Season 1 – Ep 21
In the beginning of episode 21, The Emperor is holding a private confrontation of sorts with the Crown Prince, 2nd prince, Fan Xian, the Chancellor and Chen Ping Ping in attendance in his study. The Crown Prince accused the 2nd prince and his swordsman Xie Bi An with killing Lin Gong, the chancellor’s son. The 2nd prince had adamantly denied these allegations and brings in Fan Xian as a witness since the 3 of them were IN the capital at the same time, talking. There wasn’t enough time for any of them to go kill Lin Gong based on his time of death.
The Chancellor turned his ire towards Chen Ping Ping who, as head of the Overwatch Council, should have more information on Lin Gong’s death. Chen Ping Ping arrives and reports that it was the grand master of Dong Yi, Si Gu Jian, that came to enact revenge on his two disciples that were killed in Fan Xian’s assassination attempt.
More importantly, Chen Ping Ping brings up that Si Gu Jian is also angry at the Northern Qi kingdom. It is the northern Qi kingdom that is meddling in the affairs of the Qing Kingdom that caused the death of these two disciples. Chen Ping Ping urgently requests that the Emperor declare war on the Northern Qi kingdom.
The Emperor is incredulous at this request but you get a small hint that this is feigned incredulity. He turns to the Chancellor to get his thoughts. For his part, he is deep in thought as the Chancellor quickly thinks through in his brain what happened in this swift exchange. He kneels and says he hopes to get justice for his son. This is actually a masterful response because he doesn’t explicitly say what he wants to do. He leaves it open for the Emperor to decide what justice ultimately means for Lin Gong. Which is a good call since the Emperor decides to declare war on the Qi kingdom.
Seems like the truth came out about Lin Gong’s death. The Emperor then points to the Crown Prince and orders him to be under house arrest for 3 days for falsely accusing his older brother. With that, the 2 princes are dismissed.
The Emperor consoles the Chancellor once again. You definitely feel that there is a hint of acting in how the Emperor is talking with the Chancellor and the Chancellor himself is rather adept at deflecting his own feelings. He’s not really saying he concurs with the Emperor or disagrees on declaring war. He just says he’s overwhelmed with emotion and doesn’t know how to respond. Before he leaves though, Chen Ping Ping tries to cancel the engagement between Fan Xian and Wan’Er. Fortunrately for Fan xian, the Chancellor deflects all reasons Chen Ping Ping puts forth and manages to keep Wan’Er and Fan Xian’s engagement.
Fan Xian and the Chancellor leave but this is where we see really the sly old foxes show their true colors. The Emperor confronts Chen Ping Ping because he does not believe for a SECOND that Lin Gong’s killer was Si Gu Jian, a grand master. Chen Ping Ping doesn’t deny it but says that is the answer that the Qing kingdom needs thus, it is the answer he provided. The Chancellor for his part, ALSO doesn’t believe Chen Ping Ping’s story. He could tell that Chen Ping Ping and the Emperor were putting on a show and he wasn’t about to undermine it. This is the decision the kingdom needs to declare war against the northing Qi kingdom. Even though he is heartbroken, he doesn’t have much choice. His son is dead and there’s not much he can do about it. As for the truth? It might never come to light.
The Emperor though, again in conversation with Chen Ping Ping, poses the question. Is Wu Zhu capital? Chen Ping PIng, whom I suspect knows that it WAS Wu Zhu who was Lin Gong’s killer, just says he doesn’t know. The Emperor doesn’t care really what the answer is. They must all have 1 answer. Pin it on Si Gu Jian, the grand master.
The Chancellor gives Fan Xian the serious warning of not trusting Chen Ping Ping. The Chancellor doesn’t believe that it was Si Gu Jian but DOES believe that it was someone at the level of a grandmaster. There is 1 grandmaster in the palace so it may be that person who killed Lin Gong. Fan XIan is dismissed when the Chancellor sees one of the Princess Royal’s maids.
We see a confrontation between the two. The Chancellor is exceptionally wary of the Princess Royal who appears to show caring towards the Chancellor regarding Lin Gong’s death. Their relationship, or lack thereof is rather interesting, and we will discuss this more in depth later. But, we see that Lin Ruo Fu is a rather good dad. The Princess Royal Li Yun Rui is here to question why Lin Ruo Fu insisted on keeping Fan XIan and Wan’er’s engagement. He knows that his daughter likes Fan Xian and doesn’t want to deny her this while Li Yun Rui does not think Fan Xian is worthy of Wan’Er. While there is a component of selfishness on both sides, Li Yun Rui is thinking primarily for herself while Lin Ruo Fu is thinking about his 2 children (Wan’Er and Da Bao). Their conversation is cut short after a number of maids accidentally happen upon then but Lin Ruo Fu leaves shortly after. Those poor maids? Li Yun Rui has them killed immediately.
