KJ2025

How many assassins does it take to trap sheriff Lu?

It was vile watching those young men be mutilated and sold. Fei’s lust for wine will hopefully be ebbed a bit after this misadventure. I don’t think they will kill him off but he might actually be sober the first time in a very long while. Yingtao is next to put herself in danger offering to go in at night. If Lu can literally get wrapped up she will have a difficult time too. The fight scene was quite a show with Lu being the centerpiece. He did very well for a long while. The poison dart was a cheap shot.😝 I thought would be the brother not the sheriff helping him. That was unexpected. He isn’t like the rest of the schlumps here. We have actually found another capable sheriff. So, what the hell happened to Yunding? Who is the Imperial magistrate that keeps this hunger games going? Since Fei is still MIA I’m really glad this sheriff knows medicine too. Lu tends to get himself too close to death. We still have three missing people to find….well 4 if the older brother is now missing as well. I am hoping missing and not dead.

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QingXi’s men troubles

I was just starting to wonder if hubby could walk. The cat food was the giveaway. The writer really likes this character type. He is Dugu 2.0 the bad version. Su and Lu walk the kid thru the night. The knife wounds don’t match his story so points to a third person. The kid didn’t know about friend’s house so it wasn’t his peephole at the window. Su told nosy neighbor her husband wasn’t needed as caregiver. He had it figured out and made hubby walk to court. That filled in all the missing gaps except what happened to her next. The husband’s jealousy was out of control. That poor woman loved him enough to spend the rest of her life being his nurse and he treated her like crap and had no intention of helping with finances. He was worse than the men who assaulted her because he was supposed to love and take care of her. She was guilty of complimenting the friend more than hubby for his choices, but she had no intention of replacing husband for friend, and neither blockhead listened to her enough to realize it. I hope she and tattoo artist runs off somewhere. He is the only man she knew who made her feel beautiful. I think all the late night womanizing crimes has Lu on edge about their girls being out. As long as they are together, YingTao can kick any man’s butt in this town. Most are too drunk to think straight.😝The one thing I like is the respect he is getting from co workers. They are starting to look like police on patrol rather than flunkies sitting around wearing uniforms.

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Missing persons in Yunding

Today was a busy day for Lu. The dancer is missing and the tattooed jerk is dead. They check her home first and have a chat with the husband. The boy is left to watch him. When he said he looked after him he left out the beating he gave the husband first. Now the guy was a jerk and if healthy would have it coming, but the kids was not the right sitter for this guy. The snoopy old lady neighbor at least gave one clue. And the kid is looking guiltier by the second. The smoke test finally got his people to speak up about the files. 214 cases and half missing persons. That is a lot of people vanished. Lu and Su are on the trail now so at least the current ones are being properly investigated. The cabinet that held the files was obviously pushed out the window and ash was left to make it look like everything destroyed. So liquor and human trafficking seems to be the moneymakers of this place. The sheriff got his nose out of joint when Lu was unimpressed with his no curfew rule. They have a similar arrogance so they were always gonna rub each other the wrong way. It’s funny that Su and Lu took care of miss sass😂🤣 He wanted to read book two to find out lol The dinner for Lu was the wuick toss together so we can go to night market for snacks meal. Loved the grin from Lu when Su said if he knew he would have to stay home he would have cooked something good.😂There are sinister undertones to all this night time frolicking. That a guy could just toss a gal over his shoulder and not get called on it, says this town has a big problem. I’m not sorry that guy is dead. He had no concern of the damage he did to women even just his crude remarks. He would have been a case either way eventually. He just ended up being found as a victim first before charged with any number of assault charges as a perpetrator.The killer saved them some time with this guy.😝still curious about immortal stairs but think it’s a place where bad things happen to people.

