[Quick Storyline Recap] The Mystic Nine Ep. 13-16

New post because this episode had a lot of fun moments for our OTP. Unlike the first twelve episodes, these four are a lot more dense in content. The ending especially shocked me. I tried to put more details into this recap.

Drama information:

• Total of 48 episodes
• Chinese name: 老九门
• Release schedule:
  • Dragon TV (small screen broadcast): Two episodes per day on Monday and Tuesday
  • IQIYI (online release):
    • Monday, Tuesday: 2 episodes per day for VIP members, 4 episodes ahead of everyone 😉
    • Monday, Tuesday: 2 episodes per day for non VIP members.
• Find the episodes as they get released on iQiYi: here
• You can watch with eng sub on viki: here (under the name Old Nine Door) ; I also think there is a Lay fansub team on facebook.
• You can download or stream the episodes on Avirtualvoyage: here. They are doing more in depth recaps (last time I checked, they are at episode 4).

Drama highlights recap:

Let’s back track a bit from the last post.

Episode 13 starts off with the two fiances fighting to show their values and that they are the worthy groom-to-be. Xinyue and Ba Ye help Fu Ye by yelling and creating noises to destroy the concentration of the fiance, which made him mad. Hence, they restart the fight over without hiding their view.

This time still, Fu Ye wins and gains the medicine. Xinyue is amazed at the prowess of Fu Ye and decides he is the one she wants to marry.

Hence, Xinyue decides to leave with them and escort them to the train station.

On the train, Xinyue cutely introduces herself as his wife which surprises both Er Ye and Ya Tou. Reading the mood, Er Ye and Ya Tou encourage the two of them to start a relationship. Fu Ye tries to shut Xinyue by giving her a bracelet we learn later is a valuable belonging of Fu Ye: if someone hits it, it will resonate twice.

During a two-by-two conversation, Er Ye encourages Fu Ye to accept the feelings of Xinyue because a two-person life is way less boring. Plus, they are quite compatible. At this, Fu Ye says that he thinks Er Ye and him are an even better match. 😉 They laugh at that.

In the meantime, the mad fiance who got refused the hand of Xinyue is plotting his revenge by allieting with the Japanese people. He comes on the train and sees Xinyue and kidnapps her. Thanks to the bracelet, Fu Ye realizes her situation and goes to save her. Starts a long battle of Fu Ye with a huge group of people (20-30 people?) in the wagon while the horrible and hateful fiance tries to take advantage of Xinyue (aka trying to rape her). After a long time of fighting, Fu Ye arrives to the room where the rapist is having some difficulty facing our lady. Fu Ye saves Xinyue and they have a quick romantic moment in the air. Fu Ye is mad and decides to not leave any chance to the fiance: he kills him.

Later, when they are at his house, Xinyue makes the maids call her House Lady (aka wife of Fu Ye). Her quote “叫什么小姐，叫我夫人” is trending on weibo now! She even dared to touch/slap his cheeks (in a friendly way of course), which left our all mighty Fu Ye in disbelief.

However, as he looks at Xinyue leave the room, he smiles happily!

On another side of the world, Ya Tou started eating the medicine everyday… to sadly no effect. She tries to hide this information from her husband Er Ye, but the visiting Jiu Ye (9th Master) notices right away. Ya Tou makes him promise to not reveal this crucious information because she knows how hard everyone worked to get this medicine. Jiu Ye reluctantly accepts, but tells her that if ever Er Ye sees her die, he will probably lose all will to live. FYI, the medicine probably doesn’t work because her illness is at a very late stage.

Xinyue is chilling at the house of Fu Ye, finding everything a lot poorer and boring than expected. Especially since Fu Ye didn’t come back home for two days. Xinyue decides to go to his office to explore and maybe give him a surprise when he comes back. There, she notices a secret passage to his attic. There, as she explores, she gets caught in a net trap. She has to wait for Fu Ye to get back home…

As Fu Ye gets back home, he wonder about Fu Ren’s wheabout (Fu Ren=wife, woman of the house). Servants tell him she is on the second floor so he goes check out for himself.. only to see his attic’s door open and Xinyue trapped. He takes his time to reprimend her before letting her down, telling her to not move much or other traps will start taking effect too. Xinyue doesn’t listen and tries to get out herself, only to set the other traps in motion. Fu Ye jumps to her rescue and gets a bit hurt in the process. Xinyue says thanks and that these traps are really well down! As Fu Ye leaves, she notices that the rust on the spires that hurt Fu Ye.

