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[The King's Woman]

[Episode 44]

Left Prime Minister.

Why have you come to see me so urgently?

Madam, now that it has come to this, I won't beat around the bush.

In the past year

all the informants that Chu State's general, Xiang Yan, and I

carefully planted seem to have been discovered by Qin State.

Minister, what do you mean?

To deliver Qin's military strategies from Xianyang to Chu State.

We have informants all the way from Yushang, Wangling

Xiling, and till Ying City to pass on confidential letters.

But...

But several of our informants have been arrested recently.

They have been interrogated and badly tortured.

I'm afraid that my plans will be exposed in no time.

Minister, you mean that His Grace...

It might be so. I can't be sure.

The agents are loyal to Great Chu

and wouldn't give away the names of their superiors.

None of them know who was supplying them

with information from within the palace of Qin

but once I'm convicted of this crime...

His Grace...

His Grace would never spare me!

Minister, what are you doing?

- Get up quickly. - No!

I... No, I, Xiong Qi

beg Madam with my identity as Prince of Great Yan

to please save Great Chu!

Madam, you...

You've always said that you didn't marry into the palace of Qin

to become King of Qin's queen.

You only hoped that by becoming the queen of the harem

you could help the people of Great Chu.

You and I know that in the current state of politics

Great Chu is in imminent danger.

Han, Wei, and Zhao have been vanquished.

Our Great Chu, Qi, and Yan are hanging by a thread.

One day, should Ying City be in peril...

I am, after all, a prince of Chu State.

I can still prolong the bloodline of Great Chu.

But, Madam...

I understand.

You mean to have me seek an audience with His Grace.

I am to confess that I'm the one who plotted and betrayed Qin State

by secretly sending Qin State's military strategies to Chu State.

Madam, you mustn't! Madam!

Madam! You must do it!

All the people and soldiers of Chu State will be grateful to you!

Madam, you mustn't! Madam!

Madam, you mustn't! Madam!

Madam, you mustn't! Madam!

Madam! Madam!

Madam...

I've decided.

You have my word.

I will do it.

I'll seek an audience with His Grace.

Xiong Qi, listen up.

Till the day you die, you are to never betray Great Chu.

If you do, I'll definitely seek revenge

even if I have to turn into a malicious spirit.

The revival of Great Chu...

will now be entrusted to you.

I shall comply with your command.

Madam! Please rest assured.

Madam, you mustn't! Madam!

Madam!

Gao Jian Li? What is he doing here?

Brother Gao.

You're going to assassinate King of Qin, aren't you?

Jing Ke... I'm so disappointed in you.

I told you to protect yourself from being used by others.

Who knew you'd be used so thoroughly?

You'd even sacrifice your life for Yan Dan's sake.

Brother Gao... Crown Prince isn't how you think he is.

He has always treated us with loyalty and sincerity.

He really cares about his country and people.

His country and people?

Do you understand, Jing Ke?

I've long told you that he's been plotting and scheming all this time.

Look at the situation you're in now.

You're actually sacrificing your life

to prolong the existence of the corrupted royal family of Yan!

What is the point?

Isn't everything going according to Yan Dan's plan?

Jing Ke...

You're not a foolish man.

Have you still not discovered that beneath Yan Dan's sincere facade

there's nothing more than his shallow personal desires?

Yes, Yan Dan is using me.

But am I not using him too?

Brother Gao, this is the opportunity I've been looking for.

Whatever the case, I will kill the king of Qin.

I'm not doing this for Crown Prince Dan.

I'm doing this for myself!

Me!

If that is so...

You have to get past me first.

Brother Gao!

You can't defeat me.

I'd like to give it a try.

Let's see if your Swan Swordsmanship is better

than my Soaring Sword of Yan.

Stop it, Brother Gao.

Haven't you realized that I went easy on you?

I won't stop.

Even if I have to keep pestering you...

Even if this ends badly for me

I must stop you from walking to your death.

Why?

Why don't any of you understand?

I just want to kill King of Qin!

I hate him.

I hate him for destroying Wey State.

I hate him for getting my mentor killed.

I hate him for making so many people homeless.

This vengeance...

I will seek revenge in their stead.

Don't any of you dare hold me back!

I have to do it!

Jing Ke!

Since you're doing this for the sake of the world...

Do your very best.

Without regrets.

How have you been lately, Sister Ruo?

I'm all right.

It's just...

I miss home sometimes.

Chu State is warm and rainy.

In the spring, flowers bloom everywhere.

In the summer, there's a new lush of green leaves in the palace.

It's so full of life.

It's not like Qin's palace, just surrounded by desert.

There's isn't even one garden.

It's either bitterly cold or extremely hot.

Do you know that back then

Grand Empress Dowager used to plant flowers in her palace garden?

