Running Away from Home

His resistant whimpers did not drive away the black mist that had transformed into a puppy; instead, the mist seemed to feel wronged.

The black mist circled the beautiful dollmaker’s waist piteously several times, then suddenly flew upward to his cheek, nuzzling him gently.

At this moment, the mist appeared incredibly docile, lacking any trace of the violence it had shown when repelling the other cloud of mist earlier.

But no matter how docile it acted, it couldn’t change the fact that it was dangerous.

Ye Shengge kept his eyes tightly shut, his long lashes trembling. He was terrified that he would be consumed by the mist, turning the scene into a literal horror movie.

However, he waited for a long time and found that he hadn’t been devoured.

Can it actually control its devouring ability?

At this thought, Ye Shengge gathered his courage and opened his eyes, glancing down at the mist huddled against his cheek.

Sensing the gaze of its creator, the mist was overjoyed. It increased the pressure of its movements, rubbing vigorously against his face to “cuddle” with him.

This time, Ye Shengge finally felt the weight of the mist; his cheek was actually rubbed red.

“Can it control its ability to consume things?” Ye Shengge asked the resentful doll with a touch of curiosity.

Even though he didn’t know for certain whose mist this was, he directed his question to the resentful doll—the one who could speak and move like a normal human.

As for the other clumsy doll standing blankly nearby, staring enviously at the mist, there was no point in asking it anything. It couldn’t even form a complete sentence.

This subconscious reaction of seeking him out made the resentful doll’s mood instantly brighten, and its response was quite prompt.

“Of course it can.” Its tone was filled with pride, and its eyes narrowed with pleasure.

There was one thing it didn’t tell the beautiful dollmaker.

In reality, that cloud of black mist was its own clone, and they shared senses.

Therefore, as the mist rubbed against the dollmaker’s cheek, the doll could feel the delicate texture of his skin, making it crave even closer contact.

Hearing the doll’s proud tone, Ye Shengge guessed exactly who the mist belonged to. He pursed his lips and looked toward the other “silly” cloud of black mist.

That cloud hadn’t managed to stop in time and had crashed into the other side of the sofa, completely devouring the couch along with the small floor lamp beside it.

After swallowing the lamp and the sofa, the silly black mist realized too late that it had caused trouble. It floated frozen in mid-air, not daring to move.

When the beautiful youth’s gaze fell upon it, it became so nervous that it suddenly dropped with a plop.

Fortunately, a second before hitting the floor tiles, the silly mist steadied itself and slowly drifted back up to its previous height.

It looked extremely nervous.

Ye Shengge shook his head vigorously to dispel this strange thought. How on earth am I seeing “nervousness” in a cloud of mist without a face?

It was likely because the mist’s reaction was exactly like a student being caught red-handed by a teacher after doing something wrong.

Thinking of this comparison, Ye Shengge actually found it a bit funny.

But very quickly, he hit upon a brilliant idea.

Hadn’t he been worrying about how to leave this place without the dolls following him?

The perfect opportunity was right in front of him.

So many pieces of furniture and belongings had been destroyed by the black mists summoned by these two unbound dolls.

As the owner of this house, it would be perfectly reasonable for him to be angry, right?

And if he was angry, wanting to leave a place that made him unhappy was a logical next step.

Once he left the villa, the two dolls who had “done wrong” surely wouldn’t have the nerve to chase after him.

By then, he would achieve exactly the result he wanted.

At this thought, Ye Shengge was secretly delighted, but he kept his face solemn. His acting skills reached a peak as he purposefully furrowed his brows and asked angrily, “Since you can control the devouring ability, why did it still swallow the sofa, the lamp, and the carpet?”

The moment he spoke, the mist that had been nuzzling him froze. The resentful doll felt a surge of guilt, and the silly mist fell to the floor again with a plop, unable to float back up for a long time.

The doll that had been struggling to stand also slumped to the floor in guilt, blinking its eyes innocently as if it knew nothing.

If any other person encountered this scene, they would be heartbroken over the furniture and furious at the behavior.

However, dolls have no money, and the black mist couldn’t simply spit the items back out.

