A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES
ADAPTED FROM TIANXIA GUIYUAN'S NOVEL HUANG QUAN
EPISODE 32
Why don't I see Prince of Chu, Ning Yi?
Prince of Chu, Ning Yi, stayed at Zongzheng Temple for eight years.
After he was released,
he helped His Majesty bring down treacherous officials.
He also eliminated the black sheep of the Chang family.
I should thank Prince of Chu.
Prince of Chu, Ning Yi, has arrived.
Ning Yi pays respect to Your Majesty.
Lord of Minhai.
Prince of Chu is here.
Ning Yi.
Shouldn't you pay respect to Lord of Minhai?
Your Majesty.
The one who's attending this party
is not Ning Yi, Prince of Chu,
but Ning Yi, the Head of Censorate.
The Censorate has a report.
Secretary.
Yes, Your Majesty.
Read it to me.
Yes, Your Majesty.
"Report from Lin Renqi.
Your Majesty.
I am very grateful to work for the palace.
I will do anything
to prevent evil from disrupting the peace of this empire.
I'm writing this today to list ten of the biggest crimes
committed by Lord of Minhai, Chang Yuan.
Please investigate them thoroughly.
First,
he used his connections to the Royal Family to gain power in the palace.
He profited from the kindness of Your Majesty."
That's a lie.
Father, please forgive me for overstepping my authority.
Lin Renqi has already been killed by the pirates.
Ning Yi.
Let me ask you.
Where did this report come from?
I can't bear to have Lord of Minhai's reputation be corrupted
and for Ning Yi
to be used by evil people to frame the loyal.
Father, please be discerning.
Ning Sheng has a point.
Ning Yi.
Where did you get this report?
Father.
I got this
from the person who killed Lin Renqi, Chen Shao, the pirate.
How can you believe
the evidence presented by a killer, Ning Yi?
Are you using this evidence to frame Lord of Minhai?
Father.
What Ning Yi is doing will disappoint all the loyal people in the world.
-Secretary. -Yes, Your Majesty.
Are you sure this report was written by Lin Renqi?
Your Majesty.
The handwriting
is indeed Officer Lin's.
This official stamp
is indeed the government's as well.
Lord of Minhai.
What can you say about this?
Your Majesty doesn't need to doubt.
I know that this report was indeed
written by Lin Renqi.
There's no doubt about it.
Uncle.
What do you mean?
Could it be
that you found out Lin Renqi wanted to report you
and couldn't tolerate him,
so you killed him?
They say, "Trusted aides are eliminated
when they have outlived their usefulness."
I originally thought
that I had ties of camaraderie with Your Majesty
since I fought together with you.
My old wounds still remain from that time.
Your Majesty...
can't tolerate me now.
Lord of Minhai.
Heaven and earth are the witnesses to our ties of camaraderie.
But just because I'm the Emperor,
how can I ignore a report from an official?
Your Majesty is the Emperor.
You're very perceptive and will enforce the law fairly.
I have a report.
It's regarding Investigatory Officer,
Lin Renqi.
Read it to me.
"Chang Yuan reports to His Majesty.
Investigatory Officer, Lin Renqi,
colluded with a pirate, Chen Shao, to oppress and exploit the citizens.
I discovered his wrongdoings.
Then Lin Renqi colluded with Chen Shao
to frame me.
Due to an unfair division of spoils,
he was killed by Chen Shao.
They say, 'There's no escape from the evil you bring upon yourself.'
Please investigate thoroughly, Your Majesty."
Lord of Minhai.
Do you recognize this letter?
Do you recognize...
the seal on it?
"To Chen Shao.
See you in three days.
Usual place.
Big business."
I shall ask Lord of Minhai.
What big business was it?
How much did you get from this big business?
How much was Lin Renqi's life to you?
Ning Yi.
Who signed the letter?
No one signed it.
There's only this seal.
The seal reads, "This world cannot be without this man."
Your Majesty.
You should be very familiar with this.
THIS WORLD CANNOT BE WITHOUT THIS MAN
Lord of Minhai is impudent.
How dare you use the seal I gave you
to collude with the pirates?
Lord of Minhai.
Do you know your crime?
Your Majesty.
I do.
Uncle.
Since this seal was given by Your Majesty,
I placed it at the worship hall
and didn't dare use it.
I never thought
it would be stolen by thieves.
I was negligent.
I admit to that crime.
Lord of Minhai.
You're Lord of Minhai!
You're so thick-skinned.
You dare give such a reason.
He's claiming it was lost
and turning his grave crime of killing a government official
into a misdemeanor for negligence.
You...
But is there a witness?
Yes, Your Highness!
The people of Minhai
are the witnesses.
Your Majesty.
This is
a petition from the people of Minhai.
