I am sloooooooowly watching this... and trying my very best
to steer clear from all the negative reviews. I hate to say it but I saw it coming and I
went into drama knowing it. I’m dumb. What can I say? Saying that though, I want to know what happens next so I'm stuck watching until I have zero interest in this drama. I’ll
summarize what I like for the next summary (IF I do manage to watch enough of
the drama). For this summary, it took me a while to edit this because I jump
around too much. I meant my writing and not me. I hope it’s not confusing.
In these few episodes, Yun Xian already becomes the imperial doctress... technically speaking the drama really should end right here. Heh. It was fun before she attained that title and now once she gets it, court scheming takes over. I can't wait until we get out of the palace.
In these few episodes, Yun Xian already becomes the imperial doctress... technically speaking the drama really should end right here. Heh. It was fun before she attained that title and now once she gets it, court scheming takes over. I can't wait until we get out of the palace.
The Ways of a Scammer – “Zhu You”
[Episode 15] Yun Xian’s initial attitude towards Priest Wang was
disapproving. She thinks he’s scamming everyone with bogus magic and bogus
spells (e.g. Chinese talisman). She even tries to warn his believers of his swindling.
The animosity between the two escalate to the point where Priest Wang refuses
to have Yun Xian in his vicinity. However, Yun Xian soon realizes there’s more
to Priest Wang than being a swindler; the packets of medicine Priest Wang sells
are actually medically relevant. Priest Wang’s bizarre way of treating patients
piques Yun Xian’s curiosity and so she begs Priest Wang to take her in as a
disciple. Unfortunately, Priest Wang won’t even bat her an eye.
For Priest Wang, he’s not angry at her for dissuading his
patients but for leaving a patient untreated. He turned away from the patient
because she thought her medical passion was a curse. She had also thought the
sick man could hold out until Priest Wang came back from his errand, after all
it is just a stomach ache. However, from Priest Wang’s perspective, every
patient matters. He questioned Yun Xian whether she would have left the patient
had it been her father, a child or an old woman. The revelation renders her speechless. Yun
Xian begs for forgiveness. It takes an entire night of kneeling for Priest Wang
to be willing to hear her out. When he does, she vows to never dismiss a
patient no matter how strong they are or how measly their condition is; a
patient in help is a patient in need.
When Priest Wang grumps about her aspirations to be a doctor
when she’s a girl, Yun Xian’s response made me laugh. She retorts him in the
exact same manner, complaining that he’s a priest trying to be a doctor. It was
funny but it was also true. I
think it’s the first time I’ve seen Yun Xian so childishly stubborn. I like her
way better when she’s with Priest Wang.
Priest Wang accepts her as his disciple (after giving her
the taunting task of catching a snake which ends up scaring him more than her).
He teaches her the way of Taoism and how to legally scam. Those talisman that
he “prescribed” to patients aren’t just phony yellow paper, they’ve got
ingredients in them to alleviate common conditions such as inflammation and
stomach aches.
Here’s how the scam works: if it’s internal pain, use the
talisman during cooking; it it’s external pain, use it during bathing. This
scam has a name: “Zhu You”. It was the 13th course of olden day med
school that was supposedly lost. “Zhu” is for incantation/magic and “You” is
for sickness. Once the symptoms are alleviated with the magical talisman, the patients will believe the magic and
subsequently, are much easier to persuade. At that point, prescribing them the
right medication to cure the disease will be much more effective. “Zhu You’s”
approach is to combine both physical and psychological state in curing a
patient. So they are scamming but it’s the good kind of scamming. I can see the method working
completely fine. If a patient doesn’t believe in the medication, their
psychological state will definitely affect their physical state. For example,
patients given fake pills can be cured, i.e. the placebo effect.
Oh yeah. Priest Wang also teaches her to cook healthy meals
because food is our daily medication into maintaining our health. These days, I
think it’s called Food & Nutrition. [/Episode 15]
I noticed
a pattern for myself, I really like it when Yun Xian learns from teachers that
aren’t as conventional e.g. the medicine lady and the priest.
