Shaping

The kitchen door handle turned, then the door silently swung open. Yu Sheng stepped out, carrying several large shopping bags, and waved to the dumbfounded Eileen nearby. "I'm back."

Eileen's eyes widened. It was obvious she couldn't process what had happened. "Weren't you going outside to buy things? How did you come back from..."

She suddenly stopped, as if she had figured it out.

"No way! You have to 'open the door' even when you're just shopping at a mall and coming home!?"

"I thought about it. Since this door doesn't just lead to the Otherworld but can also lead to some 'faraway place' in reality, there's no reason it shouldn't be able to go somewhere nearby instead." Yu Sheng looked smug as he explained it to Eileen. "I also tested whether objects and living things could be carried through the door. It seems that as long as the door remains stable, they can all pass through safely..."

Eileen was completely bewildered. When she heard the words "living things," she grew curious. "Living things?! Where did you get one? Where is it?"

Yu Sheng held out his hand. "I caught a mosquito before coming back..."

Eileen: "...?"

The doll's understanding of Yu Sheng's creativity gained an entirely new dimension. Her attention then involuntarily fell on the several large shopping bags he had brought back.

The first thing she saw was a box of Eight-Treasure porridge.

Yu Sheng took the items out of the shopping bags. After putting the box of Eight-Treasure porridge aside, he showed Eileen the rest. "I bought lightweight clay. Since I bought such a large amount, the shopkeeper even gave me some tools, but we probably won't need them. They're for making small dolls. For making your body, we'll need this—I bought a rolling pin...

"This side has hair and paint. I bought good-quality ones. They aren't the most expensive, but they're close enough.

"Oh, right, I couldn't find any suitable clothes for you. What do you think..."

"No need." Eileen waved her hand. As she watched Yu Sheng take everything out, her face was already filled with anticipation and excitement. "I can 'shape' clothes myself. I told you, this body is mainly a medium and temporary vessel... Wow, that's a lot of stuff. Yu Sheng, you really put thought into this, didn't you?"

"Of course. If we're only doing this once, then we either don't do it at all or do our best." Yu Sheng spoke as he frowned and shook his head. "But honestly, I think we're still missing some things. I heard there are also clay drying ovens, various fillers, softening oil, primer, makeup tools, and so on. But when I looked into them, they were either only suitable for small dolls or things I couldn't learn in a short time. And there's another problem. Clay needs time to dry. Without a drying oven, large pieces won't have enough time to dry and harden in half a day..."

"It's fine. None of that matters. As long as we can make the framework, it'll be enough." Eileen looked to be in an excellent mood, and even her tone when speaking to Yu Sheng had become exceptionally gentle. "What matters is the ritual. Yes, the ritual. Otherwise, I could just have you buy a ready-made doll. Why go through all this trouble?"

"Good, then." Yu Sheng let out a breath and began sorting the huge pile of things. "Let's do it in the attic. There's plenty of room up there, and there's also a large table."

Eileen nodded vigorously, but suddenly noticed another bag nearby. The thing inside looked somewhat familiar.

"...What's this bag of lotus roots for?" The doll looked utterly confused.

Yu Sheng's hands stopped. He looked up at Eileen, then down at the bag of lotus roots. Two seconds later, he gave an awkward chuckle. "Well, this is a backup plan in case my craftsmanship is too terrible. That's how I see it..."

Eileen tilted her head and thought for a long while. She finally caught up with Yu Sheng's train of thought and immediately sprang up from her red velvet chair. "No!"

"No?" Yu Sheng sounded a little disappointed. "I thought the lotus-root shape was perfect. I spent ages picking them out."

"Of course not!" Eileen's eyes nearly bulged out. "Listen, pre-made food is already bad enough. If you give me a pre-made body part as well, I'm going to have a lot to say about it..."

"Fine, fine." Yu Sheng sighed and carried the bag of lotus roots into the kitchen. "I'll use them to make fried lotus-root sandwiches later."

Eileen suddenly had a bad feeling. She felt that her escape today might not proceed as smoothly as she had imagined...

But Yu Sheng had instead grown full of confidence. After organizing the tools and materials needed to shape the doll's body, he picked everything up with one hand, tucked Eileen's painting frame under his arm, and reached for the kitchen door handle.

Eileen reacted quickly this time. "...You have to 'open the door' even when you're just going to the attic!?"

Yu Sheng thought about it and felt that this really was a bit too lazy. He gave an embarrassed smile, then turned and walked toward the stairs leading upstairs with the materials and Eileen.

