The Prisoner of Beauty (2025)

We came in to watch The Prisoner of Beauty for Liu Yuning. We were introduced to this actor in 2021 when we watched the costume drama, The Long Ballad, starring Dilraba Dilmurat and Wu Lei. Liu Yuning played a guard to the princess character that Zhao Lusi played in The Long Ballad. The plot for Liu Yuning’s character and Zhao Lusi’s character made us ship the two. After finishing The Long Ballad, we hoped to have the chance to see Zhao Lusi and Liu Yuning again in a drama of their own where they were the leads.

When The Story of Pearl Girl (2024) came out, we were excited and immediately clicked in to watch as it starred Zhao Lusi and Liu Yuning. Not minding the ending, The Story of Pearl Girl was a satisfying watch. We loved the styling of Liu Yuning’s character with the braided hair and beads, and the Caribbean-like costuming.

We began to pick up past dramas featuring Liu Yuning after watching The Story of Pearl Girl like A Journey to Love (2023). It starred Liu Shishi and Liu Yuning. This drama was a pretty good watch, but we wished it could have ended differently even though we could see why the ending was what it was. We also watched The Legend of Anle (2023). This pick was for Dilraba Dilmurat and Gong Jun. They were the leads of the drama, but Liu Yuning had a main role. He played someone who was like a confidant or advisor and friend to Dilraba Dilmurat’s character. The unwavering care that Liu Yuning’s character had towards Dilraba Dilmurat’s character as well as the ending for his character made Liu Yuning’s character in The Legend of Anle very memorable.

All Liu Yuning’s dramas have been quite addictive watches. They seem to always have us clicking and clicking through the episodes and this latest drama, The Prisoner of Beauty, is no different. The drama moves along well, has an interesting plot, and the lead couple is very cool. The way they interact with each other, the dialogue between them, they are a lot of fun to watch.

The Prisoner of Beauty is a costume romance drama with a revenge plot. Typically with a revenge plot it’s got a serious atmosphere, but the drama brings along a light and humorous atmosphere as well. Those light and comedic moments mixes in with the more serious moments quite well. They never felt out of place. The cold and ruthless male lead character isn’t spared from being a site for some light and humorous moments, either. He seems central to a lot of the subtle jokes… or maybe it just felt like he was for us.

The male lead character is Wei Shao (Liu Yuning) of the Wei clan. The female lead character is Xiaoqiao (Song Zu’er) of the Qiao clan. Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao are from enemy clans. They enter into a marriage alliance as means to keep peace between the two states.

The backstory is that fourteen years ago Wei Shao’s grandfather and Xiaoqiao’s grandfather had a verbal agreement to provide protection and aid to each other whenever there was a time they needed protection. However, that aid didn’t come when Xindu, a territory of the Wei, got attacked by another region called Bianzhou. It led to the demise of Wei Shao’s grandfather, father, and brother, because the reinforcements the Qiao clan should have provided didn’t come. Xindu was seized by Bianzhou and it became under the control of the Bianzhou general, Li Su. Wei Shao survived that war through hiding in a small chest which his brother, Wei Bogong, had him hide in.

In the present, Wei Shao has a battle plan. It involves reclaiming Xindu back as Wei territory which he and his army successfully does. Next is taking over Panyi. Panyi is a territory under the control of the Qiao clan. It is the gateway to Yanzhou where the Qiao clan reside. Taking over Panyi allows Wei Shao to close in on Yanzhou and his want to kill the Qiao clan.

Conquering territories seems to be Wei Shao’s ambition. However, his true ambition is to extend the Yongning canal beyond Wei and Panyi so to provide its benefits to everyone on the land, to solve the problem of food shortages and poor living conditions for the people due to drought.

It’s really easy to find a pairing like Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao interesting. Both of these characters are individually interesting and the setup of these two being from enemy clans who come together through a marriage alliance makes the pairing interesting too.m.

Wei Shao is cold towards Xiaoqiao and his thoughts of Xiaoqiao is the same as his thoughts on the Qiao clan: He finds Xiaoqiao to be despicable, deceptive, manipulative, and scheming. Wei Shao finds the marriage alliance proposed by Xiaoqiao’s grandfather and accepted by Wei Shao’s grandmother outrageous. When Xiaoqiao came with her procession for the marriage alliance, Wei Shao wanted to release an arrow into Xiaoqiao’s carriage to kill her, but stopping Wei Shao from doing so was the seal to Panyi that his advisor, Gongsun Yang, said Xiaoqiao has as her dowry.

Xiaoqiao is someone who wishes for the marriage alliance to go through. She sees it as important to keep the Qiao clan safe and peaceful from the might of Wei. Wei Shao being someone Xiaoqiao guards her Qiao clan against, she manages this with her ability to think and analyse situations strategically. She navigates through Wei Shao’s dislike and distrust towards her with words which Wei Shao describes as silver-tongued.

Though Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao are not aligned with each other when they first come together in the marriage alliance, the thing they have in common is care for the common people. Having this in common, it has Xiaoqiao feel Wei Shao is kind and not as ruthless as he’s rumoured to be. For Wei Shao, because he’s kind by nature, a sort of care comes through the hate.

We first see this hate and care from Wei Shao in Episode 3 and Episode 4 where Wei Shao says for his men to kill Xiaoqiao if they find her, but what we see happening is Wei Shao stopping it.

In the events leading up to this, Wei Shao had succeeded in reclaiming Xindu from Bianzhou. After reclaiming Xindu and winning over the support of the Xindu people (with the help of Xiaoqiao), Wei Shao promised the people there was enough grains to go around, but there was a shortage. This had Xiaoqiao come to Wei Shao’s aid with handing him the seal to Panyi so he could access the supply of grains in Panyi. This only got Xiaoqiao kicked out of Xindu, met Liu Yan along the way, and they headed to Panyi together.

Liu Yan is the young master of the Liu clan of Liangya. He and Xiaoqiao were childhood sweethearts and Xiaoqiao was arranged to be betrothed to him. However, Xiaoqiao chose to marry Wei Shao so her cousin, Daqiao, could be with the person she liked. Initially, Liu Yan doesn’t appear to be a super villainous character, but he gets more and more so as his character develops.

Wei Shao believes Xiaoqiao and Liu Yan had eloped. He is also informed that Liu Yan has taken over the defences in Panyi. It brings Wei Shao to lead his men to Panyi to drive Liu Yan out and take Panyi over. When Wei Shao and his generals discover sulfur on the ground outside the gates to Panyi, Wei Shao believes the plan Liu Yan has in store for them is a fire attack—one which Wei Shao sees to bring unimaginable devastation for them and the Panyi people. This is only Wei Shao’s guess. Liu Yan’s target for devastation is Xindu. Liu Yan wants to destroy the Panyi dam so the water from the Yongning canal can flood all of Xindu.

Xiaoqiao expressed concern for the innocent people of Xindu when Liu Yan told this plan of his to her. This had Liu Yan keep Xiaoqiao confined and bound up in her residence. Xiaoqiao manages to free herself, find the sulfur in the granary, and render the sulfur useless with setting fire to the sacks with sulfur in it. Liu Yan’s plan is ruined and this distraction allows Wei Shao and his army to break through the gates of Panyi and take it over.

After this, both Wei Shao and Liu Yan look for Xiaoqiao. The first person to find Xiaoqiao is someone from the Wei side. One of the Wei generals, Wei Xiao, finds Xiaoqiao at the granary. He wants to kill Xiaoqiao for the Qiao clan’s betrayal in the battle fourteen years ago which caused him to lose his parents and brother. It had him become a child in the wilderness fighting for food with wolves. He releases an arrow, but the arrow is deflected by Wei Shao. Xiaoqiao escapes. Wei Shao explains to Wei Xiao he stopped his arrow from killing Xiaoqiao because she saved Xindu. Wei Shao had learned Xiaoqiao had gone to stop Liu Yan’s plan from her maid, Xiaotao (Li Xueqin), when he went to find Xiaoqiao in her residence.

Wei Shao protects Xiaoqiao. Xiaoqiao had to choose to either go to Wei Shao’s side or Liu Yan’s side. Neither side seems to be a good choice. Liu Yan appears to be the safer choice for Xiaoqiao when he says to her she is like treasure to him with their childhood days to back this up. He also says he will let what she did slide as long as she goes to him. Xiaoqiao doesn’t go to him. She bets her safety on Wei Shao because, unlike Liu Yan, Wei Shao doesn’t treat people like ants. Wei Shao launches towards Xiaoqiao and shields her from crossfire as his men start firing arrows at Liu Yan’s people.

After Liu Yan’s people gets driven out and everything is calm, adrenaline and anger makes Xiaoqiao bold enough to slap Wei Shao in the face. There is no repercussion for that disrespect to Wei Shao. He stands there dumbfounded. Xiaoqiao seems to realise her own audacity, balling up after slapping him.

Wei Shao shows gentleness. He tends to Xiaoqiao’s leg. Catching sight of the redness on her wrist with candle wax on it (obtained from when Xiaoqiao used a candle flame to free herself from the rope that tied her up), he goes to take a look, but Xiaoqiao doesn’t allow him to. Wei Shao also carries Xiaoqiao on his back.

Wei Shao is back to treating Xiaoqiao indifferently. News of Xiaoqiao’s grandfather passing away reaches Wei Shao. He’s delirious with happiness to finally hear the person who betrayed Wei has passed away. However, the happiness turns into concern. Until this point in time, Wei Shao had been rejecting the marriage alliance. But as long as he agreed, it could still go through. With the death of Xiaoqiao’s grandfather, though, the marriage alliance truly cannot go through and this troubles Wei Shao. It’s a problem for his plan to repair the Yongning canal. Wei Shao goes to Xiaoqiao and asks her if she will still go through with the marriage. Xiaoqiao gives the answer Wei Shao needs her to say: She will go through with the marriage. It’s her grandfather’s wish.

In the marriage ceremony, as expected, there’s a tense atmosphere with hatred on Wei Shao’s side. A small moment of Wei Shao’s kindness coming through as he helps steady Xiaoqiao who trips on the last step up to the front, Xiaoqiao holds in her discontent as she watches Wei Shao not do the rituals. He’s unable to do them before the ancestral tablets of his grandfather, father, and brother. After the marriage ceremony, Wei Shao goes to see Xiaoqiao in the bridal chamber. He doesn’t stay. He’s not completely cold-hearted. He tells Xiaoqiao she should remove her accessories, understanding she must be tired. He also tells her to rest early. Before Wei Shao leaves the room, he lets Xiaoqiao know of the expectations he has of her now that they are husband and wife. Wei Shao assures Xiaoqiao that whatever he does to the Qiao clan or Yanzhou he will never harm her or have her become homeless. However, she must be a Wei and no longer be a Qiao.

