Chapter 33 – Delayed Effect?

Yu Sheng figured that his blood apparently had no effect on Eileen — perhaps because the oil painting serving as the sealing medium had prevented the blood from seeping through, or perhaps because Eileen, being a puppet herself, was simply immune to the blood’s influence. More likely still… Hu Li being affected was the special case.

After waiting for a long time with nothing happening, Eileen inside the oil painting lost her patience. She tilted her head back to look at the top of the frame and muttered, “Just wipe the blood off then. It’s where I live, after all — having this much blood splattered on it is terribly unlucky…”

Yu Sheng said, “…You’re a strange puppet sealed inside an oil painting and you still have the nerve to complain about that! Just the fact that you’re standing there is already unlucky enough, don’t you think!”

Eileen immediately took offense. “Who said I’m unlucky! I’m this good-looking — how could I possibly be unlucky? Some people keep a whole wall of plastic figurines in their room, and here you are, leaning an oil painting of a pretty girl against your wall and calling it unlucky?!”

Yu Sheng was left completely stunned, unable to figure out how this creature managed to cram all of that into a single sentence.

Still, he waved it off, muttering “That’s not the same thing at all” as he stood up, pulled out a wet tissue, and prepared to wipe the blood from the frame.

It wouldn’t come off.

Yu Sheng paused, stared at the tissue that had done absolutely nothing, and scrubbed harder at the frame (not daring to press too hard on the canvas itself for fear of damaging it) — yet the bloodstain remained completely unmoved.

But what drew his attention more than the stubborn stain on the frame was the state of the wet tissue itself — there wasn’t even a trace of red on it.

No matter how difficult a bloodstain was to remove, it simply couldn’t be like this!

Eileen couldn’t see the tissue from her angle. She only saw Yu Sheng suddenly freeze, and immediately felt a flicker of unease. “Um, what happened?”

“It won’t come off,” Yu Sheng said blankly, staring at the bloodstain that seemed to have become part of the frame itself. “It didn’t soak in — it’s more like… it’s the original color of the frame now.”

Eileen gave no response.

Yu Sheng looked down in confusion and saw the Puppet in the Painting staring back at him with a vacant expression, as if her mind had suddenly gone blank. Two or three seconds passed before Eileen’s expression slowly shifted from vacant to horrified — as though she had suddenly recalled something. She abruptly raised a finger and pointed at Yu Sheng, letting out a shriek: “AHHHHH Yu Sheng you you die die die die die…”

Yu Sheng froze for a second, then immediately understood what had happened. Seeing Eileen still shrieking, he remained remarkably calm and sat down in the chair across from her. “Stop saying ‘die’ so many times — it’s unlucky. Although, honestly, the actual number of times is quite a lot.”

Eileen stopped for a moment, glanced at Yu Sheng, and then continued shrieking.

Yu Sheng had no choice but to get up and figure out how to soothe this thoroughly frightened puppet — she was far less composed than that fox had been.

Verbal reassurances had clearly limited effect. Whether it was because the delayed activation of the blood had made the shock all the more overwhelming, she was in an extraordinarily agitated state.

Fortunately, Yu Sheng suddenly had a flash of inspiration and came up with a solution.

The next second, he grabbed the oil painting by its frame, swung it vigorously through the air, sent it spinning upward, caught it, swung it around two more times, and set it back on the table.

He watched as the little puppet lady spent considerable effort clambering back onto the chair with its red velvet cushion.

Eileen stopped shrieking.

Eileen started cursing — and quite viciously at that.

This time, however, Yu Sheng found it much easier to calm her down. He eventually got the puppet to settle, and amid Eileen’s lingering grumbling, he managed to clearly explain to her exactly what had happened.

At the same time, he finally confirmed that his blood worked on Eileen even in her sealed state. Though it appeared the blood had only acted on the painting’s frame, for reasons unknown, Eileen had genuinely been affected by it and experienced the same thing as Hu Li: she had recalled the “incident” she had witnessed — Yu Sheng’s death.

However, so far, Yu Sheng had not sensed Eileen’s “Thoughts” or “memories” the way he had with Hu Li.

He glanced up at the still-fuming puppet and thought better of mentioning that he actually suspected Eileen was running a bit short on both of those things…

Eileen was still pouting, but no matter what, the shock of Yu Sheng’s “return from the dead” was ultimately greater than the shock of the earlier rollercoaster ride. Her focus was fixed on his “resurrection.”

“You’re saying… this isn’t even the first time?” She stared at Yu Sheng, her voice still laced with disbelief.

