The Legendary Life of Queen Lau Episode 9 Recap
> The Legendary Life of Queen Lau Recap
Jinfeng awoke to find herself bound to a bench at Lingshu Academy. She recognized Shen Ao, Duan Yunchong, Chai Tiezhou, and Su Jingtang, and questioned their intentions. They explained their gratitude for her and suggested they would repay her kindness by giving her a beautiful face. Jinfeng realized they planned cosmetic surgery on her, crying out for them to stop. They insisted it was not up to her.
Duan Yunchong, Chai Tiezhou, and Su Jingtang then clutched their stomachs, complaining of unbearable pain. Jinfeng accused them of being cruel and adding poison to the dishes she had cooked earlier. Shen Ao, who had not eaten Jinfeng's food, remained unaffected. He reassured Jinfeng that she only needed a short nap and would wake up with a beautiful face, though it might hurt a little.
As he approached her with a knife, Jinfeng called him a quack who knew nothing about aesthetics. Outside, Duan Yunzhang heard Jinfeng's pained wails and wondered if Duan Yunchong and the others had gone too far, despite his instructions to go easy. However, he quickly suspected it might be a trap set by the clever Jinfeng, deciding not to enter for fear of falling for it.
Inside, Shen Ao told Jinfeng that calling for the Emperor was useless, as the cosmetic surgery was Duan Yunzhang's order. Jinfeng, furious at this revelation, declared Duan Yunzhang had gone too far in trying to harm her. She struggled free, forced Shen Ao out of the room, and then chased Duan Yunzhang as he hurried away. She took off a shoe and hurled it, hitting and knocking out Duan Yunzhang's eunuch, Shuan.
Catching up to the Emperor, Jinfeng grabbed his hair, while he, in turn, grabbed hers. Duan Yunchong, Chai Tiezhou, and Su Jingtang returned, but their stomach pains flared up again, preventing them from intervening. As Jinfeng and Duan Yunzhang continued their struggle, the Empress Dowager and a Consort passed by, shocked by the sight. The Empress Dowager immediately demanded they release each other. After they separated, Jinfeng slapped Duan Yunzhang.
The Empress Dowager confronted Jinfeng, demanding an explanation for harming the Emperor. Jinfeng retorted that Duan Yunzhang owed her an explanation first, asking why she had been drugged and brought to Lingshu Academy, and why Shen Ao was attempting cosmetic surgery on her. The Empress Dowager, horrified, scolded Shen Ao. Shen Ao claimed it was his own idea to make the Empress prettier. Jinfeng quickly exposed him, stating he had just told her it was Duan Yunzhang's order.
Duan Yunzhang then admitted it was indeed his order, explaining that since Jinfeng refused to leave the palace, and he would have to keep seeing her, he naturally wanted her to have a prettier face. The Empress Dowager, calling Duan Yunzhang mean, suggested that perhaps he felt guilty. She offered to remove Shen Ao from his position to appease Jinfeng. Jinfeng, however, rejected the offer, stating that if someone disliked her, she wouldn't beg for their attention.
She declared that Duan Yunzhang didn't need to employ his "stupid officials" to drive her out, as she would go back to her palace, pack her things, and leave the palace she no longer wished to stay in. The Empress Dowager urged Duan Yunzhang to go after her, but he did not. Back in Xiangluo Hall, Jinfeng was determined to divorce the Emperor and return to Xianpa Village for a carefree life.
She asked Baiyu to draft a divorce agreement, despite Baiyu's concerns about the unprecedented nature of an Emperor and Empress divorcing. Jinfeng then asked Baiyu if she knew where Liu Xie was keeping her mother, as she needed to save her. Baiyu denied knowing. Sufang then rushed in, distressed, reporting that Jinfeng's pet "Big Baby," a giant spider, was missing. Jinfeng found the spider dead on the carpet, with a drop of Shen Ao's medicine nearby.
Recalling Shen Ao's earlier warning that a full bottle of the medicine was lethal, Jinfeng realized he was trying to harm Duan Yunzhang. Despite their animosity, Jinfeng could not stand by and watch the Emperor be killed. Considering it an act of charity, she told Baiyu to prepare the divorce agreement and rushed off to warn Duan Yunzhang. Jinfeng went to Xuanchen Hall, but Duan Yunzhang was not there.
While waiting, she noticed a letter box on his desk, the same one she had seen when she first arrived. Inside, she found the letters she had torn up at the Astronomical Observatory, meticulously glued back together. Sufang then revealed that it was Duan Yunzhang who had carried her back to her palace when she was drunk that day. Confused by his contradictory behavior, Jinfeng declared she was leaving regardless.
Suddenly, she saw a black-clad man outside the hall and immediately chased after him, instructing Sufang to get help. Along the way, Jinfeng encountered Su Jingtang and Chai Tiezhou, who were still recovering from their stomachaches. She urgently informed them of the assassin and ordered a search. Su Jingtang, initially skeptical, eventually deployed men. Jinfeng then learned that Duan Yunzhang was at Qingchi Palace. Fearing for his safety, she hurried there.
At Qingchi Palace, Jinfeng was initially stopped by an eunuch, but she pushed past him. She called out for Duan Yunzhang, noticing a strange smell in the air. She discovered Duan Yunzhang unconscious in the water, with only his hand visible, and immediately jumped in to rescue him. The Empress Dowager arrived, demanding to know what happened to Duan Yunzhang. An eunuch informed her that Shen Ao was treating the Emperor, who had been poisoned.
