-seems like invaders making another attempt at the North. Zhu Zan is taken out of punishment and yelled at because he and his dad are in charge of the North. Hmmm... seems this Emperor got his seat in some tricky way, because the slew of disasters happening makes him question out loud if this is Heaven deeming him unjust for rule. Lu Yunqi still wants to go after Jiuling. Ning Yunzhao makes his intentions known to Jiuling again, and is turned down again. False marriage #2 is made known. -Jiuling going on her way but tailed by Jinyiwei. Zhu Zan is on the run again with his bros (he counts as a fugitive because he ran away without permission). I think the Emperor wants to use this 'war' as a legitimate reason to give up the North. Of course, nationalists and common people are totally against it so this is the Emperor's excuse. -Jiuling spreading vaccines as she goes, visiting official after official and throwing off Jinyiwei as she goes (because if they make this public of a move, it's waaaay to much). Then Jiuling is kidnapped and Fang bodyguards face off with Jinyiwei but they're clueless too; they think it's bandits. Turns out 'kidnappers' are people her master knew (his hometown? and his wife and daughter), they're taking her to safety. :3 She also gets them to hog-tie the Jinyiwei. LOL They're all 'soldiers' and everyone keeps up with training so they're crazy strong. -Lu Yunqi and Zhu Zan both figure out she gets the 'bandits' to help her. Except Lu Yunqi is cray-cray and wants to go after her again... Zhu Zan is proud of her but tsundere about how much he cares. His bros think he's extremely obvious. -flash over to Jiuli (faking sick) and a conversation with Yunqi. Jiuling died because she went to the palace to kill the Emperor (hacked to death). The reason is unknown. Yunqi being nice to Jiuli made me feel a smidge bit better about him, but not a lot. -*ugly tears* so Jiuling's master was wandering around the world and died because of that purple flower all to cure his daughter... but he's dead. And the poor daughter (Zhao Hanqing) who thought she had been abandoned by her father says that she doesn't believe him, but believes in Jiuling. They get along super well and trade knowledge -- medical for archery/fighting. Meanwhile, she gets her guards trained by the experts here. -think Zhu Zan's hanging around as a famous horse-handler to act as intelligence network/backup for his dad. His dad's on the frontlines, but Emperor and Jin (enemy invaders) have some kind of shady deal going on? -Zhu Zan's moving out! The Jin people made a really 'clever' and insidious move by almost reenacting the invasion ages ago and putting the court into a panic. Emperor is enraged over Zhu Zan running out of range again -- in a super cool move, he leaped on a horse, whistled, and got an enormous stampede of horses following him that just got larger and larger. Even Lu Yunqi's helpless. -Ning family wanted to support Zhu Zan's decisions, but some asshole managed to turn opinion and impeach Zhu Zan. Yunzhao's thinking that being a hero sure is hard. Even his father can't do anything because he has to stay up north and save the country. -Jiuling hears about the chaos and moves out as well. Zhu Zan's 'cutting firewood' (cough, slaying Jin soldiers) as he moves and rescuing civilians. Then he goes to a place and a bunch of burly guys show up around him and call him 'Big Brother.' (I CALLED IT, HE'S HEAD OF THE WOODCUTTERS) -woodcutters left the North to chop wood inland, ahahahaha, serves the country's traitors right -a big stronghold is recovered, news brought to Emperor. But he's not happy because it's announced that it was the work of Chen Guogong. Emperor upset at this father-son duo and wants to capture Zhu Zan. -that mountain village group Jiuling was with? No wonder there were elite fighters. They have Qi royal family remants there (they were destroyed in 1st Jin invasion). They're going by the surname 'Xiao' now. (think I got this right judging by MTL, but might be wrong) -Jiuling hears about the Emperor intending to give up the North and is extremely angry. He's powerful enough to snatch the throne and kill his own brother (her father), and yet he's a coward over this? Zhu Zan is similarly angry when he receives the news. He's so hopping mad his fake beard fell off and one of his woodcutter bros has to remind him. -important people who love the country mightily disagree with the Emperor and make their own plans -Jiuling is escorting this lady and extorting her the way Zhu Zan did to her. Turns out this is Zhu Zan's mother (LOLOL NO WONDER SHE FELT SHE WAS FAMILIAR) and she's intending to contribute to the war efforts. After learning her identity and what she intends to do, Jiuling is all for it. -LOL Zhu Zan's mother is staking claim to her and calling her her son's fiancee. Wonder how Zhu Zan would feel about this. XD She's doing it so no one's going to lynch mob Jiuling or question her identity, but Jiuling just says it's 'clever' and laughs. LOL she's laughing so hard at Zhu Zan. She's getting along incredibly well with Zhu Zan's mother. He's in for it now. XDDD -pffft, poor Zhu Zhan heard from some old man about the 'Qingshan' army helping out civilians. The news about the head being his 'wife' make him say some unwise words and the old man smacks him for being disrespectful to these people doing good, until Zhu Zan fixes his words. He decides not to head over since his mother's probably fine and because he doesn't want a random woman hanging off him (if only he knew who, hurhurhur~) TBC~ @missycin: It doesn't say anything really, it just gives them Imperial right. It gives them backing and something like a 1-time favor from him. It makes them mostly untouchable by anyone other than the Emperor.
