Original subtitles

Yu Changxuan, are you out of your mind?

Wild, isn't it?

You're right.

We don't need to tell Jiang

about us.

As long as

neither of us talks,

we can keep

our secret going.

You're absolutely shameless.

Pingjun.

Want me to get the door?

Pingjun!

That's a good girl.

You know I keep

all kinds of birds at home?

They chirp all day long.

Never stop.

But my favorite

is the canary.

Quiet

and obedient.

Yu Changxuan.

What exactly do you want?

Kiss me.

Don't cry.

If I don't cry,

will you let me go?

No.

Ye Pingjun,

just say yes,

and every flower, every tree,

every blade of grass in Nanhuai City

will be yours.

Yu Changxuan.

Listen carefully.

I won't consider

any of your ridiculous demands.

I will never in my life

have anything to do

with a despicable man

like you.

I never liked you from the start.

I hate you.

General?

Lieutenant.

What are you doing here?

I'm looking for Pingjun.

She said

she needed to clean her dress.

By the way,

I just picked up an earring.

Looks like

Miss Ye's.

Give it back to her.

Don't mention it.

To a woman, the most important thing

about a man

is reliability.

You have to care for her

and be able to protect her.

Lieutenant Jiang,

you'd best get your act together.

Stop letting other men put their hands

on your girlfriend.

Thanks for the advice, General.

Lieutenant Jiang,

didn't she tell you

she knows me?

You have such a good girlfriend.

Aren't you afraid someone will steal her?

Saturday. The dance at the Officers' Club.

Bring a date.

Turn right at the next intersection.

I know.

She looks so much like

someone I once knew.

There are plenty of lookalikes

in this world.

Major Yang, don't give it a second thought.

To a woman, the most important thing

about a man is reliability.

Stop letting other men put their hands

on your girlfriend.

You really are the envy of everyone.

Always surrounded by a lively crowd.

A feast for the eyes.

You little rascal.

You're riding high

on success.

The moment you're back, you start teasing me.

I heard.

You actually got Major Yang

to back you.

That's a huge reassurance

for the arms dealers and the banks.

And you have the Tao family's full support.

Looks like

you've long had the arms factory plan

in the bag.

As expected of you.

Head down working in the garden,

and you're still so well-informed.

Nothing

is guaranteed to succeed.

I just

like to keep a few extra paths open.

I'll stop there.

Come take a look at my flowers.

This is the crabapple.

This is the kerria.

This is the yellow rose.

They all pair well

with lilacs.

Makes the lilacs look even more elegant.

Even your flower beds are all about

making the lilac the star of the show.

You're totally obsessed with it.

That one's a hosta.

The purest and cleanest of all.

It gives off

that crisp, pure vibe.

If you like it,

I'll dig it up and let you grow it.

Forget it.

I've never been good with flowers.

I wouldn't even know

how to care for a hosta.

Growing flowers is like loving someone.

You have to figure out its nature.

Give it as much sun and rain

as it needs.

Not a drop more.

Not a bit less.

Yu Changxuan.

Listen carefully.

I will never in my life

have anything to do

with someone like you.

Here. This one's for you.

This one's for you.

- Thanks, Pingjun. - Thanks, Pingjun.

Go on and play.

Pingjun,

you ordered

so many more books for the kids.

You really are too generous.

Seeing them this happy

makes it all worth it.

By the way, did you hear?

Nanhuai merchants announced

they can't discriminate

against refugees in any way.

Before, without household registration,

they could only take temporary work.

Now the longest

can be extended to a year.

The household registry office will announce

that anyone who's worked here for 5 years,

abides by the law, and keeps a clean record

can apply for Nanhuai residency

and become an official resident.

Yes.

It's all thanks to Young Master Changxuan

mediating behind the scenes

that the city government finally caved.

What's wrong?

What are you thinking about?

Nothing.

By the way, where's Xiaomu?

He's usually the liveliest of them all.

How come I haven't seen him today?

He's in the backyard.

Sulking.

What's wrong with him?

Today's Xiaomu's birthday.

When his parents were still around,

they'd always

throw him a big celebration.

But now...

The first batch of funding has gone

into building the arsenal.

The gun workshop and ammo workshop

are set up at Sandaogou.

The repair shop is at Baijiagou.

All in the most hidden and defensible spots

in Changping Mountain.

Keep a close eye on the progress.

Make sure the newly hired

technicians are well taken care of.

Have our people learn fast.

Need to make our own guns and cannons.

