The drama almost lost me but I'm back in the game after Episode 14! I don't know if I'll be in for the long haul though. With so many spoilers for the romantic development in this drama I'm not too sure who Yun Xian will end up with but I do like one of the pairings over the other. However, there's this other man I like way more who appears in Episode 14 and it's him that's keeping me at bay.
Just a heads up, my summary doesn't go in order from episode to episode. I went by topic and then inserted a lot of my commentaries. It won't be as formal as my previous post.
[Romances are budding. It’s become a tug of war of
who the real male lead is.]
 |
| Qi Zhen staring lovingly at the osmanthus tea Yun Xian made for him |
Zheng Qi (Qi Zhen) is there for Yun Xian when she falls ill
while caring for patients who were trying to overcome the fever (a deadly
disease back then). My favourite part was when she called him “Yuan Bao.”
Chinese have this thing with giving nicknames to their babies when they already
have a name and so Zheng Qi’s baby nickname was Yuan Bao. Can you imagine calling an Emperor
by his baby nickname? You’d be beheaded if you’re not the female lead.
|
| The look of love. |
[Episode 12] During News Year’s Eve (a HUGE holiday in
Chinese culture) he spends it with Yun Xian. How they ended up together that
night was because he had another argument with Empress Dowager Sun and Yun Xian
pitied him for spending that special night alone. She prepares him a meal and
despite it all being cold by the time he eats it, it’s the best meal he’s ever
had. They play in the snow and she sprains her ankle (Yun Xian’s tip: right after getting a sprain don’t
massage it vigorously or use heat; use ice). Then they’re distracted by
fireworks. She’s so enamored by them that Zheng Qi, who loves her, wants her to be
even more elated so he carries her to highest place to be closer to the
fireworks.
Those of you new to Chinese culture, New Year’s celebration
lasts very long. They don’t just end after New Year’s. There are also night
festivals and both men, Zheng Qi and Qi Yu, ask to meet her there. Qi Yu is
late so Zheng Qi gets to see her first. They play those riddle games and both
of them are so smart they make the boss worry. Lol. I also found it funny when Yun
Xian was clearly uncomfortable playing the riddle game with him (because I guess it’s something
lovers would do) he literally shouts out he doesn’t care, garnering
everyone’s attention and making Yun Xian even more awkward. Our geniuses
retreat and settle for a smaller prize, a bracelet, which Zheng Qi forces Yun
Xian to accept. [/Episode 12]
Even though Zheng Qi likes her, its Qi Yu who gets the girl
first.
[Episode 10] When Qi Yu’s mother was ill, Qi Yu barged into
Yun Xian’s room and begged her to treat her mother. She cures her and it’s all
because she examined the mom’s urine. When she returns home, her father is
furious at her for leaving in the middle of the night with an unknown man. Her
reputation as a maiden is now forever tarnished. Before tonight, Dad was
already infuriated with her for touching a man’s leg (she was actually tending
to a patient who had a leg injury). For her punishment, she’s locked away in
the storage room with bare minimum food. Luckily Qi Yu comes and explains
everything to Angry Daddy. With that, Yun Xian is allowed to go back to her
room.
Still, the problem with her reputation remains. The solution
is easy, the unknown man just has to marry her. Qi Yu (the unknown man) is more
than happy to make her his wife and proposes on the spot. She’s hesitant so he
tells her he’ll wait for her answer: a white handkerchief on the window sill
means ‘No’ and a red one means ‘Yes’. By the way, she still doesn’t know he’s
royalty either.
With her dad adamant on marrying her off somewhere,
anywhere, Yun Xian is desperate for a way out. After much hesitation, she hangs
the red handkerchief on her window sill and it’s not long until Qi Yu barges in
her room again. She confesses to him that she’s desperate but she also admits
that she does like Qi Yu. Qi Yu is now a happy man. [/Episode 10]
So
basically while she promised one man her hand in marriage, she spent New Years’
Eve and the festival night with another man. Nice. And then she even meets both
men on the same day! Skills~~
After meeting up with Zheng Qi that festival night, she
later meets up with Qi Yu and he gives her a gift too: a hair pin with a silver
mushroom on it. Okay, so it
looks prettier than how I describe it. This mushroom is some high-class
herbal medicine.
