Chapter 2
Shang Che squeezed his eyes shut with force and took a deep breath, attempting to suppress the surging sense of absurdity. It had to be a hallucination just now. He was perfectly healthy; there was no way he was sick.
Yes, that was it. The moment he opened his eyes again, everything would be back to normal.
Shang Che exhaled heavily and snapped his eyes open—
Directly across from him, the 80-centimeter cotton doll was still sitting there quietly.
Except… those stiff eyes embroidered with golden thread seemed to possess life and vitality at this very moment, gazing at him without blinking. And right as their eyes met, those golden eyes gave a swift, lively blink.
Cotton Doll: “O(0.0)O!”
Shang Che: “…”
Stay calm—stay calm—
Maybe it was some kind of high-tech gadget Old Shang had set up, wanting to give him a surprise. Shang Che felt that a person shouldn’t scare themselves unnecessarily. He looked at the doll that had just made the sound, then stretched out a hand to investigate.
The cotton doll immediately felt two human hands messing with its hair. A confused murmur drifted from above its head: “Strange, why isn’t there a switch? Could it be on its body?”
In the next moment, it was laid flat on the soft mattress. Those hands stripped away its exquisite little outfit until it was completely bare, palms aimlessly probing and pressing all over its cotton-stuffed body.
“…” Shang Che frowned. He couldn’t find any electronic circuits or microchips at all; the texture was entirely soft, plush cotton. So where had that voice come from earlier?
The cotton doll was very angry now!
Even though it was just a cotton doll, this human was being way, way, way too unreasonable!
He had ignored its greeting! And stripped off its pretty clothes!
This was simply pure doll-maltreatment!
“Human, you are very… rude!”
There it was again—he heard the voice again. Shang Che’s hand, which was pinching the doll’s foot, trembled. But why did the sound seem to come from his side? It couldn’t be, right?!
Slowly and rigidly, he turned his head and found the immaculate, well-behaved 40-centimeter cotton doll sitting beside him, “staring” right at him.
“How could you… lift up my… hair, and strip… my clothes?” This cotton doll, less than half the size of the one under his hand, looked at him with an expression full of anger and embarrassed annoyance.
“Quickly put me… back to normal.”
What in the world.
Slap— A crisp sound rang out with peculiar clarity in the quiet bedroom. Shang Che had delivered a swift, decisive slap to his own face.
It hurt a bit. It wasn’t a hallucination.
Shang Che felt the materialistic worldview he had built over the past decade or so crack and shatter into pieces.
The cotton doll was a little puzzled. Its round eyes turned into two massive question marks: “…Human… what are you doing?”
“What… what kind of thing are you?” Shang Che’s voice was exceptionally dry, carrying a raspiness he hadn’t even noticed himself.
The cotton doll seemed confused by his question. It moved right under Shang Che’s gaze, its chubby head tilting slightly. It tried to move its limp arms, though the movement was extremely clumsy and difficult, managing only a small, awkward wiggle.
“Thing?” it repeated, its voice still soft and squishy, tinged with the awkwardness of learning to speak for the first time. It answered obediently in a small voice, “Cotton doll… is just… a cotton doll.”
“Cotton dolls don’t talk, and they definitely don’t move!” Shang Che almost snapped, his voice low. He felt his sanity hanging by a thread. This was beyond absurd!
“Don’t talk… and don’t move?” The cotton doll seemed utterly baffled. For some reason, Shang Che could actually read a trace of pride in those big golden eyes as its confusion transformed into… wait, pride?!
“I… can talk… and move…” It puffed out its barely visible chest. “I’m… awesome!”
“…” Shang Che pressed his knuckles against his temples to soothe a splitting headache, feeling like he was about to go crazy. He was actually having a conversation with a cotton doll, and they were even debating whether it should be able to speak or move.
“Human,” the cotton doll raised a limp arm, pointing slowly yet firmly off to the side, commanding him, “Put the clothes… back on.”
Shang Che followed the direction of that slightly raised arm—the 80-centimeter cotton doll he had stripped bare was still completely naked, lying face down on the bed with its rear stuck up in the air.
“…” It really looked like it could hold a soda bottle up.
“I’m not putting them back on. Shut up.” Shang Che felt he needed a moment to cool down.