@scriptor Wow thanks! That's real dedication to MTL the story The Duke's household is amazingly bad-ass!
-Zhu Zan decides to go to where his mother is. -Zhu Zan's mom is super happy and shares the info from his letter with Jiuling. LOL. Poor Zhu Zan has no idea. Mom and Jiuling have a conspiracy to not tell him ahead of time who his 'fiancee' is and give him a good scare when he comes. -Zhu Zan's poor dad is fighting a war without reinforcements (stupid Emperor) and going to die. Zhu Zan's not going to make it in time but tries anyway. Luckily Jiuling is ahead of him and took her Qingshan army over to help out. Just in time too, because the dad got injured and she was there to help. -snippet between Emperor and Lu Yunqi. -Zhu Zan rushes into camp looking for his mother or father or both. His 'wife' shows up and gives him a huge shock. LOL. Then she brings him to see his dad. LOL it's cute, he's close with his dad too and has her get out of the room because he's too embarrassed at being a like a little kid in front of his dad. -LOL more arguments as Zhu Zan is tsundere and keeps being suspicious of Jiuling. -Emperor hears of the victory and keeps waffling. All people know is that a big help to victory was Zhu Zan's bandit wife's army. XD -Emperor's going to reward the Chen Guogong family but they're super suspicious. Also, Zhu Zan gets scolded by dad and embarrassed because Jiuling's watching. Dad smiles at them (ohohoho~). -Lu Yunqi... still hasn't given up. -Ning Yunzhao writes radical poems criticizing the Emperor on the sly. -Zhu Zan's family makes me laugh. They're all ganging up on him and overriding him with Jiuling. LOL. And his dad and mom seem totally okay with Jiuling even if Zhu Zan's all tsundere still. -Zhu Zan goes with Jiuling to get another one of those purple flowers. He almost dies (luckily his reflexes are good and he's strong enough to stop his fall) and gives Jiuling a scare. She sulks about this for a while. Zhu Zan is still tsundere but it's breaking~ They try another cliff for a test because it seems like someone's doing something. And yep, someone at the Capital wants Zhu Zan dead. -Chen Guogong and his army march back. Some scholars are protesting at the army sucking up money and being useless and disrupting peace, blah blah blah. They turn public opinion until the refugees arrive and take them to task. Then everyone understands how brutal it's been. -Lu Yunqi surrounds Jiuling with his Jinyiwei and tries to snatch her with a bogus reason again. But he can't, because Zhu Zan arrives. He can't snatch Chen Guogong's son's wife because the Emperor is sitting on a shaky throne as it is. -Lu Yunqi stalks Zhu Zan and co. to this restaurant. Zhu Zan has to chase him away. Other than that part, it's really funny and cute because all Zhu Zan's bros immediately call Jiuling sister-in-law and pile food on her. Zhu Zan instinctively helps her out with her sleeves ('cause they're getting caught in oil). XD -we learn how Zhu Zan got his grudge against Lu Yunqi. He took a secret Cheng Guogong letter and almost got his dad impeached and dismissed. We also learn that mentioning Princess Jiuling makes Zhu Zan sad. -once they leave, Lu Yunqi's outside. Zhu Zan immediately punches him in the face. LOL -when taken before the Emperor, Zhu Zan says that he's been wronged, that guy coveted his wife, molested her, etc. And when asking why he's being loud about this (because that's a stain on the woman usually), he says he's not ashamed because doesn't that mean his wife's hot goods? XD -Lu Yunqi was given Princess Jiuling as part of a deal with the Emperor. He can't do anything this time though. -Zhu Zan's insisting he didn't do it for her. Jiuling suddenly wonders how he'll react if she tells him that she's Princess Jiuling. -she tells him, but he breaks down the door and runs away. She's not surprised