laleia | Story of Minglan Rewatch

Episode 11

(Note re: any observations I make on English subtitles — I’m watching episode 11 on YouTube on the CN DRAMA channel.)

Scene - Grandmother fucks with Papa Sheng!

Papa Sheng is biased. He says that it is a waste of Molan’s talents in particular to idle in the courtyard, which is a stupid argument to make to Grandmother because he knows that she doesn’t like Molan or her mother very much.
I do appreciate that Minglan is blatantly eavesdropping and reacting to everything Papa Sheng is saying from the next room (and Grandmother calls her out on it later).
It’s actually very interesting that Papa Sheng has to ask Grandmother for “permission” to send the girls back to classes with Scholar Zhuang. You’d think that he and Big Madam could make that decision between them as he clearly wants Molan back in class and I think Big Madam would want Rulan in class with Yuanruo.
LOL, Minglan says when her sisters are too exhausted from waking up early and going to class, they fight less (and don’t bother her). But she’s right! I remember in Episode 6 when they said the classes begin at 5:30 in the morning! If I had to wake up to go to class at 5:30, I too would be too exhausted to bicker with anyone.
I can’t believe the subtitles just translated “granddaughter” as “grandmother”.
Minglan and Grandmother are so cute!
I do appreciate that Grandmother values learning but wants to fuck with Concubine Lin and Molan. A woman after my own heart.

Scene - this may be hands-down my favorite scene in this drama!!! OK, I don’t think it can be my favorite, there are others I like as much, but it’s pretty close!

