The First Jasmine (Mo Li): Ep 32 Recap - Why is your hair grey?
Previous recaps: Ep 1-4, Ep 5/6, 7/8, 9/10, 11/12, 13/14, 15/16, 17/18, 19/20, 21/22, 23/24, 25/26, 27/28, 29, 30, 31
Main characters:
Bai Lu as Ye Li
Cheng Lei as Mo Xiuyao/Prince Ding
Novel fan translation: Mo Li
Ep 32: I know the Chief Eunuch is mostly here for comic relief, but I want to punt him right off the mountain. Anyway... the eunuch wants to take a slower route with some amenities to the mountain, but Mo Xiuyao refuses. He is going to get his wife! The party goes up to the Lishan academy gate but no one answers, Mo Xiuyao pushes it open and confirms what we knew, it's totally empty and in decay.
This screencap is mostly for the grey hair... but also the horror
Mo Xiuyao runs around looking for Ye Li, much to the annoyance of the Chief Eunuch (punt!) He finds her in the book copying room (as we find out later). She looks so young this whole episode, in like a "I've been blocking out 8 whole years" way and it's killing me.
Her hair being down is a big difference
She asks why his hair has gone grey. He apologizes and embraces her, but it's really clear from her face that she doesn't know why he's apologizing. The eunuch asks Ye Li where all the people are, her brain takes a minute to process and then she says everyone is cultivating the rice field and they'll be back later. Ye Li points them towards the kitchen to eat. All the food is bad and there is dust on everything.
Mo Xiuyao goes back with Ye Li to her room. Her blanket is heavily patched and her bed is broken. She offers him an apple she picked. He apologizes, explains that he missed her so much her hair went grey, and asks her to come back with him. She seems very unconcerned about everything except his hair.
The party has now searched everywhere and there is no one else present. When Ye Li is told this, her brain malfunctions and she's in a daze.
The eunuch is angry at Ye Li for leading them to an empty field, but she's freaking out so Mo Xiuyao yells at him to shut up. Ye Li starts biting her arm and then passes out.
Those are the \"monkey\" bites
The eunuch party and A'Jin leave the mountain. Good riddance, except for A'Jin who was a hero for giving his boss alone time with his wife. Mo Xiuyao stays by Ye Li's bedside all night and then panics when she's gone in the morning. She was just out foraging.
We do have stress and hallucinations to thank for this hair
Ye Li remembers nothing from the previous day. She asks when he arrived and why his hair is grey. Mo Xiuyao watches her make soup. The kitchen is mostly covered in dust and only one set of dishes is clean. If you drank every time Mo Xiuyao looked horrified or cried during this episode, you'd probably be dead by the end... He says he was worried she was angry with him, but of course she doesn't know why she would be.
Ye Li goes to library where she has been continuing on with the task of writing books. The most horrible part for me was the way she checked for someone listening before talking smack. This is all totally real to her!
Mo Xiuyao finds a room where Ye Li practiced healing his leg injuries and made a wheelchair (she says his was better so she never tried to make him one). He tells her that he never treated her well as his wife (which isn't true, he was very nice to her after she healed him, but he's not thinking about that right now.)
Dude, you gave her a whole store (multiple stores?)
Then we have some time with Feng Zhiyao, which I didn't appreciate because it is Main Couple Angst Time. He has flashbacks and travels the same route him and the princess did way back when. He finds what is frankly a creepy statue to her and then imagines her alive again.
BACK TO THE MAINS!
Mo Xiuyao walks past monkey statues and about Ye Li's phobia. She introduces him to three whole tables of hallucination people. He plays along.
The entire episode was so heartbreaking. Mo Xiuyao was trying to keep it together and act like everything was normal, but he kept crying. Ye Li is completely disconnected from reality. Our only consolation is glorious grey hair (of possible doom)..
Also, even though Mo Xiuyao tried to be really nice to Ye Li after he found out her maid was a hallucination, she usually looked so normal. This whole episode is like after Ye Li's grandma died and she acted like nothing happened, which he also found worrying. I feel like there is something to the contrast, that Mo Xiuyao looked unwell (couldn't walk, depressed, and angry) and Ye Li looks normal or even very happy most of the time, except for the talking to herself. It's not until you see how poorly her behaviour matches her circumstances that it all makes sense.
The promos for tomorrow are... the yikes does not end.
Posted Jun 25, 2026, 10:57 AM UTC