When last we left our Handsome Stranger and the Pig Butcher, he finally found out Qi’s true identity.
Which I guess is important to the story?
I got so confused I had to go to the internet for help, and this is what I’ve figured out.
Qi is not Prince Changxin’s son. He’s Crown Prince Chengde’s son, but was switched with Prince Changxin’s older son by his mother to save his life. Changxin doesn’t know this, but somehow instinctively doesn’t trust his fake older son, which is why stupid Yuanqing is the heir.
Most importantly, Qi knows he should have been in line for the throne. And if the truth comes out, his own son Bao would be competition for the throne.
That’s my understanding. And I think it’s what Sun and Yan Zheng understand after talking to the Nanny’s son.
Anyway, Qian stops Qi from gouging the maid’s eyes over a candle
She soothes him by telling him he’s the most pitiful, because he hides his fear behind his horrible behavior. This sparks some memory of his mother calling him pitiful before shoving his face into a fire.
Qi shows Qian a tiger tally, which is somehow tied to the truth about the Jinzhou massacre. I also had to internet to understand a tiger tally. It has two pieces that uniquely match and must be brought together to allow certain military actions. I don’t yet understand what it proves about the Jinzhou massacre.
Also, Qian did poison Qi, who wakes up confused, alone, and with a headache.
Changyu is wandering the forest with Mr Jin’s people when Qian comes running. That was easy.
Except, Qi is after her, ready to kill them all.
Except, General He is there! Sent by Yan Zheng to make sure Changyu is safe. Qi and his men flee, and General He takes Changyu and Qian to Lucheng.
The next day, General Heng and Changyu spar
As they fight, General He remembers sparring with her father 17 years ago. After the General wins, he gives her fighting advice. She’s confused because he clearly recognized the secret fighting technique her father taught her, and he reveals he was friends with her father.
But he’s not going to tell her anything else now. He’ll tell her more later. That’s so annoying.
Also, he has fancy armor made for her. The last time he made armor was 30 years ago, for someone who sacrificed himself for the good of the people. He and Changyu agree that it’s really awesome to die for the common people.
Li’s here too! Changyu asks if he knows anything about her father and General He. Li thinks that if her father was friends with General He, then he must have been remarkable.
War is coming to Lucheng, and Changyu wants to go home
But Tao is there to talk about the importance of staying and fighting. The longer a war drags on, the more everyone, not just the soldiers, suffer. Those who kill people to end everything quickly are actually saving lives.
We also learn that Yan Zheng gave her the blades he forged for her before they parted earlier.
Despite seemingly agreeing with everything Tao said, Changyu is preparing to go home. She’s gotten word via falcon that Yan Zheng saved Bao and he’ll be there with Ning.
She has an emotional goodbye with General He, who remembers but does not tell her that he came up with her name. In the carriage with Qian, she’s still thinking about what Tao said as she hears the war drums.
Changyu decides to go, because if Lucheng falls, more places fall, and eventually she’ll have nowhere to go. Qian promises to take care of Ning and Bao.
Mr Jin and his guys join her.
Time for more fighting and horses and death!
Changyu saves an injured Li’s life, then knocks him out so he can’t get killed fighting. Thankfully, CTE isn’t a thing in historical Cdramas.
Changyu is in full kill-all-the-people mode. She reaches the main battle, meeting up with Yan Zheng for a moment. Then Yan Zheng goes up against Prince Changxin while she takes on Yuanqing.
But Changyu gets pulled into another fight, giving Yuanqing a chance to go after Mr Jin and his guys. He kills that poor kid who already got injured in the last battle. But he died for the people so everything is great, right?
Prince Changxin sends Yuanqing to Lucheng and goes up against Changyu. Yan Zheng’s General steps in briefly, saving her from dying. Remembering advice from Yan Zheng and General He, she fights back.
Changxin also recognizes her fighting technique, which he says belongs to the Traitor Wei Qilin. Changyu is startled and nearly defeated, but then she butchers Changxin like a pig.
Meanwhile, Yan Zheng NEARLY captures Yuanqing again
Somehow he gets away, and we don’t get to see it.
Post-battle, Grand Princess takes care of Changyu’s injuries. Her true identity has been revealed, but Changyu’s mind is occupied with her father being a traitor and Mr Jin’s guy dying.
She tells Grand Princess that she used to think that if she had a kind heart, she could protect those around her. Now she realizes that her kind heart made things worse.
A flashback shows her discovering that General He died during the battle.
She thinks that if only she’d killed Prince Changxin earlier, all these deaths would have been prevented. How? We only even met him in the show a few episodes ago.
Grand Princess tells her that General He, like her, fought to protect his land. She leaves when Li shows up. He’s pissed Changyu stopped him from dying to protect his land and General He. He’s got something General He left for her, and wants nothing to do with her ever again.
The message is the suicide note from her father.
Wei Qilin is a well-known traitor they used to sing about as kids. Changyu doesn’t want to believe that her father could be him, and there are signs he isn’t, but she’s not thinking clearly.
She wakes up suddenly, declaring it’s not true
Yan Zheng is there to comfort her and also tell her that the General who saved her life twice may never be able to fight again. Changyu feels bad. Yan Zheng is just glad she’s still alive.
Changyu is having nightmares with the faces of the dead she couldn’t save. She cries in his arms and asks if the battle of Jinzhou 17 years ago was this bad. He says it was worse because of the whole grain thing, and his father’s corpse was hung outside the gates.
Changyu wants to know if everything was really because of Wei Qilin. Yan Zheng also finds it confusing. Wei Qilin was the trusted General of Wei Yan and respected by many, and yet later labeled a traitor.
Changyu can’t bring herself to tell him that her father was Wei Qilin.
General He left a message for Li, urging him not to become a pawn between Wei and Li. And also, treat the Fan sisters with sincerity. Well.
When funeral banners arrive from Chancellor Wei and Grand Tutor Li, Li burns them both. I think he’s done with this endless political feud?
Yuanqing slaughters the family who rescued him before they can slaughter him. We see Shi San for a moment, so she still exists.
Yuanqing and Qi reunite. Yuanqing is thinking, for once, that maybe he’s not as strong as Yan Zheng, and maybe he doesn’t want the throne anymore.
Qi isn’t going to let that happen. He pushes his brother to fight, and tells him that it was Changyu who killed their father! This works its magic, and Yuanqing slices a table in half, ready for revenge!
I hate seeing Changyu so sad
Never mind her delusions that she can save everyone, she’s been through A LOT in the last 10 episodes. Seeing her lose loved one after loved one, including losing her father this second time, is really not fun.
I also really miss her quiet little village.
Meanwhile, the romance has faded into the background. She and Yan Zheng are committed and in love. There’s just this stupid war and stupid past getting in the way. Worse, they aren’t talking about it. Which I understand on her part, because she JUST learned about it.
But Yan Zheng has been looking into her father since he met her. The problem is, he never found anything. Still, I wish he had a reason to bring up that, “by the way, there’s a lot of mystery around your father I’m looking into, I just don’t… know anything yet.”
Unfortunately, the only people who know anything are passing each other secret letters and refusing to share any info until “later”.
I’m hoping in the next episode, Yan Zheng and Changyu get to NOT go to war, and instead start untangling whatever snarled historical mess involves her I-doubt-he’s-really-a-traitor father.
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