Original subtitles

[The Vendetta of An]

General.

The man has been brought in.

Do you have parents or brothers at home?

Do you have any relatives or friends in your hometown?

General.

I am an orphan.

Come.

Come up.

Forget your past and your name.

Remember every word I say.

Your surname is actually Xiao.

A child of the Xiao imperial bloodline

who has been lost outside.

The late emperor once secretly ordered me to bring you back.

I searched for years.

At last, you may return to the rightful lineage.

The throne now stands empty.

Chang'an cannot go a single day without an emperor.

Among the Xiao clan,

you are the only one left.

From this moment on,

you are the emperor of this land.

Is that true?

Of course it is not.

But if I say it is true,

then it is true.

Zhiying.

Take him down and put this dragon robe on him.

See whether it fits or not.

Yes.

Come with me.

[Episode 15]

[Awakening and Returning to Purity]

Do you know,

you and I met when we were very young?

It was about 19 years ago.

Yan Fengshan

had not yet become a traitorous general.

He was cold,

cruel,

and not like he is now,

still able to put on

a guise of kindness.

At that time,

he adopted a child.

That child had been brought from the northern border.

He had no parents.

Back then,

I saw you.

At that time, your eyes

would always look to the horizon.

Unlike how they are now.

What about me

now?

The way you are now,

your eyes only stare at what is right in front of you.

A person like this

easily becomes obsessive.

You asked what tricks I have.

I have none.

You people are the ones who control Chang'an.

But I do have a story

that I want to tell you.

It is about your origins

and Yan Fengshan's past.

How many dumplings will you eat?

Your origins

are exactly so.

How you choose

is entirely up to you.

How

can I choose?

To avenge your blood kin

is only right.

Let the past 20 years

be treated as no more than a dream.

If you carry out this task,

you may live for six more hours.

If you refuse...

Commander Wang is right outside the door.

He hides his skill deep within.

His blade is the same.

You will not get past that doorway

and will only die here.

[Awakening and Returning to Purity]

Xie Huai'an.

To live your whole life this way,

aren't you tired?

What you should ask me

is whether it is right to live this way.

I once believed I was right.

You killed far too many who should not have died.

I will never let you win.

Whatever you intend to do,

I will never

let you succeed.

Do you want to see

Yan Fengshan die with your own eyes?

Nothing would please me more.

Thank you.

[Awakening and Returning to Purity]

Pork.

All of it is top-quality pork

slaughtered fresh today.

Sir.

What would you like?

One and a half jin of hind leg meat,

for making dumplings for two people.

All right. One moment.

Sir.

Here you go.

You are back, General.

I have not cooked for you in a long time.

I shall practice today,

so I do not get rusty.

The people you assigned to keep an eye on me

have already been eliminated.

I know.

But I did not bother with it.

It is Xie Huai'an

who is setting a trap for me.

That is fine.

I wanted to meet him anyway.

I figured as much.

White Hair is a ruthless man.

For you to return alive

is no small feat.

But I feel

he has no tricks left.

He only told me

a piece of the past,

something about my origins.

Then he let me go.

He even asked me

whether I was willing

to make dumplings for you.

The dumplings are cooked,

General,

but do not rush to eat them yet.

In strategy,

I am no match for Xie Huai'an.

But I am not foolish enough

to let a piece of the past

erase the years I have spent

following you.

I waited here for you,

simply to ask for clarity.

I never spoke of the past to you

not because I did not want you to know,

but because I did not want to remember it myself.

Now that things have come to this,

I shall tell you.

25 years ago,

in the northern borderlands,

there was a place

called Chen Valley.

We called it Chen Valley,

but the Tiemo people

called that place

Mingshanzi Gorge.

A tiny patch of land,

yet we and the Tiemo people

fought over it seven times.

In the final battle,

we lost.

My soldiers and I

were captured

and locked inside the Tiemo army's granary,

waiting quietly for death.

The Tiemo people were toying with the prisoners.

Each time they lowered the food,

there was less than before.

