Rewatching this I can see how these scenes are supposed to highlight a key difference between Yingluo and the Empress. Empress doesn’t know how to appeal to the people she’s talking to. You can see it especially when she talks to Qianlong about the Jiangnan prostitutes. She only has one thing in mind, and that is rules and etiquette. Whereas Yingluo knows that with Qianlong she needs to make him slightly jealous, and with the Empress Dowager she needs to bring up the princesses’ welfare. Pretty clever demonstration of psychology.

I always saw the different in the way she treated Yingluo and the Empress she treated Yingluo better than she treated the Empress even after she found out about the lie.

I love Yingluos roast to shu about parting with her kids

I just love how you can see Yingluo’s manipulating talent with the Dowager and the Empress : with the dowager, instead of using the arguments that had annoyed her she used other arguments that would really matter to the Dowager to convince her, something she did in another scene with the Emperor, when he was admiring dancers on the boat ; and with the Empress, she pretends she wants the opposite of her real wish to get her to do what she *really* wants from her, because she knows the Empress would beware of her and tends to wish to go against her. And this is like that in real life : with some people, especially those who are usually domineering like these characters, you can’t always ask them directly what you want. You have to lead them in the direction you want by using roundabout roads without them realizing it (I do that all the time with my sis’ and my mom 😉)

Thank you for subtitles, Empress Viki❤️‍🩹

Everyone bullys the queen! Reminds me Princess Diana...rest in peace 🕊️