I didn’t expect to do a recap for 10 episodes at one time but I’m finding it so hard to catch up with all the episodes, since they come out with 2 daily, and they already have 62 episodes out at this point now. In the drama, I’m up to Episode 29, and the Emperor of Qin has proven himself to be pretty attractive, I must say.

We meet Emperor Qin in the beginning of episode 6. I personally hated Alex Fong in TVB dramas before because I found him so old looking and kind of annoying. He was so annoying as investigator in that old TVB drama, and I thought his romance line so gross because he’s so old LOL.

Anyways, the episode starts with Emperor Qin sitting in his old Empress’ room. His Empress had died exactly a year ago, and so he was mourning over her – that’s why his hair looks all crazy in this picture. His brother comes in to console him, and tries to convince him to eat.

But funny thing is, Emperor Qin starts off with a monologue about how much he loved his Empress, and started reminiscing about her… and tells his brother it’s time to find a new Empress, and literally “Hey let’s go to the Chu region to find myself a new wife” after going on and on about his dead wife.

Meanwhile the annoying Yin princess insists on approaching Huang Zi Xie, and trying to convince him to, well, love her. Huang Zi Xie is obviously enamoured with Mi Yue, so he rejects her. She’s pissed, and obviously she’s the antagonist at this point, so this gives her a reason to start drama.

Meanwhile on the roads, they find a man that had been severely beaten up. Our Mary Sue kind-hearted female lead decides to take him home. Because our female lead has better luck than a rabbit’s foot, this guy turns out to be Zhang Yi, instead of a serial murderer or a violent robber.

To replace the Empress, Emperor Qin needs someone of the same calibre of royalty. Since he became Emperor as the Crown Prince, obviously he’d look for the Crown Princess of the Chu area. As they’re walking in the same market place…

Oh HAY what are the chances? The Crown Princess of Chu! Like really… what are the chances? The two major royal parties of their respective countries coincidentally in the same area? Because… drama. Anyways to provide some background, Mi Yue and Shu are in the marketplace because they were originally at the fabric factory to check out some custom-made designs, but obviously, the two princesses pick this time to go into the market place. Emperor Qin is in the same marketplace because… well, he wants to check out how the Chu country operates.

ANYWAYS, the two princesses are attacked, and the Emperor Qin ends up saving both of them. The Emperor, through deductive reasoning, correctly concludes that he has met the Crown Princess, and decides to go full force in in pursuing her.

Emperor of Chu had already had plans for the Crown Princess (Shu, if you’ve forgotten by now) to be married into the Zhao country, so the Emperor’s like “NOPE, too bad, ain’t gonna marry my daughter to you”.

Emperor of Qin tries to decides to go for a different approach, and tries to butter up the Southern Empress by gifting her a ball. Alright, they call it a ‘Midnight Glow Ball’ and essentially it glows in the dark and it smells nice, etc. etc., and it’s amazing and it’s rare, blah blah. ANYWAYS, this gift pushes the Emperor of Chu to meet with Emperor of Qin to hear his proposal.

Emperor of Chu decides to combat the proposal of Emperor of Qin by disguising the Crown Princess of an overweight servant.

This scene was so cringeworthy and summarizes the atrocious attitude of Chinese culture towards appearance in a nutshell. They were so unabashedly mean about the servant’s weight, and how she was ugly, because she was fat and ‘had no neck’. It was so horrifyingly mean to that poor servant, and all audiences even watching that might not be meeting the Asian skinniness standards.

Anyways Emperor Qin, completely aware that this is not the Crown Princess, carefully uses his words, and agrees still to the marriage to the Crown Princess.

I guess Shu Princess very rarely interacts with men, because upon being saved by the Emperor of Qin, she had fallen very deeply in love with him and decides to marry him (yes, seriously). Not wanting him to be fooled by her father and the servant, Shu Princess decides to send Mi Yue to tell Emperor Qin to tell him the truth, and at the same time, coincidentally introduces Zhang Yi to Emperor Qin.

Zhang Yi self-promotes to Emperor Qin as being the best negotiator and mediator – and Emperor Qin challenges him to ruin the partnership between the Chu country and Wei country.

Meanwhile, back in the Chu country, the Wei Empress Dowager decides to borrow the glowing ball from the Southern Empress, and all the princesses clamour around this stupid ball.

Obviously Yin princess is a shit starter so she takes the ball for her own use (without asking) because apparently it deters mosquitos.