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Eat drink and be merry

I hope they quickly find the missing scholar. I think the mole is the only way his brother could even recognize him right now. I don’t know if his ‘friend’ lied about not seeing him, but something very wrong happened to him along his journey. I hope they find clues of the missing old man in the house. This is another mystery. Su, the butler, at your service.😂 This is funny but sad how obtuse these officials are. The hosts are drunk before noon and this is their interview.😝🙄 Lu should have taken XiJun to the night market, if for nothing else, to get a bead on the social climate. He is not ready to read the room if he has no understanding of their lifestyle. That being said, curfew or no, there should be decorum present in public service. Most of this group has no hour not considered happy hour. He is wading in an office of Feis. 😂😬 His martial arts ‘teacher’ is hiding something with sheriff and has everybody else in line with the lie. I chuckled when Lu said he wasn’t fit to spar with him.😂 His arm will remind him for a few days how ‘qualified’ Lu is with the job. I do think it’s funny that Su has rubbed off on him with sly humor. He is making up a nice story along with the tale Su told when he presented the gift. I really am looking forward to the group’s reaction when he lights the tendon.

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Yunding

I am glad they ended it the way they did with the rhino. I wish they would have shown her riding it and Lu getting his spear back. He has a very worthy sword, but the spear suits him best and gives him some distance from would be killers. I disliked how Linghu beat the animal and misled Ami. He lost his arm but at least has his life. That old monk really brainwashed him. The gems are united and all that coveted them are dead or out of office. That was also satisfying. I wonder what the coin meant the Yunding slave gave him. I wish they would have rescued him from that mean woman. It may have even been her that harmed him.😝I don’t blame YingTao for wanting to leave him. Su deserves it. But he was kinda sweet with that impish laugh behind the scroll he was reading after turning the tables on her. Fei is in wine heaven. This place caters to drinkers specifically and has no curfew. He is going to want to try the expensive wine too soon but it won’t be the first night. Lu surprises them. Not in paying for the wine but in serving it. That was a moment of true appreciation they all needed. The tatto artist does beautiful work. I wondered how long a painted tattoo lasted. I thought the guy was kinda fun wanting to show off his tattoo but snatching the mask of a woman was very wrong. He thought he was going to shame an ugly face and surprised a pretty girl hid herself. I am not sure the meaning of peonies for her, but they were a beautiful addition to her costume. I think the husband is correct and their mutual friend being available timely to rescue her from a thief and give her a chicken. The husband is wallowing in self pity. He is truly hurt but he did not see a doctor whether pride, lack of funds or a wish to be bedridden …no clue. But while his frustration is understandable, he was concerned about the cost rather than the effort. And he finds fault with her for maintaining an income. I should feel sorry for him but I don’t. He has become a miserable human being accepting a fate that might be correctable. He should divorce her if he can’t appreciate her for loving him and taking care of him without complaint. The kid that borrowed the cleaver, I really don’t want her to come home to find hubby killed with it. The sheriff leaving is a wine maker so he just wants to market his product and have an easygoing life. This town could use a bit more order, Lu is going to be a culture shock to this party town. The guy at the bar knew the coin Su was given. He also looked ready to kill Su over it. Whatever misunderstanding results from this, I hope it gets the kid into a good place.

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Battle for Hanzhou

The troops are redirected to the city. The rebels are told if they lay down their weapons they won’t be killed, but their leaders say they will be killed if they do. It’s up close and personal and Hanzhou thinks they have won. Now a second wave from Taiyin sect arrive. Our guys know about the arrows and come prepared, but those arrows can pierce armor, and some do. Linghu Shuo comes riding in on the rhino. Fei has herbs ready to burn with straw and confuse it. They are hoping to calm the beast and then kill it. I wish Ami would take her beast somewhere new where they could both live in peace. I really don’t want to watch it get killed. The fighting was choreographed well. And it gets your heart racing watching it.

