Chapter 42 – Eileen’s Excitement

In the Old City District, deep within Wutong Road, inside a rented residential house, a muscular man nearly two meters tall was hunched on a single-seat sofa that was a little too small for him, head lowered as he carefully maintained his equipment.

It was a beam dagger — a small droplet-shaped crystal was inlaid into the dark red hilt, the crystals linking together in a line that ran through the entire body of the weapon. The hilt had clearly been custom-made to fit its user, looking perfectly suited in the big man’s broad palm.

The muscular man flipped his palm and spun the dagger a few times in his hand, then casually activated it. With a faint humming sound, a bright pale-blue light blade suddenly ignited, carving a scorching arc through the air.

“Take it easy — don’t scratch the coffee table. I’ll have to file a report with the Bureau later and pay for damages,” Li Lin said, fiddling with a pocket watch and glancing over at Xu Jiali across from him. “…That thing is pretty cool.”

“Cool, right? Bought with my life,” the muscular man chuckled, a proud look on his face. “I rescued an Algraid Star Realm noble from ‘Windmill Mill’ in deep L-3 — single-handedly — and he gave this to me afterward. It’s a personal commission, made by the finest craftsmen with the finest radiant gold crystals. On Algraid territory, it can even serve as a knight’s medallion.”

Li Lin was a bit curious: “What does that get you?”

“…Priority boarding for atmospheric transit without queuing, fast-track access at hospitals, free admission to the zoo — limited to public holidays.”

Li Lin listened with a somewhat dazed expression. “That’s… surprisingly practical. I thought those mysterious Algraid people did everything with elaborate rituals and symbolism.”

“They are pretty mysterious in their day-to-day, but even mysterious people have to live their lives, don’t they?” Xu Jiali shrugged, then grumbled a little. “Honestly, operating in the Borderland is kind of a pain — there’s a lot of equipment you can’t bring through. I’ve got a chainsaw sword, but it got flagged as a hazard risk before I came, so now it’s sitting locked in a customs cabinet…”

Li Lin thought for a moment and was just about to speak when he suddenly sensed something. Immediately after, he and Xu Jiali — who had felt the same thing — both turned to look at the window of the rental house.

Beneath the gradually darkening night sky, a figure had appeared on the windowsill at some unknown moment — it was a petite girl in a dark red coat, leaning against the window frame in a rather precarious pose, one leg dangling outside.

She glanced curiously at the two men inside: “So, you two are the ‘specialists’ in charge of this neighborhood for the time being?”

“You are…” Li Lin furrowed his brow slightly, vaguely guessing her identity.

“Just call me Little Red Riding Hood,” the girl sitting on the windowsill said with a wave of her hand. “I’m from ‘Fairy Tale.’ Your Bureau hired me to come help out in this area for a while.”

“Ah, I know who you are then,” Li Lin thought as much, and a polite smile appeared on his face. “These past couple of days I’ve been hearing our team leader mention you often, along with your investigation findings in this area. My name is Li Lin, field operative of the Second Squad, Council Special Operations Bureau.”

On the other side, Xu Jiali looked the girl on the windowsill up and down and said bluntly, “There might be a ‘big one’ hiding in this place. I figured they’d send Snow White, or the ‘King.’ Not that I’m doubting your wolf pack.”

Unlike Li Lin, who was still relatively new, Xu Jiali had clearly met Little Red Riding Hood before.

“Snow White’s destructive capacity would be a bit excessive here — we don’t even know for certain we’ll run into a high-risk entity,” Little Red Riding Hood said casually. “I’ve been active in this city district for a while and have been investigating the anomalies on Wutong Road, so I’m more familiar with it. Don’t worry — Snow White can get here quickly anyway. If we really do run into a ‘big one,’ she’s on call.”

As she spoke, the girl rose from the windowsill and waved to the two inside: “I just came by to say hello. You should both have my contact details — call me if anything comes up. Bye~”

The next second, the girl’s figure suddenly dissolved into a melting shadow. The shadow vaguely took the shape of a wolf, leaping down from the windowsill, and in the blink of an eye it vanished into the night.

Leaving Li Lin and Xu Jiali staring at each other in the rental house.

……

After dinner, Yu Sheng sat on the sofa with his eyes closed, resting. He listened to the pitter-patter of footsteps darting all over the living room and the restaurant — now to the right, now to the left, then looping around and around the sofa.

He opened his eyes and saw Eileen running back and forth between the living room and the restaurant. The 66.6-centimeter-tall doll was carrying an oil painting frame nearly as tall as herself on her back, scurrying across the floor like a little rocket.

After Eileen began her fourth lap around the sofa, Yu Sheng finally couldn’t hold back any longer. “Can’t you rest for a bit? Give those shoes of yours a break too.”

