Episode 8

At night, JIAQING visits ROYAL NOBLE CONSORT, who is under house arrest on the conviction of possession of a prohibited drug. He asks her about the night that the late Empress died in the Qianqing Palace fire, but she seems to prevaricate, making him feel that she is hiding something. The White Lotus wreaks havoc in the capital and even burns down the government granaries, which exasperates JIAQING so much that he accuses HESHEN of taking advantage of a national crisis to reap huge profit as he manipulated the venders to elevate the granary prices and sell it back to the government. JIAQING summons FUCHANG’AN in private, ordering him to arrest HELIN and bring him back to the capital so as to weaken HESHEN’s military power. Using the pretext of rewarding the army, FUCHANG’AN is about to depart, ahead of which HESHEN suddenly arrives and even asks unsuspecting FUCHANG’AN to send a bag of pine nuts to HELIN.