Tang Dynasty Puppet Doctor

Chapter 74 The Secret of the Red Thread

But her husband actually turned the tables and took advantage of the woman's approach to pin her against the wall. The woman was startled and frowned, saying, "You didn't fall for my hypnosis?"

At the same time, Murong Huan and Xuan Yu also rushed into the room.

The woman saw the two of them and immediately understood: "Are you lying in ambush here on purpose, waiting for my arrival? No wonder there are no guards outside Changqing Pavilion today. I thought Xiao Lang had figured it out and was no longer setting up defenses against us."

At this point, the woman showed no fear of being arrested, and continued to giggle softly, "And a gentleman like Xiao Lang, as gentle as jade, actually has martial arts skills. This really opens my eyes. However, this kind of Xiao Lang makes my heart beat faster. I can't bear to kill him. What do you think I should do?"

As she spoke, her eyes sparkled, revealing a pitiful look, and even a hint of regret.

Xuan Yu spit out a sound: "You should be worried about yourself now, right?"

The woman continued to laugh with her hand covering her mouth.

"Are you Hong Xian?" Murong Huan interrupted her laughter and asked.

The woman's laughter suddenly stopped: "You've actually heard of my name, Hong Xian?"

"Who taught you the art of hypnosis?" Murong Huan asked again.

The woman waved her hand. "Forgive me for not being able to tell you anything about this. How could I betray my mentor?"

"Okay, then let me ask you, you killed Qiao Zhizhi, Guo Hongba, and the Qiu family, right? Where did you take Qiu Shenji?"

The woman looked stunned, as if she was quite surprised, but also very excited.

"You actually found out about me so quickly? You two are really smart and didn't let me down!"

Murong Huan glanced at her and said, "The clues you left behind are too obvious. The red string on the cell ceiling, I think that must be some kind of secret code you left behind. Qiu also mentioned your name during the interrogation. Add to that the sound of the silver bell that accompanied your appearance, and it's hard not to think of you."

"But even though I leave a ringing sound when I kill someone, no one knows my name, and no one has ever seen my true appearance. Where did you hear the name Red Thread?"

"Red Line isn't your real name, is it? Speaking of your face, we should take a closer look!"

Xuan Yu said this, and at Xiao Muchen's suggestion, he stepped forward, tied the woman's hands and threw her to the ground, then removed the veil from her face. But when the veil fell to the ground, Xuan Yu was a little surprised and lost his voice: "Shiqin, how could it be you?"

"No, she's not Shiqin!"

Murong Huan intercepted the road.

Xuan Yu understood and quickly tried to tear off the skin on the woman's face: "Found it, she's definitely wearing a human skin mask!"

He hurriedly tore off the mask, and was shocked to find that the face underneath was Shihua again.

"No, this face isn't hers either!"

Xuan Yu was stunned and rubbed her cheek again. Sure enough, he took off another human skin mask, and the face under the mask turned into Shiqi again.

"This isn't her either!"

Xuan Yu felt like his hands were about to tear themselves apart. Looking at the woman's face, which was covered with countless human skin masks, he couldn't help but get angry: "How many fake faces do you have? Don't you feel uncomfortable with so many fake skins?"

"As a woman, how can I not love beauty? I like every beautiful face, including this young lady and Xiao Zhongcheng!"

The woman said, then sighed and said, "Forget it, I won't sell Guansi with you anymore. I will take off the mask myself and show you my true face!"

Just as she was about to lift the last layer of human skin mask, Murong Huan interrupted her and said, "No need for that. I think your real appearance must not be good-looking. To be more precise, it's very scary. You are disfigured, right?" Upon hearing the word "disfigured", the woman was even more shocked and angry. Her extremely charming face turned pale and ashen.

"how do you know?"

"That's not hard to guess. It's true that women love beauty, but it's rare to find someone as obsessed with countless beautiful faces as you are. Moreover, I can see into your past..."

"my past?"

Hong Xian's voice suddenly became low, and her long eyelashes drooped, covering up the endless sadness in her affectionate eyes.

At this time, Murong Huan signaled Xiao Muchen and Xuan Yu to step back a little. The incense burner that had been prepared in the room had begun to emit smoke. She took out the flute and played it again. When the sound of the flute entered the distant maze, she gradually entered Hong Xian's dream.

……

In the dream, there were starving people everywhere, the dead were lying on each other, and people were eating each other. The girl in her teens was so hungry that her face was pale and thin. There were many refugees along the way who were drooling and staring at her. She shrank to her mother's side in fear, but her mother just held her less than one-year-old brother in her arms and kept comforting him.

The scene shifted, and we seemed to have returned from the famine road to a simple thatched hut. A woman with a haggard face and pale lips was holding a crying baby, lamenting, "When will the court send us food for disaster relief? If this continues, I won't even have milk. What will happen to my child if he has nothing to eat?"

The man's face was filled with worry when he heard this. "I'm afraid that even if the imperial court sent people to transport food here, there wouldn't be much left by the time it gets to us. Just waiting for the imperial court's disaster relief food isn't a solution. We have to find another way out. At least we have to keep Zhou'er alive. He's the only heir left to our Liu family."

……

"Aye, please don't sell me, okay? I can do a lot of work. I can help you support my brother. Please don't sell me..."

When the flute played to this point, Murong Huan actually saw tears flowing from the corners of Hong Xian's eyes.

The scene changed again. The girl was locked in a cage with other children of similar age. They each held a knife in their hands. A masked man sat outside the cage and said with a smile: "Kill them. Kill them and you can get out of this cage. From now on, I will give you anything you want, delicious food, beautiful clothes."

The girl picked up the knife and desperately slashed at one person after another in front of her, until she was exhausted, until her body was covered in blood, until she was the only one left.

"Congratulations, you won. From now on, you will become my apprentice. I will teach you how to bewitch people and kill people in their dreams."

"From now on, your name will be Hong Xian!"

In the blink of an eye, the girl had turned into a slim and charming woman. She began to enter the homes of powerful people or wealthy families, stealing privacy for the man and helping him secretly threaten those playboys who had been bullying the weak and humiliating the people. She gained more and more wealth.

But unfortunately, she later fell in love with a young man from a noble family. Because of this man, she wanted to redeem herself and get rid of the control of her master, who was also her master, forever. But what she didn't expect was that this man would eventually betray her.

After eating a bowl of Sushan carefully prepared by a man, she slept with a monk. When she woke up, she wanted to kill the monk, but failed because she was too weak. She then burned down the entire temple, but unfortunately, her appearance was also ruined in the fire.

After escaping, she began to change her appearance, learned the art of disguise, found many beautiful faces for herself, and seduced the man who betrayed her again.

The dandy boy who was used to playing around with all kinds of women soon fell into her arms again. When they were making love one day, she deliberately revealed her false face. The man thought he had seen a ghost and was so frightened that he lost his soul and became a living dead, lying on his sickbed forever.

Later, her master found her and gave her a very profound lesson and punishment. She then began to serve her master again and never dared to betray him again, until her master found the King of Wei and reached an alliance with him.

……

When the dream arrived here, Murong Huan wanted to take a good look at who the masked man was, but he found that Hong Xian's memory began to become confused. Many cursory scenes flashed by, making her hear many noisy sounds and see many familiar or unfamiliar faces.

Oh no, this is the red line fighting against her hypnosis!
Just as she was about to hypnotize him again, a fierce cold light suddenly struck her...

(End of this chapter)