Tigers Sniff the Rose episode 30 recap: A poisoned arrow on the road home

In short

Liu Wenji gets Chunhua's son back to her, and Princess Consort Jin hangs herself. On the road home the princess kills the Crown Prince's assassin Yu Niang to save a poisoned Yan Shang, but in the capital he is thrown in prison, and she asks the Emperor to banish him for good.

What happens in episode 30

Princess Consort Jin's father, Lord Liang, is caught up in the Yu Cheng'an case. She brings Liu Wenji gold and jade to save him, but he tells her there is no hope and she should prepare for the funeral. Afraid of what will happen to her next, she hangs herself, and Chunhua's son comes back to her. When Liu Wenji calls at the house to check on the funeral, he asks Chunhua if she is happy to have the boy back. She realizes he arranged all of it and is frightened. He is pleased: his hands are finally good for something.

Yang Si shows Jiang Heng a letter in the Crown Prince's own hand, and the governor realizes the last visitor was never the Crown Prince's man. He has handed everything to Yan Shang, and breaks into a cold sweat.

On the way back to the capital, riders close in behind the leads' hired carriage. The princess takes the reins, but arrows pour in and one hits Yan Shang in the chest. She abandons the carriage and carries him into the forest on her back. The arrowhead is poisoned, so she snaps off the shaft rather than pull it out. A woman with a sword charges at Yan Shang, and the princess stabs her in the neck with a dagger, killing her. It is Yu Niang, one of the Crown Prince's people.

At daybreak Jiang Heng's men are searching the hills and almost on them when Yang Si gets there first and gets them away in a carriage. He can't believe she killed Yu Niang; she says she had no choice when Yu Niang came to kill Yan Shang. A doctor at an inn brings Yan Shang round, but he knows the poison will kill or cripple him within ten days or so, and he decides not to tell her.

At her residence a senior palace eunuch is waiting. Yan Shang says he found nothing, and the eunuch says the Emperor's orders were to arrest him if he came back empty-handed. Yang Si tells the Crown Prince that Yan Shang did nothing against him, but the Crown Prince won't gamble and wants to strike first. In prison, Liu Wenji asks how he can help, and Yan Shang asks for paper and ink and writes down everything he remembers. The princess goes to the Emperor and asks him to send Yan Shang out of the capital, never to return. Asked why, she says she has grown tired of him.

Why it matters

Episode 30 turns the Crown Prince against Yan Shang, makes the princess kill one of his people, and shows Liu Wenji using power to get what he wants.

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