At First Life，At Second Life

Chapter 21: At First Life, At Second Life

　　As a matter of fact, as early as he knew that such a dangerous and common phenomenon as "foreign domains" existed in this world, and that this huge "Boundary City" was also a special place called "Junction Land" When Yu Sheng knew that this huge "Boundary City" was also a special place called "Junction", he thought that there must be a group of people specializing in dealing with this kind of phenomenon - not just the kind of individual soldiers (although such people certainly existed), but rather a large-scale, even professional and formalized organization.

　　There are official ones, and there are probably private ones as well.

　　But like Erin said, these people don't come into contact with normal people under normal circumstances.

　　Otherworldly is beyond common sense, is the end of reason, is the seemingly solid order of the reality of the mountain of countless small and dangerous holes, ordinary people may not spend their lives with these holes in the deep hidden light to deal with, but unlucky people once accidentally glimpsed those from the holes escaped from the floating light, there will be no turning back.

　　This was the "knowledge" that Irene had told him from the very beginning, and from these descriptions alone, Yu Sheng was able to tell that those who specialized in dealing with the Otherworldly Realm would definitely find ways to prevent ordinary people from coming into contact with any information related to the Otherworldly Realm, including their own existence.

　　But if something does happen, they should have their own response mechanism too ...

　　Yusheng looked up again and looked out the window at the cold, empty street.

　　"Seriously, how long does it usually take for those 'professionals' you speak of to respond?" He asked uneasily.

　　"I don't know, I can't remember ... but I was under the impression that it was fast," Erin hugged her teddy bear and rocked her body back and forth in her chair, looking slightly beaten up, "They have a whole bunch of means of sensing abnormalities, the whole of the Junctionlands should be full of their surveillance, it was before I was sealed, and it's definitely more powerful now."

　　Yusheng didn't say anything, so he just looked at the mannequin　　in the painting.

　　"Dang, of course, professionals are people too, people have a sketchy side, and occasionally they might be a little slow to react?" Erin instantly looked sheepish, "Or maybe they didn't notice the unusual situation on your side ... although the commotion on your side has been quite big ..."

　　"It doesn't sound very reliable," Yu Sheng frowned, then sighed, "According to you, this whole house of mine is an 'exotic area', but no one has come to my door until now, so I seriously doubt your mouth of 'professionals' professionalism ... Alas, I feel that in the end, I still have to rely on myself."

　　Erin blinked, "Yes, yes oh?"

　　Immediately afterward she spoke curiously, "What are you going to do? From what you're saying ... you're still planning to deal with that valley, and that entity in it, huh?"

　　"It's not that I have to deal with it, but sooner or later it will come back to me, I have this feeling," Yu Sheng said, tugging at the corners of his mouth as he thought of that weird freezing rain, and the frogs in it, "And didn't you say so? Once you've dealt with the Otherworld, there's no going back - I've been in contact with the 'Otherworld' for longer than you think, I'm afraid."

　　"That's ... well, you're right, it's true that quite a few of the people who specialize in dealing with the Otherworld started out as just ordinary people who were unlucky enough to get caught up in the incident," Erin muttered, "I'm under the impression that like a tenth of the ordinary people who came into contact with the Otherworld either actively or passively became 'Otherworld' specialists after all. of ordinary people become 'exotic' specialists either actively or passively after coming into contact with exotics, it's kind of like getting caught up in the filth after all ..."

　　Yu Sheng heard Irene's words but couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, "Only one tenth? What about the remaining nine-tenths? Returned to normal life successfully?"

　　Erin tilted her face, "Dead yah."

　　Yusheng: "..."

　　"Also ... there are also those who survived, every year to save a lot of people it," Erin noticed Yu Sheng's face, suddenly anxious to explain, but after the explanation added, "of course, the dead seem to be a little more. "

　　"... Irene." Yusheng looked at the doll in the painting.

　　"Hey, hey?"

　　"Can't talk can't talk."

　　"Yes, yes oh?"

　　Yusheng sighed and slowly got up from the table.

　　"Dead or not doesn't really matter much to me, but I do have to find a way to find out more information related to the Otherworld, and those 'professionals' you mentioned ... if they can't make it, then I'll have to take the initiative to find them," he said. " he said while thinking, "After all, your memories and experiences are also really a bit unreliable."

　　"Actively looking for them ah?" Erin didn't seem to care about the second half of Yu Sheng's sentence, still looking high and happy, "Then ... then why don't you really go to the nearby utility poles to see if there are any small advertisements posted by certain exotic security companies?"

　　Yu Sheng looked helpless, "... I'm serious."

