Gu Chusheng manages to calm Wang Jingzhi’s anger for not stepping in to take out the Wei family then and there in court. He explains that the Wei clan may be on the decline, but they are century-old nobles and expects that they would hold hidden cards to save themselves. They won’t fall so easily. He suggests demonstrating patience in taking down the Wei family—after all, only Wei Yun remains now. Gu Chusheng also adds that the private meeting, which the emperor had apparently had with Wang Jingzhi after defending Wei Yun, is an act which proves Gu Chusheng’s point about needing to strike without being too hasty.
This explanation satisfies Wang Jingzhi so much that he lets Gu Chusheng know that he’ll be going to Emperor Chunde to discuss Gu Chusheng training for the now vacant position of Minister of Judicial Review, which Cao Yan previously held. The recommendation pleases Gu Chusheng. It makes him come off as being after power and status, as Wang Jingzhi reveals that this position is the one he’s been eyeing. However, if this was his actual goal (as mentioned in our Episode 5 recap), Li Changming’s offer of becoming her follower should be an attractive offer, but it wasn’t. Gu Chusheng has a hidden motive, and it has to do with getting access to the justice department.
At the Marquis of Zhenguo’s Mansion, Wei Yun has shut himself into his room since returning, attempting to fill the void in his heart with some swords practice. Memories of moments where he and his family were supposed to live a long life together play through his mind.
He recalls drawing his father a picture of a turtle and teasing his father about living a long, turtle-like life. It gets Wei Yun a playful hit from his father for the comparison. He recalls Wei Jun looking over him as he watched him practise calligraphy, telling him that handwriting reflects character and that they should still practise their script despite being warriors and not scholars. He recalls his mother’s wish for the year of wanting them all to spend more time together.
He recalls telling Wei Rong that he’ll protect his child when he comes into the world—to which Wei Rong asks why he would need to do such a thing, not ever thinking that such a future where Wei Yun might need to would come so soon.
Wei Yun replays the moment on the battlefield where Wei Jun took the arrows for him, followed by a memory of Wei Jun teaching him how to hold a bow. He recalls cheerfully calling his father “General” before heading out to the border. He recalls being surrounded by all his brothers, lifted, and thrown into the air to congratulate him on taking out the most enemies during a campaign. They were all gone, no longer by his side to teach him, guide him, or go out to battle with him.
Wei Yun flops down on the steps, stopping his swords practice. Tears flow as he expresses missing his parents and brothers.
Jiang Chun sees Chu Yu to see if she could come up with a way to help Wei Yun find a way out of the block in his heart. Since Chu Yu had helped her find her way out when she was struggling to live on, Jiang Chun figured Chu Yu could help Wei Yun, too.
Chu Yu comes up with getting Wei Yun’s niece and nephew to go in there before Chu Yu and the sisters-in-laws follow. Chu Yu gives Wei Yun a few frank words, telling him that his life used to be calm because his father and brothers shielded him. But he’s now the sole pillar of the Wei family. He needs to hold up the sky, protect all who live under this house of theirs and restore its honour. As well as this, Chu Yu tells Wei Yun he needs to find out the truth behind what happened in Baidi Valley. He needs to take out the North Qi soldiers so that the fallen 70,000 don’t lay to rest in vain.
Wei Yun hears her. He moves to free the sisters-in-law from the Wei family. Just before he was woken by his niece and nephew, his brothers came to him in a dream, telling him to let them go. It’s frightening for a woman to live her whole life in the Wei Mansion, living as a widow, the brothers in his dream say.
Divorce papers are placed by the sisters-in-law’s seats to take. Wei Yun has them know that the divorce papers are given on behalf of his brothers, but he still regards them as his family. Chu Yu adds that there’s no rush to pack and that if they choose not to leave or change their mind later and want to return, the gate is always open for them to do that.
Seeing how they may not all be together like this very soon, Jiang Chun decides to reveal that the Marquis of Zhenguo title is in the process of being conferred to Wei Yun. Her brother works in the Ministry of Personnel, and this information was learned from him. Jiang Chun makes a suggestion to her sisters-in-law of staying together for at least a few more days to commemorate Wei Yun’s new rank—a suggestion which they agree on.
Chu Yu adds that the banquet that they plan to hold for the transfer of the title to Wei Yun is a good way to see who stands with them and who doesn’t as well.
The sisters-in-law take their leave, leaving Chu Yu behind. She takes her divorce and confronts Wei Yun about the deal they made—if she gets him out of prison, he lets her stay, yet he still tried to drive her away with the order of putting in a good word for Chu Linyang when he becomes Marquis. She warns him that since she has the ability to get him out of prison, she can send him back in there.
