When last we left our Handsome Stranger and the Pig Butcher, they saved the city.
And now it’s safe forever!
Right?
Anyway, Changyu and Yan Zheng are enjoying a romantic fire and wound massaging. Changyu mentions that she’s prepared everything for him to leave, including divorce papers. She wants closure, so he isn’t tied to her later.
He’s more concerned about what she’ll do when untied from him, like, find a new husband?
Coming from the one leaving, this is obnoxious. Feeling this, Changyu tells him she’ll find someone nothing like him. He responds with how he’ll find someone nothing like her.
It’s extremely, er, petty.
When she tries to leave, he pulls her into a kiss. She shoves him away, asking why he’s crossing the line NOW. Seriously.
He hates that her taste in men is pretentious scholars. She slaps him hard enough that his lip bleeds. Again, he stops her from leaving with a rough kiss, taking her hair ribbon as she shoves him away and sticks a knife at his throat.
Then he sorta invites her to come with him as a way to avoid marrying someone horrible? This only reinforces that her taste in men is terrible, since she saved him.
He explains he has an enemy. One of them has to die. He wants a year. If he fails, someone will tell her, and she can marry someone else.
That suggestion might have worked back at the beginning of the convo, but not now. Finally, she leaves without him grabbing her.
He collapses on the spot where she saved him, and now abandons him
This is peak emo.
Then, he’s off. He gives the village one last look while, far away, in her place, Changyu looks out her window toward him. I don’t think they literally see each other? It’s very far away.
Moping around her empty home, Changyu finds gifts from him. There’s a simply written birthday note, knives, and wrist bands he made for her sore wrists. She has a vivid vision of him helping her put on the wrist bands. The vision of him disappears, and she cries.
Later, the men of the village are literally being tied up and taken away to fight. By who? I’m not sure.
Mr Zhao talks big to reassure Mrs Zhao. She doesn’t want to lose him the way they lost their son. Mr Jin and his guys are also taken away, and ask Mrs Zhao to ask Changyu to take care of their families.
Horrible Gossip wants Horrible Ex-Fiancé’s mother to save her son from being taken away. Horrible Ex-Fiancé’s mother Does Not Help.
Changyu rushes home, where an official informs her that her husband has been taken away. She rushes out with stuff for him, but no one is allowed to deliver anything to the conscripted men. She sees Mr Zhao, who claims he won’t be fighting on the frontline. I hope, but don’t think that’ll be true.
She gives him her horse and the bundle she brought to be delivered to Yan Zheng.
Wei Xuan comes home to tell Dad that Yan Zheng is alive
But Grand Tutor Li scooped him. Daddy Wei knows Wei Xuan is afraid Yan Zheng will take revenge for the arrow he shot at him. Wei Xuan only regrets that he didn’t kill Yan Zheng. He thinks it’s something his father always wanted to do, but couldn’t.
Wei Xuan’s Mother arrives to slap him for speaking to his Father this way. Wei Xuan yells at her for loving the Chancellor and Yan Zheng more than him. This is fun.
After Wei Xuan leaves, Mother is thrilled that Yan Zheng is alive, so the Chancellor has an heir. What is going on here?
Yan Zheng has switched to Marquis Wu mode, which involves amazing feathers on his head. Later, he discusses war strategy with his people. The most important thing is that no one cares about Changyu’s village anymore. Mainly, because Prince Changxin’s army has left.
So things are getting worse there, and Qian and Bao are leaving. She invites Changyu to join her, but Changyu wants to stay with Mrs Zhao and be near the conscripted men, where she thinks Yan Zheng is.
Ning cries, and Changyu promises everyone will be back once the war is over.
Qi receives a letter from Prince Changxin telling him to return home. He shoots, well, stabs the messenger.
Yuanqing lives!
He’s at Qingfeng Stronghold, run by a sister-brother pair, with the sister, Shi San, being The First Boss. She’s so strong that no one wants to fight her. Yuanqing defeats her using only one arm and steals a kiss. Ick.
