Extra 6: Empathy Doll

Two hours before getting off work, Fu Rangyi had an extremely bizarre experience. He was originally in a group meeting, sitting in the front row with Professor Wang, listening to a student’s progress report.

But as he listened, he felt the bridge of his nose lighten, and the words before him instantly blurred.

He looked up at the PPT on the projection screen, unable to see anything clearly. Yet his glasses were clearly still on his nose.

What was happening? He took off his glasses and put them back on, but his vision remained blurry.

Fu Rangyi was utterly perplexed. He tilted his head slightly and squinted. This action was nothing to him, but for the student on the stage, it was like sitting on pins and needles.

“Professor Fu… is something wrong? Is there a problem with this page?”

I don’t know. I can’t even see it clearly. Fu Rangyi shook his head. “Continue.” Just as he finished speaking, he felt something poke the corner of his eye.

Then, a gust of wind blew, so strong it made him close his eyes. He felt a weight return to the bridge of his nose, and when he opened his eyes again, his vision was suddenly clear.

How strange. He suspected it was due to being too tired lately from the intense workload. But soon, something even stranger happened.

He inexplicably felt someone stroking the mole on the web of his thumb, back and forth, very gently.

The touch of the finger was soft and very familiar. It felt a bit like Zhu Zhixi’s hand.

Have I been thinking about him so much I’m hallucinating? Fu Rangyi tried to mentally snap himself out of it. Meeting. Focus on the meeting.

Just as he finished this mental pep talk, in the next second, Fu Rangyi felt that “invisible” hand appear again. It tickled his palm, and just as he felt the itch and subconsciously wanted to make a fist, suddenly, the wedding ring on his ring finger was “taken off.”

The sensation was terrifyingly real. Fu Rangyi quickly looked down, raising his hand.

This caught the attention of Professor Wang next to him. “What is it, Xiao Fu?”

The ring was still securely on his finger. Fu Rangyi sighed in relief and shook his head. “It’s nothing, I thought my wedding ring fell off.”

Professor Wang laughed. “Look how scared you are. Zhixi is such a generous kid, he wouldn’t mind even if you really lost it.”

He would whine and squeal and then say through gritted teeth, “How could you be like this?”

Just as he was thinking this, suddenly, Fu Rangyi’s lips were touched, very softly, with a warm temperature.

It was a very familiar feeling.

Am I going crazy?

Fu Rangyi pursed his lips and raised his hand again, pressing his knuckles against his lips.

This was too abnormal…

Just then, his phone vibrated three times in a row.

[Great King Zhu: Look what I received today!?]

[Great King Zhu: [Photo shared]]

[Great King Zhu: Isn’t it super cute! It looks exactly like you!]

Fu Rangyi opened the picture. In the photo was a round, fluffy cotton doll.

How did this look exactly like him?

But to say it didn’t would be absurd, because the doll was a nearly one-to-one replica of his attire—wearing glasses, a shirt, and trousers. Its stubby little hands, comparable to Doraemon’s, even had a cotton wedding ring on them.

[Great King Zhu’s Plaything: Where did you get it?]

Zhu Zhixi’s crafting skills… this could absolutely not be something he made himself.

[Great King Zhu: Aren’t you in a group meeting? Slacking off, are we.]

[Great King Zhu: This is a gift I received, hmph hmph. You can step aside, I’m going to play by myself now.]

Play?

Fu Rangyi suddenly thought of the strange sensations from just now.

[Great King Zhu’s Plaything: How are you going to play?]

How else does one play with a doll? Zhu Zhixi sent back a sticker of a dog with a toy in its mouth, put down his phone, and picked up his mini-Fu.

This doll was not easy to come by.

Ever since he was turned into a rabbit last time, he had held a grudge. Every now and then, he would go to Xiao Yu, demanding that he turn Fu Rangyi into a small animal so he could raise him for a while.

