媚者无疆 (Bloody romance) - 2018

I loved it. Loved it! It's so tragic I shouldn't, but it was very well done I couldn't stop myself. It's full of characters who went through hell and fought to survive, which is funnily humiliating since I struggled to survive the end of the show... I really wish they'll make a second series with the same cast, to see how they're doing, to see Gong Zi beg for Yue Ying's company if possible, to see how the Emperor is behaving without the evil counsellor, to see how Wan Mei and her "sisters" are doing... I'd really like that, I'd recommend it to everyone (pleeeease). (With a cameo for Liuguang pretty please..)

I was sorry to see that I couldn't find many informations on this series or its actors on the internet in English. I'm suddenly very sad that I can't read Chinese :(

The actors were all good, but my absolute favourite actor was the one playing Gong Zi, really good, so so good, a bit strange looking actually, he looked like an ethereal elf who has lost a lot of blood, not my kind of handsome but he was very very charming because he was really really good, and I thought his little sighing smile really gave soul to the character. I think I'd watch anything if he has a role in it :-) He's called Wang Duo :-)
EDIT I watched other three dramas with him :-) and he's really good :-) I felt like an older sister at some point, and I wish him a long successful career :-) There are really few videos with him online, none subtitled, and I can only understand basic stuff at this point, not enough to understand a conversation :( At a conference to talk about Inference notes I admit I totally mistook him for a woman until I saw him clearly and heard him speak. He was wearing what here are women clothing :p (a short jacket and a gonna-pantalone). Different country, different fashion, I guess.


It has 36 episodes, with lots of interesting characters and an intricate plot. I don't know history at all, I have no idea if any of this is based on true facts or not, couldn't really figure it out, and honestly I'm not really sure that I got the ending completely, but everything was very good, every shot was beautifully constructed, the lights and colours were so beautiful, everything was so good, I couldn't stop watching. The opening music was so beautiful too, and the costumes were fabulous, all of them, but close to my heart is Gong Zi's green vest and Fang Ge's grey one when they confronted each other, but all of them were fabulous.

I liked Wan Mei's actress too of course, she did really great, because she had a difficult role, surely more broad than others, and did a great job. She portrayed a simple innocent girl who went through a lot: she was sad and she was happy, she was weak and she was strong, she was in love, she was determined, she was cold, she was hopeful and she was desperate.
Yue Ying was a character I loved, even though she's so different from me, like probably every one in this show, I felt a lot for her who loved so desperately and nobody seemed to notice or care..

The funny thing about this show is that I felt sympathy and pity for the lot of them, with only a few minor exceptions. I mean, Cha Luo clearly had to be stopped, she had become cruel and evil, but she had gone through a lot herself. She had lost her mind after all her sufferings.

WanMei, the protagonist, is a poor but kind beautiful girl who is sold by her father in exchange for some food. From there starts her real struggle to survive: food won't be a problem anymore but she'll be surrounded by assassins, she'll be tortured, humiliated, betrayed, but she'll keep love in her heart and she'll stay true to herself, becoming stronger day after day.

Descriptions of other characters after the episodes.
Episodes details:
1-
We see her working hard to try and earn a little bit enough to buy some food for herself, her father and her little brother. When she gets home, her father tells her that he's cooking but before eating she has to sell some herbs at a specific place. When she gets there, she learns that he has sold her for two bags of rice. It's a brothel, but since she's still a virgin they collect her blood first, because they say that virgin's blood has powers. Trying to escape, she accidentally ends up on stage during a dancer's performance. The general who was watching fancies her and so she is sent to his room, her arms tied so she can't escape. She struggles and cries, when suddenly a woman enters (Liuguang, I'll learn later). She's an assassin, and she kills him before he can rape her. Despite her plead, the woman leaves her there, but tells her that if she manages to survive and get out, she should reach a specific place..
She takes the general's armour to exit the room, steals a horse and escapes. She faints before reaching her destination, but when she gets up she tries to keep moving. She witnesses a battle in the night. There are two main characters here, that I will learn later to be Gong Zi and YueYing. They both fight, although he is clearly blind, and when she sees her there she's worried for her. He wouldn't care, but since she seems to, he tells her that if she's still alive in the morning she can take her to Guihua city. She wants to live and struggles, then eats something - that looked like a big round gem to me and was therefore surprised to see it could be eaten - and then in the morning she's still alive when Yue Ying comes for her. She's so scared and weak, she faints.
2-
She wakes up, she has been medicated, and she gets accepted by the Master of Guihua city because Gong Zi sent her and Yue Ying intercedes in her favour. The Master is a sadistic tyrant who wants to kill her, and I'll learn that she's called Cha Luo. She learns that all the women there are assassins, and she has to compete with other girls to become one of the 12 Di Sha, the lowest level of assassins, and there's only one place left. Cha Luo names her Wan Mei. Chang An is her shadow, at her service, and explains to her about the city, about the next level being the 4 Tian Sha, and tries to train her to pass the test. She met him as soon as she woke up, and when she had to choose a shadow, she chose him because she knew him, I guess, but also because she was told that having already lost a master, if he couldn't find a new master today he'd be killed, so she saves him. Yue Ying suggests she might keep Gong Zi company since she's often away, which would also help Wan Mei since Cha Luo won't leave her alone, but he says that he's used to being alone and he doesn't really care for her, he only wanted to show Cha Luo that he's still the leader.
3-
For days Chang An trains her in music, dance, calligraphy, the game of Go, and there are also many many rules to follow, and the punishment for disobedience can be torture, but for escaping it would be death after torture. Chang An already lost a master, so if she were to die he would die as well this time. She passes the first test, and then two girls remain to compete for the one available spot: their next mission is to go retrieve a specific herb and kill doctor Chen.
