Tigers Sniff the Rose episode 17 recap: A blade at Cuiyun Tower

In short

Chunhua leaves for Prince Jin's household and the princess sees her off from afar. Yan Shang gets a minor post and meets Chancellor Liu's blind daughter Ah Zhu, while Liu Wenji is stabbed in a brawl and left unable to live as a man.

What happens in episode 17

Prince Jin's guards beat Liu Wenji as he chases the sedan, and Yan Shang carries him home. As the sedan passes an archway, Chunhua hears a familiar horse and looks out: the princess sits on horseback in the distance, saying goodbye. Back home the princess feels she couldn't do anything. Yan Shang takes her hands and tells her she kept Chunhua alive.

Yu Cheng'an and Wei Qiao drink to the news that a pregnant Chunhua has married into Prince Jin's household, calling it a gift from heaven. They don't explain why to Yu Cheng'an's son Yu Xianyao, who is told to spend more time at Chancellor Liu's house. Prince Jin's wife, seeing Chunhua really is pregnant, suddenly treats her with great care.

Yan Shang, the tanhua, still has no post. The princess presses Yu Cheng'an, who gives him a dead-end job as a collator at the Hongwen Institute. On his first day colleagues sneer that he got it by serving a widow, and he shuts them up. Sent to read at Chancellor Liu's house, he meets the chancellor's daughter Ah Zhu in the library. She is brilliant and well read, they hit it off at once, and only when he hands her a book does he realize she is blind.

Yu Xianyao turns up, has Ah Zhu's maid held back and starts harassing her. Yan Shang trips him on purpose, then apologizes, thanks him for passing on the order that freed him from prison, and drags him off to Cuiyun Tower to drink. Ah Zhu tells her father Yu Xianyao is a shameless lout, but Yan Shang has the makings of a great statesman.

At Cuiyun Tower, Liu Wenji sees the young bully Zhang Jun harassing a woman and, thinking of Chunhua, steps in. Zhang's men pin him down, and Zhang stabs him in the groin. Yan Shang finds him covered in blood. The doctor says he will never be able to live as a man again. Liu Wenji wants to die; Yan Shang tells him to live, so the man who did this doesn't walk free.

Why it matters

Episode 17 sets Liu Wenji on the road to the palace his profile describes, and brings Chancellor Liu's daughter into Yan Shang's life.

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