Xiao Feng—Quan Guanqing

Xiao Feng—Quan Guanqing is a relationship defined by political betrayal: Quan helped engineer Xiao Feng’s downfall within the Beggar Clan, using both factional intrigue and a stolen personal possession to make the attack on the former chief appear credible. The conspiracy leaves Xiao Feng expelled and branded an enemy by the wider martial world, while its later disclosure distinguishes Quan’s active treachery from the conduct of other men drawn into the plot.

The conspiracy against Xiao Feng

Madam Ma identifies Quan as one of the principal agents in the scheme against Xiao Feng. She says that after her pressure on Bai Shijing failed to make him carry out the plot as she wished, she approached Quan and used an affair lasting three nights to secure his cooperation. Quan promised that he would take care of everything and make the plan succeed. She judged that he could not bring Xiao Feng down by himself, however, and therefore also enlisted Elder Xu.

The arrangement reveals that Quan’s role was not simply that of a public opponent. He acted as a conspirator recruited through Madam Ma’s private leverage, and his promised work formed part of a larger operation involving other Beggar Clan figures. The alliance helped set in motion the campaign that ultimately ended Xiao Feng’s standing in the clan.

The stolen fan and the exposure of the plot

Madam Ma’s account resolves Xiao Feng’s lingering question about why Quan had been treated as the chief conspirator while Bai Shijing was the traitor who had actually been captured. When Xiao Feng asks whether Bai stole his fan, she says that Bai did not: Quan persuaded Elder Chen to do it. After Xiao Feng had left home, Elder Chen entered his house and stole the fan.

The distinction matters to the conspiracy’s mechanics. Bai’s involvement did not include the theft, while Quan arranged for another man to take an object from Xiao Feng’s home and use it in the case against him. Madam Ma’s disclosure thus clarifies both Quan’s responsibility and the division of roles among the plotters: he coordinated the theft through Elder Chen, while the conspiracy extended beyond any single participant.

Rupture with the Beggar Clan

Quan’s scheme succeeds in the larger sense that Xiao Feng is expelled from the Beggar Clan. Later, members of the Xingxiu Sect discuss Xiao Feng’s reported fall from power. Chuchenzi tells Zhaixingzi that Xiao Feng has long ceased to be chief and has been expelled by the clan; another disciple repeats the broader rumors that Xiao Feng is Khitan and is blamed for multiple deaths. These statements present the consequences as public knowledge in the martial world, even though the story has already shown that the accusations and political maneuvering around Xiao Feng were shaped by conspiracy.

Quan’s betrayal therefore reaches beyond a contest for leadership. It helps sever Xiao Feng from the organization he once led and contributes to the hostile reputation surrounding him. Madam Ma’s confession makes the hidden agency behind that rupture legible: the downfall was not merely the result of a spontaneous judgment by the clan, but was actively engineered by people who recruited allies, arranged evidence, and exploited Xiao Feng’s absence.

Disclosure and significance

The account also preserves a contrast between Quan and Bai Shijing. Madam Ma portrays Bai as someone who, despite being drawn into the affair and conspiracy, would not personally commit the wrong of stealing from Xiao Feng. Quan, by contrast, persuades Elder Chen to carry out the theft. The contrast does not erase Bai’s part in the wider events, but it explains why the men’s culpability and their treatment differ.

The relationship is revealed retrospectively through Madam Ma’s confession, after Xiao Feng has already suffered the consequences. That delayed explanation changes the meaning of the earlier accusations: Quan’s public role as chief conspirator was supported by concrete acts, including arranging the fan’s theft, while the network around him was broader and more compromised than a simple division between one traitor and one victim. For Xiao Feng, the disclosure settles the particular mystery of the fan and confirms how deliberately his position in the Beggar Clan was dismantled.