A lot of things happen in these episodes, like… A LOT. But the most important thing is that we’ve finally reached that ultimate climax – Feng Zhiwei’s real identity as a woman being revealed.
EPISODE 41 – 45 RECAPS
It all happens when the princess decides she must marry “Wei Zhi”, egged on by Ning Qi, of course.
This princess is so hilariously spoiled that she constantly contradicts herself while trying to make a point. One minute, she’s like: I want to marry him, he’s the only man for me in this world. And the next, she’s like: he’s a bad person, Dad! You know how you should punish him? Make him marry meeee!
Ning Yi is rushing into the palace to help, of course. And I know this place is big but do you think you can walk any faster?? Zhiwei’s life is hanging on a thread here!
When he arrives, Zhiwei has already panicked and revealed herself as a woman. She does this by… letting down her hair?
I mean if that’s all you need to identify as a woman then I guess Ning Yi is a woman 70% of the time.
Helian Zheng is also trying to help by offering to marry the princess himself. On one hand, I’m impressed that he loves Feng Zhiwei enough to sacrifice his own happiness like this; on the other, I feel sorry for the princess because I’m still not sure about the way Helian Zheng treats women in general. Sure, he’s nice to Zhiwei; but have we ever seen him nice with any other woman?
Ning Yi plays his I-had-no-idea card, hoping to dilute the tension and buy Zhiwei some time.
He also low-key makes fun of all the men of the imperial court. He’s like: wow, a woman, a woman who has passed the scholarly exam, a woman who thought of a plan to stabilize the borders, wowww… a woman.
Ning Yi and Zhao Yuan also make an effort to shut Helian Zheng up because honestly, the guy is not helping the situation anymore by insisting on his solution.
In the end, Zhiwei is put in prison.
Ning Yi comes in later to offer her a few options. He even suggests that she tell the emperor she is pregnant with his (Ning Yi) child. That would buy her a little more time. That’s very bold coming from Ning Yi.
Of course, Zhiwei is like: oh haha you’re funny, worst plan ever. She expresses this in tears of course.
Anyway, all of these plans potentially put Ning Yi in danger, so she refuses to accept his help.
Outside the palace, the Bloody Pagoda Gang also plans to rescue Zhiwei. But honestly, I think they just do her more harm than good in general.
At the very last minute, Xin Ziyan manages to convince the emperor to give Zhiwei a chance to make up for her crime of deceiving royalty. Yes, Xin Ziyan is a professional negotiator, leave this stuff to him.
It isn’t condition-free, though. Zhiwei will have to go on a political mission with Ning Yi, and they must succeed in order to earn the emperor’s forgiveness. Well that’s easy! Let’s gooo. Put Zhiwei and Ning Yi together and there’s nothing they can’t achieve in terms of politics.
Best of all: the bloody useless Bloody Pagoda Gang doesn’t get their chance to “rescue” Zhiwei. So we can all breathe easy now.
After this earth-shaking scandal, Ning Yi and Zhiwei finally have their first date. Aww, they’re so wholesome. Just two politically dangerous kids eating street food and going shopping together.
When Zhiwei tries to thank Ning Yi, he ignores her.
Now, onto the mission.
First of all, Helian Zheng tags along too. Now that Zhiwei is officially a woman, there’s no reason for him to hold back on his wooing.
Because this is a dangerous mission during which people absolutely will try to assassinate them, Ning Yi gets together with Zhiwei in advance for a little tactical discussion.
This leads to an extremely satisfying scene: Zhiwei can’t stand Ning Yi’s arrogance anymore and shoves some wine up his nose. I swear Ning Yi loves that, though.
They work together nonetheless and ultimately decide to divide their men and go on separate ways to throw any assassin off their scent.
Just as Ning Yi anticipated, he gets attacked. One thing leads to another and Ning Yi and Zhiwei end up separated from the groups completely and having to spend a night in a cave.
In that cave, we get to see an epic… cuddling scene.
You would think that Ning Yi — being a badass strategist who has dealt with many types of people and all — would not be so awkward in these situations. But nooo, he’s the one who looks like his reputation is hanging by a thread because he has his arm around a girl’s shoulders.
From sniffing to huddling in merely 20 episodes– such progress.
Their little moment doesn’t last very long because Helian Zheng and Nanyi find them the very next morning.
No wonder Ning Yi is so pissed that he just downright kills a dude later in this episode. It’s not an important dude, though. Just one of those lackeys who ae more annoying than evil.
COMMENTS
So many things to say about this arc. I will just stick to what stands out the most.
A little note on the scene where Zhiwei is confronted about her real identity. It’s a particularly well-written scene regarding the relationship between the emperor and Zhiwei.
You can tell that the emperor sincerely wants to give her a chance to live. He has many reasons not to want to kill her, one of which is that he knows Ning Yi would do anything to protect this person. But the emperor too has spent so much time with Zhiwei; and from the little things he does for her — allowing her to take the shackles off, etc — I think it’s safe to assume that he too has been touched by her loyalty and would hate to lose someone as smart and aspiring as she is.
From here, there are many directions to take the character and the drama.
Or… you know, ending it right here would have been great too.
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Yeah. Ending it here would have been better for my helplessly romantic heart 😅
Yes, even if Ning Yi hasn’t achieved his life goal yet, it still would’ve been better to end it like this 😀