Mi Yue returns to the palace!

Mi Rong will be staying at Cloud Dreams Terrace (Yun Meng Tai), the place where Xiang-fei used to stay at, with Kui-gu while Mi Yue will stay at Princess Mi Shu’s residence to help out with laborious chores. Queen Wei hints at Dai Mao to ‘take good care’ of Mi Yue. Poor Mi Yue, she will be going through hardship even in the palace.

Mi Shu’s easygoing character is showed to us through her picking a hair accessory to wear at random, ignoring the fuss that the servants are making. Mi Shu is excited to see Mi Yue back to the palace and drags Mi Yue around to play. Dai Mao tries to prevent Mi Yue from getting out of her chores by reminding them that Queen Wei had announced that Mi Yue will not need to attend dance and sword lessons like the other princesses and should stay behind but Mi Shu insist that Queen Wei did not stop Mi Yue from watching Mi Shu attend the lessons either, hence successsfully dragging Mi Yue away.

Mi Shu and Mi Yin then rehearses their dance. The other princesses watching commented that Mi Yin is dancing very well. Mi Yin had practised very hard in order to be selected to perform in one of the King’s celebrations 4 months later.

The dance instructor then commented Mi Shu is not well practised enough and Mi Yin gave a subtle smirk. Thinking that she will be praised, Mi Yin is all smiles until the dance instructor comments that Mi Yin’s dance is also far from satisfactory as she had practised too much. Mi Yin is unhappy as she felt that there is no such things as ‘practising too much’. The instructor then asked the princesses if they know what the learning attitude for princesses should be.

Mi Yue claims to know the answer and Mi Yin was scornful while Mi Shu was excited. Mi Yue correctly answers that princesses should have broad but not in depth knowledge in everything. The dancing instructor praises her and indirectly insulted Mi Yin by comparing her to professional dancers.

Mi Yin continue cursing as she walks away and accidentally trips. Mi Yue shows concern but is dissed by Mi Yin. Mi Yue doesn’t allow herself to be bullied and stood up for herself, causing Mi Yin to hop in anger. Mi Shu then turns up and drags Mi Yue away to check out the scholars who are in the palace for a wits duel while Mi Yin is left sulking on her own.

Mi Yin decides to head to the same destination as them. The princesses crowd around the balcony and spazz over the young scholars and we are introduced to a few young men.  The King then teases Zheng Xiu when the scholars pay respect to them and the two flirt, much to the displeasure of Queen Wei. Queen Wei lectures the two and Zheng Xiu replied that she was just excited about finding a match for Mi Shu. Queen Wei is even more displeased as she mentions that as the di princess, Mi Shu will not be married to any of these scholars. She will be marrying the ruler of a state at the very least. Mmhmm, foreshadowing.

We start off with Huang Xie going against another scholar. He stands out and gains the attention of the many princesses, including Mi Yin. Mi Yin seems to be quite smitten with Huang Xie. More fodder for catfighting in the future. Seems like Mi Yin will remain to be an annoying second lead for quite a while. The court officials then laments among themselves that even though Master Qu is not around, he’s still stealing all the limelight as his disciple, Huang Xie, stands out.

After the duel, Mi Yin catches Huang Xie playing with a whip by the pond. She attracts his attention and pretends to have lost her pouch. She then chats him up and attempts to flirt with him but failed as her servant exposed her. Huang Xie then leaves awkwardly. Hey evil princess, if I were you, I would pay more attention and realise that the whip he is using bears an uncanny resemblance to Mi Yue’s whip. Don’t have such high hopes. It only brings pain to yourself in the future.

Mi Yue then visits Kui-gu. Both Kui-gu and Mi Yue are sewing embroidery in their free time in order to make some extra money so that the life of Mi Rong and Wei Ran will be better. Mi Yue realise that Kui-gu has an eye disease. She is worried and guilty as Kui-gu’s eye disease is a result of sewing at night over the years in order to earn money to raise the three children back when they were out of the palace.