Eileen ran up in front of Yu Sheng, face full of excitement. “No way! I can’t stop! I can run around everywhere now — everywhere! Look, I can even climb up onto the coffee table, and jump back down from it!”

Before she even finished speaking, the doll had already run off again — she circled halfway around the sofa, then scrambled up onto the coffee table in front of Yu Sheng on all fours, took a few running steps across the tabletop, and leapt from the coffee table onto Yu Sheng’s lap. He had just started to reach out and grab this rampaging little figure when Eileen nimbly shot forward, jumping from the sofa back down to the floor…

Then she dashed over to the TV cabinet in the living room, clambered up it with some effort, stretched up on her tiptoes as high as she could, and successfully pressed the power switch on the television.

The little doll cheered and turned to look at Yu Sheng with a face full of excitement. “I can reach the TV switch! From now on, even when you’re not home, I can restart the TV by myself!”

Yu Sheng rolled his eyes and tilted his head back helplessly. “Alright, alright — congratulations. You’re amazing.”

The next second, something flashed at the corner of his eye — Eileen had come running back from the TV cabinet at lightning speed. She grabbed the sofa cover with one hand and Yu Sheng’s trouser leg with the other, and in a few swift moves she climbed up onto the sofa and sat down beside him.

The tiny doll, seated cross-legged on the sofa, was barely even as tall as a throw pillow.

The oil painting was propped against her back, and given the proportions, it looked almost like a wall behind her.

But Eileen had adapted to the existence of that painting frame with astonishing ease. Whether she was running with it on her back, climbing up and down with it, or sitting on the sofa with it — it didn’t seem to affect her movements at all. There were occasionally some unavoidable bumps and knocks, but the doll didn’t seem to mind in the slightest.

This struck Yu Sheng as remarkable.

“Don’t you find it inconvenient to carry it around?” he couldn’t help asking out of curiosity. “Honestly, if you asked me to spend all day running around with a door plank on my back, I probably couldn’t adapt as fast as you…”

“I think it’s fine,” Eileen said happily, swaying on the sofa. Though the TV was on, her attention was clearly nowhere near it. “It was a tiny bit uncomfortable at first, but after a couple of laps I was completely used to its weight and size. And how to put it…”

The doll suddenly paused, seeming to search for the right words. After a few seconds she spoke hesitantly: “It’s like… a sense of security. When I’m carrying it, my back feels very safe, very reassured. Have you ever felt that? Like when you’re sleeping and you absolutely have to have your back against the wall, or pressed up against a pile of blankets or something.”

“I know what you mean, but it still feels… unbelievable,” Yu Sheng said, looking at the small doll beside him. “I thought you’d be resistant to that painting. After all, it sealed you away for so many years, and now you have to keep carrying it around.”

“There is a little bit of that,” Eileen thought about it and gave a small nod, but quickly broke into a smile again. “But there’s a saying, isn’t there — since things are as they are, keep a broad mind. As long as today is better than yesterday, there’s nothing to complain about.”

“The saying is ‘since things are as they are, make peace with them…’,” Yu Sheng corrected.

“Close enough,” Eileen said breezily with a wave of her hand. She seemed to have finally calmed down from the earlier frenzy of nonstop running, and now thought to bring up the real matter at hand. “Alright, I’ve gotten pretty well adjusted to my new body. We should talk about that fox…”

Yu Sheng nodded, but quickly furrowed his brow slightly and looked at the small doll who now only came up to his knee. “Are you still planning to come with me?”

Eileen looked at him as if the answer were obvious. “Of course, we already agreed.”

“In this state?” Yu Sheng tried his best to phrase it tactfully, but no matter how he thought about it, there was no tactful way to say it, so he just came out with it. “Can you even fight? Right now you’d have to jump up just to kick me in the knee…”

“I’ll kick you to pieces! What’s wrong with being small?!” Eileen immediately bristled. “Who told you I can’t fight just because I’m like this?!”

Seeing this, Yu Sheng hurriedly offered a round of reassurances.

Fortunately, Eileen’s temper had always come and gone quickly. She calmed down before long, leaned back against the sofa, and crossed her arms over her chest. “But you do have a point — the way I am right now… direct combat is somewhat affected, no getting around it. You can’t exactly expect a doll barely 60 centimeters tall to block bullets for you…”

She shook her head, then shifted her tone abruptly. “But don’t worry. Dolls aren’t limited to direct combat power — I have plenty more tricks up my sleeve. Even with only this level of ‘freedom’ I have right now, there’s still quite a lot I can do.”

She raised her hand and held it up in front of Yu Sheng, as if to demonstrate something.

Wisps of pitch-black threads spread out from her fingertips — like eerie spider silk, as if possessed of a life of their own, snaking and growing through the air, weaving into a web.

“A doll’s abilities are something else entirely!”

Eileen looked thoroughly pleased with herself.

(End of chapter)