Zhang Yi gains Emperor of Chu’s attention by writing a long thesis on beautiful women. Since Emperor Chu is, well, a pervert, he gains a liking to Zhang Yi, and sends him off on a countrywide journey to look for beautiful women. Southern Empress finds out about Zhang Yi, and fears that he will bring back a woman more attractive than her, so she works out a deal with Zhang Yi.

Zhang Yi arranges a meeting with the Emperor again, and plans for Southern Empress to walk in. Zhang Yi fakes being impressed by the Southern Empress and proclaims that he cannot find any woman more beautiful than the Southern Empress. This is how Zhang Yi and the Southern Empress began to start working together.

Meanwhile the little brat/shit starter Princess Yin tries to frame Mi Yue for the stealing the glowing ball by dropping it into her basket of embroidery delivered to Wei Empress Dowager.

Btw this is the current Crown Prince of the Chu country. I imagine that all the people in the feudal era looked this awkward and pimply in reality, and not the flawless beautiful people that we see in dramas every day.

Wei Empress Dowager takes advantage of the accusations against Mi Yue of taking the glowing ball as an opportunity to punish Mi Yue. She was about to cut off Mi Yue’s legs for a confession. Huang Zi Xie tries to get Yin to confess to her crime in from of Wei Empress Dowager and the Chu Emperor.

Seeing Mi Yue under danger and Huang Zi Xie unable to save her (and about to be punished for making a big deal without evidence), Princess Shu confesses to taking the ball (even though she didn’t) in order to save Mi  Yue. She wouldn’t get punished because because she’s the Crown Princess directly related to Wei Empress Dowager.

Huang Zi Xie, again, professes his love for Mi Yue. I really cannot root for this pair because I find Huang Zi Xie so unattractive LOL. Yes I’m very shallow.

Yin Princess obviously hates this pair too, and seeing that the pair together infuriates her.

… So she decides to reveal to Wei Empress Dowager that Mi Yue had been helping Shu Princess contact the Emperor of Qin. Wei Empress Dowager is mad for two reasons: first, she wants Shu Princess to be married to Emperor Zhao, and that it’s improper for a female and male to have such ‘romantic’ contact, because I guess we are in the old times.

In anger, Wei Empress Dowager imprisons Mi Yue and Shu Princess.

Meanwhile the Emperor of Chu has been neglecting the Southern Empress because he was gifted a beautiful consort from the Wei country as a sign of goodwill. She’s actually quite beautiful as an actress, and I think the way that they dressed her is very beautiful as well. It really actually makes me want to dye my hair back to straight black again because it makes her look so stunning.

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The consort, called Wei Mei Ren (translated as the beautiful Wei, accidentally encounters Mi Yue while she’s walking around. Wei Mei Ren claims that she’s never had any friends because women are jealous of how beautiful she is and men are merely just attracted to her. I mean, this could be valid since it’s in the feudal era,  but I have met SO many crazy people that dismiss their inability to make friends because of their shitty personality, and instead attribute their isolation to other peoples’ jealousy etc.. ANYWAYS, they meet, and Mi Yue becomes Wei Mei Ren’s friend.

Zhang Yi approaches Southern Empress with the problem of Wei Mei Ren. Obviously Southern Empress is unimpressed and unhappy, because she’s lost all this attention, so she hates Wei Mei Ren.

The Southern Empress follows Zhang Yi’s advice and makes an effort to approach Wei Mei Ren, and tries to get close to her/gain her trust.

The Southern Empress tries to convince Wei Mei Ren that there’s something wrong with her nose, and that it’s crooked. I mean… Wei Mei Ren is a little bit too gullible here, that she’d believe anything that the Southern Empress would say, or that she wouldn’t ask for a second opinion. I mean, what would she expect? Wei Mei Ren is also from a royal family, and they would have prepared her for be wary of other consorts right?

Anyways, she’s instructed by the Southern Empress to try to cover her nose at any chance, to hide her crooked nose.

Apparently Emperor of Chu has a really bad case of B.O., and they touched upon this earlier. Anyways, the Southern Empress leads the Emperor of Chu to believe that Wei Mei Ren is covering her nose because she cannot stand the smell of the Emperor.

Indignant, and violent, he doesn’t even listen to her explanation and punishes her through cutting off her nose.

Like seriously. I can’t even get that image out of my head. I don’t even know how she can survive something like that because how would you even stop the bleeding??? How do you even breathe afterwards?!!

Meanwhile, the imprisoned Mi Yue was poisoned by princess Yin. Princess Shu and Huang Zi Xie manage to get there on time before she dies (obviously, we still have like 60 more episodes to go).

