History Characters / RuyisRoyalLoveInThePalace

* KickTheSonOfABitch: She slaps A Ruo. [[UngratefulBastard A Ruo]] has done plenty of things to deserve a slap, but Yuyan either doesn't know or doesn't care about them and slapped her only for [[DisproportionateRetribution walking in front of her.]]

* DotingParent: Somewhat downplayed, but he is more good and spoiling towards his daughters than his sons. It does help that they don't have any motives in trying to become emperor after all. When his sons are young, he is somewhat easy with them before putting his expectations on them.

** [[spoiler: Just like his father, he dies with no one by his side. However, the Yongzheng Emperor did die with Zhenhuan by his side, but she was spiting him for what he did to her and she told the guards to leave.]]
** In the end [[spoiler: Hongli at least realizes the pain he caused to Ruyi and possibly others (but only because Ruyi dies abruptly due to her tuberculosis) while the Yongzheng Emperor isn't ever shown to regret his actions like hurting Zhen Huan and killing his brother.]]
* LonelyAtTheTop: Ruyi remembers the thing Hongli hated the most was being alone because he was the emperor and how he wanted Ruyi by his side. [[spoiler: He ends up being alone and miserable for the rest of his life after she dies, with no women replacing her. It's to the point despite having a harem, he states he is a lonely, widowed man since he finally realizes just how much he lost (Ruyi, his children, love, etc.) after her death.]]

** Qianlong's favorite daughters were Jingse and Jingsi, Langhua and Ruyi's daughters. [[spoiler:Hongli loved Jingsi so much that when she died from heart failure due to being traumatized by Jia's dog, with Hailan's advice, he immediately punishes her to be a Second Class Attendant and had her whipped daily without caring about her clan's thoughts for once. He also made a western gold watch for her as a charm so she could have grown up healthy and safe.]]

** [[spoiler: Zig-zagged. After locking up Ruyi, he begins showing less of a horrible behavior that he previously showed with her. It's likely due to the fact he was so shocked she cut her hair in front of him that he never believed Ruyi would do such a thing and begins ignoring him.]]
** [[spoiler: When Ruyi dies and Zhen Huan tells him how she realizes if Ruyi should've been in the palace or not, and visiting the painter who painted him and Ruyi as Emperor and Empress the first time, he tells Li Yu to burn everything that has Ruyi in it. While many others see this as another kicking the dog moment, this is Qianlong finally doing something for her and not for him for once since it brought controversy to why he did that. To add, instead of making Yongji, his only legitimate son that he so wanted to be his heir, he makes Yanwan's son Yongyan the emperor to spare him the pain and tragedies of being the Emperor.]]

** Ironically enough, the only consort who he seemed to be the best towards in some ways than even Ruyi was Hailan. Even if he didn't want her as his concubine (because of his [[MaritalRapeLicense "accident"]] with her) at first, he did grow to be affectionate with her after seeing her intelligence and softness. [[spoiler:It's implied if she never got her stretch marks, he would have kept asking her to service him.]] We never actually see moments where he has physically, verbally, and emotionally abused her.

*** It's to the point that even if she isn't favored anymore because of [[spoiler:having stretch marks after giving birth to Yongqi]], when she does talk to him, he actually listens to her aside Yanwan whose basically kissing his ass.
*** [[spoiler:When Yuyan was finally being accused of all her crimes, Hailan told her to swear not only herself but for her clan's demise, which was the final trigger for Jia to attack Hailan. This act makes Hongli angry enough that he stands up and goes to kick her for attacking Hailan.]]

* DotingGrandparent: She does like her grandchildren but the ones who spend the most with her is the one she likely loves the most. From what it's seen, it's Yongqi and Yongji so far. The only grandchild she probably doesn't like is Jingse, not helped that Langhua doesn't curb her arrogant behavior as the legitimate princess and the first moments between them is that she didn't go to her unlike the other grandchildren which is why she doesn't care if Jingse gets sent to the Khorchin trible to be married rather than her other daughter.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: She's not exactly evil despite her antagonistic side towards Ruyi at first, [[spoiler: but when she finds out the reason Yonghuang and Yongzhang acted out in Langhua's funeral was because of her, she thought it was because Hailan was Ruyi's lackey similar to the relationship between Langhua and Xiyue. However, she doesn't even realize Hailan did it so she can protect Ruyi which the latter understood.]]

* TaughtByExperience: When Ruyi and Zhen Huan talk about becoming empress, Ruyi admits even though she doesn't want to, it's because she still loves Hongli and wants to be by his side. However, Zhen Huan being in the palace for so long tells her love won't matter, especially if you're married to the emperor. She's right [[spoiler: as Ruyi begins to slowly lose her love for Hongli due to his personality taking a change for worse.]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: If she did not rush on pushing Ruyi to give Xiangjian the infertile soup, Hongli would not have slapped Ruyi and have their deteroriating relationship take another hit. Although she genuinely did not expect this to happen so she scolded him harshly. Not that it changed his [[{{Jerkass}} mind]].

Eldest prince. Ruyi's foster son.

