Chapter 156: Madam Yao’s Manipulation

Song Xizheng didn’t doubt Lin Yun’s words for a second. He quickly pried the puppet Xiao He’s hand loose and shrank his body closer toward Lin Yun.

"What are you doing? Don’t come any closer! I don’t even know you!"

Lin Yun noticed something in that moment — the instant its hand was pried free, the puppet Xiao He’s eyes filled with genuine surprise. It hadn’t expected Song Xizheng to actually push it away instead of helping.

She glanced up again toward the approaching thugs from the Red Sleeve Pavilion.

The moment they saw the puppet get pushed off, their expressions shifted. Moments earlier, seeing Xiao He cling to Song Xizheng, their faces had been openly hostile — but now that hostility had faded entirely.

The surrounding tourists were still watching closely, but the instant the Hongxiu Tower thugs seized the puppet again, most of those stares finally drifted away.

The puppet Xiao He struggled with everything she had — and, unexpectedly, broke free once more, lunging straight back toward Song Xizheng.

Just as she was about to reach him, Lin Yun shoved her aside without hesitation.

The force sent the puppet stumbling directly toward the waiting Red Sleeve Pavilion thugs.

The thugs looked momentarily startled, but that surprise quickly gave way to something like approval at Lin Yun’s quick thinking.

Once they had the puppet firmly restrained again, they made sure she wouldn’t get another chance to slip free.

Song Xizheng let out a long breath of relief. If Xiao He had actually reached him, he was fairly certain the sheer weight of everyone’s glares — tourists and thugs alike — would have been enough to finish him off on the spot.

Even in that brief moment before being pushed away, he’d felt the full force of the crowd’s stares boring into him.

"Song Xizheng, let’s switch back."

Lin Yun’s eyes drifted to the puppet as she was dragged off, still staring back at them intently, clearly still hoping Song Xizheng might yet come to her rescue.

"Wait, wait, no need for that — I’ll switch with him instead."

Song Zhenzhen, seated beside her, jumped in immediately.

She hadn’t forgotten how eager that little girl earlier had been to sit next to Lin Yun. Better not risk her latching back on the moment the seats changed again.

Song Xizheng’s eyes lit up at once. "Sister Song, you’re a lifesaver! I owe you forever!"

The two of them switched places right then and there.

The puppet Xiao He was caught once more and beaten nearly senseless. By this point, though, she’d finally begun to understand what was really going on.

Both of her escape attempts had been discovered almost immediately. She’d had every reason to believe she could find a way out undetected — so why did it keep failing?

She looked over toward Xiang Lian, who was tending her wounds with medicine, but Xiang Lian kept her eyes lowered, her hands trembling slightly as she worked.

This time, Xiao He decided not to breathe a word of her plans to Xiang Lian, keeping everything carefully hidden from her entirely.

Believing Xiao He had finally settled down, Xiang Lian reported as much to Madam Yao — but Madam Yao refused to believe it for a second.

Instead, Madam Yao had already made her own arrangements ahead of time, quietly setting things up to ensure that this time, Xiao He would remain obediently within Hongxiu Tower for good.

The puppet Xiao He was strikingly beautiful, after all.

Properly trained, she could become the most sought-after courtesan the Red Sleeve Pavilion had ever seen — and with her, a fortune to match.

As the man on stage finally turned around to face the audience, Lin Yun and the others froze, every one of them turning to stare at Song Xizheng, seated right there in the middle of the group.

Song Xizheng went pale and waved both hands frantically. "It wasn’t me! I swear, I had nothing to do with this! I didn’t even know!"

The other four: "..."

The resemblance was uncanny — practically a carbon copy of Song Xizheng standing right there on stage.

The man Madam Yao had brought in bore what had to be an eighty-percent likeness to Song Xizheng’s own face.

Lin Yun reached over and patted his shoulder. "Well, young man, you certainly do have a memorable face."

Song Xizheng’s expression crumpled like a kicked kitten. "Sister Lin, can I maybe not have it, actually?"