The subtitles say “It’s time to test your skills in honest then.” What he actually says is “也该实战，试试身手”, which I would translate to “It’s time for actual combat, to test your skills.”
Scholar Zhuang is primarily here to teach Changbai and Changfeng (and Gu Tingye and Yuanruo) the skills they need to do well in the imperial examinations. The imperial exams don’t test actual knowledge, as I understand it, but test your essay-writing skills in response to prompts given at the examination, where (1) essays have to be written in a very particular style that I think I once saw a description of that made no sense to me and (2) do require a large amount of actual knowledge for historical and literary illusions if you want to excel. This is all gleaned from osmosis.
There’s a screen between the men and women now though there didn’t used to be. I wonder if this is a sign that ~everyone is growing older~ since the actors are all the same so the passage of time is harder to parse.
I feel like one thing subtitles and translation doesn’t convey as well is how much the stuff Scholar Zhuang is saying is completely incomprehensible unless you have some background in it. He’s speaking in scholarly Chinese, the 知乎者也 stuff that I only learned from Huan Zhu Ge Ge (when the titular commoner heroine entered the palace and then had to learn all this scholarly language people around her were saying which didn’t make sense to her). There’s a difference in formality between when English is spoken in modern day and the English spoken in period dramas or used in scholarly/academic English-language articles, but the difference between modern spoken Chinese vs. the Chinese in period dramas is enormous. But maybe I’m saying this as a heritage Chinese speaker who has virtually no exposure that level of formal Chinese and finds it annoyingly hard to parse, and your average Chinese native speaker doesn’t find the gap as stark.
First observation — this scene sets up the imperial succession issues that come into play 10+ episodes from now. Although this is a randomly-selected topic for the students to practice their debate skills, the show manages to simultaneously explicitly tie this topic to the Sheng’s personal sphere (the academic question about whether to make the eldest (legitimate) son the heir or the most worthy son the heir) as well as to the current landscape at court between Prince Yong and Prince Yan (neither of who are sons of the emperor, but one of which is apparently older and the other arguably more worthy). So even though this domestic scene primarily showcases Minglan’s awesomeness, it also primes the audience for the coup coming down the line.
Scholar Zhuang says that this topic is fine to debate because they’re discussing it behind closed doors, as long as nobody leaks it. Is this meant to foreshadow later, when Gu Tingye gets in trouble for what he said behind closed doors because his brother’s a snake and leaked it?
Gu Tingye starts the debate by providing a little bit of exposition for the audience (the unsuspecting audience, who does not realize this backstory will become front-and-center in the drama in a dozen episodes).
Prince Yong is the elder son, er, nephew, but he’s mediocre other than his many wives and concubines. It’s funny because Gu Tingye describes Prince Yong as “plowing day and night”, which is the subtitles’ literal translation of the Chinese. “Plowing” has a very sexual connotation in English (and in old-timey period stuff, is frequently used as a crude euphemism for sex) so it is very appropraite here but I have no idea if it’s as sexual in Chinese! I assume so, because after he says that, Rulan and Molan both look over, Changfeng laughs in the background, Scholar Zhuang clears his throat and Changfeng admonishes Gu Tingye to watch his language around the maidens. But if it were as crude as it were in English, surely he wouldn’t say it at all in this setting? This is the problem with translation, it can be hard to capture the ~vibe~ with the meaning. This is also the problem with learning a language (or even being a heritage speaker) as opposed to growing up speaking it. There’s a whole lot of “accumulating vibes over decades of osmosis” meaning that you miss out on when you’re learning in an academic setting or only speak it in a very particular kind of (family) setting.
Yuanruo is too busy making calf-eyes at Minglan through the screen to participate in this debate …
Anyways, Changfeng joins the debate next to argue for Prince Yan, making the argument that being the oldest is not the sole qualification needed. He of course has a personal, vested interest in making this argument because he is (1) concubine-born and (2) not the oldest, so he would suffer in any sort of regime where only the oldest son born from the main wife received any inheritance or benefits.
(Here is where I admit that I don’t remember which of Prince Yan and Prince Yong does the coup and which one dies.)
I’m a little curious why Changbai stands up to provide his answer (when clearly Gu Tingye and Changfeng didn’t bother).
Changbai cites Emperor Qin’s deposing of his eldest son Fusu in favor of Huhai, which resulted in much unrest, as one of many examples in history where unrest resulted from the enthroning of a younger son. I just read through the Wikipedia article, though, and that seems like an unfair comparison because per Wikipedia, this all seemed like a coup by Huhai (or rather, by certain advisors who wanted a puppet on the throne) who forged an imperial decree after Emperor Qin died. I don’t think it matters who Emperor Qin decreed his heir in that instance, it seems like a classic case of correlation is not causation. (P.S. I just did a quick skim of the Wikipedia articles, I didn’t realize how short the Qin dynasty was! It seems like just one very strong-willed dude, and then his weak-willed descendants fucking it up and throwing away his legacy.)
Changfeng bring up the counterexample (without standing up) of Emperor Wu from the Han Dynasty, but Gu Tingye shoots him down by providing historical context of how that was still a case of making a legitimate son (even if retroactively so) the heir.
Molan speaks up to bring up Emperor Hui of the Jin dynasty. She, too, has a vested interest in speaking up for the concubine-born heirs of the world (as a concubine-born daughter herself). This scene is also to remind us that Molan is very learned and can go toe-to-toe with the guys when it comes to citing literary and historical examples.
Then Rulan jumps in to defend legitimate children’s rights (as a daughter of a main wife). The language she uses is much less formal (per what I was saying earlier, she doesn’t use scholarly Chinese, to demonstrate her ignorance) and she doesn’t cite any historical examples (in contrast to Molan), instead just speaking her mind.
Molan raises Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, and Gu Tingye brings up Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty as a counterpoint.
I mean honestly, is there any point going back and forth citing historical examples on this point? This would seem a classic example of “past performance does not guarantee future results”.
Scholar Zhuang calls out that Minglan and Yuanruo haven’t said anything. It makes sense that Minglan hasn’t said anything, but Yuanruo is also participating in the imperial exams and it’s actually not a great sign of his preparedness if he doesn’t speak up. Yuanruo wants to listen to other people’s thoughts before forming his own, which on the one hand is a good sign of someone doing information-gathering but on the other hand, is a sign of his indecisiveness (which leads him to fail the imperial exams this time around, and ultimately leads him to lose Minglan).
Minglan tries to deflect answering this question.
I do like that when Changfeng tries to get an answer from Minglan, he gets annoyed with Rulan and Molan for bickering and preventing Minglan from speaking.

