BBJX: The Qing Princes And Ruoxi

THE QING PRINCES AND RUOXI

OBSESSIVE AND TOXIC LOVE ROUXI AND YINZHEN, THE 4TH PRINCE (The Love of a Lifetime)

One can say that Yinzhen’s love for Ruoxi borders on the obsessive and their relationship was a toxic one, he being a very toxic man. Rouxi and Yinzhen’s lives had been intertwined right from the beginning when twice she had been in the path of his galloping horse. The first time they crossed paths was inadvertent but the second time, it was done on purpose. She tried to commit suicide. They must have been fated to be together. After the second time, his tone had been frosty but strangely, he staked his claim over her. He declared that her life belongs to him and she cannot die without his permission. At the end of the drama, when he found out too late that she had passed away, he shouted to her spirit that she cannot die without his permission. Their love was all about passion, intensity and soul. Although Ruoxi loved him to death, he, however, loved Ruoxi more than she loved him; he was addicted to her and was obsessive about her. The first indication of Yinzhen’s real interest in her was the staring contest from opposite balconies across an expanse of space on Yin’e’s birthday. She had bewitched the air around them. Their eyes met and locked. The silence that sliced through the air made her more aware of his masculine presence and aroused her curiosity about him. Viewers wonder about the first thing that came through her mind. She had not fallen for him then but her beauty did something to stir his cold heart which, upon his ascension to the Dragon throne, would later become flinty hard. His interest in her was fuelled basically by her ethereal beauty, her intelligence, her courage and her headstrong, unrestrained character which he found to be pleasantly different from the rest of the Qing ladies. She would not bow down to the bullying ways of the Gololo sisters and rose to any challenges posed to her. She was the ‘Death-defying 13th Sister’ and even the Kangxi Emperor was intrigued by her amazing qualities. When she met the emperor, she knew that her reputation had preceded her. Kangxi found her to be extremely intelligent and learned. Who wouldn’t want to keep such an intelligent person by one’s side? She became his personal maid. But Yinzhen had an even better idea – to get her to be his consort! No one who was ambitious and predestined to be emperor, and who had observed her intellectual interaction and sparring with Kangxi, would come away unimpressed. She seemed to be an authority on not only Qing history and culture, but also general Chinese civilization. She, Ruoxi, was the epitome of knowledge and intelligence, being from the 21st century. A beautiful trophy wife is for a man who is brainless. He may marry his eye-candy to make other men jealous, but having a beautiful, intelligent wife puts a man a notch above others. Ruoxi had many qualities and was certainly an emperor’s consort material. Even the conniving Crown Prince, Yinreng, wanted her for his own personal reasons. When Yinzhen expressed his interest in her, he knew that she was interested in him but not in the way he thought. At first, she was intrigued by him because she knew that he would succeed Kangxi, so she specially paid attention to details about him and even asked 13th, his closest brother, about his likes and dislikes. Yinzhen hid behind his mask of icy composure and was full of mystery. That was the lure. Her interest in him was piqued. When he knew about her interest in him, he personally told her that she should ask him for his personal details without going through a third party, so she let fly a stream of questions in quick succession , to which he answered willingly. On her birthday, he gave her a box containing three bottles of perfume. When she was in the grasslands with Yinsi, Ruoxi received a thoughtful gift from the 4th Prince, a box of ‘Golden Thread Bird’s Nest’, an expensive and precious gift. Europeans and some other Asians may balk at eating bird’s nest, the saliva of swiftlets but it is a delicacy in the East. He sent her this delicacy as the plains were hot and dry, and eating bird’s nest would cool her body. The delicacy would increase the yin and thus balance the yin and yang of her body. At that time, she was not romantically interested in him, and tried to give away his gift to Minmin who rejected it. On one occasion when she had a cold, he gifted her with an inside-painted or reverse-painted snuff bottle with pictures of three puppies on it. He seemed to have done the arduous work of painting the miniature bottle himself! The snuff was supposedly able to relieve her of her cold symptoms. The miniature painting reminded her of the incident when she stood up to the two arrogant Gololo sisters. One Chinese