4-
Wan Mei and the girl called Wan Xiang (the one that was dancing when she busted on stage in that brothel) share the same mission. Wan Xiang is very determined. Yue Ying wants to help Wan Mei so she gives her something that smells like the herb she has to find, and Wan Mei finds it, but she is unable to kill the doctor when she has the chance, and she also forbids Chang An to kill him. Chang An poisoned himself here, I guess to have a chance to get near the doctor and try to kill him, but Wan Mei could not kill the man that was trying to save his life. When they get back, Wan Mei has the grass but Wan Xiang killed the doctor, so they both completed half of the mission. Cha Luo calls for a competition between shadows, but Chang An is still unwell and spits blood before even starting, and Wan Mei then yells that she gives up because she cares about his life. There's no mercy in Guihua city, and this would mean her death, and there doesn't seem to be any way out of this. Yue Ying objects but Gong Zi says nothing...
5-
Cha Luo says that her decision could be changed only if it were to snow on a sunny day, and Gong Zi makes it snow...
Chang An is still in pain but the doctor won't help her because she failed the mission, so Wan Mei asks for help to the only place where she has found any. She goes to beg Yue Ying for a cure for Chang An poisoning, and at first she refuses.
The grass was for Gong Zi, because with it she can make a cure for his blind eyes. In the morning he starts seeing something, but Yue Ying is asleep. He looks around, and outside there is still Wan Mei on her knees, begging them to help her shadow. When he starts seeing things clearly, she's the first person he sees. He orders to cure Chang An and when he finally sees her, he pays Yue Ying a compliment (if you take it the right way) telling her that she's prettier now than when she was younger. Yue Ying cries, moved, and she even smiles. I think this might be the only wide smiles on her face in the entire show.
Wan Mei says she's willing to trade her life for Chang An's, but Gong Zi gives her another chance, to catch those green sparkling insects, at least one, and she manages it with reasoning :-)
Yue Ying saves Chang An's life, telling him he owes it to Wan Mei.
Gong Zi intends to keep it a secret, that he can see, to maintain the advantage.
Wan Mei and Chang An are alone now and with no food, and must be very careful..
6-
Since LiuGuang has lost her shadow and she is a top-level assassin, there is a tournament to choose her new one, and Chang An applied too. Wan Mei was sorry to hear that, felt kind of abandoned, thought for a moment that he wanted to leave her, but after Gong Zi tells her that instead of whining she should go ask him his reasons, she goes and she sees him win! At which point he humbly asks again and again to give Wan Mei another chance...
Cha Luo would like to skin him to make a lantern , but LiuGuang stops her.
Wan Mei joins his side and they beg her together, so they receive a new mission.
The Emperor's right hand Taifu is suspicious of Gong Zi and want to test if he's really blind. Gong Zi is the Emperor's older brother, and they look closely at him while they tell him that they are making a special fish soup for him but actually they are drowning a woman (which I will later learn was his nanny) and he even has to taste the 'soup' made with her... Quite a terrible scene.
He can't let anyone know that he regained his sight or how weak is his heart.
7-
The man Wan Mei has to kill is the rich brother of that good swordsman that was after her when they held Doctor Chen hostage. Wan Mei tricks him, reminding him of a great love he lost, a woman that when he was arrested tried everything to free him, and was tortured and eventually died in his arms.
He remembers it all why she pretends to be her, while Chang An battles his brother outside so to keep him away. When the man sobers up he regains his wit and he attacks her, but she gets to him with her words, which is not all that difficult because the memory is so painful, and so even if Wan Mei is still unable to kill, he can't bear it anymore and he uses her weapon to stab himself, at least saving her since he could not save his love. She's shocked, she didn't want that, but as soon as Chang An gets to her side he uses the umbrella on Han, so that it'll drain enough blood to form a red flower on it, proof that she completed the mission. His brother now knows their faces though.
When they get back, she's told that she's officially the 13th killer!
8-
Wan Mei has a hard time accepting that she has to kill in order to survive, and that even if she hasn't yet killed anyone, people have died anyway. She tells Chang An her story, saying that nobody cares about her and she will die eventually so why struggle so much against it, and she tells him that he needs not worry because he won't die with her because Liu Guang likes him and will take him after she's dead, but he tells her that he won't go to be her shadow, that he does care about her and also that since it's her birthday he made birthday noodles for her, something she never had before, and then they play swing together, and she tells him she wants to escape together.
Someone tries to kill Cha Luo but she's powerful and not easy to kill and also has hypnotic powers.
Wan Mei is escaping and she might actually make it when she understands that he remained behind to help her escape and she runs back to him.
Chang An, after failing to kill Cha Luo, goes to Gong Zi for refuge, telling him they have a common enemy and that he'll succeed sooner or later. Gong Zi is very weak but when Cha Luo and Liu Guang with their shadows come looking for the assassin, he blocks them and hurts Liu Guang but then he faints in Chang An's arms. Wan Mei arrives and hugs him tight, relieved to find him alive, and he tells her that he never thought of making it out of there alive and she tells him that he must live for her, and then since Gong Zi is unconscious and Cha Luo is coming in to 'deal' with him, she tries to help...
9-
Wan Mei tells Cha Luo that Gong Zi is now asleep but that if they insist she won't dare stop them, and secretly sends the green bugs at them (she can control them enough now, but they're usually controlled by him); eventually they leave but Wan Mei stays to watch over Gong Zi.
When she goes home with Chang An, Wan Xiang is there to talk to her. She knows that she's in love with her shadow, and that he's hurt, but she didn't tell Cha Luo and came to tell her because she thinks that Wan Mei is now Gong Zi's favourite. Love between master and shadow is a terrible crime in Guihua city.
Chang An needs to let everyone think that Wan Mei punished him and that's why he's injured, and then he tells her his real name and his story, of how Cha Luo killed the family that rescued him and raised him, the Xie family, and that's why he now wants revenge.
Wan Mei goes to see Gong Zi as ordered, and he talks to her and has her play some music, and through it he reads her, and then he awards her with something sort of magical that I don't really remember, I think it was some kind of bugs that are supposed to make fighters stronger.
Yue Ying knows that he only has a few years to live and she's trying to find a certain something that might save him but hasn't succeeded so far.
