The First Step Toward Friendly Communication

The maiden in the painting who called herself "Eileen" stared wide-eyed at Yu Sheng outside the frame. So far, the two had not established the slightest bit of trust.

Yu Sheng had no way of confirming whether anything this person in the painting, who resembled some kind of cursed object, said was true. This included Alice's Cabin and her claim of being sealed inside the painting—he was hearing it all for the first time. That was why, when Eileen said she did not know why she had appeared in this house, he did not dare believe a single word.

On the other hand, Eileen felt that this human named Yu Sheng was definitely still planning to set her on fire with the Lighter. Her eyes had been tracking its every movement...

"I think you must have bought the painting yourself, hung it at home, and then forgotten all about it..." Eileen repeated. "Doesn't that happen all the time? You humans see something unusual and want to collect it, then you buy it, bring it home, and let it gather dust..."

Yu Sheng really did feel a little guilty after hearing that, because he genuinely could not be sure where everything in this house had come from. After all, he had only truly arrived "here" two months ago. Forget being unfamiliar with this world—he was not even familiar with himself. Who knew what this house and its owner had been like before those two months?

Could there have been another "Yu Sheng"?

The thought only flickered through his mind, though. Under the gaze of the person in the painting's scarlet eyes, Yu Sheng still instinctively shook his head. "No way—you can tell at a glance that this painting is expensive. It doesn't look like something I could afford..."

"Hey, what if it was really cheap?" Eileen hugged her teddy bear and scooted forward. "There are tons of fake bottles, fake fans, and fake calligraphy and paintings these days. Maybe the previous seller bought me wholesale from some fake antique dealer along with other paintings for two and a half per pound. Or maybe some middleman just didn't know what they had..."

Yu Sheng's expression turned strange. "That frame is solid old wood, and it even has gold inlay along the edges..."

Eileen thought for a moment. "Mahogany veneer filled with resin! Iron wire plated with copper!"

Yu Sheng said, "...Then the cost definitely wasn't two and a half per pound."

"Four and a half is fine too. No higher than that. Nobody would buy it if it cost any more."

Yu Sheng said, "..."

Eileen glared at him with scarlet eyes. "Hey, why aren't you saying anything?"

Squatting in front of Eileen's frame, Yu Sheng suddenly found it funny. Then he actually laughed. He plopped down on the floor, and as he laughed, he looked up at the ceiling, leaning back until half his body was nearly flat on the ground—he had never imagined that he would experience something like this: squatting in an empty room, arguing nonsense with a doll sealed inside an oil painting over whether the frame sealing her was a fake bought wholesale for two and a half per pound or four or five per pound...

And not long ago, a Frog that had respawned in freezing rain had ripped out his heart.

This was all just too damn funny.

But Yu Sheng's sudden laughter gave Eileen the creeps. Yu Sheng had taken her and her frame off the wall and placed them on the floor, so now she could see the bare ceiling and hear his laughter nearby. At last, she could not help shouting, "Hey, stop laughing! What's so funny?"

Yu Sheng slowly stopped laughing. He scooted closer and looked at Eileen inside the frame, his expression suddenly turning serious. "That weird dream I had before—was that your doing?"

He meant the dream where he had chopped at a locked door with an axe, only to hear strange laughter from behind it. Now it seemed obvious that the dream, which clearly had something bizarre going on, was definitely connected to the maiden in the painting before him.

Oh, right. He had thrown out his back in that dream too—and it still hurt.

"No!" Eileen immediately shook her head, but then she paused, looking hesitant. "Well... it wasn't completely not me..."

"What does that mean?" Yu Sheng frowned. "You're talking in circles."

"You had that dream yourself, but I did enter it," Eileen explained patiently. "I originally sensed someone dreaming and wanted to use that method to find someone who could help me. I wasn't trying to do anything bad! I didn't know you couldn't open that door, or that you had such a temper. You forgot your keys and started chopping down the door with an axe..."

Listening to Eileen ramble, Yu Sheng gradually understood. "So you didn't lock the door either? You didn't cause the dream? You can just enter other people's dreams?"

"Exactly—I can do lots of other things too!" Eileen nodded proudly, but that pride quickly dimmed. "But now that I'm sealed in this painting, this is almost the only ability I have left..."

Yu Sheng only half believed Eileen, while the things he had experienced in that strange dream gave him even more questions to consider. Then he had a second question. "You said you wanted to find someone through dreams to help you? Help with what?"

"Get me out, of course!" Eileen said as if it were obvious. "Getting me out of this painting would be best. If not, then at least get me out of this room. It's completely empty in here. Even a TV mounted on the opposite wall would do... Voice-controlled would be even better. Using a remote is inconvenient for me. Having a good brand would be nice too..."

Yu Sheng realized that this maiden in the painting had the sort of mind that freely wandered in every direction. Whenever no one stopped her and let her talk to herself, her thoughts would always drift somewhere unexpected—and usually toward getting carried away.

