Jiang Chun tried to hang herself, unable to imagine a life alone. Luckily, she came to her senses. Xie Jiu reminded her that she still has her son, Wei Lingchun (Lu Yuhao), to live for. Wei Yun’s mother also entrusted the Commanding Jade Seal of the Wei Family to Jiang Chun, which has Jiang Chun promise to protect the family from now on and not do such a foolish thing again.
Meanwhile, standing at a distance, Wei Yun believes he didn’t do his job to protect the family and therefore is in no position to comfort them.
Xie Yun appears to show and give strength and resilience to Jiang Chun when she gives her a comforting hug, but her gaze indicates she might be having the same thoughts as Jiang Chun. Her gaze had moved up to the cloth noose hanging from the ceiling that Jiang Chun had tried using to leave this world a moment ago.
With Jiang Chun safe, Chu Yu—who was also at the scene—leaves to come face-to-face with Wei Yun, who questions her about her ulterior motive. Her determination to be Chu Jun’s widow just doesn’t sit right with him.
Chu Yu remains secretive about it. She only suggests he concentrate on getting justice for his lost family and dead soldiers instead of suspecting her motives. Although it sounds dismissive, Chu Yu sort of gave him the answer. She wanted justice, and it’s justice she believes Wei Yun should also be getting for what’s happened to his family. But since Chu Yu has no idea Wei Jun had given Wei Yun the trigger to the octagonal crossbow to investigate, and Wei Yun has no idea this trigger is from her, the suspicion remains.
Wei Yun’s mother comes to stop Wei Yun’s questioning. She shows acceptance of Chu Yu, but she still worries about Chu Yu wasting her youth with them, and so, she advises Chu Yu that she should think it through and has her know she is free to go home anytime.
Wanyue is seen rummaging through Wei Jun’s things in an attempt to try to see if she could help Chu Yu find a clue to its location, revealing that her and Chu Linyang’s efforts to locate the Arsenal Bureau had failed in the end.
Out of respect for Wei Jun as well as to appear to display some consideration for Wei Yun, she has Wanyue stop looking. She wanted to keep the room as is. This way, it will feel like Wei Jun is still around. She understood this feeling well, as when her father died, she did the same and kept things in the room untouched.
With her investigations at a dead-end for the time being, Chu Yu plans to help the Wei family through the current crisis. She doesn’t blame Wei Yun for being suspicious of her. She admits that if she were in his place, she’d be suspicious, too. All she wants is to find out the truth. Once she does, she will leave, and deal with Wei Yun when that time comes.
Wei Yun begins the funeral for his father and brothers, speaking about their wishes in life. Wei Jun had spoken about wanting there to be peace and justice everywhere, and should they ever achieve it, his brothers spoke about enjoying the snow in spring and the snow in winter, going to a restaurant and enjoying drinks with friends. But none of this could be realised.
A flashback of Wei Zhong’s remark about when Wei Yun would truly grow up and Wei Jun thinking how great it’d be if Wei Yun could remain as he was—carefree. It was also not to be.
The fall of his father and brothers in battle sees Wei Yun leading the funeral procession and facing the threat of a complete collapse of the Wei family as Cao Yan arrives to pin the defeat and the death of 70,000 soldiers on the Wei family. The public, who previously sympathised with the Wei family and viewed them as loyal protectors, quickly turned after a comment from “bystanders” blamed Wei Yun and his family for going after glory, causing the deaths.
This person was not a bystander. An inconspicuous look was exchanged between Cao Yan and the bystander to incite public outrage with their comment.
Wei Yun kneels and bows his head. It’s not so much an admission to Cao Yan’s accusation but more a request to Cao Yan to, at least, let him bury his father and brothers first before he’ll go with him and cooperate with the investigation. The public, though, sees this as an admission, and vegetables are thrown at him with disgust.
Chu Yu steps in and tries to get Cao Yan to show some respect when he orders his people to arrest them all, including taking the coffins back to court.
