Flourished Peony 国色芳华 Episode 13

Mudan went out of the city to pick peonies and came back after dark. She accidentally saw the flower and bird envoy Jiang Changyang killing Xu Zuping from the Imperial College. When she came back, she was too frightened and caught a cold after being caught in the rain. She lay in bed for three days before recovering, but she was frequently haunted by nightmares. In the dream, Jiang Changyang killed people like crazy, and Xu Jijiu died tragically under his knife. Wenqing's cousin works in the Imperial College. Mudan goes to visit him and mentions that she had met Xu Jijiu once and hopes to go in to pay her respects to him. Li Xing brought Mudan in, and Mudan was surprised that so many people respected Xu Jijiu. The culprit, Jiang Changyang, came to pay his respects on behalf of the saint, crying heartbrokenly. But when Mudan thought of the rainy night when Jiang Changyang killed people without blinking an eye, she became suspicious.

Mudan learned that Jiang Changyang was once a student of Xu Jijiu, but since he became close to the sage and deceived him, Xu Jijiu gradually became alienated from him. Thinking back to when she was in Luoyang, she was able to divorce with the help of Jiang Changyang. If she told the truth about Xu Jijiu's death now, Jiang Changyang might not let her go, so Mudan decided to keep her mouth shut. However, her fear of Jiang Changyang could not be dispelled. She wanted to make money as soon as possible and move out, and no longer live in the backyard of Jiang's house. Even when she went to Jiang's house to take care of Qiongtai Yulu, she chose to go when Jiang Changyang was not around. She no longer joked or talked, and even Chuanyu could tell that she was avoiding Jiang Changyang. Jiang Changyang went to find Mudan specifically and took out the clothes and fabric he found on the rainy night, but Mudan denied it.

On the day when Jiang Changyang went to pay his respects to Xu Jijiu, he saw He Weifang and asked Chuanyu to investigate. He learned that Li Xing, the chief clerk of the Imperial College, was He Weifang's cousin from her aunt's family. He Weifang quickly explained, emphasizing that he was just an ordinary citizen trying to make a living. Jiang Changyang seemed to have no doubts anymore, but his words before leaving sounded like a threat. Soon after, Hua Manzhu opened for business, and the shop was packed with people. Shengyi intends to use the money he earns to redeem Mudan's mother's belongings from Yunniang and return them to Mudan. Liu Chang volunteered to go to control the flood, but King Ning did not allow it. Later, Liu Chang found out that King Ning had never opened his paper on flood control, so he ordered his servants to burn it like garbage. Liu Chang became increasingly dissatisfied and even colder towards the Princess of Ji'an.

The Princess of Ji'an asked for leave from the Ministry of Revenue on his behalf without his consent, wanting to go to Mount Li with him the next day. Liu Chang couldn't refuse, so he pretended to finish his unfinished business in the evening, and used this as an excuse to avoid dinner with the county lady. In fact, he went to the restaurant to drink to relieve his sorrow. Opposite the restaurant was the flower mansion of Peony. Seeing her greet him, Customers, welcoming and seeing off people, Liu Chang missed the time when Mudan was still his first wife. When Liu Chang was leaving after drinking, he happened to see a male customer pulling Mudan. Liu Chang deliberately bumped into him and helped Mudan out, but he ended up making the other party angry. When the other party saw that Liu Chang was only a sixth-rank official, his attitude immediately became arrogant, so Liu Chang was pinned to the ground and beaten by his men.

It was not until the other party recognized Liu Chang as Ning Wang's man through the Ning Wang Mansion fish tag that fell from his body that he was frightened and knelt down to apologize. Liu Chang did not want to use his power to oppress others, and angrily shouted at the other party to get out. Mudan asked the servant to take out the medicine and reminded Liu Chang to leave so as not to delay the business of the store. Liu Chang sighed that only Mudan always regarded him as the real Liu Zishu, no matter whether he was an official or not. Mudan told Shengyi and Zhufu what happened to her in Luoyang. Shengyi was surprised and sympathized with Mudan's experience, while Zhu Fu thought that Mudan was a true heroine for daring to propose divorce.