* DeathOfAChild: Technically he wasn't a child when he died but he died pretty young. Hongli mourns his death because he did love Yonghuang who was his first child and showed coldness to him as he didn't want to show his worry for his sickness since he was severe with him during Langhua's funeral. He also keeps a keepsake from Yonghuang's mother showing he had some affection for her before her death.
* DyingDeclarationOfHate: [[spoiler: He spends his last minutes and words towards Ruyi of cursing Langhua for killing his mother. In reality, it was Yuyan who killed his mother, never realizing the person who divulged to him it was Langhua who killed her was his mother's murderer.]]

* TookALevelInJerkass: In his adulthood, he began wanting to seek power and even began to see Ruyi, the adoptive mother who gave him so love, as a tool. Hongli at least had a point that he should have given Yonghuang back to Ruyi since Chun made him like this. Luckily, this trope gets subverted as he sees Ruyi as his mother again but he curses Langhua for killing his mother as his final words.

* DaddysGirl: Is extremely doted on by Hongli to the point he initially doesn't want to marry her off.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: First scene with her doesn't make her go to Zhen Huan unlike the other grandchildren. This eventually shows the latter doesn't come to really like her granddaughter and is happy to send her off to the Khorchin tribe [[spoiler: when the tribe demands a legitimate princess to be married into their clan than her daughter Hengti.]]

* LikeFatherLikeSon: More like [[Series/TheLegendOfZhenHuan 3rd uncle,]] like 3rd nephew. One, both are quite dumb and outspoken that resulted in horrible outcomes for them, [[spoiler: Hongshi is thrown out of the imperial genealogy and Yongzhang dies from stress, exaseperated by his mother's death and trying to be in good graces with his father.]] Second, they are less talented than their younger siblings (Hongshi with Hongli and Yongzhang with Yongcheng and Yongqi). Third, both were the oldest children of their respective fathers but never becomes the emperor.
* TheUnfavourite: After the blunder at Langhua’s funeral, Hongli starts ignoring him and focusing more on his younger brothers, even asking for their input on the war with Dzungaria. Hongli unreasonably gets mad at him for not stopping the (nonexistent) assassin at the Mulan Hunting Grounds when he was clearly ordered to not follow his father into the forest, so he couldn’t have known. [[spoiler:Even when his son dies from the heavy stress he was under trying to get into his father’s good graces while simultaneously fighting for his mother to not be ignored when she’s sick, who ultimately dies, Hongli doesn’t ''mourn'' his son at all and focuses more on Xiangjian’s refusal to accept him as her husband. This really shows how much Hongli has fallen as man, father, and husband all together, considering he's mourned all of his children, but Yongzhang doesn't get that privilege.]]

Hongli's childhood friend who later becomes one of his wives. She would later become the second empress.

* HundredPercentHeroismRating: Everyone who gets to know Ruyi loves her kindness towards others. Many people are loyal to her because of this like Hailan, Xiangjian, Meiruo, Rongpei, Sanbao, Suoxin, etc. Even Hongli's servants Yuhu and Li Yu see how good she is (Ruyi is cordial to Yuhu and Ruyi treated Li Yu's wounds). Of course, there are people who don't like Ruyi but there are mostly the antagonists who want power and want to ruin Ruyi.
* AwfulWeddedLife: While in the beginning, Ruyi and Hongli deeply loved each other even with some framing on Ruyi's end because of how much he favors her. It's only until a few timeskips later and especially the moment where [[spoiler: Hongli decides to castrate her long-time friend Ling Yunche]] is the moment her marriage with the person she loved since childhood deteoriates fast.
* AllLovingHero: From the beginning to the end, she was a truly sincere, good woman in a place where power conflicts and corruption boils. [[spoiler: When she dies unlike the funeral for Empress Fuca, where everyone pretended to mourn her, people who knew Ruyi mourns her death deeply with consorts and servants who knew her being there crying at her funeral.]]

* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Despite sharing many similarities, Ruyi and Zhen Huan differ in several ways. Zhen Huan originally comes from a middle-class family whereas Ruyi is noble not just because she is from the Nara clan but also because of her familial connection with Empress Xiaojingxian. While Zhen Huan never ascends to the rank of Empress but becomes the Empress Dowager, Ruyi eventually gets promoted to the position of Empress. Zhen Huan becomes crueler after she reaches her breaking point but Ruyi remains incorruptible no matter what cruel events are thrown at her. [[spoiler:Zhen Huan does find true love with the Emperor's brother Prince Guo who dies at the very end of her series while Ruyi ends up losing her true love.]]

* FatalFlaw: Loving too much. Even Hailan says this to her [[spoiler: after hearing Yonghuang is just using her to get power and that men would readily abandon women for others. This does prove to be her downfall as she thinks the {{Jerkass}} Hongli is still the same one until she finally gets fed up with him with his horrible, abusive behavior and seeing how much he's infatuated with Xiangjian.]]
* GracefullyDemoted: [[spoiler: After she finally gets tired of Hongli being horrible to her, she doesn't go crazy or mad at him. Instead, after he slaps her when she makes her [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech speech]], which leads to the final string being cut, she tells him she decides to not be his Empress anymore and silently pulls her hair down, taking out a knife to cut a piece of her hair despite knowing what will happen next. In other words, she's telling him "we are divorced" and cursing him (although it's implied in Ruyi's case, she's actually mourning the young Hongli she once loved who is now gone and not actually cursing him). This immediately leads to her deposement since hair cutting was very serious at the time.]]

