Tigers Sniff the Rose episode 19 recap: Liu Wenji enters the palace

In short

Yu Cheng'an has Zhang Jun killed, and Zhang's father leaves the capital in disgrace. Liu Wenji asks the princess to get him into the palace as a servant and ends up at the Hongwen Institute, while the princess starts courting the frontier army for the Crown Prince.

What happens in episode 19

Yu Xianyao isn't badly hurt, but Yu Cheng'an, a eunuch who spent twenty years raising this adopted son, won't forgive the man who nearly killed him. Zhang Jun dies at the Silver Terrace Gate. Yu Cheng'an suspects someone coached Yu Xianyao to go to the creek in plain clothes. His son insists it was his own idea, and Yu Cheng'an lets it drop, but gives him more guards.

From a carriage, Yan Shang shows Liu Wenji the dismissed Zhang Cheng pulling his son's coffin out of the capital. Liu Wenji sees how fast wealth and power can vanish. He asks Yan Shang to take him to the princess and asks her to get him into the palace as a servant. Yan Shang tries to stop him, but he won't be a victim again. The princess agrees, and hopes he'll make something of himself.

She teases Yan Shang that he's a vicious collator. Yang Si suspects she set him up and asks why she keeps dragging him into danger. She only says she saw him meeting frontier officers at Cuiyun Tower. Then she tells the Crown Prince she knows he is courting the frontier army to counter Yu Cheng'an's Shence Army. As a woman with a bad reputation, she offers to be his go-between, and she is soon seen openly drinking with the frontier generals.

At New Year, Wei Shu goes home to the Wei family house and quietly warns his cousin Wei Qiao that his path is dangerous. Wei Qiao says he is devoting himself to the state, which shocks Wei Shu.

In the palace, Liu Wenji works for the imperial kitchens carrying meals to the Hongwen Institute. Yan Shang borrows a few of the servants to copy books, which keeps Liu Wenji there. Yu Cheng'an overhears his name and pauses. After New Year's Eve dinner with her father, the princess finds Yan Shang waiting in the snow with an umbrella, and they play in the snow like children. She takes him to an orphanage with treats, but when he says she must love children, her face changes: she says she doesn't.

Why it matters

Liu Wenji's step into the palace is the road his profile describes, and the princess's new tie to the frontier army points toward the Crown Prince's later rebellion.

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