–
[Cathy]
In the last episode, Fan Xian and his father both feigned illness in order to avoid questioning from the Censorate for their and Fan SI Zhe’s involvement in Bao Yue Lou. The 2nd prince was hoping to turn the Censorate on Fan Xian as opposed to focusing on the charges lobbed against him but because Fan Xian’s father looked to have been poisoned and Fan Xian seriously injured, the 2nd prince decides to go another route. He opts to go visit a relative, his cousin, Lin Wan’Er.
As for, Fan Xian, he had instructed Deng Zi Yue and men to spread the information on the relationship between Yuan Meng and the son of the Prince of Jing which will implicate the 2nd prince. However, Deng Zi Yue also brings up the fact that there have been discussions at court saying that Fan Xian is not actually trying to curb corruption but purposefully oppressing the 2nd prince. This changes the narrative of Fan Xian’s intent to being less effective. He thinks for a bit and decides that hey, instead of someone who is a master schemer and someone who is capable of scheming against a prince, why not present the facade that he is young and reckless? The best way to do that? Visit his fiance publicly while “injured”.
[Karen]
And so, we have the 2nd prince AND Fan Xian visiting Lin Wan’Er. When Fan XIan arrives, the 2nd prince is already there. Oddly, Ye Ling’er is outside in the yard sharpening a cleaver. She is angry enough to want to kill the 2nd prince because the 2 of them are now engaged and clearly Ye Ling’er is not happy about that arrangement. The feeling is mutual from the 2nd prince’s side, complete with bare feet and super obvious product placement. I really don’t understand the fascination with feet.
You know that the 2nd prince has no good intentions from visiting Wan’Er. Immediately, he connects Fan Xian to Bao Yue Lou, emphasizing that Fan Si Zhe is the owner of the property and that some poor girl died on the property. The goal is to cause Wan’Er to be disgusted and upset at Fan Xian. He also tries to neg her by pointing out that Fan Xian hasn’t been to visit her despite having returned to the capital a while ago. But before he can even finish his sentence, a wheelchair comes flying into the room and hits right where the 2nd prince was just sitting if he didn’t duck. Fan Xian angrily enters the room.
[Cathy]
After the room is cleaned up, the 4 people, Wan’Er, Fan Xian, Ye Ling’Er and the 2nd prince are seated for a meal. Wan’Er is overjoyed to see Fan Xian but she tries to suppress her happiness as she is worried about Fan Xian visiting her while he’s supposed to be sick. Fan Xian doesn’t mind and instead turns his barbs towards the 2nd prince. The 2nd prince continues to emphasize that Fan Si Zhe needs to turn himself in for his involvement in Bao Yue Lou but Fan Xian isn’t having any of it. He asks the 2nd prince about the deaths of both old man Jin and his daughter miss Jin outside Bao Yue Lou but the 2nd prince doesn’t even register who these people are. He doesn’t care one iota about the deaths of these 2 individuals and purposefully pin their deaths on Fan Si Zhe when we all know that he is the true perpetrator behind their deaths. He nonchalantly says that there’s nothing for him to say. There are tons of people who die every day. What more can he say or do? Death is inevitable. Fan Xian narrows his eyes at this and the 2 toast their glasses to this. But as they toast, Fan Xian conspicuously spills some powder over the 2nd prince’s drink.
Very quickly, the tone shifts as we see 2 other visitors. The Northern Qi princess is riding what looks to be a donkey slowly trotting in front of Wan’Er’s residence. Shortly after, the 1st prince arrives. The princess is here to see Wan’Er and the 1st prince accompanied her. In just a few short minutes, I’m ready to ship these 2. The princess is cute as a button and the 1st prince indulges in her somewhat naive but still adorable whims.
Now, we have 3 men on one side and 3 women on the other with the addition of these 2 guests. Each couple has a completely different vibe. The 1st prince and Qi kingdom princess are quite at ease and basically there are cute heart bubbles popping up around them. Wan Er and Fan Xian are more observant of these new guests than anything. While Ye Ling’Er…she is drinking up a storm which is her way of showing indignance towards her arranged marriage.
[Karen]
I was dying laughing at this entire exchange. Ye Ling’er is over there saying that she was observing the 2nd prince for quite some time and understands that the 2nd prince is quite unique. In response to that the 2nd prince shakes his head to move his llama inspired bangs out of his head. Hahaha I died at that. She wants to urge the 2nd prince to work together and get their arranged marriage canceled. He is actually rather reluctant. He says the Emperor’s decree is basically the heavenly mandate. It is fate aka the Emperor’s orders so they just have to accept it. Ye Ling’Er is not willing to accept this and tries to push back but the 2nd prince is like – have you asked these 2 couples over here? Did they try to escape their arranged marriage?
