The Silk-Tethered Marionette

In public, she is a puppet master of the Marionette Play, operating lifelike puppets onstage.

In secret, she is a murderous, heart-ripping demoness. At least fifty, if not a hundred, people have died by her hand.

Everyone knows she once had a lover who was also a puppet master. They were childhood sweethearts, a perfect match, and often performed together. But Heaven is jealous of talent. The man died in a great fire while saving her. Heartbroken, she turned him into a puppet and took him with her on tour.

But no one knows that, late at night when all is quiet, the man who should be a puppet can move freely. He strokes the woman with her eyes closed and looks at the hollow in her chest where her heart should be, whispering, “Xiao Nie, where can I find a heart that will suit you?”

A tribute to the song “Marionette Play.”