I think one of the sweetest moments in Ep 15 had to be Lin Hai Ru’s obvious pride and delight while watching the ML shine at the literary event. The smile on her face!!!
I’m here for the romance, obv, but I also enjoy watching the budding relationship between this “mother” and “son” pair. It’s really sweet seeing her learning to care for him. In a family where the ML’s talents have gone under appreciated for so long, it’s nice seeing him finally gaining fans and a support system beyond the FL.
If he really is responsible, he’s no longer a spineless worm. He is now also a cold blooded murderer.
I think the dad is a red herring, personally. Plus I still don't think he's smart enough to pull it off. :P
There's a clip in one of the drama's trailers showing the aunt (the wife of the first son of the Luo family) looking really angry. It actually had me wondering if she might be the culprit. No one's suspecting her, but it could be she was jealous of her sister-in-law back then. Who knows. I'm totally speculating. The killer could also be someone we've yet to meet. But if does turn out to be the dad, that would be the most uninspiring choice ever. LOL
if HIS dad killed HER mom that would be super bad.
I'm kind of with LSY when he sought to reassure LYN (for her sake) by pointing out that killing the mom doesn't seem like something the dad would do. He's not a great parent nor is he a great husband, but his greatest failing so far has been that he's spineless and too willing to turn a blind eye to the pettiness/evilness of his favored concubine. For all his negative traits, they don't scream murderer either.
In short, I'm not sure the father has the brains to mastermind the killing of his first wife. At least to not do it so well that it's gone undetected for all these years!
I hear you, though, on the point that so far there doesn't seem to be any other possible person around LYN's mother who would've had a motive to kill her. But we are also still in the beginning of the drama with more characters to meet. I'm looking forward to seeing where the story takes us!
Are You the One and The Rise of Ning were filmed in the same location sets(aka exterior shots). This is what happens…
As another person answered, many period dramas are filmed at Hengdian. If you look up AvenueX on YouTube, she has shared videos from several of the filming locations that she visited at Hengdian.
Are you talking about Shen Jin Zhen? She is the younger sister of Shen Tunan . She was revealed in ep 29.
Although Big Sister and Kong were not overtly identified, there were enough clues that we can guess their identities. War of Faith is a fictional story set in the context of documented events, and so it helps to know a little bit about the history of that time period when watching.
In the drama, Shen Tu Nan frequently reports to a "Mr. Song," who we never really see but mostly hear via his voice. From 1928-1933, the governor of the Central Bank of China was T.V. Soong (also Romanized as Song Ziwen). Therefore, that is likely the "Mr. Song" the drama was referring to.
T.V. Soong had three sisters, famously known as the Soong Sisters. One was married to Sun Yat Sen (regarded as the father of modern China), another was married to Chiang Kai Shek (the leader of the Kuomintang), and the third was married to H.H. Kung (a very rich businessman, the minister of various positions within the KMT, and the governor of the Central Bank of China from 1933-1945). Importantly, we must also remember that there are different ways to spell out these names in English depending on the Romanization system used. Therefore, while the drama referred to the leader of the KMT as Mr. Jiang, that is the same as Chiang in Chiang Kai Shek. Similarly, Kung can also be also Romanized as Kong.
Given these real historical figures, I assume the reference to Mr. Kong in the drama, was to the businessman married to Soong Ai Ling. Because of that I also assumed while watching that Big Sister was Soong Ai Ling. However, in the cast credits, it is not that sister who was included but Soong Mei Ling, the one who was married to Chiang Kai Shek. Therefore, most likely, she is Big Sister.
I know some people have been upset by the perception that the 'real' baddies of the drama were not punished by its end. Again, recall that this drama also references real historical figures and the reality is that in the 1930s time period when this story took place, these people continued on as they were. Eventually, following the loss of the Chinese Civil War (in 1949), the KMT would retreat to Taiwan. Given all that, it's kind of hard to write the story in a way that these people get their comeuppance when they continued to live on and do as they did....