Finally, we get to my favorite sequence, that I liked so much I attempted to screencap it (from my phone). The scene where Minglan’s input is way more valuable than anyone else’s. Fun Fact: in the novel, this scene really framed Minglan’s contributions as “Minglan benefited from being a transmigrated adult because in her past life as a law student, she got really good at napping during class but being able to keep an ear open and awaken immediately to cogently answer questions when called upon by the professor, which skill served her well here because she was definitely napping before she got called on.” Speaking as someone who went to [grad school], that is an undeniably valuable skill.

Reasons Why I Love Gu Tingye More Than Yuanruo

Reason 1: Yuanruo says Minglan is young and ignorant (albeit with the best of intentions), while Gu Tingye proclaims she’s wise.

While trying to help Minglan out of the awkwardness of weighing in on a matter that’s very sensitive to her family, Yuanruo basically says she’s young, and doesn’t need to participate in the imperial exams, so let’s spare her.

On the other hand, Gu Tingye suggests that Minglan is wise enough to have come to her own conclusions already.

I acknowledge that Yuanruo only impugned Minglan’s intelligence because he wanted to give her an excuse to bow out, but in my heart of biased hearts, I think better of Gu Tingye for openly praising Minglan in this scene.

Reason 2: Minglan is much more at ease with Gu Tingye than she ever is with Yuanruo.

In response to Gu Tingye’s needling, Minglan responds:

She doesn’t even blink at snapping at him because she’s so comfortable with him. Compare this to her interactions with Yuanruo, where she’s much more stiff and awkward.

Reason 3: Yuanruo doesn’t actually understand what would help Minglan while Gu Tingye does.

When Yuanruo appeals to Gu Tingye directly, Gu Tingye explains his rationale.

Yuanruo wants to protect Minglan by speaking up for her, but he actually creates more problems (as he does every time he tries to do something nice for her, e.g., gift her a calligraphy brush). Gu Tingye is the one who astutely picks up that Yuanruo is like a juicy meat bun that Minglan’s sisters are fighting over so every time he speaks up for Minglan, it results in more bickering from her sisters (and more problems for her). While Yuanruo wants to help Minglan, Gu Tingye is the one who knows how.

(P.S. unrelated side note, I think it’s funny the way he leans back to confer with Yuanruo. It looks funny from the audience’s perspective but also it’s SO obvious, there’s no way Scholar Zhuang doesn’t see it.)

Reason 4: Yuanruo fundamentally believes that Minglan is weak and needs protection while Gu Tingye believes in her competence and thinks she can handle it.

When Yuanruo tries to argue that she can’t, that given Minglan’s position in the household, she … she just can’t (his words, not mine), Gu Tingye just chuckles because he’s seen Minglan at her most badass (at age 8) and has full confidence in her.

Reason 5: Yuanruo is a man of indecision; Gu Tingye is a man of action.

When Minglan directs her question at Yuanruo and Gu Tingye, Yuanruo stands up (very awkwardly, IMO) and tells her to ask him anything (as if it were a personal question addressed to him) but Gu Tingye is the one who actually answers the question and expresses his opinion.

To me, this is consistent with the running theme in this drama that Yuanruo wants to help Minglan but he continually loses out to Gu Tingye because he’s a step too slow, because he takes too long to think about the pros and cons of what to do (or in this case say) to the point that by the time he comes to a decision, it’s too late and the time for that action is past.

Reason 6: Gu Tingye doesn’t care about people being concubine-born or legitimate-born; Yuanruo does.

