The First Jasmine (Mo Li): Ep 23/24 Recap - Secrets Revealed
Previous recaps: Ep 1-4, Ep 5/6, 7/8, 9/10, 11/12, 13/14, 15/16, 17/18, 19/20, 21/22
Main characters:
Bai Lu as Ye Li
Cheng Lei as Mo Xiuyao/Prince Ding
Novel fan translation: Mo Li
Ep 23: Mo Xiuyao goes home and wants to look for HIS WIFE
but he gets blocked by the annoying ex-fiance Dier. She's looking all pitiful and longing and I don't trust her!
Your engagement is indeed over. Stop it
Ye Li brings the box of letters from Prince Li back to her room.
The official in prison says he's being framed and asks to see the Marquis Muyang. Qin Cang apologizes for not assassinating Mo Xiuyao, saying he had no idea his legs were healed. The marquis wants Qin Cang to get inside the prison and murder the official before he talks. Then he'll give Qin Cang a new identity and adopt him officially as his son.
Immediately after this, the marquis sends another guy to tail them and kill everyone if it goes wrong. So much for fatherly feelings. His "real" son overhears this.
The marquis says he only has one son (yikes for Qin Cang).
Qin Cang sets a fire as a distraction, kills the prisoner, and then fights his way out, only to be stabbed for his trouble. Zhou Tianyang did try to save him, but came too late.
The Empress Dowager is waiting for the marquis to come apologize, and he does not disappoint. He claims the prisoner had to be killed to keep HER secrets, you see. Not for his benefit. No no, how could she think that? And apparently he abandoned his first wife and son to prove his loyalty to the dowager.
She is not impressed by him getting the kid he claims to love killed. Lin Tinglan visits the Dowager Consort Qin. She seems to want to warn the consort about the marquis.
Ye Li had her steward find out about the Su family (fake princess). Han Mingxi is still working at her shop, she asks what an assassin is doing there anyway
Kill more people! What is your five year plan?
Ye Li is called away because Yusheng is in trouble (the courtesan Li Feibai is staying with). Mo Xiuyao is at home waiting for her to return, but she's disappeared without a word again. He goes to check her box and finds the letters. He sends out men to find Ye Li.
Mo Xiuyao is angry that she keeps disappearing. He asks if she's ever really taken their marriage seriously.
You see there is "I'm not a housewife" and then there is running around getting into brothel fights and maybe murdering your grandma. He says they don't know each other, but she disagrees. Ye Li apologizes for making him worry, but doesn't really explain herself. I think she's still holding him at arm's length, but had to give some ground so she didn't lose him. She isn't fully trusting him yet (this doesn't bother me because it makes sense for her character). After all, he still doesn't know that her mother is the one who lost the imperial edict.
That night Ye Li has a nightmare about being alone. Mo Xiuyao says he won't ever leave her and they finally have sex.
just not enough to tell him your actual plan
Mo Xiuyao wakes up alone, but Ye Li has actually left a note. Progress!
We learn that young Ye Li and probably real and alive Qingshuang tried to find Mo Xiuyao after he saved her. Unfortunately, they had to walk most of the way and missed him. I feel like it's significant that there is the pollen snow her half-brother talked about before (Ep 13/14). The cicadas were also very loud (Prince Li cicadas?)
Mo Xiuyao comes to find Ye Li and she asks him why he pulled her onto his horse, did he like her? He says she looked like a snotty, crying kid, so no. (she denies being snotty)
Ep 24: Dier is asking questions about Mo Xiuyao's marriage (side eye). Ye Li retrieved a wind chime from her store and hangs it up at home. Mo Xiuyao asks her about the box of letters. She says he can see them and hands him them. They are mostly musical scores that Ye Li send to Mo Jingli when he was on Li mountain.
Ye Li tells Mo Xiuyao that she thinks Mo Jingli is still alive and explains what she investigated (more progress!). He says he suspected that but he's not allowed to look into it. Then she won't show him the last two letters and they look close in front of his former fiancé
They all drink Awkward Tea. Dier is being all pathetic again.
Now she's quoting poetry! Mo Xiuyao is mercifully called away. Ye Li tells Dier that she looked into her and she has lots of family to rely on, stop the pitiful act. She leaves...
... to commit a murder.
Zhou Tianyang isn't eating and asks his father about Qin Cang. The marquis tells him to go back and live with his mother. Zhou Tianyang asks valid questions:
Feng Zhiyao has taken the princess to a brothel to watch Yusheng dance. They flirt with each other, it's cute. Though he still doesn't know her real identity.
Later, Feng Zhiyao gets drunk and calls Mo Xiuyao over. He is depressed because he can't figure out why his "brother" is still dressing like a man or if she likes him or not. Mo Xiuyao is clearly annoyed but he does give good advice
Yeah, come on it's not that hard! It only took him six months to sleep with his own wife.
Ye Li meets with an astronomer, she wants help knowing when a solar eclipse will happen. Ye Li asks her third uncle to help arrange a meeting between her and the dowager consort.
Li Feibai returns. He doesn't tell Ye Li what he found, but says her master is back on the mountain. He is quite concerned about her and also promises not to leave her alone. Han Mingxi says he can beat him in a fight, so Ye Li tells him to go fight. But it seems like he wants to fight Ye Li.
This is cute
Ye Li goes to Feng Zhiyao's place to wait for the consort. The solar eclipse happens as she predicted and everyone is in confusion. She uses a slingshot to scare the consort's horse and then goes to save her with a lantern. The consort seems very suspicious of Ye Li showing up at the right time in the right place.
Mo Xiuyao comes home late and Ye Li is asleep on the table. He carries her to bed (take out the hairpins!)
I'm personally thinking that Qin Cang isn't dead, but I can't be sure. Waiting for the Emo Prince to surface too!
(It won't let me link the last recap! Does Reddit have some sort of link limit now???) Solved
Posted Jun 19, 2026, 12:25 PM UTC