Success, But Not Entirely

Eileen looked quite sad.

Yu Sheng glanced at the "masterpiece" he had spent hours molding, then put himself in her shoes. He figured if his soul were to leave his body and inhabit such a shell to revive, he'd probably cry too...

Still, Eileen's reaction did hurt Yu Sheng a little. He suppressed his awkwardness, maintained his expression, and looked at the puppet in the oil painting, trying his best to appear serious. "I've already tried my best. Look, at least the eyes are symmetrical..."

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

Yu Sheng turned his face away. "Uh... it's true I'm a bit inexperienced. I'll definitely do better next time. Practice makes perfect, practice makes perfect..."

"Let's not have a next time," Eileen waved her hand listlessly. Then, perhaps feeling that today, the day she finally escaped, should be a happy one, she forced the corners of her mouth into a smile—but it failed. All her unspoken thoughts finally coalesced into a sigh. "Ah, well, it's a body after all. I can feel the connection has been established. Fine, this will do."

She took a gentle breath, hopped off the chair in the oil painting, and took two steps forward. Then, as if remembering something, she looked down at the plush bear she was holding.

After standing silently for a few seconds, she hugged the little bear tightly, turned, 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 bring it out. It... it's another individual sealed within this painting. Its consciousness has long since dissipated. I don't even know where it came from," Eileen shook her head gently, reaching out to pat the plush bear's head. "It has to stay inside. But I won't discard this painting, which is like keeping it by my side."

"Oh."

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

He was very interested in how this puppet would eventually "emerge" from the oil painting, and how she would "come alive" using that "puppet shell" on the table, which now looked so ugly.

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

The scene was bizarre and chilling. Eileen seemed to suddenly turn into a wax figure being roasted by flames, her entire body gradually melting. In almost the blink of an eye, she lost all color and detail. Within seconds, she transformed into a constantly softening, pitch-black substance, collapsing within the frame and slowly overflowing from the bottom edge of the frame, beginning to flow towards the tabletop!

The tabletop emitted a faint hissing sound, as if being rapidly corroded by some strong acid. The pitch-black substance flowing from the frame initially resembled thick mud, then thinned to the consistency of water. In the next second, it transformed into something like... a condensed, unmoving black mist, beginning to swirl and drift around the puppet body on the table, gradually seeping into the lifeless clay.

Yu Sheng stared wide-eyed at the scene. Whether it was an illusion or not, he felt a sense of... chill from the floating, eerie black mist.

If he hadn't seen this mist transform from Eileen with his own eyes, he would have definitely felt it was sinister and dangerous. The entire scene had a very ominous feel. But even knowing it was her, he still found the black mist incredibly strange. The lingering chill felt like malice seeping into this world from a distant, dark abyss, which was quite out of character for Eileen's usual carefree and harmless demeanor.

Yu Sheng shook his head, pushing aside his random thoughts. He watched the black mist accelerating its infiltration into the clay and suddenly had a ridiculous idea—

What would happen if he blew on the mist right now? Or what if he reached out and poked it?

Eileen would probably curse him harshly...

Yu Sheng ultimately controlled the urge to impulsively act. Just then, the mist's infiltration was rapidly nearing its end.

The puppet on the table began to change visibly. The crude, even ugly, clay figure seemed to suddenly gain the characteristics of a living being. Its rough surface instantly became smooth, and its crooked limbs quickly rebalanced and reformed. It began to take on the texture and color of skin, and its distorted features melted into the skull, only to reform within the clay mass, gradually appearing on the face...

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, feeling that out of politeness and respect, he should turn away.

But before he could turn, he saw an exquisite black dress "grow" out from within the puppet, like a part of its flesh and blood, covering Eileen's body.

Mimicry?

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

The feeling was fleeting. He didn't even have time to discern if the dream-like whisper was Eileen's voice before the connection fell silent.

Yu Sheng frowned, recalling the blood he had added to the clay when shaping the puppet body. He felt this momentary connection might be related to that.

He suddenly felt a bit worried: his blood seemed a bit special. Would this affect Eileen's "regeneration"?

However, his concern was quickly dispelled.

