In the meantime, Ling zhi's daughter tries to find out what's going on in the palace. She's worried that the emperor is going to kill her, but she's also worried that he's just going to make fun of her for being the empress. She wants to know why the emperor came to her place to announce the death sentence for her, and why he came to announce that she'd be the new emperor. She tells him that he can't kill her because she was a stain on the emperor's honor. She also wants him to write a letter to the emperor asking him to exempt her from the death penalty. The letter is from consort ling, who begs the emperor to let her stay alive. The next time the emperor sees her, he'll kill her.