Resumen del episodio 14 de The Company
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Bi Zhi’s tungsten blade vibrated with resonance, leading him and his companions to discover the Kun Blade submerged in a lotus pond within the Guangling Residence. Fearing that Xia Zelan had met a tragic end, Lu Feng dove into the water and retrieved the weapon. They were soon confronted by a young girl claiming to be a maid, who realized they were not common thieves since they only sought a battered knife.
She blackmailed the trio, demanding they help her escape the residence and Lin’an City in exchange for her silence and the return of the blade. Following her through a secret path, they managed to slip past the guards during a distraction created by another maid, Jin, who had set a fire. The next morning, Bi Zhi, Su Beilu, and Lu Feng disguised themselves as merchants to smuggle the girl out of the city.
However, they were intercepted at the gate by the formidable Old Madam of the Guangling Residence. The girl was revealed to be County Princess Yan Rong, whom the Old Madam had tracked using a rare Western Regions sachet gifted to her previously. Yan Rong begged for mercy, unwilling to be sent to the barbaric land of Great Wu to marry a debauched ruler nearly sixty years her senior.
Coldly dismissing her pleas as imperial duty, the Old Madam ordered the Princess back to the residence and commanded her guards to execute the three men. The trio narrowly escaped by using lime powder to blind the soldiers, though the Kun Blade remained in Yan Rong’s possession. Yan Rong was subsequently imprisoned and subjected to strict surveillance. To force her into submission, the Old Madam had the loyal maid Jin executed and denied the Princess food and water.
As a weakened Yan Rong contemplated taking her own life with the Kun Blade, Bi Zhi and his companions infiltrated the residence once more. This time, they disguised themselves as scholars arriving for the provincial exam, with Su Beilu successfully bypassing city guards by faking a severe case of consumption. After knocking out guards in the courtyard, the trio was approached by a mute old woman who led them to safety through a hidden, abandoned door.
At the old woman’s modest home, the Princess was stunned to find the courtyard filled with camellias—the same flowers that had mysteriously appeared on her desk for years to provide her comfort. When the woman prepared a meal of fried rice, Lu Feng immediately recognized the flavor as Xia Zelan’s unique craft.
Although she had no memory of their past at the Tianguang Market or the River of Oblivion, she revealed she was once a chef at the residence who had been framed for the death of the previous Consort. Zelan recounted how she was sentenced to be beaten to death, but the child in her womb saved her life when the guards hesitated. She was spared by the Prince and sent to the barren lands of Nanjiang.
Though her child died shortly after birth, she survived years of hardship and illness. During her exile, she learned the truth: the previous Consort had been murdered with toxic frost by her own sister, Sun Zhixuan. Now the powerful Old Madam of the residence, Sun Zhixuan had murdered her own sister and was now sacrificing Yan Rong.
Having returned to Lin’an under a general amnesty, the aged Zelan had spent years quietly sending camellias to the Princess, having witnessed the girl's misery during a final visit to the residence years earlier.