Cha Luo really wants to kill Gong Zi :-/
Yue Ying tells Wan Mei that they'll leave together for a new mission.
10-
One of my favourite episodes for sure, with only the four of them and so emotional..
Wan Mei and Chang An are on a new mission with Gong Zi and Yue Ying; Gong Zi wants them to get something for him from his undead grandmother. With what he gave her Wan Mei can now fly but she can't control it yet. She manages to get what she came for while Chang An battles all the obstacles, but she doesn't leave right away because she wants to save the old woman... She frees her but then is attacked. Gong Zi and Yue Ying run inside as well to fight along them. Yue Ying helps Chang An behind, while Gong Zi goes to fight undead-grandma at Wan Mei's side. He seems angry, because he says that the only way to free her is to kill her, and Wan Mei is sorry... but undead-grandma is not dead yet, it's not so easy, and she immobilises them and then almost kills Gong Zi. He closes his eyes and Wan Mei talks to her, making her recognise who she's attacking - actually I don't know if she knew it was him, I think the old woman thought she had her daughter there.
Wan Mei gets thru to her and she stops fighting, she comes closer and understands that she can die in peace.. Gong Zi was overwhelmed by emotions during all this, and rushed to hug her when she fell.
After they bury her, Gong Zi lectures Wan Mei on how stupid she is for trying to save everyone, but then he also thanks her.
On their way back, Gong Zi learns from Chang An about his past, about the Xie family.
11-
When they get back, Gong Zi tells Yue Ying that she's being silly if she's worried that Wan Mei might replace her... which can please and hurt at the same time. Being told that nobody can replace her might be nice, but Yue Ying wasn't worried about that, she was maybe already seeing in him that he was falling for Wan Mei, or maybe she was simply already thinking about taking her heart, although she hasn't talked about that yet... anyway, he tells her that she's been with him since childhood and nobody can replace her :-) At first, when he says that he knows what she's thinking, she talks about cooking, and he smiles, a little laugh :-) (the silly man, when did he ever smile like that or talk like that with anyone else? he'll understand how important she is only when it's too late?)
Yue Ying discovers that the only thing that can cure Gong Zi, the thing they have been looking for, is inside Wan Mei (must be that amber-looking round thing she ate in the first episode), and now Yue Ying needs only take her heart out to cure him... She explains it to Gong Zi and he 'thinks' about it for a second, but he can't, really.
Wan Mei wants to train with the sword, and Chang An sort of says that he'll love her forever and that he'd die for her..
Chang An bursts into Gong Zi's palace sword in hand thinking Wan Mei is in danger, but Gong Zi wasn't going to kill her, he has decided to teach her instead.
Gong Zi sends them on another mission. When there, for a moment Wan Mei thinks Chang An might be about to kiss her and closes her eyes, but he was only worried because there's someone outside their door... and she looks rather upset that they ruined her moment.. :p
12-
They manage a way to get near their target. Wan Mei is better now and she fights with her target. In the meantime Chang An has learned that the woman, Ruannian, is actually his old master, the beautiful daughter of Xie he talked about before already, and so he bursts in while they're fighting and save Ruanniang's life.
Wan Mei sees him protect her while she falls back into the river and is then captured.
Cha Luo is rather happy when she hears that Wan Mei failed.
Wan Mei is desperately sad because Chang An betrayed her, after all his promises...
13-
We are shown now that Chang An tried to help Wan Mei and save her from falling, but the woman stopped him and he's been unconscious until now.
Wan Mei is 'questioned', meaning tortured while someone asks questions that she refuses to answer; they put needles under her feet and on her body, while Taifu talks to Gong Zi who still fakes blindness. She's hurt by those needles and bleeds all over but she does not give him away.
He can't really bear to sit there watching all that and he tries to help her without betraying too much, but she surely seemed to breath again after he hit her on the back, maybe he removed the needles in her lungs or something.
Chang An wants to go to Wan Mei but his Miss won't let him and she drugs him.
Wan Mei thinks that nobody cares about her now. Gong Zi has to watch while Wan Mei suffers, being stabbed and with needles in her blood, but she doesn't yield. She thinks that nobody cares about her life now, and she secretly gives Gong Zi something important she took from the woman when he approaches her, and he keeps up his pretence scratching her face with a poisoned knife, while crying, and he 'questions' her but can't go on and stops. He leaves, and Taifu orders his men to torture her, breaking her bones every morning and then curing her to keep her alive. What hurts her more though is thinking back at Chang An words, how she had believed his promises, how she had felt happy and secure with him...
Gong Zi wants her rescued, and Yue Ying is clearly jealous but she still obeys. He says that they owe her.
Ruan Niang tells Chang that he is royal, that his father was asked to find him and take care of him, and that her family was killed because of him..
14-
Yue Ying rescues Wan Mei as ordered, since Cha Luo obviously refused. Yue Ying kills some fifty men and rescues her alright.
We hear Cha Luo's tragic story, and it seems to me that killing the Xie family had more to do with her revenge than with Chang.. but Ruan Niang tells him that the proof of his royal heritage, what everyone was looking for, is actually in Cha Luo's possession, although she doesn't know it.
When a man comes in to say that assassin Wan Mei escaped, Chang An hears about it and goes out.
Gong Zi also told Yue Ying to cure Wan Mei's face, but she throws the antidote away and offers a poison instead, for her to commit suicide. She suffers and thinks about taking it, but then she spits it out, stronger now, wanting to take revenge against all those who caused her pain.. but then Yue Ying does something to her and she wakes up a slave for sale, still hurting and also starving.
Chang An goes back to Guihua city but she's not there and Cha Luo punishes him but doesn't kill him because Wan Mei is not dead yet and Liu Guang likes him.
Wan Mei escapes and is helped by a kind old woman.
Yue Ying confesses what she did and Gong Zi is very angry.
