Episode 11 recap: Yue Ling traveled far to Liuzhou to see the Northern King.
Zhou Shi Yu was almost assassinated by rioters disguised among the disaster refugees, but fortunately his martial arts skills allowed him to turn the situation around. After interrogating the captured rioters, he learned they were sent by the prefect, who harbored a grudge against Zhou Shi Yu over the matter of distributing porridge.
Xing Yi was strolling the streets when he noticed an interesting compass and bought it to play with for Su Nian. At that moment, the streets were in an uproar due to the assassin, and Xing Yi saw the assassin's figure resembling Su Nian, so he quietly followed behind, fearing she might get caught.
Convinced Su Nian was the female assassin, Xing Yi rushed into the room and saw medical supplies, probing whether she was the assassin. Su Nian explained she had just cut her finger practicing sword dances, and Xing Yi's concern for her touched her deeply.
The granaries were running out of supplies, and the relief grains had not been found. Zhou Shi Yu decided to seek help from the Imperial Envoy, and ordered Nie Chen to open his own granaries to appease the refugees. Yue Ling, worried about Zhou Shi Yu after hearing of the assassination attempt, immediately set out for Liuzhou, but they were surrounded by guards on suspicion of the Northern King plotting rebellion.
Prime Minister Zhou JingYuan learned that the Northern King had secretly opened his granaries, and accused him in court. The Emperor understood Zhou Shi Yu's desperate measure to relieve the refugees, but the unyielding Prime Minister made the Emperor order the Northern King's mansion be surrounded until his return.
Seeing the Emperor inclined to protect the Northern King, the Prime Minister arranged for his men to eliminate Zhou Shi Yu. Yue Ling, concerned for Zhou Shi Yu's safety, wanted to go search for him, when the Southern King came to provoke her. Curious, Yue Ling decided to follow the Southern King, thinking she could get out of the mansion by marrying him and going to the palace.
The Southern King, believing her, agreed to take her to the palace.
Yue Ling reported to the Emperor about the Northern King's loyalty, hoping the Emperor would allow her to go to Liuzhou. The Emperor assured Yue Ling that he had known the Northern King since childhood, and would get to the bottom of the truth. The Emperor then gave Yue Ling the Northern King's pre-departure divorce decree, which only strengthened her resolve to go to Liuzhou.
The Southern King waited at the city gate for Yue Ling, but as the night wore on, he could not understand why it was taking her so long to get an order to cancel the betrothal. His subordinate Yang Xu suspected Yue Ling had deceived the Southern King again. The Southern King then rushed to the Northern King's mansion to demand Yue Ling back, while Xing Yi and the others went to the Southern King to ask for her return, since she had left with him the previous night and not returned.
When Yue Ling arrived in Liuzhou, she found the refugees scattered everywhere, but fortunately there were still kind people distributing porridge to them. She learned that Zhou Shi Yu had gone to the Western Mountains to find the Imperial Envoy, so she immediately headed there, just in time to see Zhou Shi Yu being surrounded and attacked. They fought their way out together. Based on a tip-off, Zhou Shi Yu went into a cave, only to be struck by a falling rock. Yue Ling was deeply worried seeing his injuries. Then they heard coughing from the cave, and upon further investigation, found the Imperial Envoy shackled inside.
It turned out the Prefect's subordinate Xu Wei had lured the Imperial Envoy, who was carrying relief grains, to the mountains, killed the imperial guards, and imprisoned the Envoy in the cave, in order to force him to write a confession implicating the Northern King. Zhou Shi Yu and Yue Ling helped the Envoy leave, but suddenly they were overcome by poisonous gas and collapsed on the ground.
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