Lihua's son dying from the poisonous lead face powder and Lihua falling into a depression because of it. The anime manages to make it even sadder, as there is an additional scene where Shin deliberately pushes Maomao's warning about the powder out of the Crystal Pavilion, so unlike in previous versions of the story, it wasn't so much that Lihua ignored Maomao's warning as it was that she never received it in the first place (In the English Dub, Lihua admits she ignored Maomao's advice in front of her, which leads to confusion notions if she really got it or heard about it from Gyokuyou but chose to ignore it). In addition, there's another scene where she can be heard bawling over the loss of her child. After Maomao begins nursing her back to health, she asks why Maomao won't let her die, clearly blaming herself for her son's death. Plus, it's not helped that the Emperor has likely not visited her in months because of the death of their son, but still cares about her to the point he asks Maomao to help her recover from her depression.
The scene with Shin pushing out Maomao's warning gives another dark view, as we found out later in the series Shin was trying to give abortion drugs to Lihua when she was pregnant again, which could have potentially killed her and/or her child. Her pushing out the note shows she wouldn't care if Lihua and her son die.
Lishu having to endure bullying from her own ladies-in-waiting because of her timid personality as well as for reasons that she had no say in, such as also being the previous Emperor's consort and her seafood allergy (which they think is her just being a Picky Eater). Maomao also notices that the maids will also try to isolate her from others by painting themselves as her only allies while trying to convince her that everyone else is against her. This also doubles as Nightmare Fuel due to the general abusive nature of such a relationship. As incompetent and stuck-up as the majority of Lihua's maids are, they at least care about their mistress; Lishu doesn't even get that.
One example of this mistreatment occurs after Lishu tells Maomao and company that the mirror that she keeps in her room used to belong to her deceased mother. Lishu's former Chief Lady-In-Waiting later enters the room and cruelly tries to get rid of it, claiming that there are better mirrors (most likely as an attempt to bully her mistress again). Lishu then breaks into tears and begs for her not to do it, even ripping it from the lady-in-waiting's hands so she cannot do so. The lady-in-waiting then has the nerve to chastise Lishu in front of everyone (once again to humiliate her), calling her behavior unbecoming for a consort; all because the poor girl was crying and didn't want to lose one of the few things that reminded her of her mother.
Jinshi seeing Maomao without her freckles. At first, he wonders why, until Maomao casually explains the reality of her life. She lived near the pleasure district, so the odds are always high that men who weren't sexually satisfied, drunk and carrying diseases will be roaming at night, with Maomao having to add freckles from dried clay just to lower her chances of being sexually assaulted. Her entire life has been that of living in a social structure where she is at the bottom, having to make herself look as dull as possible to avoid unwanted attention, which only led to her being kidnapped and sold to the palace. All of this, and she can only calmly give Jinshi an explanation as if it was nothing. Jinshi can only give a sorrowful look, as if it is the first time he has seen Maomao as a person, rather than a toy he took interest in, and realizing how much of a difficult life she is having and the fact that he has not been doing better...or even making it much more difficult.
Fengming accidentally killing who she thought was Ah-Duo's child. She had simply wanted to give the child some honey from her home, not realizing until years later that she had poisoned him.
The other version of the manga revealed that Fengming planned suicide to avoid Ah-Duo getting implicated with the poisoning. However, another servant stopped her, saying since Fengming is the head attendant, lady Ah-Duo might be implicated regardless. Thus, the servant with the bound feet willing to be scapegoated since she was just a nobody, asking Fengming to assist the suicide and write the letters since she couldn't. All for naught.
Lady Anshi's story is pretty tragic, even though she became the Empress Dowager. Because the previous emperor was a pedophile, at the age of 10, she became pregnant with a son who would become the next emperor, but because her body was still developing, she had to have a C-section to get the baby out, which resulted in nasty scars on her stomach. Then, even though she became Empress, the former emperor ignored her because she became older and was no longer a child. Angered at being ignored by her husband and what he did to her, she raped him and became pregnant with her second son, who she couldn't even love, leading her to willingly exchange her son's consort's son with hers.
