The First Jasmine (Mo Li): Ep 11/12 Recap - Stab Me for Love
Previous recaps: Ep 1-4, Ep 5/6, 7/8, 9/10
Main characters:
Bai Lu as Ye Li
Cheng Lei as Mo Xiuyao/Prince Ding
Novel fan translation: Mo Li
Ep 11: Mo Xiuyao finds the thugs who tried to kidnap Ye Li, but they deny actually catching her (we know this to be the truth) and have no idea where she went. Han Mingxi wakes up alone and tied up. Ye Li is still blind from the poison. She manages to get the maid to reveal a lot of information about the person "helping" her. She asks the person delivering plants to send a message to the city for her.
Ye Ying seems to be waiting for news from her assassin when she hears her husband has gone to another villa. She goes to find him, only to run into Mu Mingxi beaten up on the road. She's about to just leave him there until she recognizes his face and decides to save him. This made me laugh because they are constantly treating people with their clothes still on in Cdramas (unless it's Sexy Wound Care time):
Just press on top of their clothes! Works every time!
She peeks! Ye Li has figured out who is keeping her at the manor and asks to see Prince Li. He oh so romantically stalked her to the temple and then just hung around until she came out (massive loser energy). She asks him how his wife is feeling.
He says she must blame him for the deaths on the mountain and then gives her a knife and tells her to kill him and hand-over-hand stabs himself which... why does this keeping happening to this poor woman? This is the second time! As we remember from Story of Kunning Palace
Stab me so we can be together Bai Lu!
(we are past the statute of limitations on SOKP spoilers, but honestly it doesn't explain much to know that this happened anyway)
He says she must still care about him since she didn't leave after the stab... dude. Please let this go. She says she blames him for all the deaths in his escort and that he's lucky he didn't try to marry her because she would have killed him on the wedding day. Iconic.
Then her husband shows up and she leaves with him.
Han Mingxi wakes up and Ye Ying asks about her sister. He takes huge pauses for dramatic effect and she calls him out on it:
Ye Li is taken care of at home. During the night, she sends a message to Li Feibai about other assassins in the woods. He goes to find Han Mingxi and they immediately start fighting. Li Feibai punches Han Mingxi out.
Mo Xiuyao goes to look for his wife and is told she's gone out to her shop. She's actually gone to see Han Mingxi who cannot catch a break. He's been captured twice now in two episodes! (well I guess he was lucky the sister saved him, but from the frying pan into fire). He confesses enough that Ye Li knows who was targeting her.
Now that Ye Ying has given up on assassination, I'm actually starting to sympathize with her because this is so valid:
Her husband is drinking and having parties with dancers right in their house! And chasing after her sister. She's right to be pissed off.
Li Feibai asks Ye Li how she survived the cliff and snakes, and she tells him that someone showed up to save her, but it's pretty clear it was just her, probably doing what this master taught her. Her friend seems to believe this story isn't true, but I'm getting the feeling that he left before whatever happened on the mountain.
A former lover is blackmailing Madam Ye (is he Ye Ying's real father???) Li Feibai shows up and asks for a favour. Ye Li is practicing lies with her maid when she gets home and finds out her husband has been searching for her. Mo Xiuyao is pissed off, he's planning to give her the silent treatment, but his guard (A'Jin) predicts he'll do that so he goes to yell at Ye Li instead. He tries to leave right after but she stops him by shoving a feather duster into his chair's wheels (which is a bit of a dick move to be honest). Then she starts explaining what happened with Prince Li back then
Ep 12: So Prince Li was being recalled to the capital when the emperor died. The Marquis Muyang accused Li mountain of trying to enthrone him, but he wasn't able to succeed until the young prince signed a confession. Ye Li admits that she knows he was young and coerced, but it doesn't matter to her.
Having completely distracted Mo Xiuyao from what he was angry about (her being gone all day), she asks to fix his legs again and he agrees.
Ye Li's dad is being haunted. Ye Ying is getting herself drunk. She decides to stand out in the rain until her husband comes. She gets sick and then goes full drama on her husband which he rightfully deserves. I am so for it. Now she's directing her anger at the right person!
Unfortunately, before Prince Li can somehow have a revelation and give up on Ye Li, his servant tells him that once she knows the truth she'll forgive him.
No that won't happen! As illustrated by the cicada! Anyway, his backstory is given, basically what we know already. He was recalled but the Empress Dowager put her son on the throne instead (I'm guessing Prince Li's uncle). He established himself as useless, still planned to marry Ye Li. His men advised against it. He drugged his wife to sleep on the wedding night! He visited that murdered general Yuan Fang... and killed him? Because it wasn't time yet? Anyway, he remains in the delusion that he can get Ye Li back.
Ye Li explains her leg healing plan which involves very long needles, lots of medicine, and then resetting bones (ouch). Anyway, medicine montage that is sweet and cute despite everything
Marquis Muyang is angry at Mo Xiuyao but the Empress Dowager tells him he's not allowed to murder her son's friend and that his men deserved what was coming to them. She's blunt and ruthless, I like that. He accuses her of discarding him now that her rule is stable. The consort visits him later and tells him to regain the Empress Dowager's trust by finding the real person who killed Yuan Fang.
Ye Li goes to a brothel to visit Yu Sheng, who is apparently Li Feibai's lover. She's short with Ye Li until she learns that she's married. She asks Li Feibai if he's found the person she hallucinated on the cliff (he hasn't) and then needs his help with curing Mo Xiuyao. He does the actual bone breaking part.
I like that even though it's being done in montage, this leg process is taking and clearly going to take a long time. No instant fixes. More tomorrow!
Posted Jun 13, 2026, 11:05 AM UTC