The Empress’ Doctress & Three powerful Women
Yun Xian hears of Qi Yu’s devastating depression. This guy is emotionally weak – way
too weak. She wants to see him and, voila, a chance appears: the court
is looking for doctors to cure Empress Dowager Sun. [Episode 15] She fell ill after Qi
Zhen knocked her over. It was an accident. Qi Zhen got angry at her for
poisoning him. In Empress Dowager Sun’s defense, I don’t think she was the
mastermind behind the poisoning. Now that the Empress had fallen ill, Eunuch
Wang had wanted to kill Empress Dowager Sun once and for all but Qi Zhen doesn’t
have the heart to follow through. Seeing her ill reminds him of his childhood
when he fell ill, the Empress was genuinely worried for him. [/Episode 15]
[Episode 16] Yun Xian finds her way into court via a reference
letter from two court officials, one of them is actually the head director of
the royal medical office (but Yun Xian doesn’t know that yet). I’m totally not using the right
terminology. Once in court, she rises above all the male doctors there
and gains the Empress Dowager Sun’s trust. [/Episode 16]
[/Episode 17] Empress Dowager Sun is just an extremely picky
patient. She doesn’t think she’s sick (when she actually is) and hates bitter
medicine. Yun Xian cooks healthy meals for her instead of the traditional way
of prescribing her medication. She lies to Empress Dowager Sun (EDS from now on), claiming
she’s only a little bit sick but the Empress sees through the lie. Yun Xian
confesses to her she’s using the ways of Zhu You. Eventually, EDS catches onto
her trickery too but forgives Yun Xian because she successfully cured her hazy
eyes (and other conditions).
Friendship. EDS
is periodically angry at Empress for her failure as a wife, which is equivalent
to her inability to bear a child. Women are just reproductive machinery
anyways. On one of those occasions, Yun Xian bravely interrupts EDS’s lecturing
and miraculously melts EDS’s stoned face into laughter. Meanwhile, Yun Xian and
Empress become really good friends. Empress admires Yun Xian’s bravery in
chasing her ambitions. But I think Empress’ mighty-ness is sort of hidden
behind Yun Xian’s amazingness and EDS’ prowess. She’s the one maintaining the
peace between EDS and the Emperor by logically persuading both sides. If
anyone, she would be the fairest ruler. I can totally see these three women being friends. If these three team
up, all men should move aside.
EDS may be good. She
actually relents power to Zhen Qi (after some persuasion from Empress) She
trusts him enough now because while she was sick, he handled the court problems
maturely. She doesn’t seem like that bad of a person. In fact, the servants all
like her because although she is strict, she is fair. However, that makes us
wonder why she was so harsh towards Tan
Yun Xian’s family. Also, the strife between EDS and Qi Zhen might be Eunuch
Wang pulling some strings. [Episode 22] Empress believes Eunuch Wang is
manipulating Qi Zhen into believing the mastermind behind his mother’s death is
EDS. Eunuch Wang’s goal is to have the Emperor completely reliant on him and
that requires the elimination of EDS. While EDS’s goal is just to produce what
she thinks is the best Emperor, which is why she desperately wants a baby heir to
take over Zhen Qi. You know,
‘cause the baby heir will DEFINITELY be wise, caring, and way better than the
current one. So basically EDS and Qi Zhen would have made the perfect
duo if there weren't any annoying interference.
The Reunions
[Episode 17] Yun Xian’s success is envied by other royal doctors
and she ends up getting punished. A servant who had been ordered to ensure Yun
Xian’s carries out her punishment was initially displeased with her but ends up
pitying her and that’s all because Yun Xian had earnestly tried to help her cure
her case of rancid sweat odour. She eventually becomes Yun Xian’s personal
servant and and friend. This
makes me miss Zi Su.
Luckily, Qi Zen gets wind of a girl called Yun Xian being
punished and saves her. Yun Xian has officially uncovered Qi Zhen’s identity:
the almighty Emperor. The reunion isn’t all that romantic because soon Qi Zhen does
the noble thing: bestow marriage to her and Qi Yu. [/Episode 17]
[Episode 20] Empress also realizes she’s Yun Xian, the girl Qi Zhen
loves, but their sisterly bond remains as strong as ever. Yun Xian vows with
her life she will never have feelings for Zhen Qi. Uhhh. The two also help out each other a lot:
Yun Xian fixes Empress’ health in a nifty so she’s easily impregnated; while Empress
had saved Yun Xian’s life when EDS was serving her the death drink. Yun Xian is
also forever grateful to Empress because her father was the one who had saved
the Tan family from prosecution years ago. [/Episode 20]
The Imperial Doctress Step 1: Approval
[Episode 19] Qi Zhen asks Doctor Liu (the head doctor and the one
that gave Yun Xian a reference letter) to take Yun Xian as his disciple but
Doctor Liu refuses; Yun Xian lacks the qualifications. The solution is easy,
Yun Xian just needs to take the MCAT, I mean, the doctor’s exam. If she passes,
then there’s no reason for Doctor Liu to refuse, but passing is another huge
obstacle.
I love it when dramas bring back old characters: that male
doctor (Doctor Wan) whom Yun Xian had worked with during the plague comes and helps her study.
He wishes her success and it’s heartfelt. With his help, Yun Xian manages to
pass the exam but two sore losers (the uncle and nephew duo in the royal
medical office) won’t give her the recognition and make up more tests on the
whim.