Speaking of good fathers, we see more examples of good father figures. Chen Ping Ping is in his carriage and stops to chat with Fan Jian who is in a carriage going the opposite direction on the street. The 2 argue about what they think is the right path for Fan Xian’s future. Chen Ping Ping wants Fan Xian to take over the Overwatch Council while Fan Jian wants him to take over the Royal Treasury. Each think their path will keep Fan Xian safe. Awww. How sweet. But also, wow Fan Xian. Does this make you a nepo baby? Getting handed 2 different vastly powerful government organizations? Dang.
With this, I would say that Lin Gong’s death comes to a close. Wan’Er does confront Fan Xian about it and he is able to not lie and say he did NOT kill Lin Gong. She does get emotional about this and becomes sickly but ultimately is relieved that she isn’t put in the tough spot where she has to choose between Fan XIan and her brother. He does feel guilty about not necessarily telling her the full truth of Lin Gong’s death. Ruo Ruo advises him against saying more in order to keep peace and maintain their relationship. We will see that this DOES come back to bite him in a pretty heavy way in season 2. I guess this is a point of discussion since he IS lying by omission.
Chen Ping Ping closes the loop by heading to the dungeons in the Overwatch Council to speak to Si Li Li. She is absolutely terrified of him. He asks her if she told Fan Xian that lin Gong coordinated the assassination attempt. She pauses for just a split second before saying no. He picks up on it immediately and responds, you should not have paused. He gives her the entire war plan as a way to say that he, Chen Ping Ping, is the only person who can save Si Li Li. All she has to do is to never pause when asked that same question. She is confused. What is Fan Xian to Chen Ping Ping. Why is Chen Ping Ping so adamant on helping Fan Xian? He doesn’t respond and is wheeled away by Yan Ruo Hai. Indeed, it must look odd for outsiders to see just how much Chen Ping Ping is doing to help Fan Xian, a boy Chen Ping Ping should have never met before.
That night, we get some kind of answer as to why Chen Ping Ping cares for Fan Xian. Wu Zhu arrives to visit Fan Xian and says that that day when Fan Xian’s mother was killed, it was Chen Ping Ping’s black knights that massacred the city in revenge. The episode ends with Wu Zhu spewing out a bunch of random phrases as he writhes around in pain, clutching his head. When he calms down, he remembers the location of Tai Ping yard, the place where Fan Xian’s mother used to live. That’s where we end episode 21.
Wow! I must say, I am sad that Wu Gang, the actor for Chen Ping Ping in recent years has gone a little overboard with the botox i think but that doesn’t stop him from giving a masterful performance. I do think that all of the “father figures”, well maybe minus Wu Zhu are bringing the A game to this show in terms of acting but also the writing quality is fantastic. No one skips a beat on knowing just what game is being played. I do give props to Fan Xian for also realizing that something is amiss with how blundering the Crown Prince is acting. Is he really that incompetent? Doesn’t seem like it with that evil smile the Crown Prince gives while under house arrest.
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Let’s move on to discuss a little bit more about the world of Qing Yu Nian as in this episode, the characters begin to explain the different kingdoms and major martial arts players in this world.
The world of Qing Yu Nian roughly encompasses modern day China. Occupying the center of the map, extending to the east coast is Kingdom of Southern Qing or 南庆 or 庆国. Looking at the rough map sketches, the borders are roughly the same as the Chinese / Vietnam borders to the south, then Si Chuan and Gui Zhou Provinces to the west and He Bei, ShaanXi provinces to the north. So the Qing Kingdom covers the most fertile lands of the landscape of China.
To the North, there’s the powerful Kingdom of Northern Qi or 北齐 or 齐国. Occupying the northern regions of the map, the southern border includes the region of Beijing and extends north to probably Russia on the map. There isn’t the Korean peninsula so let’s pretend it’s not there on this overall map. To the west, the borders extend to parts through inner mongolia.
If you really want to compare, look at a map of the North Song Dynasty and Liao Empire borders of the 10th and 11th centuries and you get a rough idea of the borders for the Kingdom of Southern Qing and the Kingdom of Northern Qi respectively.
Tucked in between the two kingdoms to the east – eh, like a small sliver in Hebei province of Modern China, is the small City State of Dong Yi Cheng or the Dong Yi City. It does have access to the coast and major waterways which is why it’s strategically important. So on the map, it’s on the northern east border of the Qing Kingdom and southeast border of the Qi Kingdom.
