Lu Xun and Lin Yanche Confront Chu Fei in Yancheng

Lu Xun and Lin Yanche Confront Chu Fei in Yancheng marks the moment Lu Xun’s search for Su Xiangwan leaves the relative security of Yuncheng and enters Chu Fei’s territory. Lu Xun intends to locate and bring Su Xiangwan back, but the journey reveals that Chu Fei has anticipated his arrival and possesses enough influence in Yancheng to turn a personal pursuit into a coercive political and criminal confrontation. Lin Yanche’s decision to accompany Lu Xun adds an uneasy alliance: both men are drawn into the same danger, even though the immediate stakes center on Su Xiangwan’s whereabouts and Chu Fei’s interest in her family connections.

Causes and Background

Lu Xun learns that Su Xiangwan is with others beyond his immediate reach and decides that his next step is to capture her and bring her back. The difficulty is greater than expected because Su Qingrou is not in Cloud City either; she and Su Xiangwan have gone to Yan City, where Jin Zhengnan’s influence makes the search more complicated. Yan City is described as Jin Zhengnan’s territory, giving those sheltering there the confidence that they are protected from Lu Xun’s usual reach.

Lin Yanche reacts to the news with enough urgency to offer his own assistance. Although he has only recently recovered in the hospital, he insists that Lu Xun needs his help and proposes going to Yan City. Lu Xun initially tells him to remain hospitalized, reminding him that Su Qingrou has already stabbed him and warning against rushing into another danger. Yet Lu Xun soon changes course. He arranges for Lin Yanche to leave the hospital and announces that they will fly there that night, turning Lin Yanche from a recovering patient into an ally in the pursuit.

The decision also reflects the complicated bond between the two men. Their cooperation is not presented as uncomplicated trust or friendship; it is a practical alliance formed under pressure. Lu Xun needs information and force, while Lin Yanche has a personal reason to involve himself because Su Qingrou is part of the crisis. The journey therefore carries two intertwined objectives: Lu Xun wants Su Xiangwan returned, and Lin Yanche wants to remain close to the conflict surrounding Su Qingrou.

Arrival and Coercive Escort

That night, Lu Xun and Lin Yanche fly directly to Yan City. The moment they leave the plane, Chu Fei’s men are already waiting at the airport, appearing as though the timing of their arrival had been calculated in advance. Lu Xun has brought many people with him and is not immediately afraid that the group can overpower them, but the waiting escort resolves the doubts both men have been carrying: Chu Fei knows they are coming, and their arrival is not a surprise.

The escort is framed as hospitality but functions as detention. Lu Xun remarks that they have just stepped off the plane and are already being taken away in a special car, treating the arrangement as an elaborate courtesy while recognizing its controlling purpose. One of the guards explains that Chu Fei is interested in Lu Xun because of his connection to the Second Miss and is concerned that Lu Xun might be neglected. The explanation places Su Xiangwan at the center of Chu Fei’s attention while also reducing Lu Xun’s movement to something Chu Fei can authorize or restrict.

The threat becomes explicit when Chu Fei’s men say that their boss will probably receive Lu Xun alone and request that Lu Xun and Lin Yanche cooperate. When Lu Xun challenges the implication, the group suddenly raises guns, aiming their black muzzles at both men in broad daylight. The open display of firearms in Yan City demonstrates the scale of Chu Fei’s local influence: his people do not need secrecy to enforce his instructions. Lu Xun answers with a faint smile and treats his question as casual, but the gesture cannot erase the shift in power. The two men have arrived with their own security, yet Chu Fei has seized the initiative before they can make a move.

Chu Fei’s Abandoned Factory Base

The confrontation leads Lu Xun and Lin Yanche to a house converted from an old abandoned factory. From the outside, the building appears tattered, concealed, and unremarkable. Inside, however, it becomes a different world, suggesting that the neglected exterior is a deliberate cover for an active base of operations in Yan City. The setting embodies Chu Fei’s power: hidden behind decay, organized beneath the surface, and capable of receiving important opponents without exposing the full extent of its resources.