Gu Tingye explicitly says that he doesn’t think being born of a concubine or a main wife should matter, and makes arguments throughout this sequence that what should matter is talent.

On the other hand, Yuanruo starts out by countering that Gu Tingye’s analogy (that if his younger brother was more virtuous, he should be the heir) was not applicable because his younger brother was still born of a legitimate wife. In other words, Yuanruo is saying that he could forgive an aberration from birth order (not having the oldest son inherit) but being born from a concubine is a strike against you that cannot be overlooked.

He says if you let a concubine-born son inherit, “you will bring shame to your ancestors and your clansmen.” A talented concubine-born son should assist his legitimately-born brother rather than “upset the order”. He even talks about people “stir[ring] the concubine-births to hold foolish delusions.” He says people should respect “status and etiquette” and “honor the legitimate elder”.

Dude, you are trying to woo a concubine-born girl. How is it not obvious that talking about how concubine-born children are “lesser than” legitimate-born children and should give way to them, is going to upset her? I mean, I don’t think Minglan is upset by this because this line of thinking is pervasive, but it’s gotta affect her at least a little. Even Molan eyerolls at this when Yuanruo is saying it.

I’m not sure whether Yuanruo actually believes what he is saying (which, to be fair to him, is the prevailing school of thought in this time period) and genuinely thinks that concubine-born children are “lesser than” and should give way to their legitimate-born siblings, or whether he was so caught up in debating Gu Tingye from the opposite perspective that he forgot how the words he was saying might hurt the people around him. After all, there are three concubine-born children in that room with him!

Either way, this speech really seals the deal for me that Yuanruo Does Not Deserve Minglan.

In the end, nothing else matters because Minglan is the most badass, the end.

Scholar Zhuang calls Minglan out on choosing to pit Gu Tingye and Yuanruo against each other rather than answer herself.

(P.S. I tried to get a screencap of Minglan sitting down once Gu Tingye said enough that she knew Yuanruo would take up the battle and butt heads with him, but that would require a full gif, which is not only beyond my capabilities, it seems like way too much work for this rewriter. In any case, I thought it was hilarious because it felt like a “And now I can sit and let these two bicker it out for me” move.)

Minglan’s conclusion is great.

There was a little more explanatory hand-holding in the novel. In the novel, when Minglan is called on, she summons Rulan’s maid and Molan’s maid in front of her (keeping in mind that she’s like 8, or an adult in an 8-year-old’s body, this entire time). She then basically said, “Tell me if your mistress is better than her sister, and I will give money to the one who convinces me.” The maids of course each start spouting all kinds of praises for Rulan and Molan, each desperately shouting over the other to be heard.

When it’s all done, Minglan makes the point to the class that “competence” or “better” is subjective and often difficult to measure because there are different people with competing interests who will make arguments for one over the other. The very act of determining who is “better” or “more competent” will often result in conflict and chaos that is overall detrimental to the household. Legitimacy and birth order, on the other hand, is an objective measure and cannot be manipulated in the same way.

Minglan further makes the point that every instance of a concubine-born brother sowing dissent because he is too ambitious is also an instance of a legitimate son too incompetent to triumph over his brother, and every instance of the legitimate son being too weak to lead the household, is also an instance of the concubine-born brother not being virtuous enough to help. Both brothers have fault in each of these scenarios. If either brother were both competent and virtuous, the other brother’s greed / incompetence would matter less.

The only thing I don’t get is how all this ends up tying to why someone should be patriotic (?).

I guess it's saying that your average citizen should just keep their head down instead of debating the virtues of the various candidates for Crown Prince?

I love the way Gu Tingye covers his face after this speech and leans back to not-so-secretly confer with Yuanruo instead.

Yuanruo does have a very impressively besotted pining face.

