I’ve delayed the write-up of Episode 3 because I’m too lazy to transcribe LiRong and Pei WenXuan’s (PWX) dialogue during the Go Game in Episode 2. Lol. I can’t shelve this task anymore because @agdr03 is going full steam ahead. lol.

I’m using Netflix sub instead of Viki’s.

Here goes….

The Go Game

Li Rong watches PWX walk towards her with concealed admiration.

To me, this moment parallels the earlier incident when PWX hid behind the bushes to observe Li Rong from behind the bushes. He recalled the time when they were 18 and 20 years old. He thought to himself, “That year is the most beautiful memory of my life.” This sentiment is consistent with the feelings he expressed as he lay dying in the snow in the Other Lifetime. Back then, he said, “You are the only weal and woe that I cannot avoid in my lifetime.” “Weal and woe” is the poetic way of saying joy and sorrow, boon and bane, heaven and hell. In both the Other Lifetime, and this current one, he doesn’t deny that despite his tragic ending, he and Li Rong shared a few good times together.

Now, as for Li Rong, she seems hypnotized when PWX saunters on the bridge like a fashion model on a catwalk. She has to give herself a mental scolding to get back to business.

LR: (imperiously) Sit down and talk to me. Whatever you want to say, just say it.
PWX: Your Highness, I think you already know what I want to say.
LR: What’s with this attitude?

She expects him to be nervous by her haughty demeanor, and to stammer a weak response. Instead, he parries her politely. In her mind, his politeness is merely an act to hide his cockiness.

PWX: (looks at her innocently)
LR: (continues to find offence in everything he does) What? Do you think the Royal Family is not good enough for you?
PWX: Not at all. I come from humble beginnings and may initially rely on Your Highness. However, as a dignified man, I also aspire to be the one who is worthy of you, Your Highness. This way, when Your Highness is weary, you can have someone to lean on. And I won’t be a burden living off you. (smiling)

I think he should have skipped the smile here because his smile makes him look cocky. He’s too pleased with his answer.

That said, I do believe in his sincerity. His manly pride doesn’t allow him to perpetually mooch off the Princess Royal. He knows that marrying her will open doors for him and that he can never say that he pulled himself up by his own bootstraps. However, he intends to excel at his royal duties in order to prove to her that he’s deserving of the trust and favor she’s given him by choosing him. Instead of being dependent on her, he wants to become dependable in times of her great need.

I also think he speaks from experience. In the Other Lifetime, he climbed up the ranks, not for personal glory, but to protect her and her brother, the Crown Prince. Unfortunately, she suspected his every motive and action, after she discovered his connection with Zhenzhen, the CP’s concubine. She believed him to be emotionally unfaithful to her because he had a prior engagement to a childhood friend that he hadn’t told her about.

Anyway…

His reply rouses Li Rong’s suspicions because it sounds too serious, too rehearsed, and too well thought out to come out naturally from the mouth of a 20-year-old boy.

LR: You’re just trying to leverage my influence to strengthen yourself. There’s no need for these high-sounding words. Men like you will say anything to ingratiate yourself with powerful people.

Instead of “high-sounding words,” I think the better words here are lofty, fanciful, altruistic. She’s bluntly telling him that she knows that he’s only sugar-coating his mercenary and quite selfish aspirations. But I get why she’s bitter and accusatory. In the Other Lifetime, she witnessed him become the Supreme Chancellor or Prime Minister of the State and she believes to this day that he couldn’t have achieved that position if it weren’t for her.

She also speaks from experience.

She cannot forget the night when she caught PWX cradling the sick Zhenzhen in his arms.

At the time, she had to defend him from the guards but later that evening, when they were alone, she interrogated him about his relationship with Zhenzhen. Though he only admitted being previously engaged to Zhenzhen, Li Rong quickly jumped to conclusions that ZhenZhen and PWX were doomed lovers, coerced to marry into the royal family.

