K-Drama 
Lin Xiu Lai seeks help from her aunt Wang Ling Xiao to separate from her husband Lu Jian, but Ling Xiao is more worried about the family reputation and how the younger cousins will be able to find marriage prospects. Even with proof of severe abuse, Ling Xiao counsels Xiu Lai to stay in the marriage. If not for Lin Xiu Wan's interference, Lan Xiang would not have known about the abuse and would not have known to act swiftly to get Xiu Lai out of the Lu household.
(Source: Italophilia at kisskh)
- Aired: September 25, 2026
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Against the Current Episode 32 Reactions
JinQi was shocked at how matter of factly LanXiang told him her trade as a playwright had been decided before marriage and she had every expectation of writing plays. She would use the pseudonym Shen Rugu to not bring any taint to the Lin family, but no matter his thoughts on the matter, she would not be dissuaded from her choice. She calmly leaves the room while JinQi inquires about the play. Again JiuGao knows all about it. This play is about a woman that has a feather and can turn into a bird three times and return to human form, on the fourth change she will stay a bird forever. Each stage of the woman’s life was covered with using the feather. Even after changing a fourth time it seems she wanted to visit her daughter and was caught in a hunter’s net. The women provided soldout performances and even hired private performances. When we are introduced to Xiu Lai’s predicament, she is beaten as badly as servants with a husband specifically trained by his construction worker father how to beat her with no visible evidence. XiuWan has truly changed. She defies her mother who wants her niece to hide her domestic abuse and to bear with it til her husband got what he wanted. Xiu Wan tells Lanziang and the story of JinQi’s outrage after seeing abuse and taking it to the abusers and beating them.👏🏻 He was all of eight at the time. 😁So LanXiang arranged a group of men to beat up the husband yelling how he beat his wife to get the position. The miscreant Lu pretended leg broken and barely alive when they went to confront JinQi. JinQi had no clue why they were blaming him and why would he beat up his brother in law. The father was so helpful saying it was just wife discipline and his son had been trained to hit just enough and there was no reason to beat his son to such a degree. JinQi used two techniques to make it clear what would be required if Mr Lu joined the army and he was instantly cured and ran off. 😝🙄🤬The patriarch promised to bring him up on charges. JinQi knows who falsely accused him and why. He knows LanXiang has a plan and heads over to the Lu residence. Xiu Lai is in the process of ending her life with arsenic when her husband disrupts her and the Lin women carry her home. I am sure it was an acting prop that had her bleeding to scare off the Lu women blocking their path. The imperial doctor doesn’t want to assist and claims her wounds not life threatening and a mere 2-3years of treatments would have her cured.😝🙄🤬He was not going to bother to set her arm so quite fortunate LanXiang did. I really like JinQi saying no time like the present since she had a plan in place.👏🏻👏🏻 I also like how XiuWan tricked her own mother to recognize her hypocrisy in helping Xiu Lai. That woman….she gets too much screen time and always on my nerves.😝🙄 They take it to court, but beating your wife isn’t against the law apparently and hubby looks ever so pleased with the result as shown in preview.🙄🤬
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"The Tale of the Feathered Immortal" was a beautiful story. Lanxiang sure has a good pen. She already has so many women of the capital enjoying her play. ^^Oh my god, that Second Aunt, she makes it easy to dislike her, huh. It's okay if other people kids suffer but not yours? I'm really happy that while in punishment, Xiuwan got to get away from her grip and form a mind of her own. She was so cute and funny hiding behind the branch to talk to Lanxiang. ^-^Jinqi's father really been useless since forever. Hearing this story about Jinqi, seeing him beating his father at barely 8 (that's really young) because of his womanizer behavior makes me understand why even now he tends to rely on power and force to have things his way. He had to be grown too soon and must have rely on such things early to just navigate in his family, especially with younger siblings and a mother all relying on him. Not that I justify his tendency of forcing his way, just saying I get where it came from now.Also, glad Lanxiang got to hear that story. She also discovered another side of her husband. :)
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Lan Xian tells her husband she wants to continue writing plays, but under a pseudonym so as not to bring shame upon the family. LJQ is somewhat displeased but respects her decision.
