~ Qin Shang Cheng and Hua Rong become acquainted by fighting ~
Synopsis:
Hua Rong answers a mother’s plea to rescue her daughter, Xiao Hui, from the brothel and scales the building’s exterior dressed in male clothing. After finding the right window and flinging it open, she introduces herself as ‘Hero Hua Hua’ to the frightened girl with a flourish of her fan. Because she hadn’t kept a hold on the window’s ledge, she fell backwards and slipped off the ledge. After Hua Rong’s panicked explanation, the girl helped her into the room and explained that she couldn’t yet leave because her indenture was in the Madame’s room. Needing the key to the room, Hua Rong devises a plan to steal it from the Madame, taking Xiao Hui’s place to perform a dance with a veil on her face.
Meanwhile, Qin Shang Cheng and his two subordinates, Qian Da You and Zhang Xian, had entered the same brothel to look for Pei Yong. Since they weren’t sure which room he was in, Shang Cheng decided that they would have to create chaos so that Pei Yong will come out of his room to check out the situation.
Still dancing, Hua Rong eyes the key hanging from the Madame’s belt as she inches closer, constantly swinging her hands and doing dance-like spins to keep up the pretense. When she finds an opportunity and swipes the key, she looks up only to see that Shang Cheng was looking right at her. Hua Rong keeps her cool and finishes the performance but before she could leave, Shang Cheng tattles to the Madame about her stolen key. A chase around the brothel ensues and when she was finally cornered at the second floor, Hua Rong tries to escape by swinging on the drapes to the other side but she lacked the momentum and ended up swinging above the customers awkwardly. At that moment, Shang Cheng spots Pei Yong who had exited his room to see what the disturbance was about. Shang Cheng steps on Hua Rong to get to Pei Yong but she quickly grabs his leg, protesting his actions. Still holding onto his leg, Hua Rong glares up at him only to have her veil slip off her face at that moment. Shang Cheng relents and grabs her as he flew to the other side where he promptly dumped her on the ground.
Shang Cheng and his men corner Pei Yong who was initially confused about what they wanted but when Shang Cheng asked him if he remembered Qin Ba Tian, a fight and chase soon ensues. Meanwhile, Hua Rong had entered the Madame’s room but couldn’t find the indenture so she decided to instead take the jewelry and money she had found. Before she could make her escape through the window, Pei Yong burst into the room, with Shang Cheng and his men following suit. Mistaking that she was in cahoots with Pei Yong, Shang Cheng’s men hold her at knife point. The Madame and her men soon join them in the room and Hua Rong threw Shang Cheng the ‘key’, purposely voicing words that would make the Madame assume that he was in cahoots with her.
Pei Yong takes the opportunity to escape, with Hua Rong following suit. Shang Cheng gave chase, with his men close behind as they simultaneously launched defensive attacks on the Madame’s men behind them.
At that moment, Jin Yi Wen and his servant boy Lai Sheng were strolling the streets. Jin Yi Wen was in the city to find the Longevity Pill and refused Lai Sheng’s advise to return home, insisting that he wouldn’t leave until he found what he had came for. They soon bumped into the chain of running people, with Lai Sheng narrowly avoiding Pei Yong but bumping into Hua Rong, causing the both of them to drop the similarly styled bags they were carrying. Hua Rong hastily picks up the bag closest to her before running away.
Hua Rong follows Pei Yong to jump onto a departing government ship and as she was still trying to hoist herself up the side of the ship, Pei Yong sneaks to the opposite end and jumps into the water. Shang Cheng catches up to Hua Rong and they have a little exchange that ends with Hua Rong kneeing him in the crotch. Hua Rong quickly climbs and boards the ship. Shang Cheng wanted to go after her but seeing that his men were surrounded by soldiers at the harbour, he goes to help them instead.
On board the ship, Hua Rong sneaks into the hold, still exhilarated from her adventure. After saving Xiao Hui, she plans to write a book like her idol, Hero Yun He but before that, she needed money for her travels so she checked her bag of jewels only to find pieces of paper.