“Right. In fact, it had already started before I met you,” said Yu Sheng, thinking back to that frog in the rain. “But don’t ask me how it works — same as that door just now. I only know it happens; I don’t know why.”

“Are there any side effects or costs?” Eileen immediately asked.

“So far… none that I’ve found,” Yu Sheng said after a brief hesitation, choosing his words carefully. On this particular matter, he set aside his usual nonchalant attitude. “Nothing physical or mental. No problems detected.”

Eileen kept her gaze fixed on Yu Sheng’s eyes. “Then going forward, you should still do everything you can to avoid this kind of ‘resurrection.'”

Yu Sheng let out a helpless sigh. “I know that, of course.”

“Side effects might appear in the distant future. The cost might come in a form you can’t even imagine,” Eileen said, apparently worried that Yu Sheng hadn’t truly understood the warning, and explained patiently, “All things in this world tend toward balance. Events that exceed reason and order will always face a ‘backlash’ brought about by reason and order. And returning from death… is truly the most outrageous of all such events. Even though you say you haven’t noticed any problems, I don’t quite believe it.”

She paused, then added with a serious expression, “I’m not saying I don’t believe you. I’m saying I don’t believe the ‘appearance’ of the matter.”

“I understand, I understand,” Yu Sheng nodded earnestly, but then spread his hands in helpless resignation. “That said, do you think any of the times I’ve died were voluntary?”

Eileen paused. “…Fair point.”

“I just have a good attitude about it, since there’s nothing else I can do — in the valley, all I could do was keep a good attitude,” Yu Sheng sighed. “I understand your concern. Don’t worry, I know my limits.”

Eileen stared at him for a long while longer before finally averting her gaze with a mutter. “Alright, just keep it in mind… I’m still counting on you to get me a body.”

Yu Sheng let out a sigh of relief.

He had to admit, this puppet’s capacity to accept things was genuinely impressive. Something this absurd, and in the end she had taken it so easily…

Eileen suddenly looked up again, with an expression she couldn’t suppress. “Okay no, this is genuinely baffling — are you even human?! Are you really sure you were born to parents and raised eating regular food? Can’t you think back to your childhood and remember whether anything… unusual ever happened…”

Yu Sheng said, “…”

He took back his earlier thought. This puppet’s capacity to accept things wasn’t all that impressive after all.

He brushed her off with a few casual words and paid no further attention to the puppet’s subsequent muttering. Now that the test with the “blood” was done, he still remembered his original plan.

Continue familiarizing himself with the Door Opening ability and its properties. Find a way to reproduce the passage and accurately pinpoint the “landing point.”

Until he could open the door back to the valley.

To bring Hu Li some food.

Eileen gradually quieted down. She watched Yu Sheng close his hand around the kitchen door handle, and after much hesitation, finally couldn’t help but ask: “Even if you do find the ‘door’ back to that valley, have you figured out how to deal with ‘Hunger’ once you’re there?”

Yu Sheng slowly turned the handle, sensing the subtle feeling emanating from the depths of what he might call his “spiritual intuition,” and spoke slowly: “I’ll take it one step at a time.”

“That’s just a fancy way of saying you haven’t figured it out at all!” She didn’t need to look back to know Eileen had definitely widened her eyes again. “So you’re going to bring Hu Li food, or bring that monster a meal?!”

“What I mean is: if I can fight the monster, I will. Being able to temporarily destroy ‘Hunger’s’ physical manifestation would be good — there’s a strong chance it would help Hu Li escape its influence. If I can’t fight it, I’ll find a way to bring Hu Li out through the door, but that has side effects, and Hu Li might still be targeted by ‘Hunger.’ If even that doesn’t work, at the very least I can bring in some food and make things more bearable for Hu Li. As long as I have a reliable way to open the door, everything can be figured out as I go.

“When I said take it one step at a time, I meant picking one of those three options depending on the situation. But when it comes to specifically how to deal with that ‘entity’… I genuinely have no ideas right now.”

“Alright, you’ve already planned this far out, so that’s fine,” Eileen said, sounding relieved. “As long as you’re not just blindly walking in there and handing yourself to that monster.”

Yu Sheng considered it, but ultimately decided not to say the words “after eating me, the monster’s mouth and stomach won’t be able to account for the difference” out loud — because once he said it, there was no telling how much the puppet would have to say about it…

That irrelevant thought turning in his mind, he slowly pulled open the kitchen door.

A boundless darkness came into view. Dim stars flickered in the distant blackness. Beyond that… there appeared to be absolutely nothing on the other side of the door.

Yu Sheng stared blankly at the empty void beyond the door, and a moment later it suddenly hit him. He slammed the door shut with a bang.

“Holy hell, it’s outer space!”