KJ2025

Where is Chu Bin?

Yingtao had ordered such a lovely and expensive meal paid for by our favorite sheriff. XiJun comes out and models a beautiful garment and everybody is amazed it was made in twelve hours. All are seated at the table but Su and Lu very disgruntled case isn’t solved. They decide to investigate more. Su and Fei examine body and note lime smell. As lime sellers are questioned, the lady from hotel sold lime to a woman. XiJun and Lu invite designer for drinks and he is very nervous. They pose as a couple wanting wedding garments made and XiJun has a thoughtful smile at that notion. They leave and Su asks XiJun to draw the ugly woman with descriptions from two others. All three drawings are very different. The only thing the three agreed on was that they considered the woman ugly. The “friend” was engaged to the woman the deceased was married to. He has it out with Sheriff Lu when questioned. He is using a banquet at his home the night of the murder as alibi. On the anniversary of Chu Bin’s death, they agree to privately exhume her since no relatives are there. When they go to burial site an unknown veiled woman is there who claims to be Chu Bin’s sister. She is on a par with YingTao with sword but the general easily holds his own with her. When she finds out that both are Di’s disciples she allows them to open casket. There is no body inside. Su is not surprised. The sister had plans to kill the deceased or take out an eye and bring sister’s remains home. She was very surprised no sister in casket.

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Li men’s tale

XiJun’s drawings have been very successful in tracking down the people they were looking for. Li men’s back and forth on wall😂 so from him they learn the letter received was not from him. It was pure chance they met in the hotel and his cousin was not particularly pleased to see him. They quarrel and Li men hits him with candlestick. He sees that is cousin is meeting for a tryst and he goes to fabric shop to tell on him. While waiting for the wife to wake up he eats and drinks as much of their food as possible. He tells the wife what he saw and expected a different reaction from her. She pays him two silver bars to go away and not return. She thinks he is spreading false gossip and say he should be ashamed of himself for telling her such lies and kicks him out of her home with the silver. He goes back to the hotel but sees a girl he knew to be dead and jumps out the window screaming ghost. So Chu Bin enters the picture. She and deceased were an item for a long time. She suddenly gets ill and dies and her lover marries the fabric store owner. The cousin had no more to add other than Chu bin’s death was odd. He then refers the court to his cousin’s friend. This person got the deceased hooked on cockfighting and introduced to the veiled woman who can imitate any female. He mediated their meeting and confirmed she was a dead ringer for the deceased girl. The veiled woman from the hotel confirms everything, but that she was disgusted by the transaction and closed it. She burned the letter because she didn’t want ghost of the deceased girl mad at her. Like Su, it’s a little too convenient for such a for this perfect encounter resulting in the death of the fabric designer. They now have the story of all three ingots and the wife verified that it was indeed from her funds and was a gift from her father. I find the veiled lady interesting and I feel sad for the sick fabric store owner. But I don’t find myself caring about her husband’s case at all. The serial murderer seems a better case study than this selfish man that took advantage of a very sick wife. And since both women he loved got mysteriously ill, does he have a part in that? I’m far more curious about the women than him. He is a cautionary tale of what not to be😝

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Foreboding dream

This episode starts with a weird foreboding dream of the main clothes designer in a fabric shop. He is a gambling addict who prefers cockfights to designing and he has no qualms taking money from wife and business for his habit. He receives a mystery letter from his cousin in shangxia and talks his wife into giving him a silver ingot for him. As he rushes out the door of the fabric shop he runs into Lu literally and is snippy about the return of the silver he dropped. Lu trying to buy clothes for XiJun is humerous. I have no idea how it will turn out but the designers and XiJun will know he meant well. The wife that owns the place and handles the money is very ill. She is doing her best to keep things afloat, but her talented, spendthrift husband is stealing the bit of energy and money she has left. The husband eventually finds the hotel his cousin is staying at. It is more like a pay by the hour place.😝 it is creepy and used for trysts,but as he is literally pulled into hotel he sees his ‘cousin’ first thing. The next thing we see is our gambling designer dead in a fancy tub. The owner gives an account of her odd clientele and why she had a luxury bath tub installed. Veiled women seem to be a theme with this case as it started in his dream and ended up where he died. The owner has now found herself kicked out of her own establishment along with the guests til the murder is solved. Even Fei can’t figure this one out. It was not natural causes so the murderer was quite clever in pulling it off. They catch the one who stole his silver and denied killing him for it. He does, however, claim 20 deaths in surrounding area that he is responsible for.

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Times are changing in Yunding

Finally get to hear the rest of the decree…if Lu unruly he would be immediately returned to Chang’an and anybody by his side ,SuWuming, would be executed. When his friends heard he was forgiven. Sad to learn missing brother also helped create immortal steps. Many of those official documents forged, it is still debatable if the imperial one about Lu was also forged. Yingtao works a killer axe getting through the wine vat…..it was very damn nice to see that shower of wine distract that fake eunuch so that Lu could finish him off. I was sad Sima was sacrificed. Lu would have most likely died had the arrows been aimed for him. I like that Lu loosened up and kept night market. It was also fitting that immortal steps became a clinic. Fei is a marvel with medicine. That wretch of a man redeems himself a thousand fold and more for the lives he manages to save and cure. XiJun has not used her art as much lately, but she is learning other arts in diplomacy and subterfuge. I am wondering if she will study the tattoo guy’s paints and give Lu a tattoo🫣 The slimy old guy and young guy getting pummeled with produce and worse was a nice send off. The brother getting a letter to join the military was a nice gesture from Su. It will help compensate for the sins of the brother. I am wondering if they will get to stick around awhile or be tossed to the winds by the royals again. I am glad that sheriff Sima’s legacy will continue and that Yunding will have a profitable night market and this time around good officials.He was not just a commoner and his life did indeed matter.😢

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The hunt begins…

This episode had many twists and turns. Using the evidence he found in the once missing cases, Lu is all ready to arrest the official that lied about the brother visiting. The other official tells them to let him go and shows Lu a royal decree. I am not sure what the penalty was for seeming unruly but it shook him to the core. He went and pissed everybody off so that he could suffer alone. The sheriff came and had cleared a way to get Lu in. XiJun and her Princess rules.😂 I was hoping they were going to dump the officials in the hunting game but they were just to remain out old and ignorant of events. I wish the one coward would have gone for option two and let the sheriff practice some sword skills. The tattoo artist was the worst of the lot. I am grieved with myself for ever thinking he was good for QingXi. Yingtao paid him back but the one gal had to continue with the process so the artist’s body wouldn’t be discovered. She was thrown into a big vat of ugly. I hope whatever this stuff is it’s reversible. The old man was the missing official and he is as big a lech as the others. If their vat process can’t be reversed, then I hope they get to become ugly mute slaves to be so,d off to any bidder. Su is taking a very big risk in that coffin box. If anybody looks at all he can be stabbed through those slats in the sides. I think I heard Fei drunkly rambling with two guys that didn’t want him dead. That would be his luck 😝Things are about to get very real in this hunt and the risk is even higher with that decree the magistrate has. I want everybody to get through this awful night.

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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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