Ruan Xingzhu

Ruan Xingzhu is the mother of A'Zhu and A'Zi and a former partner of Duan Zhengchun. Her daughters’ separation from her began in a conflict between their parents and the danger of bringing them into her family home; the marks and keepsakes meant to reunite the family eventually do so, but only after A'Zhu has died. Ruan Xingzhu’s story is therefore one of recognition arriving alongside loss, and of a mother’s efforts to protect a living daughter after she cannot save the other.

Identity and Background

Ruan Xingzhu had a love affair with Duan Zhengchun, the South-Stabilizing Prince of Dali, and gave birth to A'Zhu and A'Zi a year apart. Duan Zhengchun was already married, and when he wished to return to Dali, Ruan Xingzhu opposed his departure. Their quarrel ended their life together. Ruan Xingzhu’s father was strict about family conduct; she feared that if he discovered the relationship, he would kill her. Unable to take the children to her family home, she placed each with another household.

The parting did not erase her hope that the sisters might one day be identified and reunited. She had a red character meaning Duan tattooed on each girl’s shoulder, and the girls received matching gold locks from their father. The hidden inscription on A'Zhu’s lock held the name of her mother, though A'Zhu did not understand its significance until later. These objects preserve a family connection that the adults’ decisions had forced into secrecy.

Duan Zhengchun’s other relationships form part of the family history around Ruan Xingzhu. He had been involved with Qin Hongmian, the mother of Mu Wanqing, and Ruan Xingzhu. His marriage to Dao Baifeng was also shaped by Dali’s political ties to the Baiyi, among whom monogamy was customary; Dao Baifeng, unwilling to accept another wife, eventually entered religious life. The account sets Ruan Xingzhu’s private separation from Duan Zhengchun within a broader pattern of his romantic attachments and their consequences for several families.

Reunion with A'Zi

When Xiao Feng encounters Duan Zhengchun and Ruan Xingzhu at Little Mirror Lake, Ruan Xingzhu is living in seclusion beside the water. Duan Zhengchun has come to investigate the killing of Venerable Xuan Bei and, taking the opportunity, visits his former partner. During the reunion, A'Zi is also there. She has trapped Chu Wanli in her Flexible Silk Net and needles her father about having abandoned her for more than ten years. Ruan Xingzhu tries to persuade her to release him, offering her something in return; A'Zi insists on seeing the gift first.

A'Zi’s manner toward her parents is neither deferential nor conciliatory. She calls attention to Duan Zhengchun’s long absence, while Ruan Xingzhu tries to draw her into cooperation. Xiao Feng frees Chu Wanli by immersing him in the lake, whereupon the net loosens, and takes the unusual net for himself rather than returning it to A'Zi. The episode shows Ruan Xingzhu negotiating with a daughter whose sharp independence reflects years of separation, while the reunion unfolds amid a dangerous confrontation involving Duan Zhengchun and his enemies.

When A'Zi mocks Chu Wanli after his death, Duan Zhengchun moves to strike her. Ruan Xingzhu blocks him and reproaches him for abandoning his daughter without knowing whether she was alive. Her intervention makes explicit that reunion has not repaired the years of neglect. A'Zi, in turn, treats the death of a household retainer as of little consequence because he was her father’s subject. The scene places Ruan Xingzhu between a daughter’s cruelty and a father’s anger, insisting that Duan Zhengchun cannot claim parental authority without confronting his absence.

Family Recognition and Loss

A'Zhu learns the truth about her birth by overhearing her father, mother, and sister. She explains to Xiao Feng that she and A'Zi are both Ruan Xingzhu and Duan Zhengchun’s daughters, each sent away when very young. Their matching red shoulder marks were intended to make recognition possible, and their gold locks link the sisters to their mother and father. A'Zhu recognizes that the verse on her own lock contains her mother’s name, Ruan Xingzhu.

The recognition comes at a moment when A'Zhu is gravely injured. She tells Xiao Feng that she now understands her parentage, and asks him to look after A'Zi because she fears her sister may go astray. She still imagines that she and Xiao Feng might recover and travel beyond Yanmen Pass together, taking A'Zi with them. A'Zi emerges from beneath the bridge and rejects the proposed role of younger sister and future companion. Ruan Xingzhu’s family is briefly brought into view as a possible reunion, but A'Zhu’s death prevents that future from taking shape.

After A'Zhu dies, Ruan Xingzhu rushes to her body and confronts Xiao Feng, who is overcome with guilt and asks her to kill him. She acknowledges that she and Duan Zhengchun did wrong by giving their daughters to strangers, leaving them to grow up without knowing their parents. But she distinguishes that abandonment from Xiao Feng’s fatal mistake: if he believed Duan Zhengchun deserved punishment, she argues, he should have confronted Duan Zhengchun rather than killing A'Zhu. Her grief does not excuse her own choices, but it refuses to let Xiao Feng confuse the wrong done by the parents with the death he caused.

Protection and Aftermath

Ruan Xingzhu’s response to A'Zhu’s death also shapes what remains of her relationship with A'Zi. Xiao Feng tells her that A'Zhu’s last request was that he protect her sister, and promises to help if A'Zi encounters difficulty. Ruan Xingzhu welcomes the offer, reasoning that a capable supporter could help turn misfortune into good fortune for her daughter. She asks A'Zi to thank him and calls him big brother Qiao, seeking to establish closeness between them.

A'Zi resists the proposed bond, boasting that her own master and fellow disciples make Xiao Feng’s protection unnecessary and disparaging his ability to manage his own affairs. Ruan Xingzhu signals for her to stop, but A'Zi ignores the hints. The exchange shows the limits of Ruan Xingzhu’s influence: she can secure an offer of protection, but cannot make her daughter accept it or undo the consequences of their long separation.

Later, Ruan Xingzhu and Qin Hongmian speak as women whose past rivalry over Duan Zhengchun has softened. Qin Hongmian wants to find Kang Min, whom she blames for disrupting her life with Duan Zhengchun. Ruan Xingzhu does not know where Kang Min is, but joins in condemning the harm caused by Duan Zhengchun’s failure to care for his daughters. She asks Qin Hongmian to deliver blows on her and A'Zi’s behalf if she finds him, then breaks into tears over the loneliness their abandonment caused. The women part with the possibility that Qin Hongmian and Mu Wanqing may return as companions.

Narrative Significance

Ruan Xingzhu’s history makes biological recognition consequential without making it a cure. The shoulder marks and paired locks succeed as signs of kinship, yet they cannot restore the childhood the sisters lost or prevent A'Zhu’s death. Her story also complicates the language of parental regret: Duan Zhengchun admits that he has been troubled by his past mistake, while Ruan Xingzhu insists that remorse must be measured against what happened to the children.

Her choices connect private family life to the wider pattern of Duan Zhengchun’s relationships, but the narrative gives particular weight to their consequences for the daughters. Ruan Xingzhu’s grief is sharpened by the sudden reunion with A'Zi and by the loss of A'Zhu just as the sisters’ shared parentage becomes clear. At the end of these episodes, she cannot reunite the family as she had hoped; she can only seek protection for A'Zi and reckon with the daughter she has lost.