There's a season 2 . The story has not finished yet.
My comment that there is no Season 2 isn't based on the fact that one hasn't been filmed either. It's based on the fact that one has not been planned. You cannot take a comment made in the heat of the moment - one that clearly caught all cast members by surprise when the Director said it - as a word of promise. People who believe an actual announcement was made at the live cast event should really watch the event itself and see the context in which that comment was made. I know everyone got excited initially when the Director said what he said, and word started traveling around the Internet - that included me. But once I watched the video (and others did too), it became obvious. It was not an announcement or even an actual real promise. (You can scroll down farther in the Comments section. This was previously discussed as well.) In any event, you can keep holding onto hope if you want. I don't want people to end up disappointed, though, or being misinformed.
I never like to say never, but I would be genuinely surprised if we saw a Season 2. Whether one likes it or not, this drama had a pretty definite ending.
The so called 'main villains' that I think you are referring to, are untouchable based on history. That is why the drama gives us one villain who can take that fall (and represent the other villains).
There's a season 2 . The story has not finished yet.
There is not a Season 2.
There has been a lot of confusion over whether this drama has a Season 2; it stems from the drama's last live cast event. As typical of these types of events, it ended with each participant being asked to share a promise if the drama reached a certain milestone. The director - off the cuff - said that if they reached the certain milestone they were looking for, he'd film a Season 2. His comment caught everyone by surprise and although the drama did eventually hit that milestone, that does NOT mean a Season 2 is actually planned.
Although I suppose it doesn't preclude the director from now planning for a Season 2, I really wouldn't sit around waiting for one. It'd be different if a second season had been planned from the get-go, but that is clearly not the case in this instance.
Thanx for saving my time, I can't stand main character's death.
Jin Zhen’s death was not meaningless and to say that it was is, IMO, doing a disservice to her character.
In any fight, death is a possibility. The drama told us time and again how these people, fighting for what they believed in, accepted that risk and persisted nonetheless. Jin Zhen especially believed this as well. It’s why she risked her life countless of times and it’s why she never gave up.
In her final moments, she was working to protect the lives of children and the people around her. It couldn’t have been a more honorable death and Jin Zhen died doing exactly what she believed in and wanted to be doing - making the lives of the people around her better.
I certainly don’t love that Jin Zhen died. I loved her character and if I could have it another way, I absolutely would want her to live. But the reality is not everyone survives in a war and that’s what happened here. Personally, I think it’s a disservice to say “don’t watch this because she died,” because it’s the last thing Jin Zhen would want.
From a narrative standpoint, I also don’t think it’s as pointless as you believe it to be. I actually think Jin Zhen’s death - which occurred as a result of LQS’s actions - served as the final push her brother needed to switch his allegiances, so there is that too.
I don’t like dramas who serve up death for the sole purpose of manipulating their viewers’ emotions. I didn’t walk away from WoF feeling that way about Jin Zhen’s death. Again, didn’t love it, but accepted why the script was written it was.
Anyway, that’s just my two cents. Not my intention to create any arguments, but simply to offer another perspective especially for others who may be wondering if this drama is worth their time.
I am dissapointed about ending so much. it was great like until 25 th episode. But I was waiting for some finale…
Did you watch the special episode? They discuss some of the things you hinted at. And while the special is still open in the sense that they’re still headed for two different cities, it’s not open in the sense that they’re ready for this. They each have their own path to walk, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to be together.
She died at an event infiltrated by Lin Qiao Song and his men. They planted bombs and although she survived that, as she was working to save the children she’d been performing with, the roof of the structure she’d been performing on collapsed. She threw her body over the last child and sacrificed herself as a result.
A very sad death but emblematic of Shen Jin Zhen - always thinking of others, even in her final moments. 😢❤️
does this have slight romance (subplot) ??if yes , between whom ??
