Sparrow 麻雀 Episodes 41-43 Recap

Sidenote: Alright y’all. I just went on a fast-forwarding marathon of the seven released episodes of Rookie Agent Rouge so far. I think the only thing keeping me watching is my love for Zhao Liying. The plot seems more shallow and underdeveloped than Sparrow’s, and it also has weaker cinematography and banal camera shots. The agent training is almost laughable and there appears to be more of a focus on romance (which is fine). I’ll keep watching for my bias… But basically here’s my main point: Sparrow is better. Lol.

Chen Shen and Bicheng are still in the process of escaping, and he brings her to a train station. The idea is for her to board the 11pm train headed to Nanjing, where she is to wait at most five days for further news of Shanhai / Chen Shen’s condition. Except San Sheng happens to show up at the station, so the two temporarily hide in a room. There Bicheng tells Chen Shen that – and he tries to cut her off, but she says she must say it now – she and Shanhai are a fake couple for work, and that she became an agent for Chen Shen. Oh my gosh. And I thought Bicheng couldn’t annoy me more. Things wrong with what she’s saying:

• Chen Shen is freaking hurt, with an injury sustained from a bullet, and she hugs him.
• How does her becoming a nationalist agent have to do with Chen Shen? If anything, why isn’t she on his side then?

Dat look of surprise though.

But alas, I forgive her, because heck I ship the OTP. They kiss (finally! after 41 episodes!). Turns out that was Bicheng’s goodbye speech (or so she thought), because she had the preparation to sacrifice her life in order to ensure Chen Shen’s safety. She walks out of the room and is voluntarily “caught” by San Sheng. Her excuse is that she’s going to see her relatives (on Boss Li’s side) who live in Nanjing. San Sheng doesn’t believe it, but tells her to return to the bureau.

While Bicheng distracts San Sheng, Chen Shen is able to escape through a vent in the wall. He’s badly injured though, and he walks towards Xiaonan’s place. Meanwhile he flashes back to when Zai Xiang also sacrificed her life for him. He feels a bitter pang in his chest, of sorrow as he realizes Bicheng is doing the same thing.

Omo!

Zhongliang interrogates Bicheng, but she refuses to say anything until Boss Li returns to the bureau from Nanjing, for, as she puts it, Zhongliang appears to not be on good terms with him and may just be accusing her in order to get higher status than Boss Li. The one-on-one ends, and next Zhongliang interrogates Shanhai, who has just arrived. He says he was out buying medicine to help with Bicheng’s ability to have kids. He was about to leave the store when it started to rain, and hence he had to stay for a longer time. That is his alibi to show that he wasn’t at the scene of the telegram.

Zhongliang then has Bicheng and Shanhai wait together in the meeting room, alone. Zhongliang has secretly put recording devices in the room, and he listens in to their conversation. Somehow Shanhai notices. I don’t know how. But he puts a finger to his mouth to shush Bicheng when she walks in. The two proceed to pretend that they’re going to have kids one day, and how Bicheng wants a daughter, and how many kids they want, etc. Bicheng actually tears up at one point, aw.

Chen Shen’s injuries are treated by Xiaonan, and he comments that she is actually quite smart. But then Xiaonan faints from seeing blood. Chen Shen calls one of his friends / lackeys for him to set up a scene / alibi that can not only prove that Chen Shen wasn’t at the scene of the telegram but also that he was shot at the place. The idea is that Chen Shen and Xiaonan were staying at a hotel when suddenly a group of people infiltrated the place and shot Chen Shen.

