The doorknob of the kitchen turned, and then the door was silently pushed open. Yu Sheng walked out of the door with several large bags and greeted the dumbfounded Irene not far away, "I'm back."
Irene's eyes were wide open. She obviously didn't react to what was going on for a moment. "Didn't you go out to buy things? Why did you come from…"
She suddenly stopped, as if she had reacted.
"No way! You 'open a door' even to go home from a shopping mall!?"
"I thought about it. Since this door not only leads to Otherworlds, but also to a 'distant place' in reality, there's no reason why it can't go to a closer place," Yu Sheng said proudly to Irene. "By the way, I also tested carrying objects and living things through this door. It seems that as long as the door is stable, they can all pass through it smoothly…"
Irene was stunned. Hearing the words "living things," she was a little curious. "Living things?! Where did you get living things? Where are they?"
Yu Sheng held out his hand. "I caught a mosquito before I came back…"
Irene: "…?"
The little doll had a new understanding of Yu Sheng's creativity. Then her attention couldn't help but fall on the several large shopping bags he had brought back.
The first thing she saw was a box of eight-treasure porridge.
Yu Sheng took out the things from the shopping bags. He first put down the box of eight-treasure porridge, and then showed the rest of the things to Irene. "I bought lightweight clay. Because I bought a huge amount, the shopkeeper also gave me some tools. But these tools should be useless. They are all for making small dolls. To make a body for you, I have to use this—I bought a rolling pin…
"Here are the hair and pigments. I bought good ones. Although they are not the most expensive, they are close.
"By the way, I couldn't find suitable clothes for you. Do you think…"
"No need," Irene waved her hand. She watched Yu Sheng take out the things, and her face was already full of anticipation and excitement. "I can 'shape' the clothes myself. I said, this body is mainly used as a medium and a temporary container… wow, there are really a lot of things. Yu Sheng, you really put your heart into it, huh?"
"Nonsense. At least I'm doing it once. Either I don't do it, or I do it as well as I can," Yu Sheng said, but he frowned and shook his head. "But to be honest, this stuff should still be incomplete. I heard that there are also clay drying ovens and various putties, softening oils, primers, makeup tools, and so on. But I took a look, and either they can only be used for small dolls, or I can't learn them in a short time. And I have another question. Clay needs time to dry. Without a drying oven, it's not enough for large components to dry and harden in half a day…"
"It's okay. It's not important. As long as we can get the frame done," Irene seemed to be in a very good mood, and even her tone of voice when she spoke to Yu Sheng was extremely gentle. "The important thing is the ritual part. Yes, the ritual part—otherwise, I would have just asked you to buy a ready-made doll. Why would it be so troublesome?"
"That's fine," Yu Sheng let out a breath and began to sort the pile of things by category. "Then let's go to the attic. It's spacious and has a big table."
Irene nodded vigorously, but suddenly, she noticed another bag of things next to her. That thing looked a bit familiar.
"…What's this bag of lotus roots for?" The little doll had a look of question marks on her face.
Yu Sheng's hands paused. He looked up at Irene, then looked down at the bag of lotus roots. Two seconds later, he chuckled dryly. "Well, this is a backup plan in case my skills are too bad. That's how I understand it…"
Irene tilted her head and thought for a long time. She finally followed Yu Sheng's train of thought and jumped up from her red velvet chair on the spot. "No!"
"No?" Yu Sheng was a little disappointed when he heard this. "I thought the shape of these lotus roots was perfect. I spent a long time picking them."
"Of course not!" Irene's eyes were about to pop out. "I'm telling you, pre-made dishes are already outrageous enough. If you give me pre-made parts, I'll have a big problem with it…"
"Alright, alright," Yu Sheng sighed and carried the bag of lotus roots to the kitchen. "Then I'll use them to make fried lotus root boxes later."
Irene suddenly had a bad premonition. She felt that her escape journey today might not go as smoothly as she had imagined…
But Yu Sheng was full of confidence at this time. He had sorted out the tools and materials needed to shape the doll's body. He picked up the things with one hand, tucked Irene's picture frame under his arm, and reached for the kitchen doorknob.
Irene reacted quickly this time. "…You have to open a 'door' even to go to the attic!?"
Yu Sheng thought for a moment and felt that this was a bit too lazy. He smiled awkwardly, and with the materials and Irene, he turned and walked towards the stairs leading upstairs.
