Janeykath

The next episode open with a scene including CYY and his mother, who wants to find a bride for him...

She mentions his first wife (arranged marriage), and assumes that his hesitation about marrying comes from him mourning, which he denies.

He's basically telling her, that the reason he hasn't married again is not tgat he mourned his first wife that long, but that his priority were his duties at work.

Even though he doesn't say her name, we all know who is on his mind -

- but he's making sure that he prepares his mother for his choice, ans setting the stage for GJZ to enter.

He has to, not only because he's aware of the lower status GJZ has in their society, but also because his mother is a "snob".

Their meeting is interrupted by ChenYi who informs that GJZ's brother is in trouble.

The otherwise very duty-minded Lord Chen ends his dinner with his mother, to deal with whatever peril GJZ is eventually facing.

Seeing this an opportunity to meet GJZ again (finally), he uses it as an excuse to invite her for a meeting.

"No matter what, we have to meet." - revealing his longing for them to meet again. It's such a strong declaration from him, that it even startled ChenYi.

His boss, who usally likes to keep a distance to anyone and everything, makes sure about the importance of a secret meeting with a certain young lady... even though a simple message via letter would be enough.

The gift

Finally meeting GJZ again, he warns her about the trouble her brother is facing and advices her to act fast. With GJZ thanking for his advice, he takes the opportunity to make sure that she doesn't send any more gifts to him 🤣

GJZ isn't happy about that at all, especially because she brought a new gift with her. And this time it's truly something special.

Sadly, with his comment, GJZ lost all confidence in her gift and is embarrassed.

CYY, who can't resist his curiosity (and motivated by her embarrassment) wants to see the gift, now matter what.

We get the cute scene, where they both fight over the box - CYY, who wants to open it and GJZ, who's wants the opposite.

CYY wins and opens it to see his cloak he wrapped around her after he saved her from drowning (new years eve festival).

We finally get to know why she's embarrassed about it: she cared so much about this cloak and wanting it to be in perfect shape, that she not only fixed it but also re-embroidered it.

He's in awe of it, and GJZ's feeling turns from embarrassment to gladness.

He realizes the care she put into it, and thus acknowledges the gift as something special. He's happy too.

One thing that sticks out is the difference in gifts she gave CXQ vs CYY.

When she believed CXQ to be her savior, she gifted him the inkstone. It's a unique item, but it wasn't bought by her, in fact it was actually a gift she received before giving it away to CXQ.

But with knowing now that her savior was CYY all along, she took extra care when giving him a gift of her gratitude, even caring about the details.

It's a very sweet and warming moment between the two of them. Especially for CYY, who not only was puzzled by her previous gifts, but also confused about it's meanings. But by going out of her way to repair and re-embroidering his cloak, he seemed to understand that her gifts, especially this one, do not come from a place of dubiousness, but one of genuine care and gratitude.

Taking care of his wounds

The next scene is one of my favorites:

Gu JinZhao is on her way of searching for her brother, but circumstances force her to make stop at a cabin. At the same time CYY, who is wounded, stops at the same cabin.

Seeing how clumsy Chenyi is taking care of CYY's wounds, Qingpu wants to offer her help, but GJZ stops her, and rather awants to do it herself (of course).

Seeing his wounds, she wonders how it came to that, but doesn't ask him.

You can truly see how uneasy and worried she gets when seeing him being hurt.

CYY takes the opportunity and asks what she's doing at this place. She then explains him how no one in her family is able to take care of the situation.

The next moment she takes a look at his older scars and gets unsettle by it, but doesn't question him about it.

You can see how deeply she cares about him, and how worried she gets when he's wounded. She's so tender with him, and doesn't want to cause him even more pain.

The scene itself is actually full of sexual tension, especially on CYY's part.

The nudity, the fireplace, the touching, and then GJZ blowing on his wound...

And his surprised reaction... but also liking it.

Yep, both of them are really down for each other.

As much as this scene is about their sexual tension, it's also shows something similar important: honesty.

JinZhao admits how she has to take care of things regarding her brother, because she's the only one who's able to make those decisions. It reveals how alone she actually is, and has no one to really depend on or to trust.

Yanyun's moment of honesty is more unspoken, but shown. Him being half-naked, with JinZhao able to see his scars reveals what kind of violent and cruel life he's actually living. It's not the first time that he's badly wounded, and likely won't be the last time. His political position puts him constantly in deadly danger - people wanting to kill him just because he tries to do the right thing. That leaves scars, and not only physical ones.

His reaction to her taken care of his wounds reveals also something else - his own loneliness. He's not used to someone taking care of him like this, being openly vulnerable and trusting one another. But he likes it, that feeling of being taking care of, and her tenderness.

It deepens their bond and trust for on another.

I only want you. Do you understand?

I was a year above most of them at school so they threw a "goodbye" murder mystery for me just before graduation, and about 2/3 of the way through the game we all realized that everyone had at least attempted to kill the victim. The game then shifted from "whodunnit" to "who succeeded in dunninit" which we all felt was not only super fun but above the usual level of narrative complexity for those games.

I guess you felt a little bad.

The way he saved her. 😭

I cried my eyes out here. I cried with them...Still want to cry on this scene... 😭