The First Jasmine (Mo Li): Ep 13/14 Recap - Going Home
Previous recaps: Ep 1-4, Ep 5/6, 7/8, 9/10, 11/12
Main characters:
Bai Lu as Ye Li
Cheng Lei as Mo Xiuyao/Prince Ding
Novel fan translation: Mo Li
Ep 13: Ye Li is trying to help Mo Xiuyao with his leg pain during the night. He suggests that she just sleep with him instead of going back and forth. She immediately runs away and he's all worried she doesn't want to, but no, she just needed a pillow.
She asks if he has a nickname because calling him by his full name or title doesn't seem close. He says "A-Yao" which she proceeds to use (very cute). She says she has many missions to accomplish now that she's down the mountain, including making him happy.
The Empress Dowager summons Mo Xiuyao and wants him to look into the murdered general Yuan Fang case. (We the audience know it was Prince Li, though the Marquis Muyang did try to capture him first). Mo Xiuyao discusses this with Gu Zheng and Feng Zhiyao, but then gets distracted by his cute wife (we cannot blame him).
Ye Li's father has been having nightmares/hauntings to he goes to visit his daughter. She's not impressed.
You came to see me only because you are haunted
She tells him that her mother has been dead for 8 years, which seems to affect him a lot.
The Marquis Muyang is brought what I gather are his ill-gotten weapon monies from Guard Qin Cang. Then his seemingly frivolous son shows up with fresh fish he caught. The marquis fawns over him but Qin Cang seems uncomfortable. Then the son tries to give Qin Cang one of the fish and it's very awkward.
Some sort of history there.
Ye Li's father is having nightmares. I wonder if Ye Li has someone haunting him... Back at home, Ye Li is happily crushing everyone in Go, including her husband
Ye Li saves the stones from falling over and Mo Xiuyao asks if she has martial arts training. She denies this and says she just did a ton of chores. This does not add up for him.
Feng Zhiyao returns and tells Mo Xiuyao that Ye Li hired the assassins to attack herself. They figure she was trying to take out the bandits as well because they were associated with an attack on Lishan. Mo Xiuyao correctly surmises that all the weird events that have happened since Ye Li returned are related to her. He confronts her and she admits to arranging the "kidnapping" to get him to agree to be treated. He's very (reasonably) angry
Right after the fight, Ye Li's Hallucination Maid of Loneliness, whom we haven't seen for a while, shows back up. This doesn't make me want to cry AT ALL
Mo Xiuyao has flashbacks to when he was in the military. Ye Li returns home for a birthday and while on the journey, has flashbacks to her mother's death. It seems like she had the imperial edict, which makes sense since Ye Li insists she has a debt to the Prince Ding household.
I personally felt like it made sense for Mo Xiuyao to both trust his wife enough to have her treat his legs but also be suspicious of her and betrayed by her arranging her own kidnapping/assassination because he knows she's Chaotic Good but he just didn't calculate the full extent of the chaos. Also, if her plan went badly awry and she got captured for days, which made him worry.
Ep 14: Ye Li arrives at her grandmother's birthday banquet. The old madam again addresses her as her mother. Her father is off making gold flowers, I assume in some sort of purification ritual (I am correct!)
Neither of the princes are there. The two princess consorts are at their own tables, I assume because of their rank but it looks lonely. Ye Li's half-brother comes to eat with her. Emo Prince Li is actually there... to play his sad little Ye Li song.
Poor Ye Ying actually looked happy to see him for a minute. Anyway, the man accusing Third Uncle of an affair shows up, which Ye Wenshan vehemently denies. The man draws a sword, but is stopped and arrested by A'Jin, who came to bring Mo Xiuyao's gift (a jade pillow... I really want to know if that is comfortable). Prince Li gets so drunk he has to be taken away. Ye Li is watching her father drink too much as well.
Ye Li's family is all nice to her now that she's married to someone doing well, though her brother calls her husband a cripple (she threatens to shove a toad down his throat). Ye Li goes to visit her mother's courtyard, where she flashes back to when her father helped the Marquis Muyang take the imperial edict. Well, not exactly helped, but stood there uselessly while a bunch of people attacked his (former) wife and daughter and took it.
When walking back to her room, Ye Li finds Prince Li self-harming. He asks her what happened on Li mountain and why she has so many scars on her arms. When she calls them monkey bites...
So those who were suspecting those weren't actually monkeys, good for you! Prince Li is so pathetic that I can't even make fun of him right now. Ye Li bandages his arm and puts him to bed.
Mo Xiuyao is at work. They have identified a suspicious group including a man with blue eyes (they look green to me), we saw him fighting with Han Mingxi earlier! They are going to arrest him. Unfortunately, one of the soldiers is a spy for Prince Li.
Ye Li's brother says he likes her courtyard because the reed fluff blows over the wall and looks like snow, which is probably not super important to the plot but it is cool when fluff does that!
I get that in my back yard in late spring
Ye Li's brother is asleep (knocked out by the soup I think). Ye Li is summoned by her father, but she guesses it was actually Ye Ying and says she'll meet her at the pond. Ye Ying accuses Ye Li of seducing her husband. Ye Li tries to warn her sister about the prince, but it doesn't work (this does not surprise me). Ye Ying tries to attack Ye Li but falls into the pond.
There is a body in the pond.
Mo Xiuyao's men surround the house with the green-eyed assassin. The assassin group tries to escape, but the government have a lot of reinforcements. Unfortunately, a man in black (It's Emo Prince) shows up. He escapes with the assassin, though not before Mo Xiuyao uses a crossbow and it's cool.
This reminds me so much of How Dare You!?
The body from the pond is brought before the family (judging by the preview and the flashback, did the mom actually die at home and she was hidden in the pond? I guess she didn't die at the temple. So many layers of deception!)
So excited for tomorrow!
Posted Jun 14, 2026, 11:25 AM UTC