When last we left the warlord and the beauty, all the Super Important Wheat Seeds had been cooked.
But will Wei Shao weigh the wheat?
If he weighs the seeds, it would prove Man Man not guilty but make Wei Yan look guilty. Before he can decide, Grandma faints.
Alone, Grandma tells Wei Shao the truth: Wei Yan’s father is Uncle Bian. Her daughter was kidnapped and raped. When they rescued her, she was pregnant, and she died after Wei Yan was born.
Grandma has noticed that Wei Yan is different, like he might know the truth. She wants family dignity preserved, but doesn’t Wei Yan to die.
Meanwhile, Wei Yan plays Marco Polo with his maids instead of doing anything useful. He’d rather be upset at Wei Shao for believing Man Man and suspecting him. Wei Yan, you ARE working for Bian.
Wei Shao reveals he knows Wei Yan went to Bian. But Wei Yan only digs in further, saying he tampered with the seeds and knows Wei Shao will never trust him again. He throws Wei Shao’s monitoring of Man Man’s letters at him.
Meanwhile, Yu Lou knows her plan is flawed, but thinks Wei Shao’s grudge against the Qiao guarantees success.
Man Man finds the jade bracelet from episodes ago
Already stunned that her husband protected her about the seeds, this is only further proof that he’s not The Worst. She quickly writes a letter.
At first, Wei Shao is angry that his wife is also wasting her time, but then it occurs to him to read the letter. It’s a message for him, telling him to do whatever he needs. He decides to investigate.
Man Man gets a letter back, it says to wait for him to return tomorrow.
They weigh the wheat and discover it was cooked after it arrived. Horrible Uncle Dian wants Wei Yan punished right away, but Wei Shao is still investigating.
He visits Man Man, who has forgiven him about the monitoring letters thing and is all smiles. She even calls him darling and doesn’t notice, before handing him another letter.
Then, Wei Shao learns that wanna-be-concubine Cousin repeatedly visited the granary. Also, she’s dead. But there’s no way this was all her plan.
Poor Advisor, Wei Shao wants to know what he calls his wife. Man Man has addressed him as “My Lord” in her latest letter. What a disappointment after “darling”.
Yu Lou has another chat with Mom
Realizing that Wei Shao is ruining her plan, she has a manipulative chat with Mom. She manipulates her into confessing to everything.
Since it is a family, not a political issue, that changes everything. Instead of being put to death, Grandma makes Mom kneel and copy sutras.
Wei Shao sees Yu Lou off, and we learn that the jade pendant was related to his older brother. Yu Lou was originally betrothed to him. Wei Yan stops her on her way out and asks her not to come back. She taunts him that he should worry about finding peace and being a Wei.
Wei Yan continues to misbehave
He won’t visit grandma, and Wei Shao can’t make him. Man Man offers to talk with him. She also wants to show canal stuff to Wei Shao, which requires them to sit real close. Talking about canals is so romantic.
Man Man interrupts Wei Yan dancing with tavern ladies to talk about being an outsider. She explains that she’s both a Qiao and a Wei, and denying that wouldn’t convince anyone. It’s the only way she and Wei Shao can trust each other. And only if she sees herself as a Wei, that Wei Shao sees her as one of his own.
Then Man Man lies to him about Grandma being sick
So he rushes off to see her, but she’s fine. She finally shares the grim truth that his father raped his mother. When the Bian later attacked them, Wei Yan vowed to defeat them, and she couldn’t tell him about his heritage. But she blames herself for how it was all handled.
It’s true that because he could be the heir of Bian, she didn’t want him to be part of the military. Now he has a choice. He can stay with her, and she will care for him, but never entrust him with power. Or he can choose Bian, and she will not stop him. She only asks that he thank her for raising him.
For a moment, it seems like he might leave, and she cries. But then he says he belongs to the Wei family, because he cannot bear to leave her.
Man Man and Wei Shao spy on them in the middle of all the candles
Man Man has another thing to do for Wei Shao, and that’s visit his horrible Mom. Mom whines and blames Man Man, but eventually takes responsibility for the seeds.
