Yunge from the Desert Episode 2 Recap

In the last episode, we left off where Yunge and Ling Ge Ge promises to meet each other in the City of Chang An before breaking apart and heading to their separate destination. Yunge then meets up with her brother at the marketplace. She sees a boy getting beaten up for stealing and asks his brother to help him out, but her brother only extended out the helping hand only after hearing that Yunge would cook a meal for him.

He grabbed a random ax and flung it across the marketplace, hitting a wall behind the gang of men that were beating the boy. It caught their attentions and they scrammed after seeing Yunge’s brother lifting up another axe. While checking if the boy was okay, Yunge find out that the boy is Qui Sheng.

She looked after him until he woke up but her brother was annoyed that he was wasting his time on a person that he doesn’t know and rushed Yunge to leave.

With Yunge promising to cook him more food, he agreed to wait for another 12 seconds. With the limited amount of time, Yunge told Qui Sheng that he needed to see the doctor for his wounds but he replied that doctors were for the privileged wealthy and it was unnecessary for him since he only had a wretched life. Upon hearing that money was the problem, Yunge gave him her pearl embroidered shoe so that he could sell it for money to see the doctor and quickly hopped on the camel to catch up with her brother. (In the last episode, Yunge gave one of her shoe to Ling Ge Ge, now she gives her remaining shoe to Qui Sheng. She is basically going home with no shoe on.)

While watching Yunge leave, Qui Sheng vows to search for Yunge when he grows up and return this favor.

Nine years later, Ling Ge Ge is now a young man, attending his duties as the king. Shang Guang Jie proposes that they give out food to the poor citizens to prevent an uprising and quell disgruntled thoughts.

Of course nobody ever likes to agree and Huo Guang claims that if they give out food, poor people all over the country will flock to Chang An city causing chaos. After a debate between the two leaders, Fuling leaves the meeting for some quiet time to make his decision. He has not forgotten about Yunge and thinks about her while playing on his flute.

The scene then changes to Yunge where she is now a pretty maiden with superb culinary skill and on top of that, she has lots of pursuers asking for her marriage.

Her maid rushes in to tell her another man just sat down with her parents and was discussing about her marriage. Her brother promises to make the pursuer leave. However upon eavesdropping from the roof, Yunge finds that his brother is the first one to applaud the man’s flute skills and her parents are also behaving courteously to this man even though they normally ignore marriage requests.

Angry that her brother didn’t help her out, she broods in the kitchen. Her brother returns shortly after, praising the man, telling her that the pursuer this time is an extraordinary man unlike any of her past pursuers.

She wouldn’t take any of it and reminded her family that she already had someone she liked. Her father reprimanded her, telling her that that was child’s play, that marriage decision should be decided by the parents, and told her to not think about Ling Ge Ge anymore. With her maid posing as her decoy, Yunge packs her bags, leaves home and heads to the city of Chang An to search for Ling Ge Ge.

We find out that the mysterious man who is asking for Yunge’s marriage is the son of a man who had saved Yunge’s father’s life in the past so they couldn’t turn him down. Worried about Yunge venturing to the city alonge, the brother wanted to search for her but the father came back just in time to let them know that Yunge’s future husband has already set off to look for her.

Yunge needed a place to spend the night and since there were no motels anywhere around, so she asks a family to take her in for the night.  The couple gladly welcomed her and they got along well with Yunge because she reminded them of their late daughter.

Yunge wakes up the next morning and finds men lurking outside the house. Thinking that her parents had sent people to look for her, she quickly tries to leave but is discovered by the men who corners her.

The couple, rushes out to fight the men off but is killed by them. Yunge finds out that the leader of a clan is looking for her. Snow, the wolf, comes out just in the nick of time and kills the men before dashing back into the woods. Shortly after, a mysterious man covered from head to toe in purple clothing arrives at the house only to find that he was a step too late and Yunge has already disappeared.

Yunge has arrived at the city of Chang An and she marvels at the bustling city. Because Yunge was dressed in ragged clothing to conceal herself from the people that are looking for her, she is shunned by the vendors over the city thinking that she is a beggar. Not too long after arriving at the city, Yunge meets adversity.

A man claims that Yunge’s pouch of money was his, thinking that no one would believe a beggar. A righteous lady steps in and asks them to each prove that the pouch belonged to them. The man replies that there is no way to show ownership for money since all money looked the same and that he got the pouch from his mother. Yunge explains that the flower on the pouch is her mother’s favorite flower and there are two different colors because when the flower grows, it changes from yellow to white. The women asks the crowd to decide who the owner is after Yunge could perfectly tell the story behind the pouch and the crowd agrees that the pouch belongs to the beggar, causing the thief scram before the police arrives. Yunge thanks the lady and we find out that this righteous maiden is named Xu Pingjun.

After hearing about a temple that grants all wishes, she immediately heads inside to be blessed on finding Ling Ge Ge. Upon leaving the temple, she sees a crowd of people lining up for food and finds out that the king is distributing food to honor the late queen’s birthday. She feels that the current king is a good king and that the city is a fun place and couldn’t understand why her parents wouldn’t allow her to come to the city. However right after this, the atmosphere gets disorderly as people are fighting for the food and pushes Yunge over.

