OFFICIALLY OVER THE CLIFF

They’ve officially pushed me over the edge and over the cliff on my imaginary comfort zone. I mean, I was just adjusting to the uncomfortable closeness of Jin Xiu and Zuo Zhen, and that’s when the producers decided to show a ‘rape-y’ scene between Jin Xiu and Zuo Zhen. Obviously I was just so uncomfortable. I cringed and cringed some more during that scene but I made it through. To my dismay, the producers decided to repeatedly to show flashbacks of that rape-y scene. Alright.

The scene starts out with a very intense battle between Maeda (thanks Kiyu!) the villainous Japanese man and his boss. His boss directs Maeda to kill off anyone associated with the stopwatch.

Qi Ji’s boss looks like an older and less handsome version of Andy Lau,

while Maeda kind of reminds me of Chapman To.

Anyways, Ming Zhu is determined to kick Jin Xiu out of Shanghai, purely on the basis that Ming Zhu hates her. In response to the newfound attention by Zuo Zhen onto Jin Xiu, Ming Zhu places Jin Ling by Zuo Zhen’s side for a few days to care for his bullet wounds, in hopes that Jin Ling can get in his pants and into his heart.

Meanwhile Jin Xiu gives Ying Shao a massage when he has a headache, and Ying Shao uncontrollably pulls Jin Xiu onto his lap and very slowly leans in to kiss her. Jin Xiu strangely does not move out of the way while Ying Shao moves in towards her with a questionable perverted fixated look. Luckily, they were interrupted by a servant before they kissed.

Meanwhile, Jin Xiu is at Zuo Zhen’s mansion. After telling him that it’ll be her last time coming over because his bullet wound is almost fully healed, he begins reasoning illogically that because she saved him three times, she must love him, and that he allows her to be his woman.

Imagine saying that to a nurse that helped treat you, and tell him that you allow him to be your man now because he’s saved you.

Jin Xiu like a reasonable human being, response with a WTF reaction because at this point, she is not interested in Zuo Zhen at all. And who would be? He acts like a forceful grumpy guy half the time, and he’s force-kissed her so many times. She rejects poor Zuo Zhen who obviously has no game, and runs out.

Jin Ling tries to throw herself onto him by performing the same force-kiss on Zuo Zhen, and tries to strip for him. I actually thought this was not bad because at least Zuo Zhen has a taste of his own medicine with his history of force-kissing LOL. He doesn’t let her down lightly since he pushes away so hard that she falls to the ground.

She tells Ming Zhu all about Zuo Zhen’s offer for Jin Xiu to be his woman, and also that someone had saw Jin Xiu on Ying Shao’s lap.

Ming Zhu is jealous because the person that she truly loves is Ying Shao. She goes to confirm with Ying Shao that he would only allow this because Jin Xiu looks like Ming Zhu (since they’re sisters) and Jin Xiu is her replacement. She demands that Jin Xiu is kicked out of Shanghai.

Ying Shao pretty much tells her to f*ck off and that she has no right to tell him what to do as the girlfriend of his brother.

  

I present to you: the rape-y scene.

Zuo Zhen’s right hand man, Shi Hao, kidnaps Jin Xiu and puts her on Zuo Zhen’s bed, thinking that um, that would make them get together.

Zuo Zhen, seeing Jin Xiu on his bed, takes it as an invitation to uh, try to have sex with her, pinning her down, pretty much saying “HA! I knew you couldn’t resist me”.

Both these guys have very questionable and debatable logic, to say the least.

Again, Jin Xiu, like a normal human being, reacts very negatively to this aggressive intimate kissing and fully rejects him – stating that even if all the men were dead in the world, she would never go for Zuo Zhen.

Zuo Zhen, heartbroken, lets her leave.

Ying Shao, upset over his encounter with Ming Zhu, goes to Bai Le Men, a ballroom, to get laid. He flirts with the wrong girl – Ting, who is the police commissioner’s new fling. Ying Shao gets into a fight with the police commissioner’s son, and is secretly arrested and thrown into jail.

Jin Xiu actually sees Ying Shao being kidnapped, and questionably decides to chase after the vehicle. Really? You think you can actually outrun a car?

Well, what do you know! She actually gets to the police station at almost the same time, just trailing a bit behind. She’s either a really fast runner, or maybe cars back then are very slow.

The police commissioner’s son kidnaps Ying Shao and proceeds to torture him.

The police outside the police station refuse to admit to any wrong doing, even though Jin Xiu saw Ying Shao being taken in with her own eyes.

Zuo Zhen coincidentally spots Jin Xiu while in his car and drives away coldly because his ego is still sore from being rejected. Meanwhile, Jin Xiu sees him while he’s driving away and realizes that Zuo Zhen is the only one that could help her.

Jin Xiu runs to Zuo Zhen’s mansion on fit, and again, either cars were really slow back then, or she’s a really fast runner, because somehow they get there both at the same time.

She stops his car by standing in front of it and banking on that he’d stop for her – and he does.

Zuo Zhen gets out of the car, and sees that her knee is bleeding (from the fall at the police station from running after the police car). He er, gets too close again and carries her up to his room when she clearly was capable of walking since she made it to his house at the same speed of his car.

I have to admit, they have a pretty cute scene where he decides to bandage up her knee. She tells her all about what happened to Ying Shao.

Zuo Zhen, dressed like Neo from the Matrix, decides to approach the police commissioner. The commissioner denies of any wrongdoing on his part.

Meanwhile, Ming Zhu decides to go to confront the police commissioner as well. I actually feel bad for her in this part. She tries to help Ying Shao in a dignified manner but the commissioner and his son get much too touchy with her. It’s because of her ‘escort’ background, or maybe she’s supposed to be so beautiful and women weren’t very well respected back then.

Ming Zhu turns down the commissioner’s son, so being an as*hole, he decides to take it out on Ying Shao.

Zuo Zhen meets up with the commissioner again and threatens him with information that he found out about him – how the commissioner stole money to invest in stocks, how he has estate under his mistress’s name, etc. He will only keep this a secret, only if Ying Shao is released.

Ying Shao is released, and right before the episode ends, he leans in towards Jin Xiu in front of Zuo Zhen, looking like he wants to give her a kiss.

BTW I found the summary of the book that it’s based on!