Chapter 267: Shadow Puppets and Lamplight (33)
When Xie Lin was welcomed into the house by Zheng Tiantian, his first instinct was still to look around for Zheng Shumu.
Although he always saw Zheng Tiantian as his younger sister, in his mind, she was still an underage little girl. Visiting someone’s home, he naturally felt he should first greet the adult in the house.
But all the lights in the courtyard had gone out, leaving everything in total darkness. In the pitch black, he could vaguely make out the shapes of human figures.
At first, Xie Lin was startled, but then he remembered—it was the wooden puppet figures he had seen during a previous visit.
When the lights were on, they didn’t seem like much. But once everything went dark, being silently watched by these wooden puppets was actually a bit terrifying.
He had worried whether Zheng Tiantian would be frightened, but when he looked at her, he saw that she appeared completely unfazed. She walked through the courtyard among the wooden puppet figures as naturally as a little girl browsing through a store full of dolls.
He froze for a moment, then chuckled and shook his head, sighing to himself. How ridiculous it was that, as a grown man, he was more afraid than a little girl—actually scared by wooden puppets.
Xie Lin comforted himself, telling himself these were no different from plastic mannequins in shopping malls. There was no need to be afraid. They were just lifeless objects.
Thinking this, he managed to smile again and gently asked Zheng Tiantian, “Where’s your brother? He’s not home?”
Zheng Tiantian tilted her head up to look at Xie Lin and replied, “Mm, he’s not home. He went out with another big brother. But… you didn’t come to see him, right? Didn’t you come to see me?”
Xie Lin’s first reaction, however, was concern for her safety.
“There’s no adult at home. How can you open the door so casually?”
He crouched down in front of her, bringing himself eye level with her, and told her seriously, “What if I were a bad person? If you got hurt, your brother would be so heartbroken when he got home. You have to learn to protect yourself, Tian Tian. Don’t let bad people take you away.”
Hearing that Zheng Shumu still wasn’t home so late, Xie Lin’s impression of him took a steep dive. He muttered unhappily, “Leaving your little sister home alone this late… what an irresponsible brother.”
Zheng Tiantian blinked her beautiful big eyes and still held tightly onto her beloved little wooden puppet. She looked up at Xie Lin and obediently nodded, saying she understood.
The fire in the workshop had long since gone out. The courtyard was cold and dark, like a coffin sunk beneath the lake.
Yet Zheng Tiantian walked through this eerie space with a lightness in her step.
And everywhere she passed, the wooden puppet figures all bowed their heads with reverence and fear.
But Xie Lin was too focused on maintaining his balance in the darkness. He couldn’t see clearly and didn’t notice the movement of the puppets on either side.
As Zheng Tiantian led him toward the living room, Xie Lin remained in awe of the objects they passed.
After the initial fright wore off, he began to realize just how lifelike these wooden puppets were—so detailed they gave him the illusion he was looking at real people.
When he finally stepped into the living room, the wooden skulls and puppets scattered throughout the space left him with a mix of emotions. On one hand, he admired Zheng Shumu’s incredible craftsmanship as a carpenter; on the other hand, he found his tastes and sense of aesthetics rather… unusual.
In Xie Lin’s mind, traditional woodworking should result in more conventional designs—like dragons playing with pearls, or statues of the warrior god Guan Yu. That was more in line with what he expected.
Even so, after the surprise faded, he still found himself respecting and appreciating Zheng Shumu’s artistic taste.
As a singer who had pioneered the golden age of music twenty years ago—a song gof whose influence lingered in the hearts of today’s musicians—Xie Lin’s songs still felt ahead of their time.
His open-minded nature and the refinement he had cultivated over the years made him willing to respect everyone’s aesthetic preferences. He even felt that Zheng Shumu’s style was unexpectedly contemporary, leaning toward rock.
Xie Lin couldn’t help but laugh at himself for thinking this way.
By now, Zheng Tiantian had curled up in the grand armchair in the living room.
The little girl drew her dangling legs back, her frail body wrapped in a beautiful little dress. Even curled up, she barely filled the chair.
In the darkness, she looked terrifyingly thin.
As fragile as a reed that might snap with a single bend.
Drifting through the world like a rootless thing.
The sight stung Xie Lin’s eyes. As he felt heartache for Zheng Tiantian, he couldn’t help but resent Zheng Shumu.
As someone who also had a younger sister, Xie Lin couldn’t stand to see this kind of scene.
A sudden impulse surged within him—he wanted to take Zheng Tiantian away. If Zheng Shumu couldn’t be a proper brother, then maybe he should be.
“So, Brother, what did you come here for?”
Zheng Tiantian was drowsy and complained unhappily, “Brother, don’t you have anything to say to Tian Tian? Don’t you miss Tian Tian?”
Xie Lin felt a strange sense pass through his heart. He couldn’t help but feel that Zheng Tiantian was being a little too familiar with him.
Though he knew he wasn’t a bad person, as a stranger, Zheng Tiantian’s lack of vigilance toward him seemed excessive.
Even though Xie Lin couldn’t help but feel pleased by Zheng Tiantian’s affectionate and unreserved attitude, he still forced down the smile tugging at his lips. With gentle concern, he began advising her, hoping she wouldn’t trust others so easily.
As for that trace of unease, it had already been pushed aside by the excitement he felt upon seeing someone who looked like his little sister.
Zheng Tiantian agreed sweetly on the surface, but secretly curled her lips, not taking Xie Lin’s words seriously at all.
Bad people?
Zheng Tiantian tilted her head slightly, her eyes pure and innocent. When she smiled, it was as sweet as a jar of spilled honey.
Could anyone be worse than her?
All the truly bad ones were already standing silently in the courtyard—turned into motionless wooden statues.
