When last we left the warlord and the beauty, some poet made Wei Shao jealous and insecure.
Next, he’ll be jealous and violent
But first, Wei Yan drunkenly babbles at his maid as though she were Man Man. He wants to free her from Wei and see her joy. The maid sees the painting of Man Man and puts things together.
The next day, she’s dressed like painting Man Man, and it’s her turn to babble. She’ll stay by his side and pretend to be Man Man. Wei Yan is not interested, offers her money, tells her to leave, and threatens her if she tells anyone.
Immediately, she runs off to tell Wei Shao.
I like aggressive, toxic Wei Shao
Which is good, because first he sets the Man Man painting on fire, then he grabs the maid by the neck. He threatens to kill her entire clan if she tells anyone else.
Then he finds Man Man’s maids with HER special box of things, including the New Year’s gift from Wei Yan. When he knocks the box over, the hairpin he gave her, which was also inside, breaks.
Man Man shows up and is confused, thinking this is still about the poet. He throws Wei Yan’s gift and threatens to kill any man who comes near her. Man Man gets upset, she’s done nothing wrong, and only treated Wei Yan as family.
Later, Man Man’s maid tries to console her that this is about Wei Yan and not her. But Man Man sadly holds her broken hairpin from Wei Shao.
Uncle Bian wants a trade, canal help for Wei Yan
Wei Shao goes to see Wei Yan, who doesn’t want to talk about Bian. He wants to talk about Man Man. Wei Shao punches him and says that if he promises to stop loving Man Man it’ll be like it never happened.
Wei Yan punches Wei Shao. He doesn’t want to be treated like a pet. Wei Shao is hurt. He’s only ever wanted to keep his cousin safe and away from Bian. Teary-eyed, Wei Shao says he’s done. The rest is up to Wei Yan.
At home, Man Man is unhappy to see his bruised face. He forces a hug and apologizes for his behavior. He knows that Man Man only sees Wei Yan as family, and he only said those things because he was angry.
He’ll let her hit or scold him, but she refuses and checks his wounds. He acts like they really hurt.
Of course, Yu Lou is behind everything
And even though it isn’t working, she’s just going to try harder. So now everyone in the city is talking about Wei Yan’s “affair” with Man Man.
And it’s time to return to the water metaphors. Wei Yan says rumors are like water. Water can’t be stopped or blocked, I mean, but it can be controlled with canals?
Whatever, he’s going to return to Bian to give people something else to talk about.
Grandma tells him not to be water that never comes back. He’s worried about being water that hurts his family. I don’t know if these people understand water.
But outside of that, it’s a heartbreaking conversation. He’s her baby, and she’ll do anything to keep him, crying as he gives that final bow from earlier. He leaves. Grandma collapses.
Yu Lou visits Wei Shao and suggests that he send Man Man away. He’s going to send the person spreading the rumors away.
She’s so bad at this, it’s frustrating. And wasn’t he sending her away last episode? Did she stay because of a headache?
Spies from Bian were spreading the rumors
Wei Yan wants the spies released and for Wei Shao to reveal the truth about him. Wei Shao won’t let Wei Yan go. Even when Wei Yan whispers in his ear that a cousin should never love his cousin-in-law.
Crying, Wei Yan reveals his connection to Bian and says he’s no longer Wei Shao’s cousin. He asks for only one thing: for Wei Shao to let him go.
But Wei Shao does not let go easily. He stops his cousin at the gate.
Wei Yan swears he wants to go back to seek either his fortune or his fate, to take over or to die. He cuts off his finger and swears he would never invade Wei with Bian. He gives Wei Shao a flask of farewell wine and tells him to take care of Grandma.
Wei Shao is crying. I don’t think he’s been persuaded. He just can’t argue with a severed finger.
Don’t worry, Grandma is still alive
But she’s depressed. So is Wei Shao. He drinks that wine and wonders if the ones he cares about will always leave him. Man Man hugs him and reminds him that he still has the ladies in his life.
Man Man usefully contributes that she knows someone is behind this, pulling strings. Speaking of, Yu Lou is still vowing to have what Man Man has, which is… What? She wants Wei Shao?
Wei Shao summons her and reveals that he has Wei Yan’s maid and her cousin. After being tortured, the cousin admitted to everything. That’s not a good way to get the truth, but whatever, Drama. Wei Shao also cut off his finger as revenge for Wei Yan.
Yu Lou cries over her cousin until he starts desperately blaming her. Wei Shao orders the cousin and the maid executed. Yu Lou is still spewing useless excuses, but Wei Shao digs it in by comparing her heinous actions to Man Man, who never stooped so low.
Not only that, but Yu Lou has been loved. His brother loved her. The King of Bian loved her, despite the schemes she dragged him into. She brought about her own suffering.
Everyone wants her executed. I want her executed.
When she tries to use her peony mark, Wei Shao reaches out and smudges it. His brother always knew it was fake. Then he takes the jade pendant back.
BUT HE DOES NOT EXECUTE HER. I knew that was coming because I watch the intro and outro. It’s still disappointing. He spares her for his brother’s sake, but has her disfigured. She’s crying about revenge and Man Man turning on him and…
Later, he talks to Man Man about whether Yu Lou was sincere in her feelings for his brother. She’s trying to reassure him that people change, and not to feel regret for his brother. But her feelings for him will not change.
This is why he should have executed her
Yu Lou’s disfigurement horrifies her maids into stealing from her. She very slowly stabs two of them and uses a mask to cover whatever horrifying disfigurement she has on her cheeks and nose. She’s still determined to kill another man/marry a leader of the land.
Liu Yan will be her next victim.
Then Wei Shao comedically annoys his generals by wanting the comforts of home at the office. The generals then gossip about how Man Man’s mourning will end soon. Potentially getting laid helps with deep family sadness, I guess.
Yu Lou advises Liu Yan on how he can attack Wei Shao by attacking Bi Zhi’s territory. For this brilliant, strategic advice, she doesn’t want marriage, but an alliance. She feels they’re bonded by how they’ve been wronged.
Before they can seal the deal, someone from her clan arrives to arrange for her to be Some Guy’s concubine. It’s clear she has little say in her own fate, as Liu Yan is more involved in the conversation than her. Lui Yan, seeing the horrible situation, offers to make her his wife.
I’d care if they weren’t both so horrible.
It feels like one writer wrote the angst, the other the comedy
And the angst writer likes water metaphors.
I can see now that the poet stuff was a setup for this more serious jealousy situation with Wei Yan. On the other hand, I’m eyeing the fact that we have 8 episodes left and worried about how things are starting to feel rushed. I still think it was too long on the poet.
We did spend a lot of time on Wei Yan, his parentage, and his relationship with Wei Shao and Grandma earlier in the show. Then he went from that to cutting his finger off and leaving in the space of an episode. Before I could recover, we’d moved on to comedy and our main couple’s sex life. It was a little bit much for me.
Speaking of Man Man, she felt very absent from these two episodes. But I was glad to see Wei Shao dealing with his problems without her fixing things for him. Even if his solution was to kill people, it’s in character.
I have a feeling we’re about to be tossed into raging rivers of angst for this final quarter of the show.
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