Unchained Love Episode 7 Recap
> Unchained Love Recap
Xiao Duo arrived at the courtyard and exposed a highly poisonous monkshood root hidden within Yuwen Liangxu's short sword. He ordered everyone present arrested for questioning, remarking that his skills had grown rusty since his blade hadn't drawn blood. Cao Chunang expressed his relief, acknowledging Xiao Duo's accurate prediction that the Prince of Nanyuan would send a spy.
He noted that without Xiao Duo's timely discovery, Prince Yuwen might have been kidnapped and their men would have been in mortal danger. Xiao Duo emphasized the constant peril of their work, urging caution. He then instructed them to take the prisoners to the Imperial Prison for Qilang to interrogate. Back at the Zhaoding Bureau, Cao Chunang presented Xiao Duo with the monthly supervisors' reports. Among them were unusual, romantically-themed accounts.
Cao Chunang recalled one agent, assigned to monitor a female royal merchant, who had become intimately involved with her to gather intelligence and documented their interactions in his "reports." Cao Chunang offered to filter out these trivial entries, but Xiao Duo took them all, saying he would take a look. Observing Xiao Duo's unusual focus, Cao Chunang speculated that his Godfather must be facing a very challenging problem.
Reading one of the storybooks, Xiao Duo learned that women enjoy outings like catching butterflies in early spring. He briefly imagined Bu Yinlou playfully doing so before shaking the image from his head. He continued reading and discovered that flying kites is another favorite pastime. Inspired, Xiao Duo began meticulously crafting a kite, learning the process required tying, pasting, drawing, and releasing, with the initial tying of the bamboo frame being the most crucial step.
In the Imperial Mausoleum's underground palace, Bu Yinlou and Beauty Li were cheerfully playing a card game. Eunuch Liu, perplexed by their lack of distress, entered and admonished them for making noise in the sacred mausoleum. Seeing a lit candle near valuable royal robes, he furiously ordered Bu Yinlou to throw it away. Bu Yinlou complied, tossing the candle and narrowly missing the eunuch's clothes. Exasperated by their behavior, Eunuch Liu dismissed them from their duties in the underground palace.
After parting ways with Bu Yinlou, Beauty Li was briefly greeted by her worried maid. Soon after, Eunuch Liu cornered her in a room, making it clear he intended to coerce her into a relationship. As Li Pingru stood distressed and helpless, Bu Yinlou burst in wielding a cleaver. She subdued Eunuch Liu, tackling him to the ground and beating him severely.
A terrified Beauty Li worried he might die, but Bu Yinlou reassured her he wouldn't from her blows, then jokingly suggested killing him if he woke up, which only panicked Beauty Li more. When Eunuch Liu regained consciousness, Bu Yinlou fabricated a story, claiming a large, masked man had ambushed him, beaten him severely, and stripped him naked at the tomb's entrance. Beauty Li and the others corroborated the tale, exaggerating his injuries and the public humiliation.
To further pressure him, Bu Yinlou suggested a full search of the mausoleum for the culprit's sack. Mortified by the public exposure and the prospect of a wider investigation, Eunuch Liu dropped the matter and dismissed everyone. Later, Beauty Li tearfully thanked Bu Yinlou, confessing that Eunuch Liu had been forcing her to be his "companion." She admitted her shame had kept her silent but felt secure with Bu Yinlou protecting her.
As they talked, they wandered to a neglected cemetery for lower-ranked concubines, which had no gravestones. Bu Yinlou was deeply moved, lamenting that these women were trapped even in death. This reminded her of her own mother, who had resisted becoming her father's official concubine to prevent Bu Yinlou from being confined to the inner chambers for life. Her mother’s dying wish was for her to live freely.
Looking at an old birdcage, Bu Yinlou remarked that all women in the palace, regardless of status, were confined to the same cage. She declared she would not end up buried there. Her maid noted Bu Yinlou's new boldness, attributing it to being "backed by someone important," meaning Xiao Duo.
Bu Yinlou then grew worried that she had ruined Xiao Duo’s plans by causing so much trouble and asked what day it was, realizing the next day was the fifteenth, the day of their planned meeting. Meanwhile, at the Zhaoding Bureau, Xiao Duo learned that the Yuwen family's two ancestral Hetian jades served as command tokens for their network of secret outposts.
With the Prince of Nanyuan holding one and Yuwen Liangxu the other, they couldn't directly seize the jade without alerting enemy factions. Their plan was to wait for Yuwen Liangxu to use it to contact an outpost for help. Xiao Duo announced he was taking the next day off for a personal matter, surprising Cao Chunang, who correctly guessed he was going to the Imperial Mausoleum.
However, before Xiao Duo could depart, he received word that Prince Yuwen Liangxu had gone to the Cuju field. Deciding he had enough time, Xiao Duo went to confront him first. At the Cuju field, Xiao Duo proposed a wager: his premium jade pendant against Yuwen Liangxu's ancestral Hetian jade. Provoked by Xiao Duo's taunts, the Prince accepted. Xiao Duo instructed his men to join the game, telling Qilang to observe from the sidelines.
Despite their efforts, including a goal by Cao Chunang, Xiao Duo's team was losing badly. Just then, Princess Hede, Murong Wanwan, arrived. Learning of the wager and seeing Yuwen Liangxu's aggressive play, she intervened, claiming the field was hers. She took Xiao Duo's place and challenged the Prince to a one-on-one match. Her superior skill quickly overwhelmed him, and she won the Hetian jade, leaving Yuwen Liangxu completely smitten with her.
