Wei Ying Luo, what are you doing?
It should be me who should be asking you that question
Which woman doesn't want to seek a better prospect for herself?
What did I even do wrong?
Your so-called seeking a better prospect
is to pretend to have twisted your ankle and make Fucha Fuheng come over to help you up.
And then take advantage of this opportunity to rise in status.
Yeah,
Am I not allowed to?
He is the son of nobility
He has seen countless beauties
Just from a face,
do you think it will make him marry you into the family with open arms?
Even if it's only a concubine,
I will still be where I was. I am willing.
These pig-brained
shameless men also think the same way.
What do you think this place is?
Its the Forbidden City
If a palace maid and an imperial guard have an affair
and its discovered,
he can easily escape punishment because he is the family of royalty.
As for you
your only option is death. I am telling you
because we came out together today
I don't want to be involved.
If this was at another time, you can die whenever. I will not stop you.
One who retreats fifty steps laughs at those who retreats a hundred steps. You don't have the right to scold me.
Dare you to repeat it one more time. You
Fine, I'll go send the clothes over. Happy now?
Pig-brained
Shameless
Ain't that so
Wei Ying Luo
Miss Ying Luo seems to be prejudiced towards men
How about me?
Or the Emperor?
Imperial Guard Fucha has mistaken
There are certainly many pig-brained and shameless men
that deceive young girls in this world
But the Emperor is the chosen one
And you are an outstanding person amongst many
How can you talk about yourself like that?
Wei Ying Luo, you are indeed very cunning.
Imperial Guard Fucha is right.
Your servant will speak and act cautiously and follow the rules from now on.
Wei Ying Luo
Imperial Guard Fucha, what else do you have to instruct?
No matter what prejudice you have,
don't look down on men.
All of the us imperial guards are exceptional and well rounded
Right,
I've understand now
Is Imperial Guard Fucha here?
Thank goodness Fucha serves our queen
allowing him to come in and out of the palace
Makes the queen feel comfortable that she has someone to rely on
You think
anyone can just wander into the palace like that?
Even siblings have to be cautious
By allowing her majesty and Imperial Guard Fucha to meet so often
is most definitely a blessing from the Emperor to her majesty
Fuheng,
What do you think you are doing?
Fuheng! Give it back to me
Where is it?
Where is my necklace of longevity?
Where did you toss it?
Go look for it
Nobody is allowed to look for it
My necklace
my necklace
Who gave you the right to take my stuff?
Who are you to mind my business?
Yong-lian has already been dead for three years
During these three years, when you would lock yourself in and cried yourself to sleep every night
To your lifeless expressions now
My dear sister,
At what point will you finally pick yourself up?
Imperial Guard Fucha
Leave
Let go of me! what's happened is none of your business
And I don't want it to be my business
But as long as you are part of the Fucha Family,
and the queen of the Qing kingdom
you should no longer be consumed by your own sorrows
and forget about your responsibilities
I have never forgotten about my responsibilities
You dare say you haven't forgotten!
What were you supposed to do as a queen?
What is a queen suppose to look like?
Before marrying,
Mother told us a thousand times!
Once you walk into the new threshold,
you'll have to be ready for the life of your husband!
You...
For what reason do you criticize me?
And Why?
Just because I have not managed the affairs well in the Inner Palace.
Because I am powerless...
I have lost so much, and my wounds have not healed.
and this pain in my heart...
When I was pregnant,
It was more than enough pain to give birth to him.
He is the most important person in my life,
The child I love the most!
And yes after all this,
I am willing to trade my life for his
But you've never experienced the kind of pain that I have,
You have no right to criticize me!
Sister...
Don't call me that!
You stand here today,
is because of the Emperor, right?
So you go and tell him!
I am forever to serve, my dearest.
Yong Lian,
You can compromise,
But I can't!
Sure enough,
You've been blaming the Emperor.
You must guide,
for your son is now in the heavens
How can you be so indifferent?
When I lost the my child,
His Majesty had such a grief-stricken appearance.
And now it's as if he's completely forgotten his child.
Day after day, His Majesty...
deals with government affairs.