It says
the people of Minhai
hope for the safe return of Lord of Minhai.
They beg His Majesty to punish and eliminate evil
in order to clean the name of the loyal.
Minhai...
Minhai is part of Tiansheng.
With this petition,
are you telling His Majesty
that Minhai is yours?
Prince of Chu.
Why would you say that?
His Majesty trusts me
to govern Minhai on his behalf.
How many years has it been?
I overcame the hardships and was loyal to my duty.
I never asked for any rewards.
I can't take on such a bad name!
Never mind.
You're both impudent.
Ning Yi.
Report to me again after you've investigated thoroughly.
Your Majesty.
I have a witness, Chen Shao.
Your Majesty,
please allow Chen Shao to come and confront Lord of Minhai!
Father.
We're in the inner Court of the palace.
How can a mere pirate leader come here, Father?
We all request Your Majesty
to allow Chen Shao to come for the sake of the people of Minhai.
-We request Your Majesty's permission. -We request Your Majesty's permission.
-Father. -Father!
Father!
-We request Your Majesty's permission. -We request Your Majesty's permission.
Father, please be discerning.
Let Chen Shao in.
Lord of Minhai.
Are you scared?
Criminal, Chen Shao, pays respect to Your Majesty.
Raise your head.
Are you the pirate who killed Lin Renqi?
Yes.
Do you know this person?
His Majesty is asking you a question.
When an ordinary citizen enters the palace,
he'll know what fear is.
Mother, why do you always wear this teeth bracelet?
It can let you come home safely.
Let me ask you again.
Do you recognize this old man?
Chen Shao.
Chen Shao!
I don't.
How dare you, Chen Shao.
According to Prince of Chu,
you claimed that Lord of Minhai asked you to kill Lin Renqi.
But now, you say you don't know him.
Were you talking nonsense
or is Prince of Chu purposely framing Lord of Minhai?
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
You're brave and smart.
I'm guilty. I'm very guilty.
But I can't die yet,
or the wrongful death of Officer Lin will never be made right.
The people of Minhai will live in torture forever.
I'm sure
you will not kill me hastily without the evidence.
I...
I spoke nonsense
and lied to Prince of Chu to save my life.
Why are you lying?
You're in front of His Majesty. That's a crime punishable by death.
I beg Your Majesty to punish me.
I committed a heinous crime.
I framed Lord of Minhai, Chang Yuan.
Please let me die!
You bold troublemaker!
You dare trick me!
-Take him out! -Father.
Father.
There must be something fishy.
Please let me investigate.
Investigate?
What else do you want to investigate?
Ning Yi, as the Head of the Censorate,
you were not discerning.
You let sycophants fool you and let criminals frame the loyal.
You let Lord of Minhai receive such insult!
Father.
I'm a lady and shouldn't interfere with government affairs.
But it seems I'm the only one who can say what everyone here doesn't dare to.
I just want to ask a question.
With Ning Yi's wisdom and talent,
how can he be fooled by a pirate?
I'm afraid someone asked Chen Shao to frame Lord of Minhai.
Father, Chen Shao cannot be killed. We have to investigate.
Prince of Chu is really a fool.
He believes
a pirate who kills and steals has a conscience.
How could there be such a fool in this world?
That's too absurd.
I beg Your Majesty
to condemn me to death.
Your Majesty!
Your Majesty.
If Chen Shao dies today,
wouldn't both Lord of Minhai and Prince of Chu
be castigated their whole life because of this?
I request Your Majesty's discernment.
What?
You want me to forgive this criminal who lied to me?
Your Majesty, for Lord of Minhai and Prince of Chu's sakes,
Chen Shao cannot be killed today.
Father.
Your Majesty.
Your Majesty doesn't need to bother with this Minhai citizen.
Let me handle it.
Father.
This started because of me.
Please let me
handle Chen Shao and investigate further.
Your Majesty, in my opinion,
we need to hand Chen Shao over to an unrelated party
for the sake of fairness.
In that case,
I'll hand Chen Shao over
to Ning Qi.
Thank you, Your Majesty.
Yes, Your Majesty.
Prince of Chu.
You're all grown up.
Chang Yuan pays respect to Noble Consort Chang.
Please stand, my brother.
Chang Yuan,
you and I haven't seen each other for years.
I was worried about you.
When I heard you were at the capital, I wanted to see you immediately.
I never thought His Majesty would interrogate you at the welcome party.
I was really nervous for you.
Thank you for your concern.
Since I dared to come,
I had already made preparations.
You are all dismissed.
I want to have a reunion with my brother.
Yes.
Chang Yuan.
What's this?
I think His Majesty
is quite disturbed by our family.
I prepared this just in case.
You don't need to know what it is though.
You can't take a peek.
If there's a need for it one day,
I'll let you know.
Keep it safe.
