When last we left the warlord and the beauty, the beauty handed over her land, but the warlord wasn’t happy.
In fact, he’s kicking her out
But not breaking off the engagement, just sending her back to her family. All of whom he plans to kill. He thinks her grandfather is behind everything she’s done.
Wei Shao’s advisor is once again not thrilled. Why have an advisor if you never take their advice? But Wei Shao didn’t need Man Man to get Panyi and didn’t want to be forced into marriage. The advisor reminds him Man Man is a woman, which sounds less silly in Mandarin. And makes Wei Shao think.
The villagers throw vegetables at Man Man’s carriage as they leave. Then, her previous fiancé “frees” her. Man Man fakes relief and hugs her maid to avoid contact with Liu Yan, who she knows is using her to enter Panyi.
Man Man’s family is upset, but not doing much
Grandpa has confidence Man Man will get through this. Her younger brother feels incompetent and wants to improve so he can protect people. His Aunt only wants him to be stronger than his uncle.
Bi Zhi is the best, because he tells Da Qiao what’s happened. He’ll take her to Man Man or her family, whatever she wants. She wants to go to Man Man.
Wei Shao learns Liu Yan is in Panyi, and is certain Man Man willingly helped.
Liu Yan wants to get married and secure his rule over Panyi. The dowry gifts are ready again, including that nasty not-lynx ferret.
Man Man realizes Liu Yan is spreading rumors about Wei Shao to get people to fight, even though they aren’t soldiers. He’s also moving sulfur around.
So Man Man gets a weather report
She advises Liu Yan on where to set the sulfur on fire based on the winds, so it doesn’t hurt the inhabitants of Panyi. He doesn’t want to hurt them either. He’s going to use the sulfur to blow up a canal dam, flooding Xindu and killing everyone there.
Man Man is horrified. Liu Yan has her and the maids tied up.
Wei Shao and his perfect eyebrows show up at Panyi’s gate. He uses powerful machines to pelt the city with arrows while Liu Yan’s archers’ arrows can’t reach them. But Liu Yan only needs to keep them out for 2 days. After that, he can destroy the dam.
Man Man frees herself and leaves her maids behind to set the sulfur on fire.
Wei Shao and his generals have half-figured things out
They know Liu Yan has sulfur, but also assume he’s going to set the city on fire. This keeps them from entering the city. Until they see the huge blaze that Man Man started.
Wei Shao learn Man Man is helping them, but everyone else still wants to kill her. Including one of Wei Shao’s generals, who blames her family for his family’s deaths.
Luckily, Wei Shao arrives in time to stop the general from killing her with an arrow. He doesn’t chase her, though, which would have saved some time.
Man Man hides from everyone who wants her dead, but eventually runs into Liu Yan. At the same time, Wei Shao also catches up. Liu Yan gives a long, impassioned speech about their relationship to get her to join him.
Wei Shao says, “Come here”
There’s a long, tense moment of indecision/fake out where maybe Man Man will choose Liu Yan.
She doesn’t, because even though he (mostly) treats her well, he’s happy to slaughter everyone else. She runs to Wei Shao while arrows fly, and Liu Yan has to retreat.
Man Man shoves Wei Shao away, slaps him, realizes what she did, and curls into a ball on the ground. Wei Shao’s generals decide to leave.
Wei Shao checks Man Man for injuries and compares her unfavorably to his soldiers. She does not appreciate this and sobs about how everyone was trying to kill her. I’d cry too.
He scolds her for putting herself in danger. He should stick to “come here”.
And they give us a piggyback scene!
Since I guess she hurt her ankle running from all those arrows. She takes this opportunity to scold him for being as bad to her as Liu Yan. She’s no longer interested in marrying him.
Later, she tells her maids that she wants him to choose to marry her. Now she understands what her grandfather meant about using softness to win.
Unfortunately, her grandfather is dying. He tells his family to help Man Man, which seems unlikely. He doesn’t want Man Man to fail Wei Shao the way he failed Wei Shao’s grandfather. Then he’s out, like a candle in the wind.
The people of Panyi don’t trust Wei Shao, and he doesn’t have a symbolic wall here to tear down. The local magistrate suggests that if Man Man announces the marriage, it’ll fix everything.
But Man Man is ‘sick’. Everyday. None of the generals can get past her maids with a message from Wei Shao. His advisor wants him to apologize, but Wei Shao grabs a stick and goes to see her himself.
He arrives in time to see her sneak out
Man Man meets with Da Qiao, whom she calls Fan. Fan wants her to run away. While Wei Shao can hear everything from behind a nearby rock, Man Man tells Fan that Wei Shao is dashing and heroic.
Although flattered, Wei Shao and his men know Man Man is lying for her cousin’s sake. Fan also suspects this, but agrees to leave with Bi Zhi. Wei Shao prevents his general from arresting the eloping couple.
Back in Panyi, Wei Shao brings medication to Man Man. He claims he’s checking on her for Panyi’s people. She continues to lie about being sick and fake coughs.
He admits that driving her out of Xindu was a mistake and recognizes what she did for them. She’s different from her family, willing to marry him for the people and her cousin. Also, she needs to avoid the mountains, and if she has to see her family, be careful.
Man Man wants to know what he plans to do
He lies that he does not quarrel with women and tells her to take her medicine.
Man Man gives a speech to the people about how Wei Shao took the land back for the greater good. He’s going to use the canal Liu Yan almost blew up to restore the land for farming.
Wei Shao didn’t tell her this, Man Man figured it out on her own. Alone, she promises him she’ll convince her uncle to work with him. She compares her seal to a heart (because of the shape of Panyi, it’s complicated) and says she gave him her heart out of remorse and sincerity.
He looks stunned, but says he’s not giving Panyi back. She knows driving her out was only a betrayal of her, but if he does it again now that she’s helping Panyi, he’s betraying the people.
He feels overwhelmed by her way with words and remembers she refused to marry him. She says he’s magnanimous, and her humble heart yearns for him. This makes it hard for him to focus later as everyone argues over what he should do.
Man Man has plans for Fan’s husband
Turns out that Bi Zhi has super strength and can lift huge boulders. She tells Fan to settle in a strategic location called Boya, barely held onto by her family. Man Man believes that with Fan’s husband there, they may be able to win.
Man Man’s advisor is horrified by what she’s given to Wei Shao. But she feels the benefits outweigh the risks, and he’ll be working too hard on the canal to kill her family.
Then she learns her grandfather passed away. Besides the loss of a loved one, she’s lost a powerful ally. She cries in the rain and sees her grandfather’s force ghost.
I like that our clever leads’ plans keep going wrong
Man Man is super smart, but following her advisor’s advice made things worse. She became exactly what Wei Shao hated, and offered him something he could get on his own. Starting with sincerity might have been better. Except that he was going to kill her with an arrow.
On the other hand, Wei Shao was an idiot for kicking her out. And if she hadn’t helped him at Panyi, a whole lot of people would have died.
They both feel very human to me because of these constant misjudgments and mistakes.
This show is also generous with the swoony romantic moments, despite our couple being nowhere near in love yet. Her running into his arms for safety, him comforting her after she nearly died multiple times, the piggyback. These are delicious tastes of what could be a trusting, loving relationship with a lot of nice skinship.
But our ending credit montage shows plenty of crying and fighting and rain ahead. This is exactly what I want.
Leave a Reply