Wei Ruo Lai and Shen Jin Zhen are teased about having feelings for each other.
Wei Ruo Lai also has a childhood fiancée in Niu Chun Miao. One of those engaged from the cradle sort of arrangements. Both are pretty firm on that being a broken engagement, though.
Lin Qiao Song seemed to have a crush on Shen Jin Zhen initially, but it turns out he has a girlfriend.
So… if you consider any of the above romance, yes. Otherwise no, not really. The drama is not really a romance kind of story.
Yes and No. The answer will be reveal in 30ish episodes
LQS sent the girlfriend's brother to the Communist side to serve as his spy. WRL and SJZ uncover his spy status and he explains that LQS threatened him with his sister's life. As for what happens next, you'll find out by 35/36.
Heeeeey, so someone please spoil the general-ish ending of this show for me. I'm a fan of WY but this show got…
After WRL, SJZ, and NCM escape Shanghai to Jiangxi, WRL leaves SJZ behind telling her that he needs some space to figure out what he needs and wants. He spends about an episode visiting his father to tell him about his brother's death, how he killed a man, and explain why he's now a wanted man in Shanghai. His father tells him it's okay. He was right to avenge his brother's death and he stood up for the poor. WRL then goes to work for a local store as their bookkeeper where he meets a young girl, someone who'd grown up near his family. WRL can sense her interest in learning and offers to teach her basic skills, such as accounting, so that she can get a job to help support herself (and her family; they're poor). Unfortunately it's not long before loan sharks come looking for the girl. Her father owes money and his daughter is his only asset. WRL asks his father if they've money to spare to help the girl, but his father says it's a hopeless business as the girl's father is a wastrel. Ultimately the young girl is killed.
Later, the Communist party soldiers come around to round up the loan sharks and create order. WRL witnesses their efforts to help the people and how the people in the local community respond to the soldiers. This becomes the impetus and affirmation he needs that joining the Communist party is the correct thing to do, and so with their fathers' blessings, both he and NCM rejoin SJZ.
While with the Communist party, they basically encounter three roadblocks: 1) The KMT has started circulating counterfeit CCP money in the local markets to disrupt their CCP economy, 2) the KMT cuts off water route access that the CCP was using (in concert with the Guangdong Army) to import necessary supplies, such as salt, and expert certain goods, such as tungsten ore, which they use to raise funds.
It is during the matter of the counterfeit money that WRL realizes the KMT must have someone crafty on their side. Indeed, it is his former mentor, STN, who was announced as having died (after helping his sister escape). The KMT sends him to nearby KMT-controlled territory (Ganzhou, if I remember correctly) under the name, Tu Nanshen, and he is tasked with bringing order to that area. Namely, to stop the Guangdong Army from cooperating with the CCP for profit. To "assist" him, the KMT also sends Lin Qiaosong (but really, LQS is also sent to keep any eye on STN).
WRL asks to lead the team to break up the counterfeit money ring and brings with him SJZ for help. As suspected, their investigations lead them back to STN. His sister is shocked to find him alive. Due to WRL's plans, the CCP soldiers are able to destroy the counterfeit money making factor and capture STN. They bring him back to Jiangxi where WRL shows him around and both he and SJZ try to convince him that this is the path forward. STN is moved by what he sees, and even admits that his conscience hasn't allowed him to sleep a night of peace since arriving in Ganzhou, but he remains steadfast in his regards for the Three Principles of the People. As he's expected to be executed, he asks his sister to take care of his wife/daughter for him. He also asks WRL to take care of his sister and then tells him he's proud that WRL has been able to hold to his principles and achieve what he's always hoped to achieve as a banker - the trust and respect of the people. He tells WRL to never lose what he holds sincere.
Before STN can be executed, a fire breaks out and STN escapes back to Ganzhou. It would appear that he goes back to his prior ways - being ruthless towards the CCP. On WRL and SJZ's next mission, to obtain the passcode for the water route (a new system that STN had implemented to protect the waterways and prevent the CCP from using them), LQS even asks him what he should do if he runs into SJZ, and STN replies, "She's a Communist first and then my sister next."
