Irene cried and cried, and no amount of comforting seemed to help.

In fact, even Yu Sheng himself couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy at the sight of four 66.6-centimeter-tall Irenes lined up in a row. But beneath that sympathy, he also felt a strange urge to laugh—a dangerous urge he barely managed to suppress with great difficulty.

“Why?! Why?! Whyyyyy—!”

The little doll stood on the Alchemic Platform, crying out a question from the depths of her soul (in four-part harmony). Her sorrowful voice, combined with her blood-red eyes, made her look like a vengeful spirit straight out of a horror film—one who could chase the protagonists for six seasons, come crawling out of the TV in the finale, and even star in twelve bonus episodes. Even Foxy instinctively hid behind Yu Sheng, cautiously peeking out from behind his arm and gently saying, “Um… Please accept my condolences…”

Hearing these words, Irene only felt worse.

After another long while, thanks to the persistent efforts of Yu Sheng and Foxy, the unfortunate little doll finally calmed down somewhat. She stopped crying, but instead formed a tight circle of gloom at the platform’s edge, all four bodies squatting together, their heads hanging low, silently doubting their existence.

Yu Sheng watched this from nearby, feeling a bit emotional: [Actually, now that she’s got one more body, her gloomy little circle looks a lot neater than before…]

But he wisely didn’t say this out loud.

After an unknown period of continued gloominess, the newly crafted Irene Pro Max (or perhaps Pro Irene for short) finally raised her head with a heavy sigh. “So why exactly did it go wrong? It can’t be the ritual steps this time—I triple-checked everything. The materials were top-notch, straight from Special Affairs Bureau storage, no way they’d be defective. I drew the Alchemy circles myself, every symbol was correct. I supervised the body shaping from skeleton to filling, and everything looked perfectly fine… How on earth did I shrink again…?”

Yu Sheng stood by quietly as the little doll mumbled to herself. Several times he nearly spoke up, but the moment never felt quite right. Finally, he mustered up the courage, stepped forward, and cleared his throat. “Well, um… Maybe, just maybe, this whole thing is related to one particularly critical material?”

Irene looked up sharply, staring straight into Yu Sheng’s eyes.

Her piercing red gaze made Yu Sheng feel guilty, but now that he’d said it, backing down wasn’t an option. He simply shrugged. “Could it possibly be… related to my blood? Like maybe the first time I shaped your body, I got the proportions wrong, and somehow this mistake permanently imprinted itself onto you, becoming something like a… how do I put this… ancestral bug?”

He braced himself, fully expecting four angry dolls to leap at him and leave a ring of bite marks around his head.

Yet nothing happened.

Yu Sheng blinked. “…Irene?”

“You think I haven’t already suspected that?” Pro Irene snapped, putting her hands on her hips and glaring upward indignantly. “I started suspecting your blood the moment something felt off with the third body!”

Yu Sheng awkwardly rubbed his neck. “…Oh. So you…”

“That’s exactly why I personally controlled every single step of the spirit-infusion ritual and supervised every stage of the body-shaping process!” Irene’s expression turned utterly despondent, her tiny face radiating a tremendous sadness. “I even split my awareness this time and had three outside perspectives observing every detail as my spirit entered the body, just so I could pinpoint exactly when things went wrong…”

At that, Yu Sheng suddenly felt he had guessed correctly—but he didn’t dare jump straight to conclusions. Instead, he asked carefully, “Did you… discover anything?”

Irene dropped her head. “Everything was fine until my soul entered the new body. The problem only started afterward.”

Yu Sheng said nothing; this matched his suspicion exactly.

Pro Irene walked to the edge of the platform and sat down, elbows on her knees, lost in thought.

Yu Sheng quietly went over and sat down next to her.

“So, the problem’s with your soul?”

“Probably,” Irene sighed heavily. “But then we’re back to square one… Why? I just don’t get it. I’ve felt fine… perfectly fine, all along…”

Without saying anything, Yu Sheng reached out and gently picked up Irene Number One, who was still wearing the familiar painting frame on her back. Carefully, he took down the painting and held it before his eyes, studying it thoughtfully.

The chair and the teddy bear in the painting looked the same as always.

The doll was not in the painting, yet the doll had never truly left.

“Then the issue can only be here,” Yu Sheng finally said after a moment’s silence, lightly shaking the painting. “Actually, I’ve suspected this for a long time. I just didn’t want to upset you by bringing it up…”

But before he could finish, the little doll beside him muttered softly, “If someone was truly free, why would they still need to carry their own prison around?”

“Oh…” Yu Sheng hesitated. “I didn’t realize you’d already thought of that…”

“My memory might be bad, but I’m not stupid,” Irene huffed, rolling her eyes at him. “Besides, what’s the point of figuring it out? It’s not like I can undo it. Being able to carry the painting around at all is already way better than before. Plus, now I’ve got several other bodies that don’t even need to lug that painting around all the time—even if they’re all stuck being this short.”