The plot setup and the lead characters of the drama introduced, we come to Episode 5 where there are two new characters introduced. They are characters that provide trouble for Xiaoqiao and has the effect of showing Wei Shao that Xiaoqiao isn’t a despicable. scheming, deceptive, and manipulative person of which Wei Shao sees all people from the Qiao clan to be. Xiaoqiao is shown to be a person who understands him and has his best interest at heart.

The two new characters are Lady Zhu, Wei Shao’s mother, and Zheng Chuyu. Zheng Chuyu likes Wei Shao and Wei Shao’s mother is fond of Zheng Chuyu. Wei Shao’s mother wants Wei Shao to take Zheng Chuyu in as a concubine and both Wei Shao’s mother and Zheng Chuyu stop at nothing to make this happen.

In the journey from Panyi to Yujun (a territory which is the home to the Wei clan), Xiaoqiao is under the weather and can’t remain in the elements for too long. However, the memorial rites for Wei Shao’s grandfather, father, and brother is taking place. Wei Shao has Xiaoqiao remain in her carriage with her nanny, Chunniang, and her maids, Xiaotao and Xiaozao, outside the gates into Yujun until the memorial rites have concluded. He leaves the task of bringing them into Yujun to Zheng Chuyu once the memorial rites have concluded.

Zheng Chuyu and Wei Shao’s mother have no intention of allowing Xiaoqiao into Yujun. Days and nights pass, the wind and rain very strong. While Wei Shao continues to work away and can feel the cold indoors, Xiaoqiao is slowly getting sicker and sicker as she and her carriage wait to be allowed into Yujun outside. Xiaoqiao’s maid, Xiaotao, makes a request to one of the four Wei generals, Wei Liang (Wang Chengsi), to allow them in, but the request is rejected when Wei Liang doesn’t get permission from Zheng Chuyu. It’s not until some men go presenting a letter of divorce and start moving the carriage along to send Xiaoqiao back to Yanzhou that Wei Shao is made aware of the situation. He immediately heads out and personally brings Xiaoqiao into Yujun.

The place Wei Shao brings Xiaoqiao to is the main bedchamber. The main bedchamber is a place Zheng Chuyu doesn’t want Xiaoqiao to stay in. She arranges for Xiaoqiao to stay in a dusty, desolate, and dark side chamber, expecting Xiaoqiao to move there when she comes around from her fever. However, Zheng Chuyu doesn’t get her way. After Xiaoqiao comes around from her fever and when Wei Shao makes a visit to her, Xiaoqiao makes Wei Shao aware Zheng Chuyu has arranged for her to stay in the side chamber. Making herself appear sicker than she is, Xiaoqiao makes Wei Shao feel compelled enough to allow her to continue to stay in the main bedchamber while he goes to the side chamber for the time being.

Xiaoqiao’s insistence on staying in the main bedchamber conveniently works in Wei Shao’s favour. In a meeting with officials in the government office, Wei Shao’s uncle, Wei Dian, masks his concern for the Wei state with bringing up the matter of producing an heir. Wei Shao’s uncle says Lady Qiao (Xiaoqiao) will be in mourning for a year. He suggests for Wei Shao to take his foster daughter in as a concubine to produce an heir. Wei Shao’s uncle tries to make himself seem reasonable when he says he wouldn’t press on this matter of a concubine if there was a loving relationship between him and Lady Qiao. Quick thinking from Wei Shao’s advisor, Gongsun Yang, Wei Shao is provided a way out of this. Gongsun Yang mentions how it’s common knowledge that Wei Shao has given the main bedchamber to Lady Qiao so she could recuperate. When Wei Shao’s uncle doesn’t find it to be convincing evidence, Wei Shao calls in his attendant, Attendant Tan, to inform him of the progress of moving his necessary belongings to the side chamber. Attendant Tan lets Wei Shao know it’s pretty much done except for one item, his favourite bow, which he doesn’t know where it can be placed. This convinces Wei Shao’s uncle.

In a meeting Wei Shao has in the study room with his subjects who are also his relatives, he has to hear the topic of him taking a concubine again. They all agree Xiaoqiao can’t be the Lady of Wei because she’s a Qiao, but not all agree with the foster daughter of Wei Shao’s uncle be taken in as a concubine. Wei Shao is presented with another opportunity to show everyone he and Xiaoqiao are a loving couple when Attendant Tan informs him Xiaoqiao is outside with soup for him. Wei Shao initially asks Attendant Tan to let Xiaoqiao into the study room, but he decides it’s more impactful to bring Xiaoqiao into the study room personally, and come in hand in hand. Wei Shao’s relatives are surprised with this show of trust towards a Qiao. The study room is a place for discussing confidential state affairs. Wei Shao introduces Xiaoqiao to his relatives then turns to Xiaoqiao to express his concern towards how lightly she’s dressed. He has Attendant Tan grab his cloak over so he can place another layer on Xiaoqiao.

Some time later, returning home, with the ground wet, Xiaoqiao avoids wet areas and seeks dry areas. She suddenly finds Wei Shao scooping her up and carrying her until the ground was dry enough for her to walk herself again. At home, speaking to Xiaotao and Chunniang, she expresses feeling a bit fluttery in the heart. Xiaotao thinks the time Wei Shao carried her into Yujun was an even more heart-fluttering moment. Xiaoqiao recalls someone carrying her at that time. It brings her to realise she misunderstood Wei Shao as having deliberately left her outside of the city for three days.

Xiaoqiao begin to show genuine care towards Wei Shao. She makes the side chamber more comfortable for him and she has Xiaotao go find information about what Wei Shao liked to eat.

Xiaotao asks the person she interacts with most—Wei Liang. When she goes to Wei Liang to ask, he says he’s not allowed to answer questions about state affairs or about Wei Shao. So, Xiaotao asks him what they all do daily and what things he, as in Wei Liang, often eats. Xiaotao figured that what Wei Liang eats would most likely be what Wei Shao eats as they eat together.

Xiaoqiao has meals prepared for Wei Shao according to what Xiaotao listed. She also has a new pair of shoes made for him. It fit him perfectly. The pair of shoes which Wei Shao’s mother had made for Wei Shao—a pair that was a size too small for him—Xiaoqiao takes them in to alter and to practice mastering his mother’s needlework.

Xiaoqiao realises Wei Shao’s words about not taking in a concubine out of respect for her dignity was merely means to reject his uncle’s proposal of taking in his foster daughter as a concubine. She realises this when she finds Wei Shao asking her to handle the matter of him taking in Zheng Chuyu as a concubine.

Xiaoqiao goes to Wei Shao’s grandmother for help. With Xiaoqiao reasoning that it will bring some bitterness from Wei Shao’s uncle if Wei Shao took Zheng Chuyu in as a concubine, Wei Shao’s grandmother agrees to take over the handling of this matter. In the talk Wei Shao’s grandmother has with Wei Shao’s mother, we learn Wei Shao’s mother has previously made such proposal and it was rejected. The decision is the same as the first time: Wei Shao will not take Zheng Chuyu in as a concubine.

Wei Shao is unimpressed Xiaoqiao had gone to his grandmother for help. Xiaoqiao defends her actions with saying that with such matters Grandmother should know. Expressing she had not made things go in any particular way, Xiaoqiao says she has no control over the decision Grandmother makes. Wei Shao agrees with Xiaoqiao on this. She indeed has no control over the matter because it’s up to his grandmother and himself.

The following is satisfying to watch when Xiaoqiao loses patience with the arrogance Wei Shao has been giving Xiaoqiao so far. Xiaoqiao calmly agrees she has no control over the matter. She doesn’t dare interfere. His way of thinking is her way of thinking. With the talk on the topic finished, Wei Shao offers Xiaoqiao the study room for her to resume copying sutras for his grandmother. However, Xiaoqiao says he can occupy his study room since he’s returned. She packs up. Wei Shao seems to push Xiaoqiao further into annoyance when he asks if she’s moved anything around in the room. Xiaoqiao retorts she has only been copying sutras. Tomorrow, she can move to the bedroom to copy sutras if he feels uneasy. This more than satisfactory answer has Wei Shao explain himself. He was only casually asking and means nothing by it. Xiaoqiao’s hand rolling up the last scroll on the table at speed seems to suggest the last of her patience is used up. She bows then leaves the room.

Wei Shao seems to realise that he was wrong to have asked Xiaoqiao whether she’s moved anything around in the room. When he hears someone come into the room, he says he wasn’t suspecting her. She can freely come and go into his study room. However, the person to hear this and has entered the room is Zheng Chuyu.

Zheng Chuyu arrives with a food carrier, bringing Wei Shao food to eat. Wei Shao seems to worry about how this looks to others, but disguises it as concern towards Zheng Chuyu. He tells Zheng Chuyu to not wander around because the weather has been getting cold. When Zheng Chuyu says she understands he’s concerned about her, Wei Shao corrects her understanding with saying the two of them being alone together isn’t good and it will ruin her reputation. Zheng Chuyu sees no issues with the two of them being alone in the study room when his mother had intended to marry her to him. When Zheng Chuyu blames Xiaoqiao for getting in the way of this happening, Wei Shao says Xiaoqiao has nothing to do with them not being married when it’s his grandmother who made the decision. He tells Zheng Chuyu to head home. The permission he had unintentionally given to Zheng Chuyu to enter his study room is corrected. She is not to enter his study room without his permission.

The next scheme Wei Shao’s mother and Zheng Chuyu carries out involves Wei Shao’s treasured box containing things belonging to his grandfather and father. Though the scheme initially had the desired outcome of causing Wei Shao to see Xiaoqiao as an enemy attempting to spy on secrets, the end result is Wei Shao feeling guilty towards Xiaoqiao and it has Wei Shao’s mother hear his rejection towards Zheng Chuyu being taken in as his concubine.

Wei Shao finds scratches on the sides of his box. With the box stored in the study room and Xiaoqiao being the only person (other than his attendant) allowed in the study room, he immediately accuses Xiaoqiao to have tried getting into his box. He accuses her for trying to spy on military intelligence. Xiaoqiao attempts to have Wei Shao see she’s not the one to have tried getting into his box with reminding him that she had let him know she was going to the study room to return the sutra she was copying. She wouldn’t have informed him if her intention was to spy on military intelligence. Wei Shao simply sees it as avoiding suspicion.