　　"I'm serious too," Erin winked, "they really do leave contact information, so that ordinary people like you who have encountered the Otherworld and returned by chance can ask for help, but this kind of contact information is usually invisible to normal people, and is handled by 'technical means' - but it's different for people who have been exposed to the Otherworld, and more or less will have some 'spiritual awakening' changes, so there's a high chance of noticing those people who have been exposed to it. technical means' processed - but after contact with the otherworldly people are different, more or less will produce a little 'spiritual awakening' changes, there is a high probability of noticing those normally hidden 'secret seal symbols'."

　　Speaking of this, Irene suddenly paused for a moment, her expression rather seriously looking up and down at Yu Sheng: "You didn't feel what ... changes were happening to you?"

　　Producing change after exposure to the exotic?

　　Hearing the mannequin's statement, Yu Sheng's heart was immediately stirred, and he hurriedly opened his mouth, "The changes you are talking about, is it that you will become so strong that you can crush rocks, that you can recover from being slashed and gasping for a few breaths of air, that you can sense other people's memories and thoughts, and by the way, you can also be resurrected from the dead or something like that ... "

　　Irene was stunned, looking at Yu Sheng as if he were an alien: "What?"

　　"Wouldn't ...?"

　　"I can see things I wouldn't normally be able to see! Are you still a human being? Change your species - don't read too many novels and anime."

　　Yusheng: "..."

　　Seeing that the mannequin was reacting this way, Yu Sheng decisively did not continue on this topic.

　　Your own situation is really not right, even in the field of "supernatural", seems to be a little too supernatural .

　　Luckily, Erin didn't look like she thought much of it - it was probably true that the mannequin's brain didn't seem to be working very well because she'd been locked up for so long.

　　Yusheng exhaled and looked up in the direction of the kitchen.

　　A vaguely torn and hesitant look flickered across his face, then he tugged at the corner of his mouth and stepped toward the kitchen.

　　Erin in the oil painting jumped out of her chair at that moment, "Hey, are we going to make breakfast?"

　　I don't know why this guy who can't eat at all is so excited every time it's meal time.

　　"I'm going to take care of the 'specialties' I just brought back." Yu Sheng said without looking back.

　　Erin carried the teddy bear in one hand and waved the other, "Oh, go go go ..."

　　The mannequin stopped abruptly.

　　Her not-so-smart head from being sealed for so long finally reacted to something.

　　Where in ... the exotic realm do you find any native products?

　　"Wait!" Erin suddenly let out a scream, the commotion almost startled Yu Sheng who had already walked to the kitchen door, "What the hell kind of 'local specialty' is that?!"

　　Yusheng walked into the kitchen, stopped, and looked back with a slight smile, "Guess?"

　　Irene stared at Yu Sheng, who had already begun to tie his apron, and a hint of shock and a look of "is this person's brain starting to go out of whack" gradually appeared in her scarlet eyes: "Wait, wait, what are you doing? You can't be planning to ...No, did you really get that thing off that entity? How do you a normal person do that? Hey you're not really going to ..."

　　Yusheng decisively closed the kitchen door, blocking out Beepji's movement.

　　A few moments later, a faint shout came from the direction of the restaurant from Erin: "Hey you don't close the door! At least come and help me restart the TV first! I can't watch the TV!"

　　Yusheng, however, had stopped paying attention to her.

　　He came to the pool, removed the lid on the piece of "meat", and saw that the broken tail in the pool seemed to have completely quieted down, and only the sinewy breaks would occasionally twitch slightly.

　　He silently looked at this broken tail that had once burrowed into his stomach, and once again felt that ... "appetite" that seemed to seep out of his bones.

　　But this time, that appetite wasn't as violent as it had been in the beginning, but only leapt slightly, with a certain delightful sense of anticipation and just the right amount of restlessness.

　　Is it really okay? Is this normal? Is one still normal?

　　Yusheng thought all of these questions over, but the thinking didn't make the movements of his hands hesitate in the slightest.

　　After preparing the onion, ginger, cooking wine, and taking out the board and cleaver, Yu Sheng carefully cleaned the severed tail with water and scraped off the scales, and then placed it on the board and sliced it off with a single cut.

　　It cut better than expected - even though it had been hard as stone when it was on the creature, at the moment, the knife sliced down to feel nothing more than tight beef.

　　And there's no bones in it.

　　Yu Sheng had thought about it, and the first time he felt his body "strengthened" was after he had bitten that monster.

　　And after that, he had torn into the flesh of his opponent in his second encounter with the monster, and had felt a further increase in his power after that as well - the magnitude had become noticeably smaller, but it did make a difference.

　　This led him to conceive a bold and ... delicious idea.

　　What happens when you cook it?

　　Yu Sheng's mood gradually became good as he split the meat neatly with his hands and feet.

The staggering Irene outside the door became less noisy.

