Alien Hotel.

Chapter 481 The Genuine Doll
Early the next morning, Yu Sheng moved a chair, held Eileen in his arms, and sat down in front of No. 66 Wutong Road. Hu Li and Luna stood on either side of him like two door gods. The four of them (or maybe no one) waited anxiously by the roadside for the Alice doll who called herself Marlene to arrive.

Eileen kept fiddling with her phone watch—Yu Sheng helped her remove the watchband and tied a colorful cord to it so she could hang it around her neck—the little doll kept turning several apps on and off, and anyone could tell she was a little nervous.

But as soon as Yu Sheng asked, she immediately denied it, stubbornly claiming that she was just bored.

This time, no one called out the little thing's lame excuse.

Yu Sheng glanced down at the time, then looked up at the intersection, his mind still replaying the phone call he had with Baili Qingtong yesterday, and the things he had told her at the end.

...Hopefully, Baili Qing has accurately explained Eileen's situation to the "Alice's Hut Messenger" and relayed his thoughts.

Just as Hu Li finished eating his twelfth sesame seed cake, the people waiting at the door heard the sound of an engine—a black luxury car appeared at the intersection.

Yu Sheng looked up at the fox spirit girl beside him, who squinted her eyes smugly: "I drove here! My benefactor, you'll have to comb my tail tonight!"

Yu Sheng clicked his tongue and frowned: "...Why isn't he riding an electric scooter? That doesn't fit the usual style of people who come here."

Hu Li said in a serious tone: "Riding an electric scooter with one hand is unsafe..."

Hearing the commotion next to her, Eileen finally couldn't hold back any longer: "Aren't you two bored?!"

Yu Sheng chuckled as he listened, and while they were talking, the car had already driven up nearby and then smoothly stopped in front of No. 66 Wutong Road.

The car door opened, but the person who got out of the driver's seat was not the Alice doll that Yu Sheng had seen yesterday. Instead, it was a short-haired woman dressed like a maid, but with an appearance that clearly showed mechanical structures. After the short-haired woman got out, she opened the back door of the car, and the Alice doll who called herself "Marlene" appeared in everyone's sight.

At the same time, Yu Sheng noticed that the short-haired "maid" driving the car not only had obvious inhuman mechanical features, but also a large spring-loaded structure near her waist on her back—a silver-white spring-loaded key inserted into a complex keyhole like a decorative bow, from which a slight clicking sound could be heard from time to time.

Eileen's gaze was immediately drawn to the large key behind the "wind-up maid." Heaven knows what happened to the little one's brain, but she started struggling and yelling, "Hey, Yu Sheng! I want that one! The one that spins!"

Yu Sheng was getting up to greet Marlene when he heard the little thing in his arms beeping and didn't react for a moment. After a couple of seconds, he realized what Eileen meant and his face darkened: "What are you talking about? You want to—you want to wind it up? You don't even have a keyhole!"

Marlene, who had just gotten out of the car and was walking towards Yu Sheng with a faint smile, paused slightly for some reason, and her gaze fell on Eileen. But she quickly recovered and walked slowly to Yu Sheng, still wearing that flawless smile on her face: "We meet again, Mr. Yu. I'm sorry, I was impetuous yesterday. I hope I didn't offend you."

"Huh, huh?" Yu Sheng was subconsciously a little confused, not understanding the reason behind the other party's solemn and overly polite attitude—after all, he was used to the fact that the people around him either appeared out of nowhere or were easily startled, and he hadn't taken Marlene's sudden departure yesterday too seriously, so he was quite unaccustomed to this. "Oh, it's nothing, it's nothing. I heard from Baili Qing that you had some urgent business yesterday, it's understandable..."

As he spoke, he extended his hand to the other person, thinking it would be better to be more polite and take the initiative this time.

Then the scene fell silent for two seconds.

Yu Sheng switched to his left hand.

Marlene's reaction was somewhat subtle. The doll-like woman responded to Mr. Yu's handshake with considerable caution, then hesitated for a moment before speaking softly, "Mr. Yu, I accidentally left something behind yesterday..."

“It’s here.” Yu Sheng nodded quickly before the other person could finish speaking, then winked at Hu Li next to him.

The fox spirit girl immediately patted the crumbs off her palm, rubbed her hands on her tail, and then reached into her storage tail, pulling out a doll's hand and a glove, which she handed to the Alice doll in front of her.

"Thank you."

Marlene thanked her meticulously, took her hand and placed it on her wrist. With a "pop," the ball joint returned to its original position. She rotated it back and forth to confirm that the connection was normal before letting out a sigh of relief and carefully putting on the long glove.

"Sigh, we've been studying this all night, and we're still clueless," Yu Sheng sighed from the side. "We have no idea what you meant by suddenly holding back a secret..."