The kicker was that as the victim, he was also—to some extent—the guardian of these culprits.

But these dolls were like “bear children” (spoiled brats), causing trouble all day long. Even with his wealth, he couldn’t afford this kind of destruction.

It was truly infuriating.

“Fighting in someone else’s house and destroying the furniture… do you think this behavior is good?” Ye Shengge didn’t dare scold the doll bosses directly, so he used the two mists as proxies to vent his anger.

While his anger had started as an act, once he stepped into the role, he genuinely felt aggrieved and frustrated. It was quite exhausting.

Sensing the dollmaker’s genuine rage, the two mists didn’t dare be unruly. They stayed in their positions and took the scolding, looking very obedient and sincere.

Seeing the two clouds of mist acting so “human” while being scolded, Ye Shengge actually felt a bit embarrassed to continue.

The dolls were very sensitive to emotional changes.

The mist closest to Ye Shengge, seeing that he had stopped scolding and seemed less angry, moved tentatively and gave his cheek a light nuzzle.

However, the youth frowned at the touch and took an angry step back, his tone unhappy: “Don’t touch me.”

Ye Shengge wouldn’t have dared to say such a thing before, but right now his mind was set on finding a chance to leave. Coupled with his genuine annoyance, he spoke on impulse.

Immediately after, he worried for his safety, but he soon found he had overthought it.

The black mist didn’t have the slightest intention of hurting him. Instead, it was so guilty that it didn’t dare approach him again; it simply wagged its “tail” frantically, trying to make him feel better.

But seeing this, the beautiful youth seemed even angrier.

“Since you all love destroying things so much, I’ll leave this place to you. If you want to fight, keep fighting.” Knowing the mist wouldn’t hurt him, Ye Shengge became emboldened.

Having said that, he didn’t take anything with him. He turned and left with swift determination.

“Don’t go! I won’t kill it, okay? I’ll listen to you—I’ll help you move it upstairs. You can like whoever you want, I won’t interfere anymore!” Seeing the dollmaker heading for the door, the first discarded doll’s expression changed instantly as it tried to stop him.

The “favorite” doll also stared at him piteously and stammered after the resentful doll: “Don’t… don’t… no fight… don’t go.”

Finding itself unable to speak clearly, its tone became frantic and agitated, repeating those few words over and over.

It wanted to express that it would never fight again and begged the dollmaker not to leave.

To an outsider, this might look like Ye Shengge was heartlessly abandoning his “family,” slamming the door behind him.

But the reality was that Ye Shengge was driven out by two dolls who acted like spoiled children.

Though he didn’t know why the dolls were so agitated about his “running away from home,” he didn’t care to find out.

To ensure they wouldn’t follow, he even left them with a shred of hope.

“When you can restore this place to exactly how it was before, that is when I will return.”

Without looking back at the two gloomy, sullen dolls, he slammed the door and departed.

The black mist that had been nuzzling him rushed to follow, but it was slammed back by the door and couldn’t get through.

As for the other silly mist, seeing the beautiful person leave, it frantically tried to squeeze through the cracks of the door.

But the gaps were too small, and the side effects of forcibly breaking the seal were significant—it, like its master, could not leave the villa.

In other words, until the dollmaker chose to return, they wouldn’t see him again.

At this thought, the two clouds of black mist withered like frost-bitten eggplants.

As for their two masters, they glared at each other with pure repulsion and loathing.

But even so, they didn’t start fighting again.

They knew that if they broke anything else, the beautiful dollmaker truly wouldn’t come back.

To coax the angry dollmaker home, they had to restore the villa as soon as possible.

This was no easy task, so they were forced to work together to find a solution.

However, the two dolls—convinced that restoring the living room would bring him back—had no idea this was all a setup.

From the beginning, Ye Shengge had no intention of returning until he received a reply from the Main System.

Even if they wrung their brains to fix the room, they were destined to wait for a dollmaker who wasn’t coming back anytime soon.

If they knew this, they wouldn’t be staying obediently in the villa. Instead, they would be finding ways to break the restriction on leaving so they could catch the heartless dollmaker and make sure he never had the chance to trick them again.