Irene had the ability to enter other people's dreams—and according to her, she could not only enter people's dreams, but also influence the direction of the dream to a certain extent, such as ringing the end-of-exam bell in a dream or summoning a dump truck.
Seriously, it seemed like a very powerful skill if used well. It might even be possible to perform high-end operations like psychological suggestion, mental parasitism, and memory remodeling.
But Yu Sheng was very skeptical about how much of this doll's boasting about her abilities was reliable—at the moment, she was useless even in a dream, and she couldn't even hide well in the grass.
And even in a dream, she was still trapped in that oil painting.
Irene's oil painting floated in front of Yu Sheng. The doll girl in the frame looked a little embarrassed, and Yu Sheng found her current state very awkward—her floating in mid-air was even worse than hanging on the wall.
"You can only stay in the painting even in a dream?" Yu Sheng twitched the corner of his mouth and finally asked the question in his heart. "I thought that since we're in the spiritual realm, you could at least come out and run around…"
"How else can you call it a curse," Irene said with a helpless expression. "I'm trapped in the painting in reality, and it's the same in the spiritual world. No matter where I go, I can't get out of this painting, unless I find a suitable vessel—freedom? It doesn't even exist in dreams."
"Then you're really miserable," Yu Sheng said with sincere sympathy.
"Hey, but it's a little different in a dream than in the real world!" Seemingly feeling a little embarrassed, Irene quickly tried to save face when she saw Yu Sheng's sympathetic reaction. "I'm a little freer here than in the real world. See, I can still float around… don't laugh, and, and that's not all!"
Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, and was really a little curious. "That's not all?"
Irene thought for a moment, struck a pose like she was powering up in King of Fighters '98, and began to put on an expression of effort in the oil painting, as if she were about to activate some ability. Even Yu Sheng was fooled by her for a moment and subconsciously became serious, watching the changes in the doll in the painting. And in the next second, a layer of psychedelic light and shadow really floated on the surface of the oil painting!
As Yu Sheng's eyes gradually widened, the oil painting finally went "bang"—and turned into a poster in the style of the 1980s.
Irene changed to the color tone of an old movie and stood in the poster, staring at Yu Sheng with wide eyes.
Irene: "I can change the art style."
Yu Sheng: "…"
"You laughed out loud!!"
Yu Sheng tried hard to keep a straight face. "I didn't."
"In your heart!"
Yu Sheng didn't want to deal with this doll anymore. The big fox was still lying next to him, and he hadn't figured out her situation yet.
Irene was a little hurt. Seeing that Yu Sheng was ignoring her, she floated to the side and started to ramble, "I can also change into other things, like woodcuts, scrolls… I'm still studying how to become a relief sculpture. Then I'll have thickness, and you can't say my character is one-dimensional anymore…"
Yu Sheng couldn't stand her rambling anymore and suddenly turned his head. "First, when did I ever say your character was one-dimensional? Second, the term 'one-dimensional character' is not used this way—similarly, even if you become a marble statue, your character won't become profound because of it."
Irene opened her mouth to say something, but before she could speak, she went "bang" and turned back into an oil painting—her transformation time was up, and it had lasted less than three minutes in total.
Yu Sheng was dumbfounded: He knew that this doll was useless even in a dream, but he really didn't expect her to be this useless…
But this time, Irene didn't look disappointed. She finally noticed the white fox lying on the grass next to her—or rather, she finally noticed that this big fox seemed a little out of place with the surrounding dream environment, and her curiosity made her shift her attention. "By the way, what's with this fox? Why is her color different from the surroundings?"
Noticing the puzzled expression on Yu Sheng's face, she followed up with an explanation, "The things in a normal person's dream basically tend to have a unified color tone. Even if the dreamer themselves doesn't notice it, I can see it when I'm watching. Just like this dream of yours, the sky and the grass are all gray, which is the 'base color tone' of your dream. But this fox… it looks like it's in the wrong movie."
Speaking of this, she paused and looked at Yu Sheng with suspicion. "Why is there such a strange phenomenon in your dream?"
Yu Sheng fell silent for a moment, then turned to look at the sleeping white fox and slowly said, "Her name is Hu Li."
"I know, you can tell it's a fox at a glance…"
"I mean her name, Hu Li," Yu Sheng corrected her helplessly, then reminded her, "Remember what I told you when I was trapped in that 'Otherworld'? I met a fox, the kind with white fur, red eyes, and a bunch of tails…"
Irene was stunned for a moment. Her not-so-good memory finally slowly began to work, recalling what Yu Sheng had mentioned to her before.
