A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES
ADAPTED FROM TIANXIA GUIYUAN'S NOVEL HUANG QUAN
EPISODE 64
Zhiwei!
Prince Helian, no need to thank me.
I didn't do this because of you.
Will she return with you?
If she decides to return with you,
I'll let her go.
He's a good man.
That's right.
He is a good man.
That's why
I want you to return to Jinshi with him.
Why?
Feng Zhiwei.
Only he can give you happiness.
Don't you have anything to say to me?
Zhiwei, we missed our opportunity.
I can't give you the life you deserve.
I can't give you happiness.
Ning Yi.
Why are we always saying goodbye?
Maybe the only thing
that's left between us are goodbyes.
Maybe it's because we have never properly said goodbye.
Goodbye forever, Ning Yi.
Goodbye forever,
Feng Zhiwei.
Winter is coming again.
This summer has been hot.
I expect this winter will bring heavy snow.
You and I are now old.
The years get harder and harder.
This winter,
we'll suffer again.
The good thing about heavy snow
is that the bugs can't live.
And the crops can grow.
Am I right?
Whatever you say, Your Majesty. I don't need to understand.
That's true.
It's not difficult for me to understand, though.
You just have to tell me.
Tell me, who's the bug in your heart?
You should ask yourself.
If you really get rid of the bug,
will your crops grow well?
Why do I have to listen to your impudent comments?
You have no value anymore.
It's just out of habit.
It's been 20 years.
I'm used to it.
I'm used to coming and seeing you, talking to you,
and saying things that I can't say to others.
Yet, I'm running out of time.
So,
I probably won't see this winter's snow.
Didn't you
kill Yale yourself?
Now,
will you kill her again?
Your Majesty, you can't do that.
You can't kill her.
Because she's been in this hell...
for more than 20 years.
Yale.
You might be infuriated.
You might loathe me.
But you've spent your whole life with me.
Your Majesty.
I have no other requests.
But I'm begging you.
Before I die, let me see Ning Yi just once.
Please.
Your Majesty.
Royal Guards.
Yes, Your Majesty.
Take her to Yilan Palace.
Yes, Your Majesty.
Ning Shizheng.
My only wish
is to never see you again
in this lifetime or any other lifetime.
Your Majesty.
Why do this to yourself, Your Majesty?
If she loathes me, it means I'm in her heart.
With a heart filled with hatred,
she won't be able to love anyone else.
Your Majesty.
Your Majesty...
Order the Royal Guards to capture Prince of Chu, Ning Yi,
and bring him back to the capital for trial.
Have Yao Ying and Xin Ziyan to meet me at Fengyun Palace.
I will comply, Your Majesty.
I pay respect to Your Majesty.
Come.
Come play pitch-pot with me.
Your Majesty, is your lower back hurting you again?
Xin Ziyan, you really care about me.
I can't believe you remember that.
You are the Emperor, so everything about you is important.
Of course, I remember. I remember everything about Your Majesty.
I hope you don't forget what you said today.
Zhao Yuan.
Give the imperial will to Grand Secretary Yao.
Your Majesty, you're still in good health.
Why are you...
Your Majesty.
Forgive me for saying this,
but how could you pick Prince of Wei to be your successor?
Forgive me, Your Majesty. I'm so clumsy.
Prince of Wei...
You may both rise.
Get up now.
Liu Bei of the Eastern Han dynasty
was seriously ill in Baidicheng.
He let Zhuge Liang take care of his young son, Liu Shan.
Zhuge Liang
did all he could to help him, up to the day he died.
Now,
I am getting old.
When I look around me in the palace,
only the two of you know me the best.
Prince of Wei, Ning Qi, has grown up.
Yet he lacks experience.
Therefore,
I place this heavy responsibility upon the two of you.
I hope
you won't let me down.
Your Majesty.
Liu Bei had to do that in Baidicheng
because he had only one son.
Crown Prince is very important to the empire.
