Recaps

Shen Le used his mysterious copper fragment to heal an injured stray cat, which transformed into a fox, then struggled to find work after graduating. As he prepared to return to his hometown, a lawyer called about his great-grandfather’s estate.

• Shen Le finished restoring a carved window lattice and used the glowing copper fragment to relieve his neck and shoulder pain.
• Shen Le discovered the fragment had changed after its latest use, but he could not figure out how to activate its new state.
• Shen Le rescued a wounded orange kitten from stray dogs and used the fragment to heal its injuries; the cat ran off and transformed into a fox.
• Shen Le graduated from Beijing University, failed to find a job despite sending out dozens of résumés, and packed to return to his hometown.
• A lawyer called Shen Le to discuss matters concerning his great-grandfather’s estate.

Shen Le inherited a large old mansion in Zhuxi Town through a fabricated arrangement, then discovered it was filled with valuable antiques and was badly run-down. He began wondering whether repairing its contents could charge the Copper Fragment.

• Shen Le accepted and signed documents inheriting a 2,000-square-meter mansion from his supposed great-granduncle, Shen Yinmo, with a restriction preventing him from transferring ownership for twenty years.
• After Shen Le left, the lawyer admitted to Old Hu that they had fabricated the relative and forged documents to repay a debt to Shen Le.
• Shen Le traveled to Zhuxi Town and found Nanhua Street nearly deserted, leaving him worried that he could not rent out the mansion.
• Shen Le located the ornate mansion at 18 Nanhua Street and explored its courtyards and rooms.
• Shen Le found antique furniture and furnishings throughout the mansion, then decided that repairing them might charge the Copper Fragment.

Shen Le restored a small rosewood screen to test whether repairs could charge the Ancestral Copper Fragment. The fragment’s inscription-like mark grew, and a surge of warmth left Shen Le wondering whether he had gained internal energy.

• Shen Le chose a lightly damaged Rosewood Gold-Painted Landscape Pavilion Screen as his first restoration project.
• Shen Le dismantled the screen, cleaned its joints, sanded the pieces, and touched up the faded gold paint.
• Shen Le glued and clamped the screen back together, then noticed the mark on the Ancestral Copper Fragment had grown longer and curved.
• Shen Le felt heat surge from the fragment and involuntarily performed a series of movements that eased his bodily stiffness.
• Shen Le felt warmth in his lower abdomen and wondered whether repairing the screen had granted him internal energy.

Shen Le discovered that the Copper Fragment could guide his movements and build inner strength, then jumped into a river after hearing what sounded like a child calling for help. He rescued a Puppet instead and tried to explain himself to a police officer on the riverbank.

• Shen Le used the Copper Fragment to correct his stances and increase the warmth within his body, then planned to earn money and repair the Old Mansion.
• Shen Le heard a child being scolded over erhu practice as he walked through town.
• Shen Le heard a desperate cry from the river, and the Copper Fragment against his chest grew hot and trembled.
• Shen Le jumped into the river and discovered that the drowning figure was a Puppet whose cries stopped whenever he held it.
• Shen Le wrapped the Puppet in his T-shirt, swam back to shore, and told a police officer he had thought a child had fallen into the water.

After rescuing the Puppet from the river, Shen Le examined it at the Old Mansion and used the Copper Fragment on its face, which sent him into a memory from the 1980s. He watched a boy named Xiao Lin lose access to the Puppet, then returned to the workbench with the Puppet still disassembled.

• Shen Le climbed out of the river with help from Shi Guangbing, gave him his address, and added him on WeChat.
• At the Old Mansion, Shen Le inspected the damaged Puppet and began cleaning it while considering how to restore its wood, threads, clothes, and makeup.
• Shen Le pressed the Copper Fragment to the Puppet's face and was transported into a memory of a cramped room in the 1980s.
• Shen Le watched a boy defend Xiao Lin, the Puppet, when his father tried to throw it away.
• The father locked Xiao Lin in a chest, and Shen Le's vision went dark before he returned to the workbench.

