Episode Summary
Ye Ping’an and Lu Danxin expose Hai Yiping’s plot to frame Li Zongxu and bury the Imperial Censor case. After a public confrontation at the city gates, Lu—poisoned by Hai—kills Li and dies alongside him. Evidence from Lu’s home leads Ye and Yuan Shaocheng to forged letters implicating Hai, who confesses under pressure but sparks political chaos.
Spoiler Alert
Ye Ping’an confronts the truth: Hai Yiping aims to manipulate her into killing Li Zongxu and frame her for treason against the Li clan, thereby burying the decades-old Imperial Censor case forever. Lu Danxin questions why Ye still chooses to act, but Ye insists this night is their only chance to expose Hai’s crimes and force the Emperor to reopen the investigation. At the city gates, Yuan Shaocheng positions archers as backup. When the Emperor arrives, Ye publicly accuses Li Zongxu of atrocities against women in Tongquan County years earlier. Lu Danxin steps forward, using a seven-petaled epiphyllum brand as damning proof of Li’s guilt.
In a shocking twist, Lu Danxin raises her sword at Li Zongxu, claiming Hai Yiping ordered the assassination. The crowd erupts—Hai, a beloved official, couldn’t possibly orchestrate such corruption. To corner Li, Ye manipulates him into spotting Yuan Shaocheng on the watchtower. When Yuan’s arrow narrowly misses Li, Ye whispers lies about Hai’s betrayal. Terrified, Li denounces Hai as the mastermind of the Imperial Censor case.
Hai scrambles to deny the accusations, but Ye produces her trump card: Sun Xizheng, a disgraced poet and former ally of Hai and the late censor Yu Qian. Sun presents testimonies that irrefutably link Hai to the crimes. Furious, the Emperor orders Guo Yu to arrest Hai. Li Zongxu is spared—until Lu Danxin, poisoned by Hai and knowing she’ll die by dawn, stabs him and hurls them both off the tower.
The next day, the Emperor mandates a full trial. Hai, imprisoned in the Dali Temple, remains defiant. Guo Yu interrogates him fruitlessly as public sympathy grows for the “wronged” official. Meanwhile, Ye and Yuan discover a letter hidden in Lu Danxin’s home: Hai possesses Yu Qian’s handwritten notes, critical evidence for the trial. But a masked conspirator orders Dali Temple agent He Maoshan to sabotage their investigation.
In a heart-pounding sequence, Yuan’s team retrieves a booby-trapped iron box from Hai’s estate. Just as its contents ignite, Ye douses the flames with water, saving Yu Qian’s forged “kill order”—a document Hai painstakingly pieced together from stolen letters. Confronted with this and threatened with his elderly mother’s testimony, Hai finally cracks.
The episode closes with a reveal: Yu Qian’s original plea for justice was destroyed, but Lu Danxin had memorized it. Yuan forged a replica, and Ye’s calculated distance during Hai’s interrogation sold the lie. Justice prevails… for now. Yet as Hai mutters, “I only took one wrong step,” the cost lingers: lives lost, alliances fractured, and a political firestorm brewing.