So let’s recap. When she was called on in class, Minglan reacted to (1) say just enough to get Gu Tingye and Yuanruo to bicker endlessly and give her an “out”, then (2) when pushed agan to answer, she says the perfect thing.

Hee to Changbai’s proud smile at the end!

Scene - Post-badass reactions!

Rulan and Molan are both salty that Minglan got so much recognition.
Changbai, on the other hand, is so proud of Minglan he brags about it to Papa Sheng. Changbai is such a good brother.
Papa Sheng is surprised at how astute she is (because he’s a terrible, absent father), while Changbai observes that Minglan has always been “mindful” (not sure that’s the best translation there) because he is a decent older brother and knows Minglan’s personality.

Scene - Yuanruo ambushes Minglan!

I truly dislike Yuanruo but even I have to admit that he is clever to set a trap for Minglan.
Yuanruo: “I will not retreat in difficulty.” Me: But when it really matters, you will…
Minglan looks so cute when she’s befuddled, and Yuanruo clearly thinks so too.
I do appreciate that Yuanruo has learned from the past and says he’s checked for outsiders and they can have a conversation in peace, which is an improvement on when he didn’t used to realize this was important. But part of me wonders if it’s really true that nobody else is around. I feel like servants are always around. And I don’t just mean that servants are always around to overhear things for plot-convenient reasons; I mean that as a practical matter, it doesn’t seem likely to me that an entire courtyard would be deserted / devoid of servants entirely for a period of time. Maybe I’m underestimating how big the estate is and/or overestimating how many servants they have?
I don’t love that Yuanruo blocks her from leaving, but he acknowledges his error at least.
Minglan says it’s better to have nothing and she will feel light entirely. What a sad life she leads. :(
Minglan: “The better you treat me, the bigger the trouble for me.” This is exactly what Gu Tingye told Yuanruo five minutes ago. This should not be news.
I feel like Minglan hardly ever makes eye contact with Yuanruo.
Minglan: Let me praise you in all sorts of ways, calling you a man of great talent, telling you that knowing that a good person like you exists in the world makes me content with my place in life … and then assume that I can scurry off and these compliments will make you less interested in me??? No wonder Gu Tingye accuses her of treating Yuanruo like a kite.
Yuanruo: “Don’t regard me as trouble. I will protect you.” Me: As if.
It’s interesting to compare my reactions to this scene vs. my reaction to the scene where Gu Tingye traps Minglan in 30 episodes. In both, Yuanruo and Gu Tingye have employed their wiles to trick Minglan into having a one-on-one conversation with them. However, I absolutely love the scene with Gu Tingye to bits, while I find this entire scene stressful to watch. Setting aside my obvious bias and how much I love Gu Tingye over Yuanruo, I think it’s that this scene, though romantic, is very stressful to watch as a first-time viewer because you don’t know whether they’ll be interrupted for plot reasons. This is a “dangerous” conversation because if anyone stumbles upon them, it will make Minglan’s life difficult. I spent my first watch waiting for the other shoe to drop. In contrast, Gu Tingye has his conversation with Minglan at her sister’s/bother-in-law’s house/courtyard, where there is no danger for her whatsoever, where they can talk as long as they want to their heart’s content because everybody around them is a known quantity. Now, Yuanruo is much younger here than Gu Tingye is later on so he doesn’t have the ability to arrange a “safe space” for conversation but I posit that even in the future, he is not capable of making such arrangements because he doesn’t have the ability. Every conversation Yuanruo and Minglan ever has feels fraught, like something could go wrong any second. Whereas I don’t feel the same is true for Gu Tingye/Minglan conversations.

Scene - Preparation for the exams!