Shen Le cleaned the puppet and began repairing its rotten wooden head, hoping to charge the Copper Fragment and learn whether the puppet could come to life. After finding a plain table to use as a workbench, he cleared debris from the puppet’s cracks and prepared to fix it.

• Shen Le washed the puppet and ordered Chinese fir, paints, threads, and woodworking tools online.
• Shen Le cleaned the puppet and began sanding off its old paint by hand while waiting for a sander to arrive.
• Shen Le searched the house for a suitable workbench and found a plain hard-wood table in a row of small houses behind Wangxian Tower.
• Shen Le carried the table to the air-conditioned room, clamped the puppet’s head in place, and began cutting away rotten wood.
• Shen Le uncovered wood shavings, a dried insect egg, and a dead cockroach inside the puppet’s head, then cleaned out its cracks and thread holes.

Shen Le repaired a crack in the puppet’s head before Shi Guangbing arrived to search his mansion for three missing children. The search left the children unaccounted for, and Shi Guangbing urged Shen Le to secure the isolated house.

• Shen Le fitted a dovetail tenon into the puppet’s head, filled its crack with glue and wood powder, and postponed sanding until his sander arrived.
• Shi Guangbing messaged Shen Le that three missing children had run toward Old Street and asked him to open the door.
• Shen Le let Shi Guangbing and an auxiliary officer into the mansion and helped them search its rooms, but he had seen or heard nothing unusual.
• Shi Guangbing was surprised that Shen Le lived alone in the mansion and advised him to install cameras and alarms and contact the police if anything happened.

Shen Le worried about the cost of securing and maintaining his inherited mansion while helping Shi Guangbing search for a missing child. After they found a child's shoe but no footprints, the Copper Fragment grew hot and Shen Le spotted several children above them.

• Shen Le learned that installing surveillance and other security measures could cost around one hundred thousand yuan, far more than the less than thirty thousand he had left.
• Shen Le decided to start with barbed wire and Shi Guangbing advised him to check whether the mansion was protected before making changes.
• Shi Guangbing and the auxiliary officer searched the mansion with a borrowed Life Detector while receiving updates from other officers searching nearby locations.
• The search party found a child's shoe by the artificial hill in the last courtyard, but Shi Guangbing could find no footprints or sign of the child.
• As Shen Le's Copper Fragment grew hot, he looked up and spotted several children.

Shen Le and the officers rescued three children who had hidden in a tree after sneaking out to play, and one girl described the red-dressed woman who brought them there. Meanwhile, another team investigating a missing child learned that his family had recently thrown away an old puppet.

• Shen Le helped Shi Guangbing and another officer find three sleeping children in a tree and bring them down safely.
• The children said a beautiful big sister in a bright red dress, with a red mole by her right eye, had brought them to Wangxian Tower, and Shen Le denied recognizing her.
• The officers reunited the children with their parents, and Shen Le recognized Hanhan's father as the man who had yelled at his son and thrown away his puppet.
• At the home of the boy who learned the erhu, investigators questioned his mother and learned that the family had recently thrown out a puppet passed down from the boy's great-grandfather.

Shen Le repaired the puppet while Maoshan Sect disciples searched for it, then was transported into a memory of the puppet performing in an old theater. He watched an elderly puppeteer bring the puppet to life onstage.

• The Maoshan Sect disciples learned that the puppet had been thrown into the river and traced it to Shen Le's address.
• Shen Le questioned the puppet about the children and the Great Camphor Tree, then began repairing its head, torso, thigh, and burned arm.
• After Shen Le said the puppet would soon be alive, everything went black and he found himself in an old, empty theater.
• An elderly man entered carrying the puppet, dressed in a brilliant red embroidered gown, and made her dance as he sang an opera passage.

Shen Le witnessed the memory of an old puppeteer who tried to burn Little Puppet but rescued it from the flames, then sketched the puppet’s details and ordered supplies to recreate it. Meanwhile, Zhang Bingxin and his Senior Martial Brother reached Shen Le’s mansion, where the demonic aura overwhelmed Zhang Bingxin’s Spirit Eye, and learned the police had found the child inside.