New Year’s day, as a gesture of his sincere interest in her, he gave her a magnolia jade hairpin. Magnolia was his favourite flower. After his ascension to the throne, when the Yongzhen emperor learnt that her magnolia jade hairpin was broken (one of the maids in the laundry department had purposely broken it), he replaced it with a similar one. Ruoxi had a close call with an arrow and Yinzhen was the one who had saved her from the arrow shot. She still had the arrow in her possession. That incident was an experience for her to reflect on. The gifts that he gave her and the arrow gave her reasons to think lovingly of him. All those memoirs were precious to her and she kept them till her death. Are there any romantic moments about them that stick in the viewers’ memories? Perhaps, one is their rendezvous on a lotus-filled lake. Yinzhen brought her there on a boat trip. It was peaceful and tranquil among the huge green leaves of the lotus plants and the pink flowers which were in full bloom. She felt dwarfed by the plants which rose a few feet above the water. While she napped with the sweet fragrance of the lotus in the lake, he had stared at her.  Upon awakening, she was shocked to see his eyes naughtily gazing fixedly at her.  She stared incredulously and open-mouthed at him. His warm smile must have made her toes curl. There were dancing lights in his eyes.  This was perhaps the beginning of her interest in him. He must have played havoc in her heart then. It is sad, however, to note that flashes of this playful side of Yingzhen were only seen before he ascended the throne. Yinzhen was not someone who would force Ruoxi to love him. But he did forcefully kiss her in the Mongolian grasslands, misled by the fact that she was romantically interested in him. Later, he wanted Ruoxi to be willing to totally surrender herself to him.  He had that infinite patience to wait for her to melt in his arms. He may use force and cruelty on others to compel them to obey him, but he was different with Ruoxi. He did not compel her to love him nor surrender physically to him. He did not push too hard for love. He just ignited her interest in him and she felt a magical attraction to him. He told her that she should think about her future before the Kangxi emperor decided her fate for her as she was nearly of a marriageable age. In fact, all the other princes had warned her to be prepared but she was nonchalant about it.  When the lecherous and calculating Crown Prince, Yinreng, asked the Kangxi emperor for her to be bestowed on him, she was frightened. She felt sick and pleaded with Yinzhen to help her solve her problem. It was shocking that after playing the demure girl for awhile, she turned into the Alpha female who popped the important question to Yinzhen, and asked whether he was willing to marry her. He was not intimidated by the turn of events. In fact, he was flattered albeit slightly startled that she was the one who was proposing to him. We are invited to think of the reason why she did it. No doubt she was in the marriage market. But which woman, in her right mind, in the eighteenth century, would do as she had done? She must have seemed so desperate. Perhaps it was out of self-preservation that made her do it, after the Crown Prince had requested the emperor to bestow her on him. After all, Yinzhen was her best bet to protect her as she knew perfectly well that he would eventually ascend the throne. She was smart enough to understand the law of evolution, ‘The Survival of the Fittest’. Though he had the advantage of refusal, he did not reject her. He was only all too ready to be her knight in shining armour. Even after he had ascended the throne, he did not compel Ruoxi to surrender to him. When she was brought to the Yangqin Palace, he did not force himself on her. Knowing her Qing history thoroughly, she was quite wary of the Yongzhen emperor although she did love him. She was jealous of him bedding his empress and his consorts. She made him promise not to let other women touch his hair which was tied into a queue. But she was not ready to open her heart to him so, he had to wait for the time to break down the shell and melt her heart. Perfect timing was important. However, when she seemed vulnerable, he did not hesitate. It was only when he told her that he wanted her to be the mother of his children that she relented and surrendered to him. And the Yongzhen emperor would never be indifferent towards Ruoxi. He would love or hate her with such intensity that would scare her out of her wits. She had to be cautious at her every step. Her tone, her choice of words dictated the mood of their conversation and their relationship.  