LayarHijau — The drama Where the Mask Ends (嫁金钗) is adapted from the novel Jia Jin Chai by Xiao Jiaren. The drama, which stars Tian Xiwei and Yan An, tells a different story from the novel.
As LayarHijau reported earlier, the novel follows the marriage of Wei Rao and Lu Zhuo. In the novel, there is only one Wei Rao, a noblewoman with a bad reputation. In the drama, however, Wei Rao was switched as a child and grew up as a girl in a poor family who called her A Chou. Her place was taken by a girl who looks like her, who was named Jun Dai by her aunt.
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Spoiler warning and disclaimer: the explanation below contains details of the novel’s ending. If you haven’t read the novel and don’t want any spoilers, we suggest you stop reading here. The main story of the novel and the drama differ greatly, including the names of some characters and kingdoms. As a result, the ending of the novel may also differ from the ending of the drama.
In the novel, Lu Zhuo is assigned to guard the border region of the Kingdom of Daqi. Wei Rao naturally goes along to live at the border with her husband, and there she gives birth to a daughter she names A Bao.
When A Bao is one year old, the kingdoms of Western Qiang and Wuda invade at the same time. The border city guarded by Lu Zhuo is attacked by Western Qiang forces, while Wuda attacks from a different direction.
Although outnumbered, Lu Zhuo manages to hold the territory he is tasked with defending until reinforcements arrive from his grandfather and other generals sent from the capital. Together, they drive Western Qiang back. After news of the victory reaches the capital, the emperor orders Lu Zhuo and his grandfather to help the region under attack by Wuda.
Han Liao and his father, Marquis Xiting, along with their troops, also join the fight against Wuda. As it turns out, the Han family has long conspired with Wuda, and this time they set a trap for Lu Zhuo, using his younger cousin, Lu Ya, as bait.
The plan succeeds. Lu Ya, who wants to prove himself, ignores his subordinates’ warnings and leads a scouting party, only to fall into an enemy encirclement. Lu Zhuo leads his troops to break through the encirclement to save his cousin.
He realizes that the situation is a Wuda scheme to trap him, but he cannot bear to let his cousin die. He sacrifices himself to draw in the Wuda forces so that Lu Ya can escape.
Wei Rao initially intends to follow her daughter, who was evacuated to the capital earlier. But out of worry for her husband, she decides to go to the border city under attack by Wuda. When she arrives, her party hears the news that Lu Zhuo was killed in the fighting.
Wei Rao cannot accept the news and is convinced that Lu Zhuo is still alive. She leads 500 elite troops she trained to the battlefield to look for her husband.
To cut a long story short, Wei Rao finds Lu Ya, who is being chased by Wuda troops, and hears directly from him what happened on the battlefield. They believe Lu Zhuo really is dead, but Wei Rao is suspicious of the cause of his death, especially the involvement of Marquis Xiting and Han Liao.
While rescuing Lu Ya, Daqi forces capture hundreds of Wuda soldiers. Suspicious of the Han family’s involvement, Wei Rao wants to take the prisoners to the capital for interrogation. But she gives the excuse that she wants to execute them to appease the spirit of her husband and the soldiers who fell in battle.
While inspecting the prison, Wei Rao accidentally overhears one of the prisoners talking with his subordinates in the Wuda language. Lu Zhuo had previously taught Wei Rao to speak the language, so she understands the conversation and learns that the prisoner is a Wuda prince. No one else knows his identity.
A Wuda general who is conspiring with the Han family then sends an envoy to the Daqi camp under the pretext of discussing a peace agreement. Secretly, the envoy carries a message asking the Han family to rescue the prince. Otherwise, Wuda will expose the secret that the Han family conspired with them to trap and kill Lu Zhuo.
Fortunately, the envoy’s party is intercepted by Wei Rao’s troops. After the party is searched, the secret message is found, and Wei Rao obtains proof that her husband’s death was the result of the Han family’s betrayal.
With a clever trick, Wei Rao manages to trap Marquis Xiting and Han Liao, then hands the secret message over to General Qin Min, one of the senior generals in the party.
When the Daqi forces return to the capital carrying Lu Zhuo’s “body,” the emperor orders nine generations of the Han family executed. Wei Rao, her daughter, her mother-in-law, and Lu Ya receive titles as rewards, as does the late Lu Zhuo.
Two years later, Wei Rao decides to move out of the Lu family residence. Meanwhile, deep in Wuda territory, Lu Zhuo, who was believed dead, turns out to be alive. He fell into a coma after falling from the edge of a cliff and was saved by a Wuda soldier. The soldier had once received kindness from Lu Zhuo and Wei Rao: thanks to money from Lu Zhuo, he was able to take his young, sick daughter for treatment.
To repay the debt, the soldier swapped Lu Zhuo’s armor with that of another soldier who had already died, took him home, and claimed that Lu Zhuo was another soldier he was caring for.
After waking from the coma, Lu Zhuo finds that he is paralyzed. In another surprise, his father, Lu Mu, who was thought to have died 20 years earlier, turns out to be alive. He is a prisoner in a remote place not far from where Lu Zhuo is staying.
Fortunately, Lu Zhuo begins to recover and his legs can move again. He secretly practices walking and martial arts but keeps pretending to be paralyzed, using a wheelchair. After fully recovering, he fakes his own suicide by throwing his wheelchair into the middle of the sea. The family that rescued him grieves and mourns his passing.
Lu Zhuo then visits Lu Mu to confirm the identity of the old man whose legs are chained. Once he is sure, the two escape and try to return to the capital of Daqi.
Meanwhile, in the capital, Wei Rao decides to remarry after three years as a widow. The Lu family, who love her like their own granddaughter, support her decision.
Ordinary people who hear the news also have no objection. When she exposed the Han family’s betrayal, Wei Rao avenged the Lu family and the fallen soldiers. The emperor awarded her the title Princess Wu’an for her service.
Single young men in the capital also see this as an opportunity. In the novel, Wei Rao is known for her extraordinary beauty. Her mother is a consort of the emperor, and she now holds the title Princess Wu’an. Whoever manages to marry her will be exceptionally fortunate.
So every noble family with an eligible son sends marriage proposals to Wei Rao’s residence almost every day. The story that follows is full of comic moments, because A Bao, who is about four years old, accompanies her mother to meet every man who comes to propose. It turns out A Bao wants to find a new father so she can have a father like other children.
When Lu Zhuo and his father make it back to the capital, the news that greets him is that his wife has moved out and, over the past few months, has been meeting young men who want to marry her.
Meanwhile, Wei Rao is stunned when one of Lu Zhuo’s trusted subordinates comes to tell her that her husband is in fact still alive but had to hide for three years because he was paralyzed. Lu Zhuo is angry and disappointed that his wife decided to move on with her life. Wei Rao, for her part, suspects that Lu Zhuo would not take her back if he knew what had happened over the past few months.
In the end, the two decide to keep their distance, until Lu Zhuo decides, for the second time, to pursue his wife again. The novel itself closes with a side story set when the emperor was young.
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