Man Man knows Mom didn’t steam the seeds, and confessed out of care for her son. She sees this as a sign that Mom has changed. Man Man reassures Mom that accepting her punishment will make things good between her and Grandma and Wei Shao. Man Man is nicer than me.
Wei Yan tells his creepy Bian friend he knows the truth about his Dad, and to F off. Also, tell his father he’s done with him.
Lord Bian has died, so now Uncle is in charge, and Wei Yan is the heir. Uncle Bian thinks this guarantees he’ll come back one day.
Replacement seeds arrive!
Wei Shao doesn’t want to thank his wife. Wei Shao? What is wrong with you? There’s a lot of confusing political talk about the wheat seeds that’s kinda confusing. Basically, because Uncle Dian is heavily tied to Rongjun, Wei Shao feels he should personally escort the wheat seeds there. Nothing else can happen to these seeds.
Yu Lou learns her husband died. She seems genuinely sad and surprised that her forehead-fate thing didn’t happen. She learns that her husband’s last wish was that she be imprisoned, which is also pretty upsetting.
Rather than direct her anger at her husband, Yu Lou is bitter about the difference between her and Man Man’s situation. They hear people searching for her outside the carriage, and she wipes off her forehead mark, shocking her cousin.
Wei Shao is the densest man alive
Man Man throws out all the hints that she’d like to go on the trip to Ronjun, and he doesn’t get it. Finally, she sells her ability to plant wheat. He worries the trip will be dangerous, but she says he will protect her. Sometimes, Wei Shao deserves to be manipulated.
Wei Shao reads about planting wheat, and it doesn’t seem complicated. His Advisor suggests Man Man might just want to be with him, but Wei Shao thinks it must be about the wheat. Advisor is appalled.
Wei Shao gets irritated waiting for Man Man to leave, but doesn’t want to hurry her. Wei Yan gives Man Man all the flattery before they leave.
During a rest stop, Wei Shao at least knows to put his cloak down for Man Man to sit on. She makes the mistake of acting like she likes nasty soldier bread and gets handed a loaf. He starts muttering about how he warned her not to come. But she says she’s here to see the places he’s been before and what he’s done, learn more about him.
She butters him up about how wise and smart he is, and hides the bread as he pulls out a map.
As he points out things on the map, she has a See Your Love moment with his neck. But he wants her to look at the map, and is confused when she says poetic things about his face. He checks her for fever and makes her look at the map again.
Liang has a romantic detour that he wants to take Tao on, but uses Wei Shao and Man Man as an excuse. Though he probably also wants to help them, they’re so awkward.
We’ve got a theme of outsiders and family
Mom, Man Man, Wei Yan, Yu Lou, wanna-be-Concubine cousin, they are all different kinds of outsiders.
Mom has never felt a part of the family. Wei Yan thought he was part of the family, but now things are complicated. Yu Lou was once part of the family, but isn’t any longer. Wanna-be-Concubine got kicked out.
Man Man, with slow, painful work, is managing to become part of the family while not denying her own family.
Outside of the necessary drama of a, er, drama, this is a pretty universal theme. Integrating with someone else’s family can be tricky. Even without wars and famines, every family has power dynamics. Some families are welcoming, others it’s better to remain an outsider.
But in the reality of this drama, it’s essential for Man Man’s survival that she get along with Wei Shao’s family. She and Wei Shao can’t move away from or ghost his Mom. I guess they can’t kill her either. So what’s left is to make things work, somehow.
Two things I was mildly confused by:
I think Yu Lou was originally engaged to Wei Shao’s older brother. When he died, it wouldn’t be strange for her to be engaged to Wei Shao instead, but that didn’t happen.
And, I think wanna-be-concubine Cousin convinced Mom that the seeds were moldy, and she should reveal this. So Mom was shocked when it turned out they’d been tampered with. This makes Mom stupid, but not actively trying to cause a famine. Which is something that can be worked with.
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