Everyone raises their glasses to welcome the emperor and his retinue back to the palace. The queen's mother tells the emperor that she is recovering from her illness. She tells him that she has heard that cooking congee with ginseng and dried ginger has a miraculous warming effect. The royal brother has been eating congee for a long time, and the queen blames him for making her lose her wits and be addicted to it, so the emperor can manipulate her. She says that the emperor is really from western xia, and that she was the bargaining chip in the secret pact between the two countries. She asks the emperor to change his mind, because she wants to marry off to the song empire, and she doesn't want her to be separated from her son, the emperor's regent. She also asks the queen to help her, because consort li has been imprisoned and has gone insane. She wants to know if the emperor has taken care of the children, and whether it is because the emperor wants to name feng zhao as the crown prince, or because he wants to make sure that the concubines are treated well. She reveals that she had no choice but to yield to the emperor when he and the prince joined forces to interrogate her.