Wang Jiantong

Wang Jiantong, the former chief of the Beggar Society, is the recipient of a letter that becomes central to Qiao Feng’s search for the person behind the accusations against him. Though Wang does not appear directly in these scenes, the letter associated with his tenure connects the Society’s internal history to Qiao Feng’s unresolved family grievance.

Position in the Beggar Society

The Beggar Society’s members refer to Wang as its former chief. When Qiao Feng and A’Zhu overhear two beggars discussing Elder Xu’s death, one explains that the Society’s elders and members are to gather in Weihui for a memorial ceremony and discuss capturing Qiao Feng. The conversation also suggests that Qiao Feng’s former influence remains so formidable that the beggars fear speaking freely where his subordinates might hear them.

The letter and the “leading big brother”

Qiao Feng asks Granny Tan who wrote a letter addressed to Wang concerning the Qiao Feng affair. Granny Tan hesitates, while Zhao Qiansun urges her not to reveal the name; he says he owes the person called the “leading big brother” a debt and refuses to betray him. Qiao Feng presses the issue by appealing to the possible damage to Granny Tan’s and Grandpa Tan’s reputations, but the exchange does not identify the writer.

Later, Qiao Feng puts the same question to Grandpa Tan, recalling that Elder Xu brought a letter for Wang to the gathering in the apricot forest outside Wuxi. Grandpa Tan refuses to name its author because he believes Qiao Feng would seek revenge on the man responsible for killing his father. His answer makes the stakes of the secret plain: the letter’s authorship is bound to Qiao Feng’s parents’ deaths as well as to the Society’s case against him. The evidence establishes Wang as the letter’s intended recipient, not as its author or as the person titled “leading big brother.”

A name withheld

The inquiry leaves Wang’s precise role in the letter’s history unresolved. Both Granny Tan and Grandpa Tan are pressed for the author’s identity, yet the supplied scenes preserve the secret. Wang therefore functions in these episodes as the point around which a concealed communication is organized: the former chief received the letter, while its writer and the full circumstances behind it remain undisclosed.