Anything Goes

一片冰心在玉壶 Novel Summary

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Part 1 Summary

The story opens with the murder of Bai Baozhen, Gusu Weaving Master.
Mo Yan arrives in Beijing from Shuzong. She inquires of the whereabouts of her Fifth Brother Li Xuming who was arrested by Zhan Zhao.
Master Zhan Zhao is a Fourth Rank Guard of the Kaifeng Mansion.
Mo Yan wants to meet her Senior Brother but the Kaifeng Mansion guard wouldn't let her in.
Zhan Zhao appears and allows Mo Yan to visit Li Xu in prison.
There it is revealed Li Xu is the primary suspect for the murder of Bai Baozhen and another official. Li Xu denies the accusations.
Mo Yan is brought to Judge Bao's study and her keen observation to details impresses Bao Zheng and Gongsun Ce.
Upon further discussion with her brother and Zhan Zhao they deduced that he could have been framed. Zhan Zhao said he got a letter naming Li Xu as the murderer. Because of that lead, he arrested Li Xu.
Later that night, Mo Yan secretly break and enter Bao Zheng's study to read the said letter that incriminated his brother. But someone else was also in the room and they have a little sword fight. It is revealed that it was Zhan Zhao.
Bao Zheng didn't arrest Mo Yan but made her a catcher of the Kaifeng Mansion. He does this so that she won't sneak around anymore and to officially assist the investigation of his brother's crime.
And that's how Mo Yan and Zhan Zhao begin their relationship as well as of this story.
Basically, Part 1 is about investigating the death of Bai Baozhen in Beijing to Jiangnan where they met Mo Yan's Second Brother Xiao Chen, Prince Ning Jin and his bodyguard Wu Zichu, and daughter or concubine (??) Bai Yingyu. They also have some life and death encounters especially for Zhan Zhao who was heavily injured on the leg during an attack at Bai Baozhen's Mansion. (I hope to see this in the drama.)
Zhan Zhao learns that Mo Yan doesn't like seeing a corpse and is afraid of ghosts.
One of my favorite scenes is when they went back to Bai Mansion separately to get the account book. Neither knew they were planning the same thing. It's a bit amusing for me.
On their way back to Beijing via boat they stopped on an island or village that was deserted. The old woman who was with them recounted the story of a girl who was possessed by evil spirits. (I didn't read much into this, details might be wrong/mixed up but later in Part 2 it is mentioned again.)
They all returned to Beijing safely. Zhan Zhao recuperated from his leg injury and resumed the case investigation.
The real culprit is found out and Li Xu is released (I think). As originally planned, Mo Yan quits being a catcher and returns to Shuzong.
Bai Yingyu is sentenced to banishment (I think) into the borders then faked her death by jumping into the river.
More than a month later, Part 1 ends with Mo Yan and Zhan Zhao meeting again on the streets of Beijing.

She raised her head and met Zhan Zhao's gaze. She immediately called out with joy: "Big Brother Zhan." Zhan Zhao smiled: "Little Seven."

My thoughts:
Including the prologue and epilogue there are 55 chapters in Part 1.
If this is all adapted into the screen it could be the first 4 to 6-8 episodes of the drama. There's enough action and fight scenes in this part.
We meet the central characters in the story: Mo Yan, Zhan Zhao, Bao Zheng, Gongsun Ce, Kaifeng Mansion's F4 namely Mahan, Wang Chao, Zhao Hu, Zhang Long, Mahan's wife, Prince Ning Jin, Wu Zichu.

The dialogues exchanged between Mo Yan and Zhan Zhao is also interesting and sets the tone of their relationship. There is no love at first sight between these two which is refreshing for me. Mo Yan is young and naive but smart. Too outspoken and kinda aggressive which annoys Zhan Zhao. He is calm and collected, serious and gradually learns to be less annoyed and very patient with Mo Yan.

Overall, I liked the pacing of the story here. It's not boring and dragging.
When Mo Yan returned I was happy. Because by this time there is hint of romantic feelings blossoming unknowingly between the two. I'm all for the detective stuffs but I'm mostly here for the romantic stuffs. And with that I couldn't stop reading anymore.

All throughout I kept imagining Zhang Huiwen and Wu Xi Ze acting out the scenes. I have no doubt they are perfectly casted for their respective roles.

To be continued.

PS: Chapters 33, 38-39 are not missing. They're at the last page of the chapter summary.