It Worked, But Not Completely

Eileen looked quite sad.

Yu Sheng glanced at the "masterpiece" he had spent several hours sculpting, then put himself in her shoes. If one day his soul left his body and he had to crawl into a shell like this to come back to life, he would probably cry too...

Still, Eileen's reaction hurt Yu Sheng a little. He held back his embarrassment and kept his expression stiff as he looked at the figure in the oil painting, doing his best to appear serious. "I really tried my best. Look, at the very least, the eyes are symmetrical..."

Eileen actually started crying. "But the head isn't symmetrical..."

Yu Sheng turned his face away. "Uh... I was a little inexperienced, I admit. I'll definitely do better next time. Practice makes perfect, practice makes perfect..."

"Let's not have a next time." Eileen waved her hand with an utterly hopeless expression. Then, perhaps remembering that today was the day she had finally managed to escape, she decided she ought to be happier. She tugged hard at the corners of her mouth, trying to force out a smile—but failed. In the end, all her thoughts fused into a sigh. "Well, at least it's a body. I can indeed feel that the connection has been established. Fine, I'll go with this one."

She drew a light breath, jumped down from the chair in the oil painting, and took two steps forward. Then she seemed to remember something and lowered her head to look at the plush toy bear clutched in her hands.

After standing silently for several seconds, she hugged the little bear tightly, then turned and placed it on the chair, as if saying goodbye.

Yu Sheng was a little curious. "You don't want the bear anymore?"

"I can't bring it out. It... is another individual sealed inside this painting. Even its consciousness dissipated long ago. I don't even know where it came from." Eileen shook her head lightly and patted the toy bear's head. "It can only stay here. But I won't throw away this painting, so it's basically the same as keeping it by my side."

"Oh."

Yu Sheng nodded, then watched Eileen's next actions with a trace of nervousness and curiosity.

He was very interested in how this doll would ultimately "come out" of the oil painting, and how she would "come to life" using the ugly-looking "doll body" on the table as a vessel.

Then he saw Eileen in the oil painting begin to... "dissolve"!

The scene was eerie and horrifying. Eileen seemed to have suddenly turned into a wax figure being roasted by flames. Her entire body gradually took on a molten appearance, losing all color and detail in the blink of an eye. Within just a few seconds, she transformed into a constantly softening black substance that collapsed inside the frame, then slowly spilled over the lower edge and began flowing toward the tabletop!

The tabletop gave off a faint sizzling sound, as if it were rapidly corroding in some kind of strong acid. The black substance flowing out of the frame initially looked like thick mud, then quickly thinned into water. The next second, it transformed into some kind of... black mist that gathered without dispersing. It began drifting and surging around the doll body on the table, gradually seeping into the lifeless clay.

Yu Sheng stared wide-eyed at the scene. Perhaps it was only his imagination, but he sensed something... cold and sinister in the floating black mist.

If he had not witnessed the mist transforming from Eileen with his own eyes, he would definitely have found it evil and dangerous. The entire scene was unnerving. Even knowing what it was, he still found the black mist extremely strange. That lingering coldness felt like malice seeping into this world from some distant, pitch-black abyss, which truly did not match Eileen's usual carefree and harmless demeanor.

Yu Sheng shook his head, casting aside his jumbled thoughts. As he watched the black mist seep into the clay faster and faster, some absurd ideas suddenly surfaced—

What would happen if he blew on the mist right now? Or poked his hand into it?

Eileen would probably curse him out horribly...

In the end, Yu Sheng managed to suppress the urge to do something stupid. Just then, the mist's infiltration rapidly reached its conclusion.

The doll on the table began visibly changing. This crude clay figure, ugly enough to be called hideous, suddenly seemed to be imbued with the characteristics of a living creature. Its rough surface became smooth in the blink of an eye, while its crooked limbs quickly straightened and rebalanced. It began taking on the texture and color of skin. Its distorted features melted into its head, then regenerated within the lump of clay, gradually emerging on its face...

Yu Sheng thought about it and decided that, out of courtesy and respect, he should turn around.

But before he could, a delicate black dress had already "grown" out of the doll's body as if it were part of her flesh, covering Eileen's form.

Mimicry?

The word instinctively surfaced in Yu Sheng's mind. At that moment, he suddenly sensed some kind of... connection between himself and Eileen.

The feeling vanished in an instant. He did not even have time to determine whether that dreamlike whisper had been Eileen's voice before the connection fell silent.

Yu Sheng frowned. He remembered the blood he had mixed into the clay while shaping the doll's body and felt that the momentary connection might have something to do with it.

He suddenly grew worried. His blood seemed to be somewhat special. Could it affect Eileen's "rebirth"?

