This episode starts out tensely, with Jinshi informing a concubine of a reward, followed by that concubine getting up and leaving, clearly distressed. That night, a servant girl spots and is terrified by the presence of a spirit in white robes.
Back at the Jade Pavilion, Yinghua tells her she and the others are there if she ever needs to talk about her troubles (again believing her bandaged arm to be a source of trauma, while it’s quite the opposite). She also mentions the spirit sightings, which are backed up by her servant girl buddy Xiaolan.
Maomao is also now on better terms with the “quack” doctor, who serves tea and treats whenever they talk. Jinshi interrupts, causing Maomao to wonder why exactly he’s so damn persistent, but he’s come regarding the spirit rumors, and asks if sleepwalking might be involved.
After some goading, Maomao agrees to investigate, and Gaoshun escorts her to the locaiton where the spirit was sighted before. Instead, they find a mid-level concubine, Fuyou, dancing an ethereally beautiful dance in white robes atop the wall, the moon gleaming behind her. Gaoshun explains that Fuyou will soon be leaving the Rear Palace, as she has been bestowed upon a military officer as a reward for his valorous service.
Fuyou makes a strong impression on Maomao here, but when she and Gaoshun observe her during the day in her pavilion, she is a lot more reserved and “ordinary,” leading Maomao to note she’s quite like her namesake (as the fuyou or cotton rose becomes more vivid at night). The doctor tells Maomao that the timid Fuyou fell out of favor with the emperor from the get-go when she stumbled during her introductory dance.
Maomao makes her report to Gyokuyou and Jinshi on what she knows of sleepwalking, and how she recalls something similar happening to a courtesan she knew. When this courtesan was put up for sale, she began sleepwalking, but had no memory of doing so, as if she went into a kind of fugue state.
When the sale fell through, the sleepwalking stopped, so it’s possible the courtesan didn’t want to be sold. The same could be true of Fuyou, who is confined to her pavilion and placed under the guard of eunuchs until she departs for her new life. In the days before this, Gyokuyou gets the feeling Maomao knows or suspects more than she included in her report.
The day Fuyou departs, Gyokuyou asks Maomao if she’ll tell her, and Maomao agrees, but only if she keeps her speculation between them. The rest of the story about the courtesan she knew is that a second buyer made an offer when she took ill and was available for half price. Turns out the two buyers and the courtesan were working together, and she was only pretending to be ill so that the second buyer, whom she wanted to be with, could afford her.
Maomao learns that Fuyou and the military officer to whom she’s being bestowed were childhood friends from the same homeland. When the officer recently undertook actions worthy of a reward from the emperor, he insisted on Fuyou, and because Fuyou stumbled in her dance (possibly on purpose), the emperor had no issue parting with her.
The final cog in Fuyou’s plan was to feign sleepwalking in order to ensure the emperor wouldn’t suddenly take interest in her. As she shares her speculation with Gyokuyou, we see Fuyou reunite with her childhood friend, clearly overjoyed. Fuyou’s love made her appear more beautiful to Maomao as she danced in the moonlight for her beloved’s safe return.
Maomao also witnessed that love free Fuyou from the palace and back into her beloved’s arms. In this cruel world, love won out, and Gyokuyou confesses that she’s justifiably envious. As Maomao watches the sunset, she ponders what kind of medicine that same beauty-bestowing love could make. When I think of how glamorous Maomao appears as she dances in the lovely OP, it makes me wonder if her eventual goal is to concoct such a medicine.
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