For an American like me, dialogues in Asian dramas are often difficult to understand because a lot of the meaning is contextual and assumes that the viewers understood the background information.

For instance, I had to go back to that scene in Episode 16 when Tian Qi conversed with her conscience to understand this apology scene in Episode 17. If I didn’t parse her words, it would have been easy to skim this scene and miss the nuance of Tian Qi’s refusal to forgive him.

I would have thought that she was just being petty.

Highlights:

1. “No merit, no reward”

Ji Heng offered her two chests filled with silver bars. She asked what those were.

JH: You said…You…love money, right? These…these are yours now.

Secretly enjoying his discomfiture, Tian Qi hid her smile and gave an unladylike snort. Although he was still arrogant even when apologizing, she found his awkwardness cute.

As usual, she couldn’t help fangirling him whenever she looked at him. I already told you, right, that the fan was a symbol for her? She fanned him to sleep and she was his #1 fan.

Then her face fell because she remembered her inner conflict last night when she forced herself to admit that she was in love with General J. She’d been avoiding him, and treating him coldly because she blamed herself for expecting too much from him. She made the mistake of falling for him when she knew that she had a important mission to accomplish. She couldn’t be distracted by emotions when she was out to seek revenge for her parents.

TQ: My lord, you let Mr. Sheng take me here just to give me this money?
JH: What’s wrong? You don’t seem happy?
TQ: My lord, may I ask you a question?
JH: Fire away.
TQ: The other day you punished me. Have you ever regretted that? You wanted to give me money because you regret what you’ve done?
JH: (tapping his finger) Why should I feel regret? I… You deserve to be punished.

TQ: (smiling) Fine. In that case, I shouldn’t receive it. No merit, no reward. I’ll excuse myself.

“No merit, no reward” meant that good behavior deserved to be rewarded. But Ji Heng just declared that she did something punishable, something bad. Thus, she couldn’t accept the silver as a reward for bad behavior.

She left him completely nonplussed by her sound logic. I like that.

The other thing I like about this scene is Mr. Sheng’s behind-the-scene maneuvering.  He’d been working hard to get both Ji Heng and Tian Qi to reconcile.

At first, I thought he was being unfair when he defended Ji Heng without at least considering her side. But apparently, he had a reason for scolding her. He wanted her to be receptive when Ji Heng apologized to her.

Remember from Episode 16:

Sheng: Do you know that before General J was appointed as the Jiedushi, he was suspected by his father. His position in the army was taken. Then the former Jiedushi passed away and General J succeeded to this position. The Sun family helped him a lot in that time. So for the peace of this land, we can’t do anything rashly to the Sun family. Just recently, General Ji recommended Sun Fan to His Majesty, and ordered him to be in charge of the disaster relief. This offended the Sun family greatly. Do you know for whom he did this?

Sheng was informing Tian Qi that, unbeknownst to her, Ji Heng DID fight for her honor and took revenge by ordering Sun Fan to hard work.

TQ: For whom?
Sheng: For you, of course!
TQ: Me?
Sheng: Do you think the general didn’t know that what you said that day was all rational? But in his position, he has a lot to consider. Every move he takes requires a hundred times of thinking. Now you blame him because he let the Sun family off. But did you ask him? Did he really let off the Sun family? Did he take any action after that?

Sheng was accusing Tian Qi of being short-sighted. She didn’t give Ji Heng a chance to redeem himself in her eyes.

Sheng: (continuing) Recently you show him respect on the surface, but treat him coldly. And he also feels guilty because he punished you. He’s upset because of you. But do you know? He offended the Sun family again. How will he be treated in the future?
TQ: (guiltily) I…I didn’t think about that..what will happen to him after he offended the Sun family.
Sheng: You think for the people, it’s righteousness. But as a subordinate of the General, you didn’t consider him at the first time. When things happen, you keep blaming him. That’s disloyalty.

I already said this. Ji Heng placed premium on loyalty.  As far as Mr. Sheng was considered, her concern for others, i.e., righteousness, should take a back seat to her concern for General Ji, i.e., loyalty.

Sheng: (continuing) In my opinion, General treats you fairly well. Listen to me. After this, serve him as you used to. As for the punishment, just turn the page.

To me, that’s the whole point of this scolding. Mr. Sheng wanted her to get over her hurt feelings. He knew that Ji Heng wouldn’t directly admit that he went overboard with his punishment. Mr. Sheng was making it easy for Ji Heng to win her over again.

TQ: Thank you, Mr. Sheng. I know.
Sheng: (shaking his head and wagging his finger) You!