The completely reshaped puppet lay quietly on the table, its skin lifelike, its hair like ink, and its exquisite face like a work of art.

Under Yu Sheng's somewhat nervous gaze, the puppet's eyelashes suddenly twitched.

Then, those eyes slowly opened.

The crimson irises stared blankly at the ceiling, but in the next second, they regained their spirit. Eileen awkwardly raised her hands, looking at them with disbelief. She slowly clenched and unfurled her fists, as if feeling the texture of the air.

After a few seconds of daze, the puppet slowly smiled, though the smile seemed to contain suppressed emotions, as if she were on the verge of tears.

Yu Sheng's voice sounded from the side. "Congratulations, Eileen."

"Mm," Eileen placed her hand on the table, forcefully propped herself up, and stood unsteadily on the table. Then, with a brilliant smile, she looked at Yu Sheng standing beside her. She opened her arms wide, as if to give him a hug. "I'm alive! Yu Sheng! Thank..."

The puppet lady suddenly stopped, as if belatedly realizing something. She remained in that pose with her arms open, staring blankly at Yu Sheng beside the table.

Yu Sheng: "...?"

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

Yu Sheng thought for a moment. "Could it be because you're short?"

Eileen froze, then abruptly looked down at her own body, and then up at the nearby desk lamp. She suddenly gasped and ran over, holding her hand up to compare her height with the lamp. Then, she stiffly turned her neck.

Yu Sheng began to feel that something was wrong.

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

"Uh... the doll's size, it's a large one," Yu Sheng was actually starting to panic now, but he kept his face stern. "I mean, like a 1/3 scale doll... Wait, did I get it wrong?!"

"...1/3 scale your ass! It's a standard-sized person! A living puppet is the same as a human! I'm 1.67 meters tall!" The small puppet Eileen, who was only as tall as the desk lamp, jumped up and down on the table, shouting. "Where are my long legs? Huh? Huh?! Why am I the same height as this lamp now! I... I can't even reach the chair next to me!"

Yu Sheng was completely stunned, but then he felt something was off. "That's not right. You saw me making the body earlier. You could see the size yourself. Why didn't you say anything then?"

The small puppet, who was jumping around on the table, paused at his words, seemingly belatedly realizing something again. "Hey, that's right, I saw it..."

She pattered over to the center of the concentric circles where the puppet body had been made, then looked back at the oil painting where she had previously resided. She thought hard, and some vague memories began to surface in her mind.

"That's right... yes, your operation was fine. The clay shell is just a medium, used to temporarily house the soul... even if the size was a bit off, my soul should have adjusted it when reshaping the body..."

Eileen stood on the table, talking to herself. She would ponder for a moment, then look at the ritual setup around her, and occasionally pinch her current body, muttering non-stop.

"Because the size difference is too great? So the adjustment is limited? That doesn't make sense either... even if it were limited, there should be some change... there's no way it would only be as tall as a desk lamp..."

Eileen reached up and compared the height with her head, then jumped up and down in place, as if trying to grow a little taller through this futile method.

It was obvious it hadn't worked.

"So... the ritual still went wrong?" Yu Sheng watched nervously from the side, finally asking cautiously, "The body wasn't adjusted properly during reshaping? That shouldn't be my fault, right..."

Eileen tilted her head up, her face a mixture of grief and indignation, on the verge of tears, which startled Yu Sheng.

"Ruler."

The puppet, only as tall as a desk lamp, extended her hand to Yu Sheng, her voice gritted.

"What for?"

"To measure my height!"

Yu Sheng gave an "oh" and quickly ran upstairs to find a tape measure.

Actually, he had initially wanted to grab a straight ruler—but he figured Eileen would fly up and bite him if she saw a straight ruler, so he didn't dare.

A moment later, Eileen stood up straight on the table, an old book balanced on her head. Yu Sheng, standing beside her, unrolled the tape measure to measure the little puppet's height.

Eileen secretly tilted the book, but Yu Sheng quickly pressed it down.

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

"...66.6 centimeters," Yu Sheng said, looking at the ruler, his tone filled with sympathy. "I tried to round up as much as possible, I even included the 0.6 centimeters after the decimal point for you."

Eileen finally burst into tears.