2:10 Episode 25 about 35 minutes in. The maids are playing a game where you have to lower a needle into water so gently that it stays floating on top. YingLuo is going through so much inner turmoil that she keeps failing, and she keeps running at the task headfirst like she does with everything, which just doesn't work here. The empress used this as a teaching moment. 8:40/9:20 Erqing also makes a very fleeting attempt to get the emperor's attention (the whole scene is about 90 seconds) it didn't stick out that much to me at the time (because like I said, this was immediately after having her heart broken) but I think the point they're getting at is that ErQing doesn't truly love the empress, even though she seems so loyal and dependable. Because if she did, she wouldn't do something that would hurt her so deeply.
I appreciate the fact that Yingluo is such a feral honey badger. I can only imagine what would have happened had she joined the harem this early. Given her unassailable loyalty to the Empress, I’m picturing someone with Hailan’s ruthlessness and Rongpei’s swinging right hand, combined with a literal pack of sons, daughters and schemes. RIP everyone else
I think yingluo didn’t hate mingyu because she knew mingyu was just dumb, jealous and never faked kindness like Erqing did. Like for Yinglou the biggest betrayal is not the one directed towards her but towards people she loves like her sister, friends and the empress. That’s why Myngyu was forgiven and now is bestie hahaha and now Erqing is suspicious to her
Erqing loves only one person: Erqing. She doesn’t love the empress but what being the Empress’ maid could do for her. She doesn’t love Fuheng. She loves what Fuheng could do for her and her family’s status. She isn’t loyal to the Emperor. She tried to fling herself at him to use him the moment she thought the Fuheng ship was going nowhere.
Notes: -Yingluo is actually the one who comes up with the idea for the icebox, using a layer of lead between layers of wood to conduct the cold from the ice. Simply having ice outside of winter was a mark of status, given how much effort had to be expended to keep it frozen. Normally, special ice houses or cellars would be constructed to keep blocks of ice in, but sometimes, upper class people had a 冰鉴/bingjian, a container to put ice in to keep food cool. Usually they were lined with lead or tin, and made of wood or bronze; sometimes they had small holes bored in the top to let cold air out and act as a primitive AC system. The oldest ones, found in tombs, date back to the Zhou Dynasty. (Also, Yingluo makes sure the emperor gets one when he has a craving for chilled grapes, so he can eat as many as he wants....and then suffer from diorrhea due to eating too many--a comeback for the 'golden thread' thing. And holy crap, that assassin's hand in the icebox is straight out of a mafia movie.) -I talked about yajin, the little pendants on womens' clothes, before, but Yu Taifei's is special--like the Empress Dowager and Empress, hers' is a string of Buddhist prayer beads, or shibazi. These originated from japamala, prayer beads originating in India that made their way to China with Buddhism. They traditionally have 108 beads, but the shibazi usually only have 18. Originally, they signified spirituality (Yu Taifei's are larger than normal and bright white, an obvious 'look at me I'm so pious' ploy), but over time came to symbolize wealth and power instead, which is why you see so many royals wearing them. The chaozhu, a necklace worn as part of court clothing (chaofu), originated similarly. -The needle-water game the maids are playing is called 冰鉴/qiqao or 丢针儿/diu zhen'er, 'Drop The Needle', and it's part of the Qixi Festival. It has its' origins in the festival's overarching story, about the romance between Zhinu, an immortal weaver girl, and Niulang, a mortal cowherd. They were forbidden from marrying and banished to either side of the heavenly river, but once a year, during the Qixi festival on the seventh day of the seventh month, a flock of magpies forms a bridge across the river so they can meet. This is actually based on the movements of the stars Altair (Niulang) and Vega (Zhinu); during this time, they both appear to 'meet' in the middle of the Milky Way. Girls will play 'drop the needle' during the festival in honor of Zhinu, and