Chapter 122 – Eileen Squeezes Through

Chapter 122 – Eileen Squeezes Through

All things considered, reconnecting with Eileen truly did put Yu Sheng at ease — and although this little doll’s manner of speaking was a bit insufferable, the intelligence she brought this time was genuinely useful.

His real-world self was indeed still “dreaming,” but clearly this was different from a normal dream state. Eileen believed his consciousness had become “lost,” which meant…

Yu Sheng raised his head and surveyed the cozy little cabin, then looked through the window at the vast expanse of night beyond.

This “forest”… was a “mental space” that existed somewhere. It was complete and sealed, like a trap that would “pull” a dreamer’s spirit inside while cutting off all connection to the outside world.

Thinking about it that way, Eileen was actually pretty impressive — she’d managed to find him even under these circumstances?

All sorts of thoughts raced through Yu Sheng’s mind, and meanwhile, after Eileen had finished rattling off a rapid-fire string of chatter on her end, she finally got down to business: “Yu Sheng, what exactly is going on over there? How did you just fall asleep and suddenly get ‘lost’? Where is your consciousness right now?”

“…I’m in a dark forest. If I’m not mistaken, this should be Little Red Riding Hood’s Dark Forest.”

Eileen was a bit dazed: “…What do you mean ‘Little Red Riding Hood’s Dark Forest’?”

“It’s a bit complicated to explain. In short, remember when I was at the museum and got bitten by the evil wolf that crawled out of Little Red Riding Hood’s shadow? It seems like that established a connection between us,” Yu Sheng organized his words as he explained. “Little Red Riding Hood once said that the ‘Fairy Tale’ is an Otherworld, and her power is a curse. The place I’m in now should be what’s trapping her…”

Yu Sheng told Eileen everything that had happened on his end, including being hunted by invisible wolves and encountering a talking squirrel — though of course, he left out the details of those “temptations” he’d seen along the way.

“You’re saying… you’re with a squirrel right now?” Eileen listened in stunned disbelief. Miss Doll probably never could have imagined that Yu Sheng going upstairs for a nap could turn into something this eventful. “So what’s the situation outside your cabin? Is it safe where you are? Can you get out on your own?”

“It’s quieted down outside now, but I can feel eyes watching. Those wolves are gathered in the Dark Forest,” Yu Sheng glanced up at the window. “But I think it should be fine. This cabin seems pretty safe for now, and if things really go south, I should be able to get out… I’m not sure how it works, but even in this ‘dream,’ I can still use Door Opening normally.”

Eileen let out an “oh,” and then after a few seconds, her voice entered Yu Sheng’s mind again: “Do you have anything like a picture frame or a canvas over there?”

Yu Sheng instinctively looked around: “No… why do you ask?”

“I want to try to see if I can ‘squeeze’ through to your side,” Eileen said. “You’re not in your own dream right now, so I can’t come over directly. I need a medium — like the ‘coordinates’ you normally use when opening doors. If there’s no picture frame or canvas, is there anything you can draw with? A pen and paper, anything at all.”

Yu Sheng got up and circled the cabin, eventually finding a few chunks of pitch-black charcoal by the fireplace.

The squirrel stood on the table, clutching an oversized acorn, watching with utter bewilderment as Yu Sheng wandered around the cabin. Finally, it couldn’t hold back: “What are you doing?”

Yu Sheng didn’t even look up: “I have a friend who wants to come take a look.”

The squirrel was dumbfounded: “…What?”

But Yu Sheng didn’t bother explaining, instead relaying the situation to Eileen: “There’s nothing here, just a few pieces of charcoal I found…”

To his surprise, the doll replied immediately: “That’ll work. Draw a frame on the floor…”

Yu Sheng: “How is it that every time you settle for second best, it’s always this bad?!”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures!” Eileen was perfectly unfazed. “It’s a ritual, and what matters is the process — especially rituals performed in dreams. The main thing is sincerity of heart produces miracles. And even without sincerity, as long as there’s some symbolic meaning, it can generate directionality…”

“…What the hell do you mean ‘sincerity produces miracles, and even without sincerity it’s fine’?!” Yu Sheng was instantly choked with retorts he could neither swallow nor spit out, but he still picked up a piece of charcoal, walked to the open space in the center of the cabin, and drew a frame on the floor as Eileen instructed. “Fine, the frame is done. Now what?”

“Now draw an unbelievably beautiful, cute, elegant, and sophisticated lady — looking just like me.”

Yu Sheng said nothing, just stood there without responding.

Eileen’s voice immediately dropped eight octaves: “…It doesn’t have to be that beautiful. Just try to make it look like me.”

Yu Sheng continued his silence.

The doll resigned herself to her fate: “…A human figure. Write my name underneath, using the letters I taught you.”

