Spring of The Blade Episode 4 Recap
**SPOILER ALERT**
Table of Contents
TL;DR (Quick Overview)
Yan Rui closes in on the Xie family’s grain smuggling operation while a brutal punishment ordered by Second Madam pushes Qingyuan to the edge, only for him to intervene violently on her behalf. As his real power at court becomes undeniable, the family shifts strategy, deciding to lean into his obvious interest in Qingyuan rather than resist it, setting the stage for a very different kind of manoeuvring ahead.
A Survivor’s Awakening
The refugee who’d tried to assassinate Yan Rui wakes in an unfamiliar house, baffled to still be alive. Fan Zhong explains that Yan Rui serves as the top interrogator for the Criminal Justice Department, and had he wanted the man dead, the strike would never have missed by even a fraction, the wound was deliberately non-lethal.
Offered a bowl of restorative soup, the man refuses to drink, protesting on behalf of the many still going hungry. Fan Zhong reassures him that rooting out Hengtang’s corrupt officials is precisely Yan Rui’s mission, urging him to simply focus on his own recovery and let the investigation run its course, promising real consequences for whoever left him starving in the first place. When the man insists on doing his own part to help, Fan Zhong doesn’t refuse the offer outright.
A Cover Story, and a Fire
Flashing back to the night of the fire, Yan Rui had gathered several local officials at Zuixian Tavern, posing convincingly as one of their own corrupt circle, offering to buy grain at triple the market price and asking for their help securing it.
Delighted by the arrangement, the officials agreed readily, and the night dissolved into wine and entertainment, the celebration abruptly cut short once word of the fire at the Xie residence reached them.
A Visit of False Concern
In the fire’s aftermath, Yan Rui visits the Xie household, offering Old Madam Xie whatever assistance she might need with the restoration. He asks about Lord Xie’s condition, having heard the patriarch had fallen ill and been granted leave by the Emperor to return home and recover, wondering when he might finally arrive.
Old Madam Xie explains her son suffers from an old back injury that prevents him from travelling comfortably by carriage, forcing him to take the much slower water route instead, meaning his return could take considerable time yet. Yan Rui expresses disappointment at missing the chance to meet him.
A Suspicious Denial
Yan Rui approaches Zhengjun, suggesting the family sell off their surplus grain to help offset the fire’s financial toll. Zhengjun insists there’s no surplus left to sell at all. The family having already shipped out thirty boatloads the night before, already well past Menghu Gorge by now, and produces both a travel permit and detailed shipment records as proof.
A Pattern Worth Investigating
Unconvinced, Yan Rui orders his men to verify whether the grain quantities on the Xie family’s travel permits actually match what’s recorded in their own ledgers. Fan Zhong wonders whether the Xie family might be using their own caravans to smuggle disaster relief grain out of Hengtang in batches, sell it off quietly, then return an equivalent amount of stale, spoiled grain to distribute to the very refugees it was meant to help.
Yan Rui confirms that’s exactly what he suspects, pointing out the troubling pattern. Hengtang suffers disaster after disaster, yet the Xie family somehow keeps shipping out dozens, even hundreds of boatloads of grain regardless.
He questions where all that grain is actually coming from, and why the court’s own relief officials have repeatedly failed to make any real progress untangling it. Something doesn’t add up, and he’s increasingly convinced the Xie family holds the key to finally breaking the embezzlement case wide open.
A Council of Nerves
Local officials, unnerved by Yan Rui’s aggressive investigation into the estate manager’s murder, gather anxiously. Lord Wei urges calm publicly, warning the group not to panic, but privately meets afterward with Guo Baofeng to get to the bottom of it. When several officials suggest simply trading grain for money to appease Yan Rui, Lord Wei rejects the idea outright, pointing out the real danger.
If Yan Rui later turned on them and denied any arrangement, they’d have far more to lose than they’d gain. He reminds the group he’s worried Yan Rui’s true motive runs deeper than a simple grain shortage, and urges everyone to stay calm and wait for further word rather than act rashly.