* OneTrueLove: What Ruyi wanted with Hongli. Too bad, as the timeskips shows towards the end. [[spoiler: In the end, she still loves Hongli but only the young one who only loved and devoted himself to her. The {{Jerkass}} Hongli at the end is the one who she lost her love for.]]

* WouldntHurtAChild: As much as she hated Langhua, she would never target her children or any other children as she finds them innocent of their parent's sins.

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler: At the very end, when he dies holding to a box containing his hair and Ruyi's, it's ambiguous to why he cuts a piece of his hair (which is stark white) and mixes it with Ruyi's hair (the piece that she cut that lead to her deposement). Either in his final moments, he finally knows the pain he caused and wanted Ruyi's forgiveness, or he also decides to finally cut his ties to her so she can be free, or it's possible to think how they would have had a life without him being an emperor, or it's possible it's a mix or all of those assumptions since in the final scene we see the scene where Ruyi enters in the wife picking for Hongli in the very first episode.]] We'll never know.

* TheGoodKing: What he wants to show himself throughout the series which is a flaw of his that destroys his relationship with Ruyi since he cares about the people's opinions of him than thinking for others.
* HateSink: Progressively becomes this throughout the series. Started out as an earnest man who deeply loved Ruyi, he ends up becoming an awful, immoral person who becomes sadistic and paronoid who readily abuses his family when mad.

** [[spoiler: Several reasons to why he didn't publicly punish Langhua is because she comes from a powerful, noble clan, and more importantly she's his first Empress. It would cause controversy and rumors if people heard that the Emperor's wife is an evil woman. On her deathbed, when she sees he never loved her and only kept her for image and giving birth to legitimate heirs, it leads to her despair that causes her death.]] For Yanwan, [[spoiler: it's implied because he brought her into his harem, and if it turns out, she was found to be an evil woman then it would be his fault for bringing her in. He only finally severely punishes her at last when her crimes are exposed to him and everybody else. Very implied he keeps her because she was pretty and gave birth to many children so he didn't want to get rid of her.]]
** It reaches to the point he even begins distrusting [[NiceGuy Ruyi]] of all people and thinking the worst of her. [[spoiler: It reaches to the peak where he believes she was cheating on him with Ling Yunche and terribly humiliates her.]]

* DotingParent: Somewhat downplayed, but he is more good and spoiling towards his daughters than his sons. It does help that they don't have any motives in trying to become emperor after all. Qianlong's favorite daughters were Jingse and Jingsi, Langhua and Ruyi's daughters. When his sons are young, he is somewhat easy with them before putting his expectations on them.

* AbusiveParents: She forces Yonglian to stand in the cold, leading to his illness and death.
** When Jingse tries to cheer her up after Yongcong's death and says how she'll try to give her success, she blankly says how a daughter is useless compared to a son.
** Considering her own mother, the woman doesn't even shown to care for her daughter's health and only cares that she gives birth to a son for the Fuca clan's glory. Even as the doctor informs her it would be very hard for Langhua to give birth again, her mother states he needs to do anything so she can give birth again.

* HateSink: This woman is just outright '''despicable''' that makes you wonder why did Zhen Huan chose her as Hongli's main wife.

* JerkassHasAPoint: [[spoiler: When talking to Hongli in her final moments and finding out she never had his love and respect, she sees while he is a wise, he is cruel and heartless which foreshadows later that he does hurt the people he love around him and became more cruel and heartless.]]

** She couldn't care less about Yonghuang himself and wants to adopt him solely so she can raise the emperor's oldest son.

* PetTheDog: [[spoiler: During her final moments,]] she assigns her maid Moxin to a building she can work in when she's gone.

* TheDogBitesBack: In her final days, Xiyue learns the extent of how much Hongli and Langhua have manipulated her. She summons the Emperor to confess the sins of the Empress while ensuring he sits on a cushion infected with scabies.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: A furious Hongli feeds her poisons and then gives her the antidote, making her suffer for years before finally giving her a final and fatal dose of poison.

* CallingTheOldManOut: Calls out Hongli for overly favoring Xiangjian and causing chaos in the palace by making his women jealous for someone who doesn’t even like him. Hongli's apt response to that is to BitchSlap him.

* LikeFatherLikeSon: More like 3rd uncle, like 3rd nephew. One, both are quite dumb and outspoken that resulted in horrible outcomes for them, [[spoiler: Hongshi is thrown out of the imperial genealogy and Yongzhang dies from stress by his mother's death and trying to be in good graces with his father.]] Second, they are less talented than their younger siblings (Hongshi with Hongli and Yongzhang with Yongcheng and Yongqi). Third, both were the oldest children of their respective fathers.
* TheUnfavourite: After the blunder at Langhua’s funeral, Hongli starts ignoring him and focusing more on his younger brothers, even asking for their input on the war with Dzungaria. Hongli unreasonably gets mad at him for not stopping the (nonexistent) assassin at the Mulan Hunting Grounds when he was clearly ordered to not follow his father into the forest, so he couldn’t have known. [[spoiler:Even when his son dies from the heavy stress and ultimately his mother's death, he was under trying to get into his father’s good graces while simultaneously fighting for his mother to not be ignored when she’s sick, Hongli doesn’t ''mourn'' his son at all and focuses more on Xiangjian’s refusal to accept him as her husband.]]

