At Little Mirror Lake, a playful but dangerous encounter involving A'Zi, Duan Zhengchun, and Xiao Feng gives way to the recognition of A'Zi as Duan Zhengchun and Ruan Xingzhu’s daughter. The family’s reunion does not settle the scene: Duan Yanqing arrives to confront Duan Zhengchun, and Chu Wanli dies defending the lord he has served, turning a moment of recovered kinship into one of loss and threatened political conflict.

Causes and First Clashes

As Xiao Feng was preparing to seek the Square Bamboo Forest, a stone flew from a thicket and struck the line of a fisherman lifting a black carp from the lake. The fisherman was Chu Wanli, one of Duan Zhengchun’s retainers. The stone’s throw brought Xiao Feng’s attention to the lakeside, where a young girl soon emerged as the source of further disruption. Her transparent Flexible Silk Net could scarcely be seen; when Chu Wanli pursued her, he slipped into it, and his struggles only drew its fine, resilient threads tighter. The net’s construction made it an effective trap, but its use against a retainer of the House of Duan would leave an injury to his pride that mattered well beyond the practical difficulty of freeing him.

Another man came along the lakeside path asking what had happened to Chu Wanli. He was Duan Zhengchun, though Xiao Feng did not yet know his identity. When the young girl turned her attack toward him, she used poisoned needles. Duan Zhengchun recognized the danger and struck her with the force of his sleeve, sending her into the lake. Ruan Xingzhu, who had been watching, objected to the decision to leave her there; she entered the water and brought the girl back herself. The sequence exposes a sharp contrast within this family before its ties have been named: A'Zi’s mischief and aggression meet Duan Zhengchun’s anger, while Ruan Xingzhu’s insistence on rescuing her turns punishment into rescue.

The Gold Lock and Recognition

The decisive evidence of A'Zi’s parentage is not an explanation but a small object. Ruan Xingzhu came out holding a gold lock, an ordinary piece of jewelry in appearance. Xiao Feng recognized that it resembled the lock he had seen when A'Zhu was injured. Duan Zhengchun, however, reacted at once, asking where it had come from in a trembling voice. Ruan Xingzhu then told him that the girl was his daughter and reproached him for having thrown her into the lake, given that he had not raised her.

Xiao Feng understood the significance of the lock alongside another identifying mark, on A'Zi’s left shoulder. He inferred that her parents had sent her to be fostered elsewhere not long after her birth and had left the two marks to identify her. The discovery establishes A'Zi’s biological connection to Duan Zhengchun and Ruan Xingzhu, while also making clear that they had not brought her up. Recognition therefore does not erase the distance created by her upbringing: Duan Zhengchun has just treated his daughter as an adversary, and A'Zi’s conduct has endangered both him and Chu Wanli before the family bond becomes known.

Xiao Feng’s attention also registers A'Zhu’s response. As the others absorb the revelation, tears stream down A'Zhu’s face and she leans toward the bed. Her reaction links the lock to the similar token she carried, but the scene’s explicit recognition concerns A'Zi and her parents. The difference between the sisters’ visible responses and the parents’ discovery gives the lock a wider significance without changing what it proves: it is an identifying token that brings one concealed relationship into the open.

Reunion and Unresolved Grievance

A'Zi soon revives the playful tone on her own terms. When Duan Zhengchun asks why she pretended to be unconscious, she answers that he had thrown her into the lake and calls him a bad person. Ruan Xingzhu looks her over with unmistakable happiness, while Duan Zhengchun responds with an awkward smile. Their relief at finding her alive coexists with the immediate memory of how she came to be in danger and of her refusal to behave as a chastened child.

The tension is visible again when the party returns to the lakeside. Zhu Danchen has been struggling to free Chu Wanli from the Flexible Silk Net, which cannot be untied by hand or cut with a knife. Duan Zhengchun orders A'Zi to release her uncle, but she instead asks what reward she will receive. He rebukes her for offending Chu Wanli; she counters that he should make amends to her for throwing her into the lake. Their exchange shows that the recovered father-daughter bond is not yet a settled pattern of care or obedience. A'Zi treats the rescue as a grievance to bargain over, while Duan Zhengchun tries to assert parental authority only after the family relationship has been revealed.