“Oh.” The cotton doll complied readily, obediently closing its mouth, though its huge eyes remained fixed on Shang Che as if he were the most fascinating creature on Earth.
An eerie silence fell over the room, leaving only the sound of Shang Che’s slightly heavy breathing. A few minutes later, he got up with resolute determination and left the room.
After a frantic racket of opening drawers and rummaging through cabinets, the cotton doll saw the human return holding a massive woven sack.
Cotton Doll: ( o . o )?
“Talking cotton dolls… out of sight, out of mind…” Shang Che muttered under his breath, spreading the open woven sack at his feet. With effortless ease, he scooped up the bare, 80-centimeter cotton doll under his arm and stuffed it mercilessly into the bag like a piece of discarded junk.
With a dull thud, the cotton doll’s big head collided with the floor through the thin layer of the bag, leaving its body and cotton-stuffed limbs sprawled inside in all directions.
Shang Che pulled at the corner of his mouth helplessly and squatted half-down by the bed, pulling the bag open with one hand while struggling to shove the doll’s bulky body inside with the other.
Looking at the woven sack that was almost bursting at the seams, Shang Che extended his arm, remembering to toss the stripped little clothes inside as well. But while that one was packed away, there was still a troublesome one left to deal with.
He raised his gaze, looking at the 40-centimeter cotton doll sitting upright on the bed, “watching” him with its big golden eyes.
Shang Che: “…”
The cotton doll couldn’t understand why this human loved stuffing it into dark places so much. Its other bodies couldn’t move or see anything anymore; only this one was usable, yet that “evil” hand was still relentlessly reaching over.
As if sensing its impending doom, the cotton doll’s soft little body nudged backward ever so weakly. But aside from wrinkling a tiny patch of the bedsheet underneath, it was practically defenseless.
Shang Che pinched one of the cotton doll’s arms, lifted it with ease, and shook open a black trash bag.
Realizing it couldn’t escape the fate of being shrouded in darkness, the doll flailed its soft, short arms in a tiny, useless thrashing motion as if trying to hit him, looking utterly enraged.
(; ? O?)o: “Human, you’re mean!”
Shang Che turned a deaf ear. With a flick of his wrist, he neatly shoved it into the trash bag. He then grabbed the other trash bag containing the two smaller cotton dolls from the floor and dragged the heavy woven sack behind him, grandly hauling his “family” over to the storage room diagonally across the hallway.
Calling it a storage room wasn’t entirely accurate; it was actually larger than Shang Che’s bedroom. It was clean and orderly, with display shelves of various sizes neatly arranged with all sorts of items sorted by category.
From a worn pencil case to an unopened wrist watch and cufflinks, the items clearly outlined the trajectory of Shang Che’s growth. However, starting from a certain point in time, these gifts were only ever collected, never touched again.
He dragged the heavy sack to a corner. The trash bag holding the 40-centimeter cotton doll gave way under the strain, tearing a small slit with a riiiip, but in the next second, it was hastily stacked on top of the bulging woven sack.
After stacking the four cotton dolls up, Shang Che clapped the non-existent dust off his hands. He raised an eyebrow slightly, feeling a wave of relief as if he had just solved a monumental problem. Yet just as he turned to leave, he caught a faint, feeble voice filled with confusion.
The sound was muffled and light, seeming like it could be blown away by a gust of wind, but he heard it—and heard it crystal clear.
“Human… why… do you do this… to Cotton…”
The doll’s voice was innocent and bewildered, sounding naive upon closer listen, mixed with an indescribable trace of dejection.
Shang Che’s footstep paused imperceptibly. He had no doubt he wasn’t imagining things now; a cotton doll being able to speak was ridiculous enough, but he could actually hear a sliver of heartbreaking pity in its tone.
Hallucination or not, vision or trick of the mind—
What he needed right now was sleep, and a normal world to wake up to. When he saw the morning sun tomorrow, this “absurd” dream would surely end.
Fortunately, cotton dolls didn’t need to breathe, or else being wrapped up in a trash bag would have turned it into a teru teru bozu in no time.
Its golden eyes blinked repeatedly. The cotton doll only remembered that opening its eyes last time had allowed it to see the human, but this time, no matter how many times it opened them, it was still pitch black. Once it confirmed this method was useless, it puffed up its cheeks in annoyance.
