The heavy kicker for this is that Ling and Chunchan were servants together, best friends from their home village they took care of each other and Yuwan "rescued" Chunchan from the washing rooms and other really grimy dirty work when she became Consort Ling. She basically threw a fit and demanded Chunchan be her Gugu because she wanted to bring her friend up in status as well but as a simple Noble Lady this was all she could do at the time. Chunchan was as loyal to Ling as Souxin was to Ruyi. Until this point Chunchan never thought that Ling's hand would be raised against her and she would try to murder her best friend to silence her.

Ling still cannot and will not accept responsibility for her own behavior. First it was that she got set up - she was the mouse in their trap, then they were all lying about the things she's done including her brother brought in from the borderlands and who isn't the brightest bulb on the tree, then she tries shifting the focus back to her brother (whose life was threatened by her if he didn't do want she wanted), her guard (who Hailan pointed out to him how many of her servants and others failed her and have died or disappeared so now he's afraid of her and her power) and her former servant (whom she poisoned and tried to kill) and when that doesn't work, she shifts blame again toward Hailan as an instigator, then toward Ruyi and she knows by using Li Yu's name, Emperor's pathological jealousy will rear its ugly head as it always does and he'll lose focus on all the accusations against her and she figures she'll escape his wrath. Enter Royal Mother with a Royal arse whoopin' in hand from the shrooms to the message and flags from Ruyi who isn't even there to vent her own anger at Ling for murdering her children in various ways, her dear friend Li Yu who willingly died to protect Ruyi's reputation and future in the palace, her harem companions now gone from poisonings, childbirth gone wrong thanks to Ling, etc., and for soiling her reputation repeatedly through falsehoods. And even after she's been accused, tried, convicted and punished, she's still blaming someone else - this time, the Emperor himself. She tells him she was just a maid when they met and he taught her everything she knows and he taught her by example how to get what she wants by eliminating the competition: she basically tells him she learned very well what he was teaching and that she can accomplish anything via evil deeds through lies, bribes, coercion, threats, feeding gossip, initiating rumors, etc. It would seem she was his star pupil and when she points that out to him, it hits home because he gets furious with her - but not out of indignation, he's seething because he knows she's right. He's despicable and she beat him at his own game and what did he do? He kept promoting her, kept favoring her, kept lauding her praises, kept heaping more and more wealth on her and her clan (all the more money to buy the evil she so desperately needed) - why wouldn't she continue her evil plans and destroy even more people when he keeps rewarding her for it out of stupidity. How many of those flags had the names of his children on them and he never once suspected her. Even when Jia finally willingly, almost proudly admitted to how many she had intentionally harmed, she also denied being the catalyst for several others who had died: that alone should have made him sit up and realize he had yet another serial killer in his harem, but he never did. He's as stupid and he is childish and he was chronically manipulated and controlled not just by certain vipers in the harem, but by Royal Mother as well, who, by the way, flips her allegiance from one to another as easily as one flips a coin to fit her own agenda.

Замечательно сыграна сцена. Неужели был такой глупый император.