Nian, princess of Haoling, also ‘sister’ to Cang Xuan, picked up on his disappointment as he knows it won’t be so easy to find Xiao Yao. She asked him what was wrong, and he smoothly deflected her questions by getting her interested to check out the talking Stone in the village.

On the way to the Stone, Nian bumped into Xiaoliu who was just leaving, and Fate teased their reunion by having Cang Xuan and Xiaoyao walking right past the other.

We get a very fast introduction to just how much of a ‘princess’ Nian is.
She felt everything is this village is dirty and smelly since she got here.

Xiaoliu overheard her.
She good-naturedly sniffed herself to check, but shrugged it off.
Cang Xuan looks over with a look that does not seem unfriendly.

** I am going to refer to Xiaoliu as her, since we all know she is Xiaoyao anyway.
Even though as Xiaoliu, she is not pretending to be male, but is physically male.

The Stone spirit, as an unreliable narrator, picked up from when he left off, about the story of Cang Xuan and Xiaoyao’s sad tale of separation.

Coincidentally, its jabs Cang Xuan right in the guts when it mentioned how Xiaoyao went missing after her brother failed to pick her up from Mount Jade. It would seem Sang and Nian are very much aware of how he blames himself for this.

We hear that both the King of Xiyan, Xiaoyao’s maternal grandfather and her father, King of Haoling had tried to find her over the years but they were unsuccessful.

As the Stone spirit ended the storytime for the day, Sang leapt up to approach the Stone spirit but was stopped by Cang Xuan.

Xiaoliu goes home to the clinic Hui Chun Tang ( Rejuvenation Hall ).

She sees Pimply hanging out with the girl he likes, and gets this 姨母笑 knowing smile that we viewers get when we see Xiaoyao’s own romance scenes.

The warm, happy family moment, got serious when the subject of a new shop opening comes up. Everyone is worried that it may be another clinic that will affect their business.

Cut to the new shop being discussed, and we see Cang Xuan and Sang manually cleaning the messy place.
By. Hand.

I can’t say how refreshing it is, to see deities not using spiritual magic to do a Disney-style montage where things get done with a snap of the fingers. I like the rules and limitations of this world already.

There is no other help and even the Princess’s handmaid just stands by watching on with the Princess, without lifting a finger to help. The two men set things up and we see that Cang Xuan had planted a tree that was magicked in from off screen.

Instead of being moved, Nian pouted that it’s not in bloom since its not the right season.
Cang Xuan indulgently expanded some spiritual power to let the tree burst into full bloom.

Me: thank goodness the spirit power CGI looks very nice and not the horrible cartoon kind

Nian is now delighted as Cang Xuan looks on with a faint smile, but thinks about Xiaoyao, his actual favorite person.

That night, Sang finds Cang xuan drinking alone, thinking of Xiaoyao.
Sang comforted him that she won’t blame him if she knew how tough his life had been all this time.

Cang Xuan reminded Sang that their cover mission is to come to Qing Shui town to search for the Cheng rong’s rebel army. He cautioned Sang that they cannot let his Fifth and Seven uncles know that he is searching for Xiaoyao.

That same night, Xiaoliu sits alone drinking as she thinks back to the words of the Stone Spirit about how Cang Xuan was exiled but enjoying his life with the second princess in Hao ling. She smiles a little sad smile, and goes off to bed.

Xiaoliu tried to shirk her duty to wash the dishes that day. As Fate would have it, Mu chased her with a paddle so she went down to the river to get it done.

As she was washing up, she noticed stocks/herons? flying in by the river.

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EXTRAS : HIGHLIGHT TO SEE SPOILERS

Perhaps Jing’s divine mount left him by the river as he wanted, it would be hard to imagine him crawling all the way there on his own, in his dying condition. And if he had access to his mount, but chose to die alone rather than go back to his family, that act in itself is so heartbreaking.

In the novel, Tushan Jing has his own 坐骑 divine mount 狸狸 which is a Heron.

” 鹤在文人笔下一直是高洁、俊雅的象征。
鹤的形象也经常与人的诚挚守信、修身洁行的品格相连 ” ( google )

As for his choice of a mount, also builds up Jing’s personality.
The Heron is often depicted as a noble and elegant creature. They are also seen as sincere and cultivated.

In the drama, maybe due to production budget, we never see Jing traveling on his mount.
What a pity, but I really hope that for season 2, there is one epic scene where I really, really want to see Jing arrive on his heron mount.

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The birds took off but something in the grass moved. Xiaoliu threw a big rock, hoping to score one for her next meal.

She excitedly ran to see what she hit, she saw that she had struck a beggar who was lying in the tall grass.

Her smile froze once she saw him lying there.
She left him alone, and goes off to begin her work day, telling herself to mind her own business.

Pimply and Skinny are by the river and even though they were afraid at first to see someone they do not know, Pimply kindly threw his biscuit to him. Skinny threw a flower to see if there will be a reaction. They get called away before either could see if the beggar would eat.

We see the beggar reaching out towards the flower instead of the food.

After Xiaoliu finished her visits and returned to the clinic, Pimply brought some melon seeds to butter her up. He tentatively brought up the sensitive subject about the beggar by the river.

Its a little funny thinking of the context being, how a human is begging a deity to help a beggar, with some melon seeds as offerings.

Xiaoliu seemed to stick to her earlier decision to not extend any help to the beggar, but she made an excuse to go to the river after her meal. She still has a soft tofu heart in spite of her jaded words.