A Confession, and a Lost Ledger
Guo Baofeng is brought in and confesses outright to killing the estate manager. He explains the man had secretly kept a ledger documenting their corrupt dealings and was preparing to hand it directly to Yan Rui, leaving him no choice but to act first. Lord Wei presses him further, questioning why the estate manager would have chosen someone as notoriously relentless as Yan Rui to expose the truth.
He wonders whether Yan Rui himself might be hiding motives of his own. Guo Baofeng admits he’d acted out of fear that exposure would implicate Lord Wei directly. Asked about the ledger’s whereabouts, he reveals it had slipped into the river during the struggle the night the estate manager died, swept away by the current and lost entirely.
A Trail Leading Back to the Xie Family
Yan Rui, working the investigation from his own angle, traces a distinctive flower token found on the murdered assassin back to Zuixian Tavern. The premium paper token is issued only there, one per fifty taels spent, and that every official in the Hengtang county government keeps one on their desk.
He notes, too, that Second Young Master Xie is a regular patron of the very same tavern. Pressed on whether he’s simply waiting for Lord Xie’s eventual return to Hengtang, Yan Rui admits he has plenty of other avenues to pursue in the meantime. He’s simply waiting for the right moment, the upcoming Spring Banquet for the Shangsi Festival, reasoning that once matters grow murky enough, the real culprits will be easier to catch.
A Prefect’s Visit
Meanwhile, the Lady Prefect visits the Xie residence personally to discuss the upcoming Spring Banquet. The significant occasion doubles as a selection process for the Founding Count family’s next Head Madam, meaning every detail matters. Reviewing the gifts prepared by the Xie family’s young ladies, she’s especially taken with Qinghe’s beautifully polished set of Go stones, knowing the Founding Countess’s fondness for the game, and praises Qingrong’s embroidery as well.
Noticing no gift from Qingyuan, she’s told the Fourth Lady has been occupied running an errand for Old Madam and, being newly returned to the family, simply hasn’t had time to prepare anything herself. The Prefect accepts the explanation graciously, insisting the thought matters more than perfect timing.
A Cruel Response, and a Timely Intervention
Furious that the Prefect favoured Qinghe’s Go stones over their own gifts, Qingru and Qingrong turn on her cruelly, mocking her origins and hurling the stones into a nearby pond despite Qinghe’s desperate pleading.
Qingyuan arrives just as the cruelty escalates, and in a bold, deliberate move, tears apart Qingru’s own painting herself. Furious, Qingru orders Nanny Rong to throw Qingyuan into the water in retaliation, but the confrontation is cut short by Old Madam’s sudden arrival.
Hoping to shield the gentle, easily victimized Qinghe from further blame, and to draw her real enemies deeper into her own trap, Qingyuan takes full responsibility for the entire altercation herself, and is sentenced to kneel in the ancestral hall as punishment. Alone with a tearful Qinghe afterward, she urges her to find real strength of her own, warning that constant submission will never actually stop the household’s cruelty toward her.
She points out plainly that Second Sister and Third Sister can afford their arrogance only because Head Madam protects them, while Qinghe’s own mother was left utterly powerless the moment she was wrongfully accused, precisely because she never held real standing to begin with.
Qingyuan presses her further, asking whether she’s truly content remaining a discarded pawn forever, reminding her that she still has a choice in which path to walk.
A Deal Struck at the Tavern
At Zuixian Tavern, Yan Rui presses the local officials directly, insisting he cares little about how the estate manager died, only about the grain that’s gone missing. He points out plainly that if the officials weren’t hoarding their own supplies so tightly, refusing to sell, he wouldn’t need to keep squeezing the Xie family for grain day after day.
Sweetening the deal with an offer to double the going price, he wins the group over easily. Sheriff He is quietly instructed afterward to find some pretext to close the estate manager’s case entirely, ensuring the arrangement isn’t disrupted, and the officials toast Yan Rui warmly in celebration.
A Brutal Punishment
Meanwhile, taking matters into her own hands, Second Madam has Nanny Rong carry out a punishment far crueller than simple kneeling. Dragged into the courtyard at night, Qingyuan is whipped ten times with a cane deliberately soaked in salt water to intensify the pain. Bloodied but defiant, she warns Nanny Rong plainly that every lash inflicted tonight will one day be repaid in full.