Zheng Qi spots the two lovebirds and becomes lovelorn. For
the next few days, he ignores everything and everyone (when he’s the almighty
Emperor) and dreads in his misery.
[Beside the romance, there’s other stuff happening, like Yun
Xian’s advancement in medical care (please remember the title of the drama is “The
Imperial Doctress”)]
[Episode 9] I love it when Yun Xian earns the trust of the
male (royal) doctors who judged her based on her gender and not her talents.
She was obviously brimming with skills but just because she’s female, all the
due credits were stolen from her. When she uses the medical treatment the
medicine lady had taught her, it amazes the male doctors, forcing them to
acknowledge her skills. Despite being skillful, Yun Xian isn’t obnoxious. She
respects all the male doctors despite being looked down on. She offers them her
quarters for them to sleep in because there weren’t enough rooms.
The male doctor eventually calls her “Dr. Tan” by accident,
which means the male doctor has wholeheartedly acknowledged her as a doctor
(regardless of her gender). Yun Xian is so happy it makes me smile with her.
Later, he even teaches her his know-hows (Male doctor’s tip: to treat children with diarrhea, put a slice of
ginger on their stomach and then using heat, warm up the ginger slowly).
[/Episode 9 and Episode 10]
[Episode 11] However, Yun Xian’s little paradise is about to
come to an end. Her father scorns her for practicing medicine and touching a
man’s leg. Her dad locks her up in a room but even being locked away, she can
still examine her patients. A group of children had begged Yun Xian to cure
their ailing mother whose husband is cheating on her with her cousin. Her husband’s
infidelity is apparently all the mother’s fault because she’s failed to give
birth to a son. Dude, it’s his
sperm that’s not strong enough.
With Zi Su (her servant) acting as the messenger, Yun Xian
correctly diagnoses the mother’s condition. On top of that, Yun Xian made sure
to cure her emotional pains by giving the mother hope that her husband will
return to her after she follows the prescription. Medicine isn’t a dead
subject, curing the heart is just as important as curing the body. Emotional
pains affect the health physically and Yun Xian clearly captured that aspect.
She’s both knowledgeable and caring. [/Episode 11]
[Episode 13] Qi Yu’s mother, Wang Princess, and the Empress
Dowager Sun got wind of Qi Yu and Yun Xian’s relationship and they’re all in it
for destroying it. Qi Yu had officially proposed to Yun Xian’s family and
promised to request the Emperor to allow their marriage but you see the Emperor
is still dreading in agony over his lost love and fuming with anger at the man
who stole his love (i.e. Qi Yu). The Emperor refuses to see Qi Yu which gives
time for the Wang family to orchestrate an attack using Mr. Xu (who still harbours
hate against Yu Xian for killings his wife with her prescription) to
kill Yun Xian’s entire family. Everyone survives except Zi Su. Zi Su had sacrificed her life to protect Yun Xian. Omg I gasped at that scene. Drama,
how could you do that to Yun Xian’s partner in crime? Zi Su was such a faithful
servant and she was smart too.
Yun Xian survives the attack too but everyone thinks she
died. When Zheng Qi and Qi Yu learned of the atrocity, both men are
devastatingly shocked but Zheng Qi cannot beat Qi Yu’s reaction; Qi Yu
literally spat out blood.
Wow. I guess this is the drama’s way of telling us that Qi Yu loves Yun Xian
more than Zheng Qi does? [/Episode 13]
While everyone thinks Yun Xian died, Yun Xian thinks her
whole family died because of her. If anything, this incident has confirmed to
her that she indeed is a curse. As a result of that, tt seems like she’s also
vowed to stop all her medical ambitions. However there’s a man there to help
her regain herself. He's known as Priest Wang. And omg, I LOVE this old man. He’s so funny. This
man, I swear, disguises himself as a pervert, a scammer, and drunkard when he’s
really a genius and a caring man. To protect Yun Xian from being bothered by
men, he purposely dirties her pretty face. To help Yun Xian recover from her
emotional pain and regain her appetite, he yells at her so she cries out all
her emotional pains.
His occupation is both a prophet and a doctor. He’s also
well versed in daily nutrition. He ends up teaching Yun Xian how to cook
healthy meals for different health conditions. Despite Yun Xian being
discouraged, her passion for medicine never dimmed no matter how much she tried
to suppress it. I love that aspect in her character. I’m really interested in
what she’ll learn from him from hereon. Even though he appears to be a scammer,
he’s definitely got real skills. He is now my new favourite character.
