Where the Mask Ends episode 18 recap: Divorced, and Han Liao on his knees

In short

A Chou and Lu Zhuo divorce, each pretending not to care. She settles her foster family, Han Liao starts courting her, and her cousin Wei Shu, now Princess Duan, appears.

What happens in episode 18

The Lu household splits over the divorce: some cousins are delighted, while Lu Zhuo's mother fears he'll die without the bride who 'saved' him. A Chou tells his aunt, loudly enough for Lu Zhuo to hear, that she never cared for him. He lets her go and adds the 10,000 gold dowry his grandmother once promised.

To protect her, Lu Zhuo claims he's the one who looks down on a wife raised among the poor. His mother slaps him. A Chou visits Jun Dai's grave outside the city, where Huo Jue buried her as 'cousin' because the Wei family wouldn't.

A Chou forgives her foster mother and sends her home to Shuzhou to recover, finds a teacher for clever Hong Xian, and sends Runsheng to be an apprentice. Lady Shou'an approves, but warns that a lone woman with this much wealth will soon be a target.

Han Liao shows up shirtless to beg forgiveness and offers to hold her stirrup. A Chou steps on his back to mount and calls him her groom, while he and Qi Zhongkai compete to lead her horse. Lu Zhuo watches from his carriage, jealous; she ends the show once he leaves.

Poor farmers from nearby counties flock to her estate. Back at the Wei house for her grandmother's illness, A Chou meets Wei Shu, Guo Yufeng's elder daughter and now Princess Duan, who scolds Wei Chan for insulting A Chou, tells her you must give something up to gain something, and drops a gold hairpin into the fire.

Why it matters

The divorce leaves A Chou rich and unprotected, just as Lady Shou'an predicts trouble.

Based on the episode synopsis, summarized in our own words: TVmao (电视猫) episode synopses, cited by Baidu Baike Baidu Baike: official synopsis, episode synopses, cast and 追剧日历