he doesn't believe. Still, she actually feels pretty good because she was able to say these words. -Zhu Zan's mom is more enthusiastic about Jiuling than her son lol. Poor guy is left sulking. -everyone knows it's a fake marriage but the 'in-laws' (Jiuling got 'adopted' by her master's wife) are totally calling each other fellow mother-in-law. This stuns Zhu Zan. LOL. -turns out Jiuling's master's wife knew her husband must have died. She and Jiuling have a good talk and she wants Jiuling to bring her to his grave sometime. -Zhu Zan is sulking all through the three-way dinner between himself, Jiuling, and Yunzhao (who guessed it was a fake marriage). -Lu Yunqi invades, but Zhu Zan's there to hold him off. His jealousy hits breaking point and he yells at her not to keep going to other men (lol). There was a tense moment when Lu Yunqi seems to have figured it out and almost made her go to him out of habit, you see. -Zhu Zan gets into some fights with the Jinyiwei, then goes to his parents, then goes to Jiuling who comforts him and gets him to eat dinner with her. -Chengguogong goes to see Huaiwang (little brother of Princess Jiuling) since Zhu Zan said some stuff for Jiuling. It's really cute because he gives the kid some street candy. Then Zhu Zan and Jiuling show up and Jiuling hugs Huaiwang. (she cured him and made a promise to come back and see him before) -Zhu Zan gets dragged by Jiuling to eat food. After checking in with Zhu Zan's parents and Zhu Zan remarking that Jiuling seems a bit weepy this time, his mom kicks him and tells him to go follow her (LOL). Even his dad's telling him to go lol. Sure enough, Jiuling's crying because she's thinking about her dad (the Prince) and how at least some people haven't forgotten about him. Zhu Zan's tagging along behind her out of sight with her medicine box. -Deshengchang Bank getting dragged in because they funded the war effort on Chenguogong side. Chengyu is totally ready for this showdown with the Emperor lol. There's still one more secret in the Fang family, Old Madame has said only one person can know it. Chengyu doesn't know it, and that's why he wants Old Madame to hold the fort at home. -poor Zhu Zan lol. He's prompted to pick up brother-in-law Chengyu. Then Yin wang says he'll be dumped for the smooth-looking Chengyu soon, since Zhu Zan's more the rugged manly type. XDDD -Chengyu feels the pressure lol. He knows Zhu Zan is closer (cough, more competition) to Jiuling compared to Yunzhao. -Jiuling calls in acquaintance and this time, Zhu Zan believes her when she says she's Princess Jiuling. A lot of past information adds up (because there's no way anyone other than Princess Jiuling would know). -pfffft, Zhu Zan's a hot mess. I think he had a crush on Princess Jiuling and knowing that Jun Jiuling is the same person is making him flustered. But he's strangely happy and even his parents figure it out lol. -OMGGGGG Fang family is sure a big fish. They're actually part of the national treasury. So Imperial Edict isn't the end of it. Old Madame also has a jade seal that she received from her husband and the Emperor. Fang family has made preparations even though douche Emperor wants to withdraw. They're giving him back the original Imperial Edict (it's a rare one that even the Emperor has to submit to) and letting them do what they want since their lives > money. The Fang daughters are pretending to fight over closing their accounts (all ginormous and enough to take away a huge chunk of the bank) to get married. This enrages the High Treasurer lol, because if they do withdraw the bank is basically gone. -Zhu Zan is back to normal pretty quickly and he and Jiuling just like before. Poor Chengyu feels like a third wheel. TBC, last stretch~
LOL, these ~800+ chapters are dense, lots of stuff to cover. I LOVE the Duke's household. They're all made of win.