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Battle plans, maps and spies galore

Lu and Linghu Shuo coming down the mountain together. They both helped each other sincerely. I really don’t want these two to be enemies. Linghu Shuo pounding the tiger was ominous. He will be a formidable foe. Lu surprises everyone by having pheasants cooking while they were out. XiJun gives him the biggest hug ever🥰Lu managed to get XiJun to draw maps of the Taiyin troop placements. I’m certain the last thing captain Ma expected when he left to get Lu is that he would join their plans and pretend to be held hostage. He is abrupt with his assessments, like Lu used to be, but I am liking him better as I understand his character more. Linghu Shuo knows he was duped and asked to be executed. He was not killed but that moved the Taiyins to directly attack Hanzhou. Captain Ma is leading a group up the mountain. I am not sure between the spy and corrupt politician who will be leading the other part. He messed up about the granary so they are hoping for imperial reinforcements for there. Su talks to that official and tells him what he thinks about the bone arrows that can pierce armor and necks with a single blow. Seems the monk knew what he was doing with those in his arsenal. I was surprised at Linghu Shuo with Ami. I like them better as a pair. Su has figured out their relationship and I am not sure yet how this will fit into the scheme of things. There are spies from everywhere and info is very fluid. I am not sure how the battle will go but everybody has a forewarning. It remains to be seen where it proves helpful.

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The monk connection

This is a very interesting amalgam of politics. The two royals vying for power and the crown prince extending a bounty for Su and Lu. Not only is the Hanzhou conflict with Taiyin sect a volatile situation, the Chang’an politics are insinuating themselves in convenient positions to have assassins do their dirty work for them. I am glad the monks have not received the second half. That is handing it to the Taiyin sect directly. Did not expect that, but the monastery does seem a good place to hide. The rhino is a hard sell. There actually is a mountain rhino, but it is small and an herbivore. A raptor or fantastical dragon would have been far more believable. That aside, the political machinations are interesting. Lu embedding himself with the enemy and getting the pleasure of kicking the captain out of the window plus his sword was fun to watch. The captain knew Lu had to be a person of standing even if a stranger and he should have acted with much more diplomacy when he confronted them at the table. He deserved this payback. And now that we know his boss is corrupt and a Chang’an assist in killing off our guys….Su now understands what he needs to do to keep the others safe while Lu works from the other side. Lu was smart to get his associate thrown in the pit with him. The power grabbing of the Lieutenants and the vague encounters with the one really in charge leave loopholes in this rebel sect. The monks are quietly running the show and the older one thinks 100k bone arrows will do it. They will make a good dent but not compared to forged metal. Su got them away from the official’s house but where are they going now. Yingtao is top of her game, but more muscle is needed with Lu gone.

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Officers chess play

Ami’s husband is a cowardly brute. No wonder she seeks help from any quarter. I am hoping the writer lets us see his end before this arc is through. XiJun has offered her hope. She just needs to live long enough to get the divorce. The blacksmith is a very brave man. I want to see his sword become a top weapon and his name famous. He chooses to defend the Tang. At present, I am not sure their royalty deserves it. This is what makes Lu’s chess move believable. He is the perfect soldier and judge and still repudiated by the very royal he has defended. When I thought crown prince was all kind to his aunt, she correctly saw it for the farce it was. This has a fine line for Lu. He is the son of one and the servant of the other and neither side will ever trust him completely. This gives him a very believable and even true account of why feasible for him to be interested in Taiyin sect. I like this version of him much better than last season. He is coming into his own and not letting Su define him, while still wisely choosing his counsel. His stoic stance as he waits for the weapons to come at him is cool to watch. I hate that they netted him in a trap like that but admire his courage to not appear weak even if he gets buried alive. His goal is to get to the Taiyin leader. It was interesting that Fei linked that moment of fear in the net when he thought he would die on the spot. It was also very sly of YingTao to hide them in the well. I lover her character the best so far. XiJun is also coming in handy with subterfuge as well as her drawings. They still are an investigative marvel. The one piece of luck they did have is that the assassins were so intent on finding them there, that when they saw a set up they never considered to search for anything. They didn’t have time to hide the order and tongue gem well so those could have been found in the chaos. This Taiyin group has strength, but only a few are really intelligent. The others are more like bullies. 😝 I want to see Lu get out of this mess and justice for Ami.