No one else can know about this.
That way, we can prevent any trouble.
I will remember your words.
Uncle.
Ning Sheng pays respect to Uncle.
I should be the one who pays respect to Prince of Yan.
Uncle, don't say that.
Chang Yuan.
We're family. Drop the formalities.
Come sit down.
-Please. -Uncle, please.
Chang Yuan.
We both need your advice on something.
Your concern
is exactly my concern as well.
With the Crown Prince's vacant throne,
there's no peace in the empire.
Uncle.
You're right.
Even though Ning Yi is in the Censorate,
I still don't believe that he has given up on being a crown prince.
And that Ning Qi seems honest,
but he's someone who acts in secret.
Those two people
are the stumbling blocks to me in getting the title of Crown Prince.
So I want to seek advice from you.
How can I be the only candidate for Crown Prince?
Chang Yuan.
I also think
that this is the best time to get the title of Crown Prince.
It seems we're safe from being inflicted with Chen Shao's case.
But have you ever thought about it, Chang Yuan?
If Minhai has another Li Shao or Wang Shao,
can you safely get away with it again?
Don't be impatient, Noble Consort.
Getting the title of Crown Prince is not something that can be accomplished
in a day or two.
Let me probe His Majesty's thoughts.
Then we'll know what to do.
But Uncle,
I'm afraid undue delay may bring trouble.
Your Highness.
Haste does not bring success.
Do you understand?
The former Crown Prince had Chang Hai beside him back then.
Don't you have
an army under you?
What do you mean, Uncle?
It's time for you to gain some experience.
One, two, three,
four, five.
Five jars?
How is that enough?
Your Highness.
It's not nice to drink alone.
Fine wine and good food need to be shared with friends.
Why are you drinking alone?
All right.
Go! Get all of the Prince's fine wine.
Headmaster Xin, you should stop him from drinking.
Why are you encouraging him instead?
Go get them. Why are you still here?
Yes, Your Highness.
This is good wine.
Your Highness.
Dahua is strict at home.
I couldn't even have a sip per month.
This wine is good.
You...
You came here to add insult to injury, right?
Chang Yuan
committed grave sins
and got away with it.
Ziyan, you're right.
I lost.
But I lost because His Majesty gave up.
Let's not talk about this, okay?
Let's just drink.
"Drink and sing, for who knows if life is short or long?"
There's no headmaster or prince in this place today.
Let's not talk about your father or that jerk Chang Yuan.
-Xin Ziyan. -All right? Let's just drink. Come on.
You came here to drink with me.
Yes, so we have to drink. Drinking wine is good.
You want to release your grievance and resentment by drinking
and wash away your sorrows to forget all your worries.
What if I want to forget everything?
Then I'll drink the night away with you.
What if I never get back on my feet?
Then I won't get my back on my feet either!
Let our dream about the regime
and the empire go to hell!
Let's drink.
Get more wine!
Your Highness, after one day and night of interrogations,
that Chen Shao only has this to say.
He lied to Prince of Chu and framed Lord of Minhai.
He did it by himself.
If we force him further, he will ask us to kill him.
That's fine.
If we really got anything out of him, that would be more troublesome.
We can't offend either Lord of Minhai
or Prince of Chu.
I really don't understand.
Why did His Majesty let you handle such a troublesome matter?
Let's just give Chen Shao what he wants.
Let him die and close the case.
I'm afraid someone would not agree to let him die.
Your Highness, bad news. I went to visit Mother at the palace
and met Prince of Chu.
Yijun, don't panic. Speak slowly.
What exactly happened?
I don't understand either.
Prince of Chu talked briefly with Mother before she cried.
By the way, they mentioned something about a perfume satchel.
And then?
What did Mother say?
She didn't say anything.
She just cried.
In the end, Prince of Chu couldn't do anything.
He just said something and left.
-What did he say? -He said,
"That perfume satchel
is probably already destroyed, but there's still a witness."
Li Cai.
To handle this weapon, your hands must be strong.
Otherwise, you'll hurt yourself.
Life is hard by the desert border.
His Highness wants you to live the rest of your life in peace.
I'll never forget His Highness' kindness.
I'm just afraid that I won't be able to repay him after this.
The desert is far away.
I can only send you off from here.
With this tea instead of wine, I wish you a safe journey.
Tea, please.
Coming.
Sorry.
Don't move.
Who are you?
Go.
-Let me go! -Go.
Let me go!
Tell your master this.
Prince of Chu is inviting him to an outing tomorrow in the mountains.
-Ning Qi pays respect to Ning Yi. -There's no need for courtesy.
Ning Qi.
Aren't you and I having an outing?
Why did you bring so many people?
I don't mean anything by it.
You can go.
Nice horses.
Ning Yi.
What is this?
