Zhang Rong

Biodata

Background

Zhang Rong was an orphan taken in and raised by Qingyang Temple. He trained under Reverend Jingming from childhood and read extensively in Daoist scriptures and folk writings. His upbringing also included martial training, which he later helped supervise for Chen Mo 626 634 639 646.

Two years before recounting the incident to Chen Mo, Zhang Rong and another disciple investigated recurring illnesses among village children. They identified an infant ghost and uncovered Tao Xiaojuan’s murders of children to provide companions for her dead son. The case ended with further deaths and Zhang Qiang’s violent rampage; Zhang Rong continued to regret not finding evidence sooner 632 633.

Personality

Zhang Rong is compassionate but repeatedly struggles to understand deliberate cruelty, especially toward children and family members. Tao Xiaojuan’s murders shattered his assumptions about apparently kind people, while the Shen brothers’ treatment of their father left him bewildered and angry 633 639 650.

His willingness to use lethal force is tempered by a concern for guilt and necessity. He rebukes Zhuge Ming for casually proposing to kill villagers, reminding him that they are not indiscriminate killers and cannot simply assume everyone deserves death. He also acknowledges that Grandmaster normally makes those judgments for their organization 674 675.

He is particularly considerate toward frightened victims. Before approaching Shen Zhiyi, he suggests that Chen Mo enter alone to avoid alarming her. When she later reveals their presence under pressure from her abusers, he reassures her rather than blaming her and carries her out of the village 675 680.

Around his fellow disciples, Zhang Rong is playful, boastful, and stubborn about smoking. He teases Chen Mo while recuperating, plays games on his phone, and repeatedly smokes despite Jingming’s disapproval. His bravado disappears quickly when his master catches him 633 634 636.

Abilities & Skills

Martial Arts and Blade Combat

• Fighting multiple opponents: In memories glimpsed by Chen Mo, Zhang Rong withstands several blade wounds before seizing an attacker’s weapon and killing six assailants. The survivors flee, allowing him to free two captives 628.
• Training others: Corrects Chen Mo’s posture and is entrusted by Daoist Qingfeng to supervise his practice 634.
• Combat limits: Old Mr. Shen’s reanimated corpse overpowers him and throws him into a table. During the mountain pursuit, a wolf bite leaves him unable to travel safely 641 703.

Daoist Rituals and Supernatural Knowledge

• Corpse suppression: His chanting temporarily stills Old Mr. Shen’s reanimated body, although the corpse rises again afterward 636.
• Recognizing dark arts: Identifies signs of Lifespan Burning and explains that each ritually prepared candle consumes one remaining year of the victim’s life 637.
• Soul diagnosis: Determines that Bai Qinian’s body contains only two souls, enough for limited movement under his mother’s commands 649.
• Resolving resentment: Organizes an appeal to Old Mr. Shen through a genuinely filial grandchild, using family affection rather than force alone 639.

Maoshan’s Soul Communication Technique

• Uses the Seven-Dipper Kui Gang Steps, hand seals, and incantations to contact Grandmaster Xiang Long over a great distance 701.
• The exchange is private: only Zhang Rong and Grandmaster can hear each other, even when others stand nearby 701.
• His successful contact reveals the Tang Family’s bounty and the presence of hidden supporters, but the connection ends before he can learn their identities 701.

Resistance to Mental Interrogation

• Remains silent under Chen Mo’s Threefold Illusion, despite his conscious mind becoming inactive 628.
• His psychological defenses prevent normal access to his memories; Chen Mo obtains only scattered images. Chen Mo suspects specialized training, but its source is not established 628.

Investigation

• Research coordination: Uses a computer-skilled fellow disciple to obtain medical and childbirth records 648 652.
• Record analysis: Narrows the search for Bai Qinian through cochlear-implant patients whose rehabilitation stopped unexpectedly, then discovers Bai’s death and the absence of a cremation record 648.
• Evidence checking: Proposes checking local power outages before treating candle residue as evidence of Lifespan Burning 637.
• Recognized limits: Admits that he has never encountered a spell tied to zodiac signs despite his reading, rather than presenting speculation as established knowledge 646.