She said that the scent of flowers reminded her of home.

Sister Ruo...

What is the matter?

I'm fine.

When I think of my motherland, I wish I could go see it again.

I just got too sentimental.

Is something that happened in Chu State troubling you?

Li...

I have behaved terribly in the past.

Can you forgive me after all that I did?

Sister Ruo, that was years ago.

I understand you picked on me back then for the sake of

Grand Empress Dowager and Chu State.

How could I not understand what you must've been thinking then?

So you've forgiven me then?

I feel so relieved now.

Oh, right.

I brought these with me from Chu State.

You married into the palace years ago, but I haven't taken good care of you.

Keep them.

Just take them as a token from me.

How can I?

Sister Ruo, these are your family heirlooms.

Besides, as I just told you

I really didn't take your past actions to heart.

There's nothing else that a tacky princess like me can offer you.

If you refuse to take them

you'll be rejecting my token of appreciation.

Sister Ruo, are you sure there isn't something troubling you?

You can tell me.

Sometimes when I come to think of it...

I find people really insignificant.

However hard we may try or strive

we still can't change our circumstances or destiny.

My mother used to say that I'm too aggressive.

She said...

If I were born a man, I could've been a king or minister.

Who would have known that at my age

I'd realize that as a man, I might be able to do something for my motherland.

Li...

You're unlike any other woman.

You have great insight into matters and martial arts skills.

If you were born a man

you would have been a remarkable and renowned general.

It's a pity that you're in the palace of Qin State now.

You must be so aggrieved.

Li... Heed my advice.

However His Grace may dote on you or favor you

you must always remember to leave yourself a way out.

Don't believe his every word.

That's because deep down, he has never truly trusted anyone.

For someone like him, who wishes to dominate the world as the first emperor

anything that goes against the goal he is striving toward

will be sacrificed.

Even if it's his beloved concubine or subject...

Or even his kin, he'd wipe them out.

Even if he acts awe-inspiringly righteous before your eyes

it's all because he's hiding so many dirty secrets from you.

It's just that no one knows.

Sister Ruo...

Li...

Take care.

Keep my words in mind.

Jing Ke, Qin Wu Yang.

Please.

Jing Ke.

I had the honor to ask Warrior Wei to escort you to Xianyang.

That's great! Thank you, Warrior Wei.

Where's Old Master Tian Guang?

Isn't he Young Warrior Jing's greatest supporter?

Why isn't he here on such an important day?

Mister Tian Guang is...

He is traveling.

Traveling?

Where is he going?

Why would he go at such a time?

Mister Tian Guang said that he'll be waiting for you there.

Over there? Where?

What on earth are you talking about?

Valiant warriors, first, I'll drink a toast to you two.

Crown Prince.

There's no telling if I will make it back alive from this mission.

Here's a toast to Your Highness.

A farewell drink.

Young Warrior Jing, for the sake of Yan State, and my sake

you're making such a sacrifice.

I really have no way to repay you.

In our next lives, may Young Warrior Jing be the king, and I, your subject.

Allow me to serve you.

Your Highness.

I didn't actually volunteer to assassinate King of Qin

for Yan State's sake, or even for your sake.

It was for the sake of those who live in fear of the Qin King's tyranny.

And you, you're not doing this for Yan State either.

You're only doing this for you own interests.

I see it clearly now.

You keep bringing up justice and righteousness all the time

just to make yourself feel better.

Isn't that so, Your Highness?

The king has arrived!

Jing Ke is right.

It isn't just for the people that I want him killed.

It's also because I hate him to the core.

The years I spent as a hostage prince in Qin

I was despised and belittled

even though I'm royalty like him, and just because I was a hostage.

- Thank you, Your Grace! - Thank you, Your Grace!

Yan Dan!

Listen up.

You can leave

when pigs fly!

I want him dead for Yan State, but even more so, for myself.

Even so, I have to thank you.

You gave me the opportunity to kill Ying Zheng.

Whatever reasons we have, we share the same goal.

Isn't that right?

Crown Prince, I'll drink another toast to you.

Madam, why did you ask to see me?

Your Grace should already know why I'm here, shouldn't you?

Your Grace!

The mastermind behind the leak of information to Chu State...

is me.

I hired someone to spy on Great Qin's

military strategies and send out secret letters.

I've been doing this for a year or so.

Since the matter has been discovered

I know very well that I've betrayed Great Qin.

However Your Grace wishes to punish me, I will accept it.

Madam, is what you just said true?

Would I lie to Your Grace just to seek my own death?

You're not doing this to be killed.

You're trying to protect someone.

Am I right?

I know that you're not the one

who instructed those men to send information to Great Chu.

Ruo...