In the midst of this chaos, a man extends his hand to help Yunge up and says I’m here, don’t be afraid. This reminds Yunge of Ling Ge Ge. (I hate it when the plot doesn’t make sense. Why would he say I’m here don’t be afraid to a person he just met. It’s not like she’s a three year old. It would make more sense if he said are you alright or something along those lines.) However before she could thank the gentleman, he runs off chasing after another man.

Apparently the man that was being chased took money from home to gamble and the gentleman that helped Yunge is trying to stop the man from gambling. The people at the gamble quarter is unhappy that someone is preventing a customer from gambling so they remind the customer that he needs to pay his debt and snatches the gentleman’s jade ornament to pay for the customer’s debt. While the gentleman tries to take his jade ornament pack, it flies right into Yunge’s hand.

The gentleman is quite adept in fighting but being outnumbered he soon falters and Yunge helps the man out by accurately throwing a bun and knocking out a man. The gentleman then runs off with Yunge and escapes the men chasing after them.

The gentleman thanks Yunge’s for her help and introduces himself as Liu Bing Ye while placing the jade ornament safely in his bag. Yunge is pretty sure that Liu Bing Ye is her Ling Ge Ge as she remembers that the ornament that Ling Ge Ge carries looks exactly like the jade ornament that Liu Bing Ye has.

look at the way Yunge is looking at Bing Ye. She completely thinks Bing Ye is Ling Ge Ge

To confirm her speculations, Yunge asks Bing Ye whether the jade was given to him by his father and whether he had carried it with him ever since he was born. She is ecstatic after hearing a confirmation answer from Bing Ye and thinks that she has finally found Ling Ge Ge. Before anything else could happen, Pingjun calls out from behind looking for Bing Ye.

Any passerby can tell that the two are a couple as they are affectionate in their actions. Bing Ye excuses himself and tells Yunge to look for him if she needs help in the city. Disheartened, Yunge steals the jade ornament to scrutinize it more and to make sure she wasn’t mistaken.

She trails after the couple, but is heartbroken after watching Bing Ye place a decorative piece in Pingjun’s hair as a present. As tears start to well up in her eyes, Yunge disappears into the woods, sobbing and lamenting that Ling Ge Ge had forgotten about her and their promise.

She decides to bury the jade ornament and leave since he has a lover and has forgotten about her. However not traveling more than a few steps away, she quickly turns back to retrieve the ornament. Ling Ge Ge has been embedded in her heart for so many years and she could not easily throw her love for him away.

The face of the mysterious man who had asked for Yunge’s marriage is finally unveiled. Off in the distance, we see the mysterious man watching Yunge. He seems to be worried about Yunge and is troubled by her anguish.

This recap may be a bit confusing as we are introduced to so many new faces.

At this point I am thinking, how can Yunge just assume Liu Bing Ye is Ling Ge Ge just based off of the jade ornament. It could look similar or there could have been two of the same ones. Why couldn’t she have said something more specific like do you remember giving a necklace to someone or receiving a shoe as a gift?

The other thing is that Qui Sheng aka Meng Jun wants to repay Yunge’s kindness to him but that doesn’t mean he has to marry her. He could probably help her out in some way or treat her to a meal.

There was an article about netizens complaining about the ugly male leads and that they felt the production team did a sloppy job in casting the male leads. I don’t think the male leads are that ugly. They could be better but we aren’t here to film an idol drama. I don’t think Nicky Wu was that good-looking in Scarlet Heart, but his portrayal ended up winning the viewer’s hearts and that’s the part that counts. In my opinion, if I had to choose, I think Du Chun is the ugliest out of the three but it may also be his hideous hairpiece that’s influencing my decision. That white strip of hair makes him look so old.

I actually like Lu Yi playing the king. When I first watched this, I didn’t realize that I had seen him before, but the other day, I resumed watching Dad Where Are You Going Season 2 and realized that he was a father on the show. I couldn’t believe Lu Yi is 39 and is playing a twenty-something year old man in a love triangle.

I am liking Angelbaby’s acting so far as she has many expression. Her big eyes and bright face is also pleasing to watch.

In dramas we usually find that the older counterparts are exact carbon copies to their younger selves but I didn’t find the acting styles of the older counterparts to be similar to the child actors. I have already watched up till episode 12 and got to know each person’s personality. I found that the older version were more mature and their personality seemed to have changed a bit. Fu Ling became more solemn. He is caring toward his servants around him and lost much of the haughtiness that he had when he was young. I feel that he is the type of king that would sit among the citizens and listen to their grievances and considers his citizens as his equal.

Meng Jue is still clever like he was before. He has matured to be less impulsive and would consider everything before making his move. Instead of being ashamed of his status, he has gained power and he takes initiative to reach out toward Yunge.

I am now up till episode 12 and am liking this drama. However, it’s annoying that they don’t have much episodes out because I want to know what happens next.

Do you think the actors were properly casted or do you think another actor could have substituted for a role?