Glory Episode 35 Recap
> Glory Recaps
That evening, Lu Jianglai stayed at the Xue residence to dine with Xue Shuyu. Seeing his older brother’s fragile state following the Duke’s harsh punishment, Lu Jianglai felt a surge of sympathy and agreed to stay. During their meal, Xue Shuyu toasted him repeatedly, offering a sincere apology for his past arrogance. He confessed that his constant boasting about his status as the legitimate heir was merely a desperate attempt to maintain some dignity.
He spoke bitterly of his childhood, revealing that while Madam Chang had provided for his physical needs, she could never truly love him as her own, and his loyal servants never lasted long under her watch. He recalled how his father, Xue Maotang, once viewed him as the family's great hope until a horse-riding accident left him crippled. Since then, the physical pain in his leg and the emotional neglect had hollowed him out.
Lu Jianglai comforted him, urging him to cherish his own wife and children to find the home he felt he lacked. Meanwhile, Rong Shanbao observed these developments with growing concern. She realized the Duke was a master manipulator who had staged Shuyu’s public punishment specifically to exploit Lu Jianglai’s compassion and force him to stay. She likened the Duke to an old hunter setting a trap for a young fox to ensure the mother fox would not flee.
Refusing to be a pawn in these schemes, she ordered her servants to pack for an early departure. At dawn, she struggled to write a farewell note. Recalling the legend of a famous couple where a letter missing the word for "hundred million" signified an absence of intent, she decided to leave her letter blank. Instead, she simply returned the pearl hairpin Lu Jianglai had given her to signal a clean break.
However, her departure was halted when Jun Dai arrived with devastating news: Xue Shuyu was dead. The news shattered the morning’s quiet. Lu Jianglai rushed to his brother’s room to find Shuyu’s body already cold. He met his father’s gaze with undisguised suspicion, but the Duke invoked the proverb that even a tiger does not eat its cubs to deny harming his son. Lu Jianglai demanded an official autopsy.
Xue Maotang initially refused, fearing the family’s honor would be tarnished by publicizing Shuyu’s "inglorious" death. However, Rong Shanbao arrived and brandished the ancestral Jade Seal—a symbol representing the late Emperor’s authority—forcing the Duke to concede. The coroner’s examination found eight whip marks on Shuyu’s back but no other trauma or common poisons, leading to a preliminary conclusion of sudden illness. Taking advantage of the ambiguity, Princess Jinxiang, Xue Yingchuan, launched a sharp-tongued attack against Lu Jianglai.
She accused him of being a "wolf" who murdered his brother to inherit the title. She mockingly challenged him to prove his innocence by signing a document severing all ties with the family and renouncing the dukedom. Lu Jianglai was nearly provoked into signing, but Rong Shanbao pulled him back, warning him that it was a lethal trap: whether he refused or agreed, he would be branded a fratricide. She insisted they find the true culprit instead.
Thinking clearly, Lu Jianglai focused on the events of the previous night. He remembered a concubine, Ji Ping, delivering ginger soup, yet the bowl had vanished. When questioned, Ji Ping claimed she had been driven out by Shuyu before he drank it. Rong Shanbao then noted that Lu Jianglai always seemed unusually emotional whenever he spent time in Shuyu’s room, which led them to investigate the charcoal braziers.
She summoned Rong Yunshu, whose keen sense of smell detected Lily of the Valley mixed with honey in the silver-frost charcoal. Long-term exposure to this scent would cause irritability and, in severe cases, lead to the heart failure Shuyu suffered. A search of Ji Ping’s quarters turned up a packet of Lily of the Valley scented pills. Faced with the evidence, Ji Ping broke down, describing the mansion as a dark prison where she was treated as less than human.
Seeing an opportunity to bury the scandal, Yingchuan suggested they grant Ji Ping a "private" end with a white silk rope. However, Lu Jianglai refused to stop. He recalled Yingchuan sending a sobering tonic to Shuyu and ordered Jun Dai to retrieve the remains from the tea room. Lu Jianglai brought in Dr. Tao to analyze the tonic.
The physician found that while the tonic was composed of beneficial herbs, it also contained aconite and components of the Great Reviving Pill. While not poisonous on its own, it was lethal when combined with the Gastrodia Pill that Shuyu took daily for his leg. The interaction turned the medicine into a potent poison. Yingchuan turned pale, frantically claiming she had merely borrowed the prescription from Madam Chang. Xue Maotang sighed heavily and summoned Madam Chang.
He accused his wife of poisoning Shuyu out of a long-simmering resentment toward him and his children. While the young Mrs. Xue, Wan Niang, pleaded for her mother-in-law’s character, the Duke remained cold. Madam Chang eventually arrived, her legs heavily swollen and her health failing. As the Duke prepared to condemn her, she looked at the gathered crowd and calmly admitted that it was indeed her who had killed Xue Shuyu.
