The First Jasmine (Mo Li): Ep 40 - Do You Miss Me? (Normal Release)
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, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, Ep 36-40 Fast Track
Main characters:
Bai Lu as Ye Li
Cheng Lei as Mo Xiuyao/Prince Ding
Novel fan translation: Mo Li
Ep 40: Ep 40: Mo Xiuyao nags Ye Li.
Then we're back in the capital. Li Feibai has broken up with his girlfriend. Feng Zhiyao seems normal again. They are worried about Li Feibai but I'm not. I'm more worried about the fact that we never got to see a power battle couple scheme and take down their enemies together. What is even the point of them both being so cool if they aren't awesome together???
Why is Li Feibai being such a jerk to his girlfriend? Ah, he was injured from the explosion. I think he's going blind.
Ye Li is still in a funk. She fights Mo Xiuyao with flower sticks. She says he lost but it seems like he won? (honestly, I've been annoyed at the Mary Sue allegations for Ye Li, but if she is better at his one best skill than she is one. He is supposed to be very very good at it... someone informed me that he lost because he knocked less flowers off)
The Empress Dowager is dying and summons Ye Li. Ye Li admits to wanting to kill her, but couldn't find an opportunity (come on! She set a man on fire with clothes!). The Empress Dowager is like, "I did so many good things, aren't I better?" They have a debate over politics where honestly, Ye Li sounds kind of naive. Because this is true:
Also, Ye Li is mad at the Empress Dowager over eminent domain which is something every government has done since the beginning of time and continues to do and like wut? Why are we angry about building highways because a few people got displaced? It's yet another anti-climax.
Li Feibai's girlfriend finds him. Han Mingxi goes back to work at the store. Now the Empress Dowager is dying. She is all regretful on her deathbed. Ye Li looks towards a sunrise meaningfully.
The emperor does condemn the Empress Dowager after she dies, which I honestly still think is a bad move politically, but I guess it matters how much people liked her. Oh, they punished Dowager Consort Qin too, doesn't she have a super powerful father backing her? (rant)>! You see staying in power often demands morally grey alliances... whatever. This is clearly not that deep.!<
Lishan opens back up! Exciting. But um...
I guess she hallucinated again to finally let go of the past but... I don't know. That didn't really work for me. Maybe put that at the beginning of the episode instead of the very end? We never see Ye Li integrating with her knew life and she's not even happy around her husband. Her choosing him over ghosts right at the end... why can't we see her happy in her new life?
The end.
I think the reason the ending annoys me so much is, I don't mind if Ye Li isn't completely mentally healed by the end, but they made Mo Xiuyao fully healed, so that felt kind of unbalanced. So many of us were wishing that after he fought so much in one day after just healing he'd experienced some sort of consequences or backlash, but he didn't. He was totally fine. And his hair going grey is just genetic and doesn't hurt him, so he completes the drama fully mentally and physically fine.
So then to leave Ye Li in this dissociative depression and still seeing hallucination ghosts is just, does she find a purpose? Is she going to be all right? If Mo Xiuyao goes to war again (which could totally happen) does she just start dissociating again? I don't think Mo Xiuyao minds at all supporting her but what if he dies, then it seems like we'd just get Wen Ran all over again since none of her other connections seem that strong. I don't know why they didn't even establish her as a Lishan mountain teacher or something, she could do that. She would have purpose. Instead she's like, sponsoring scholarships.
It's sold as a happy ending but it feels very unresolved and uncertain to me. And we could have a ten year time skip or something, but no, we get left very unfinished.
Also, almost everything was very anti-climax to me. Like they blew up a balloon but instead of popping it just very sadly deflated. And it wasn't even the balloon we liked most of the time, it was other, lesser balloons (side characters)
Posted Jul 5, 2026, 12:33 PM UTC