-Old Madame and Jiuling at cross-purposes. They both understand they're mutually worried about each other but can't come to an agreement. It's funny because Chengyu gets pushed by Zhu Zan to comfort the grandma while Zhu Zan comforts Jiuling. You bet this makes Chengyu angry. XD -Old Madame and Jiuling make up and form a new coalition. According to Jiuling, current Emperor is a bad guy and can't be considered an 'Emperor' like the one that Old Madame and her husband originally made a deal with. -OMG BIG CONSPIRACY unearthed. The Fang family is holding the official silver/money used to barter with the Jin people. It was originally to 'redeem' one of the royal family? the Emperor? who was captured. The Jin don't keep their promise, kill the guy, and afterwards the North was in a decade-long war with the Jin. This shocks Jiuling so much she runs straight to Zhu Zan who's going to bed -- he picks it up fast and has to curse, 'Fuck.' -Jiuling's unsettled still and at Zhu Zan's prompting to go to bed, she... climbs into Zhu Zan's bed and goes to sleep. THAT'S NOT WHAT HE MEANT. XD Poor guy had already taken off his shirt when she came in, he totally can't sleep now. He just grabs his shirt, puts it on, and sits at her bedside until she wakes up in the morning and they talk more about this issue. She surprise hugs him again but lets go before he can hug back. -Old Madame and co. say the family argument is resolved since Jiuling came back. They give up the official silver (and last ties) to the Imperial family. They're super relieved. Old Madame is especially relieved because she no longer has to worry about her family dying to defend this Imperial silver. -Zhu Zan... are you going to be a highwayman to snatch this silver? Turning into a real bandit, pfffft -yup, he robbed the escorts with his woodcutter bros... ROFL -Imperial no-good family (Emperor & Empress) wanted to kill off Fang family after this transaction done. Mostly Empress, she's more ruthless than spineless Emperor. They're distracted by the robbery now. XD -Zhu Zan and co. doing some high-speed melting of the silver and plan to spend it, just like Emperor was going to. This time Zhu Zan hugs Jiuling before she can react and says 'Thank you.' Role reversal lol, now she's the one stunned. -All the sisters decide not to be married out, they'd rather keep working in the bank. (modern career women :3) -Zhu Zan and Jiuling are super cute, aaaaahhhhh. Now that Zhu Zan is calling her Jiuling (a lot), she's prickly and embarrassed. And he's super happy. Then they're both super happy and cutely hyper-aware of each other. <3 -LOOOOOOOOOOOOL. Zhu Zan tries to arrange for a nutritious meal for her but the food-deliverer thought it was for his wife recovering from a miscarriage. Then food-deliverer thought it was for pregnancy. XDDD -more cuteness as they get into argument about Princess Jiuling vs Jun Jiuling and which one he liked first, etc. Then suddenly Zhu Zan comes out with Jiuling eating her own vinegar (getting jealous of herself) and both turn red. I just want to smish them together, so cuteeeee~ -EVEN THE CONFESSION IS HILARIOUS. Zhu Zan straightforwardly says he likes her, but Jiuling answers with 'I don't know.' Zhu Zan wants her to take responsibility. XD -turns out it's because she believes that her affection for Lu Yunqi was false, and she doesn't really know how to love after her death as Princess Jiuling. Zhu Zan's all right with that and says he'll wait for her answer. -bad news breaks cuteness. Chengguogong about to get impeached for his actions during the war; he went against Emperor's orders and refused to withdraw his troops. He's made to resign. -she goes with Zhu Zan to Chengguogong. Their idea is to use her reputation to highlight the government's wrongdoings. She's going to the palace. Zhu Zan reminds her not to do anything stupid (like her last life's blind charge), they're cute and Dad is off to the side coughing and reminding them that there's someone else in the room. XD Zhu Zan is going to leave with his parents and escort them back home to the North. -D: Jiuling got captured by crazypants Lu Yunqi while in the palace. He has her in his dungeon. Nothing worse than maybe a grope, crazy talk, and sleeping at her side (no hanky-panky). Emperor... is truly a dirtbag. He's planning on slaughtering the Chengguogong family as they're leaving, but Zhu Zan gets a hint at the Emperor providing an 'escort.' He and his family are prepared, hidden soldiers and steel-plated carriage included. Now they're against the Emperor. -Yunzhao figures out what Lu Yunqi did and says that he did wrong. Hmmm... so she's actually fortunate to be caught by Lu Yunqi rather than the Emperor? Whut? -Lu Yunqi and Jinyiwei didn't get all weapons off her. One thing Jiuling's master taught her was how to hide weapons under her skin. She gets a needle