** Ironic enough, the only consort who he seemed to be the best towards in some ways than even Ruyi was Hailan. Even if he didn't want her as his concubine (because of his [[MaritalRapeLicense "accident"]] with her) at first, he did grow to be affectionate with her after seeing her intelligence and softness. We never actually see moments where he has physically, verbally, and emotionally abused her.
*** When Gao tries to blame Hailan for stealing stuff in her palace, instead of Hongli punishing Hailan, he punishes Gao for trying to blame Hailan and moves her to where Ruyi lives. He usually lets Gao do her stuff but this rare moment of punishing her does highlight him being soft to Hailan.
*** It's to the point that even if she isn't favored anymore because of having stretch marks after giving birth to Yongqi, when she does talk to him, he actually listens to her aside Yanwan whose basically kissing his ass.
*** Plus, the moment of when the voodoo cursing was linked to her, she was sent to the Punishment Chamber but Hongli forbade them from hurting her when he had no problem doing that with Suoxin.
*** Probably helped how he saw Hailan as never ambitious, intelligent, docile, beautiful, and a good parent to Yongqi. He even yells at Chun for not acting like her [[spoiler: who was bowing for forgiveness for Yongzhang's outspokeness about Xiangjian]] and saying how the other consorts should be like Hailan.

* HiddenDepths: Initially she looks like a bratty pretty girl that just happened to have the luck to catch the emperor's eye. She is actually one of Zhen Huan's spies and helps convince Hongly to send Jingse in Mongolia instead of Hengti.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He wasn't a Jerkass at first but Ruyi and he were in love with each other and some of his children love him like Jingse. [[spoiler: Plus, he does legimately care about his sister Hengchuo and his meeting with her is one of the moments he felt genuinely bad she had to come home pregnant from the man she was forced to marry after he murdered her husband and didn't come to her rescue right away.]]

* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: [[spoiler: The Yongzheng Emperor at least had a one true love of the Empress Chunyuan and deeply missed her to the point he sees Zhen Huan and even her younger sister Yurao as replacments to Chunyuan while his son Hongli had Ruyi as his supposed true love but is then shown to love himself more than her.]]

** Hongli never shows taking personal responsibilities and regrets for his actions that has hurt (he did feel genuinely bad when his sister came back pregnant with her husband's killer) and killed people but his father showed one moment of regret [[spoiler: for causing Lingrong's miscarriage.]]
** However, in the end [[spoiler: Hongli at least realizes the pain he caused to Ruyi and possibly others (but only because Ruyi dies abruptly due to her tuberculosis) while the Yongzheng Emperor isn't ever shown to regret his actions like hurting Zhen Huan and killing his brother.]]

* ParentalFavoritism: As the Emperor, he has to choose an heir to succeed him, leading to many ladies trying for sons and making them Crown Prince or at least have an excellent standing in the empire. Yuyan tries to make her sons get their father's attention, especially trying to make Yongcheng the Crown Prince and get Hongli's favor. [[spoiler: Later, Hongli pulls Yongcheng out of the imperial genealogy as punishment of Yuyan's crimes leading him to never have a chance to become Crown Prince.]] Eventually, Yongqi and [[spoiler: Yongyan]] is this to his father seeing how intelligent and filial he is as he gets older.

*** Probably helped how he saw Hailan as never ambitious, intelligent, docile, beautiful, and a good parent to Yongqi. He even yells at Chun [[spoiler: who was bowing for forgiveness for Yongzhang's outspokeness about Xiangjian]] and saying how the other consorts should be like Hailan.

* UnrelatedInTheAdaptation: An odd example. In the series Hongli is Zhen Huan's adopted son, and the fact he isn't her biological son is specifically mentioned as the reason for tensions between them. Historically, though, he ''was'' her biological son.

** Hongli never shows taking personal responsibilities and regrets for his actions that has hurt and killed people but his father showed one moment of regret [[spoiler: for causing Lingrong's miscarriage.]]

* YouMakeMeSick: Novel version goes more into Xiangjian's feelings towards [[spoiler: Yongzhang and Chun's deaths that results her in being very disgusted with Hongli for not caring his son and a wife he's been with for a long time are dead and not mourning them. Instead he is still trying to make her accept him as her husband. Hongli's response is to say everyone dies at some point, clearly not caring about his oldest son and Chun and showing any remorse for his actions.]]

* DotingGrandparent: She does like her grandparents but the ones who spend the most with her is the one she loves the most. The only grandchild she probably doesn't like is Jingse, not helped that Langhua doesn't curb her arrogant behavior as the legitimate princess.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: If she did not rush on pushing Ruyi to give Xiangjian the infertile soup, Hongli would not have slapped Ruyi and have their relationship take another hit. Although she probably did not expect this to happen so she scolded him harshly. Not that it changed his [[{{Jerkass}} mind]].

