Oof, the Little Empress is finally showing her claws. I hope she understands that she is officially declaring war on the Dowager at this moment, and has made off-screen preparations accordingly. :-)

I mean the Dowager's scheme here was already kinda declaring war on her. What was she supposed to do otherwise, let them smear her as a violent abusive empress?

Oof, the Little Empress is finally showing her claws. I hope she understands that she is officially declaring war on the Dowager at this moment, and has made off-screen preparations accordingly. :-)

I mean the Dowager's scheme here was already kinda declaring war on her. What was she supposed to do otherwise, let them smear her as a violent abusive empress?

That is indeed what she was supposed to do, according to traditional filial piety expectations. Doing so would deescalate the situation, and place the Dowager back on top of the pecking order in the Rear Palace. The fact that the Empress chose to escalate instead means the conflict will likely move from the cold to the hot phase, with assassinations and all that good stuff. I am hoping the Little Empress is prepared for that.

last edited at Jun 15, 2024 4:54PM

Good job, emperor! Although sadly her mother still escapes justice for now... Hopefully not for long, though. Once the princess knows she's secure with her general's support, the dowager will no longer have anyone left to manipulate.

Oof, the Little Empress is finally showing her claws. I hope she understands that she is officially declaring war on the Dowager at this moment, and has made off-screen preparations accordingly. :-)

I mean the Dowager's scheme here was already kinda declaring war on her. What was she supposed to do otherwise, let them smear her as a violent abusive empress?

That is indeed what she was supposed to do, according to traditional filial piety expectations. Doing so would deescalate the situation, and place the Dowager back on top of the pecking order in the Rear Palace.

I dunno. There's a few different kinds of status at play here; the "elder generation" status is one, but only one. There's also simple hierarchical status, where the emperor is actually the head of government and the dowager empress is not. And oddly there's gender status, because supposedly the emperor is a guy--something the dowager empress may actually be miscalculating because in her head the emperor is NOT a guy. Traditional China was sexist as hell. Of course the empress doesn't directly collect either of those statuses--but as the emperor's wife she gets some by association.
Gender also comes into play with the filial piety thing--sure, the dowager empress gets some respect for being the emperor's mother . . . but it's not like she's anybody's FATHER, which is where Confucian filial piety really comes into play.

Finally, it would be different if it was the Empress' word directly against the dowager Empress' word. But it isn't--the people making the allegation are a couple of servants--high ranking, high status servants, probably minor nobles in their own right, but it's a bit outrageous that the dowager Empress is making a claim that the Empress' word should be of less import than theirs. In effect, the dowager Empress is not just trying to put the Empress below HER in the pecking order, she's trying to put her below the SERVANTS. Letting that pass doesn't "de-escalate" the situation, it puts her on a path to being the servants' servant eating gruel or some damn thing.

There's also the fact that the Empress hadn't been making a move--she was fine with the dowager Empress being top of the pecking order. She was cheerfully bowing down to her, giving her respect, doing penance over little imagined mistakes. The dowager Empress didn't need to be RESTORED to the top of the pecking order, until she created a crisis by trying to push the Empress far further down it than would be correct for her position.

last edited at Jul 18, 2024 1:23AM

F for the servants

One thing that's interesting is our cool general Tauntaun who is very clearly and openly a hot, long-haired woman, and also a general with a literal post at the front, not just some, say, a weird ceremonial thing.

If this is at least somewhat realistic ancient china, like PLG up there says, how is she a general? This implies men take orders from her. Men have a hard time obeying women nowadays. Military is like THE powerbase and monopoly of violence instrument that men like to keep theirs, even over a rulership position if you note the occasional ruling female queens and other such in medieval europe.
If this is not a realistic china, and instead some slightly more equal fantasy version, and (even if she's really exceptional) people accept an openly female general, how is it a problem if the emperor is not a man? We've at least had like two or something ruling female chinese emperors in real life. Of course it's not impossible the standards might be different, but it feels annoyingly discordant.

I wouldn't be surprised if the author doesn't think about this at all and Lan being a general has no relevance to any sexism or filial piety questions

Good job. And this also became a great demonstration of how much exactly the dowager cares for her pawns, so it may be a lot harder for her to get someone to go this far for her schemes in future.

last edited at Aug 19, 2024 2:38PM

Ok, I can't tell if emperor not finishing what she said on page 3 is on purpose...or because a oopsie with the translation.

Ok, I can't tell if emperor not finishing what she said on page 3 is on purpose...or because a oopsie with the translation.

Methinks it's a typo translation error, "their" was meant to be "them" perchance.

TEH BLUSH WHEN THE EMPEROR REALISES WHAT HER WIFE IS TRYING TO PULL WAS DO DAMN GOOD!!!
Rip the servants tho.
Thanks for the chapter !

I'm kind of worried about the princess. She stood up for our empress, and then the dowager empress took her back, and she's about to be in for a very hard time for the crime of thinking for herself. I think the empress may also be thinking about that, though, partly because she's a good kid and partly because that line about the events not being about her might be about the princess. (They might not too, they might be saying that the point was to contain the power of the emperor)

One thing that's interesting is our cool general Tauntaun who is very clearly and openly a hot, long-haired woman, and also a general with a literal post at the front, not just some, say, a weird ceremonial thing.

If this is at least somewhat realistic ancient china, like PLG up there says, how is she a general? This implies men take orders from her. Men have a hard time obeying women nowadays. Military is like THE powerbase and monopoly of violence instrument that men like to keep theirs, even over a rulership position if you note the occasional ruling female queens and other such in medieval europe.
If this is not a realistic china, and instead some slightly more equal fantasy version, and (even if she's really exceptional) people accept an openly female general, how is it a problem if the emperor is not a man? We've at least had like two or something ruling female chinese emperors in real life. Of course it's not impossible the standards might be different, but it feels annoyingly discordant.

I wouldn't be surprised if the author doesn't think about this at all and Lan being a general has no relevance to any sexism or filial piety questions

It's completely unrealistic and honestly might undermine the themes of the work, but she's hot

I'm generally willing to suspend disbelief and strong anti-royalist beliefs to enjoy some good palace drama yuri, because, hey, it's all just fiction and fun.

But I will admit to being a little uncomfortable at one of our protagonists ordering the deaths of people who are, and that she knows are, just pawns in the game of someone much more powerful than them.

I get the ruthless pragmatism and strategy of it, sending the message to the empress dowager and, more importantly, any potential future pawns, that the stakes of taking a shot at the empress are very high, but still.