“No,” Xiao Yu said, sitting in the courtyard of the stray animal station, looking down and playing with his broken watch. “I got punished again for using transformation magic last time.”

“What kind of punishment?”

“I’m not allowed to come down for duty,” Xiao Yu said.

“No wonder I haven’t seen you for a while.” Zhu Zhixi squatted in front of him with a smile. “Oh, come on, just help me one more time. I don’t need that long, how about two hours? For such a short time, your superiors won’t find out.”

Xiao Yu looked up, his face expressionless. “They’ve already confiscated that ability from me.”

“…As expected, all bosses are the same,” Zhu Zhixi said indignantly. His eyes darted around, and he leaned closer. “Then can you let me play with something else? Xiao Yu, you satisfy Fu Rangyi, but he can’t help you with anything. I’m different. I’m Xiao En’s best friend.”

After speaking, he nudged the love-struck angel with his elbow and winked at him.

“Then can you convince Xiao En to let me mark him?”

Zhu Zhixi boasted shamelessly, “Pfft, what’s so hard about that…”

“A permanent mark,” Xiao Yu interjected.

Zhu Zhixi choked and coughed.

Hold on, from what perspective and position am I supposed to persuade him to do that? Am I some old matron showing the bride pornographic pictures before the wedding night?

But to achieve his goal, Zhu Zhixi still reluctantly nodded with a stiff neck and even patted his chest in assurance. Angels were easy to fool anyway.

And just like that, he tricked his way into getting a cotton doll.

“Huh? Just this?” Zhu Zhixi, who had been full of joy while opening the package, was very disappointed. He called Xiao Yu’s watch-phone. “I’m telling you, you’re too biased! Fu Rangyi didn’t say a word, and you turned me into a rabbit for him. I begged you for so long, and you just fob me off with a cloth doll? Do I look like I’m at the age to play with dolls?”

“Weren’t you playing with mud just a while ago?”

“That was pottery!” Zhu Zhixi was about to die of anger.

The signal on the other end of the line suddenly became very poor. Xiao Yu’s voice was intermittent: “With this doll… Fu Rangyi can… Be careful… Don’t drop it…”

Beep, beep. The call was disconnected.

What remote mountain did he fly into? Zhu Zhixi was utterly speechless. He put down his phone, took the doll out of the box, and examined it carefully.

At first glance, it was quite cute. On second glance, it was even cuter.

How could it look so similar? Look at this “scholarly scoundrel” outfit, this tense little expression as if everyone owed him thirty million.

It was as if Fu Rangyi himself had been stuffed into a doll-making machine, scanned from head to toe, and spat out with a clunk.

And the glasses were so exquisite. Zhu Zhixi wanted to see if they could be taken off. He tried, and they actually came off!

He held the cotton-made glasses in his hand, examined them closely, and then put them back on “Xiao Fu.” But the temples were a bit soft. He didn’t get it right at first and accidentally poked the corner of the cotton doll’s eye.

“Oops, oops, are you okay?” Zhu Zhixi leaned down and blew on the doll’s eye corner. “Sorry, Xiao Fu.”

The cotton doll’s unhappy little face looked even more unhappy. But as Zhu Zhixi stared at it, he found it inexplicably cute and laughed.

He gently took the doll’s hand and was surprised to find a mole on the web of its thumb.

“This is too similar…” Zhu Zhixi stroked the mole with his index finger, feeling as if he were stroking his husband’s hand. After that, he tickled its palm, squeezed its fingertips, and noticed the ring on its ring finger.

“Can this be taken off too?” Zhu Zhixi tried. “It really can!” How magical.

For the first time in his life, Zhu Zhixi discovered that he, who had never much liked playing house as a child, could actually like a doll. He couldn’t help but lean down and kiss the doll’s lips.

He excitedly took a picture and sent it to Fu Rangyi.

“It would be great if you could make a sound,” he said, nibbling on its round cheek and laughing. He put on a high-pitched voice, “Ah, that hurts~” Unfortunately, the doll remained silent, which, strangely, made it even more like Fu Rangyi.

