The Virtuous Queen of Han (衛子夫)

I beg Your Majesty to spare the Empress from the death sentence!

Your Majesty, for the sake of years of marriage with the Empress...

Don't bring up our marriage!

Both mother and daughter brought chaos upon the harem!

Your sins can not be pardoned! You deserve to die!

Your Majesty is the ruler of the nation.

How easy it is for you to want us dead.

I just didn't expect you to be so cold-blooded to the Empress!

Cold-blooded?

You're both extremely cruel and have harmed others.

Have you ever felt a pang of compassion or guilt?

When you saw others suffering, you might even celebrate with drinks

to congratulate yourselves for the success of your evil scheme.

You have both denied yourself of what 'affection' is!

Now that you're on the verge of death, you talk to me about 'affection'?

Ridiculous!

Guards!

Take them away!

Your Majesty!

All that Jiao Er did was to hold on to your affections.

She just wanted to be with you forever!

The gods can be her witnesses!

I beg Your Majesty to take back your orders!

I beg Your Majesty to take back your orders!

Your Majesty! I know that I have done wrong!

- I'm wrong! Your Majesty! - Your Majesty!

Your Majesty!

Even if you don't care about Jiao Er's devotion to you

you have to consider Grand Empress Dowager's sentiments.

Jiao Er has always been her favorite!

How dare you use my deceased grandmother to threaten me?

I wouldn't dare to do so!

I just know Your Majesty always followed the teachings of Confucius.

Confucius once said 'Served the dead as you would have served them alive.'

'That is how far-extended filial piety is.'

Were Grand Empress Dowager still alive

how sad would she be to see her grandchildren turn on each other?

The Emperor and the Empress become enemies?

To spare Jiao Er's life is to be filial to Grand Empress Dowager.

I beg Your Majesty to fulfill your filial duty

to comfort Grand Empress Dowager's soul!

I didn't expect you to be so shameless as to use kinship

as an excuse to stay alive.

What is justice if I allow evildoers to live?

What is filial piety if I allow the harem to stay in chaos?

Your Majesty, I know that I have sinned terribly.

I do not expect Your Majesty to forgive me.

But there is one favor that I ask of Your Majesty.

What is it?

Please allow me to see Madame Wei before I die.

Jiao Er...

Your Majesty once said to me that you were content with having just me.

You deceived me.

Your Majesty thinks that if we have mutual affection

we wouldn't plot against each other.

But Your Majesty did plot against me.

I'm only doing to you what you did to me.

Your Majesty is right.

But when I plot against you, I was plotting to get your love.

I hope to be treated with true affection.

But you plot against me to get someone else's affection.

You've deceived me with false affections.

May I ask Your Majesty, between us, which one of us let the other down?

I ask Your Majesty not for the sake of merits nor affection

but for the promise of the golden palace

please allow me to see Madame Wei.

Jiao Er...

Joy and bliss to Empress.

This might be the last time that anyone will address me as Empress.

You think that I deserve this, don't you?

Perhaps I do.

Now that I am in this predicament, do you still hate me?

Actually, I have never hated you.

But I can't help but bear a grudge against you.

Since I entered the palace

I've always been polite and modest. I never fought for anything.

But I still suffered from witchcraft and almost lost my life.

My three children almost lost their mother.

I can only resent that your hatred runs too deep

and took over your true character.

Actually, the resentment and hatred between us

did not stem from too much hatred

but from a love that is too deep.

How could I bear to treat the favorite concubine well

in order to win the favor of my husband?

His Majesty and I were childhood sweethearts.

I saw him distancing himself from me more and more.

How could you possibly understand how helpless I felt?

Now, everything has come to an end.

Little did I expect that as the leader of the harem

the Empress of Great Han

I couldn't even get a hold on my own fate.

I don't have any other requests.

There is just one thing that I wish to know.

Grandmother once told me on her deathbed

that she left me a life-saving charm.

I'd like to know if you are it.

Yes.

This is great.

I'd ask you for the favor now.

