Episode Summary
In Episode 28, Seventeenth Lady discovers her lover, Scholar Xue, has betrayed her, and in a fit of rage, she murders her rival, A'qiao. Elsewhere in Pingkang Fang, an assassin named Lu Huan accidentally saves a servant by killing the abusive Eunuch Gao. Meanwhile, Li Shande's fortunes are dramatically reversed when the Right Chancellor puts him in charge of the lychee transport mission. Now respected and feared, Li Shande, with the manipulative Attendant Yu as his supervisor, officially kicks off the ambitious plan, delegating tasks to the six ministries for the perilous journey to Lingnan.
Spoiler Alert
The Litchi Road Episode 28 Recap & Spoilers: A Path of Blood and Ambition
This Episode , love dies a violent death in the pleasure quarters of Pingkang Fang, while in the halls of power, a humble official's fortunes are reversed, setting in motion the most audacious logistical challenge of the era: the lychee transport. Episode 28 is a tale of two cities—one of personal heartbreak and bloody revenge, the other of political maneuvering and treacherous alliances.
A Heartbreak, A Betrayal, A Murder
The episode opens on the tragic end of Seventeenth Lady's romance. After her attempt to elope with Scholar Xue fails, she shares a heartbreaking farewell with him, giving him an ornate dangling hairpin (buyao) as a final memento. Xue, despite his promises to buy her freedom, is quickly betrothed to a woman from the powerful Li family.
The final blow comes from A'qiao, a rival courtesan. She confronts Seventeenth Lady, cruelly flaunting the very same hairpin and revealing that Xue not only used Seventeenth Lady's own money to secure his engagement but also spent the night with A'qiao. Shattered by the ultimate betrayal, Seventeenth Lady snaps. In a shocking act of vengeance, she grabs the hairpin—a symbol of their now-dead love—and plunges it into A'qiao's throat, killing her instantly.
Chaos in Pingkang Fang
Meanwhile, another bloody incident throws Pingkang Fang into turmoil. The powerful Eunuch Gao is in the middle of assaulting a young servant, Yunqing, when he is interrupted. Lu Huan, an assassin who was originally sent to kill a different official (Secretary Zheng), stumbles upon the scene. In a swift change of plans, Lu Huan kills Eunuch Gao instead, inadvertently saving Yunqing, who escapes in the ensuing chaos. The brothel's manager, realizing a high-ranking court official has been murdered on his premises, immediately orders a lockdown and a cover-up.
The Tides Turn for Li Shande
While blood spills in the city, Li Shande’s fate takes a dramatic turn. After being publicly tasked by the powerful Right Chancellor to lead the lychee transport mission, his status is transformed overnight. The very officials at the Imperial Gardens Department who had previously ostracized him are now falling over themselves to gain his favor.
The shift is almost comical in its hypocrisy. Supervisor Song leads the department staff in kneeling before Li Shande to beg for forgiveness. Bureau Chief Liu, who once berated him, now obsequiously offers up his own office for Li Shande’s use. The sycophancy reaches a new level when the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture pays a visit, treating Li Shande with fawning respect and cementing the court's rumor that Li Shande is the Right Chancellor's new protégé.
The Politics Behind the Lychees
The mission, however, is steeped in political calculation. The Right Chancellor remains suspicious of Li Shande's motives, questioning why he would so boldly seek his patronage. It is Attendant Yu who provides the answer, admitting he coached Li Shande on how to "share the credit" to win the Chancellor's favor.
Seeing an opportunity, the Right Chancellor places Attendant Yu in charge of "supervising" the project, subtly giving him the green light to use the mission as a means of personal enrichment. The alliance between Li Shande and the court's inner circle is thus forged not on trust, but on mutual interest and the potential for graft.
The Mission Begins
With Attendant Yu providing powerful backing, Li Shande convenes a meeting with the heads of the six major ministries to plan the logistics. The officials, initially eager to impress, fall silent when Attendant Yu enters the room, his authority undeniable. After a round of obligatory flattery—including a rejected proposal to name the transport route "The Li Shande Road"—Li gets down to business.
He rapidly delegates tasks: the Ministry of War will provide the fastest horses, the Ministry of Revenue will allocate the funds, and the Ministry of Works will design containers to keep the lychees fresh. The departure date is set: May 19th, for the journey south to Lingnan.
As the meeting concludes, Attendant Yu makes his intentions clear to Li Shande. They are partners in this venture, but their alliance is a fragile one, with each man harboring his own secret agenda.
What's Next: Li Shande prepares to head south into the politically treacherous region of Lingnan. Back in Chang'an, the investigation into A'qiao's murder begins to point toward another courtesan, Ding Tong'er, threatening to expose the truth. And all the while, Attendant Yu's scheme to profit from the lychee mission slowly begins to take shape.
