The Vendetta of An 长安二十四计 - Discussion - Episode 25
The Vendetta of An 长安二十四计 - Discussion - Episode 25
Welcome to the episode discussions for The Vendetta of An! Join us as we walk down the long road to revenge...
🔥🗡This post is for episodes 🩸25 only🩸 please use spoiler tags for express episodes or previews, thank you!🗡🔥
Express discussion for eps 24-28 is here
Link to all other discussions at bottom of post
Discussion Schedule: assuming no more power outages on my part
- 12/30 Episode 26
- 12/31 Episode 27
- 1/1 Episode 28 (Finale)
Host Notes:
Thanks for reading!
🔥🗡🩸🔥🗡🩸🔥🗡🩸
... Previously on The Vendetta of An ...
[DETAILS REFERENCE CORNER]
Character Flashcards: linked post contains character name card pics from all currently recapped episodes, the show has not provided one for every character. Spoiler Note: if you are watching slower than release, sort comments by 'old' on the Flashcard post to avoid later eps.
Timeline: years are approximate +/- 1yr
- "About 40 years ago": a battle over Chen Valley forced Tiemo citizens to evacuate their homes
- 30 years ago/1st year of Qiansheng: 1st Emperor Xiao invades and takeover Chang'an with the 4 military commanders
- ? Liu Ziwen founds Huben Army
- 25 years ago/6th year of Qiansheng: Liu Zhi/Huai'an born, Yan Fengshan captured in Tiemo by King of Tiemo
- ? years ago (possibly same year captured possibly later?): Yan Fengshan escapes captivity, adopts Wang Pu, child Huai'an sees young Wang Pu at some point "19 years ago"
- ? Liu Li/Bai Wan born, estimate she is ~6 yrs younger than Huai'an
- ?? Huai'an mother died ("in the north when he was young")...or did she?
- 20 years ago: Tiemo Shadow Guards deep cover infiltration of Chang'an
- 16 years ago/16th year of Qiansheng: Huai'an age 9, entered imperial academy with Xiao Wenjing
- 15 years ago/17th year of Qiansheng: Huai'an age 10, Tiemo backed Huben mutiny and murder of his father
- Huai'an ages 10-17: hiding out in Nanwei Trough, working as a boatman
- sometime after mutiny, King of Tiemo locked up in Yulong Ridge
- 13 years ago/19th year of Qiansheng: Pu Nichuan infiltrated Tiemo, abandoned as a pawn by Yan Fengshan
- 7 years ago/24th year of Qiansheng: Huai'an age 17, arrived in Huainan and became registrar
- 4 years ago/28th year of Qiansheng Era/1st year of Wenchang Era: Huai'an age 21, General Yan takeover w/Xiao Wenjing on throne
- Now/4th year of Wenchang Era: Huai'an age 25, Xiao Wuyang deposes Xiao Wenjing, Huai'an arrives in Chang'an
Rogue's Gallery:
👑Charging into Chang'an: King of Tiemo/Wu Zhongheng
❕At Large: Qingyi
❌Dead: Pu Nichuan, Liu Ziyan, Wei Qianting, Yan Fengshan
EPISODE 25
content note: this episode contains a somewhat drawn out death by suicide scene, it contains important dialogue so I am going to get into the details of it a bit. I'll mark it off in the recap so you can skip past if you don't want to revisit it.
[RECAP]
Opening Scene: Huai'an walking through Cangshui River, we get two visual motifs of the show in nearly one go... first his upside down reflection in water and then his figure is framed through the gaps in the railing for the bridge across the water. Huai'an spots Ye Zheng also walking through Cangshui and really ominous music is playing causing my anxiety to spike but as Ye Zheng turns to look at him the music changes to a more heroic and celebratory mood, the two friends slowly smile at each other. I take a deep breath of relief.
Salt Shop Emotional Showdown #3: Apparently Zhang's salt shop is the place for confronting complex parent-child dynamics. Like in last ep, I did not tear up on first watch but on rewatching to take notes on the dialogue, oof, all these salt shop tears!
We pick up where we left off with Ye Zheng entering the shop and finding his shifu. He takes off his hat and behind him we see Shen Xiaoqing has also come. She is walking on her own, although slowly and carefully. Zhu Zhilong does not seem fully prepared to face down both his disciples. Shen Xiaoqing appears unarmed and I worry about what is about to go down exactly.
"Where's Xie Huai'an?" Zhu Zhilong asks and at first Ye Zheng simply answers, "We survived." After a beat he adds that Huai'an also survived and told them they could likely find their master here.