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House of nightmares

Fei is given the job of finding them a house to rent. Su thinks this will be safer after inn experiences.😝 Fei manages to find a shady realtor so they know something is up with the house but take it anyways. Yingtao and Lu went through every room and assured Su it was fine. Su wakes up with a nightmare and noted that the yard wasn’t checked. They find a suspicious capped well and Lu goes down to see what;s there since it’s dry. He tells Su to put some muscle in the winch and he is startled by a corpse. They think the corpse is the husband of Ami and go back to realtor to find out where she is. All of them discover it is somebody else. He has the rhino tatto and a very well made civilian sword. Lu heads to the forger who prides himself in making a good product. He found out with a larger order that they were for the Taiyin sect. When offered a job to specifically be in their payroll he refused and there is going to be a showdown at 7pm. There is intent to take the blacksmith by force. We shall see how that goes down next episode. Ami is pissed on two counts. Her lover rented the house cheap and the assassin killed the wrong guy. As she is demanding her money back and things get rough, Su comes in wanting to know why she’s cheating on him. Two shocked faces point in his direction 😂 He better hope YingTao is tailing him and that she doesn’t hold a grudge at his shenanigans.

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Feed the pozhe!

They survive the whirlpool to run into the 5th oddity, the water creature pozhe. Head of a shark, wings of a bat, claws like a crab and tentacles like an octopus. The poor mule was cut up to be pozhe feed. After rescuing the ‘jade emperor’, his senses returned to him. They made it to shore and started to prosecute the ferrymen. Turned out the creature was raised by the father. They found out they were part of the Taiyin sect plotting a rebellion. The flyer carried the censor seven miles to bring back reinforcements. The censor came back with an order allowing Lu to oversee any case as he saw fit from where they were to Yunding. His trust was great as his life was the insurance. The flyer was now the aide of the censor and would be responsible for leading his horse. When he had worked off his debt he would be free and in the interim well treated by the official. Lu goes to the temple to give the other half of tongue gem to witness the governor and lead monk having a disagreement about where their half should be held. The governor feared it would be stolen and used by the Taiyin sect for men and weaponry. I’m with the monk thinking it more about a greedy politician rather than a protector of a relic. It was unfortunately timed.however, because Lu had arrived to give completing piece. The monk was annoyed and going into isolation for a week. I am sure he would have opted to see Lu had he known why he was there. While dining, an official came in checking shoulders for rhino tattoo. One thought he was going to tear down Lu’s clothes and got a surprise grip. Su sweet talked the situation down and Lu showed them his shoulders under his terms but that has set a tone for our guys and the officials from here. Lu and Su know something’s up because they were the officials checking for rhino tattoos just the day prior. There has also been a sighting of a great three horned beast.

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Surviving the whirlpool

Our crew gets to the dock and finds there is a wait for a ferry to take them across. They must also get rid of their horses and mule before they can go. The poor mule was sold for meat so not happy with this. They go to a noodle place and bargain for some wine. This turns out to be a misstep because it was drugged. They save the imperial censor from getting killed but now they have to face the whirlpool because all the ship crew went overboard and swam back to shore. Su found baskets of meat so it was meant to draw attention of predators once capsized. No one was supposed to survive. The assassins think they have achieved their goal. The flyer with feet of wings is also along for the ride. He has shown himself to be swift of foot and fortunately he has sailing skills. He climbed up the mast and got the sail back up and tied down. He tells everybody to go below and row for their lives to escape the whirlpool. They actually make it. But found out they were drugged a second time. Fortunately Fei had the counter for it. This guy calls himself the jade emperor. He plans on taking the boat to sea and riding the Milky Way up to heaven. Now that our crew has interfered with his plan, he is going to be a problem.

