Kang Min and Bai Shijing

Kang Min and Bai Shijing are lovers whose relationship becomes the instrument of a murder plot and an attempt to expose Xiao Feng’s concealed Khitan identity. Their alliance is not simply a private attachment: Kang Min directs the scheme, while Bai Shijing’s position as a Beggar Clan Law Enforcement Elder gives him both the means to participate and the authority that makes his betrayal especially consequential.

Affair and conspiracy

The relationship emerges into view when Bai Shijing enters the room where Kang Min and Duan Zhengchun are confronting one another. His first words to Kang Min imply an old intimacy that has not ended, and he reproaches her for not killing Duan Zhengchun after his martial abilities had been impaired. The exchange presents Bai not as a disinterested official arriving to investigate, but as a man aligned with Kang Min and ready to act on her behalf.

The alliance has already extended beyond the immediate confrontation. Bai’s later confession establishes that Kang Min repeatedly urged Ma Dayuan to reveal the secret of Xiao Feng’s birth. Ma, however, would not expose it. Bai then admits that Kang Min devised the scheme that led to Ma’s death, making her the principal planner and him a participant in the conspiracy. The motive he describes links their private relationship to the larger political and personal danger surrounding Xiao Feng’s origins.

Protection and betrayal at the Ma residence

When Bai arrives, Duan Zhengchun has briefly recovered enough strength to use the Yi Yang Finger and immobilize Kang Min. Xiao Feng, who has lent Duan Zhengchun support from outside, withdraws as soon as Duan has her under control. Bai steps into the opening: he takes Duan Zhengchun’s hands and breaks his wrists, while Duan is again unable to resist once Xiao Feng’s borrowed internal energy fades.

Bai’s conduct then reveals both his practical loyalty to Kang Min and its limits. He tries to release her from the pressure-point hold, massaging her waist, but cannot undo the effect of Duan family technique. Kang Min tells him that she cannot stand and urges him to kill Duan Zhengchun so they can leave. His concern is unmistakable, yet he cannot restore her freedom or control the situation. Duan Zhengchun, recognizing their intimacy, addresses her affectionately, further exposing that Bai has entered a conflict shaped by her past attachment to Duan as well as her present alliance with Bai.

Exposure and confession

The decisive break comes when Bai Shijing is made to believe that Ma Dayuan has returned as a ghost. Xiao Feng does not accept a supernatural explanation; he understands the apparition as a martial artist’s deception designed to frighten Bai and Kang Min into confessing. Bai’s fear changes the balance between the two conspirators: when he blames Kang Min, the pressure on his throat eases, and he takes that opening to reveal what he knows.

Bai says that Kang Min had read Chief Wang’s will and had repeatedly pressed Ma Dayuan to disclose the secret of Xiao Feng’s birth. Because Ma refused, she planned to harm her husband. Xiao Feng’s understanding shifts as the confession connects the murder to the effort to expose his identity. Bai’s account names Kang Min as the chief schemer, but it does not absolve him: his admission confirms that the two were responsible for Ma Dayuan’s death.

Consequences and significance

Once the conspiracy is exposed, Bai attempts to save himself by placing the blame on Kang Min, insisting that the idea was hers and that she forced him to take part. Kang Min answers defiantly, refusing to deny that she conceived the plan and showing no fear of Ma Dayuan’s supposed return. Their alliance, once organized around concealment and mutual advantage, collapses into accusation when discovery makes each seek survival at the other’s expense.

Bai Shijing’s place in the Beggar Clan sharpens the betrayal. As its Law Enforcement Elder, he is an officer associated with discipline and order; his participation in murder, followed by an effort to evade responsibility, turns that public role against the principles it represents. The relation also provides a crucial route into the revelation of the plot against Ma Dayuan and the intended exposure of Xiao Feng’s birth secret. It ends not in reconciliation or a shared escape, but in mutual denunciation and the destruction of the secrecy on which their partnership depended.