For the safety of the court and empire,
we shouldn't make a hasty decision.
Just as Your Majesty just said, Prince of Wei, Ning Qi, lacks experience.
His Highness can't take on the responsibility.
I hope that Your Majesty will retract the imperial edict.
Please retract it, Your Majesty.
Please retract it.
Your Majesty...
Your lower back...
Tomorrow morning,
you can plead your case
and accept my request.
Otherwise, leave the palace and go home.
This is because
you've served me in the palace for many years.
Out of the way.
Move.
What? His Majesty is making Prince of Wei
his successor?
Father, Headmaster Xin, I don't understand.
His Majesty seems to be in good health. Why is he in a rush to decide?
That's what I'm worried about.
Headmaster Xin, tomorrow,
I'll do my best to persuade His Majesty, even if he executes me.
If he doesn't change his mind, please, Headmaster Xin,
take care of my family for me.
Grand Secretary Yao, you can't persuade His Majesty on your own.
We have to contact General Chunyu and Chief Gu.
We are the head of internal affairs,
while the two of them control more than half of the Tiansheng army.
If we all persuade His Majesty,
maybe he'll understand Ning Qi isn't the best candidate.
I'll go right now.
Remember, Gu Yan can't know about this.
Yes, Your Majesty.
Your Majesty.
You should let me go tomorrow.
Prince of Chu isn't an unreasonable person.
I can go there and explain things to him.
Why do you have to go yourself? It's too risky.
People have always fought over the throne.
You can see a person's true colors.
I can't risk the future of this empire
or let this empire fall apart after I die.
I need to do this while I still can.
If Ning Yi refuses to come back,
I'll kill him tomorrow.
If you've made up your mind,
I'll go with you, Your Majesty.
You don't have to come with me.
You should stay.
You need to take care of Ning Qi for me.
Make him a good emperor who loves his people.
Your Majesty...
-I hope that General Chunyu -Grand Secretary Yao.
-can help us... -Headmaster Xin.
Chief Gu.
I just found out
that His Majesty sent a secret order
and had Vice Chief Lu Ming lead all the Royal Guards
outside the city to set up an ambush.
What is he trying to do?
Why is His Majesty keeping Chief Gu out of it?
Whom is he trying to ambush?
Whom is His Majesty
trying to secretly ambush?
If you think about it,
Prince of Chu will be here soon.
This isn't good.
His Majesty is determined to burn his boats.
I don't have time to explain right now.
General Chunyu, are you really willing to serve Prince of Chu loyally?
Am I, Chunyu Hong, a man who is not true to his word?
Even if it means going against His Majesty's orders?
Father.
Father, if you aren't willing to protect Prince of Chu...
Yangyu, let us two lead the imperial army.
Even if I have to sacrifice my life,
I won't let Prince of Chu be in danger.
I'm willing to go.
Very well.
I'm willing to risk it.
I thank you, General Chunyu, on behalf of Prince of Chu.
Your Highness. That's all I found out.
I don't understand.
His Majesty is just trying to make Prince of Chu hand over the army.
Why is Xin Ziyan so nervous about it?
Why would he persuade Chunyu Hong to lead troops to fight them?
That Headmaster Xin is very loyal to Prince of Chu.
He'll be tricky to deal with.
Very loyal, is he?
Didn't you say that you have Xin Ziyan's weakness?
Sun Xiang, take her to see Xin Ziyan.
I'd like to see
just how loyal this Xin Ziyan is to my sixth brother.
I will comply, Your Highness.
Ning Yi has a lot of power right now.
Most officials in the palace support him.
He also commands the vast Minhai army.
He's getting too powerful, which is why Father is now wary of him.
Today, Father isn't just trying to take back the army.
I must help Father
and show what a good son I am.
Right?
Huofeng Gang will help in any way possible.
Ning Qi wants to keep his hands clean.
It's not that easy.
Yueling, you know what to do, right?
