[Karen]

In episode 2, it’s pretty much a filler episode in my mind because we got the big cliff hanger solved and now we have to set up the made up conflict as in non-book guided conflict. That conflict? That Fan xian lied about dying and has deceived the Emperor which is apparently the worst offense you could possibly think of.

Fan Xian is hanging out with Wang Qi Nian’s adorable daughter while he is sketching away at something. When Wang Qi Nian arrives, this scene gave me a chuckle. He calls her BaBa aka father in modern day Chinese while she calls him Xiao Nian Nian or little nian. That’s normally what parents would call their kids. It’s like a cute little nickname. So clearly, there’s role reversal in this family. On the totem pole of importance, Wang Qi Nian is definitely at the bottom.

Wang Qi Nian warns Fan Xian that news of his death has traveled far and wide. He needs to hurry up and return to the diplomatic envoy or else he’ll be prosecuted for lying. But, Fan Xian doesn’t listen. His next stop? The palace to see the Emperor. 

Next thing we see is Fan Xian scaling the palace walls with a mask on. He is captured and instead of being upset or surprised, he jokingly announces that he is just an assassin. A Eunuch immediately seeks out Eunuch Hou, the Emperor’s head eunuch, and is a little surprised to hear that an assassin is looking for him. When he arrives and recognizes it’s Fan Xian even with the bandana/mask covering, he is surprised but actually quite kind hearted. He urges Fan Xian to return back to the envoy immediately because the Emperor is currently livid and one wrong move could mean death. With that piece of advice, Eunuch Hou literally scuttles away. This is to protect both himself AND Fan Xian.

[Cathy]

At this point, Chen Ping Ping shows up. He gives Fan Xian almost the same warning. Chen Ping Ping is angry at Fan Xian but if you listen to his words, he actually gives him crucial advice. If Fan Xian leaves now, he is definitely going to die. If he sees the Emperor, he will die. But in order to live, he must die. He must do whatever it takes to see the Emperor and that will be his one opportunity to actually return to life. 

What’s important for us to remember is that in season 1, at this point in time, Fan Xian actually has a lot of anger and dare I say hatred? Probably more like skepticism towards Chen Ping Ping. He learned about his true parentage and that basically his entire life was carefully crafted based on Chen Ping Ping’s plan in order to get information about the Sacred Temple. 

Fan Xian hands Chen Ping Ping the piece of paper he was sketching on earlier before Chen Ping Ping heads to see the Emperor in an attempt to set up a meeting between the two. Though his tone was harsh, Chen Ping Ping was definitely trying to guide Fan Xian. After all, he’s the only one to say, go meet the Emperor.

[Karen]

What is more masterful is Chen Ping Ping’s words TO the Emperor. Notice how he first emphasizes why Fan Xian being dead is actually a really good thing but then he says that well, if Fan Xian weren’t dead, that’s probably not a bad thing either. His words are primarily tied to the benefit of the Qing kingdom and the benefit Fan Xian would provide. But also, he uses the words “zhe hai zi” or “this kid” when referencing Fan Xian. We all know, and Chen Ping Ping knows that Fan Xian is the Emperor’s child. By continuously using the words “this kid”, I assume it’s to help remind the Emperor that Fan Xian is ALSO his son. Seeing that he wasn’t kicked out of the room, Chen Ping Ping gives the piece of paper over to the Emperor who refuses to look at it and leaves.

Immediately after Chen Ping Ping leaves, the Emperor opens up the folded piece of paper and sees that it is a sketch of some type of high quality, high tech bow for shooting arrows. That garners a reluctant grunt from the Emperor but it’s clear that he is pleased with that sketch. 