While WRL and SJZ ultimately succeed in their mission and get the salt that they need, bringing it back to to the local residents, LQS has poisoned the salt. This upsets STN as he wants to harm the CCP, not the local people. He sends words to the CCP that it's tainted and they're not sure whether they can believe him. WRL insists that they can and sure enough, after running a few tests, they discover that some of the salt is indeed tainted.
The KMT continues to mess with the CCP's financial market. They're trying to breed distrust in the people so that their bank will fail. WRL comes up with an idea to hold a big public event where they can show everyone in the community how much is really in the bank's coffers. His leader agrees this is a great idea. However, on the day of the event, LQS infiltrates it with his men and place bombs near the event stage. The bomb goes off while SJZ is performing on stage with children. She barely survives the bomb blast and is trying her best to get the injured children off the stage when just as the last one remains, the roof the stage structure collapses. She protects the child by using her own body as a shield and WRL, who's lying injured a ways away, also from the bomb blast, witnesses the roof fall onto her back, killing SJZ.
WRL sends a letter to STN and his wife that SJZ is deceased.
The second to last showdown between the CCP and the KMT is over the tungsten ore. The CCP's goods are intercepted by the KMT and come into their control. The KMT decides to sell this to the Germans instead, and so STN goes to meet with his German friend. They haggle over pricing and when they can't agree to a bottom line number, STN agrees to take the German's counteroffer back to his superiors for their consideration. Meanwhile, while those talks are going on, WRL and his men have already made their way to the shipping dock where the tungsten ore is being held. They provide paperwork suggesting that a deal was reached between the KMT and the German and because WRL was able to guess the price that STN was going to offer to the German, when the people at the shipping dock call LQS to verify the contract, he believes it to be correct and tells his people to proceed. It is only after STN comes out of the restaurant where they're waiting that they realize it was a scam. However, by the time LQS, STN, etc., race their way to the shipping dock, the ship has already pulled out with the tungsten ore loaded on it. On the boat, we see the German asking another person whether WRL will be alright. The other person answers that WRL has always managed to get out of pickles before so he should be alright, and the German says that in the future, he only wants to do business with WRL. In a flashback, we also see how WRL had gone to meet with the German and predicted what the KMT would offer for the tungsten ore while offering an even lower price. The German asks whether he can rely on WRL's offer and WRL tells him if he wants to know, he should come to the shipping dock at the appointed hour. In the end, everything had gone as WRL predicted, and so that's how the CCP were able to successfully get their tungsten ore back to sell to the Germans.
The final showdown with the CCP and the KMT is over medical and other supplies that the CCP needs to transfer their base. Using the money they made from the sale of the tungsten ore, WRL and his people buy medicine and other supplies that the CCP will need as they begin their Long March. Of course the KMT want to prevent this sale. Ultimately everyone ends up on the same train - it's the final death match. To put it in simplest terms, a shootout begins. LQS makes his way to the solo carriage where STN is riding with his assistant. He shoots STN and Huang Cong Yun throws his body over STN to protect him, getting shot multiple times and dying instead. After LQS leaves believing he's killed them both, STN rolls aside HCY's dead body and emerges alive. It turns out he'd finally worn the bulletproof vest his sister had given him all those episodes before. In the meantime, LQS had found WRL and were in a tussle. LQS had WRL in a chokehold and was in the throes of yelling at WRL and sending him to death when STN walks up from behind and shoots at him. He kills LQS and avenges his sister's death.