Cao Yan is on a mission to take out the Weis. He had no intention of allowing a burial and made the situation more painful than it already was for Wei Yun and the family. He says the fallen Wei brothers and Wei Zhong don’t deserve the special, ranked coffins they were in. He called them all sinful and said they should be taken out of coffins and buried in ordinary coffins as commoners. He goes as far as ordering his people to remove the bodies then and there.
Wei Yun threatens to kill Cao Yan’s entire family if he dares to make a move. Cao Yan just keeps on provoking Wei Yun, telling him it’s not with certainty when or if his family will all die, but it’s with certainty that every single one of Wei Yun’s family will die very soon.
Cao Yan is indulging himself a bit too much in this change in power dynamics between him and the Wei family. When Wei Zhong and the Weis were a revered family of generals, he was arrogant when he spoke, but he would back down and retreat. Now that the Wei family was on the verge of collapse after they’d been made the scapegoat for the defeat at Baidi Valley, he’s speaking to Wei Yun the way he spoke to Chu Yu back at Li Changming’s garden at Qinxi Valley (Episode 2)—with arrogance and zero respect.
Just as Chu Yu was provoked to the point of unleashing her whip, Wei Yun was provoked to the point of drawing out his sword. Wei Yun not only draws his sword but also moves to kill Cao Yan when he dares him to do it. Only his mother’s grip on the arm with the sword held Wei Yun back and calmed him down.
Cao Yan laughs at them, knowing they can’t touch him. She knows Cao Yan is trying to exterminate them. To clear their name, Wei Yun’s mother tells Cao Yun that she is willing to kill herself. She charges at the coffin.
Wei Yun runs to hold his mother in his arms. She tells him not to cry. Before she passes away, she has him reiterate and remember the family rule: “Defend the nation and the throne. Hold no regrets.” That is, Wei Yun, Liu Xueyang, and the Wei family were an honourable military family. They did not chase after glory, as Cao Yan had accused.
Cao Yan now gets criticism for killing an innocent woman. He still insists on taking the coffins in. It has Chu Yu and Wei Yun’s sisters-in-law move to block them. They must stick to protecting the coffins with their bodies and not attack Cao Yan—an official. It gets Chu Yu whipped, which gets a surprised look from Wei Yun.
The public rushes in to protect the coffins with Chu Yu. They now return to sympathising with the Wei family, calling them loyal people who had defended them for a long time. They didn’t understand how Cao Yan could ignore the family’s past contributions and blamed them because of one defeat.
Cao Yan is intent on arresting Wei Yun then and there without allowing the burial to proceed and now orders the people to be taken in as well. He claims it’s an order from His Majesty, which they can’t expect him to disobey. Although Emperor Chunde had talked about having the matter investigated, he didn’t say anything about not letting the Wei family proceed with the funeral and switching the coffins to ordinary ones.
Seeing no way to end this but submit, Wei Yun agrees to go with Cao Yan. He warns that if anyone gets hurt, he will kill him.
Just as Wei Yun is handcuffed, Grand Tutor Xie Mingyi (He Yongsheng)—with Chu Linyang—comes to reprimand Cao Yan’s treatment of the Wei Family. As someone with a higher rank than Cao Yan, he demands Wei Yun be unshackled. He too sees them as loyal subjects. They’ve also not been convicted yet. But even if they are, until the Emperor strips away their nobility, they are still a family with nobility and the family of the Marquis of Zhenguo.
Xie Mingyi criticises him for having no respect for His Majesty. Cao Yan uses the reason for his treatment of Wei Yun as being an order from His Majesty again. He’d lose his life if he didn’t obey. Xie Mingyi doesn’t argue against Cao Yan’s reason, but it didn’t justify needing to achieve the order within the hour and he suspects Cao Yan of taking revenge on the Wei family for his own interests.
Cao Yan backs down, admitting to being a bit hasty. He agrees to wait from behind, allowing the funeral procession to continue.