Can't keep relying on foreigners.

I need your help with something.

Don't be so formal.

What can I

help you with?

This afternoon at 5,

Pingjun and I

are going to celebrate the orphans'

birthdays

and then hit the temple fair together.

So I need you to translate

these documents for me.

No problem.

I'll file them for you once I'm done.

Thanks, Yingmei.

Xueting,

hold on.

You'll need to work overtime tonight.

But Chief,

I've got plans tonight.

These are the newly arrived

original files on the carbine.

The tech department needs them urgently.

They have to be

fully translated tonight.

Take a look.

Sorry.

I appreciate it.

Chief.

I'd like to

pull some files

from the archives tonight.

No problem. I'll write you a pass.

What rotten luck.

Yingmei,

after you finish translating,

help me run to the temple fair

and let Pingjun know.

Sure.

Don't worry.

Called in for overtime?

The Chief made him stay.

He really couldn't get out of it.

Xueting asked me

to come tell you right away.

Alright, I got it.

Sorry to trouble you.

Don't mention it. Message delivered.

I'll head back now.

Thanks.

No problem.

Let's go.

I'll take you in.

Go.

Let's go.

Xiaomu.

Changxuan!

Happy birthday, Xiaomu.

What are you doing here?

He asked me to come celebrate his birthday.

Isn't that right, Xiaomu?

Let's go.

We're celebrating your birthday.

Mr. Yu, you're busy with official business.

I'll keep Xiaomu company.

You should head back.

Why should I leave?

I didn't come here for you.

Candied hawthorn‌!

Sir, ma'am,

take a look and see

if there's a story you like.

Mold the character into a clay figure.

A good likeness brings good luck.

Pingjun,

I want that little wooden horse.

You want that little wooden horse?

Let's join in.

It's his birthday.

Fine.

How is it?

Doesn't it look just like him?

It doesn't look like Liang Shanbo at all.

More like

that unreasonable Ma Wencai.

What's so bad about Ma Wencai?

Personally, I think Liang Shanbo

is wishy-washy.

When you want a girl,

you should go all in to win her.

Miss Zhu,

I heard you and Liang Shanbo

made a secret pledge to each other?

Stop messing around.

In this world, the good things

are worth fighting and clawing for.

If you don't fight,

how do you know it isn't yours?

If you don't claw,

how do you know you can't win?

Young Master,

love

is about mutual willingness.

You can't force it.

I want to force it.

And I want to fight for it.

Dear,

if I could walk you those eighteen li,

I'd follow every step.

I'd never give you the chance

to be promised to another.

Xiaomu, it's getting late.

Let me take you home.

Young Master,

love

is about mutual willingness.

You can't force it.

Ye Pingjun.

What am I supposed to do with you?

Lieutenant Jiang.

What's taking so long?

Not done yet?

Found it.

How did I fall asleep?

Where's Xiaomu?

I already took him back

to the orphanage.

Didn't expect you

could sleep so soundly

next to me, Miss Ye.

Didn't you see yourself as a gentleman?

Since when

have I ever been one in your eyes?

Thanks for driving me home.

I'm heading in.

Ye Pingjun.

Pingjun!

Xueting.

General.

It's so late.

Why would you

personally drive Pingjun home?

Pingjun and I

celebrated Xiaomu's birthday,

went to the temple fair,

and made clay figures.

Zhang Yingmei said you had to work overtime.

So Xiaomu reached out to Mr. Yu.

That's how we ran into each other.

General, you're so busy,

yet you still drove her home.

That's really too much trouble for you.

You're one of my men.

Your girlfriend

is naturally...

military family.

It's only right I take good care of her.

It's getting late.

We

won't invite you in

for tea, General.

No need for formalities

between us.

Let's head back.

Morning, General.

General.

Could we talk somewhere in private?

Lieutenant Jiang, just say

what's on your mind.

First, I want to thank you

for celebrating

the birthday with Pingjun and the kids.

I should have been the one to show up.

Didn't expect to get hit with overtime

right before I clocked off.

As long as the kids are happy.

Don't give it a second thought.

I just don't know if you

really have a soft spot for children,

or...

if you've got some other motive.

I'm not quite sure what you mean.

I checked the duty log.

The carbine translation

was supposed to happen next week.

I could've made it to the date.

So you did that

on purpose,

just to keep me from going.

Am I wrong?

So what if I did?

A real man should compete

fair and square.

Not pull

shady tricks

behind someone's back.

How well

do you really know Ye Pingjun?