15-
The Emperor is attacked and Gong Zi protects him, and is injured. Later, Gong Zi suggests refusing the allegiance proposed by the general who sent the musician who turned out to be an assassin, but Taifu insists on doing it, so the Emperor sends them together.
When there, Gong Zi and Taifu are trapped together while the two armies fight. It was indeed a trap, and it turns out that Taifu and Gong Zi's mother were in love until he betrayed her and killed her. Gong Zi tells him that he'll avenge her, but for now they need to cooperate to fight the enemy.
After they join the fight, the ret of the army surrenders (just because they're strong or did they kill the general? I'm not sure... :-/ )
A plague is killing people in the village where Mei is staying, and rumours accuse her, so the old woman has her escape together with a kid, while she stayed behind because infected.
Gong Zi sent Yue Ying with an antidote, but she lost it...
16-
Yue Ying and Chang An go find Mei. He didn't know about the scar, and Yue Ying asks back why didn't he protect her. Mei is very sad that the kind old woman died. She's ill and can't talk, but the kid helps her. The name is Xiaoxia, and when caught stealing food Xiaoxia is smart enough to claim to have the plague so nobody dares come closer.
Mei starts to understand that she might really be the cause of the plague, because of what Yue Ying put into her, and is scared now that she might infect Xiaoxia, but there's nothing she can do and the child shows signs of sickness.
Chang An finds her but she can't speak, she can only cry and yell and point him to the door.
Yue Ying lost the antidote, and all she can do now is to cure her voice. The whole village is in quarantine now, because of her. Yue Ying tries to help Xiaoxia as she can, and when she regains her voice Mei proposes to get the antidote from the Blood Lotus cult, and then she tells Chang all that they did to her, and that more than the torture or the scar she hated him, because he was the only one who had promised to keep her safe, and he never came for her.
Chang An infects himself and goes alone to the Blood Lotus cult leader but Lan Ruo says he has no antidote or he'd have used it already. Lan Ruo only has something unfinished, and only someone who has survived at least seven days can use it and then their blood will become the antidote, and Chang says that there is someone... all others have died within a day, but not Wan Mei.
Lan Ruo gives him the cure, telling him she'll suffer terribly after taking it.
Soldiers come to kill Mei because she's thought to be the cause, but she won't leave Xiaoxia' bed side.
Yue Ying then fights them to protect her, as ordered by Gong Zi who wants her back alive.
There are a lot of them, and Chang An arrives in time to stop the arrow about to hit her. He goes inside and explains everything to Mei, and she's obviously willing to try it right away. The soldiers throw fire-arrows..
17-
Mei takes it, drinks it and suffers terribly while Chang holds her and Yue Ying keeps fighting, and only stops when she sees the big fire, but then Mei comes out, Chang holding a cured Xiaoxia in his arms, and Mei announces that she's found the cure, and so Yue Ying yells that she must be the reincarnation of a saint, and everyone bows to her. With her blood they save the city. Mei is dressed in holy clothes and they go to Lan Ruo but he refuses to resign, saying the real leader is Yue-something and he can't make that decision; his wife You Chan offers herself in sacrifice to please the god, knowing very well that the whole Blood Lotus cult has always been a scam. She belongs to a clan exterminated by the cult, but Lan Ruo loves her even knowing that, and now she says to him that either he exposes the scam or he lets her die. He does neither, trying to keep it all, but when all others go out You Chan attacks him. She hates him but she loves him and can't kill him, so he stabs her but since he loves her she stabs himself too with the same sword...
Mei leaves the village, and when Chang An goes to buy food he meets Ruan Niang who has proof that he is the son of Princess Taiping. She pleads loyalty and begs him to take his rightful place.
Gong Zi and Taifu have a word-confrontation (and now I finally got that Taifu is Yue-something, leader of the blood lotus cult, and he killed Lan He, Gong Zi's mother, sacrificing her to the cult, and he named his adoptive son Lan Ruo...)
18-
Wan Mei reports to Cha Luo but since Chang An left the city without authorization he must be punished - not as bad as I thought knowing her, but still very unpleasant. Mei asks him why he did what he did but now that he knows he's the 'future king', he does not explain and even takes back all his promises...
Chang survives and is now Liu Guang's shadow. Apparently he's the only one who survived that other than Xing Feng.
Liu Guang tells him that she likes truly loyal shadows like him and offers a cure for Mei's face.
Gong Zi takes Mei to a secret place and tells her that after his mother blinded him - to save his life - he didn't want to live, just like her now...
19-
Gong Zi leaves her there, saying he'll return in seven days, and she'll have her answers, that she'll be  either dead or stronger, that she'll know what she wants..
Liu Guang gives Chang a written cure for Mei's face and since he can't find her he gives it to Gong Zi, because Chang knows that he likes her, and uses the same words that Yue Ying will use later, meaning that it's easier to understand other's feelings than oneself, because he still hasn't admitted it.
Yue Ying reminds him that if he doesn't take her heart soon he'll be in danger, but he says that he owes Mei.... and when he goes to open the secret door she comes out by herself, stronger than before.
Wan Xiang leaves her on the roof, thinking that she has no more power after what they did to her, but Mei finds that Gong Zi's lessons worked and she does have strength.
Although very jealous, Yue Ying makes the cure and gives Mei the cream to cure her face.
Cha Luo orders Wan Xiang to kill Cha Wu, her mother, and Mei is to monitor how it goes, and she sort of give Wan Xiang a piece of advice..
20-
Mei witnesses Wan Xiang's fight with Cha Wu, and the moment Wan Xiang realises that she's her mother. Cha Wu dies.
Fang Ge comes asking Gong Zi for Han Yue's killer's name (the guy who killed himself for his lost love), but he doesn't give him Mei's name right away, asking for time.
Wan Xiang is shocked to hear that Cha Luo knew Cha Wu was her mother and planned for them to kill each other, while Wan Mei was the one who tried to help, that little she could, and Xiang asks her to become allies. Wan Mei tells her that she's not strong enough now and later tells Cha Luo that Xiang should get the whole reward (again, some kind of bugs that make them stronger)
21-
Xiang took Cha Wu's shadow, sending her own to Mei who had none. Cha Luo gives Mei the task to kill a master and shift the blame on his brother Fang Ge, a very difficult task. Gong Zi is worried she might fail and so he teaches her, also giving her a special sword.