Brief flashback to Ye Zheng and Huai'an chatting after their opening scene meet up, Ye Zheng tells him of Zhu Zhilong trying to kill them and Huai'an tells him to "Go on. Life or death, end it cleanly."
Zhu Zhilong starts to draw his sword but Ye Zheng asks him to stop, won't he even spare a moment to look at them? To explain? Ye Zheng has started tearing up.
Brief flashback to Zhu Zhilong and Shen Xiaoqing training in a courtyard, Ye Zheng comes out with food he made. They share a meal. Very warm and sweet vibes all around.
\"All happy families are alike but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion.\"
Zhu Zhilong, clinging hard to his mission, doesn't want to explain himself, "things have come to this, what more is there to say?"
Shen Xiaoqing, also crying at this point, asks "People of Chang'an, people of Tiemo... is the difference so great?" Zhu Zhilong sheathes his sword and sits back down, then tells him about his children, his other children.
"Many years ago, I once had a son and a daughter. The winter in Tiemo was too harsh. They did not survive. Then, war broke out again. I fled in panic. After that, I received orders to enter Chang'an as a shadow guard. I then served under General Liu Ziwen. A few years passed.
In Basong Town, I found you and Xiaoqing. I raised you to adulthood, taught you martial arts and medicine. I once believed that I had another pair of children."
At this Xiaoqing fully starts sobbing. Zhu Zhilong continues,
"But... But I cannot forget. I cannot forget what I just said. War came again. I fled in haste. During the evacuation, I never had the chance to bury my children.
If my homeland was still there, if the house had not collapses, my son and daughter's remains must still be there. With such memories in my heart, how could I care about our past?"
Now they are all crying. Ye Zheng kneels and then lowers his head to the floor ina bow, thanking Zhu Zhilong for raising them. Am I crying again rewriting this?? Damnit 😥 Shen Xiaoqing says they understand now and have no right to resent him and then also kneels down into a bow (I do think they have a valid complaint about him trying to murder them but....).
Zhu Zhilong says,
"None of us has the right to hate each other. If hatred must exist, let it be toward the merciless heavens."
But he has still been given a mission by his King, he tells them if they mean to stop him killing Huai'an then they must take his blade from him. He goes for the attack.
Ye Zheng had stepped in front of Shen Xiaoqing protectively and takes the slice from his master, spinning away as he does. Zhu Zhilong points his sword directly at Xiaoqing's throat and she remains calm. On the blade is blood...and a few grains of rice. Zhu Zhilong looks around and sees more rice on the ground and spilling from Ye Zheng's robes where he sliced him. He realizes they were the ones who left polished rice on his children's altar.
Ye Zheng says he saw Zhu Zhilong going there one day and followed him. Even not knowing who the memorials were for, they knew they must be important so he and Xiaoqing would go occasionally to pay their respects.
Brief flashback to them looking at the memorials in the cave. I learn I hadn't realized the memorials were in a cave before, despite taking screencaps of them. I thought it was just like a small room. So much for my attention to detail lol.
Shen Xiaoqing tells Zhu Zhilong that they understand now the whole story, but aren't they also his children? The rice realization and her words finally break Zhu Zhilong's resolve. He drops his blade and walks out of the shop, Ye Zheng calling after him.
------ content note applies here -------
We follow Zhu Zhilong back to the cave. He kneels in front of the memorial tablets and asks his children what he is supposed to do. We get flashback dialogue over the scene of his previous words to them, promising a future where no Tiemo children ever starve again. Then we get a brief flashback to the conversation he had with the King about needing to kill his disciples if necessary.
He walks outside and over to a pool of water (or a very still stream) and then slits his own throat.
Usually in cdramas a fatal throat slice is a fairly quick death but here he have to watch him die slowly, and he talks through it, words becoming garbled. It's pretty upsetting.
Huai'an arrives as the Liu Yu OST song 'Chang'an Moon' starts playing and this is at least the third time we have heard it paired with an important character death (Han Ziling, Gu Yu). Zhu Zhilong despairs at never having buried his children, and then, realizing Huai'an is near says "White Hair, is that you? You have won."
Huai'an looks numb as he replies,
"Master Long, my father once told me that in a village at the foot of Wuxi Mountain, before a house, there stood a stone hut of pale ash wood. There should be two children's remains buried there.
Seven years ago, I went to Wuxi Mountain and saved Pu Nichuan. I also visited that stone hut. Rest easy. Your children have been laid to rest."
