Lu Qiba is a bit offended that Chu Yu’s gone over to entertain Wei Yun because a moment ago, she told him she was entertaining him. Seeing Wei Yun frozen in place, not accepting the drink Chu Yu poured for him, Lu Qiba suggests she return to him because Wei Yun doesn’t know how to pamper people like he does.
To Lu Qiba, Wei Yun’s frown and lack of movement to accept the drink Chu Yu poured for him is him refusing to be entertained. But there’s actually a conversation between them through their gazes. Wei Yun’s furrowed brows and the slight shake of his head show he is wondering what Chu Yu was doing at the Fragrance House. Chu Yu’s smile and her gaze that drops to the cup before returning to his are gesturing for him to accept the drink she poured for him.
Wei Yun accepts the cup before his free hand whips over to place it on top of Chu Yu’s. Lu Qiba had risen to his feet and was moving to bring Chu Yu back to his side. It gives Lu Qiba the impression that Wei Yun was finally tempted by this particular courtesan and likes this kind of woman.
Under a different situation, he’s onto something. But in this situation, Wei Yun’s just trying to figure out what Chu Yu’s motive is. As Chu Yu maintains her courtesan act, Wei Yun’s eyes are trained on her, as if willing her to break her composure and reveal her motives.
Chu Yu performs well—that is, until Wei Yun demands a clear answer from Lu Qiba about the kind of guests he hosts. Lu Qiba reiterates the requirement of getting into the Arsenal Bureau for any of his questions to be answered. It sees Chu Yu lose focus on refilling Wei Yun’s cup and subsequently sees Wei Yun pick up her interest in this particular response.
Wei Yun has her know he’s caught onto this loss of focus by pulling her in and telling her to continue serving the liquor. He’s suspicious of her, but he doesn’t move to prevent Chu Yu from hearing how he can succeed in getting into the Arsenal Bureau.
As Lu Qiba gets up to take his leave for the second time, Wei Yun throws a metal pin that flies across the room to stop him. Wei Yun is yet to hear when he can enter the Arsenal Bureau. Lu Qiba tells him he must get his title, earn the tally, and enter as the Marquis; otherwise, he’ll make sure he’ll never walk out again. Lu Qiba is free to leave after this.
Chu Yu gets up to leave, but Wei Yun pulls her back. It’s not for interrogating her about her motives—not specifically. He had asked why she was at Fragrance House, and when she explained it was to help him, he didn’t reject the answer. He just scolds her for showing up at such a place and forgetting that she’s the eldest madam/wife of the Wei family.
The point about her being the eldest wife of the Wei family—this looks like a point for him to remember, not just for her. Before saying this point, Wei Yun seemed to have finally noticed the red courtesan outfit Chu Yu was wearing. His gaze lingered on her appearance for a short time before he slid it away as smoothly as he could.
Chu Yu’s courtesan appearance caused Wei Yun to struggle to continue in his original manner, as his gaze fought between remaining respectful and not looking directly at Chu Yu and wanting to keep a direct gaze at her like before.
The sharpness in the way he regards her falls off quite a bit on their way back to the Marquis of Zhenguo’s Mansion. Wei Yun doesn’t reject the divorce letter Chu Yu hands back to him when she tells him she was just borrowing the letter (meaning she never intended to leave the Wei household for real when she took it). Had Chu Yu not moved to ask about whether Li Qiba really was the master of arms, Wei Yun would have let it be the end of the matter, but she did, and so Wei Yun makes another attempt to ask whether Chu Yu’s reason for showing up at Fragrance House was really to help him out. Her answer remained the same—she was there to help him because it was his first time at such a place and she was worried he couldn’t manage the situation alone. Like that, Wei Yun lets her response stand without further questioning.
Wei Yun is still suspicious of Chu Yu, but his attraction to her is becoming more apparent. A stuck hair ornament sees Wei Yun being pulled into the carriage where Chu Yu had tried but failed to remove the hair ornament on her own. As he is made to help her remove the hair ornament, he flashes back on when he caught onto Chu Yu’s red courtesan dress and on the time he saw her perform that sword dance on top of the roof in a red dress (Episode 1).
He avoided admitting it to Wei Jun back then when he asked Wei Yun whether he thought Chu Yu was beautiful in Episode 2, but it’s all looking to be true and a hard-to-deny fact. When he finally removes the hair ornament, Wei Yun is seen rushing out and trying to mentally rid himself of the images of her from his mind. When they finally arrive home, Jiang Chun (who greets them at the gate) comments on the fact that Wei Yun was sweating (from feeling hot). It’s possibly causing Wei Yun quite a bit of conflict within and is behind the softening in the way he dealt with her since their meeting at Fragrance House.
