Lim Ji-yeon has opened the door to her life as a young lady with her first victory.

In the third episode of JTBC‘s Saturday-Sunday drama ‘Lady Ok’s Story’ (written by Park Ji-sook, directed by Jin Hyeok and Choi Bo-yoon) that aired on the 8th, the courageous actions of the fake Ok Tae-young (played by Lim Ji-yeon) who used her own strength to protect her precious family members and even created new relationships were excitingly displayed. The viewership ratings recorded 8.1% in the metropolitan area and 7.8% nationwide, breaking its own highest viewership ratings. It also rose to a peak of 8.9% per minute in the metropolitan area. (Based on Nielsen Korea‘s paid households)

The fake Ok Tae-young, who took off her skirt in front of everyone to protect those she was supposed to protect, reported the Baek family, suspected of being behind the killing of Baek-yi (played by Yoon Seo-ah), for murder. However, the situation became difficult when Maxim (played by Kim Jae-hwa) was taken away due to the counter-tactic of Baek Byeol-gam’s family who hired a foreign branch office, and to make matters worse, Oh Ja-in, who confessed to being bribed by Baek Byeol-gam‘s family, committed suicide the previous night.

Accordingly, Ok Tae-young visited Baek Byeol-gam’s family in person and engaged in a war of nerves with Song‘s wife (played by Jeon Ik-ryeong), and talked to Baek Do-gwang (played by Kim Sun-bin), who seemed to have a relationship with Baek-i, but could not find a good solution. In a situation where he had suspicions but no evidence, Ok Tae-young secretly climbed over the government office fence to find out how the investigation was progressing, but mistook government soldier Seong Yoon-gyeom (played by Chu Young-woo) for Cheon Seung-hui (played by Chu Young-woo), and committed an unintentional discourtesy.

However, in the process, Seong Yoon-gyeom found out that Ok Tae-young was the owner of the dead slave Baek-i who was being investigated by the government office, and later saved Ok Tae-young when he was being chased by slave hunters. Seong Yoon-gyeom was impressed by Ok Tae-young’s spirit, who not only climbed over the wall but also fought the slave hunters while swinging a sword. He advised Ok Tae-young to personally defend Mak-shim and began helping him by allowing him to read the law book at the government office.

In the meantime, the situation changed again when Baek Byeol-gam‘s slave Dol-seok (played by Lee Myeong-ro) came to visit Ok Tae-young. Mrs. Song, who could not stand to see her son Baek Do-gwang in love with a slave, ordered Dol-seok to rape Baek-yi in front of Baek Do-gwang. But during this process, when Baek-yi dies unintentionally during a fight, things get worse, and Dol-seok, who thought that he would die soon anyway, confessed this to Ok Tae-young and apologized.


Furthermore, Ok Tae-young heard from Dol-seok that Baek-yi also called Baek Do-kwang his ‘lover’, and went to see Baek Do-kwang and told him this, shaking his heart. Eventually, after the investigation was over and everyone gathered at the government office, Ok Tae-young stood up to the Baek family and proudly recited the law and defended Mak-shim. However, when Ok Tae-young declared that he would receive the death penalty in Mak-shim’s place after they were acquitted and received 10 lashes, Baek Do-kwang could no longer stand it and falsely confessed that he killed Baek-yi, and both Ok Tae-young and Mak-shim were released safely.

In the meantime, as the drought continued and the royal decree was issued to marry off the children of the noble families, the noble families of Cheongsu County also began to look for spouses for their children. While pretending to seek coexistence with Yu Hyang-so, the county magistrate Seong Gyu-jin (played by Seong Dong-il) secretly had his eye on Ok Tae-young as a daughter-in-law, and showed his frustration at Seong Yoon-gyeom, who only recommended Ok Tae-young as a foreigner and did not mention her as a marriage partner.

However, Mrs. Han (played by Kim Mi-sook), who came down urgently from Hanyang, surprised everyone by handing Ok Tae-young a marriage proposal she received from the county magistrate‘s family. However, Ok Tae-young was unable to easily accept the proposal for fear that her true identity would be discovered after the wedding, and the moment she was about to confess this to Sung Yoon-gyeom, she encountered Kim So-hye (played by Ha Yu-ri), her former master during her slave days, in the marketplace, and dark clouds began to hang over Ok Tae-young’s future once again.

Hong Se-young, Donga.com Reporter projecthong@donga.com