pray for weaving and sewing skills as nimble as hers'. The object is to get the needle to float on top of the water--a tricky feat, as touching the water will cause the surface tension to break, so it has to be done slowly and carefully. -Erqing tries to coax Yingluo to marry the Emperor (to get her out of the way) and then complains to Mingyu (trying to set her back against Yingluo), mentioning the concept of 丢针儿/bao yi tai qi, literally 'clothing and flag raising' and how the Emperor will be able to do this for her if she marries him. Yingluo and most of the other maids are baoyi (Mandarin)/booi aha (Manchurian) status, meaning they're within the Eight Banners system--they're not slaves or outcasts---but they are subservient to the nobles and their status is heriditary. If she marries the Emperor, her status raises. Specifically, the Emperor might raise her from one of the lower five Banners (both Blues, both Reds and the Bordered White) to one of the upper three (Plain/Bordered Yellow and Plain White), who report directly to the Emperor instead of another Banner. This only happened twice in Qianlong's reign---once for Gao, who I mentioned earlier and who got upgraded to Bordered Yellow, and once for a certain other person of the 'Weigiya' clan who also got Bordered Yellow'd. This is also why a maidservant would want to marry the Emperor---he could not only uplift them, but permanently raise their entire clan's status. -Alright: Mingyu and Erqing. My personal interpretation is that Yingluo went after Linglong, Momo Fang, etc. because she knew they were only doing evil for their own sake---fighting for power, or just plain jealousy. Mingyu definitely has shades of this, but there's a few mitigating factors: -Erqing's been manipulating her from the beginning---constantly telling her how much the Empress cares about her, how clever and smart she is, how much better than Mingyu she is--all disguised as motherly concern. This is mainly to make sure they don't link up and threaten Erqing's position or path to Fuheng. -Mingyu's main motivation is to protect the Empress, even if she is a dum-dum about it. Her heart is in the right place, even if she is shooing away potential allies, because she genuinely believes that they---and Yingluo, until she proves herself---might hurt her. If she had more discernment, she'd be a lot more like Yingluo, and I think Yingluo sees that. At one point, after Shu calls them 'barking dogs', she mentions that it's true, they're both 'dogs of Changchun Palace', determined to protect their master. -From Mingyu's POV, a random maid who got here like a month ago suddenly jumps from 'Embroidery Department' to 'The Empress' Place', which is like going from 'cashier' to 'secretary for the CEO'. She's already gotten several people kicked out---for good reasons, but you don't know that. She's awfully chummy around the Empress' highly-eligible bachelor brother. She breaks rules left and right and gets away with it because the Empress absolutely loves her. I consider myself a rational, kind person, but I'd probably still see a bit of red were I faced with a human tour-de-force who can do no wrong enroaching on 'my' turf. At the end of the day, *we* know Yingluo is the protagonist, and *we* know she has good intentions, but Mingyu is completely out of the loop. That's not excusing some of what she does (*side-eyes the Empress' seal box tattling*) but it does make it less egregious IMO. -Erqing, on the other hand, has none of Mingyu's fire or drive to protect the Empress--she's competent, but not devoted. She's also got her peepers on Fuheng, but for the wrong reasons. And I'm pretty sure Yingluo, at some point, realized that she was trying to drive a wedge between Mingyu and her. She doesn't really care about the Empress, which is the gravest sin you can commit in front of Yingluo. Given that she sees the Empress as a surrogate mother/sister, she probably views Erqing as incredibly ungrateful for taking the Empress' kindness for granted. Yingluo is a pretty good judge of character, and she can probably tell that while Mingyu needs a bit of time and a slap upside the head and she'll be fine, Erqing's problems run deeper. (Of course, the actual explanation might be that the writers of this show sometimes just have characters do complete 180s, but this is my take on it.)