STN next turns his gun on WRL noting that he also holds WRL responsible for his sister's death, but WRL points out that he knows STN has been secretly helping him all along, as there's no way he would have been able to pull off every mission successfully without his mentor's help. In a flashback, we see STN leaving a coded message for WRL to find - once WRL decodes it, he learns the price the KMT were going to offer for the tungsten ore. STN offers to help WRL and his remaining men get off safely at the next train stop, but WRL tells him they can manage on their own from there. There are only 3 of them who survive after the train shoot out: WRL, NCM, and another guy. NCM and the other guy jump from the train first while WRL and STN hold a final gaze before WRL jumps from the train. At the next stop, STN is met by a bunch of soldiers but after he pulls out his ID, they let him through.
The final minutes of the drama are of the CCP beginning their Long March. In a voiceover, we learn that WRL made it to the end of the Long March. And that later, the CCP sent him back to Shanghai under a different identity to meet with another underground member of the CCP. WRL steps off the boat (arriving back to Shanghai) and catches a rickshaw to the Shanghai stock exchange. Upon arrival, he sees the back of a man... that man turns around. It's STN. Drama ends.
Hopefully I got most of the details correct (relying on memory from a week ago by now). I've left out some stuff to provide a quick summary, but I would add it's never quite clear when STN switched sides. Clearly he started becoming sympathetic towards the CCP's endeavors when he was captured in Jiangxi and I would imagine as well his sister's death to be a breaking point. But I would also consider his wife and daughter to be factors in his slow process turn. I didn't mention above, but when SJZ and WRL were looking for the passcode to the water routes, it was his wife who helped SJZ find that information in his study. At the time his wife was thinking at most STN would just get dismissed from the KMT and that would be better for the family. After all, after his faked death, she'd wanted them to leave everything behind and move to England, thinking that would be safer for them all. But in the end, STN backed out of the England plans and continued working for the KMT. His daughter, meanwhile, was traumatized by events that had happened while in Ganzhou - events that snowballed from an incident STN had caused. For a time she was scared of her father and said he was a 'bad man' and you could see how that affected STN. I would imagine all those things ultimately played a part in STN's decision to start helping WRL and the CCP even before officially changing over.
Xuanyuan is the spineless dad’s son by his concubine.
I’m here for the romance, obv, but I also enjoy watching the budding relationship between this “mother” and “son” pair. It’s really sweet seeing her learning to care for him. In a family where the ML’s talents have gone under appreciated for so long, it’s nice seeing him finally gaining fans and a support system beyond the FL.
There's a clip in one of the drama's trailers showing the aunt (the wife of the first son of the Luo family) looking really angry. It actually had me wondering if she might be the culprit. No one's suspecting her, but it could be she was jealous of her sister-in-law back then. Who knows. I'm totally speculating. The killer could also be someone we've yet to meet. But if does turn out to be the dad, that would be the most uninspiring choice ever. LOL
In short, I'm not sure the father has the brains to mastermind the killing of his first wife. At least to not do it so well that it's gone undetected for all these years!
I hear you, though, on the point that so far there doesn't seem to be any other possible person around LYN's mother who would've had a motive to kill her. But we are also still in the beginning of the drama with more characters to meet. I'm looking forward to seeing where the story takes us!
In the drama, Shen Tu Nan frequently reports to a "Mr. Song," who we never really see but mostly hear via his voice. From 1928-1933, the governor of the Central Bank of China was T.V. Soong (also Romanized as Song Ziwen). Therefore, that is likely the "Mr. Song" the drama was referring to.
T.V. Soong had three sisters, famously known as the Soong Sisters. One was married to Sun Yat Sen (regarded as the father of modern China), another was married to Chiang Kai Shek (the leader of the Kuomintang), and the third was married to H.H. Kung (a very rich businessman, the minister of various positions within the KMT, and the governor of the Central Bank of China from 1933-1945). Importantly, we must also remember that there are different ways to spell out these names in English depending on the Romanization system used. Therefore, while the drama referred to the leader of the KMT as Mr. Jiang, that is the same as Chiang in Chiang Kai Shek. Similarly, Kung can also be also Romanized as Kong.
