Chapter 43: Irene's Plan

Irene really did possess a lot of incredible abilities—Yusheng had deeply experienced that when he sank into Huli’s dream alongside the little puppet. But he had to admit, this sorry excuse for a puppet had so many screw-ups in everyday life that it was easy to overlook that fact…

“So now there’s only one thing left, the most critical part,” Yusheng said, sitting on the sofa with a serious expression as he looked at the little puppet beside him. “We need to find a way to recreate that gate leading to the alien valley.”

“You’re still going to use the brute-force method?” Irene asked curiously. “Try every ‘frequency’ you think is close, one by one?”

Yusheng sighed. “That’s the only option. After all, the first time I entered the valley, I hadn’t truly mastered the technique of ‘opening the gate.’ I overlooked too many details back then.”

Irene turned her head to look at Yusheng. The little puppet seemed to be thinking hard. After a moment, she hesitantly spoke up. “Actually… I have an idea.”

Yusheng immediately leaned forward. “Oh? You’ve got a way?”

“Not necessarily feasible, because I don’t understand how you pull off this ‘opening the gate’ thing, let alone that ‘frequency’ you keep mentioning,” Irene said, swiveling around on the sofa cushion with a rustling sound. “But from what I understand, you actually need some kind of ‘feature’ to help you ‘lock onto’ the destination. Or maybe a navigation signal?”

“…I guess you could put it that way?” Yusheng wasn’t entirely sure himself. “Actually, I haven’t fully figured it out either. The whole process was me fumbling blindly, a lot of it based on ‘feeling.’ But your ‘navigation signal’ analogy is pretty fitting—when I open the gate, the location on the other side is completely random. But if I can accurately ‘remember’ some kind of ‘feature’ of the other side, the passage collapses into a unique one. That’s roughly how it works.”

“So that means if we could leave a navigation marker on Huli’s side, you could directly reproduce the passage?”

“Should be,” Yusheng nodded, but then frowned in confusion. “But where do we get such a navigation marker? The whole problem is that we can’t find the way to the valley. If we could leave a marker over there, we wouldn’t have to worry…”

“What about from the dream?” Irene suddenly said.

Yusheng was taken aback, then vaguely understood what the puppet meant.

Irene continued explaining in detail. “Last time when I sank into Huli’s dream with you, I established a weak connection with her. If I can strengthen that connection, maybe I can link to her senses—then I’ll drag you in, and you can directly touch the aura of that valley through Huli’s perception. Wouldn’t that be equivalent to setting up a ‘navigation marker’?”

Yusheng listened dumbfoundedly as Irene laid out her plan. The more he heard, the more he felt this puppet’s wild idea… actually seemed feasible?

“There are two difficulties with this process,” Irene continued. “First, we need Huli’s cooperation. She has to be willing to open her mind to you. That shouldn’t be too big a problem—just explain it to her properly. She trusts you. The second difficulty is a bit… dangerous.”

Yusheng didn’t interrupt, just signaled with his eyes for Irene to go on.

“The second difficulty: right now, Huli’s mind isn’t just her own,” Irene said, her expression growing slightly serious as she looked into Yusheng’s eyes. “Entity-Hunger has already burrowed deep into the bottom of her consciousness. So once you establish a deep connection with Huli, you’ll also establish the same connection with Entity-Hunger. I’m not sure what will happen then. Theoretically, you should be able to withstand a short contact, but I’m afraid the influence of Hunger might take root in your heart. If you actually enter the valley and face that monster later, that rooted influence might erupt at any moment…”

Yusheng fell into deep thought.

Seeing him go silent, Irene’s eyes darted as she caught on. She immediately stood up on the sofa, hands on her hips (though still shorter than Yusheng sitting down). “Don’t you dare think about just ‘dying first’ to see if you can purge that influence! I’m telling you, that tendency is dangerous. What if you die and come back and still can’t shake it? Then you’re really screwed!”

Yusheng felt awkward and adjusted his sitting position. “I didn’t say that…”

“I can tell!”

Yusheng: “…”

Why did this usually slow-witted puppet have to be so sharp at times like this!

“Alright, alright, under any circumstances, I’ll put the idea of ‘dying first’ on the back burner,” Yusheng surrendered, waving his hand, uncomfortable under Irene’s crimson stare. Then he forcibly steered the topic back on track. “But I still want to try your plan. The risk of direct contact with Entity-Hunger is real, but I think… it’s worth the gamble.”

Irene’s crimson eyes continued to stare at Yusheng for several more seconds before she spoke. “Fine. Looks like you really want to save that fox. Her condition can’t afford to be delayed anyway. So let’s go with this plan.”