Wei Yun doesn’t pursue the matter. In fact, leaving her a divorce letter and offering to put in a good word for Chu Linyang appears to be a test to see if she’d take this bribe. If Chu Yu takes it and leaves, it would very likely mean she was staying out of righteousness. But if she doesn’t take it and leave, then it would mean she has a motive. Since it’s the latter case, Wei Yun instructs Wei Qiu to have people follow Chu Yu and report back daily about who she meets and what she does. He trusts that she’ll show her hands eventually.
Chu Yu’s plans to remain at the Wei family get interrupted when Gu Chusheng comes up with the idea of getting Chu Linyang impeached for his overly close ties with the Wei family. He had gone to Chu Jin (Zhou Jieqiong) to first find out if Chu Yu really loves Wei Jun, because he finds this sudden interest strange—or so he explains. He then tells Chu Jin that such alliances will make His Majesty wary because His Majesty dislikes the power of military families and to convince Chu Linyang to ally with the Duke of Ning’s family instead because, according to him, only when civil and military cooperate can great things can be achieved.
Chu Jin isn’t clueless about what he’s after. He wants to know the truth about Wei Jun and Chu Yu’s relationship. With her relationship with Chu Yu not being a good one, she’s provoked enough to give it. She tells him she doesn’t think it’s true love between her and Wei Jun—they’ve only met a few times—and that Chu Yu chasing Gu Chusheng to the south-west showed more devotion. Gu Chusheng subtly curls the corner of his lip upwards, happy to hear this. Chu Jin then runs off to the Marquis of Zhenguo’s Mansion, demanding she fix the situation with their brother. Otherwise, she’ll expose her intentions to the entire Huajing City and make Wei Yun drive her out so she’ll become homeless.
Chu Yu is left with no choice but to take the divorce paper that Wei Yun, again, suggests she take to resolve the issue. It was clear to him that Gu Chusheng’s target is not her brother, but the alliance between the Chu and Wei families by way of marriage to Wei Jun. If she takes the divorce letter and returns home, Gu Chusheng will then drop the impeachment.
The sisters-in-law also encourage her to take it, to “think about herself this time”, not knowing that it’s not because of loyalty to the Wei family that keeps her from leaving. They tell her that they will still be family and that she can’t possibly insist on staying. Otherwise, it’d be hard for her to face her mother after dragging the Chu family down.
So, Chu Yu goes to the Duke of Ning’s Mansion as Gu Chusheng wants and messes around with Wang Linlang, claiming to want to marry into their household. She tells Wang Linlang that if her brother loses his post, she has no choice but to be with him and become his concubine or his mistress. Either title is fine with her.
When Chu Yu mentions the vow she made with Gu Chusheng to be forever true and never part, he becomes caught in her gaze. When Chu Yu tempts him with the idea of divorcing Wang Linlang and marrying her, he is silent and looks as if he could seriously consider it.
Gu Chusheng still has her in his heart, and it was clear to Wang Linlang, causing her to panic and demand he explain the real reason for impeaching Chu Linyang. He doesn’t answer her, but when Wang Jingzhi asks, he says his intention was to make an example of Chu Linyang and intimidate the rest so Wei Yun doesn’t inherit his title so easily and keep the military’s growing power in check. With regards to the commotion Chu Yu caused, he puts it down to wanting to save Chu Linyang’s post.
Wang Jingzhi accepts the explanation and lets him off the hook. He appears more concerned about the potential shame Chu Yu could bring to the mansion if the impeachment stands. So, Wang Jingzhi orders Gu Chusheng to withdraw the impeachment. He tells Gu Chusheng that Chu Yu must remain the Wei family’s first madam, pouring cold water over any future thoughts he might have to bring her over to their mansion again.
Like that, Chu Yu cleverly handles Gu Chusheng’s attempt to force her out of the Wei family.
Leaving the Duke of Ning’s mansion, she catches Wei Qiu following her. He’s not very good at lying about the fact he’s been told to keep watch of her. Wei Yun’s whereabouts is easily found out from Wei Qiu because of that. Wei Qiu reveals that Wei Yun has gone to meet Lu Qiba (Li Huan), the Deputy Commander of the Arsenal Bureau and the one who designed the octagonal crossbow.
It’s not the Arsenal Bureau that Wei Yun is asked to meet Lu Qiba at, but the brothel Fragrance House. The meeting place is deliberately chosen to get Wei Yun seen and talked about by the public. Although it’s not clear at this point, this odd choice of meeting place is to make it more challenging for Wei Yun to inherit his title as the Commander of the Arsenal Bureau.
As soon as Wei Yun walked in, people started talking. They had low hopes for him and the rebuilding of the Wei clan. “He was just a naive boy who respected his father and brothers,” one says. “The glory of the Marquis’ manor ends here,” another says.