Given these real historical figures, I assume the reference to Mr. Kong in the drama, was to the businessman married to Soong Ai Ling. Because of that I also assumed while watching that Big Sister was Soong Ai Ling. However, in the cast credits, it is not that sister who was included but Soong Mei Ling, the one who was married to Chiang Kai Shek. Therefore, most likely, she is Big Sister.
I know some people have been upset by the perception that the 'real' baddies of the drama were not punished by its end. Again, recall that this drama also references real historical figures and the reality is that in the 1930s time period when this story took place, these people continued on as they were. Eventually, following the loss of the Chinese Civil War (in 1949), the KMT would retreat to Taiwan. Given all that, it's kind of hard to write the story in a way that these people get their comeuppance when they continued to live on and do as they did....
Some helpful readings/references:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War#Reasons_for_the_Communist_victory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._V._Soong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Kung
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soong_sisters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Bank_of_the_Republic_of_China_(Taiwan)
I never like to say never, but I would be genuinely surprised if we saw a Season 2. Whether one likes it or not, this drama had a pretty definite ending.
The so called 'main villains' that I think you are referring to, are untouchable based on history. That is why the drama gives us one villain who can take that fall (and represent the other villains).
There has been a lot of confusion over whether this drama has a Season 2; it stems from the drama's last live cast event. As typical of these types of events, it ended with each participant being asked to share a promise if the drama reached a certain milestone. The director - off the cuff - said that if they reached the certain milestone they were looking for, he'd film a Season 2. His comment caught everyone by surprise and although the drama did eventually hit that milestone, that does NOT mean a Season 2 is actually planned.
Although I suppose it doesn't preclude the director from now planning for a Season 2, I really wouldn't sit around waiting for one. It'd be different if a second season had been planned from the get-go, but that is clearly not the case in this instance.
In any fight, death is a possibility. The drama told us time and again how these people, fighting for what they believed in, accepted that risk and persisted nonetheless. Jin Zhen especially believed this as well. It’s why she risked her life countless of times and it’s why she never gave up.
In her final moments, she was working to protect the lives of children and the people around her. It couldn’t have been a more honorable death and Jin Zhen died doing exactly what she believed in and wanted to be doing - making the lives of the people around her better.
I certainly don’t love that Jin Zhen died. I loved her character and if I could have it another way, I absolutely would want her to live. But the reality is not everyone survives in a war and that’s what happened here. Personally, I think it’s a disservice to say “don’t watch this because she died,” because it’s the last thing Jin Zhen would want.
From a narrative standpoint, I also don’t think it’s as pointless as you believe it to be. I actually think Jin Zhen’s death - which occurred as a result of LQS’s actions - served as the final push her brother needed to switch his allegiances, so there is that too.
I don’t like dramas who serve up death for the sole purpose of manipulating their viewers’ emotions. I didn’t walk away from WoF feeling that way about Jin Zhen’s death. Again, didn’t love it, but accepted why the script was written it was.
Anyway, that’s just my two cents. Not my intention to create any arguments, but simply to offer another perspective especially for others who may be wondering if this drama is worth their time.
A very sad death but emblematic of Shen Jin Zhen - always thinking of others, even in her final moments. 😢❤️
Wei Ruo Lai also has a childhood fiancée in Niu Chun Miao. One of those engaged from the cradle sort of arrangements. Both are pretty firm on that being a broken engagement, though.
Lin Qiao Song seemed to have a crush on Shen Jin Zhen initially, but it turns out he has a girlfriend.
So… if you consider any of the above romance, yes. Otherwise no, not really. The drama is not really a romance kind of story.
Later, the Communist party soldiers come around to round up the loan sharks and create order. WRL witnesses their efforts to help the people and how the people in the local community respond to the soldiers. This becomes the impetus and affirmation he needs that joining the Communist party is the correct thing to do, and so with their fathers' blessings, both he and NCM rejoin SJZ.
