Season 1 – Ep 14

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In the last episode, Fan Xian’s close friend, Teng Zi Jing, is killed by the Qi Kingdom fighter, Cheng Ju Shu during an assasination attempt on Fan Xian’s life. Fan Xian is overwhelmed with grief seeing his friend sacrifice his life for Fan Xian but becomes furious after hearing that the Overwatch Council is planning on releasing Cheng Ju Shu due to political reasons. Fan Xian cannot allow his friend to die in vain and pays Wang Qi Nian to give him intel on when Cheng Ju Shu is to be released.

That’s where we start episode 14. Cheng Ju Shu is being escorted out of the Overwatch Council, with the expectation to be transported out of the city. In the busy street, Fan Xian waits for Cheng Ju Shu. Without clearing the street, Fan Xian begins his brutal attack on Cheng Ju Shu. It is a quick but furious battle where Fan Xian is able to enact revenge against Cheng Ju Shu and ultimately kill the man. In a cruel twist of fate, turns out Teng Zi Jing’s son became friends with Cheng Ju Shu. That was his friend in the crate. Fortunately Cheng Ju Shu opted to not hold Teng Zi Jing’s son and welcomed certain death from Fan Xian because Teng Zi Jing’s son was the only person to be nice to Cheng Ju Shu. I don’t know if this little story line was particularly necessary in the drama but it did add a little more depth to Cheng Ju Shu for the short period he was on screen. 

With Fan Xian’s revenge enacted, Zhu Ge of the 1st bureau of the Overwatch Council is seething. He wanted Cheng Ju Shu alive to procure more military intel but now that plan is no longer possible. Zhu Ge orders Fan Xian captured and hauled back to the Overwatch Council where he screams at a nonchalant Fan Xian for disregarding orders. Fan Xian does not have a care in the world as he is dragged to the dungeon for his insubordination.

News travels quickly to the palace where the Emperor learns that Fan Xian killed Cheng Ju Shu in a crowded street with many eye witnesses. Instead of being angry though, the Emperor is rather impressed with Fan Xian’s decisiveness.

Back at the Overwatch council, we now see the different parties who are here to rescue Fan Xian. First up are, Fan Xian’s brothers in the 3rd bureau. In English, there isn’t really a good translation for Shi Xiong which means classmate brother. They’re all students of Fei Jie, head of the 3rd bureau and teacher to Fan Xian but consider each other brothers even though they have never met. They all have that connection for being part of the 3rd bureau.

These chums are all highly skilled in the art of poison so they show up with all manner of poisonous things and animals to try to scare off Zhu Ge and his men to protect their young classmate brother, Fan Xian.  While Zhu Ge pauses to interact with him, he is not perturbed by these chums in the 3rd bureau. I think they’re adorable but they don’t pose much of a deterrence to Zhu Ge.

A tied up Fan Xian and Zhu Ge continue on. Next up is Wang Qi Nian. He comes forward to point out that it seems like Cheng Ju Shu was only someone that would procure fake intel to Zhu Ge from the Qi military. Wang Qi Nian hopes this would alleviate some of the ire towards Fan Xian but it turns out, Zhu Ge knew all of this and was hoping to keep the ruse going so as to trick the Qi kingdom into believing they fell for the trick. Hey, it seems like Zhu Ge is pretty on top of things himself. Seems like Wang Qi Nian’s plan falls flat.

Zhu Ge is certainly getting annoyed at this point and cries out to see who else would step forward to save Fan Xian. The person that responds? A senior official, Yan Ruo Hai. He is the head of the 4th bureau who oversees officials outside the capital and is the head of intelligence. Fan Xian has never met this man but remembers that Yan Ruo Hai is the father of Yan Bing Yun, the young man who was demoted and ordered to go undercover in the Qi kingdom. 

Turns out, this guy isn’t here to cause trouble. Instead, he has a secret decree from the Emperor which basically says to let Fan XIan go. Zhu Ge is pissed while Fan Xian is just over there motioning for someone to untie him. Once free, Fan Xian saunters out of the Overwatch Council with Wang Qi Nian in tow.

Wang Qi Nian is rather confused as to why Fan Xian was able to get off scott free and by order of the Emperor no less. Fan Xian explains it’s all because he killed Cheng Ju Shu out in public, rather than in secret. If he killed cheng ju shu in secret, he would definitely be punished. The power of this public execution? Ren Yan Ke Wei, which is an idiom we’ll talk about later. Ultimately, Fan Xian is able to win the admiration of the public and his act is seen as a good deed since he killed Cheng Ju Shu for revenge. Therefore, Fan Xian ought to be freed.  

