The day before Maa Maa’s birth feast, Little Flower washes Linjing’s feet, preoccupied with worries about Spring Rain’s plans to escape during tomorrow’s opera performance. When Linjing splashes water to get her attention, she offers Little Flower her fox fur mantle as a gift. Little Flower recalls once wrapping herself in the mantle, which stirred painful longing for her mother.

Linjing insists on putting the mantle on Little Flower and leads her to a mirror, declaring the gift marks the beginning of their friendship. She then reveals her true intention: She wants Little Flower as her dowry handmaiden, a muizai who accompanies a mistress into marriage. Panicked, Little Flower insists she wants to marry because she wants freedom. Linjing argues that any marriage available to her will be terrible and that she would be better off as Linjing’s pampered maid, eventually becoming housekeeper when Linjing becomes matriarch of the Li family.

Little Flower suggests another maid could take her place, but Linjing protests that she needs Little Flower specifically. Little Flower states that Lady Fong has already agreed to release her into marriage. She unties the mantle and returns it to the rack, leaving Linjing with an unreadable expression.

One week after Maa Maa’s banquet, Spring Rain remains missing despite Master Fong’s guards search of the city. Every night, Little Flower prays for her friend’s safety, offering drops of her own blood as sacrifice. While traveling to the orphanage with Miss Hart, Little Flower explains that Linjing is determined to keep her. Miss Hart offers to help her escape through a network of safe houses run by Chinese-Christian families, suggesting it might reunite her with Spring Rain. Little Flower declines, believing a marriage contract offers more security. Miss Hart argues that marriage is another form of enslavement and that independence is true freedom, revealing she has helped eight other girls like Little Flower escape that year. She urges Little Flower to wait for a man who would treat her as an equal, but Little Flower insists Chinese women cannot live independently.

Upon returning home, Linjing tells Little Flower that Spring Rain has been captured. In the back courtyard, Little Flower finds Spring Rain beaten and held by guards. Maa Maa announces that Spring Rain will be punished according to the family’s ancestral rules and hands the rule book to Lady Fong, ordering her to issue the punishment. After pressure from Maa Maa, Lady Fong orders the removal of Spring Rain’s right eye. When Little Flower speaks out, Maa Maa orders a manservant to hold her and force her to watch. Cerise uses a rope-and-rod device to destroy Spring Rain’s eye. Spring Rain faints, and Little Flower vomits and collapses.

Later, Little Flower tends to Spring Rain’s injury. Linjing visits with ginseng flakes, claiming she was powerless to stop the punishment and that she is different from Maa Maa. She asks what it will take for Little Flower to agree to be her dowry handmaiden. Little Flower insists she will not change her mind about marrying. Linjing storms out in frustration, strengthening Little Flower’s resolve to escape her.

Linjing hopes the matchmaker will fail to find a marriage for Little Flower. When Madam Hung arrives, she learns that Second Aa Noeng has delivered a son and advises Lady Fong to insist on raising him herself to secure her position. Madam Hung then announces she has found three marriage offers for Little Flower: the third son of the Wang tailoring family, the first son of the larger Sung tailoring business as second wife, and the first son of the wealthy Christian Zhu banking family as first wife—the Zhus having been won over by Little Flower’s character and embroidery. Linjing is furious, while her mother and Little Flower are overjoyed.

During her next lesson, Miss Hart senses Linjing’s distress. She reveals that Lady Fong asked her to help Linjing accept Little Flower’s good fortune, but instead suggests Linjing consider not marrying to escape her future mother-in-law, Lady Li. Linjing is horrified, explaining that in Chinese culture an unmarried woman’s spirit will wander as a hungry ghost with no descendants to make offerings, preventing reincarnation. Miss Hart argues that times are changing and women can have careers, suggesting Linjing’s father might support her if she explains her fears.

Linjing decides to appeal directly to her father. She finds her parents doting on her new half-brother, Fei. Feeling like an outsider, she interrupts to ask for help keeping Little Flower. When the baby cries, her father snaps at her for upsetting him. Afterward, Aa De dismisses the issue, insisting a muizai is mere property. He overrules Lady Fong’s objections and decrees that Little Flower will be part of Linjing’s dowry.

While Little Flower is fetching water at the well in the snowy cold, Cerise tells her that Master Fong has overruled Lady Fong, revoked her betrothal, and decreed she will be part of Linjing’s dowry. Filled with despair and fury, Little Flower decides she must escape with Miss Hart’s help.

