(2024) The Double ~ 墨雨云间 (E02)

Wrote this a month ago shortly after I started E02 and I got so involved in it, I just couldn't stop watching the show.  With limited time to spend on it, I am on E32 of 40 I think.  Going to try and finish it off in the next week.  This is a GREAT show!  

E01 ends with Xue Li making a deal with the woman at Zhannv Hall.  Xue Li tells the woman she will take the place of Jiang Li so the woman doesn't get in trouble for beating Jiang Li to death.  Nobody has seen Jiang Li in 10 years since she arrived at Zhannv Hall so nobody knows what she looks like now.  Xue Li tells the woman she calls the shots at Zhannv Hall so no one would dare defy her.  The woman is skeptical and asks Xue Li "What is your motive?".  Xue Li tells her, "She's still better off than me.  She's the daughter of the Chief Secretariat. It's better than a peasant woman like me. Perhaps the Jiang family will remember heir daughter someday. Then I can live a life of luxury."  The woman rolls her eyes.  Xue Li asks, "Do we have a deal?".  Hidden from the woman's view is Jiang Li's maid Tong'er who is listening to everything while she holds a pair of shears in her hands.

Next scene, the woman is met by one of the girls who complains to her, "Chief, Ms. Jian still dares to lie in her bed?".  The woman smacks her. She says, "Tell everyone to butt out of Jiang Li's affairs".  The girl says "Yes".  The woman continues, "She'll be recuperating here for the next seven days."  And she walks away.

Next scene, Jiang Li is buried by Tong'er and Xue Li.  Once they're done shoveling, Tong Er tries to attack Xue Lie with the shears.  She tells her that if it wasn't for her, Jiang Li wouldn't have died.  She tells Xue Li that she's an ingrate who stole Jiang Li's identity.  She says, "Today, I'm going to kill you to avenge her ladyship!" Xue Li tries to reason with Tong'er by asking her if it's enough to kill her and the chief.  How about everyone else at Zhannv Hall who wronged her and the people who ignored her for 10 years?  Xue Li gets the shears from Tong'er and convinces her that she needs Jiang Li's identity.  Both their reputations were tainted and no one was willing to believe them but Jiang Li believed in her and she believed in Jiang Li.  Jiang Li is dead now and she can't clear her name.  She asks Tong'er to help her clear it. "They think our reputation will forever be tainted, don't they? Let's show them how you and I can clear our names".