So he interrupted her without hesitation. "Then why were you laughing strangely while looking for help? What was that mocking laughter from inside when I was 'opening the door' outside?"

"That wasn't me!" Eileen hurriedly waved her hands, then thrust the brown teddy bear in her arms forward. "It was laughing!"

Yu Sheng said nothing. He just stared at her expressionlessly, his eyes plainly saying, Do you take me for an idiot?

"Really!" Eileen looked anxious and shook the teddy bear vigorously. "It was sealed into this painting with me, but maybe too much time has passed and its brain isn't working right anymore. Now all it can do is laugh stupidly. Usually, if I poke it, it laughs strangely, but sometimes it suddenly laughs by itself even if I don't poke it. It scares me all the time..."

Yu Sheng listened with a straight face as Eileen eagerly explained herself. When he noticed the serious look on the maiden in the painting's face, he gradually began to half believe her. At last, his gaze fell on the teddy bear. After hesitating for a moment, he nodded. "Then make it laugh. Let me hear whether it sounds the same."

Eileen immediately poked the teddy bear on the head.

The teddy bear did not react at all.

Eileen froze, then poked the teddy bear's head hard again—still nothing. She looked like she was about to cry.

"S-sometimes it does this too," the maiden in the painting said miserably. "I poke it, and it doesn't laugh..."

Yu Sheng's mouth twitched.

"So sometimes it laughs when you don't poke it, and sometimes it doesn't laugh when you do. In short, whether you poke it or not, it might laugh or might not laugh—" After rattling off that tongue-twister-like analysis, he came to a conclusion. "So does whether it laughs have anything to do with whether you poke it?"

Eileen froze for a moment, then slowly nodded. "R-right."

Yu Sheng no longer wanted to keep dealing with this "cursed oil painting" whose brain seemed to be malfunctioning.

And he no longer cared about the mocking laughter he had heard in his dream.

His stomach growled. The dinner he had missed after coming home and immediately falling asleep was finally making its presence known. Yu Sheng smiled and shook his head as he slowly stood up.

"Hey, you're leaving?" Eileen's voice immediately became a little panicked. "You're not planning to leave me on the floor like this, are you? At least hang me back on the wall. There's wallpaper on the opposite wall to look at. There's nothing on the ceiling..."

Yu Sheng reached down and lifted Eileen's frame off the floor—then bared his teeth in pain because of his back.

"I'm taking you to the living room, so quit yapping," he said casually.

Eileen immediately brightened. Hugging the teddy bear, she sat back in her chair and watched Yu Sheng drag her frame outside. "That's good. You're actually pretty nice. Oh, right, is it dinner time now? What are we having tonight?"

Yu Sheng looked down at her. "Can you eat?"

"I can watch!"

Yu Sheng felt that he had to be sick in the head to keep talking to this thing.

Supporting his back, he struggled to carry Eileen's frame toward the stairs leading to the living room. The nonsense coming from the oil painting did not stop for a moment along the way—

"Hey, your house is pretty big! So there's such a large area outside that room?"

"What's in the room across from it? Your bedroom? Hey, are there other people here?"

"Do I need to greet them? Will they be scared? Ordinary people probably haven't seen talking dolls and oil paintings before..."

"Oh, right, I haven't even asked your name! What's your name? Yu Sheng? What a strange name... It's not the raw fish kind of yusheng, right?"

"What happened to your back? Your back is already ruined at such a young age? I'm telling you, you need to protect your back. You humans have such troublesome joints, and you can't just take them apart whenever you want... Huh? Why are you glaring at me? That look is kind of scary..."

Yu Sheng finally made it to the stairs with great difficulty, one hand on his back. He looked down at the steps below—normally, he would not have thought much of them, but with his back hurt and an unusually heavy oil painting frame in his hands, they seemed especially steep.

He had originally planned to carry Eileen's frame downstairs with both hands, but he suddenly realized that his current physical condition did not seem to allow it.

Yu Sheng lowered his head and silently considered it.

The noisy maiden in the painting seemed to sense something. Her voice gradually fell silent, and her expression slowly grew tense.

With lowered eyelids, Yu Sheng looked at the maiden in the painting, who had babbled all the way here and whose topics had grown increasingly deserving of a beating. "Eileen."

The maiden in the painting jolted. "Y-yes?"

"I think your frame looks pretty sturdy."

"I-it is?"

Yu Sheng silently placed Eileen's frame at the top of the stairs.

"It might shake a little. Sit tight."

Eileen finally understood. Her eyes instantly widened. "Hey, wait—"

"Here we go!"

The oil painting frame embarked on a clattering adventure down the stairs.

All the while, Eileen offered her enthusiastic thanks: "Yu Sheng, you bastard, I—Aaaah! Waaah! Waaah! Ooh! Ah! &%￥#—"