Chapter 19 - The Vanished Mermaid (Part 12)

If the magician hadn’t tried to climb into his bed at the end, this matter would have quietly passed.

But alas, he did try to snuggle up to him in the end.

The doll sat up, resting his chin on his knees. “If you choose to believe me, then I didn’t hear a word.”

The magician sighed. “So you heard everything.”

“Not really.” The doll looked up at the magician’s bandaged face. Honestly, from this angle, it felt like the magician was looming over him, creating a strong sense of pressure. So he maneuvered the magician to stand by the bed.

“My ears aren’t that good. I couldn’t hear what the person downstairs was saying.”

So he hadn’t really heard anything useful, except for the blonde boy saying “long time no see” to the magician and… “that place.”

“Are you curious, young master?” the magician asked softly.

Of course he was curious, but the magician would only tease him and not tell him…

The magician’s gray hair hung softly in front of him, his mysterious and eerie appearance not just skin-deep. “Young master, ‘that place’ is somewhere you’ll eventually go.”

The doll’s round eyes curved into a smile. “Really?”

“Yes.” The magician was certain. “Where I came from is where you’ll ultimately go.”

The doll twirled his fingers and suddenly asked, “Puppet, have we met before?”

It wasn’t familiarity or a memory resurfacing, just that the magician’s attitude towards him was too contradictory.

Luo Yiran could confirm that the magician genuinely wanted to kill him, yet the magician had indeed helped and hinted at things before.

Such contradictions don’t appear without reason, unless they’ve known each other for years…

Luo Yiran went through the unusual events of the past decade and frowned. “No, we don’t know each other.” There was nothing out of the ordinary in his memories.

The magician just smiled silently.

The doll got tired of guessing. He maneuvered the magician to sit on the bed, then observed him for a while. The magician innocently let him do as he pleased. “Young master?”

A thought suddenly rose in the doll’s mind, and he smiled. “You wanted to sleep on the bed, right? I’ll let you sleep in a bit.”

The bandages around the magician’s eyes trembled. “Then what does the young master want to do now…?”

The doll looked at him, examining him from head to toe very carefully. “Afterwards, I’m going to use your body as my own.”

The magician was taken aback. Before he could get excited, he felt his hand being manipulated to unbutton his own shirt.

Then, button by button, the shirt was undone.

The jacket was taken off, and the doll raised his hand, and so did the magician.

“…Young master, what are you going to do to me?”

The jacket was laid flat on the bed, the black suit contrasting sharply with the white sheets. The doll stood up, stepping onto the black jacket. “I said, I’m going to use your body as my own.”

“In the future, my stage magic will be performed by you.”

A puppet should be put to good use.

But before manipulating him, he needed to know everything about the magician’s body, including how many items he carried, where they were placed, and how many layers of clothing he wore, along with any hidden pockets.

The magician’s hand moved to his shirt collar, his voice expectant. “Young master, am I going to be stripped bare?”

The doll was busy inspecting the magician’s jacket, struggling to hold the buttons and turn them over. Without looking up, he replied, “Rest assured, although you’ll be stripped, I won’t remove your bandages or your inner garments.”

What a pity. The magician sighed. “…Well, thank you, young master, for your consideration.”

The doll was content, his voice softening. “You’re welcome. After all, there will be many times I’ll need your help.”

Since he couldn’t get rid of him, he might as well turn him into a real tool.

That familiar, soft tone… The magician understood-he might be in for a trap.

At this moment, the sound of tapping came from outside the window again. The doll, engrossed in the magician’s items, asked casually, “Did you close the window properly earlier?”

The magician replied, “…Yes, it’s closed.”

So the doll maneuvered the magician to get a tissue, tore it up, and stuffed it in his ears, pretending not to hear anything.

The blonde boy, once again breathless from climbing up to the window, was stunned to see the tissue hanging from the doll’s ears. After a moment of silence, he began to angrily pound on the window, his voice growing louder with each wave until he finally shouted, “Sir, open the door! Open the door!”

The doll ignored him, only maneuvering the magician to quickly open the window and push the blonde boy down before the magician could take off his pants.

When the boy stubbornly climbed up again, the magician was already lying on the bed, half-dressed, seemingly asleep. His hands and feet were tied with red ropes, and bells were wrapped around the joints, ringing with any movement.

And the doll, who had caused all this trouble, was sleeping on the other pillow, his eyes closed, ears still stuffed with tissue, his face peaceful.

…He was crying out to the heavens while clinging to the pipe outside the window, and the person inside was sleeping so soundly. The boy felt the unfairness of life so intensely that he… cried in frustration.