Of course,
His Majesty could care less about my son,
Many other women can have his children
He can have many more sons in the future
But I won't have mine.
What I have,
is only Long Lian
I only have this one son!
The necklace.
my necklace.
Necklace...
Move!
Sister,
I know...
You must hate me right now.
But there are some things,
I know you'll hate me for but I still must do.
Because I'm your brother
Besides mother, the person most concerned about your well being.
I've said this, to you.
Please believe nothing else.
In the evening,
and every night mother sits by the light.
She is worried about you.
She cries and tells me every day,
your sister's mind has changed.
Once you were full of joy and laughs,
Now your smile is not true.
My Sister,
She's our mother
How could your disguise escape her eyes.
Mother also said,
One day, you'll have to decide to live and let the dead rest.
I know you won't do so today.
I told mother, that you would move on with time.
He said himself had let the late emperor down
He was sorry to the Aisin Gioro Clan
he cultivated such a coward daughter
At that time, Gao Bin was appointed as the General Inspector of Jiangnan River
The late Emperor trusted and thought highly of him
and promoted Lady Gao
to vice wife
She nearly reached your status
Now the Gao Family is powerful
and gets involved in the competition between Er family and Zhang family
We are easily to be affected
Elder sister
As the empress, if you keep being depressed
It would let His Majesty feel more distressed
There's a thing
His Majesty let me to hand it to you
When you recover peace inside
then open it
Consort Chun
May I bold to ask you to do me a favor?
My lady. Consort Chuni has come
Greetings. Your Majesty
Rise
Are you feeling better?
My body is weak
I would get sick when the season changes
After another two servings of medicine, I've already started to feel better.
It's an old illness, the Empress shouldn't be too concerned.
That's good to hear.
I've originally planned to visit you.
Last time, when I was here
I noticed that the Empress' eyes were a little red.
So I've picked some chrysanthemum
and then instructed Hong Luo to brew them in hot water.
Later, the Empress can press them under the eyes
It would be much more comfortable but you have to be mindful
to not injure your eyes.
Consort Chun is very considerate.
The Empress still uses the medicinal pillow that you sent over last time.
The medicinal grass inside that pillow
Must be changed once in a while
Once Empress is done using the old ones, I will send over new ones.
Consort Chun, the scent on your body smells very nice.
What fragrance are you using?
Our consort never uses any fragrance.
What you are talking about
is perhaps the scent on her clothing.
Besides the scent of soap on clothes,
what other scent is there?
In our palace, when we wash the clothes, we add in fragranced washing powder.
We grinded peony skins and nards into powder.
And then added them in during rinsing
for it to carry a natural clean scent.
This is a habit of Consort Chun even before she entered the palace.
Yu Hu.
If the Empress likes it, some will be sent over tomorrow.
Consort Chun, you are clever and multitalented.
If
you put those to good use on the Emperor
more than on me,
how wonderful would that be?
Empress,
To be able to stay by the Empress' side,
I am already satisfied.
I've never desired the Emperor's favor.
You.
It's only the task of brewing tea, why are your eyes red?
It's nothing. It's probably because when I was brewing with hot water
I accidentally burned my eyes.
You were crying.
Your servant did not.
Empress, forgive me
for speaking on behalf of Hong Luo.
No, no, Consort Chun, I am fine. Please don't say anything.
Consort Chun
continue on.
When I've entered your palace,
I noticed Hong Luo was upset.
I've asked her questions but she didn't want to answer.
Eventually, I found out that she turned 25 last year. So she would have been allowed to leave the palace.
Who could have guessed that her fiance couldn't wait anymore
and wants to marry another girl.
Hong Luo
Why don't you tell me? Empress,
Hong Luo certainly has reached the age of leaving the palace but ...
They were going to ask the Empress to allow Hong Luo to leave
But
the Empress wasn't feeling too well
no one dared to bother you over such trivial matter
After a while, it became forgotten
To me, a palace maid who has reached the age to leave the palace
is a trivial matter.
But to them, it is a significant part of their life.
Immediately go to the services department and add
Hong Luo's name on the list.
Yes. Hong Luo,
I will bestow you a dowry
so you can be married off in extravagance.
