Against The Current Episode 32 Recap

**SPOILER ALERT**

TL;DR (Quick Overview)

Lanxiang’s stage play, The Tale of the Feathered Immortal, quietly mirrors the Lin family’s own hidden suffering, and when Xiuwan begs for help, Lanxiang plots a rescue of Xiulai from her abusive husband, Lu Jian. Jinqi punishes Lu Jian by making him flee the Shenji Battalion and sends the family swiftly into action to bring Xiulai home. Xiulai is saved from taking her own life, but not before her injuries reveal the depth of the cruelty and force the Lin family to face how far they were willing to look away.

The Tale of the Feathered Immortal

Jiugao begins telling Jinqi about the script Lanxiang wrote, since Jinqi wants to know whether it’s any good. Recalling her earlier confession, Lanxiang had acknowledged plainly that a Lin family wife writing plays for performers wouldn’t sit well with the household. And might even invite condemnation for corrupting public morals, but insisted it was what she wanted to do, a decision she’d made before their marriage.

She’d promised to keep writing regardless of anyone’s disapproval, using a pen name, with Mr. Lu and Furong helping conceal her identity so the Lin family’s reputation wouldn’t suffer. Jinqi asks what the play is called, and Jiugao tells him it’s The Tale of the Feathered Immortal. Curious, Jinqi asks whether it’s any good, and Jiugao assures him it’s quite popular, women pool their money to rent theatres together and weep openly while watching. Some ladies even invite the troupe to perform at their homes for daughters about to marry.

Jinqi asks what it’s about, and Jiugao explains the story, a girl named Tanniang saves an eagle caught in a hunter’s net, and in gratitude, the eagle gives her a feather. Whenever she holds the feather over a flame, it causes her heart terrible pain, but she can transform into a bird, though only three times, since using it a fourth time would leave her a bird forever, unable to ever become human again.

Story and Life, Intertwined

Lanxiang narrates the story herself, and as she does, the play’s scenes mirror moments from the Lin family’s own lives, suggesting where she may have drawn her inspiration. Tanniang thinks being human is wonderful and cannot imagine why anyone would willingly endure such pain just to become a bird, but as she grows and a marriage is arranged for her without her ever seeing the man, she can’t resist, and transforms into a small thrush to secretly observe the man she’s meant to spend her life with.

The narration shifts to Xiuwan, who quietly reflects on Du Zheng, her first love, wiping away tears until Second Aunt finds her.

A Painful Birth

Meanwhile, narration continues over a scene of Xiuru giving birth, surrounded by urgent voices telling her to push harder and hold on. In the story, after Tanniang marries, her baby lies in the wrong position during childbirth, forcing her to endure the searing pain once more and transform into a swallow, narrowly escaping death and finally delivering her child.

The story moves on, mirrored now in First Madam Lin’s own life, as she watches her husband and Concubine Zhou enjoying a warm, easy afternoon together in a pavilion, Concubine Zhou massaging his leg while the two laugh together, and First Madam stands off to the side, visibly heartbroken.

The tale continues, Tanniang’s family later going to market and encountering bandits on the road home. To save them, she endures the pain again and turns into a myna bird, flying to summon constables and saving the lives of her husband and his parents.

A Mother’s Shielding Arms

Narration then overlaps with Xiulai’s own life, as she shields her daughter from her abusive husband, Lu Jian, who tears through her belongings searching for hidden jewels, yelling and beating her while his own mother stands outside doing nothing to stop it.

In the story, Tanniang decides to throw the feather away and live peacefully forever, never becoming a bird again, but her husband and his parents bring constables to arrest her, intending to burn her as a monster. Amid the flames, she transforms into an eagle and flies away.

Xiuwan’s maid asks whether Tanniang will miss her child after she flies away, wondering if she’ll return to see them. Xiuwan answers firmly that of course she will. She admits she hopes Tanniang doesn’t go back, but recognizes most women probably couldn’t resist returning to see their children, and reflects that this explains the play’s opening scene, the eagle caught in the hunter’s net. The maid realizes with surprise that the eagle had once been a woman too.

A Wedding Eve, and a Disturbing Discovery

With Jinxiao’s wedding set for the next day, Second Aunt fusses over every last detail of the bridal chamber, adjusting where the red dates and longans should sit, correcting the pattern on a vase, insisting on one depicting children at play to symbolize many descendants, and nitpicking a slightly crooked double happiness character.

Xiuwan sits nibbling snacks, and Second Aunt keeps scolding her for each one, first the mung bean cakes for being too cooling, then the red date cakes for being too warming, warning she’ll break out in a rash either way.

