Tigers Sniff the Rose episode 26 recap: What Yu Cheng'an said before he died

In short

Yu Cheng'an is sentenced to poison and beheading. Dying in his cell, he tells the princess the Emperor plotted against him, begged for his life when caught and blamed the Empress, who then took her own life. He also says the princess's marriage alliance was planned from her birth.

What happens in episode 26

With Yu Cheng'an in prison, the princess can finally set down three years of revenge. She asks Chunhua what she will do. Sadly, Chunhua says that Liu Wenji saved her and the baby, and that they spent a night in the woods talking beautiful nonsense. Morning ended the dream. The Emperor won't let an imperial child be carried off.

The Emperor praises the Crown Prince and the princess for rallying every force they had. He says he would like to eat Yu Cheng'an's flesh, then rules: poisoned wine and his head on display, with his followers exiled rather than killed. The city celebrates. His surname means fish, so people parade fish through the streets and buy them to kill and eat. With Yan Shang beside her, the princess burns the brocade she embroidered to stand for Yu Cheng'an and his men. Then she takes him to the plum blossoms her mother used to show her, and tells her mother that the debt is paid.

The next day she goes with the Crown Prince to his cell to watch him die. He is calm, and asks how they think their father will settle the matter of the coup. He drinks the poison and tells her a secret. He did not force the Empress to her death. After he put down the revolt of the seven governors, his power frightened the throne, so the Emperor and Empress plotted to remove him. When the plot was found out, the Emperor knelt and begged for his life and blamed it all on the Empress. It was her despair at her husband that led her to take her own life.

He goes on. Even the princess's name was chosen with a purpose. When she was born, the governors were strong and the realm was weak, and the Emperor announced that a daughter of the star Yaoguang could revive the dynasty. He meant to use her from the start, so the marriage alliance was always her fate. This is only Yu Cheng'an's account, but it shatters her: every year of her revenge was aimed at him. Outside, the Crown Prince tells her never to repeat what he said. When Yan Shang comes to comfort her, she promises that from now on she will protect him, to repay the risks he has taken for her.

In agony, Yu Cheng'an asks to see the Elder Princess. Seeing him like this hurts her deeply. He thanks her for raising him up, then tells her that his adopted son Yu Xianyao is her own child: the baby she once had with an unknown father and ordered him to kill. He raised the boy in secret instead. After his death his head is hung over the city gate, and the Elder Princess has her people take it down and bring it back to her house.

Why it matters

Episode 26 removes the villain and replaces him with a harder question: the Emperor the princess has been fighting for may be the man who sacrificed her and her mother.

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