Original subtitles

BEFORE XIE HUAI'AN ENTERS CHANG'AN

I have lost.

Then please, Han,

return the way you came as we agreed.

On this matter,

forgive me, but I must go back on my word.

Do you know why His Majesty has summoned you?

Yes,

and that's exactly why

I must go.

If you wish to save Xiao Wenjing,

you should not go.

If you do not believe me,

let's wager once more.

I will find someone and disguise him as you

to meet the Emperor in your place.

If he dies, I win,

and you will do one thing for me.

But how will that man

know what I am supposed to say?

He won't need to say anything,

because the Emperor won't ask.

The moment Han Ziling meets the Emperor

will already be the time of his death.

FLATBREAD WITH SOUP

How did you know

I would die after seeing His Majesty?

Because I knew what His Majesty intended to do,

and I knew

you were recommended by Gu Yu.

General Gu has always been loyal.

Did His Majesty suspect him of treachery?

His Majesty knew

Gu Yu was a good man.

And for that very reason,

he knew anyone Gu Yu recommended

would never harm the deposed emperor.

Killing you

was to warn Gu Yu

not to interfere.

Better to settle it early

than fall out with the Gu family afterward.

Who was the man dying in my place?

A wanted criminal.

I promised to give his family

1,000 liang of gold if he agreed to do this.

So it seems, Xie,

you are not a good man.

A good man can help neither you

nor the one you wish to save.

What do you want me to do?

Infiltrate a place for me.

Hidden Soldier Alley.

- Dump it in the back. - All right.

I also prepared a gift for you.

You'll like it.

I am sorry, Di.

I must rescue Gu Yu.

WINE

He kept staring at me just now.

He just realized you and I were working together.

He checked my travel passes and wounds,

but our planning

left him with no reason to suspect me.

He truly took you as a friend.

Yet I was your undercover agent.

Because of an accident,

his death became inevitable.

Scheming…

Both you and I know how to do it.

But in the end,

it is still a blade going in white

and coming out red.

But you did nothing wrong.

If you had hesitated,

the ones buried underground

would be you and me.

I know.

Whether I liked him had little to do with whether I should kill him.

In the end,

people only kill to save themselves.

Di Lu was well-liked in Hidden Soldier Alley.

His death won't stay hidden for long.

We need to match our accounts.

This house faces north and is always damp.

The smell of wine will linger for more than ten days.

It can cover the smell of the corpse for a while.

Invited by Di Lu,

you and I went to try his homemade pine needle wine.

We entered his home in the first half of the Xu hour.

We drank, talked, and enjoyed ourselves.

We even got a bit carried away

and accidentally knocked over a few jars.

We left before the Hai hour.

After returning home,

you had a hangover headache and stayed in bed,

while I was busy writing travel passes.

When we saw each other again,

two or three days had passed.

And from that day on, neither of us ever saw Di Lu again.

Who is it?

Me, Li Sangeng.

What is it?

Mr. Li Mingtai needs a travel pass,

but he is ill and bedridden,

so he sent me on his behalf.

Please prepare a travel pass for him.

It's a hot day. Come in for some tea.

Everyone, take a break.

- All right. - All right.

Li Mingtai is bedridden?

Was that your doing?

I needed a proper excuse to visit you,

so I treated him to some questionable buns.

These past few days, I walked every lane.

So far, I've heard no talk of Di Lu.

He often took commissions and disappeared for days.

A short absence may not raise suspicion.

A few more days and the lie won't hold.

Tell me, what have you learned?

Before I came, you told me

Hidden Soldier Alley was a concept,

not just a single alley.

So after I entered the alley,

the first thing I did was confirm its full layout.

Here in Yanzuo Ward,

from south to north is 450 bu,

and from west to east is 650 bu.

Within this entire area,

everything except the outermost ring

is Hidden Soldier Alley.

The outermost ring

is where common people live,

meaning it offers the best cover.

And in danger,

the best hostages.

Now look at the row houses on the west side.

They look densely packed,

but they produce very little trash each day.

That means the fewest soldiers are hidden there,

and the defense is thinnest.

So where are the troops kept?

The northwest and the southeast.

Both areas have many soldiers.

Avoid them when you move.

Even on ordinary days, go around them if you can.

Any leads

on Gu Yu?

None needed.

Almost everyone knows where he is.

Capturing Gu Yu

is quite a feat for Wang Pu.

That night, I saw it with my own eyes.

Wang Pu, with two Huben guards, dragged Gu Yu

through the streets and alleys

into the Zuihua Tower by the market.

What is it?

Do you know General Gu personally?

For me, my family, and the realm,

Gu Yu

is someone I can't afford to lose.

I want to take a look

around the Zuihua Tower by the market.

Deliver Li Mingtai's travel pass yourself.

He lives in one of the row houses on the second floor.

When the window opens, it faces

directly toward the Zuihua Tower by the market.

Why else do you think I treated him to those buns?

Who is it?

Wang Xing. I've brought your travel pass.

I feel terrible and can't get out of bed.

Slide it through the door.

TRAVEL PASS

Thank you.

You are welcome.

ZUIHUA TOWER

General, please wipe your face.

What is it, General?

Have I done something wrong?

How many people did Wang Pu pass over

before choosing you?

As far as I know,

around 30 people.

General, look at me.

Do I resemble your former attendant?

Former?

I am your attendant now,

and I will remain so.

You may be staying here for quite some time.

As for the girl named Wumei,

she belongs to your past.

Mr. Wang Pu said

he wanted you to feel at home.

Is that so?

Wumei always did whatever I asked.

I can do that too,

perhaps even better.

Aside from

letting you leave this place,

I can do whatever else

you need.

Then bring me a small carving knife

and a piece of white camphor wood I can carve.