(” ??? ) : Darn human, covering Cotton with blackness!
The cotton doll angrily raised its soft arms, flailing its tiny round fists around. As they scraped across the loose trash bag blocking its vision and movement, it suddenly felt the strange restriction on its fists disappear. A tiny sliver of light peeked in from ahead.
Cotton Doll: ? (OAO?)?!
From the torn slit of the trash bag, a fair, delicate little hand poked out, waving tentatively. That thin film blocking its way was really gone!
The cotton doll slowly raised its head, bringing those shiny golden eyes closer. But as it got closer, the faint light it could previously see actually grew dimmer, until its entire cheek pressed against the inner wall of the trash bag, plunging its eyes back into darkness.
Cotton Doll: ??? ( o . o )?
Backing up brought the light back; leaning closer brought the dark back. After repeating this several times, the cotton doll finally realized with a delay that its eyes didn’t seem to be located in the very middle of its face.
Then where are Cotton’s eyes?
Its round head moved slowly left and right until one of its golden eyes suddenly scraped from the dark plastic film to that torn slit. Instantly, its vision widened, bright as day!
Cotton’s sky! Cotton can see again!
Excited, the cotton doll wanted to lean its whole body forward. It wiggled its butt, and even its short little legs kicked back and forth restlessly. The cotton fibers all over its body seemed filled with a joyful vibe as it curiously checked out this dimly lit new world.
It had felt a little sad earlier when it didn’t see the human, but its attention was quickly captured by the various toys on the display shelves—especially a shiny, glowing round ball.
The more the cotton doll looked, the more curious it became, wanting to get closer. But the annoying darkness trapped it once more. The cotton doll flailed its limbs in frustration. Already snagged on the zipper of the woven sack, the plastic bag could no longer hold out. With another squirm from the doll, it tore open from the bottom with a loud riiiip under the doll’s weight.
With a muffled thump, the cotton doll plummeted onto the smooth floor unexpectedly. The shredded plastic bag drifted down and landed over its body like a blanket, covering it right up to its head.
After a long moment, the black “blanket” on the floor began to squirm forward awkwardly like a caterpillar.
After huffing and puffing with effort for a long time, the cotton doll raised its head, only to discover in disappointment that it hadn’t gotten any closer to that shiny round ball.
It tried reaching out a hand, but the slick floor offered nothing to grab onto, not to mention it didn’t even have fingers.
So sad for Cotton.
Its short little legs kicked futilely against the floor, still defeated by the clean, smooth tile. Refusing to give up, the cotton doll began flailing all four limbs at once in complete chaos.
Without knowing how or why, it felt like it had… moved forward just a tiny bit…
Yes! Cotton can move on its own!
(O >???< )?: Cotton, you’re amazing!
Shang Che’s sleep quality had always been poor. It usually took him a long time to fall asleep, and he was a light sleeper, easily disturbed by any noise.
Like right now, for instance. He kept hearing strange, faint sounds—a subtle rustling noise like something rubbing together, mixed with the occasional dull thud of something hitting the ground. It went on intermittently without stopping, making it particularly infuriating in the quiet of the night.
Tossing and turning until he couldn’t stand it anymore, Shang Che threw off his blanket in annoyance, slipped into his slippers, and went out with a cold expression to hunt down the source of the noise.
He was going to see what on earth was making that racket.
Opening the bedroom door made the sound even clearer. Only he lived in the eastern wing of the house; aside from his bedroom and walk-in closet, of the remaining two rooms, one was a guest bedroom, and the other…
His brows drew together, his gaze darkening as his eyes fell onto the locked storage room diagonally across the hall.
Pressing his thumb against the lock’s scanner, the door unlocked with a soft click. Shang Che pushed the door open with force, causing the sensor lights on the display cabinets to automatically turn on. The soft light was more than enough for him to see the state of the room clearly.
And so, with a sweep of his eyes, Shang Che witnessed a scene even more bizarre than a “cotton doll speaking.”
A black plastic bag was bouncing and thrashing wildly, rhythmically on the floor in the center of the room. Between each rise and fall, it produced dull thumping impacts and rustling friction noises.
The veins on his forehead throbbed violently out of control.
Now, he felt going to sleep was completely useless. He might actually need to consider whether they really needed to hire a spiritual master to take a look at the house.
