CHAPTER 457: CHAPTER 457: ERIN’S FULFILLING LIFE

Yu Sheng felt he couldn’t understand the state of this ball, nor could he fathom Erin’s usual way of thinking, but it was clear that the little puppet had her own logic when it came to dealing with the Omen Wandering Star.

Anyway, don’t bother with the underlying principles, the ball is now under Erin’s control—after her therapeutic "beating," the Omen Wandering Star is able to follow Erin’s instructions to choose one of the puppets as its "host," without crashing into the ceiling because four Erins appeared at the scene at the same time.

And the little puppet’s next goal is to train the Omen Wandering Star to fetch the mail.

Yu Sheng had no idea how this little thing’s thought process jumped to this direction, but Erin surprisingly had a complete explanation for it—

Nobody can fly and come back, so it’s a drone, so it can fetch mail.

... Same old story, Erin has her own logic for doing things.

Yu Sheng felt that the puppet miss’s goal was ambitious and a bit whimsical, but he suspected her habit of having sudden ideas might have been learned from him, so he didn’t want to speak more, he just wished her success in training the ball—and honestly, having something attract this puppet’s attention is quite good, otherwise she’d be following him closely, babbling nonstop.

But he quickly realized that even if Erin was busy researching the Omen Wandering Star, it didn’t stop her other bodies from following him around and babbling...

"Yu Sheng, when are we going back to Shuji? Wonder what the situation is like over there now."

"Yu Sheng, do you think dyeing this ball blue would look a bit more lively?"

"Yu Sheng, do you think they will dig up the planet during the Emperor’s Legacy tracing and decoding? That’s how it often goes wrong in movies, things start going wrong from archaeology..."

"Yu Sheng! The C-type buckle just glanced at me!"

"Yu Sheng, I want to go shopping tomorrow, go to the foot of the mountain, head into the city—"

"Yu Sheng! Yu Sheng—"

Yu Sheng’s head was throbbing; he noticed that this little puppet was unusually excited in the past couple of days, and even her nonsense doubled, so after answering her countless questions and sudden ideas, he finally managed to bluff the little one.

Afterwards, he finally granted himself a peaceful meal, stepped into the dining room, and saw Hu Li still sitting by the table—this girl had already eaten, with seven or eight empty plates and bowls in front of her, now staring at the last dish across the table, drooling with eyes aglow.

That dish was saved for Yu Sheng by her great willpower:

A large basin of rice, and three chicken drumsticks sticking up from the middle like incense, Hu Li probably feared she couldn’t resist, and even placed a photo of the Savior in front of the rice bowl for restraint...

Yu Sheng was amazed seeing this; he indeed asked Hu Li to save him a meal, but didn’t expect her to save it like this, sitting beside the table he was suddenly reminded of the days when the house was only himself and Erin (in painting mode), he could eat the meals in such a ritualistic atmosphere, only back then, beside the rice bowl was Erin’s offering, now the wheel of fortune turned, he suspected it was karma...

"There’s no need to save me so much—and next time you eat, don’t place my photo next to it," Yu Sheng sighed in mixed feelings, muttering as he got up, scooped half of his meal and poured it into Hu Li’s bowl, "If you haven’t eaten enough drumsticks, I’ll bring you some more tomorrow from the Special Service Bureau, there’s a special deal on chicken drumsticks every day recently."

Hu Li’s tail wagged so hard it caused a gust of wind: "Sure, sure!"

Just then, one Erin happened to stroll by the dining room, the little puppet exclaimed "Oh mom," and was swatted onto the wall by Hu Li’s tail...

Erin cursed badly.

Today, the Yu Family Mansion was still quite lively.

...

Night fell deep.

Active—or rather noisy all day, Erin still... hadn’t quieted down at this hour.

In the master bedroom on the second floor of No. 66 Wutong Road, Yu Sheng leaned against the bedpost, raising his gaze from the book he held, looking helplessly at the little puppet walking circles at the foot of the bed, and the other three Erins running around on the floor beside.

"It’s already late at night, why are you so energetic?"

"I slept too much during the day! If I’d known, I wouldn’t have napped..." The restless little puppet at the foot of the bed bounced up in front of Yu Sheng, flopped onto his pillow, and started crawling like a big bug, "Can’t sleep, can’t sleep, can’t sleep..."

"Stop right there, if you can’t sleep don’t chatter by my ear, you’re distracting me from my book," Yu Sheng casually pushed the puppet off from the pillow, "There are several newly bought puppet storage boxes in the corner, crawl into one yourself to sleep—or you can stay on the bed, but only one, and stop messing around."

Erin suddenly raised her head, looking towards the corner.

Four black wooden boxes, each about a meter long, looking quite exquisite on the outside, were placed neatly in the room’s corner.

"You’re really having me sleep in a box!" The little puppet turned her head and jumped onto Yu Sheng’s belly, glaring with crimson eyes, "When did you buy the boxes—I didn’t see them when I came up during the day!"