The next thing Xiaoqiao says to try convince Wei Shao he has wrongly accused her has Wei Shao furious. Xiaoqiao says she was indeed curious about the box and the military intelligence inside it, but she didn’t open it. Before Xiaoqiao completes her next sentence, Wei Shao has her in a stranglehold. Wei Shao directs rage-filled and hate-filled words at Xiaoqiao: Her mouth that is filled with lies is characteristic of the Qiao family. The hatred between Wei and Qiao can never be erased with marriage. Wei Shao warns Xiaoqiao that if she dares to touch his things again, she can go right back to Kangjun (Yanzhou).

Xiaoqiao has her people ask the servants around if they saw or heard anything to find something to prove she’s innocent, but she finds they’re all keeping their lips tightly sealed. Chunniang finds this situation difficult. She suggests for them to seek help from Wei Shao’s grandmother. Xiaoqiao, however, doesn’t see relying on Wei Shao’s grandmother to be good for them in the long run because Wei Shao’s grandmother is a Wei. If Wei Shao’s grandmother becomes fed up with her then she’ll be cut down by others. Chunniang then suggests heading back to Yanzhou. Xiaozao’s input of finding living in the inner residence to be like a battlefield, Xiaoqiao sees the only way to handle this situation is to treat it like they are in the battlefield. She needs to completely solve the issue that exists with Wei Shao to permanently handle Wei Shao’s mother and Zheng Chuyu.

Xiaoqiao confronts Wei Shao to prove her innocence and she needs to touch his box to do so. Wei Shao doesn’t allow her to touch his box. Xiaoqiao persists, saying she needs to, so that she can stop him and everyone else from accusing her simply because she’s from the Qiao clan. Wei Shao doesn’t see how the Qiao clan isn’t wrong. Xiaoqiao argues he’s unfairly painting her with the same brush and expresses disappointment in finding him not treating her with sincerity after marriage because she thought he might. Defying her expectations, she instead finds him putting his guard up around her and continuing to see her as an enemy because she’s from the Qiao clan. Xiaoqiao tells Wei Shao she didn’t marry him for the purpose of stealing information before she takes his box and solves the magic square lock.

Wei Shao has no words when the lock pops out. Xiaoqiao tells Wei Shao she wished to prove her innocence today to make sure there will never come a day where they’re a couple, but she murders him in the middle of the night with a weapon that she hides underneath her pillow. The reason why the scratches cannot be something she’d do is because scarring his box is scarring his heart. She would never do that because she can unlock it. However, she is at fault for ignoring his warning. She accepts punishment and swear she will never repeat it again. The final thing Xiaoqiao says before she leaves is telling Wei Shao he can go to her if one day he forgets how to open his box.

Wei Shao appears to have realised the person behind the scratches on his box is his mother. He doesn’t accuse her openly. He only lets her see the scheme she came up with has failed. When Wei Shao says to his mother he’s noticed some scratches on the box and whether she knows anything about it, Wei Shao’s mother directs him to suspect Xiaoqiao. When Wei Shao’s mother says the favour he gives Xiaoqiao might have caused Xiaoqiao to become arrogant enough to ignore his warning and spy on the secret he has in the box, Wei Shao tells his mother the box simply has some of his old things and nothing else inside. He indirectly sends a message to his mother he’s aware of Xiaoqiao having been framed for something she didn’t do with a story of the box now belonging to Xiaoqiao: Xiaoqiao had found the magic square lock on the box interesting, so Xiaoqiao asked him if she could keep it. He taught Xiaoqiao how to unlock the magic square lock. After Xiaoqiao got bored of the magic square on the box, she used it to store her jewellery. Then, something like a light warning to his mother, Wei Shao asks his mother to look into the matter as she would on such matters. He hopes she’ll handle it as quickly as possible. When Wei Shao says he will ask his grandmother’s nanny to give a hand, Wei Shao’s mother quickly declines. The final thing Wei Shao says to his mother is about Zheng Chuyu. He will find someone to marry Zheng Chuyu into the Wei family. It will satisfy her wish for Zheng Chuyu to be by her side.

After this point in the drama, Episode 9, we finally see Wei Shao being gentler towards Xiaoqiao. Even when Wei Shao finds Xiaoqiao had done something without his knowledge to protect the Qiao clan and Yanzhou at the expense of the Wei state, and though he does get angry, it’s without the hate, the harsh words, or the abrasive manner. Wei Shao is quite forgiving and it’s something that Xiaoqiao notices. This is seen when Xiaoqiao uses Wei Shao’s troops to claim Boya.

Boya is unclaimed land which isn’t particularly of interest to anyone, but it’s a location next to Yanzhou. Xiaoqiao’s cousin, Daqiao, and Bi Zhi—a horseman who worked for the Qiao clan—had settled in Boya after leaving Yanzhou. Xue Tai—a general backed by Bianzhou—is conscripting men in Boya to contain Panyi. Having superior strength and a horse whisperer, Bi Zhi manages to make Xue Tai and his troop retreat in a battle, but Xue Tai continues to watch Boya in a territory near Boya and Panyi, called Xiaogang. Xiaogang is said to be a former Wei territory which got seized during a time when they were weak and Xiaogang is currently under the watch of Liangya. Bi Zhi becomes the commander of Boya Forces to lead Boya in a fight against Xue Tai’s troops.

Xiaoqiao finds out that Xiaoda had requested reinforcements from the governor of Yanzhou, Xiaoda’s father, but he denied the request, fearing doing so would see Wei Shao target Yanzhou. Xiaoqiao comes up with a scheme. Using the guilt Wei Shao has towards her for wrongly accusing her for the box incident, Xiaoqiao has Wei Shao agree to help her send supplies to Xiaoda to help make Xiaoda and Bi Zhi’s lives less difficult. In actuality, it’s to create a false scene of having Wei reinforcements in Boya. The scene was a success. Xue Tai’s troops withdraw from Xiaogang and the Qiao flag gets raised in Boya. Wei Shao isn’t pleased with such deception from Xiaoqiao. However, Wei Shao isn’t able to feel wronged when Xiaoqiao brings up the matter of him stationing troops in Panyi which she only recently heard but has been in place for over a month. The deception has Wei Shao screen the letters Xiaoqiao sends out and he returns to living in the main bedchamber to fight for his territory there.

In response to Boya becoming a territory of the Qiao clan, Wei Shao sends troops to Xiaogang to reclaim it. When Xiaoqiao hears Wei Shao is sending troops to Xiaogang, she immediately understands the reason to be pinning Boya down. So, Xiaoqiao asks Zhang Pu to help her send a message to Bi Zhi. (Zhang Pu is the advisor to the governor of Yanzhou. He is someone who we see acting as a communication link.) Planning for the time Boya is in trouble, Xiaoqiao wants Bi Zhi to dig a secret passage in a border territory of Yanzhou near Xiaogang called, Liancheng, so that it can help shorten the distance for Yanzhou troops to reach Xiaogang and allow Xiaogang to be within Yanzhou’s grasp. Xiaogang is successfully reclaimed as Wei territory.

Wei Shao’s mother has one final scheme up her sleeve to try make Zheng Chuyu Wei Shao’s concubine. This scheme, however, ends all chances for Zheng Chuyu.

This scheme is slipping in an aphrodisiac in Wei Shao’s drink in order to get him to go to bed with Zheng Chuyu. To make Wei Shao drink the drink with aphrodisiac slipped in, Wei Shao’s mother apologises to Wei Shao for the trouble she’s caused with three cups. Wei Shao has to accept the apology with drinking three cups with aphrodisiac slipped in. When the aphrodisiac starts taking effect, Wei Shao is led to the bedchamber where Zheng Chuyu waits for him. Even with aphrodisiac in his system, Wei Shao resists Zheng Chuyu. The padlocked door doesn’t stop Wei Shao from leaving, either. Wei Shao kicks the door down and heads home. Xiaoqiao is there and the aphrodisiac becomes too much for Wei Shao to resist its effects. He brings Xiaoqiao to the bed. Xiaoqiao’s resistance with kicking and pushing him away doesn’t get him away. Only after Xiaoqiao slaps him does he snap out of it and restrains himself again. He calms down after a long while soaking in ice water.

This is something that loses face for Wei Shao and Wei Shao finds Xiaoqiao helping him maintain it by not telling anyone about what happened. This includes the attendants and maids around her. It includes Wei Shao’s grandmother. When Wei Shao’s grandmother asks Xiaoqiao if she knows what happened at the east wing last night because she heard Wei Shao was angry and he had kicked a door down, Xiaoqiao says she doesn’t know. When Wei Shao’s grandmother enquires about the ice that was brought to their place, Xiaoqiao uses a story of Wei Shao needing to relieve the pain from wounds she believed was gained from the battle in Xiaogang. Wei Shao’s grandmother isn’t unaware Xiaoqiao was lying to her and she approves of Xiaoqiao’s handling of this incident. She is pleased Xiaoqiao knows to help Wei Shao maintain face and not use this incident in a way that benefits her.

Wei Shao overhears the conversation between Xiaoqiao and his mother blaming her for causing Zheng Chuyu to be sent away. Wei Shao’s mother is furious at Xiaoqiao for interfering in what should have been a marriage between Zheng Chuyu and Wei Shao. Xiaoqiao wonders if Wei Shao’s mother cares about Wei Shao’s face. Xiaoqiao asks Wei Shao’s mother this because she finds that Wei Shao’s mother continues to only speak of Zheng Chuyu even after all of their schemes got exposed. Xiaoqiao wonders if Wei Shao’s mother has ever thought of Wei Shao when she finds that everything Wei Shao’s mother does is for Zheng Chuyu. Xiaoqiao criticises Wei Shao’s mother for not looking at the bigger picture with her choosing to interfere in the marriage alliance. She asks Wei Shao’s mother if it’s that she doesn’t wish for Wei Shao to sit firmly in the position of the lord of Wei.

Xiaoqiao lets Wei Shao’s mother know the effect her latest scheme has on Wei Shao. Xiaoqiao sees Wei Shao’s mother is concerned about Zheng Chuyu leaving the mansion, but she wonders if Wei Shao’s mother knows Wei Shao is leaving the house because he isn’t able to cope with the shame he feels. Because of feeling that shame, he’s assigned himself to check on the canal repairs instead of assigning someone of lower rank to see to this routine task. Wei Shao’s mother has no defence. Xiaoqiao continues to let Wei Shao’s mother know how little thought she puts towards Wei Shao when she doesn’t consider how far he’d have to travel and what sort of difficulties he’d face whilst travelling to check on the canal repairs. The shoes that were a size too small that Wei Shao’s mother made for Wei Shao is something Xiaoqiao uses to make a point on how negligent Wei Shao’s mother has been towards the care she provides Wei Shao. She expresses knowing Wei Shao’s mother is capable of taking care of someone well. She notices Zheng Chuyu is perfectly dressed. With this, Xiaoqiao tells Wei Shao’s mother she will take care of all of Wei Shao’s needs by herself seeing as Wei Shao’s mother won’t.