Next thing we see is the Emperor granting an audience with Fan Xian. Well. Kind of. Fan Xian says his spheal in his study while the Emperor I guess can see his reflection off of a bronze surface in the hall. The Emperor never actually sees Fan Xian face to face. Fan Xian says a bunch of stuff and his predicament is basically portrayed by that flailing bug that’s on its back. What I take that to mean is Fan XIan, like the insect, is flailing for a chance to survive. Nothing that Fan Xian said about the Princess Royal and the 2nd prince seem to bother the Emperor but he was interested in Fan Xian raising the topic of the Sacred Temple. At the end, the Emperor yells at Fan Xian to get lost and the bug flies away, signaling that everything is fine for Fan Xian. THey both have a second chance at life.

[Cathy]

Let’s talk about the Emperor right here. I don’t think he’s ACTUALLY that upset at Fan Xian. Last episode he was actually really upset when he first heard that Fan Xian died but then was silent when he got the inkling Fan XIan may have faked his death. Here, when Chen Ping Ping arrives to chat, notice how the Emperor doesn’t even look at Chen Ping Ping. Is this so he doesn’t betray that he’s not that upset? Or is he trying to put on the facade that he’s angry when he really isn’t. The fact that he immediately opened the paper from Fan Xian shows that he was interested in seeing what Fan Xian had to say or at least offer. Fan Xian to his credit, knew how to cater to his real father’s needs. If you recall, in all of season 1, the Emperor was playing around with some kind of bow and arrow for most of the show. Fan Xian’s sketch shows that he is attentive to the Emperor’s actions and came forward with a good solution. What is not to like about a son like that?

–

Seeing that FAn Xian is in the clear for now, his next stop is meeting the Crown Prince. It’s a quick visit and the two come to an agreement to work together to oppose the 2nd prince. Except I don’t think Fan Xian realizes just how ruthless the Crown Prince can be. In order to protect news of their little rendez vous, the Crown Prince has all of his guards that were present to witness Fan Xian, even in a mask, enter into the Crown Prince’s quarters, killed. Simply for being witnesses. I don’t think the 2nd prince is even that ruthless. What’s worse is he told Fan Xian he was just going to lock these men up for a few days. The Crown Prince went to the full extreme which was definitely not necessary.

[Karen]

Now with the most pressing item of meeting the Emperor out of the way, the next step is to find clues of where the 2nd prince was keeping people hostage. Seems like Fan Xian’s teacher is fine, his brother is fine. Only Teng zi Jing’s widow and son were taken to Bao Yue Lou, a brothel. So, the rest of the episode is figuring out how to get into the brothel. It’s a race against time because he needs to resolve the loose ends here before the diplomatic envoy returns to the capital. If he is not “alive” by the time the envoy returns, he will die for real. 

Looks like Bao Yue Lou is an exclusive new brothel that was opened in the capital. There is a membership to get in and there was a funny scene where people could win a plaque to enter if they win a competition where people compete to be as similar to Fan Xian as possible. My question is, most of the people were not present for many of the funny callback scenes we saw in season 1 so how do they get to judge whether or not a person’s imitation of Fan Xian is true. 

Whatever. Not going to think too closely about it.

[Cathy]

The real “in” we get is from a young woman named Sang Wen played by the beautiful Wang Chu Ran. Poor Wang Qi Nian. He uh… was on the other end of some domestic violence for revealing he had some more up to date knowledge of this beautiful woman in front of his wife. But, the 2, Fan Xian and Wang Qi Nian were able to track Sang Wen down and have a private conversation with her. That’s where we leave the episode recap. The only other thing to highlight is that Bao Yue Lou is currently managed by a woman named Yuan Meng. According to Sang Wen, she was the IT girl before Si Li Li arrived so she definitely knows her way around brothels. 

–

[Karen]

Let’s now move on to pop culture and history!

These mainly are discussed while Fan Xian and Wang Qi Nian are investigating the new brothel Bao Yue Lou and are watching the performances on stage for the men impersonating Fan Xian.

The first is 会员制 or membership. This is what Fan Xian claims is Bao Yue Lou’s business model because it implements an exclusive membership format. Wang Qi Nian’s like…what’s that? haha

The second is 模仿秀 or Impersonation Show. It’s hilarious because I’m just thinking of the competition as a look-alike contest. We’re in NYC and there was a pretty popular Timothy Chalamet look alike contest where Timothy Chalamet himself showed up. That’s basically the same here, but it’s an impersonation show!