I cannot tell if Huai'an is telling the truth about this. Is this another situation like his final words to Pu Nichuan? If its true, he didn't seem to know Zhu Zhilong was Tiemo so he just put it together recently that this story from his dad was about Zhilong's kids? If its false, is it comforting or more cruel to tell him now? AAAAHhhh this show. I am stressed! Huai'an is terrifying.
Huai'an walks away. Zhu Zhilong's final moments are remembering one other child he has cared for in his life: we see flashbacks to his reunion with Huai'an in episode 3 (at face swap cottage) and to him dyeing Huai'an's hair in episode 9.
He dies face down on the ground of this sanctuary he helped build.
------- end of this part of ep ----------
Elsewhere in Cangshui River, Huai'an is walking through the dead Tiemo shadow guards killed by Xiao Wuyang. He sees Su Changlin, who appears dead and I had a genuine jump scare when his eyes flicked up to look at Huai'an. He's NOT dead. At least of the moment. Huai'an tells him that Tiemo King has left and doesn't care if Changlin lives or dies. Su Changlin just laughs in response and as the scene fades out we hear him take a deep breath... a final breath? I don't know. This show is crazy.
Other Cangshui residents are also making their way out. We see Lu Xiaobing and his sister waiting outside the salt shop. They meet up with Zhang Sheng who is surprised to see them. He agrees to let them escort him to Huzhou and we leave Cangshui River with this newly formed family unit making their way out as well. A brief moment of hope amidst the darkness and despair.
Red Ribbon Reveal: We shift to Chang'an where first see Lao Sha in his kitchen, worryingly rubbing his hands together. Then we see the courtyard of "Cen Pickles." It's night time but a fire is blazing with a cooking pot over it.
Huai'an, Ye Zheng, and Shen Xiaoqing enter the courtyard (they leave the door to the courtyard wide open which I know is just a TV show silliness thing but I was nervous for them, shut the door! keep it secret! keep it safe!).
"Cen Pickles" welcomes them in and offers them porridge and we finally get our Grand Preceptor Reveal. Cen Weizong is indeed the eunuch from the palace who was helping Gao and Gu Yu to stay alive. As Huai'an sits down at the fire with him he says, "Chang'an is hanging by a thread." Cen Weizong replies,
"Even on the brink, we still eat porridge...... The battle must have gone poorly."
"It was truly a heavy defeat," Huai'an says.
Ye Zheng and Shen Xiaoqing sit down at a table to eat their porridge and Cen Weizong reveals he recognizes Ye Zheng. He had met Zhu Zhilong when they were young. He says,
"I remember when he took you two in, he said he might live in Chang'an forever. I naively believed he would forget the past."
Leading me to wonder what past of Zhu Zhilong's he knew about. Then he adds,
"He has now been laid to rest, remember his kindess. That is enough. With that in your hearts, you will find peace."
Cen Weizong prepares to leave to return to his job at the palace, saying they are safe to stay for a few days at his house (he has been bribing his neighbors with pickled goods for many years). Huai'an asks him for one last favor and they speak about keeping someone alive, I'm assuming it's the Huben orphan fake child emperor currently still on the throne.
Cen Weizong tells Huai'an he needs to find a way to survive himself. We also learn that Gu Yu survived for 30 days on just those scraps of dry buns 😭 Cen Weizong heard from Ye Zheng about Huai'an's promise to Huben that they could kill him after he defeats Tiemo.
"If you don't defeat Tiemo, you die. If you drive them away, you still die. White Hair, have you ever wondered what you have lived for all your life? If you can understand this, then no matter whether there is away out of your dead end, your life will not have been in vain."
Huai'an seems moved by his words and thanks him. As Cen Weizong exits the (closed doors) of the courtyard, Huai'an asks him if he wants a lantern for his walk,
"No need. I walk as dust upon the world, and heaven and earth bear the light for me."
(also its always a full moon in cdramaland)
After he leaves, Ye Zheng tells Huai'an he has realized it was Cen Weizong who saved him after his fight with Su Changlin. We get a brief flashback confirming this. Ye Zheng asks if they can really trust him and Huai'an provides some more backstory:
"Fifteen years ago, on the night the Liu family was slaughtered, he should have died there. My father hung a red ribbon on a tree, warning him that the Huben Army had mutinied, and thus he escaped death.
The dialogue continues over a shot of Cen Weizong walking through the streets.
"Yan Fengshan and the King of Tiemo betrayed my father and betrayed the Grand Preceptor. Those who share an enemy can at least trust each other."
