nby:

YCC:

There is also a possibility that she bit herself, out of fear or out of desperation? I know this is kind of far-fetched.

This is it. If you go back and watch the very first scene of the series, a lot of the things can be explained. While she is running from what supposedly are monkeys, the way they are portrayed is like it is an illusion that she created in her head. Then she walks in a courtyard that is completely abandoned, so it is almost certain all of the other people there are dead, then she locks herself in a room and is shown biting her hand and imagining monkeys trying to break in.

You were right! Thanks for pointing it out! It didn't occur to me to rewatch. Since it was the first scene, I guess most of us was too busy trying to figure out what was going on, what was going to happen. Because it was featured as a dream, we tend to pay more attention to what happened when she woke up.

ReallyScary:

I think that she has been all alone for the last three years and there were tutors who taught her and she remembered them. Otherwise how did she learn to stich, sword fight, cook etc. Complete diverangce from the novels. So like a train wreck I cant look away. I keep watching every episode to see what happens.

I think she was not alone, although the drama may end up supporting such an implausible tale which would tax my strong suspension of disbelief just a bit too much.

She may have IMAGINED being alone and turned to imaginary helpers like her maid or master Zhu based on real people who may have died or left the mountain.

But actually living alone as a Robinson Crusoe up on a mountain through four seasons x3 (or 8?!!!) is not believable from a lone adolescent. Especially if she had no animal friend like Baloo or Bagheera to help and defend her against the villain monkeys, for her pulling a Mowgli ! (The idea that she feared monkeys because they symbolized deadly attackers is possible) . But being truly alone, she would have become totally socially unfit and raving crazy even after two seasons, or dead.

The guy who tried living alone "Into the Wild"(check that 2007 movie, based on true event) in Alaska ended up dead before winter started from mistaking a deadly plant although he had very much prepared his expedition over a few years. Only a few very lucky individuals survived alone in jungles after plane wrecks, but not for years. Here we are talking about a little girl of perhaps 13-15 who had only been living with maids and servants in a group with teachers and students before?

Yes, the story has now zilch to do with the novel, except retaining a few names. But up till now, despite the unkillable casualties, who pop up seemingly unscathed after dire knifings, the story is still watchable even if suspension of disbelief is needed. All thanks to Bai Lu and Cheng Lei's great chemistry in playing the married and loving pair of main characters.

Ye Li is trained in swords. That explains why she was able to survive on her own. She knows medicine and etc.

What exactly happened in the mountain?

ReallyScary:

For certain it involved moneys at one point!

Personally, I doubt any monkeys are involved, beyond the ones in Ye Li's dissociative hallucinations. Prince Li was very clear about there being no monkeys on Li mountain, and I doubt they would've been introduced after he left. I'm pretty sure the bite marks on her arms were self-inflicted traumas, nothing to do with actual monkeys (even if macaques are not to be taken lightly).

Not sure what to make of the scene in Ep 6 where a masked Ye Li is fleeing through the smoke toward the troops surrounding Li mountain and is restrained by (also masked) disciples -- one of whom says

"Li! You can't leave. Never compromise with them."

Sounds more like Ye Li wants to negotatiate with troops who are trying to burn the Lishan academy out of the (inaccesible) mountain, rather than escape a plague of rabid monkeys.

Anyway, I don't know what happened (only on Ep 25), but my bet is that humans are responsible, not imaginary monkeys.

By episode 32, I think we have seen the monkeys.... statues...

It is an episode where your tears will naturally flow down....

I think that the monkeys probably went for the bodies while Ye Li was burying them. Those are a lot of bodies to be buried by only one person. She would have to burn them to get rid of so many bodies.

@ymynym right! Feel so cheated that all our theories were wrong! It was fun while it lasted!

I really like that the monkeys turned out to be the three wise apes. Ye Li couldn't bear be reminded of the horrible way the disciples met their end. Yet, the Lishan Academy was also so preoccupied with not associating with evil, that they met their doom and pulled disciples with another opinion like Ye Li into death and isolation too. I wonder if they saw the epidemic as a convenient excuse to die out of guilt because everything went so wrong with the edict. 

I don't think Ye Li surviving and picking up skills is particularly unbelievable. She had at least three years of training with the masters and then she was also on the mountain as a child. It was her second home long before all those disasters.

What I think is more eyebrow raising is the soldiers not noticing anything or no check-ups being required at all by the court.