Practical Skills

• Mechanism arts: Can make bows and arrows, describing them as elementary applications of Mohist manufacturing skills 667.
• First aid: Cleans and bandages Gou Dan’s forehead and treats his own bitten leg before Chen Mo finds him 667 703.
• Poor archery: Fires roughly a dozen arrows without hitting anyone and admits that he knows how to make bows, not how to shoot them 681.
• No firearm training: States that the group does not know how to use the guns taken from armed villagers 686.

Equipment / Items

• Knives and blades — Used in close combat and to threaten the Shen brothers into cooperating 628 638.
• Handmade bow and arrows — Carried during the mountain expedition, despite his lack of shooting practice 681 701.
• First-aid kit — Used to treat Gou Dan’s head wound 667.
• Medicine bottle — Held beneath the noses of two unconscious captives after he unties them 628.
• Small notebook — Used to record Chen Mo’s explanations of human behavior and social comparison 689 690.
• Cigarettes — A persistent habit that repeatedly brings him into conflict with Jingming 633 634.

Relationships

• Chen Mo — Junior fellow disciple, investigative partner, and Team Two companion. Zhang Rong helps guide his training and organizational initiation; Chen Mo repeatedly rescues him. Chen Mo later recalls that, apart from his master, nobody at Qingyang Temple spent more time with him than Zhang Rong 634 660 703 708 724.
• Reverend Jingming — Master and childhood disciplinarian. Zhang Rong fears being caught smoking but recognizes that Jingming has never punished him merely to vent anger 633 634 639.
• Grandmaster Xiang Long — Elder and operational authority. Assigns investigations, normally judges which targets deserve death, and communicates with Zhang Rong during the mountain crisis 632 675 701.
• Zhuge Ming — Close companion and fellow Team Two member. Zhang Rong checks his reckless suggestions; after Zhang Rong’s death, Zhuge Ming grieves intensely and reveals that they had planned Chen Mo’s farewell party together 674 724 726.
• Xiang Yifeng — Fellow disciple whose loyalty Zhang Rong defends. Their groups compete to recruit Chen Mo, and the two are later killed in the same Tang Family ambush 660 666 724.
• Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan — Abused siblings whom he helps protect and extract from Tang Family Village. He treats Gou Dan’s injuries, reassures Shen Zhiyi, and helps both endure the village’s collapse 667 680 687.
• Sun Zhaoming — Senior fellow disciple whom Zhang Rong had regarded as a brother for twenty years. His betrayal provokes fury and grief; Zhang Rong attempts to strike him with a crutch before being restrained 710 711.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Yuchuang Group and the Staged Disappearance

• Yuchuang Group manager Liu Haicheng hires Zhang Rong to investigate two employee deaths. After apparently losing contact with him, Grandmaster sends Chen Mo to find him 617.
• Chen Mo and Boss Lei locate him unconscious and bloodied in a North River Park restroom. An unlicensed clinic treats his severe external wounds 626.
• Zhang Rong claims that investigators of the deaths captured and tortured him. His feigned sleep and inconsistencies prompt Chen Mo to investigate privately 627.
• His identification reveals an April 8 birthday, contradicting the date supplied by Boss Lei and Grandmaster. Chen Mo concludes that all three have concealed the truth from him 628.
• Fragmented memories show Zhang Rong defeating six attackers and rescuing two young men, rather than escaping captivity as claimed. Chen Mo subsequently recognizes that Zhang Rong had never truly lost contact 628 629.

