The Sword and The Brocade Episode 24 Recap
> The Sword and The Brocade Recap
One morning, Shiyi and Xu Lingyi paid their respects to the Great Madam. Zhun playfully told his grandmother that his father was so timid he still needed his mother to hold him while sleeping. This caused light laughter among everyone present, except for Qiao Lianfang, who harbored resentment. The Great Madam, amused by Zhun's words, implied that Xu Lingyi and Shiyi were trying to conceive a younger sibling for Zhun and urged him not to disturb them.
Meanwhile, at the Ou family mansion, Ou Lixing discussed the sea ban policy with his wife, Young Madam Ou. He noted that Duke Wei Ren Kun seemed to be aligning himself with Xu Lingyi, a concerning development. To counter this, Young Madam Ou proposed a scheme. She suggested using Duke Wei's beautiful adopted daughter, Liansong, an entertainer at Tianxiang House, to entrap Xu Lingyi's lecherous brother-in-law, Wang Yu, the heir of Duke Mao.
She believed that bringing the two of them together would inevitably create a scandal. At Treasures Boutique, Young Madam Wang, Xu Lingyi's second sister-in-law, attempted to exchange a jade bracelet she claimed had broken on its own. The shopkeeper accused her of trying to defraud the establishment. Just then, Young Madam Ou arrived, revealed that the shop belonged to her family, and apologized to Young Madam Wang.
To compensate, Young Madam Ou gifted her an exquisite green jade bracelet and proposed they become sworn sisters, an offer Young Madam Wang happily accepted. Elsewhere, Wang Yu encountered Liansong at Tianxiang House. Overcome with lust, he tried to force himself upon her, but she fiercely resisted, asserting that she only sold her art, not her body.
Later, a drunk Wang Yu returned home and angrily confronted his wife about their maid, Baizhi, whom he believed she had married off while he was away. In a drunken rage, he grabbed the new jade bracelet from his wife's wrist, smashed it, and proceeded to beat her. Back at the Xu mansion, the Great Madam served a special tea gifted by Qiao Lianfang. Shiyi, feeling nauseous, excused herself.
The others assumed she was pregnant and called for a physician, who stated it was too early to confirm but advised her to rest. Later, Shiyi confided in her maid Dongqing that her illness was a ruse. She suspected Qiao Lianfang had tampered with Yuanniang's medication, which led to her miscarriage. Shiyi believed that just as Qiao Lianfang could not tolerate Yuanniang having a child, she would not tolerate Shiyi's pregnancy either, creating an opportunity to expose her.
The news of Shiyi's supposed pregnancy quickly spread. Xu Lingyi visited Shiyi, knowing they slept in separate beds and that she could not truly be pregnant. He gently confronted her, stating that if she genuinely desired a child, he could help her wish come true. Shiyi, however, declined his offer, choosing to keep her investigation into Yuanniang's death a secret from him for the time being, planning to confess everything after gathering enough evidence against Qiao Lianfang.
Later, the other concubines came to congratulate Shiyi. She intentionally brought up the effective medicine from He's Clinic, saying she planned to get some for her pregnancy, which piqued Qiao Lianfang's interest. A flashback revealed Qiao Lianfang had caused Yuanniang's miscarriage because she couldn't bear to see Yuanniang have more of Xu Lingyi's children. As Shiyi anticipated, Qiao Lianfang began colluding with Mingjing from He's Clinic to tamper with Shiyi's "medicine."
Shiyi dispatched her people to secretly monitor them, hoping to catch them and obtain both human testimony and material evidence. Concubine Qin then invited Shiyi to her courtyard to choose some flowers. Dongqing went on Shiyi's behalf and selected two pots of night-blooming cereus. Shortly after, Concubine Qin invited Qiao Lianfang over and deliberately mentioned that Dongqing had taken the night-blooming cereus, implying they were harmful to a pregnant woman, a ploy to incite Qiao Lianfang to act against Shiyi.
This remark, however, made Qiao Lianfang suspicious. She investigated and discovered she was being followed, realizing that Shiyi's pregnancy and interest in He's Clinic were all part of a trap to expose her role in Yuanniang's death. Realizing Shiyi was trying to outmaneuver her, Qiao Lianfang decided to strike first. Qiao Lianfang sought help from her mother, Madam Qiao, explaining that Shiyi's pregnancy was fake and part of a larger scheme.
Qiao Lianfang asked her mother to investigate Shiyi's activities outside the mansion and devise a plan to ruin her credibility before exposing the fake pregnancy. Madam Qiao agreed and arranged for people disguised as disaster victims to infiltrate Xianling Pavilion, spreading rumors that the workshop, and by extension Shiyi, was exploiting the labor of the needy. Meanwhile, Xu Lingkuan, Xu Lingyi's younger brother, was watching a performance by the Four Bliss Troupe.
He overheard the troupe leader mention that Ou Lixing and Wang Yu had become unusually close, even hiring the troupe for a private show. Finding this alliance between rival families suspicious, Xu Lingkuan immediately reported his findings to Xu Lingyi, warning him that the Ou family likely had ill intentions.
