Daddy Gao isn’t so happy that Gao Hui defied his order and spoke up for Pan’er in front of the emperor. So makes her kneel, yells at her, and then walks away. Fathers in here are pretty powerless when it comes to controlling their kids.
Qianfan is released. The head investigator who carried out his torture the other day apologizes, but he only gets a hard, murderous stare from Qianfan. You don’t just make a guy’s ears bleed and expect him to be buddy with you.
After the horrific experience with Ouyang, Pan’er decides to bring him to court. She reasons that only by publicly shaming him can they be rid of him forever because as of now, the emperor still doesn’t know Ouyang’s true face. He needs to be exposed.
Qianfan agrees, so off our main protagonists march to the city’s court of law.
When they get to the courtroom, the judge dismisses Pan’er’s suit on the ground of residency. She isn’t a permanent resident of the capital city yet so she would need to file her lawsuit with her old hometown’s court. What bureaucracy, though not very different from the 21st century, to be frank.
Pan’er refuses to give up; sure, she would take this lawsuit back to her hometown if she had to. But at this time, one of the young students who has been watching tells her of another place in the city she can go to. A courtroom where, when assembled, the emperor himself will listen to her case. However, this court only deals with criminal cases – makes sense, one can’t expect to drag the emperor over for every little thing — so anyone who presents something less than criminal will receive a punishment of 20 floggings.
Pan’er raises the drum and the court assembles. She agrees to take the punishment. But the judge secretly orders his men to strike her on the spine so that she would be injured and possibly die before presenting her case. Somebody clearly doesn’t want Pan’er up and talking. Qianfan interferes and swears that he will see this abuse of power reported to the higher court.
They take Pan’er home afterward.
That same day, the emperor walks around the palace and overhears some maids talking. Turns out, the injustice Pan’er suffers enrages everyone so much that they’re talking of nothing else in the city. Pan’er’s scholar friends even filed appeals for her.
When asked, the maids tell the emperor exactly what they heard. This is not good news, of course. Putting aside the fact that women are being treated this way, this case is also terrible publicity for the palace.
The emperor goes to his wife right away. It was high time he reined his wife in a little. Now, despite the empress’ stubbornness and… er… occasional selfishness, she isn’t evil. She doesn’t deny that she had a hand in trying to silence Pan’er.
The First Couple work out their issues here. The emperor has quite a few things to say to his confused wife;
1. I love and trust you still.
2. I married you despite the court’s protest, if you remember.
3. I didn’t care about your origin then, I don’t care about it now.
4. I think Pan’er is cool, but dating her never crossed my mind.
5. So why did you do these things behind my back, woman?
The empress realizes that she has been taking advantage of her husband’s trust too much. The thing is, she appreciates his kindness, but she knows he can’t protect her forever; so she has been taking steps to protect herself. She wants to silence anyone who has things to say about the case of the Yeyan painting.
It’s also true that she was a little jealous when she heard the emperor stopped by Pan’er’s restaurant. At least I think that’s what her face looks like when the emperor mentions his trip to Yong’an.
Jeez… I know you have good reasons but you’d better get it together fast, lady. Pan’er got spine damage because of you!
The emperor leaves his wife there to reflect. You don’t know how lucky you are, empress. Imagine what would happen if this was the emperor from Rise of Phoenixes.
That night, Qianfan comes to see the empress too. He offers her his service and asks her nicely to leave Pan’er alone and let the court case move along. When the empress refuses, he holds his sword to her neck. That’s how serious he is, he’s no longer asking.