Season 1 – Ep 17 pt 2 + 18

Where are we… Fan Xian had captured Si Li Li and she was brought by Yan Ruo Hai over to a dungeon cell in the Overwatch council. While initially excluded from the interrogation process, Fan Xian found out that Yan Ruo Hai’s earlier exclusion of his involvement was a way to protect him. Instead, Fan Xian is allowed to be lead interrogator of Si Li Li. That’s where we start today with our recap. Fan Xian has gathered the information he needs and now walks out of the dungeon cell. Yan Ruo Hai, Zhu Ge and a joking Wang Qi Nian arrive to see how things are going. Fan Xian saunters out and provides a list of names Si Li Li shared as spies to Zhu Ge. He stops Zhu Ge from interrogating Si Li Li further and heads out of the Overwatch Council with Wang Qi Nian.

As of now, we don’t haven’t found out who exactly is the name Si Li Li gave Fan Xian, but next thing we know is we’re treated to Fan Si Zhe holding up a cymbal and clanging it in front of hte Fan Manor the next day. He orders a bunch of musicians to be as rowdy as possible. Ruo Ruo arrives and is about to reprimand Fan Si Zhe who is defiant in that he’s doing this to help Fan Xian. Fan Xian arrives and says that yesterday when he went to see Wan’Er, her brother was displeased with him sneaking about. So today, Fan XIan is going to very publicly and very loudly visit his betrothed, Lin Wan’Er, complete with a white horse and procession of loud musicians.

Lin Gong hears of this and is furious. He finds Fan Xian’s actions extremely disrespectful and has a number of trained assassins congregate in Wan’Ers yard. Lin Gong barks orders that the moment Fan Xian arrives, they are to assassinate him. Fan Xian arrives shortly with the procession and creates a ruckus with the crowd in front of Wan’Er’s residence by publicly announcing his intentions of seeing her. The front doors open and he is allowed in. As he slowly walks into the premises, Wan’Er’s maid walks by with a quick warning that Lin Gong wants to kill him. Fan Xian is on high alert and immediately sees a number of assassins come out from hiding. They start attacking and he immediately flees the scene.

Why go through all this trouble and showmanship? Fan Xian wanted more intel which he got from Lin Gong. The reason? As Fan Xian states to Ye Ling’Er whom he meets right after his little show at Wan’Er’s residence. The person that blackmailed Si Li Li and ordered Fan Xian’s assassination and whose conversation was seen by Ling’Er, was none other than Lin Gong.

Ling’Er does not deny that it was indeed Lin Gong but implores Fan Xian to drop it. If it was just Lin Gong, Ling’Er would not have too much hesitation about telling Fan Xian the truth, but Lin Gong is a member of the Crown Prince’s faction. If Ling’Er’s family were to rebuke the crown prince and future ruler of the Qing Kingdom, that would not bode well for the safety of her family. Ling’er does not understand why Fan Xian can’t just move on and unintentionally says that line again. The person who died was just a body guard. This inflames Fan Xian even further. The sad part is, Ling’er doesn’t even realize she said something wrong and even asks if this body guard had another identity. THis implies that his life would have been more important if he had a more important identity.

But now things get complicated. The person that ordered his death is none other than his fiance’s older brother. Lin Gong implores Wan’Er to keep her distance from Fan Xian and even gives her a dagger to protect herself. He wants to protect his sister and doesn’t want to get her mixed up with the likes of Fan Xian. Meanwhile, Fan Xian shares this information with Ruo Ruo and becomes infuriated that everything is happening without just asking him. THese assination attempts happen most likely because the powers that be want the power of the imperial treasury. Fan Xian is happy to give that up if they just ask. And finally, after all that work, he has his target for revenge.

Except Ruo Ruo brings him back to reality. Even though he wants to help the public and make a statement that the common person should not just be pawns of the powerful, Ruo Ruo reminds him that Lin Gong is very close to Wan’Er. If Fan Xian goes down this path of revenge, he will never have a future with Wan’Er. That’s completely understandable. How can Wan’Er marry the guy that killed her brother? He must make the decision. Avenge his fallen brother’s death, or keep his relationship with Wan’er.

That night, Fan Xian is dressed in black and heading out to kill Lin Gong. He is very conflicted on his choice and on the way is stopped by none other than his uncle, Wu Zhu. Wu Zhu is able to see through the fact that Fan Xian is hesitating and does not have the resolve to kill Lin Gong. If Fan Xian goes now, he will most likely be killed. They get into an argument and start throwing punches but Fan Xian is no match for his uncle. He is knocked out and brought back to the Fan Manor.

The next morning, Fan Xian wakes up at home. He is confused how he got there and is eager to head out to kill Lin Gong. Ruo Ruo though arrives to tell him that Lin Gong has already left the capital. It is unclear where and for how long he is leaving the capital. They only know that Lin Gong met with the crown prince early in the morning before leaving with a procession of men.

Fan Xian decides to head off after Lin Gong and grabs Wang Qi Nian to work his tracking magic. But before Fan Xian can leave the capital, he is stopped by Xie Bi An, a swordsman working for the 2nd prince. He informs Fan Xian that the 2nd prince, who is nearby, requests his presence. Fan Xian has no choice but to head over to where the 2nd prince has constructed a little area specifically built, and cleared, so that he can read in the streets of the capital. The 2nd prince is intrigued by the possible conflict between Lin Gong and Fan Xian and even offers Xie Bi An as someone who can help Fan Xian in whatever conflict arises with Lin Gong. Fan Xian is a little surprised by the 2nd prince’s rather blatant ploy of garnering favor with him to attack the Crown prince and ultimately turns down the 2nd prince’s offer. Fan Xian heads off with Wang Qi Nian in tow to seek Lin Gong himself.