If it weren’t for this being a necessary task, he wouldn’t stay a second longer!

The boy sobbed and whimpered outside the window.

Luo Yiran slept dreamlessly through the night, even waking up promptly at seven in the morning.

The tissue hadn’t completely blocked his ears, so he could hear most of the noise. He just pretended not to. Fortunately, his light sleep meant he would wake up at sudden strange noises, but if a sound persisted, he would get used to it.

Like the boy’s crying that went on for a long time.

So, he slept quite well last night.

The magician hadn’t moved all night, or at least it seemed that way. He watched as Luo Yiran sat up. “Good morning, young master~”

“Good morning.”

Luo Yiran scratched his head, then turned to look at the window, intending to open it for some fresh air. As soon as he turned his head, he was caught off guard by the sight of an extremely haggard face on the glass outside.

The blonde boy was too exhausted to cry anymore. When Luo Yiran turned his head, he was weakly trying to maintain his composure, forcing a smile. “Good morning, sir. The weather looks nice today; it seems like it’s going to be a beautiful day.”

The doll replied, “…Hmm… Are you planning to follow me around?”

The boy, having given up, had lost the enchanting allure of his face during the day. Even when he tried to smile with a bit of innocence, it looked somewhat ugly. He said directly, “I have to follow you.”

The doll blinked quickly, recalling the brief moment last night when the boy seemed like a different person during his conversation with the magician. He had a suspicion and casually said, “Whatever, but if you can’t smile like the mermaid, don’t bother. When you smile, you don’t look like it at all.”

Almost instantly, the boy’s expression twisted, but it quickly returned to normal. He seemed accustomed to it, saying, “Okay.”

So he was indeed a reluctant substitute.

The doll confirmed his thought. He maneuvered the magician to bring himself to the window, looking at the blonde boy’s heavy dark circles. “Sometimes I really like your rules. Like at night, you have the advantage, but if I don’t look at you or let you in, you can’t come in even if you could break the window.”

The boy’s expression twisted again.

“What’s your name?” The doll’s voice suddenly softened.

The boy didn’t react in time, the gentle voice hitting him directly, so he instinctively answered, “Artel…”

“Well, Artel, as a substitute for the mermaid, have you ever thought about completely replacing the mermaid?” The doll’s thoughts surged, and he leaned close to the glass, his red eyes focused on the boy. Being so close, it seemed as if those beautiful red eyes contained only him.

Artel’s eyelashes trembled.

…He wanted not only to replace the mermaid but also to have everyone’s eyes fixed solely on him.

The magician opened the window, and Artel fell into the room, kneeling on the floor, his hands trembling slightly from climbing all night.

The magician didn’t know what the doll intended to do, but he knew the doll had already figured out quite a bit. After all, the mermaid substitute had been mentioned.

“Artel, you don’t want to just be a substitute for the mermaid, confined to the water tank, parading around, enjoying applause and cheers that aren’t truly yours, do you?”

Indeed, Luo Yiran confidently stated that the mermaid in the water tank was Artel… though it was unclear if he knew that much of the time, Artel’s body in the water tank wasn’t under his own control.

The magician looked at the doll in his arms-no, he definitely knew.

After all, last night, Artel had already performed a scene of his body being used by someone else.

Maneuvering the magician to bend down, the doll slid from the magician’s arm to the floor. He looked up at Artel. “Being summoned and dismissed at will is exhausting, isn’t it? Especially when it’s not as Artel himself.”

Artel knew the little doll in front of him was trying to manipulate him, but he had to admit that even knowing this, he was still swayed by every word the doll said.

The doll observed Artel’s every reaction, using it to gauge how to say the next words to achieve the desired result.

The good thing was, Artel’s mind was easy to read, his reactions almost unguarded.

“Artel has his own charm.” The doll looked up into Artel’s eyes. “Shall we prove it?”

“I’m willing to help you live as more than just a substitute, and all you need to do is do or reveal a little something, something very small that won’t harm you in the slightest… It’s a good deal, right?”

Artel’s hands trembled. In that moment, he felt an absurdity-if he and the doll had switched places last night, the doll would have easily and swiftly killed him.

This thought led Artel to one conclusion-

The doll was powerful.

Sunlight streamed through the window, falling on the doll’s soft black hair, in his clear red eyes.

“Let’s… give it a try.”

Artel’s scalp tingled, and he desperately wanted to flee, but in the end, he said just that.

Hearing this, the doll stood in the sunlight, showing a gentle smile. “Good.”

This was really good; now he could try to have some fun in this Water City.