Where the Mask Ends episode 23 recap: A mask, a night raid and Hong Xian rescued

In short

Wei Shu refuses to give Hong Xian back, so A Chou tricks Lu Zhuo into a decoy raid, storms the crown prince's house in a mask, frees Hong Xian and leaves the crown prince maimed. Lu Zhuo hides the wounded A Chou in his own bed.

What happens in episode 23

A Chou finds an excuse to tour the crown prince's house. A Man slips away and finds a heavily guarded courtyard called Suochun. When A Chou insists on looking inside, Wei Shu blocks her. A Chou asks her to let Hong Xian go. Instead Wei Shu brings out Jin Chang, the Wei family steward who once got A Chou out of a death-row cell, and makes it clear: look away, or your past comes out. Behind the door, Hong Xian hears her sister but can't call out, so she bangs her head against it. With everyone watching, A Chou has to leave without her, and Wei Shu orders Hong Xian cleaned up and sent to the crown prince.

A Chou sits alone for hours in the poor little courtyard where she grew up. Lu Zhuo finds her there. She asks whether he or Qi Zhongkai would ever have looked at her if she were still carrying night soil. He answers with a question she can't answer. Then she plays helpless: Jin Chang knows she was a condemned prisoner. Lu Zhuo offers to get rid of him, knowing full well she is using him.

That night A Chou picks men from her Zhuyu estate. She tells Lu Zhuo that Jin Chang is held at the crown prince's villa in the east of the city, and he and Qi Zhongkai wait there. Only when a lookout reports that A Chou has gone out with her own men does Lu Zhuo realize he's been tricked. He raids the villa anyway. Masked, he and Qi Zhongkai free everyone held there, but Jin Chang isn't among them.

At the same time, A Chou and her men storm the crown prince's house and kill his guards. Jin Chang cuts her near the right collarbone, and Wei Shu, hiding behind a rockery, sees all of it. A Chou bursts in on the crown prince as he is assaulting Hong Xian. She takes off her mask, Hong Xian runs into her arms, and A Chou wraps her in her fox-fur cloak. Her men free all the kidnapped girls, and A Chou maims the crown prince herself so he can never father a child. Her man Xiao takes Hong Xian away while A Chou hides from the Northern Army's citywide search.

Lu Zhuo finds her and brings her, wounded, back to the Duke's house. Li Wei, a Northern Army officer tipped off by Wei Shu that the attacker is injured, forces his way into Lu Zhuo's room and finds the Wengzhu of Wu'an in his bed. The two put on such a show that Li Wei gets a tongue-lashing, doesn't dare check her for wounds and moves on. A Chou apologizes and Lu Zhuo softens, until he learns she went in expecting not to come back. He walks out angry.

Why it matters

A Chou has now maimed the heir to the throne, and Wei Shu saw her do it. The rescue puts Lu Zhuo and A Chou on the same side of a crime, which ties him to her more than any promise.

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