She was always in fear as he had whipped the whole of the Forbidden City into compliance. In the end, their relationship deteriorated and they became estranged. His reign, marked by bloodthirsty cruelty, was more than what she had bargained for. The more powerful, he became, the more irrational he acted. Holding absolute power, he had the opportunity to persecute those whom he thought were against him. Could it be that he has some form of paranoia? His thinking seemed to be heavily spiced with thoughts of his brothers continually conspiring against him. In the end, his presence frightened her. He turned out to be a paranoid, cruel, ruthless and cold-hearted emperor. Her worst nightmares had begun. After learning about his paranoid cruelty, vengefulness and unforgiving nature, she knew she couldn’t live with him. He brimmed with malevolence and viciousness. She winced with pain at the thought of his savagery. He did not know but their world was about to be ripped apart. Among his many alarming inhuman acts, included making Li Dequan, the chief eunuch and Kangxi’s personal attendant, drink poison since he knew about the Kangxi Emperor’s succession edict. He had Eunuch Zhang’s tongue and his limbs cut off. He boiled (steamed) Yutan, Ruoxi’s sworn sister and personal maid, alive in a humongous vat. He was seething with vitriolic insistence that his brothers were plotting against him and so, he dealt them brutal blows. At the end of the drama, viewers learn that he had imprisoned the 8th Prince, Yinsi and the 9th Prince, Yintang on a whim. These are only just a few examples of his cruelty taken to the extreme. He was a ticking time-bomb in the Forbidden City. Ruoxi and Yongzhen couldn’t live without each other, but Rouxi could not  live with him! He was too toxic, but then, the Yangqing Palace was a toxic environment to begin with. His presence drained her off her energy. She was like everyone else, wary of their every step! After she lost their baby, she decided that enough was enough. She could not tolerate his cruelty anymore. He had blamed the loss of her baby on Minghui who had come to see her. He suspected she must have spoken some mean and threatening words to Ruoxi. And he was right. But Ruoxi could not accept the fact that he decreed that Yinsi divorce his wife. He wanted to wipe out her name from the Qing Imperial Records. Ruoxi knew that Minghui would take her own life. In fact, she committed suicide by hanging and burning herself to death in her residence. That one must have been the last straw. Ruoxi could not accept his cruelty and decided to leave the palace with the help of Yinti, the 14th Prince. Yet, we must not assume that she did not love him enough. The truth is that she just loved herself more and she wanted to preserve her sanity. Desperate times call for desperate measures.  She needed a clean break from him. Even after she left the Forbidden City, he stalked her through his spy whom he had planted in Yinti’s estate. The spy reported her every movement, from her wedding with Yinti to their holding hands in the garden. He only stopped those reports from coming when he could not bear the thought that she was having intimate relations with Yinti. One very important thing to note is that Ruoxi’s handwriting was identical to his. It was proof that her love for him was such that she has even unconsciously copied his calligraphic style. When she was near death, she wrote her final letter to him in that style which the 14th Prince, Yinti, found to be disturbing. In order to avoid gossip, he inserted her letter into his own envelope to be handed to the Yongzhen emperor. She had requested to see him for the final time. The letter had been met with silence. It was later learnt that because Yongzhen had been receiving irritating and critical correspondence from Yinti, the letter had been pushed aside. Ruoxi waited for him to see her before she died but he did not open the letter until after her death. This is the one of the most disturbing parts of the drama.  Everyone wants to forgive and to be forgiven or to say their final words to those important in their lives before they die so that they can go in peace. It is regrettable that she died thinking that Yinzhen had not forgiven her. The most revealing part was Ruoxi did not want to be buried but insisted that her body be cremated after death. It was taboo for the Han Chinese of that era to cremate the dead and although the Manchus were not averse to cremation, they might have been influenced by the idea of burial at that particular time. Ruoxi wanted her ashes to be scattered, and spread by the wind so that she could be free and not manacled to the earth in a burial plot. The saddest part was when Ruoxi was teleported back to the 21st century, she met the reincarnated Yinzhen at the Forbidden Palace Museum but he did not recognise her. She stared at him with such intensity that he was compelled to ask her, ‘Have we met before?’

