Spring of The Blade Episode 18 Recap

**SPOILER ALERT**

TL;DR (Quick Overview)

As Madam Hu bristles under Old Madam Xie’s contempt, Shen Che drags Yan Rui away from Qingyuan before he can confess who he is. Lord Wei kidnaps Qingyuan to lure Yan Rui to the ruins of the Shen residence, where he exposes him as Shen Run before Yan Rui kills him. Instead of the midnight reunion he promised, Shen Run leaves Qingyuan a letter asking her to wait for him, while back at the Xie residence, a familiar hairpin links Madam Hu to her mother’s past.

This Has Never Been My Family

Third Madam calls after Qingyuan, begging her not to destroy her whole family for her mother’s sake. Qingyuan replies that this has never been her family.

A Funeral Fit for a Hero

In the ancestral hall, Madam Hu assures Old Madam Xie that since Zhenglun was registered under her name, he’s the family’s legitimate eldest son and deserves a respectable funeral. She’s invited the Taoist priest from Qingyang Temple to hold rites for seven days. Old Madam Xie tells her to make sure Yinghua is properly cared for, since it’s only right that a mother sees her son off one last time.

Madam Hu worries that funerals easily trigger psychosis, and a scene in the mourning hall would be a nightmare. Old Madam Xie calls her a born fool. A Xie son has fallen in battle, bringing the family great honour.

If outsiders learned that the Head Madam barred his birth mother from his funeral, it wouldn’t only be Madam Hu who was disgraced. If she’s worried, she can assign four matrons to watch Concubine Mei and let her pay respects in the side hall. Apart from the funeral, Madam Hu is to leave everything else in the house alone.

Once Old Madam Xie has gone, Madam Hu fumes. She’s poured her heart into this family for twenty years, and even with Mei Yinghua gone, Old Madam still treats her like this. Her maid reminds her she isn’t without a backer. She has her brother. Madam Hu says he’s all she can rely on now.

A Summons to Grandma Chen’s

Baoxian brings Qingyuan dried persimmons, a portion already sent to the mourning hall for Eldest Young Master, along with a letter from Lord Yan. Baoxian wonders if he’s apologizing. Qingyuan says there was no argument, then reads on. He’s asking her to visit Grandma Chen. Baoxian guesses he wants Granny to put in a good word for him, knowing Qingyuan can’t be cross with him in front of her. Then Qingyuan’s face falls. Grandma Chen is ill.

At the tea house, Qingyuan apologizes for being a bad granddaughter, upset that Lord Yan learned of the illness before she did. Grandma Chen says it’s only a mild cold and she’s nearly better, and she’s thrilled to have both her and Yan there.

She worries about Qingyuan being out so late, but Qingyuan says the Xie family is too busy with the funeral to notice. Grandma Chen offers her condolences, saying Eldest Young Master Xie was known as an upright man and will surely be reborn into a kind, prosperous family. Qingyuan goes to boil her medicine.

Grandma Chen calls Yan over and tells him Yunya has always kept things to herself, and her eldest brother’s death has hit her hard. She asks him to comfort her, and he promises he will.

Persimmons That Won’t Come Again

Yan Rui finds Qingyuan by the stove and says even Grandma Chen can tell she’s troubled. Qingyuan tells him that when her eldest brother came home, he brought her dried persimmons from the Northern Frontier and promised more next time.

Now there won’t be a next time. She wonders whether he’d still be alive if she’d never come to the Xie residence, and why human lives are so short there isn’t even time for a proper goodbye.

Yan Rui tells her it isn’t her fault. On a battlefield, thousands die for one general’s victory, and as a general, Zhenglun must have been prepared for that. He won’t be the first or the last. Yan Rui has seen arrows fall like rain and wounded men crawling through mud, their blood in the melting snow as hot as this stove.

An Interrupted Confession

Qingyuan says there’s something she’s been wanting to ask him, and Yan Rui begins to say something too, when Shen Che appears and tells him it’s time to go. Qingyuan is disappointed he’s leaving. Shen Che says Hengtang is full of watchful eyes, and staying could invite trouble. Yan Rui tells her to wait for him. When he comes back, he’ll tell her whatever she wants to know.

Outside, Shen Che admits he came an hour early on purpose. Yan Rui was reluctant to leave, so he gave him a push to cut the knot.

Sugar Pancakes

Grandma Chen fusses over how thin Qingyuan has become, and Qingyuan blames the Xie chefs. Granny offers to make her two sugar pancakes, her childhood favourite. Qingyuan tells her to rest after her medicine, but Granny insists her fever’s gone and she can’t sleep without a snack.

