Leading Big Brother

“Leading Big Brother” is the guarded, indirect name for the man behind a letter concerning Xiao Feng that helped set a deadly chain of suspicion in motion. It first appears as a secret protected by fear and obligation; its eventual identification as Duan Zhengchun links the Beggar Society’s old case to Dali’s ruling house and explains why those who knew the answer hesitated to speak. The expression names not merely a hidden person, but a concealed source of authority whose influence reaches across the jianghu and the court.

The hidden name and the old case

The title enters the investigation as a phrase attached to a letter sent to Chief Wang of the Beggar Society. When Xiao Feng asks Granny Tan who the writer is, he frames the question as a test of truth: if she answers, he promises to release her acupuncture points and leave without telling anyone about the incident. The wording matters. Xiao Feng is seeking the identity behind the accusations that have marked him as a traitor, but the answer is protected by loyalties that make disclosure seem more dangerous than continued uncertainty.

At Weihui, the same secrecy takes on a public dimension. Xiao Feng and A’Zhu hear that Beggar Society elders and members will gather for a memorial ceremony for Elder Xu, and that they intend to discuss capturing Xiao Feng. The former chief knows the Society’s slang and understands why the speakers lower their voices: they believe his influence is still formidable and fear being overheard by his subordinates. The hidden name belongs to a case that has turned former comrades into pursuers, even as Xiao Feng’s knowledge of their customs lets him move through their conversation unseen.

The risk of naming the figure becomes plain when Granny Tan hesitates. Zhao Qiansun orders her not to speak, insisting that he owes the “leading big brother” a debt and would rather die than reveal his name. He says he will kill himself before Grandpa Tan if the incident becomes known. Xiao Feng counters that silence could cost Granny Tan her reputation and her shige’s life, while a truthful answer might preserve everyone’s standing. The title is thus guarded not only by fear of retaliation, but by a tangled code of indebtedness, reputation, and personal sacrifice.

Identification as Duan Zhengchun

The secret is finally disclosed in A’Zhu’s conversation with Madam Ma. Disguised as Bai Shijing, A’Zhu leads Madam Ma to explain how the figure could be connected to the Purely Yang Finger despite the distance between Dali’s ruling clan and the Central Plains martial world. Madam Ma answers that the man is Duan Zhengchun, the younger full brother of Dali’s emperor, holding the title of South-Stabilizing Prince. Hearing the name, Xiao Feng recognizes the answer he has spent months and thousands of li trying to uncover.

Madam Ma’s explanation joins political rank to the old affair at Yanmen Pass. She says that Duan Zhengchun was visiting the Beggar Society’s headquarters and discussing martial arts with Chief Wang when news arrived that Khitan warriors were supposedly heading to Shaolin to seize sutras. According to her account, Duan led the Central Plains martial artists to intercept them out of a sense of honor, although the act also served Dali’s interests: Great Song stood as a northern barrier, and Dali feared that a Khitan conquest of Song would be followed by an attack on Dali. His role was therefore presented as both a public act of defense and a move shaped by the strategic needs of his kingdom.

The story of his conduct helps explain why the Society protected the name. Madam Ma describes Duan as young but exceptionally skilled, benevolent, generous with money, and ranked second only to the emperor in Dali. She says his friendship with the Society ran deep and warns that disclosure could bring a great disaster. In her account, the concealed identity is shielded by the combination of a powerful family, a political alliance, and the possibility that Xiao Feng might seek revenge after learning who had led the expedition that destroyed his family.

Secrecy, loyalty, and the cost of disclosure

A’Zhu’s handling of the revelation turns secrecy into a tactical performance. She assures Madam Ma that she will keep the name quiet, then swears that if Bai Shijing exposes Duan Zhengchun as the “leading big brother,” Bai Shijing will suffer a terrible death and public disgrace. The oath sounds absolute, but its wording places the consequences on the man whose identity she has borrowed. A’Zhu can obtain the truth without binding herself to the promise in the same way her listener supposes.

That exchange sets two forms of loyalty against one another. Zhao Qiansun is prepared to die rather than betray the man to whom he feels indebted; Madam Ma treats the secret as essential to preserving the Society’s friendship with Dali; A’Zhu, by contrast, uses disguise and carefully shifted responsibility to draw the information out. The title persists because people around it have different reasons for keeping it hidden, and because public honor can be invoked both as a sincere obligation and as a tool of concealment.

The revelation also changes the meaning of Xiao Feng’s search. Until the name is spoken, the “leading big brother” is an unnamed authority behind a letter and a past decision. Once Duan Zhengchun is identified, the mystery acquires a specific political and familial center: the man sought in connection with the Society’s case is a prince whose power could make ordinary disclosure perilous. The name does not itself resolve every consequence of the old affair, but it transforms an abstract trail into a conflict between Xiao Feng’s need for answers and the protections surrounding a high-ranking figure.

Authority beyond the jianghu

The expression’s political resonance is sharpened by the account of Liao’s succession. YeLu HongJi’s authority rests on a history in which his grandfather designated YeLu ZongZhen as heir, while the empress favored her second son, YeLu ZhongYuan. ZhongYuan ultimately supported his brother rather than taking the throne, and ZongZhen later made him royal emperor brother and next in line. When HongJi inherited the throne instead of ZhongYuan, he compensated his uncle with rank, military command, and exceptional privileges. Those inherited arrangements later make the rebellion more than a sudden battlefield dispute: competing claims and delegated power have been built into the state’s history.

When YeLu NieLuGu rebels and proclaims his father emperor, the old succession settlement returns as an instrument of political challenge. The edict calls HongJi a false emperor and presents ZhongYuan as the legitimate ruler; it draws force from the very history that had once made ZhongYuan heir apparent. The parallel with the “leading big brother” is structural rather than identical: both situations turn on authority that is not immediately visible in a title alone, and on the danger that a concealed or contested claim can reshape loyalty. In Liao, the claim is proclaimed openly through an edict; in the Beggar Society case, the influential figure is kept behind a euphemism.

Xiao Feng’s changing position

Xiao Feng’s own trajectory gives the expression a further frame. At Weihui he sees the Society he once led crowded with undisciplined members, and grieves that the order he spent years building has quickly deteriorated. He and the Society are now enemies, yet the sight still pains him. His former authority survives in the beggars’ caution, even as his institutional place among them has vanished.

Later, in Liao, Xiao Feng’s personal standing becomes a source of state power. When HongJi faces the rebellion, Xiao Feng stays to support his sworn brother, fights beside him, and helps secure the uncle’s surrender. HongJi then confers on Xiao Feng the title of Prince of Chu and appoints him Lord of the Southern Chancellery, an office once held by the rebel prince. Xiao Feng neither sought rank nor welcomes the duty it brings; when HongJi orders preparations for a future campaign against Song, Xiao Feng is troubled by the prospect of leading an invasion of the land where he grew up. The concealed name of the earlier mystery and the openly bestowed title in Liao mark opposite sides of authority: one must be uncovered, while the other is imposed, and both entangle Xiao Feng in obligations larger than personal reputation.