EPISODE 6 – 10 RECAP
A bit of info before we get to the events: Feng Zhiwei, Qiu Mingying and Feng Hao live under the roof of Feng Zhiwei’s uncle.
This uncle has a very annoying concubine who constantly tries to get rid of Feng Zhiwei’s family.
One day, she snoops around, and finds some confidential documents about Zhiwei’s origin, so Zhiwei’s mom straight up kills her. Yep, that’s how committed this woman is to protecting her family’s secret.
So Zhiwei and Mingying (the mother) grab Feng Hao and run.
On the way, they are ambushed by the crown prince’s men. Not yet knowing why they’re being attacked, Zhiwei and her mother fight for their lives. The true reason behind this ambush is that the crown prince has gotten word that Zhiwei’s family might be the remnants of the last dynasty.
In the end, Mingying and Feng Hao get caught. Ning Yi arrives to help but he is only about to take Zhiwei away from the mess.
In the escape carriage, Ning Yi makes his first attempt to get it on with Zhiwei, I guess, by asking her to be a maid/servant in his manor. It sounds like he’s been figuring out a way to start a conversation with Zhiwei for a long time already, but you know how Ning Yi is, he’s a man of STRATEGY. He needs to find the best, the most precise, the most profound arrow to hit the target at the heart. Now, did the arrow hit? Well, this we don’t know.
In Ning Yi’s defence, he’s only this weird whenever he’s with Zhiwei. Around other women, he behaves pretty much as society expects.
I’m not sure if Zhiwei understands what Ning Yi means, but she tends to his injuries and they get a few moments alone afterwards. In which nothing happens, OK? He just locks her up in one place to keep her away from the crown prince.
Later on, after a heartfelt confession with a considerable amount of Chen Kun charm, Chief Commander Gu Yan finally makes up his mind that the crown prince is a big douchebag and now declares his everlasting loyalty to Ning Yi.
You see, Gu Yan had been working with the crown prince to investigate the remaining members of the Bloody Pagoda Gang who are trying to mess with the current emperor, but it turns out, the crown prince is only interested in the rewards and has been mistreating Gu Yan’s men and family.
Now, they all work together with Xin Ziyan to rescue Zhiwei’s family and hide her real identity from the crown prince.
Xin Ziyan warns Ning Yi that he is getting too involved with Zhiwei and that’s not good for their grand big plan. But Ning Yi is like: I have it under control.
About Zhiwei, she isn’t thinking about being Ning Yi’s maid just yet. A bit later on, Ning Yi asks the question again, because seriously speaking, sticking with him is one safe way to make sure the crown prince will never harm her.
But Zhiwei’s female-lead syndrome acts up and she refuses any help from Ning Yi, not wanting to be indebted to him. Instead, she adopts an alias and goes to work at Zhuyin’s brothel.
By the way, Zhiwei’s teacher also keeps some secrets from her. Only Mingying knows these secrets. Every time they meet, they have some sort of a pity party about the lives they used to lead. These two are the kind of people who would rain on everyone’s parade because they missed their own parade when they were kids.
COMMENTS
So we’re at a point where nothing is happening yet and we’re still slowly building up to the main story.
This time, let’s discuss a little about the character Feng Hao.
You may find him annoying and silly and just kind of has to be there to cause trouble for Zhiwei, but it wouldn’t be fair to dismiss the character and the actor’s performance entirely just because he’s written to be stupid. Because, if you think about it, all this boy has done so far is being lazy, skipping class and not making curfews. And that’s like, what? 99% of us college students. Or maybe that’s just me, I don’t know.
Anyway, the good side of this character is that he genuinely loves his mother and sister and would have made better choices if his mom had made a bit more effort to discipline him. Or any effort at all.
Qiu Mingying, the mother… she just does not take any interest in teaching her children how to deal with the world. Sure, she keeps them safe, but she always keeps reminiscing about her former life and leaving them to be whatever they want. She doesn’t even bother teaching Feng Hao any self-defence when she herself is a badass. Then once in a while, she makes Zhiwei swear some blood oath.
Maybe that is not an excuse for Feng Hao’s bad choices, but this character is the product of many factors. He isn’t like that just because the writer needs to make things difficult for Zhiwei.