Pursuit of Jade - episode 27 spoilers
Look at this face!
This was such Knives. He laid out who he was and asked her to marry him, Xie Zheng, courtesy name Jiuheng, the Marquis of Wu'an, and he looks so sad here, because he knows she doesn't want the Marquis. He's not hopeful after proposing. I think he has always believed that she would reject the Marquis, which is why he was so afraid of telling her who she was. When she pulled away, he breathes like he has a knife in his chest, nodded, and said "I understand." Then he left. Her rejection was everything he had feared.
This entire scene was excellent - it's after all the heightened emotions after the battle, when both of them have had a chance to cool down and think. He comes to her and finally explains himself. But there is still such a gulf between them - he thinks that he has only told her one lie, the lie of his name, but it's all that his name represents.
He thinks of Yan Zheng as a part of him, and as was (hilariously) shown earlier, the characters for the name are a part of the characters that form Xie Zheng. (As an aside, I love that the name he chose means "to speak honestly" - which is ironic, since the name is a lie, but also as Yan Zheng he gets to live in a way that allows him to be true to the parts of himself he can't be as The Marquis) But Yan Zheng is her equal, someone she can care about freely and make an appropriate marriage with.
Xie Zheng on the other hand grew up with the grand princess, can demand a favor from the emperor, and is a marquis. Changyu had put him on a literal pedestal - kowtowing to his memorial tablet. To him, he's too used to the power he can wield. He would have razed the magistrate's court, someone who holds the lives of the commoners in the city in his hands. For Changyu, who wasn't even willing to call Li Huai-an by his courtesy name, the social gap was too far. How can she consider marrying someone who is that far above her? And what would someone that far above her possibly want with a butcher girl? Even if she believes he did not lie to her maliciously, she also can't believe his actions as Yan Zheng were true.
So when he comes to her in his fancy fur, talking about getting the emperor to order their marriage, and hands her a waist ornament (unclear right now what it was - could be a family heirloom or could be his Xie Army commander badge) that probably cost more than she could even imagine, it's not surprising that he is rejected.
(And again just imagining how hurt he must feel, having handed over what is probably something very meaningful to him, representing all that he is, all that he has, and being turned down without a word.... my HEART!!!)
It's not until the end of the episode, when he is in a simple outfit, spear fishing, cooking for her, telling her that what he wants is to go back to Lin'an, the place where he's been the happiest in his life (!!!), that maybe she can see Yan Zheng again, that she can see the Yan Zheng in the Marquis, and think that they could have a future together.