• An old man burned Little Puppet under pressure from a crowd outside, but pulled it from the fire and smothered the flames with his body.
• Shen Le awoke from the memory beside the damaged puppet and wondered about its feelings toward its master and humanity, and whether it was connected to the missing children.
• The Baby-faced Youth and the Tang-suit Youth arrived at Shen Le’s mansion on Nanhua Street, where Zhang Bingxin’s Spirit Eye was struck by the demonic aura.
• The Senior Martial Brother decided they should seek another way into the mansion, then heard that the police had found the child there.
• Shen Le sketched Little Puppet’s wooden panels, Red Skirt, and makeup, then ordered materials and practice heads so he could recreate its appearance.

Shen Le repaired the puppet’s wooden surface and practiced applying makeup so he could restore her face. As he left to find food, a person shouted that he had told the truth and then jumped from a building nearby.

• Shen Le sanded the puppet, sealed its wood, and painted over the repaired cracks and joints.
• Shen Le bought blank BJD heads and practiced doll makeup, failing repeatedly before preparing to recreate the puppet’s features.
• Shen Le sketched the puppet’s willow-leaf eyebrows, apricot-shaped eyes, peach-pink cheeks, vermilion lips, and distinctive cinnabar mole.
• Shen Le left to find food and heard a man shout that he would prove he had not been lying before someone cried that a person had jumped.

Shen Le witnessed the injured child’s apparent suicide and wrestled with whether to destroy Little Puppet before using a Copper Fragment to enter another memory. There, he saw an old man entertain a group of children with the puppet, until bird calls prompted him to change its costume and perform as Sun Wukong.

• Shen Le recognized the child who had gone missing two days earlier as paramedics carried him away, and Shi Guangbing investigated the apparent suicide.
• Shen Le learned the child was still being treated and heard Shi Guangbing explain that the incident would keep his teacher girlfriend busy with school follow-up.
• Shen Le considered burning or locking away Little Puppet, but decided to give it another chance to explain itself.
• Shen Le pressed a Copper Fragment against Little Puppet and entered a cramped shelter memory with an old man and several children.
• The old man performed the story of Wang Erxiao with Little Puppet, then changed the puppet’s clothes after hearing bird calls and began performing as Old Sun.

After witnessing the Little Puppet perform the story of Little Erxiao, Shen Le apologized for blaming it and ordered new clothes and accessories. Shi Guangbing then brought Gu Yulin and Zhang Bingxin to inspect the puppet, but the visitors found Shen Le strangely unaffected by the mansion’s dense demonic energy.

• Shen Le watched the Little Puppet’s story move the children and joined them in singing about Little Erxiao.
• Shen Le apologized to the Little Puppet, then designed a marionette control bar and ordered it a traditional Red Skirt, wig, headpiece, and necklace on Taobao.
• Shi Guangbing asked Shen Le if Gu Yulin and Zhang Bingxin could visit to inspect the puppet for an intangible cultural heritage project, and Shen Le agreed.
• Gu Yulin and Zhang Bingxin examined Shen Le and wondered how an apparently ordinary person could live comfortably in a mansion filled with demonic energy.
• The visitors photographed the mansion’s carvings and furnishings, while their devices showed that the objects had absorbed unusually high levels of demonic energy.

Shen Le refused to let the Special Affairs Department take his Little Puppet after their device detected an alarming reading, and his own spiritual pressure frightened the investigators away. He continued repairing the puppet and discovered that the Copper Fragment had changed noticeably.

• Gu Yulin and Zhang Bingxin detected an extreme reading from the Little Puppet and asked Shen Le to hand it over, warning that it might be connected to a child's jump from a building.
• Shen Le denied that the puppet was dangerous, locked it in a box, and refused to surrender his private property without a court order.
• When Shen Le ordered the investigators to leave, his spiritual pressure surged and terrified Gu Yulin and Zhang Bingxin, who retreated with Shi Guangbing.
• Shi Guangbing told Shen Le that the child had woken up but might be paralyzed, and Shen Le felt distressed by the news.
• Shen Le made a control board, dressed the Little Puppet in fine clothes, and tested its movements with Silk Thread.
• Shen Le examined the Copper Fragment and saw that it had changed noticeably.