“My hand joints aren’t very strong; that’s part of my ‘blessing’,” Marlene said, her gaze falling on the little doll in Yu Sheng’s arms. She quietly examined it, her porcelain-like smiling face revealing no true thoughts or emotional reactions. After a while, she nodded gently. “Eileen, is that so?”

"Yes, yes, yes!" The little doll had been staring at Marlene for a while, as if reminiscing about her own 1.67 meters tall through this lifelike doll, but she had kept her mouth tightly shut and hadn't dared to speak. Only when the other person took the initiative to greet her did she hurriedly speak up, "I'm Eileen! Eileen from Alice's Cottage! I... I don't know you... Do you know me?"

As she spoke, her voice suddenly softened, as if she were a little apprehensive. Then she turned around and climbed onto Yu Sheng's shoulder, hugging his head tightly.

This is her habitual reaction when she feels nervous or scared outside.

Marlene didn't answer Eileen's question immediately. The "large doll" simply looked at the small doll carefully for a couple more moments before turning to Yu Sheng: "This isn't a very suitable place to talk, may I ask..."

“Oh, okay, let’s go inside and talk,” Yu Sheng immediately realized, turned around and took two steps to open the door of No. 66 Wutong Road. “I forgot, you probably can’t see my house.” Marlene and the wind-up doll next to her widened their eyes slightly in surprise, looking at the door that suddenly appeared in front of them, and the simple yet lively living room opposite the door.

A moment later, the two guests were led into No. 66 Wutong Road and sat on the sofa in the living room.

Marlene stared blankly at the other three Eileens sitting neatly on the sofa.

"...What's going on?"

"These are all my extensions, Yu Sheng helped me set them up!" Eileen explained immediately, with a hint of pride. "Extension number one, extension number two, extension number three... the order doesn't matter. We grab the oil painting in the morning, whoever grabs it first becomes extension number one!"

Marlene listened, puzzled, clearly not understanding. She turned to Yu Sheng: "You're an alchemy master? You even know how to make living dolls?"

Yu Sheng quickly waved his hand: "No, no, no, my skills are very rough. I was taught the basics by Eileen."

Marlene paused, then looked at the row of small dolls: "...Are there more?"

“Yes,” Yu Sheng nodded with a smile, “I have another regiment in my backyard.”

Marlene: "?!"

Why does the Alice doll have a separate unit?!

Eileen tugged at Yu Sheng's sleeve and whispered, "Now there are two groups."

Yu Sheng was taken aback: "...When?!"

“I found it when I was counting yesterday,” Eileen stuck out her tongue. “When I was making the dolls last time, I gave them a production order and forgot to stop. I only received the error message after all the blood you left in the alchemy workshop was used up. When I counted again, I found that there were already two groups.”

Yu Sheng: "..."

He fell silent for a moment, while Marlene on the other side seemed to be getting a little numb. This Alice doll, who had just been sent to the border region as an envoy, had probably never encountered this situation before. Only now did she begin to understand the meaning of the widely circulated phrase "the border region is a land of outstanding people and beautiful scenery." She also understood the good intentions behind Baili Qing's advice to her before she came: "When you get to Yu Sheng's place, be sure to keep a calm mindset." Then, she noticed something else unusual.

There was a strange, grayish-white stone ball that kept circling around one of Erin's heads.

"What is this?" she asked curiously.

“This is Eileen’s satellite,” Hu Li said casually from the side.

Marlene: "...?"

Why does the Alice doll have a satellite?!
She turned her head slightly and met the somewhat blank gaze of the wind-up doll, Maris.

“Marilyn,” she called out in telepathic communication.

“Yes, Miss Marlene,” came the clockwork maid’s voice from the depths of her heart.

"Is it possible," Marlene muttered to herself with a strange tone, "that this little one is the real Alice doll, and I'm actually a fake?"

"Please calm down. I completely understand the jealousy you feel when you see other dolls with high-end accessories, but this bumpy ball doesn't really suit your hairstyle."

Marlene's eyes twitched, and at the same time she noticed several pairs of eyes that were fixed on her from across the sofa, so she coughed twice and turned her attention back to Eileen.

And the strange oil painting that Eileen was carrying on her back.

“As you can see,” Yu Sheng’s voice rang out, “Eileen’s current situation… is rather special. Although she has several bodies, a part of her ‘essence’ is likely still bound by this painting. Before today, she had been trying to contact Alice’s Cottage, but without any progress. Now, you have appeared—we are eager to know, what exactly is going on with Eileen?”

Marlene pursed her lips, and after a few seconds of solemn silence and thought, she reached out her hand to Eileen (the one closest to her).

“At least one thing is certain,” she said with a slight smile, “you are indeed our sister—although, it seems there’s been a bit of a problem.”

(End of this chapter)