The girl in the painting, who called herself “Irene,” stared at Yu Sheng outside the frame, her large eyes meeting his in a standoff. So far, neither of them had established even a shred of trust in each other.

Yu Sheng had no way of verifying whether this “Girl in the Painting,” who seemed like some kind of cursed object, was telling the truth. Everything she mentioned about “Alice’s Cottage” and being sealed in a painting was entirely new to him—so when Irene claimed she didn’t know why she had ended up in this house, he didn’t believe a single word.

On the other hand, Irene was convinced this human, Yu Sheng, was still contemplating setting her on fire with that lighter. Her eyes kept darting to the lighter, watching for any sudden movements…

“I’m pretty sure you bought the painting yourself and hung it in your house, then just forgot about it…” Irene repeated. “Humans do that all the time—you see something unusual, decide you want to collect it, buy it, and then let it gather dust in your house…”

Yu Sheng couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy because, truth be told, he wasn’t entirely certain of the origins of everything in this house. After all, he’d only been here for two months. Not only was he unfamiliar with this world, but he was also still unfamiliar with himself. Who knew what kind of state this house and its previous owner were in before he arrived?

Was there another “Yu Sheng” before him?

These thoughts flickered through his mind, but faced with Irene’s piercing crimson eyes, Yu Sheng instinctively shook his head and replied, “That’s impossible—I mean, this painting looks really expensive. It’s not something I could afford…”

“Well, what if it was really cheap?” Irene scooted forward, still clutching her stuffed toy. “There are plenty of fake vases, scrolls, and paintings around these days. Maybe the last owner bought me wholesale from some fake antique dealer for two and a half yuan per kilo, along with a bunch of other stuff. Or maybe I was sold by someone who didn’t know what they had…”

Yu Sheng’s expression grew strange. “Your frame feels like solid hardwood, and there’s gold inlaid along the edges…”

Irene thought for a moment. “What if it’s just a thin layer of redwood veneer filled with resin, with copper-plated iron wire on the outside?”

Yu Sheng: “…That would still cost more than two and a half yuan per kilo.”

“Okay, four and a half yuan then, but no higher. Any higher, and no one would buy it.”

Yu Sheng: “…”

Irene’s crimson eyes narrowed. “Hey, why’d you stop talking?”

Squatting in front of Irene’s painting, Yu Sheng suddenly found himself amused, and then he genuinely started laughing. He sat back on the floor, his laughter growing until he leaned back and stared up at the ceiling, half his body leaning backward. Never in his life had he imagined he’d experience something like this—sitting in an empty room, arguing with a doll trapped in a painting about whether her frame was worth two and a half yuan per kilo or four and a half yuan per kilo as some kind of fake antique...

Not too long ago, a frog in a freezing rain had literally torn his heart out.

This was all just too absurdly funny.

Irene, however, was taken aback by Yu Sheng’s sudden laughter. She and her frame were still resting on the floor after Yu Sheng had taken her down from the wall, so she could see the bare ceiling and hear the laughter coming from beside her. It made her uneasy, and she couldn’t help but shout, “Hey, stop laughing! What’s so funny about this?!”

Yu Sheng gradually calmed down, scooting closer as he leaned in to look at Irene. His expression turned serious. “Earlier, I had a strange dream. Was that your doing?”

He was referring to the dream where he had used an axe to hack at the locked door, only to hear that eerie laughter from behind it. Now, it was clear that this strange dream had to be connected to the doll inside the painting.

Oh, and he had thrown out his back in the dream—and it still hurt.

“No!” Irene shook her head instantly but then paused, looking hesitant. “Well… it’s not entirely untrue…”

“What do you mean?” Yu Sheng frowned. “You’re talking in circles.”

“That dream was yours, but I did enter it,” Irene explained patiently. “I sensed someone dreaming and thought I could use that chance to ask for help. I didn’t intend to cause trouble! I didn’t know you couldn’t open the door, and you were so quick-tempered, trying to hack it down with an axe just because you forgot your key…”

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Listening to her rambling, Yu Sheng slowly pieced things together. “So, you didn’t lock the door? And you didn’t induce the dream? You just have the ability to enter other people’s dreams?”

“Exactly! I can do a lot more than that, actually!” Irene nodded enthusiastically, her face lighting up with pride, but that pride quickly dimmed. “But now that I’m sealed in this painting, that’s pretty much the only ability I have left…”

Yu Sheng was only half-convinced by her explanation, but the things he experienced in that strange dream now left him with more questions than answers. He decided to ask a second question: “You said you wanted help through the dream? What kind of help?”

“Naturally, help getting out of here!” Irene responded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Ideally, getting me out of this painting, but at the very least, out of this room! It’s so empty in here! I mean, if you could hang a TV on the opposite wall, that would be something… A voice-controlled one would be even better since I’m not great with remotes. There’s a brand I quite like…”

Yu Sheng realized this girl was the type who could go on and on, her thoughts spiraling into unexpected tangents if left unchecked—usually heading in the direction of self-indulgence.