22-
Mei planned with her new shadow to make Qi disappointed in Fang Ge enough to agree to fake his death and disappear, but Wan Xiang kills him, saying Cha Luo sent her, worried Mei might not complete her mission due to her soft heart. Despite being her shadow now, Er Yue is not loyal to Mei.
Gong Zi blackmails Fang Ge into introducing him in his illegal business because he's almost broke.. when he shows up at the business building, showing already he has courage, he has to pass two more tests, the first being to explain a painting to prove his knowledge.
23-
Gong Zi answers, not faking blindness now apparently, and the third test is a sort of Russian roulette but with glasses of wine only one of which is poisoned. He plays it cool ( I think he got the poison at the first glass and that's why he sort of tried to speed it up a little bit) and he wins the test but then he tells Yue Ying that he's been poisoned and he starts feeling its effects, and he sees Mei while looking at her, and it's sort of heartbreaking when she sees him smile thinking she's someone else..
Eu Yue tells Cha Luo that Mei  is unfair to him because she has an affair with Chang An, so she wants something put in them that will make Chang suffer every time they get too close.
Yue Ying summons Wan Mei to see Gong Zi he's been cured of the poison now but he's completely drunk. He tells her of his heart condition, keeps drinking and tells her about his childhood and his mother, and how it is so exhausting the life he lives, and then he tries to kiss her, to take her by force but when she fights him off he lets her go. He didn't actually drink all that much, but because of his health and him not been used to it, he gets drunk very easily.
Now that Mei has consented to have that thing planted in her, Chang An is again her shadow.
Taifu wants revenge for Lan Ruo's death and he orders Ruan Niang to lead the imperial army and destroy the city. She also wants to kill Cha Luo herself, of course.
She warns Chang An first, but he doesn't agree to it because he says that only Cha Luo is evil, the others are innocents...
24-
Gong Zi asks Mei to be his girlfriend, admitting that he seriously likes her, but she refuses, accepting only friendship, and she uses the excuse that their class difference is too much of an obstacle between them.
The army attacks, many are killed. Chang An fights them, Gong Zi saves Mei getting an arrow in the shoulder; Cha Luo fights with Xing Feng, Chang, Liu Guang, Wan Xiang and the remaining warriors.
Xing Feng then takes Cha Luo away leaving the others uncertain without their leader, but then Gong Zi arrives, followed closely by Yue Ying and Wan Mei, and he takes all the warriors and all the shadows to his Bi An palace. He makes a big speech indeed, but when he's alone with Yue Ying, Mei and Chang An he almost breaks. They think that the only way to win is to make them stop, and to do that they need to tell the Emperor what's happening, sure that he won't be aware of what's going on.
Mei and Yue Ying leave together while Chang stays back promising to protect Gong Zi at all costs.
Cha Luo and Xing Feng arrive to fight giving them the chance to leave the city no problem.
There are too many soldiers though, and they are captured, but Ruan Niang hates them so much, instead of killing them right away she speaks of torturing them, of skinning Xing Feng in front of her; he reveals that she was Xie Ying once, and tells Cha Luo that the famous letter in actually in her possession - which was rather silly of her I think.
Xing Feng is able to free himself and take Cha Luo away with him.
The army breaks into the palace, and Chang An leads the Guihua warriors. Xie Ying doesn't want to kill him and offers to let everyone go if Chang gives her Gong Zi, but Chang An promised to protect him, so he agrees on condition that he stays behind with him.
Mei reaches the imperial palace and dances for the emperor to get his attention and when they are alone she informs him of what happened, and he finds out only now that all his army has gone to attack Guihua city and there's none there to protect him...
25-
Xie Ying reveals in front of Gong Zi that Chang An is heir to the throne, the son of Princess Taiping, daughter of the Empress, then Chang An promises to follow his royal destiny in exchange for her promise not to kill Gong Zi.
Mei and Yue Ying come back and are able to stop the half army that was sent to kill the survivors of Guihua city, and then she runs to save Gong Zi, arriving in time to see that the army was taking him away, so she thinks Chang An gave him away.
Chang An then runs to take the letter from Cha Luo's place, and is knocked out by Gong Zi who then takes the letter himself - which looks like a sort of stone to me...
When Mei pays Gong Zi a visit, he truly disappointed me. He lied to her, saying that he was unconscious and has no idea what Chang An did, only that he woke up among the soldiers, and that maybe Chang An had no other choice to save himself... which was not true because he had tried all he could to save him.
Mei asks Gong Zi's forgiveness for what Chang An did, but when she asks Chang An he offers no explanation at all and can only tell her to trust him, as if that was easy now. She sort of says that she wants his love and he sort of says that she is already, but that there's something he must do... and here she hits the right point: she always trusted him unconditionally, but he never shares his secrets with her.
Xing Feng and Cha Luo come back, and Gong Zi with all the warriors accuse her of leaving the city when it was in danger, but then Xing Feng claims that it was all his fault so to protect her, and now Liu Guang pleads for forgiveness too, saying that after all they helped Mei pass through the soldiers to get to the Emperor. Xing Feng won't die , he'll only get a 'lighter' punishment. Mei is the one who should whip him 100 times, but after seven she stops and pleads to let him go now, followed by Liu Guang, but Gong Zi takes the whip himself and hits him...
26-
Gong Zi hits him hard and Cha Luo can't bear it and she kneels down and begs him too. I suppose this pleased him because in the next scene Xing Feng is home, with Cha Luo at his side.
Gong Zi tells Yue Ying that he'd like Wan Mei to be the new master but that Chang will have to die.