San Sheng continues to investigate the scene of the crime, finding the telegraph (but no fingerprints to say who used it). One of the men has a dagger wound slashed across his neck, and Zhongliang recognizes the similarity to the way Chen Shen threw a pair of scissors at a man’s neck in order to save Zhongliang back in one of the early episodes. Another man was choked to death, pinned against a wall, and San Sheng says that only a man as tall as Chen Shen or Shanhai could have had the height necessary to pin the guy to the wall. A bullet hole through a wall as well as blood at the scene evidences that one of the three who were trying to escape after sending the telegram sustained a bullet injury. And San Sheng

Everyone who works at the bureau is checked for a gunshot wound, but everyone passes the health exam. The only one who hasn’t showed up yet is Chen Shen, and there is suspicion that perhaps he is 内鬼 or traitor to the bureau. Zhongliang recalls all the times Chen Shen saved him, and hopes it isn’t true, but at the same time, has to keep doing his job.

After Xiaonan wakes up (from fainting at the sight of blood), Chen Shen has her take him to the hospital. He also tells her to please cooperate with him and help act out something with him in front of Zhongliang later. At the hospital, Er Bao bursts in to the room and tells him to return the bureau right now. Zhongliang is there waiting, asking Chen Shen where he was last night, why he has a gunshot wound, and how he got the injury. Meanwhile Chen Shen doesn’t answer, and seeing that Zhongliang is back from Mei Ji Guan safe and sound, asks him instead “Why didn’t you trust me? Why did you trust Er Bao and San Sheng instead, and they both know that you weren’t really detained at the detention camp? I quit.”

Since Chen Shen doesn’t say anything, Zhongliang is about to bring him into the interrogation jail cell place, except right then (dat coincidence though) Bi Tai Tai and Xiaonan show up together. Bi Tai Tai immediately hugs Zhongliang and asks him why he didn’t tell her earlier that he was back safe, doesn’t he know that she was so worried? Xiaonan then tells Zhongliang that this is all a misunderstanding – Chen Shen isn’t the internal traitor.

Chen Shen had supposedly been given a paintbrush by an acquaintance that had a secret message in it – the actual meeting place for Shu Di Huang and one of the future nationalist leaders in Shanghai was actually to be held at a hotel. Chen Shen’s story is that he didn’t know the accuracy of this, thus he didn’t say it to anyone. But in order to check its veracity, he had Xiaonan accompany him to the hotel (since people suspect couples less) and it was during then that he was shot, as well as the meeting between Shu Di Huang and the leader.

Bi Tai Tai then announces to the whole bureau that Xiaonan and Chen Shen are now engaged, and the two also have a set wedding day that is coming soon. This piece of news shocks two people mostly – Bicheng obviously, who once again, can’t control her emotions on her face (seriously, how the heck is she an agent) and San Sheng, who can only grimace.

San Sheng later goes and talks to Xiaonan, asking “Were you really with Chen Shen that night? You do realize he’s using you in order to ensure Bicheng’s innocence in this case.” He grips Xiaonan’s arm a bit too hard, and Xiaonan blinks back tears. She then friendzones him and says “Why are you doing this? You are my greatest friend, and I can only hope that you would bless me and Chen Shen.” This statement brings a look of determination on San Sheng’s face, and it’s not as in him determined to forget Xiaonan, but him determined to prove the guilt of Chen Shen in this incident. He thinks to himself “Xiaonan is mine. Xiaonan can’t be Chen Shen’s.”

So what exactly changed Xiaonan’s mind? It’s not like Chen Shen said anything to her after the first failed proposal attempt…

Zhongliang then has San Sheng check to see if Chen Shen’s story matches up with the hotel’s account of the events. Since Chen Shen’s lackeys have already ensured that the hotel has been bought by their own men, there should be no problem in lining up details. The previous hotel owner was bought off and given a train ticket to some faraway place. San Sheng tests the bullet hole in the wall by shooting from the supposed angle the shooter shot from, and indeed it looks pretty legit. But San Sheng is still suspicious, so he decides to go visit the previous hotel owner. He and Zhongliang plan to frame Bicheng (in order to see how Chen Shen will react, since they deduce that Bicheng is his biggest weakness) by using this man. They threaten the man by kidnapping his son, and that his son’s safety can only be guaranteed if he says that Bicheng was at the hotel last night.