When it is supper time, Xinyue goes down to eat only to be told that she can’t start eating unless Fu Ye arrives. Hearing this, she is first annoyed. She then gives it a second thought and considering how many times Fu Ye saved her, she decided to be nicer to him. She goes up to find him.

Now, girls, you ready?? Fu Ye was actually healing his wounds, showing his upper body to the camera!

Xinyue is first shy by this view, but then, sees that his wound is still open. She goes to him to nurse him. They however gets into a fight as Fu Ye once again ask her to leave.

Fu Ye in deep thinking (probably another filler scene to look cool). Couldn’t resist adding these pics here! 😀

The next day, Xinyue goes to visit Ya Tou who is still sick in bed. Fu Ye wakes up later and wonder where she went. His servants tell him she went to Er Ye’s house.

At Er Ye’s house, Er Ye is happy to see that his wife seems to be getting better and that Xinyue’s arrival is making her even more lively.

They chat together and Ya Tou makes a noodle soup dish for Xinyue. Xinyue notices that the dish was wrongly made (putting soy milk instead of vinegar or something like that…), but still lies by saying it was delicious!

At that moment, Fu Ye and Jiu Ye arrives. Xinyue decides to hide. Although we may assume Fu Ye came to pick his wife back ;), he is actually here to talk with Ya Tou. Ya You realizes that she doesn’t have many days to live anymore. She wants to give back the medicine to Fu Ye. The three of them come up with a plan. They will make it look like the medicine was effective, but because someone wants the medicine back (probably the Japanese), they cannot give it to Ya Tou anymore.

The next day, as Xinyue and Ya Tou go out to shop, Ya Tou suddenly gets especially ill, puking blood. This worries Er Ye tremendously as he escorts her back home. He then realizes that Jiu Ye is out of town and there is no more medicine left at home. He brings Ya Tou with him under the rain toward Fu Ye’s house to ask for medicine. He pleads for long hours with no results.  (This honestly broke my heart a bit).

When finally Fu Ye shows up, it is to tell him that he cannot give him back the medicine. Fu Ye feels bad for what he is saying but a flashback shows that it was all because Ya Tou asked him to do so earlier.

Finally, Er Ye and Ya Tou leaves for home. Ya Tou is sick, but still tries to do house chore. Ya Tou asks Er Ye if they can go out to eat a bowl of her favorite Chinese onion noodle dish. However, all the restaurants are close at this hour. Er Ye yells as much as he can, but without any result. The both of them stay together outside. As Er Ye cries and Ya Tou wishes him to live happy, she dies.

The next day, Er Ye comes to Fu Ye’s house with a sword. He blames him for the death of his wife and wants revenge. As he throws his sword in his direction, Fu Ye does not hide from its trajectory and does get hurt on the neck. Xinyue arrives to stop them. They tell Er Ye to first properly bury Ya Tou before asking for revenge.

At the funeral of Ya Tou, Jiu Ye arrives to give his respect to the decease. He also gives a handwritten letter of Ya Tou to Er Ye explaining all the plans: she was actually at the last phase of her illness, the medicine was not working, she gave back the medicine to Fu Ye and she wishes him to be happy whatever happens. Er Ye cries…

At the same time, Er Ye’s disciple (the dude crazy in love with Ya Tou) gets out of the hospital to hear the bad news: Ya Tou is dead.

The episode ends with Er Ye going to a brothel to drink and forget his sorrow. Ba Ye comes to stop him, to no avail.

-end of episode 16-

I am shocked to see our second female lead already dead at episode 16. I thought she had a bigger role to play!! It feels like since Zhao Liying made her appearance in the drama (at episode 10), the story is moving at a faster pace. These four episodes were full of great scenes so I strongly recommend you to go watch them! A lot of moments that were impossible to catch through a screenshot. From now on, I think that the drama will focus on uniting the other members to recreate the “The Mystic Nine/Old Nine Gates” group and they will start exploring tombs together. No idea when my next recaps are going to be, so see you next time! ~~