out. -Zhu Zan and co. in action. Lots of clean-up. No news of Jiuling. Jiuling picked her lock but she's smart enough to know she can't get away, so she just walks around and keeps in shape. Think Lu Yunqi has his own agenda, he's not doing anything other than keeping Jiuling locked up and fed and telling her outside news. -a whole lot of war going on between Emperor and people against him like Chengguogong and I think the Jin people are there too -Jiuling finally gets Lu Yunqi with her needle (it's poisoned, short-term knockout). She meets Jiuli on the way out. Jiuling pulling out countless weapons stashed from her time as Princess Jiuling makes Jiuli realize her identity. She makes an ultimatum to Lu Yunqi to stop going after her or she'd kill herself. -ugh, Emperor ran away. Everyone's in a panic from Palace to commoners because it's like a reenactment of what happened ages ago with Emperor away and the Jin invading. Jiuling restores order with power of her reputation. -at least Yin Wang's not a coward. He's stopping being a comfortable prince and decides to take up arms and defend the city. -even cute little Huai Wang (Jiu) is stepping out into the public. He's even saying that the court didn't do a good job and he wants to help defend. T^T -Zhu Zan about to do some killing. He's not afraid of dying, but afraid of Jiuling dying. But then he tells himself Jiuling's not afraid of dying. LOL at his weird psychology. -okay, so I read MTL wrong when I skimmed the ending. Lu Yunqi's the one who wants to kill the Emperor. He sends Mr. Gu (Jiuling and Jiuli's old tutor) to send a message that she could go with Lu Yunqi. But Jiuling refuses, because to her that's just moving to another cage. -Qingshan army finally comes to reinforce the Capital -Yunzhao followed the Emperor but he's still plotting away in true black belly fashion -Huai Wang willing to be Prince --> to be Emperor, and this makes the Emperor steaming mad because he's still alive -oh wait, I got it wrong in MTL. It's 'Queen Mother' and not Empress. Queen Mother and Emperor colluding again. They want to kill Jiuling, but she got the maidservant who knows about her father getting murdered as witness. But ahhh, palace has hidden guards. Luckily her side is prepared too. Lu Yunqi pops up and saves her too. When she asks Lu Yunqi how her father died, he garrotes the Emperor as an example. Then he kills the Queen Mother. -Emperor is mostly dead, but Yunzhao says the Emperor can't die yet. Jiuling, er, 'saves' him in a sense -- she poisons him so he's alive but in immense pain and half-dead (he can't speak or move either). Yunzhao can only admire her for this 'not dead' move. But all Yunzhao needs is for the Emperor to stamp his seal on the Imperial writ for the successor. He makes the Emperor stamp it then stuffs it all into the Emperor's arms lol. Emperor faints. Yunzhao pretends to act grief-stricken and calls for people, leaving Jiuling standing there with complex feelings. XD -Lu Yunqi shoots himself with a crossbow bolt. :x -oh, so that's why. The scene is now staged so it looks like an internal fight between Lu Yunqi with his Jinyiwei and Yuan Bao (evil eunuch) with everyone else caught in the crossfire. -Jiuling is asked to heal the Emperor, but her reasoning is that paralysis is something handed down by the Heavens (they made it look like an inherited disease) so she can't do anything. -now Huai Wang is set up as Emperor for realz. -Chengyu faked his own death to bury the Deshangchan name (since it was set up by imperial powers). He wants to start a business anew (blacksmith? whut? I'm with Jiuling on this, it seems weird ahahaha). -Jing people retreated in a hurry because someone killed their Emperor. (...Zhu Zan, I'm guessing) -Jiuling asks Chengguogong about Zhu Zan since he didn't come back this time, he tells her it'll just take a while but he'll be back. He also notices that she asked about him rather than other things. AHAHAHAHA FATHER-IN-LAW KNOWS -Jiuling scares the bejeezus out of Queen Mother with her real identity, but Queen Mother's mouth is sealed shut by everyone who wants to maintain current state of things. Plus, Queen Mother will probably be taken as a crazy loony. -Lu Yunqi talks with Jiuling. Well, it's one-sided. Turns out he saw her father's death, but Qi Wang told him to shout only after he left. Jiuling doesn't say anything, she just treats him as a stranger and walks away. -palace is a super black place. Already Mr. Gu and the others are setting up counterbalances in case Huai Wang turns out like previous Emperor. -Yunzhao asks Jiuling if what's between her and Zhu Zan is really fake. She doesn't say anything, but I think he figured it out. Jiuling wants to go to the North, to the Jin border and help him. And yeah... seems like Zhu Zan really did infiltrate and kill the Jin Emperor. -Zhu Zan is living it rough