EPISODE 12
Does the empress have nothing else going on in her life?
She comes into Xiaoyanzi’s living room and immediately makes nasty comments and tries to cause trouble.
EMPRESS: What’s your name?
ZIWEI: Xia Ziwei.
EMPRESS: Wrong answer. Hit her.
The reason here is that Ziwei did not refer to herself as “your servant” when she answered the empress’ question. Nanny Rong, once again, shows us she is a character with no redeeming qualities. I don’t feel sorry at all when Er’kang kicks her to the ground. This means the actress does a good job, I guess.
Well, this is just the kind of peace Er’kang needs — Ziwei’s first day in the palace and already she is being slapped until her cheeks turn red.
Ziwei crawls over to the empress — probably hoping that by being kind she can appeal to this woman — and starts slapping her own face. Poor girl still has so much to learn. This causes Jinsuo and the rest of the servants to follow suit. The empress ultimately tells them to stop, but only because she can’t stand the noise anymore, not because she actually cares about their attempted apologies.
The empress later reflects on Ziwei and Jinsuo’s strange appearances in the palace. Why do the Fu boys and Yongqi care about Ziwei so much? And Ziwei’s biggest crime in the empress’ eyes right now is she’s too beautiful.
At Xiaoyanzi’s place, Er’kang goes insane. He grabs Ziwei and declares he wants to run away (again). Yongqi has no word for this so he stands to the side. Yeah, I have no word, either. Although, I kind of already knew this would happen.
Luckily, we can count on Ziwei to be clear-headed. She has all the qualities traditional women during this time are expected to have, one of them is the uncanny ability to endure unjust hardship. Ziwei doesn’t care about a little slapping at all. That one glimpse of the emperor the other day makes it all worth it for her.
Still, it looks like they’ve made an enemy out of the empress, so now they must do something.
After some discussion, the Boy Trio decide on this: they run to the emperor and report the whole thing. According to them, Xiaoyanzi is too humiliated that she wants to end her own life. This gets the emperor over there right away.
Xiaoyanzi is pretty serious about this “suicide” act and lets herself dangle by the neck on a white robe hanging from the ceiling. The emperor shouts at her to stop.
When everyone calms down, Xiaoyanzi makes the emperor look at Ziwei and the miserable state of her cheeks. The emperor takes a liking to Ziwei right away. Though, the lets the kids know that he saw right through their act. So even though he promises to do something about his crazy wife, he also punishes Xiaoyanzi. She’s got to do lines.
Xiaoyanzi’s handwriting… yeah, not very good. But it isn’t the emperor who is making things difficult for her during this punishment process, it’s Ziwei. She scowls at everyone’s handwriting, not just Xiaoyanzi. Looks like no one is up to standard for her; she believes the emperor’s “royal sight” deserves more than these crappy scribblings these people do.
Xiaoyanzi doesn’t take the punishment that seriously, though, because she asks everyone she knows to help her finish it. The good news is: Ziwei’s excellent handwriting draws the emperor’s attention when he checks Xiaoyanzi’s work.
The empress comes over that night to express her “concerns” to the emperor. She is soooo worried that if the boys and girls keep hanging out with each other, something shameful might happen, like fun, for example.
The emperor explains with patience that there’s nothing to worry about because these kids are completely innocent, but the empress just can’t get the hint and continues to bash them. This puts the emperor in a foul mood and he sends her out.
Later on, for once in her life, Nanny Rong says something that makes sense: the empress should not ruin her relationship with her husband just because of Xiaoyanzi. Although, that is just kind of the preamble to sinister advice. Nanny Rong thinks if they step back now and gain back the emperor’s trust, they can axe Xiaoyanzi later without problem, and IN SECRET.