The problem with Erqing is she’s smart and rational, unlike a careless and impulsive Mingyu who never thinks about the consequences of her actions. So her scheming are more deliberate and intentional, thus much more dangerous than some dumbass teenager who yells thoughtless (yet potentially dangerous) accusations at you. Intelligent people appearing outwardly polite are far more dangerous than dumb idiots who acting so rude but terrible at calculating. The writers are quite good because they are good at making us hating the dumb annoying minor characters, making us dropping our guard of the more mild-mannered, unremarkable polite characters. If I was a resident of the imperial harem, I would be more suspicious of the calmly collected, goodly behaving individuals than the raging dumbass holes around me.
@@DianaDonineaux the characters are like people in real life, they are complex and multifaceted with grey shades of both light and darkness. But some are just particularly darker than others, they are highly required to hide their darker impulses from others. So the fact that Erqing being an absolute horrendous b*tch under her pretense of simplicity and humility is not surprising at all to me. If you’ve spends your time socializing with many people, you will notice a lot of psychopathic and narcissistic individuals (they’re really nasty) are just genius at hiding their own flaws and spins the blame on others.
@@DianaDonineaux Personally, Chun strikes me as character assassination not due to the fact that she's two-faced, but due to her backstory being quite nonsensical for me and a letdown of her character. Erqing on the other hand isn't character assassination for me, because a person can simply put on a facade of being nice while being horrible because pretending to me nice helps them get ahead.
@@moonstarstories1298 For Chun , her backstory was too weird , I agree, and for Erqing I do know that people can put a facade , and it can be a recurrent theme in Chinese dramas but for me it was too weird from someone who was clearly reasonable .
While every unrelated female in the palace seems to be in love at Fuheng, may I present a better alternative? Guard Hailancha. While Fuheng is certainly nice to look at, he is morally over-rigid, tepid of humor, and morose, especially later on. Hailancha is a solid dude, good at what he does, compassionate, relatable, and able to have a laugh without it looking like a struggle. I'd rather be married to a grounded but fun guy like him over the esoteric, reserved epic hero of Fuheng.
I guess what was considered attractive in a man changes like beauty standards, cause I've never read of a woman describing her lover as funny in ancient Indian epics.
I think this is a great point. Obviously now, standards have changed but I think FH seems like just the kind of men that were considered the ideal standard in ancient China
Honestly, Erqing was way more thoughtful and cautious in her scheming, so you would not even think of her if the Empress did not mention it. She's a much bigger threat, willing to use the Empress to succeed than simple Ming Yu, who wears her heart on her sleeve. Anyone willing to sink that low and implicate the Empress who is like Ying Lou's sister is a threat, and I would consider Erqingmore dangerous than Ming Yu. Concerning the Emperor, Ying Lou is the only one who has ever defied or tried to use him so far, so she has already piqued his interest. It's typical male machismo, but with his personality, he didn't realise it until another man, Fuheng, wanted her for himself. So now the Emperor is behaving like the child he is. Since he can't have her, he will prevent anyone else from marrying her or would rather destroy Ying Lou. It's a common thing in wars fought over women, and since you can't have them, blame them and/ or destroy them. It's what the Emperor is continuously doing to YingLou right now. I never liked him much in this drama and barely tolerated him as it went on. Their banter is entertaining but the power he wields and his actions against YingLou were so cruel.
I think you make a good point about ErQing being more deliberate with her scheming. I also fully agree she has the *potential* to be more dangerous than MingYu. It's just to me, it seems at times that YL is not working off of who the person is, but who the person will become. It's reasonable to say that YL is good at reading people, but who can really tell at the end of the day? This teenage girl with not much life experience is having a few interactions with people and then predicting exactly what they will end up being (in years and years) with such accuracy that it feels less like skilled people-reading and more like she's got a copy of the script tucked away under he pillow. As for the emperor, totally on the same page :/
@@dramarecaps4217 I cackled when you said she acts like she has a script copy under her pillow. I compare it like this: the Emperor and Mingyu are both petty and childish and YingLou easily uses and reads them- similar personalities. People like Erqing and Consort Xian though who are more cautious in their scheming and make themselves seem above reproach she takes YEARS to bring them down or attack them. She's like an attack dog that smells the danger and is just wary enough to watch them and see how it turns out.
