‘The Glory’: Ep. 1 Run-down — Stop Bullying the Female Lead, People

EPISODE 1 RECAP

The night our female lead Zhuang Hanyan was born, her grandmother died; so she was deemed bad luck and was sent away to live with a scholar’s family.

They did all kinds of evil things to her, like making her drink black ink and tying her up with a metal chain. Er… I don’t think a poor scholar’s family could have afforded that much metal since it was an expensive material back then. But whatever, everything about this “everyone hates me” is being exaggerated anyway.

To present time, Hanyan grows up and ends up being SA by the scholar and driven out of the house. In a red cloak. OK… even when she’s close to dying, she’s very stylish.

She passes out right in front of the Zhuang manor.

They take her in. As Hanyan talks to an officer afterwards, she mentions that she was also attacked by some bandits. But oh, what a coincidence, that is also the man her family engaged her to on the day she was born, Fu Yunxi. So… you sent her away to live in poverty, not giving her any education at all, but you also engaged her to a man who would become a high-ranking officer in the court?

There is something about this girl, though. She keeps giving everyone sinister looks as though she’s about to jump at them from behind.

Hanyan worries that she won’t be able to fit into life in this manor, but so far, the dowager of the house seems like a funny woman. There’s also a lady called Zhou Ruyin who treats Hanyan well. She takes Hanyan to the latter’s mother’s place so they can reunite.

Later, Zhou Ruyin gathers some maids to remind them to serve Hanyan well. She does this in the garden right in front of Hanyan’s room. One of the maids starts talking smack about Hanyan. And would you believe that Hanyan overhears all of it because… her room’s right there?

The drama doesn’t stop there. Hanyan meets the useless brat who is the fourth son of the family. He insults her, breaks her stuff, and tells her to get lost.

She insults him back and gets shoved into the pond. Luckily, the nice lady Zhou Ruoyin shows up again and tells the boy to back down.

Later on, Hanyan goes to visit her grandmother. An assassin breaks in and starts attacking. Hanyan shields herself with a wooden box. Whoever hired this assassin needs to rethink their decision because it takes him a good few seconds to respond to Hanyan’s “self-defense” technique.

As the grandmother’s room is in chaos, the Fu guy appears in time to fend off the attack, and he stares at Hanyan again. Every time these two come face-to-face, dramatic background music starts playing.

Fu implies that it’s the spoiled Fourth Son who hired that assassin to kill Hanyan. Given the skill level of that assassin, yes, it’s very likely that a kid hired him.

At this time, Hanyan’s mother appears and decides Hanyan should be flogged for her “crime”, which nobody knows what it is. People in this drama just like to put the female lead down; that’s the premise.

The mother punishes Zhou Yurin, too; but her daughter runs in to speak for her and… also gets slapped.

Now the grandmother runs in, but it seems she doesn’t have as much power. She decides to leave and wait for her son to come back.

And now Zhou Ruyin’s daughter starts pointing the finger at Hanyan.

After the punishment is done, the mother states that Hanyan should not have come back since she’s obviously not made for this life. So the flogging is her way of telling Hanyan to run away while she still can? Geez, lady, you scared everyone for a bit there.

COMMENTS

My favorite thing so far about this drama is how Grandma is dead afraid of Mom.

Anyways…

Lead actress: watchable.

Lead actor: hmm, what’s with the sleepy look all the time?

Storyline: I get the jig. Can’t say I’m excited about it, yet.