Against The Current Episode 9 Recap
**SPOILER ALERT**
Table of Contents
TL;DR (Quick Overview)
Zhao Xingtang leaves the Lin household for good, exposing the raw truth of just how little her family actually values her, while a scheme to eliminate loose ends stalls the moment two maids catch a renowned scholar’s attention. Back at Zhichun Hall, a new first-rank maid arrives with an entirely different vision for what life under Jinqi’s authority could actually look like.
A Lesson in the Library
Jinqi leaves the library in search for Scholar Shouyi and discovers him already occupied, testing two young maids on the Zhongfu Hexagram they’d been practicing. Lanxiang correctly identifies the second yang line, and when Xiaolian admits plainly she doesn’t understand the meaning, Shouyi praises her honesty, saying kind, deserved as it is, since knowing what you know and admitting what you don’t is itself a virtue.
He explains the hexagram’s real meaning, speak kindly at home and even distant strangers will respond in kind, speak unkindly and even they will turn against you. He asks who taught Lanxiang yarrow-stalk divination in the first place, and she explains she picked it up watching a nun perform readings during a childhood illness, though she only learned to cast the hexagram, never to properly interpret one.
Jinqi arrives as the lesson wraps, and Shouyi remarks warmly on how perceptive the Lin household’s maids are, charmed by the whole exchange. Before the group heads off to the banquet, he offers both girls his calling card, inviting them to seek him out at Qixia Academy anytime.
A Convenient Distraction
Jinqi asks why Lanxiang and Xiaolian are there at all, and they explain Young Madam had told them to wait while she looked around, so they’d simply practiced divination in the meantime. He tells them plainly there’s no need to keep waiting for her, they should find First Madam instead and follow her lead from here on.
A Memory Explained
Walking together afterward, Jinqi asks Lanxiang how she’d known to bring Scholar Fang into the divination game at all. She recalls once overhearing scholars at Rongbao Pavilion discussing his devotion to the Book of Changes, his admiration for King Wen of Zhou and Confucius, both skilled diviners themselves. Spotting yarrow stalks by a vat one day, she’d simply figured she had nothing to lose in trying.
A Family Weighing Their Options
Back at the Zhao residence, Zhao Xuede and his son Zhao Gang discuss quietly disposing of loose ends. Lucao, caught slacking, has already been tied up and sold off to northern fur merchants while both Madam Feng and Zijin have been murdered, made to look like suicide.
But Lanxiang and Xiaolian present a problem, both have already caught Fang Shouyi’s personal attention, calling cards and all, and their story’s already spreading as a favourite topic at the banquet. Making them disappear now would only draw more attention.
Zhao Xuede reasons coldly that if the girls ever do notice anything worth worrying about, Lin Jinqi, a man who’s killed with his own hands and is far more ruthless than either of them, will deal with it himself eventually. No need to dirty their own hands.
A Fugitive Hunted for His Silver
Attention turns to Qian Shaoze, who’s since escaped. Furious his son let a single man slip away, Zhao Xuede reasons it’s actually for the best, dealing with a man of scholarly rank inside the residence would have been far too inconvenient anyway. Since he can’t have fled entirely on foot, Zhao Gang sets off to find his sister, certain she’ll know where Shaoze keeps his money.
Qian Shaoze rides hard, desperate to escape, but bandits stop him on the road demanding money. He hands over his bag, only for them to point out that a man who’s profited so handsomely from usurious loans surely has more hidden away than that. Realizing too late these aren’t ordinary bandits at all, he’s killed on the spot, and every coin he carried is stolen.
Zhao Gang informs his sister the money’s been recovered, and rather than return it, casually announces he’ll simply keep it “safe” for her instead, going back on their original agreement outright.
A Daughter Stripped Bare
Zhao Xuede hands Xingtang her signed separation agreement, calling her a shameless wretch who’s disgraced the entire family. When she demands to know what happens to her dowry and personal silver, he informs her coldly that Young Master Lin’s already ruled everything not purchased with Lin family funds, people and possessions alike, returns with her to the Zhao household.
Furious at being reduced to nothing but a financial liability, and having spent the entire day smiling and bowing to cover up the scandal on her behalf without a single question about their own wellbeing upon their return, Xingtang erupts. She accuses her father of only ever caring about power and status, ready to marry her off next to whichever wealthy old man might benefit the family most.
She spits out something devastating in her fury, that in this world, men who speak sweetly while harbouring cruelty, and parents who dress control up as love, aren’t nearly as trustworthy as cold, honest silver that can’t even speak back.
Her mother is distraught, and her father slaps her across the face for being a useless mother, then turns and slaps Young Madam Zhao herself for being disobedient and unfilial. He orders his son to seize all her silver and dowry and lock them away entirely, cutting off her access for good.
She simply laughs in his face, reminding him coldly that she’s spent her whole life bound by the three obediences and four virtues, powerless to resist anything asked of her. Now, she tells him, he has exactly two choices, kill her right there for her disobedience, or hand over everything she’s owed, her money, her dowry, her shops.
Because if he refuses, she’ll make certain the whole world learns exactly why Grand Secretary Zhao’s eldest granddaughter can’t bear children, and why she’s just been divorced from the Lin family. Her father admits, through gritted teeth, that only the Old Master’s standing is keeping him from killing her where she stands. She laughs and walks away.
