Now that there is peace (albeit brief) between Qi and Zhou, its time to move on to the next dramatic plot point. The Qi emperor wants to get back to finishing a temple. Chang Gong and his team are against it while Gao Wei is all for it. The emperor gives the building task to the crown prince since Chang Gong needs to get ready for his upcoming wedding.
Xue Wu is washing Snowy, and making quite a mess, when she's joined by some sacred maids the emperor sent over. They're here to help organize the wedding and get on everybody's nerves. They give Xue Wu a hilarious make-over involving one of those complex loop-de-loop hair styles you often see in Chinese historicals. Xue Wu has a hard time balancing all that hair and dangly ornaments. Chang Gong looks on in horror.
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| Guess who just learned how to make a screencap |
Everyone sits down to dinner. Everyone, that is, except the sacred maids who are appalled to see the servants like Xiao Dong and Xiao Cui eating alongside the prince. (This is an odd table they're sitting at. It comes up to An De's waist where he's sitting, yet Xue Wu and Chang Gong look like they can barely peek over the top of it. Are you guys in a hole or something?)
Xue Wu can't even sleep without a couple of sacred maids hovering over her. Chang Gong wants to send the women back to the ministry. Xue Wu stops him as she fears the women will be punished if they're sent back early. She'll just have to put up with them.
The next day Chang Gong is able to help Xue Wu escape her captors, at least for a little while, as they ride off through the city. They don't bother to notice the slaves they ride past. The women, all tied together, are being taken to work on the temple. One of the slaves is poor Zheng Er. Remember her?
Chang Gong offers to live with Xue Wu at his mother's humble home until the wedding. Here they can live without all the rules and sacred maids. That evening as they worry over why the hen isn't laying, Xue Wu remembers Zheng Er and asks the prince to find the poor girl so they can set her free. They both feel Zheng Er was simply another victim of Zu Ting and the empress.
As Zheng Er struggles with her new life (those soldiers sure do like their whips), an epidemic breaks out at the construction site. It mainly strikes the overworked and underfed slaves. Zheng Er gets it into her head that this is all Xue Wu's fault. Xue Wu is to blame. Xue Wu must pay.
The next day poor Zheng Er is tricked by another slave into trying to escape. While all the guards are chasing after Zheng Er, the other slave is able to get away. Zheng Er is captured and forced back to the camp. (Zheng Er obviously didn't listen to my earlier advice to never trust peasants.)
While Chang Gong is in the marketplace, he overhears the people talking. King Yung has given an order that anyone moving to Zhou state will get 40 acres and a mule a piece of land and exempt from taxes for three years. Some people are already moving to Zhou, which would certainly weaken Qi. No one seems to support building the temple.
I know at least one person who doesn't support it: poor Zheng Er, who is getting beaten for her troubles.
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