We feel Wei Shao would have been completely moved by all the things he heard Xiaoqiao say to his mother. Wei Shao will have a whole new level of respect for Xiaoqiao because from this point on, we see Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao move away from being a couple playing mind games with each other to mutual understanding.

In one of the conversations between Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao in Episode 4, we learned that the war that occurred fourteen years ago was due to Bianzhou being threatened by the construction of the Yongning canal solidifying the alliance between Wei and Yanzhou. Episode 11 onwards has Bianzhou come into the plot to disrupt the alliance between the Wei clan and the Qiao clan.

Wei Yan (Liu Duanduan) is one of the new characters that come in to disrupt the alliance. This character has an interesting character background. Wei Yan is raised and doted on by his grandmother. Wei Yan’s grandmother is Wei Shao’s grandmother. Therefore, Wei Shao is Wei Yan’s cousin. This means Wei Yan is the second master of Wei. However, Wei Yan has both Wei blood and Bianzhou blood running through him. His mother is Qingyun, the daughter of Wei Shao’s grandmother. Qingyun passed away after giving birth to Wei Yan. Wei Yan was told his father was a servant, but his father is Chen Pang. Chen Pang is the uncle of the Bianzhou governor, Chen Xiang. Wei Yan was said to have found this out on his recent journey outside of Wei where he met Chen Pang.

When Wei Yan gets introduced, we see him as someone returning to Yujun to attend his grandmother’s birthday banquet. He’s introduced as a frequent visitor of taverns and brothels and a playboy. Women all over town greets him when he comes in town. Wei Yan has a carefree personality. It allows him to create issues between Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao without raising any suspicions.

Wei Yan’s first attempt to cause issues between Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao is making Xiaoqiao appear negligent when the jade bangle she and Wei Shao prepared for their grandmother’s birthday banquet goes missing. It doesn’t bring the desired outcome. Wei Shao solves this issue with asking Wei Yan to let him have his rare jade stone that their grandmother gave him to make another jade bangle.

Wei Yan’s next attempt is making both Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao appear to be finding company in others. While a tavern maid returns Xiaoqiao an ornament to Wei Shao’s belt, Wei Shao finds that the portrait of the woman Wei Yan is trying to find is Xiaoqiao. Xiaoqiao asks Wei Shao how the ornament to his belt landed in the hands of a tavern maid, while Wei Shao asks Xiaoqiao why she and Wei Yan met at the jade workshop and how that encounter brought Wei Yan to be able to remember her so well as to paint her portrait.

The ornament to Wei Shao’s belt was pulled from Wei Shao’s belt by Wei Yan during their talk in a tavern which Wei Yan forced Wei Shao to head into. Meanwhile, Xiaoqiao’s encounter with Wei Yan was Wei Yan entering into the jade workshop where Xiaoqiao, along with Xiaotao and Xiaozao, were looking to have a bracelet made out of the jade Wei Shao gave her to use for their birthday gift for Wei Shao’s grandmother. Wei Yan helped create the design of the bracelet to cover the unexpected flaw in the jade after the workshop owner dropped it from fright, caused by a sudden neigh from a horse outside.

A rift between Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao doesn’t eventuate from this attempt. The relationship between Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao seems too good. Wei Shao drops the matter. He says it wasn’t her fault. Meanwhile, Xiaoqiao apologises for speaking out of anger.

Wei Yan finds Xiaoqiao coming out of the study room with a scroll on Rongjun. Xiaoqiao had gone there after hearing that this region of Wei bordering Bianzhou is drought-stricken and plagued by famine. Wei Yan tells Wei Shao about this, hoping to see him furious, but of course Wei Yan has no luck with it. Xiaoqiao has Wei Shao’s permission to enter the study room.

Wei Yan stumbles upon something to drive a wedge between Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao. When Wei Yan expresses concern over the suspicious nature of an urgent letter that Xiaoqiao was sending to Yanzhou, Wei Shao says Xiaoqiao is a truly kindhearted person. When Wei Yan expresses Wei Shao to be too trusting, Wei Shao says for him to relax because he’s already read the contents of Xiaoqiao’s letter to Yanzhou. It’s a letter which simply details Rongjun’s terrain, climate, and the crops the Rongjun people likes along with a request for Yanzhou to send some of their winter wheat seeds to help with Rongjun’s famine.

With this knowledge of Wei Shao reading Xiaoqiao’s letters, in the guise of apologising to Xiaoqiao for his misjudgment of her, Wei Yan goes to Xiaoqiao and says to her he realises he has been narrow-minded and she is someone highly-principled with her care and concern for the Rongjun people. Letting Xiaoqiao know Wei Shao have been reading her letters, Wei Yan recites the contents of her latest letter to Yanzhou to her and tells her Wei Shao had read her letter to him, word for word.

Xiaoqiao vents her anger out with sending a letter to Yanzhou. It contains words for Wei Shao to read: “Shame on Wei Shao.” When Wei Shao comes home, he tries to avoid the issue with going to bed, but Xiaoqiao doesn’t allow him to get away with the despicable act of reading her letters. She makes Wei Shao approve the menu, the purchase accounts, and the invitations for their grandmother’s birthday banquet. Each time, Wei Shao is uncomfortably looking at them, hiding under the covers after brief glances. When Wei Shao doesn’t come up from under the covers on the next one, Xiaoqiao calls Wei Shao by name and hits him with the scroll to get him to come up from under the covers.

Wei Shao is shocked with how Xiaoqiao dared to disrespect him with calling him by name. Xiaoqiao doesn’t care she’s offended him. She only wants him to tell her why he read her letters. Wei Shao seems to be trying to appear unintimidated by Xiaoqiao when he exclaims she is rude, disrespectful and aggressive, telling her she should be happy he’s the one she married because only he would be willing to marry someone like her. Wei Shao says all this as he makes his way to the door to escape this wrath from Xiaoqiao. Xiaoqiao doesn’t let Wei Shao’s criticisms of her go without firing some of her own at him: He is suspicious all day, leaves when he can’t win an argument, has small eyes, and has an even smaller heart. After she says Wei Shao’s tall height is the only redeeming thing about him, Xiaoqiao throws a scroll at the door where he stands on the other side. Wei Shao comes back in, angered Xiaoqiao dared to throw an object at him. The consequence for such disrespect is Wei Shao letting Xiaoqiao go on it and escaping from her wrath again.

Though an argument took place, Wei Yan revealing this fact of Wei Shao reading Xiaoqiao’s letter to Xiaoqiao doesn’t create any issues on the trust Xiaoqiao has towards Wei Shao as she sees the responsibility Wei Shao has as the lord of Wei. We hear Xiaoqiao express to Xiaozao she actually understands why Wei Shao would read her letters. He can’t completely trust the Qiao clan. Though he treats her well and protects her in family matters, matters regarding the state is another matter for him. He has the weight of the people’s trust on his shoulders and he must think about the safety of Wei.

The lady of Bianzhou, Lady Yulou, comes with her cousin, Su Zixin, to attend Wei Shao’s grandmother’s birthday banquet. Lady Yulou, also known as Su Ehuang, is from the Su clan of Wushan and was formerly betrothed to Wei Shao’s brother up until the war fourteen years ago. After Wei Shao’s brother died, it’s said the Su clan sent her to marry the governor of Bianzhou, Chen Xiang. Lady Yulou comes to Wei with a mission following the news of Wei having a plan to extend the Yongning canal to Rongjun. The construction of the Yongning canal extension to Rongjun will encircle Bianzhou, threatening easy passage for military attacks.

Lady Yulou uses her former relations with the Wei clan to try break up the alliance between the Qiao clan and the Wei clan. Her birthday gift to Wei Shao’s grandmother are sacks of grains and Lady Yulou says they are to help with the famine in Rongjun. Wei Shao’s grandmother is appreciative of the gesture, but whether they’ll be accepted will be Wei Shao’s decision. Going to Wei Shao, Lady Yulou explains the sacks of grains are neither from the Su clan nor Bianzhou. It’s from her personally. Regardless of the identity Lady Yulou uses to gift the sacks of grains, Wei Shao sees Lady Yulou as the lady of Bianzhou. He rejects the gift.

The sacks of grains is indeed not simply a gift. It has the purpose of seeing the grains Xiaoqiao requested from Yanzhou rejected. With this plan failing, Lady Yulou utilises her good relationship with Wei Shao’s mother in her next plan which sees Zheng Chuyu being brought back into the Wei mansion to carry out a task of tampering with the winter wheat seeds from Yanzhou.

On the day of the Wei Shao’s grandmother’s birthday banquet, Wei Shao’s mother accuses the Qiao clan of sending them rotten wheat seeds. Xiaoqiao says it’s not possible because she personally selected the grains and they are full and whole. Someone in the room sprinkles cooked seeds into a bowl of water and accuses the wheat seeds to be cooked. Verifying the wheat seeds in the bowl of water to be floating on top of the water (showing the wheat seeds are cooked), and finding the sacks of seeds looking to be cooked as well, Xiaoqiao immediately makes a plea to Wei Shao’s grandmother to see this as a misunderstanding. She says her uncle (the governor of Yanzhou) would never play with the lives of the people of Wei. The room, however, sees it as otherwise. They see it as a deliberate plot to harm the people of Wei. Xiaoqiao tries to provide a possible explanation: The seeds might not have been the ones from Yanzhou. The room reminds her the wheat seeds had been presented by the Yanzhou envoy themselves and no one else.

At this time when Xiaoqiao feels she has nothing more she can do or say that can show she and the Qiao clan have been wrongly accused, Wei Shao comes to her defence. He laughs at their accusation of Xiaoqiao wanting to harm the people. She had provided him help in Xindu and Panyi. She needn’t come to this point in time to harm the people when she could have done so by not assisting him with the Yongning canal. Wei Shao orders a weighing of the sacks of cooked wheat seeds to determine if the sacks of seeds are those from Yanzhou or those which have been switched. Wei Shao explains that as the sacks of seeds were weighed when they arrived in Yujun, there should be a discrepancy in weight between cooked and raw wheat seeds with cooked wheat seeds being lighter.