There, she saw the beggar holding up the flower instead of the biscuit.

She remembered a time when she herself was caged but reached out to the one beautiful thing within her grasp. She stepped on the biscuit as an excuse to help the beggar.

Back in the clinic, everyone was horrified to see the extent of the beggar’s injuries.

Mu and Xiaoliu could tell this person is a deity. Mu remarked seeing how he had been tortured within an inch of his life, instead of just being killed quickly, meant someone out there really hated this person. Do they really want to cross someone like that to help him?

Xiaoliu did not say anything but continued to do her prep.

Xiaoliu accessed his various injuries, and proceeded to break the deformed right knee to reset his leg.

She spoke kindly to prepare the beggar for the pain and he braced himself.
Skinny was amazed that he did not utter a sound even as he passed out while she broke his bones three times.

That night, Cang Xuan and Sang visited the Stone spirit who claimed to know everyone in Qingshui Town. With his magical CCTV capabilities, they checked the identities of the non-human residents in town.

I have to note that, Cang Xuan has grown into a charming person.
Being royalty, even just with his status as a high level deity, he did not look down on the Stone spirit. Not only did he give a very generous payment for the potential information, he also treated the Stone Spirit ( demon ) with polite respect.

After he infused the stone and boosted its abilities with his own spirit power, the stone managed to show the ‘true faces’ of these individuals, and the stone finally fell onto the beggar and Xiaoliu.

It actually really worked! But the trio did not know any better.
Cang Xuan found his Xiaoyao, but since the Stone was unable to see past her current form, Cang Xuan was once again bitterly disappointed to see two male deities instead.

The Stone spirit shared his intel: Xiaoliu has stayed in Qingshui town for decades and took in a Xiyan deserter Mu, and two human orphans. It does not know who the injured man is.

Xiaoliu had fallen asleep by the beggar’s side.

The hot wax from the candle began dripping down and the beggar who had woken up then, chose to use his own hand to block it, instead of waking the tired doctor.

Its the next morning.
Xiaoliu woke up to see there was hardened wax on the beggar’s bandaged hand, and she was moved by his kind nature.

To their dismay, their medicines had not helped, and the beggar with a high fever, seemed to be drawing his last breath.

As Xiaoliu held his hand, she decided to give him a few drops of her blood, which we will soon see, seem to possess miraculous healing powers.

Cang Xuan is having a tough morning.

Looking exhausted and pale after expending his powers last night, Nian unfortunately did not notice and rejected the take-out breakfast he bought. He then indulgently prepared a simple breakfast for her and her maid ( since he steamed two bowls of freshly ground beans).
I really wonder what her handmaid actually does, since she can’t even cook meals for her own lady?

Sang is unhappy with what of a pushover he is being, but Cang Xuan lamented that he never had a chance to cook for the picky Xiaoyao when they were together as kids.

He wondered what Xiaoyao will be eating now and we cut to-

-Xiaoliu, sitting on the door stoop, finishing up some simple soup, in a very good mood.

She cheerfully shocks Pimply and Skinny by volunteering to do the dishes while she instructed them in great detail, to prepare a nourishing duck soup for the patient. Looks like Xiaoliu can’t cook hehe

She returned from the river with some fresh flowers, and comforted her patient with some uplifting words.

Seasons changed and their patient took one year to recover.
Xiaoliu returns in high spirits with a new bunch of fresh wildflowers.

Her shy patient shrunk from her when she tried to undo the bandages on his face.

She did not take offense or force him, and told him to undress to take a proper bath.

He looked a little sorry when he rejected her, maybe he was worried if his face would be scarred and frightening to look at, like his body.

Even though he at first resisted when she took off his shirt, he stood there looking defeated, completely at her mercy, when she pointed out to him that ‘there is nothing she hasn’t seen‘, and proceeded to take off his pants.

In a beautiful, very steamy moment, Xiaoliu’s cockiness vanished and she suddenly got all flustered as she neared his scarred and bare body. Must be his foxy pheromones! hur hur hur

She did not expect to feel this way, since she is physically a man right now and she had taken care of him for the past year without any such issues.

Stammering, she excused herself while averting her gaze, no longer looking at his body, as she left in a big hurry.

He quickly caught on, as his eyes flicked over at her in surprise.

Perhaps at this very moment, after years of pain and suffering, he realized didn’t lose his keen, astute senses. He finally felt like a real fox again lol.

I like how thin he looks, since it made no sense if he is still buff after years of malnutrition and torture.

As the others waited in the courtyard for their patient to finish his bath, they chattered while Xiaoliu chews on some roots. Skinny thinks he is a fool but Pimply is full of admiration and disagrees.

He finally emerged, but we can’t see his face.
Why does he already look taller in the loose robes, compared to when he was inside the house?

However he looks, Xiaoliu sits up slowly in attention.

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In the novel, the part where Xiaoliu got all flustered was way more steamy than the drama, for obvious reasons. She had stayed on to help him because he could not stand on his own yet.

My translation is not great but here’s a rough gist

” Maybe every scar is a humiliation, the man kept his head lowered, with his eyes closed with an air of indifference, without looking at his own body, just washing himself with the linen, from his neck to his chest, from his chest slowly to his abdomen, gradually in between his legs.

Xiaoliu’s gaze was following his hand as it moved, but she suddenly turned her head away…..

The man opened his eyes, and looked over at Xiaoliu, the sunlight streamed in the windows, shining on Xiaoliu, his cheeks are red, glistening in the sunlight, looking like beautiful jade with pale pink sheen. “