Don't worry.
I'll let Ning Shizheng know
what his good son has been doing behind his back.
As soon as Ning Yi dies, I'll have someone kill Ning Qi.
I'll let Ning Shizheng watch all his children die.
Ziyan.
Erhua?
What happened?
I pay respect to Headmaster Xin.
This bold woman sneaked into the Prince's residence
to steal jewelry.
We caught her red-handed.
Prince of Wei is asking,
do you want to deal with this publicly or privately?
Ridiculous.
You kidnapped me and took me to his residence.
You're full of nonsense.
Ziyan, don't listen to their farts.
I do smell it. It stinks.
Do you even believe what you just said?
She's the sister-in-law of a high-ranking official.
Why would she go steal jewelry?
That's ridiculous.
I don't have time to argue with you.
What did Prince of Wei say?
How are we going to deal with it?
We could send her to the Ministry of Justice and punish her.
Or, in a more private fashion,
if you stay in your residence today and drink some tea and wine,
Prince of Wei will let it go.
Usually, I enjoy drinking tea and wine very much.
But not today.
I have things to do.
I can't stay at home all day.
I would recommend that you think about it.
Even though I'm not part of the royal family,
His Majesty trusts me very much.
Whether my sister-in-law stole anything
can't be determined or made up even by Prince of Wei himself.
Don't cause trouble for your master.
Do you hear that?
Ziyan, if you have something to do,
don't let me get in the way.
Just go wherever you need to go.
I doubt they would do anything to me.
Headmaster Xin, if I let this thief go,
I won't be able to report to Prince of Wei.
Please think about it.
I understand.
You're trying to cause me trouble.
Fine. Let's go to the government office.
Let's go right now. I'll go with you myself.
After that, I'll meet the Emperor.
I'll examine Prince of Wei.
Then, you won't face just light punishments.
Never mind. Release her first.
Abducting an official's family member
is a crime.
I'm sure you know that.
You're just following orders. I don't want to cause you trouble.
My residence is right here.
My sister-in-law isn't going anywhere.
You've worked very hard.
Go inside and have some tea.
Wait until I get back before you do anything.
Don't you dare do anything reckless.
Erhua, wait for me.
Got it.
What?
You really want some tea?
His Highness ordered that
if Xin Ziyan refuses to stay at home, we have to kill her.
My wretched son,
is this mutiny we have here?
Gu Yan.
Yes, Your Highness.
Back up!
Retreat!
Remember,
His Majesty doesn't know that the Shuangsheng Spell has been lifted.
Father,
the Shuangsheng Spell has been lifted.
What did you say?
The Shuangsheng Spell, which links our fate together,
has been lifted.
You don't have to protect my life to save your own anymore.
Ning Yi.
Think about it.
How many times have you gone against me?
How many times have you disobeyed me?
Do you think I haven't killed you only because of the Shuangsheng Spell?
If it's not because of the Shuangsheng Spell,
why haven't you killed me yet today?
The poison of Shuangsheng Spell is right here.
You don't have to worry about yourself.
You can kill me right away.
You gave me everything I have.
If you want to take it back,
I, Ning Yi,
would be happy to give it to you.
Your Highness.
Stop saying such things.
His Majesty is just doing this for the empire.
This...
This Shuangsheng Spell has caused so much trouble.
But now, it has been lifted.
Now,
-we can focus on the future, right? -Zhao Yuan.
Yes, Your Majesty.
Stop trying to protect him.
Your Majesty.
Look behind him.
There's the Tiansheng army loyal to him.
There are commanders in there
who can easily chop off the enemy's head from that distance.
Without the Shuangsheng Spell, it'll be easier for him to kill me.
Father, if that distance isn't far enough for you to feel safe,
how about a hundred steps more?
Or a thousand steps more?
Ning Yi, are you mocking me?
Even when you were in Pucheng,
you ordered the army to disobey my orders.
Now, we're only an arm span apart.