CONDITIONAL LOVE ROUXI AND YINSI, THE 8TH PRINCE

Ruoxi first romance in the Forbidden City was with the Eighth Prince, Yinsi. Think of yuánfèn. ‘Destiny’ and ‘Fate’. Their meeting with each other was ‘predestined’ but they were not ‘fated’ to be with each other.   Yinsi was immediately attracted to Rouxi at first sight. One could say that he fell head over heels in love with her as soon as he saw her when he dropped in for his visit at her sister’s residence. SEDUCTION IN THE SNOW (Romance Is In The Air) Yinsi’s first expression of interest, though mute, happened one snowy morning. Ruoxi was taking a breather outside her sister’s residence and he suddenly loomed large in her face. She must have felt dizzy with him in her presence. Being shaken by the restrained intimacy of the moment, she fell out of step but he caught her fall with his arms. He gave her a lingering look. Confident that she had fallen under his spell, he slowly and intimately slipped his hands into her fur wrist cuffs and touched her hands. The Qing prince looked at her appraisingly and they took a slow, quiet walk in the snow. Viewers must he reminded that Ruoxi had the intellectual wisdom of a 26-year-old 21st century woman trapped in the body of a 14-year-old Manchu teenager. What was he actually doing to her in the viewers’ imagination? Did the viewers do a double take? Was her heart swelling up like balloons? It was winter and the snow was falling around them. And before she knew it, her hand was locked in his hand. He led her across the garden filled with snow to his mansion. Was he was testing her feelings and watching her reaction? That she did not resist his touch showed that his admiration was reciprocated. The temperatures may be icy cold but he had warmed her heart. Normally, most girls would jerk away even if they did like the man, perhaps from the shock of it but not Ruoxi. He seemed to know how to worm his way into her heart. When they arrived at his mansion, he took off his wrap and tried to take off her wrap too but she resisted. He then offered her some hot tea and left her standing alone to drink in her surroundings while he went to his desk to do his work. When he noticed that she was not seated, he indicated that she should take a seat. Finally, ensconced in a chair, she looked intently at him and studied him. A eunuch came bearing some pastries.  Nonplussed by his lack of courtesy and lack of attention to her, she looked around her and observed what his manor was like. Perhaps, he was letting her digest the feeling of what it was like to be one of his consorts. It was a delicate, subtle gesture not openly expressed but she was made to feel it.  It would be a place which she would frequent should she be married to him. She didn’t stay long but long enough to understand his gestures. After she left, the smile of a Cheshire cat was imprinted on his face. What about her? She was left highly disturbed by the encounter. Later on, Yinsi gave her a phoenix bloodstone jade bangle which he himself personally wore on her hand, and surprisingly, there was no resistance on her part. There was only silence. Silence meant consent. The gift tugged at her heart. Why did she keep the gift a secret from her sister? Ruoxi was not insensitive to the situation. It was her sister’s husband that she was dealing with. In the 21st century, she would have been considered a husband stealer, and being the husband stealer of one’s sister is an unforgivable crime. But it seems Ruoxi had adapted herself to the social mores and norms of imperial Qing times. And being a strong-headed modern 21st century woman who had been recently betrayed by her boyfriend, Huandi, had not stopped her for falling for Yinsi, a married man. What kind of female had she become within such a short span of time? Well, in Rome, do as the Romans do. Yinsi was a pure romantic. He wrote letters to her in the form of Song Dynasty poems. She had been imbibing Song Dynasty poems in the earlier part of their relationship. He gave her time to absorb the fact that he was interested and gave her space just to observe him and let her interest and yearning for him grow. When she was away in the Mongolian grasslands north of the Great Wall, he had sent