His subordinates tell Lin Jin Qi about the play she wrote, which uses caged birds and eagles as metaphors for women's lives. Lin Jin Qi immediately understood whom Lan Xian was referring to in her "fictional" story.
In the next scene, we see LJQ’s half-sister, Xiu Lai, revealing to her maid that her husband beats her severely every day; after squandering her dowry, he still blames his wife. The maid joins in the plea, begging LJQ’s aunt—Xiu Wan’s mother—for help, as Xiu Lai wants to divorce her abusive husband, Liu Jun. The aunt, however, is more concerned about the potential impact on the upcoming marriages of two other young family members and advises Xiu Lai to endure the situation a little longer.Xiu Wan, however, refuses to accept this and goes to Lan Xian for help, recounting the tragedy of Xiu Lai’s life. Xiu Wan explains that when LJQ was eight years old, he took matters into his own hands, using a club to beat a male relative he held responsible for a woman's tragedy; as a result, his grandfather took him in to raise him personally.Lan Xian finds a way to inform LJQ of the problem without telling him directly. She hires some thugs who track down the abusive husband, Liu Jun; they beat him up and throw his own penchant for wife-beating in his face.In the following scene, we are in a courtroom where a battered Liu Jun and his father beg a magistrate to punish Lin Jin Qi, assuming he orchestrated the ambush. It is at this moment, through the villains' own words, that LJQ realizes his half-sister is being mistreated by her husband. LJQ twists the wrongdoer's wrist, causing him to flee—no longer feigning a broken leg. Jiugau, LJQ’s servant, remarks that the slap LJQ gave him acted like a cure. Liu Jun’s father—the abusive husband—storms off, vowing to take revenge on Lin Jin Qi.Meanwhile, Xiu Lai is about to swallow arsenic powder when Liu Jun is thrown through the doorway; he lands near her, causing the powder to spill onto him (though he does not ingest any).Just then, Lan Xian arrives with the maids and Xiu Wan to rescue Xiu Lai, but a group of malicious women, acting on Liu Jun’s orders, tries to block their path. Lan Xian fakes an injury causing Xiu Lai to bleed; this frightens the Liu family matriarch and the other wicked women, causing them to back down and let the group escape with Xiu Lai to the Lin family home.Upon arrival, a doctor examines Xiu Lai and predicts a full recovery within three years.In the next scene, LJQ and her siblings discuss how to resolve Xiu Lai’s situation. They want her to divorce and return to live with them. However, Xiu Wan’s mother opposes the plan, prioritizing upcoming marriages within the family. Xiu Wan feigns tears, arguing that if she were to marry and suffer abuse at her husband's hands, she would have no family to help her—leaving her at the mercy of her husband's cruelty, just as the aunt intends to do with Xiu Lai. This time, Lin Jin Qi’s aunt is moved by the argument. The episode ends here. Let’s move on to episode 33 to discover Xiu Lan’s fate.
His subordinates tell Lin Jin Qi about the play she wrote, which uses caged birds and eagles as metaphors for women's lives. Lin Jin Qi immediately understood whom Lan Xian was referring to in her "fictional" story.