　　He didn t know if what he was doing was right or wrong ... Mostly, it wasn t right, after all, even a mannequin sealed in an oil painting thought it was evil.

　　But compared to coming back from the dead, a suspicious piece of meat is really no big deal.

　　"I've eaten all the raw ones," Yu Sheng said softly to himself as he sliced the meat, "Once you're back, you're back ..."

Chapter 22: The full range of colors and flavors

　　There was so much meat that it could not be stewed at one time, so Yu Sheng processed them into several dishes with different approaches.

　　The so-called one back to life, two times cooked, three times onion and ginger with wine - ancient mankind in the early days of civilization in the face of nature's gifts is largely in accordance with this process of gradual exploration and experimentation.

　　Yu Sheng hummed a little song, cut the largest part of the meat into large pieces, over boiling water to skim off the blood foam, and then in the casserole pot put the star anise, fennel, cloves, cinnamon and other stewing ingredients, put the meat into the meat with enough water, salt, soy sauce and fishy wine, and then put it on the stove to slowly simmer.

　　Taking advantage of the stew, he also fried the remaining meat with chili peppers and garlic scapes in two separate dishes, slightly tasted, felt fresh and flavorful, not too old and not too raw, the meat is tender and smooth, but I can not say that the flavor is like a specific kind of meat, on the basis of the taste alone, it is a little bit close to a very tender beef.

　　What's left, he's going to wait until after this meal to make sure it's okay before processing it into bacon for storage ... Or, curing it and then dehydrating it in an air fryer to make it into salted pork jerky? I haven't done that yet, so I don't know if it will work ...

　　Yu Sheng's mind was spinning with all sorts of ideas, and he felt like a courageous scientist who was exploring the possibilities in a field where no one had ventured before.

　　And so he explored the kitchen for nearly two hours, a good deal of work before he finally opened the door, and then made a trip to carry cups, plates, and dishes and casseroles of stew to the dining room table.

　　In the oil painting, Irene was looking at Yu Sheng's busy work over there with a horrified look on her face, her face showed two contradictory expressions of "Forget it, I'm tired, let him go" and "You can't, you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't", and it was only after a while that she finally spoke out, "You're not really going to eat this! She couldn't help but open her mouth, "You're not really going to eat it, are you, it's something that was brought out from a foreign land! Don't eat yourself to death!"

　　Yusheng looked up at Erin, "What if I told you that I've already had it twice 'over there'?"

　　The conflicted expression on Erin's face instantly disappeared, leaving only horror, "... Huh?!"

　　"You see I'm still alive and kicking so I should be fine, it's a shame to throw away this trophy that was so hard to get back," Yu Sheng said with a matter-of-fact look on his face, "You know about hunting don't you? This is my hunt-sooner or later, I'm going to get that thing back in its entirety and make it realize who's at the top of the food chain!"

　　Irene didn't respond, while Yu Sheng looked at the dumbfounded appearance of this doll lady, and asked out of curiosity, "But then again, has no one really 'tasted' the 'entities' in the foreign realm? Didn't you say that they come in all shapes and sizes? There shouldn't be any shortage of things that look edible."

　　"Who would try that!" Erin was frantic, "It's all about not allowing contraptions with any weird properties, poison is good enough, what kind of thing would you put in your mouth like that! And you also ate two ... you really ate twice ah?"

　　"Uh ah, but the first two times were sashimi, the situation was quite urgent at that time, it was too late to process it, it belongs to the kind of urgency that if you don't hurry up with this bite, you won't have a life to eat." Yu Sheng said casually while sitting down across from Ayrin, casually using his chopsticks to pick up a piece of meat and throw it into his mouth, eating it with relish.

　　Erin listened in awe, "So ... what was your reaction to eating it then?"

　　"Eat and die." Yushengt said frankly.

　　"Then you still ..." Irene first subconsciously shouted, then felt that there was something wrong - but she did not know that Yu Sheng "came back from the dead " thing, so she only felt that the other party was teasing her, so she glared somewhat angrily, "I'm serious with you!"

　　Yusheng grinned, laughing out loud at the exasperated mannequin in the oil painting.

　　He realized that he had come to kind of enjoy fighting with this mannequin.

　　There was no way the other guy could jump out of the painting and give himself a headbutt anyway.

　　He still hasn't explained his "coming back from the dead" to Irene, on the one hand, because at this stage, Irene can't even notice his death process, so explaining it would be like a lie, on the other hand, he has too many conjectures waiting to be confirmed for the changes that have occurred in his body, and he would like to wait until he understands a few more things, then he can discuss them with Irene! .

　　Eileen, however, didn't know how many messed up thoughts were behind Yu Sheng's promising smile, she just couldn't help but take another look at the sumptuous meal on the table before she watched Yu Sheng's chewing movements with a little dazed look in her eyes.

