American Perspectives: Ma Zhaixing's Father Assassinated ("The Wolf" Ep. 4)

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This is a potential "nail in the coffin" moment, as we know Ma Zhaixing has a very close relationship with her father.  In episode 4, The Emperor of Yang orders Prince Bo and his fellow assassins to wipe out everyone at the Ma Manor, except for Ma Zhaixing.  She is to return to the palace with Prince Bo.

Zhaixing does not know about any of this, and she hasn't really encountered Prince Bo (yet).  All she knows is that her family has been assassinated, and Prince Bo seems to be her rescuer (he isn't).

This also kicks off Zhaixing's suspicions that Prince Bo is Wolf Boy, even though he passionately denies it.

So, this is an interesting plot point.  He kills Ma Zhaixing's family, but whether or not he wanted to gets a bit complicated.  On the one hand, he hates the Zhaixing family.  Ma Zhaixing's brother was responsible for the annihilation of his wolf family.  He thinks Ma Zhaixing betrayed him by giving her brother the bell that lured him into a trap.  Based on the misunderstanding, he absolutely did want to annihilate the Ma Family.

However, his misunderstanding and hatred was very much exploited by the Emperor of Yang.  He saw it as a means to arrange the political playing field in his favor, removing anyone who may even be so much as a whisper of a threat to his authority.

So the relationship that Prince Bo and Ma Zhaixing are destined to have, is already riddled with bad karma.  That's also why, as the episodes progress, the ups and downs between them are so intense.  Prince Bo is contending with this dark secret that he murdered Ma Zhaixing's father.  When Ma Zhaixing finds out the truth later on, it gets really, really ugly.  (And that is a huge understatement).