While with the Communist party, they basically encounter three roadblocks: 1) The KMT has started circulating counterfeit CCP money in the local markets to disrupt their CCP economy, 2) the KMT cuts off water route access that the CCP was using (in concert with the Guangdong Army) to import necessary supplies, such as salt, and expert certain goods, such as tungsten ore, which they use to raise funds.
It is during the matter of the counterfeit money that WRL realizes the KMT must have someone crafty on their side. Indeed, it is his former mentor, STN, who was announced as having died (after helping his sister escape). The KMT sends him to nearby KMT-controlled territory (Ganzhou, if I remember correctly) under the name, Tu Nanshen, and he is tasked with bringing order to that area. Namely, to stop the Guangdong Army from cooperating with the CCP for profit. To "assist" him, the KMT also sends Lin Qiaosong (but really, LQS is also sent to keep any eye on STN).
WRL asks to lead the team to break up the counterfeit money ring and brings with him SJZ for help. As suspected, their investigations lead them back to STN. His sister is shocked to find him alive. Due to WRL's plans, the CCP soldiers are able to destroy the counterfeit money making factor and capture STN. They bring him back to Jiangxi where WRL shows him around and both he and SJZ try to convince him that this is the path forward. STN is moved by what he sees, and even admits that his conscience hasn't allowed him to sleep a night of peace since arriving in Ganzhou, but he remains steadfast in his regards for the Three Principles of the People. As he's expected to be executed, he asks his sister to take care of his wife/daughter for him. He also asks WRL to take care of his sister and then tells him he's proud that WRL has been able to hold to his principles and achieve what he's always hoped to achieve as a banker - the trust and respect of the people. He tells WRL to never lose what he holds sincere.
Before STN can be executed, a fire breaks out and STN escapes back to Ganzhou. It would appear that he goes back to his prior ways - being ruthless towards the CCP. On WRL and SJZ's next mission, to obtain the passcode for the water route (a new system that STN had implemented to protect the waterways and prevent the CCP from using them), LQS even asks him what he should do if he runs into SJZ, and STN replies, "She's a Communist first and then my sister next."
While WRL and SJZ ultimately succeed in their mission and get the salt that they need, bringing it back to to the local residents, LQS has poisoned the salt. This upsets STN as he wants to harm the CCP, not the local people. He sends words to the CCP that it's tainted and they're not sure whether they can believe him. WRL insists that they can and sure enough, after running a few tests, they discover that some of the salt is indeed tainted.
The KMT continues to mess with the CCP's financial market. They're trying to breed distrust in the people so that their bank will fail. WRL comes up with an idea to hold a big public event where they can show everyone in the community how much is really in the bank's coffers. His leader agrees this is a great idea. However, on the day of the event, LQS infiltrates it with his men and place bombs near the event stage. The bomb goes off while SJZ is performing on stage with children. She barely survives the bomb blast and is trying her best to get the injured children off the stage when just as the last one remains, the roof the stage structure collapses. She protects the child by using her own body as a shield and WRL, who's lying injured a ways away, also from the bomb blast, witnesses the roof fall onto her back, killing SJZ.
WRL sends a letter to STN and his wife that SJZ is deceased.
