When last we left the warlord and the beauty, a new Wei cousin was creating new problems.
And he’s not going to stop
He tells Man Man that Wei Shao has been reading her letters. She writes another, which her husband intercepts as usual. He’s confident he knows the contents, despite none of his generals being willing to read it to him. Nor will they let him send it to her family.
It says: “Shame on Wei Shao.”
Though he makes it sound like he’ll confront her, he goes home and straight to bed. She won’t let him, bringing various things she wrote and wants him to read. When he tries to avoid it, she loses her mind, calling him by his name and beating him with scrolls.
He pays more attention to the first thing and says she’s lucky he married her. Even angrier, she says his height is the only good quality. This feels so married couple. At the core of the fight is something real, but the actual fighting is silly.
Meanwhile, at a tavern, Wei Yan is amused to hear that Man Man called Wei Shao by name.
So Wei Shao is back to ignoring his wife
Man Man writes a carefully worded letter to her cousin to let her know their mail is being read. She continues to make Wei Shao read everything she writes, and he’s getting a cold from sleeping in the study.
The young general returns from canal inspection, ready to share the wonders of canals with everyone. This is Important because Wei Shao is still contemplating canal versus warfare.
To avoid Man Man, he invites himself to his Advisor’s home, wanders the city at night, and eventually crashes at his cousin’s place. He wants to know why Wei Yan tattled on him, and Wei Yan blames the relationship between Wei and Qiao. I don’t feel like this is an explanation.
While Wei Shao sleeps, Wei Yan meets with his creepy friend. Friend wants him to kill Wei Shao to protect the Bian. Wei Yan does not want to kill Wei Shao, just break the truce between Qiao and Wei.
Friend is urgent, because if Wei Shao chooses the canal, it puts the Bian at a real disadvantage. He tries to turn Wei Yan against his cousin and Grandmother, saying they spread rumors about him as the illegitimate son of a servant. He wouldn’t have known the truth if he hadn’t reunited with his father in Bian.
But Wei Yan will not listen to him badmouth Grandma. And he still won’t kill his cousin.
Wei Shao chooses Canal
And, he’s assigning a trusted associate of Man Man’s, Yang Feng, as overseer. Wei Shao tries to use this to get on his wife’s good side, but while secretly amused by his efforts, she’s not letting him off that easily.
In Bian, people are dying. Uncle Bian thinks it’s because Lord Bian’s wife is unlucky. Lord Bian thinks she’s lucky because he didn’t die with everyone else. This is complicated. He tells her about the canal situation. Lady Bian grew up with the Wei and decides to visit them and ruin the Qiao-Wei alliance.
Grandma is excited that Lady Bian, who they and I will now call Yu Lou, is visiting. Mom rambles about her excitement until Wei Shao coughs. Man Man learns from the maids that Wei Shao was once betrothed to Yu Lou.
Man Man knows that Lord Bian has fragile health, and finds her visiting suspicious. Yu Lou has a mark on her forehead, and supposedly, whoever marries her will rule the central plains.
Yu Lou does not put faith in her forehead mark
She tells her cousin it’s her efforts that brought her here. If she doesn’t destroy this alliance, she’s no good to her husband.
Yu Lou visits Grandma and meets Man Man, who notices her jade pendant. The two women praise each other, but it’s clearly all for show.
Later, Mom rants to Yu Lou about how horrible Man Man is and how mistreated she is. She’s so excited to have another evil woman to fawn over her. Yu Lou butters her up and asks about the canal.
Then she meets with Wei Shao to talk up Man Man and urge him to let go of old grudges. Then she tries to get Wei Shao to accept grain that she brought. But Wei Shao says since she is Lady Bian, it is not appropriate for them to discuss politics, he cannot accept her wheat, and he cannot betray the Qiao-Wei alliance.
Wei Shao is wearing a matching jade pendant, which is what Man Man noticed. Yu Lou tries to bring up her marriage and their relationship, but Wei Shao wishes her endless good fortune and leaves.
Man Man is properly worried about the situation
She assumes that Yu Lou is there because of the canal, and that if Wei Shao accepts her grain, Man Man’s family will look bad. She tells her maids that she can’t worry about Wei Shao’s “past flings,” which is quite a description. But she doesn’t look happy when she learns that the two of them met up.
Then Wei Shao makes the mistake of showing up and thinking Man Man might like the silly forehead marks being sold in the city. She does not.
The next day, Yu Lou’s grain leaves just as Man Man’s family’s arrives.
Yu Lou believes she can use Wei Shao’s grudges against Man Man. She talks about something happening to the seeds, and that they have a hidden piece/person. Then we see Wei Yan overseeing the granary.
But is he the hidden piece? Or wanna-be-concubine Cousin?
Because she’s not done yet. Yu Luo’s cousin (so many cousins) approaches wanna-be-concubine Cousin, and soon after, word reaches Mom that she’s been beaten by her in-laws. They meet secretly, and Cousin has a way for Mom to “do something” about Man Man.
The birthday celebration looks boring until Wei Yan does a sword dance and Yu Lou sings. When Wei Shao steps away, Mom starts prattling on about the wheat, demanding Man Man show it. She claims it smells like mold, but then everyone discovers the seeds have been cooked. Visually, they don’t look different, so they would have been planted and never sprouted. Leading to more famine.
Man Man bows to Grandma and swears her Uncle would never do this. She’s worried Wei Shao won’t support her as the family erupts in cries for explanation. Wei Shao’s awful Uncle Dian leads the mob.
Man Man starts to cry right before Wei Shao comes in and yells for silence. He laughs as his Uncle accuses Man Man, because sure, his wife might poison their family, but she would not hurt the people.
He helps Man Man up and recaps the last 13 episodes so everyone understands how good Man Man has been. To hurt the people, she only needed to do nothing, so this must be a setup. All our villains look upset/annoyed.
Wei Shao wants to weigh the seeds, because raw seeds and cooked seeds have different weights. Then would know if the seeds were cooked before they arrived, or after.
Yu Lou innocently asks after who is managing the granary, which is Wei Yan, implying they would be plotting against Wei Shao.
The Advisor wants to know if they should keep weighing while Uncle Dian demands an explanation. Wei Shao looks miserable.
The cousins are multiplying
At least we know that Wei Yan doesn’t want Wei Shao dead. Though we didn’t learn much more about his situation, we already knew he was connected to the Bians.
I have no idea what wanna-be-concubine Cousin is doing or how she’s connected to Yu Lou and why she’s willing to do what they want. Does she think that with Man Man gone, she’ll get back in? She’s one of those boring, evil characters who does not have an intelligent thought process.
Another evil woman showing up isn’t my favorite thing, but it’s fairly typical for this genre.
The way the Wei have treated Man Man versus Yu Lou is interesting. The Bian actually killed their family members, even if the reason they were able to do so was because of the Qiao’s betrayal. You’d think they were more angry with the Bian. I guess because Wei Shao already killed that Bian general cruelly, and Yu Lou was not originally a Bian, it makes the situation different.
Wei Shao and Man Man’s fight over the letters was kind of adorable. I’m not sure it’s that easy to separate your feelings as a couple from what you are trying to accomplish politically, but I also didn’t feel like Wei Shao permanently destroyed Man Man’s trust. Some part of her probably understands why he did it, but she’s also angry.
And she’s definitely more bothered by Yu Lou and his “past flings” than she’ll admit to anyone.
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