Now that Lu Yuan had answered all three of Shen Buyan's questions, he was ready to leave.
"You're too vague with your answers—I'd rather go find them myself," Shen Buyan told Lu Yuan, expressing his intent to leave.
"Go," Lu Yuan replied, her voice trembling slightly.
The look in her eyes as she watched Shen Buyan's departing figure made Nishimura Rie feel an odd ache in her chest.
Because it looked exactly like someone saying goodbye to a lover they would never meet again.
"No way…" Nishimura Rie wasn't completely familiar with the setup of this drama.
But the emotions conveyed by the actors left nothing unclear.
Lu Yuan was genuinely treating this scene as her last farewell with Shen Buyan.
That's why she looked so unwilling to let him go.
What made Nishimura Rie feel even worse was how Shen Buyan, who had already walked more than ten meters away, suddenly turned back and looked at Lu Yuan.
"I'm really leaving."
"Mm." Lu Yuan's pupils remained locked on him.
"If I leave, I'm not coming back!" Shen Buyan said again.
"I know."
Though Lu Yuan's face was turned from the audience, Nishimura Rie could hear it—her voice was on the verge of breaking into sobs.
Nishimura Rie's chest tightened further.
Then, Shen Buyan stopped hesitating. He turned and left decisively.
Tears finally overflowed from Lu Yuan's eyes, sliding silently down her cheeks.
Something about this drama felt… off.
Alarms began going off in Nishimura Rie's mind.
The first episode was filled with mysteries—Shen Buyan's unexplained time travel, Lu Yuan's secrets, the shattered jade mystery, and even that elderly woman who sold the shattered jade. She felt fishy, too.
These plot points were all clear setups for future reveals, so Nishimura Rie couldn't quite piece the logic together yet.
But one thing was certain—the emotions were real.
Even if she didn't fully understand the plot, the scene of Lu Yuan crying as she watched Shen Buyan walk away nearly brought Nishimura Rie to tears herself.
She'd thought Gu Qingyuan's performance as Yukishiro Tomoe in 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal' was already peak-level.
But how was her acting even better in this second drama?
And the heavy, sorrowful tone… was this another emotionally devastating show?
That's when Nishimura Rie suddenly recalled the title of this episode.
Episode 14: This Is the First Episode!
This was the first episode of the drama, but screenwriter Su Yan had deliberately titled it that. Was there some deeper meaning?
Sure enough, this year's autumn season—starting October 1—did include exactly fourteen Mondays.
Nishimura Rie felt like she'd grasped something, but just as she was about to think more deeply, the show pulled her back into the next scene.
Shen Buyan, wearing his cracked mask, wandered the streets under curfew.
It was only then that he remembered what Lu Yuan had said earlier—the Shangsi Festival of March 3rd, Year 15 of Yuanqi.
Thanks to his deep research into the Xia Nation's Sheng dynasty history (for writing novels), he instantly recognized the date.
It was the day recorded in historical texts when Prime Minister Li Yong was allegedly framed by Lu Yuan.
True to his setup as a righteous man, Shen Buyan rushed toward the eastern gate, where history claimed Lu Yuan led a military ambush on Li Yong.
On the other side, Lu Yuan had already predicted Li Yong's escape attempt—along with classified military documents and maps of all the Sheng dynasty's fortresses.
And somehow, she'd already deployed the city's garrison to intercept him at the eastern gate.
Another case of eerie foresight.
How did she know everything?
The next sequence flowed more smoothly.
Shen Buyan, who arrived early, witnessed Li Yong's secret conversation with enemy spies, as well as Li Yong personally killing the gate commander.
In that moment, Shen Buyan's view of the "virtuous prime minister" was completely shattered.
Just as Li Yong was preparing to leave, Lu Yuan arrived with her forces.
However, Li Yong had already captured Lu Yuan's adopted son as a hostage, threatening to kill him unless she opened the gate.
From the shadows, Shen Buyan—seeing that events weren't matching up with historical records—stepped forward, driven by both suspicion and his sense of justice, and stopped Li Yong from harming Chu Tongshang.
It felt like a sudden move…
But from Su Yan's perspective, if a modern Chinese person were to travel back to ancient times and see Emperor Qin Shi Huang in danger, they'd definitely try to save him.
The logic held. Let any other emperor die—just not Qin Shi Huang.
In 'An Ancient Love Song', Chu Tongshang, Lu Yuan's adopted son, would eventually become the one who unified the Nine Nations.
Even though the show was set in an alternate history, Nishimura Rie understood the symbolism and ultimately accepted Shen Buyan's actions.
The first episode ended with Shen Buyan's mask being knocked off by Li Yong's subordinate.