These 3 are the major kingdoms to care about in both Season 1 and 2. The drama really cuts out the smaller kingdoms that are mentioned in the book or they haven’t gotten there yet with the adaptation. Those include the Snow Region, the Western Hu region, the Left Tribe, Right Tribe, and Southern Zhao Kingdom. All of these regions do play a part in the story in the book.
If we zoom in on those 3 key kingdoms, in this episode, Chancellor 林若甫 names the 4 Grandmasters that exist in this world. These Grandmasters are the most powerful “known” beings in this world. In this Universe, humans are ranked from 1-9 on their martial arts prowess with 1 being the lowest rank and 9 being the highest rank. There’s only a handful of people in the world that have reached the 9th level. These 4 grandmasters are above even the 9th level. They know martial arts that are unparalleled and can single handedly destroy armies. They essentially are like the S tier or God Tier humans. Currently, Bei Qi has 1 Grandmaster, the monk named Ku He. Dong Yi Cheng has 1 grandmaster – 四顾剑, the supposed murderer of the Lin Gong. Nan Qing though has 2 – one is 叶流云 and another very mysterious one who is not named but known to reside in the Qing Palace. Simply having 1 Grandmaster is enough to make kingdoms think twice about invading. The Southern Qing kingdom has the edge over the other kingdoms in this universe because they have not 1 but 2 Grandmasters. Being human is the single clue on their mortality. Even though it’s extremely difficult, these 4 grandmasters CAN be killed. These 4 will all be major characters as the story unfolds. One person who is not mentioned is Wu Zhu. It seems as though not many know about his true capabilities and I’ll leave it at that for today.
Moving onto history, there’s only 1 quick snippet. When Wu Zhu suddenly regains a snippet of his memory, he exclaims that Ye Qing Mei 是指引者，亦是背叛者，是补天之女娲，是万象之因，终结之末.
If we translate this to English, I like the youtube translation so it is, she is the guider, she’s the betrayer, she’s the Nu Wa who repaired heaven, she’s the cause of all phenomena on this earth, and the end of finality. We’re only going to focus on 补天之女娲 or she’s the Nu Wa who repaired heaven. The rest of the phrases are more plot related and don’t have historical significance.
女娲 is an ancient Chinese deity, one of the three deities of Chinese culture, and the only female god. She is the creator of mankind and the mother of the Chinese people and culture. There’s the legend of 女娲补天 or Nu Wa repairing heaven that have been recorded and passed down for over 2300 years. Here’s the legend. Long ago, the 4 pillars of the heavens collapsed, resulting in catastrophes across the land. Fires and floods destroy the land. Feral animals are attacking humans. The goddess Nu Wa created the 5 colored stones to repair heaven. She broke the legs of the giant turtles in the sea to fashion them as pillars to Heaven. The fires and floods subsided. The feral animals killed and the humans lived. Nu Wa is heralded as the savior of the world.
It’s interesting that Nu Wa is still referenced in this drama and hints a little as to the role Ye Qing Mei played in this world.
Lastly, let’s close out with book differences. There are 3 key scenes in this episode that are featured in the drama. This includes the Emperor and Chen Ping Ping putting on a show to accuse the Grandmaster Si Gu Jian of the assassination of Lin Gong, although they did it at court rather than only in front of Lin Ruo Fu and Fan Xian. The rather contentious conversation between Chen Ping Ping and Fan Jian and the very contentious conversation between the Princess Royal and the Chancellor.
I want to dive specifically into the conversation between the Princess Royal and the Chancellor because there’s actually more background detail in the book. Man, the vitriol between the two is something, especially for former lovers. Anyways, in book, it is revealed that the Princess Royal and the Chancellor had an affair in their youth, but because the Chancellor DIDN’T want to become the husband to a Princess, they never got married. The Chancellor was just a poor official but didn’t want to sacrifice his career and thus never married the Princess Royal. Although, I don’t think the marriage would have been approved by the Royal Family. During various periods of Chinese history, husbands of Princesses could not hold any type of formal position at court. The most they could do were just “special” jobs as props in the government. Think of Fan Xian’s new title as 协律郎 or Music Director. This is because Emperors and the government didn’t want the husbands to obtain SO much power that they could threaten the stability of the Empire. Lin Ruo Fu still wanted a career so they never formally announced their marriage. In the book, the Emperor is the one who orchestrates the whole marriage between Fan Xian and Wan Er with the intention of giving the power of Nei Ku over to Fan Xian. The chancellor sees through the Princess Royal’s plots and a lightbulb goes off in his head on recent events. We won’t know about this reveal until later in the drama.
To some other book differences. Lin Wan Er doesn’t confront Fan Xian because she doesn’t know much about Fan Xian’s involvement and Chen Ping Ping doesn’t interrogate Si Li Li. With that, in the book, we come to the end of volume 2.