The wooden puppet-like figures in the courtyard seemed to sense Zheng Tiantian’s thoughts and began to tremble in terror, the sound of wood knocking against wood—*clack clack clack*—echoed through the dark, deathly still courtyard, adding an even more eerie and sinister feeling.
But Xie Lin’s full attention was focused on Zheng Tiantian. He hadn’t noticed the changes happening around him.
“You…”
Xie Lin looked at Zheng Tiantian with a complicated expression. After gathering his courage for a long while, he finally asked, “Tian Tian, do you… perhaps, do you know a little girl named Xie Jiaojiao? She looks a lot like you.”
As soon as he said her name, the smile on Zheng Tiantian’s lips gradually faded away.
She pressed her lips together, staring at Xie Lin intently in the pitch-dark room, her gaze like an angry ghost, cold and unreadable.
But Xie Lin, caught up in his memories, continued describing his sister with an unconscious smile on his lips.
He gestured beside himself, as if his sister were still standing right there, never lost to him.
“Jiaojiao was such a beautiful little girl. She loved pretty dresses, loved dolls and when she smiled, it was like the sky lit up.”
As he spoke, the smile on his face deepened, but his eyes welled with tears. Even his voice turned hoarse.
—Have you ever seen a girl?
She wore a beautiful dress, and when she smiled, she was as bright and adorable as a sunflower, as if all the sunshine in the sky had fallen on her.
She would call her brother sweetly, cry and beg him not to get hurt, and when he came home tired, she would obediently give him a big hug and tell him he was the best brother in the whole world.
Her name was Xie Jiaojiao.
She was my little sister—my purpose in life, and the only reason I worked so hard.
I wanted to give her all the best things in the world, to make her the happiest little girl, to let her live a carefree life forever, always a joyful little princess.
But I lost her…
After that kidnapping case decades ago, Xie Lin had been living in a daze and in pain every day. When his illness was at its worst, he couldn’t even distinguish reality from illusion. He would stagger into the streets, asking every passerby if they had seen his little sister.
At first, people wanted to scold him, but when they saw how disheveled he looked and heard what he said, they only looked at him with pity and sighed.
This was a poor brother who had lost his sister.
No one recognized that this muddy, disheveled young man was once the brilliant and famous Song God—Xie Lin.
Stripped of all his fame and glory, he was just a sorrowful brother, searching for his lost sister, living in endless pain and regret, desperate to save her.
Xie Lin’s gaze softened as he looked at Zheng Tiantian, as if he were seeing his sister again.
Even now, he couldn’t tell for sure whether the person sitting across from him was Zheng Tiantian…
Or Xie Jiaojiao.
They looked far too alike.
Every expression, every glance—exactly like his little sister.
But Xie Lin didn’t dare to confirm it.
The only explanation he could think of for his sister’s unchanged appearance after all these years… was that she had already died and become a ghost.
Only ghosts remained unchanged in appearance through time.
But that possibility was too painful. Just imagining it made Xie Lin’s whole body tremble with grief, unable to breathe.
That brutal scene in the warehouse all those years ago… what exactly had Jiaojiao gone through?
Without realizing it, Xie Lin clutched the front of his shirt over his chest, his once-straight back bending forward, his whole body curled like a shrimp.
Zheng Tiantian sat in the armchair opposite, watching Xie Lin’s pain with cold eyes, making no move to help him up.
In fact, a hint of satisfaction even flashed through her beautiful eyes, and the corners of her lips curled up in a smile.
“Brother, do you know what wooden statues are?”
Zheng Tiantian’s voice was soft—so soft that a breeze could scatter it like ash from burnt joss paper.
“They’re just like people. They start as trees, then are carved into their unique forms, given life—brought from death into life.”
She lowered her eyes slightly, murmuring, “The best part is that they’re different from people… They won’t abandon me. They won’t break their promises. They’ll always stay by my side. Always. Forever.”
Hearing her voice, Xie Lin lifted his head to look at her.
But Zheng Tiantian was shrouded in the dimness of the room, as if she were sinking into a marsh, unable to escape.
Her head was lowered, her face completely hidden in darkness, making it impossible for Xie Lin to see her expression.
Before he could move closer, Zheng Tiantian raised her head and gave him a sugary smile as she asked, “Brother, can you be Tian Tian’s model? Tian Tian wants to carve a statue of you, so you can stay by my side forever.”
Xie Lin stared deeply at Zheng Tiantian. He couldn’t find a single reason to refuse the girl.
It was just like back then, when he faced his sister.
He had once promised her that he would always be by her side, that he wouldn’t let anyone bully her. No matter who it was, he would fight them off.
But he had broken that promise.
He had left her to face the terror of being kidnapped alone. Who knew how she had cried and begged for her brother to save her…
Xie Lin was overwhelmed with guilt and remorse.
So how could he possibly say no to her?
He gave a soft laugh and nodded to Zheng Tiantian. “Okay.”
Zheng Tiantian also smiled, her eyes narrowing like a crescent moon, adorably sweet.
But deep in her soul, ghostly energy surged like a raging sea, enveloping the entire courtyard.
“Brother said before he’d protect Jiaojiao, that he’d always stay by her side.”
“Brother is a bad brother.”
“No one loved me. No one saved me. Everyone who said they’d protect me… they broke their promises. They never came.”
So—I could only protect myself.
Whether they were human, ghost, or even the heavens, no one could ever take anyone from me again. No one would ever hurt me again!
Zheng Tiantian slowly rose from the armchair, her bare feet stepping into a pool of blood, staining the hem of her beautiful dress bright red.
She tilted her head and smiled brightly.
“This time, brother can stay with Jiaojiao forever.”
“We’ll never be apart again.”
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