Shen Le activated the copper fragment and entered a memory of a street devastated by an air raid, where he could watch but could not interact. He saw a battered puppeteer use Little Puppet to comfort the children, and the chapter left Shen Le moved by the small happiness the performance brought them.

• Shen Le pressed the glowing point on the repaired copper fragment and was transported into a scene of explosions and collapsing buildings.
• Shen Le tried to rescue people and comfort children but discovered he could not touch anything or leave the street.
• A bloodied puppeteer crawled from a damaged house and brought out Little Puppet.
• The puppeteer performed with Little Puppet, drawing the children’s attention away from their fear and making them laugh.
• Shen Le watched the performance and felt that the children could find moments of happiness despite the destruction around them.

Shen Le experienced the memories of the old puppeteer and saw the restored puppet come alive. She chose the name Xiao Ling and revealed that she had played with the old man’s grandson, the child who recently jumped from a building.

• Shen Le relived the old puppeteer’s memories, including his final moments teaching his grandson to perform with the puppet.
• Shen Le lifted the control board, and the puppet began moving and speaking on its own.
• The puppet objected that she had already been alive and told Shen Le she did not know her name.
• Shen Le named her Xiao Ling after she asked him to choose a name.
• Xiao Ling learned that the old man’s grandson’s child had jumped from a building and said she had played with him for years.

Shen Le learned that the Great Camphor Tree guarded the house and that Xiao Ling had befriended a boy whose family did not believe her. He took Xiao Ling to visit Zhang Zihan in the hospital and used the Copper Fragment on him, leaving the boy able to feel pain in his legs.

• Xiao Ling told Shen Le that Sister Ah Lu controlled who could enter the house and that the Great Camphor Tree had protected it for a long time.
• Xiao Ling explained that Zhang Zihan had been punished for struggling to learn the erhu and had jumped from a window after his family disbelieved his account of playing with her.
• Xiao Ling begged Shen Le to take her to see Zhang Zihan, and he agreed on the condition that she pretend to be an ordinary puppet.
• Shen Le found Zhang Zihan's hospital ward and secretly pressed the Copper Fragment against the boy's hand while praying for it to heal his spinal nerves.
• The Copper Fragment warmed and trembled, and Zhang Zihan woke crying that his legs hurt; his mother rushed to call a doctor after realizing he could feel them.

Shen Le performed the family’s Little Puppet for the injured Zhang Zihan, drawing a crowd of hospital patients and reminding Zihan’s father of his own childhood and his estranged love of puppet plays. The father took the puppet from Shen Le and began singing for his son.

• Shen Le showed Zhang Zihan the restored Little Puppet and learned that it had kept the boy company at home.
• Shen Le performed a puppet show at Zhang Zihan’s bedside, easing the boy’s pain and attracting patients and visitors from around the hospital.
• Zihan’s father arrived, remembered his grandfather teaching him puppet plays, and regretted how he had treated his son.
• Shen Le handed the puppet to Zihan’s father, who began working it clumsily and singing the familiar opera lines to his son.

Shen Le watched Little Puppet’s strange power help lift the gloom in Zhang Zihan’s hospital room, and a doctor confirmed the boy could feel and move his legs. After leaving the hospital, Shen Le went to Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant for lamb noodles and encountered a casually dressed diner whose unexpected offer seemed to get him served despite the restaurant being sold out.

• Shen Le watched Zhang Zihan’s father sing and operate Little Puppet as the puppet moved by itself, drawing dark qi into a pulsing halo that eased the room’s gloom.
• Zhang Zihan told his father that his legs hurt, and a doctor examined him and found sensation and movement in his lower limbs, with hope for recovery.
• Shen Le put Little Puppet away and left the hospital after Zhang Zihan’s parents embraced in relief.
• Shen Le returned to Nanhua Street hungry and entered Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant, where he ordered braised lamb noodles with extra meat.
• The proprietress said the restaurant was sold out, but a diner in the corner suggested she serve Shen Le; Shen Le wondered why the diner’s permission mattered.