* DeathOfAChild: Technically he wasn't a child when he died but he died pretty young. Hongli mourns his death because he did love Yonghuang because he was his first child and showed coldness to him as he didn't want to show his worry for his sickness. He also keeps a keepsake from Yonghuang's mother showing he had some affection for her before her death.
* DyingDeclarationOfHate: [[spoiler: He spends his last minutes and words cursing Langhua for killing his mother. In reality, it was Yuyan who killed his mother, never realizing the person who divulged to him it was Langhua who killed her was his mother's murderer.]]

** If she didn't decide to kill Yanwan on the spot, she would've saved a whole bunch of people from dying.

* Doting Grandparent: She does like her grandparents but the ones who spend the most with her is the one she loves the most. The only grandchild she probably doesn't like is Jingse, not helped that Langhua doesn't curb her arrogant behavior as the legitimate princess.

* EvilCounterpart: Yanwan is essentially Zhenhuan if Zhenhuan has foregone her love and honor in pursuit of wealth and power. It's no coincidence that they both have resided at the Yongshou Palace at some point. They both are women who do not love their Emperors but someone else instead. [[spoiler: Though Zhenhuan does genuinely love the Yongzheng Emperor at first.]] They both rise from being low-ranking concubines to the highest position bar the Empress. Yanwan and Zhenhuan are very shrewd and cunning in their own ways. Though what ultimately sets them apart is that Zhenhuan even at her worst still retains some degrees of sympathy whereas Yanwan willingly commits many atrocities just to advance her status. Zhenhuan still cares deeply for her loved ones including her servants even after suffering heavily. [[spoiler: Even when she is ordered to kill her true love, she cannot bring herself to do it.]] On the other hand, Yanwan is more than happy to get rid of those she is close to if she finds them no longer useful or posing a threat to her. Zhenhuan is a GoodIsNotNice NaiveNewcomer when she first enters the harem but Yanwan has already displayed some of her worst traits such as greed and the willingness to throw away the love of her life before she even becomes a concubine. Yanwan is often scoffed and sneered at for employing "lowly" tricks and ruses such as using her body to captivate the Emperor whereas Zhenhuan is averse to the idea and even states at one point that she dislikes it.

* FatalFlaw: Jealousy, paranoia, and being unable to see her mistakes leads to karma attribution. Most of these mainly pertain to only Ruyi. Ironically very much like Hongli.

YouMakeMeSick: Novel version goes more into Xiangjian's feelings towards [[spoiler: Yongzhang and Chun's deaths that results her in being very disgusted with Hongli for not caring his son and a wife he's been with for a long time are dead. Hongli's response is to say everyone dies at some point, clearly not caring about his oldest son and Chun.]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Telling Hongli that you must decide the best decisions with sacrifice makes him unable to stick up for Ruyi ever again as the Emperor.

* DeathOfAChild: Technically he wasn't a child when he died but he died pretty young. Hongli mourns his death because he did in fact love Yonghuang despite showing coldness to him because he was his first child and he didn't want to show his worry for his sickness. He also keeps a keepsake from Yonghuang's mother showing he had some affection for her before her death.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Conspires with Wei Yanwan to bring down Ruyi, but comes to regret when she realizes that Yanwan is evil and wants the Empress position and sees Ruyi is a decent person.

* LikeFatherLikeSon: Looking at the Yongzheng Emperor from the [[Series/TheLegendOfZhenHuan prequel]], he ends up exactly like his father but worse, particularly having a small ego and hates being talked back to. While having the political and intelligent aptitude, he also treats his concubines just as horribly as his father did and being possessive of them like how he was with [[spoiler: his adoptive mother, Zhen Huan.]]

* PetTheDog: When informing Hongli and Qingying that the Empress is in house arrest and that Hongli cannot have Qingying as his first wife, he allows Ruyi to speak her mind on giving her aunt leniency. Later, when Hongli begs his father to allow him to marry Qingying despite the chance of being removed like his 3rd brother, his father finally grants it but only allows her to be his concubine and giving her the eponymous name "Ruyi" to hide her relationship with Yixiu.

* TheUnfavourite: After the blunder at Langhua’s funeral, Hongli starts ignoring him and focusing more on his younger brothers, even asking for their input on the war with Dzungaria. Hongli unreasonably gets mad at him for not stopping the (nonexistent) assassin at the Mulan Hunting Grounds when he was clearly ordered to not follow his father into the forest, so he couldn’t have known. [[spoiler:Even when his son dies from the heavy stress he was under trying to get into his father’s good graces while simultaneously fighting for his mother to not be ignored when she’s sick, he doesn’t mourn him at all and focuses more on Xiangjian’s refusal to accept him as her husband.]]

* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler: The series hint that she exposed the asthmatic Yonglian to dried reed pollen as a means of revenge towards Hongli for raping her and Langhua for viciously abusing her and framing Ruyi. Later Ruyi makes her swear to never target children.]]