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Battle for treasure

I love YingTao’s character. She is awesome. Again she is right on time to take care of archer and save the heroes. There is quite a battle. The landlady sees her brother in the hermit and he is why so many were allowed to stay. She was devastated to hear he was a sheriff. But ironically the brother she lost wanted to be one. Like the fake sheriff they had a tragic story. But in this case the father committed the crime that caused the harsh sentence. Her weapon was a sword that worked like a boomerang. What puzzled me is once they had it…why keep throwing back at her to use again.? The battle was a good one to include a boar like beast called a fushu. Swords and bodies flying everywhere. The other half of the tongue gem was found and sherif from Shen has commissioned sheriff Lu to return it to proper temple on his way to new job. The battle was fierce with swords and bodies flying everywhere. They did an excellent job. Once the tongue gem revealed, the swordsman killed the old man and declared himself new leader. He ‘graciously’ was going to let all the sheriffs heal up and go home. This plan changed when landlady used her boomerang blades to kill him. After confessing where the 34 worker bodies were buried she jumped into a chasm. They return to let fake sheriff heal. Fei lets him go before he can be arrested. He is also given the old man’s donkey. Poor beast is now going to have to tote him everywhere. Fei also ends up with the pearl that he obtained ‘accidentally’ while examining the jeweler’s body. Right when things calmed down the scholar and merchant took out daggers to stab Lu. The east palace has put a bounty on Lu. Lu had a point. If the Prince wanted him dead, he should have just decreed it directly. This was a fast moving arc that kept you guessing and was very entertaining. I would have liked one more episode to explore the underground maze and hear more from Shen sheriff. But the writer made this case too quick and the last case too slow😝our crew is heading west even as two more assassins are ready to find them.

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A posse of sheriffs

This episode took an interesting twist. The sheriff that arrived was not a sheriff and the hermit is. Stories are exchanged and the sheriff the bandit admires turns out to be the hermit. They find interesting clues and more footprints than missing people. Everybody took a leap back when the vat is opened and no one inside. Brave YingTao goes inside and finds an escape hatch underneath. There is a path that leads behind the counter. So they know landlady and old man hiding. The pearl is missing from the god and an escape route is found above and below the god of treasure hunters. The Shen sheriff was looking for a dozen missing construction workers and adding this murder case along with it. This episode has many shrewd minds working together to investigate surroundings. It is decided that because of the number of bowls seen that all the men should assist the sheriffs in finding them. They have just headed down when they find the door locked and the old man poised with a fire tipped arrow. The stairs have been coated in copper oil so if ignited the men below will definitely not survive the fire. I am very glad I don’t have to wait to see next episode. I enjoyed the fight scenes. They were well choreographed. The interaction between all the ‘sheriffs’ was also fun to watch. I like the idea of an underground maze and hope they get to live long enough to find it.

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Meeting Lu WuMing and Su LingFeng😂

Everyone is stunned when the knife blade extends and kills the landlady. They are trying to process her death when an official shows up at the gate. Su goes to greet them pretending to be inn owner while the others hid her body in a wine vat. They tie it up and try to look nonchalant at the tables. They have agreed that they have to keep up the charade because whether or not they participated, everybody viewed and outlawed game. None would be innocent. The official turns out to be a new sheriff headed to Chang’an. He wants wine and to leave. Fei gets to pretend to be servant and the others make excuse to go upstairs. They almost get the sheriff ready to go when the jewel merchant comes in hollering for landlady and that he wants a drink. This starts a whole new round of questioning but they make excuse about Su’s wife and he is handed naan and wine and heads back to the god memorial. Things have calmed down and the sheriff is again getting ready to depart when the other merchant shows up with blood in his hands. The jeweler that was in outer building is now dead and his travel bag is gone. The sheriff decides it is his job to investigate. He makes the men all take turns sitting on the vat with the body inside. Lu goes first and changes his name to WuMing.🤣 He tells a tale of him and wife on a trip to keep promise. XiJun takes it in stride and goes with the story. Su changes his name to LingFeng.😂The women can only roll the eyes at their men taking shots at each other even while being investigated.🙄🤣 Everybody passes the interrogation and all are excused except scholar and swordsman. He tells his deputies to check their rooms. A bag of jewelry is found under the scholar’s bed. He swears up and down he is innocent and framed. Su is impressed with the sheriff’s rendering of the footprint size Now to see what the sheriff does next.

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