her some riding gear from the Forbidden City, which included a horse whip. This showed that he took her needs and character into consideration and paid special attention to details that were related to her. He knew, Ruoxi being Ruoxi, would want to improve her riding skills. She had been pilloried by Mingyu for her non-existent riding skills and she did not want others to further cast aspersions on her. In yet another expedition, when they were together in the Mongolian grasslands, he even had lots of potted jasmine plants sent to her tent. Moreover, he also gave her riding lessons. No Qing lady could have resisted Yinsi’s cheeky smiles, the wicked twinkles in his eyes and his look of love. At first, Yinsi refrained from expressing himself out of consideration for the feelings of Ruolan, her sister. Ruolan, whom he had also fallen in love with at first sight, was supposedly the love of his life. In her heart, however, he was non-existent and she was morose all her life with him. Perhaps, he was thinking in the same vein as his father. He did not mind marrying sisters. His father married three pairs of sisters. Like father, like son. (Not mentioned in the drama but from historical records: Noble Consort Wen Xi, from the Niuhuru clan, was the 2nd Empress Xiaozhaoren's younger sister. Imperial Noble Consort Que Hui, from the Tunggiya clan, was the 3rd  Empress Xiaoyiren's younger sister. Consort Ping,  from the Hešeri clan, was Empress Xiaochengren's younger sister.) To Yinsi’s great disappointment, he had no luck with the Ma’ertai sisters. They had fate without destiny. Yǒu yuán wú fèn (有缘无分) means "have fate without destiny" refers to couples who were fated to come together, but not destined to stay together. Ruolan hated him for supposedly causing the death of her beloved, Qing San. Even in her death throes, she wanted to be reunited with Qing San but feared that he would not accept her in the afterworld because she was still tied to the imperial Aisin-Gioro clan. Therefore, Ruoxi begged Yinsi on her knees to divorce the dying Ruolan, which he tearfully did, so that Ruolan could go in peace. Her existence was deleted from the Imperial historical records. Even though his first consort, Minghui loved him to death and sacrificed for him in every way that she could, he did not appreciate nor cherish her. It was only when it was too late, that is, when the Yongzhen emperor forced him to divorce her and when she committed suicide that he realised that she was the gem, the pearl, who was bestowed on him by the Heavens. Yinsi regretted trying to find another ‘gem’ outside when there was one precious one waiting for him at home. It is clear that the almost omniscent time-traveller, Ruoxi was deeply attracted to Yinsi, knowing beforehand all about his ‘Virtuous Prince’ attributes. Moreover, his handsome countenance, and his calm and regal bearing helped clinched her approval. It is undeniable that her romance was superficial and her love, conditional. Before she totally gave her heart to him, she wanted his promise that he would discontinue his fight for the Dragon throne. If he did not agree, she would then cut off their relationship. She knew what his ending would be like and she did not want to suffer with him in his misery, his last years being spent in confinement. It was a calculated move. Was Ruoxi naiive, when she thought that since she was from the future, she could perhaps change History? She vamped herself up one day in the Mongolian grasslands, north of the Great Wall, by steeping and bathing herself in a vat of water filled with flower petals to make herself really smell fragrant. She prepared herself to seduce Yinsi into giving up thoughts of ascending the throne but to no avail. She had tried to drum into him that a life outside the struggle for the throne was a better choice. She did not understand him and his ambitions. He was from a lowly birth due to his mother’s low station in life and he had been bullied by his half brothers. He had been ambitious since young and was never distracted from his goal of being the emperor. Would he give it all up for a mere woman, however much he loved her? The answer is certainly no! He, certainly, had a clear head on his shoulders