.


    Irene’s reaction didn’t seem fake.


    Ever since Yu Sheng had started interacting with the doll, he’d never caught her being insincere. Everything she said and did brimmed with a kind of pure honesty, as if her head was filled with solid matter—either she was an incredible actress or she was genuinely clueless.


    Yu Sheng cautiously held onto the first idea but leaned more toward the second.


    He then described to Irene the appearance of the dead doll he’d seen, along with the massive shadowy monster that seemed to perish alongside it. Her response was still the same: “I don’t know.”


    Frowning, Yu Sheng sank into deep thought.


    “Hey, why’d you suddenlye to ask me this? Weren’t you going upstairs to sleep?” Irene couldn’t help but ask.


    He hesitated for a moment but decided to tell her about the changes in the room upstairs. It didn’t involve any of his secrets and might even rte to Irene herself. Talking about it might help solve the mystery.


    “Something happened in the room upstairs…”Yu Sheng recounted everything he’d seen when he went upstairs. This time, Irene surprisingly didn’t chatter away. As she listened, her crimson eyes widened, and when he finished, she stared nkly for a long moment before finally drawing out a long, “Woooow—”


    Yu Sheng immediately felt that telling her wasn’t going to help solve anything.


    “Looks like you don’t know what’s going on either,” he sighed. “I suppose you’ve never seen that mirror before?”


    “Never seen it, no idea,” Irene nodded confidently, then quickly added, “But I think your house is getting weirder and weirder.”


    “You don’t have to tell me; I feel the same way,” Yu Sheng sighed again. “Opening a door might lead who-knows-where, rooms suddenly change their furniture, mirrors reflect who-knows-what from who-knows-when. To think I used to find this ce quite livable. Ugh…”


    Irene stared unblinkingly at his face. After listening to his grumbling, she hesitated a moment. “So… are you nning to move out? Not going to live here anymore?”


    He didn’t answer right away, but he had to admit he’d considered it.


    After all, he could tolerate the asional haunted mirror, mysterious furniture, suspicious appliances, or a chatterbox doll trapped in a painting. Not fearing death himself, he could just treat it as adding some excitement to life. But the fact that opening a door might drop him into another dimension was a real problem—that wasn’t something he could just shrug off.


    For Yu Sheng, the most troublesome part about entering another dimension wasn’t the danger; it was the uncertainty of being able to return. Just that alone made him seriously consider moving elsewhere.


    Seeing that he remained silent, Irene was quiet for a while before speaking up. “Well, if you find a new ce, let me know first, okay? Figure out a way to get me into their neighborhood, and I’ll help you bring down their housing prices…”


    Yu Sheng was taken aback. “I was just joking back then… Aren’t you worried that this would insult the ancestor of dolls and your sisters?”


    “I thought it over carefully just now, and I think your n makes a lot of sense,” Irene said earnestly. “Besides, if I help you lower the housing prices, that can sort of repay you for letting me stay at your ce, right?”


    He suddenly realized she was worried he might leave her behind if he moved.


    But he didn’t point this out, merely shook his head. “Let’s not talk about this now. It’s just a thought; I haven’t actually decided to move yet. Don’t worry, if I do move, I’ll take you with me. A painting doesn’t take up much space.”


    “Oh, that’s good!” Irene instantly brightened.


    But soon, a hint of sadness appeared on her face. “Um… that doll you saw in the mirror—did she have her eyes closed?”


    “…I don’t think so,” Yu Sheng recalled. “Why do you ask?”


    Irene looked downcast. “When a living doll is destroyed, if her eyes are closed, it means her soul has returned to Alice’s Garden, where we’ll be reborn. But if her eyes are still open… then she’s still ‘there.''”


    He was stunned for a moment, suddenly regretting his hasty answer. He should have asked first.


    “We don’t even know where the mirror was showing,” he said softly after a moment of silence. “But since she appeared in the mirror, maybe she has some connection to this house. Perhaps one day we’ll find her. For now, don’t think too much about it; you’re still trapped here yourself.”


    “Alright, I guess,” Irene sighed. “Sometimes a sister goes out and loses contact… We’ll meet again eventually. Yes, we’ll meet again.”


