You Tanzhi Is Turned into Iron Freak is the episode in which AhZi secretly takes control of You Tanzhi’s fate by having an iron mask made for him and concealing his identity from Xiao Feng. The mask is not merely a disguise: it becomes the instrument through which AhZi deceives You Tanzhi into believing that she has rescued him, then assigns him the name Iron Clown. His transformation joins physical concealment to emotional manipulation, making his dependence on AhZi part of the episode’s central reversal.

Causes and Background

The immediate opportunity arises when Xiao Feng releases You Tanzhi. AhZi is displeased by Xiao Feng’s decision, falls behind as the party travels, and secretly instructs her attendants to recapture You Tanzhi without telling Xiao Feng. Because Xiao Feng treats her with particular affection, the attendants accept her order. They pretend to adjust a saddle strap, wait until Xiao Feng has gone on, and then turn back after You Tanzhi.

AhZi returns to Nanjing and waits at a temple away from Xiao Feng’s residence. Once You Tanzhi has been captured, she asks Khitan attendants for a new method of tormenting him. One suggests making him fly like a human kite; AhZi adopts the idea. When she learns that Xiao Feng is going to inspect troops in the southern outskirts, she arranges for You Tanzhi to be brought to the Beginning Fortune Palace. The palace is her residence after YeLu HongJi confers on her the title of Beginning Fortune Princess.

The political setting helps explain the residence and its title. YeLu HongJi had granted AhZi this honor while rewarding Xiao Feng’s service during the Liao crisis. The crisis itself grew from an older succession arrangement: YeLu ZhongYuan had once been made next in line after supporting his brother YeLu ZongZhen, and YeLu HongJi later reaffirmed ZhongYuan’s place as royal emperor uncle while giving him supreme command of the army. ZhongYuan’s son YeLu NieLuGu became Prince of Chu and Lord of Southern Chancellery. When NieLuGu’s rebellion was announced in an edict declaring HongJi a false emperor and ZhongYuan the legitimate ruler, the emperor feared the power behind the revolt. These political details frame the court in which AhZi can command attendants and reward a blacksmith, but the episode’s immediate action remains her private scheme against You Tanzhi.

Capture and the Mask

You Tanzhi is taken to a dim stone house, where a blacksmith is examining a wrought-iron mask with four openings for the eyes, nose, and mouth. The attendants hold You Tanzhi while the blacksmith tests the object against his face. Its exact fit unsettles him: he realizes that the mask appears to have been made to measure. He recalls that wet flour had previously been applied to his face and understands that it served as a mould, although he cannot determine what the captors intend.

The blacksmith completes the disguise by joining the face covering to an iron casing for the back of You Tanzhi’s head. The mask is heated and fitted while the attendants hold him in place. When the process is over, the two portions form a closed iron covering, secured so that You Tanzhi cannot simply remove it. The event’s defining change is therefore imposed rather than chosen: his face and head are hidden behind a custom-made object, and his appearance can no longer reveal him in the ordinary way.

At first, You Tanzhi assumes that the ordeal has been ordered by Xiao Feng. He does not suspect that AhZi arranged it, or that its purpose is to keep Xiao Feng from recognizing him. That mistaken attribution prepares the deception that follows: because You Tanzhi believes Xiao Feng is his enemy and the source of his suffering, AhZi can present herself as his protector.

AhZi’s Deception and Renaming

AhZi asks her attendants each day how You Tanzhi is faring after the mask is fitted. At first she worries that he may die and that her effort will be wasted. When she learns that he will survive, she is pleased. Once Xiao Feng is away inspecting the troops, she summons You Tanzhi to the palace and sees that the disguise has achieved its intended effect: she believes Xiao Feng would not recognize him even at close range.

She tells You Tanzhi that Xiao Feng had pretended to release him only to have him captured again and killed, and that she had hidden him because she judged him worth sparing. This account is false, but You Tanzhi accepts it. Believing that AhZi has saved his life, he expresses heartfelt gratitude. The mask thus does more than conceal his identity from Xiao Feng; it helps AhZi control what You Tanzhi thinks has happened to him.

AhZi warns him not to speak if he encounters Xiao Feng, since his voice could expose him. She orders attendants to wash him and dress him in Khitan clothing. They choose conspicuously multicolored garments, leaving him looking like a clown, and AhZi declares that his new name is Iron Clown. You Tanzhi immediately accepts the name. The new identity is imposed through a combination of disguise, a fabricated story, and AhZi’s command; his gratitude makes that subjection appear to him as a debt of rescue.

Consequences and Significance

The episode’s consequences are sharply unequal. AhZi has succeeded in keeping You Tanzhi hidden from Xiao Feng, and You Tanzhi, far from understanding her role in his capture, believes she has protected him. Her deception therefore converts an act of control into apparent kindness. She can threaten him with punishment for disobedience while he remains grateful to her for the very disguise she arranged.

The episode also connects appearance to power. The mask conceals a recognizable face, the multicolored clothing turns You Tanzhi into a figure AhZi can display and rename, and the name Iron Clown reduces his identity to the role she has assigned him. Yet concealment does not grant him freedom: he remains dependent on AhZi and subject to her orders. The gap between what the mask does and what You Tanzhi believes it means gives the transformation its central irony. He sees protection where the reader sees a calculated means of concealment and control.