while making his way back. His woodcutter bros are with him. He pauses to pick a snow lotus (herb) from a cliff because he thinks about bringing it back to Jiuling and how it'd make her happy. Then they hear some noises and there's a mini avalanche (I think?) and they think it might be Jin pursuers. But it's just Jiuling who pops up and seriously says that Zhu Zan has become ugly. XD He's indignant but he's totally moved because he hugs her back when she goes to him and thinks about holding her a few more times and getting practice so he's not so stiff. <3 -Master's wife and daughter visit his grave. Her daughter (by this time Jiuling has talked her around a bit) does a sword dance so he can 'see' how powerful she is. She's been cured by Jiuling too. She leaves the incense burning at his grave with the parting words that he's powerful, but Jiuling's even more powerful. Then it's just a snapshot of the grave and the incense. THE END <3 I really wish I could find fanfic for Zhu Zan/Jiuling
Welp, I think just reading the spoilers is enough for me. I have trouble reading through the author's way of, well, telling the story. I kinda cant connect with the characters. As if they're very detached. Especially the female MC. I tried. I seriously did just to understand and somehow see it in another perspective. After 100+ chapters, Yunzhao somehow developed, then Jinxiu. Well, basically, the supports develop characters first rather than the MC herself. I also couldnt stand Liu-er. I dont know. How Jiuling handles her is really...irresponsible and hypocritical. She talks about the Lin father not disciplining his daughter but Jiuling is just letting Liu-er go rampant with her blatant disrespect. Aside from that, there are so many words going on most of the time, it's so annoying. And what also irked me, why develop Yunzhao like this if he's not the ML? Seriously. So much for breaking my heart, author. Also there was a foreshadowing about the ML, his appearance took too long.
To each their own I guess. XD I really love this novel. Maybe it doesn’t come across so well in translation, but in Chinese, this novel is very beautifully subtle. Hardly anything’s told to you straight-up and it does a wonderful job of building up the mystery and tension (esp with royal intrigue and war). At the same time, you can make the same deductions as the characters if you pay enough attention. I actually liked that aspect of character building lol. They’re all 3D rather than 2D characters this way. And in my opinion, Jiuling becomes a much more relatable character when she interacts with Zhu Zan. It’s like she’s behind her court mask all the time and only pulls it off for him. As for Zhu Zan taking too long to show up for the face-to-face meeting... Love in this story is like fate. It’s about two people being connected even if they might not see each other and being brought inexplicably together again and again.
Thank you for the spoilers~ I'll be skipping this one. It's too dry for me. I was never into detective drama either, so me and this novel weren't meant to be. Pity, since qidian doesn't have many female MC novels translated. The ones they picked just happen to be the dry type that I can't force myself to like, although the one with the gaming is at least more interesting plot-wise. Well, it's all up to personal taste, so I can't say much on that topic.
True, to each it's own. Though I'm very thankful for the spoiler. It saved me time. Maybe I'm just too used reading The Rebirth of The Malicious Empress. She's also cool, smart, and devious but she isnt detached.
Did LYQ involve in her death? Since she finds out the her husband loves her, why doesn't she come back to him?
LYQ wasn't involved in her death, but he was one of leading causes of her father's death. At the end, in a flashback/reveal, we see that he actually saw her father being murdered and did nothing about it even though he's part of the bodyguard. We can assume that his price for having Jiuling was to support the current Emperor who killed Jiuling's father. Also, Jiuling never really loved LYQ. It's all in the context. She had fuzzy feelings for him, sure, since she tried to make the arranged marriage work. But beyond that, no. Even less after she found out his role in her father's death.
Nah, it's very clear from the start who the real ML is. The setup is just slow, since the author does a VERY good job of fleshing out characters. You end up caring about all of them lol, which makes the ending bittersweet even if you know what the end pairing is and ship it.
He figured it out because he's a stalker like that. Also, the level of LYQ's craziness is so extreme that he went around collecting scores of concubines with her features. Before he really knew it was her, he just wanted her for this concubine collection since she was similar to 'Jiuling' in some way.