@@dramarecaps4217I forgot to mention Yinglou also possibly suspected Erqing tried to seduce the Emperor which is a HUGE betrayal of the Empress. It’s the first time Erqing passed off her work to YingLou and she was doing a job only the consorts, chosen maids and eunuchs are allowed to do of dressing the Emperor. YL even tried to get out of it. The fact that Erqing came from his room is only because she tried and failed. That’s the biggest reason I think YingLuo doubts her loyalty plus the scheming
I think in the beginning Yingluo was more ruthless with people who threatened her, because at that time she hadn't even started to investigate what happened to her sister. Once her position in the palace was fairly secure and she had a clear investigation going, she could afford not to care what others did to her.
You know the saying that you have to be weary of the quiet ones. That's the vibe i always get from erqing and after this scheme to try to drive a wedge in between yinglou and the empress just proves it. Mingyu only knows how to bark and yinglou knows she's not a real threat but clever people know other people like them so she's more direct with telling erqing not to cross her.
On rewatch, I think the reasons JinXiu and Fang Momo became targets for YingLuo are A) Fang Momo stole YingNing's possessions after she was killed, and probably would never have said anything about it, and B) JinXiu's attempts to get YingLuo killed came at a point where she had no real leads on what had happened to YingNing, meaning that if YingLuo died, no one would avenge her sister (or even believe there was anything to avenge), and she wasn't about to let that happen.
In ErQing’s case she worked and was loyal because her endgame/reward would end up with her married Fuheng her grandfather has somewhat high position and the emperor and empress always put her name forward as wife to Fuheng in previous episodes. So Yinglou wasn’t a threat to her and she was even okay with Yinglou in regards to status and she could replace her as the empresses maid but when Fuheng first says he just wants Yinglou to be safe you can see ErQing break a lil and definitely after learning Fuheng wants to marry Yinglou. Losing her “dream ” is bad enough but to someone she feels is beneath her, that’s too much..
I didn't see any hint of ErQing thinking she'd be paired up with FuHeng or the empress giving any hints that she'd suggest such a thing... Would you mind pointing me in the right direction? I do think in hindsight (that is, taking into account all the things she gets up to) ErQing wasn't being sincere with the empress and was just working to get her reward at the end. But that seems perfectly reasonable to me. I don't go to work because I love my boss and want her to be happy. I mean I do love my boss, but I need to take care of myself as #1. I wouldn't go to work for no pay (no reward) and I wouldn't expect ErQing to either. It's interesting with maids, oftentimes the "good ones" like SuoXin from RRLITP are portrayed as practically wanting for nothing but their mistress' happiness. It is really sweet to see, but not super realistic as at the end of the day they are still people. So to me (at the beginning anyway) I liked ErQing. She was solid, dependable, reasonable, didn't start drama, etc. Whether or not she had other goals in mind, she was a good maid
@@dramarecaps4217 i might be wrong about empress i remember her saying she would get him wife though .. but i guess knowing the ending I look at ErQing moments differently these stood at to me in episode 23 after Yinglou leaves and Fuheng says he just wants her to be safe I zeroed on ErQing reaction and episode 26 when Mingyu is telling Yinglou she stole Fuheng ErQing is eavesdropping and brokenhearted. And right before she brings tea and hears him tells the empress about marrying Yinglou she’s ecstatic to see him not her usual polite reaction but she immediately breaks down at his news. i mean if she be could a loyal worker and pick another guard with good status as her “reward” and if she loved him even better but Fuheng is the highest of rewards outside of a prince.. so that’s why I think he was her endgame along especially for her to do a 360 like she did
So I have a lot of thoughts about Yingluo and Qinlong (the emperor)’s relationship. But I’m gonna save them for a little ways down the line, I’ve just thought about them a lot and I do like them very much as they develop. I like Fuheng very much, but I think at the end of the day, he and Yingluo just don’t understand each other. He’s the perfect White Knight with honor and loyalty and gentleness. Yingluo will stab a b*tch in the face if she has to and won’t regret it. Her priority is to get vengeance for her sister, and if she goes after Fuheng, she might never get the chance because he would never agree to it. She says it best herself- she will never love any man enough to give up her goals. Brutal, but honest. In another setting, they might have been happy, but Fuheng clearly sees her in terms of rescuing her, providing for her, doting on her, building a home- all beautiful things, but those all come secondary to Yingluo. She doesn’t want or need protection, and his attempts to do so just make the situation worse.