Xiao Feng frees Chu Wanli by lifting him into the lake: the net loosens when it touches water, allowing him to untie it. Chu Wanli thanks him, but Xiao Feng’s effort does not undo the humiliation of having been caught by A'Zi. The episode gives the net a double role. It is a clever device that can defeat a strong man and resist ordinary attempts at release, yet its effectiveness leaves its captive exposed to the very shame that will shape the tragedy that follows.

Duan Yanqing’s Arrival and Chu Wanli’s Death

The family scene is interrupted by news that Duan Zhengchun’s adversary is approaching. His attendants warn that a diversion at the bluestone bridge may not hold the enemy. Duan Zhengchun says he will have to face the danger rather than evade it, while his followers urge him to put the state first and return to Dali. A hostile voice soon calls out for the man surnamed Duan to surrender, making the threat unmistakable.

Duan Yanqing arrives with Ye Erniang and Yue the Third, while Yun Zhonghe, frightened at the sight of Xiao Feng, runs toward them. Duan Yanqing’s formidable skill has already injured Gu Ducheng and Fu Sigui. Zhu Danchen initially mistakes Xiao Feng for an enemy and fails to stop him at the bridge; Chu Wanli remains caught in A'Zi’s net. The retainers and ministers gather around Duan Zhengchun, among them Fan Hua, Hua Hegen, and Ba Tianshi, preparing to defend him against the approaching danger.

Xiao Feng recognizes Duan Zhengchun and tells A'Zhu that he has found the man he sought. He considers taking advantage of Duan Zhengchun’s precarious position to strike at him for the wrongs he believes were done to his parents, his master, and his adoptive parents, as well as to himself. His anger makes him question whether ordinary concern for virtue and the conventions of the martial world should restrain him. The episode thus places Xiao Feng’s pursuit of vengeance alongside the family reunion: even as A'Zi is being recognized as a daughter, Xiao Feng is weighing whether to attack her father.

Chu Wanli charges Duan Yanqing with his copper staff, despite the others’ calls for him to stop. Duan Yanqing’s repeated attacks wound him, but Chu Wanli continues forward. At last Duan Yanqing strikes through his chest and escapes several paces away. Chu Wanli cannot continue the pursuit. He turns to Duan Zhengchun and says that he would rather die than suffer dishonor and has never failed the House of Duan. Duan Zhengchun kneels and apologizes, taking responsibility for having fathered A'Zi without raising her and for the offence she caused Chu Wanli. Chu Wanli turns to Zhu Danchen, begins to say farewell, and dies still standing upright.

Consequences and Significance

Chu Wanli’s death is connected to more than the immediate battle. The narration explains that being trapped in A'Zi’s net had humiliated him in a way he could not put aside: ordinary defeat in martial arts could be answered by training and eventual revenge, but he could not simply resolve the shame of being bested by the daughter of the lord he served. His reckless attack on Duan Yanqing therefore carries the accumulated weight of that insult as well as his loyalty to Duan Zhengchun. The scene does not present the clash as a clean contest between equal opponents; it shows a retainer’s sense of honor narrowed by his obligations and by an injury to status he believes he cannot live down.

The episode binds together three forms of relation without making them interchangeable. A'Zi’s parentage is established through the gold lock and the mark on her shoulder; her parents’ happiness comes despite her unruly conduct and the long separation. Chu Wanli’s service to the House of Duan is expressed in his last declaration, and Duan Zhengchun answers his death with an apology that acknowledges his own failure to raise A'Zi. Meanwhile, Xiao Feng’s discovery of Duan Zhengchun sharpens the danger of vengeance rather than resolving it. The reunion at Little Mirror Lake is therefore inseparable from its aftermath: a concealed family tie is recovered, but the household and its retainers remain caught in conflict, humiliation, and loss.