Shen Le enjoyed a bowl of lamb noodles at the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant and was asked to rent out his living puppet, Xiao Ling, for daily performances. Xiao Ling eagerly accepted, and Shen Le watched Xiao Yu demonstrate her skill with the puppet.

• Shen Le tasted the lamb broth and meat, then felt warmth and tingling spread through his body as he ate the noodles.
• After finishing, Shen Le paid 54 yuan for the meal, and the proprietress asked to rent his puppet for a hundred yuan a day plus free meals.
• Shen Le checked with Xiao Ling, who enthusiastically agreed to perform and asked for half the pay to buy clothes.
• Shen Le brought Xiao Ling out of his backpack and asked whether anyone at the restaurant could perform a puppet show.
• The proprietress called Xiao Yu from the kitchen, and Xiao Yu demonstrated by making Xiao Ling greet Shen Le with a cup of wine.

Shen Le rented Little Puppet to a restaurant and discovered the place had vanished after a customer’s smoke dispelled a strange chill. The Copper Fragment taught him a cultivation technique, and he ended the night by waking the Great Camphor Tree, which angrily rejected his attempts to address it as family.

• Shen Le rented Little Puppet to the proprietress and agreed to make a young scholar puppet for a thousand-yuan deposit.
• A customer blew smoke at Shen Le, warming him and driving away a gloomy chill; after he left, the restaurant disappeared and he checked Alipay to confirm the meal and payment were real.
• Shen Le asked the Copper Fragment for a cultivation method, and it showed him how to circulate warmth through his body.
• After completing nine circuits, Shen Le gained night vision and sensed a red glow and a green cloud nearby.
• Shen Le tried to speak with the Great Camphor Tree, which knocked him from beneath its canopy and told him to stop calling it his big sister or big brother.

Shen Le watched Little Puppet perform at the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant and discovered that her singing and dancing drew a glow that lifted the diners’ spirits. After learning the restaurant’s lamb came from local goats and hearing a mysterious remark about the special lamb he had eaten the night before, he saw the Special Affairs Department duo arrive and head straight for Little Puppet.

• Shen Le brought Little Puppet to the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant and realized Xiao Ling moved and performed without Xiao Yu controlling her.
• Shen Le observed a rainbow halo around Little Puppet drawing dark vapor from diners and easing their worries.
• Shen Le asked the proprietress about the lamb and learned that last night’s serving had been brought in by a customer.
• Shen Le overheard someone mention Rain Artisan and that it was only eaten once a year thanks to a great lord.
• Shen Le spotted the Special Affairs Department duo entering the restaurant and watched them approach Little Puppet.

Shen Le agreed to let Little Puppet perform outside the restaurant after she showed she could soothe people, and she toured local schools with the waitresses. The school visits improved students’ emotional well-being, but the two Maoshan Taoists were immediately sent to investigate another strange incident.

• Gu Yulin and his junior brother measured Little Puppet’s energy and found that it had grown stronger and shifted toward Yang.
• The proprietress explained that Little Puppet absorbed malice and soothed people, then proposed taking her to schools to help students.
• Little Puppet eagerly agreed, and Shen Le approved the school visits for a separate daily fee.
• The two Maoshan Taoists arranged official access to schools, and Little Puppet began touring summer programs and other student gatherings ten days later.
• School counselors reported that students’ mental states had improved, so Shen Le returned home to restore antiques.
• The two Taoists were called to investigate a strange report from a family on Kangle Road.

Shen Le struggled to find furniture repairs that would satisfy the copper fragment, then spotted a box of woodworking tools being sold as scrap. He offered the middle-aged couple a hundred yuan for it, while the couple upstairs continued to fear that zombies were appearing in their home.

• A middle-aged couple called the police because black lines kept appearing around their home, but the officers could find no zombies and suggested they remove their old belongings.
• Shen Le reflected that repairing several pieces of furniture had yielded only a tiny amount of progress from the copper fragment and no new functions.
• Shen Le walked through Fulu Street looking for something different to eat and saw the couple selling their old furniture to a scrap collector.
• The scrap collector offered to buy a box of woodworking tools by weight, and Shen Le stepped forward and offered the couple a hundred yuan for it.