%%* AlphaBitch

* GreenEyedMonster: Langhua despised Ruyi the most ever since both of them married Qianlong, due to the fact that Ruyi was about to be chosen over her for the position of main wife, and the fact that Qianlong loves Ruyi deeply to the point she was the first woman he slept with. She even sends Yanwan to serve Yuyan in her palace out of anger over her praising Ruyi, and looking ''similar'' to her, something Yanwan couldn’t control. [[spoiler: This hatred reaches a tipping point when she finds out that Hongli hasn’t informed Ruyi immediately informed of her father’s death. She has a mild breakdown over Hongli’s love for Ruyi and says that if Langhua had to know her uncle died immediately, then Ruyi has to know her father died as soon as possible, so she will “get a taste of the pain I feel”.]]

* ImproperlyParanoid: Langhua has never trusted Ruyi, even after 14 years, and mistakes every praise Ruyi gets or any action she does as an attempt to usurp her position as Empress. When the latter has her name changed from ''Qingying'' to ''Ruyi'' (meaning “beautiful and quiet”, an advice given to her by Zhenhuan to keep herself out of trouble if she wants peace of mind), Langhua immediately thinks that it’s the same character as the ''ruyi'' sceptre given to the di’fujin (First Wife) which she suspects is a sign that Ruyi wants to steal her position. This paranoia caused her health to decline drastically to the point she wears layers of makeup to hide her haggard look to, again, not be compared unfavorably to Ruyi. ''Even on her death bed'', she literally swears that Ruyi was the one who poisoned Ruiji and Qiying, and begs Hongli to not take Ruyi as her successor because she is supposedly so evil she will bring ruin.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Forces Lianxin to marry Wang Qin so that he will pay back the favour by spying on the emperor, and Lianxin ends up being abused by him every night, and becomes afraid of what he will do to her brothers if she tells the Empress. [[spoiler: Lianxin was the one that Hailan gave the reed pollen that ultimately killed Yonglian. Langhua sacrificed Lianxin for the sake of Yonglian's future and Lianxin took revenge by ensuring that Yonglian would not have a future.]]
** Later on, Langhua finds out that to strengthen the Empire and her clan’s relationship with the Mongolian Khorchin tribe, she has to marry off her teenage daughter, Jingse, to a Khorchin Prince. Langhua is clearly heartbroken over not only losing her two sons to illness, but also losing her only daughter by marrying her off to a far away tribe.
** She gave Xiyue a bracelet filled with basil seeds and tricked her into wearing it day and night ever since she married Qianlong, which caused Xiyue to never be able to bear children, and she even puts on a facade of being sympathetic and telling Xiyue to keep her hopes up. This comes back to bite her when Xiyue dies and her maid, out of despair and desire for revenge, spreads pox to Langhua’s second son Yongcong, who doesn’t survive.

** Throughout the first quarter of the series, she constantly reminds Langhua of how Ruyi was almost chosen as the First Wife, and encourages her to be more aggressive to Ruyi to quell her alleged “arrogance”. This unfortunately causes Langhua’s health to deteriorate from the extreme stress she puts herself under to be better than Ruyi.
** She tells Xiyue that Hailan ''would'' steal coal even after “everything you did for her, because Hailan is evil like that”. Xiyue then falsely accuses Hailan of stealing the coal, and is subtly punished by being forbidden from meeting the emperor for 3 months to recuperate. To Yuyan, Xiyue being barred from service and Hailan being punished severely and traumatized to the point of having nightmares is a win.
** She tells Chun that eating seafood helps to give birth to a healthy son, who spreads the talk to Ruiji, who starts eating more seafood. [[spoiler:The seafood was poisoned with cinnabar by a eunuch she bribed, and Ruiji loses her baby due to cinnabar poisoning.]]
** When Qiying announces her pregnancy, Yuyan suggests that she burns more coal to combat the weather. The burning coals and the [[spoiler:snake-oil mixed]] paint they were using for Qiying’s palace causes a snake to fall in from the roof onto Qiying’s room. Yuyan then suggests Qiying lives with Ruyi until they figure it out, and later on, playfully chides Chun for not telling Qiying about the benefits of seafood. [[spoiler:As a result, Qiying’s baby dies inside her womb and she is forced to have an induced labor to get it out of her body before she dies.]]
** As she reveals later on, [[spoiler:She was the one who rescued A Ruo from being punished to kneel in the rain by allowing her to leave early. It was all part of a plot to cause her to hate Ruyi and to believe that she has a chance to become a concubine just like Qiying did, with Yuyan remarking, “You’re even prettier than Noble Lady Yi. Maybe you have a chance, too.” She had done it to give A Ruo more of a reason to betray Ruyi.]]
** When she becomes pregnant, she “accidentally” reveals it to Qiying while talking about her dead baby, causing her to become even more despaired, and subtly tells her that Ruyi is probably the cause of her miscarriage, because her cinnabar poisoning symptoms only appeared when she started living with Ruyi in her palace. Qiying then attacks Ruyi and attempts to kill her to avenge her baby, giving Zhenhuan and Langhua more ammo for the “Ruyi is a baby-killer” accusation, since Ruyi is causing more chaos by staying in the harem without punishment. With Qiying dead the same night and Ruyi being sent to the Cold Palace, Yuyan gets rid of two rivals and gives birth to Hongli’s first son after his ascension, raising her status.
** She’s the first one to point out that A Ruo got a different gift in her box than the others, which Ruiji discovers to be cinnabar, and when Hongli demands to hear A Ruo retell the story of when she discovered that Ruyi allegedly poisoned Ruiji and Qiying, Yuyan loudly points out that A Ruo was so sure of herself three years ago, but is now a stammering mess, then “ponders” if A Ruo was the one who kept harming Ruyi in the Cold Palace. [[spoiler:A Ruo obviously is unable to reveal who truly did it, because all three rank higher than her, so she falsely claims that she did everything out of jealousy and Hongli never finds out that Yuyan did it with Xiyue’s help until many years later.]]

