Weihui

Weihui is a city in Henan that becomes a crucial stop in Qiao Feng and A'Zhu’s southward journey: there, they attend Elder Xu’s memorial, and Qiao Feng encounters the consequences of the Beggar Society’s decline and the deaths of Granny Tan and Zhao Qiansun. The city’s crowded streets and makeshift mourning hall bring public hostility and private grief into the same narrow space.

The memorial brings Qiao Feng back

Qiao Feng and A'Zhu decide to travel to Weihui after hearing in Sanjia town that Elder Xu has died and that the Beggar Society’s elders and members will gather for the memorial. The gathering is also expected to discuss how to capture Qiao Feng. A'Zhu warns him that many attendees are former subordinates and that he must take care not to reveal himself through his words or behavior. They arrive on the third day and enter the city without drawing attention to their purpose.

A changed Beggar Society

The streets and alleys are crowded with Beggar Society disciples. Some eat noisily in restaurants; others slaughter animals in the alleys or harass passersby. Qiao Feng sees a sharp contrast with the strict, vigorous organization he once led. Though he and the society have become enemies, he regrets that years of work have been undone so quickly and fears that ordinary people will soon hold the society in contempt.

By listening to the disciples’ coded slang, Qiao Feng learns that Elder Xu’s memorial tablet has been placed in an abandoned garden on the city’s western side. He and A'Zhu buy incense, candles, spirit money, and animal heads as offerings, then join the mourners and bow before the tablet. Fresh blood on it signifies the society’s custom of marking a death attributed to murder and calling for vengeance. The people gathered there denounce Qiao Feng, unaware that he is among them; surrounded by the society’s leaders, he worries that his disguise may be discovered and leaves promptly with A'Zhu.

Deaths beyond the mourning hall

As Qiao Feng leaves, he recognizes Granny Tan in an alley and then spots Zhao Qiansun. He has been seeking her, and his encounter with the pair leads him out of the city with Grandpa Tan. On a large wooden boat, Qiao Feng directs Grandpa Tan to look inside the cabin. There Grandpa Tan finds Granny Tan and Zhao Qiansun together, but discovers that both have already died. Weihui’s memorial visit thus opens onto another, more intimate reckoning with the past.

A point in a wider political map

The account also situates Weihui within a broader geography of political conflict. It identifies Weihui as a Henan destination for the Beggar Society’s memorial gathering, while other episodes range through the Liao Empire’s northern territories, including Nanjing, and across the frontier with Great Song. In that wider world, Qiao Feng encounters the Jurchen chief Helibu’s people and sees fighting between Jurchen and Khitan forces; later, he confronts the capture of Song civilians in Liao raids. The contrast helps frame Weihui as a local center of remembrance and factional tension within a story whose conflicts extend across ethnic and imperial borders.