I heartily agree. On both counts. Emperor is very smart, and actually in the future knows Yingluo and understands her well. Fuheng is the pretty tragic hero who doesn't even live in the same world thought-level wise as Yingluo.
This is why I like the emperor/YL pairing. They are both ambitious assholes in many regards. I feel like they understand each other's roles and personalities far better. The emperor really allows her to be herself, while fehung wants the 'best version' of YL. Fehung is just boring too. He has like no personality. He's only there for YL.
@@lindsiria I am also an Emperor/YL shipper. They're both so alike and it works so well for them. He will never be able to devote himself fully to her, because his true love is his empire and his people. She will never fully devote herself to him because she knows this and has better things to do than to pine. But because they both know this about each other, and accept it, they can be vulnerable to each other in way they can't with any others. They become genuine soulmates. They both know each other's ways inside and out, and love and accept these aspects of each other regardless. They've got so many sweet, caring moments, and it's like watching an old married couple playfully bicker even though they're in like their mid 20's/early 40's.
I think the reason Ying Luo is harsher towards Er Qing because Er Qing was much calmer and collected. If someone like that makes a "silly" mistake, you become suspicious quickly. Mingyu on the other hand was never a real threat in Ying Luo's eyes. Mingyu was childish and quick to act. I would be much more on guard with Er Qing too.
In my opinion, this is where ErQing started going downhill. IIRC, she's of a higher banner rank than YingLuo (but not by much?), she's been in the palace longer (obviously), and is getting close to the time where the Empress should be arranging for her to get married. In her mind, she's been dependable and loyal to RongYin, and therefore 'deserves' the best (FuHeng). With FuHeng being in love with YingLuo and RongYin backing him up (instead of doing the 'smart' thing of marrying the older, 'wiser', dependable, loyal maid to him), she feels betrayed.
Yes, I was much better able to understand ErQing's jealousy (because like you said, she's been dependable) than I was able to understand MingYu's. Not that it excuses anything, but logically it does make sense to me
I can't see Erqing without being so mad, it's been years since my one and only watch through of Yanxi Palace and I'm still so mad at her lmao. I love this Empress so much and for those who know what happens, I was praying for Erqing's painful demise. She didn't get hurt enough or suffer enough, in my opinion 😂
With the way you analyzed how Yingluo questioned Erqing, I can definitely say I relate to her in that way. I have two little sisters. I’m fine with people calling me crazy names or trying to hurt me, but the second anyone tries to hurt my sisters, I’m ready to sit on death row for them.