Xiulai arrives just as Second Aunt is inspecting the wedding candles, and when Second Aunt reaches out to grab her arm, Xiulai’s young daughter, Yingzhi, cries out, thinking she means to hit her mother. Xiulai flinches away in visible pain, though Second Aunt barely touched her. Suspicious, Xiuwan pulls back her sleeve and discovers bruises across her arm. Xiulai claims she simply fell the previous day, but her maid, Jinrui, speaks up, and everyone begins to realize what’s truly happening, Xiulai is being beaten.

A Plea Met With Deflection

Afraid of making trouble, Second Aunt quickly sends Xiuwan out of the room. Xiulai and her maid drop to their knees, begging for help, and Xiulai removes part of her clothing to reveal severe bruises across her body. Second Aunt, though visibly sympathetic, thinks only of her own children’s upcoming marriages and refuses to let the matter become public.

Xiulai confesses she wants to separate from Lu Jian. Second Aunt asks what could possibly have provoked it, whether she’d disobeyed her in-laws. Xiulai explains her husband is desperate for an official post, and since Jinqi has asked him to wait, he grew impatient, deciding to use her dowry to buy connections, though he’s already taken everything of value from it over the years. When nothing remained, he beat her in his anger.

Second Aunt urges patience, insisting that with a few more years of marriage, things will improve. She reminds Xiulai that family troubles shouldn’t be aired publicly, and that a wife must stand by her husband regardless of his faults, since he’s still her husband and the father of her children.

She acknowledges Xiulai’s suffering, but points out that her third brother is about to marry and her second sister still needs a match, urging her to think of her younger siblings and her own children before considering separation, asking what would become of them if she left. She reminds her that arranged marriages leave few women with real choices, pointing to Xiulai’s own mother, who once lost a baby to grief and somehow endured it, crying until she had no tears left.

She warns Xiulai not to let her elder brother or younger siblings know, promising she’ll speak to Jinqi herself once enough time has passed, asking him to secure Lu Jian a good post so everything can settle. Xiulai, with no real alternative, accepts the advice quietly, promising to endure a little longer until the children are older.

A Plea in the Corridor

Walking down a corridor, Lanxiang hears Xiuwan call out and finds her half hidden between two large branches, hoping not to be seen. She apologizes for her past behaviour, admitting she was young, foolish, and often offended Lanxiang, and hopes she can be forgiven.

She explains she has come because Lanxiang is the only person in the family who is intelligent, capable, and decisive enough to help. Her eldest sister’s husband, Lu Jian, has been beating Xiulai repeatedly, has spent her entire dowry, and even tore up the dowry list. Second Aunt tried to hide it from her, but Xiuwan sent her maid to speak with Xiulai’s maid, Jinrui, who broke down and told her everything.

Lanxiang asks why the elders don’t raise it with the Lu family. Xiuwan explains that Second Aunt fears the scandal will damage Jinqiao’s marriage and her own prospects, so she told Xiulai to endure it. Jinrui says Lu Jian, believing Xiulai has no one to defend her, grows more brutal each time, and that if she keeps enduring it, it will cost her life. Xiuwan says she would rather never marry than let Xiulai keep suffering.

Lanxiang asks why she doesn’t go straight to Jinqi, since as eldest brother he is like a father to the family. Xiuwan hesitates, then explains there is history. When Uncle Changzheng was young, he fancied himself a ladies’ man. Xiulai’s birth mother, Qiao Hongdou, was calculating and won both his favour and Old Madam’s, causing endless trouble. Aunt Shunhua was so distressed she miscarried and nearly died along with the baby. Jinqi, only eight years old, picked up a wooden staff and went after his father and Qiao Hongdou, beating his father so hard he bled.

Some in the household said afterward that his hand had slipped. After such a serious incident, Old Master rushed back to Jinling from the capital. Some servants were beaten and others sold off, Old Madam lost her authority over the household, and Aunt Shunhua was put in charge. Old Master then took Jinqi under his wing and taught him personally.

Xiuwan insists Jinqi would surely act, since Xiulai never did any of those things and he knows right from wrong. The difficulty is that Lu Jian is calculating and always strikes where injuries can’t be seen, so Jinqi would struggle to learn the truth.

She is still being punished and watched closely, so she begs Lanxiang to think of a way. Lanxiang points out she only recently married into the family. Xiuwan replies that Xiulai has no one else, and that Yingzhi is only five, and Lu Jian hits her too. Lanxiang, moved, settles on a plan.

A Beating in the Street

The next day, Lu Jian is walking through the streets with his attendant when three men accost him. They beat him, taunting him as a worthless man too useless to earn an official post without relying on a woman, who then beats that same woman. Bewildered, Lu Jian demands to know how these strangers know his family affairs and who sent them, and the men leave without answering. He concludes at once that Jinqi is behind it.

