Different Princess Episode 1 Recap
> Different Princess Recap
In a night filled with chaos, a barrage of arrows rained down on the grand hall. Ji Yun, protecting the entrance with a group of guards, watched as his beloved Lin Xiyao was struck by an arrow in the chest inside the hall, despite the presence of her own guards.
This scene was a culmination of the tragic tale of Ji Chu, the third prince of Liang, who had been taken as a hostage prince to the southern border in his youth. Abandoned by the imperial family of Liang, he endured immense suffering, vowing revenge. At the age of twenty, he overthrew the southern border, returning to Liang with a vengeance, plunging the kingdom into a bloody storm. He meticulously plotted, subverting courtiers and sowing discord within the imperial family.
On the day his brother was to ascend the throne, Ji Chu initiated a revolt to usurp power, even sacrificing Lin Xiyao, whom he claimed to love. As Ji Yun held a bleeding Lin Xiyao, he pleaded with Ji Chu, asking how he could do such a thing to his beloved. Ji Chu coldly replied that sacrificing his beloved was acceptable if it meant ruling the world.
Ji Yun expressed his regret that their brotherhood had come to such a pass, urging Ji Chu to be a wise ruler. Dismissing Ji Yun as a loser, Ji Chu shot an arrow, killing him as he tried to escape with Lin Xiyao. Ji Chu's revenge was complete; he seized the throne, changing the era's name to Xiande, and ushered in a prosperous era for Liang, becoming a dominant ruler.
This entire dramatic narrative was the original creation of a popular author, who, upon finishing her novel, felt a great sense of accomplishment for making the villain truly evil and successfully having him defeat the male lead. However, her triumph was short-lived. Instead of praise, she found an onslaught of angry comments, calling her an "idiot" and criticizing the "plot holes" in her two-million-word story. Readers demanded she change the ending, revive Ji Yun, and topple the twisted Ji Chu.
The author, however, was defiant, declaring she would never change the ending. She scoffed at their opinions, questioning why they didn't read her work when it was more logical. Soon after, she received a mysterious email warning her that her "reader enmity level" had reached its limit.
It demanded she modify the ending of her novel, "The Tale of Yun and Xiyao," to revive Ji Yun and make him defeat Ji Chu, or face the consequences of the plot backfiring on her. She dismissed this as "nonsense" and a "stupid setting." When her computer suddenly crashed, she decided to replace the "junk" after she got paid. Overcome with sudden drowsiness, she collapsed into bed, vowing to sleep early the next day.
While she slept, her computer mysteriously reactivated. The author then woke up to find herself adorned in a wedding dress, her body unresponsive to her commands. A figure approached, and she was stabbed, collapsing as she weakly realized her assailant was Ji Chu. Back in the real world, her computer displayed a message stating she had died within the plot due to the backfiring narrative and that, since she failed to modify the story, it would be "replayed" for her.
She awoke once more, still in ancient times, greeted by a maid who informed her it was her wedding night with Prince Lyu. The maid warned her that Prince Lyu was "bloodthirsty and hard to deal with" and urged caution against breaking taboos. The author quickly realized she had transmigrated into her own novel, "The Tale of Yun and Xiyao," now embodying Hua Qingge, the Princess of Fuyu, who was destined to marry Ji Chu, also known as Prince Lyu.
She remembered that Hua Qingge, as the empress's niece, was sent from Fuyu to marry Ji Chu only to be murdered by him on her wedding night. Her body would then be thrown into a pond, creating the illusion of an accidental drowning – a deliberate act by Ji Chu to incite conflict between the two kingdoms. She realized that everyone, under the emperor's directive, would accept this fabricated story.
Dread washed over her as she comprehended that tonight was her predetermined death. Determined to avoid her demise, Hua Qingge first attempted to hide in a dowry box but quickly dismissed the idea, knowing Ji Chu would easily find her. Leveraging her "author's cheat codes," she recalled Ji Chu's secret passage. However, she reconsidered, realizing that Ji Chu's meticulous nature would make him notice any disturbance, and she would be caught if she used his secret path to the villa.
She decided her best bet was to use qinggong to reach the safety of the roof beams, questioning how Hua Qingge, a character she created, suddenly possessed such an "amazing setting." After several attempts, she finally managed to climb to the beams. Ji Chu entered the room, and Hua Qingge, hiding above, deduced his attention was diverted to a false lead she had created.
She decided to leave her shoes behind as a further decoy, hoping that since Ji Chu had been fooled once, he wouldn't fall for another obvious clue. However, Ji Chu surprised her by issuing a precise order to his guards: "Find a woman in purple whose outfit was stabbed by a sword. She's wearing a pair of red shoes too. Her identity is unknown. When you see her, kill her on sight."
Hua Qingge was baffled by Ji Chu's "unorthodox method," as she had expected him to recognize her obvious clues as a trap. Meanwhile, Gong Yeqi observed the commotion. He noted that their revenge plan had just begun and this unexpected manhunt had occurred far too quickly. His servant, Hong, commented that "she seems to know about our secret" and even "knows that you'll take her life tonight."
Ji Chu, from his perspective, also acknowledged that "this woman knows me very well." Hidden above, Hua Qingge silently lamented her earlier character design for Ji Chu, realizing she "didn't really know" him at all and had made him far too ruthless. A guard reported to Ji Chu that the side courtyards were normal. Ji Chu immediately ordered the capture and interrogation of Hua Qingge's nanny and servants.
Hua Qingge realized her mistake; as a newcomer to Liang, only the empress knew her appearance, so Ji Chu could only identify her by her clothes. She could have simply changed them. Suddenly, her maid and nanny appeared, but Ji Chu's guards swiftly apprehended and executed them. Watching from the rooftop, Hua Qingge was terrified by Ji Chu's cruelty.
Hiding and crying, she desperately wished to return to her own world when suddenly, a man in black appeared and swiftly carried her away. In a different location, the rain had finally stopped at Qinya House. Ji Yun, the Crown Prince of Liang, appeared restless, telling a woman named Lady Wuxue that he felt he had "committed a wrong deed."
Lady Wuxue, a renowned dancer, noted that Ji Yun rarely visited her at night and, given his desperate arrival in the rain and request for a favor, she knew he carried a heavy burden. Ji Yun asked her to care for an individual whose identity he could not reveal. As a woman was brought in, Lady Wuxue observed that their guest had arrived. The woman was Hua Qingge, who, upon seeing Ji Yun, was so overwhelmed she immediately fainted.