The second to last showdown between the CCP and the KMT is over the tungsten ore. The CCP's goods are intercepted by the KMT and come into their control. The KMT decides to sell this to the Germans instead, and so STN goes to meet with his German friend. They haggle over pricing and when they can't agree to a bottom line number, STN agrees to take the German's counteroffer back to his superiors for their consideration. Meanwhile, while those talks are going on, WRL and his men have already made their way to the shipping dock where the tungsten ore is being held. They provide paperwork suggesting that a deal was reached between the KMT and the German and because WRL was able to guess the price that STN was going to offer to the German, when the people at the shipping dock call LQS to verify the contract, he believes it to be correct and tells his people to proceed. It is only after STN comes out of the restaurant where they're waiting that they realize it was a scam. However, by the time LQS, STN, etc., race their way to the shipping dock, the ship has already pulled out with the tungsten ore loaded on it. On the boat, we see the German asking another person whether WRL will be alright. The other person answers that WRL has always managed to get out of pickles before so he should be alright, and the German says that in the future, he only wants to do business with WRL. In a flashback, we also see how WRL had gone to meet with the German and predicted what the KMT would offer for the tungsten ore while offering an even lower price. The German asks whether he can rely on WRL's offer and WRL tells him if he wants to know, he should come to the shipping dock at the appointed hour. In the end, everything had gone as WRL predicted, and so that's how the CCP were able to successfully get their tungsten ore back to sell to the Germans.
The final showdown with the CCP and the KMT is over medical and other supplies that the CCP needs to transfer their base. Using the money they made from the sale of the tungsten ore, WRL and his people buy medicine and other supplies that the CCP will need as they begin their Long March. Of course the KMT want to prevent this sale. Ultimately everyone ends up on the same train - it's the final death match. To put it in simplest terms, a shootout begins. LQS makes his way to the solo carriage where STN is riding with his assistant. He shoots STN and Huang Cong Yun throws his body over STN to protect him, getting shot multiple times and dying instead. After LQS leaves believing he's killed them both, STN rolls aside HCY's dead body and emerges alive. It turns out he'd finally worn the bulletproof vest his sister had given him all those episodes before. In the meantime, LQS had found WRL and were in a tussle. LQS had WRL in a chokehold and was in the throes of yelling at WRL and sending him to death when STN walks up from behind and shoots at him. He kills LQS and avenges his sister's death.
STN next turns his gun on WRL noting that he also holds WRL responsible for his sister's death, but WRL points out that he knows STN has been secretly helping him all along, as there's no way he would have been able to pull off every mission successfully without his mentor's help. In a flashback, we see STN leaving a coded message for WRL to find - once WRL decodes it, he learns the price the KMT were going to offer for the tungsten ore. STN offers to help WRL and his remaining men get off safely at the next train stop, but WRL tells him they can manage on their own from there. There are only 3 of them who survive after the train shoot out: WRL, NCM, and another guy. NCM and the other guy jump from the train first while WRL and STN hold a final gaze before WRL jumps from the train. At the next stop, STN is met by a bunch of soldiers but after he pulls out his ID, they let him through.
The final minutes of the drama are of the CCP beginning their Long March. In a voiceover, we learn that WRL made it to the end of the Long March. And that later, the CCP sent him back to Shanghai under a different identity to meet with another underground member of the CCP. WRL steps off the boat (arriving back to Shanghai) and catches a rickshaw to the Shanghai stock exchange. Upon arrival, he sees the back of a man... that man turns around. It's STN. Drama ends.
Hopefully I got most of the details correct (relying on memory from a week ago by now). I've left out some stuff to provide a quick summary, but I would add it's never quite clear when STN switched sides. Clearly he started becoming sympathetic towards the CCP's endeavors when he was captured in Jiangxi and I would imagine as well his sister's death to be a breaking point. But I would also consider his wife and daughter to be factors in his slow process turn. I didn't mention above, but when SJZ and WRL were looking for the passcode to the water routes, it was his wife who helped SJZ find that information in his study. At the time his wife was thinking at most STN would just get dismissed from the KMT and that would be better for the family. After all, after his faked death, she'd wanted them to leave everything behind and move to England, thinking that would be safer for them all. But in the end, STN backed out of the England plans and continued working for the KMT. His daughter, meanwhile, was traumatized by events that had happened while in Ganzhou - events that snowballed from an incident STN had caused. For a time she was scared of her father and said he was a 'bad man' and you could see how that affected STN. I would imagine all those things ultimately played a part in STN's decision to start helping WRL and the CCP even before officially changing over.
Anyway, hope that helps!