Immediately the 1st prince was like yea definitely and the princess joins in and was like, oh what was your plan? I have many ideas around this and can help you plan your escape. When the 1st prince blushingly said that nah he doesn’t need to escape now. Ahahaha everyone gets where he’s coming at except the princess who is like, well if you want to escape in the future, just let me know! Awwww
Fan Xian also piped up that he wanted to leave. If his betrothed wasn’t Wan’Er, he was definitely going to high tail it back to Dan Zhou. The 2nd prince takes this opportunity to tie the conversation back to the northern Qi kingdom and Fan Xian’s connection there.
[Cathy]
This is where the northern Qi princess jumps in. She is here to meet Wan’Er specifically to help clear the air for Fan Xian by explaining that Fan Xian and Hai Tang Duo Duo had nothing romantic between them. Except, the way she was describing it was…making matters worse. Saying that Fan Xian and Hai Tang did dance together, he did profess affections for Hai Tang except that’s all just fake. Nothing was real. Hahaha the princess is so clueless that she’s making matters worse. Both Fan XIan and the 1st prince are frantically signaling to her that she needs to stop talking but she is completely oblivious. Meanwhile, Wan’Er is like…oh…this is all true is it. Hahaha Fan Xian wants to dig into a hole right now. Hahaha
In an effort to stop the princess from destroying his engagement, Fan Xian immediately jumps up and asks to see the war horse she supposedly bought at the market earlier with the 1st prince. The war horse turns out to be actually a donkey but she didn’t know that he was basically indulging her. When Wan’Er asks how they went to buy this horse, the 1st prince readily answers that he went with her to buy it alone, not recognizing that the 2 basically went on a date. Ahahaha Ye Ling’er’s face at this moment is like…god dammit. Another happy couple. Hahahahaha
[Karen]
But the 2nd prince is not willing to give up yet. He turns the conversation back again to Fan Xian’s excursion in the Northern Qi kingdom. However, Lin Wan’Er is no longer having it. She slams her chopsticks down on the table and calmly says that she knows the 2nd prince isn’t simply here to see her. His true motive is simple. He wants to anger Lin wan’er enough that she backs out of the engagement to Fan Xian. Then, Fan Xian won’t have the power of the imperial treasury behind him and thus he can no longer be a threat to the 2nd prince. She firmly informs her cousin that her betrothal to Fan Xian will not change. Clearly, the 2nd prince underestimated his cousin.
[Cathy]
The episode ends with Fan Xian and the Princess returning back to the dining hall. Tensions escalate further as Fan Xian motions to the fact that while Ye Ling Er may not have the guts to kill the 2nd prince, why didn’t the 2nd prince ask if he was going to. At this point, the 2nd prince realizes that Fan Xian may have poisoned him earlier today. Out of everyone in the capital, the 1 person who has the guts to poison him IS Fan Xian. He is in disbelief that Fan Xian would actually do this but Fan Xian just throws his words back at him. Everyone dies in the capital. Why does it matter who it is? Fan Xian gives the 2nd prince a pill and dares the 2nd prince to take it as an antidote. With that, Fan Xian takes hold of Wan’Er’s hand and they head out, leaving the 2nd prince shaking where he stands.
[Karen]
That was the plot recap. There’s not a whole lot of history in this episode so I’m just gonna give some of my thoughts on Lin Wan’Er’s more meaty return in this episode. I do like that they added more depth to Wan’Er’s character. She knew immediately that her cousin, the 2nd prince, was not here for a simple visit. Her dialogue shows that by having grown up in the palace, she saw exactly how the 2nd prince behaved with all his scheming. I remember at the time, people online where anlayzing how a woman growing up in the palace must have seen and learned things to at least protect herself so while Wan’Er doesn’t exhibit those manipulative qualities, she at least is aware of what’s going on. Wan’Er was also given more autonomy in this episode by firmly making her own statements that she knows of the 2nd prince’s scheme and that she is the one who will not back out of the betrothal. This means she is making the decision as opposed to Fan Xian making all of the decisions for her.
