Chapter 580 Loose Dolls
A strange feeling spread from the bottom of his heart, as if his consciousness had instantly crossed a distant space and time that could not be described in words, and was extracted and sent to the edge of the universe. However, before Yu Sheng could confirm what this feeling was, he saw all the starlight in his field of vision begin to tremble violently, and then the illusion of the big ship was also plunged into countless chaotic ripples.
He subconsciously took half a step back and saw the crack in front of him dissipate in the tremors—spreading pure white crystal branches filled the space where the crack had disappeared, while new cracks began to brew again in the gaps between the crystal branches.
Yu Sheng opened his eyes, his consciousness instantly traveling a long journey before returning to the courtyard.
The colossal crystal tree, which blotted out the sky, still stood before him, its canopy filled with countless tiny spatial rifts where light and shadow danced, and it continued to grow slowly.
Luna, who was standing nearby, immediately sensed something was wrong and took two steps forward: "Are you alright? What happened?"
“…It seems I saw something incredible,” Yu Sheng rubbed his forehead, and after a moment he slowly spoke, “Luna, did anything change in this tree just now? During the moment I was ‘distracted’.”
Luna immediately shook her head: "No."
"Yeah……"
Yu Sheng spoke thoughtfully, then looked up at the crystal tree in front of him, at its huge canopy that had covered the entire courtyard, and at the tiny streams of light hidden between the canopy.
The characteristics of the boundary bridge... connecting space and time... the knowledge flooding into my mind... that scene just now, really came from the edge of the universe?
"Luna, you and the knights keep a close eye on the growth of this tree, especially the spacetime rifts that are growing out of the canopy—let me know immediately if there are any changes."
"clear."
Yu Sheng nodded, and then his consciousness slowly withdrew from this wilderness of the soul.
However, just as he was about to take a nap, a loud "bang" from the real world woke him up.
It sounds like something exploded.
Yu Sheng opened his eyes and sat up abruptly in bed. He saw that it was already bright outside the window, and it was probably past noon. There were four neatly arranged doll boxes in the corner, but the blonde Eileen who had been sleeping on the bed was nowhere to be seen.
Just as a bad feeling rose in his heart, he heard a thud from the master bathroom, like something falling to the ground. A few seconds later, the bathroom door was carefully pushed open, and the blonde version of Eileen sneaked out like a thief. When she looked up, she met Yu Sheng sitting on the bed.
The little doll had a golden afro, its head full of golden hair sticking up like a raccoon's tail in winter. Its little face was also blackened by soot, with only two bright blue eyes shining on its dark face.
Noticing Yu Sheng sitting on the bed, the little doll, who was sneaking out, stopped in its tracks, blinked twice, and grinned awkwardly: "Hey, hehe... Good morning, Yu Sheng."
Yu Sheng saw two rows of small white teeth appear on Eileen's dark face, and a wisp of blue smoke rose from her mouth as she spoke.
"...What are you doing?"
He asked expressionlessly.
Eileen pointed to herself: "This body can't be charged!"
Yu Sheng's eye twitched slightly. He turned to press the lamp on the bedside table, but it didn't light up.
The power tripped.
"You went out early in the morning to secretly turn on the power?!"
Upon hearing this, Eileen immediately put her hands on her hips and declared confidently, "It's noon now!"
People do laugh when they're really speechless, and Yu Sheng ended up laughing at the little thing's annoyance. He glanced at Eileen, whose face was dark and who still had an afro, his lips twitching as he got off the bed. He grabbed the little doll by the collar and muttered as he walked towards the bathroom, "Didn't I say I'd investigate your shrinkage problem after I woke up? And this is the original body you finally managed to find, aren't you afraid of damaging it by messing around with it? You're at least 3,700 years old, can't you be a little more careful..."
Eileen probably knew she was in the wrong, and she wasn't angry at all when she was being scolded by being grabbed by the collar. Instead, she turned her head and grinned at Yu Sheng, showing off her two rows of white teeth. At the same time, the four doll boxes in the corner were pushed open from the inside, and four Eileens followed Yu Sheng in an orderly fashion, ready to line up to wash their faces.
Seeing this, Yu Sheng couldn't even get angry. He could only put the blonde Eileen on the sink and then turn on the tap to adjust the water temperature while saying, "Wait, I'll make you some hot water. Your face is all black, and we need to figure out how to get rid of your hair... Oh no, the power's out, there's no hot water—you'll have to make do with the cold water."
Eileen readily agreed with a laugh, and after realizing that Yu Sheng wasn't angry, she quickly grew bolder. She then raised her hands, cupped her head, and shook it from side to side. With a "pop," she pulled her head off and handed it to Yu Sheng: "Here you go, it's easier to wash this way."