The main word here is 秀 or Show. Fan Xian even explains it as such. In Chinese, 秀 historically mean a lot of things including elegant or graceful. In the past few decades, the Chinese language has adopted the word 秀 to refer to show. There’s a ton of reality shows that include the word 秀. Wang Qi Nian obviously doesn’t know english and is like 瘦? Or Skinny? I guess that works?

[Cathy]

Let’s actually turn our attention TO this show. Let’s first talk about the stage. The calligraphy that is hung up all around the stage are excerpts of the poems that Fan Xian recited. The funny thing is though, you look at the penmanship and see that they are REALLY bad. Like the main stand with the title and dui lian on the side have proper Chinese calligraphy, while the rest are simply just scribbles. 

This is a proper homage to Fan Xian because it is well known that his handwriting is atrocious but it’s hilarious how bad some of them are.

The impersonations by the men and women include performances while Fan Xian was at the Qing Palace and for some reason at the Qi Palace too, especially the fake battle between Fan Xian and Hai Tang Duo Duo. I wonder how that traveled THIS quickly over to the Qing Kingdom. I will say that one of the guys has the costume and hairstyle down pat.

Anyways the snippets of the poems that recited in the episode are these 3. We talked about these poems in depth in episode 27 of Season 1, so please go listen to that episode. I’ll just provide some details about the poem.

将进酒 – Song of the Immortal by Wine

【唐】李白

黄河之水天上来 You can see that the water from the Yellow River flows from the heaven

天生我材必有用，千金散尽还复来。

The heavens have created me so I must be of use

Even if you spend all your gold, you cannot find another talent like me

This was written by the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai in the mid 8th Century CE

过零丁洋 Passing through the Lingding Sea

惶恐滩头说惶恐 

The defeat at 惶恐 has still kept me reeling.

This was written by the poet 文天祥 who was captured in the Canton seas while facing the Mongol Armies in the 13th Century. 

身无彩凤双飞翼，心有灵犀一点通。

These two lines translate to the following

Even though we don’t have wings to fly to each other, our hearts and minds are as one, just like the magical horns.

李商隐（约813年—约858年），字义山，号玉谿生，又号樊南生，与杜牧合称“小李杜”

The poem was written by the Tang Dynasty poet 李商隐. The title of the poem is actually unnamed. 

[Karen]

The last idiom that I want to talk about is 瓮中捉鳖. This translates to catching a softshell turtle of 王八 in a large container. The meaning is, that whatever you are capturing is already in your grasp. It’s an easy target. Here’s the catch though – the 鳖 is the softshell turtle. That has another name, called 王八. In Chinese 王八 also means bastard, which is an insult, a pretty big insult at that. In the context of the drama – Fan Xian speculates that Bao Yu Lou is a trap. Wang Qi Nian is like OHH 瓮中捉鳖. Fan Xian immediately retorts, 捉你 which means – to catch you. Wang Qi Nian just insulted him by saying that Fan Xian is that bastard. Haha, Wang Qi Nian immediately backs off but yea…it’s not a great idiom to use on yourself. 

[Cathy]

Lastly, let’s conclude with book differences!

With the plot turning towards Bao Yue Lou, we finally get some ties back to the book. However, the screenwriters shifted a bunch of events around to even introduce Bao Yue Lou. The drama had to square away Fan Xian’s return to the capital so most of this episode is all created for the drama. As for Bao Yue Lou, there is no membership, no impersonation show, or meeting Sang Wen at the clothing store. In the book, Fan Xian is invited to Bao Yue Lou and encounters Sang Wen, who performs the Pi Pa instrument for him. Fan Xian had previously met Sang Wen at a gathering in his summer house with Ruo Ruo and Wan Er, which is why he’s suspicious of Sang Wen’s appearance at Bao Yue Lou. We’ll see that this season jumps around quite a bit compared to the book so I’ll do my best to tie events together where I see them.