LOL, when Danju calls out Minglan on her “two knee guards” lie. Danju, Xiaotao and Minglan are very cute.
Big Madam says that the clothes they wear in the exam room have to be single-layered and can’t be double-layered. Was this rule imposed because people could hide notes in between layers?
Big Madam says Changbai hasn’t left her for this long (aka a few days, less than a week) since he was little. He hasn’t left his home ever???
It’s cute that Big Madam appreciates the knee guards that Minglan made for Changbai but, uh, I’m still not sure what the purpose of the knee guards is. So that he’s warm sleeping in bed at night??? That seems like such a weird accessory to me, someone who owns a heater and doesn’t have to think about this.
It’s interesting that when Big Madam mentions to Rulan all of Minglan’s assets, Rulan doesn’t care and her view is that she is born to the legitimate line (implied: so she doesn’t have to curry favor). This is in fact true, we just usually see the reverse of it (that because Minglan is not born to the legitimate line, she has to work harder).
Concubine Lin and Changfeng do not appreciate Minglan’s efforts. But Minglan didn’t make this to be appreciated by them — as Rulan pointed out, she did it to please both sides. If Minglan had created knee guards for Changbai and not Changfeng, you can bet that Concubine Lin would have been pissed.
Changfeng’s brag is that Scholar Zhuang said “At my age, to be able to pen such essays is not easy.” That’s … not that much of a compliment.
I do appreciate that Yuanruo has learned the art of sneakiness. Though with such a controlling mother, I’m surprised he hadn’t bothered to work on his sneakiness skills before.
Minglan is quite cute as she secretly stuffs the kneeguards into the box of things she is sending back to Yuanruo. A few thoughts cross my mind on this rewatch.
- What was her game plan for getting those knee guards to Yuanruo if he hadn’t sent these gifts? Had she planned on playing it by ear the whole time? Did she have no plan? Was she not going to gift them if the opportune moment had not presented itself?
- What exactly did she pull out of that basket to make room for her knee guards? It looks like some sort of twine?
- After she pulls it out, she stares at the basket for a bit in a daze before putting the lid back on. I can’t tell if there was something meaningful and significant in that basket that I did not see or pick up on? Is she just lost in thought thinking of Yuanruo? Or is she pondering why she’s in this situation?
Asshole Father is, as always, an asshole
I can’t stand Manniang
I saw someone’s observation that the real reason Gu Tingye falls for Mannigan’s act (and Madam Qin’s at too, at that) is because he so desperately wants to be loved, having grown up in an environment where his father was so unloving. Manniang spins for him an illusion of a happy family and he wants that so much. It’s not like he’s in love with her, given the way he described to Changbai how they ended up together. He characterized it as if he inadvertently ended up with a mistress and children (vs. acquiring one because he desperately loved or desired Manniang). He’s in love with the idea of Manniang and the idea of having a loving family moreso than he is in love with Manniang herself. The family that she gives him is so much more of a family than any family he has grown up with that he would do anything for them.
Gu Tingye and Mannigan jumping apart when Nanny Chang calls out is funny.
Nanny Chang is awesome the way she shuts down Manniang.
I’m not sure I understand Manniang’s motivations. When she was offering to go with Gu Tingye to his exams, was she really just wishing him the best or was she scheming to accidentally “run into” his family? Why does her face look so scheming when Gu Tingye walks away? What could she possibly be plotting? Surely she must know that Gu Tingye doing well on his exams means the best possible future for her?
Yuanruo, meanwhile, is still mooning over Minglan. Honestly, I’m not surprised his mother later accuses him of failing the exams because he spends his time mooning over Minglan instead of studying.
Minglan sews a “yuanbao” (golden ingot) onto his knee guards to represent his name (Yuanruo) because like Big Madam was saying earlier, they aren’t allowed to bring anything with words on it into the exam courtyard but visual symbols are fine.
Yuanruo says “She has me in her heart”. Well yes she does and honestly I really don’t know why Minglan thinks she successfully repudiated Yuanruo if she keeps giving him sweet and thoughtful gifts that get his hopes up. I mean, I know why. It’s because she can’t help it because she likes him!

Scene - at the exams!