Lu Qiba’s starting his investigation on the octagonal crossbow trigger that Wei Yun left with him and has the Arsenal Bureau Director Wei Tongfeng bring in the schematics. He is curious and interested in the origins of the trigger as well as whether they’re to take orders from Wei Yun when he inherits the title.
The interest comes off pretty standard, but like Wei Yun says, right now, everyone in the Arsenal Bureau is a suspect and must prove they’re clean.
Lu Qiba answers Wei Tongfeng straightforwardly and without suspicion. He tells him that the trigger came from Wei Yun.
As for whether the Arsenal Bureau will be taking orders from Wei Yun, that depends on Wei Yun not getting impeached from promotion because rumours are already spreading on the streets about Wei Yun’s visit to Fragrance House. Things such as Wei Yun going to the brothel every night for pleasure, spending a fortune on dancers and getting into fights are now circulating the streets. Doubts about Wei Yun’s ability to wield a weapon, let alone go onto the battlefield, are amongst the talk from the people.
The rumours get to Xie Yun’s ears while doing some shopping with Chu Jin. Xie Yun doesn’t seem to believe the rumours—wondering if there was some kind of misunderstanding and thinking maybe it’s just that people don’t want peace for the Chu and Wei families. But rumours are circulating, and despite declaring to sever ties with Chu Yu because of her insistence on going to Wei Yun and pleading for his release when he was imprisoned, she worries about Chu Yu.
Even before the incident with the Wei family, her relationship with Chu Yu hadn’t been close because of Chu Yu being away at the border with her father and brother. But the thought of Chu Yu suffering living at the Wei household with these rumours going around has Xie Yun wondering whether she should go to the Wei household and bring Chu Yu back home.
But Chu Jin has her see that there’s no use going. Her thought is that since Wei Yun being in prison didn’t have her return, this matter won’t have her return either.
At the Marquis of Zhenguo’s Mansion, Jiang Chun refutes the rumours in front of her sisters-in-law, as she has personally seen Wei Yun return home with Chu Yu. She can’t see it being remotely true. But then Wei Yun himself corrects her, telling her it wasn’t totally baseless since many of the rumours sort of described the events that happened. He did go there. He did get into a fight with Lu Qiba. He also has a “dancer” entertaining him—Chu Yu.
The sisters-in-law tried explaining it to themselves, coming up with him being in the prime of his youth and then being tricked. Because of Wei Yun’s demand to see Lu Qiba, the rumour seemed to have spread that he liked him, which Jiang Chun seemed to have mistaken for a dancer he paid for, not knowing Lu Qiba is a man. That had Wei Yun jump in to explain it was all a misunderstanding.
The move from Lu Qiba is not missed by Wei Yun and Chu Yu. They immediately see Wei Yun has been set up to prevent him from inheriting the title. An investiture ceremony had been organised, but with possible problems with the inheritance of the title, Chu Yu suggests it be changed to a “Thanksgiving banquet”. The idea gets approval from Wei Yun.
Back in their own rooms, Chu Yu seems a bit more worried about Wei Yun not inheriting the title than Wei Yun is. To her, Wei Yun came off as not one bit worried about it.
She’s not entirely wrong. Wei Yun’s not so much worried about losing his title and affecting his reputation but losing to Lu Qiba—that’s what has him pondering hard—because he believes reputation should be earned. He wants to rise to the challenge and solve it himself so that he is worthy of entering the Arsenal Bureau.
Wei Qiu suggests asking Li Changming or Grand Tutor Xie to speak on their behalf, but Wei Yun rejects the idea. The rumours started because he visited a brothel. It was unsuitable to bring the issue before them. Song Wenchang is who Wei Yun ends up thinking about seeking help from.
Chu Yu pays a visit to Wei Yun’s place with a Thanksgiving Banquet invitation in hand, which she wrote herself, for him to review. The handwriting style gives Wei Yun a bit of a shock. It’s not shown how bad it was exactly, but all Wei Yun could say was that it didn’t have the same commanding air as her father’s.
Chu Yu is not embarrassed about it. She’s not a book person, she says. She’s more comfortable with spears and swords and was never taught to write well. Her father never made her practice calligraphy either, as he’s the kind of father who lets her do whatever she likes. Her happiness comes first.
Wei Yun ends up writing the invitation himself. As he hands it back to Chu Yu, his fingers touch hers, causing his feelings to rise again, and again a troubled expression to cross his face.