Her expression became wonderful. She widened her eyes and looked at the huge fox demon, opening her mouth several times before finally squeezing out the words, "What?! How did you catch her in your dream… wait, how did you have the ability to lock a person in…"
"I didn't catch her, and I don't feel like she's really 'locked' here. It should just be something like a shadow? I can't say for sure," Yu Sheng had to explain. "I saw her not long after I fell asleep, but I can't wake her up no matter what."
Irene looked at Yu Sheng, then turned her head to look at the fox demon. Her gaze went back and forth between the two "people" several times, as if she were trying to sort out the logic of what was happening, but this was obviously not easy.
"I've never heard of such a thing…" she muttered in surprise, then suddenly turned the frame and stared at Yu Sheng's eyes. "Are you really a person?"
Yu Sheng immediately frowned. "What's that supposed to mean! If I'm not a person, are you?"
But Irene still stared at him, her expression unprecedentedly serious. "Alright, a human, an ordinary person, lives in an Otherworld for a long time without knowing it, and also runs into another Otherworld and encounters a malicious entity. It's one thing to get out alive, but you also cut a 'local specialty' from that entity and brought it back, and even stir-fried and ate it. You're alive and kicking after eating it, and now you can even store another mind in your own dream—and the main body of this mind is even trapped somewhere else.
"All these ridiculous things, all happened to you, and then you say—you're a person? An ordinary person?"
Yu Sheng was gradually made uncomfortable by Irene's scarlet eyes. He subconsciously shifted his gaze, thinking to himself that he had even left out the "death and resurrection." The ridiculous things before were nothing compared to this last one…
"It's true that… a lot of strange things have happened. I'm a little confused myself, but if I have to say, even you are one of the 'strange things' for me recently," Yu Sheng said helplessly. "Don't look at me. I don't know what's going on either. This Hu Li won't wake up no matter what I do. If I could wake her up, maybe I could ask her about the situation."
Irene stared at Yu Sheng for a while longer, as if to confirm that the latter was not joking. Only then did she slowly withdraw her gaze and focus her attention back on the silver-white fox demon.
She thought for a long time.
"I have an idea."
Irene suddenly said.
"An idea?" Yu Sheng asked curiously. "Tell me?"
"I'll try to drill into this fox's dream again, if she happens to be dreaming at this time," Irene pointed at the fox demon. "Her current state is very much like a mental block, but no matter how well a mind is blocked, it's difficult to defend in a dream. Maybe I can 'see' something. It would be even better if I could take the opportunity to wake her up here."
Yu Sheng was really a little surprised. After all, he was just lamenting how unreliable this doll was, but he didn't expect her to come up with such a high-end plan now. He couldn't hide his surprise. "Is something like this also possible?"
"It's not difficult, as long as she's also dreaming… even if she's not dreaming, your two minds are obviously connected now. I have a way to 'squeeze' over and take a look, but… it's a bit risky and requires your help."
Yu Sheng's expression instantly became serious. "No problem. Tell me what to do."
"Because it involves jumping between minds, it's like 'deep diving' in unstable waters. Once the 'connection' in the middle has a problem, I might be trapped on the 'other side'," Irene looked at Yu Sheng very seriously and said. "So, I need a 'rope,' and you'll be that rope.
"You have to 'dive' with me, continue to sink from your own dream, into the depths of this big fox's mind. You also have to share some of the pressure with me, so that I can focus on finding the direction. And in this process, if something really goes wrong… I will use a more drastic method to 'wake you up.'
"Your awakening has the highest priority in this chain of dreams, and it will 'pull' my mind back along with it, so that we can both safely return to the real world. But I have to remind you first, my 'waking up' process may not be that comfortable."
"How uncomfortable can it be?"
"…Probably like dreaming that you're taking the college entrance exam and the bell rings before you've even written your name. Before you have time to react, a dump truck crashes into the examination hall, turning you and the white moonlight you remember most from high school into paper cutouts, the kind with a particularly thin character design…"
Yu Sheng couldn't understand what this person was talking about from Irene's strange analogy at all.
But he thought it shouldn't be a big deal. It was just one awakening. How could it be more uncomfortable than death?
Compared to this little hesitation, he wanted to know more about what was going on with Hu Li and what was going on with his dream.
"No problem, let's start," Yu Sheng took a light breath and nodded solemnly at Irene. "What's the first step?"
"You go over, get close to that big fox, the closer the better… just lie on her tail.
"Then, hold my frame, close your eyes, and we'll jump in the dream."