　　It looks ... like it is quite appetizing, and the color is no different from ordinary meat after processing, and it is completely impossible to see the weird look at the beginning.

　　"Is ... good?"

　　The painted mannequin finally didn't hold his tongue and asked, pretending not to care.

　　Yu Sheng instantly smiled, as if he had expected this scene casually picked up the empty bowl and plate that had been placed on the table earlier, and gave Irene a serving of rice and broth, placing it in front of the oil painting.

　　"And I didn't say ...," Erin muttered.

　　Yu Sheng said casually, "You can't really eat it anyway, so it's even less important to care about the ingredients of these contraptions isn't it?"

 Erin thought about it for a moment and felt as if it made sense: "Yes, yes oh?"

　　So she was frank again, and once again presented a state of sound and laughter before the dishes set out by Yusheng.

　　In the middle of the meal, the two couldn't help but return to their earlier discussion about "professionals".

　　"Actually, there is another possibility that no one has come to you yet," Erin said while thinking as she sat very close to the edge of the picture frame with her teddy bear in　　her arms, "that is that some organization or official personnel have actually noticed something wrong over here, but they are in a position of professional judgment and believe that they can't take immediate take action, or they haven't pinpointed the connection point to the otherworldly area and the relevant intelligence for the time being, so they can only arrange means of surveillance first."

　　"Surveillance?"

　　"Yeah, maybe you have a whole bunch of plainclothes stalking outside this house right now, after all, you haven't waited for someone to rescue you before you ran back from the foreign land by yourself, no matter whether it's because of your strength or luck, right, anyway, the people who specialize in dealing with this kind of thing didn't have the time to make a move, then most likely didn't have the time to locate it, so naturally, they can only arrange surveillance around it first... ... you these two days can first pay attention to this neighborhood there is no appearance of any strange faces, maybe it is a stalking plainclothes officer plainclothes detective plainclothes investigator or something, that is, by the way to pay attention to the matter, do not delay you to go to the nearby poles to look for small advertisements ... "

　　Yu Sheng ignored the other party's comment about "small advertisements on poles" and looked up at the window instead.

　　Erin had made it simple, keep an eye out for any strange faces in the neighborhood - and he didn't know which ones were strange! He's only been here for two months, and he's been a cat at home almost the entire time, plus he's a bit face-blind, so half of the people in this place look like strangers to him!

　　"Do you think that pancake seller at the intersection looks like a plainclothes man?" After looking suspiciously out the window for half a day, Yu Sheng muttered to Eileen.

　　"I don't know, I can't see."

　　"Oh yeah, I forgot," Yusheng responded, hurriedly getting up and picking up Irene's frame and putting it in front of the window not far away facing out, "the one right over there ..."

　　"Not like that."

　　"So sure?"

　　"Nonsense, fifty seconds for a set with intestines and eggs, really if it's a plainclothes fifty seconds I'm afraid the oil can't even be brushed."

　　"... That's true, what about that cell phone sticker you see next to it?"

　　"Not like that, either - too handy."

　　"Oh ... hey then look ..."

　　"Don't look, it's useless for you to be suspicious, and if you are really a professional stalker, you won't be able to tell," Irene interrupted Yu Sheng, "If you have the effort to guess, why don't you go out more in the past two days, you have been tainted with exotic aura, and when you get close, you will be seen by those professional people. You've got the scent of a foreign land on you, you'll definitely be seen by those professional people at a glance when you're near."

　　"... hey, too."

　　Yu Sheng sighed and couldn't refute the other party, so he turned around and went back to prepare to clean up the dishes on the table.

　　He ended up just turning his head when he heard Erin yell up behind him, "You put me back first! I'm still slumped over the window!"

　　Yusheng helplessly sighed again and muttered as he turned to move Erin off the windowsill, "Ch, what a pain in the ass."

　　"Then you get me a body out of it as early as possible, so I can run on my own," Irene in the oil painting raised her eyelids and looked at Yu Sheng, who was placing himself on the dining table, and then added immediately afterward, "I'm thinking that I've already gotten a little more familiar with you today, so I'm asking again ..."

　　As soon as Yu Sheng heard this, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but tremble.

　　When Erin discussed the "escape plan" with him before, she did say that the two of them were not familiar enough, so cooperation in this regard should wait until both sides were familiar with each other, but he didn't realize that this doll was so flexible in judging the criteria of "familiarity".

　　"Plus plus plus, I've got a head full of things to do right now, at least until I'm done with this one ..."

　　"Yeah, all right," Erin was persuasive, nodding her head after only a slight loss, "Don't you forget it then!"

