Episode Summary
Pressured by a drugging incident orchestrated by Zhuang Hui, Xiu Ju and Shen Yanzhou spend the night together. Her husband, Shen Yanqing, discovers them and, to save the family's reputation, fakes their deaths. He secretly helps them escape to start a new life, where Xiu Ju discovers she is pregnant. Meanwhile, Shen Yanqing is confronted with his own infertility. The clan elders learn the truth about the couple's survival and pressure him to adopt their unborn child to secure the family line, leading him to their new home.
Spoiler Alert
Girls Fighting Fate E22: A Feigned Tragedy and a Painful Truth
The tangled web of the Shen family grows more complex as a night of passion, driven by a misguided plot, sets off a chain of devastating events. After being drugged by Zhuang Hui in a desperate attempt to secure an heir, Xiu Ju ends up with Shen Yanzhou. The next morning, they are discovered by his older brother and her husband, Shen Yanqing. Enraged by what he sees as a betrayal of trust, Shen Yanqing reminds his brother that as long as they are married, Xiu Ju is his sister-in-law. He has them both locked away.
Zhuang Hui, filled with remorse, confesses her scheme to Shen Yanqing. She admits she drugged Xiu Ju but insists she never intended for Shen Yanzhou to be the one to enter the room. Despite learning the truth, Shen Yanqing feels his hand is forced by the need to preserve his family's honor. He storms into the room where Xiu Ju and Shen Yanzhou are held, raises a pistol, and fires. The Shen family promptly announces that the two were tragically killed by bandits, a story that leaves Liu Ruyan stunned by Shen Yanqing's apparent cruelty.
However, the gunshots were a ruse. In an act of concealed mercy, Shen Yanqing faked their deaths, secretly sending them away to start a new life together. Far from the family's drama, Xiu Ju and Shen Yanzhou find happiness. Their joy multiplies when Xiu Ju reveals she is pregnant.
The peace is short-lived as secrets unravel back home. Liu Ruyan confronts Shen Yanqing with a medical certificate revealing he has aspermia, a fact confirmed by Lao Zhou's own investigation. For revenge, she distributes copies of the diagnosis to the clan elders. Just as Shen Yanqing faces this personal devastation, the elders approach him with a startling proposition. Having learned that Xiu Ju and Shen Yanzhou are alive and expecting a child, they demand that Shen Yanqing adopt the baby to solve the family's succession crisis. Shen Yanqing refuses, unwilling to destroy the happiness he just granted them, but finds himself cornered and pressured by his own family once again.
Meanwhile, other schemes are in motion. Han Shijie takes his revenge on Liu Ruyan by having her sold to a brothel. He then attempts to manipulate the powerful Master Jin by falsely claiming to have found his long-lost daughter, who Master Jin had entrusted to the Han family years ago with a unique twin-jade chrysanthemum pendant. The episode closes as Shen Yanqing and Lao Zhou arrive at the new, peaceful home of Shen Yanzhou and Xiu Ju, interrupting a tender moment as the couple listens to their unborn child's movements.