So, he didn’t hesitate to interrupt her. “Then why were you laughing when you needed help? When I was ‘opening the door’ outside, what was with that mocking laughter from inside?”

“That wasn’t me!” Irene quickly waved her hands, then thrust the brown plush toy she was holding forward. “It was this! It was the one laughing!”

Yu Sheng remained silent, staring at her with an expression that screamed, “You must think I’m an idiot.”

“It’s true!” Irene, looking anxious, shook the stuffed bear in her hands. “It was sealed in this painting along with me, but it seems that over time, its mind has gotten a bit dull. Now, all it does is laugh like an idiot. Usually, if I poke it, it’ll start laughing, but sometimes it laughs all by itself, out of nowhere. It scares me half to death all the time…”

Yu Sheng kept a straight face as he listened to Irene’s eager explanation. Seeing the earnest expression on the doll’s face, he began to believe her, if only a little. His eyes finally fell on the stuffed bear in her hands. After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. “Alright, make it laugh. I want to hear if it’s true.”

Without missing a beat, Irene poked the bear’s head.

The bear didn’t react at all.

Confused, Irene poked the bear's head harder—still no response. She looked like she was about to cry.

“Sometimes… sometimes it’s like this,” the girl in the painting said, her face crestfallen. “I poke it, and it doesn’t laugh…”

Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched.

“So, sometimes it laughs when you don’t poke it, and sometimes it doesn’t laugh when you do poke it. In short, whether you poke it or not, it might laugh, and it might not—” He rattled off the tongue-twister-like analysis and reached a conclusion, “Does your poking even matter at all?”

Irene froze for a moment, then nodded slowly, “Y-yeah, I guess not.”

Yu Sheng was starting to lose interest in dealing with this “cursed painting,” whose logic seemed less than sound.

Besides, he had already stopped caring about the mocking laughter he’d heard in his dream.

A grumbling sound from his stomach reminded him of the dinner he’d skipped when he fell asleep after getting home. He shook his head with a smile and stood up slowly.

“Hey, are you leaving?” Irene’s voice immediately sounded anxious. “You’re not just going to leave me here on the floor, are you? At least hang me back up on the wall! There’s wallpaper to look at from there, but up here, it’s just a blank ceiling…”

Yu Sheng reached down and picked up Irene’s painting—grimacing from the pain in his back.

“I’m taking you to the living room, so stop whining,” he replied casually.

Irene immediately brightened up, settling back into her chair and clutching her teddy bear. “Oh, good! You’re actually pretty nice. By the way, is it dinner time? What’s for dinner tonight?”

Yu Sheng glanced down at her. “Can you even eat?”

“I can watch you eat!”

Yu Sheng felt like he must be crazy to keep entertaining this nonsense.

Supporting his aching back, Yu Sheng slowly carried Irene’s painting toward the stairs leading to the living room, all the while enduring the constant stream of chatter coming from the painting—

“Wow, your house is pretty big! So, there’s this much space outside that room?”

“What’s in that room across the hall? Is that your bedroom? Hey, is there anyone else here?”

“Should I greet them? Would they be scared? Normal people probably don’t see talking dolls and paintings that often, right?”

“Oh, I forgot to ask your name! What is it? Yusheng? That’s such a weird name… Not like the food sashimi, right?”

“What’s wrong with your back? So young and already having back issues? I’m telling you, you’ve got to take care of it! Human joints are such a pain, and you can’t just replace them whenever—huh? Why are you glaring at me? Your stare is kind of scary…”

Finally, Yu Sheng struggled his way to the top of the stairs, clutching his back, and glanced down the steps below. Normally, he wouldn’t think twice about them, but with his back pain and the heavy painting in his hands, they seemed steeper than ever.

His original plan was to carry the painting down the stairs with both hands, but he quickly realized his body wasn’t in the right condition for that.

He paused, looking down in silent thought.

The chatterbox doll in the painting seemed to sense something was up, her voice gradually quieting as her expression grew tense.

Yu Sheng lowered his eyelids, casting a glance at the girl in the painting who’d been rambling non-stop, with increasingly annoying topics. “Irene.”

The doll jolted. “Y-yes?”

“I get the feeling this frame of yours is pretty sturdy.”

“Y-yes, it is…”

Without another word, Yu Sheng placed Irene’s painting at the top of the staircase.

“This might get a little bumpy. Hang on.”

Irene finally caught on, her eyes widening in horror. “W-wait a minute—”

“Off you go!”

The painting embarked on a loud, clattering adventure down the stairs.

All the way down, Irene’s enthusiastic expressions of gratitude echoed back: “Yu Sheng, you bastard, I… AHHHH! WAAAA! WHOAAA! *&%¥#*!!!”