Xiao Feng—Madam Ma

Xiao Feng—Madam Ma is a relationship defined by Madam Ma’s resentment of Xiao Feng and by the revenge she builds around his concealed identity. Her confession links a personal grievance to the exposure of his Khitan origins, Ma Dayuan’s murder, and the broader effort to ruin Xiao Feng’s standing in the Beggar Clan and the Central Plains.

Origins of the Grievance

Madam Ma tells Xiao Feng that she had been angry because he never looked at her. She says she first instructed her husband, Ma Dayuan, to reveal Xiao Feng’s scar, but Ma Dayuan refused. She then asked Bai Shijing to kill Ma Dayuan. Her account presents the murder not as an isolated act but as part of a scheme set in motion by a slight she had nursed against Xiao Feng.

The grievance acquires political force when Madam Ma secretly reads Chief Wang’s letter, which she finds in Ma Dayuan’s safe. She explains that she opened it without damaging its sealing wax and resealed it after reading. The letter gave her information she could use to bring Xiao Feng down: she wanted Ma Dayuan to announce publicly that Xiao Feng was a Khitan prisoner of war, stripping him of his leadership of the Beggar Clan, his place in the Central Plains, and potentially his life. Thus, the private resentment becomes a calculated attack on his identity and reputation.

Confession and Accusation

At their final confrontation, Xiao Feng initially leaves Madam Ma after she pleads for her life. His departure provokes her into revealing the history behind the plot. When he questions her explanation, she insists that she is close to death and has no reason to deceive him. She describes the disclosure of his origins as an opportunity to vent her resentment and make him suffer a complete fall from grace.

Xiao Feng recognizes the severity of what she has done but challenges her account. He points out that she wanted to kill her husband, a former lover, and a man who had never looked at her. Madam Ma does not deny the pattern. Instead, she asks why he ignored her and presents his refusal to notice her as the cause of her anger. Her confession therefore reveals both the scheme’s practical steps and the intensely personal grievance she uses to explain them.

A Bargain at the End

Xiao Feng also holds Madam Ma responsible for Miss Duan’s death. She replies that she had intended to use Bai Shijing’s elevation to leadership to set the Beggar Clan against the Duan family of Dali, and ultimately to bring Duan Zhengchun under her influence. Her plans extend beyond Xiao Feng: his rejection is the starting point for a wider design against people and families connected to him.

Xiao Feng asks who wrote Chief Wang’s letter under the name of the Leading Big Brother. Madam Ma makes her answer conditional: she wants him to hold her and look at her carefully for a long time. He reluctantly agrees because she is the only person who knows the identity he seeks, and he fears that her death would leave him ignorant of the enemy who killed his parents. The bargain returns their relationship to its original imbalance: the attention she once resented withholding becomes the price of information she alone can provide.

Significance

Madam Ma’s account shows how a concealed family history can be weaponized through the institutions and loyalties of the martial world. The letter gives her a means to turn Xiao Feng’s Khitan ancestry into a public accusation, while her manipulation of Ma Dayuan and Bai Shijing connects that disclosure to murder and factional conflict. Her personal explanation does not lessen the consequences: her resentment helps make Xiao Feng an outcast and leaves him confronting both a public identity crisis and the private search for his parents’ killer.