Rulan Shines & Gu Ting Ye Proposes to Ming Lan

Spoilers Ahead

1)Big Madame is baffled. She understands her daughter is stubborn, but her adamant refusal to marry GTY even after she is confined to her room, allowed only the most simple of food, and essentially living with Ming Lan who tries to persuade her--it utterly baffles Big Madame. Her daughter has never been this resistant.

2)When Big Madame learns that the emperor himself has blessed--and thereby decreed--a marriage between GTY and the house of Sheng, she rushes to tell her daughter. Surprisingly, Rulan comes up with a number of suggestions including a 'fake' marriage with the scholar she likes (though her mother is unaware). These suggestions fall flat, and Rulan is faced with the very real reality that she will be forced to marry GTY. Her mother's reassurances that she will have fortune and a title do nothing to comfort her as she sobs.

3)Later, Big Madame confides to her personal maid what we, the viewers, know: witnessing the awful spectacle of Concubine Lin and her daughter, including the scandalous plot they constructed, succeed without a hitch infuriated her--how come that woman always gets what she wants, how come Big Madame must suffer? Finally she feels as if her luck has turned. She is happy with this marriage, even if the Gu family situation is difficult (shortsighted...)

4)Elsewhere, a deadened Rulan sits (I think a lot of us have experienced this kind of love hurt//I empathized with her) as Ming Lan tries in vain to cheer her up. Ming Lan attempts to appeal to the things she has always known about Rulan: she should be happy, because her mother will be happy, she will have a great life style, GTY could choose to be a scholar some day, and she will surpass Molan in status and fortune. These gains mean nothing to Rulan, who directly tells Ming Lan that she does not understand because she (essentially) has never been in love before. (I think that her love for Yuan Ruo never had time to blossom into something all consuming because it didn't change her). Ming Lan tries to impart her own advice of always looking forward, but again, logic does not work with love.

5)Not long after, perhaps the next day, GTY and Eldest brother sheng are walking together, when they overhear a woman sobbing and apologizing to a stranger that they cannot be together in this life. When he hears the Sheng name dropped he runs over, and both men are astounded to see Rulan alone and weeping with Weiming--Eldest Brother loses it and begins yelling at her--GTY follows him.

6)At home, Master Sheng is furious. He wants to kill her, and her maid is beaten awfully, so badly in fact that Rulan jumps on her to protect her from the caning and gets caned herself. Old Madame receives updates from her new grandaughter-in-law and learns that Rulan truly went to say her goodbyes. This was just the worst luck. Worse, because of the complicated situatioin with the Gu family and him being so powerful, Old Madame cannot fix this matter.

7)Unable to do anything, later the Master and Madame visit Old Madame and ask that Ming Lan be the one to marry GTY since they never officially announced which daughter he was to wed. This sends Old Madame into a furious fit. She smashes cups. She vents her fiery on these two who only ever come to her when they have a problem and only care about Ming Lan when she is useful to cleaning up a mess. She adamantly refuses, even though she does not have a plan to fix it.

8)Meanwhile, Yuan Ruo passes his Civil Exam. After telling his mother the good news he asks if she will go the Sheng family and formerly request that Ming Lan be allowed to marry him, and she agrees.

9)Ming Lan visits her sister Hu'er, who leaves suddenly. While gone, GTY arrives and all the pieces click together for her. She is clearly angry with him, and he tells her that they will be married soon. She yells at him, and he laughs and says he knows she is angry, but he had no other choice but to cast this big net--he could not ask directly because her grandmother would have rejected him, and once that happened, her father would not try to persuade her. Also, it would have upset Big Madame. So he began to plot. He knew that while a good man the He man was not for her, he found out about the Cao cousin and brought the two of them together, and when he learned that Rulan was in love with another, he was so happy he couldn't sleep. He then tells her that he decided to marry her the same night he saved her from the river and she told him to stop wandering and settle down for his daughter's sake. Ming Lan is left speechless and storms off angry.

10)The episode ends with Princess Pingning learning of the marriage between GTY and Ming Lan (hence she does not ask for her hand in marriage because it is too late, nothing can be done)....poor Yuan Ruo.....he missed his boat......

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