The Story of Ming Lan Episode 46

Accompanied by General Sheng's sister, the Empress's sister-in-law, Sheng Minglan enters the court to meet the Empress. They are intercepted by the head eunuch of Empress Dowager and cannot refuse to visit her. Empress Dowager wants to place some of her older maidservants in safe places and first tries to place them as "chambermaids" with the Empress who evades the maneuver. Sheng Minglan is her next target, but the latter evades by skillfully making it so, that those maids will be married to promising executives within the army. Times have settled at the imperial court and within the country, yet the Empress Dowager still participates when the Emperor holds court. On their way out - Sheng Minglan and the maids, she meets her husband at the gates. She believes that she brought trouble upon him, but he laughs and sees this matchmaking as an honor. They both discuss the rising inner tensions at the imperial court. While the new Emperor wants to improve and change the system according to what he has learned and seen before he came to his new duty, the Empress Dowager wants to guard the old way. Living in luxury and blissfully ignoring the already established corruption. The animosity towards the Gu clan stems from the friendship between Gu Tingye and Prince Huan. The latter supports change for the better in the Kingdom. The married couple realizes that hard times might be upon them. To find those who participated in the Rebellion against the old Emperor and might yet still be among the nobility an investigation into the initiators is to be held. Instead of the Emperor or his ministers deciding upon whom to best give that task the Empress Dowager, who is still sitting in at the ministers’ court and refuses to let go of her seat now that peace reenters the realm, interrupts and ultimately decides upon Qi Heng. Neither the interruption nor the proposed action plan by Qi Heng is met with enthusiasm. After the end of court Prince Huan and Gu Tingye reinstate that the inner court politics are getting troublesome and that they will have to find an "intellectual" way of getting the Empress Dowager out of the ministers meeting again. Qi Heng arrests, in ropes and publicly, the two brothers of Gu Tingye. The wives of the 4th and 5th supply Big Madam Gu for help. She feigns powerlessness but makes clear, that they should ask Gu Tingye. Back at the manor of Sheng Minglan and Gu Tingye they discuss the arrest, as well as Qi Heng handling the matter. Gu Tingye assures his wife, that he won't take personal revenge but warns her about the coming attack by the others in the Gu Clan. While the 4th and 5th uncles nag Gu Tingye, who refuses to help, indicating the past transgressions of his brothers and missing support for him from the family, their wives try later to influence Sheng Minglan. She evades them with politeness, feigning of not being able to ask her husband to intervene and the pretense of a missing Rongjie. When Minglan joins them, Gu Tingye praises her intelligence. Qi Heng has been married. His wife, apparently from outside the capital, wants to dote on him during his late-night working sessions. He stays cold and distant. Returning to her room, lamenting about the distance to her maid, she hears for the first time that Qi Heng once had feelings for a concubine’s daughter. She orders her maid to investigate. The mother of the 5th son of the Gu family shares some ancestors with the wife of Qi Heng. She visits and tries to give her a belated wedding gift. Qi’s wife refuses to accept because outsiders could mistake this as a bribe. When the Gu family member leaves the maid tells the wife that Sheng Minglan and Qi Heng apparently played polo once together. She also says that the most trusted former aid of Qi Heng was beaten to death – the implication being, that it is Sheng Minglans fault. Maid and wife are sure, that Sheng Minglan is a femme fatale. However, the wife tells her maid to never mention the name again. Source: Pot-Pourri Haru at kisskh & Website: DramaMLKY