about what he wanted. But he really had no idea what lay ahead of him. Ruoxi tried to warn him that his ambition might be truncated. She discussed the folk story of ‘Kuafu Chases The Sun’ to imply that he might not achieve his goal because he may have overestimated himself but the lesson was lost on him Ruoxi did not live in a fantasy world. She knew the outcome of their relationship should Yinsi refuse to give up the struggle for the imperial throne. Therefore, she again warned him subtly with her performance of ‘Butterfly Lovers’ with Minmin. She wanted to convey to him that their love, like that of Liang San Poh and Chu Ying Tai, was star-crossed but he did not take the hint. Ruoxi’s and Yinsi’s relationship ended where she rejected him – in the Mongolian Steppe north of the Great Wall. Their love had come a full circle. She was realistic about their love relationship. It wouldn’t have worked out. He wanted both the throne and her. He couldn’t have his cake and eat it. The fact is that she knew he was making a huge mistake. He gave her up for the throne, and being the pragmatic modern girl that she was, she gave him up. In reality, she didn’t love him enough. But for Ruoxi, she did not believe that if one component of the relationship had ended, all else must be chopped off. She did not make a clean cut of the relationship but maintained friendship with Yinsi. And, she did love Yinsi enough to warn him about his greatest nemesis, Yinzhen, and she listed the names of Yinzhen’s close associates whom he should be wary of. And this inadvertently instigated the battle between Yinsi and Yinzhen. At the end of the drama, Rouxi desperately tried to get out of not only the Yangqin Palace but also the Forbidden City. The Yongzhen emperor tried to delay obeying the marriage edict issued by the Kangxi emperor, which the 14th Prince, Yinti revealed to him. Ruoxi had been bestowed to Yinti because of his successful expedition to the North-West. He loved Ruoxi and since she sent word to say that ‘She is willing’, he quickly took the opportunity to get her out of the palace by this means. Due to the Yongzhen emperor’s reluctance to let her go, Yinsi lent an effective helping hand by revealing his and Rouxi’s secret romance. He spoke of him having fallen for her at first sight. He also deliberately detailed their frolicking on the grasslands, their ‘splendour on the grass’ and their intimate hugs and kisses. The Yongzhen emperor got to compare his less than romantic life on the grasslands with Yinsi’s romantic nights of gazing at the moon and stars, and strolling in the sunset with Rouxi. Yongzhen would be able to painfully remember that Ruoxi had shown her distaste towards him and had refused to lie on the grass to watch the stars with him. Yinsi also described the sensual and intimate details of him giving her jasmine flowers and how he smelt her body which was fragrant with the scent of jasmine. What’s that last part supposed to mean? Has she surrendered to him body and soul? The message was veiled and vague, but it was enough to trigger the Yongzhen emperor’s rage. The emperor was seething with insanity and was finally compelled to let Ruoxi go. Which man, what more an emperor, would not go deranged from the mere thought of his woman being stained by another man’s touch? Ruoxi knew that once she left the Yangqin palace, she would not be able to see Yinsi again. She gave him one last hug and thanked him for helping her to escape from the ‘clutches’ of the Yongzhen emperor and the Forbidden City. She had in the past helped him, even after their romance ended. He now gleefully reciprocated by dealing Yongzhen with a devastating blow, not to hurt him but to force him to let go of Ruoxi. He knew he would never be forgiven by Yongzhen but he did not care. At one stage in the drama, Yinxiang, the13th Prince, had asked Ruoxi whether her relationship with Yinsi was sexual. She did not provide an answer except to ask enigmatically, ‘Is it important?’ In her final letter to the Yongzhen emperor, Ruoxi stated in no uncertain terms, that she loves him passionately. He had taken her soul away. She then asked rhetorically, ‘Having said that, do you still need to ask me about the 8th Prince?’