LIKE forreal I really cannot find Huang Zi Xie a tiny  bit attractive even though he’s supposed to be so handsome in the drama, and I can tell the producers are trying to get us to root for them from his undying love for her. I don’t know, he’s just got a confused/bored look all the time.

After getting out of imprisonment, Mi Yue finds out that Wei Mei Ren had committed suicide, and that Zhang Yi was behind all of this. Zhang Yi arranged the whole thing (getting to know the Southern Empress, convincing Southern Empress to ruin Wei Mei Ren) was to separate and create tension from the Wei country and Chu country. This is because Wei Mei Ren was gifted to Emperor of Chu as a sign of goodwill from the Wei country. This wins the trust and respect of Emperor of Qin because this was his challenge to Zhang Yi when they first met.

ANYWAYS, the solution to the marriage that the genius Emperor of Chu had figured out is that when Emperor of Qin follows up, well, he’d just murder the Qin Emperor. Yes. I know.

Knowing this, Princess Shu goes to the Emperor of Qin herself, and tells him the truth, and even stays over night.

Now what they did, I have no clue. It’s not explicitly said, but he simply leads her somewhere in the dark, and Mi Yue just chills outside in the cold (apparently). The next shot is in the morning with them in the carriage.

So what, did they talk all night? Or … did Princess Shu and Emperor of Qin have sex? Can we be more clear about this? I am so curious on what they’re implying – but like… weren’t people more conservative in the feudal era? Especially Princess Shu since she’s royalty?

Anyways, Emperor of Qin insists on meeting with Emperor of Chu again to try to get the official hand in marriage of Princess Shu. He knows the Emperor of Chu wants to assassinate him to back out of the marriage agreement, but Emperor of Qin pulls out a dagger and pretty much holds the Emperor of Chu hostage. At the same time, he releases information that Princess Shu had stayed overnight, scaring away all other suitors (especially the one from the country Zhao).

Princess Shu begs for Mi Yue to come with her to the country Qin, but Mi Yue refuses because she wants to get married to Huang Zi Xie. Oh if you only knew, Mi Yue, if you only knew.

Princess Shu was to perform at a celebration to honour a certain God. The little brat, Princess Yin, came and offered a diarrhea-inducing drink, with the intention of poisoning PRincess Shu with diarrhea and performing instead of her (since it’s such a great honor, apparently). Princess Shu sees past this brat’s evil plans, but drinks it anyways, and gets Mi Yue to replace her. Of course we’d get the female lead to unwillingly gather attention and envy of all.

We are forced to sit through this excruciatingly boring and long performance of Mi Yue’s dance. I mean, this was supposed to exemplify her ‘elegance’ and blah blah, but MUST IT BE SO LONG? We get it, we get it, our female lead is beautiful and talented.

Huang Zi Xie, having also performed, takes this opportunity to ask Wei Empress Dowager and the Emperor for Mi Yue’s hand in marriage.

Wei Empress Dowager, being a life-wrecker that she is, decides to trick Huang Zi Xie into a marriage with Princess Yin instead, since apparently it kills her to see Mi Yue happy.

And can I add that Princess Yin looks infinitely better without those stupid bangs that they added on her? She looked stunning in her marriage look, and resembled slightly of Griselda Yeung, Tavia Yeung’s sister.

I must add, I’ve always thought that it must suck for Griselda to be so much less famous than her sister, being in the same industry. LOL.

Anyways, I got distracted and missed out a part of the screencaps (but they’re quite beautiful) but essentially, Princess Shu engages in a lavish ceremony to be married off as the Queen of Qin. Huang Zi Xie manages to escapes the marriage, and Mi Yue agrees to be married off as a consort with Princess Shu in order to escaped Wei Empress Dowager into the country Qin, so her and Huang Zi Xie can elope.

During this journey to the country Qin, Princess Shu gets almost poisoned and killed a few times, and Mi Yue decides to stay with Princess Shu instead of eloping with Huang Zi Xie, in order to protect the useless Princess Shu. Sorry to be all cynical and stuff but, how useless do you have to be for someone to give up their dreams/goals in order to ‘protect’ you because you can’t protect yourself LOL. They all euphemize Princess Shu’s dumbness through saying that she’s too “simple” and too “kind” but damn girl, you really need to step it up.

After telling him that she can’t leave with him, Mi Yue offers to sleep with him, in the weirdest way possible. She slowly strips and says “I want to be your wife”, and he’s like “Ok, I love you too”, and she goes “No

On the journey to the palace, Mi Yue and Princess Shu get attacked by the Yi Qu clan to kidnap Princess Shu.

