Old Nine Gates 老九门 - Episode 34 (Recap)

kakashi: Saki is back, Fo Ye is back, everyone is back. Yay. Also, our villains are sloooowly going down. Better slow than not at all.
SakiVI: Yay! I missed Fo Ye, and Visual Zhang and XinYue! Ba Ye and Er Ye too, though I'll be frank, not as much.  

Gorgeous couple. 

Episode 34 - Secretly Returning to Changsha

We're at the old Zhang residence! It's beautiful, if weird. Little Zhang knocks, but there is no answer. Yes, it doesn't look very inhabited. He then pushes open the door and Fo Ye, in his zombified state, flinches hard. Once again we ask: what can he possibly be afraid of? Isn't this his hood?
Maybe the show will tell us, or maybe it won't.

They enter an overgrown courtyard and then the main building, in which the Yin energy is very strong, according to Ba Ye. It means it's pretty damn cold. I always wondered what strong Yin energy meant.  No, really, I did. And inauspicious. Terrible. Fo Ye flinches again, this time harder. His Flinch Game is Hot. His companions are concerned, for him though and not for themselves. I don't know, I think I'd run... Me too. They help him sit and he seems to have fallen back into his coma. Nice safe place to be.

Lt. Zhang takes Ba Ye with him to explore further. It's all sorts of creepy. Ba Ye gets to a storage room, there are spiderwebs (and artifacts) everywhere. Suddenly, a scroll unfurls behind him. I jumped! It's a painting and it says something about kites and dragons on there and Ba Ye gets extremely frightened when he realizes it is "the alignment of the Dragon's pulse". (And that means?) He runs away to find Lt. Zhang, while behind him, the scroll rolls itself back up neatly.   
Scroll Thoughts: "hahahahaha, got him!"

Lt. Zhang is in a different room, with a desk in it, looking stunned. Still cute. Not too stunned though, luckily, because he quickly prevents Ba Ye from tripping one of the trap threads, when the frightened fortune teller barges in. They're poisonous trap threads, touch it and rot to death. Really nice people, those Zhangs.
They seem a bit full of themselves with all these traps and things.

They continue on together and get to a room full of burning candles. Now THAT would freak me out,
but they're more interested in the bronze thingie (no idea how to call it :) in the middle of the room. Ba Ye thinks the pattern on it looks familiar and SO DO I. Tomb, anyone?
One of their coffins, right?

They go back to Fo Ye and Miss at this stage, to fetch them and go into the "old building at the back" that remains unexplored. There are more of those bronze thingies on the way there. The old building at the back is a huge tomb of sorts, we soon realize: There are hundred of coffins. Sure, let's keep coffins around on the walls. Totally sane thing to do - if you think they might come back to life. Either this is underground or they built some kind of dome in the backyard. Anyway, some kind of elevator emerges from the floor.

It opens its door and there is a Qilin with blinking eyes in it. Ba Ye gets scared. Xin Yue was calm, hahahahaha. According to Lt. Zhang it's a "test by the Zhang Family". Okay, you've lost me, but never mind.

Xin Yue knows (how?!? (osmosis)) this means "using one life to exchange for another" - and looking at her zombified husband, the brave soul decides it's going to be hers for his. She goes in. They boys are all "no, no, no" (and "beware the demon in your heart, it will get activated") but stopping this woman is, we know, impossible. Besides, they haven't had any nookie yet. She's got to take her chances to get some. The Zhang elevator closes its door and Xin Yue is gone.

Haha, the boys immediately go chat to the unconscious Fo Ye and tell him he can't blame them for this. And then, Fo Ye opens his eyes. We're all excited, but no, he closes them again: false alarm. This show is such a troll. Lt.  Zhang and Ba Ye start exploring things again and find some kind of console. Ba Ye does his calculation thing and says the solution to all their problems is 83. Oooookay, show. Shouldn't he have calculated before going Xin Yu went in? Lt. Zhang presses 83 and the elevator door opens again. Out comes Xin Yue, unharmed. No, I cannot explain how and why and what either, dear readers.
This situation just is.

She is unharmed and all-knowing. Good. Yay! Whatever happened (did someone say there were some cut scenes that explain a bit more?! (moonlil?)), she now knows that "all these are hallucinations". I will calmly accept this explanation - because no choice. They put Fo Ye into some kind of sarcophagus while Lt. Zhang and Ba Ye go search for something among the coffins. Maybe. They definitely go look at them, but they don't find anything and they don't speak or explain anything either.
At least Lt Zhang looked pretty. 

Then, Fo Ye jerks awake. Yay. Woohoo.

He also is very much afraid though and urgently calls for them to leave this place immediately. Because they almost always do what Fo Ye says, they do leave. End of Zhang tomb sequence.
Oh, thank God.  Although, the tomb looked cool, it was a bit dull.

