As often happens, Real Life has been irritatingly interfering this past week. Today I'm playing catch-up. Catching up on my housework, my reading, and now my television shows.
Imperial Astrologist Zu Ting makes a late night visit to Crown Prince Gao Wei in order to stir up more trouble. Surprisingly the prince calls the toothy tattle tale out for this. Gao Wei laments the fact that Gao Chang Gong has a divine sorceress by his side while the crown prince has only this old troublemaker.
Unfortunately this does nothing to shut Zu Ting up as he unveils his plans on how to get rid of Yang Xue Wu and thus bring Chang Gong down a notch or two.
Over in Zhou, King Yuwen Yung wants to get the court started, but none of the ministers want to proceed until Prime Minister Yuwen Hu gets there. And here's the great man at last. I hope his heart holds out. Look at all those stairs he has to take in order to reach the palace! Yuwen Hu apologies for not moving fast enough to stop Yuwen Yung from making an ass of himself and leaving the country to borrow an army from Turkestan. "It's all my fault your a fool! I'm so sorry, your majesty." That kind of speech.
Yuwen Hu falls to the floor and begs the king for permission to retire as Prime Minister. The other ministers are like, "No! Don't leave us alone with this idiot!" and beg Hu to reconsider. Yung is forced to play his part and apologize for his recent rash actions. As a show of his sincerity, Yung gifts Hu with the half-dressed Kuximo woman who finally gets the name of Yu Tu. Hu's tongue is practically unfurling from his mouth.
Yet afterwards Yuwen Hu reveals he knows the tribal woman is really a spy for the king. This doesn't mean he won't enjoy her, of course. For now Hu will play along like he doesn't know anything.
To confuse us even more, Yung reveals he knows that Hu knows the woman is a plant. It's gonna be one of those, "He doesn't know that I know that he knows that I know" kind of deals.
Yung drops in on the family quarters to visit with Queen Axina and her sickly daughter (who gets the standard Chinese dubbing treatment). The daughter is Yung's niece, only child of the previous king who was done away with by Yuwen Hu. I admit I'm a little confused here. Does this mean the queen is not Yung's wife?
Back in Qi, Chang Gong takes Xue Wu to the capital, Ye City. Gao Wei can't help but notice all the people are shouting Lan Ling's praises. A peasant woman asks for the divine sorceress to bless her soldier son. This wins the approval of the other townsfolk. No one notices at the back of the crowd is Xue Wu's grandmother.
At the palace everyone is a bit worried that Prince of Lan Ling will be late for the arrival of Emperor Gao Zhan and Empress Hu (played by Dai Chun Rong. She is in everything. You need an empress? You get Dai Chun Rong.)
Lan Ling and his retinue finally arrive and make their greetings. The emperor, having already heard about Xue Wu's contributions to their victory, wants to reward her. Remembering the peasant woman from earlier, Xue Wu asks simply to amend the laws and exempt families with only one son to have to supply a soldier. The emperor chides Gao Wei for not being as thoughtful and considerate as Chang Gong. Ha! And Zu Ting gets docked an entire year's pay.
Chang Gong and his entourage all get promotions. The emperor wants to wrap things up and asks if there is any more business. This is when Zu Ting puts his plan into action. He praises Lan Ling for his loyalty and bravery, then laments how Chang Gong has found nothing but a peasant wife. Shouldn't the prince have a royal wife from an elite family? The emperor agrees and announces they'll start lining up the usual suspects for Chang Gong to pick from.
Gao Wei overhears his father talking about possibly taking the title of Crown Prince away from him. Empress Hu assures her son that she'll find some way of getting rid of Chang Gong.
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