Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 三生三世十里桃花 - Episode 10 (Recap)

kakashi: Holy hell, the Bell, the Bell! Not goooood, not gooooooood!
JoAnne: But there's a kitten, so at least we have that.

Episode 10

Zhe Yan and Fox King are up in the Nine Heavens, talking about the marriage fiasco. It's really cute, Fox King isn't sly enough to turn the humiliation of his daughter into an advantage at all. He goes back and forth between suggesting to cancel and not to cancel the wedding. Well, Zhe Yan is the one saying they they should cancel, but the Heavenly Lord is dead set against it. Oups. Or rather yay, because we know what that means.
Do we?

Ye Hua comes in ... and Zhe Yan pretty much just stares ... this guy looks exactly like his brother Mo Yuan! Yes, we have noticed that too. You know, in passing. Not a biggie. Heavenly Lord admits he used to be "perplexed by this too", but not anymore (because his grandson is more awesome than Mo Yuan, he thinks, ascending at 20'000 and not only 25'000 years). He used to think that a piece of Mo Yuan's shattered soul borrowed Ye Hua's identity to return. No - he wouldn't do that, says Zhe Yan. If his brother still had one piece of soul left, he would return to Kunlun Mountains, nowhere else. When he asks whether Ye Hua is already married and hears that he is not, he smiles a tiny little bit ... methinks he has an idea.
We likes it. But I'm sad to learn that Ye Hua isn't Mo Yuan because, you know. It would have been nice.

Heavenly Lord entertains his two guests well - when his 2nd son Sang Ji - the fool! - makes a dramatic entrance. He has freed Shao Xin from the Pagoda and is ready to die with her. He probably thought his father would be more lenient, with the guests there. Nope, the Heavenly Lord is not at all ready to back down - die they should, he says, and pay for the offense. Come one now.
This guy is so insecure. Everything is basically 'do not question my authority!' 

Thank goodness, Zhe Yan intervenes and freezes Sang Ji when he's about to strike down Shao Xing. Okay, and then it's time for 3rd Uncle to speak up about the much better deal: Bai Qian can marry Ye Hua. It saves both tribes dignity and will make this alliance even stronger plus she will be the future Empress. Zhe Ya is delighted. The Fox King ... too, but only because Zhe Yan is. He's a bit afraid of his daughter's bad temper, haha.
I love the Fox Clan - they're so amazonian! Mom and daughter are both badass, Dad does bidding, awesome 4th Bro is happy hanging out in the Peach Orchard...

It's all settled, then! Completely emotionless, Ye Hua accepts his father's decree. Behind him, Su Jin is destroyed. Sang Ji is demoted to Water Lord of the North Sea and banished to the north. I don't get the feeling that he cares much. He's probably glad he gets out of there.

Does he get to take Shao Xin with him?

He does. 

3rd Uncle feels a bit guilty about throwing his nephew to the wolves. If he does, why doesn't he marry Bai Qian? our Crown Prince asks. And grins. Haha, don't underestimate this boy, Uncle 3! But Uncle Three knows he would not have been considered as worthy: if Bai Qian ascends to High Goddess one day (as she certainly will), she will be the only High Goddess in the world. Does this bother Ye Hua? Of course not.

Why should it?

Su Jin makes him a scene though after he gets home. She declares that she loves him - and he firmly, but almost friendly aunt-zones her. "I respect you the same way I respect my mother", he adds. No, you silly woman, this is not an age-thing. He's going to marry a woman who is 90'000 years older than him and doesn't care one bit. She angers him though (me too!) and in the end, he turns around and tells her that he wasn't forced to make this choice. It does not matter to him who his wife is and he had to take one sooner or later anyway. He ends the conversation with: "If you are capable, why don't you be like Bai Qian and leave me no choice but to marry you?" OUCH.

DAAAMN, boy...

She cries her eyes out in front of her foster mother, the Consort Le Xu. There is no point to that though, the Consort (who is very sympathetic to Su Jin, even would have liked her to take care of her son) says. Does she not know she would never have been considered a match for Ye Hua anyway? She is not even a proper princess, just one in name. Ack, these royals are horrible. And I feel really sorry for Su Jin now.

Mom is kind but firm, and simply lays out the facts as they exist. I thought she was doing her a kindness, really. Su Jin is being foolish... but then again, who in love is not?

Back to our Fox Princess, who is still down by the river. She magicks herself a jade flute and exchanges it with Dijun's ba.., I'm sorry, bells. She shamelessly lies to the dumb earth spirit that Dijun ordered it so. 

I was a bit irritated by this, despite her cuteness. The spirit is there for a reason, his ability to summon Dijun at a moment's notice is also for a reason. She just made it 100% more likely that Qing Cang will escape the Bell.

YES! 

Oh, and then there is some drama in the Ghost Realm. The Queen orders a maid killed, because she's pregnant with Ghost King's baby. Very deliberately made pregnant, if we are to believe the maid - Li Jing even threw away her contraceptive concoction. I still feel a little faint when I think about him making an effort to impregnate someone. Every night for three months. Really concentrating on things. I think I need to lie down. Do we have some water? When the maid screams hysterically at her that she will never have a child, never, never, she changes her verdict and wants her banished to the arctic lands and fed to the snow wolves. Oh. Arctic Lands ... that is where Li Yuan is, people.