The Consort immediately accused Jinfeng, citing her presence at Qingchi Palace and her bad relationship with the Emperor. Jinfeng explained that she had discovered Shen Ao's medicine was poison while packing her belongings. She had then chased the black-clad man to Qingchi Palace to warn Duan Yunzhang. Su Jingtang reported they hadn't found any black-clad man during their search, but Sufang corroborated Jinfeng's claim of seeing him at Xuanchen Hall.
Jinfeng then deduced that Shen Ao was the black-clad man, who had poisoned Duan Yunzhang and lured her to Qingchi Palace to frame her. Just then, Shen Ao arrived, reporting that he had administered a special antidote to Duan Yunzhang, who would soon regain consciousness. He feigned ignorance about the black-clad man. Regarding the special medicine, Shen Ao claimed Jinfeng must have forgotten his instructions: one drop a day was harmless, but an entire bottle would be fatal.
Jinfeng countered that her spider had died from barely touching a drop. Shen Ao then revealed that Duan Yunzhang himself had ordered him to give the medicine to Jinfeng as a "bait" because he suspected she had entered the palace with ill intentions and wanted to catch her red-handed. He concluded that Jinfeng, impatient to harm the Emperor, had finally done so. The Consort suggested handing Jinfeng over to the Court of Judicial Review.
Jinfeng vehemently denied the accusations, insisting she was innocent and had saved Duan Yunzhang. At that moment, news arrived that Duan Yunzhang was awake. Jinfeng pleaded with Duan Yunzhang to tell everyone that she had saved him and had no intention of harming him. However, Duan Yunzhang claimed he vaguely remembered Jinfeng giving him a pill at Qingchi Palace, suggesting it might have been the poison.
He then ordered Su Jingtang to confine Jinfeng to the Western Cold Palace under suspicion of poisoning him, stating they would search Xiangluo Hall that night for evidence. Jinfeng vehemently protested this injustice as Su Jingtang escorted her away, while Duan Yunzhang mentally apologized to her. Jinfeng was brought to the dilapidated Western Cold Palace, expressing dismay at its condition, though Sufang tried to remain positive. Meanwhile, Duan Yunzhang led a search party to Xiangluo Hall.
Shen Ao, walking at the back of the group, "discovered" a bottle of poison hidden in a secret compartment of a cabinet. He reported that it contained aconitine, a substance that causes unconsciousness, breathing difficulties, and limb numbness, matching Duan Yunzhang's symptoms. Duan Yunzhang then dramatically revealed that this was, in fact, Shen Ao's own crime.
He exposed Shen Ao for poisoning him and fabricating evidence to frame Jinfeng, admitting the story about Jinfeng giving him a pill was a lie he invented. Chai Tiezhou confirmed that Duan Yunzhang had already suspected Shen Ao. Shen Ao argued that even if Jinfeng hadn't poisoned Duan Yunzhang, someone else could have done so and then hidden the poison in her chamber.
Duan Yunzhang refused to back down, revealing his final piece of evidence: he had once noticed a faint, unique scent on Shen Ao's fingers while Shen Ao was asleep. This scent was identical to the incense used in Qingchi Palace. He demanded to know why Shen Ao tried to kill him and who was behind it. Cornered, Shen Ao suddenly grabbed Baiyu, holding her hostage.
Baiyu, remembering she had seen Shen Ao in black and deducing he was her father Liu Xie's man, chose to protect her father by subtly moving her neck towards the dagger to prevent Shen Ao from revealing Liu Xie's involvement. An arrow then struck the dagger from Shen Ao's hand, followed by another hitting his back. Duan Yunzhang rushed to Shen Ao's aid and called for an imperial physician.
Refusing help, Shen Ao confessed that his father, an imperial physician at Lingshu Academy, had been executed years ago for failing to save Duan Yunzhang's mother, Consort Li, after she fell into the water. His mother later died of depression, leaving Shen Ao to grow up in poverty. He became an imperial physician to avenge his parents.
He told Duan Yunzhang this so that the Emperor would learn from his family's suffering, hoping it would make him more cautious and self-disciplined in the future, calling it his final act of revenge. Shen Ao added that Duan Yunzhang's misjudgment had given him the opportunity to betray him. With his confession complete, Shen Ao plunged a dagger into his chest, taking his own life.
Su Jingtang reported that no other suspicious letters were found in Lingshu Academy, suggesting no mastermind. Duan Yunzhang, however, recalled his past attempt to assassinate Liu Xie at Qingchi Palace, which involved a signal to be given after he dropped the second glass of wine. He remembered that someone had knocked over his wine cup with a stone, a person he now realized wasn't trying to disrupt his plan, but to save him.
Duan Yunzhang revealed that it was Shen Ao who had saved him. Before his death, Shen Ao had told him that upon learning of Duan Yunzhang's plot to kill Liu Xie, he had approached Liu Xie with a counter-plan. Shen Ao would poison Duan Yunzhang to die after his first drink, ensuring Liu Xie's survival and enabling Liu Xie to eliminate Duan Yunzhang while feigning an investigation, thus saving Shen Ao. However, the poisoned wine was knocked over.
Shen Ao had speculated that only Liu Xie could have done this, perhaps needing Duan Yunzhang alive for other reasons. Duan Yunzhang, troubled by these revelations, decided to take a walk alone. He went to Taiyuan Pond, reflecting on how it had been made shallower after his mother, Consort Li, had fallen in. He realized that when he and Shen Ao used to drink by the pond, Shen Ao had been plotting his death.
Duan Yunzhang wondered why Shen Ao, if truly intent on killing him, hadn't used a more potent incense, concluding that Shen Ao had been careless. He then questioned his own actions, wondering if he had made a mistake, which might explain why the heavens had not blessed his success in the past.