WIth Cheng Ju Shu dead, Fan Xian needs to continue to find who was behind the assassination. He pays Wang Qi Nian more money in order to gather more intel for him but before he can continue investigating, he has an even harder task to do. Fan Xian, alone, brings the casket holding Teng Zi Jing’s body back to his wife and son. Teng Zi Jing’s son doesn’t really understand what happened but Teng Zi Jing’s wife immediately suspects the worst. Fan Xian holds back tears as he ultimately informs Teng Zi Jing’s wife that Teng Zi Jing died to protect him. The english translation only said that Teng Zi Jing is dead, but in Chinese, the term used was that Teng Zi Jing was killed in battle. 

Teng Zi Jing’s wife is distraught and resentful but shares that she understands and doesn’t necessarily blame Fan Xian. After all, Teng Zi Jing’s decision to stay in the Capital to protect Fan Xian, a person Teng Zi Jing saw as his younger brother, was a decision that Teng Zi Jing made on his own. No one forced Teng Zi Jing to make that decision. However, Teng Zi Jing’s wife does not wish to see much of Fan Xian in the future so as to protect her only son. Fan Xian understands her request and, with tears streaming down his face, heads back into the city. 

Once there, Wang Qi Nian finds him to share the latest information he gathered. The 2 other female assassins were from the city of Dong Yi and the weapons they used were from the military. The next step for them? Fan Xian is off to find the general who was involved in watching over these military weapons while Wang Qi Nian seeks information on a design on a plaque left by the assassins in Zhu Ge’s office. Wang Qi Nian succeeds in finding some intel but has to scamper off when he is surrounded by Zhu Ge. As for Fan Xian, he finds that the general’s entire household was killed. That leaves us wondering who exactly is the main culprit behind Fan Xian’s assassination. Should be pretty obvious since we see none other than Si Li Li burning her boat and escaping the city.

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人言可畏

This phrase originates from the Book of Songs, dating back over 2000 years ago. The full phrase is 人之多言 亦可畏也 and means the words of others, especially the gossip of others, is a dangerous tool

The original story is as such: During the Spring Autumn time period, over 2500 years ago, there was a young man named 仲子 who feel in love with a young woman. He believed that the young woman also had feelings for him and wanted to try to ask her out on a date. Unfortunately, in that time period, respectable unmarried men and women were not allowed to meet unchaperoned. 仲子 came up with this brilliant, uh terrible, idea to climb her family’s wall and have a secret rendezvous with her. He told a friend to pass along this idea to the young woman. The young woman, who did indeed have feelings for Zhong Zi, knew that this action was against all decorum and would be punished by her family if they ever found out.

So, on the night were Zhong Zi is about the climb her wall, the woman begins singing in the garden, begging him not climb the wall. She sings for him to not damage the branches on the tree, not because she cares for the tree, but because she’s afraid of the rumors that her brother would spread, the anger from her parents, and the rumors from others that would destroy her reputation. She sings that while yes, she does long for him, I am afraid of the words of others. Zhong Zi, who hears the song, finally agrees to instead go home.

This phrase 人言可畏 has been passed down for thousands of years and is a reminder that the words of others is important and have power. Typically, this shadow of the words of others has been used to confine women to the home. But, in some cases, this has forced men to maintain a modicum of decorum. For this drama though, Fan Xian’s actions by killing Cheng Ju Shu in public saves him. The public knows that there was an assassination attempt on him by an enemy spy and public opinion would sway against the Emperor if Fan Xian was captured for “righting this wrong”.

 

长明灯 – Eternal Flame

In the drama, Teng Zi Jing’s widow had lit a candle that kept burning. Since Teng Zi Jing didn’t die in the book, these events obviously didn’t occur in the book. However, I think that the significance of the flame represents an eternal flame. Eternal Flames have been documented by various ancient cultures including the ancient Greeks, Romans, Chinese etc.

In Chinese culture, the eternal flames have long been documented dating back all the way to the Qin Dynasty of the 3rd century BC where legend has it these Eternal Flames were lit in the mausoleums of these emperors. There’s the more common usage of 长明灯, which is on Chinese New Year’s Eve, these candles would be lit to ward off the evil spirits. Legend has it, the gods return to the heavens on New Years eve so all the demons would venture out from their lairs for food. If the flames go dark, then the demons would capture an unsuspecting human and devour him. That’s why these eternal flames are lit during New Year’s Eve. 

During Zhong Yuan Jie – there’s also the saying to light a Chang Ming Deng for the dead to find a way back home. That is more apt for how this drama uses this candle. The candle for Teng Zi Jing was only extinguished when his body finally was returned home

Moving on to book differences

Like I said in the last episode, in the book Cheng Ju Shu is killed immediately during the battle. The drama definitely adds a hint of humanity to a cold blooded killer. At this point in the book, Fan Xian is already moving forward with his book store and more rendez-vous with Lin Wan Er as he doesn’t have revenge on his mind. They already know that Si Li Li was somehow tied to this and once they finally begin looking for the captain, they find his family massacred. In the drama, Fan Xian is only JUST beginning to suspect Si Li Li