Ziwei and Xiaoyanzi kneel the whole night in the dark room. At dawn the next day, Erkang goes and does something he believes to be a sensible move at this time: find Qing’er and ask for her help.
This time, Qing’er isn’t so enthusiastic about it. What’s in it for me? She asks Erkang. That’s right, what’s in it for her, Erkang?
Truth be told, Qing’er likes Er’kang and she just wants to take this opportunity to make him speak his mind, which he does. It’s not what she wants to hear, though. Erkang makes an entire speech mixed with some poetry about how much he loooves Ziwei.
This moves Qing’er and she agrees to help him, but she does shed a few tears because of his subtle (not) rejection.
This would have been no problem had they not been seen by Jinsuo, who immediately assumes that Erkang must be hiding something from Ziwei. Great…
But there isn’t a need for Qing’er to speak up this time, because the emperor himself comes to apologize to the Dowager on behalf of the two girls that morning.
To the emperor, it’s not a big deal that the 2 couples were spending time together at night and everything since they are engaged anyway.
But the Dowager reminds him that “engaged” isn’t the same thing as married.
Don’t you just love these guys’ expressions every time someone says there’s a chance they can’t be married to Ziwei and Xiaoyanzi.
When the two girls come out to apologize, after hearing the story, even the emperor couldn’t believe that Xiaoyanzi actually ATE a piece of paper.
Again, Yongqi says it was just a love poem he wrote to Xiaoyanzi.
Well then recite it! The Dowager demands, and Xiaoyazi does.
To put it simply, the “poem” that comes out of her mouth is a mess, and no one can make this mess sound as adorable as Vicky Zhao does. Even if Erkang and Yongqi don’t think so.
In the end, Qing’er kicks in another poem which makes the Dowager laugh, so the two girls go free.
Small detail: The nuances in the acting here are definitely something to appreciate. When the two girls thank the Dowager and emperor for letting them go, while Ziwei keeps up her proper neutral expression, Xiaoyanzi’s face slightly changes when she addresses the emperor cause hey, it’s her dad who keeps bailing her out of trouble again and again, not an austere old lady she’s afraid of. Look, it’s not something I can explain with words, okay? You need to watch that scene yourself.
After the emperor has once again saved them, Ziwei feels bad about how they’re helping Hanxiang go behind his back with her boyfriend. Me too, Ziwei, me too.
But the gang vote on it and decide that Hanxiang’s love story is more exciting than the emperor’s feelings, so they’re going forth with the plan.
Hanxiang receives Meng Dan’s letter that day and she’s so happy that she starts dancing, Ziwei and Xiaoyanzi join in.
I’ve finally found something Ziwei doesn’t look good doing: dancing. She looks super uncomfortable here. Which makes sense because Hanxiang is a dancer, Xiaoyanzi is a stunt performer, Ziwei, on the other hand, is none of those things.
But the dance doesn’t last long because the emperor pays Hanxiang a surprise visit. One thing leads to another and Xiaoyanzi ends up having to swallow that letter from Meng Dan to hide them from the emperor. How does that full-sized piece of paper even go down her throat without choking her to death?
Some good news to end this episode with: Lady Ling has a baby boy.
It’s not good news for the empress though. And of course, Nanny Rong doesn’t waste the opportunity to urge the empress to up their evil game with everyone around.