BEST FRIEND AND CONFIDANTE ROUXI AND YINXIANG, THE 13TH PRINCE

Yinxiang and Ruoxi were best friends and soulmates. They were each other’s confidantes and shared each other’s secrets but their relationship was strictly platonic. Yinxiang would do anything for Ruoxi with no questions asked. They trusted each other implicitly. They first became friends when they took wine together in the forest on the anniversary of his mother’s death and on the 10th Prince, Yin’e’s wedding day. It was winter. They drank wine and commiserated together by a campfire. Ruoxi was aghast that Yin’e had no say in his marriage to Mingyu while Yinxiang was unhappy that the emperor had forgotten his mother’s death anniversary. Yinxiang was not class conscious, and was as liberal minded as she was. He befriended Luwu, a courtesan, who had already redeemed herself from a brothel.  He shared his life with Ruoxi by introducing her to Luwu, knowing that she believed in equality and harboured no prejudice against others who were below her station in life. Yinxiang and Luwu must have been more than happy to listen to her spouting 'nonsense'   about democracy, equality and the future. Ruoxi and Yinxiang had drunk wine and had a heart-to-heart talk one night and she had realised then with her prior knowledge on Qing history that he would soon be under house arrest and she wouldn't be able to see him as she wished.  But she was taken by surprise when a trap was set by the supporters of the Yinsi faction for Yinzhen, and Yinxiang took the rap for him instead. It was then that he was placed under house arrest for ten years. Luwu pleaded to be allowed to be together with Yinxiang when  he was placed under house arrest. Ruoxi knelt in the rain to beg the Kangxi emperor to allow it, to which he eventually conceded. Knowing that his family was deprived of an income during his house arrest, Ruoxi volunteered to give her precious gems and jewellery to Yinxiang’s family and implored Yinti  and Yin’e to help them. Later, when Luwu committed suicide by drowning herself, only Yongzhen and Ruoxi knew about it. Both were the ones who loved him the most and had refused to reveal the truth to him, knowing that he would be inconsolable. When Ruoxi wanted to escape from the Forbidden City, Yinxiang was the one who carried the message, ‘I am willing’ to Yinti, whom she thinks had an escape plan for her. What Yinxiang did not know was the truth of that particular message. If he had known, he  confessed, he would not have carried the message for her. It was betrayal of Yingzhen's trust in him. For Ruoxi, the Forbidden City, and Qianjing Palace in particular, was a cage from which she had to escape. Another thing that she trusted Yinxiang to do was to pass poison to Yinsi and Yintang when they were thrown into prison by the Yongzhen emperor. Prison life was too horrible and she did not want them to languish like the living dead there. Death by poison was the easy way out of their misery. Both readily and calmly accepted their fate. Yinxiang and Ruoxi were, Indeed, true friends.

PLATONIC LOVE ROUXI AND YINTI, THE 14TH PRINCE

Rouxi probably became more aware of Yinti when she went on the expedition north of the Great Wall. Yinti was not chosen to tag along with his imperial father. That time Yinsi was ordered to accompany the emperor as Kangxi wanted Yinsi to be away from the capital in order to clip his wings. Yinsi was becoming too influential at court and Kangxi wanted to transfer the officials who were supportive of him elsewhere. Kangxi had planned for a major administrative reshuffle under the leadership of the Yinzhen faction during their absence. Yinti, a strong supporter of Yinsi, secretly went to the expedition area with the intention of reporting to Yinsi about what was happening at the capital. Communication between the capital and the Mongolian grasslands was purposely cut off by the emperor. Ruoxi was compelled to hide Yinti in the Mongolian camp to prevent him from being detected. Ruoxi and Yinti became fast friends after the incident. Later, in order to quell the rebellions in the North-west, Kangxi appointed him as the General-In-Chief of the Border Pacification campaign. After being successful in the campaign, Yinti asked that Ruoxi be bestowed to him as a reward. The emperor issued a marriage edict so that he could claim her as his bride. Yinti and his blood brother, Yongzhen were on opposing sides of the struggle for the throne. When Yinti was recalled from the Northwest for Kangxi’s funeral, his biological brother had already been enthroned. Upon enthronement, Yongzhen appointed the rebellious Yinti to guard the Qing tombs at Xunhua. Yinti sent a secret message to Ruoxi that in the event that she was ready to leave the palace, she just had to say, ‘I'm willing’. Ruoxi did not know that he had been given the imperial marriage edict. But even if she did, she was more than willing to marry him in order to flee from the Forbidden City. When finally Ruoxi was ready to leave the Forbidden City, Yinxiang unwittingly conveyed her message, ‘I’m willing’ to Yinti.  