[Other characters]
She’s the Empress Xiao Zhuang Qian. Someone please tell me she’ll remain this
fair and kind throughout the drama. She was the one who updated the two men of
Yun Xian’s death. She was the one who tended to Qi Yu when she saw him fall
over in shock. She was also the one who encouraged the Emperor to get back on
his feet and make sure justice is brought upon the evildoers who killed Yun
Xian. Despite knowing the Emperor loves Yun Xian, she remains caring towards
the Emperor. She doesn’t hold a grudge against Yun Xian either for taking the
Emperor’s heart. Because she is the Queen. She cannot hold such petty emotions like
jealously. She sure makes
the men in this drama seem useless. Ahem. I'm talked about Qi Yu. The
Queen even takes into consideration of Qi Yu’s feelings because she advises the
Emperor to keep his relationship with Yun Xian a secret from Qi Yu to protect
his fragile heart.
Another very useless guy is Yun Xian’s father. Someone needs
to save this man from himself. At first I could understand his inner turmoil:
his own daughter (indirectly) killing his father and his son. And then she has
the nerve to continue medicine, the instrument that killed his entire family.
However, his loathing for his daughter went too far. I lost all respect for the
father for how inhumane he was towards his daughter. Touching a man’s leg? Oh
come on! She was treating a patient. She’s his only kin (other than grandma).
No matter how much he hates her, he can’t actually hate her. But he actually
does hate her. Ugh. That scene in the boat (before the deadly attack) where he
called his daughter a curse over and over again made me lose all respect for
this man. At least he redeemed himself a little (just a little) when he seemed genuinely worried about her
daughter who had fallen into the water during the attack.
- - - Comments - - -
Romance: I’m not
very into it but I do like to analyze it. Qi Yu seems to be the source of Yun
Xian’s misfortunes. He made Yun Xian’s father hate her more and even brought
about that massacre to happen which ultimately makes her hate herself. Meanwhile
Zheng Qi (or Qi Zhen) is the one who lets her love herself and medicine again.
Qi Yu’s love is more of the selfish kind. He wants her for
his own. I would say Zheng Qi is equally possessive but what he said to the
Queen in Episode 14 made me reconsider his love. He had no intention of making
Yun Xian his consort and barricading her freedom. His love towards her isn’t
selfish, he wishes for her to remain free.
I laughed a little when Zheng Qi told the Queen why he loved
Yun Xian: he’s the only girl that ever yelled at him. Oh baby, come here, I’ll
yell at you all you want.
I noticed that Qi Yu is always late to the important stuff. He’s
late to the festival night, making her meet Zheng Qi first and he's late to
confirm the marriage, allowing the killers to “succeed” in murdering Yun Xian.
I like Qi Yu but I don't think he deserves the girl. He's
also much more emotional than Zheng Qi and Yun Xian. Zheng Qi can calm down
after the Queen’s words and get back to business and Yun Xian readily embraces
her passion for medicine again. It's only Qi Yu who's still left in an
emotional turmoil. With him being so emotionally driven, I don’t think he’s
suited to be the man Yun Xian can depend. At the moment I can only see Yun Xian
being paired with Zheng Qi. The only other option I can fathom is she'll end up
with no one.
Yun Xian's Medical Pursuit: To be honest I was losing interest in this drama but then
Episode 14 rolled in and I adored that old man. And he's such a good actor too.
There was one scene where he was yelling at Yun Xian and his face got so red!
He also did some modern singing as a form of teasing Yun Xian which didn't seem
out of place at all. Just like the medicine lady, I want Yun Xian to learn a
lot from him. This old man brightens up my screen (:
The cost at which Yun Xian has to pay for her passion for medicine gets higher and higher. When the stakes are higher it makes the journey much more worthwhile, but did it have to be Zi Su? I liked her. Drama, why are you only killing the girls? As for the men supporting her in this drama, I like the male doctor in Episode 8/9 who slowly warmed up to her. And do I really need to mention how much I love that man that appeared in Episode 14? I have more screencaps of him than I have of the two male leads. Whoops.
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