Erin cussed so badly.
Even Yu Sheng didn't know how a doll sealed in a painting could possess such a rich vocabulary—and manage to cuss continuously while sliding down the stairs without even taking a breath.
Probably because her original form is a doll, she simply doesn't need to breathe at all.
But Yu Sheng remained indifferent. He let Erin rant after she slid down to the floor, and he slowly descended the stairs, holding onto the handrail—mainly because his back hurt and he couldn't hurry—only after reaching the ground floor did he bend over with difficulty to pick up Erin's picture frame.
"You're sick in the head!" Erin glared furiously from within the painting, hugging a teddy bear and with her clothes and hair in a disarray, "Who throws someone directly down from upstairs like that? What if the painting got destroyed!"
"My back hurts; your painting is too heavy to carry downstairs," Yu Sheng explained frankly, as he carried the picture frame slowly towards the dining room, "I've observed that your frame is very sturdy, and moreover, maybe if the frame does get damaged, it could just set you free, right?"
"If it were that easy to get out of here, would I still be sealed up till now?!" Erin sat back down in her chair, annoyed, "Ah, my head is spinning…"
Yu Sheng suddenly stopped and looked down very seriously at the girl in the painting.
Feeling a bit unnerved by his gaze, Erin said, "What… what are you planning to do now? I'm telling you if you throw me down the stairs again, I won't let you off! I'll invade your dreams every night. When you dream about taking exams, I will set the alarm, when you dream of playing video games, I'll pull the plug, when you dream of going out, I'll chase you with a dump truck, and when you dream of dating I will…"
How can this unfortunate doll talk such trash!
Suppressing the urge to drag Erin up to the second floor and throw her down again, Yu Sheng wore a serious expression: "I just want to ask, what's the principle behind this 'seal' of yours? And you mentioned finding someone to help you escape... How can one help you break free?"
Erin didn't expect Yu Sheng to address this, and after being stunned for a couple of seconds she spoke somewhat incredulously, "You… you're agreeing to help me get out of here?!"
"Aren't you the one who said you needed someone to help you break free?" Yu Sheng frowned and then added, "I'm just asking for now, I haven't agreed yet..."
But Erin seemed not to hear his latter half of the remark and hastened to say, "There are three... no, two methods! The first and best method is to find my body. I don't know where it is now, but it's definitely somewhere... perhaps not far from this painting. Anyway, finding my original body makes everything simple; if I get close to it, I can get out of this damn painting...
"But if my original body can't be found, or if it's been destroyed, then the only other way is to create a new one, which definitely won't be as good as the original, and getting used to it will be troublesome..."
Yu Sheng listened carefully all along, but at this point, he couldn't help but interject, "Create a new one? How do you create one? Is buying a ready-made one from a doll shop alright?"
"Of course not!" Erin quickly said, "I am 'Alice's doll', a living doll with blessings, get it? How can I compare to those cheap dolls in the store?"
She paused, then with a slightly more serious tone, she continued, "Living dolls are born from the garden of Alice's Cottage. Our original bodies also come from there. But now I've lost contact with the garden and can't leave the painting, so I can't return there to be reborn. Even without the garden, we have a method for creating a temporary shell in the present world in case of an emergency... But though it's for emergency, creating one is not easy.
"First, you need to find hair that grows on its own, soil that wriggles like a living thing, broken bones that heal, and a drop of a living doll's tear—two is better, it would improve my skin. Then, you need to use alchemy to reanimate the above materials and smear your own blood... Hey, why that look?"
Yu Sheng, with a stern expression, looked at the girl in the painting and after a long sigh said, "…Let's rather talk about how to find your original body, alright?"
Erin blinked, "...You don't know alchemy?"
"Is that something everyone is supposed to know?!" Yu Sheng's expression grew frustrated, "And forget alchemy, where am I supposed to find all those absurd materials you mentioned! Are you sure those items of yours weren't copied from some third-rate fantasy rag? And tears from a living doll... If I could find another living doll, I'd just hand you, along with the painting, over to her right away! Wouldn't it be better for your sister to take you back home than letting me fumble around?"
