Chun Chun is a hoot to watch. Such a witty and sharp female character that I could watch all day. Definitely a challenging role to play with Kristal’s recent confession about memorizing the scripts during her sleep because her lines come in paragraphs. Ha. Kristal is fabulous in this role, her every gesture, expression, and behavior are in sync to bring out the whole of Chun Chun. Is it weird that I find her cute in every scene? So it’s not surprising how I’m not the only one looking at her fondly.

Episode 5-9 Highlights:

We left episode 4 with three masked people. Yee Ming and his maid, and the third person being Chan Mung Kat (Lee Sing Cheung). Turns out, Chun Chun is indeed his biological daughter who ran away from home because she likes big cities and wants to pursue a career as a lawyer, just like her father. He’s here to bring her back to the countryside so she could marry a decent man. These two are adorable together. He scolds her for going as far as making a spiritual tablet for him and she explains that she has no choice. When he tries to forcefully drag her back, she stares at him and screams, “Help! There’s a rapist!” LOL This girl.

A new character in the house. Meet scholarly gentleman, Fan Kang (Jonathan Cheung). Do you guys remember him? He was the loyal and good-natured soldier in Three Kingdom RPG with Kenneth Ma! His name there was Fan Gun. heh. On his way to take the annual civil service exam, Fan Kang drops by Ching Sum Country to prepare for his big day in the capitol. There, he meets Chow Guk and she immediately grows fond of his gentle demeanor. Love sparks as they share a few moments under the rain. Our girl is all grown up.

Fan Kang stays at Sei Wai’s academy for a few days before moving to a separate place to focus on his studying. Every day, Guk would come by with food and verbal encouragement until the day he leaves. He promises to come back for her. I feel uneasy with this romance already because the speed is way too fast. But they’re cute together…

Back to courtly matters, Chun Chun finds herself accepting Absurd King’s bet again, but she chooses Yee Ming to be her opponent. This time it’s a murder case with no witness but a blind man, Mr. Kuk, who plays the erhu during the man’s assassination. The two suspects are Law Yau Loi and Pang Cheong. Each side will pick one suspect to defend and if Chun Chun wins, she gets Absurd King’s mansion and personal chef. However, if Absurd King wins the case, she’ll become his second mistress! Gah, the old perverted Poon!

Of course, the person who absolutely detests this bet is Hau Mo, whose deceased father was involved in a similar scenario and Chan Mung Kat had framed him as the murder in the final verdict. However, his stand is quickly shaken when evidence of a muddy footprint shows up, pointing to Pang Cheong as the murder while Chun Chun luckily picked Law Yau Loi. Convinced that this is the only time she might save an innocent life, Hau Mo persuades Sei Wai to help her argue in court, since women aren’t allowed an audience.

Unfortunately, on the day of the court, instead of Yee Ming, it’s Fan Kang appearing as Sei Wai’s opponent. Absurd King introduces Fan Kang as his godson, Chan Mung Kat’s son, Chan Chit Chit. heh. That name cracks me up! Disproving the validity of the shoe print, Fan Kang points out that the muddy shoe print could be left by anyone in the brothel that night, including the murderer to confuse the detectives. Moreover, the size of the shoe print is common among men because a “grown-up man’s feet is more or less the same.” Seeing that they don’t have any other evidence, Chun Chun tries to stall time by suggesting the case be continued on another day.

At home, Chun Chun fumes, knowing that Fan Kang is not Chan Mung Kat’s son, or her brother for that matter.

But the heart-broken person is silly girl Kuk and she races to stop Fan Kang’s sedan chair, demanding that he offers an explanation for his absurd behavior. Smirking, he simply replies with: “I was bored. I needed someone to entertain me. If you’re still mad, I’ll pay you the fee the girls at Yee Heung Court charge to entertain their guests.” BURN. Kuk slaps him across the face and yet the jerk still has the face to smug. I wonder how many NGs they made for this scene because Johnathan has visible slapping marks!

While Fan Kang shares joyous drinks Absurd King, our pitiful young master, Yee Ming, is confined with his personal maid. Aww. These two. He reveals to her why he tries his best to listen to Dad’s demands: “That’s because I don’t want to upset him. Even when he calls me a fool and a loser, I still don’t mind, because I’m deaf. He doesn’t talk to me, but when he hits me, at least he still looks at me.” Poor boy.

Looks like the air of romance has started for another unlikely pair in Hau Mo and Chun Chun. While they investigate the possibility of someone climbing the wall into the deceased’s room, Chun Chun widens her eyes in awe at Hau Mo’s agility. When the night’s cold air breezes by, Hau Mo jumps in front of Chun Chun and shields her. haha. I know he doesn’t think much about the action but Chun Chun’s heart flutters briefly, followed by “You stink.” 😛

Later, they find out that Lady Heung (the soil collector lady) did see someone that night but she wasn’t able to see the face.

So Chun Chun asks Sei Wai to lie that it was Pang Cheong. He refuses to, declaring that he has never lied before. The next few scenes involve Chun Chun testing Sei Wai’s honesty and he indeed manages to be frank until an unexpected and silly situation arises where he lies to Sweetie Yuen, Ngan Yuen’s friend (Sei Wai’s beloved cow student).

In court, Sei Wai opens with a strong claim, lying and forcing Pang Cheong to admit that he did climb the wall that night. Under pressure, Pang Cheong cracks and confesses that he climbed the wall but he did not kill Master Wan. Hau Mo watches in horror while Chun Chun smiles gleefully at Sei Wai’s smooth questioning technique, as she calls it. Upset that his principled friend has changed under the first whiff of success, Hau Mo is afraid that Sei Wai will continue down the path as a deceptive laywer. “You just gained an upper hand in court today, and you’re already so elated. It’s hard to guarantee you won’t do this again.”