Qingyuan offers to make them herself. Granny remarks what a good boy Yan is. In the kitchen, Qingyuan turns the pendant over in her hand, remembering his promise to tell her everything.

A crash sounds. Qingyuan finds Lord Wei holding a knife to Grandma Chen. He says he’s come for tea, and since she only has low-grade tea, he’ll have to trouble her to come with him instead. Grandma Chen cries for Yunya to run. Qingyuan tells Lord Wei to let her go, and she’ll go with him.

If You Go, We’re No Longer Brothers

Yan Rui’s carriage is stopped by a messenger with the jade pendant. The Fourth Lady has been abducted, and he must come to the old Shen residence alone or she’ll die. Shen Che tells him that if he goes, they are no longer brothers.

The Old Shen Residence

Qingyuan tells Lord Wei he’ll be disappointed if he thinks she’s bait. She’s only a plaything Lord Yan uses to kill time when he’s bored in Hengtang, and if he doesn’t believe her, he can lock her up for the night and see. Yan Rui walks in, telling her those words are daggers to his heart.

Lord Wei praises his nerve for coming alone. Yan Rui warns him that if he kills him, he won’t live either. Lord Wei says that even if he can’t win, someone will be joining him in the afterlife. He asks if this place feels familiar. Nine years ago, Shen Zhibai’s estate was seized for bribery and corruption, and seventy-three people in his household were executed on the spot.

But the eldest son, Shen Run, wasn’t among them, and orders went out to leave no survivors. That night, only two children escaped. Lord Wei says he never understood why Lord Yan targeted him at every turn until the night of the grain distribution, when he overheard Shen Che. Yan Rui is one of the two bastards who escaped the Shen residence. He’s Shen Run. Qingyuan is stunned.

A Woman of Steel

Lord Wei orders his men to attack. Yan Rui offers him a way out. Let her go, and he’ll personally escort him from the city. Lord Wei says he’s touched, but wants some sincerity first. Qingyuan tells Yan Rui to forget about her, and if she dies, to kill Lord Wei for her. Lord Wei calls her a woman of steel and tells Yan Rui to drop his sword if he wants her alive, promising to send the star-crossed lovers to the afterlife together.

With Lord Wei’s blade at Qingyuan’s throat, Yan Rui is cornered and stabbed in the back. Remembering a childhood vow to remember their enemies’ faces and bring every one of them to justice when they grew up, he fights on. He wrenches Lord Wei away from her, cuts her free and keeps fighting, taking another wound, until he finally strangles Lord Wei to death.

Meet Me at Midnight

Yan Rui brings Qingyuan home to Danyue Pavilion and tells her to clean up without being seen. She protests that there’s so much she needs to ask. He knows, he says. He’ll meet her at midnight at the place they said goodbye years ago, and tell her everything. She promises to wait. Baoxian panics at the sight of the blood, but Qingyuan insists she’s fine. More than fine.

Waiting for Shen Run

Qingyuan spends the day counting the hours. In her heart, she tells Shen Run how much she’s missed him. She has so much to say after all this time, and had imagined countless ways they might reunite, or miss each other forever. She never dreamed fate had already brought them together long before they knew it. When Baoxian says it’ll be dark in half an hour, Qingyuan runs out.

At the old meeting place, she calls Shen Run’s name, but he isn’t there. Only a letter. He apologizes for breaking his promise again. Many times he wanted to tell her who he was, but with both of them bent on revenge and their futures uncertain, he thought the best they could do was walk their own paths without disturbing each other’s hearts.

Yet his heart could never resist her. He thought revenge was all he had left in this world, until he met her. The little girl who gave him hope that snowy night has grown up, prettier and braver. He’s never forgotten their oath at the ruined temple, he writes, calling her Little Monkey. He asks her to wait for him, and promises to return.

In tears, Qingyuan goes home and places the token beside the jade pendant, and waits.

A Familiar Hairpin

On Madam Hu’s birthday, the Marchioness, Madam Li, visits and offers condolences over Zhenglun, hoping a chat might ease her mind. She asks after Qingrong, and Madam Hu says the girl has seemed troubled lately but will be fine.

Qingru turns on Qingyuan, asking why she’s here when she’s so keen on that phony, and whether, now that her lover has packed up and left, she’s back to seducing Chunzhi. Chunzhi, meanwhile, can’t take his eyes off Qingyuan. Qingyuan ignores Qingru and compliments Madam Hu’s hairpin, simple and elegant but clearly no ordinary piece.

