Glory Episode 31 Recap
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The 400-year legacy of the Rong family tea gardens, built through the grueling efforts of generations, was being dismantled by the very person who should have protected it. In the capital, the family head Rong Shanbao confronted her father, Rong Heting, regarding the inferior tea being sold under their name. Citing strict family regulations, she demanded that he voluntarily withdraw from the clan to atone for the disgrace he brought upon their ancestors.
Rong Heting was incensed by his daughter’s perceived insolence, raging about the proper relationship between father and child and claiming that her defiance was a violation of filial piety that would earn her society's contempt. His wife, Madam Liu, joined the attack, warning Shanbao that such an unfilial reputation would make it impossible for any noble family to accept her as a daughter-in-law.
Shanbao remained unmoved, countering that while a ruler who deceives his people cannot last, the same principle applied to a family. By passing off inferior goods, they hadn't just damaged a name; they had threatened the livelihoods of thousands of fierce tea farmers who would not hesitate to retaliate with violence if their survival was at stake. Shanbao revealed that she had already consulted their Grandmother, the clan head.
Grandmother was so furious at Heting’s greed that she had personally opened the ancestral hall to report his crimes. While she originally wanted him strangled for his betrayal, Shanbao had begged for mercy. Consequently, the sentence was reduced to 100 lashes with the iron whip to be shared among the family: Heting, Madam Liu, and his second son were to receive 20 lashes each, while the young Rong Junzhen was sentenced to 10.
Following the punishment, they were to be officially expelled from the residence. As the sounds of the iron whip and the cries of her siblings echoed through the courtyard, Shanbao turned her focus to damage control. Investigations revealed that fake "Rongzhai" shops had expanded to twelve locations in and around the capital. Realizing Heting lacked the capital for such an expansion, Shanbao suspected that someone powerful was pulling the strings behind Madam Liu.
She ordered her subordinates to procure 5,000 jin of top-grade tea from other major merchant houses to fulfill the outstanding debts and protect the Rong family’s credit, regardless of the financial loss. During this crisis, Wanniang, the wife of the Duke’s heir, arrived at the Rong Residence with a shocking revelation: Lu Jianglai was actually the biological son of the Duke of Yongguo, Xue Maotang.
Following the disability of the Duke's eldest son, the Emperor had issued a secret edict to bring Lu Jianglai back to his roots. However, Lu Jianglai harbored a deep-seated hatred for the Duke and refused to acknowledge him, leading to his detention in the Duke’s Mansion. Wanniang pressured Shanbao to act as a mediator, hinting that the Duke’s influence could easily resolve the Rong family’s current tea debts.
Though she recognized this as a trap to use her as a hostage to control Lu Jianglai, Shanbao decided she had to go. The power struggle began before Shanbao even left her home. The Duke’s servants brought a cramped, two-bearer sedan chair, with a nanny claiming that a bride entering the Duke’s Mansion must show humility. Shanbao saw through the attempt to belittle her.
Refusing to play the role of a submissive daughter-in-law, she ignored the sedan chair and boarded her own lavish Rong family carriage, leaving the Duke’s servants to scramble behind her. Upon arriving at the Duke’s Mansion, Shanbao encountered a household filled with tension and arrogance, including the sharp-tongued Princess Jinxiang, Xue Baochuan. She found Duke Xue Maotang in the garden, brutally whipping servants because his prized tea trees—which had once saved his life during a military campaign—were dying.
Shanbao stepped in, using her expertise as a "Tea Bone" to diagnose the issue. She pointed out that the trees were suffering from black whiteflies carried by the roses the Duchess had planted. More importantly, she criticized the Duke for trapping the trees in narrow pots with heavy soil, ignoring their natural need for the open hills.
She used the tea trees as a metaphor for Lu Jianglai, warning the Duke that by using force and confinement to bend his son to his will, he was breaking the young man's spirit. She told him that if he continued to ignore Lu Jianglai's nature, the son he eventually "won" would be as lifeless as the withered branches at their feet.
The Duke, reminded of the same fierce spirit he once saw in Shanbao’s grandmother—who had once risked everything to deliver 200,000 stones of grain to his army—finally allowed her to see Lu Jianglai. Shanbao found Lu Jianglai in a pitiful state, weakened by a seven-day hunger strike. He was pale and exhausted, but the moment he saw her, he clung to her hand with what little strength he had left.
Though he urged her to leave for her own safety, he could not bring himself to let go, and Shanbao stayed by his side, determined to protect him from the Duke’s suffocating control.