Some of the tasks are beyond ridiculous (e.g. using only the
pulse to estimate the patient’s health condition, age and sex, etc.) but Yun
Xian manages to scrape by. However, the two sore losers always find a way to
fail her and endlessly introduce new tests. [/Episode 19] [Episode
20] There’s one test where she has to insert needles at correct places
on the body, normally it’s done on mannequins, but she gets a live nude male
model – something extremely unconventional of that time. Poor girl is forced to
pin the needle in his private area too. Fortunately, Doctor Liu FINALLY steps
in after all those unfair tests. He accepts Yun Xian as his disciple on the
spot even if the doctors (i.e. the two sore losers) deny her the recognition.
The nephew, Zhi Cun Xia, doesn’t accept Yun Xian as his
peer. He doesn’t like how she’s using magic and lies to cure people. They even
battle it out (which he loses like always) in Episode 21.Despite all that, Zhi Cun Xia is actually a decent guy; he’s
just negatively influenced by his annoying uncle, Doctor Cheng, who on the
other hand is a total scum.
Romance: The Downfall of Qi Yu
Qi Yu,
ah, Qi Yu, the drama really destroyed your character. He turns out to be
despicable mama's boy and there was barely any warning of it. His character in the
beginning compared to now are like two completely different people and this
isn’t the actor’s fault at all, it’s the poor drama production.
[Episode 18] Qi Zhen very unwillingly agrees to bestow Qi Yu
and Yun Xian their marriage but Qi Yu takes it for granted when the girl entered this dungeon
of a court for you! His mother disapproves of the marriage and pretends
to faint in order to stall the marriage process. Yun Xian’s well aware of the
Mom feigning to be ill but when Qi Yu is told of that news, he gets angry at
Yun Xian for lying about his mother. UGH. Despite that, Yun Xian still wants to marry the guy. She’s
even willing to drop her family name (since “Tan Yun Xian’s” reputation is sort
of tarnished – me: HUH?). However, Mom still won’t budge, in fact, she will never budge because Mom wants
Qi Yu to marry that Princess Wang. Seeing as none of her tricks work, Mom makes
fun of Yun Xian being motherless, but Yun Xian’s got the power of love and
gulps down all the insults thrown at her. But there’s one thing Yun Xian will never
surrender: her aspirations to be a doctor. You go girl! It’s not like she’s even asking
much after all that she has to sacrifice for him but because of that one bit of
pride Yun Xian wants left, there’s a strife in her relationship with Qi Yu. [/Episode 18] Qi
Yu who had always supported her medical endeavours now want her to quit
everything to be his housewife. Not only that, but he needs her to listen to
his mom’s every wish. Uggggggghhhhhhh.
[Episode 21] Qi Yu also gets jealous over the smallest things e.g.
her tending to servants’ illnesses. It’s this whole issue of touching another
man’s (eunuch!) leg. Why is
it this an issue again? I swear her dad is okay with it now so does Yun Xian
need to die again for Qi Yu to get over it?
Romance: The Rise of Zhen Qi
 |
| Yun Xian's new look |
While Qi Yu is impeding on her career advancements, Qi Zhen has
been every bit helpful. Maybe a little too helpful. It’s now apparent to every
single person in the court that the almighty emperor Qi Zhen loves Yun Xian,
even Yun Xian herself knows it. He grants her an official title so she can work
comfortably under Doctor Liu’s guidance. Her title even makes the
uncle-nephew-duo bow to her. He was the one that recruited the male doctor to
help her study for the medical exam. He also takes care of her health by
providing her nourishment. Poor Qi Zhen is so desperate, lol. He even asks her directly to stop avoiding him and to pay him a visit instead of him visiting her all the time.
[Episode 22] Qi Zhen goes as far as to change
court rules for her and he doesn’t get jealous of her touching another guy’s
legs. THANKYOU. Although
Qi Zhen is beneficial for Yun Xian, the equation doesn’t seem to work the other
way around. His hotheadedness got the
better of him when he tried to change the court rule and this upsets the court.
Now EDS has every intention to take back her powers she had relented to him earlier
and to take him down from the throne. Here we go again.
 |
| Omg, that thing on her head. |
EDS also blames Yun Xian for Qi Zhen’s brashness (which is
true…). As punishment, EDS serves her the death drink. Luckily Empress comes
right in time to save Yun Xian. Empress gets injured instead but in the process,
Yun Xian discovers Empress’ pregnancy. With that news, Yun Xian is saved from
the death penalty as she needs to care for the Empress.
Qi Zhen is ecstatic to hear he'll be a dad and the nuptial
love he has for Empress is just oozing out of his eyes. And I think Yun Xian falls a little bit in love
with him seeing him this fatherly and husbandly. I think it's easy to fall in love with when you
see a boy transition to a man. It's like: “Woah, he's so manly all of a sudden”.
Example: Justin Bieber from a cutie to a hottie. LOL. So sorry.
________________________________________