** When Langhua dies, Yuyan inflates Luyun’s ego and makes her think she has a chance of becoming empress, since she has three sons (Yongzhang and Yongrong, plus an adopted Yonghuang), and Ruyi has none. [[spoiler:The rumors, added to Sulian being killed by Zhenshu, Luyun’s hydrogena pin being dropped next to her corpse, Yonghuang murmuring to himself about being like the disgraced son of a former emperor and refusing to cry at Langhua’s funeral, makes Hongli think that Luyun is coveting the position of empress and forgetting to raise her sons right, and he starts mistrusting her, giving the position of Imperial Noble Consort to Ruyi.]]
** Yuyan manipulates Hongli’s love for Ruyi and turns it into jealousy when he thinks Ruyi is cheating on him with the Master Monk, and she gleefully starts taking the reigns of the harem when Ruyi is confined to her palace as punishment. [[spoiler:[[{{OutGambitted}} Although, this plan ultimately fails. Through an elaborate chain of events, Ruyi manages to push her into a corner]] when she says that she knows the difference between carnelian and agate, so the second bracelet appeared from nowhere. [[ArmourPiercingQuestion Ruyi says that there was no way Yuyan could have known the second bracelet was a fake]] unless she deliberately opened the box the bracelet was in when she swore she didn’t, which means she lied to the Emperor, or she made the bracelet herself, which implicates her. Yuyan is left stunned and can only mumur that she’s pregnant with a royal child, so Hongli can’t demote her.]]
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: After her crimes are revealed, her best son is disowned from the royal heirdom and she is deposed to commoner. The last straw from her was the revelation that she's not a Yu clanswoman but a bastard who was abandoned as a baby. And the one who wrote this revealation is none other than her beloved king.]]

* FrameUp: Her favorite tactic. She frames Ruyi for cheating with a monk to get the Empress title and later frames Ling Yunche about stealing her underwear.

** She causes two women to miscarry, and spreads the pox to Yongcong (who was born weak). She miscarries the 9th prince after she learns that Prince Yu is being prosecuted for causing his wife to die.
** She frames Ruyi for cheating on the emperor with the Master Monk, and causes Suoxin to be permanently crippled in one leg. She is framed for Jingsi’s death and her own son becomes crippled in one leg.
** After killing Ruiji’s and Qiying’s babies so that her first son will become the first prince after Hongli becomes emperor, she is deposed to commoner, has her children taken away to be raised by the dowager consorts, and her son refuses to pay greetings after he gets married, all because she gloated that since her sons are the 4th and 8th (lucky numbers), they are prosperous children.
** She’s done all of this so that she can weaken Qing dynasty’s grip on Joseon so her Prince can notice her efforts, but in the end he doesn’t even want to associate with her and reveals that she is an adopted Yu woman, so there was no chance she could marry him. (Although, Hongli thinks that Prince Yu only revealed this to save face in the light of Yuyan’s actions being revealed).
* MamaBear: Despite the many evil things she’s done to other children, Yuyan is ''very protective'' of her own children. When Yongxuan’s leg was broken after he fell off his horse, she nearly killed Yongqi from grief and when confronted by Ruyi, yelled, “If you’ve got business, come to me! Don’t take it out on my son! ''That’s no win!''”

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Agrees to take Yanwan in as her maid so she could abuse her, thus giving Yanwan an opportunity to become Hongli's concubine, which in turn allows her to wreak havoc on the harem.

One of Ruyi's enemies. She plots against Ruyi with Langhua.

* BerserkButton: Do NOT mention anything related to having children around her. Another thing not to mention is her age. Ruiji loves to press these buttons.
* ForcedMiscarriage: She causes at least two miscarriages by tricking pregnant women into drinking poison.

* TantrumThrowing: Similar to Aruo, except being crazy, she's just throwing a childish tantrum.

* TheDogBitesBack: Concubine Jia mistreated her when she was a servant. After her status is elevated, she has no qualms [[spoiler: framing Concubine Jia for the murder of Ruyi's daughter.]]
* EntitledToHaveYou: When Ling Yunche refuses to help her after she has her daughter taken away and her title revoked, she demands that he must love and pay attention to her only, and he has no right to listen to Ruyi’s commands.