Lady Yulou sees she’s not able to accuse Xiaoqiao with this. She decides to put Wei Shao in a dilemma to force him to accuse her. Betting on Wei Shao choosing his family over his wife from an enemy state, Lady Yulou incites the room to believe Wei Yan is the person behind the cooked wheat seeds. She points out that Wei Yan was in charge of managing the granary. If the wheat seeds were fine before getting into Yujun, the tampering must have occurred after the wheat seeds got into Yujun.

For a time, Wei Shao isn’t sure whether to weigh the sacks of cooked wheat seeds. Xiaoqiao tries to make it easier for him by saying she is okay with whatever decision he makes, suggesting that he can lay blame on her and stop the weighing of the wheat seeds to save Wei Yan. The decision Wei Shao makes in the end is to weigh the seeds. The result expectedly proves Xiaoqiao and the Qiao clan had sent raw wheat seeds and the seeds were tampered with after entering Yujun. Wishing to prove his belief that Wei Yan is also wrongly accused, Wei Shao orders a lockdown in Yujun so investigations can continue.

Investigations reveal someone had entered the granary, but no records of it. Proving Wei Yan can’t possibly have been the one to have tampered with the wheat seeds from Yanzhou, Zheng Chuyu is reported to have died suddenly.

Lady Yulou comes up with a way to stop Wei Shao from getting to the truth. Going to Wei Shao’s mother, Lady Yulou convinces her to take the blame with getting her to see the pressure Wei Shao will face if they find Wei Yan is behind the cooked wheat seeds. He’d have to punish Wei Yan with death. Before Wei Shao and the attendees of the birthday banquet, Wei Shao’s mother provides a convincing story of her dislike towards Xiaoqiao being the reason for the cooked wheat seeds incident. Wei Shao seems to see someone else is behind the incident. However, with patience wearing thin within the banquet attendees and with Gongsun Yang advising him this is the best outcome for the wheat seeds incident, Wei Shao stops the investigation. Wei Shao’s mother is ordered to be sent to Wei Shao’s grandmother for punishment.

Lady Yulou is calculative and she appears to be someone with a good head on her shoulders. However, her head is seriously not screwed on right. We see more of how delusional she is in episodes further on.

Wei Yan appears to be deceptive with the things he’s been doing to stir things up between Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao. However, it’s to do with the struggle he has with figuring out whether he is a Wei or someone from Bianzhou. He’s been troubled with not understanding why he was told his father was a Wei servant and why he was never able to utilise the skills he has in military strategy.

A conversation with his grandmother, Wei Yan finds out his mother was abducted and violated by Chen Pang. After his grandfather (Wei Shao’s grandfather) brought his mother back to Wei, she died from depression after giving birth to him. With Wei Yan’s curiosity towards why he could never obtain any military position, his grandmother directly tells Wei Yan it’s because he’s part of the Chen clan of Bianzhou. She had the responsibility of protecting the Wei clan. She couldn’t fully trust Wei Yan when Chen Pang wanted to reunite with him. He will become Bianzhou’s young master when it changes hands. This is hard to hear for Wei Yan. Wei Yan’s grandmother lets Wei Yan make a choice to either stay in Wei or leave for Bianzhou. If he chooses to stay in Wei, she will never entrust him with an important task. However, he will be her grandson and she will love him just as she has been doing.

Wei Yan’s want to understand why he never gets utilised in military tasks seems to be his want to not feel like an outsider who’s not trusted and he sees himself to be an outsider who’s not trusted. This felt to be coming from Wei Yan during when he found Xiaoqiao coming out of the study room with a scroll on Rongjun. In that scene, he said to Xiaoqiao, “Don’t forget that Wei and Qiao are enemies. The Wei family will never treat you as their own family.” Wei Yan seems to have been projecting what he feels about himself onto Xiaoqiao here. Then there’s the time when Wei Shao stayed at Wei Yan’s residence because Wei Shao was avoiding Xiaoqiao’s fury after she found out he was reading her letters. During that scene, Wei Shao curiously asked Wei Yan why he told Xiaoqiao about him reading her letters. Wei Yan replied, “I don’t think Qiao and Wei can truly come to trust each other.” Wei Yan then added, “I want to know if they are truly devoted to the repair of the canal.” These words seem to suggest Wei Yan believes suspicion will always be there between enemy clans.

So, it feels like Wei Yan just wants to be seen as a Wei and be trusted. Though Wei Yan’s grandmother directly tells Wei Yan there is that distrust when it comes to military tasks, she sees him as a Wei. With this, Wei Yan chooses to stay in Wei.

Wei Shao is heading to Rongjun. He asks Wei Yan to keep guard of Yujun whilst he’s in Rongjun. The trip to Rongjun is to have the winter wheat seeds planted. More importantly, Wei Shao is there to discuss with the prefect of Rongjun, Yuan Wang, about the extension of the Yongning canal to Rongjun. Xiaoqiao also goes on the trip to Rongjun to spend more time with Wei Shao.

Xiaoqiao ends up taking over the command post when Wei Shao gets incapacitated after a group of highly-skilled fighters posing as bandits attack the group on the way to Rongjun. These fighters were deployed by Wei Shao’s uncle, Wei Dian, on the instruction of the prefect of Rongjun. Both Wei Shao’s uncle and the prefect of Rongjun doesn’t wish for Wei Shao’s influence to weaken the local governing powers which they see the Yongning canal extension to bring to Rongjun.

Xiaoqiao works out the fighters were soldiers in Wei Dian’s army. With Wei Shao unconscious from a poisoned arrow at his arm, the Wei generals feel turning back is the best action to take. However, Xiaoqiao say they must continue forward to Rongjun: Wei Dian will carry out the same actions in the future if they see this time had made them turn back. The winter wheat seeds also must be sowed at this time for the crop to grow well and the yield to be high. The livelihood of the people depend on this. The Yongning canal must be built so the people won’t continue suffering. After Wei Qu expresses concern about possible dangers that lie ahead in Rongjun and Xiaoqiao reasoning Rongjun to be safer than their current location because the prefect of Rongjun dare not take action against them even if Wei Dian dares, they head to Rongjun.

Wei Shao recovers from being poisoned and is able to return to taking charge of the mission. However, Xiaoqiao continues to be the one providing strategies and orders. The way in which Xiaoqiao chooses to bring the prefect of Rongjun to agree with the extension of the Yongning canal doesn’t create further sufferings for the Rongjun people. While Wei Shao had thought to deploy troops, Xiaoqiao chooses to sow discord between the prefect of Rongjun and Wei Dian to get rid of the support the prefect of Rongjun has from Wei Dian in order to bring the prefect of Rongjun to agree to the extension of the Yongning canal into Rongjun.

Creating false scenes to make the prefect of Rongjun look like he is aligning with them, Xiaoqiao has the prefect of Rongjun accompany her in several games of chess at her place. One of his shoes is taken away, used to make a scene of the prefect of Rongjun accepting a bribe. Wei Qu and Wei Liang is used to create a scene of a marriage alliance proposal between one of them and the daughter of the prefect of Rongjun. Finally, using the arrows from Wei Dian’s men who had attacked them on the way to Rongjun, the Wei generals attack the prefect of Rongjun’s carriage and saves him to make it look as if Wei Dian had sent men to assassinate him. All this has the prefect of Rongjun change sides and support the extension of the Yongning canal into Rongjun.

At this point in the drama, Episode 19, there’s a focus on the way Wei Shao feels about Xiaoqiao. An event which sees Xiaoqiao appear to have gone missing brings fear to Wei Shao.

After completing the mission in Rongjun, the group takes a detour to Panyi to retrieve a book important to the canal construction project in Rongjun that the mayor of Panyi supposedly had forgotten to bring along with him to Rongjun. He had asked Wei Shao to bring it to him. This detour to Panyi is, however, an opportunity Xiaoqiao created for herself to spend more time with Wei Shao and the mayor of Panyi was made to help her create that opportunity.

During a little rest time in the trip, Wei Liang unintentionally ruins a moment for Xiaoqiao to spend some time with Wei Shao. Xiaotao, the person Wei Liang likes, blames him for ruining it. Wei Liang makes up for his error. He enlists the help of Wei Qu, Wei Duo, and Wei Xiao to a plan where they act concerned about Xiaoqiao having not returned back from a small moment away from her carriage, but they have her ready and waiting for when they bring Wei Shao to her at a spot in the woods where Wei Duo keeps guard. Xiaoqiao going missing becomes real when Wei Duo never heard Wei Liang’s order to keep guard and he doesn’t know where Xiaoqiao is. Wei Shao and the generals go on a frantic search on horse for Xiaoqiao. When they find Xiaoqiao with a group of unknown people, Wei Shao rushes to bring Xiaoqiao onto his horse to safety. Xiaoqiao was in no danger. She had simply encountered some lost refugees and she took some guards with her to help the lost refugees get back to the rest of their group.

The incident affected Wei Shao a lot. He doesn’t let Xiaoqiao out of his sight after the incident. Wei Shao compares the fear he felt when Xiaoqiao went missing to the same fear he felt when his brother, father, and grandfather suddenly left him. That’s because he views Xiaoqiao to be very good and he feels a level of admiration towards her that he has never felt towards any woman before.

Xiaoqiao gives Wei Shao more reason to admire her with an expression of loyalty to him. Upon Wei Shao expressing his sympathy towards the sufferings refugees endure due to fights over water and wars happening, and feeling the peace they have now may not last very long, Xiaoqiao lets Wei Shao know she will be by his side whether there is peace or chaos. She vows to be a loyal subject of his and will never leave him. She will help him with his grand plan for repairing the canal, face hardships together, bring water to all corners, and dissolve hatred with sincerity to bring peace.

Wei Shao’s mother, who has come to accept Xiaoqiao as her daughter-in-law, sees Wei Shao has fallen for her and Wei Yan can see it too. Wei Shao seems to see that he has fallen for Xiaoqiao as well, but stopping himself from accepting this is the promise he made to his brother to never trust anyone from the Qiao clan. So, after returning to Yujun, Wei Shao stays in the government office to distance himself from Xiaoqiao.

Xiaoqiao is understanding towards Wei Shao needing some time to work through his thoughts. She makes sure Wei Shao is comfortable whilst he’s in the government office, providing him meticulous care. She then recalls the jade pendant that hung at Wei Shao’s waist and the reaction he had when she helped him change out of his clothes before he headed to the government office. When she unknowingly brushed past the jade pendant, Wei Shao shielded it from her touch. After that, he stored the jade pendant in his box containing his cherished items.

