When last we left the warlord and the beauty, Man Man was finally driven to drink by Wei Shao’s moods.
Wei Shao gives his sleeping wife a forehead kiss
But she’s not asleep! She hopes he’s not angry anymore. Then she pulls him down for a real kiss. And another.
The next morning, for some reason, despite Man Man being asleep on his arm, Wei Shao thinks that was a dream. He wakes her up with another forehead kiss.
Man Man doesn’t remember anything. If one person thinks it’s a dream, and the other doesn’t remember, did the passionate kissing really happen?
Anyway, Wei Shao tells her no more drinking.
And suddenly, no one can pick up on the obvious
Man Man can invite her cousin to the deer hunt, but no one from Bian. Her brother Ci, currently staying with Fan and Bi Zhi, wants to go. But everyone tells him no, he’s too young, and he’s being sent home.
So he asks for a horse that can outrun anyone. They’re totally cool with this, and no one asks any questions.
At the same time, Tao wants help picking out a fancy heart-guarding-mirror (little round piece of armor) for Liang. Of course she does, and of course Wei Shao snoops and thinks the gift is for him. He tries to prompt her to give it to him, and our normally sharp Man Man doesn’t get it.
Wei Shao brags about his gift to his generals, who recognize his description as the one Liang received from Tao. So, Wei Shao describes another, more ornate heart-guarding-mirror as his.
At home, Man Man continues to miss the hints and thinks her husband needs a better diet.
Liang has had enough and goes to Tao
They figure out what’s up, and Tao goes to Man Man, who now has to conjure up this armor. Wei Shao is lucky he’s married to this woman for multiple reasons.
Meanwhile, Yu Lou prepares a story to guilt Wei Shao into allowing Bian to enter the deer hunt. She’ll say Man Man’s Uncle wanted to give her to Wei Shao, and she drank poison to damage her voice and make herself undesirable as a concubine. Really, her voice is damaged because she drank too much medicine when sick.
Then she talks to Wei Shao’s dead brother, and says she has “no choice” before deliberately breaking the jade pendant.
Man Man gives Wei Shao the heart-guarding-mirror he described, and we get to enjoy it for five seconds before Yu Lou arrives. Now we learn Yu Lou is saying Man Man’s brother was the one who chased her and broke the pendant.
Because there’s truth behind that Wei Shao can’t ignore
As we saw earlier, Man Man’s uncle was looking for concubines for Wei Shao. So the Qiao are uninvited to the deer hunt. Man Man knows that while her uncle is garbage, her brother is innocent.
Man Man apologizes to Wei Shao for her Uncle. Wei Shao wants to know if she’ll be on his side if their families have a dispute. She’s on his side now.
He hands back the Qiao invitation, she understands, and he pulls her into a hug. He wishes she could just be his wife. Families are the worst.
Oh hey, it’s Liu Yan
We haven’t seen him in a minute. Despite being the rightful heir, his father favors his new wife and her 8-year-old son. Then Liu Yan murders all of them.
Man Man’s brother arrives in town, complicating the already complicated situation. On her way to meet him, Wei Yan sees her, and she lets him come along.
Meanwhile, Wei Shao agrees to let Yu Lou’s cousin participate in the deer hunt. Then he learns that Ci has arrived, and Man Man didn’t tell him.
Man Man is happy to see her brother, but he can tell that something is wrong. He thinks the warm, friendly Wei Yan is Wei Shao. In the carriage, she scolds Ci for running off and confirms he doesn’t know Yu Lou.
Wei Shao is at his patriarchal best with Ci
He asks about Ci’s martial arts and tells him to train harder. He asks about his learning and tells him to read more. When Ci serves him tea, he almost doesn’t take it, until Man Man pushes him.
She’s had enough of Wei Shao’s scolding and sends Ci away.
Wei Shao takes the repaired pendant to Yu Lou and shares the good news that Ci is here. Her cousin overreacts, and she makes noises about how Ci will deny what he did. Wei Shao promises to get justice if Ci is guilty.
Yu Lou suggests he let it go, to keep things peaceful with his wife.
Man Man isn’t interested in keeping things peaceful for Yu Lou
She arrives and says Ci wants to apologize to Yu Lou. Wei Shao looks surprised, so he wasn’t in on this plan.
Someone who only kinda looks like Ci comes in to apologize, and Yu Lou thinks they are Ci. Caught, she makes up a story about how it was dark, she couldn’t see clearly, he was in armor, but she knows it was him because he announced his name… Blah blah blah.
Man Man says if Ci really did it, she would have him apologize, but will not let him be falsely accused.
Yu Lou continues to blah blah about being the victim, but Wei Shao has the real Ci brought into the room. Yu Lou makes more noise about how maybe this was all a misunderstanding. Ci is a sweet baby angel, and says she must have been scared, and hopes she recovers.
Yu Lou is glad the misunderstanding is clear and hopes it doesn’t cause marriage problems. She’s so maddeningly obvious, and already got what she wanted. Her cousin is still in the deer hunt.
Man Man checks on Wei Shao’s anger levels for the second time in two episodes. He just tells his men to train Ci. But he wants to know if Man Man is angry with him for only listening to one side. But she thinks he’s being fair.
Wei Yan takes Ci to the tavern for booze but not sex
Even though Ci quickly leaves, Man Man isn’t happy and punishes him by having him hold a bucket over his head. Wei Shao stops him and brings him to get Man Man to be forgiven. At first, this just gets them both scolded, but Wei Shao has Ci apologize, and he no longer has to hold the stupid bucket.
It’s too late to re-invite the Qiao, but Ci can enter the deer hunt. Wei Shao will oversee his training, and Ci can move into the mansion. There are happy smiles all around.
Despite that sweet moment, Ci worries that Wei Shao doesn’t treat his sister well enough. Man Man explains Wei Shao is just not good with feelings or expressing them. He just smiled!
Deer Hunt Time
Man Man greets the arrivals, including her ex Liu Yan. He’s announced as the new King of Yan, and explains how his Dad died and everyone else “followed” him into burial. Man Man knows this is not what happened.
Man Man is worried for her brother, so Wei Shao takes her hand to comfort her and gives Ci measured but encouraging words.
We’re starting with an Arena Duel. In the city, people are placing bets, but not on Ci. Tao is upset, but she doesn’t have money. Liang brings out his money to place a bet for her. Sexy!
Also, Yu Lou and Liu Yan make eyes at each other. Ew.
We skip the other fights and go straight to Ci versus Yu Lou’s cousin. Man Man is anxious, so Wei Shao keeps squeezing her hand. It’s not passionate kisses, but it’s something.
Ci and Yu Lou’s cousin pick their weapons and…
Of course, we’re done for now
It feels weirdly out of order that Ci, Wei Shao, and Man Man had that nice moment before Ci brought up concerns about Wei Shao. I guess he’s a good brother.
I’m not sure what Wei Shao was thinking regarding Yu Lou in this episode. I never felt like he fully trusted her, but he never asked Man Man for her thoughts either.
I guess it illustrates that while he trusts Man Man, he doesn’t trust the rest of her family. He shouldn’t trust her uncle, but the rest of them are okay. Maybe Ci will be the catalyst to get him to make peace with the rest of the Qiao. They’re not such a bad bunch.
I was glad to see Wei Shao holding Man Man’s hand, and I hope we get passionate kisses that they both remember soon. We’re about to enter the last 1/3rd of the show.
There was a lot made out of that stupid little piece of armor with little payoff. I hope it saves his life in some future episode.
Leave a Reply