But it isn't for myself.

It is for the sake of my mother.

I beg Madame Wei to save my mother and spare her from death.

I, Chen Jiao, have never begged anyone

apart from His Majesty and Grandmother.

But in order to save my mother

I'm willing to kneel to Madame Wei until you agree to my request.

Your Highness...

Since I was little, my mother has always spoiled and doted on me.

After getting married to his Majesty, he was all that I cared about.

I only thought about how I could win the favor of His Majesty.

I didn't even care about my mother who has been by my side all along.

Until today in the hall, my mother pleaded for me

I saw her bent back and her feeble footsteps.

I then realized that the glamorous Grand Princess Dou

is just an old woman who has spent her life worrying for her daughter!

My mother raised me, helped me, fought for my status and favor

but I never was grateful for her grace.

But still, my mother tried to plead for me to be spared from death

by taking on all the blame and kneeling down on the ground.

She begged to be killed!

You are a mother and a daughter.

You should understand how I feel.

Please allow me to fulfill my filial duty before I die.

Allow me to use this life-saving charm to spare my mother from death.

I beg Madame Wei to grant me this wish!

You mustn't!

One may escape an untoward act of God

but never the evil of one's own!

Don't even dream of persuading me to pardon them both!

Your Majesty, one of them is your aunt and the other is your legitimate wife.

Aunt? Legitimate wife?

What do you think about this?

Why are your hands shaking?

Is it because of your anger, or have you contracted an illness?

Shall I summon the imperial physician?

My hands aren't shaking from my anger.

It isn't because of any illness either.

It is just because it is the time for me to take that Collar Soup.

They used poison on you to take your life.

They fed me an addictive potion to rob me of my will.

They wanted me to have to see the Empress for Collar Soup.

Your Majesty, how can this be cured?

The Minister of Imperial Medical Affairs said that it will take some time

to rid myself of this addiction.

Your Majesty...

I can't tell anyone about this.

Zi Fu...

I am so mad.

I thought of the pain that you went through

and I thought of the days when I was kept in the dark

and manipulated by the Empress everyday.

Then I got even angrier.

So much for 'Green is your collar'

'melancholic is my heart'

She has such an evil heart.

This is all my fault.

I didn't realize the pain that you were in.

Please forgive me, Your Majesty.

How easy it is to forgive you for this.

But they can not be pardoned!

Zi Fu, do you know what is the scariest beast in the woods?

Is it the tiger? Tigers eat people.

When the late emperor asked me the same question

that was what I answered as well.

He shook his head and told me

the scariest is the snake that spits venom.

A venom-spitting snake is scarier than a human-eating tiger?

Because a poisonous snake is hidden and can not be guarded against.

If you think that it is weak and treat it with kindness

it will turn around to bite you instead.

The venom that it spits out is enough to kill a person.

Therefore, once you have it captured, you must not release it easily.

I understand that Your Majesty has suffered greatly in their hands

so I shouldn't say anything more.

But since Your Majesty mentioned the late emperor

it reminds me of a story that I heard in the countryside.

It is about Your Majesty's grandfather.

It was said that when Empress Dowager Bo was ill

Emperor Xiaowen looked after her by himself for those three years.

He tried all her medication and did not sleep a day in peace.

My ancestor's filial affection could move both gods and men.

Therefore, our nation has always ruled with filial piety.

The Empress knelt to beg me, not for her own life, but that of her mother's.

I was deeply moved.

I came to plead on her behalf, despite her crimes and punishments

because of one thing.

Filial piety.

Your Majesty inherited the same principle

and has always treated Empress Dowager with obedience and respect.

Grand Empress Dowager treated Your Majesty with kindness as well.

You were very close to your grandmother.

I wonder if you know that Grand Empress Dowager asked me

to fulfill her last wish?

What is that?

Should the day come

when the Empress brings death upon herself

she hoped that I could do my best to save her life.

I would be so bold then as to ask you for a favor.

Please tell me what orders you have for me.