Hong Luo will forever remember the Empress' magnanimity.
Get up.
Go on now.
The Empress is generous and understanding. No one is
more fitting than you to manage the inner palace.
Every day, Hong Luo
has been coming in and out
yet
I still failed to notice.
Changchun Palace is right under my control
but I've still let this mishap happened.
Not to mention the great Forbidden City,
every day,
I wonder how many errors there are.
I've neglected the duties of an Empress.
Consort Chun.
I understand now.
What is it?
You were entrusted by Fu Heng
but you couldn't be frank
so you went with this way
to let me witness with my own eyes
the consequences behind negligence of duty.
Empress
Fucha Fuheng requested
that you must take a look at the box he had left behind
Perhaps,
you will let go of the past.
By the Mandate of Heaven
the Emperor decree hereby,
Yong Lian is my eldest son,
clever
and outstanding
the former Emperor started the tradition
of selecting a successor in secret
and after enthronement, to follow this tradition
I am personally writing this edict
which will be safely stowed away in Qianqing Palace
to conferred to him the position of Crowned Prince.
Qianlong First Year
Second week of the Seventh Month
Empress,
Empress, what is it?
Empress
He conferred Yong Lian
the title of crowned prince
When Yong Lian was alive,
he was already the crowned prince of the Qing.
This is good news.
The first year he was enthroned
he had already secretly selected his successor.
He has
high hopes on Yong Lian.
Yet I still hated him
and blamed him
because I want him to be like me
But he is the Emperor
He is the Qing Emperor
He is an Emperor
Empress
The Emperor must
have been in pain too
You shouldn't blame him anymore.
Everything is my fault
I failed to protect Yong Lian
Not only did he lose a son
but also a newly
named successor
As for me, all these years
I've only known how to let myself live in misery
and neglected my responsibilities as an empress
I am wrong.
Er Qing, I am wrong.
I am very wrong.
Father was right
I am Aisin Gioro's sinner.
I am Aisin Gioro's
sinner.
No, Empres, you are not wrong, you are not wrong.
It's the Heavens who is wrong.
Heavens took away Second Prince. Heavens took away your life.
Empress
Emperor,
it's past midnight
you should rest now
Yes.
Shh
Er Qing, the Empress should wake up now.
The Empress doesn't feel too well, let her rest a bit longer.
But later, the consorts are all coming to pay their respects.
Then let's go with the usual flow
and dismiss it.
Come in.
Do my makeup.
Yes.
On an ordinary day, when I invite you for tea
you've always been making excuses to decline
But now you're actually here.
It is part of my responsibility to pay my respects to the Empress.
Since the Empress is still resting,
she shouldn't let us waste our time here. Imperial Concubine Jia, let's go.
Yes, Noble Consort Gao. I haven't arrived yet
but someone is already leaving?
Aren't they impatient?
Greetings to Empress.
I thought the Empress will dismiss our morning greetings routine again.
Noble Consort Gao
I remembered when you first came into the family
You were attentive at pouring and serving tea.
It has only been a few years, you don't know the rules anymore?
Is it because you've entered the palace,
been conferred the title Imperial Consort
you have forgotten how to respect your superiors.
My sisters, please rise. Yes, Empress.
Since everyone is here today,
I have something
I want to clarify.
I've been sick for a while
so I haven't been able to attend to matters within the inner palace.
Now that I have fully recovered,
there are some things
I have start managing.
Noble Lady Yu
Yes. You're pregnant with the Emperor's child
but your body has been weak.
You need to have someone by your side to take good care of you.
Besides having the physician taking your pulse once everyday,
the service department will send over a few clever people
to take care of you.
Of course, if anyone is stupid enough
to offend you,
you are welcome to come to Changchun Palace,
and I will stand up for you.
Thank you Empress for watching over me.
Rise.
As for Imperial Concubine Yi,
she has left us at such a young age.
Such a pity.
I will petitioned to the Emperor for her to have a grand burial.
As for her family,
I will ensure they are taken care of.
