When last we left our Handsome Stranger and the Pig Butcher, a flood of water was going to kill everyone.
But it doesn’t kill anyone except Yuanqing’s soldiers
Nanny’s Son urges Qi to attack. He can take out Yan Zheng and Yuanqing together, proving himself and becoming the sole heir.
But nope. His manor is directly in the path of the flood. He needs to rescue Qian.
Changyu kills that scout. Mr Jin and his guys kill the other scouts. Then they accidentally send up the signal because they have no idea what they’re doing.
Soldiers find them and think they’re the scouts, but Changyu and Mr Jin explain what really happened. The soldiers accept it on the basis that they have the scouts’ tokens. Okay.
Yan Zheng is hurt but doesn’t want anyone to know. He can’t send Ning home yet because they have to keep moving. General He is in trouble, and Yan Zheng needs to rejoin his main force and provide assistance.
Qian, trapped by those shackles, is drowning
Qi finds her, gives her air, and breaks the shackles. It’s a reversal of their first meeting, as he brings her to the surface and gives her CPR. Later, she wakes up in his arms in a carriage, her wrists still bound.
There’s more, but who needs linear storytelling?
Meanwhile, Bao gets out of the carriage to do some business in the woods. Somehow Nanny’s Son is already there and goes with him. Nanny is waiting by the carriage when Qi arrives and kills all the men escorting them.
Qi and Nanny rehash the terrible way his parents died. Then Nanny stabs Qi with a hairpin, but he blocks with his hand. She mocks him for being led by a woman who wants him dead so Bao can live. Even after he cuts her throat, she’s warning him that Qian wants him dead.
She’s not wrong. While they were in the water, Qian brought out her dagger to stab him. She didn’t, and he still saved her. Because her life is his, and only he decides when she dies.
Nanny’s Son and Bao return to see some of this and then sneak away. Qi sends his men to find them.
Back in the carriage, Qi asks Qian why she didn’t kill him
She promises she’ll kill him. He promises that if she kills him, someone will kill Bao. She threatens to kill him if he hurts Bao.
And he says this is why they must all remain alive. Agreed. And this is exhausting.
Yan Zheng reaches the camp with the larger part of his army. He learns Yuanqing’s scouts were stopped by people calling themselves the Northwest Pig-Slaughter Squad. But, no, it can’t be Changyu.
He sends the falcon with a message to Changyu that Ning is okay.
Changyu is at some other camp, where she sees Mr Zhao! Once again, she tells someone that all their friends are dead. Mr Zhao has no news about Yan Zheng, but reassures her that no news is good news.
Tao gets jealous that Changyu has another older male mentor
But Mr Zhao is just grateful to Tao for exchanging his fate for Changyu’s. Not that it mattered? But it was nice.
The gang really is all here, as Li arrives too. He wants Changyu to drop formalities with him, but she Just Doesn’t Feel That Way About Him. Then the falcon arrives, and her excitement over Ning and Yan Zheng being alive further proves he has no chance.
Changyu learns that Marquis Wu needs provisions and immediately volunteers to help. He’s stuck in battle against someone named Shi Yue, holding a position on a mountain that’s difficult to attack.
Some Time Later, Yan Zheng learns that a few people made it through with provisions. Also, a female physician is there to see him. It’s the Grand Princess, who got there with the help of the Pig-Slaughter Squad.
Yan Zheng scolds her until she admits she was reckless. He’s pretty sure she’s only there to see Sun and confines her to a tent for the medics.
But this means Changyu has arrived in the same camp as Yan Zheng!
Except he’s not Yan Zheng there, and it’s a huge camp. When she asks around, no one knows “Yan Zheng”.
That night, she can’t sleep. Yan Zheng is patrolling nearby, but since he’s injured, his men make him rest. He sits by her tent, and his lantern illuminates his silhouette while her candles illuminate her silhouette.
Encouraged by the OST, each of them reaches for the other’s shadow. But the wind isn’t into it and blows out the lights.
