When last we left the warlord and the beauty, Wei Shao couldn’t understand that Man Man wanted a romantic road trip.
He forces her to pay attention to his lessons about canals
Be still, my heart.
Liang convinces Tao to convince her lady to go on a romantic detour. Unsurprisingly, instead of a mystical forest village, they find an outhouse, instead of a hot spring, they get a puddle, and the “purple sea” is a regular sea. It’s cute.
Uncle Dian and the Rongjun Prefect gossip about how they don’t want the seeds to keep people from starving. They don’t want that canal to be extended either, as it would put more power in the Wei’s hands, not theirs.
To stop this, they just need to kill people.
Wei Shao continues to Not Get It
Man Man gives him a massage, touches his face, and startles him. Then, she flat-out tells him she came to spend time with him and take care of him. But he’s fallen asleep.
She tells sleeping him that she wants to get closer to him, and he will grow closer to her too. When he wakes up in the morning, she’s asleep with her hand on his face, and he realizes what happened.
Later, Liang can’t tell that Man Man is staring at Wei Shao, or that people are about to shoot them with arrows. Thankfully, Wei Shao sees both.
There’s a fight with Man Man outside the carriage for no reason. Wei Shao gets grazed by an arrow, and a spooked horse runs with the carriage, knocking Man Man inside. Would you believe there is a cliff? China is made of cliffs.
Man Man won’t jump until Wei Shao slows the carriage down with fancy footwork. She flies into his arms. It doesn’t make much sense, but it was exciting.
She’s impressed. He’s annoyed she didn’t jump earlier. Then he passes out.
Nothing a little coma won’t cure
The arrow was poisoned, but since it only grazed him, he just needs a long nap. Meanwhile, Man Man and the Generals know the Rongjun Prefect and Wei Dian were behind it. The Generals want to go back, but Man Man refuses.
In Rongjun, Man Man can’t talk the Prefect into loving winter wheat. When she learns Wei Shao is awake, she rushes to him, hugs him, and cries. He’s stunned and confused.
It’s sweet, but awkward, and he recovers by talking politics. He’s ready to kill people, but Man Man wants to manipulate the situation. They’ll use Wei Dian’s suspicious nature and isolate the Prefect. No bloodshed needed.
Man Man forces the Prefect to play Go until late and steals his shoe. Immediately, Wei Dian has a spy watch the Prefect, who sees Wei Shao’s general bringing a box of gold into the Prefect’s home. But once inside, the Prefect only gets his shoe back.
Wei Shao is impressed. And smells bad. He doesn’t want Man Man’s help bathing, but she gives a scary smirk.
With the help of editing, she gets him into the tub
And is upset to see his injuries.
The next step is for Generals Liang and Qu to propose to the Prefect’s daughter. Currently, she’s engaged to Wei Dian’s nephew. The Prefect doesn’t accept, but Wei Dian confronts the Prefect, and there’s yelling and accusations.
Wei Shao is pleased with the progress, but wants to get out of bed to help. Man Man wants him to stay in bed, not for naughty things, and wins the argument.
The Prefect is attacked, and Liang rescues him. Except, it’s Wei Shao’s other generals attacking. The Prefect tries to help using a bench as a weapon, which is adorable.
After all this, the Prefect is Pro-Winter Wheat. Wei Dian is going to gather his troops for a fight, but is killed by Qu.
Time to plant wheat and build the canal!
Xindu’s Mayor and Panyi’s mayor are put in charge of the canal work together, which is a problem because they hate each other. Wei Shao calms them with a talk about the wonders of canals.
Wei Shao learns that the Lord of Bian died, and Uncle Bian/Wei Yan’s father is in charge.
Without her forehead mark, Yu Lou easily gets past the guards. But then she puts it back on as part of a plan we don’t get to know about.
Her cousin will not stop lecturing her, and she’s finally had enough when he calls her “just a woman”. She lectures him back, reminding him that her forehead mark protects them both.
Man Man wants a reward for her hard work
Wei Shao offers some second-hand jewelry from their schemes. She wants something special, so he drags the generals to the market. They offer uninspired but acceptable choices. He instead gives her a deed for 500 horses.
He sees it as a sign of sincerity in the alliance between Yan and Wei. Seeing her lack of enthusiasm, he offers to exchange them for weapons. She fakes an enthusiasm for horses.
Wei Shao’s strength is in runaway carriages and carrying her in the rain, not this.
Tao is me, impressed with Wei Shao’s practical generosity. But she plays dumb when Man Man asks about Liang.
Man Man then tries some complicated situation with sweets and incense that I’m not surprised doesn’t work. Is she trying to seduce him? I don’t think we’re there yet.
So she uses a long, convoluted explanation about the stars and weather to get Wei Shao to agree to go stargazing with her.
Nothing more romantic than a cold, windy tower at night
Man Man does her best to look pretty while waiting nervously for him. It seems to pay off when he arrives and stares, but then he scolds her for not covering her dress with a cloak.
Don’t worry Man Man, you look gorgeous even with the hood up.
She starts to explain stars, but Wei Shao has invited the magistrates to what he sees as a business meeting. The Panyi Magistrate arrives and realizes what’s going on. He tries to help Man Man get her alone time back, but Wei Shao makes Man Man leave.
Later, while meeting with the Prefect, he thinks about how pretty she was, so it wasn’t entirely a wasted effort
Of course, the Prefect’s daughter wants to marry one of the generals
But in a plot twist, it’s not Qu, it’s Liang!
Unsurprisingly, Wei Shao has no idea about Liang and Tao, but he knows enough not to agree to anything without talking to Liang.
Man Man turns it into a bet. If Liang refuses, she wants Wei Shao to pick a prize out with her. No idea what Wei Shao gets if he wins. I guess that’s how good she is at this game.
Liang is stunned by the news, but when he sees Tao, he refuses. When Wei Shao forces him to explain, Liang admits someone else has his heart. Meanwhile, Man Man is in the uncomfortable situation of explaining to Tao, who tries to act like it’s good news. Man Man teases Tao by offering to force Liang into it.
Wei Shao is trying to force Liang into it. Liang has to forcibly explain to Wei Shao that love cannot be forced, and then chases after Tao.
Tao tells him she’s happy for him, and their complicated emotions lead to a ladle full of water getting dumped on the ground. He swears he wouldn’t have proposed if he knew this would happen. Her being upset, not the water.
She pushes him to explain why he’s telling her this. Liang gives a long-winded explanation about miniature gold weapons that all the Generals were gifted from Wei Shao, and how they symbolize brotherhood.
And then, he offers her his miniature gold weapon. It represents his heart.
Liang is at least better than Wei Shao
All this cute courtship stuff is fun, but I miss the dramatic horse rides through the rain, violence, and death.
On the other hand, this is what Grandma wanted. Man Man is smarter than me, because I thought Grandma just wanted her to be a good wife. Grandma is smarter than me, because she wants Man Man to help Wei Shao gain power without gaining any more scars. Grandma does not want rain, violence, and death. Oh well.
But did Grandma want Wei Shao to murder his uncle? I guess he married into the family and is not Grandma’s biological son. Still, I’m surprised it was so easy to get rid of him after everything. Was the Rongjun Prefect his only supporter? I don’t think so.
On the other hand, I wanted darkness and death. And I know there’s more to come.
Until then, I am happy to see Man Man work hard to get the romance she wants.
Finally, a random complaint: One of the wigs gives Wei Shao an Elvis-like hairline. I am not a fan.
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