Unfortunately, the help she could get for the "greenhouse" would have to be limited to women and eunuchs as she's doing this within the Rear Palace: probably not that many blacksmith eunuchs.

Gossip Girl’s name is Xiaolan, and yes, she’s a cutie. If you pay close attention, Lakan puts his monocle back on the other eye after he cleans it. Infer from that what you will. I think this is the third reference to the current emperor’s grandmother, after the bit about her making Luomen a eunuch and the restrictions on cutting trees. We haven’t heard anything about her _son’s_ policies or orders, just his sexual preferences. The _current_ dowager empress gets about one syllable of dialogue, enough to credit her as Mamiko Noto.

The advisor as a similar importance/power as the queen have in occidental chess.

He was also mocking "Jenshi". Blue Roses are fake, but beautiful. Jenshi is a fake eunuch, always in blue.

Mother of former emperor that is mother of pervy Emperor is one strange and powerful character from the past. If new Season we may learn more about the past and those she allied.

Xiaolan is one of my fav characters Gyokuyou and Serine should hire her.

Lauren & Jess asides on Patreon, if they could do one free for all to follow along they'd have a rush to sign up to hear the rest. Good call on the ladies-in-waiting of concubine Loulan. Oh Jess the theories you're throwing out.

I wonder why you guys think, Lakan wanted Jinchi to fail. So far everything he has done was in support of Jinchi and Maomao, or at least you could say he guided them (the flour explosion, the blacksmith). Yes he is a creep, but it feels more like he is just having fun testing those two.

She is in Rear Palace so she does not have access to artisan talents.

Lakan is more strange than we imagine and how it shaped him and those around him.

Opium Wars destroyed China internally and through foreign invasion so Jinshi’s reaction not entirely theatrical.

It's not actually a respect thing, it's an actual disability, which exists in real life - called prosopagnosia (or face blindness) - people with it will often use other characteristics to recognize people, like their build or clothes or voice, but usually (but not always) can't perceive the face as a whole unit. If they are important enough to need to remember he will give them a shogi piece for a face (since he's a strategist), with everyone else just being faceless go stones.

Not recognizing faces is a real illness.