Good Bye, My Princess Episode 20 Recap
> Good Bye, My Princess Recap
After Gu Jian and Pei Zhao helped him fight through a wave of assassins, a blood-stained Li Chengyin returned to the imperial palace. He presented the Emperor with a scroll and portrait retrieved by Gao Xian, revealing the true appearance of Batuer. Upon seeing it, the Emperor realized he had been deceived by the Crown Prince, Li Chengye, about Batuer's identity. Meanwhile, the Crown Prince and his confidant, Li Yan, sensed their imminent downfall.
Recognizing they were cornered, they knew their only recourse was a desperate gamble. Li Yan offered to take full responsibility for swapping the real Batuer with a fake, but the Crown Prince dismissed the idea, explaining that their close association meant they would fall together. With the title of Crown Prince seemingly lost, they resolved to seize the throne itself. To confirm the truth, the Emperor summoned A'Du and asked her to identify Batuer from ten portraits.
A'Du immediately pointed to the correct one, causing the Emperor to close his eyes in despair as the full extent of his son's treacherous ambition became clear. Determined to play their final hand, the Crown Prince and Li Yan led their forces in a rebellion. The Crown Prince demanded the palace gates be opened, claiming he had an urgent matter for the Emperor. When the guards requested an imperial decree, he forcefully commanded them to open the doors.
Unbeknownst to them, the Emperor had anticipated their move. Calmly, he sat in the hall practicing calligraphy, waiting for the Crown Prince to walk into his trap. As Li Chengye stormed in, believing victory was his, imperial guards swarmed from all sides, under orders to capture the Crown Prince alive and execute his followers. Realizing his cause was lost, Li Chengye fought back furiously, declaring that no one was qualified to capture him.
During the chaos, imperial guards struck Li Yan. Enraged to see his trusted ally wounded, the Crown Prince intensified his desperate attack. Knowing he would not survive, Li Yan impaled himself on the Crown Prince's sword, unwilling to die by anyone else's hand. With his dying breath, Li Yan whispered that in their next life, they should never again be born as brothers in the imperial family. Staring at the lifeless Li Yan, the Crown Prince became unhinged.
He railed against his father, accusing him of teaching him to be a ruthless winner only to obstruct and destroy his ambitions. He questioned if he was merely a tool and if he had ever truly been considered a son. From a distance, Li Chengyin watched coldly, urging his second brother to stop the insurgency. The Crown Prince retorted that their very existence was an insurgency.
Soon, the rebellious forces were vanquished, and the wounded Crown Prince was apprehended and taken to the Court of Judicial Review to await his sentence. At the Court of Judicial Review, the Emperor confronted the Crown Prince, reciting a mournful poem. He accused his son of daring to raise an insurrection, but the Crown Prince defiantly declared that if he had succeeded, he would have killed whomever he pleased.
The Emperor listed his crimes: diverting copper meant for Buddha statues to secretly cast illegal coins, disturbing state governance, and committing fratricide. The Crown Prince blamed the Emperor for everything, accusing him of favoritism towards the first Crown Prince, forcing a rivalry, and then allowing Li Chengyin and even the Crown Princess Consort to investigate him, making him feel he was never truly acknowledged.
The Emperor revealed he had always known about the Crown Prince's involvement in his brother's death yet still appointed him, admitting his partiality was "towards" Li Chengye, as he couldn't bear to lose another son. The Crown Prince scornfully warned him about Li Chengyin, alleging he was just as scheming and backed by the Gao clan, whom the Emperor detested.
The Emperor, with profound sadness, confessed that if not for his son's paranoia, the throne would have eventually been his, as he was the son he had most wanted to appoint. Hearing this, the Crown Prince could only utter "Imperial Father" in dawning regret. With Li Yan dead, his father, Elder Prince Zhong, pleaded with the Grand Empress Dowager to save his clan from implication. He offered his own life in exchange for his family's survival.
Later, the Grand Empress Dowager appeared in court. She requested that the Emperor strip Elder Prince Zhong of his hereditary title, confiscate his assets, and ban his clan from holding office for generations. The Emperor agreed. Regarding the Crown Prince, the Emperor declared that Li Chengye, who attempted patricide and usurpation, and was guilty of assassinating the former Crown Prince, embezzling, and poisoning the Xi State princess, could not be tolerated.
However, as his son, he would be granted an intact corpse. The Emperor sentenced him to death by a cup of poisoned wine and decreed he be buried outside the ancestral tomb.
