Irene indeed possessed many magical abilities. Yu Sheng had deeply experienced this when he followed this doll and sank into Hu Li's dream. But to be honest, this unlucky doll had too many shortcomings, so that people always intentionally or unintentionally ignored this point…
"Then there's only one thing left, the most crucial part," Yu Sheng sat on the sofa and said seriously to the little doll beside him. "We need to find a way to recreate the door that leads to the Otherworld valley."
"Are you still planning to rely on brute force?" Irene asked curiously. "Trying out the 'frequencies' you think are close one by one?"
Yu Sheng sighed. "That's the only way. After all, I hadn't really mastered the skill of 'opening doors' when I first entered the valley. I ignored too many details at that time."
Irene turned her head and looked at Yu Sheng. The little doll seemed to be thinking hard. After a moment, she said hesitantly, "Actually… I have an idea."
Yu Sheng immediately leaned forward. "Hmm? You have a way?!"
"It's not necessarily feasible, because I don't understand how you 'open doors,' and I don't understand what you mean by 'frequency'," Irene turned around on the sofa cushion. "But according to my understanding, you actually need a 'feature' that can help you 'lock' on the destination? Or some kind of navigation signal?"
"…I guess I can understand it that way?" Yu Sheng himself was a little uncertain. "Actually, I haven't figured it out either. After all, the whole process was me fumbling around on my own. Many things were based on 'feeling,' but your 'navigation signal' description is quite fitting—when I open a door, the location it points to is completely random. But if I can accurately 'remember' a certain 'feature' on the other side of the door, the passage will collapse into a single one. It's probably a process like this."
"So that means, if we can leave a navigation point on 'Hu Li's' side, you can directly replicate the passage?"
"It should be," Yu Sheng nodded, but he was a little confused. "But where can we get such a navigation point? The problem now is that we can't find the way to the valley. If we could leave a navigation point there, we wouldn't have to worry about it…"
"What about from a dream?" Irene suddenly said.
Yu Sheng was stunned, then he vaguely understood the doll's meaning.
Irene continued to explain in detail, "Last time I sank into Hu Li's dream with you, I had already established a weak connection with her. And if this connection goes a step further, maybe I can link to her senses—and I'll pull you in. Then you can directly contact the aura of that valley through Hu Li's perception. Isn't this equivalent to establishing a 'navigation point'?"
Yu Sheng listened to Irene's plan with a stunned expression. The more he listened, the more he felt that this doll's wild idea… seemed to be really feasible?
"There are two difficulties in this process," Irene continued. "First, it requires Hu Li's own cooperation. She must be willing to open her mind to you. But this shouldn't be a big problem. Just explain it to her properly. She should trust you. The second difficulty is a bit… dangerous."
Yu Sheng didn't interrupt, but just gestured for Irene to continue.
"The second difficulty is that now Hu Li's mind is not only her own," Irene's expression became slightly serious as she looked at Yu Sheng's eyes. "Entity-Hunger has already penetrated deep into her mind. So once you establish a deep connection with Hu Li, it's equivalent to establishing the same connection with Entity-Hunger… I'm not sure what will happen then. Although in theory, you should be able to withstand short-term contact, I'm afraid that the power of hunger will take root in your heart. When you really enter the valley and face that monster, the influence that has taken root in your heart may erupt at any time…"
Yu Sheng fell into deep thought.
Seeing that he was silent, Irene's eyes darted around and she reacted. She immediately stood up from the sofa and put her hands on her hips (but she was still not as tall as Yu Sheng when he was sitting). "Don't think about dying first to see if you can clear the influence! I'm telling you, this tendency of yours is very dangerous. If you can't get rid of it even after dying and coming back to life, then you'll be in big trouble…"
Yu Sheng immediately adjusted his sitting posture in embarrassment. "I didn't say…"
"I've seen it all!"
Yu Sheng: "…"
This doll's brain is usually not very good. Why is her intuition so sharp at this time!
"I know, I know. I'll always put the idea of 'dying' on the back burner under any circumstances," Yu Sheng was so uncomfortable being stared at by Irene's scarlet eyes that he could only surrender and wave his hand, then forcibly brought the topic back to the right track. "But I still decide to try your plan. The risk of direct contact with 'Entity-Hunger' does exist, but I think… it's worth the risk."
Irene's scarlet eyes continued to stare at Yu Sheng. After watching for a few more seconds, she finally said, "Alright, it seems you really want to save that fox. Her situation can't be delayed any longer. Then let's go with this plan."
But just then, Yu Sheng suddenly remembered something else. "But there's still one problem."
"Huh?"