In the next scene, we see LJQ’s half-sister, Xiu Lai, revealing to her maid that her husband beats her severely every day; after squandering her dowry, he still blames his wife. The maid joins in the plea, begging LJQ’s aunt—Xiu Wan’s mother—for help, as Xiu Lai wants to divorce her abusive husband, Liu Jun. The aunt, however, is more concerned about the potential impact on the upcoming marriages of two other young family members and advises Xiu Lai to endure the situation a little longer.Xiu Wan, however, refuses to accept this and goes to Lan Xian for help, recounting the tragedy of Xiu Lai’s life. Xiu Wan explains that when LJQ was eight years old, he took matters into his own hands, using a club to beat a male relative he held responsible for a woman's tragedy; as a result, his grandfather took him in to raise him personally.Lan Xian finds a way to inform LJQ of the problem without telling him directly. She hires some thugs who track down the abusive husband, Liu Jun; they beat him up and throw his own penchant for wife-beating in his face.In the following scene, we are in a courtroom where a battered Liu Jun and his father beg a magistrate to punish Lin Jin Qi, assuming he orchestrated the ambush. It is at this moment, through the villains' own words, that LJQ realizes his half-sister is being mistreated by her husband. LJQ twists the wrongdoer's wrist, causing him to flee—no longer feigning a broken leg. Jiugau, LJQ’s servant, remarks that the slap LJQ gave him acted like a cure. Liu Jun’s father—the abusive husband—storms off, vowing to take revenge on Lin Jin Qi.Meanwhile, Xiu Lai is about to swallow arsenic powder when Liu Jun is thrown through the doorway; he lands near her, causing the powder to spill onto him (though he does not ingest any).Just then, Lan Xian arrives with the maids and Xiu Wan to rescue Xiu Lai, but a group of malicious women, acting on Liu Jun’s orders, tries to block their path. Lan Xian fakes an injury causing Xiu Lai to bleed; this frightens the Liu family matriarch and the other wicked women, causing them to back down and let the group escape with Xiu Lai to the Lin family home.Upon arrival, a doctor examines Xiu Lai and predicts a full recovery within three years.In the next scene, LJQ and her siblings discuss how to resolve Xiu Lai’s situation. They want her to divorce and return to live with them. However, Xiu Wan’s mother opposes the plan, prioritizing upcoming marriages within the family. Xiu Wan feigns tears, arguing that if she were to marry and suffer abuse at her husband's hands, she would have no family to help her—leaving her at the mercy of her husband's cruelty, just as the aunt intends to do with Xiu Lai. This time, Lin Jin Qi’s aunt is moved by the argument. The episode ends here. Let’s move on to episode 33 to discover Xiu Lan’s fate.
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The laws of the times...It took a very long time for the laws to change and an even longer time for social changes to take effect. Many still believe domestic violence is a private thing that should be resolved within the family. It rarely stops on its own. An outside force needs to intervene, or the couple/parties (including children) need to separate. Xiu Wan's mother was especially infuriating in this episode in choosing not to help her niece and only thinking about her daughter's marriage prospects.
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The Lu family has to go ASAP — all of them, with the husband and his mother first in line! 😠 Imagine how this kind of rotten family gets to live as they please while the Shen family, Mister Lu's family, and Furong's family got punished so severely? 😤 Those laws are so wrong... Really, do the husband or his family have no responsibility if his wife dies after being beaten by him? 🤦♀️Second Madam really annoyed me here. All her talk about enduring, enduring, enduring... There HAVE to be limits! On everything! (I really hope that seeing how close Xiulan was to suicide after their conversation will put some sense into her!) 😠I am so relieved Xiuwan involved Lanxiang. Our clever girl made sure Jinqi found out what's being done to his half-sister. And the other Lin boys were ready to defend her with fists and sticks... I love how much they care about their siblings/cousins! 🥹🫂And to think that it came down to a difference of one second, or Xiulan would have eaten arsenic... 💔🤧As for Jinqi and Lanxiang... I think everything she learned about him from Xiuwan and seeing with her own eyes how he reacted to Xiulan's situation will soften her attitude towards him. And I really liked seeing them work together on the rescue mission. 😌And her play? It has so many meanings and truths women can relate to... No wonder it's a hit! P.S. This was a heavily emotional episode and it was hard to get through some of the scenes, but I am still giving it all the love I can.
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