A Family Descends

Lu Jian returns to the Lin residence with his father and relatives in tow, claiming his leg is broken and his chest is in agony, carried in as though on the edge of death. His father, Lu Ju, a seventh-rank Director of the Construction Office at the Ministry of Works, insists that rank still matters in the capital, warns Jinqi that being an Assistant Commander doesn’t excuse him from the law, and threatens to petition the Emperor himself.

Jinqi is genuinely baffled and denies any involvement, asking why on earth he would beat his own brother-in-law for no reason. Lu Ju argues that even if his son disciplined his wife, he knew his limits, the way a good carpenter knows his measurements, and that having him beaten nearly to death is far crueller.

At those words, Jinqi realizes for the first time that Lu Jian has been beating his sister. His manner shifts. He dryly compliments Lu Ju on how well crafted his phrasing is for a Director of the Construction Office, then asks him to explain exactly what he means. Lu Ju, sensing his advantage, backpedals, saying family members quarrel now and then, and that if Jinqi will simply find his son a good post, they will drop the matter.

A Post at the Shenji Battalion

Jinqi calmly agrees the request has merit, suggesting Lu Jian join the Shenji Battalion first as a squad commander and train for a couple of years, after which he might enter the Ministry of War. The Lu relatives think it sounds reasonable. Jinqi adds that the Battalion has entry rules, and that recruits need strong wrists.

He seizes Lu Jian’s wrist in demonstration, and Lu Jian howls that it’s broken. Jinqi adds that a recruit also needs a straight back, and starts in on that requirement too. Lu Jian shrieks that he wants no part of the Shenji Battalion, scrambles up, and bolts out of the room faster than a rabbit, his family scrambling after him.

The Lin household stares in amazement. Someone remarks that Jinqi’s fists must be a miracle cure, since two punches were enough to mend a broken leg and a failing chest. It is a remedy, they add, made especially for the shameless.

Lu Ju, from the doorway, threatens that even if his son’s injuries aren’t serious, Jinqi did hire men to attack him, and swears to report him to the Ministry of Justice. He says he refuses to believe no one can deal with Jinqi, and storms out.

A Rescue Planned

Jinqi walks outside and finds Lanxiang waiting, and he knows at once that she is the one who ordered the beating of Lu Jian. He also knows she has a plan. Nanke and the others ask whether the Lu family will simply let Xiulai go, and Jinqi answers plainly that of course they won’t.

As Director Lu had pointed out himself, the capital lies under the Emperor’s eye and its laws must be obeyed, so however well he and Jiugao can fight, they can’t openly barge into a court official’s inner residence and take a daughter-in-law away.

Lanxiang lays out her approach. If Jinqi keeps Director Lu and the men of the outer residence busy, she’ll find a way into the inner residence to reach Xiulai. Since the plan is already in place, there’s no reason to wait, and they set out for the Lu home.

A Mother’s Despair

At the Lu residence, Xiulai lies in pain, crying, and sends her maid away with Yingzhi, saying the child is hungry and should eat first. Yingzhi tries to comfort her mother by blowing on her wounds, promising it won’t hurt anymore.

Once she is alone, Xiulai reproaches herself for being so helpless, silently telling her daughter that she won’t have to live in fear beside her any longer. She takes out a packet of arsenic and is about to swallow it when Lu Jian is thrown through the door, beaten again, and crashes into her. The arsenic spills across his face and he scrambles frantically to wash it off, shouting for water.

A Confrontation With the Lu Women

Lanxiang reaches Xiulai and tells her they have come to take her home. She urges Jinqi’s people to hurry and says she will handle the Lu family herself. The Lu women rally at once, calling for the servants to stop them and insisting no one leaves. Sun Baozhu, Lu Jian’s mother, points out that Xiulai had sent away her maid and daughter because she meant to end her own life, and yet she is still alive.

Lanxiang answers that she and the others burst in out of sheer desperation, and the fault was theirs. Sun Baozhu scoffs that Xiulai cannot threaten the Lu family with her death. Under the laws of the dynasty, she says, a husband bears no responsibility when a wife or concubine takes her own life after being beaten or scolded by him, and even if Xiulai were dead, the Lu family would still be in the right before the authorities.

She declares that Xiulai is a daughter-in-law of the Lu family and will not take a single step out of the house without their permission. At that moment, Xiulai begins to bleed heavily, blood spreading across her chest. The Lu women recoil in horror, terrified she will die in their house, and shout for someone to take her to an imperial physician at once. Lanxiang sends Yuchan to find Nanke and Jiugao and bring the carriage, and Xiulai is rushed out of the Lu home and back to the Lin residence.