He is still calm enough to become suspicious again when Chu Yu tells him to let her know his plans so she can offer her help. With Chu Yu now the First Madam of the Wei family, he can’t think of a reason why she’d care so much about him inheriting the title. It doesn’t affect her whatsoever.
Chu Yu replies that her status will elevate. Wei Yun appears to back off, but his frown shows he’s not entirely convinced and could easily come back with more questions. But luckily, there’s no opportunity for him to do that when her puppy, which she found wandering around the night before, comes interrupting the two.
Xiao Qi’s entrance has Wei Yun immediately seek higher ground, revealing his fear of dogs. Wei Yun’s unimpressed to learn that she’s named him seemingly after him, thinking she did that on purpose. (Wei Yun is the seventh son/brother, often referred to as Qi Lang by family members. The puppy is “little seven” in English.) Chu Yu keeps playing with him, telling Wei Yun that she tried lots of names, but the puppy only liked the name Xiao Qi.
Chu Yu visits Li Changming to invite her to the Thanksgiving Banquet. As a gift, she brings a small box of playing cards with handsome men on them, which pleases Li Changming. Chu Yu doesn’t bring up the rumours about Wei Yun and the impact it could have on him inheriting his title, but she didn’t need to. Xue Hanmei reveals later that Li Changming is aware of the situation. It’s also revealed that Li Changming knows that the Thanksgiving Banquet is actually the investiture banquet.
Whether she will accept the invitation and go is yet to be decided. This depends on how Chu Yu will use Lu Changming’s silk bundle (a token), which Xue Hanmei passes onto her as she was leaving. She will watch how Chu Yu uses this silk bundle before she will decide whether she will attend the banquet.
Gu Chusheng has successfully been promoted to the Minister of Judicial Review. Under this new role, he reveals his intention to reopen the Lord of Qin treason case. To do this, he still needs help from Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review Song Shilan (Ding Jiawen). However, there’s a concern over some resentment Song Shilan might have because Gu Chusheng rose to his position through connections, while Song Shilan rose through his own efforts and merits.
When Song Shilan arrives to meet Gu Chusheng, Song Shilan congratulates Gu Chusheng on his promotion, but he doesn’t wait for him to drink the congratulatory tea. It’s taken as a sign of refusing to show respect.
Song Shilan has no such resentment—as the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review reveals later—but believing otherwise, Gu Chusheng moves to explain that he actually doesn’t care for such titles or such positions. The reason why he had the desire to become the Minister of Judicial Review is because of the Lord of Qin treason case and wanting to know the truth. He tells Song Shilan that the case is crucial for the Gu family and that once the truth is clear, he will voluntarily resign before the Emperor.
Here, Song Shilan shows that Gu Chusheng had overthought. Song Shilan reveals that he actually understood Gu Chusheng’s actions. He sees how Gu Chusheng and his whole family had suffered—Gu Chusheng’s parents died while Gu Chusheng was exiled to the south-west—and also the fact that he didn’t marry into a wealthy family for gain. He understands that for him to access the Lord of Qin case files, he and Gu Chusheng must retrieve them in person, which Song Shilan assures Gu Chusheng he will help him access.
Speaking a little about the case, Gu Chusheng believes the Lord of Qin did not betray Great Sui with Princess Yunyang (Zhan Xiaonan) as the case ruled. He doesn’t expand on why he believes this, though.
With that, Gu Chusheng’s motives are revealed. We were led to believe that he was after power and status, but just like how Chu Yu entered the Marquis of Zhenguo’s Mansion to investigate the octagonal crossbow to find out the truth for her family, Gu Chusheng was doing this so he could reach a position where he could look into the Lord of Qin’s treason case.
Below Spring Breeze House, where Song Shilan and Gu Chusheng had their meeting, Song Wenchang is seen dragging Wei Yun towards Yuelai Inn. The sight draws their attention to the invitation to the Wei family’s Thanksgiving Banquet, which they all received and have yet to make a decision on whether to attend or not.
Wei Yun had sought Song Wenchang to have him lead him to the Crown Prince. It confuses him when Song Wenchang has him stop outside an inn. But this Crown Prince is at the inn. “Are you closer to the Crown Prince, or am I? If I say he’s here, he’s here,” Song Wenchang says. Wei Yun seems unconvinced, as he doesn’t appear to make a move when Song Wenchang tells him to follow him. Only when Chu Yu shows up and responds to Wei Yun about her reasons for appearing at the same location does he realise Song Wenchang did lead him to the Crown Prince. “The Eldest Princess told me to come,” Chu Yu tells Wei Yun.
They all make a move inside. Wei Yun is hoping to get his support, and Chu Yu is looking to complete a task relating to the exact reason the Crown Prince is at Yuelai Inn.