Mr. Sheng scolded her to make her feel guilty so she’d be more lenient with Ji Heng the following day. He wanted her to make allowances for Ji Heng’s behavior.

Meanwhile, he also separately worked on Ji Heng to convince him that all he had to do to get on Tian Qi’s good side again was to “bribe” her with money. Both of them thought that her love for money would make her easily forget THE punishment.

Ji Heng wasn’t to know that for Tian Qi, the punishment was THE sticking point. He was surprised to see her leave. Mr. Sheng was also surprised to see her leave.

Sheng: My lord, what happened?
JH: You told me he likes money. He didn’t move when he saw the money. In fact, he didn’t even look at it.

See that? Mr Sheng was the mediator who attempted to bring the quarreling couple together. He made Tian Qi feel guilty last night but at the same time, he encouraged Ji Heng to appease Tian Qi at all costs. But it backfired.

It backfired because last night, Tian Qi had a revelation. She realized that she loved Ji Heng but he wouldn’t fight for her.

Sheng: It couldn’t be! I thought he already understood what I meant yesterday.

He thought that Tian Qi would forgive Ji Heng once he explained that Ji Heng’s hands were tied. He also thought that the silver bars would be enough compensation to soothe her angry feelings and reconcile her with him.

Sheng: (confused) This is…why would he refuse to make up?

Only Ji Heng knew the real reason because Tian Qi asked him directly if he regretted punishing her. She didn’t want the money; she wanted an apology.

2. The kites

In the next scene we had the kites. Ji Heng wanted to know if Tian Qi had seen the kites.

I honestly don’t know what he was hoping to achieve here. lol.

Even if Tian Qi were to see the kites in the sky, how on earth would she know that they meant “regret” unless one of them fell to the ground and landed at her feet (and one eventually did)?

But okayyyy, I’ll give the writer a pass here because it was romantic gesture, and Tian Qi looked pretty running with the kite in hand.

On the way to Ji Heng, she was remembering what he said after she got injured with the arrow and he took care of her. He told her, “In the army, if one takes an arrow for another, they’re sworn friends. Tian Qi, you saved my life, from now on, I’ll protect you too.”

Then she also remembered when he openly declared when Sun Fan stopped their caravan, “He’s my man. Who dares take him from me?

The she imagined him teaching her how to wield the sword.

The flashbacks and this flight of fancy were connected with her inner conflict the previous night, the one I discussed in Episode 16.

The kite named “regret” re-established her faith in Ji Heng. She believed that he regretted punishing her and that he didn’t mean it when he said that she was a nobody.

She remembered that he said he’d protect her and that she was his man. For her, the kite renewed her hope. Once more, she was relying on him to help her fight against her enemy and avenge the deaths of her parents.

Hence this dance sequence with the sword. Together, they fight her parents’ murderers.

She could imagine her kissing him because she loved him, and she smiled.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Ji Heng and Mr. Sheng still didn’t know whether she’d seen the kite and was coming. Ji Heng was getting impatient. He too was remembering things about her. Like, how she promised to calm his nerves,

to dispel all the nightmares in his life.

He remembered her blowing on his hand to ease the pain.

To me, he realized that he wouldn’t be settled until Tian Qi was back at his side. His apology to her had to work this time or else.

When she arrived, however, he couldn’t let her know that he’d flown all the kites for her. He bluffed, “This…I’m just practicing calligraphy.”

But she saw the kites in the sky, and simply glanced back at him. They both laughed.

…And just like that they understood and made up. She wrote the word happiness on her kite. As @agdr03 pointed out, the background music matched the scene. “The secret of happiness is having you by my side.”

Tian Qi wanted to fly her own kite and he came up to tease her, “Silly. You don’t know how to fly it?” Good-naturedly, she agreed, “Yes. I’m a blessed silly with your lordship by my side.” Yes, she was acting like a besotted fool.

She was back to behaving shamelessly with her effusive compliments because she was with him. Remember what I said about her pride? She didn’t care about losing her pride over him.

Mr. Sheng approved.

She secretly prayed, “Dad, mom. What should I do? It seems I really fell in love with him.”

Of course, she forgot that her mother’s last words were for her to go on living her life.

Another thing I like about this kite is her gentleness. That is, she taught him a lesson, but she didn’t humiliate him. “No merit, no reward.”

Since he didn’t want to acknowledge that he did something regrettable, he couldn’t have the reward of her company. But when he wrote and admitted regret on his kite, she returned. In turn, she wrote “happiness” on her kite because she was happy once again. They were forgetting yesterday’s drama and misunderstanding and tomorrow’s cares with the Sun family, and simply enjoying the moment together.