The last time,

they dropped only one steamed bun

and one knife.

It seemed only I understood

that no matter how much food

the Tiemo people gave us,

none of us would survive

until the day they opened the granary.

Unless the Tiemo people

believed we were all dead.

So I

killed every last one of them.

After that,

many more days passed.

After I killed all the Tiemo people,

I wandered across the wasteland for a long time.

At that time I felt like a ghost,

not knowing where I should go,

not knowing whether I even deserved to live.

I walked for a very long time.

At last, I returned to my motherland.

A farming couple took me in.

They were not afraid of me.

Instead they gave me a bowl of hot rice.

Here, sir,

do not be shy.

Eat quickly.

Treat this as your own home.

Yes, sir,

I still have some meat here.

It will be ready soon.

Go on eat. There is more in the pot.

At that time,

or perhaps for many years after,

I had not

truly stepped out of that granary.

I believed

that only by killing everyone

could I earn a single meal.

That child was you.

This story,

is it the same

as the one White Hair told you?

If I had died in that granary,

or if your parents

had not taken me in,

you would never have become a member of the Huben Army.

The village where you were born

stood on a sunny hillside.

You could have been a farmer,

and after a day of work,

you could still go home to eat dumplings,

with your parents

not yet old sitting beside you.

What a wonderful life that would have been.

But because of me,

your entire life changed.

So

today you were used by White Hair

and tried to poison me.

To avenge my blood kin

is only just.

Let the past 20 years

be treated as a dream.

I do not blame you.

When I was seven,

I learned how to make dumplings.

I even wrapped

a copper coin inside one.

I hoped you would eat it,

and I wished you long life,

peace and safety.

Xie Huai'an even tried to sway me,

hoping I would come back and poison you.

How could that ever happen?

If not you,

how would I be who I am today?

As for those parents,

I never laid eyes on them,

not even for a single day.

Their deaths mean nothing to me.

All these years,

the one who raised me

was the General of the Huben Army,

Yan Fengshan.

He wants to watch you die with his own eyes.

He has already entered the city with me.

Stop.

Come here.

Do you have a travel pass?

Yes.

From Huai'an Commandery.

My surname is Zeng.

Go on.

Thank you.

Only three watchtowers nearby

have a view of this courtyard.

A man wearing a fisherman's hat,

with half his face covered,

and a fish maw mask on his upper face,

that is Xie Huai'an.

Before you returned,

I had already sent Zhiying

to hunt him down.

This

is the final plan

I offer to you.

The past

has nothing to do with me.

In this life,

I have no regrets.

To die with a father not yet old

beside me,

that is a fine life.

May you live a thousand years.

Peace,

and safety.

Wang Pu,

you are truly foolish.

A man like White Hair

would never believe

you would poison me.

He merely wanted you

to return to my side,

so that I could watch you

die with my own eyes.

General.

The man wearing the fish maw mask

was not Xie Huai'an at all.

What do you mean what?

We have known each other for quite some time.

Yet I still failed to see your true nature.

You would sell out the loyal and upright

and even abet villains

for money.

No wonder this temple has so few devotees.

It is not the location.

It is your wicked heart.

How shall we deal with him?

Mister, spare me.

Sir, spare me.

Sir, spare me.

Please stand.

I am but a wanted man.

Your life

is not mine to spare.

You knew my identity long ago.

You waited and observed for a month,

and only when you thought I had gone mad

did you report me.

To have such careful judgment,

sir,

why waste it

on a gambling table?

I, Xie Huai'an,

thank you

for taking me in during this time.

Thank you, sir, for sparing my life.

Thank you for sparing my life.

- Thank you for sparing my life. - Go.

Go.

Commander Wang.

Here.

Return to the Capital first.

Prepare to gather all available men in the Capital.

Yes.

The Tiemo secret envoy has already set off.

This is our chance

to strike back.

For this day,

I have waited a long time too.

I await your command.

Mr. Long.

You did not visit before,

nor did you send a letter.

There are many people

worried about you.

I was watched too closely this time,

so I dared not write rashly.

