The Princess's Gambit Episode 4 Recap
> The Princess's Gambit Recap
Since the trip was to the mountains for an appointment, the journey was quite long. However, Shen Zaiye not only failed to prepare any snacks but didn’t even bring water. He even claimed that it would be inconvenient to relieve himself along the way. Jiang Taohua could only endure until they reached their destination.
Shen Zaiye, citing exhaustion, entered the room with Qingtai but didn’t forget to keep an eye on Jiang Taohua standing in the rain, suspecting that Shen Zaiye might have set a trap for her. At this point, Shen Zaiye had already decided that Jiang Taohua could not escape her demise. Inside the room, Jiang Taohua and Qingtai were served specially prepared snacks and tea by a maid.
Although they tested the food and confirmed it was not poisoned, Jiang Taohua remembered having eaten the same thing before in the palace and knew that when consumed together, it could cause poisoning. She realized that Shen Zaiye was using the heir to try and kill her. Jiang Taohua purposely pretended to suffer from severe stomach pain. Shen Zaiye, planning for Jiang Taohua to go to the bathroom and change clothes, instructed his subordinates to kill her.
Afterward, when the heir entered, they planned to frame him for Jiang Taohua’s death. However, Jiang Taohua saw through the plan and, with Qingtai’s help, killed the late concubine who had come to assassinate her. She also had Qingtai wear her clothes to lure the pursuers, giving her more time. Jiang Taohua disguised herself in a maid’s outfit and escaped. On the way, she met a butcher who was slaughtering pigs.
She smeared herself with pig blood and went to seek help from Mu Wuxia. Qingtai, meanwhile, fought with the assassins sent by Shen Zaiye, but they soon realized she was not the princess. Jiang Taohua fled all the way to Mu Wuxia’s place. Just as she reached the door, she fainted. Mu Wuxia sent people to treat her, but Jiang Taohua refused. Meanwhile, Shen Zaiye realized that Jiang Taohua had escaped and, leaving the heir behind, stormed off angrily.
The heir, in a fit of rage, killed a maid to vent his frustration. Shen Zaiye initially thought Jiang Taohua would seek help from King Qi, but instead, she had gone to the Fourth Prince’s residence. Shen Zaiye barged into the Fourth Prince’s mansion and forcibly tried to take Jiang Taohua away, accusing her of faking an injury to deceive them. He also pointed out that the blood on her was not human blood.
To expose Jiang Taohua’s scheme, Shen Zaiye publicly lifted her clothes, only to find a deep knife wound. He was immediately stunned. Jiang Taohua had known that she couldn’t avoid Shen Zaiye’s suspicion, so she had pretended to be injured for real and stabbed herself in the thigh. Mu Wuxia trusted Jiang Taohua even more after this. Jiang Taohua, in front of Mu Wuxia, questioned if Shen Zaiye wanted her dead.
Initially, she thought it was an enemy of Shen Zaiye who had accidentally injured her, but now she saw it wasn’t so. Mu Wuxia regretted allowing Jiang Taohua to marry Shen Zaiye and warned Shen Zaiye that if he harmed Jiang Taohua, he would seek revenge at all costs. If anything happened to Jiang Taohua, whether or not Shen Zaiye was responsible, it would be blamed on him.
At this point, a female doctor came to inform the Fourth Prince that Jiang Taohua refused to use the medicine that would numb her, insisting on stitching the wound while staying awake. Only after stitching could they treat her. Shen Zaiye then volunteered to stitch her up since it was too late to summon a royal doctor from the palace. However, he didn’t forget to issue a warning. While stitching Jiang Taohua’s wound, Shen Zaiye no longer pretended.
He asked why she didn’t seek help from the palace. Jiang Taohua confessed that she believed Shen Zaiye must have ambushed her on the way to the palace. If she went, she would surely die, so she had to take a chance and come to the Fourth Prince’s place. Shen Zaiye, feeling like he was up against a worthy opponent, had not expected the princess of Beiyuan to be so resourceful.
While stitching, even the female doctor found his work rough, but Shen Zaiye frankly told Jiang Taohua that no one but him would ever see the wound. Jiang Taohua refused to use the numbing medicine because she feared Shen Zaiye might poison her, and she didn’t dare close her eyes, fearing she might never wake up. This concern made Shen Zaiye unexpectedly feel a bit sorry for her.
He reassured Jiang Taohua that if she needed to sleep, he would stay and ensure no one would harm her. Jiang Taohua finally fell asleep. When Jiang Taohua returned, Shen Zaiye ordered Meng Zhenzhen to take good care of her. In her unconscious state, Jiang Taohua held onto the corner of Shen Zaiye’s clothes, not letting him leave. A rare expression of tenderness flashed across his face, which confused Meng Zhenzhen.
She suspected that Jiang Taohua’s injury was somehow related to Shen Zaiye, but his expression seemed genuine. Meng Zhenzhen thought that Shen Zaiye was born to be an official and, regardless of who it was—even someone he liked—if they stood in his way, they would be killed without hesitation. She became even more concerned about her situation and was determined to send the painting out.
Jiang Taohua, relying on her memory, copied a painting from Shen Zaiye’s room and had Qingtai send it to Yang Wanqing. Jiang Taohua pretended to be homesick and made a fuss, asking Qingtai to buy some hometown snacks. However, Shen Zaiye had ordered that no one was allowed to go out, so Qingtai was stopped. Jiang Taohua then started to make a scene in the courtyard.
Shen Zaiye had someone relay that it was fine for Jiang Taohua to have her hometown food but not allowed to go out, and the same rule applied to other wives as well. Meng Zhenzhen guessed that Shen Zaiye must be suspicious of her and planned to set a trap, so she became more cautious and was even more eager to send the painting out.
A maid was worried that Meng Zhenzhen’s actions might damage the relationship between the two, but Meng Zhenzhen knew that there was no real affection between her and Shen Zaiye. Jiang Taohua found Yang Wanqing and handed over the painting she had copied, lying that it was Sunlight over a Thousand Peaks in order to exchange it for some antidote. Although Yang Wanqing praised her cleverness, he also reminded her not to do such things again in the future.
Jiang Taohua went to see Shen Zaiye and confessed that she had figured out he wanted to kill her. She explained that it was because she had triggered a trap in the study that day, destroying Shen Zaiye’s fishing scheme. Jiang Taohua also offered to help find the painting if she could get protection. She could see that Shen Zaiye and Meng Zhenzhen had reached a deadlock, and only breaking the deadlock would allow them to obtain the painting. Shen Zaiye looked at Jiang Taohua with a trace of anger, but Jiang Taohua just smiled at him.
