Episode 9
Scene 1: Beijing, Shi Lang’s residence
Aman is in a conversation with Shi Lang and tells him that she believes that the emperor intends to send Shi Lang to fight against the Zheng regime and conquer Taiwan. Shi Lang asks his daughter to help him hand over the memorial he has written to the emperor. She tells Shi Lang about her affectionate feelings towards Wu Qijue after learning from him that Wu Qijue is not an eunuch (but an officer of the Imperial Guard of the 3rd rank) and that he agrees to the match. Aman wants to give it a try and persuade Wu Qijue to hand the message over to Kangxi.
Scene 2: Beijing, Shi Lang’s residence
Li Guangdi comes to see Shi Lang and tells him that the Zheng regime plan to attack Quanzhou [prefecture in which Jinmen is situated]. Because of this, he believes that the emperor will soon have Shi Lang return from retirement. He also says that Kangxi has changed his opinion about Shi Lang and appreciates his honesty when speaking to him. He also recommends Shi Lang to have the written memorial delivered through Wu Qijue.
After the end of the daily audience, Aman awaits Wu Qijue at the east gate. Walking outside the Imperial Palace, Aman hints at her feelings towards Wu Qijue, giving him a stitched rank badge of the 3rd rank as a present. Although Wu Qijue has already been promoted to the 2nd rank he keeps the badge as a sign of Aman’s love.
While they talk to each other, Wu Qijue notices that they are being observed by Li Fuquan, the chief-eunuch of the emperor. Aman tries to persuade Wu Qijue to submit Shi Lang’s memorial to the emperor. Although he does not like the idea at all, he agrees to try his best.
The emperor takes a walk in the palace garden accompanied by Wu Qijue and Li Fuquan. On the way, Wu Qijue saves a court lady [Chang Gui’e] from a falling stone. A little later, the emperor, who has apparently been informed by Li Fuquan, inquires Wu after Shi Lang’s memorial. According to Qing policies Wu Qijue should not get himself involved in politics, which implies not trying to convince the emperor of any point of view. As Wu Qijue has obviously done so by accepting to submit Shi Lang’s message to the emperor Kangxi gets angry with him and asks why Wu Qijue albeit well aware of Qing policies has done such a thing. Wu Qijue assures him that he had not intended to give him the memorial, but had accepted the message only to proofread it. When the emperor mocks Wu Qijue for his bad excuse and expresses his disapproval of Shi Lang for not respecting these policies, Wu Qijue explains that Shi Lang it is not involved in this matter and that Shi Lang’s adopted daughter Aman had given him the memorial. Kangxi tells him to show him the memorial and commands Wu Qijue to tell him his ideas about it. Wu Qijue says that Shi Lang’s words are very clever and suggest luring the Zheng troops onto the mainland instead of fighting them on the sea, because they would be much easier to defeat on land. Kangxi keeps the memorial to talk it over with his ministers and the cabinet afterwards and instructs Wu Qijue to arrange a meeting with Aman.
Wu Qijue takes Aman to see the emperor. As the emperor takes her inside the hall, Wu Qijue stays outside, visibly deeply jealous. The emperor seems to like Aman very much as he offers her to sit next to him, and forgives her inadequate manners in addressing him and her frankness, e.g. criticizing him for reestablishing the custom of foot binding banned by the first Qing emperor Shunzhi. When the emperor asks her why she has never gone back to her hometown, she says that the village has been destroyed, and, as a consequence of the new policy of evacuation land within 30 Li from the coastline has been evacuated. Kangxi answers to this criticism by assuring that this policy was introduced in order to prevent the Zheng troops from getting supplied with food, and from doing any harm to the inhabitants of the region. Aman says that the fishermen’s way of living has been destroyed, and that the Taiwan regime should be defeated once and for all, instead of taking short-term measures against them that instead harm the local populace.
The family is sitting at the table ready to eat, but Shi Lang is still pacing up and down the room worrying about Aman. He is afraid she could have said something wrong that could be punished with death penalty. Finally, she arrives and Shi Lang asks her what she and the emperor talked about. She starts off like: “and I told him, if I were the emperor…”, when Shi Lang interrupts her, insisting that she should not have said such thing, because she could have easily been sentenced to death. Aman, in her naïve way, tells the family that Kangxi was not angry or tiger-like at all, and that she criticized him for the evacuation of the coastline, which astonishes Shi Lang even more. When she tells him that the emperor is thinking about sending out troops, he is very satisfied with Aman’s and Wu Qijue’s work. Still, he is worried that the emperor might intend to make Aman one of his concubines and tells her that being one of the emperor’s wives does not have to be a good thing. In the end the mother says that Aman is a really fortunate girl and that “this Wu Qijue is not bad at all”.
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