iirc erqing wasn't just pining after fuheng, she was actively dreaming and even planning to become his wife in the future. i think there even has already been some talks between their families at this point. plus yingluo comes from a way lower background than her, she is han chinese and a baoyi, and erqing is probably manchurian (ler family name is hitara) and her grandfather is a government official of some not so low rank so she might not be creme de la creme but definitely a better match to the fuca heir than yingluo
I was puzzled when i first saw Yongzheng's Dowager Consort Yu (Hongzhou's mother) because I thought she was Qianlong's Concubine Yu (Fifth Prince's mother)
I agree with you, and Yingluo felt sufficiently safe and secure with the Empress having her back. Whearas in the embroidery department, her life was in real danger so she retaliated
spoilersssss . . . . . . farther down the line Yingluo will be quite happy to bury the hatchet with Shu as well, despite everything Shu's done to help Gao and try to take down Yingluo. She's not unforgiving at all, provided the person has attacked Yingluo herself. If they've attacked her sister or the Empress or a child etc, that's a whole other matter. I kind of see it as Yingluo looking at the person who previously tried to get her killed and thinking "obviously you failed cause you're so dumb, but with my help and guidance you can actually be useful and maybe you'll become less silly. Yeah, I can work with this. C'mon, we have a lot of work to do and I know I'll have to explain it to you like you're five so we better get started."
Okay, but I do lowkey feel like a bad guy suddenly becoming good is more jarring than a good guy suddenly becoming bad. A "good guy" becoming bad is a reveal. They were just pretending all along. But a bad guy or antagonist becoming good takes growth.
@@moonstarstories1298 true, but Mingyu is a teenager. We're watching her grow and she's already figured out that it's way easier and feels a lot better to not be enemies with Yingluo. She's still silly and jealous, and will do more stupid things, but she is slowly developing and learning.
@@its99pm I agree. I think even if it is more jarring for a bad guy to suddenly turn good, I'm still supportive of Mingyu's growth. I think it's episode 17-18 that left a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to her because her actions had really dire potential consequences, but otherwise, a lot of her behavior does strike me as immature than anything which is something you can grow from especially if the person in question is a teenager.
I love, love, LOVE your recaps! You show so many details that I didn’t see because I watched abbreviated RU-vid clips, mostly out of order. One quick critique- it’s DOW a ger (like in Dow Jones), not DOUGH a ger (like in bread dough). Just nit picking. You are doing a splendid job!!!
You know, I didn't miss it, but I did miss how important of a scene it was in hindsight. I don't think it was specifically about outranking YL, but it did show that being with FH was probably more about power than love. I regret not including the scene, it was more important than I realized!
Spoiled me want what stands out and piques their interest. Yingluo's rampaged through half the harem at this point, so she's very different and all kinds of exciting, and she's incredibly clever, too. Of course he'd be interested in her even if he despises (and is somewhat in denial of) the fact that he is.
I NEVER rooted for the emperor, I just could not get on board this relationship after a particular scene coming up. However, he is the 'best' among the other big dramas...by a mile, so there is that. Here he is obviously acting like a spoiled brat who doesn't know his own emotions, he lets kids in his playground but all the toys, rocks, sticks and even the mosquitos are his and Fuheng is not allowed to touch them!
Yeah.... The bar is so low thanks to the other QianLong in RuYi's RLITP that in comparison he seems like an angel, but really he does some awful stuff too
6:57 you forgot how much you wondered how third Prince was such an idiot when you reviewed Zhen Huan? Granted different authors and novels but he clearly seems to be stupid enough to attempt an assassination this openly.
I think in the case of fang and the maid yinglou didn’t have anyone to care about but herself yet so taking them down was needed now she has the empress to protect and taking down her enemies is the priority and not herself
Because Er Qing is like a poisonous slimey snake vs Ming Yu is just like a big dumb dog that barks too loud OF COURSE she would come down hard on the poisonous one
it takes him a stupidly long time to get it into his thick head that Yingluo doesn't give a crap about him or her own status. Once he does, he's a pretty decent guy (for being raised as a spoiled prince who then ascended to Son of Heaven). Especially compared to Zhen Huan and Ruyi's emperors 😂
The emperor when women are killing greeding and competing for power: 😐 The emperor when a woman DOESNT want to kill greed or compete for power: 🤯😠🤬🤬🤬‼️‼️‼️‼️
Haha I guess the 3rd prince here is just as dense as his mother Consort Qi in Zhenhuan? Considering how his mother drugged Zhenhuan and Lanyi, I don’t wonder where he inherited his intelligence at all.
