Tigers Sniff the Rose episode 13 recap: A parting gift for Li Zhi

In short

The princess learns Li Zhi set the Elder Princess on Yan Shang and gets him exiled through Wei Shu's cousin Wei Qiao. Liu Wenji makes peace with Chunhua, but Prince Jin has noticed her, and her family lures her home to push her into a prince's household.

What happens in episode 13

Liu Wenji turns up at the princess's gate to apologize for what he said while drunk. Chunhua has all but forgiven him, but she is off home on leave and says they'll settle it when she's back.

At home her brother and sister-in-law take her wages and want more: jobs through the princess, and a rich official for Chunhua to marry. Picking flowers on the hill, she runs into Prince Jin, out "hunting" to get away from his wife. He flirts with her and follows her home, where her family fawns over him. She makes an excuse and leaves.

Li Zhi tells Wei Shu he got the Elder Princess to go after Yan Shang so the princess would drop him. Wei Shu goes straight to Yan Shang and confesses, and the princess overhears. She calls on Wei Qiao, Wei Shu's cousin and a powerful aide to Yu Cheng'an, and tells him a relative wants her to marry into the Wei clan, but she'd rather have him. He politely declines.

Wei Qiao works out that Li Zhi is behind it, warns Wei Shu to keep his distance from the princess, and has censors file evidence against Li Zhi. Li Zhi is demoted to Qiongzhou and ordered out of the capital. Yan Shang thinks using Yu Cheng'an's man is far too risky; she says what counts is that it worked. Riding after Li Zhi outside the city, she tells him the demotion is her gift: he traded her mother's life for his own gain and tried to do the same to her.

Liu Wenji also apologizes to Yan Shang and asks him to give Chunhua some rouge. But Chunhua has been called home with news that her mother is ill. Her mother is fine. The family wants her to become a side consort in a prince's household, she refuses, and her sister-in-law hands her a bowl of chicken soup.

Why it matters

Episode 13 shows the princess hitting back through Yu Cheng'an's own camp, and puts Chunhua on the road her profile warns about.

Based on the episode synopsis, summarized in our own words: TVmao (电视猫) episode synopses