Just, uh… don’t make it too ugly, okay?”

For once, Yu Sheng didn’t argue back. Instead, he stood there, considering her words seriously for nearly half a minute. Finally, he gave her a solemn reply, “I can’t agree to it right now. I need more time to think.”

The truth was, Yu Sheng didn’t entirely trust the girl in the painting—not yet, at least.

Sure, Irene came across as sincere, even kind-hearted, and definitely chatty. Her personality seemed distinctive, and so far, she’d appeared harmless. But that was all just on the surface. He’d only known her for less than a day. Beneath her quirky, human-like traits, Irene was still an eerie entity trapped in a painting.

Yu Sheng wasn’t about to let her cute demeanor trick him into creating a new body for her without fully considering the consequences. What if he freed her, only for her to turn hostile and end him with a flick of her gothic skirt?

He’d already died once not long ago and had no intention of experiencing that again.

Irene, surprisingly, didn’t press him. She just looked at him for a moment, then nodded as if she understood completely. “Oh, I get it.”

Yu Sheng blinked, surprised by her easygoing response. He’d expected her to argue or try to convince him further. But instead, she simply accepted it without a fight.

“After all, we don’t know each other well, right?” she said with a smile, her tone teasing now. She winked from inside the painting. “I’ll ask you again once we’ve gotten to know each other better.”

“…Alright, we’ll talk about it later,” Yu Sheng agreed, a slight smile tugging at his lips.

With that, he carried Irene’s frame into the dining room and carefully propped it up against the wall, where she could have a good view of the table. He then turned towards the kitchen.

“I haven’t had dinner yet. I’m going to cook something.”

“Okay… Hey, could you turn on the TV? I’d like to watch something while you cook.”

“You’re quite demanding for someone stuck in a painting,” Yu Sheng muttered, but he flicked on the TV nonetheless.

Satisfied, Irene settled down to watch while Yu Sheng busied himself with the vegetables and seasonings he’d bought from the supermarket earlier. He didn’t mind cooking—it was something he actually enjoyed. Ever since arriving in this strange yet oddly familiar ‘Boundary City,’ he’d made a point to cook his meals at home.

After all, he was safe in this big, empty house from the eerie shadows that lurked outside. He didn’t mind encountering them during his walks through the city’s streets—he could handle that. But cooking and eating were sacred moments to him, and he wanted no part of those strange creatures during either.

Even with this ‘safe house’ now having a new, peculiar resident in the form of Irene, a chatty doll trapped in a painting, Yu Sheng felt it was still better than dealing with the sinister figures that prowled through the rain-soaked streets.

After all, compared to them—cold, distant, and terrifying—Irene was downright charming. At least she wasn’t about to rip his heart out.