The thirty-ninth episode is titled "The Record of Zhuangzi".
The beginning is quite unique: a butterfly lands on a blank tombstone, becoming the only pattern on this blank stone.
The butterfly's wings fluttered, and gradually, several large characters appeared on the tombstone:
Zhuangzi's Records.
Screenwriters for this episode: Ye Chu, Zheng Bohan
Sun Xiaoxiao's eyes darted around, her heart filled with both surprise and delight. —Ye Chu is involved in episode thirty-nine too? My little Chu is amazing!
Unlike previous episodes which stood alone, episode thirty-nine closely connects to the content of episode thirty-eight. The scene begins with the seventh prince leading his troops into the palace, and upon arriving at the imperial city gates, the seventh prince begins to knock on the gates.
The gatekeeper of the imperial city is the seventh prince's uncle. As agreed, he will open the gate for the seventh prince and let him enter the palace to seize the throne.
However, to the Seventh Prince's surprise, he flashed the signal with a torch as agreed, but the city gate remained motionless. Just as everyone was puzzled, with a few "whoosh" sounds, a dark mass of crossbows suddenly appeared on the city wall!
The visual language in this episode is extremely concise and refined. With just a few brief shots and no dialogue, everyone can understand what is happening.
The Seventh Prince realized something was wrong and shouted, "Retreat!"
The entire army immediately surrounded the Seventh Prince, covering his retreat. But it was too late; countless arrows rained down like thunder, instantly turning large numbers of soldiers into sieves.
The seventh prince was struck in the arm by an arrow and fled backward in a sorry state. But just then, another army charged towards him and began to fight the seventh prince's men.
In the drama, the seventh prince is completely lost and can only kill indiscriminately. However, viewers outside the drama, with an omniscient perspective, can clearly see that the arrows being fired from the city wall are from the third prince's forces; while the other group fighting against the seventh prince are the forces of the fifth and sixth princes.
The emperor's four most capable sons were killed off right under his nose.
On the other side, the emperor was leaning against a small table in his bedchamber, drinking a calming soup spoonful by spoonful.
This calming soup was extremely effective at aiding sleep; after drinking it, one slept very soundly. The emperor was afraid that there might be something harmful in it, so he had several imperial physicians examine it openly and secretly. Before each dose, he would test it for poison with silver needles and a young eunuch before he would feel safe drinking it.
No one's nerves can stay on edge forever, and the emperor is no exception. Now that his four foolish sons have obediently taken the bait, and these idiots will be fighting each other for quite some time, he only needs to sit back and fish.
Four sons are not enough; we need to delay a bit longer and catch the other big and small fish.
The calming soup seemed a bit too strong today; the emperor frowned after just one sip and put down his spoon.
Why does this soup taste so strong?
The emperor's most trusted old eunuch replied calmly, "Your Majesty, this soup was personally prepared by the eldest princess this evening. To prevent it from getting cold, she instructed us to keep it warm over the fire..."
The old eunuch glanced at the emperor and said, "It's been simmering on the fire for two hours, so it must have boiled dry... Your Majesty, please forgive me, this servant will go and boil a fresh one right away."
"Enough." Upon hearing that it was his foolish daughter who had brewed the medicine, the emperor's brows relaxed. "Why add so much trouble?"
The emperor took a spoonful of the calming soup, leaned on the spoon, and looked on with a look of reminiscence: "She and her mother both liked to make these kinds of soups and stews."
The assassin who looked exactly like the empress did have some influence on the emperor; at the very least, it stirred up many memories for him.
The old eunuch beamed with joy: "The Princess used to love sending these soups too. Although His Majesty would sometimes complain that they were too strong or too weak, too cold or too hot, he never missed a single one."
"Shut up." The emperor raised an eyebrow and glanced at the old eunuch. "You've been with me for decades, and you've become more and more glib."
The old eunuch said respectfully, "Your Majesty has been too lenient with me; it was I who became complacent."
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