The next day, while dressing Linjing’s hair, Little Flower struggles to contain her anger. Linjing gives her an expensive hair stick as a gesture of friendship, insisting she made the best decision for her. Overwhelmed, Little Flower flees to an alleyway outside the compound, where the sight of a beggar woman and child reminds her of her own family and strengthens her resolve to escape carefully.

That afternoon, Little Flower asks Miss Hart if she is still willing to help her. Miss Hart is thrilled and, learning of Master Fong’s decision, calls him a hypocrite. She secures Little Flower’s promise to be baptized and devote herself to the Christian God in exchange for help. Miss Hart explains that the Tung family, Chinese Christians who support the anti-slavery cause, will take her into their safe house. She sets the rendezvous for two in the morning the next night at the corner of Green Dragon Lane and Bronze Pavilion Avenue, giving Little Flower her chain watch and a password to identify the guide. Miss Hart instructs her to bring no belongings and explains she will hide briefly at the Tungs before being smuggled south with a Christian merchant convoy for baptism and permanent placement. They pray together as this will be their last meeting to avoid suspicion.

At 1:30 am, Little Flower dresses in layers and whispers farewell to the sleeping Spring Rain. On her way to the side gate, an inebriated night watchman’s shouting wakes a guard. Little Flower hides under a stone table as the guard approaches, urinates nearby, and returns to his quarters without seeing her. At the appointed corner, a male guide appears and initiates the password exchange. When a watchman confronts Little Flower and the guide, the guide offers three taels of silver and they are allowed to pass. They travel through the dark city to the Tung family’s house, where the guide uses a coded knock and pushes her through the back gate.

The next morning, Tung taai taai explains the safe house rules and asks Little Flower to help with housework and hide when anyone knocks. A few days later, she reluctantly reveals that the Fongs have posted a 50-tael reward for Little Flower’s capture. Over the next fortnight, Little Flower notices signs of poverty in the household and feels uneasy, though she tries to trust Miss Hart’s judgment.

Two weeks after her arrival, Tung taai taai puts Little Flower in a cart, claiming it will take her out of the city. She gives her food, a blanket, and a flask of tea containing expensive ginseng, raising Little Flower’s suspicions. After a very short journey, the cart stops and she is yanked out in front of the Fong residence. Guards drag her to the back courtyard and force her to her knees while the other servants, including a terrified Spring Rain, are gathered to watch.

Linjing throws herself at Maa Maa’s feet, begging for a whipping instead of eye removal. Maa Maa shoves her away, and Lady Fong tells her daughter it is too late to intervene. When Cerise brings the rope used on Spring Rain, Maa Maa waves it away, saying she has something else planned. Her servants bring a chopping board, mallet, and piece of wood. They slam Little Flower’s right hand onto the board and position the wood over her three middle fingers. Realizing their intent, Little Flower begs them to take her eye instead. Maa Maa gives the order, and a manservant brings the mallet down on her hand.

For two weeks after her three middle fingers are crushed, Little Flower drifts in a fog from numbing medicine that Lady Fong smuggles to her. Spring Rain cares for her while Linjing visits regularly, though Little Flower always turns away and refuses to speak. The medicine runs out when Maa Maa discovers the deception and orders Little Flower to resume her duties. Spring Rain explains that a bonesetter was forbidden and the fingers are permanently debilitated. As Spring Rain helps her wash, Little Flower is reminded of her mother and breaks down, grieving her losses.

Through the spring, Little Flower functions in an apathetic daze, sustained only by gratitude for Spring Rain. She learns that Master Fong has dismissed Miss Hart, and she never hears from her tutor again. One summer evening, she walks to the well, climbs onto the ledge, and prepares to jump. Spring Rain finds her, pulls her back, and demands to know why she did not come to her first, insisting they cannot let their enslavers win. She reveals that she uses a poppet filled with her mistress’s hair and nail clippings to enact magical revenge. Little Flower replies that all hope is lost.

Spring Rain forces Little Flower to look at her deformed fingers, pointing out that her thumb and little finger still work, and urges her to live on—if only to spite Maa Maa by thriving at needlework again. Little Flower does not want to be consumed by hatred like Spring Rain, but the words motivate her. That night, she retrieves her sewing basket and begins the grueling process of retraining her right thumb and little finger to hold a needle. After hours of painful effort, she manages only a dozen crooked stitches but vows to continue, seeing it as her best revenge. She resolves to seek a relationship with Linjing that feels more equal, modeled on Lady Fong and Cerise, to make her servitude bearable.