Mi Yue is walking around the gardens when she met Huang Xie. The two break into smiles and has an animated discussion about whips. Huang Xie then gift Mi Yue with his whip. Mi Yue then tells Huang Xie she is out to gather herbs to treat Kui-gu’s eye disease. Huang Xie informs her that the herbs she is looking for is not commonly found in the palace. However, there is one place they could try – Lady Zheng Xiu’s garden.

Zheng Xiu sent her servant to walk her dog in the garden as she is excitedly waiting for the King to turn up. Her servant then deliver the news that the King had dinner with Queen Wei and while he wanted to visit after that, Queen Wei had instructed him to go visit the unwell pregnant Lady Zhao. Lady Zheng Xiu then made her servant tell the King that Gongzi-Lan, her son, is sick to bait him into visiting.

At the same time, Huang Xie and Mi Yue trespass into the garden to pick herbs. Instead of the King arriving, Queen Wei arrived to visit Zheng Xiu instead. Hearing that, Zheng Xiu removed a few hairpins in order to act pitiful and spite Queen Wei. The King then arrives and Zheng Xiu launch into a full pitiful act and indirectly blamed Queen Wei.

Huang Xie and Mi Yue continue picking herbs excitedly. Mi Yue even educated Huang Xie about wild herbs. Just as they found the herb they wanted, the dog that the servant was walking started barking and exposed their location.

Mi Yue managed to get away but Huang Xie was stopped by the guards. The King, Zheng Xiu and Queen Wei questioned Huang Xie and threatened him with heavy punishment but he did not waver and insisted that he alone did it and refused to give any more explanations. The guards then informed the King that someone is here to turn themselves in. The King looks amused. The two lovers then continue bantering and taking  the blame. Queen Wei wanted to punish Mi Yue harshly but Zheng Xiu asked to have autonomy over how she want to punish the people that trespassed her garden and the King agreed.

Zheng Xiu then launch into another act and pretended that she was the one who dared Mi Yue into creeping into her garden to pluck a flower. She then decided to just make the two apologise to her pet dog. Yay! Could it be that Zheng Xiu remembered how Mi Yue had saved her? Welp… I guess not. Zheng Xiu then informs the two privately that from now on, they owe her a favour and they better watch out. She’s also doing this to further her own position and aggravate Queen Wei. Going by this logic, Mi Yue actually has to thank Queen Wei for wanting to decree harsh punishment, or else, Zheng Xiu would not have intervened to spite Queen Wei.

The next day, Queen Wei then instructed the King to start planning for Mi Shu’s wedding and pick a suitable ruler of another country so they can have an intermarriage. The King lists out Crown Prince Kuai of the Yan  Country, Crown Prince Chi of the Wei Country and Zhao Hou Yong of the Zhao Country as potential candidates. Queen Wei eliminates the Wei Country and Yan Country  and decides that Zhao Hou Yong is the best choice. Queen Wei then decides that Mi Yin can marry either the Crown Prince of Yan or Wei since she is obedient usually. Hmm, is it really nice to let someone marry people whom you don’t want your own daughter to marry?  The Queen then declares that Mi Yue can only be a servant in the future as she is the daughter of a servant. The most she can be is a companion bride.

Mi Shu sees Mi Yue scrubbing the floor and got her to come in. They talk embroidery and Mi Yue encourages Mi Shu to walk about more often. Mi Shu’s servant then excitedly barge in and share the news that she overheard the King and Queen Wei discussing about the upcoming nuptials of the princesses. Envoys from the other countries will be coming to propose marriage with the princess soon. She also heard that the King of Qin has not remarried even though it has been a year since the previous empress passed on, hence it is possible he might come over to propose marriage as well.

The two sisters then discuss about what they feel about the Qin Country. Mi Shu feels that the Qin Country and its people are both terrifying while Mi Yue thinks of them positively. Mi Shu then suggests Mi Yue marry over to Qin Country since she likes them so much. Mi Yue then jokingly adds, “Maybe we’ll both marry to the Qin Country in the future!” Biggest foreshadow hence far, and the episode ends.

Note: This was a post written eons ago but I never got around posting it because it wasn’t completed without screenshots. However, I don’t think I’ll ever work on this series anymore so I’m just going to post this up here without pictures.