The Grand Princess refuses to be confined and goes to check on the wounded soldiers. But all her cures involve luxury medicines unavailable to the soldiers.
Changyu runs into Sun, who immediately takes her to Ning. The two sisters sob and hug. Ning explains everything that happened, and that Brother-In-Law got hurt rescuing her.
Sun reassures her that Yan Zheng isn’t easy to kill. He’s saved from having to tell her where Yan Zheng is by an alarm. Changyu overhears that Sun is The Strategist, and he admits he lied about his identity before. He’ll explain more… later.
The Grand Princess ALSO gives Changyu a fake name
Poor Changyu. She tells the Grand Princess she’s looking for her husband, Yan Zheng. Ning talks Yan Zheng up, declaring him to be even better than Marquis Wu.
Changyu says that’s impossible, or he wouldn’t be with a Pig-Slaughtering woman like her.
Yan Zheng is sharing his personal tent with other injured men, but doesn’t reveal who he is to any of them. The lower-ranking soldiers don’t recognize him.
That hair ribbon that’s been passed between Changyu and Yan Zheng has had enough of Changyu and is blown into Yan Zheng’s tent. She’s already going in there to hand out some medicine.
Neither sees the other at first. She sees him lying down from behind and calls for help with his reopened wound. He hears her voice and sits up. Their eyes meet.
My heart. The fluttering. So. Much. Fluttering.
He’s shocked she came looking for him. She cries and wants him to come home and promises to take care of him.
The other soldiers warn that if he deserts, the Marquis Wu will kill him
She immediately takes this suggestion back.
Yan Zheng’s men quietly clear the tent so they can have their romantic alone time. After everyone is gone, the Grand Princess arrives to care for the wounded. She’s shocked when Changyu introduces Yan Zheng as her husband.
Sweet Changyu believes their obvious lies that they don’t know each other. The Grand Princess tells Changyu that Yan Zheng is only healing slowly because they have no salt. Yan Zheng then sends the Grand Princess to “check on Marquis Yu.”
Outside, Sun and Grand Princess see each other! He’s worried about her being there. She’s annoyed that he and Yan Zheng can make names for themselves while she’s confined to the palace. She calls him “Headmaster” and treats him curtly.
It’s an act. She’s still into him.
It’s crazy that Changyu doesn’t realize Yan Zheng is SOMEONE
When he sits like he owns the place. But. Love I guess.
More intimate wound tending. She pulls his top down and wishes she’d divorced him earlier. This makes him spit blood. But it’s because he wouldn’t have been conscripted if he’d left sooner.
She’d already decided that if she found him alive, they’d go home together. If he were dead, she’d bury him and mourn him. He hugs her and says he shouldn’t have treated her that way that night. She got over it a long time ago.
Sun walks in and pretends like it’s been a long time since he saw Yan Zheng. She leaves them alone, and Sun immediately teases Yan Zheng.
Sun worries about Chancellor Wei learning of Changyu. Yan Zheng wants a separate Love Tent, and he’ll find the time to tell Changyu the truth. Sun thinks Changyu deserves it after all she’s done.
We leave Yan Zheng thinking about this issue.
I really, really hope she learns he’s Marquis Wu in the next episode
The anticipation is killing me. They’re going to draw it out more, though, right? Just to torture me?
Yes, I love how soft Yan Zheng gets with Changyu and no one else. He LOVES how she takes care of him. It’s why he fell for her in the first place. And here she is again, wanting to take him home and take care of him. Who WOULDN’T fall for that?
Did that servant girl in the last episodes exist only so we know Qian has a dagger? Did she drown? Is she dead?
I could get into Qi’s toxic devotion if not for murdering servants for dropping things and terrorizing Bao. I blame the hair.
The war and movement of soldiers, grain, and salt are… Fine. They’re fine. I’m here for Yan Zheng to be sweet with Changyu and glare at everyone else.
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