Empress
Imperial Concubine Yi committed suicide
To put it in a bad way,
if she was a palace maid who committed such a crime,
even if her family isn't beheaded, they would all be exiled.
But today, we are talking about giving her a grand burial.
Surely it doesn't mean
Empress
wants everyone to follow this example.
I say Imperial Concubine Yi
has passed away from illness
but Noble Consort Gao is saying she died from committing suicide.
In the end, who is right？
Consort Chun
Of course, the Empress is right.
Consort Xian
Yes.
How about the other sisters?
How could the Empress be wrong?
Of course, she died from illness.
Look
Even a consort who had just joined the inner palace
knows the rules better than Noble Consort Gao.
What a shock.
Empress
Yes,
Empress is saying she died from illness,
then let's say she died from illness.
I can let bygones be bygones
but from now on whoever dares to stir troubles
I will certainly not let them off that easily.
Does everyone understand?
Bitch
The Empress has been indifferent towards matter in the inner palace.
Why did she depart from her normal behavior
all of a sudden?
You ask me, who do I ask?
I believe
if the Empress really stands up ...
A sick cat will always be a sick cat.
Even if she rages, she won't be able to roar.
She has turned a blind eye for a long period of time
Now she wants to take back the control over the inner palace.
It won't be easy.
Consort is right.
But
now that we have the Empress here to interfere
we have to be much more meticulous in our plans.
We'll see
and watch how long she'll be able to hold on to this power.
Consort Xian, are you alright? Consort Xian, please forgive me. Your lowly servant is at fault.
Are you blind? How could you clumsily bump into Consort Xian?
You have dirtied such a good outfit. Zhen Er, enough.
Are you okay?
Get up. Yes. Thank you, Consort Xian.
You must be mindful of where you are going in the future.
What happened?
Consort Xian,
my mother is very ill. But the head of the department won't let me leave the palace to visit.
I am worried that I won't be able to see my mother one last time
which is why I was walking aimlessly.
Which palace do you belong to?
Your lowly servant is from Ru Yi Guan.
If what you are saying is true,
I will ask Head Eunuch Wu to let you go home to visit.
Thank you, thank you Consort Xian.
Your lowly servant will never forget Consort Xian's generosity.
Sister is known for being virtuous
everyone in the Forbidden City knows this.
Witnessing with my own eyes today, I realized
Sister is well-liked by everyone in the palace。
It's a well-deserved reputation. It was within my ability to help.
It is not worth much.
The more you help people
the people in the palace will notice.
It's not surprising that Imperial Consort Gao would want to draw you over to her side.
Sister is amusing me.
The Empress today is entirely different from her former self.
I believe it's Sister's credit.
Sister is thinking too much.
In the past, Empress didn't like being in charge
because she was sick.
Now that she has fully recovered, she would, of course, take charge again.
Back then, the eight of us who served before the enthronement
besides the former Consort Zhe,
Empress, Noble Consort Gao, Imperial Concubine Jia,
Noble Lady Yu, Noble Lady Wan,
I understand what each of them want.
Except for Consort Chun.
I haven't been able to see through your thoughts.
I don't understand what Consort Xian is talking about.
Among the eight of us, the most outstanding in talent and appearance
is you, Consort Chun.
But within a year, I noticed you've rarely served the Emperor.
It seemed like you've been sick for awhile.
My body is weak and it has been a burden.
But every time the Empress needs your help,
you would always appear by her side.
I understand. The Empress is the mother of the world
and she runs the inner palace.
By playing up to her, you would reap benefits.
But you are not asking for anything in return.
Tell me, what do you exactly want?
Isn't the real person who stands aloof from the world, you?
Wealth and rank are both desires
that you care less about.
In Sister's heart, the Emperor is the most important.
Look at you.
You've seen through everyone's thoughts.
But you, I still can't seem to understand you.
You didn't want to attend Imperial Consort Gao's tea party.
I am inviting you over to admire paintings, are you willing to come?
If Sister is purely inviting me to admire some paintings,
I would naturally be very happy.
But if it involves other affairs, please forgive me for my impoliteness.
Sister
To survive in the Forbidden City,
it's not easy
to place morality above the thoughts of others.
