Chapter 457: Aileen's Fulfilling Life
Yu Sheng felt he could neither understand the state of this ball nor the way Aileen's mind worked when she thought about things, but it was obvious that the little doll had her own logic for dealing with the Ominous Star.
Anyway, the specifics of how it worked didn't matter—now the ball was under Aileen's control. After her beat-down "treatment," the Ominous Star could now follow Aileen's instructions and choose one of her dolls as its "host," without losing its mind and rocketing up to the ceiling just because there were four Aileens in the room at once.
And the little doll's next goal was to train the Ominous Star to pick up packages.
Yu Sheng had absolutely no idea how her train of thought had jumped to this, but Aileen actually had a complete explanation for it—
No people, could fly, could come back, so it was a drone, so it could pick up packages.
…As always, Aileen had her own logic for doing things.
Yu Sheng felt the doll girl's goal was a long shot and a bit fanciful, but he suspected this habit of acting on random whims was something she'd picked up from him, so he didn't have the heart to say anything. He could only wish her success in training her ball—and honestly, having something to keep the doll's attention was a good thing anyway, so she wouldn't be following him around all day chattering.
But he quickly realized that even if Aileen was busy studying the Ominous Star, that didn't stop her other bodies from following him around and nagging…
"Yu Sheng, when are we going back to Shuji? I wonder how things are over there now."
"Yu Sheng, what do you think about dyeing this ball blue? Would it look a little more lively?"
"Yu Sheng, do you think their whole 'Sovereign's Legacy Origin Tracing Decryption' thing might dig the planet until it collapses? I see it in movies all the time—trouble always starts with archaeology…"
"Yu Sheng! C-ring just glanced at me!"
"Yu Sheng, I want to go shopping tomorrow, down the mountain, into the city—"
"Yu Sheng! Yu Sheng—"
Yu Sheng's head was spinning. He noticed that this little doll had been especially hyper the past couple of days, spouting even more nonsense than usual. After answering countless questions and random ideas from her, he finally managed to brush her off.
Then he finally got a chance to eat in peace. He walked into the dining room, only to see Hu Li still sitting at the table—the girl had already finished eating, with seven or eight empty bowls and plates in front of her. But now she was staring at the last serving of food across the table, drooling, with light in her eyes.
That serving was the one she had left for him with great willpower:
A large bowl of rice, with three chicken legs stuck upright in the middle like incense sticks. Hu Li was probably afraid she wouldn't be able to resist, so she had even placed a photo of her benefactor in front of the bowl to keep herself in check…
Yu Sheng was stunned when he saw this. He had indeed told Hu Li to save him some food, but he never expected she would do it like this. As he sat down at the table, he was instantly reminded of the days when it was just him and Aileen (in her oil painting state) living here. Every meal back then had felt like this incense-burning atmosphere, except the food bowl had been placed in front of Aileen. Now the tables had turned, and he suspected it was karma…
"You don't have to save me that much—and don't put my photo next to the food next time," Yu Sheng said with a helpless chuckle, sighing as he got up and scooped half of his meal into Hu Li's bowl. "If you didn't get enough chicken legs, I'll bring some back from the Special Affairs Bureau tomorrow. They've been having specials on chicken legs lately."
Hu Li's tail instantly started wagging so hard it created a breeze. "Great! Great!"
Right at that moment, one of the Aileens happened to be walking through the dining room. The little doll yelped, "Oh my god!" and was smacked against the wall by Hu Li's tail…
Aileen cursed up a storm.
Today's Yu Mansion was still as lively as ever.
…
Night had fallen deep.
The Aileen who had been active—or rather, noisy—all day still wasn't quiet.
In the master bedroom on the second floor of 66 Wutong Road, Yu Sheng leaned against the headboard, lifting his gaze from the book in his hand and looking helplessly at the little doll pacing in circles at the foot of the bed, along with the other three Aileens running around on the floor.
"It's late at night. Why are you so energetic?"
"I slept too much during the day! I shouldn't have taken a nap…" The little doll, unable to fall asleep while pacing at the foot of the bed, bounded up to Yu Sheng in a few leaps, flopped onto his pillow with a thud, and started squirming around like a big caterpillar. "Can't sleep, can't sleep, can't sleep…"
"Stop, stop, stop. If you can't sleep, don't mutter in my ear—you're distracting me from reading," Yu Sheng said, casually peeling the doll off his pillow. "There are some new doll storage boxes in the corner. Go sleep in one of those—or you can stay on the bed, but only one of you, and no more messing around."
Aileen lifted her head and looked toward the corner.
Four black wooden boxes, each less than a meter long, with a rather exquisite appearance, were neatly placed in the corner of the room.
"You're actually making me sleep in a box!" The little doll jumped onto Yu Sheng's stomach, glared at him with her crimson eyes, and yelled. "And when did you buy those boxes—I came up during the day and they weren't there!"