If I am really going to stay here for a long time,

I need something

to pass the time.

You said you would do whatever I asked.

Surely

a simple carving knife isn't beyond your reach, is it?

Of course not.

Go, then.

What did you get out of him?

He wouldn't say a word.

The Baiwenhu Army is well-trained.

It is hard to make them betray each other.

Open it.

How many of you came in?

Say one name,

and you can trade his life for yours.

You'll walk free, and he'll suffer in your place.

Then again,

you are like brothers.

How could you betray one another?

How about this?

Say one name,

and both you and he walk free.

What do you say?

Your partners are on my turf.

Sooner or later, I'll find them.

But if I can help save one, I will.

I, Wang Pu,

am a man of my word.

Is my offer not good enough?

Not even one word?

How impolite.

So you are not mute after all.

The regional commanders are entering the Capital.

I must go pay them a visit.

There must still be

some of their men hidden in Hidden Soldier Alley.

To save Gu Yu,

they will try anything.

Watch

everything closely.

Yes, sir.

Covering your face only makes you more suspicious.

Could you endure this work without covering your face?

Thank you for putting up with all this.

A Baiwenhu soldier was just burned to death.

He must have come to rescue Gu Yu.

The Baiwenhu soldiers who slipped in have been exposed?

If you can reach the remaining ones,

tell them to be very careful.

Also,

you and I must be careful too.

- Take care. - Take care.

This thing is fine, isn't it?

A couple of days ago,

Di Lu came to ask me for a few of these.

He said he'd had a misunderstanding with the new guy

and wanted to give him these as an apology.

Then he vanished.

You were the last person to see him.

Tell me,

where did he go?

He's dead.

His body

is buried under the wine jars in his house.

White Hair,

if you hadn't dyed your hair white,

I wouldn't have recognized you.

Since you know who I am,

you should know

I am here for revenge.

No one who deserves death

will escape me.

Aren't you afraid you'll fall into my hands?

I won't spare you either.

Of course I'm not afraid.

There's someone locked up

in the Imperial Guard prison.

I wonder how he is now.

Before I came here,

I took

a gold coin from him.

To the Huben Army,

Qingyi is nothing more than an expendable pawn.

And expendable pawns

should be tossed away,

just like Liu Ziyan.

But to me, he is still useful.

If nothing happens to me, nothing will happen to him.

If something happens to me,

he won't even have a body left to bury.

His fate

is in your hands.

Yes, he's my disciple.

So what?

The rules of the Huben Army

come above all else.

You are right about that.

But if you truly believed that,

you would have reported me to Wang Pu

the moment you sensed something was wrong,

instead of waiting here,

fearing I had a plan.

Rules are rigid. People are flexible.

I know the bond between you and Qingyi

goes beyond master and disciple.

Many years ago,

your only child died young.

A few years later,

you found Qingyi

eating offerings at your child's grave,

and you took him in as a gift sent from above.

You don't want

your second child to die like this, do you?

All you need to do is keep silent

and let me stay hidden in Hidden Soldier Alley.

Once I leave,

your second child

will return to you unharmed.

He once schemed against you,

and he has done his share of deeds for the Huben Army.

Will you really spare him?

I will leave no enemy alive.

But I still have

some humanity left.

Aunt Xin.

You were one of my father's earliest subordinates.

I still remember that bond.

All right.

You should go.

You don't want your second child to die like this, do you?

All you need to do is keep silent

and let me stay hidden in Hidden Soldier Alley.

Once I leave,

your second child

will return to you unharmed.

GRAVE OF LIU ZIQI, BELOVED SON

Beat me or scold me, but let me finish eating.

I come up the mountain every three days

to leave some flatbread and fruit here.

You can come eat.

Who is he to you?

He was my child.

When he passed, he was about your age.

Can you teach me how to survive?

I can't eat grave offerings forever.

All I know is how to kill.

This path leads nowhere good.

I killed the leader of the opera troupe and escaped.

I'm already on this path.

I never dare walk past this place too fast,

afraid you'll mistake me for an assassin

and kill me.

I rarely strike without reason.

That is true.

Have you found Di Lu?

No.

I checked everyone you told me

to look into.

Nothing seemed off.

If you still don't trust them,

I can kill them all.

I don't have the patience

to question every one of them.

Don't kill them.

We need every man we have right now.

I'm going away for two days

to take care

of something important.

Do what you must.

It's chilly at night.

Keep yourself warm.

Hey.

Are you all right?

Ungrateful mutt, you're courting death!

Don't run!

Can you stop chasing me?

Stop running! Stand still!

This is bad.

Don't run!

Stop right there!

Got you.

So you made me eat like a dog, huh?

And you thought you could outrun me?

Which one of us looks more like a dog now?

I didn't want to kill anyone.

I'll ask you one last time.

Do you have to go

- into Hidden Soldier Alley? - Yes.

Is the Huben Army

really worth all this?

I have to die.

If you go in,

my master dies.

I was sent to the north

and stayed there for three years.

I have a wife

and a six-year-old daughter.

The neighbors all thought the man of the house had died.

A rogue at the alley entrance

set his sights on my wife.

I have to go back and kill him myself.

At the entrance of Wazi Alley in Guiyi Ward,

there's a breakfast stall.

My wife

often wears a worn-out purple robe.

Go see for yourself.

Your courtyard is quiet today.

Sit.

In the next few days,

I need to issue confidential travel passes.

Wang Pu sent word

to keep the handlers to a minimum,

so I sent my helpers home.

So it seems you are no longer suspected.

Right.

What are they treating as such a grave matter?

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

"Height six chi."

"Square forehead, broad face, a nose rising straight to the brow,

and long hanging earlobes."

"From Binning to Chang'an."

Is this describing

Yan…