ep 7 spoilers ahead

spoilers ahead
many more subplots are planted
7/81!

1.Zhang Yi drinks wine with Yue Ying. She essentially criticizes him because he would rather drink wine than make love. Next she steps behind a screen (cleverly placed to blur out her body but you can see her naked back) and then she approaches him. He throws her on a bed (I think I actually saw the side of her breast--this is a big deal because China, you know, censors everything) and proceeds to kiss her, but stops. He tells her that her virginity (basically) should not be wasted on him because she has greater uses. We learn that he has been teaching her everything she might night need to seduce someone for years, ever since he saved her life. She is both devoted to him and in love with him. He tells her that when he rules the world she will be his wife, but that she must be patient (I cannot tell if he loves her or is pretending to love her)

2.Elsewhere, Princess Yin is visited by Lan'er (the little prince) and his mother. He apologizes and is visibly trembling, and his mother wants him to kneel for the entire night. Yin insists he did not know better and accepts the apology and also promises to not tell the king. Lan'er's mother delivers medicine (I am certain that this violates harem rules) and then leaves.

3.Meanwhile, the other prince who was with Lan'er reports to his mother, the queen, what happened to Consort Yin. Because she is the king's current favorite, she immediately reports this to him (Oh snap!). Both the Queen and King visit Consort Yin just as she begins to not feel well. Her attendant, Yun Niang, rushes for help and runs into the king and queen. With no choice, she reveals what happened (Yin is not conscious). Enraged, the emperor goes to find his son....

4.The king finds Lan'er dining with his mother (it makes him look bad) and he is immediately held down and brutally beaten. His mother learns that the king was told what happened (translation: it appears like Princess Yin broke her promise). Only when the queen intervenes does he stop. Lan'er's mother swears vengeance and to deliver double the pain to Princess Yin's child....(the plot thickens...)(I kind of don't blame her because her entire existence is wrapped around the survival of her child, and it was just threatened...)

5.Back in Qin, the king is walking with his brother and observes his favorite consort with their son. She is telling her son that he should hate Chue, even though she is from Chue. She explains that she was just a little girl when Xiong Xiang (?) and Xue Hui betrayed her with a hunting trip, knocked her out, and sent her here (they promised to never use her for political gain). She is extremely resentful because of this. She tells her child to never forget what the state of Chue did to her (more plot thickening...) The King Qin refers to her as his beloved in this scene, so she is important to him...

6.Master Liu continues to extort the fisherman. He is stopped by officers from the magistrate, who arrested him, earning applause from the crowd. He is imprisoned, although Liu insists he is innocent because this is the way things have always been done. Yuan'er institutes a new edict: no beating of fishermen at will. The people are happy.

7.Yuan'er continues to find reasons to visit Chou Nu. He brings building supplies to repair their home (he better not be using state funds that would be embezzlement). Here she tells him another person will fill Liu's place--does he think he can get them all (exactly what he told the emperor). But Yuan'er seems to think he can (hypocrite!). Later. he follows her to do laundry, and catches her when she slips, and when he realizes he his holding her tightly he pushes her away, into the water(I'll admit I found his behavior annoying at first but wonder if this is supposed to represent not just inexperience, but maybe that he is unique from men of his time who essentially sleep with dozens of women from a very early age--that he is that much more reliable as a guy who won't easily sleep around?)

8.She maintains her cool reserve but when she is changing her clothes she actually smiles. I think she likes him.

9.Yuan'er invites the local lords over and has them all eat gross fish soup. They spit out and insist it is not fit for consumption. He brings Liu in who eats it because he has been starving. He explains that the fisherman have even less than this, and explains that this is basically wrong. He pressures the lords until they consent to sign an edict that would require them to share the fish more fairly. He is not making any friends here. After, Lord Cheng, Jing, and Liu meet up. They want to take him down, but Lord Jing insists it is too soon to act....(and the plot thickens even more)

10.Meanwhile, Lord Zhao visits another Lord and they discuss the families with power: Zhao, Jing, and Qu. They also conclude that Yuan'er must be a rising star because he is respected by the emperor, intelligent, and was recently made a magistrate (I wonder if Lord Zhao will plot to bring him down or form an alliance...)

11.Princess Yin, it seems, has a correspondence with Zhang Yi, who decides now is the time to act. He summons Yue Ying and basically tells her to get ready, because he is sending her to Chue. This upsets her greatly, but she loves him and will do it. Zhang Li presents his plan to emperor Chue: to use Yue Ying to get at the King of Chue, since he enjoys playing with beautiful women and he is supposed to be looking for beautiful women for his harem. (I feel bad for her....)


Many more seeds were planted. I still want to learn more about Chou Nu who we still know very little about. I rated the show like I did because 1)I thought it was a clever use of a screen to get around censorship 2)I like that many plots are being planted and 3)I look forward to seeing Yuan'er bite into the cruelty of reality. I did not rate it higher because I felt that while the show maintained my interest, nothing really unique has happened yet. Plot hasn't been advanced very much yet. And a couple of things seemed odd (like Yin standing on the stool) and no one addressed the fact that medicine was delivered to Yin.

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