But just then, Yusheng remembered something else. “There’s still one more problem though.”

“Huh?”

“I can’t necessarily dream the dream where Huli appears,” Yusheng spread his hands. “Last night I didn’t even dream at all—I don’t know how to control my own dreams.”

Hearing that, Irene smiled instead, her smile full of smugness and bragging.

“I can,” the little puppet declared proudly, standing on the sofa with her arms crossed (66.6 cm). “You just worry about dreaming. Leave the rest to me—I’m telling you, after breaking free from that painting’s binding, I’m terrifyingly strong now! Even I’m scared of myse—”

Before she finished, Yusheng adjusted his posture on the sofa. The cushion shifted, and Irene, standing on the edge, immediately wobbled. With a yelp of “Hey!” she toppled off the sofa—and got wedged between the sofa and the coffee table by the painting frame on her back, hanging upside down beneath the frame.

The puppet flailed under the frame, as if about to fly up and bite someone.

She was cursing quite creatively.

Yusheng reached out and picked up the frame. “Looks like your binding is still pretty serious.”

“You laugh… if you laugh again, I won’t help!” Irene’s arms were stuck in the straps of the painting frame, and as Yusheng lifted it, she hung like a cross. “Put me down! Put me—hey, hey, my arm, the joint is stuck! Twist it back for me…”

Yusheng looked at Irene speechlessly, then casually unhooked her from the frame, and began enduring her noisy fussing while he twisted her stuck joint back into place.

Late at night, Yusheng made all preparations to sleep.

But Irene was still running around on his bed like a little rocket scurrying everywhere.

“Hey, can’t you settle down for even a moment?” Yusheng lay in bed, looking helplessly at Irene bouncing around beside him. “I need to sleep.”

“Your bed is so big!” Irene happily ran to the head of the bed, then jumped onto the nightstand, clinging to the lamp on it and shaking it, as if she hadn’t heard Yusheng at all. “Hey hey, this lamp is shorter than me! Look, Yusheng! This lamp is shorter than me!”

“Next time I’ll buy a nightlight that’s even shorter than you!” Yusheng rolled his eyes in annoyance and reached out to pick Irene off his lamp. “Did you forget what you’re supposed to be doing? If you keep this up, I’ll lock you in the closet!”

Irene finally quieted down, grinning sheepishly. “I’m just a little excited… Fine, fine, you sleep, you sleep. I won’t mess around anymore.”

Yusheng sighed wearily and set Irene down. “Go turn off the light.”

The puppet said matter-of-factly, “Can’t reach it!”

“…Get a chair!”

“Oh.”

Finally, the world fell silent.

Yusheng let out a long breath, enjoying the brief peace in the darkened bedroom. He tried to adjust his state and fall asleep.

Then he turned his head and saw two bright red eyes staring at him from beside the bed in the darkness.

Irene was clinging to the edge of the bed like a koala, gripping the mattress, staring straight at Yusheng.

“…That makes it even harder for me to sleep,” Yusheng said helplessly. “And why do you have to be in my room anyway? You could enter my dream from the first floor before, couldn’t you? Why follow me in here?”

“Closer distance means better signal.”

The puppet replied with a straight face, sounding as if she were making it up on the spot.

But at least she understood Yusheng’s meaning. She finally jumped down from the bed edge and went to sit on a chair not far away.

Yusheng sighed again.

He knew Irene was still watching him. He had no idea what was going through that puppet’s head (if she even had one), but he could tell she wouldn’t be leaving tonight.

He had to force himself to ignore the crimson stare from the darkness, clearing his mind as much as possible to cultivate drowsiness.

He didn’t know how long he tossed and turned—maybe an hour, maybe longer.

When exhaustion built to its peak, he finally sank groggily into a misty darkness.

Dream descended, and in the dream’s thin fog, Irene’s soft voice came: “You finally fell asleep… Come, this way.”

Yusheng instinctively turned toward the direction of the voice. The next second, the mist dissipated, and in the darkness, light and shadow emerged.

He really did see that dark, desolate wilderness again, the gloomy sky covering the land, nameless hills in the distance, and the silver-white demon fox still sleeping in the wild.

Yusheng walked forward, and then he noticed the “guide” floating beside him.

It was Irene guiding his dream.

Yusheng stopped, looking at the painting floating in midair with an odd expression.

Irene in the painting stared back at him, eyes wide.

Yusheng: “…I’m starting to think this painting is your true form!”

Irene looked down at herself, then looked around, finally realizing what had happened.

“Hey! How did I end up in the painting again?!”