Spoiler alert!!

​@@hydralance8837I wouldn't say that's a spoiler. The episode spells it out pretty clearly. A confirmation at best.

Yes, and he has never actually touched her.

And he has no desire to. None. The emperor would like to make that fact abundantly clear. It's funny. His subjects like him quite a bit. And he is actually a really funny and chill guy once you get to know him. But even Maomao, who respects him a fair bit, acknowledges that he didn't exactly have to clear a high bar as far as behavior is concerned. Being better than your predecessor in every conceivable way goes a long way to cement public approval.

Nice reactions. As I expected, your eyes went REALLY BIG when you realize that Lishu was a concubine to the PREVIOUS Emperor, which means she was NIne at the time. Gross as it may sound, sad to say concubines and even wives really do come that young in the past, although most of the time, they at least wait till puberty hits. From what I gathered at this episode though, seems like the previous emperor was pedophile, and the current emperor, not sure if he touched Lishu yet, but given how chill he is, even caring for Lady Lihua despite losing his son, I think that guy might be a decent person as emperors go, thiughf as one commenter said, he didn’t have a high bar to pass of his dad was a jerk

This is correct... it was to bully her because they thought she was just picky. Finding out she is essentially poisoning her, with the potential it could kill her would mean she could be executed for it. Which is why maomao doest tell him the real reason she asked for the food taster to be there.

Most bullys are just evil and ignorant.

BINGO. You nailed it. (oops)

@@silvervibranium2832 ummm she didnt have a baby. Lishu is still a virgin

@@silvervibranium2832 Im not sure if you deleted the comment or not but i still see it in my notifications but cant respond. When they were around the fire talking about the previous Emperor they were explaining Lishu who is 14 atm, was 9 when she became a consort to the PREVIOUS Emperor. The Empress Dowager (who was holding Gyokuyou's baby) was the Queen of the PREVIOUS Emperor and she gave birth to the CURRENT Emperor, SHE was very young when she had the current Emperor 10-11. So while the previous or current Emperor have never touched Lishu, the former 100% was a pedo and touched/preferred young girls.

Very much so

Aye, she still has her _Virtue,_ thus her title as the Virtuous Consort.

@@SuperiorPosterior Nah, the titles come from the palaces they are placed in. You get placed in the palace of virture -> you become the virtuous consort.

@@user-zp1lc7zw1t I'm pretty sure that's not it. I don't remember off the top of my head what Gyokuyou was called, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't the Jade Consort. And Lihua is the Wise Consort, but lives in the Crystal Pavilion.

​@@SuperiorPosterior Virture doesn't have to relate to Virginity, especially in this Series, as it relates to other aspects. Plus, if Virture relates to that, then do you mean to say that the other Concubines were not virgins when they joined the Rear Palace, thus didn't get that Title? There is also the fact that Lihua is the Wise Consort, but it had been shown clearly that she is more of the Pure mentality type. On the other hand Gyokuyou is the Precious Consort, but she is actually the wisest one. And finally, Ah-Duo is the Pure Consort, which doesn't really connect properly if you take the word at face value, since she is already 35+ years old, meaning she is probably the oldest Concubine of the Current Emperor, thus she had already done stuff with him.

@@user-zp1lc7zw1t The consorts’ titles come from real Chinese history - look up “Imperial Chinese harem system” on Wikipedia. Their homes (Jade Pavilion, Crystal Pavilion, etc.) I don’t know about; the rear palace is largely based on the Ming-era Forbidden City, so maybe those also come from real locations.

Was a rushed reaction by her own admission

Maomao is not a Mary Sue, she doesn't meet most of the criteria to be one. She has flaws, there are non-enemies that dislike or even hate her, she is not rizzing up every male character that passes her, she has to earn the trust of some characters, she only has the talent of a strong mind along with medical and poison knowledge with few other bits of knowledge outside of that, she regularly mentions the harsh realities that are in the world and that she trys to avoid if at all possible, (Spoiler)... and finally she needed the help of the man she hated the most in the world, to help someone else.

​@GalacticJedi99 But OP didn't imply she was a Mary sue, in fact the opposite, OP said the balance of vice and virtues is what keeping her character interesting

I think it was the food taster who swapped the dishes in the first place.

@@attackcrash0787 Like Maomao, Lady Lishu's food taster was served the dishes by another servant. She didn't leave her seat. The other servants did that mistake. Although there was no poison in it, she just didn't correct the mistake on purpose, because she knew her mistress doesn't like fish.

@@marcoftheninja6278 She could have easily swapped them beforehand. Also, the Anime went out of its way to show her reaction to the food that Maomao was tasting being poisoned. If she didn't swap them herself then she'd had no idea that Gyokuyou had gotten Lishu's dish.

@@attackcrash0787 After rewatching that scene with the shadowy image, I disagree with you... We saw "a" hand (probably of another servant's) placing the dish in front of the already sitting person who's image looked like the food taster's with a little smile. If she had noticed the dish was swapped, we don't exactly know. But her grin could be interpreted later, that she noticed a change in the dish's ingredients... but since it wasn't poisoned, she didn't say anything about the difference... Maomao didn't place her dish in front of her lady. She only tells if a dish was ok or poisoned. Of course as her taster Maomao must know about her lady's food preferences, the same goes for the other tasters. The reaction of Lady Lishu's food taster tells me, she noticed the different ingredient, but didn't know it would be harmful to her mistress. Like Lady Lihua's ladies-in-waiting from Ep. 4, Lady Lishu's ladies-in-waiting are similarly arrogant about what's good for her mistress. We heard them bitching at the very start of the Episode.

@@marcoftheninja6278 Literally none of that comment is referring to what I said.

I actually took the silhouetted character as being the food taster of Lishu last episode because the food dish shown last episode looks like the fish dish from this episode or at least they showed what looks like to be the fish dish and then the silhouetted person. Also, the food taster had a similar hair style as well. Hopefully, that made some sense! :)

That applies to any emperor. What do you know, learning is fun.

Spoilers below: As for right now, in the manga, we are unsure if Jinshi is the biological Emperor’s younger brother as Ah Duo also gave birth to a son around the same time that the Empress Dowager gave birth to the younger son. Maomao at some point even brought up that Ah Duo reminds her of Jinshi. People who read the light novel likely know what’s up, but yeah. It’s still unknown if Jinshi is the baby that was swapped at birth. Edit: Ah Duo is the Pure Concubine. She is also the first concubine of the current emperor.

Spoiler Alert: But that pin in his hair is also a clue. I believe it will be brought up either next episode or the episode after. Gao Shun will bring it up as he wasn’t able to change his attire out because he was busy with work.

@@Tingling10 spoiler speculation below Very interesting! Being Ah Do's and Emp's son would explain why Jinshi is so loyal to "Dad" and Emps doesn't view him as a rival. For now. But lil bro or son, Jinshi must realize he's the unacknowledged heir to the empire. Unless, Ah Do's function as the Pure Consort gives her some kind of religious authority (her robes were awfully priestly) and she is not supposed to be a child bearing concubine. Hrm.

Nah, Lishu lucked out. The old emperor died before that could happen. That's why there were no issues with her being passed to the current emperor's harem.