The story of Maomao's parents had been tragic enough in the Light Novel and manga. Lakan finally redeemed Fengxian, only to note that she already succumbed to disease and didn't have long to live. She did die in some volume later and Lakan grieved.
However, in the Web Novel, the story is much more brutal. There's only one chapter dedicated to Lakan and Fengxian's relationship, which ended short as Lakan received the cut-off fingers sent to him and realized what had happened. Fengxian simply died when Maomao is young and not mentioned in the story afterward.
Meimei giving up her chance to be redeemed by Lakan by showing him where Fengxian is being hidden away. While she does have feelings for him and would love to marry him, she understands that Lakan only ever had eyes for her former mentor, and her expression makes it clear that it was very hard for her to make this decision.
Maomao dancing in honor of Fengxian's buyout. She does not consider Lakan or Fengxian to be her parents, and what little relationship Maomao had with Fengxian was wrought with pain and grief, but she still recognizes the tragedy of their situation and chooses to give them a traditional sendoff in private. It's a bittersweet affair, since given how advanced Fengxian's illness is at this point, Maomao is knowingly dancing for a union that is fated to not last very long. The dance is beautiful and heartbreaking, especially in the anime adaptation where it is backed by an equally beautiful and heartbreaking song.
Consort Loulan, or more commonly known as Shisui had been acting as Maomao's friend for some time and has most likely grown on the reader. In the Web Novel, she was shot to death in the snow. The Light Novel version is a lot more forgiving as the corpse was not found, and she is clearly implied to be alive.
In anime Episode 19, it features an Adaptation Expansion of a scene that was only mentioned to have happened in the Light Novel and glimpsed in a panel of the manga. After Maomao gets injured saving Jinshi, the combination of the blow she received to her head and the blood loss from her injured leg caused her to pass out, with Jinshi trying to keep her awake. However, the scene doesn’t end with her passing out as in the other mediums. Afterward, there is no dialogue, with only a beautiful yet sad sounding song as Jinshi carries the unconscious and bleeding Maomao. The solemn look Jinshi has while carrying Maomao illustrates he’s doing his best to keep his cool about the situation. Meanwhile, Lakan’s facial expression as he sees the state his daughter is in says it all, after previously acting all playful when speaking with Jinshi in earlier episodes.
Despite being lustful, the emperor only had one consort, Ah-Duo, back when he was still a crown prince. He even declared she was the only woman he needed and promised to make her the mother of the nation. Then Ah-Duo lost her womb and 'her baby' was declared dead, making it impossible. Eventually, it was Gyoukyou who was made an empress because she gave birth to a boy.
It is quite a sad story on its own, but the Web Novel revealed further on the two. Younger Ah-duo was a tomboyish girl whose dream was to be a merchant and travel abroad. She regarded the emperor as just a friend, but the emperor saw her more than that. By making her his romance partner, she lost her freedom and was bound to the palace. Her 'wish' demanding him to make her the mother of a nation is just an excuse since she thought he couldn't fulfill that, but the emperor took the wish seriously to the point he would make her son his heir no matter what. Later on, Ah-Duo asked the emperor to give Jinshi freedom to choose what he wants, in exchange for her to always staying beside him.
When Ah-Duo witnesses Jinshi's speech on why he refuses to marry Maomao so he wouldn't bound her to being in the palace forever, she starts crying as this is what she truly wanted from the Emperor.
It's even sadder as the emperor seemingly realizes his mistake when he saw Ah-Duo crying and kept staring at her as Jinshi continues to speak, showing some poor communication between them that could have been resolved. He truly loves Ah-Duo, but he accidentally damaged her by keeping her in the palace.
Chue acted silly and airheaded a lot of times but revealed to have quite a sad backstory. Her mother just gone one day and presumed dead, with her father dying not long after. Hoping that her mother was still alive, she went looking for her, as far as going to another country as a poor orphan. Then it was revealed her mother was alive and well, she just neglected and abandoned her.
Jinshi flirts with Maomao, and she doesn’t understand that he has a crush on her. In most other shows, this would be played for comedy, but Maomao’s rough childhood leads her to think Jinshi is trying to rape her, and she submits rather than get hurt. Jinshi is understandably horrified when he realizes what Maomao thinks is happening, and how casual she is about it.