Back on land, Jin Yi Wen was furious at Lai Sheng for losing his precious manuscript. Stating that he wouldn’t go anywhere until it was found, he orders Lai Sheng to look for the person they had bumped into.
Night fell and as the temperatures dropped, Hua Rong burned the papers for warmth. Feeling hungry, she decides to go above deck in search of food but she sees all the soldiers in a panic. Looking out to sea, she sees another ship with Qin Shang Cheng at the helm and was astounded at the possibility that he would chase her so doggedly. However, she was on a government ship and couldn’t understand why the soldiers would be so fearful so she stopped a passing soldier to ask about the situation. It turns out that the opposing ship belonged to the Pirate King, Qin Shang Cheng. Fearful for her life, Hua Rong returns below deck to find an escape but comes across a chestful of government money. Determined that she, Hero Hua Hua, must stop the pirates from getting their hands on the government money, Hua Rong bravely abandons any thought of escaping.
The pirates soon board the ship and as the pirate who was second in command killed all the surrendered soldiers, his subordinate reminded him that their leader had ordered them not to kill those who had surrendered. He argues that pirates don’t leave survivors and besides, they didn’t know whether the surrender was real or just a bluff. At that moment, he sees someone lining up jars of wine at the other end of the ship and his subordinate calls out to the person. Hearing the shouts, Hua Rong attacks him with a catapult and runs away but before the second in command could give chase, their leader boards the ship. Qin Shang Cheng was furious that he would defy his order but was lenient with him on the basis that he had saved his life before, ordering him to leave the ship.
Qin Shang Cheng then orders his men to load any valuables onto their ship but was interrupted by Hua Rong who, with a torch in hand, kicked the jars of wine onto the deck below, breaking them. Shouting across the ship, she asks them to leave or she would burn the place and they wouldn’t get anything. Shang Cheng taunts her and she throws the torch, setting a portion of the deck on fire. Undaunted, Shang Cheng swings to her side on a rope and proceeds to hold her over the fire as he questioned her about Pei Yong. Hua Rong denies any knowledge and Shang Cheng believes her, swinging the both of them back to the other side.
Back on his island, Shang Cheng was undressing when the “key” that Hua Rong had thrown him fell from his belt. Picking it up, he reminisced with a small smile, the encounters he had with Hua Rong that day. He is soon interrupted by his two subordinates who report to him that the goods had been handled and Hua Rong had been assigned to her own prison cell.
On Shang Cheng’s command, Qian Da You arranges different duties for Hua Rong, first of which was to carry rocks but Hua Rong got out of it by showing off her knowledge on jewelry and offering to look through Qian Da You’s collection to look for any counterfeits. Wanting to make things difficult for her, Shang Cheng later reassigned her to the kitchen because the kitchen head was strict. There, Hua Rong was assigned to peeling potatoes but when she sees the kitchen head beating another woman over the dish she had prepared, Hua Rong quickly steps in. Although she didn’t know how to cook, she had read the imperial palace’s cookbook and suggested they all work together. The food was delicious and Shang Cheng decides to assign her to yet another chore.
Meanwhile at the kitchen, the head was dissatisfied with the vegetables and beat the woman again. To teach him a lesson, Hua Rong orchestrated a small explosion by breaking a jar of flour that hanging was over the fire with her catapult. When Shang Cheng later visited the kitchen to investigate the cause of the explosion, he immediately noticed the flour and knew that it was Hua Rong who had done it. He then gathered everyone who worked at the kitchen, punishing the kitchen head to thirty lashes for his negligence and because no one admitted to the deed, he ordered twenty lashes for everyone. Seeing this, Hua Rong finally admitted that she was the culprit and Shang Cheng angrily grabs her by the throat.
Thoughts:
Hua Rong is silly one moment and really clever the next, I don’t know what to think.
Lol I have a feeling that Shang Cheng likes her already. Love at first sight much?
(Because this is the first episode, I wanted to include more pictures but maaan is it hard to find a good frame)
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