"Because of this dense fog." Although the Thread-Wrapped Doll's face was expressionless, the way Xiao Wu lowered its head and fidgeted with its little hands still betrayed its dejection.
"Perhaps this shop has spent too long in the dense fog, and the fog around its current location has become extremely chaotic. It feels... well, in human terms, there's a problem with signal reception, so I can't take human form for now."
"Signal reception?" Sitting at the desk, Su Bai gently pressed a finger against the Thread-Wrapped Doll's little belly. It was hard. "In the human world, you only need to receive signals when two devices are far apart, don't you? I remember you saying this doll was your true body. Why would you still need to receive signals?"
Xiao Wu: "..."
The little fellow before him seemed to be struggling to figure out how to answer, but Su Bai merely smiled, as though he did not care about the answer-or had already guessed something.
"But you still woke up." Su Bai tapped the Thread-Wrapped Doll's little head and said with a smile, "Even with the fog interfering, you worked hard to wake up. Thank you."
The doll sitting on the desk leaned toward Su Bai's finger. Clamping its small, round arms together, the Thread-Wrapped Doll took the opportunity to "hug" its mistress-boss's finger, only hastily letting go when it noticed Su Bai's startled expression.
"This is the first time you've opened the shop doors while in trouble, mistress... boss. How could Xiao Wu possibly sleep?"
"I remember you saying you knew a great deal about the Nightmare World. Do you know what this dense fog actually is?" Su Bai turned serious. "I still find it hard to imagine just how powerful the Fog City Lord must be to cut the