Original subtitles

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

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

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!