When the two men enter the living room, Chu Fei is seated on a sofa with his legs crossed and a cigar in his mouth. He watches them without expression as they walk in. The posture establishes a deliberate contrast between their forced arrival and his relaxed control of the room. A bodyguard announces that Boss Lu has arrived and that he has brought Boss Lin. Chu Fei merely waves his hand, and the bodyguards retreat to the side, immediately obeying him and leaving the central space to the principals.

The arrangement turns the room into a controlled arena rather than a meeting between equals. Lu Xun and Lin Yanche have been transported there under armed escort, while Chu Fei waits in comfort and decides when his guards should speak, withdraw, or intervene. The abandoned factory therefore functions as more than a location. It is a physical expression of concealed authority, where a seemingly ruined structure contains the machinery of surveillance, intimidation, and command.

The Demand for Su Xiangwan

Once the meeting begins, Lu Xun cuts through Chu Fei’s evasive manner and asks where Su Xiangwan is. Chu Fei answers only that she is where she should be, refusing to provide a location or acknowledge Lu Xun’s authority to demand one. The brevity of the exchange intensifies the confrontation. Lu Xun has crossed into Yan City to retrieve Su Xiangwan, but Chu Fei responds as though her position is determined by his judgment rather than by Lu Xun’s claim as her husband.

Lu Xun then stands and prepares to leave, warning that if Chu Fei continues speaking in this way, the conversation cannot continue and that there is no reason to waste more time. The attempted departure is a test of whether Lu Xun can reclaim control through refusal. Yet the earlier escort and gun display have already shown that leaving may not be entirely his choice. Chu Fei’s evasiveness, combined with the armed presence around them, keeps the question of Su Xiangwan suspended between information and threat.

The scene’s value shift is consequently from pursuit to entrapment. Lu Xun begins with the confidence of someone who has identified his objective and assembled enough people to protect himself. By the time he reaches Chu Fei’s base, the objective remains unchanged, but the terms have altered: Chu Fei knows his purpose, controls the route to the meeting, and refuses to surrender the information Lu Xun needs. Lin Yanche’s presence strengthens Lu Xun’s side emotionally and strategically, but it does not dissolve the territorial advantage held by Chu Fei.

Narrative Significance

The confrontation develops the book’s recurring pattern of love, protection, and control becoming difficult to separate. Lu Xun’s decision to capture Su Xiangwan and bring her back is framed as determined protection, yet the language of capture also reveals the possessive force within that protection. Chu Fei exploits the same network of emotional and familial ties from the opposite direction, using Su Xiangwan’s connection to Lu Xun as the reason to summon him and as leverage over his movement.

The episode also gains weight from the characters’ earlier traumas. Lu Xun has disclosed that he was kidnapped at the age of twelve, drugged by his kidnappers, and nearly killed; the experience left him resistant to many drugs. That history makes the airport escort and the armed reception more than ordinary danger. He is again entering an environment in which other people have prepared the conditions, control access, and may intend to deprive him of freedom. His unwavering manner suggests that the old pain has not vanished, even if he can now describe it as something belonging to the distant past.

Su Xiangwan’s own vulnerability forms a parallel thread. Earlier, she collapses at an elevator after weakness, fever, and fading consciousness overwhelm her, while Lu Xun responds with urgent commands and threatens the studio of Hua Shuo when he believes it has interfered with his plans. Later, when she admits that she is frightened, Lu Xun embraces her and reassures her that he has been there all along. The Yancheng mission extends this pattern outward: fear of losing Su Xiangwan produces pursuit, pursuit produces confrontation, and confrontation places Lu Xun and Lin Yanche inside another controlled space where rescue may require force.

The action thus serves as both a plot advance and a pressure test. It confirms Chu Fei’s expansion and influence in Yan City, binds Lu Xun and Lin Yanche into a temporary alliance, and places Su Xiangwan’s whereabouts at the center of an unresolved power struggle. The encounter ends not with a recovered woman or a settled dispute, but with Chu Fei still withholding the crucial answer, leaving the confrontation poised to escalate.