When Mei comes after being summoned, he tries to kiss her again - but in a normal, acceptable way this time - and then he tells her that he likes her. He'll say it to Yue Ying too, that he likes Mei, but that he's still going to give her to Fang Ge because nothing will stop him from reaching his goal... Yue Ying appears sad to hear the first part, but also shocked to hear the rest.
When Gong Zi takes her to Fang Ge, she tells him that after all she stupidly believed him when he had said that he liked her.. he turns her to Fang Ge, but when they're alone again he hugs her by force; she breaks free and to my surprise he spoke well of Chang An, even if it was to say that he couldn't understand..
When Fang Ge's beloved sister disappears, Mei helps find her.
27-
They find her, and then Mei sees on the girl's wrist the same scar she has on hers, and she explains Fang Ge all about it, how those men made that scar to take her blood.
Before going away, Gong Zi leaves her a note with a new mission. Mei sneaks out but not to escape; she searches the place and steals some papers. Discovered, she escapes. Fang Ge catches her easily but lets her go.
The girl is nineteen years old as Mei, but she thinks she's still eleven because the shock was so great her mind couldn't bear it.
Gong Zi actually planned for the girl to disappear so she could find her. Mei apparently failed to retrieve what he wanted (what did she take then?)
Chang An finally hugs her and says that he wants to be with her but he has stuff to do, and she wants to go with him...
Gong Zi heard their conversation.
Cha Luo plans to send Wan Xiang after Fang Ge's sister.
28-
Wan Mei and Chang An are sent to injure a man to let the blame fall on Fang Ge because Gong Zi doesn't want him as the leader. Mei lets herself be captured so she can lie on who sent her, then Yue Ying comes to take her away. Fang Ge follows them and Gong Zi is waiting for him, and the others watch the fight.
Yue Ying is so concentrated on Gong Zi that Chang An is able to block her; he tells Mei that this is their only chance and they should escape, but it seems to be rather silly since apparently he has to go back to Guihua city first..
Gong Zi wins the battle but doesn't kill Fang Ge (I really like their green and grey robes, both beautiful). When it's all over and Fang Ge's gone and he's alone again, he calls Yue Ying's name. She doesn't appear right away so he calls her name again looking around worried..
29-
Xing Feng meets Chang An and Mei on the road to warn them about Wan Xiang being sent to kill YingYing, Fang Ge's sister..  but Wan Xiang did worse than kill her. She sent her into a trap, and two guys assaulted her.
As she arrived Mei immediately killed them, without a second thought, but the poor girl had been raped already. Huang and his men arrive and he defends his boys of course, saying that they're good and if they did something it was the girl's fault - which is so disgusting and pathetic he should have been struck dead by a lightning on the spot - so Mei and Chang An fight him to let Fang Ge take his poor sister to a doctor, since she's still breathing... Ying Ying had been in shock all these years, but now she remembers and tells him how her father sold her, how they took her blood for years and then raped her.. and then she dies :'(
Gong Zi talks to Chang An about him being the true descendant of Princess Taiping and heir to the throne in front of Mei. Chang speaks of a common enemy and an alliance between the two of them, but he wants Mei set free to live the life she always wanted, but now that Ying Ying died she doesn't want to hide anymore, she wants to go back and fight and become the new master of Guihua city instead of cruel Cha Luo.
We see Gong Zi with the Emperor and Taifu and now he publicly declares that his eyes have been cured and he can see the world 'for the first time in years'.. and the emperor gives him a royal token so that Guihua city may now work officially for him.
Mei is promoted to Tian Sha by Yue Ying, and then Chang An hugs her tightly, even with that thing that makes his heart ache when they're too close. He sees Yue Ying spying on her and asks Gong Zi the reason for it, and learns about that medicine in her heart... Yue Ying still wants it to save Gong Zi, so he takes a medicine/drug/poison/something that won't be cured by it...
30-
Cha Luo tells Mei that there was a flood in her village and everyone died. Chang An hugs her, encouraging her to rest and not become like Cha Luo.
The emperor orders that the Blood Lotus cult be destroyed, and Taifu rebels and is stripped of his rank, or something like that, I'm not exactly sure, and it wasn't a real rebellion either..
Ruan Niang asks Mei to let go of Chang An but she replies that she loves him... Ruan Niang begs her because he can't live only for her, he has his own difficult path... so Mei tells Chang An that he must follow his destiny and her hers. He leaves, she cries..
31-
After having learned from Gong Zi that her old mentor Cha Ru is not dead but still alive, and she's Cha Luo's prisoner and has been for years, Liu Guang sends Chang An to kill her, but he shows mercy and takes her out of there first. Liu Guang resents her for what she did to Xing Feng, and when Cha Luo arrives, Chang An kills Cha Ru before Cha Luo can take her back.
Liu Guang protects Chang An from her fury, and then Xing Feng comes to protect Liu Guang, reminding her that Liu Guang saved them back then... but Cha Luo still plans to kill her.
Chang An offers to be her shadow again and challenge Xing Feng so to save her life.
Finally Mei asks Yue Ying why does she always looks like she wants to kill her, so Yue Ying explains to her too about the medicine in her heart and how Gong Zi will die in three days now and about all that he did to protect her and how she took his only medicine, and how he can be good too...
Mei tries to be kinder now and cooks for him, but then he understands that Yue Ying told her everything and that after all he's done for her she still won't love him, and tells her that she doesn't have to pity him...
Taifu abducts Mei (his name is Yue Qingya) and Gong Zi tells Yue Ying that he has shown him his weakness and Taifu took advantage of it, thinking he might win this way... and now Yue Ying is confused, wondering if it was all pretend...
Taifu stabs Mei in the shoulder, and uses her against Gong Zi when he comes for her. Taifu confesses how he sacrificed Lan He for the power, and now Gong Zi pretends to do the same and kill Mei, then the two of them fight but Gong Zi is weak and couldn't hold much longer, but desperation allows Mei to use the secret technique - or something - and defeat him.
Yue Ying comes running, saying Taifu's heart too could save him, but Gong Zi stabs him in the heart because he hates him so much he doesn't want to be saved by him.