Open it and you'll know.
Ning Qi, come here.
He killed someone.
He should be punished.
But since he was just acting on orders,
he doesn't deserve to die.
So I just
punished him a little.
That way, it can repay the life of Chen Shao's brother.
Also,
it can let you be at ease.
Thank you for your understanding.
However,
why did you do that?
It's a clear and refreshing autumn day. We're here for an outing.
Ning Yi.
Forgive me for being frank.
I heard that you went to see my mother.
Then you captured Li Cai
and returned him to me.
I really don't understand.
Please enlighten me.
Ning Qi.
If you killed Li Cai to protect yourself,
we wouldn't be meeting here,
but in Fengyun Palace.
Do you know why Father let you handle Chen Shao's case?
Does he want to use me
to kill Chen Shao?
We both know
whether or not Chen Shao
deserves to die.
Father knows that too.
The more important thing is Father also knows
that you know it too.
Do you understand?
I know it?
I still don't get it.
Uphold justice for the empire's sake,
not kill Chen Shao out of fear of those in power.
Or
willingly submit to Chang Yuan's abusive power
and ignore justice.
Let a royal prince
be a dog that follows the Chang family.
All of this lies in the decision you make.
Ning Qi.
I'll keep an eye on you.
Father will too.
Do you understand now?
Thank you for your advice.
I understand now.
Do you really understand?
I really do.
MOUNTAIN GATE
Your Highness.
It's good that you're safe.
Stand.
I am ashamed
to face Your Highness.
I know you must have your reasons.
Come home with me first.
Let's discuss this.
Stand.
Don't worry.
His Highness knows that Chang Yuan has something on you
and is threatening you.
He will find a way to help you with your dilemma.
Stand.
There's no need.
I won't trouble Your Highness due to my dilemma.
It's just that
I won't be able to repay
His Highness' kindness.
Please accept my bow of respect.
Chen Shao.
It's always been hard
for an ordinary citizen to oppose an official.
Even more so since you're a pirate who's up against a top official.
If you have the guts to do that,
why don't you have the guts to live on?
Regardless of who is threatening you,
you have to know that Chang Yuan is not a kind-hearted person.
If you go back to Minhai,
it might all be too late.
Why won't you treasure your life
and wait for the day to punish your enemy with the law?
Your Highness.
I...
I can't stay.
In the past few days,
I've seen what you did to bring Chang Yuan down.
I'm confident
that as long as you're here,
the Chang family will surely be eliminated.
Your Highness.
Please take care of yourself.
I'll also remember Your Highness' words
and strive hard to live on.
All right. Stand.
Minhai's Magistrate Liang in Jiyang is my good friend.
I'll write him an urgent letter and send it there immediately.
Perhaps he can help you.
I sincerely thank Your Highness.
Take care.
Your Majesty.
His Highness, Ning Qi, is here to see you.
Ning Qi pays respect to Your Majesty.
Father, Chen Shao has been executed.
I'm here to report my task completion.
You may rise.
Thank you, Father.
I asked you to handle Chen Shao's case
because you're the only one without a party
within the government officials and are not subject to their criticism.
Do you understand my intention?
Please forgive my slow-wittedness.
I believe Father is brilliant.
You have your way of handling things.
I just need to listen to your orders.
You've always been simple.
I feel at ease about that.
Chen Shao's case is closed.
Play polo with your brothers and me tomorrow.
Let me see your moves then.
Thank you, Father.
I'll take my leave.
-Zhao Yuan. -Yes.
Why is Prince of Chu not here yet?
He's the only one who's late.
Father.
Maybe Ning Yi has other official matters.
Father.
I don't think we need to wait for him.
A while ago, he failed in impeaching Lord of Minhai.
He has been down about it.
I'm afraid he's too ashamed to come.
All right.
You two go first.
Best of three shots.
Let me see your skills.
-Yes, Your Majesty. -Yes, Your Majesty.
Wu Ying from Residence of Prince of Chu pays respect to Your Majesty.
Is Prince of Chu here?
Your Majesty.
Prince of Chu had too many oranges
and suffered from diarrhea last night.
He asked me to come and apologize to Your Majesty.
Diarrhea?
Did he ask for the imperial doctor?
Your Majesty.
The imperial doctor has already checked His Highness' pulse at his residence.
He said his stomach is weak.
He just needs to rest for a few days.
All right.
I'll take my leave.
-Zhao Yuan. -Yes, Your Majesty.
Pass on my order.
Ask the Royal Food Department to bring the pomegranates we got as tribute
to Prince of Chu's residence.
I'll go right away.
Prince of Chu will surely appreciate Your Majesty's kindness.
Subtitle translation by Coleen Chua
Subtitles downloaded with "Netflix subtitle downloader" UserScript by Tithen-Firion.