Watching every member of the Sheng family get out of those carriages, man … wearing all those layers of clothes, which are so long, and then having to navigate all those steps, seems a difficult task. I would for sure step on the edge of my cloak or something and trip and fall.
Minglan is so cute when she wishes her brothers practical wishes like proper hydration! She can spout auspicious words as well as anyone else (even I can!) but I assume she is downplaying her wits in front of her sisters. Plus her words are a useful reminder!
Xiaotao is so cute with her confused bow at Gu Tingye. I tried to see if I could spy any interaction between Xiaotao and Shitou but nope, he was on the other side of Gu Tingye.
I love Minglan’s words: “If that young master wants to grab the limelight, I fear even the ducal manor can’t cover it.” I wanted to parallel this line to the conversation that Gu Tingye and Wei-hangshou have at the polo match, when Wei-hangshou says that Minglan is like the sun but Gu Tingye responds that her days are quite difficult. But then I looked up the Chinese and the word used for limelight here, 风头, means limelight but doesn’t literally mean “light” or any related concept (it literally refers to the head of wind, so kind of like headwinds, I guess), so the parallel doesn’t work as well from a literary perspective. But from a characterization perspective, both are scenes where each observes something of the other that is not apparent to others.
It is crazy to me that ancient China had the keju, which were vital to a man’s career and ability to make anything of himself (and theoretically could propel even a peasant into the highest ranks of civil service), and people studied crazy hard for them for years. Scholars developed innovative ways of cheating while the government perpetually tried to thwart cheating … Meanwhile modern day China has the gaokao, which is vital to your ability to get into a university (and thus your future career and your ability to make something of yourself) and could propel you from poverty into a prestigious university (which while not free, is super cheap), and people study crazy hard for them for years. Students develop innovative ways of cheating while the government perpetually tries to thwart cheating …La plus ca change, etc.

Scene - the exam is over!

Papa Sheng makes fun of Big Madam for praying to three different gods for the sake of Changbai’s results. They never say which three gods but given this is ancient China, I assume that they are (1) a Buddhist god (looks kind of like Guanyin on the left?), (2) some Daoist god, and (3) Confucius. He thinks it’s funny that she’s praying to anyone that will listen but TBH, my impression of the Chinese approach to religion is that (setting aside the monks / religious leaders) the average layperson is a little bit Buddhist and a little bit Daoist. (I don’t actually think anyone worships Confucius any more, as far as I can tell. People do still go to pray at Confucian temples before exams but it seems more like a luck thing to me. Then again, when I learned about Confucianism in school in the US it seemed more like a philosophy and I didn’t realize it was a religion until I went to a Confucian temple in China.)
And of course it’s hilarious that as soon as Big Madam leaves, he does the exact same thing he mocked her for but he’s too concerned about losing face to let her know.
Asshole Father is such an asshole, ugh.
Setting aside how fake Madam Qin is, it’s interesting to see how the different parents resort to religion in different ways to pray for their children’s future.
- Yuanruo’s parents visit a temple and donate money to realize their wish
- Big Madam sets up her trifold altar, of course
- And Madam Qin refrains from baths, burns incense, and limits herself to two meals a day as a form of self-sacrifice to exchange for a wish. (Although TBH I feel like two meals a day is a very normal amount of meals and not exactly self denial …)
Asshole Father complains that other families send off their scholars to the exams amid hugs and hopes, while Gu Tingye went to the exam courtyard without so much as a notice. He blames Gu Tingye for this but … uh … dude, that is entirely an indictment of you and not of Gu Tingye. We get the slightly-sad music in the background because I think we are meant to sympathize with Asshole Father but you shall get no sympathy from me!
Manniang desperately wants to be “found” by Gu Tingye’s family. It’s not entirely clear to me why. Does she think that they’ll admit her as an official concubine? That seems quite optimistic of her.

And that’s the end of the episode!

Story of Minglan Rewatch - Episode 11