Now that the table has turned, Absurd King doesn’t treat Fan Kang so nicely, saving only crumbs and leftovers on the dining table. To gain back the favor, he’s out to observe the blind man and come up with a few plans to lure out the sneaky cat. Using a man’s weakness for beautiful women, Fan Kang successfully catches the blind erhu player sneaking a look at singer Hei Fung when she runs out of her room in her undergarments, a ruse setup by Fan Kang.

The fake blind man testifies in court in favor of Fan Kang, pointing to Law Yau Loi as the murderer. Unplanned, the case is adjourned when Sei Wai’s tooth falls out and Chun Chun rushes into the court to lie about his relapse of an acute illness. heh.

While Sei Wai and Hau Mo are swayed into believing that Law Yau Loi is the murderer, Chun Chun feels that something isn’t right. She continues her investigation and figures out that Mr. Wan’s wife has a lover – the blind man! She follows them and listens to their plan to elope after the case is over. But before she can drag them to the police station, a masked man, ordered by Absurd King, charges at the trio to kill the pair of adulterers.

Luckily, Hau Mo and his team have been following the blind man and he appears in time to catch Chun Chun in his arms. Although he’s caught verbally confirming the homicide, the blind man refuses to appear in court, still insisting that he isn’t the killer, but Sei Wai soon figures out how he murdered Mr. Wan without leaving a trace at the scene.

Sweet scene. Sei Wai stands up for Chun Chun when the whole town bets that she won’t win this case. She’s momentarily touched by his action.

While our duo basks in knowing the truth, they didn’t realize they were tailed by Fan Kang’s people and he’s able to whipped out the whole story to the official a second before Sei Wai. Everyone ohhhs and ahhs about his detective skills as he reveals that the removable knife is inserted on top of the erhu. Having no other excuses, the blind man exposes the steps leading to the homicide. He befriended Mrs. Wan after learning about her abusive relationship with Mr. Wan. Fed up by his frequent visits to Yee Heung Brothel, the blind man decides to take matters into his own hands, ending the misery that Mrs. Wan has to live in.

In the end, the case comes to a draw; Chun Chun doesn’t have to marry Absurd King but her pride feels belittled and she ends up intoxicated during their small celebration. Sei Wai puffs up his chest to muster up some strength in his upper body, but alas, he can’t carry her, so Hau Mo steps in and easily throws her over his shoulder like a potato sack. At home, Hau Mo volunteers to wipe her face and Sei Wai leaves reluctantly to tell the Confucius statue that he really doesn’t have any other motives.

On the other side of town (figuratively), Kuk can’t let go of her love for Fan Kang. She truly believes he’s a good-hearted man forced to do evil. She follows him around town and notices that he seems to visit places that they once visited. Night falls and she continues to tag behind him. He abruptly grabs a ladder to peak…at Chun Chun in the bath! WAHHHHHHHHHHH?? Kuk confronts him and he warns her to stop liking him because it will only cause her unnecessary pain.

The rashes on Chun Chun’s face are still there, probing Hau Mo to seek help from Lady Heung about some secret recipe. He takes Chun Chun to Lady Heung’s house and applies banana-honey paste onto her face. The close proximity and his gentle caresses render Chun Chun into a meek state, her eyes looking straight into his face, wondering about her heart.

Next morning, Chun Chun returns home to find Sei Wai preparing a bowl of medication and cream for her rashes. However, the smell chases her away and she bluntly directs him to throw them away. Sei Wai tries to hide the hurt but once she’s gone, he hangs his head dejectedly.

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Kap: The development is slow at this point, with one case taking 3 to 4 episodes to resolve. The writing will be tighter if the case is smartly wrapped up in 1 or 2, but I guess that isn’t the intention here because we’re following the newbies. In contrary, Absurd King had the whole murder figured out in the first trial. A case where intelligence is used for the wrong purpose. It shows that Chun Chun may not be on par with Absurd King for now, but she definitely has potential, so does Sei Wai. I also like that the case ended in a draw so that the strengths and weaknesses of both sides are shown to the viewer.

Now….Is it weird that I ship all the ships in this drama?!

I’m not sure how Sei Wai came to like Chun Chun. It seems abrupt and out of nowhere that he’s treating her nicely, not because he has to, but because he wants to. I wasn’t convinced of his crush but Roger’s shy smile and crest-fallen face got me good. She also brings out the confident and assertive side of him, which is nice to see because Roger gets to flex his acting muscle.

Now these two are soooo cute too! Hau Mo appears tough and strait-laced, so it’s natural that he doesn’t see his actions as romantic and swoon-worthy, which is doubly adorable when Chun Chun feels that way around him. This is the type of guy that unknowingly woo girls (amiright, ladies?) How I wish someone could clone Chun Chun for both men!

I think Tvb has a dark horse to groom in Jonathan Cheung. I absolutely loved him in Three Kingdom RPG because he carried the genuine and simpleton side of Fan Gun so well that I came to care about his character’s well-being, even though he was a minor character. He’s different a year later. Slimmer and taller? Haha. This time, he no longer has that unconditional goodness in his performance because Fan Kang is calculative and keen in his observation. I like him very much!

Though I’m confused about his heart. I do think he likes Kuk (who’s so fixated on him that it’s chafing) but actively shows his ugly side to destroy any ounce of leftover feelings. They look cute together….and when I see the possibility of Fred Cheng’s Do Wah as the third leg of the triangle, I immediately feel hopeless. Why must they toy with my heart. I’m weak!