Who would’ve thought a box could create so much trouble.
EPISODE 36 – 40 RECAPS
The emperor is having a big banquet for his birthday. Everyone is super hyped about it. Princess Shaoning asks Zhiwei to be her plus one.
Helian Zheng is invited as well and he also wants Zhiwei to accompany him.
All this happens while the ONE person who should be asking Zhiwei out is at home grooming his hair again.
Upon the news, our genius immediately figures out why the princess wants to use this occasion to lure Zhiwei out of her house. However, Ning Yi simply cannot understand the mystery of why Helian Zheng would want to be close to Zhiwei.
When Ning Cheng tries to enlighten him on this point, he shuts the boy down with a dramatic stare.
Still, the problem remains, Zhiwei finds herself in a difficult position: she can’t say no to the princess or to Helian Zheng as both of them are important people that no one wishes to offend.
Zhiwei, with some help from Ning Yi, fakes an injury so that she won’t have to go to the party with the princess. And by “help”, I mean he kicks her at the back of her leg, injuring her and therefore giving her a legit reason to decline the princess’ invitation. Not exactly romantic, but very effective.
The injury is not that bad, though.
On the day of the banquet, Feng Zhiwei goes as herself to meet Helian Zheng, but she has a plan to repel him and protect her identity: putting on ugly makeup. And my god… it’s gloriously revolting.
See, this is the kind of thing we can appreciate about this drama. When they say Feng Zhiwei is going to dress up as a guy, both the actress and the team do what it takes to make her look like a guy. Everything from the makeup to Ni Ni’s posture is completely different from when she presents herself as a woman. And when she needs to look hideous, they’re not afraid to make her look hideous.
Back to the drama, while everyone is trying to hold their breakfast down as they look at Zhiwei, Helian Zheng handles it smoothly, letting Zhiwei know that there is more to him than just being a salt-eating weirdo.
He sees this as an attempt from her to remind him that beauty is only skin deep and appeals to the connection of souls between them. That’s… a darn classy way of saying someone is ugly.
Helian Zheng declares that this look of hers is the most beautiful he has ever seen. Wow. Of course, that isn’t Zhiwei’s attention at all, but the point is: he asked Zhiwei out and does not back down from his word no matter how she appears. Zhiwei is as appalled as the rest of us.
At the banquet, the emperor is happy with all the arrangements so far so he decides to hold a matchmaking session for all of his sons and the noble ladies present. One of those ladies is Secretary Yao’s daughter, Yang Ci, the woman Ning Sheng is hoping to strike a marriage deal with because he’d like to have Secretary Yao as an ally.
So, the emperor is like: let’s play a game.
He asks them all a question: what is the foundation of a human being?
The game’s rules are: each prince will write down his answer on a piece of paper. Each noble lady will pick out an answer from the bunch randomly and see if she can understand it. If she can manage that, then she and the prince to whom that particular answer belongs are a match made in heaven. That’s cool, actually; a lot more intellectual than just random matchmaking. Of course, the risk of being married off to a dick is still there.
At first, Ning Yi is like: pass. But when Helian Zheng declares that he’d like to take this chance to see if he and Zhiwei are a match made in heaven too, Ning Yi offers himself up as a contender. Well, that’s very noble of him, we all know he’s only doing this out of kindness, not one single bit of him cares about Zhiwei that way at all. Not at all, people.
On the sideline, the princess and the Tenth Prince start giggling like two kids preparing to watch a talent show where they know for sure the performers are going to embarrass themselves.
Ning Sheng’s response to the emperor’s question is picked up by Secretary Yao’s daughter. So what does Ning Sheng think is the “foundation of humanity”? Love. I didn’t expect this tame and corny answer from Ning Sheng but ok.
Even Ning Yi is pretty surprised too, he’s like: yeah, right, “love”.
Yang Ci explains the answer correctly, so Ning Sheng sweeps out, gets on his knees and turns his flirt on.
However, Yang Ci kind of suspects that the game’s been fixed so she’d end up with Ning Sheng, which is true. So she asks for permission to open one of the other answers, which says the same thing: love.
So Yang Zi then says there’s no way she can know which prince is destined for her now. Well, there we have it, both of Secretary Yao’s kids are pretty badass; and Yang Ci is way out of Ning Sheng’s league.
The banquet ends in a heap where Ning Yi’s mom’s death is mentioned and Ning Qi’s mom admitted she had something to do with it. These family reunions always end in the weirdest fashion ever.
Zhao Yuan tries to diffuse the situation. Like, is this still a birthday party?
The emperor collapses from the stress. As he lies on his sickbed, Ning Sheng takes action to make sure the name in the golden box is not Ning Yi. He comes up with the worst plan ever: replacing the royal edict inside the box with a fake one that he made. He also tells the royal physician to make sure the emperor does not get better so that after his eventual and unexpected death, the edict would be read to the court and make him — Ning Sheng — the next sovereign.
That would not be a bad plan on its own. But considering the people he’s dealing with — Ning Yi, Xin Ziyan, Secretary Yao — did Ning Sheng really think they hadn’t prepared to deal with this basic villain plan in the book? Was he just going to team up with his spoiled sister and hope for the best?
And wouldn’t you be surprised to learn that the emperor is not sick at all? He’s just been baiting Ning Sheng all this time. In the end, the emperor teaches us a very important lesson: always back up your stuff. Because it turns out, he has a copy of the royal edict. Of course he does.
In the end, Ning Sheng gets exposed, and that’s pretty much the end of him.
At one point during these episodes, Feng Zhiwei gets to take her revenge on Ning Yi. She bites him hard on the harm. He seems to enjoy this side of her thoroughly though.