You two grew up together.

But is it love between a man and a woman,

or just a friend's dependence?

Can you even tell?

That's between her and me.

General,

you'd better take care

of your own fiancée.

Military headquarters runs a tight ship.

Every military vehicle's movement is logged.

But they can't be lent out privately.

So I got the idea

to look into the records of vehicles

that transported soldiers from

the Xiping battlefield to the mines.

Though they doctored the destination,

the time, distance, and headcount

all match up perfectly.

And the order came from

Feng Sanli, commander of the 4th Brigade,

2nd Army.

Great.

Xueting,

I'll get this article

typeset and printed right away.

Publish it through the underground press.

Hello?

General Mou.

This is Hongwen.

The man

I once trusted in Japan

has gone deep into the Yu Army

and found solid evidence.

He'll expose it under the pen name

Junguan.

Junguan?

From "A gentleman dies, but his cap stays on"?

This man has grand ambitions.

These days,

these hot-blooded young writers

with their pens are no less powerful

than machine guns and heavy artillery.

Tomorrow

this will be all over town.

Very good.

Papers! Get your papers!

That's so cruel.

What is this world coming to?

That's just too much.

What hope is there left?

Right?

Is there any law anymore?

The Yu Army forcing soldiers

to work as miners?

50 soldiers died in a mining disaster?

That's just too much.

That's 50 men.

This is

all over town now.

Exactly.

This is a toughie.

We need to find a way to suppress it.

Young Master.

The underground press has been burned down.

But they only handled the printing.

They don't know where the articles came from.

The manuscripts we brought back

were compared

against the handwriting

of all military clerical staff.

Still no leads

on Junguan?

No findings so far.

Put more people on it.

I want answers fast.

Understood.

And about the mine.

It was registered as an iron mine,

but it's actually a gold mine.

By regulation,

all locally mined gold

must be handed over

to the central government.

Using soldiers' lives to pull off a cover-up.

Some real nerve.

Who was in charge?

A man named Liao Tie.

He looks ordinary,

but he's Feng Sanli's

distant nephew.

Changxuan, Feng Sanli...

Arrest him!

Yes, sir!

Slander.

Nothing but slander!

I

may have a temper,

but I'm no coward!

Gold mine? Iron mine?

None of it has anything to do with me.

Feng Sanli,

don't waste

the chance I'm giving you.

I'll say one thing.

I didn't do it.

Soldiers were taken from your barracks

onto military trucks.

The man in charge of the mine

is your distant nephew.

And there are handwritten suicide notes

from the soldiers who died in the mine.

And you're still denying it?

You keep claiming

you're loyal

to my father and the Yu Army.

But everything you've done

has pushed them

into the crossfire

and put their lives on the line.

Is this what you call loyalty?

You say I pocketed the gold mine.

No loot, no thief‌.

Where's the loot?

Is there any loot?

I never personally ordered

the use of military vehicles.

He's just a distant nephew of mine.

A relative

barely worth mentioning.

Now that things have gone wrong,

he insists on dragging me into it.

Even if the central government comes,

they can't throw me in prison

without evidence.

Young Master,

let me ask you,

do you and the general trust an outsider,

or a man who's

fought tooth and nail for the Yu Army

and still carries

27 bullet wounds

on his body?

Give us justice!

Give us justice!

Hand over the culprit!

Hand over the culprit!

Give us justice!

Give us justice!

Hand over the culprit!

Hand over the culprit!

Hand over the culprit!

Give us justice!

Give us justice!

Hand over the culprit!

Hand over the culprit!

This has gone way too far!

Right now, all the blame

is pointed at Father and Changxuan.

They're being painted as monsters.

Our wounded soldiers

get taken in at dedicated hospitals.

And free treatment.

How could we ever mistreat soldiers?

The Army has tens of thousands of men.

How can we say

there are no bad apples

abusing their power?

We have to trust your father and Changxuan.

They'll definitely track down

the rotten apple fast.

Mother, we can't just wait for

Father and Changxuan to clear their names.

I have an idea.

We ladies

can go visit the wounded soldiers

at the military hospital.

First, it steadies the troops.

If we really mistreated soldiers,

we wouldn't have this kind of guts

and clean conscience.

Second, it sets an example,

showing that we stand shoulder to shoulder

with all our soldiers,

and have never drifted apart.

But

what if people say

we're just putting on a show?

Justice speaks for itself.

We meant to

look after the wounded soldiers.

We don't care about gossip.