 

While Fan XIan is being delayed in the capital, Wu Zhu steps in to do what Fan Xian most likely would not have been able to do. He arrives at the resting place where Lin Gong and men had stopped and requests an audience with Lin Gong. The men saw a blind man who doesnt have any internal aura that shows he knows how to fight which made them think he is not a threat and let him in. That proves to be a fatal mistake as, despite Lin Gong having a large number of decently skilled men protecting him, Wu Zhu is able to quickly dispatch all of those men and inflicts the fatal blow on Lin Gong. With the crowd of men killed, Wu Zhu leaves the scene, unfazed.

Oddly, Wu Zhu decides to leave a note detailing what happened to Lin Gong on Zhu Ge of the Overwatch Council’s desk. Zhu Ge is freaked out by how quickly that piece of paper appeared there and reading the contents of the note, immediately heads off to the scene of the massacre. He and his men bring Lin Gong’s body back to the Overwatch Council and report what happened to the Emperor. This is of course, a big case. Evidence points to the culprit being Xie Bi An which implies a fight between the 2nd prince and the crown prince.

Fan Xian didn’t know about what happened and was originally stewing in his room, annoyed that his shot at killing Lin Gong is gone. But Wu Zhu arrives and in the midst of Fan Xian shouting his displeasure at being knocked out, simply shares that Lin Gong is dead. He killed him. Fan Xian is angry that Wu Zhu went ahead with this task but ultimately calms down as the deed is done. Wu Zhu informs Fan Xian that he was away to the south to see if he could probe his memory on clues related to the suitcase of Fan Xian’s and the key that would unlock it. Wu Zhu recalls a Tai Ping Bie Yuan which is where Fan Xian’s mother used to live. They must try to find it and see if the key is located there.

The episode ends with the Fan Family eating breakfast the next morning. Fan Jian calls Fan Xian into his study to inform him that Lin Gong is dead. Fan Jian is closely observing Fan XIan’s reaction to this news and questions whether or not Wu ZHu returned. Fan Xian has no option but to feign ignorance. We will see in the next episode the aftermath of Lin Gong’s death.

澹泊书局

Let’s talk about the naming of Fan Xian’s new publishing house 澹泊书局. Let’s talk about the name though. so on paper the 澹 is the same Dan as Dan Zhou, the city where Fan Xian grew up. The name though is a play on 淡泊 – or it translates to indifferent or stoic. That phrase of Dan Bo was made famous during the Three Kingdoms era in Chinese history in the 2nd and 3rd century CE.

Here’s one of the phrases 非淡泊无以明志，非宁静无以致远

This translates to – if you don’t lessen the importance of the fame and fortune in front of you, then you won’t have clear ambitions. If you can’t calm yourself and fully concentrate on your studies, then you won’t be able to achieve your lofty goals.

This phrase originates from 诫子书 or the Book of Commandments written by the famed Three Kingdoms politician, strategist, poet, and inventor Zhu Ge Liang. We talked about 2 other lines from the Book of Commandments when we discussed episode 5. Zhu Ge Liang wrote Jie Zi Shu to his son on his deathbed on self-cultivation, conduct, and way of life. The text itself is rather short but has been passed down through history as a learning text for future generations to study hard and set goals.

There’s also another meaning for 澹泊 – it’s wandering outside of Dan Zhou 澹州之外漂泊之意.

Kuai Jian, Shun Feng

So two phrases are also dropped during episode 18 when Fan Xian encounters the Second Prince. The Second Prince is trying to give Fan Xian some hints as to Lin Gong’s whereabouts and provide Fan Xian a 快剑 or Fast Sword as a service. The Second Prince was referring to the swordsman Xie Bi An. Fan Xian responds though with – for 快件, I know 顺丰. The Second Prince and Xie Bi An are like…oh wow, you know of Swordsmanship! Here’s where Chinese is really tough because of the tonal system. Fan Xian and Xie Bi An are talking about 2 completely different things even though they might sound the same.

Fan Xian is referring to Kuai Jian which is just express shipping. Kuai Means fast and Jian means item so put those together you have fast shipping. There is also slow shipping which is just regular shipping.

As to 顺丰 – that is the largest shipping and logistics company in China based out of ShenZhen that was founded in 1993. It did over 36B USD in revenue in 2023 and is one of top 500 companies in the world. SF Express services include economic express, same-city delivery, international express, heavy cargo express, cold chain transportation services etc.

So when Fan Xian was talking about Kuai Jian, he responds with, I know of Shun Feng, the company. Xie Be An though thought Fan Xian was referring to Shun Fun of flowing with the wind and then goes on about that indeed is the essence of swordsmanship. Haha – I probably would have reacted as Fan Xian did

Lastly – let’s talk about book differences.

We spent several episodes after Teng Zi Jing’s death with Fan Xian trying to uncover the mastermind behind the Niu Lan Jie assassination attempt to avenge Teng Zi Jing, only to find that it was Lin Gong. In the book, Fan Xian relatively quickly forces this information from Si Li Li but she reveals the name of another man who is Lin Gong’s accomplice. Ye Ling Er isn’t involved at all and Fan Xian wasn’t that determined to find Lin Gong because Teng Zi Jing didn’t die. Which means he didn’t have a whole confrontation with Wu Zhu as to why Wu Zhu wasn’t there to protect Fan Xian. I thought that was another highlight of the episode. Wu Zhu actually was there during the niu lan jie assassination but he stood watch because he wanted Fan Xian to face the assassin by himself. In the book – Wu Zhu just goes off by himself and murders the accomplice and Lin Gong without informing Fan Xian at all. We also don’t get really any details about Lin Gong. The drama does an excellent job humanizing Lin Gong as more than just a schemer. He truly cared about his sister and didn’t care that she was illegitimate