Xiaoqiao recalls seeing the jade pendant Lady Yulou has. It’s the other half of the one Wei Shao has. Xiaoqiao begins to believe the reason Wei Shao needs time to work through his thoughts is because he’s unable to let go of the past with Lady Yulou. However, their jade pendants aren’t a pair and they were never betrothed. Lady Yulou was betrothed to Wei Shao’s brother. The jade pendant belonged to Wei Shao’s brother.

Before Wei Shao’s brother got killed, he snapped his jade pendant in half for Wei Shao to give one half to Lady Yulou and one half for him to keep. This was also the moment where Wei Shao’s brother spoke the two promises he had Wei Shao keep: Take care of Lady Yulou for him and never trust the Qiao clan.

Xiaoqiao lessens her meticulous care and Wei Shao realises he needs to have a talk with Xiaoqiao when he finds his box with his cherished item in the government office. The talk has Wei Shao show Xiaoqiao the things inside the box. Explaining the items belonging to his grandfather, father, and brother clears up the misunderstanding Xiaoqiao has about the jade pendant. Wei Shao resolves the internal conflict he has towards the promise his brother asked him to keep: He isn’t able to keep the promise of not trusting anyone from the Qiao clan.

The relationship between Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao feels very solid at this point in the drama which is Episode 22. There doesn’t seem to be anything that can create a rift between them. We see Lady Yulou coming back in and she does try to create a rift. With Lady Yulou’s need to be aligned with power, it brings her to head to Wei and seek out Wei Shao. She tries until she becomes aligned with Liu Yan and both of them bring Wei Shao to a difficult situation of needing to defend the Wei territory, Panyi, and the Yanzhou territory, Liancheng, because of the countermeasure Xiaoqiao took back when Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao were acting against each other. This situation comes in at Episode 29.

Before then, we’re entertained with Wei Shao feeling jealous and annoyed at a poet named Gao Heng. Gao Heng is a famous poet across the land and Wei Shao invites him to help Xiaoqiao with composing a poem for the ceremony of a deer hunt gathering Wei is hosting. The jealousy and annoyance Wei Shao feels towards Gao Heng is set off with his admiration towards Xiaoqiao. Gao Heng’s words and actions are all admiration towards her as is the poem he writes. The poem Gao Heng should write should be about Wei, but it’s all admiration for the Lady of Wei. Wei Shao is also made to wonder about how masculine Gao Heng’s physique is when he finds this poet, a scholar, who claims to have no martial arts skills and couldn’t hurt a fly have a very masculine and muscular physique. Wei Shao tries to better his physique with lifting weights and bicep exercises.

The first kiss between Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao takes place after Wei Shao gets disappointed with Xiaoqiao’s new years boat lantern wishes. He comes to find she had only made wishes for her Qiao family members and none made for him. Wei Shao seems to believe Xiaoqiao doesn’t love him as much as he loves her, but he comes to understand this is not how she feels. Xiaoqiao tells him her wishes are regrets. Writing to them in her lantern boat is her only way to communicate with her family. Hearing this, Wei Shao’s heart softens with understanding and he gives Xiaoqiao a kiss on her forehead. In return, Xiaoqiao pulls Wei Shao into a kiss.

Wei Shao’s hatred towards the Qiao clan seems close to being the past when he sets up a memorial rite for Xiaoqiao to honour her grandfather. The mourning period also comes to an end and Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao attempt to consummate the marriage, but it gets interrupted when Wei Shao is informed Panyi and Liancheng are under siege.

This siege at Panyi and Liancheng is made possible with the information Lady Yulou provides to Liu Yan. This partnership between Liu Yan of Liangya and Lady Yulou comes about after Lady Yulou gets rejected by Wei Shao and she becomes full of rage and bitterness towards him after her failed schemes to be aligned with Wei Shao’s power results in a punishment disfiguring her face at the nose.

Lady Yulou’s schemes began from when she lost her position of power as Lady of Bianzhou. Her husband and former governor of Bianzhou, Chen Xiang, passed away from illness. This news came to her on her way back to Bianzhou after attending the birthday banquet for Wei Shao’s grandmother. Chen Xiang’s uncle (also Wei Yan’s father), Chen Pang, became the governor of Bianzhou and he had people search for her to bring her back to Bianzhou and be confined. Chen Xiang’s last wish made to Xu Tai, however, allowed Lady Yulou to be free to move around.

With the support of Xu Tai and his army of fifty thousand elite fighters, Lady Yulou headed to Yujun. In order to gain sympathy from Wei Shao and have him agree to allow her cousin, Su Zixin, to participate and represent not Bianzhou but their hometown, Wushan, in the martial arts competition at the deer hunt gathering, she turned up at Yujun with a damaged voice.

With Lady Yulou’s voice damaged, Su Zixin told Wei Shao the danger they encountered. He began with speaking about the governor of Yanzhou’s search for beautiful and talented women for the purpose of political marriages. Lady Yulou was made known to the governor of Yanzhou by a word from Chen Pang. This brought Lady Yulou to ruin her voice to stop those with power from coveting her beauty and talent in music. She was pursued by the governor of Yanzhou’s nephew, Xiaoqiao’s brother, Qiao Ci. If captured, Lady Yulou was to be offered to Wei Shao to strengthen Xiaoqiao’s position as the lady of Wei. Su Zixin said both barely managed to escape. Lady Yulou showed Wei Shao the jade pendant belonging to Wei Shao’s brother. The pursuit had caused it to break into pieces.

The governor of Yanzhou searching for beautiful and talented women for political marriages is true. Presenting her to Wei Shao is not true. Lady Yulou’s voice was self-inflicted and ruined by medicine she took to heal the illness she had. The jade pendant was smashed by Lady Yulou to make the danger she said they encountered more believable (and most probably to bring out Wei Shao’s anger towards the Qiao clan for causing it to be broken to pieces).

With the matter regarding Qiao Ci, he had left Kangjun to get away from his uncle’s disgraceful behaviour of seeking beautiful and talented women for political marriages. He went to Boya and then made his way to Yujun. Qiao Ci and Lady Yulou didn’t encounter each other when Qiao Ci didn’t know who Lady Yulou was. Xiaoqiao found this fact out when she went to meet up with Qiao Ci on his way to Yujun.

Xiaoqiao had Lady Yulou reveal her lies before her and Wei Shao with bringing in someone to be Qiao Ci. Expectedly, Lady Yulou acknowledged this stand-in to be Qiao Ci. When Qiao Ci stood before her, she made excuses why she accused Qiao Ci to have pursued her.

Su Zixin failed to progress through the martial arts competition at the deer hunt gathering. He began well, but ultimately he failed to match up to his opponent’s fighting skills. Su Zixin’s opponent was Qiao Ci. Using a weapon from the selection at the fighting arena, Qiao Ci initially struggled to match up to Su Zixin’s fighting skills, but after Wei Shao gave Qiao Ci his brother’s spear to fight with, Su Zixin was no match for Qiao Ci. Unable to match Qiao Ci’s fighting skills, Su Zixin attempted to win the match with hidden weapons, but he still failed. Wei Shao ruled Su Zixin’s actions to be underhanded and was told he could not progress any further in the competition.

When Su Zixin wasn’t able to provide the desired outcome, Lady Yulou presented to the governors and prefects what she could offer if they aligned with her through marriage. She said, along with the peony birthmark on her forehand signifying an empress’ fate, she has Xue Tai and his fifty thousand strong army in her command. Everyone was impressed, but seemingly only two were interested. One of them was Liu Yan. For a banquet Liu Yan wanted to hold, he told his advisor to send out an invitation to Lady Yulou. Lady Yulou schemed here as well. In order to stand out and create a good relationship with Liu Yan for future benefits and assistance from him, she spread the fact of Liu Yan killing his father, consort, and brother to become Liangya’s governor so she would be the only one to show up at Liu Yan’s banquet.

Finding Wei Shao more respected and more powerful, Lady Yulou tried aligning herself with Wei Shao’s power first. In order to have Wei Shao agree to let her remain in Yujun and be under his protection, Lady Yulou exaggerated (or possibly lied) about Liu Yan and the governor of Taozhou forcing her into marriage. She attempted to sway Wei Shao towards her with putting on her womanly charms on him. This only had Wei Shao decide the best way to look after her was to send her back to Wushan for her family to look after her. To ease her concerns of having no one to rely on and make sure she didn’t get bullied in the future, Wei Shao offered to send gifts of fine and exquisite items every festival.

Lady Yulou had chanced upon the opportunity to create issues between Wei Shao, Xiaoqiao, and Wei Yan after she failed to charm Wei Shao. She found an interesting sight of Wei Yan picking up a handkerchief Xiaoqiao lost when they farewelled the poet, Gao Heng. Lady Yulou also heard gossip on around town about Wei Yan having dismissed all the concubines in his household because he was keeping himself for a noble lady he had fallen for. These clued Lady Yulou in and brought her to the evidence that showed Wei Yan had fallen for Xiaoqiao.

This evidence was a painting of Xiaoqiao. Initially, Wei Yan had only wondered who it was that was the goddess in his heart. He painted a painting of a goddess, but he didn’t know the face of the goddess. So, he left the face unpainted. In search of finding the face of the goddess, Wei Yan searched among tavern maids, but he failed to find her. He came to realise Xiaoqiao was the goddess in his heart and he painted Xiaoqiao’s face into his painting.

It was probably during the time after the wheat seeds incident that Wei Yan started seeing Xiaoqiao differently. She was the one who brought him to go to his grandmother and it was there he was able to get answers to the questions he had about his identity as a Wei and a Chen from Bianzhou. It helped bring his relationship with his grandmother and Wei Shao back to how it was before he found out he was Chen Pang’s son.

The issue Wei Yan had with gossip circling around the city about a relationship with a noble lady was cleared up by Xiaoqiao. While Wei Yan’s grandmother, Wei Shao’s mother, and Wei Shao took the gossip at face value, Xiaoqiao met with the noble lady and got the truth of the situation. This noble lady who was infatuated with Wei Yan and wanted to marry him claimed she and Wei Yan spent a night together. Wei Yan’s flute being a particularly precious belonging of Wei Yan’s, the noble lady showed their relationship was real with Wei Yan’s flute in her possession. Xiaoqiao, bit by bit, questioned the noble lady. She found the noble lady was lying about having spent a night together with Wei Yan when, on the night she said they had spent the night together, Wei Yan was at a family banquet where everyone including Xiaoqiao, herself, was present and he didn’t go out afterwards. Xiaoqiao also didn’t believe Wei Yan would give the noble lady his flute. She saw stealing to be a possibility. The noble lady had indeed stolen it.