Zhu Zhixi touched the doll’s furrowed brows, his hand moving up to its hair.

“Let me tie a little braid for you!” On a whim, he found the smallest rubber band, gathered the doll’s hair, and began to comb it. Was this the fun of playing house?

Soon, his phone vibrated. With the rubber band in his mouth, Zhu Zhixi held the doll’s hair with one hand and reached for his phone with the other.

[Great King Zhu’s Plaything: What are you doing…]

“Huh?” Zhu Zhixi found it strange and typed back with one hand.

[Great King Zhu: Who gave you the courage to send me an ellipsis?]

[Great King Zhu’s Plaything: It was a typo. Are you still playing with the doll?]

[Great King Zhu: Yeah]

[Great King Zhu’s Plaything: Stop playing for now. I’ll be off work soon. Think about what you want for dinner and help me take out the ingredients.]

Zhu Zhixi found it a bit strange but still replied with an “Okay” and did as he was told.

He tidied up the box and found that there was also a matching set of pajamas inside, identical to the navy blue ones Fu Rangyi usually wore.

“It can even change clothes?” Zhu Zhixi stood up, holding the doll. “I’ll change you into them later.” As he spoke, he deliberately flicked the top button of the doll’s shirt with his finger. The tiny button was very loose and came undone with a flick.

He laid the doll flat on the counter, turned to open the refrigerator, and started taking out ingredients while pondering what to eat. He wanted to eat everything and deliberated for a long time. Opening the refrigerated section, he saw the new strawberries Fu Rangyi had bought, along with a large carton of fresh milk.

I want to drink strawberry milk. But I’m too lazy to wash the juicer.

Zhu Zhixi decided to take a sip of milk, then eat a strawberry, and mix them into strawberry milk in his mouth.

After taking a large gulp of milk, Zhu Zhixi picked up a strawberry. He was about to put it in his own mouth but suddenly changed direction and held it to Xiao Fu doll’s mouth, mumbling with his lips closed, “Do you like strawberries? You don’t like them either, huh.”

Facing the silent doll, he popped it back into his own mouth, creating strawberry milk.

After swallowing, he muttered to himself, “He doesn’t like to eat them either, but he loves to buy them.”

Because I love to eat them. Zhu Zhixi thought. He took a bite, but the strawberry was so juicy that it squirted out. He looked up and saw it had splattered on the doll’s shirt, near the belt.

“I’ve only been playing for a little while and it’s already dirty…” The automatic troublemaker washed his hands, shook them dry, and used a paper towel to dab at the strawberry juice. It couldn’t be absorbed completely, so he had to wipe it. His phone vibrated again, but he didn’t have time to look.

[Great King Zhu’s Plaything: Zhu Zhixi, what are you doing…]

[Great King Zhu’s Plaything: Can you just sit quietly and wait for me to come home right now]

[Great King Zhu’s Plaything: Did you get this doll from the fire hydrant?]

[Great King Zhu’s Plaything: Stop, stop wiping…]

“Why won’t it come clean?” Zhu Zhixi picked it up to inspect it. “Maybe I should just take it off. Luckily there’s another set.”

No sooner said than done. Zhu Zhixi placed the doll back on the counter, undid the buttons one by one, and peeled off the shirt.

“These pecs aren’t very accurate. You’re too chubby.”

Zhu Zhixi commented, looking at the two little dots on the doll’s chest, and burst out laughing. “You even made these? The color is pretty accurate, though.”

He touched them with his finger; they were embroidered. “So cutely embroidered.”

His phone vibrated again, this time with a call.

Hearing the vibration, Zhu Zhixi knocked over the carton of fresh milk next to him while looking for his phone. The milk spilled all over the floor and onto his pants.

“Crap, I got myself dirty too.” He lifted his pant leg and tutted, then looked up and met the gaze of the not-so-happy doll.

“Let’s take a bath together.”