A Friendship Formed
Fetching water, Bao Gai stops Lanxiang from plunging her cloth into the freezing water herself, offering to do it for her instead, a small, vulnerable gesture born from wanting Lanxiang on her side. Lanxiang tells her simply, let bygones be bygones, she’s always treated her well, and the two become genuine friends.
A New Beginning at Zhichun Hall
First Madam Lin arrives with her own entourage, surprised to find the four maids already hard at work. She promotes Gantang to second-rank, giving the hall eight third-rank maids to manage under her. Madam Han worries there’s no time left to find a proper first-rank maid, but First Madam Lin reassures her, Young Master Lin has already found someone suitable. Enter Yuchan.
Everyone is dismissed and Yuchan asks for the four second rank maids to stay. Yuchan explains her own history, once sold into a marriage with a foolish shopkeeper’s son by Zhao Xingtang, her husband’s family was recently sold off entirely, and she separated from him and returned to beg First Madam and Jinqi for mercy, earning her way back into Zhichun Hall.
She asks each maid plainly what they’re capable of and what they actually want for their futures, reminding them that surviving under Young Lady Zhao already proves each of them found their own way to endure.
Things are different now, with Jinqi the sole master of the courtyard and First Madam overseeing the household properly. She lays out the real stakes of their position honestly, life as a maid is harder than most women ever face.
However real capability earns real regard, and with that regard comes real choice, freedom from indenture, the right to choose who to marry, or, in her own case, the ability to separate from a husband entirely when the marriage fails. She wants a fresh start, and hopes the same for every one of them.
A Quiet Night, and Real Ambition
Settling into their new second-rank quarters, the girls make a quiet pact never to bring up the painful past again, careful not to invite trouble by discussing what really happened during the Zhao Xingtang scandal. Talking through Yuchan’s words, they work out together what real freedom actually looks like, more privacy, more income, the ability to spend a little on themselves rather than sending every coin home.
Xiaolian is concerned about being a bed chambermaid but Lanxiang reassures her that a family as image-conscious as the Lins would never turn to concubines while actively searching for Jinqi’s next proper wife, Xiaolian declares, only half joking, that she’s now aiming to become a first-rank maid herself, no longer satisfied with merely reaching second-rank.
Gossip and Grievance at the Ministry
Elsewhere, at the Ministry of Revenue, officials gossip that Lin Fengtai must be a fool for separating from someone as beautiful and well-connected as Zhao Xingtang, insisting he could easily have taken concubines instead.
Registrar Dai defends her, suggesting the separation might have been her choice, not his, a claim his colleagues dismiss outright, certain no woman would give up a man as accomplished as Fengtai voluntarily. Perhaps he is all show and no substance.
Furious at the insult, Jinqi’s subordinate Congyi assaults the offending official on the spot. Jinqi himself arrives moments later, calmly deflecting the outrage over his soldier’s behaviour and getting straight to the actual reason for his visit. He demands to know why the garrison’s promised winter supplies, padded coats, boots, fur hats, still haven’t arrived despite two rounds of snow already falling.
Registrar Dai explains a new directive now routes supplies through Huguang, delayed further by heavy snowfall. He smugly informs Jinqi, supposedly uncomfortably, that his own superior answers directly to Grand Secretary Zhao, meaning priority treatment Jinqi once enjoyed automatically has simply dried up since the separation. Jinqi reminds him plainly that rough soldiers unfamiliar with proper chains of command tend to take their grievances straight to the very top instead.
Against the Current Episode 9 Recap: My Thoughts
This episode really pressed its foot on the accelerator, packing in far more plot than usual. I’m trying to write shorter, more condensed recaps these days, but there was simply so much worth covering here.
Lanxiang continues to prove just how sharp her instincts are, managing once again to save both herself and Xiaolian from what was very clearly meant to be a quiet assassination. That aerial shot of the snow-covered courtyard through the trees was genuinely beautiful too.
Li Meng continues to be absolutely brilliant, such a great actress. That entire confrontation with her family wasn’t about her losing her mind, it was about sheer resilience, doing whatever it takes to survive.
Watching Zhao Xingtang finally say out loud what’s clearly been building in her for years, that cold silver is more trustworthy than family dressed up in kind words, was such a gut-punch of a moment. However much I’ve disliked her throughout this show, that line lands as genuinely earned, a woman who’s spent her whole life as a political tool finally naming exactly what that cost her.
This new arc with the maids is wonderful. We finally get real hope here, and the uplifting music underneath it made the whole thing feel like these girls genuinely have something to look forward to now.
I loved Yuchan’s introduction here too, that speech about capability earning real choices in a world that offers women so few of them was so well delivered, and watching the girls actually sit with it afterward, working out what freedom really means in practical terms, more privacy, a little spending money, the ability to dream a bit bigger, felt like such an honest, grounded way of showing real hope taking root. The sisterhood among them is thriving, and their friendship feels so precious. Cute little Xiaolian fits this dynamic perfectly.
We’re also introduced properly to the political fallout of the divorce now, and as always, army supply politics play such a huge role in these kinds of storylines. Watching Jinqi get quietly squeezed out of favors he once took for granted, purely because he chose to sever ties with the Zhao family, shows exactly how much genuine risk he took on freeing himself from that marriage.
It wasn’t just personal, it was political too, and I have a feeling those consequences are only going to keep compounding from here. Our female lead took a bit of a back seat this episode while our male lead got noticeably more screentime.
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