Grandpa Tan

Grandpa Tan is a respected martial artist whose brief pursuit of the truth about the deaths connected to the attack at Yanmen Pass ends in the deaths of his wife, Granny Tan, and Zhao Qiansun, followed by his own suicide. His desperate effort to reach Granny Tan turns Qiao Feng’s search for answers into a personal tragedy, and leaves Qiao Feng feeling responsible even though he did not kill the three people who died.

Identity and Background

Grandpa Tan is Granny Tan’s husband and a martial artist known to people in the jianghu. When Qiao Feng accompanies him out of Weihui city, several passersby recognize Grandpa Tan, respectfully make way, and salute him. His public standing contrasts with his helplessness in the private crisis that follows: he can neither protect his wife nor control the consequences of what he learns.

The account also places the Tans among the people who know something about the violence surrounding Qiao Feng’s father. Qiao Feng wants Grandpa Tan to identify his father’s enemy. Granny Tan and Zhao Qiansun refuse to tell him what he wants to know, and Grandpa Tan’s eventual confrontation with Qiao Feng brings the question into the open without resolving it. The evidence here does not establish what Grandpa Tan himself knows or whether he would have revealed it.

The Search for Granny Tan

Qiao Feng leaves the cabin after Granny Tan and Zhao Qiansun will not disclose the truth. He takes a jade hairpin from Granny Tan and goes to Weihui city, where he quickly learns that the Tans are staying at the Rugui Inn. Disguised, he enters the inn without being recognized and finds Grandpa Tan pacing fretfully in his room. The hairpin, placed in Qiao Feng’s palm, becomes the proof that connects the absent wife to the husband who fears for her.

When Grandpa Tan takes the hairpin, Qiao Feng tells him that Granny Tan has been captured and is in danger. At first Grandpa Tan doubts that anyone could easily seize a woman with her martial arts ability. Qiao Feng identifies himself, and that name immediately makes the warning credible to Grandpa Tan—but also intensifies his alarm. Qiao Feng then makes the stakes explicit: Grandpa Tan can see his wife alive if he answers a question truthfully; if he refuses, Qiao Feng says he will kill her and bury her with Zhao Qiansun.

Grandpa Tan responds with force rather than an answer. He strikes at Qiao Feng, who evades the first blow and then withstands another in the confined room. Qiao Feng presses down on his shoulder with such strength that Grandpa Tan is forced to kneel. Qiao Feng deliberately uses the restraint to humble him, then suddenly releases him; caught by the sudden absence of pressure, Grandpa Tan springs up and hits his head against a beam. Qiao Feng nevertheless takes him out of the inn and leads him toward the boat, where he can see for himself what has happened.

Deaths on the Boat

When Grandpa Tan looks into the cabin, he sees Granny Tan and Zhao Qiansun leaning against each other. Enraged, he strikes at Zhao Qiansun, who does not move or defend himself. Only then does Grandpa Tan touch his wife and realize that she is cold and no longer breathing. He checks Zhao Qiansun as well and finds him dead. The apparent embrace, which first provokes Grandpa Tan’s anger, is thus transformed into evidence of a double death rather than a living betrayal.

Grandpa Tan turns on Qiao Feng, who is himself astonished. Before leaving the boat, Qiao Feng had only blocked the pair’s acupuncture points; he cannot explain how they died. Examining Zhao Qiansun, Qiao Feng finds no weapon wound or blood, but sees a large dark bruise on his chest, apparently caused by a heavy palm strike—and, strangely, resembling an injury Zhao Qiansun could have inflicted on himself. This discovery leaves the immediate cause of death unresolved. It also means that Qiao Feng’s threat to kill Granny Tan and Zhao Qiansun, made to force an answer from Grandpa Tan, precedes their deaths but does not establish that he caused them.

Final Confrontation and Consequences

Grieving and furious, Grandpa Tan attacks Qiao Feng with all his strength. Qiao Feng catches him by the shoulder and insists that he did not kill Granny Tan, offering instead to avenge her if Grandpa Tan will name the enemy who killed Qiao Feng’s father. Grandpa Tan distrusts the offer and tries repeatedly to break free, but Qiao Feng’s hold grows stronger in response to his efforts. Neither the bargain nor the display of force produces the name Qiao Feng seeks.

Unable to escape and unwilling to yield, Grandpa Tan bites through his tongue and dies. Before his death, he kicks Zhao Qiansun’s body aside and gathers Granny Tan’s body into his arms. His last act is therefore not to answer Qiao Feng’s question, but to turn toward his dead wife. The scene closes his part in the inquiry in silence: the information Qiao Feng wants remains undisclosed, while the cost of his attempt to extract it has become irreversible.

Qiao Feng feels sorrow and remorse, recognizing that although he did not personally kill the Tans or Zhao Qiansun, they died because of the chain of events involving him. He considers sinking the boat to hide the bodies, but rejects the idea because concealment would make him appear guilty. He searches the riverbank for a footprint or other clue and finds none. Returning to the inn, he tells A'Zhu that all three have died. Grandpa Tan’s death thus adds both grief and uncertainty to the investigation: the apparent evidence points toward a palm strike, but no trace identifies who delivered it.