Furious, Nanny Rong draws a hairpin and moves to finish Qingyuan off entirely, only for Yan Rui to burst into the residence and stop her cold. He orders Fan Zhong to seize the whip and return every lash directly onto Nanny Rong herself, striking her repeatedly while Yan Rui lifts Qingyuan and wraps her in his own cloak.
The household’s women arrive in a panic, and Madam Hu demands he stop, but he refuses, warning coldly that any formal complaint lodged against him would simply join a long line already waiting before the Emperor, since he answers to no one but the sovereign himself.
A Fabricated Accusation
Yan Rui declares Qingyuan a key witness in his ongoing investigation, insisting he intends to take her into custody and takes her away. Qingyuan is in agonising pain as they travel by carriage. Yan Rui accuses her outright of poisoning the perilla candies she’d given him earlier, claiming they caused severe chest pain and disrupted his inner energy.
Qingyuan feigns innocence, explaining the candies simply contained mint, ice leaf, and a small measure of toad venom meant to aid circulation, warning that anyone who practices martial arts or channels energy within eight hours of eating them would naturally experience discomfort, and offers to demonstrate the effect on herself as proof.
Relieved but visibly irritated by the deception, Yan Rui warns her plainly never to try such tricks on him again, threatening that if she crosses him once more, he’ll formally take her as his concubine and lock her permanently within his own estate.
A Family’s Panic
Second Madam, meanwhile, pleads with Old Madam Xie for support, insisting even a dog’s owner deserves some consideration before punishment, framing Yan Rui’s violent intervention as an insult to the whole family’s dignity, questioning how the Xie name could hold its head up in Hengtang after such a public spectacle.
Madam Hu offers a gentler interpretation, suggesting Yan Rui simply couldn’t control his growing feelings for Qingyuan and acted out of concern for her safety, however extreme the method. Second Madam scoffs at the framing, insisting that regardless of motive, having a daughter of the family “escorted away” by a stranger in the dead of night would only invite ridicule across Hengtang, damaging the family’s reputation for virtue entirely.
A Refusal, and a Reveal
On the journey away from the residence, Qingyuan refuses to be taken toward the tavern, asking to be dropped elsewhere rather than risk worrying Grandma Chen with her injuries. Yan Rui refuses outright, insisting on caring for her himself, with no ill intent behind the gesture. She challenges him, pointing out that she’s always prided herself on reading people accurately, and can’t quite understand why she can’t fully read his true intentions toward her, at least not yet.
A Letter From Xie Shu
Back at the residence, a letter arrives from Xie Shu, revealing troubling news. Yan Rui is a deeply favoured imperial confidant, wielding such significant influence at court that even the Commander of the Palace Guard, Shen Run, had been unable to dislodge him despite repeated formal complaints.
Realizing the family simply cannot afford to make an enemy of someone this powerful, and noticing his apparent fixation on Qingyuan, Old Madam Xie decides to shift strategy entirely, choosing to lean into his interest rather than resist it. She instructs her servants to prepare formal red stationery, setting in motion plans to arrange a proper union between Qingyuan and Yan Rui.
Spring of the Blade Episode 4 Recap: My Thoughts
This episode helped clear up some of the confusion I felt in episodes one and two. I’d guessed he was trying to infiltrate the Xie family because he suspected they were tied to the embezzlement case.
Now we get a much clearer picture of exactly what happened the night of the fire, the tavern scene, the officials, what he actually said to them, and their level of corruption from their own perspective too. He’s clearly positioning himself as a corrupt official too, purely to infiltrate their circle from the inside. All the pieces are finally starting to click together.
Nanny Rong is a real piece of work. She’s evil personified, and she plays that role incredibly convincingly. Zhou Ye also does a great job here, you can see the hatred in her face, the real pain from her injuries, how pale she looked in the carriage afterward. The bedroom scene had really good makeup work too, very believable.
This episode was good to watch overall. I didn’t notice any dubbing issues this time, and the pace is moving well, getting more exciting as we start to wonder whether the two leads will finally discover who they truly are to each other.
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