Wei Yan was moved by how Xiaoqiao saw the situation as a misunderstanding. He was also moved by the reason she chose to dig out the truth. Xiaoqiao saw him as family, so she didn’t want to see him wronged. If something ruined his reputation, it should be because of something he did and not because of something he didn’t do. He may seem frivolous and indulgent, but he would never do anything that would betray trust and disappoint.

Lady Yulou came to find out about Wei Yan’s painting of Xiaoqiao. She also came across a tavern maid by the name of Lanyun. Lanyun was a tavern maid often seen tending to Wei Yan in his mansion. She also had an infatuation with Wei Yan, but she got rejected by him. Lady Yulou had Lanyun bring Wei Shao to Wei Yan’s painting of Xiaoqiao. Upon sight of it, Wei Shao was furious. He set the painting and the room ablaze with a candle thrown at the painting. There was a fall out between Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao, and Wei Shao and Wei Yan. However, it was brief and there was no damage done to the brotherly relationship between Wei Shao and Wei Yan. Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao also patched up with Wei Shao realising he had been wrong to have vented his anger out on Xiaoqiao.

Unable to cause issues this way, Lady Yulou had Wei Yan’s like towards Xiaoqiao become known to everyone in town. She spread and revealed Xiaoqiao as the person Wei Yan liked. The gossip going around town spoke of Wei Yan having a dancer who dressed up like Xiaoqiao. Some spoke about believing it might simply be Xiaoqiao secretly meeting Wei Yan. The gossip that Wei Yan felt was impacting on Xiaoqiao’s untarnished reputation and Wei Shao’s dignity, and making things difficult for his grandmother brought Wei Yan to resolve it with covering it up and leaving Wei and heading back to Bianzhou. He covered it up with a story he asked his attendant to spread around: Bianzhou wanted him to go back to Bianzhou so they made a proposal to cooperate with the repair of the canal. They also had the rumours spread to damage the relationship between him and his brother which forced him to leave Wei. Wei Yan had his Bianzhou subordinate deploy Bianzhou people to create the scene.

Devastated Wei Yan had been forced to leave them, Wei Shao investigated. He brought Lady Yulou to justice. Lady Yulou didn’t accept that all her bad deeds should be punished. She felt she was a victim of bad fate. She didn’t have a man who cherished her. Wei Shao disagreed with her view of things when he saw her to have ignored all the love and care around her. Wei Shao revealed to Lady Yulou he and his brother already knew the peony birthmark on her forehead was fake, yet his brother didn’t say anything and still wanted to marry her. Wei Shao ordered a slit to the nose as Lady Yulou’s punishment. The disfigurement brought Lady Yulou to Liangya and align with Liu Yan to take revenge on Wei Shao and Wei.

Panyi and Liancheng being under siege brings Wei Shao to learn about the secret passage that Xiaoqiao had instructed Bi Zhi to construct between Liancheng and Xiaogang during when Wei Shao went to reclaim Xiaogang. Wei Shao is disappointed Xiaoqiao didn’t think to tell him about this secret passage. He expresses himself as having been forthcoming with everything after he fell for her, whereas she kept this information from him even after she fell for him. Xiaoqiao’s reason for continuing to keep this from him is feeling uncertain about whether Wei Shao has let go of his deep hate towards the Qiao clan. She worries he’d exterminate the Qiao clan if one day his feelings for her changed. Wei Shao is angered by these words. He says he’ll take Yanzhou and wipe out Liangya right now.

Xiaoqiao decides to cool their heated argument down with admitting the situation they’re in now is her fault. Just in case Wei Shao believes otherwise, she tells him that for him, she will give up everything for him—even her life. Wei Shao doesn’t wish to argue with Xiaoqiao anymore, feeling they are hurting themselves before the enemy has attacked. He resigns to feeling how she always is able to outargue him with her eloquent words.

The secret passage between Liancheng and Xiaogang has allowed Liu Yan to take Xiaogang and have 100,000 Liangya troops make their way towards Panyi. The remaining troops are in Liancheng with 20,000 more in reinforcements coming. The deployment of troops to the canal repairs has Wei forces not nearly strong enough to defend both Panyi and Liancheng, but Panyi must be protected because Wei’s survival is dependent on the water source from the Yongning canal in Panyi. Liancheng also needs to be protected because it determines Yanzhou’s fate. Ultimately, Wei Shao decides to protect both territories. Wei Shao has 50,000 troops stationed at Yujun, to be led by Wei Xiao, to defend Yujun. He has Wei Liang lead 50,000 troops to defend Liancheng. Meanwhile, Wei Shao has Wei Qu and Wei Duo with him to fend off the Liangya army in Panyi.

Before Wei Shao heads out to war, Xiaoqiao has a pair of battle boots made for him and goes to give it to him. Wei Shao is still displeased with her. He rhetorically asks Xiaoqiao if she’s happy that Wei soldiers are fighting for Yanzhou. Xiaoqiao isn’t able to find the right response to this. She just lets him know she will go to Boya to bring him reinforcements to guard his rear. The gesture doesn’t please Wei Shao any more than before she had said this.

Xiaoqiao is shattered to find that she isn’t able to deliver on the promise she made to Wei Shao to provide him reinforcements. At the time Xiaoqiao arrived in Boya, Bi Zhi was out patrolling the border. She asked her cousin, Xiaoda, if she could provide reinforcements. Xiaoda was unwilling. Xiaoda defended her unwillingness to help with her being an ordinary woman who doesn’t have ambition or foresight. She can protect only one person. She isn’t someone who would make her husband go through difficulties and dangers for the sake of the Qiao clan and the people of Yanzhou. She can’t use Bi Zhi’s love to make him protect their clan.

Without Boya’s 20,000 troops, Xiaoqiao decides she can only head to Panyi with the 500 troops she has with her to provide aid. That’s until two children playing with soil and water on the ground gives her an idea on a way to keep her promise to Wei Shao to guard his rear and prevent the 20,000 Liangya reinforcements from reaching Panyi. To guard Wei Shao’s rear, Xiaoqiao thought to use her grandfather’s teachings to stop the Liangya reinforcements at an area known as Wu Marsh by lowering the water level of the river there, either through blocking the upstream or draining the downstream. Initially, Xiaoqiao thought to block the upstream with constructing an embankment. When the time came, it’d get destroyed and the water would flood and drown the Liangya reinforcements. However, Wei Xiao informed the time to build one could take a few days or at worse a month. The plan Xiaoqiao carries out comes to be draining the downstream with a disguise of blocking the water with an embankment to make the Liangya reinforcements believe they will flood them when they cross the river.

The situation in Panyi is looking to be the same as the Xindu battle fourteen years ago. It is in need of reinforcements. Wei Shao has faith in Xiaoqiao. He believes she will come through with the Boya reinforcements that she promised. Though Xiaoqiao is without the Boya reinforcements, she does successfully guard Wei Shao’s rear. Panyi, Liancheng, and Xiaogang are secured as Liu Yan orders a retreat when reports come in to him informing they are falling on all fronts and their men are no longer able to hold the line.

The way in which Xiaoqiao managed to guard Wei Shao’s rear required her to convince with words to make the Liangya reinforcements turn around and retreat. With the river water level low, scattering of sulfur on the ground, and the gulls they released in the distance, Xiaoqiao managed to make the leader of the Liangya reinforcements believe a flood of water awaited them if he and his troops crossed the river. In order to convince the leader of the Liangya reinforcements to order a retreat, Xiaoqiao (who stood on the other side of the river) asked him to consider whether serving a cruel, unrighteous, disloyal, and unfilial tyrant who seized power through killing his own father and brother was worthy of following. She had him look at the possibility of their loyalty towards a tyrant to be without rewards, without honour if they failed, or discarded if no longer useful. The leader of the Liangya reinforcements had fortunately agreed with the points Xiaoqiao made and he ordered a retreat, allowing Xiaoqiao to successfully guard Wei Shao’s rear without bringing danger to herself and the people with her.

Wei Shao continues to think the securing of Panyi, Liancheng, and Xiaogang had been because Xiaoqiao had come through with her promise to guard his rear with Boya reinforcements. He also thinks her efforts had all been for Yanzhou. Wei Shao comes to realise no Boya reinforcements came to their aid and Xiaoqiao had done it for him when he and his troops make their way into Boya and they find that Bi Zhi had no knowledge of the fight happening in Panyi and he expressed surprise to hear Xiaoqiao had led an ambush on Liu Yan and it was with only a few hundred troops against tens of thousands of troops.

Wei Shao takes a small group with him and rushes to catch up with Xiaoqiao and her group. Wei Shao and his people reach each of the places Xiaoqiao and her people have been, but miss them each time until heavy rain collapsing a bridge brings Wei Shao and his people to an inn where Xiaoqiao and her people arrive at.

Upon seeing sight of Xiaoqiao, Wei Shao embraces her. Proud and pleased with her efforts, Xiaoqiao says she kept her promise to him. Wei Shao’s words which is worry and concern comes out harsh. He tells Xiaoqiao off for taking action without permission—one which usually gets her whipped if she were in the military. These words see Xiaoqiao feeling indignant and she leaves him. Chunniang isn’t impressed with the harshness of Wei Shao’s words, either. She tells him Xiaoqiao risked going to the battlefield for his sake. She feared reinforcements wouldn’t arrive and finding him wounded in defeat. Xiaoqiao has also been missing him constantly.

This battle has Wei Shao realise many things. Telling this to Xiaoqiao, he realises he has disregarded the difficulties she has had in manoevring between the Wei clan and the Qiao clan. Realising he’s never actually given her a promise on giving up revenge, he can see it means she has been constantly living under such pressure. When he learned that she had gone to help him, he was scared. It had him think that even if he could kill all his enemies and conquered the land, there wouldn’t be any meaning to his life without her. He sees she has done many things for him, yet he didn’t know to take pity on her or know to take good care of her. He tells Xiaoqiao to never doubt his sincerity because he doesn’t doubt hers.

Wei Shao lets Xiaoqiao know he is willing to let go of his hate towards the Qiao clan and he is in the process of it when he tells her he wishes to follow her and visit Kangjun. He wants to meet her family, see the place she grew up in, and also see how the Kangjun people live. He believes he can let go of his hatred after he’s visited Kangjun.