　　Then she was quiet for a short while and watched as Yusheng cleaned up the dishes on the table before beeping　　again, "What are you going to do next? Ready to go out and look for poles?"

　　"You can't get along with the poles can you?" Yu Sheng instantly glared at her, "I'm going upstairs to sleep now! After all this, I'm getting sleepy!"

　　Erin gave an oh-so-quiet sigh and raised her hand to point at the TV across the picture frame.

　　"So can you get the TV working first, all of a sudden there's no signal and you can't watch anything ..."

　　Yusheng: "..."

　　After a moment, he let out an extraordinarily heavy sigh.

After spending such a short time with this bleeping girl, he was already missing his dashing and happy solo life.

Chapter 23: Suspicions

　　After briefly checking the TV, Yu Sheng realized that the thing was just dead.

　　The classic situation that happens when cheap smart devices are used for a long time - oops I've been working for two hours straight I've got a smoking CPU/memory reporting errors/power supply overheating/nothing just want to die ...

　　Yu Sheng can not help but miss a bit of memory of those solid and durable old antique TV to think of when the household appliances can not now these smart devices so pretentious, although the function of a little less, but now those varied intelligent features he felt no good to where to use, an artificial intelligence and artificial retardation like ...

　　"Just disconnect the power and wait two minutes to reboot," Yu Sheng mentally lamented, casually shutting off the power to the TV and turning his head to Eileen, "This thing isn't of great quality, and it jams on its own if it's left on for a long time."

　　"So you want to get a new one?" Erin's eyes lit up at once, "Get one with voice control, I'll be able to change the channel myself, and I'll be able to watch TV when you're not home ..."

　　"You really mean to make demands?" Looking at this guy who didn't take himself as an outsider at all, Yu Sheng was instead exasperated, "I haven't said anything about you relying on my house, and you still want a new TV, are you contributing money or effort?"

　　"I ..." Erin opened her mouth, her face actually turning a little red, and she stumbled over her words, "I-I-I don't have any money, but I've been helping you catch up on your knowledge about the Otherworld, ah! More or less a counselor ..."

　　"This consultant's memory is not good is not it, say out of something they are not sure rely on not reliable," Yu Sheng skimmed his mouth, "looking for you as a consultant I have to find an additional consultant to you as a consultant."

　　Irene rose red in the face, but rose half a day and did not find a rebuttal, can only lower her head to sulk with herself, but her mind is very good, sulked after three seconds to recover, looked up at Yu Sheng: ''Then wait for you to get me out of the bar, no matter how to get out of the bar, I work part-time to return to you, and is not it true that you will still be dealing with the exotic domain in the future? I can be your helper! Fight for you this is always okay right ..."

　　Yu Sheng hadn't really thought about that - in fact, he hadn't even considered what would happen after Irene actually came out of this painting one day - and raised his eyebrows when he sniffed, "You? Sure?"

　　"Hey I'm telling you, don't underestimate me! I'm Alice's doll!" Erin stood up from her chair with her arms crossed, her whole body dejected, "Living dolls are blessed, I can fight much better than those so-called investigators and spirit world detectives and whatnot in the Otherworld ..."

　　"And then had it pressed into the painting, right?"

　　Erin instantly reddened her eyes (though they were already red), "You ... you you you ... you wait until I come out and you'll see! Don't you turn your head!"

　　"Okay, okay, okay, I believe I believe." Yu Sheng smiled and turned around, waving his hand helplessly as he did so.

　　In fact, from the beginning, he did not take this doll seriously, after all, she stayed in the painting, although it relies on the home, but not to eat his family rice, even if the footprint of the flat on the floor is less than half a square meter, hanging on the wall is not in the way of anywhere, in addition to watching a TV almost no consumption, a fight can be a boredom - what's more, she really helped to add a lot of knowledge about the "other world". She did help herself to add a lot of knowledge about the "other world".

　　As for what this guy said about working to pay off his debts after coming out of the painting or working as a follower and fighter ... he will listen to it seriously for the time being.

　　The TV screen came back on, and Yusheng took the remote and held it down a few times to find the nutrient-less urban drama.

　　Erin is not at all picky about TV shows - after all, Teletubbies are all more interesting than wallpaper.

　　But just then, Yu Sheng looked at the TV screen in front of him but suddenly thought of something he hadn't cared about before.

　　"Erin." He looked back at the doll girl in the painting.

　　"Eh?"

　　"I remember you saying that you've been sealed in the painting for a long time, right?"

　　"Yeah, it's been so many, many years I can't remember when I got in ..."

　　"Then how come you know so much about all sorts of modern things?" Yu Sheng asked seriously, "And know about smart TVs that can be voice controlled?"

　　He found a hole in Erin's words and actions.

