The Empress and Lady Yu are taking a walk in the garden. Lady Yu thanks the Empress for saving her. She then sees Noble Consort Gao and Lady Jia with Snowball and excuses herself, saying that she's afraid of dogs. Noble Consort Gao stops her, saying that she was rude to leave without greeting her. The servant then releases the dog and it chases after Lady Jia. Ying Luo protects her by kicking Snowball away. Noble Consort Gao then yells at Ying Luo for injuring her dog. Ying Luo retorts, saying that she saved Noble Consort Gao from severe punishment. She reasoned that if Snowball did actually injure Lady Yu, then she would have killed a potential prince. The Empress steps in and backs up Ying Luo, reprimanding Noble Consort Gao for not being able to even control a dog.
After they all leave the scene, Noble Consort Gao gets mad at Lady Jia for her scheme since it didn't go through. She sees through her, saying that she is doing it just for her own son. Lady Jia then says that she has more planned and that the dog is just the beginning...
Ying Luo visits Lady Yu and notices that her maid's fingernails were yellow in colour. When she confronts her, she said that it was from the tapioca that the Empress gave Lady Yu to put in her soup. Ying Luo retorts back, saying that tapioca is white, not yellow. The maid then begs for forgiveness, saying that she needed money to buy medicine for her family and sold the tapioca powder, replacing it with something cheaper. Ying Luo sees through her lie, saying that she tried to hide it on purpose. The maid then spills the beans, saying that Lady Jia told her to do it. Ying Luo then tells her to be a double agent to make up for her faults since they have no evidence against Lady Jia.
The Eunuch that was going to help Consort Xian sell the jewellery is bullied by the other Eunuch. He returns to his quarters for lunch, but everyone finishes all the rice. He's so desperate that he steals Snowball's food.
The Emperor then gifts the Empress with lychee trees even though it is not the harvest season yet (he had shipped them over from a far location). The Empress is beaming with happiness about the present and tells Ying Luo to take care of it until the banquet in which they will enjoy the ripe lychees. Ming Yu gets jealous that she was not given the task while Ying Luo is already starting to take care of the logistics, asking the shippers how many lychees were there in total so that she can be accountable. Qing Er tells Ming Yu that while she is complaining, Ying Luo is showing how capable she is by tackling the task at hand. The Emperor also looks like he worries about her trust in Ying Luo.
Noble Consort Gao and Lady Jia talks about their plan to eliminate Lady Yu. They become suspicious when Lady Yu's maid asks for more powder, especially since she said that Lady Jiu started showing some symptoms of the poison. They plan to do the exchange a couple days later, on the day they are holding the banquet to harvest the lychee.
Ying Luo is counting the lychees on the tree, making sure that none is missing. Lady Yu servant reports to her, saying that she would get more powder on the day of the harvesting. Ying Luo asks her if she said anything unnecessary, and she says no.
Consort Xian is still looking for money with no luck. Lady Chun offers her money, but she is suspicious and doesn't want to owe any favours. She doesn't want to be on anyone's side and get involved with the palace politics. She suggests to take the money as a loan and that she would repay it back 2-4 times but Lady Chun refuses, saying she prefers that Consort Xian owe her a favour. Consort Xian refuses to take the money.
The lychee festival is starting. Ying Luo tries to intercept the exchange of the powder, only to find that it was a fragrance in the pouch that was being exchanged. She then realizes that it was a trap and she runs away.
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So the tension and scheming between the Empress and Noble Consort Gao is getting more and more interesting. Ying Luo has a really good perception and is able to pick up subtle details and is able to use her intelligence to get out of tough situations. I'm pretty sure Lady Jia sabotaged the lychee trees... looking forward to seeing how Ying Luo talks herself out of this one!