We're sticking to

what we've always done.‌

Going together to visit the wounded

is a way to set an example.

Qixuan.

I've got a task for you.

What is it, Mother?

What task?

Spring Breeze Theatre‌

got a lot of praise for their

refugee relief work earlier.

I'd like to invite Director Liang and Miss Ye

to come to the hospital

and write a play

to comfort the wounded soldiers.

Great idea.

Then... Mother,

I'll go contact them right now.

Go on then.

Alright.

Feng Sanli's distant nephew

has taken

all the blame on himself.

Now Feng Sanli

is just playing tough,

still denying everything.

Major Li.

Looks like he had this scapegoat

lined up a long time ago.

Young Master!

Young Master.

The central government sent a telegram.

They're sending an Army Inspector

to review the Yu Army in person.

To oversee military discipline and conduct.

Until the mine disaster case is solved.

Could it be Chu Wenfu

seizing the chance to stab us?

After Chu Wenfu got burned from

Master Cheng,

he went quiet

and hasn't made a move.

The mine belongs to the central government.

Of course they'd suspect

Yu Army of pocketing the gold.

They'll investigate to the very end.

This time we've really

landed ourselves a real headache.

They're trying to

carve up our military power.

Right now the priority

is finding where the gold went.

As long as there's gold,

there has to be a place where it's stored.

No matter how flawless

Feng Sanli's scheme was,

it can't be completely traceless.

- Yes, sir. - Yes, sir.

Here.

Have some porridge.

Take it easy.

Okay.

Careful, it's hot.

Thank you, ma'am.

Mrs. Yu!

Ziyi, what are you doing here?

Mrs. Yu, I heard from Changxuan

that you were coming to visit the wounded.

So I thought

I'd do my small part.

Mrs. Yu.

Where's Changxuan?

He's inside visiting the critically wounded.

He'll be here soon.

Cooperate with your treatment, alright?

Thank you, ma'am.

Let me carry that.

No need.

It's fine.

Mrs. Yu.

Ye Pingjun?

What are you doing here?

I invited them.

Miss Ye.

Director Liang.

Miss Sun.

Please put your hearts

into this new play.

Mrs. Yu, you're too kind.

It's what we should do.

It's our duty.

We'll get it done right.

Good.

Then I'll leave you to it.

Go on.

Let's go check on the critical ward.

Alright.

Mrs. Yu, I'll go take a look too.

Go ahead.

How long have you been out fighting?

Over two years.

Over two years?

Have you been home?

No.

Give me the porridge.

This is bird's nest porridge.

Let me feed you.

Miss Tao.

Sorry.

He needs his dressing changed.

I'll do it.

Alright.

Let me change your dressing.

It's fine.

Let me.

Bear with it.

Here we go.

Done.

Let me take care of your arm too.

Get your commanding officer here!

Go get the officer!

Nobody come closer!

Put... put the knife down!

Get your officer here!

Back off!

Go get your officer!

General, something's happened!

Get your officer here!

Calm down.

Let's talk this out.

Get your officer here!

Ma'am, it's dangerous!

Miss Ye!

Watch out!

Mrs. Yu.

Back off!

I want to see your officer!

Let her go!

Let her go.

Put the gun down!

I said put the gun down!

You hear me?

Or I'll kill her!

Changxuan.

Easy.

Tell me what's wrong.

I'll help you fix it.

Can you give me back my leg?

You promised me

the army would pay my wages

and treat my leg properly!

I begged so many times.

I never saw a single cent!

And what happened?

My leg's ruined!

How am I supposed to live

the rest of my life?

Tell me how I'm supposed to live?

Tell me!

I'll get to the bottom

of what you've told me.

I'll give you an answer.

Liar!

It's

all over town now.

The Yu Army

forced soldiers to work as miners!

50 lives.

All dead with no justice.

You people

just pretend to love your men!

But deep down,

you don't treat us like human beings!

Whatever grievance you have,

it has nothing to do with this girl.

Let her go.

I'll be your hostage.

Why should I believe you?

I'm Yu Changxuan, commander

of the 9th Army.

Ever since the mine disaster broke out,

I've been investigating the whole thing.

Not just those 50 soldiers.

I owe every soldier

an answer.

But this girl

was kind enough to treat you.

You shouldn't hurt her.

I'll take responsibility

for everything in the army.

You're Young Master Changxuan?

I know you.

You've arrested

plenty of

corrupt villains in the army.

You can trust me.

Come on.

Changxuan!

Changxuan.