ep 17 spoilers ahead

17/96!

1.Consort Wei discusses the murder of Li Chunfeng (the astronomer) with Chun Ying (her servant). Chung Ying confirms everything went as planned and Noble Consort Wei gloats. Chun Ying reveals she accomplished this by learning he cannot eat seafood and slipped crab meat into his meals. He suffocated. Quinfeng (I cannot recall who this is) is picked up by Minsiter Wei's people and is taken care of.

2.Prince Wei is furious when he learns that Conosrt Wei ignored his order to be patient, lay low, and not allow her personal grudges get in the way of the plan. She disrupts his plan by acting alone and killing Li Chunfeng, This is unfortunate because it means 1)she cannot be trusted 2)she is going to create more problems. Unfortunately, Prince Wei needs her.

3.Elsewhere, the emperor summons Wu to the track and gifts her a beautiful white horse named Shizicong. (The emperor is so happy to see her happy). Meanwhile, Consort Wei is furious that the emperor has essentially ignored the calamity making her efforts at killing Li Chunfeng useless. (Is she in love with him?) Worse, his death only made it easier for the emperor to reject the calamity. Unfortunately for Wu, everyone, including Chancellor Zhangsun, wants Wu dead.

4.Meanwhile, Consort Yang is speaking to her servant and is convinced that Wu is not a threat because while she is daring and smart she is not calculating. She does not believe she would hurt the Li Clan (surname of Tang dynasty). Her servant tells her they have a mole in Wei's palace (she can read lips).

5.Based on the info from the mole, Consort Yang visits Wu and after a quick search of her room they find a voodoo doll. Consort Wei's people come claiming that they are looking for her cat (it is an innocent request that a low ranking Cairen like Wu could not deny). Chung Ying i s not pleased to find that the doll is gone.

6.Consort Yang and Wu speak privately. Wu thanks her for her help, and Consort Yang explains that she has been watching her and knows that she is not calculating or scheming, and she believes she sincerely loves the emperor. Yang tells her she needs to be careful and gives her tools to help her check for poison. Yang also reveals that she Wu reminds her of herself (I cannot tell if she really means this or not). She reveals that she has not been sick her whole life but that when she was young, someone poisoned her for 7 months with green silk worms (that is crazy!). She says Wu, like her, is considered a threat. Afterall, she is Yuang Guang's daughter (last Sui emperor)(although historically, Li Shimin took a consort by the name of Yang who was once married to his brother, whom he killed...same woman?)

7.Wei is angry the voodoo doll didn't work, but it does tell them that they have a spy. Elsewhere, the emperor is visiting with Wu. They plan to make lanterns together, and he teaches her how. They plan to set them off together, and she tells him three of her wishes: 1.That he eat her cooking (he says she has never cook and this is a bad idea) 2.to dance together again (he likes this) 3.she doesn't say this one but says she will tell him when it happens (I think she is talking about a pregnancy)

8.Wei has a new plan: to poison the horse so it goes crazy and throws her. At the tracks, Wu rides the horse for the emperor and watching Li Zhe (Jin Prince), Consort Yang, and Xu Hui. Li Zhe gets on the horse it goes crazy. Wu saves him but must stab her horse to do it. They almost go off the cliff. She is in shock.. The emperor is like their rock as he hugs both her and the prince.

9.In a pretty scene, Wu bathes in a pool of gold petals (on my bucket list: bathe in a flower bath) she is still in shock. She also recalls that Consort Yang told her that if the emperor had to pick between her or the state, he would pick the state.

10.Prince Wei expresses frustration with Consort Wei, who he believes acts on her anger and her plots always hurt others, never the target. However he can use this to his advantage; apparently in killing the horse Wu does something incredibly unladylike and fearsome....Wei is gloating over the same thing.

11.Courtiers petition the emperor to have Wu killed. The emperor continues to refuse, and calls them out for fearing her. Even Fuji, his 'brother' believes it would be good in that it would squash rumors. Sadly, Wu is listening to them talk about taking her life like it is so easily done. I can't imagine how powerless she must feel.

12.Alone, emperor talks to Fuji and Fuju admits that things are different now that the emperor has to consider the needs of others. Here we also learn that the so called Li Clan rumor, which has been used throughout the series to prove the truth of the Wu reading, in fact was a rumor made up by the emperor to help him transition into the throne (a prophecy was started that the Li Clan would take over the Sui Clan....and circulated until people believed it) Rumors, they admit, can destroy lives.

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