　　But that wasn't really too much of a question, and there were a number of explanations that could answer that, such as the fact that she had learned about the changes in the world by observing the dreams of the people in the neighborhood, or the fact that she had been hung up in the homes of other moderns before she had entered this house as well - which was more than likely going to be Erin's answer, Yu Sheng thought.

　　But Erin's response was a dumbfounded "Huh?" .

　　The painted figure seems to be completely baffled by this question, it even looks like even she herself is realizing this matter for the first time, after staring blankly for a long time, she slowly turns her head, "I ... don't know why ah?"

　　"You don't know why?" Yusheng looked stunned.

　　"Well ah, I ... did get locked up in this picture for a long, long time, really, decades maybe, but ... but I just know what the world is like now ah, I don't know how I know it though , I ..."

　　The mannequin　　in the painting stammered, and seemed to begin to doubt himself at the end of his speech, hesitant to go on.

　　Yu Sheng stared closely at Irene's expression, trying to find a hint of a lying look on her face.

　　"And do you remember exactly how you were put in this picture? And what happened before you were locked in, do you remember?" He then asked.

　　"I ... just remember it being a curse," Erin spoke hesitantly, "the painting was some sort of entity as well, and I was supposed to come and fix it, but instead I got locked in, but I can't remember exactly how it went, and the process before I was locked in The thing ... before it was locked in ..."

　　The doll slowly came to a halt, as if fragmented memories of her past were haunting her thoughts, she recalled them in a daze, and only after an unknown amount of time did she speak softly as if in a dream, "I am Erin from Alice's cottage, one of Alice's dolls ... "

　　She looked up with an uneasy look in her expression.

　　"Yusheng, that's all I remember."

　　Yusheng frowned deeply.

　　There were so many things to brainstorm in his mind in that instant.

　　It ranges from the bizarre to the conspiratorial to the hilarious - but it's just not reliable.

　　After all, he didn't have any evidence or clues that would answer the questions on Erin.

　　Erin, on the other hand, looked extraordinarily disturbed as she clutched the teddy bear in her arms, strangling the mass of stuffed animals out of shape, "Am I out of my mind?"

　　Yusheng scratched out the brainstorming in his head about the direction of the conspiracy.

　　Then looked up at Erin and added another ten percent weight to the funny direction.

　　"Don't think hard if you can't, at least not yet," he exhaled softly, shaking his head at Erin, "Maybe it really is because being locked up for so long has caused your memory logic to be all a bit muddled."

　　"Yes, yes oh?" Erin nodded hesitantly, then seemed genuinely slightly relieved.

　　Yusheng: "..."

　　No, how is it that she's relieved to know that her memory and logic might be faulty instead? Isn't this proof that she's really out of her mind? Where exactly did what she just said comfort this guy?

　　Yu Sheng instantly had a head full of question marks, but should he say no, Irene's current reaction really dispelled a lot of the doubts that had just bubbled up in his heart.

　　Seriously, if this painting doll really found a perfect set of reasons to explain her "modern knowledge sources", Yu Sheng might even be a little more skeptical, but instead, she just that heartfelt "huh?" As soon as she came out, Yu Sheng felt that this guy's entire persona had cleared up ...

　　Shaking his head at the thought, he casually said as he walked towards the stairs leading to the second floor, "Why don't you watch TV downstairs, I'll go up and catch up on some sleep."

　　Erin waved her hand, "Hey hey, you go ahead."

　　Yusheng then left the restaurant and went upstairs, yawning his way to his bedroom with the exhaustion he had accumulated earlier in that night valley.

　　He was indeed tired and sleepy, and his drowsiness increased after he had eaten and drank enough, and he really needed a good night's sleep at this time.

　　Still, as he came to the bedroom door, he couldn't help but stop and look up at the end of the hallway.

　　The door that had once been blocked by nameless forces then stood silently in his sight.

　　The room at the end of the corridor, where he had found Erin.

　　Yu Sheng frowned, and with a movement in his heart, he took a step towards that side.

　　On arriving at the door, he noticed that the position of the handle on the door had changed, the shaft and the handle had been reversed and replaced by what he eventually discovered to be the "correct position" to successfully open the door.

　　After a moment's hesitation, he reached out and took hold of the doorknob, turning it gently.

　　There was a soft click, and the once-unopenable door was now opened as gently as the doors to every other room.

　　As soon as the door was pushed open, the scene in the room was reflected in Yusheng's eyes-

　　Plain and unusual furnishings, a single bed with a nightstand against the wall to the left of the door, a closet, desk and a chair against the wall to the right, old flooring that looks a little faded, and light blue wallpaper on the walls.

　　Above the desk were windows through which bright sunlight poured in, making the whole room look bright and warm.