Next, we're in some run-down building. Fo Ye does some explaining, but not really. He says he does not know himself where the whole of the Zhang family comes from and what its purpose is. But he knows this: someone from his branch (a few hundred years ago, no less) violated the rules and were chased out. When they returned to the residence, it was already completely destroyed. I don't get this at all. We saw him in the courtyard, no? Or is this why he flinched all the time? His line isn't even allowed here?!
Maybe that was just his branch that went back to the house.  But I find it hard to believe that a house that rigged with traps and that is clearly functional would be abandoned just like that.  Also, this Zhang family seems big enough to make its own city if it wants.  Fo Ye has all those men, under him, and there were so many from one rebel branch in his flashbacks.

When Er Ye handed him that bit of the bronze whatever in the tomb, Fo Ye realized why his father so desperately wanted him to go to Changsha. In that mine, there lies the Zhang Family's old building. It contains all the things they wanted to protect - the deepest mysteries of China. (sidebar: when people say things like this, I wonder what the heck could possibly be that mysterious.) That explains those patterns on the bronze thingies; they are indeed the same patterns we saw in the tomb. Fo Ye thinks the Zhangs have many such buildings, more deeply hidden and more mysterious than the one underneath the mines. 
They sound like the Chinese Illuminati.

Ba Ye asks about the Zhang ambush line and why nothing happened when they crossed it. Fo Ye smiles like this:

Cute! 

... and Ba Ye says "could it be that ambush line is able to recognize who is from the Zhang family?" Uhm, yes? Isn't that the whole point?! Just making sure we know us plebs can't go there, grrr.

Anway, Fo Ye turns his attention to his Lady. They're holding hands. Awwww.
Bless.

She scolds him for making her worry so much and he smiles *swoooooon*
Sigh.

and then leans in to kiss her. squeeeeeeeeee!!! Ba Ye has nothing better to do than clear his throat that very moment. You dummy.
Tsk, tsk, Ba Ye.

Our friends return to Changsha after this, but find that it has undergone "earth-shattering change". Exaggerating, hmph. Jiu Ye is back from taking care of his oversea's business, Er Ye is still not well (he's still at the village) and Chen Pi is running amok because there's no success with the mine. He has taken over most of Er Ye's businesses and has become quite powerful. Whatever, here is Fo Ye.

Hawt.

And Jiu Ye.  

Handsome.

They're not worried about Lu Idiot (Jiu Ye calls him "one of small intellect", bingo!), but Fo Ye isn't happy about Chen Pi's interest in the mines - he has skillz. He does? Nearly everything Er Ye knows, suppposedly. The men he is trying to send into the mines are too scared and run away. Nose! 
Good Nose Shot. 

Fo Ye gathers his old and trusted allies (the ones he escaped from the Japanese prison camp with). They have held the fort in his absence, it seems and are more than willing to help topple the Lu Slimefucker Idiot. In fact, they complain about him to the higher-ups, haha and Lu gets removed from his position as military commander. Back to being a mere intel officer then! 
Well, that was easy. Except Lu is still lurking. 

Oh no, here's Hendry. Oh, and Lt. Zhang shadowing him. So cute! Like a cool drink in a Hendry desert.  Hendry meets with Chen Pi and asks him what I was wondering about too: why he isn't entering the mines himself. He says things in there can't run away, he is in no hurry. Or is he scared? Plus, there's a Qilin.  Hendry hints that there might be something incredible valuable in the mines that can resurrect Yatou. Woot?

When Fo Ye hears about this from Lt. Zhang, he thinks it's just a lie to get Chen Pi to storm into the mines. Lt. Zhang thinks it might be true, at least it seemed like Hendry knew the mines. Fo Ye tells him to alert Er Ye - they need to enter the mines themselves if Chen Pi goes in. Here is Zhang!
Thank you!

Smoooch!

Next, smart Fo Ye has our Prince from Dongbei come to Changsha and hold court, so to say. He is extra rude to members of the Huo and the Chen Pi households. The plan is to weaken the two considerably, to force them to the negotiation table later.

The Prince is super happy to move in with all the boys. And then, he asks whether the room he is staying in is close to Fo Ye's? Why? "That way, at night, the two of us ... it'll be convenient!"
Bwahahahaha!

Comments

Alright! Fo Ye, I hope you'll let the dear prince have some fun?
Not too much or Xin Yue will be mad.

I'm SO GLAD Fo Ye is back from the half-dead. Seriously, it was so boring without him. I love how he's immediately taking on the Stupid Alliance (that's LuHuoChen), with immediate results. Just go away, you idiots. And take Hendry with you.
Fo ye is so much better animated and with that mischievous grin. 

The editing in this episode was horrible, but since I've recently watched Moon Lovers, I didn't mind all too much. Must feel a relief, really. I did mind the huge gaps in the Zhang Residence Sequence though. What the heck went on there? What did Xin Yue do in that elevator coffin? Why did Fo Ye finally wake up? Why was it dangerous there?
That was a major editing fail. So much interesting information not shared with us...

Anyway, we're gearing up for more tomb adventures. Are we ready? Oh yes. Let the crazy begin. 
Woohoo!