This drama starts out pretty light-hearted and I hope it’ll remain so.
EPISODE 1 RECAP
A tomboy-looking young girl named Jiuling is strolling through a city’s market. Her gestures and movements are larger than life even though she has a tiny stature. She wears mostly red and her hair is in pigtails.
Later on, it is revealed that she is the daughter of a war general who is guarding the border. His camp is in the desert and the girl and her brother are travelling to visit their father.
The father, aka the general, seems to dote on Jiuling more than his son. He lets her throw tantrums at him, takes her out shopping and… well, tells her she will have to get married soon. Haha, so much for father-daughter time. In the father’s defence, he doesn’t seem happy about having to marry off his daughter in a rush.
Jiuling, just like 99% of drama female leads who are “not like other girls” freaks out at the prospect of having to marry. She hasn’t met her fiance since they were children and she doesn’t like to be confined to married life when she could, you know, do nothing all day instead.
Lucky for Jiuling, her fiance — named Rong Yu — is not a terrible man. He’s actually quite refined and high quality. I mean, look at those perfectly trimmed eyebrows. They’re even thinner than Jiuling’s I daresay.
One day, on one of her usual strolls around a nearby forest, Jiuling runs into Rong Yu, who seems to be having trouble with some casual robbers (or they may just be very hungry peasants, I’m not sure).
We will never know if Rong Yu would have been able to fend off the robbers by himself or not, because Jiuling jumps in and interferes. In a manner that only works if you’re a female lead in these dramas. She flicks a pebble into one of the guys’ mouth and they all just run away.
Rong Yu’s household thank Jiuling and they decide to let her come along when she requests it. They’re all going in the same direction, after all. Also, Jiuling mistakes Rong Yu for a lady — he never shows his face to thank her so it’s understandable.
It is during this trip that we find out a little bit more about our boy Rong Yu. He’s a green apple, guys. The mere sight of a woman’s back in the bathroom can send him running away with a heated face and tensed neck muscles. When Jiuling was fighting the bandits in the woods earlier, Rong Yu sat in the carriage the whole time, curling his fingers and probably wondering how he could appear to the world more virtuous than he already does.
I don’t know what lessons his seemingly expensive education consists of, but exposure to the opposite sex is certainly not one of them.
However, I guess we should be grateful that Rong Yu is the way he is. Else, we would not have the dynamic between him and Jiuling.
Back at Jiuling’s house, her family once again assures Jiuling that she will get married to Rong Yu. Jiuling will not stand it. She plans to terrorize her future in-laws with bad behaviors the next time she sees them so that they will withdraw from this engagement.
COMMENTS
This drama finished airing a long time ago and most of you probably already know how it ends. I have only seen a few episodes so far and it really isn’t bad.
The combat sequences are not the best ever and the budget is obviously low for costumes and sets. I mean… what’s going on with this IKEA army tent and the shiny laminated floor? Did they just use one of their film crew’s camping tents instead of building one for filming?
The storyline also seems predictable, but I don’t mind predictable as long as things make sense and the acting can back it up. In this case, the leading actress overacts a little with her “manly” moments, but her more serious instances are also well done.
Rong Yu’s character, if his purpose is to be a shy virgin to contrast Jiuling’s grand personality, then I’d say the actor is doing fine too.