Mi Yue wears Princess Shu’s cape so the kidnappers can mistake Mi Yue as the future Queen of Qin, and Mi Yue manage to lead the Yi Qu clan to chase her instead of Princess Shu, thus saving Princess Shu.

Meanwhile she utilizes that stupid swinging slingshot thing to attack these guys, and these guys in the drama are all like “Oh, what an athletic and agile woman” and I’m sitting here like, “That slingshot is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen”. I mean like look at the trajectory of it after the rock swings out of that thing, it DOESN’T EVEN GO REMOTELY IN THE DIRECTION OF HER ENEMIES.

And I must say, Yi Qu Wang (Emperor of Yi Qu) is damn handsome. Very handsome. Reminds me a little bit of Show Luo.

Anyways, long story short, during Mi Yue’s captivity, Huang Zi Xie came out to try to save her, but ends up falling off a cliff. Mi Yue wakes up in captivity, and (obviously) freaks out about her lover’s death. They find out that she’s not the future Queen of Qin, but since Princess Shu is her sister, they keep her for leverage for ransom anyways.

Since it’s a universal golden rule for all handsome male leads inside a drama to fall in love with the first female lead, obviously Yi Qu Wang falls in love with Mi Yue. Mi Yue refuses his advances, and threatens to commit suicide.

Yi Qu Wang proves that he has plenty of options other than Mi Yue, through performing this act:

SHE LITERALLY LICKS HIS WOUND. SHE LICKS THE BLOOD OFF HIS WOUND. DO YOU KNOW HOW DISGUSTING THAT IS? THIS IS WHY PEOPLE IN THE FEUDAL ERA DIED SO EARLY AND DISEASE WAS RAMPANT. THIS IS SO UNHYGIENIC.

During her time here, Mi Yue meets a child that was literally raised by wolves (why the wolves didn’t eat this child is beyond me, but drama). Anyways, she decides to protect him and humanize him, and names him Xiao Lang (literally translates into Little Wolf). Anyways, Mi Yue leaves him behind with Yi Qu Wang when rescued by the Qin soldiers.

It’s a small detail but it might come up again in the future.

Anyways, Mi Yue determines that Huang Zi Xie must be dead because there are a lot of wolves at the bottom of the cliff, and all she finds are his tattered clothes. She determines that he’s dead, and decides to leave to travel the world in memory of him.

Before she leaves, Zhang Zi comes, and convinces her to stay. He manages to deduce that the kidnapping and the attack was arranged by people in the Qin palace.

Mi Yue realizes that her sister, Princess Shu, is in danger (again, so useless that other people feel obligated to defined her), and Mi Yue decides that the very person that planned this attack was responsible for Huang Zi Xie’s death. Mi Yue decided to enter the palace instead of leaving to travel in order to avenge Huang Zi Xie (obviously, or else our drama would end now).

The marriage ceremony was really beautiful. Princess Shu looks really beautiful and stunning with her hair down, and she looks even younger and more stunning win the Qin style as the Queen.

Along with Mi Yue, there were two more consorts that were married into the Qin country with – Zhang Meng Shi, and Jing Shi. It’s really messed up really. They all guard the room while the Qin Emperor and Princess Shu (now new Qin Queen) consummate their marriage. From their conversation, the latter of the consorts are excited for the end of the night, because the first part of the night is reserved for Qin Queen, and the next part of the night, while the Qin Queen is all tired, would be their turn to… well, have sex with the Emperor.

They euphemize this turn and call it ‘to be bestowed a favour upon’. It’s how they euphemize it in all feudal era dramas, but I thought I would explain it.

Anyways, in the last part of Episode 15, Princess Shu (hereby will be referred as Empress Qin) meets all the other consorts of Emperor Qin (hereby will be refered to as Qin Wang). All the consorts obviously hate the new Empress, and try to give her a hard time by offering tea in a broken cup that used to be the deceased late Empress. Mi Yue drops the cup completely, and blames these consorts for not keeping these items safe instead.

Here we meet Wei Fu Ren, which is the sneakiest consort of them all (and the highest ranking) because she was in charge after the death of the previous Empress. The other consorts will really truly be introduced as things go down in the palace but that’s the most important one that you’ll have to know so far.

3500 words later, WE FINALLY HAVE 10 EPISODE SUMMARIZED. This is really brief, and not at all detailed – for a more detailed recap, you can visit Skimmed Milk Drama for more detailed recaps as they come out :D. Stayed tuned for the next ten episodes!!!