The house had a very large attic above the second floor. Calling it an attic was somewhat inaccurate. It was more like a separate floor that had been added because the ceiling height had been left too high when the house was built. It was roughly half the size of the second floor, with two street-facing windows and a skylight—this was why the house looked like it had three stories from outside.

Aside from when he cleaned it, Yu Sheng rarely went to the attic.

There was almost nothing there. Apart from a large table that seemed to have been placed there simply because nobody had anywhere else to put it, there were only two old chairs that creaked loudly. At night or on overcast days when the light was poor, the overly spacious attic always seemed eerie enough to be frightening.

But now, it was just right for serving as a "workshop" for shaping Eileen's body.

Yu Sheng made two trips. He also found some tools that might come in handy and an old desk lamp in the storage room on the second floor, along with all kinds of strange things Eileen had requested for the "ritual." He carried everything up to the large table in the attic.

Eileen's painting frame was placed in one corner of the table, leaning against a stack of old books that temporarily served as a stand. She quietly watched Yu Sheng hurry around, looking more silent than ever before. No one knew what she was thinking.

Yu Sheng sat down in front of the large table. The old chair creaked as he clumsily fiddled with the clay and spatula, beginning to familiarize himself with their "properties."

Eileen suddenly broke the silence. "Yu Sheng."

"Hmm?"

"I'm really going to come out of this painting."

"Yes, if everything goes smoothly."

"...I never thought this day would really come." Eileen muttered softly, "I stopped hoping for it many years ago..."

"Why are you suddenly getting sentimental about it now?" Yu Sheng raised his head and glanced at the person in the painting, who had suddenly become somewhat melancholic.

Eileen sat in the chair, hugging her teddy bear as she slowly swayed her body. "Nothing. I just wanted to thank you."

"Then save your thanks until after we succeed." Yu Sheng let out a soft breath, seemingly easing some of the nervousness in his heart. "Now tell me, what's the first step?"

"Place candles at the four corners of the table, then light another one and put it beside my painting frame. The basic torso must be completed before the candles burn out."

Eileen's expression grew serious as she began guiding Yu Sheng in using a pile of ordinary materials to create a vessel for a "living doll."

This was the first time she had passed on knowledge belonging to Alice's Cabin to a... "human."

"Draw three concentric circles on the table. Their area will be your workspace. Then extend a line from each of the four corner candles, with all four lines intersecting at the center of the concentric circles... Try to make the circles round... Forget it, just don't draw them as squares...

"Write my name at the center: Ei-leen, using the Old World's common language... Ah, you can't do that. Find a piece of paper first, and I'll tell you how to write it. Don't spell this incorrectly.

"You'll also need some of your blood. Just a little. Mix it into the clay, then mix in the prepared tea powder and rose oil. Don't add too much, or it'll affect the shape. Put the prepared lump of clay in front of me first. I'll guide the first 'infusion of spirit.'"

Eileen gave her instructions one by one, and Yu Sheng carried them out meticulously. A tranquil, focused atmosphere gradually settled over the attic. The usual bickering between them disappeared, leaving only their increasingly seamless cooperation.

...Actually, it wasn't that seamless. Eileen mainly relied on her broad-mindedness, while Yu Sheng mainly relied on his confidence.

The process was even more exhausting than Yu Sheng had initially imagined. It was not merely physical fatigue but mental depletion as well.

He could feel that the "ritual" Eileen had mentioned was gradually taking effect. The arrangements he could not understand were beginning to operate according to some "principle" and "power" beyond his comprehension. As an ordinary person performing such a "ritual" for the first time, even though Eileen was handling most of the spirit-infusion process, Yu Sheng could still feel a kind of spiritual "loss of power."

But Eileen had warned him about all of this before the ritual began, so Yu Sheng did not panic. Instead, he tried to maintain his condition and complete every step Eileen requested as precisely as possible.

A doll's body gradually took shape in his hands.

It was rough, crude, crooked, and twisted. Even its two legs were different lengths—and one of its arms had broken in the middle before being reattached with wire and water.

Yu Sheng felt that he might not have any talent for this.

But regardless, everything was finally nearing the end.

"You can extinguish the last candle now." Eileen, inside the painting frame, calmly watched the body on the table. Her expression was more grave and solemn than ever before. "Then place me directly in front of the body, where its head should be."

"Okay." As Yu Sheng stood up to carry this out, he casually asked, "Then what?"

"Then I need a minute to comfort myself and strengthen my resolve..."

Yu Sheng: "...Why?"

Eileen looked as if she were about to cry. "It's so damn ugly... Even if it can be reshaped, it's still so damn ugly right now."