    Yu Sheng suddenly felt that this doll wasn’t as carefree as he’d thought.


    After chatting with her for a while longer, he made his way back upstairs.


    He stopped at the room at the end of the hallway, ncing inside once more to confirm everything was as it had been earlier. Deciding there was no need to linger, he turned and entered his own bedroom.


    Drawing the curtains closed, hey down on the bed. For what felt like an eternity, he tossed and turned, unable to find rest. Though his body was drained of energy, his mind refused to quiet down. Thoughts swirled endlessly in his head, tumbling over one another like waves in a storm. Irene’s situation, the strange valley beneath the night sky, knowledge of dimensions beyond this world, the fox girl desperately clinging to her sanity while urging him to flee, and… his own resurrection.


    His mind wouldn’t let go of any of it.


    He wasn’t sure how long hey there in that restless state before sleep finally imed him.


    Even in slumber, his mind remained a chaotic whirlpool, swirling in the deep recesses of his thoughts. As though descending into a foggy dream, he could feel himself slipping deeper and deeper. Through the haze, he could see flickers of his memories, like scenes from an old film. Vague voices echoed in his ears, but none were clear enough to understand. Slowly, the murmurs faded, and he found himself sinking into peaceful silence.


    Yu Sheng wandered aimlessly in his dream, a lone figure beneath a dim, clouded sky. He was walking across a vast, barren in, and in the distance, there was a small hill, barely noticeable in the gloom.


    He felt as though he had been wandering around this hill for what seemed like forever. No destination in mind, no clear sense of self. He didn’t even know who he was anymore.


    Then, out of the corner of his eye, something caught his attention.


    A glimmer of silver in this colorless world. Instinctively, he moved toward it. With each step, the light grew brighter until, suddenly, he was standing before it.


    A silver-white fox.


    She was lying there, sleeping in the wilderness. At least two or three meters tall, her body was magnificent—elegant, serene, and almost otherworldly in beauty.


    A soft breeze stirred the tall, wild grasses around her, gently ruffling her silver fur. Yet, she didn’t wake. She remained curled up peacefully, surrounded by severalrge tails. Some were tucked beneath her, while others draped over her body like a nket.


    Yu Sheng stared wide-eyed at the fox before him. It didn’t take long for him to realize that he was dreaming—and, more importantly, that he was aware of it.


    For a moment, he hesitated. Then, gathering his courage, he reached out and touched her front paw. “Foxy… is that you?”


    There was no response. The white fox remained asleep, utterly still beneath his hand.


    He called out again, a bit louder this time, and even gave one of her tails a gentle tug. Still, she didn’t wake.


    It wasn’t that she was simply sleeping—no, it felt as if something hadpletely blocked her senses.


    Yu Sheng frowned, stepping back to take it all in. Why was this fox in his dream?


    He knew his mind had been muddled before falling asleep, filled with thoughts of this very fox trapped in another dimension. But this… this didn’t feel like any ordinary dream. Somehow, he could sense that Foxy was really here, not just an illusion of his imagination.


    Then, a sudden realization dawned on him. He looked down at his right hand.


    A tiny droplet of blood had seeped from the tip of his finger. And around that spot, faint teeth marks could still be seen.


    It was the bite Foxy had given him earlier, when he’d snatched the chocte from her. In her instinctive reaction to protect her food, she had nipped him.


    As he stared at the mark, a memory resurfaced. Back in the valley, he’d briefly glimpsed shes of her thoughts—her memories—through some strange connection.


    “Could it be because of the blood?” he wondered aloud.


    It made sense, in a way. He guessed that her appearance in his dream might be linked to the fact that she had ingested a small amount of his blood.


    But if that were true, then why hadn’t the frog in the rain or that grotesque monster made of flesh appeared here too? After all, they had also consumed his blood—much more of it than Foxy had…


    Before he could follow that line of thought too far, he felt a sudden shift in the atmosphere. A low, mocking giggle echoed from the grass behind him.


    The sound was oddly familiar.


    He spun around quickly, his heart racing. There, poking out of the grass, was a picture frame.


    Inside the frame, Irene sat hugging her teddy bear, shing him a sheepish grin. “Watching TV got boring, so I thought I’d sneak a peek at your dream…”


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