I failed to make that connection because I was so busy hating Xuan Yu's fucking guts, and especially hating how gorgeous an evil queen she is. Very Snow White Evil Stepmother.

In Peach Blossom valley, Bai Qian plays the zither while her brother practices having his ghost fight. Or maybe the ghost is dancing. It's pretty cool.

Not as cool as the drinking thing. That would be so convenient!

Fox Princess comes back! She wishes her aunt a happy birthday and then calls her old. Ahahaha. Dumb little fox. To punish her, Bai Qian turns her back into her fox appearance for a bit. Smiling, she ties Dijun's bells to the fox's leg.
These ba... bells have been jingling all over the place. How come Dijun isn't appearing? I was expecting Goblinesque appearances but it's not happening. This disappoints me.

That night, the fox secretly follows her aunt to Kunlun Mountain. The closed, quiet, dusty school makes Bai Qian sad. The Mo Yuan flashbacks certainly don't help with the mood. She drinks some peach blossom wine that was forgotten there, just like back then, before she was kidnapped by the White Goddess. Soon she becomes aware of the prying fox and makes it appear in front of her. Apparently, she has something to say.
I like this more somber, serious Bai Qian.

"I will be travelling far away", she says, making a scroll appear in her hand. Oh. The scroll contains the spell! The sealing spell!! She wants to make sure it is not forgotten after she dies... IF she dies. She puts the scroll on the table. She knows the bell the Fox Princess carries with her is Dong Hua Dijun's - and that is very convenient. She puts a sleeping spell on her niece - after three days, it will be broken and Dijun will be summoned by his bells. This way, she can make sure the spell gets into the right hands.
Very practical.

After this, Bai Qian heads straight to The Bell. She knocks the earth spirit, it seems alarmed when it appears, out - and flies towards it. Qing Cang opens his eyes. She's not a minute too late ... he is ready to come out. She tells him she won't let that happen - and casts the spell.

He coughs black smoke on her. I don't think this is supposed to happen... Earth and Sky tremble... the crimson hellfire is noticed by many. Dijun leaves Heaven, quite hastily (for him).

Bai Qian concentrates again, hard ... and casts the spell again. "You attempt to seal me in?" Qing Cang cries. Only Mo Yuan can do that! And he hits her again with black smoke. She drifts away and he laughs an evil laugh. He will have her appearance and powers repressed - and she shall live out the rest of her life as mortal in the mortal realm, never knowing who she really is. And something ... what might it be? ... concentrates and forms a red dot birthmark on her forehead.

Ohhhhhhh, so that's the mortal... but did it work? Is he safely sealed in the Bell for another 70'000 years?

When Dijun gets there, all is quiet. Surprisingly quiet, considering he sensed activity just yesterday.

Is Qing Cang out of the bell and gone away?

From the earth spirit, he hears that a very beautiful lady came by and knocked him out. Dijun is puzzled. And amused, when he hears who took his bells. He takes Fengjiu's flute from the earth spirit and smiles a tiny little bit.

I noticed when he backhandedly admitted that he thinks Fengjiu is extremely beautiful, too. Good thing this is a big ship, I think we're gonna have a lot of passengers.

Bai Qian has fallen to the mortal realm. When she wakes up, she has no recollection who she is. She picks up her magic fan and marvels at it, then decides to take it with her for now. A stray kitten appears ... that, she takes too.

Since nothing ever happens just for no reason unless it's a K-Drama, my first assumption was that this kitten is no kitten... but it's not CGI, and this is a C-Drama, so now I don't know what the hell is going on.

There's a hut not far from where she woke up - it's uninhabited. Bai Qian, now an unnamed mortal with no memories, has found her new home.

It looks like it will be very pretty when it's cleaned up.

Comments

So she did it? She sealed him back in?! How did she manage?! It must be so, because otherwise, Dijun would have sensed the Ghost Lord's stirrings. Ah, but what a situation! Being who she is (very secretive) she told nobody what she was up to. How on earth will they find her?!

Do they ever find her? Is this the second life already? How come they didn't confirm for us that we're Saved by the Bell for another 70'000 years? Is it like when someone dies, if you don't see the body don't believe it?

Well, she SHOULD have told someone and I don't know exactly why she did not. Granted, there are not many gods that could have cast that spell (as we know from earlier episodes), but could she not have at least taken someone with her for support? I'm not sure I fully understand her. 

The smart thing to do would have been to take a shitload of people with her and if her spell didn't work, they could have ganged up on Qing Cang when he came out of the bell before he had a chance to get ready.

I select you for my next Bell-sealing expedition! 

It might not matter anymore now, but I am glad that Sang Ji and his Snake Lady got a "happy" ending. Ye Hua might be all cool about it, but it was pretty nice of him to step in like this. Marriage is eternal for these kind of gods after all.

You think he showed up in that room specifically to make that happen? I was wondering.