The Princess's Gambit Episode 15

High tea

Father Meng lost no time trapping his daughter into an odious task. She is not allowed to mourn her beloved brother and is intimidated to blame and kill the chancellor. Never mind the incompetent crown prince and the illegal silver mining that really pulled down the Meng family. Money alone didn’t get them the clout they needed to override the stupidity of the Prince. Casting blame to the shrewd chancellor was a huge mistake on their part. The wife has reluctantly agreed to take the poison with her and delegates a ‘killer’ maid in the palace. As she talks to her father she realizes that she will never be the most important to him. His climb for power will always put her in a place she would rather not be. So she literally takes the back carriage on the way to emperor’s tea party and gives the princess the wife’s right of being in carriage with chancellor. When they all arrive the chancellor and princess are sitting in close proximity to the emperor and consort…seems the emperor changes Qin for Meng at the tables of officials. In spite of their conversation just a few days ago, Meng sees the writing on the wall for his place in the court. He knows the Meng family has fallen in disgrace. Ms Meng decided to get it over with. She knew the end result and decided not to drag things out. She has the chancellor and princess’ tea poisoned and waits to hear her fate. The chancellor expected something like this so offered a gift for the party. Tea cups that changed color if tea contained poison. When trying to force Meng’s hand he was only partially successful so the princess pretended to faint to move things along. The tea tested positive for poison and the maid immediately recanted and pointed to Ms Meng. She came forward and confessed her crime and left it at that. Her father came forward and offered his position in court for her life. Ms Meng was further surprised with pleas from both chancellor and princess on her behalf. He finally gave her the divorce she’d been wanting and he and princess both begged for mercy. The chancellor then surprises the fathers of his two remaining concubines as he asks to have all other women in his house be allowed to return home and be treated as loved younger sisters. Interesting change of events, but that now means all his attention will be on the princess. She will have no curtain to hide behind when asked to do more by her country. I liked that princess and wife had a chat. The wife has no clue how she was actually in a better position than Princess was in many ways. She had local family. These two truly could have been friends and have far similar circumstances than the wife is aware of. I wonder if Princess’ reflection after the conversation cause the chancellor to leave or if he was going to leave anyways. Seems both of them had lots of thinking to do wandering through town lost in thought. It is also fate that these two meet on the bridge just as fireworks get started for a romantic view of the city. Now the battle of wits can be in high gear at the house with no distractions. Qin finally is decent to the other concubine and these two will probably be close friends now since no more husband competition between them. The house is going to be much quieter and far more interesting. The only machinations will now be lord and lady of the house. Will they work together to get a new prince set up for throne or will they clash as they try to outmaneuver each other?

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