Tigers Sniff the Rose episode 28 recap: Lingnan's money

In short

The princess learns the Crown Prince's frontier allies are paid with Lingnan money and that Yan Shang's trip home is a deadly mission to cut it off. She races south after realizing Yang Si has been sent to kill him, while Liu Wenji gets an army post and kills a general who mocks him.

What happens in episode 28

A eunuch reads out a decree at the Elder Princess's house: for setting up a shrine to mourn Yu Cheng'an, she loses 3,000 households of her fief, must move to a villa outside the city, and can't come to court without an order. She tosses the decree aside. Her hangers-on grab what they can and run. Feng Xianyu stays and tells her he admires her for mourning Yu Cheng'an in defiance of power. Meanwhile a palace eunuch stops the exiled Wei Qiao and his young nephew and offers them a farewell meal. Wei Qiao senses what it means. His nephew drinks first and dies bleeding from every opening. Their bodies are soon carted back to the capital.

Zhao Lingfei stops Wei Shu's carriage on the road to the frontier and insists on going with him, because she knows how dangerous his mission is. He finally gives in. In the palace the princess starts acting strangely, muttering the nursery rhymes her mother taught her. The Emperor comes to see her, decides she is playing on his affection and sends her home to be rid of the trouble.

Yan Shang reaches Lingnan to find more refugees and people starving by the road. At home the family has a tearful reunion, and he takes them to his mother's grave. There he burns a portrait of Zhang Renjing and tells them he killed the man himself. His father worries about the law, but Yan Shang says Zhang was a wolf to them and only an insect to the tigers in the capital. That night, weaving baskets with his father, he admits he has a hard job to do and isn't sure he can pull it off. His father says he believes he will.

As soon as she is out, the princess meets the Crown Prince at Cuiyun Tower. He tells her that Yan Shang has gone to Lingnan to risk his life: the Emperor wants to cut off the source of the Crown Prince's forces. Only now does she learn that the gold and silver he uses to court the frontier generals comes from Lingnan. She decides to go and help. The Crown Prince insists she take Yang Si. At first she thinks that is kind, but talking it over with Fang Tong, she realizes Yang Si is being sent to intercept and kill Yan Shang.

Citing a vow, she gets the Emperor's leave to go back to Lingnan, and takes Yang Si along for show. He passes out drunk and wakes to find he has been sent back, too late to get there before her. In Shaozhou, Yan Shang calls on Liu Wenji's father, Liu Lan, with Liu Wenji's gifts and letter. Liu Lan throws the letter in the fire unread and says his family has no such son. In the capital the Emperor rewards Liu Wenji for saving him with a post overseeing the Shence Army. When a general laughs at him, Liu Wenji pulls the man's own sword and kills him on the spot, then warns the troops that anyone who disrespects him will get the same. They shake with fear, and he gets his first taste of power.

Why it matters

Episode 28 reveals the money behind the Crown Prince's army, turns him and Yang Si against Yan Shang, and gives Liu Wenji real power at last.

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