Madam Li says it was made by a master craftsman in Jiangnan and is one of a kind. Madam Hu dismisses it as an old thing, worn because flashy jewellery isn’t fitting during mourning. Qingyuan remembers seeing that very hairpin years ago, when Madam Hu stepped out of a carriage to visit her mother.

Leftovers at the Table

Madam Hu draws Chunzhi’s attention to Qingru’s floral arrangement, and he gives polite approval. Madam Li takes Qingyuan aside and observes that marriages in a small place like Hengtang always come down to the same four or five families of equal standing. Even when they detest each other, they marry to keep their descendants rooted there and protect their seat at the table.

Qingyuan says that whichever daughter is chosen, a match with the Marquis’s family is a blessing for the Xie household, and adds that Young Master Li thinks he’s engaged to her, when in fact his mother and hers have chosen Second Sister. Madam Li admires her cleverness and admits it frankly.

Chunzhi insists Qingyuan is the only one he’ll marry, and like his father, he won’t be talked out of it. She has doubts about Qingyuan’s background, but what worries her more is that marrying someone who doesn’t love you means a lifetime of misery, and she won’t let that happen to her son. Qingyuan says she understands, and is willing to play along with whatever they’ve planned.

Sent to Keep Him Company

Madam Hu hands Qingyuan a plate of Chunzhi’s favourite fruit and tells her to bring it to him and keep him company. Qingru protests that all of Hengtang is already gossiping about Chunzhi and Qingyuan, so why let them spend time together? Madam Hu tells Madam Li it’s time they had a proper talk about Chunzhi and Qingru’s marriage.

Love That Grows

Chunzhi gives Qingyuan a rare medical book from his family’s collection, possibly the only copy outside the imperial archives. She says it’s too precious, but he insists that in his family it would only gather dust, while she might use it to save lives. He tells her they both know how the other feels, so aren’t they a perfect match?

People say feelings are fickle, but he believes the reverse is also true, and that someone can grow to love a person they once felt nothing for. What if she starts falling for him one day? Qingyuan asks how she could be worthy of his affection if she were that fickle. He tells her not to decide yet, because he believes she’ll give him an answer someday. His mother calls him away.

Baoxian asks why Qingyuan didn’t tell him that the Marchioness opposes the match. Qingyuan says Young Master Li is too pure-hearted to see through such schemes, and since she has no intention of marrying him, there’s no need to say anything or drive a wedge between mother and son. Baoxian notes how strange it is that Madam Hu let Qingyuan admire flowers with the very son-in-law she’s chosen for Qingru.

A Daughter’s Doubt

Madam Hu asks Qingrong what’s been weighing on her. Qingrong asks whether her mother was really killed by Mei Yinghua. She resented Jin Chunqing for so many years, and wonders if she had it all wrong, and if there’s more to her mother’s death.

Madam Hu says everyone knows Mei Yinghua will say anything to save herself, so how can Qingrong believe her? She’s always been too straightforward and easily misled. Madam Hu has protected her for nineteen years but can’t do so forever, and it breaks her heart to see Qingrong believe whatever she’s told.

Qingrong, she says, is cleverer than Qingru and Qinghe, and should know in her heart who truly cares for her. If she feels restless, she can burn some sutras for her mother in the ancestral hall. Qingrong says goodnight.

Spring of the Blade Episode 18 Recap: My Thoughts

And finally, the truth is out. Yan Rui is Shen Run, and although Qingyuan had an inkling, she was shocked nonetheless. In that whole scene, I thought Xu Kai’s acting was excellent. The hatred, the fighting, the pain from the stabbing, and when he strangled Lord Wei to death, it was all so believable. Zhou Ye, on the other hand, was so bland! Her reactions, whether shock or when he was stabbed, just weren’t expressive enough. I didn’t see enough fear, surprise or pain.

And when they went back to Danyue Pavilion, it was so weird. Yan Rui was standing there as if he hadn’t just had a blade run through him. She didn’t tend to him or show any real affection! That interaction was so poorly done.

Madam Hu is now becoming the villain we all suspected she might be. Sweet, soft and demure on the surface, but underneath it all, she’s the mastermind behind everything. She’s behind Second Madam’s madness, I’m sure she’s linked to Zhenglun’s death, and now we know she visited Qingyuan’s mother. On top of that, she’s manipulating the marriage alliance as she wheels and deals her way through.

I have to say I was confused by that last scene. Is she telling Qingrong that Second Madam killed her mother or not? I think Qingrong was confused too, but sensed she shouldn’t press further.

Having written this recap, I’m even more disappointed with that reunion with Shen Run. Her waiting all the next day until midnight wasn’t enough. I wish it had been played out better. There was so much romance to be had!

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