Yu Sheng was still filling the tub with water and hadn't noticed what the little thing sitting by the pool was doing. The next second, he saw the little doll holding his head and offering it to him—and then he froze, taking a good two or three seconds to realize what he had seen. He then exclaimed in a loud voice, "Holy crap!?"
Eileen immediately grinned, her eyes wide with triumph, clutching her head and laughing uncontrollably: "Hahaha, that really startled me—"
Yu Sheng was completely exasperated. After all, anyone would be in a bad mood if they saw a three-dimensional doll holding its head and swaying back and forth on the sink first thing in the morning (although it was noon now). He resisted the urge to throw Eileen out of the bathroom and held the little thing down: "Stop laughing! Stop swaying! Explain yourself first! What's going on with you?!"
Eileen then placed her head on the edge of the pool, while the other four bodies circled around Yu Sheng's feet, chattering away:
"I suddenly discovered it when I woke up!"
"I was startled at first too."
"When I stretched and moved my neck, I felt like I could take it down..."
"It actually worked!"
Yu Sheng's head was buzzing. He checked the headless doll body sitting by the pool several times, then looked at the blond, afro-haired head next to it. When he saw that the head was still blinking at him, he hesitated for a few seconds before finally saying, "You can put this back?"
“Sure,” the blond-haired man said, winking to the side, “and not just his head.”
Yu Sheng: "What do you mean...?"
He had only uttered half of his question when he saw the little doll by the sink twist its arms again, and then both of its arms fell off, and it began to crawl in the shadows on the sink countertop.
They were having so much fun climbing.
Yu Sheng stared in disbelief, about to exhale a sharp breath, when he saw Eileen lean back again: "You can even take off the legs, look, look—"
Then Eileen started crawling all over the pool, and she (the doll) was crawling everywhere.
Yu Sheng had to admit that although he had seen the doll doing some fancy tricks every morning since Eileen came out of that painting, this was still the time he had felt the most energetic after waking up.
When Eileen's left hand crawled past his eyes for the third time, Yu Sheng finally couldn't hold back anymore. He quickly gathered up a bunch of small doll pieces (that's the only way to describe it), then grabbed one of her arms with one hand and held her torso with the other. After pulling up the sleeves, he looked at the two joint structures and checked for a long time before finding no signs of damage.
"Can they all be put back in perfectly intact?"
"Yes, you can."
"It doesn't hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt at all."
"...What's the underlying principle behind this?"
"Hahaha, Yu Sheng, it's finally your turn to say that!!"
"Don't interrupt," Yu Sheng said, his brow furrowed as he laid Eileen down. "How could this happen... Wasn't everything fixed and installed back then? And..."
“Is it possible that ball joints are inherently detachable?” Eileen argued, lying on the pool. “Besides, didn’t Marlene say that genuine Alice dolls have certain joints that aren’t very strong? It’s a blessing left by the ancient Holy Spirit…”
Yu Sheng: "That's referring to 'specific' joints—not every joint!"
“That means I’m absolutely authentic,” Eileen said proudly. “My Alice doll is made using ancient methods and aged for 3,700 years…”
Yu Sheng suddenly felt extremely tired from this carefree little thing. He opened his mouth several times before finally blurting out, "Can you install this yourself? Don't always need someone to help you. Let me tell you, it's much more awkward than combing your hair..."
Before he could finish speaking, Eileen confidently replied, "Sure."
Then the pile of doll parts on the sink began to rapidly reassemble—Yu Sheng saw delicate threads appear between the freely moving limbs, not the black spider silk he was familiar with, but pale golden threads that emitted a faint light—the threads pulled the limbs, and within seconds the entire body was reassembled.
Only the head was still missing, because Eileen was waiting for Yu Sheng to wash her face.
Yu Sheng blinked, the golden threads still lingering in his vision, leaving a faint glow at the edge of his field of vision. It wasn't until the little doll waved in his direction that he realized, "Wait, what was that thread all about?"
“I don’t know either,” Eileen raised her hand as if to scratch her head, but found nothing. She picked up her head, hugged it to her chest, and scratched it. “I only discovered that the ‘threads’ released by this body are different from others when I woke up and was playing around with them. The color has changed, they can glow, and they can also be used to help reassemble the body. Although I haven’t figured out the other functions yet… Anyway, I just learned them inexplicably, like it was an instinct.”
"Just taking it apart for fun when I'm bored..." Yu Sheng almost choked on Eileen's choice of words, but at least he could finally confirm that the scattered pieces on the ground weren't broken again, but rather that she had indeed developed a new function.
Thinking of this, Yu Sheng couldn't help but stroke his chin, looking at the little doll sitting on the pool with an exceptionally serious gaze.
Eileen's "original body" seems even stranger than he imagined; it seems necessary to study it carefully.
(End of this chapter)
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