Please forgive me, Mr. Long.

Come.

I will take you to see

the place your father left behind.

Look here.

I even added a bit more for you.

Is it enough?

Enough.

All right. That will be seven wen in total.

All right.

I will pack it for you.

All right.

All right then.

Here you go.

Count it.

Thank you.

You finally showed up.

What?

Did you think I died?

No.

No...

Sir.

I have something to attend to...

Come.

How?

This place is nice, isn't it?

You will never

see scenery like this in Chang'an.

It is practically a paradise.

But this paradise

has one flaw.

There is no sunlight.

Without sunlight, there are no crops.

So

rice is more expensive than salt here.

Right.

This paradise

has another flaw.

You cannot see the sun,

so you cannot tell the time.

Rising with the sun and resting at sunset

is impossible here.

The salt shop where you work

has a salt hourglass

to keep time, doesn't it?

How do you know that?

And the shops along the street

also have hourglasses for timing.

You know that too?

Have you been here before?

Using hourglasses to keep time

was an assignment from Mr. Wu Zhongheng

back when we were at the Grand Academy.

If I remember correctly,

you pretended to be sick

and never handed in your work.

And you...

Still pretending?

The hourglass in your shop

is the result of my assignment.

My father originally

designed this Cangshui River

because there was no daylight here,

which was why he moved everything inside.

Since there is me,

why must there be you?

Zheng,

look who is here.

Who else could it be?

Isn't that Xie Huai'an?

Why are you so cold?

It has been a long time.

I know.

It is because he came to see me first,

is that right?

Thank you for going to the trouble.

We just met.

And we discussed strategy.

Do you want to hear the details of the strategy?

Come with me.

I will tell you slowly.

Little one.

No. When did you ever talk about strategy?

You're the little one.

Little Mo.

Get lost.

Chang'an is now sealed tight.

Yan Fengshan and the Huben Army

control everything.

But the civil court is still running,

so

the people of Chang'an

have not been pushed to outrage.

The troops of Xiao Wuyang outside the city

are surrounded by the four regional military commanders.

But they have not cut off supplies.

Otherwise

the Wuyang Army would likely fight with their backs to the river.

Yan Fengshan is truly capable.

He restrains the troops

without provoking war,

and controls the city

without stirring public anger.

If you ask me,

he is so capable,

he might as well make himself emperor.

He has held power for years,

and the people of Chang'an are used to it.

Now,

he props up a fake emperor to keep things calm.

If he suddenly declared himself emperor,

it would not benefit him at all.

He can still

weigh the scales properly.

Isn't there a large army in the north?

The main force of the Baiwenhu Army.

The northern Baiwenhu Army.

They will not march south unless summoned to defend the throne.

This was once

the agreement between my late father and the Gu family.

So when my brother attacked Chang'an back then,

Gu Yu

only brought one thousand personal guards.

But look at the situation now.

Xie Huai'an,

if you need an imperial summons

I can give it to you.

With the situation as it is,

even if you wrote me an imperial edict to summon them,

I would have no way to send it to the north.

If we acted now,

your identity would be exposed

and everything would collapse.

Yan Fengshan is colluding with the Tiemo people.

The Tiemo have stationed

a massive army in the northern borderlands

to deal with the Baiwenhu Army.

If the Baiwenhu Army marched south,

the entire heartland of the empire

would be opened to the Tiemo.

Yan Fengshan

is deeply entangled with the Tiemo.

So next,

how should we take him down?

The Tiemo people and Yan Fengshan

are not perfectly united.

Now that the Tiemo envoy has come south,

he is heading to Chang'an

to negotiate with Yan Fengshan.

This is our best chance.

I guess

Yan Fengshan will first cede

a stretch of territory in the far north

and use it

to bribe the Tiemo people

in exchange for their attack on the Baiwenhu Army.

Once the Baiwenhu Army is defeated,

there will be no army left

to stand against Yan Fengshan.

Gu Yu.

Is Gu Yu still alive?