She stretched out her small arm and motioned toward the ground, marking out a height, her face filled with helpless resignation.

Yu Sheng gently pressed little doll’s flailing arms back down.

“Honesty is important.”

“Are you even human?!” she wailed, “Can’t you see how upset I am?!”

Seeing Irene baring her teeth like an angry cat, Yu Sheng was finally reassured—she seemed fine.

Foxy approached quietly. She didn’t understand much about Alchemy, but she was quick-minded. Sitting beside Yu Sheng, she thoughtfully asked, “So, you two think Irene’s new bodies keep having flaws because part of her soul is still sealed in the painting?”

“Exactly,” Irene answered wearily, barely lifting her eyelids. “Got any bright ideas?”

“I don’t know this ‘Alchemy’ thing, and I still don’t really understand what an ‘Alice Doll’ is,” Foxy admitted frankly. “But if half your soul was sealed away, wouldn’t you feel it? Back home, we’d call that splitting and imprisoning your spirit. It should hurt terribly. But you say you feel nothing?”

“Nothing at all,” little doll replied helplessly. “Everything points to part of my soul being trapped in that painting, meaning the part I’m using right now is incomplete—but honestly, I feel perfectly fine.”

Yu Sheng rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Maybe the sealed half has been trapped too long and died?”

“That’s a soul you’re talking about, not nerve endings!” Irene leaped up and headbutted his arm furiously. “You’re the one whose brain died—half your brain is necrotic!”

Yu Sheng hurriedly restrained the squirming doll and hung the painting back on Irene #1’s back. Sighing softly, he rose from beside the Alchemic Platform.

“Anyway, whatever the real issue, we can’t solve this body problem quickly,” Yu Sheng remarked, looking meaningfully at the little doll. “So, what’s next? Do you want to craft another body to see if anything changes? We still have plenty of good materials left.”

“No more! Definitely not!” Irene waved her tiny hands frantically. “Making just this one has already exhausted me. Next time, even if I craft a new body, I’m skipping all these complicated rituals. My head is spinning.”

“Fair enough. Let’s tidy up and store the rest of these materials. We’ll figure it out when you’re ready for another try.” Yu Sheng nodded, signaling Foxy to start packing away candles, spices, and oils from the Alchemic Platform. As he did, his gaze fell once more on the little doll, eyes narrowed curiously.

Feeling his stare, Irene shrank back uneasily. “Wh-what now?”

“How’s the new body feeling so far?”

“Huh?” Irene blinked, confused. “Pretty good? Very agile, since it’s brand-new.”

“I mean, after all those high-end materials, top-tier Alchemy formations, and the special smelting techniques I learned from online videos,” Yu Sheng explained earnestly, “Your new body should literally be the ‘Pro Max’ version. Compared to your regular bodies, shouldn’t there be some special bonuses? A couple of golden tags or red-glow features at least? It can’t just be expensive and nothing else, right?”

“Oh, true…” Irene tilted her head thoughtfully, realizing Yu Sheng had a point. She jumped to the ground, tested her agility by hopping in place, and then darted around the platform swiftly, circling it like a tiny rocket. Finally, she stopped next to Yu Sheng’s feet, took a stance she’d picked up somewhere, then gathered her strength and punched forward. “Hyaaa—!”

Her tiny fist landed squarely on Yu Sheng’s shinbone.

The room fell into awkward silence.

Irene slowly lifted her eyes, hesitant. “Um… Does it hurt?”

Yu Sheng shrugged. “…Not really?”

“Well, it hurts me!!” Irene shrieked, hopping and clutching her hand as she danced around in pain. “Ow, ow, ow! What is your leg made of?! Running full-speed into a cement wall hurt less than this!”

Yu Sheng sighed helplessly and knelt down again, patiently comforting the doll until she calmed down. “You don’t need to push yourself into physical fights, really. Let’s face it, at your size (66.6 cm), you’re already at a disadvantage. Trying to brawl head-on with something as tall as that ‘C-type Buckle’ with meter-long legs isn’t realistic. One kick from her, and you’ll spend half the day just rolling away… Ouch! Let go! Don’t bite!”

Irene stared up angrily, crimson eyes blazing. “What kind of consolation is that?!”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Yu Sheng quickly clarified, rubbing his bitten calf. “You’re clearly a mage-type… I mean, an intelligence-based hero. Right! We’re skill-focused. So let’s see what you’ve got. Show me your usual silk thread.”

“There’s no way the thread would change,” Irene grumbled skeptically. Still, she raised her tiny hand, aiming away from the group. “It’s a doll’s natural gift from the Ancestor of the Dolls—it doesn’t just change with a new body—”

A blazing, bright-blue ray shot out with a resonant hum, effortlessly punching a neat hole through the thick stone wall Yu Sheng had erected earlier.

Everyone stared at the perfectly round hole in stunned silence.

“…”

Yu Sheng cleared his throat carefully. “See? Intelligence hero.”