Wei Yun kneels to thank Grand Tutor Xie Mingyi as do Chu Yu and Wei Yun’s sisters-in-law. The Grand Tutor moves to Wei Yun get onto his feet, telling him he needn’t get down on his knees to thank him. He then moves to pay his respects to the fallen Wei members for their services.
(Thank goodness the Grand Tutor arrived and spoke up for Wei Yun and his family to at least let Wei Yun bury his family members. He was already grieving for the loss of his father and brothers, and to have Cao Yan blame him and his family for the loss of the 70,000 soldiers on the battlefield before he lost his mother, too—what an impossible situation he was in.)
Wei Yun gets his fallen family members to their final resting place. He swears to find out the truth, protect the family, and defend their nation should he come back alive after his arrest just before Cao Yan arrives to take Wei Yun in.
Before Wei Yun leaves, Chu Yu tells Wei Yun to take care of himself. The tone is soft, her brows slightly furrowed. There’s genuine concern, but at the moment, probably it’s not specifically because she cares about Wei Yun, but perhaps because she needs him to take care of himself so that she can help her achieve her goal of investigating the octagonal crossbow that caused the loss of her father and Chu Linyang to sustain serious injuries to his leg.
She’s told to return home and not to waste her life in this family. Wei Yun speaks to Chu Yu with a straight tone, but his expression is soft, and the tone also conveys some softness. He still suspects she’s up to something, but he appears to be looking out for what’s best for her in a general sense of the situation.
Chu Yu tells him to worry about himself, as Cao Yan won’t let him off and prison is going to be tough. She tells him that she won’t stand by when his family is in trouble. It’s a promise that may have to do with hidden motives, but it’s also because of having been moved by the Wei family’s rule to defend the nation and hold no regrets, which she later reveals to Wanyue.
Wei Yun lets Chu Yu be. He tells his sisters-in-law to take care before heading off with Cao Yan.
Back at home, Wanyue suggests digging around to find what they’re after and then returning home. Chu Yu doesn’t feel right to leave at the moment. She must get Wei Yun out. Hearing the Wei family rule and having been moved by it, she expresses viewing people like the people in the Wei family who sacrifice themselves for justice as heroes. Since she can’t be one of them, she should protect such people from being insulted. It also gave her an even greater resolve to find out the truth surrounding the octagonal crossbow case.
Chu Yu also thinks that in order to continue investigating the octagonal crossbow arrow case, it must be Wei Yun who takes over the Arsenal Bureau. If Wei Yun is convicted, the Wei family falls and the supervisor of the Arsenal Bureau becomes someone else, which makes it harder to sneak in to investigate things.
At the Court of Judicial Review, Wei Yun is shackled at the wrists and ankles and tortured to the point of passing out. Water is splashed on him to wake him, which gets Cao Yan a death glare.
The animosity between him and Cao Yan has Wei Yun suspect Duke of Ning Wang Jingzhi as the one behind Cao Yan’s audacity of trying to exterminate his family. Wei Yun can’t see a reason for it, as there was never any conflict between Cao Yan and the Wei family. Cao Yan keeps saying it’s under His Majesty’s orders he’s doing this, but it doesn’t make sense to Wei Yun.
The reason why it doesn’t make sense is Emperor Chunde’s aim to maintain balance between factions so no one faction—be it the civil officials or the military generals—gets too strong. Taking out the Wei family would leave an imbalance of power in favour of the civil officials.
So, when thinking about who would benefit the most from ridding the Wei family, Wei Yun believes it should be the Duke of Ning, the head of the civil officials. Cao Yan doesn’t deny Wei Yun’s allegations. He also doesn’t deny Wei Yun’s accusation of knowingly defying Emperor Chunde.
Cao Yan is just confident Wei Yun won’t be able to do anything to him with the accusation of his family being charged with killing 70,000 soldiers. Cao Yan moves to ask Wei Yun whether he pleads guilty to the charge. Wei Yun pleads not guilty and innocent. That gets him a torture contraption placed between his ankles and pulled at each end, causing him to cry out in pain.