The Shen Family’s Reanimated Father

• Zhang Rong and Chen Mo keep vigil over Old Mr. Shen’s repeatedly reanimating corpse. Evidence in his bedroom leads Zhang Rong to identify Lifespan Burning 636 637.
• Rejecting the sons’ intimidation and attempted bribery, he forces them to confront their responsibility and arranges a ritual appeal through family affection 638 639.
• When the red cord restraining the corpse breaks, Old Mr. Shen overpowers both Daoists and flees. Zhang Rong leads the search, which ends at the old man’s mother’s grave 641.
• He reports Huang Zhang, the feng shui practitioner connected to the case, to the temple elders. Huang’s later murder coincides with Zhang Rong’s return from another assignment, prompting Chen Mo’s suspicion without confirming Zhang Rong’s involvement 643.

Bai Qinian and Entry into Team Two

• Zhang Rong’s medical-record research identifies Bai Qinian as a dead cochlear-implant patient whose body was never recorded as cremated. He and Chen Mo investigate Wang Meilan’s remote villa and discover the preserved bodies of Bai and a young woman 648 649 650.
• Their early theory implicating Wang Zhenhui is overturned when a captured gang member identifies Hu Shide as the person behind Bai’s death 651 654.
• For Chen Mo’s lethal assignment against Hu Shide and Wang Meilan, Zhang Rong calls fellow disciples to help prevent the remaining gang members from escaping 655.
• After Chen Mo passes Grandmaster’s tests, Zhang Rong’s group recruits him into Team Two. Zhang Rong explains the organization’s origins, its campaign against harmful dark arts, and its Mohist principles of Universal Love and Non-Aggression 659 660.

Tang Family Village and the Mountain Pursuit

• While hiding in the mountains, Zhang Rong and the others encounter Gou Dan and discover that his village exists within an interwoven time and space 667 669 670.
• Zhang Rong initially questions whether they can safely rescue the siblings or judge the villagers’ guilt. After learning more, he helps bring Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan out despite armed resistance 674 675 680 686.
• As an earthquake destroys the village, he directs companions toward higher ground and returns with Chen Mo to help the siblings. At dawn, the two Daoists return to their own time, uncertain whether the siblings escaped 687.
• His soul communication with Grandmaster reveals a bounty of one million yuan on each disciple. The group flees but encounters an armed ambush 701.
• Pursued by several enemies, Zhang Rong survives when a wolf pack attacks everyone, but suffers a serious calf bite. Chen Mo leaves him hidden with food, water, a crossbow, and a padded coat, then later carries him back for treatment 703 708.
• Back at Qingyang Temple, he learns that Sun Zhaoming exposed their organization and hiding place to the Tang Family 710 711.

Shen Zhiyi’s Possible Reincarnation

• Chen Yanchu visits Qingyang Temple seeking Zhang Rong and Chen Mo after dreaming of a woman associated with them. Her account leads the two to suspect that she is Shen Zhiyi reincarnated 712.
• She leaves two packets of biscuits for them before departing with her parents 712.

Death and Aftermath

• Zhang Rong and Xiang Yifeng fail to return or contact the group. Chen Mo dreams of Zhang Rong’s death and obtains an ominous wandering-soul hexagram 723.
• Interrogation reveals a Tang Family ambush. The disciples search an abandoned factory and discover both men’s severed heads; Grandmaster wraps them in yellow cloth, sends them to Qingyang Temple, and vows revenge 724.
• Zhang Rong appears unharmed beside Xiang Yifeng in a later reunion scene, but the subsequent account explicitly reaffirms both deaths; the appearance does not establish a resurrection 728 729.
• Chen Mo’s master states that Grandmaster’s arrangements—including Zhang Rong’s and Xiang Yifeng’s deaths—had a necessary reason that he cannot yet disclose 729.

Notable Quotes

“We're not killers. Unless there's absolutely no other choice, don't throw that kind of talk around. How would you tell who's guilty and who isn't?” 674

“But we said we'd help you escape, and we will. We're here now. Come with us.” 680

“I haven't really practiced archery. I know how to make bows, not shoot them...” 681