The spirit queen tells Ling that she has been married for nine years and that the late emperor would have stopped her "crap acting" if he were still alive. Ling tells the spirit queen that her father chose the empress as his wife and that he even asked her to have so many expensive things. The servants in the imperial affairs department have been working for the dowager since the emperor took the throne. Ling says that even the dowry is fake and that she and Ling will not trust the emperor anymore.