If he is,

you must send him to the north at once,

because only then

will the Tiemo people fail to defeat the Baiwenhu Army.

As for Gu Yu's life or death,

I am not certain.

And your brother?

Mr. Long says he can wake up,

but no one knows when.

How did you know

I was awake?

I could see it.

I just could not guess

why you pretended to be unconscious.

I was not pretending.

Each day

I am only awake for a brief moment.

It feels like being in a dream, doesn't it?

In the dream

it was the road you had never wanted to take.

A brush with death,

I have experienced that too.

A long palace corridor.

Gu Yu and the Baiwenhu Army

pushed me out the door

and got farther and farther away from me.

The path by which I survived

was the path

I least wished to walk in my life.

Wumei once told me

that back then you were one step

from death.

I do not blame you.

So

Xiao Wuyang

can die after all.

White Hair.

If one day

I truly die,

will you, like your forefathers,

support the imperial clan?

I know

that is not where your ambition lies.

But you must care for the realm.

Heaven has given you such wisdom.

You must use it

to serve all the people.

But my father

once did exactly that.

And you must not die either.

Heaven has given you

such skill,

and you too

should give back to all the people.

I will not.

Before Yan Fengshan dies,

I, Xiao Wuyang,

will not die.

Do not tell anyone that I wake for brief moments

each day,

including

your pageboy outside the door.

Why did you stay in there

for so long before coming out?

Did my brother wake up?

I just figured out...

You'd figured out how to deal with them?

Once the Tiemo envoy

enters Chang'an,

I will make him disappear

for one night right under Huben's nose.

During that night,

you will meet with him.

I?

If Yan Fengshan and the Tiemo can negotiate,

why can't you?

Do not forget.

You are the Emperor.

The detailed plan

will be given to you

after you enter Chang'an.

What?

Are you scared?

When the nation is in peril,

even common folk have a duty.

How could I not?

I am not afraid.

You have improved.

Huai'an,

we just met again.

Do we really need to set off so quickly?

Can't you rest for one night?

Gu Yu's life is uncertain.

I must go and find the truth.

There are other arrangements in the city

that cannot be delayed.

Take these.

You need money

to buy medicine and salt.

Stop stealing the shopkeeper's salt.

That salt shopkeeper is a good man.

His scale gives sixteen and a half liang to a jin.

He says it is to help those in hardship.

And now I am someone in hardship too.

But once life gets better,

I will repay him for sure.

All right.

I am leaving.

Wait.

Look at the time.

It is already dark outside.

Going back to Chang'an

is long and dark on the road.

Take a lantern.

Take care.

Thanks.

All of you live well.

You are not going back?

No.

I am going for a drink.

Come on.

What?

You know,

stealing salt

is a job that suits you.

Wuyang,

please have mercy.

Wake up quickly please.

If you wake up,

I won't have to go

to that execution trap Xie Huai'an arranged.

I am begging you. I am really scared.

♪Who pulls our strings♪

♪To stage the pain of parting?♪

♪Love and hate once surged between us♪

♪But time has turned it all to nothing♪

♪Perhaps I should forget♪

♪Forget our mingled breaths♪

♪And forget your eyes♪

♪A beauty beyond imagining♪

♪Love is a long journey♪

♪Marked by wounds that stir the hand of fate♪

♪At every perilous pass♪

♪What forces lie in wait?♪

♪We once made a vow in the wind♪

♪To seek each other in the sea of faces♪

♪If fate allows, though far apart, we will meet again♪

♪In life and death, our promise stands♪

♪Through the harsh years that remain♪

♪You are my warmest obsession♪

♪When all things face destruction♪

♪I take your hand♪

♪Without fear or regret, we face it together♪

♪Meetings and partings♪

♪Are written by fate♪

♪After countless voyages♪

♪When seas run dry and stones decay♪

♪I ask only that you stay by my side♪

♪We once made a vow in the wind♪

♪To seek each other in the sea of faces♪

♪When all things face destruction♪

♪I take your hand♪

♪Without fear or regret, we face it together♪