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Yu Sheng sighed. “You’re a creepy doll sealed inside an oil painting, and you’re worried about that? Just having you here is inauspicious enough, don’t you think?”

Irene huffed indignantly. “Who says I’m inauspicious? I’m so good-looking; how could I bring bad luck? Some people have entire walls covered with plastic figurines in their rooms. You’ve got an oil painting of a beautiful girl leaning against the wall, and you’re complaining it’s inauspicious?!”

Yu Sheng blinked, momentarily speechless. He couldn’t fathom how she managed to string all that together in one breath.

Shaking his head, he muttered, “That’s not the same,” as he stood up to grab a wet wipe, intending to clean the blood off the frame.

But the blood wouldn’t come off.

He paused, puzzled. The wet wipe had no effect. He rubbed harder on the frame (though he was careful not to press too hard on the canvas itself, lest he damage it), but the bloodstains remained stubbornly in place.

More concerning than the unremovable bloodstains was the state of the wet wipe—it didn’t have a single trace of red.

No matter how hard a bloodstain is to remove, it shouldn’t be like this!

Irene couldn’t see the wet wipe’s condition from her vantage point. She merely tilted her head up to see Yu Sheng standing there, frozen. A hint of unease crept into her voice. “Um, what’s wrong?”

“I can’t wipe it off,” Yu Sheng said blankly, staring at the bloodstains that seemed to have become part of the frame. “It’s not that it’s soaked in; it’s more like… it’s part of the frame’s original color.”

Irene didn’t respond.

Puzzled, Yu Sheng glanced down to find the doll in the painting staring blankly at him as if her mind had suddenly gone blank. After a couple of seconds, her expression shifted from vacant to horrified. Suddenly, she raised a trembling finger, pointing at him, and let out a piercing scream. “Ah! Yu Sheng, y-you… you’re dead dead dead dead…”

Yu Sheng blinked once, then immediately understood what was happening. Seeing that Irene was still screaming, he calmly sat down in the chair opposite her. “Stop shouting ‘dead’ so many times; it’s bad luck—even if the actual count is admittedly a bit high.”

Irene paused her screaming, shot him a glance, and then resumed her shrieking.

Yu Sheng sighed and stood up, trying to soothe the terrified doll—she was far less composed than that fox.

But verbal reassurance seemed limited in effect. Perhaps because the blood’s delayed reaction had hit her too intensely, she appeared particularly agitated.

Fortunately, an idea suddenly struck Yu Sheng.

The next moment, he grabbed Irene’s oil painting and gave it a vigorous shake in the air, then tossed it spinning upwards. Catching it deftly, he shook it a couple more times before placing it back on the table.

He watched as Miss Doll struggled mightily to climb back onto the chair draped with a red velvet cushion.

Irene stopped screaming.

She started cursing instead, and her language was anything but polite.

This time, however, Yu Sheng found it much easier to calm her down. He finally managed to get the doll to settle, and amidst her lingering grumbles, he explained to her exactly what was going on.

At the same time, he confirmed that his blood did have an effect on Irene, even in her sealed state. Though the blood seemed to have only affected the frame of the painting, for some reason, Irene was indeed influenced by it. The same thing had happened to her as with Foxy: she recalled witnessing Yu Sheng’s death.

However, so far, Yu Sheng hadn’t sensed Irene’s thoughts or memories as he had with Foxy.

He glanced at the doll, who was still fuming, and felt a bit awkward admitting that he suspected she might be lacking in both departments…

Irene was still pouting, but regardless, the shock of Yu Sheng’s “return from the dead” outweighed the earlier “roller coaster ride.” Her focus remained on his resurrection.

“So you’re saying… this isn’t the first time?” She stared at Yu Sheng, disbelief evident in her tone.

“Yes, in fact, it started before I met you,” Yu Sheng replied thoughtfully, recalling that frog in the rain. “But don’t ask me how it works. Like that door earlier, I only know it happens; I don’t understand why…”

“Are there any side effects or costs?” Irene pressed.