Gong Zi falls down, dying, and Mei tells Taifu that Gong Zi is his son and before dying Taifu tells her something that might cure him...
32-
Chang An and Xing Feng fight and Chang An wins. Xing Feng awaits his punishment when Liu Guang keeps her word and pleads for mercy saying that she only wanted to survive and never intended to challenge her, and Chang An pleads too, but crazy Cha Luo claims that Chang An cheated and used poison and she wants Liu Guang to replace Cha Ru as her prisoner, and does something to her that makes her scream in agony, so Xing Feng kills her instead, to stop that terrible pain.
Liu Guang's body is left where it is, with Xing Feng kneeling beside her for a whole day, covering her from the rain with her umbrella when he has it, without it after Cha Luo breaks it.
When it's over, he sets Chang An free because he had promised it to poor, dying Liu Guang.
Mei tells Yue Ying that she agreed with Gong Zi to the whole pretence, and that all she went through in her life doesn't seem so much now compared to his life.. Yue Ying goes looking for the cure telling her to stay with him, because after all these years together she won't give up on him, but she also knows that no matter how much she cares for she he will want to see Mei when he regains consciousness... Mei finds a clue and calls for her immediately, and together they get it and use their blood to activate something and open a secret door...
33-
Three days after Mei and Yue Ying saved him, Gong Zi is well and wants to go to learn about Cha Luo meeting the emperor. Mei says that she won't leave him yet, and she sort of says that she feels friendship for him, not love but there's a relationship and she doesn't want to leave him alone now, but then he explains what's going on in Guihua city. He started it all when he told Liu Guang about Cha Ru being alive, because Liu Guang was an obstacle on Mei's path to become the new Master.
Things are different now and of course Mei chooses Chang An and runs back.
Gong Zi go to Taifu's funeral and Yue Ying is very concerned about him, as always, while he thinks of the man he hated so much, his father, who did terrible things to him and his mother. He names the worst things, among which the fact that Taifu made him eat his nanny's flesh (he seems to blame it entirely on him and not on the emperor, who after all didn't oppose the idea..?!?).
Maybe touched by her concern, he finally looks her in the eyes and tells her that in this world she's the only one who treats him sincerely...
When Mei arrives in Guihua city, Chang An's gone already, has met with Ruan Niang and is preparing to rebel.
Liu Guang wanted to repay Chang by supporting Mei as the new chief, so now her clan respects her wish and sides with her. Guihua city is the only home for all of them, and they want it to change. Mei has to win a sort of competition to become first killer in Liu Guang's place, while Chang An is gathering an army..
34-
The emperor wanted Yue Ying at his service, so Gong Zi said that he had promised his mother to look after her.. Gong Zi is now the new commander of the emperor's army.
Xing Feng did repair Liu Guang's umbrella so Mei finds it and wins the promotion to Jue Sha, while Wan Xiang will remain Tian Sha.
Gong Zi was successful in his first battle assignment, but in exchange he has to give up Guihua city and give the token to Cha Luo, to be able to become the great General, and he does so. He's going to leave the city in a few days and wants to say goodbye to Mei. She comes to say goodbye, he says that he'll be back after she becomes the new chief; he still hoped that she might love him, but she points out how different Chang An is from him and that she'll now go on alone to become the new Master, not for Gong Zi but for everyone in Guihua city to get rid of Cha Luo's cruelty.
Mei is then arrested by Cha Luo because Chang tried to kill her three years before.
The emperor gives Gong Zi an hopeless task to defeat Chang An's army with basically no warriors; Cha Luo sends him a fake request for help written in Mei's blood, and Gong Zi seizes the opportunity and sends it to Chang An. When he sees the letter, Ruan Niang begs him to stay and then she kills herself (why? what did she accomplish by that? :-/ )
35-
Cha Luo is mentally torturing Wan Xiang so Mei comes and officially challenges her.
Chang An hurries back but Gong Zi stops him on the road. They start fighting but then Chang An promises him that if he wins they'll be allied.
Mei thinks she can't win but since what she truly cares about is to kill Cha Luo she wants a drug to ensure she will die, even if she'll have to die herself.
Chang An runs back to hug her, in his King's clothes, and without her knowing it he hears about her plan to die to make sure that Cha Luo dies too, and so he tries to kill Cha Luo first by himself, but fails. Chang An is arrested but now Mei can't use the drug anymore because if she die there won't be any hope for him...
Chang An says that he did it to get close to Xing Feng and talk to him, and tell him how crazy Cha Luo has become, and that he wants to pass his power to Mei, no matter the cost...
36-
Cha Luo go to tell Mei how Chang An is being tortured, just for fun. Mei runs to him, to see his feet smashed and bloody; Xing Feng leaves them an hour alone, saying that he'll continue the torture later, and she frees his hands and he hugs her tight.
When Mei and Cha Luo fight, Mei admits that Xing Feng gave them time and the chance for Chang An to pass his inner strength onto her. Cha Luo seems to be winning, but in her moment of desperation Mei finds again the secret moves and wins. Cha Luo dies, defeated by Xing Feng and not by her... Mei runs back to find a crazy Xing Feng who tells her that Chang An died.
----- there was no body though, so it didn't affect me the way it should have because I didn't believe it until the end of the episode; I thought at this point that Xing Feng was so out of his mind knowing that his love had died that was trying to provoke her into killing him. Well, he was doing that, but apparently Chang An had really died, because after giving her all his inner strength he had no more to sustain him from the injuries; if he was alive and able to walk he would be with her, so since at the end she's all alone, he's either really dead or incapacitated to move (like when he didn't rescue her).
She's so hurt that she thinks of keeping him apart from Cha Luo forever, letting him live a desperate life or something, but then he tells her that she's becoming just like Cha Luo so she comes back to herself. Unable to kill him herself, she lets him her sword so he can do it himself.