"I’ve long ordered them, today after dinner I specially opened the door and went to Boundary City to fetch them, why?" Yu Sheng glanced at the grumpy puppet on his belly, "I’m telling you, these four boxes are more expensive than this bed, don’t turn your nose up—stuff for puppets can be absurdly priced..."

Erin continued to stare straight at Yu Sheng, after a while realizing his expression hadn’t changed, she skeptically turned back to look at the corner: "...Really that expensive?"

"Nonsense, it’s solid wood, with memory foam lining at the bottom, and silk fabric inside—though I’ve removed the latch outside the box for you, to prevent you from accidentally locking yourself in."

Erin gave Yu Sheng another skeptical look before controlling her other three bodies to run over to the doll storage boxes and begin inspecting them carefully.

The three dolls busied themselves for quite a while, studying the structure and material of the wooden boxes, then tried lying inside, and soon started dragging the boxes around.

"I want to pick a good spot myself," Erin declared confidently, "Can I move all four boxes to your bed?"

"No."

"Then how about onto the bedside table?"

"No—firstly, there’s not enough space, plus at night your painting needs to be on the bedside table."

Erin started to worry, as the three dolls dragged the wooden boxes around the floor several times before moving them from one corner of the room to another and lining them up neatly.

But even just by staying in another corner, the little doll seemed to become proud, as if once again she was the master of the room. After arranging the boxes, she hopped in front of Yu Sheng, arms crossed, looking very self-important: "Just to be clear! I’m only sleeping in there begrudgingly because you spent a lot of money on these boxes for me—and besides, your bed is smaller than I like, and I can hardly get comfortable on it. Also, I’m an Alice puppet, and the Puppet Progenitor sleeps in boxes anyway, so based on all that..."

Yu Sheng just chuckled at her and gave some offhand remarks.

Next second, Erin jumped off his bed, and all four dolls burrowed into the boxes, propping the lids open in unison: "I’m going to sleep now, turn off the lights."

Yu Sheng rolled his eyes: "The boxes have lids, you can close them yourself!"

Erin thought for a moment, made four "oh" sounds, then lay in the box and closed the lids. But just moments after Yu Sheng finally got some peace, one of the boxes popped open with a bang, and an Erin climbed out holding a dusty stone sphere.

The little doll scurried over to the bedside table, carefully putting the Omen Wandering Star in front of the painting—right next to Yu Sheng’s phone, which was charging.

"I’m going to sleep, this ball stays here—"

She said, then turned to the Omen Wandering Star, trying hard to look stern: "No wandering, don’t disturb my sleep... and don’t disturb Yu Sheng’s sleep either! You need to listen to Yu Sheng just like you listen to me!"

Yu Sheng watched Erin’s arrangement, dumbfounded. He held back for a few seconds before asking, "Can it understand you?"

"Dunno," Erin responded confidently, "But what does it have to do with me? I’ll tell it first—if it doesn’t listen, I’ll hit it."

Yu Sheng was about to say something else when Erin zipped back into the box, leaving behind a quick "Goodnight, Yu Sheng" and shutting the lid with a smack.

The display seemed to be out of fear of someone stealing her sleeping spot.

Despite only ten minutes ago, she had been expressing her discontent about having to sleep in the doll storage boxes.

Yu Sheng sighed, smiling helplessly, shook his head, and settled into a comfortable position against his pillow, stretching his arms and legs, feeling a sense of relief: "Ah, that long-lost big bed... finally I can sleep on the whole bed alone again."

Then he turned his head to glance at the Omen Wandering Star placed on the bedside table by Erin.

The grayish-white stone ball sat quietly in front of the painting, and to prevent it from rolling around, Erin had placed a hairband underneath it.

"Although I don’t understand how you suddenly ended up like this, since you’re behaving well now... that’s fine," Yu Sheng murmured after staring at the stone ball for a long time, "I don’t care what ’Omen Goddess’ means, as long as Erin is happy now—if you’re listening, I hope you understand what I mean."

The stone sphere stayed still, seemingly turned into a lifeless object devoid of any intelligence.

But Yu Sheng hadn’t expected it to respond anyway.

He just sighed lightly, placing the book he’d been reading on the bedside table, then looked at the Omen Wandering Star and at the nearby light switch. After pondering for a few seconds, he pointed his finger: "Go turn off the light."

The stone ball didn’t move.

"Go turn off the light."

Yu Sheng repeated the command.

"Go turn off..."

With a bang, the box at the corner popped open, and three Erin dolls climbed out, muttering as they headed towards the light switch: "Lazy bum, lazy bum, lazy bum, never turns off the lights himself—haven’t trained the ball yet, does it even know what ’turn off’ means?"

The three little dolls stacked themselves by the wall, expertly turned off the light, and in the sudden dimness, three pairs of crimson eyes turned towards Yu Sheng.

"Now, really sleeping. Goodnight~"