“At the moment… none that I’ve noticed,” Yu Sheng hesitated, his usual nonchalance replaced with caution. “Physically and mentally, I haven’t found any issues.”

Irene continued to gaze intently into his eyes. “Even so, you should avoid this kind of ‘resurrection’ as much as possible in the future.”

Yu Sheng sighed. “I know that.”

“Side effects might show up in the distant future, and the cost could come in ways you can’t even imagine,” Irene insisted, as if worried he hadn’t grasped the gravity of the situation. “Everything in the world seeks balance. Anything that exceeds reason and order will eventually face a backlash from reason and order. Returning from the dead… it’s the most outrageous of all irrational events. Even if you haven’t noticed any problems, I find it hard to believe.”

She paused before adding seriously, “It’s not that I don’t believe you; I don’t trust the surface appearance of this situation.”

“I understand,” Yu Sheng nodded earnestly. Then he spread his hands helplessly. “But think about it—do you think any of the times I died were by choice?”

Irene was momentarily taken aback. “…I suppose not.”

“I’m just trying to keep a positive attitude. There’s not much else I can do. In that valley, all I could do was stay optimistic,” Yu Sheng sighed. “I get your concern. Don’t worry; I’ll be careful.”

Irene studied him for a long moment before finally muttering and looking away. “Fine, as long as you keep that in mind… I’m still waiting for you to get me a body.”

Yu Sheng exhaled in relief.

He had to admit, this doll had quite the capacity for acceptance. Such an unbelievable thing, and she took it in stride…

Suddenly, Irene looked up again, a mischievous glint in her eye. “Wait a minute, are you even human? Are you sure you were born and raised by your parents, eating normal food? Can’t you recall any… peculiarities from your childhood?”

Yu Sheng’s face fell. “…”

He retracted his earlier thought. Perhaps her capacity for acceptance wasn’t that great after all.

He mumbled a few vague responses, not paying much attention to her continued grumblings. After testing the matter of his blood, he remembered his original plan.

He needed to continue familiarizing himself with his ability to “open doors” and its characteristics to find a way to recreate the passage and accurately locate his destination.

That’s until he could open the door leading back to that valley to bring food to Foxy.

Irene finally quieted down. Watching Yu Sheng grasp the kitchen door handle, she hesitated before speaking. “Even if you do manage to find the door back to that valley, have you thought about how you’ll deal with ‘Hunger’ afterwards?”

Yu Sheng slowly turned the handle, focusing on that subtle sensation deep within his “spiritual intuition.” He replied softly, “I’ll take it one step at a time.”

“That’s not a plan at all!” Even without turning around, he could tell Irene was glaring at him. “Are you going to deliver food to Foxy or to that monster?”

“I mean, if I can defeat that monster, I’ll fight it. Temporarily eliminating the physical embodiment of ‘Hunger’ might help Foxy break free from its influence. If I can’t beat it, I’ll try to bring Foxy out through the ‘door,’ but there might be side effects—’Hunger’ could still target her. If that doesn’t work, at least I can bring some food in to make her feel better. As long as I have a reliable way to open the door, we can plan everything out carefully.

“When I say ‘take it one step at a time,’ I mean I’ll choose one of these options based on the situation when I get there. But as for how to deal with that ‘entity’ specifically… I don’t have any ideas right now.”

“Well, if you’ve thought it through to that extent, then that’s acceptable,” Irene sounded relieved. “As long as you’re not rushing in blindly to feed that monster.”

Yu Sheng considered mentioning that “if it eats me, the monster’s mouth and stomach won’t agree,” but decided against it. Who knew how much more she’d lecture him if he said that…

He turned these irrelevant thoughts over in his mind as he slowly pulled open the kitchen door.

An endless darkness greeted him, with faint stars flickering in the distant void. Beyond that… there seemed to be nothing else outside the door.

Yu Sheng stared in confusion at the empty expanse beyond the doorway. After a moment, realization struck him, and he slammed the door shut.

“What the—it’s outer space!”