Tiemo Updates: We check in with what Tiemo has been up to. Wuyin Chong, Fang Genghui, and the so far unnamed female guard who we have seen a few times are looking at a map while the King of Tiemo sits nearby, cooking some medicine. They conclude its time to take Chang'an.
I dont know her name but I really like her outfit
Meanwhile, Xiao Wenjing is slowly walking through Chang'an carrying a rectangular package on his back in a sack. He overhears gossip about how close the Tiemo forces seem to be getting to Chang'an.
At Wuyang Army Camp, we see 2 generals who I have named Patience and Impatience for the purposes of this scene. Once again this show loves to not tell us characters names. General Impatience is pacing around, they haven't heard from Huai'an and Tiemo is fast approaching, he thinks they should march north and attack directly. General Patience reminds him that Baiwenhu has already been taken out and the 4 regional commanders are just sitting on the sidelines watching and waiting. He believes Xiao Wuyang must still be alive and trusts Xie Huai'an, the man who took down Yan Fengshan.
Xiao Wenjing arrives at their camp and shows a jade seal to be let in to see the generals. When he gets to their tent they ask if he came on behalf of Huai'an who has the same seal. Xiao Wenjing, dejected and grim through this whole scene, says no, he's here on behalf of Tiemo. They point swords at him but he doesn't flinch. He unwraps the package he's been carrying... it's his brother's arm in a box. !!!!!!!!!
Literally I was thinking "isn't this the tent where Huai'an showed off Yan Fengshan's head?? well luckily this package is clearly too small to fit someone's head..." and then it was still a body part. Apparently being stabbed in the gut (twice) by his own brother and then blinded was not enough, they also had to cut off his arm??!?!?
We get a brief cut to a prison where we see Xiao Wuyang is currently still alive, although he seems to be losing a lot of blood. So I guess at least we can thank them for confirming he is alive (for now).
One more thing, where did they get this perfectly arm sized box.
Xiao Wenjing says that Tiemo will kill Xiao Wuyang if his army marches on them. General Impatience doesn't want to believe that, says the army is still too far away but General Patience realizes that the city must have already been infiltrated by shadow guards. Xiao Wenjing confirms, it's already too late...
We end on scenes of Tiemo forces taking over an Imperial Guard Station near one of the walled gates to the city. Some of the Tiemo soliders have their faces painted all white, others all black. In the scene where they massacre a bunch of imperial soldiers in their sleep the shots switch from directly showing us many throat slices to showing us only the shadows of a murder and then flipping the shot so the final few deaths are seen upside down, disorienting and scary.
[NOTES]
So even though Yan Fengshan would have killed Cen Weizong alongside Liu family, he ended up not killing him and instead later helped him hide in plain sight as a eunuch in the palace?
📜Schemes and Secrets: Ye Zheng and Shen Xiaoqing leaving the rice, Huai'an final words to Zhu Zhilong, Cen Weizong reveal, Emperor's Arm as leverage, Tiemo sneak attack at end
[REFLECTIONS]
Thanks everyone for rejoining the discussions yesterday! I can already tell these final eps are going to put us through the ringer and will need to be talked about.
We are down another major character and we dived into another set of complex parent figure dynamics. In Zhu Zhilong's story and then later with Zhang Sheng, Lu Xiaobing and Xiaoding, we are seeing the impact of political struggles on ordinary people. Meanwhile, Xiao Wenjing's dream of an ordinary life seems even less likely to materialize. Instead he's been thrust into a nightmare situation due to the status he was born into. Everyone is having a bad time.
We've kind of only had small but intense glimpses of Huai'an the last few eps, what do you all think about where is at right now? He seems exhausted and even more angry than he was before but we got a few small smiles and a brief respite for him in Cen Weizong's courtyard.
I cannot predict how he is going to try to take down Tiemo! Only 3 more eps!
🔥🗡🩸This post is for EPISODE 25 ONLY, please be mindful of spoilers. For express discussion space for 24-28 click here 🩸🗡🔥 Thank you, your host is trying their best to avoid major spoilers and has so far succeeded.
Links to Discussion Posts:
Index | Masterpost (Eps 1-3) | Eps 4-5 | Eps 6-7 | Eps 8-9 | Eps 10-11 | Eps 12-13 | Eps 14-15 | Eps 16-17 | Eps 18-19 | Ep 20 | Ep 21 | Ep 22 | Ep 23 | Ep 24
Other useful links: Airing Schedule | DramaWiki | MDL| Weibo | OST info
Posted Dec 29, 2025, 10:01 PM UTC