　　And on the wall directly opposite the door, where Irene's oil painting once hung, now hung a mirror.

　　Yu Sheng's gradually stunned expression was reflected in the mirror.

Chapter 24 - The Mirror's View

　　This room wasn't originally like this!

　　Yusheng of course reacted instantly - he remembered exactly what this room that had once trapped Irene looked like, empty, without any furnishings, not even a chair, just a lone oil painting hanging on the wall directly opposite the door ...

　　Instead of the way it is now, with all kinds of furniture and a mirror on the wall facing the door.

　　Doubts and the slightest bit of uneasiness surfaced in his mind, but Yu Sheng did not feel any dangerous aura in the room.

　　Of course, he knows that this so-called "sense of crisis" is very mysterious, but after several attempts to brush shoulders with death, he does feel that he has some sense of danger, and here ... he feels that the room in front of him is very safe.

　　After standing in the doorway and hesitating for a few seconds, Yu Sheng took a step into the house.

　　Everything in the room looked very normal, and there was no monster with a pitchfork suddenly brushing out of the corner or a fire pit falling from overhead just because he stepped in, the sun was shining just right outside the window, and the air in the room was very fresh, with no scent of corruption or suspicious fishy odor.

　　Yu Sheng checked around the room, confirming that the furniture and furnishings here were just ordinary items, and then finally came to the mirror that was facing the door of the room.

　　In his impression, the mirror is usually not placed in the position directly facing the door of the room, according to his understanding, feng shui is one aspect, the other reason is that the mirror directly facing the door of the room in the evening will easily lead to open the door into the house of the person to be frightened.

　　He was not sure, however, whether similar statements were made in this "border city".

　　He only felt that the mirror facing the door of the room brought him some ... weird feelings.

　　And the eeriness is not only because of the oil paintings of Irene that originally hung here, but also because the view in the mirror ... looks strange.

　　That is an indescribable oddity, the scene reflected in the mirror is actually very normal, is the room at the moment, Yu Sheng carefully examined half a day, but did not find the heart of that strange feeling of the origin, just the more you look at the more some suspicion - in the end, where is wrong?

　　Is the size and position of the objects in the mirror shifted in a way that is imperceptible to the naked eye? Is there a violation of light and dark in the image? Or is there something in the ... mirror that wasn't in the room?

　　Yu Sheng pondered for a moment and reached out to gently brush his fingers across the surface of the mirror.

　　A cold touch came from the mirror, and the mirror rippled in a circle of water-like waves where his fingers touched, and the reflection in the mirror shattered in the blink of an eye along with the ripples!

　　Yu Sheng's eyes instantly widened, and he subconsciously took half a step back, and in less than a second, the mirror had already turned into blackness - the original reflection of the room's scenery shattered and dissolved in the ripples, and the darkness as thick as ink eventually filled the entire frame, and as if it had swallowed up everything, it slowly squirmed before Yu Sheng's eyes and It was like swallowing everything, slowly writhing, undulating and rotating in front of Yusheng's eyes.

　　And then, something new gradually emerged from that darkness, Yu Sheng restrained the uneasiness in his heart and took a step forward to take a closer look, and gradually, the layer of darkness that seemed like a thick black veil faded away in front of his eyes, letting him see clearly what was in the depths of the mirror:

　　A mannequin - but not Erin, but a strange face - was falling in pieces in a ruin that was impossible to see, her limbs broken, her dress torn and bruised, as if she had been in a terrible, vicious battle and had finally died of exhaustion. She was a woman who had gone through a terrible battle, and finally died of exhaustion.

　　In dismay, Yu Sheng opened his eyes wide and tried to see more from the mirror, and as if the mirror really responded to his thoughts, the image in that darkness slowly moved up, and Yu Sheng noticed that the perspective presented by the mirror was pulling away, tilting, and presenting a wider panorama-

　　He saw around the war dead mannequin, saw ruins on a much larger scale, he saw many structures that looked like classical columns and flying buttresses, and those structures were broken and tilted and collapsed into the dark, mud-like chaos, and many pieces of the mannequin's broken limbs were scattered all around as if they were revealing a message to him:

　　Everything here was destroyed as a result of this battle.

　　Suddenly, Yu Sheng's mind echoed the words that Irene had told him earlier:

　　"... Living dolls are blessed, I can fight much better in the Otherworld than all those so-called investigators and spirit detectives and whatnot ..."

　　"Are these 'living dolls' really this capable of fighting ...?" Yu Sheng couldn't help but mumble.

　　But even though she could fight so well, the doll in the mirror died, and something even more powerful than her killed her - and as the view panned out, Yu Sheng saw the "enemy" that had killed the doll.

