EPISODE 18 RECAP
The emperor catches a fever because of the rain. Xiaoyanzi and Ziwei stay to take care of him when everyone has left to do their job. But Xiaoyanzi soon drifts off to sleep, so it’s all on Ziwei. Thanks, XYZ.
The emperor dreams about Ziwei’s mother that night, then jerks awake and finds Ziwei in front of him. She is basically a carbon copy of her mom and because her hand is right there above his head, he grabs it in confusion, wondering who the heck this girl is.
At this time, Yongqi has just arrived with a medicine tray, he sees the hand-grabbing thing and all kinds of alarms go off in his head. Which is understandable; taken out of context, what he just witnessed can look very horrifying. He trips and drops the medicine, bumps into Er’kang on his way out, and drags the latter away.
In the room, Ziwei cautiously makes her next move. She takes advantage of the emperor’s confusion and starts talking about her mother. The emperor comments that he feels like he has met Ziwei somewhere before.
In his room, Yongqi is like, oh no, oh no Er’kang, I have a bad feeling…
And Er’kang is like, IT’S NOT A FEELING IT’S A FACT IT’S GONNA HAPPENNN…
When Yongqi calms down, he decides they should trust Ziwei and give her a chance to execute her plan. Er’kang, as usual, screams like someone’s strangling him and just wants to spill the truth immediately. They’re worried that something will develop between Ziwei and the emperor, of course. But to be honest, the acting here makes it look like Er’kang is more jealous than worried.
The next morning, Er’kang drags Ziwei out for a not-so-quiet talk. The amount of yelling he does in front of her, *shakes head*. Ziwei tells him not to worry, she believes she has made progress and that it won’t be long till they can tell the emperor the truth. It takes a hug to calm him down, but he agrees not to interfere.
Next, our travelling group arrive at another town. On the way, they run into an orphan girl who offers herself to anyone who can pay for her recently deceased father’s funeral. When a gang of bullies start to harass her, Xiaoyanzi jumps in to help. Actually, it’s more like she jumps in to provoke them, the actual help is done by the Boy Trio. Yongqi also gives the girl some money afterwards for her father’s funeral.
The girl follows Yongqi and insists on sticking with him. He gave her money and helped her, which means he has paid for her and now she belongs to him — that’s the deal on the girl’s written plea. Guess Yongqi didn’t think she was that serious about it.
Though, if they leave the girl alone in the town, the bullies would probably come back for her, so Yongqi decides to take her along for now.
One would think that Xiaoyanzi would be happy about this act of chivalry, but she isn’t. Ooooh. She doesn’t like that Yongqi can’t say no to the orphan girl, and she doesn’t like that he’s letting the girl ride on horseback with him.
Er’tai can’t help teasing them when he understands the situation. When the group stops for a rest, he comes to Yongqi and is like, soooo… did you have fun “talking” to the girl? Huh, talking?
Xiaoyanzi storms away in anger. Yongqi doesn’t know what to do, but you can bet Er’kang does. He urges Yongqi to run after her.
Yongqi finds Xiaoyanzi and tries to explain, but honestly, he’s not doing a very hot job. He insists that Xiaoyanzi is being unreasonable and that he isn’t doing anything wrong. Which is… true, I guess, he hasn’t done anything wrong. Xiaoyanzi, on the other hand, isn’t really interested in how the orphan girl fares, which is what Yongqi keeps rambling on about. So their convo quickly becomes something like this:
YONGQI: You heartless woman.
XIAOYANZI: That’s right, I have no heart, no education, no subtlety, no depth.
YONGQI: I didn’t say that.
XIAOYANZI: But you thought it!
Yongqi turns around to leave, Xiaoyanzi throws a rock at him and tells him to get lost.
Dinner is super awkward. Xiaoyanzi cries and says has no appetite. Aww, she’s sad for real. You know it’s a huge deal when Xiaoyanzi turns down food. Once again, these kids confuse the emperor to no end.
Ziwei tries to explain things to Xiaoyanzi later on, but she is determined to hate Yongqi.
Er’kang advises Yongqi to send the orphan girl away, but Yongqi is like, I don’t take orders from you. Hey hey, whose girlfriend did not throw a rock at him? Listen to Er’kang on this, OK?