Wei Yun ignores it all. He’s greeted by the brothel madam, Madam Zhang, who Wei Yun doesn’t respond too well towards when asked which woman he was after. He wasn’t there for pleasure. He was there for business, so when she moved to touch him, he grips her wrist to stop her before telling her in an icy tone that he was looking for a man.
The scene had a serious tone until this response came from Wei Yun. It’s cliché humour, but it still made us laugh. It had the whole room fall silent. Dancers stopped dancing. The scene which had a threatening tone in the background track to accompany Wei Yun’s serious and intimidating presence, changed to a humorous tone. Madam Zhang, who looked to be threatened by Wei Yun, wasn’t too threatened in the end, as she tried to accommodate, wondering where she could find Wei Yun a man in this brothel.
Wei Yun names the exact man he’s after. He’s after Lu Qiba. The head madam immediately recognises the name and has no problems with fulfilling his request, suggesting that Lu Qiba was a frequent patron of Fragrance House.
Madam Zhang didn’t need to personally seek Lu Qiba for Wei Yun, as Lu Qiba soon appeared, descending from the ceiling to throw off an “aphrodisiac” bomb to deal with Wei Yun. It wasn’t actually an aphrodisiac. It was just some gaseous cloud that dispersed when Wei Yun pierced the secret tool (as Lu Qiba refers to it) with a small blade he threw, but it sure had Wei Yun alarmed.
Lu Qiba has all kinds of strange tools and weapons in his arsenal. He is the best weapons master of Great Sui.
Lu Qiba moves their meeting to a private room after Wei Yun’s patience with him runs out; however, there’s no move to discuss matters Wei Yun’s looking to discuss—that is, the matter relating to the octagonal crossbow.
Wei Yun was accommodating for a short while as Lu Qiba talked about random things like his charm, it being a burden being handsome, and how Wei Yun wouldn’t know what that’s like. It’s at this point Wei Yun loses his patience again. He slams his hand down onto the table to warn him, which has Lu Qiba jump in his seat.
There’s still no talk about the octagonal crossbow arrow, as a group of women make their way into the room and swarm around Wei Yun.
The entrance of the ladies revealed a flustered Wei Yun when they fawned over him. Then when he wanted them to leave them to their discussions, he used the most polite words with them and kept his head lowered, his gaze towards the floor (never looking into their eyes or at their bodies), and his hands clasped. He even worried about offending them for asking them to leave. This Wei Yun has a very gentlemanly and respectful side to him when around the brothel women.
How cute is Wei Yun? He can be so tough and intimidating around his enemies, but around the courtesans, he’s completely defeated. Haha.
The women all leave as requested, and finally the discussion moves to talking about the octagonal crossbow arrow. After determining that Lu Qiba and his brother were close and that Lu Qiba is the one who best understands the Great Sui weapons, Wei Yun straight out tells him that he believes the core trigger technique of the octagonal crossbow may have been leaked to North Qi.
Lu Qiba denies that it could have happened. The blueprints never led the Arsenal Bureau, and the crossbow was never used on the battlefield. It was only used once in a military drill.
Wei Yun proves to Lu Qiba that it was leaked. First, he describes the strong recoil where, of the ten parts force, the archer takes three parts injury, which Wei Yun says he personally witnessed on the battlefield. Then Wei Yun produces the trigger for Lu Qiba to see.
Lu Qiba examines it and admits it’s his design. Because it’s his design, and due to the fact that no one except him, Wei Jun, and a few top officers knew about it, Lu Qiba suddenly has this thought that maybe Wei Yun suspects him of having leaked the octagonal crossbow design to the North Qi.
Whether Wei Yun genuinely believes that to be the case or not, he tells Lu Qiba that until it’s been investigated, everyone in the Arsenal Bureau is a suspect. Lu Qiba gets up to leave, making Wei Yun demand he prove he’s clean.
Lu Qiba doesn’t appear to be the mole, as the fear over the possibility Lu Qiba is attempting to walk away with the evidence is held in front of Wei Yun for him to take back. Lu Qiba points out that if Wei Yun didn’t trust him, then he wouldn’t have played along with the way things went in the first place.
Lu Qiba was right. Wei Yun leaves the trigger in his possession and is forced to trust that Li Qiba will look into it. As for the result of the investigation, Wei Yun must catch up to Wei Jun’s abilities and get into the Arsenal Bureau.
Lu Qiba takes his leave. Wei Yun moves to chase after Lu Qiba, but the ladies he requested to leave him earlier prevents him. With him completely surrounded by the ladies and his gaze towards the floor again, he doesn’t notice Chu Yu’s presence. She joins the group of ladies a moment later after stopping Lu Qiba in the corridor and bringing him back to his seat. Only after Chu Yu had the ladies retreat, claiming Wei Yun as hers to serve that he was shocked to discover this courtesan before him was Chu Yu.