However, his concern was soon dispelled.

The fully reconstructed doll lay quietly on the table, her skin like a human's and her hair like ink. Her delicate features looked like a work of art.

Under Yu Sheng's somewhat nervous gaze, the doll's eyelashes suddenly trembled lightly.

Then, those eyes finally opened slowly.

Her crimson eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, but the next second, they filled with life again. Eileen awkwardly raised both hands and looked at them with an incredulous expression. She slowly clenched and relaxed her hands, as if experiencing the texture of the air.

After remaining dazed for several seconds, the doll slowly smiled. Yet the smile seemed to suppress such intense emotion that she might burst into tears.

Yu Sheng's voice came from beside her. "Congratulations, Eileen."

"Mm." Eileen pressed her hands against the tabletop and pushed herself up with all her strength. Swaying, she stood on the table. Only then did she turn toward Yu Sheng, who stood nearby, her face glowing with a radiant smile. She spread her arms wide, as if about to offer him a hug. "I'm alive again! Yu Sheng! Tha—"

Miss Doll suddenly stopped. It seemed she had belatedly noticed something. She remained frozen with her arms spread wide, staring blankly at Yu Sheng beside the table.

Yu Sheng: "...?"

Eileen slowly tilted her head back. "Why do you look... so tall?"

Yu Sheng thought about it. "Could it be because you're relatively short?"

Eileen froze, then abruptly lowered her head to look at her own body. She looked up again at the floor lamp standing not far away. Suddenly, she sucked in a sharp breath and pattered over. She compared the height between her head and the lamp with her hands, then stiffly twisted her neck around.

Yu Sheng began to sense that something was wrong.

"Why..." Eileen's gaze was vacant as she muttered to herself. "Why am I so short..."

"Uh... the doll's dimensions. A large one," Yu Sheng said. By now, he had actually begun to panic, but his face remained rigid. "I mean the kind of doll that's one-third human size... Wait, did I get it wrong?!"

"...One-third your ass! A person! Standard human size! A living doll is supposed to be the same size as a human! I'm five foot six!" The tiny Eileen, only as tall as the lamp, began stamping her feet and shouting on the table. "Where are my long legs?! Huh? Huh?! Why am I only as tall as this lamp now?! I... I can't even reach the chair beside me!"

Yu Sheng was completely dumbfounded, but then he felt that something was off. "That can't be right. You watched me sculpt the body earlier. You could see the dimensions yourself, so why didn't you say anything then?"

The little doll, hopping all over the table, froze at his words. She seemed to realize yet another fact only belatedly. "Oh, right. I was watching..."

She pattered to the center of the concentric circles where the doll body had been made, then looked back at the oil painting that had previously housed her. After thinking hard, some vague memories surfaced in her mind.

"Right... yes, there was nothing wrong with your process. The clay shell was only a medium, used to temporarily contain my soul... Even if the dimensions were a little off, my soul should have adjusted while the body was being reconstructed..."

Eileen stood on the table, muttering to herself. Now she lowered her head in thought, now she looked up at the ritual arrangement around her, and every so often she pinched her current body, muttering nonstop.

"Because the dimensions were too far off? So the adjustment was limited? But that doesn't make sense either... No matter how limited it was, there should have been some change... There's no way I'd end up only as tall as the lamp..."

Eileen held a hand above her head, then jumped twice as hard as she could in place, as if trying to make herself grow taller through this futile method.

Anyone could tell it had not worked.

"So... the ritual still went wrong?" Yu Sheng watched nervously from the side and finally asked cautiously, "The adjustment didn't happen properly during the reconstruction? Then this shouldn't be my fault, right...?"

Eileen raised her head. The grief and indignation on her face, combined with her look of being on the verge of tears, startled Yu Sheng.

"A ruler."

The doll, only as tall as the lamp, held out a hand toward Yu Sheng, her voice filled with gritted teeth.

"What?"

"Measure my height!"

Yu Sheng said, "Oh," then hurried to the second floor and brought back a tape measure.

At first, he had actually wanted to get a straight ruler—but he felt that Eileen would probably fly into a rage and bite him if she saw it, so he had not dared.

A moment later, Eileen stood ramrod straight on the table with an old book balanced on her head, while Yu Sheng pulled out the tape measure beside her and measured the little doll's height.

Eileen secretly tilted the book to one side, but Yu Sheng pressed it down at once.

"How... how tall?" the little doll asked cautiously.

"...Sixty-six point six centimeters." Yu Sheng glanced at the tape measure, his voice full of sympathy. "I rounded up as much as I could. I even counted the extra zero point six centimeters."

Eileen finally burst into tears.