Gong Zi goes to see her, afterwards, and she point his own sword at him yelling that it was all his plan, that he wanted Chang An dead, but then she lets go of the sword, as if without strength. He tells her that losing Chang An doesn't mean losing everything, that she still has him and could have a good future with him, a bloody romance, and he asks her what could he do to make her move on and look for a new life, but there's nothing anybody can do now that Chang An is dead... so he goes away.
I think that little smile when he walks away might mean that he admits that he lost to Chang An again, in death as well as in life, or maybe he's thinking about something we don't know about, and I'm all for a season two to explain that :-)
Six months later:
we are told that Gong Zi has fulfilled his goal and defeated the enemy (so what, he's now the emperor's right hand? I thought he wanted to become emperor himself, when he talked to Taifu..)
When Yue Ying bursts into the imperial palace, while they are all listening to some music, Gong Zi stands up and apologises for her rudeness, saying she doesn't know the rules, but the emperor likes her and says that if she stayed there with him she could always protect him... he asked for her once already, in ep 34, but this time the emperor changes his tactics. He doesn't ask Gong Zi to give her to him, since she's not his servant, so he simply asks Gong Zi for permission to ask her! Gong Zi can't really refuse this, so he barely makes a smile. Then, after a second of silence, he starts giving him an answer when Yue Ying suddenly accepts to stay there at the palace.
He is incredibly shocked - though she still loves him, that much seems rather clear to me by the way she looks at him - and so he now goes back to Guihua city to live there alone...
Mei is now the new Master of Guihua city but she'll always feel alone without Chang, and keeps with her the fan that Xing Feng said was made with Chang An's skin, with a poem written on it using Chang An's blood... which if true is all she has of him left...

We didn't see his dead body though, and although I don't know exactly for how long Wan Mei fought with Cha Luo, it seems to me that Xing Feng couldn't have enough time to torture him long enough to spread his flesh and blood all over the walls, then use his skin to make a fan, then collect enough blood to write the poem, and be there in idle waiting when she comes running... plus I always thought that he didn't want him dead, that he had promised Liu Guang to save his life...

Chang'An is the male lead, the one that gives her courage and loves her; he keeps his secrets hidden but always tries to protect her. He's her 'shadow', meaning he is at her orders; we find out along with him that he is the rightful heir of princess Taiping, and he'll try to get to the throne, only to abandon it all when Wan Mei is in serious danger. He never really cared about the throne, but thought it was his duty now since he was told that the whole Xie family died for him. This was an unusual character because although I was never really into him I never doubted him for a second. Wan Mei's love for him started, as YueYing rightly pointed out, because he was the only one there for her at first, but it grew from there and became real.
Gong Zi is an important figure, brother of the Emperor  (although I don't understand how they are related, since it seems to me they have different fathers but also different mothers... or maybe they officially have the same father, since his real one is such a secret he won't admit to it himself until the end). He lives in Guihua city, and manipulates those around him to achieve his goals. I don't have a clear picture, but I got that he had a hard life too somehow. He grew up unloved, feeling a disappointment, trying to be stronger, trying to hide any weakness; his mother blinded him herself so that he won't be killed. His grandmother became an undead, prisoner in a cave, to guard some Blood Lotus Cult secret, his mother was killed by the man she loved, who sacrificed her that fake religious cult so he could gain power. Gong Zi has a heart condition that makes him suffer very much but he has to hide it from anyone other than Yue Ying.
He slowly falls in love with Wan Mei and will try to win her love, unsuccessfully. By doing so, he neglects the one person in this world who loves him deeply and sincerely, who's been with him for years, and when he loses her he finds himself all alone... it was a very sad scene when she accepted the Emperor's offer, but he brought it upon himself, always taking her for granted, so sure that she'd never leave him he never even considered the possibility. For so long now he had been thinking mostly of Wan Mei, knowing very well that she loved Chang An, and never had a sweet word for Yue Ying, always ordering her around. He'll learn soon enough what he lost because nobody will ever treat him or love him like she did...
Yue Ying is a very very skilled assassin, she can make poisons and cures, and she's always been loyal to Gong Zi. More precisely, she loves him so much she'd do anything for him: for years she's been his companion, his nurse, his servant, his warrior, she's always done whatever he asked of her, even after he fell in love with Wan Mei she kept at his side, to help him survive and help him achieve his goal. She searched desperately for a cure so that he might live, and fought at his side. At the end, after he's been cured and he has succeeded, she chooses to stay at the royal palace instead of going back with him to Guihua city. She loves him still, that's clear from how she looks at him, but I guess enough is enough, and she probably couldn't bear it anymore. She probably thought of herself serving tea while he kept thinking of Wan Mei so close to them in Guihua city, and is probably trying to move on and do something for herself for once. The only wicked thing she did in this series was when she caused the plague, and I still don't know why she did it. Was it Gong Zi's plan all along, to make Wan Mei the new leader and bring down Lan Ruo? I don't think so, he seemed very very angry that she disobeyed him and didn't bring her back safe and sound, so: why? She seemed to be looking for something, did she know she would cause a plague? I'm kinda lost here...
Liu Guang is a skilled assassin who's been in Guihua city since he was a child and knows no other home. She seems to be Cha Luo's friend, but actually she only wants Xing Feng safe. She doesn't love Xing Feng or Chang An, but she appreciates their loyalty to their respective masters. It happened to her once: like them, she had fallen for her shadow, and he was the most true and loyal, until he died saving her. She lost two fingers of her foot, but he lost his life. She's never found anyone so loyal, and therefore now whenever she finds one she wants to protect him, even if it's not to her that he's loyal.
Cha Luo and Xing Feng. She was raised to marry someone of the Xie family, but when they discarded her so rudely she found that she was considered not useful anymore and therefore mistreated by everyone. She was even buried with a corpse once.
When Xing Feng became her shadow they fell in love, but they wouldn't be left alone, and he was given something to take away his masculinity so that they could never be lovers, and after years of suffering she kind of lost it and chose the evil side, to make them all pay. She became more and more crazy and evil, enjoying making others suffer, never forgetting how the two of them were made to suffer themselves.