Dowager Yu was so arrogant and stupid if u have been pretending to be a saint for years to protect your life and your child’s in the harem u should never stop.. her exposing her true nature to Yinglou sealed her fate.. And Yinglou giving the emperor diarrhea 😂😂 absolute perfection and well deserved.. I only wished she had done it after he ordered her to stay from Fuheng as an undercover way of saying screw you..
It made sense that the Dowager Consort was arrogant because her background and upbringing as a noble lady come from a imperial official’s family serving the Emperor as a royal consort, she herself surviving through countless palace intrigues end up being a nasty c@nt to the servants, especially a low-ranking female servant like Yinglou. It is kinda justified that she would pretend to be nice to the upper-echelon powerhouses than some nobody service workers.
Ill be honest Its because i watched the whole thing That whenever you would complain about mingyu i would think At least shes not erqing I hate erqing so so much
I hate her so much! I think it's come to a point where she surpassed Yan Wan/Consort Ling from Ruyi. I was frustrated with Yan Wan, but with Erqing, murder is on my mind.
@tealhiid completely agree, yanwan was annoying and I didn't like her, but if given the opportunity I wouldn't have killed her, erqing on the other hand, I'm ready to kill anytime
*Thic Comment has Spoilers.* *Do Not Read if you DON'T want spoilers* OK! Here we go! Dowager Yu, F*CK YOU YOU ****** ****** ****** ****** ******. Your death is truly karma. Fu Heng, I love how much you love Yingluo. I would have loved you two together and I truly hope you two meet in the next life and end up as a loving couple. And Er Qing... Again, more spoilers.... She has what she gets coming to her at the highest level of karma. I get that she wanted Fu Heng, but you cannot force love. Consort Shen... I feel so bad for her. SOOO bad. This ALMOST makes her actions excusable. And Emperor... I swear I love those two as a couple. Smart, clever people that say what they mean.
Can someone tell me why a maid seducing a prince is so bad here? In Indian harem if a maid caught the eye of a prince she'd just be given the title of Khasvin( lower rank concubine) or 'kept woman'( rakhail) If she got pregnant then pardayat(veiled concubine). And this was the same for non royal families too.
Even today , dating at a workplace if it is not illegal , it is immoral or unethical because you are supposed to be professional . Imagine if maids are allowed to seduce the Emperor when we know already all the schemes happening it would a mess.
I'm going to have to disagree with some of the comments here and try and give you a clearer answer It's pretty much the way you put it, if a maid catches the eye of a royal, she'll likely be given a low rank, maybe a bit higher if he really likes her or she happens to get pregnant. It's not a crime and wasn't considered morally wrong at all. That's speaking legally, but of course, humans aren't robots and even though maybe the maid just happened to catch the man's eye, it is only natural that people will accuse her of spending her time seducing the man instead of doing her job. So that's 1 issue. The 2nd issue here is that the empress truly loves the emperor. If you are the empress' maid, you serve her day and night. If you are truly loyal to her then you know how she feels about her husband. If you are selected to join the harem, of course she will smile for you and "happily" hand you over, because that's what she's supposed to do. But it will hurt her because of course anyone would be hurt seeing their spouse start bedding someone they considered a (sort of) friend. So this is what they are getting at, that ErQing does not care at all about the empress' feelings, she just wants to get rid of YL in any way to clear the way for her to get to FuHeng. So we can see that she isn't truly loyal to the empress. That is what is presented as bad. As for YL, she sees the empress as a sister which is why she says she would never want to join the harem. She would not do something that would hurt the empress' heart. She also assumes correctly that this could lead to them fighting one day as it is very hard to maintain sisterhood whole you are all fighting over 1 man. Hope that helps!
@@dramarecaps4217 Thank you so much. And I guess it's illegal for maids to be with guards in order to prevent anyone from lying that they were impregnated by a prince, right?
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