"I ordered them a long time ago. After dinner tonight, I made a special trip to to pick them up. What's the problem?" Yu Sheng glanced at the fuming doll on his stomach. "Let me tell you, these four boxes cost more than this bed, so don't complain—stuff made for dolls is ridiculously expensive…"
Aileen kept staring straight at Yu Sheng. After a while, when she saw that his expression hadn't changed, she turned back with some skepticism to look at the corner: "…Really that expensive?"
"Of course. Solid wood, memory foam lining, silk inner lining—but I removed the lock clasps on the outside so you wouldn't accidentally lock yourself inside."
Aileen gave Yu Sheng a suspicious look once more, then had her other three bodies run over to the doll boxes, open them, and inspect them carefully.
The three dolls busied themselves for a while, studying the structure and material of the wooden boxes, lying inside to test them out, and then dragging the boxes around.
"I want to pick my own good spot," Aileen declared confidently. "Can I move all four boxes onto your bed?"
"No."
"Then onto the nightstand?"
"No can do—there's not enough room, and the nightstand also needs to hold your oil painting at night."
Aileen looked troubled. The three dolls dragged the boxes around the floor several times, but in the end, they moved them from one corner to the other and lined them up neatly again.
But even just changing corners made the little doll seem pleased, as if she had once again become the ruler of the room. After arranging the boxes neatly, she jumped in front of Yu Sheng, crossed her arms proudly, and said, "Let's be clear! I'm only reluctantly sleeping in these boxes because you spent so much money on them—and besides, your bed is too small. I feel cramped. Also, I'm an Alice doll, and we ancestors of all dolls naturally sleep in boxes. Based on the above…"
Yu Sheng didn't argue with her. He just watched her happily and gave a few perfunctory replies.
In the next second, Aileen jumped off his bed, and all four dolls climbed into their boxes. They pushed up the lids and said in unison, "I'm going to sleep now. Turn off the light."
Yu Sheng rolled his eyes. "Those things have lids. You can close them yourselves!"
The Aileens thought about it for a moment, said "Oh" four times, lay down inside their boxes, and closed the lids. But before Yu Sheng's ears had even been quiet for a few seconds, one of the boxes suddenly flipped open with a pop. One Aileen climbed out, holding a dull gray stone ball in her hands.
The little doll trotted over to the nightstand and carefully placed the Ominous Star in front of the oil painting—right next to Yu Sheng's charging phone.
"I'm going to sleep now. You keep this ball here—"
She said this, then turned to look at the Ominous Star, trying to put on a stern expression: "No flying around, no disturbing my sleep… and no disturbing Yu Sheng's sleep! You have to obey Yu Sheng just like you obey me!"
Yu Sheng stared blankly at this whole arrangement. After holding it in for a few seconds, he couldn't help asking: "Can it understand you?"
"No idea," Aileen said shamelessly. "But whether it listens or not, what's that got to do with me? I'm giving orders first—and if it doesn't listen, I'll smack it."
Yu Sheng opened his mouth to say something else, but Aileen had already scurried back into her box, tossed out a "Goodnight, Yu Sheng," and slammed the lid shut with a bang.
As if she were afraid someone might steal her sleeping spot.
Even though just over ten minutes ago, she had been vigorously expressing her dissatisfaction with having to sleep in a doll storage box.
Yu Sheng let out a helpless, resigned sigh, shook his head, shifted into a comfortable position against the pillow, and stretched his limbs, letting out a feeling of relief: "Ah, a big bed after so long… finally I can sleep on the whole bed by myself again."
Then he turned his head and looked at the Ominous Star that Aileen had placed on the nightstand.
The grayish-white stone ball sat quietly in front of the oil painting. To keep it from rolling around, Aileen had placed a hair tie under it.
"I don't know how you suddenly ended up like this, but since you're being quiet now… that's good," Yu Sheng said after staring at the stone ball for a long time. "I don't care what you mean by 'Ominous Goddess.' Aileen is happy now—if you're listening, I hope you understand what I'm saying."
The stone ball didn't move at all, as if it had truly become a lifeless object without any consciousness.
But Yu Sheng hadn't expected any response from it anyway.
He just let out a soft breath, casually placed the book he had been reading on the nightstand, looked at the Ominous Star, then looked at the light switch not far away. After thinking for a few seconds, he raised a finger and pointed: "Turn off the light."
The stone ball didn't move.
"Turn off the light."
Yu Sheng ordered again.
"Turn…"
The box in the corner "pop"ed open again. Three Aileens climbed out, muttering as they walked toward the light switch: "Lazy bones, lazy bones, lazy bones—you never turn off the light yourself every night. That ball hasn't been trained yet. How would it know what 'turn off the light' means?"
The three little dolls reached the wall, stacked up on top of each other, and deftly turned off the room's light. In the sudden dimness, three pairs of crimson eyes turned and stared straight at Yu Sheng.
"This time we really are going to sleep. Goodnight~"