The trip to Kangjun sees Wei Shao and Xiaoqiao consummate their marriage. It also sees Wei Shao acknowledge Xiaoqiao’s father, the prefect of Kangjun, as his father-in-law. Wei Shao sees Xiaoqiao’s father to have the same common love for the people when he finds Xiaoqiao’s father taking in Liangya refugees. Wei Shao and all of Wei is also offered a deep apology from Xiaoqiao’s father for the Qiao clan’s betrayal in the war fourteen years ago.

Meanwhile, Wei Shao doesn’t find much respect for Xiaoqiao’s uncle, the governor of Yanzhou. At the banquet, while Wei Shao toasts to Xiaoqiao’s father and Xiaoqiao’s aunt, Lady Ding, for raising Xiaoqiao, he doesn’t receive the toast from the governor of Yanzhou, nor does Wei Shao allow the governor of Yanzhou to address him by his courtesy name, Zonglin, correcting the governor of Yanzhou to address him as Lord of Wei.

In the final section of the drama, we see a lot of characters die. Minor characters who are good such as Zhen Zhi, the mayor of Xindu, which we were introduced to in the first few episodes of the drama, and Yang Feng, the mayor of Panyi, dies. Xiaoqiao’s cousin, Xiaoda, dies. Unexpectedly, one of the four Wei generals, Wei Liang, also dies.

Both Liu Yan and Lady Yulou continue their greed for power. Lady Yulou shows Liu Yan her trust and loyalty with choosing to marry him even after the defeat in Panyi and Liancheng. She has a plan to go against Wei and it targets the Qiao clan. Lady Yulou tells Liu Yan the defeat at Panyi and Liancheng isn’t indicative of Liangya’s lack of strength. It’s because Liangya placed their strength on the wrong target. The target should have been the Qiao clan. She says the Qiao clan is an easier target because they change according to the situation, whereas the Wei clan are difficult to break because they are honest and sincere once they’ve set their mind on an ally. To make sure they are strong in this next fight against Wei Shao and Wei, Lady Yulou says she will go persuade other states to join Liangya in the fight against Wei.

The target is the governor of Yanzhou. The governor of Yanzhou shows dissatisfaction towards not being respected by the Yanzhou people where the people respect the prefect of Kangjun. The prefect of Kangjun also has command of the troops and he has the backing of Wei with Wei Shao being his son-in-law. With the governor of Yanzhou feeling his position is threatened by the prefect of Kangjun’s popularity with the people and having a strong ally as Wei, Liu Yan is able to make the governor of Yanzhou betray the alliance with Wei and ally with Liangya. The governor of Yanzhou assists Liu Yan with a series of actions which bring Panyi and Yujun to be under siege.

The prefect of Kangjun is taken out of action with the governor of Yanzhou drugging his wine. The governor of Yanzhou inviting Xiaoda and Bi Zhi to Kangjun on the pretense of wanting to see his grandson, Bi Zhi is forced to join Liangya in the fight against Wei with holding Xiaoda hostage. Panyi is easily breached and taken over by Liu Yan with the governor of Yanzhou’s identity as a Qiao.

Wei Liang is sent to Kangjun to bring Xiaoqiao’s father and Qiao Ci to Yujun to ease Xiaoqiao’s worries following a nightmare Xiaoqiao had about her father being in danger. The trip is also a personal one for Wei Liang when he uses it to bring an orchid plant back to show Xiaotao his sincerity so he can marry her. Unfortunately, arriving when the governor of Yanzhou has allied with Liangya, Wei Liang doesn’t make it back to Yujun. He sacrifices himself and dies in a battle against Bi Zhi and Liu Yan to allow Qiao Ci to escape and inform Wei Shao what’s happening in Kangjun.

Liu Yan repeats his disregard towards the common people in his want to prevent Wei Shao from reaching Panyi with ordering the Panyi dam to be destroyed. In an attempt to stop this, the mayor of Panyi uses the lack of knowledge that Liu Yan, Liu Yan’s advisor, and the governor of Yanzhou, have on the technicals behind destroying the dam to bring in a scroll with a weapon hidden inside.

The mayor of Panyi first attempts to bring the governor of Yanzhou to reassess allying with Liu Yan with words that tries to bring the governor of Yanzhou to see that Wei Shao has the same ambition as the governor of Yanzhou’s father, the late Lord Qiao. He speaks about the devotion the late Lord Qiao had with constructing the Yongning canal between Panyi and Xindu. He had the aspiration of unifying the land. Listing the benefits the canal brought to the people, the mayor of Panyi says people everywhere no longer fight for water, and food and minerals move about with transportation and trade. This goes on deaf ears on the governor of Yanzhou.

The mayor of Panyi tries to reach the governor of Yanzhou’s filial piety. He tries to indicate to the governor of Yanzhou he is failing his father with saying he feels bad for failing the late lord. The governor of Yanzhou continues to see no issues with the current situation, seeing the Yongning canal having been for Yanzhou. Destroying it is also for Yanzhou when it’s getting rid of a major problem. The mayor of Panyi, therefore, is out of options. He attempts to kill Liu Yan with the weapon hidden in the scroll. This fails. It brings him to hold the governor of Yanzhou hostage to stop Liu Yan from proceeding with his plan. However, this doesn’t threaten Liu Yan at all. He puts a sword to the both of them and kills the mayor of Panyi and the governor of Yanzhou.

Things look dire for Wei for a time. While Wei Shao and his troops attempt to reach Panyi but is coming across setbacks, Lady Yulou brings vengeance on Yujun for the disfiguring of her face. Yujun becomes under siege with Xue Tai’s troops outside Yujun. Wei Shao is in the difficult position of either choosing to save three generations of his family with heading to Yujun or protect the people by going to Panyi to take back the Yongning canal. Wei Shao faces the same dilemma as the one Xiaoqiao’s grandfather faced fourteen years ago. Like Xiaoqiao’s grandfather, Wei Shao chooses the people and issues a command to head to Panyi.

The progress Liangya makes slowly deteriorates. In Kangjun, after Wei Qu retrieves Wei Liang’s body, he goes to rescue Xiaoqiao’s father who has gone completely blind from the drug the governor of Yanzhou had served him. He’s held in prison. The rescue sees Wei Qu turn the Yanzhou troops back to serving Yanzhou when he informs them the governor of Yanzhou has died and the new governor of Yanzhou is the prefect of Kangjun. With the news of the governor of Yanzhou having died, except the troop leader, a Liangya soldier, they all wish to serve the prefect of Kangjun. The prefect of Kangjun issues an order of dissolving the cooperation with Liangya and orders the mobilisation of troops at Liancheng to help take back Panyi.

In Yujun, there’s a brief moment of happiness when Xiaoqiao gives birth to Wei Shao’s child. It’s a girl. Back to the danger at hand, Wei Duo informs Lady Xu (Wei Shao’s grandmother) that he, General Wei Xiao, and General Qiao Ci are struggling to guard three city gates against the strength of Xue Tai’s troops. They are in desperate need of a capable commander to coordinate the battle. Wei Yan comes to Wei’s aid and he brings along his most loyal Bianzhou soldiers. With Wei Yan as commander and him fighting alongside them, Xue Tai is defeated. The enemy soldiers run. Yujun is no longer under siege.

Wei Shao and his troops make it into Panyi. Awaiting Wei Shao is Bi Zhi. Bi Zhi has to fight and kill Wei Shao so Xiaoda, who is held captive, isn’t harmed. However, Xiaoda sees Bi Zhi’s love for her being used to force him into this fight with Wei Shao. She can’t bare to see him die for her. As Bi Zhi brings Wei Shao to the ground and has his spear pointed at him, Xiaoda stops Bi Zhi from continuing the fight. She tells Bi Zhi he is her lover not some beast for people to control.

After Xiaoda tells Bi Zhi that if he comes to think about today in the future he must remember she never regrets it, she jumps to her death.

Xiaoda gone, Bi Zhi no longer has to fight Wei Shao. The end for Liu Yan comes. Both Bi Zhi and Wei Shao take down all Liangya soldiers blocking their way to both jointly kill Liu Yan. Liu Yan’s last words before he dies expresses breaking his promise to Lady Yulou.

Lady Yulou, however, has died after the defeat outside Yujun. She killed herself after she realised she had gotten herself to this point. She realised this after she killed the Liangya soldier Liu Yan had arranged to keep her safe in the event of a defeat. Lady Yulou killed him because he saw her disfigured face, seemingly fearing this would be revealed to Liu Yan. However, before this Liangya soldier died, he told her Liu Yan had already known her face was disfigured. This brought her to be see she hadn’t been dealt a bad fate, but it’s that she didn’t see the love and care around her.

The drama concludes with showing Wei Shao’s wish for peace and prosperity across the land realised, the land is united and all states see Wei Shao as the ruler of the land.

The final section of The Prisoner of Beauty was a bit heavy with killings and deaths. A bit too graphic with Xiaoda’s death also. Wei Liang’s dead body behind Wei Qu’s back was a bit disturbing and there’s also Wei Qu without an arm because it got cut off by an enemy’s sword.

We were hoping that we wouldn’t see any of the good characters die by the time we got to the end of the drama, but we see it wasn’t going to happen. We weren’t too sad when Xiaoda died even though it was sad to see Bi Zhi alone without the person he loves so much. That last episode, we did come around to understanding why Xiaoda didn’t help Xiaoqiao when both Wei and Yanzhou was in trouble. She is truly against using love to put her loved one through danger in order to save her or her family. So much so, she chooses to sacrifice herself so that her loved one didn’t die because of her.

We didn’t think the four Wei generals would become three by the end of the drama. We were very unhappy he had to be sacrificed. However, the drama did foreshadow Wei Liang’s death, so we were prepared to see the character get killed before it happened. The scene where Wei Liang was waving goodbye to Wei Qu, Wei Xiao, Wei Duo, and Xiaotao, it was a far shot of him on his horse by the city gate and it slowed down in speed. That scene indicated to us that Wei Liang will not return. We saw it to tell us it will be the last time Xiaotao and his friends will see him alive again.

We particularly loved Wei Yan’s return at the end. We could feel the huge relief in everyone when he walked in at the time they needed someone who had the ability to lead the soldiers. Wei Yan has to be the most interesting character in the drama for us. We like the character development for Wei Yan. He went from some who likes fun and without responsibilities to someone who’s reliable, capable, heroic, and he comes to govern a state just like Wei Shao. Wei Yan and Wei Shao are awesome! Love their brotherly love and interactions.