Yu Sheng considered himself new to this "world" and didn't quite understand those bizarre shadows or the Extraordinary Domain behind them. Still, at least from the information channels he'd encountered so far, the "materials" Erin had mentioned were not something ordinary people of this world could come across. How could she mention them so casually?
Seeing Yu Sheng's reaction, Erin's expression seemed to grow a bit awkward. She shifted slightly on the chair and lowered her voice quite a bit before speaking, "Actually, other materials would work too, like buying some clay, paint, fake hair, and such online…"
Yu Sheng: "...?"
He looked at the girl in the painting with an expression that seemed to say "Are you kidding me?", while Erin couldn't help but shrink back in her chair: "I was just hoping that the temporary vessel would be somewhat effective... Even if I can't create the Golden Equipment, a blank one will do.
"But even if I use those ordinary materials, the final step will still require your blood and a bit of alchemy skills, which I can teach you. It's quite simple, even ordinary people can do it..."
Yu Sheng did not respond immediately, just silently as if he were deep in thought, and after a few seconds suddenly said: "You mentioned at the beginning that there were three methods, why didn't you mention the third one?"
"…That method isn't so great; it has some costs," Erin waved her hand, looking honest, "You probably wouldn't agree to it, and I don't want you to try it, since we're not familiar with each other…"
"Since we're not close, cut the chatter," Yu Sheng said offhandedly, glaring at the girl in the painting.
Erin pursed her lips, looking cautiously (she now seemed to understand the concept of caution) at Yu Sheng, and carefully asked: "So... are you going to help me get out of here? The second method is actually quite easy, you can just mold a body for me, even if it's not perfect. As long as the ritual process is correct, I can reshape myself after entering the vessel... Just don't make it too ugly, at least make it look human."
This time, Yu Sheng did not banter with Erin; he seriously considered the matter, and after nearly half a minute, he gave a solemn response: "I can't promise right now, I need to think about it."
He didn't trust the girl in the painting, or at least, he dared not trust her completely.
Even though she seemed honest and sincere, a bit chatty but not bad by nature, with a distinctive personality and seemingly harmless, she did not appear to have any ill intentions. But all these impressions from knowing her for just a day were just superficial—underneath these "human" images, Erin's essence was still that of a strange entity sealed within an oil painting.
Yu Sheng was not naive enough to be charmed by her cute appearance and hastily create a vessel to let this "painting ghost" out—what if, once released, she completely changed and decapitated him under her gothic skirt...
Yu Sheng had died not too long ago and was not in a hurry to die again.
Erin, after getting a response, didn't say much either, just looked steadily at Yu Sheng for a while before nodding naturally: "Oh, I understand."
Yu Sheng was surprised; he thought it would take a long time to argue over this with the girl in the painting, but unexpectedly she was... very generous.
"It's because we're not familiar with each other, right?" As if she had seen the confusion in Yu Sheng's heart, Erin suddenly smiled, blinking at him from outside the painting, "I'll ask again when we're closer."
"... Alright, we'll talk about it later."
Yu Sheng also smiled, carrying Erin's framed painting to the dining room, casually placed it upright on the table against the wall, and turned towards the kitchen.
"I haven't had dinner yet, going to cook first."
"Okay... Hey, could you turn on the TV across the table? I want to watch TV..."
"You're quite demanding."
Yu Sheng casually turned on the TV across from the dining table before picking up the vegetables and seasonings he thoughtlessly put on the shelf earlier, which he bought from the supermarket, and began preparing his dinner.
In fact, he loved to cook, and since arriving in this familiar yet strange Boundary City, he almost always cooked each meal at home because only in this big house did he feel safe—away from those eerie shadows that lurked about.
He didn't mind encountering some slender ghostly presence while on the road, but not while cooking and eating, because these were significant events in his life.
... Although now even this "safe house" had an additional eerie "Erin".
But compared to the ghostly shadows, ice rain, and frogs that roamed the city streets, a misfortunate "living doll" that could only babble within a painting was still a lot more endearing—at least she wouldn't try to gouge out his heart.