Ordering the army was my fault
and mine only.
If you still don't feel safe right now,
I'll have to give it all up.
What do you mean?
Please, Your Majesty,
take back this army token you gave me and the token of the Ministry of War.
I, Ning Yi, will make myself a commoner.
I am giving up my royal title.
I won't ever return.
What do you mean by this?
You want to know?
This is for my mother, who is still alive,
who has suffered, but is not allowed to meet me.
Your Majesty.
Do you resent me?
Do you resent your father?
Do you not want to be my son anymore?
No.
I resent myself.
I resent myself for being born a royal.
I resent myself for chasing after power my whole life.
I resent myself because my mother was locked up for many years,
yet I, her son,
didn't know anything about it!
Your Majesty.
I beg of you.
Give my mother back to me.
It's been 20 years.
You've resented her enough.
During those 20 years,
I've missed my mother every day, every night, each and every second.
It's been so long.
I've started to worry.
I'm worried that if I close my eyes, when I wake up,
I'll forget what my mother looks like.
I'm scared.
I'm scared I'll forget her eyes.
Her eyes when she looked at me, how she smiled at me,
how she cried in front of me.
Father.
Give my mother back to me.
Let me be with her for the remainder of her years.
Even if I am exiled to a faraway place,
it'll be worth it.
Father.
Give her back to me.
Give my mother back to me.
Give the son his mother.
I'm begging you.
Why?
Why would a prince be willing to become a commoner?
Why?
He had so much power, and he controlled half of the army.
Yet, he gave it all up.
Why?
Liar.
He must be a liar.
Ning Shizheng.
Are the heavens pitying you?
Have the heavens gone blind?
Your Highness.
We can't control the heavens,
but my feelings for you
will never change.
Let me kill Ning Shizheng.
When he dies, we can get revenge.
No!
If we just kill him, it'll be too easy on him.
Death is not frightening.
Everyone dies. Dying is the easiest thing in the world.
If he dies, he won't have to suffer.
What about me?
I, Zhangsun Hong, am living in hell.
No. I can't let him die.
Even if it takes my life,
I have to bring him to hell with me!
Your Highness.
I know you don't want him to die,
but Ning Yi
has backed off in his fight for the throne.
I don't know how to help you make Ning Shizheng feel
what it's like to have his children kill each other.
You can't.
But someone can.
The Dacheng royal family still has one weapon.
It's about time
to let her come back.
Ziyan.
-Dahua. -Ziyan.
Dahua, I'm right here.
Ziyan.
Just now,
I had a nightmare.
What did you dream of?
It was terrible.
Go get Erhua for me. I want to see her.
Erhua...
Hurry, Ziyan.
Erhua is...
She went away.
Tomorrow...
Tomorrow, I'll go get her.
You're lying.
-Dahua. -You're lying.
-Dahua. -She's gone.
Erhua died wrongfully.
-Dahua, don't... -I...
-I have to go to the palace. -Don't move.
Dahua.
Dahua, you shouldn't move.
I'm right here.
What is it?
Ziyan.
I...
How about my child?
Dahua, listen to me.
It's gone.
Dahua.
Gone?
We still have time, Dahua.
-Dahua. -What did you say?
Dahua.
Dahua, I'm here with you.
Don't...
You're lying!
Dahua, listen to me.
Dahua.
Dahua!
Doctor! Sanhua! Come here!
Dahua!
-Hurry! -Dahua!
Dahua.
Talk to me!
Your Highness!
Your Highness.
She's here.
Mother.
When I left,
you were only this tall.
Lift your head.
Let me see you.
Let me see my son.
Mother.
I almost can't recognize you.
But you've always been in my heart.
You haven't changed at all.
Silly child.
Mother.
I finally get to see you again.
Ziyan, wait a moment.
I'm tuning this guqin for my mother.
Sit.
Your Highness.
Call me Liulang.
Liulang.
Subtitle translation by Sophie Chang