To be honest, I thought this dialogue is one of the stupidest miscommunications in a cdrama that I’ve ever seen. Li Rong rushed to judgment without waiting to hear the whole story from PWX. And PWX didn’t insist on being heard and correcting her misinterpretation. Sure, it’s hard for him to come up with the right words, but he should have at least tried. To me, they gave up on each other too easily and it showed that they didn’t think their marriage to be worth fighting for.

As these memories come flooding back to Li Rong in a flashback, she’s filled with rage. PWX has to jolt her back into the present time.

PWX: Your Highness!
LR: Bring over the citrons!

PWX is allergic to lemons. They both remember the time PWX told her about his rashes, and Li Rong instantly ordered lemons to be removed from the menu. Now, she shows him no mercy.

LR: Eat it.
PWX: (grimacing) Your Highness. If I consume citrons, I’ll get rashes all over my body.
LR: You still have to eat it. That’s my order.

PWX takes the plate and asks if he can eat it later as he’s already full. She grudgingly allows it. Then she orders the Go board to be set up so they can play. As they make their moves, they being to sense something’s off.

PWX: (to himself) Why are her tactics the same as the ones she used when she was 38?
LR: (to herself) Why are his strategies the same as when he was 40?
PWX: (to himself) Li Rong might seem arrogant and spoiled, but she actually acts very methodically. She doesn’t pick a fight for no reason. However, when I first met Li Rong, she humiliated me in front of Su Rongqing. Back then, the 18-year-old Li Rong wasn’t like this.

It dawns on him that Li Rong intentionally goaded him all day. He’s like a bull and she’s like a matador waving Su Rongqing like a red cape to enrage him.

LR: (to herself) I remember the 20-year-old Pei Wenxuan was more or less immature. On the day of the wedding, though he appeared calm on the surface, I could see from his eyes that he was in a state of panic. But now when he sees me, he’s not just calm and composed, he looks at me like he knows me very well.

They both look down at the Go board and notice that they have made the same moves before in that Other Lifetime.

LR: (to herself) This Go game turns out to be the final one we played before living apart and it was unfinished.
PWX: (to himself) That unfinished game was a stalemate.

Epiphany!

LR: (to herself) No wonder he dares to talk back to me like this now.
PWX: (to himself) No wonder she knows that citrons will give me rashes.
LR: (to herself) It’s either him being truly audacious or…he has lived an extra 20 years.
PWX: (to himself) She has lived an extra 20 years.

Finally, they are on the same wavelength.

LR: (to herself) If so, everything would make sense.
PWX: (to himself) If so, everything would make sense.

I like how the director gives a close-up view of one face then the other. It gives the viewers a sense that Li Rong and PWX are playing a different level of Go – a 4D Go. Even in a game played in their head space, their skills are squarely matched.

I like this camera shot, too. The waterfalls in the background, the pavilion, the pair of maids standing like a statue, and the bridge. The setting seems surreal, just like the swirling emotions of Li Rong and PWX.

PWX: (to himself) Li Rong hated me to the core before. Last time, it was her order that had me killed. The fact that she could control the urge to kill me immediately shows her extreme forbearance. Fortunately, I have no intention of getting entangled with her again.

Here, I sense that he’s back-pedalling. He would have been fine reconnecting with Li Rong, if the slates were clean and if she had no recollections of the past. But picking up where they left off is a no-go for him. He’s so traumatized by the past that he doesn’t want to relive it, much less pursue it. Hence, his face freezes up at the idea of getting entangled with her again.

LR: (speaking up) Let me ask you again. Why did you stop me from choosing other men?
PWX: I…I…

Note that his stammer is back, just as if he was 20 years old again, nervous in the presence of the Princess Royal. He can’t think of a plausible explanation.

LR: Because you feel guilty for what you had done to me!

Note that she doesn’t give him time to explain. She jumps to conclusions again, just like she did when she accused him of emotionally cheating with ZhenZhen almost 20 years ago. Ugh!

I’ll continue with Episode 3 tonight.