...hmmm that's a good theory, I didn't think about that. I knew how the people were acting but that's a great way of thinking. Since it's not like the novel in all aspects but that makes total sense.

Plague or I think, rabies. We see later that Ye Li carried a big bite scar on her arm. Had her wound quickly been cauterized to stop the deadly viral infection by the bite (not a fool proof method at the time, before Pasteur invented the method of series of injections using attenuated rabies virus from infected rabbit spinal cords), or was she fortunate that the monkey that bit her was not a rabies carrier?

The masked (disciples or guards) told young Ye Li that Master healer He Lai was treating those inside the stockade. The mist or smoke could be because the soldiers down the mountain were aware of the threat of disease and had started burning the mountain to eliminate the monkeys and perhaps cover up their crime. Everybody did not die since senior brother Wei Zhuang escaped, even if his leg was badly injured, and got back to his family in the city. Ye Li went to spill a cup in memory of the "7 martyrs of Lishan" together with Li Feibai who had stayed in the Ye family for "3 years" "for her". Was the murderous fire 3 years before she got back to the city? Ye Li punished Lu Changfu by fire in retaliation for his killing of Lishan disciples by fire.

There were no monkeys when Ye Li reached the guards at the foot of the mountain and asked for money to travel to the city where she was to be be wed. If they were still guarding access to or from the mountain, it may be because a few people did remain in the ruined and isolated Academy. But Qingshuang who went on board the cart before her was probably already dead: at the gates of Ding mansion, nothing was served for her and she "went away" before Ye Li somehow traveled back to the Ye Li family where she was treated for illness for some time before she could prepare for the wedding.

I was puzzled about the white dove (which she brought in a cage from Lishan) and the grain spilled on the ground for it in ep.1. Doves can carry messages so was that the means she had to communicate with the possible remaining people on Lishan? Were carrier pigeons the way Ye Li got her pass to escape the mountain through marriage imperial order? Her fellow disciple He Minghui was supposed to have stayed and to have asked her to cut down the tree in his father's courtyard ; the father asked her to send a message to his son, but Ye Li just put the letter in a box already filled with letters, and closed it. Was He Minghui really alive or did Ye Li also have a trauma of having witnessed his violent death?

There are still a lot of questions hanging after a dozen episodes. What is sure is that the script veers drastically away from the novel, so we can only guess at what is afoot.

It cannot be rabies. It will not make sense that the Soldiers stationed near the forest are perfectly healthy and fine, if it was rabies, then the infected one goes completely mad, they would have come down the mountain, roamed around and even bit those soldiers. So the people in that palace would have also come to know about it. It has to be something else, may be some other cause and she ran away, since she was lonely and in hiding in that mountain, some aggressive monkeys might have attacked her if she had something with her to eat.

YCC:

I think someone had mentioned that "There were no monkeys in Lishan"

That may be because they were eliminated? Whatever bit Ye Li, she did have a pathological terror regarding monkeys, that need to have had a cause. Reading horror stories or watching horror flicks was probably not her thing although classic Chinese ghost stories can be ... something 🤣 There's a feel of hidden horror in that drama ! But she does seem untrustworthy about some of her statements, and to be unaware that she is seeing ghosts or illusions.

autumnfilm:

It cannot be rabies. It will not make sense that the Soldiers stationed near the forest are perfectly healthy and fine, if it was rabies, then the infected one goes completely mad, they would have come down the mountain, roamed around and even bit those soldiers. So the people in that palace would have also come to know about it. It has to be something else, may be some other cause and she ran away, since she was lonely and in hiding in that mountain, some aggressive monkeys might have attacked her if she had something with her to eat.

I still hold with rabies. The event in the drama happened at least three years before Ye Li came out of the mountain, so drastic measures to eliminate the monkeys had time to be implemented. There were several layers of confinement with armed forces down the mountain and the stockade (or more) up near the academy. Scorch-burning part of the forest would have driven the animals to pockets where they could be shot or trapped to death. Rabies would probably not have affected all monkeys but recognizing the threat through encountering a few infected animals would have triggered the highest alert in the "protection" ordered by the Dowager, even without needing to inform her.

The monkey which bit Ye Li might only have been scared or driven by hunger, but that does not mean other monkeys were not sick and deadly disease carriers, of a terror and nightmare inspiring disease. Btw rabies infected animals might have been roaming in the countryside and for that matter, Ye Li's mother might also have been infected: "on her way back to Lishan", she was taken in sick at the Zhengyi temple but died anyway . Rabies once infecting is 100% lethal, "death typically occurring within 2 to 10 days of symptom onset." "Most patients die within 5.7 days for furious rabies and 11 days for paralytic rabies after symptoms begin." Same for animals.

Rabies was and still is a threat. Good to be warned : "Monkeys in China are recognized vectors for rabies, particularly in tourist areas like Zhangjiajie National Park, though dogs remain the primary source of human transmission (accounting for 95-99% of cases). While monkey-to-human rabies transmission is less common than dog-bite transmission, the risk is non-zero, and monkeys can be aggressive and carry the virus even before showing clinical signs.

Prevention and Response Protocols:

• Avoidance: Travelers are strongly advised to avoid all physical contact with monkeys, including feeding, touching, or approaching them.

• Post-Exposure: Any bite, scratch, or saliva contact with broken skin/mucous membranes requires immediate medical attention.

• Treatment: China follows the Essen regimen (5 doses over 28 days) for post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). Foreigners can access vaccines at designated community health centers or hospitals by presenting a passport and incident report; these are often subsidized and do not require appointments.

• Current Trends: Rabies remains a public health concern in China, with 233 deaths reported in 2025, highlighting the continued necessity for vigilance and vaccination compliance." (AI answer to query)

In fact, rabies is a threat that still exists on most continents (except Antarctica and perhaps Australia and New Zealand) "The disease is enzootic in over 150 countries globally, with the vast majority of human deaths occurring in Asia and Africa." In China, being scratched or bitten by a domestic dog or a cat anywhere most often leads to get the rabies vaccine shots, just to be safe, as reported in several posts on social media.

Last year 2025, a tourist was bitten by a monkey in Zhangjiajie and detailed on social media the procedure even though the skin did not get broken thanks to a double layer of clothes. Other cases chimed in.

Wow! What an intense research. You might be right But I still feel, the monkeys are just her way of seeing the trauma. After loosing everyone around her, may be she sees monkeys as the threat while it might be something else, I had seen a Rabies patient once, They are in a very scary state, their mind is not functional, they might start biting others and infecting virus and they have their mouths foaming. It takes 1-3 weeks for the virus to reach the brain and this is the worst way for someone to die. I feel, that empress consort has something to do with what has happened in the mountain, she might have instigated it, as she wanted them to leave the mountain, that's the only way she can make the empress ascend the throne. I do remember in that scene in the mountain those men who took Ye li said "Don't give in to them", so they know what is happening in the mountain has something to do with people from the palace