“Now that’s more like it.” Yu Sheng finally lowered his head and began sketching Eileen’s outline and true name within the charcoal frame, drawing and scribbling while muttering to himself, “You know my artistic abilities. You shouldn’t have made such unreasonable demands from the start…”

The squirrel beside him had been watching Yu Sheng’s actions with curiosity from the start. Now, seeing him drawing on the floor and writing strange runic letters, the entire rodent was stupefied. It suddenly let out a shriek: “Hey, hey, you… what are you doing?! This, this, this… is this witchcraft?! I’m warning you, don’t mess around! There are already enough deadly things in the Dark Forest…”

“I already told you, I have a friend coming,” Yu Sheng said without looking up. “Relax, it’s not some sinister witchcraft. It’s just that my friend happens to be sealed inside a cursed oil painting, so she needs to be summoned through a special method.”

Upon hearing this, the squirrel nearly choked on its own breath, its bushy tail slapping the table as it bounced around frantically, though it clearly didn’t dare step forward to intervene.

And right at that moment, Yu Sheng had completed all the steps of this crude “artwork.”

The squirrel that had been bouncing around on the table suddenly stopped bouncing.

It stared with those beady black eyes at what Yu Sheng had drawn, and its face actually showed a humanlike expression of relief.

“You scared me. I thought you were some wizard who knew evil magic, but turns out you’re into abstract art — with something this ugly, what could you possibly summon…”

The surface of the crude “artwork” on the floor suddenly shimmered with a layer of floating light.

The squirrel bit its own tongue before it could finish the second half of its sentence.

An antique and solemn oil painting gradually rose from that shimmer of light. As the charcoal-drawn lines on the floor rapidly dissolved and evaporated, the oil painting materialized fully in the air.

It floated before Yu Sheng and the squirrel. Eileen stood proudly in the frame with her hands on her hips: “Yu Sheng! I’m here to help you!”

The squirrel on the table let out a strangled “gak” and passed out cold, legs in the air, tail twitching.

Yu Sheng saw this and rushed over to nudge the squirrel awake: “Hey, hey, what’s wrong with you?”

The squirrel slowly came to. Seeing that oil painting bobbing gently in the air behind Yu Sheng, with the gothic doll inside the frame craning her neck to peer curiously in its direction, it immediately shuddered again, its tail curling up: “…Are witches really this undemanding these days? You drew something that looks like a wild goblin and still managed to summon it…”

“Is that the squirrel you mentioned?” Eileen studied the “little animal” before her with curiosity, then turned her gaze to Yu Sheng. “It actually looks pretty interesting. And it’s got a little red cloth strip wrapped around it. Oh, what did it mean by ‘wild goblin’ just now?”

“Ahem, probably some local specialty of the Dark Forest… let’s not talk about that. Let me make introductions,” Yu Sheng hurriedly cleared his throat to change the subject, then raised his hand to point at Miss Doll in the frame and introduced her to the squirrel. “This is my friend. Her name is Eileen — and she’s also a friend of Little Red Riding Hood.”

“Hello,” Eileen greeted the squirrel quite politely, then quickly added, “Actually, we also have a fox who’s friends with Little Red Riding Hood too, but she can’t get in here. She can only stand guard outside.”

The squirrel listened in a daze, then suddenly raised its paws and vigorously scratched at its own face, beginning to pace in circles on the table with a neurotic gait: “What’s happening, what’s happening, it was never like this before… nothing like this has ever happened in the Dark Forest. Strange, things are getting strange…”

“Um…” Eileen watched this scene and couldn’t help leaning over to Yu Sheng’s ear to whisper, “This squirrel doesn’t seem quite right in the head, does it?”

“It’s been like that the whole time. It was acting jittery from the moment we met. It even smokes,” Yu Sheng whispered back. “But think about it — the squirrel can talk. How normal could you expect it to be?”

The squirrel circling on the table suddenly stopped. Whether or not it had overheard the whispering between Yu Sheng and Eileen, it abruptly raised its head and pointed at itself: “I am a squirrel.”

Eileen jumped in surprise and nodded blankly: “Uh, yeah, I can see that. You’re a squirrel.”

“Does Little Red Riding Hood have many friends?” the squirrel pressed on, its eyes fixed intently on the doll in the frame. “Many ‘friends’ like you… strange ones, who seem quite capable, who can make their way into the Dark Forest?”

“Well… I’m not sure if she has many friends. After all, we haven’t known each other that long, and we haven’t had time to meet her other friends,” Eileen hesitated briefly, but then immediately started showing off. “But if you’re talking about capability, we’re pretty amazing! I’m a doll from Alice’s Cottage! And we have a fox who can launch her own tail — when she shows her true form, she takes up two parking spaces…”

But the squirrel didn’t seem to be listening to what Eileen said after that. It simply grew suddenly excited, scurrying rapidly around the table while muttering under its breath: “What matters is that you can get into the Dark Forest. You can come in… then she won’t have to walk the path alone… this has never happened in the Dark Forest before… yes, something that’s never happened, something outside the rules — it’s an ‘accident.’ Where there are accidents, there are chances. Maybe…”

Yu Sheng frowned at these words and exchanged a bewildered glance with Eileen.

(End of Chapter)