If you tell me the truth now...

It's still possible for me to forgive you.

I'm a princess who married to form an alliance between our states.

From the moment I married into Qin...

To be honest, it was all for the benefits it would bring Great Chu.

All these years, I've been eager to become queen

just for the sake of Great Chu's interests.

Now that it has come to this

I believe that Your Grace won't love me anymore.

If so...

Whether Your Grace banishes me to the Cold Palace to die alone

or ends my life quickly by sentencing me to death...

What difference does it make?

Ruo...

I've failed you.

Since you married into the palace, I've never truly cherished you.

Because in my mind, you don't belong to me.

You belonged to Grand Empress Dowager.

No matter how hard you tried to gain my favor...

in my mind...

I simply couldn't bring myself to trust you.

This reason...

You should understand.

Now, compared to Lord Changping...

I really don't need you anymore.

Regular Palace Attendant.

Present.

Go and get ready.

Send Madam on her way.

Yes!

Your--

Your Grace.

Ruo...

The only mercy I can show you...

is to not make you suffer too much pain.

After Chu State is vanquished...

I'll scatter your ashes in your homeland.

Jing Ke, take care.

Crown Prince.

My friend is here to see me off.

We...

Then we shall bid each other farewell.

Farewell.

Let's go.

"The winds howl sadly, and the waters of the Yi River are frozen!"

"Brave men, once gone, never come back again!"

"Into the dragon's and tiger's den, the Brave One just went!"

"Whistling sharply towards the sky, taking down the man he wishes to kill!"

Madam, I'm begging you!

Don't leave me all alone in Qin Palace!

Madam, I beg you not to do this!

- Madam! - Here.

Get up.

To be able to die for my motherland...

I can now have no regrets.

Madam...

In fact, I can actually feel the happiness I never had before.

Do you still remember this comb?

My mother left this to me.

I brought it with me from Chu State to Qin State.

All these years, I've always had it with me.

Today, I'm giving it to you.

It reminds one of its owner.

Whenever you look at it, think of it as seeing me.

Madam...

Take it.

Madam!

Take it.

Let the servants come in in about one hour.

You don't have to be here.

I'm worried that you'll be frightened when you see my face.

Madam, I won't leave. Madam!

Stop crying.

You look really ugly when you cry.

Madam!

Madam, I won't leave!

- Leave now. - Madam, I won't leave!

- Leave! - Madam, I won't leave!

- Go! - Madam!

I only hate myself for not being born a man...

I can't fight battles for my motherland, Chu State.

To risk my life and shed my blood...

This is the only and last thing I can do for Great Chu.

Being born in Chu State...

Even in death...

I shall remain a ghost of Chu State.

Father...

Mother...

I'm coming to see you.

May Great Chu...

be blessed with prosperity.

Madam! Madam!

Bad news!

What is it, Qing? Why the panic?

Madam, didn't you tell me to invite Madam Chu over for tea?

I did. Where's Madam Chu?

She... She hanged herself!

What?

She confessed to His Grace

that she had the military strategies of Great Qin leaked in secret letters

in order to save Chu State.

All her informants were arrested.

There's solid evidence.

His Grace bestowed her with the white linen.

She... She has already passed away!

So...

So the day Madam Chu came to see me...

She came to see me one last time?

It just can't be. Madam Chu would never do that.

His Grace...

Madam!

Madam!

Greetings, Your Grace.

Aren't you quite caught up in reading war strategies lately?

I heard that even Fu Su and Tian Ming couldn't get you

to go hunting with them in the Western Hills.

Why have you suddenly come to see me?

I just heard that Your Grace sentenced Madam Chu to death.

I don't have an appetite anymore, let alone the mood to read.

Your Grace, what exactly happened?

Did Madam Chu really betray Qin State?

It doesn't matter who betrayed Qin State.

Who takes the blame is all that matters.

[Preview]

The envoy presenting the Instrument of Surrender from Yan State is Junior Jing.

What?

Junior Li, you should know better than anyone else

that Junior Jing would never succumb to King of Qin.

So this act of surrender is a facade for the assassination of Ying Zheng.

I'm anointing Tian Ming as my heir apparent

in order to keep Madam Li by my side forever...

Fu Su is my legal first born son.

I'm just using Tian Ming to provoke him.

Perhaps he will make some progress then.

So Your Grace means to

anoint Prince Fu Su as Crown Prince after a few years?

Definitely.

I've already instructed Regular Palace Attendant

to prepare for Tian Ming's anointment.

Tell me if you like the arrangements.

Ying Zheng, you're still lying to me.

I won't let Tian Ming become your pawn.

Mother!

Tian Ming! Tian Ming!

From this day forth, you're leaving the palace.

You'll go live with Uncle Han.

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