Back in the Lu house, Old Madam Lu panics over what will happen next, asking where Xiulai has gone. When she learns the Lin family took her, she blames her son for letting the situation get so far, and he insists Xiulai must have been pretending. The others who saw her insist the blood was real, and that Xiulai’s sister had wailed as though at a funeral, leaving the Lu family unsure what to do.

The Physician’s Verdict

An imperial physician, Yao of the Imperial Medical Service, examines Xiulai and reports that her pulse shows chronic liver qi stagnation and emotional distress, leaving her spleen and stomach weakened and her qi and blood deficient. She is still young, he says, and with proper care over two or three years she will recover. Her life is not in danger.

Second Aunt asks how she could have bled so much when the bruises and broken skin they found couldn’t account for it, and the physician explains she coughed up stagnant blood from internal injury, which is not fatal, and offers to return in two days to check on her.

Lanxiang mentions that Xiulai’s arm hurt, and that having learned a little bone setting in Jinling, she felt the arm and found it broken. Too anxious to wait for the physician, she set it herself, and asks him to take a look. Second Aunt objects loudly that a woman’s body should never be examined so casually, but the physician asks her to sit down and explain, saying that since Assistant Commander Lin obtained an imperial order for him to attend, he will do everything he can.

He asks what Lanxiang found, and she describes bruising and swelling three finger-widths below the elbow, pain even while Xiulai was unconscious, a normal shape with no protrusion, and a faint grating sound.

He confirms the arm is fractured, and since there is no deformity, the bone needs only a splint, and that Lanxiang handled it correctly. He says he never imagined a husband could be so brutal. He leaves a prescription to be taken for three days, and Second Aunt watches him go, murmuring what a terrible mess it has become.

A Family Divided

In the corridor, Jinxiao rushes up to Jinqi and Jinlan, furious that the imperial physician confirmed Xiulai’s broken arm and that no one told him what had happened. He wants to break Lu Jian’s other arm right away, but Jinqi holds him back, reminding him that he is getting married tomorrow and must behave.

Jinxiao protests that if Lu Jian isn’t taught a lesson he will remember, he will keep beating Xiulai. Jinqi tells him to simply go back to Jinling with his wife the next day without worrying, since there won’t be a next time. Jinlan explains what Jinqi means, that he wants Xiulai to separate from Lu Jian. Jinxiao is pleased at the idea, wondering why he never thought of it, but Second Aunt refuses.

She argues that Xiuwan isn’t the only one still without a match, Xiushu will come of age after the new year, and that if a Lin daughter leaves her husband over a little hardship, no one will dare marry another daughter of the family. A married daughter, she says, is like water poured away.

Xiuwan, who has been listening, comes to her mother in tears. She asks whether Second Aunt is so eager to find her a husband because she wants to pour her away like water, and asks what would become of her if her husband’s family mistreated her one day. Would she have to suffer in silence and never come home to ask for help? Second Aunt protests that she never meant it that way, and that she would never let anyone who dared mistreat Xiuwan get away with it, her brothers and she would see to that.

As she says it, she realizes that the whole family has ganged up on her to make her see how unreasonable it was to refuse Xiulai her help. Frustrated, she tells Xiuwan to take her hand off, that everyone is making trouble for her. Xiuwan then shows them all a packet of arsenic that was found in Xiulai’s room.

Against the Current Episode 32 Recap: My Thoughts

This was an easy episode to watch, seeing the family band together to save Xiulai from her abusive husband. Everyone reacted exactly as you’d hope, except Second Aunt. Her selfish focus on getting her own children married off properly meant she was willing to sacrifice Xiulai to the abuse. I really can’t stand this woman!

Xiuru’s agreement to marry into the Yuan family saved Xiuwan’s life back when their grandfather wanted to be rid of her over her scandal. Instead of thanking Xiuru for that sacrifice, Second Aunt resents the life Xiuru has now, one that would have been Xiuwan’s. Xiuwan tells her again and again to stop being so petty, and she just can’t help herself.

I love Jinqi’s restrained anger. When he’d finally had enough, he acted, and the look on his face when he realized his sister was being beaten told me all hell was about to break loose.

I love that all these children, born to different mothers and concubines, still care for each other in spite of the sins of the older generation. They understand it isn’t their fault. Jinqi in particular, despite hating his father and Xiulai’s mother, never treated Xiulai any differently. It’s a refreshing take, since in most period dramas the children fall into jealousy and infighting too.

A good episode, nothing too wild and focused on one subplot. Let’s hope the next episode delivers the justice we’re hoping for on Xiulai’s behalf.

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