This house had a large attic, right above the second floor. To say it was an attic, it was more like a separate floor that had to be partitioned off because the floor height was too high when the house was built. Its area was about half the size of the second floor, and it had two windows facing the street and a skylight—this was also why, from the outside, it looked like this house had a total of three floors.
Except for when he was cleaning, Yu Sheng rarely went to the attic.
Because there was almost nothing there. Except for a large table that seemed to have been placed there because there was no other place to put it, there were only two old chairs that would creak. Every night or on cloudy days when the light was not good, the overly empty attic always seemed so gloomy that it was a bit scary.
But now it was just right to serve as a "workshop" for shaping Irene's body.
Yu Sheng ran two trips. He also found some tools that might be useful, an old desk lamp, and various strange things required by Irene for the "ritual" from the utility room on the second floor, and moved them all to the large table in the attic.
Irene's picture frame was placed on the corner of the table, leaning against a stack of old books that temporarily served as a support. She quietly watched Yu Sheng run around and get busy, appearing quieter than ever before. It was unknown what she was thinking.
Yu Sheng sat at the large table. The old chair creaked. He clumsily fiddled with the clay and spatula, and began to try to familiarize himself with their "performance."
Irene suddenly broke the silence. "Yu Sheng."
"Hmm?"
"I'm really coming out of this painting."
"Yes, if everything goes smoothly."
"…I didn't expect that there would really be such a day," Irene muttered in a low voice. "Actually, I haven't been hoping for it for many years…"
"You suddenly feel emotional about this now?" Yu Sheng raised his head and glanced at the doll in the painting who seemed to have suddenly become sentimental.
Irene sat on the chair, hugging her teddy bear and slowly shaking her body. "It's nothing. I just want to thank you."
"Then save the thanks for after it's successful," Yu Sheng let out a light breath, as if to relieve a little tension in his heart. "Now tell me, what's the first step?"
"Candles. Place them at the four corners of the table respectively. Then light another one and place it next to my picture frame—the most basic torso part must be completed before the candle burns out."
Irene's expression became serious, and she began to guide Yu Sheng on how to use a pile of everyday materials to complete the shaping of the container for the "living doll."
This was the first time she had passed on this knowledge belonging to "Alice's Cottage" to a… "human."
"Draw three concentric circles on the table. Their range is your operating space. Then extend a line from each of the four corner candles and have them intersect at the center of the concentric circles… try to draw them as round as possible… forget it, just don't draw them as squares…
"Write my name at the center of the circles, I-rene, in Old World Common… ah, you don't know it. Then find a piece of paper first. I'll tell you how to write it. Don't misspell this.
"You also need your blood, just a little. Mix it into the clay, and then mix in the pre-prepared tea powder and rose oil. Don't put too much, it will affect the molding—put the prepared clay ball in front of me first. I will guide the first 'spirit infusion'."
Irene gave instructions one by one, and Yu Sheng carried them out meticulously. A quiet and focused atmosphere gradually filled the attic. There was no usual bickering between the two, only a gradually默契cooperation.
…Actually, it wasn't very默契. Irene mainly relied on her open-mindedness, and Yu Sheng mainly relied on his confidence.
This process was more tiring than Yu Sheng had initially imagined, not only physically, but also mentally.
He could feel that the "ritual" that Irene had mentioned was gradually taking effect. The arrangements that he couldn't understand were beginning to operate according to some "law" and "power" that he couldn't understand. And as an ordinary person () who was performing this "ritual" for the first time, even though most of the spirit infusion process of the ritual was completed by Irene, Yu Sheng also felt a spiritual "power loss."
But this was something that Irene had reminded him of before the ritual began, so Yu Sheng did not panic. Instead, he tried his best to maintain his condition and complete every step that Irene requested as accurately as possible.
A doll's body gradually took shape in his hands.
It was rough, simple, crooked, and even the two legs were not the same length—the arm was even broken once in the middle and was reconnected with iron wire and water.
Yu Sheng felt that he might not have a talent for this.
But in any case, everything was finally coming to an end.
"Now you can extinguish the last candle," Irene in the frame calmly looked at the body on the table, her expression more solemn and serious than ever before. "Then put me in front of the body, at the position of the head."
"Okay," Yu Sheng said as he got up to complete this process, and casually asked, "And then?"
"Then I need a minute to comfort myself and firm up my faith…"
Yu Sheng: "…Why?"
Irene looked like she was about to cry. "It's so f*cking ugly… even if it can be reshaped, it's still so f*cking ugly now."