"I might not be able to dream of the dream with Hu Li in it," Yu Sheng spread his hands. "I didn't even dream last night—I don't know how to control my dreams."
Hearing this, Irene actually laughed, her smile filled with pride and showing off.
"I can," the little doll proudly crossed her arms and stood on the sofa (66.6cm). "You just dream, and leave the rest to me—I'm telling you, after being freed from the shackles of that painting, I'm terribly strong now! I myself am afrai…"
Before she could finish her words, Yu Sheng adjusted his posture on the sofa, and the sofa cushion deformed accordingly. Irene, who was standing on the edge of the cushion, immediately swayed, and just as she shouted "ai," she fell off the sofa—and then was stuck between the sofa and the coffee table by the oil painting frame on her back, with her whole body hanging under the frame.
The doll hung under the frame, flailing her arms and legs, as if she were about to fly up and bite someone.
Her cursing was foul.
Yu Sheng reached out and picked up the frame. "I think your shackles are still quite serious."
"You're laughing… if you laugh again, I won't help!" Irene's two arms were stuck between the straps of the frame, and she was hung in a cross shape as Yu Sheng picked up the frame. "Put me down! You… hey, hey, my arm, the joint in my arm is stuck! Help me fix it…"
Yu Sheng looked at Irene speechlessly, picked her off the frame, and began to endure the doll's fussing while fixing her stuck joint.
In the dead of night, Yu Sheng had made all the preparations for sleep.
But Irene was still running around on his bed, like a small rocket scurrying around.
"I say, can't you be quiet for a while?" Yu Sheng, who was lying in bed, looked at Irene who was jumping up and down beside him, his face full of helplessness. "I'm going to sleep."
"Your bed is so big!" Irene happily ran to the head of the bed, then jumped onto the bedside table, and hugged the desk lamp on the table and shook it, as if she hadn't heard what Yu Sheng was saying at all. "Hey, hey, this desk lamp is shorter than me! Yu Sheng, look! This desk lamp is shorter than me!"
"I'll buy another small night light next time, one that's even shorter than you!" Yu Sheng rolled his eyes in annoyance and reached out to pick Irene off his desk lamp. "Did you forget what you were supposed to do? If you keep this up, I'll lock you in the closet!"
Only then did Irene finally quiet down, smiling sheepishly. "I'm just a little excited… alright, alright, you sleep, you sleep. I won't cause trouble."
Yu Sheng sighed, exhausted in body and mind, and put Irene down. "Go help turn off the light."
The doll said理直气壮, "I can't reach it!"
"…Move a chair!"
"Oh."
The world finally became quiet.
Yu Sheng let out a long breath, enjoying this moment of peace in the darkened bedroom, and began to try to adjust his state and fall asleep.
Then he turned his head and saw two blood-red glowing eyes staring at him by the bed in the darkness.
Irene was hanging on the edge of the bed, holding onto the mattress like a koala, staring at Yu Sheng.
"…I can't sleep even more like this," Yu Sheng said with a helpless face. "By the way, why did you have to come to my room? Weren't you able to enter my dreams even when you were on the first floor? Is it necessary to come over?"
"The signal is better when you're close."
The doll was理直气壮, and as soon as she opened her mouth, it was as true as nonsense.
But she at least understood Yu Sheng's meaning, and finally jumped down from the edge of the bed and ran to a chair not far away to sit down.
Yu Sheng sighed again.
He knew that Irene was still watching him, and he didn't know what this doll was thinking in her head (if she had one), but it was estimated that he wouldn't be able to drive her away tonight.
He could only try his best to ignore the scarlet gaze coming from the darkness, and try to eliminate all distracting thoughts and brew sleepiness.
He didn't know how long he had been tossing and turning in bed—maybe an hour, maybe longer.
When the drowsiness had accumulated to the extreme, he finally fell into a hazy darkness.
The dream descended, and in the mist of the dream, Irene's soft voice sounded, "You're finally asleep… come, this way."
Yu Sheng subconsciously turned to the direction where the voice came from, and the next second, the mist dissipated, and light and shadow emerged in the darkness.
He really saw that dark wilderness again. The gloomy sky shrouded the land, and in the distance were nameless hills. And the silver-white fox was still sleeping in the wilderness.
Yu Sheng walked forward, and then he noticed the "guide" floating beside him.
It was Irene who was guiding his dream.
Yu Sheng stopped, looking at the oil painting in mid-air with a somewhat strange expression.
Irene in the oil painting stared at him.
Yu Sheng: "…Why do I feel that this painting is your real body!"
Irene looked down, then looked up and around, and finally reacted with a delayed reaction.
"Hey, why am I in the painting again?!"