"What’s gone is gone, right?"

Song Xizheng let out a long, heavy sigh.

The performance carried on.

Before long, the puppet Xiao He was preparing to make yet another escape attempt. This time, she said nothing to Xiang Lian at all — neither revealing her plans nor giving away any hint of what she intended.

Xiang Lian, taken in once again by Xiao He’s convincing act, still found herself growing suspicious whenever she crossed paths with Madam Yao. And yet every one of Xiao He’s actions appeared entirely ordinary, leaving her thoroughly confused.

Late that night, the puppet Xiao He made her move once more.

She leapt off the stage again and ran straight for Song Xizheng, but this time she was intercepted midway by someone else entirely.

Since the theater carried no sound, there was no way to know exactly what the man — who bore that unsettling resemblance to Song Xizheng — said to her in that moment.

All they could see was the puppet being led away by him back onto the stage, at which point the entire set shifted into a new scene.

The Hongxiu Tower thugs made no move to chase after them this time, as though the escape itself had simply been allowed to succeed.

The man took Xiao He in, and the two of them settled together into his home.

It was there that she finally learned who he truly was: a scholar preparing for the imperial examinations, who promised that the moment he passed, he would formally welcome her into his household for good.

Their good fortune, however, didn’t last. Madam Yao and her people eventually tracked them down, forcibly dragging Xiao He back and beating the man senseless in the process.

Terrified he might be beaten to death, the puppet Xiao He begged Madam Yao for mercy.

Madam Yao relented, granting her a little time — enough for Xiao He to help the injured man onto the bed before she was taken away.

Madam Yao agreed to a deal: so long as Xiao He served her customers well once back at the brothel, she would be free to spend whatever money she earned however she pleased.

Knowing full well the man’s family struggled financially, Xiao He made her peace with him before following Madam Yao back to Hongxiu Tower.

She gave up running after that. He had been so good to her — had even taken a beating meant to protect her.

If I can’t escape, then I’ll go back and earn what I can. With that money, he can pursue his studies properly. Sooner or later, I’ll buy my own freedom.

It was a promise she made quietly to herself.

The puppet Xiao He grew calm after that, abandoning any further thought of escape. All she wanted now was to wait for her beloved to come and claim her properly.

Eventually, he did come for her — but only two days later, she found herself sent right back to the brothel.

In truth, the man had only ever meant to sever her feelings cleanly, unwilling to let her cause any complications that might threaten his own carefully laid plans.

The puppet Xiao He never suspected that the entire affair had been orchestrated by Madam Yao from the very beginning — an elaborate scheme designed to help the man pass his examinations with top honors, secure a marriage arranged by the emperor himself, and cast Xiao He aside entirely, the very "money bag" that had funded his rise.

Madam Yao had appeared at exactly the right moments throughout, stirring the pot in subtle ways, until the puppet Xiao He finally resigned herself completely to her fate.

All that remained afterward was hatred.

She hated Madam Yao. She hated the parents who had sold her into the Red Sleeve Brothel in the first place. And she hated the man who had deceived her so completely.

And so, not long after rising to become the most celebrated courtesan in the house, the puppet Xiao He set the Red Sleeve Pavilion ablaze.

The entire building burned to the ground.

She had been preparing for that day for what felt like an eternity — waiting, patiently, far longer than anyone should ever have to.

By the time the flames died down, the Red Sleeve Pavilion lay in ruins, and not a single soul inside had made it out alive.

...

"Sister Lin, given the height difference between us, doesn’t it get tiring keeping your hand on my shoulder like that?" Song Xizheng shifted uncomfortably, rolling his shoulder slightly.

Lin Yun turned toward him in surprise. "I didn’t put my hand there."

Her eyes followed the hand resting on his shoulder, tracing upward.

"—!"

Hadn’t the puppet Xiao He burned to death in the fire at Hongxiu Tower? Then how, exactly, was she standing right here?