I don't ask for placing morality above everything but only ask for a clear conscience.
Sister, please excuse me.
Sister Zhi Lan
You are --- We are palace maids from the embroidery department.
Zhang Momo instructed us to bring over the newly completed spring wardrobe. What is it?
Look, we are both wearing the same maid attire,
yet when Sister wears it, it stands out.
Also, the flower embroidery on your collar is very pretty.
From one look, Sister is a dexterous person.
You are quite good with your words.
Such a shame for this small pouch
if we can add some obsidian blue-colored tassels to it, it would look a lot better.
Sister, I coincidentally have threads of this tone.
If Sister don't mind,
I can add it for you.
Ling Long, we have to head back to the embroidery department.
What is there to be afraid so? Go and tell Zhang Momo I think this maid is very smart so I stopped her to speak a few words
Come with me
The maids from the embroidery department are really skilled
The color matching is very fitting.
This is nothing.
We have a palace maid in our department called Ying Luo.
Not only are her embroidery skills outstanding,
she is also extremely clever.
If it wasn't for her last time, how would we know so much about loquat paste.
What did you just say?
Loquat paste
Ying Luo mentioned at Yonghe Palace
that she accidentally ate new loquat leaves when she was young.
If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't know the new leaves are poisonous
and can't be used in medicine.
Sister
Did I --- I say something wrong?
How is it possible? It's just casual conversation.
Then I can rest assured.
Sister, I thought coming here and chatting with you
will make you annoyed. I've never thought you would be this friendly.
Oh right,
the palace maid you mentioned
is called Ying Luo?
Wei Ying Luo.
Not bad.
Ying Luo, what are you sewing?
I am sewing the skies at dusk.
In this world, there are many things that one can sew
except for the dusk skies which is the most difficult to sew.
Each time someone tries to sew it, it turns into clouds.
What is the point? Everyone, come take a look.
That's sewed so well!
Ying Luo you are using the Manchu embroidery method.
I think sewing the skies at dusk is best represented using the Manchu method.
Take a look
Over here, I have the red threads transitioned into white
and then turn into blue
Doesn't it reflect the layers more？
Red rosy clouds and blue skies
Such a beautiful piece of work.
Momo, I'm preparing to sew this onto the clothing.
The consorts might like this.
Miss Zhi Lan, what brings you here?
Is Imperial Consort Gao dissatisfied with the spring wardrobe? How can we trouble you to personally come over?
Just sending over a palace maid should be fine.
I will come with you to Chuxiu Palace. Imperial Consort Gao is definitely not satisfied and want a change in embroidery method.
I've heard you have a maid called Wei Ying Luo
her skills are outstanding
Let her come with me
Okay, let me have a few words with her. The consort instructed not to waste any time.
Let's go.
Ying Luo... Ying Luo!
Zhang Momo, why do I think something is not right?
Do you think Wei Ying Luo committed a grave mistake?
Who knows?
This time,
we'll have a good show to watch.
What is happening?
Your lowly servant pays respect to both consorts.
You are Wei Ying Luo. Yes, Consort.
Why are you speaking so loudly? It's not like I'm deaf.
Lower your voice.
Oooh
your servant
has always spoken loudly
Momo had already given me a beating many times
No, no, I can't change this.
Was it you who said the loquat leaves are poisonous?
Yes,
they are poisonous.
You cannot eat them!
Consort Gui Fei
look
it's really her.
Consort,
do you also want to eat loquat?
Then you must not eat the pit or the leaves.
Both are poisonous.
When I was young, I was greedy. One time ...
I accidentally overate.
I've puked and had diarrhea
I almost lost my life!
Last time,
the consort at Yonghe Palace also wanted to eat loquat!
But she was stopped by me!
Very risky.
What is this?
Incoherence gibberish.
Why are you staring at me?
Imperial Consort
what are you eating?
Your servant
has never eaten glutinous rice balls.
These are lotus rice balls
I am speaking to you, where are you trying to drag this?
Consort
this young girl
seems to be mentally disabled.
Come over here.
Have you tried lotus rice balls before?
I will reward this bowl to you.
Want more?
Delicious!