The First Jasmine: Ep 7/8 Recap - A Favour from the Monkeys
Previous recaps: Ep 1-4, Ep 5/6
Main characters:
Bai Lu as Ye Li
Cheng Lei as Mo Xiuyao/Prince Ding
Ep 7: Mo Wuyou's mother, Wen Ran, the elder brother's widow, has been seeing some sort of crackpot seer who has convinced her to do a bunch of unhealthy crazy things to commune with the dead (what is with this family and being abused by faux "religious" people?). This includes copying scriptures in her own blood because of course it does.
Mo Wuyou thinks this is slightly better than his mother's persistent attempts at suicide. This is way too sad. Here is a puppy:
It's not working! I need more puppy!
No, it's okay, Ye Li got everyone arrested. Good for her! Yikes that the widow's maid was selling her information to charlatans.
Mo Xiuyao has his first day of work and it doesn't go super well. He's pretty clearly not wanted there.
on account of the family treason and whatnot
Wen Ran tells Mo Xiuyao what Ye Li did for her. She's now all about the princess consort. Ye Li has also arranged for all the bullies to apologize to Mo Wuyou. When he says it wasn't sincere, she says it doesn't matter, his rank means they probably won't do it again because of how severe the consequences would be.
Mo Xiuyao thanks Ye Li on behalf of his sister-in-law, she says they're all her family now anyway. She forces him to be treated for mouth sores and then tells him she wants to treat his legs. Everyone else runs away fearing he'll get angry, but he just says he doesn't want to talk about it now.
I love when people read the vibes and gtfo
At Ye Li's shop, her third uncle Ye Wenshen runs in being chased by a guy with a sword. He's been accused of having an affair with a client, but claims she's too ugly for this to be true (dude! no). He invites himself over to her house for protection. After he leaves, some monkeys escape and Ye Li has a panic attack. She runs to Mo Xiuyao.
Ye Li has nightmares about the monkeys and her Hallucination Maid. More hugs! Thank the evil monkeys
But no, seriously, she has some severe monkey-related PTSD and I love that Mo Xiuyao is so concerned about her. He even goes along with what she says and has his men search for the monkeys. Then he says he won't leave until she falls asleep and LOOK AT HER SNUGGLING HIS HAND!
Ye Li's maid informs her the next day that he paid off all the monkey trainers in the city so they would leave. Awwwwwww (this episode was an emotional roller coaster). This has been my favourite episode so far, relationship progress!
Ep 8: I have an insane day of work today and I won't be able to do this episode until late, so I'm just going to post now and edit later so discussion can still happen. Do not worry about spoiling me in the comments, go ahead. I'm the type of person who reads the last page of a book if I get too nervous. I'll be back sometime in the evening.
Posted Jun 11, 2026, 10:09 AM UTC