Unchained Love Episode 5 Recap
> Unchained Love Recap
Xiao Duo's subordinate confirmed that the Prince of Nanyuan had entered Zhongshan, identifying the deeper hoofprints characteristic of West Shu cavalry horses, prompting Xiao Duo to immediately order a mountain search. At the same time, another report arrived: Prince Fu had entered the palace, and Consort Dowager Duan was missing.
When his subordinate found one of the Empress's leaf tags, Xiao Duo deduced the Empress had orchestrated the abduction to lure Prince Fu, not for any designs on the Consort Dowager herself. Cao Chun'ang urged Xiao Duo to prioritize killing the Prince of Nanyuan, reasoning that his death would neutralize any of the Empress's schemes and that any delay would allow the prince to escape.
Meanwhile, Bu Yinlou, resigned to her fate, was startled when Xiao Duo suddenly appeared in her room. He explained that he had to intervene, as she had forced him to stamp a document promising her protection. A relieved Bu Yinlou confessed how terrified she had been. Xiao Duo noted he easily found her by following the trail of leaf tags she had left. He asked if the Empress had left anything suspicious, and Bu Yinlou pointed out an incense burner.
She had extinguished it immediately, sensing its conspicuous placement meant it was dangerous. Despite her quick thinking, the lingering aphrodisiac scent had already affected Xiao Duo. The Empress, informed by her maid that Prince Fu was in the room and that all the court officials were assembled to witness the planned entrapment, eagerly rushed to catch the pair in an adulterous act.
However, upon throwing the door open, she found not Prince Fu, but a composed Xiao Duo sitting on the bed. Enraged, she demanded to know Prince Fu's whereabouts and accused Xiao Duo of betraying her after all the favor she had shown him. Xiao Duo coldly reminded her of a white-furred dog she once pampered. As long as the dog was obedient, she treated it well, but the moment it showed any wildness, she had it beaten into submission.
Xiao Duo declared that he was not her beast to be tamed. As the Empress was about to call for guards, Xiao Duo cautioned her against making a scene, reminding her that she was under confinement and had no authority in that part of the palace. He revealed that her loyal servants had already been replaced by his own men.
When she challenged him, he suggested that after years of managing the harem, she was tired and should find a quiet place to rest, making it clear he was exiling her from the Imperial City. Humiliated, the Empress lashed out at Cao Chun'ang for his incompetence. In a final act of spite, she publicly exposed the illicit affair between Lady Zhang Yujin and Eunuch Yan Sunlang, causing a commotion as her maids tried to silence her.
Xiao Duo’s subordinate reported that the Prince of Nanyuan had escaped by using his brother, Yuwen Liangxu, as a decoy. Xiao Duo dismissed the idea of interrogating the brother, ordering him sent to a villa under watch, knowing the young man was merely a playboy uninvolved in his brother's schemes. He expressed frustration that the prince, with his deep roots in West Shu, was now beyond his reach. Soon after, Prince Fu arrived.
Xiao Duo feigned deep remorse, confessing his failure to protect the prince from the Empress's plot and for allowing the Prince of Nanyuan to escape, offering to accept death as punishment. Taking the veiled warning, Prince Fu admitted his own recklessness and promised not to act rashly again before his enthronement.
As the Empress prepared to leave the Imperial City, she lamented that everyone within its walls was a "caged bird" and vowed to see the day Xiao Duo would meet his downfall. She requested to be sent to Tanxi Temple to reflect on her failures. Later, Lady Zhang Yujin was given a white silk rope to hang herself, and Eunuch Yan Sunlang was beheaded for their affair.
While her maid Tong Yun excitedly recounted the day's dramatic events, Bu Yinlou was distracted, replaying her encounter with Xiao Duo. After he was affected by the aphrodisiac incense, she had slapped him in a desperate attempt to shock his system back to normal, remembering a book that suggested a "fierce external force" could help expel poison. Recalling his furious expression, a fearful Bu Yinlou brought wine to his chambers to apologize.
Finding him brooding over the Prince of Nanyuan's escape and the delay in his quest for revenge, she offered him the drink, suggesting they set aside their "meaningless love and hatred." Xiao Duo accepted the wine and led her to a pear tree, confiding that it was not native to the palace. It was one of two trees transplanted from outside the city, but its twin had frozen to death, leaving this one alone.
He lamented that the palace had changed the tree, causing it to lose its nature and never bear fruit, blooming only for show. Sensing his melancholy, Bu Yinlou showed him a "Fish Immortal" charm from her mother, claiming it could turn misfortune into good fortune. She told him to close his eyes, then climbed the tree and shook its branches, showering them in pear blossoms like a romantic snowfall. The sight slowly coaxed a smile onto Xiao Duo's face.
In the eleventh year of Longhua, Prince Fu, Murong Gaogong, ascended the throne. Despite his new status as Emperor, he was troubled by Bu Yinlou’s continued avoidance of him. His eunuch, Sun Taiqing, cunningly advised him to win her sympathy by feigning illness from overwhelming grief over Prince Rong's death. The Emperor embraced the plan, ordering a period of fasting and prayer in Prince Rong’s name.
Sun Taiqing then sought out Bu Yinlou, describing the Emperor's immense suffering—how he was losing sleep and weight while personally making lanterns to honor Prince Rong. Moved, Bu Yinlou agreed to visit him. Upon her arrival, Murong Gaogong confessed that he was the one who had killed Prince Rong. He explained it was an accident—startled by Prince Rong’s sudden appearance behind him, he had instinctively pushed him.
He told her he was tormented by nightmares of Prince Rong's bloody face and that Xiao Duo had forbidden him from telling anyone. He then recalled a childhood memory where, after being bullied and locked in a dark room, she had appeared with a rosemallow lantern and led him to safety. He insisted that while she may not remember, he never forgot her importance in his life. He gave her a new lantern he had made, asking for her forgiveness.
Bu Yinlou accepted the lantern but stated she could not forgive him on Prince Rong's behalf. Instead of ceremonial fasting, she advised him to perform practical actions to atone for his mistake, reminding him that while the dead are gone, "the living remain." When he asked what she meant, she mentioned that the Empress Dowager had exiled all the servants of Prince Rong's palace after his death, prompting the Emperor to understand her meaning.