Both Li Yong and the enemy spy chief looked stunned the moment they saw his face.
"It's you?!"
The ending theme played.
Nishimura Rie had been completely absorbed—now, she was baffled.
That's it?
So what exactly is going on with the male lead? Why is it that he's time-traveled back one or two thousand years, and yet everyone he meets seems to already know him?
By this point, Nishimura Rie's brain hurt from all the setups.
But as she calmed down and thought it over—
"...It's good." She let out a long breath, acknowledging the quality of the first episode.
Whether it was Lu Yuan's unexplainable attachment to Shen Buyan...
Or Shen Buyan's unexplained time-travel...
Or Li Yong's rage-filled recognition of Shen Buyan...
Everything was just so gripping.
She glanced at the time—it was late.
Before 'An Ancient Love Song' started airing, Nishimura Rie had been tired. Now, she was wide awake.
She powered on her laptop, logged onto SakuraNet, and headed to the show's official page.
Sure enough, the 'Rurouni Kenshin' fans and casual viewers were already arguing in the comments section.
"So Lu Yuan already knew the protagonist, right?"
"Yi Hua knows him, too. So does Li Yong. Even the leader of the enemy spies knows Shen Buyan. Yet the protagonist doesn't recognize any of them? What the heck?"
"It's kind of a mind-bender. I don't get the logic, but I do think it's a good show."
"Am I allowed to say I cried? Lu Yuan's acting was insane. When she dipped the willow branch in dew and handed it to Shen Buyan, so hopefully, and he just replied, 'It's meaningless'... that crushed me."
"Crushed? I couldn't even follow what was going on! I think I need to watch it a few more times."
"Way too many setups in Episode 1. It'll hurt casual viewing. But you can tell—Lu Yuan likes Shen Buyan. She even went to enjoy the Shangsi Festival with him before arresting Li Yong. That means Shen Buyan was more important to her than a traitorous prime minister. Now we just have to wait for Episode 2 to start explaining why Shen Buyan is such a well-known figure in the past."
"Is this going to be another depressing drama like 'Rurouni Kenshin'?"
"Doesn't seem like it."
"What do you mean? Didn't the background say Lu Yuan was killed by her adopted son, Chu Tongshang, after he took power?"
"The history books also said Li Yong was a 'virtuous prime minister'. All that stuff is just there to mislead the audience. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the story ends with Lu Yuan time-traveling to the modern world and falling in love with Shen Buyan. If he can travel back, she can come forward, right?"
"Give it up. You think Teacher Su Yan is that easy to predict? Who could've guessed that Tomoe would die in 'Rurouni Kenshin'? I have a feeling this show's going to deliver something far beyond expectations."
"It's only the first episode. What can you even tell?"
"No, seriously. A great drama doesn't need to explain everything in the beginning. I couldn't even blink while watching. And I've been a drama fan for over 20 years. If a show can do that to me in Episode 1? It's going to perform well."
"Such a cliffhanger... Ugh, it hurts."
The next day at noon, the average viewership rating for the first episode of 'An Ancient Love Song' was released.
1.38%.
When Su Yan heard the number on set, he simply nodded.
He hadn't expected the first episode to explode in popularity or receive glowing reviews.
After all, Episode 1 was just planting seeds. The remaining thirteen episodes were dedicated to digging them up and filling in the blanks.
Too many mysteries meant the first episode would inevitably take a hit in pacing.
For Su Yan, as long as there wasn't a wave of negative reviews, he considered this a success.
The real breakout would have to come from word-of-mouth in the following episodes.
Meanwhile, over on the 'Night Sakura' production team, Kiyota Sanji also took a moment to glance at the ratings.
"1.38%? Heh. Genius screenwriter, huh? Sure, keep hyping. In this time slot, even a god would only get that."
Kiyota Sanji looked quite satisfied.
In the Sunday midnight slot of Sakura TV over the past two years, a 1.38% premiere was considered mid-to-upper tier.
But in the larger autumn drama market, a show sitting at just over 1% didn't even register as relevant.
With October 1 marking the official start of the Xia Nation's autumn TV season, just between Monday and Thursday, there were already eight dramas on the Big Three networks that exceeded 2% ratings.
Even among non-Big Three, there were eleven more dramas with over 1%.
But none of that was the main course.
Starting Friday, the real contenders—the Class B and Class A dramas—would begin to air.
These were the ones expected to battle it out for the season's Top 10 rankings.
And in that lineup, 'An Ancient Love Song' was basically invisible—aside from some 'Rurouni Kenshin' fans and the curious midnight viewers, no one was paying attention to it.
Not even TV stations or media outlets considered it worth covering.