PeachBlossomGoddess

The chef was killed by Magistrate Wei's assistant. You can see him driving past the scene in a cart with his hat. There were always two bearded men - Magistrate Wei and his assistant. Magistrate Wei took the fall for all the murders but his assistant did at least one or two of them and maybe even all of them. On the Douban cast list there is an actor named Li Zhuo (no picture) whose role is the murderer and the murderer's second identity). This suggests maybe Magistrate Wei is just the mastermind but his assistant did all the killings for him.

I think it kind of makes sense it was Turtle bc Lu Buyou was a lot smarter. He probably would have found a way to get justice without resorting to murder. Esp with the evidence of Lu Zhong's diary. When Captain Leng described him as a cat, it was accurate but off. He only prosecuted one or two cases not bc he was well fed but bc he was focused on a 20 year old case and he didn't want to make Captain Leng wary of him.

1) Don't remember that scene.
2) Sangeng never finds out about Leng and all the witnesses are dead.
3) Magistrate Wei sent both Lu San (in green) and his assistant with no name (blue) to follow Sangeng. In the following scene the assistant asks him why both of them were needed to follow him.
4) I am guessing the guy in blue from 3) above. Magistrate took the fall for all the murders but I think this dude helped him with at least one or two of them and certainly the chef at the end.

It was the skull of a small boy.

Magistrate Wei always looked like Baozi to me but the big misdirect was I thought he was illiterate. I also don't know why he had to go to such length to get justice. After all, Lu Zhong's journal itself is quite powerful testimony.

I also don't really like how Qu Sangeng became stupid at the end. He pretty much got Song Chen and everyone else killed. He never realised that Captain Leng killed his father. I guess he will end up marrying Gui'er and they will never know the truth.

Lu Zhi became so evil and treacherous. It is poetic justice that he killed Lu Zhong, who was the one who manipulated him down the road to perdition. This is a very dark story.

Ending spoiler comments:

15 or 16.

Yes Captain Yi does indeed also look like the bearded guy. There are too many bearded guys in this drama I am developing face blindness.

Song Chen fits the age profile better for sure and young Lu Buyou looks like him too but he is from an illustrious family. It’d be practically impossible for him to be Lu Buyou unless the real Song Chen actually died in prison under torture and the real Lu Buyou replaced him.

That’s the whole point of watching this genre.

I think Captain Leng balked at the idea of killing a kid and he saved him. Either that or Turtle saved him. Turtle was always more morally righteous than Lu Zhi. The only other way Lu Buyou knew all the details is he discovered Lu Zhong’s diary and Lu Zhong did indeed die in the fire.

So does Magistrate Wei. I think it may have been fashionable then to leave a long fifth fingernail. Probably to pick their nose. It may be just a red herring.

Yeah I am most likely over thinking it again. But I am quite convinced that the bearded killer is Lu Zhong bc the Magistrate is just too fat. And whoever Lu Buyou became, it’s impossible for him to know all of the details of Mr Wang, Captain Leng, Zhao Juren and Dr Cheng. This seems like Lu Zhi and Lu Zhong fell out and he has come back after them. Lu Buyou is just playing them against each other to expose the crime in its entirety and get justice. He didn’t strike me as a bad person it’s hard or sad to see how he became dark like Lu Zhi in his own way.

Captain Leng definitely got paid off for covering up the fire, thus helping Mr Xue/Lu Zhi escape. He was simply after money to buy Siniang's freedom. But as it turned out, Siniang doesn't own the brothel, she only runs it for Mr. Xue. I think that is how he kept Captain Leng silent all these years.
I think Captain Leng may have helped Lu Buyou escape. Maybe even his sister. Because he wasn't a 100pct bad guy, he just did something really bad to help Siniang buy her freedom. I have a wild theory that Sangeng is actually Lu Buyou. But he is not the murderer he may only be the one leaving the message clues bc he wants to help the murderer take down Lu Zhi/Mr Xue. The murderer should be Lu Zhong. Lu Zhi probably betrayed him. I don't think Lu Buyou ever knew all the details of the murders in order to identify Master Wang, Dr Cheng etc. The only two people who knew all the details were Lu Zhong and Lu Zhi. So the heavy beard guy should be Lu Zhong.

I think as far as the pure mystery aspect, it is actually better than UTM. UTM got a bit too tied up in math and accounting riddles, which are always difficult to adapt to film. The setting of endemic corruption that toppled the Ming Dynasty is the same.

Finishes tonight - I think it will be complete. I think you will like it a lot.

Maybe Lu Buyou is actually Qu Sangeng. And the County Magistrate is Turtle. Captain Leng saved them all.

What if the killer with the big beard is actually Lu Zhong. Maybe Lu Zhi betrayed him and he back for revenge. And what if Lu Buyou is actually Qu Sangeng. Captain Leng saved him and maybe, Gui'er is really his sister. Lu Buyou is playing the villains against each other to get justice in the old case. I just can't get past how incredibly similar looking the young Lu Buyou is to Qu Sangeng.

All great choices. I would add The Bad Kids which was produced by the same director as The Long Season. Fearless Blood is another spy/mystery thriller that is also under appreciated.

I remember that scene and my takeaway from it is he finds fishing distasteful and never took it up.