These changes in the script and several changes later were added components to add more nuance to Wan‘Er. The biggest criticism to Wan’Er’s character is that she is just a support to the male lead which is inevitable due to how the original script was written. So at least there was some expansion of her role in this episode.
I gotta say though. Wan’Er has changed from season 1. She was much more upbeat and had a more dazzling smile than what we see exhibited here. Li QIn portrays Wan’Er in a more mature and polished way which I can’t tell if it was a directorial choice. THis reunion is also WAYY less ship worthy or romance worthy than in season 1 and even with the other couple in the room. I found the 1st prince and the northern Qi princess to be so adorable and cute together that it almost felt like Wan’Er and Fan Xian were background characters. Ahhhhh. I’m so sad.
–
[Cathy]
Let’s get to history. After 2 weeks of surprisingly history heavy episodes, I can finally say that this episode is quite light on history. We’re mainly enjoying the 3 CPs this episode. There’s some history and a sprinkle of pop culture.
The first topic 风驰电掣 fēng chí diàn chè. The Northern Qi Princess used this phrase twice to describe her impressive steed. That part was SO funny with her mistaking a mule for a horse.
Anyways 风驰电掣 directly translates to wind galloping lightning flashing. 驰 originally described a galloping horse. The word gradually came to also mean fast movement. Together, the idiom is used to describe an extremely fast moving object. I mean – fast as lightning and wind.
It seems as though this idiom originates from Six Secret Teachings or 六韬 written by the legendary Jiang Zi Ya who lived over 3000 years ago. These Six Secret Teachings covered civil and military topics. By the time of the Han Dynasty, over 2000 years ago, these teachings were relatively widespread and used by political leaders and military generals.
Next is a fun little pop culture reference or I would say an extrapolation cause I thought it was funny.
你说你马呢? Fan Xian, desperate to have the Northern Qi Princess stop embellishing the story between himself and Hai Tang Duo Duo, finally asks – 你说你马呢?. This directly translates to You Said Your Horse is…
You’ll notice that Fan Xian has a facial expression of “shoot!” and then quickly rephrases to say – Sorry, I meant to say, where is your war horse?
Hehe – Fan Xian was basically cussing out the Northern Qi Princess with 你说你马呢. That sounds a LOT like 你说你妈呢? – Or You Said Your Mom? This is basically the same as the teenage insults of “your mom”. I think Fan Xian was just riled up at the moment and let that slip. Haha – no one else seemed to have reacted.
釜底抽薪
This is the idiom Wan’er uses in her confrontation with the 2nd Prince as to his motive for this gathering. We talked about this idiom during our review of The Story of Ming Lan.
The literal translation is pulling the wood out from under a stove but the meaning is to take drastic measures for a situation.
釜 – historical stove
薪 – firewood.
If the stove is boiling water and you want the water to stop boiling, you could add cold water but to stop the boil indefinitely, you remove the firewood.
It is also one of the 36 stratagems for war and politics in Chinese culture. The first mention was by 董卓 in the late 2 century AD and added into the 36 stratagems a few centuries later.
Wan’Er explains that the 2nd Prince wanted to use this gathering to share negative stories about Fan Xian with the hope that Wan’Er will cancel the wedding. At the end of the day, the 2nd Prince has his eyes on the internal treasury. Fan Xian will have access to this as soon as he marries Wan’Er. The 2nd Prince was trying to use this gathering as a last ditch effort, which unfortunately for him, failed.
That’s it from a history perspective, let’s close out with book differences.
This episode was designed to highlight the three pairings in the drama in one location with the 1st Prince and the Northern Qi Princess, Fan Xian and Lin Wan Er, and the 2nd Prince and Ye Ling Er. This doesn’t happen in the book as Fan Xian and Lin Wan Er are already married at this point. The 1st Prince and Northern Qi Princess’s relationship is much more in the background。 The Northern Qi Princess is much more cunning in the book though. In the drama, the Princess’s behavior is played for laughs to make her seem innocent which is a shame. Book Princess is pretty involved in her relationship with the 1st Prince but that isn’t all smooth sailing. As for the 2nd Prince and Ye Ling Er, the two do have some pointed conversations with each other on how they disdain this pairing but it doesn’t happen at a meal here.
At this point in the book, Fan Xian is realizing that the 2nd Prince has been antagonizing him and is a main culprit behind the Censorate’s attack towards him. Fan Xian is irked and starts to retaliate but he does it by literally killing the 2nd Prince’s right hand man rather than the threats to his face here.