　　A ... huge shadow, Yu Sheng didn't know what it was, only felt that it was huge, almost ten times the size of the mannequin, its outline roughly had the shape of a human being, yet it seemed to have twisted and overlapping feathered wings on its back, and it similarly collapsed between a piece of rubble, and a part of its huge body melted like mud, blending in with the ruins surrounding the Part of its massive body melted like mud, fusing with the chaos around the ruins, and with the pieces of the doll's limbs scattered in the ruins, while the rest of its body structure was covered in distortions and breaks.

　　Yu Sheng didn't know if the twisted breaks on the giant shadow were from being hit by a doll or if it had originally looked like that - after all, the thing had been quite abstract-looking to begin with.

　　But there was one thing he was able to guess, the mannequin and the huge shadow that seemed to be born with feathered wings should end up together.

　　And just as Yusheng wanted to see more details again, the image in front of him suddenly rippled like water waves once more.

　　Everything in the depths of the darkness shattered and dissolved in the blink of an eye, and the thick curtain-like darkness instantly surged upward and receded toward the surrounding frame, and in the blink of an eye, what was in front of Yu Sheng's eyes turned into a plain mirror again, reflecting the scene in the room.

　　Yu Sheng stared at the scene in bewilderment, and then tapped and touched the mirror a few more times, failing to conjure up any more anomalies.

　　What the hell was that?

　　Probably because he had dealt with abnormal stuff more in the past two days, Yu Sheng felt that his acceptance ability had become much stronger, and at this time, he actually didn't feel that the weird scene just now was any kind of scary, but just had a strong curiosity about what he had seen.

　　Is what appears in the mirror something that once actually happened? Who was the dead mannequin? And what was that massive shadow that died with the mannequin? Where is that ruin? And why had all ... this appeared in this house, in front of him?

　　Yu Sheng pondered with a furrowed brow, and couldn't help but think of another problem:

　　Did the scene recorded in the mirror have anything to do with Irene?

　　That dead doll didn't look similar to Irene, although her face was completely different when she died in battle, but at least that striking blonde hair was completely different from Irene, but for some reason, when seeing that doll, Yu Sheng couldn't help but associate it with a certain young girl who was watching TV on the first floor and was sealed in an oil painting.

　　After a few moments, Yu Sheng ended his contemplation as he looked at the mirror on the wall and reached out to hold the frame, exerting a slight force to try and see if he could take it off and change its position.

　　The mirror was motionless, solid as if it had been cast into the wall.

　　After a few attempts, Yusheng chose to give up.

　　He turned toward the door, but suddenly turned back before leaving the room, his eyes sweeping quickly across the room.

　　The furnishings in the room were still the same, and the mirror hadn't changed in the slightest.

　　Yusheng frowned and closed the door to his room.

　　After two or three seconds, he slammed the door open again, like he was trying to take the room by surprise.

　　Nothing had changed in the room, it was still the same.

　　Yu Sheng stood in the doorway holding the doorknob, his head poked into the house and looked around suspiciously, gradually feeling like a psychopath.

　　After double checking, he finally stopped tossing that door.

　　But instead of going back to his bedroom, he thumped down the stairs to the dining room.

　　Irene, who was watching TV on the dining table, heard the movement coming from the side and poked her head towards the edge of the picture frame, "Hey? Yu Sheng, didn't you go to bed? Insomnia? I don't know how to tell bedtime stories ah ..."

　　Still the same heartless and self-effacing look.

　　Yu Sheng didn't say anything either, just sat across from Irene and looked at her attentively, as if he was scrutinizing something.

　　This finally made the painted mannequin feel a twinge.

　　"What are you looking at me for ...," Erin scowled, "I'm telling you, I know I'm good looking, but you have no future with paperweights... ..."

　　The topic that Yu Sheng had been brewing all the way through was stretched out by this one sentence from Irene.

　　"Ahem, let me get down to business with you!" He had to cough dryly and very stiffly to get the conversation on track, "Do you remember what the room you were hung up in before looked like?"

　　"Remember," Irene replied thoughtfully and naturally, "nothing, empty, a door visible from across the room, and the wallpaper - which was moldy and warped in the corners and you didn't fix it. "

　　Yusheng nodded: good, at least in this case, Irene was in agreement with her own memories.

　　"Second question, do you remember a place - it looked like a ruin, with many classical columns and collapsed stone walls and eaves, the ruins as a whole were 'soaked' in darkness, and then there was a mannequin --Don't worry about whether it was you or not, anyway, there was a mannequin dead in the ruins, dying a horrible death, arms and legs shattered all over the place ..."

　　Erin instantly scrunched her neck, "That sounds scary."

　　"Never mind scary, just tell me if you remember anything about this scene."

　　"No."

　　Erin replied without hesitation