Qian and Bao are “saved” from bandits by Qi. He shows her a jade pendant that proves he’s the man with the mask and scar she remembers. Somehow, he “fixed” his face.
Yuanqing shows up, and Q is thrilled. They make plans to kill people to strike back against Marquis Wu. They agree that they are destined to take over the country!
So now all the people Changyu and Yan Zheng saved two episodes ago are murdered. Yuanqing is specifically looking for Changyu, but no one is speaking, so he kills the Constable, Horrible Ex-Fiancé’s Fiancée, Changyu’s Grandpa (maybe? I’m losing track), and others.
After all that, Ex-Fiancé’s Mother eagerly leads them to Changyu. Yuanqing stabs her in the back for being disloyal.
Mrs Zhao and others are hiding underground
Yuanqing easily finds them, and Changyu leaps from the roof to attack him!
Again, she takes Yuanqing hostage, cozying up to him for show to get his men to leave. He thinks this’ll upset Marquis Wu, which confuses her until she sees her Marquis Wu memorial tablet. She assumes he’s commenting on that.
Yuanqing tries for a kiss, and she stabs him a bit. Then she tries to get him on a horse with her, but he resists, and they fight. She throws Qian’s sleeping powder in his face.
Before she can kill him, he calls for his men. Changyu grabs a horse and speeds off, drawing them away from where Mrs Zhao and everyone are hiding. Yuanqing passes out.
Changyu is stunned to see the entire village chorus, dead on the ground. Distracted by the Magistrate’s dead body hanging at the gate, her horse takes an arrow to the butt. She gets thrown to the ground.
Then, she leaps through fire and arrows and slaughters people with her knives.
Sudden Falcon!
Chancellor Wei’s assistant and Yan Zheng politely pretend they’re friends. Then the Falcon reaches Yan Zheng, and it’s BLOODY.
Ning, hiding separately from the others, comes out crying and looking for Changyu. Unfortunately, there are still people around murdering everyone. Horrible Gossip, hiding under the bed with her grandson, pulls Ning into hiding with them.
Then, Horrible Gossip (sorta) redeems herself by dying while distracting the killers and cleverly hiding the kids.
Suddenly, it’s light out, and Yuanqing must have woken up, because he’s following Changyu in the forest. She reaches a cliff and naturally jumps backwards off it rather than join Yuanqing.
As she’s falling to her certain-not-death, Yuanqing learns that Marquis Wu slaughtered Qingfeng Stronghold. He doesn’t seem to care.
At Qingfeng stronghold, Yan Zheng learns that Changyu hasn’t been found. Thankfully, his Falcon is a scent-tracking Falcon who can use that hair ribbon to find her.
She’s far, far away, in a tangle of vines at the base of the cliff. He brings her down and staaaaaares. She’s unconscious.
He carries her back… somewhere… puts her in bed and cries as he tries to warm her up, hugging her tight. A strange older woman appears and says she’s alive, but needs scraping. And her meridians unblocked.
Scraping involves taking off Changyu’s clothing! But he’s her husband, so that’s okay.
And that’s where we’ll end things
I don’t find undressing sick people sexy, so we’ll see how that goes. Also, would she just die if her husband or another woman weren’t there to undress her?
Anyway, these episodes felt a bit deflating to me.
It’s not that I mind everyone dying. It’s part of why I watch cdramas, to have my heart wrenched. But right before this, we spent an entire episode saving everyone. RIGHT before this. And after that, that’s when Yan Zheng decides to leave? I know he thought Yuanqing was dead, but what about Qi? Did he think he’d just go away?
Yes, war is futile and horrible, and I believe this could happen. But I’m here for a cdrama, not Platoon.
It’s another spot where I wonder whether they’re trying to include everything from the book while still fitting China’s show-length limitations. It feels rushed.
Letting go of that, these episodes had all the high drama I want from a cdrama. Yan Zheng got all Marquis’d. Changyu got to fly through the air, dodge fire and arrows, and then leap off a cliff. All leading to the kind of dramatic rescue/reunion I want to see.
But they owe me a sweet kiss.
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