Tigers Sniff the Rose episode 22 recap: A stone for the Emperor's banquet

In short

Meng Zaishi slips into the princess's rooms to claim her; Yan Shang walks in and sees him off. At the palace banquet Chunhua saves Liu Wenji from a frame-up, and Meng Zaishi's gift, a carved boulder from the governors' revolt, is a clear threat.

What happens in episode 22

Back home that night, the princess finds Meng Zaishi climbing in through her window. She grabs a dagger, and he takes it off her in one move. He says he has come to keep their promise. She says there was never any promise. He sneers that she was the one flirting with him; she says he can add that lie to all the others told about her.

Yan Shang knocks, and she tells him sharply to stay out. He hears something is wrong, goes away to set things up, then comes back and insists on coming in. Meng Zaishi tells her to let him. Yan Shang trades cool, pointed words with him, and when Meng Zaishi leaves, Yan Shang walks him out. Fang Tong and the guards are waiting on the roof with bows. Meng Zaishi is a frontier governor and hasn't hurt her, so Yan Shang quietly waves them off. Then he goes back and holds the princess, and tells her she won't face danger alone.

The governors are in the capital for the Emperor's birthday banquet. Yan Shang and Wei Shu are left waiting outside the hall in the cold, and Liu Wenji, now working in the palace kitchens, slips them hot eggs to warm their hands. Wei Shu explains that Meng Zaishi took over his uncle Meng Baiyu's command, but a rival governor refuses to recognize him, so his position is shaky.

Two jealous young eunuchs hide a glass cup Liu Wenji was carrying and accuse him of stealing it. Chunhua, there with Prince Jin, sees them slapping him and orders them to stop. When the prince comes looking for her, she says she broke the cup herself. He shrugs: she can have a hundred more. Afterward Liu Wenji asks why she still protects him. In tears, she says her feelings never changed.

The Emperor doesn't start the banquet until Yu Cheng'an arrives, late, and everyone rises for him. He calls for the gifts. The princess gives an inkstone. Meng Zaishi says his gift is a stone too, and has a huge carved boulder carried in. Yan Shang and Wei Shu recognize it from the governors' revolt. Bringing it out now is pressure on the throne.

Why it matters

Episode 22 shows Meng Zaishi isn't giving up on the princess or on squeezing the court, and Chunhua and Liu Wenji are still in love across the palace walls.

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