Rushed for time, Yinti hastened to the Yangqin palace to claim his troubled bride. He dropped the bombshell by revealing to Yongzhen the Kangxi emperor’s marriage decree which bestowed Ruoxi to him.  The Yongzhen emperor delayed in obeying the edict but finally, he was compelled to let the weak and fragile Ruoxi go after Yinsi’s intervention. It was a sad day for the Yongzhen emperor when Ruoxi left the Forbidden City. Yongzhen decreed that their wedding should be low-profiled but Ruoxi defied his orders by wearing a red veil and Yinti displayed red decorations at the gate of his estate at Xunhua to welcome his bride. The question is whether the marriage was consummated or not. Ruoxi herself did say that Yinti would not force her if she was not willing so it was not likely that Yinti and Ruoxi consummated their marriage. It was clear that they were not physically intimate when she was at Xunhua because she spelled out that she wanted to forget everyone except for the memories of the Yongzhen emperor and herself. She loved Yongzhen right until the end. But she and Yinti remained very good friends and companions. They were happy together, especially in the scene when she secretly observed him practising his martial arts swordplay, so much so that when Yongzhen receive a secret report about them, he was not amused and stopped receiving the reports from his spy about them thereafter. To ease her final days, Yinti was loving and attentive to her and sent for her favourite musician. They sat in the garden listening to traditional music amidst the fragrant flowers. His hands slid around her from behind and his tall, strong, muscular body provided a strong pillar for Rouxi to rest against. It was in this position that she died, slumped in his arms. Her last few words were disheartening for Yinti as she whispered weakly that she wanted to forget all of them. When finally, the Yongzhen emperor and Yinxiang came to pay their last respects, Yinti must have felt a twinge of pain when Qiaohui, her personal maid, informed them that Ruoxi had chosen Yongzhen to scatter her ashes to the wind, which he did at the top of the mountain.

CHILDHOOD FRIENDSHIP ROUXI AND YIN’E, THE 10TH PRINCE

Yin’e may have thought of Ruoxi as a possible mate but the reverse was true for Ruoxi. Ruoxi was too intelligent and wordly-wise to have a bumbling idiot or empty head for a husband. It would have been a problematic choice for her. She would not ‘marry down’ but wanted someone who was her intellectual equal. Discovering that she was creative and talented, Yin'e made it known that he wanted Ruoxi to prepare for his birthday celebrations. She did not disappoint him with her innumerable hanging mobiles of origami cranes and lanterns in a pavilion and her unique 21st century birthday song.  Ruoxi and Mingyu got into a public cat fight and 'exhibited their fighting skills' for him! It was a birthday which would be difficult to forget! When the Kangxi emperor bestowed Minghui on Yin’e, he was devastated. He wanted Ruoxi. Yinzhen was right. She wouldn’t fall for a person like Yin’e. He was not husband material for her. Being an intelligent and knowledgeable woman from the 21st century, she would want a man of substance, someone who was intelligent and had definite goals in life. Yin’e was not smart; he was childish, playful and simple-minded. He did not think things deeply and thoroughly before the words spill out of his mouth. He just blurted out his feelings and did not think of the consequences. However, Ruoxi and Yin’e were great friends and playmates. He was the only one whom she could freely be herself and talk to with abandon because he did not exert any pressure on her. She could be straightforward with him without thinking whether she had to be cautious with her words. She did not have to measure her words in his presence. When the Kangxi emperor decreed that Yin’e marry Mingyu, Ruoxi was aghast. The twenty-first century woman was disturbed that even a prince had no freedom of choice and was upset that the emperor’s word was law.  Ridiculous rumours circulated in the Forbidden City that Ruoxi was miserable because she was in love with Yin’e. But in order to pave the way for him to start his marriage on the right foot, she did not mince her words when she told him that she was not romantically interested in him at all. He had no illusions about her after that. After Yin’e’s marriage, they were seldom in contact with each other because Mingyu was jealous of their close relationship. However, they were always on the lookout for each other and remained friends. She even solved his marriage woes, after which, his marriage took a turn for the better.