When last we left our problematic secondary characters, our 2FL struggled to complete tasks without being murdered by her 2ML.
For the moment things are going well
Book main character Mu Yao connects with drama main character Lin Yu over their departed mothers. Because Lin Yu can’t get Mu Yao to understand her mother is literally in another world.
Outside, Mu Shen is irritated that she’s bewitched his sister into being happy. She laughs at his jealousy and holds it over him. When he gets threatening she cries that Mu Sheng is bullying her. Mu Yao and Fu Yi rush to force Mu Sheng to apologize.
She starts enjoying this power, forcing him to peel fruit for her. To be fair, he did kill her an awful lot. He gets payback in the form of a rough massage. Then he gets flustered when she’s scared by dust demons and jumps into his arms.
A lesson in demonology
Under duress from his sister, Mu Sheng does some worldbuilding for Lin Yu (who admits she skimmed parts of the book) and us. There are 9 levels of demons, with things like the harmless, glowing mushroom dust demons at level 1.
Starting at level 4, demons start to awaken their spiritual intelligence, which allows them to transform into human shapes starting at the 5th level. The higher the demon, the rarer, with the 9th level being the King of Demons, the Resentful Woman who murdered the Mu family.
Sheng isn’t interested in defeating the biggest, baddest demon, but Mu Yao vows to kill her. Later, Sheng remembers the Resentful Woman telling a young him to remember its name.
Lin Yu hopes that, as Mu Yao’s friend now, the plot will unfold easily
On cue, the voice tells her to destroy the Mu family heirloom, the Hundred Demons Mountain and Sea Map. It’s a broken map Mu Yao is trying to fix that can reveal demon locations. In the book, Sheng suspected Fu Yi wanted to steal it and faked affection for her. Lin Yu’s character listened in to them and burned the map, hoping to drive a wedge between Fu Yi and Mu Yao.
Lin Yu thought this was all badly written, with everyone behaving stupidly. Still, she has to follow what the system wants and goes to listen in. This time, Sheng and Yao’s conversation is about her.
Mu Yao thinks Sheng is suspicious and wants him to open his heart to the goodness of people. Lin Yu thinks Mu Yao is too good and only survives in the story because of the protagonist’s halo. But Mu Yao’s words about their friendship get to her, and she won’t betray her.
A meteorite from outer space obliterates the area
She regenerates, sneaks into Mu Yao’s room, apologizes to her sleeping body, blames the author Fu Zhou, and accidentally sets the map on fire. Only a small piece survives.
Sheng catches her leaving, sees the map, and kills her. She tries again, hiding the map. He finds it and kills her. She eats the map. He can’t find it, but decides to kill her to be on the safe side.
New tactic, she takes his hand and confesses her love. He pulls his hand away and leaves. She’s still alive.
The voice announces that she’s completed the third task, finishing the beginner tasks.
That doesn’t mean she’s safe though. The next morning, she bursts into Mu Yao’s to give her an expensive hairpin as an apology. Fu Yi and Sheng are there, they’ve discovered the map was burned and only a small fragment remains.
Sheng is suspicious of Fu Yi and Lin Yu. He makes a Heartburn Curse and casts it on himself, declaring he did not steal the map. He wants Lin Yu to do this as well.
Mu Yao puts a stop to it and blames herself for the destruction of the map.
Sheng isn’t too happy
After Fu Yi and Lin Yu leave, Mu Yao says she thinks he stole the map. He’s one of the few who knew about it and also wanted to keep her from going after the Resentful Woman. He doesn’t care about avenging their parents since they were not his biological parents and he doesn’t care about protecting others. Ouch. Though not entirely untrue.
They’re both upset. Sheng says since she thinks he’s the real thief, he’s the real thief.
Lin Yu overhears and is ready to confess even if she dies. But the system voice announces that all deaths will be permanent. So never mind.
Sheng tells Mu Yao she doesn’t need him anymore. On his way out he clutches at his chest, and we see his Heart Lake, which is very red and shaped like a lotus blossom. The red light dims.
Lin Yu waits for him outside. She knows he’s not the thief and wants to help. But he curtly walks away, and she doesn’t want to anger him because Permanent Death.
The system voice announces that the hidden task is to conquer Mu Sheng. The dust demons helpfully show that she needs to get him at 100%, but he’s currently at -200% (it’s like Love for Love’s Sake). She remembers the scene from the book where everyone, including her maids, are killed.
Unfortunately, her father is wasting money buying her magical versions of modern conveniences. She tells him she no longer wants expensive things but wants him safely by her side.
Lin Yu has a lot of work to do
She brings Sheng flowers and calming soup. When that doesn’t work she begs him not to kill her family, which gets her a sword to her neck. She runs to his sister to complain, and Mu Yao blames herself for his behavior. She talks about how as a kid he would never yield to her father and was beaten horribly. That’s terrible.
This is all to get Mu Sheng to overhear his sister’s defense of him, but he walks away without a word. The dust demons show she’s still at -200%.
Next, she goes to her maids for advice on getting someone to fall in love. They suggest she pray to Goddess Mei at the Lantern Festival. If she wins the top prize she can fly a lantern with the person of her choice.
In the book Mu Yao and Fu Yi fly the lantern, but Sheng magics the lantern onto the granary building, setting it on fire. The granary is revealed to be empty and Sheng kills her father on the spot. Because it reveals his embezzlement? Then what was that flashback with her Dad in it earlier?
Somewhere outside, Fu Yi sends off an origami crane with a message. Because the map was destroyed he has no reason to be around the Mu siblings and can return to report to his master in Liaoran Valley. So Sheng wasn’t wrong about an ulterior motive.
Lin Yu knows from the book that Fu Yi wavered between Mu Yao and his master, hurting Mu Yao. Not sexy. She decides to compete against Mu Yao to be the leading actor.
Lantern Festival time!
Sheng is in a bad mood because he thought his sister wanted to go with him, but is there for Lin Yu.
Lin Yu wants to come between Fu Yi and Mu Yao. They play pitch pot, and the siblings are both good. Lin Yu wants Fu Yi to teach her but Mu Yao steps in. Lin Yu is so bad she hits the man running the game but wins in a clear set-up by her father. Mu Yao excitedly drags Lin Yu off for more fun.
Fu Yi suggests he and Sheng use the rest of the arrows, Sheng thrusts the arrow at Fu Yi and runs after his sister. Fu Yi asks for a refund. And we’re out!
I’m not sure how Lin Yu is trying to become the lead actor
Is she trying to romance Fu Yi and take him from Mu Yao? I think she’s trying to win at the festival (whatever that means) so she sends up the lantern with him. I’m not sure how that will stop Mu Sheng. He can still shoot that lantern down.
The flashbacks are confusing. Her father is alive when the family is being slaughtered in one but is killed by Mu Sheng after the granary is set on fire in another. How do both happen?
Mu Sheng is more menacing in these two episodes. While he’s not wrong to suspect Fu Yi and Lin Yu, his motivations are jealousy and anger. Lin Yu’s father seems nice and confused by the empty granary. I wonder if he’s innocent and if Sheng knows. I doubt it, as he is our drama lead.
There’s definitely more to Sheng in general, based on his memory of the Resentful Woman. I’m also not sure regular people have Heart Lakes. That reminds me of Dong Fang Qing Cang, who had a Sea of Heart and was not a regular people.
I’m curious if the love confession will come up again, or if it was only needed for the one scene.
All this confusion only makes me eager to keep watching and get answers.
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