Ziwei and Xiaoyanzi kick it off splendidly. Xiaoyanzi offers Ziwei a place to stay at the orphanage she lives in, they hang out and soon become besties and share everything with each other
However, there is one thing Ziwei cannot share with Xiaoyanzi yet, which is the truth about her father. Xiaoyanzi senses something wrong, which is not that hard to see, honestly, since Ziwei won’t stop coming to her usual spot on the hill and staring at the imperial palace.
Ziwei feels bad that she can’t let Xiaoyanzi in on the secret, plus, it looks like she needs Xiaoyanzi’s help if there is ever hope for her to enter the palace.
But what if Xiaoyanzi betrays her? Well, there’s only one way to make sure.
Ziwei decides to take their sisterhood to the next level and Xiaoyanzi happily agrees — she and Xiaoyanzi do a small ceremony, bow to heaven and earth and take the vows to become sworn sisters forever. This deal includes no lies, no secrets, and no betrayals. The traitor gets punished by heaven and dies the most painful death. Woww… these girls mean business; that’s definitely more than just friendship bracelets.
Now Ziwei decides it’s safe to share with Xiaoyanzi her true reason for coming to the capital city and putting on unconvincing boy disguises. Her father is the current emperor of China, Aisin-Gioro Hongli himself. Here’s the full story:
The emperor visited a town that one year and fell in love with a woman named Xia Yuhe, he had to leave the town afterwards but promised to come back for her. Needless to say, he kind of forgot about it. I’m not surprised, with the number of concubines these emperors usually have, knowing the names of his legitimate wives is already an impossible feat.
Xia Yuhe was with child at the time. The kid is Ziwei. And even though the emperor never returned to the town, he did leave two tokens with his signature behind: a fan and a painting. This is how we know Ziwei is a princess for real.
Xiaoyanzi rightly freaks out. But she believes Ziwei’s story and agrees to help.
Their chance of getting the emperor’s attention is closer than Ziwei expected. He is about to go on a hunting trip and Xiaoyanzi knows where it will be.
On that day, Xiaoyanzi and Ziwei set out for the hunting field. I’m impressed that Xiaoyanzi got her information right; the whereabouts of an emperor isn’t usually that easy to catch.
Now, all the hiking and mountain climbing is too much for Ziwei after a while, so she gives up halfway and tells Xiaoyanzi to go ahead without her because she is just slowing them down.
By the way, those dangling hairs on either side of Ziwei’s head — not a good look. In fact, maybe that’s what’s slowing her down.
Xiaoyanzi takes the fan and the painting and gets into the hunting field. A prince (a baby-faced one) aims at a deer, but his arrow hits Xiaoyanzi instead, rendering her mortally wounded. Thanks a lot.
The prince and his friends then bring Xiaoyanzi back to see if their physician can do anything for her. Ohh, I mean it this time, thanks a lot, Prince.
The emperor is angry at first because everyone told him there was an assassin around. He takes great pride in his security system, so their concern about an assassin is like an insult to his face.
Xiaoyanzi is brought in front of the emperor; she throws out a question that is sure to get his attention before passing out:
Hey, remember that one-night stand you had Xia Yuhe of Daming Lake?
When the emperor takes a look at the fan and the painting, his panic reaches a different level. He orders the whole hunting party to dismiss and return right to the palace right away.