** She causes Jingsi and the 6th princess to die because of Fu Gui’er, in a bid to kill Yongji to eradicate the legitimate heir and cause Ruyi grief for “taking” Ling Yunche from her. She loses the 14th and 16th princes because of a fever.
** She causes Yongjing to die from a breech position and tells her mother to take on her crime for her. She loses her daughter Jingyuan right after giving birth to her as she is adopted by Meiruo, and when Jingyuan grows up she refuses to acknowledge Yanwan as her birth mother and outright calls her evil, with Yanwan obliviously asking her why she is like this to her mother.
** She tries to kidnap Jingyuan while Meiruo is away because she couldn’t wait for Hongli to officially bring her back into her custody, pinches her harshly on her cheek when she calls her evil, and futilely tries to use her status as Imperial Noble Consort to force her servants to slap Meiruo for insulting her. In the process, she accidentally insults Zhenhuan’s status as Hongli’s foster mother, Jingyuan stays with Meiruo, and she loses the respect of the mongolian consorts and they don’t have to pay her greetings anymore.
** She (by proxy of manipulating Nanny Tian’s daughter into thinking her mother died because of Ruyi and faking her identity to get married to him) causes Yongqi’s death and frames it so that he died because he refused to get treated by Ruyi’s physicians, thinking that Ruyi was mad at his mother for executing Ling Yunche. Hailan, out of grief, puts magnificent effort into investigating Yongqi’s death and everyone that suspiciously died, and in the end reveals Yanwan’s true nature and every crime that she committed.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Her son dies very shortly after he is born.
* TooGoodforThisSinfulEarth: She was one of Ruyi's friends who never backstabbed her and was downright one of the only morally good people, she devoted her life and love to a man who never even loved her [[spoiler: all because Hongli knew she was one of Zhen Huan's spies]], loses her child because of the pregnancy medicine [[spoiler: which turned out to be contraceptives ordered by Hongli]] she took to become pregnant affected her child. Even finding out about everything, she orders everyone from her palace to leave for a bit [[spoiler: so she can set her palace on fire without killing anyone but herself. Even as a pregnant Ruyi tries to save her, the doors are locked so Yihuan dies in the fire.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Not her fault, but Ruyi trying to save her leads to the premature pregnancy of Jingsi, in which the doctor tells Hongli and her that Jingsi needs to be careful of things or she'll die at a young age.

* OutOfFocus: Out of all the imperial women seen in the series, she is the least focused upon. She entered the harem during Qianlong’s time as a Prince, so we didn’t get a proper introduction beyond a title card when she is first seen on-screen. She doesn’t serve Langhua’s interests, she isn’t poisoned by ingesting cinnabar, and she doesn’t frame anyone for a crime nor is she framed.

!!Bai'erguosishe/Concubine Ke

* GoodIsNotSoft: She sees through Wei Yanwan's facade right away and keeps the other concubine far away from herself.

* BrutalHonesty: She doesn't hesitate to call the emperor out on his frankly rotten attitude towards Ruyi.

* OneTrueLove: Hanqi. He's the only man Xiangjian ever loved and will always be her only love which is the primary reason why she tries many ways to kill herself to be with him again [[spoiler: until Ruyi manages to convince to live on for his sake.]] It's also why she refuses to have any children with Hongli even if it could give her a power leverage since she believes one should have a child if two people love each other and she does not love Hongli at all.
* PassiveAggressiveCombat: When the emperor chides her for her BrutalHonesty, she coolly points out that if he wishes for a subservient woman, he can call for Concubine Ling.

* StarCrossedLovers: Ironic considering how she was actually betrothed to Hanqi and would have been very happy to be with him, but since Hongli heard of her beauty, he wanted her as a tribute and the betrothal between her and Hanqi was canceled. Hanqi died from an avalanche trying to save her from getting married to Hongli.

* HumiliationConga: First, she gets confined for two years after it’s revealed she was stealing info to send to her tribe, and was planning to get Hongli addicted to aphrodisiacs. On her coronation day, no less! Then, she’s confined again when Yongji is almost assassinated and the assassin is linked back to her. Then, she is sent to the department of punishment to her likely death after she accuses Ruyi of cheating on Hongli with Ling Yunche.

* * DotingParent: While we don't see scenes with her and her father, it implies Hongli doted on her a lot and her death was one of the only times he mourned for his children. He made her a gold western watch for good luck so that she would continue to keep living on due to her weak heart. He even immediately punishes Yuyan [[spoiler: but it was actually Yanwan's doing]] for her apparent hand on Jingsi's death on Hailan's request.

* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Despite sharing many similarities, Ruyi and Zhen Huan differ in several ways. Zhen Huan originally comes from a middle-class family whereas Ruyi is noble not just because she is from the Nara clan but also because of her familial connection with Empress Xiaojingxian. While Zhen Huan never ascends to the rank of Empress but becomes the Empress Dowager, Ruyi eventually gets promoted to the position of Empress. Zhen Huan becomes crueler after she reaches her breaking point but Ruyi remains incorruptible no matter what cruel events are thrown at her.

* DotingParent: Somewhat downplayed, but he is more good and spoiling towards his daughters than his sons. It does help that they don't have any motives in trying to become emperor after all. Qianlong's favorite daughters were Jingse and Jingsi, Langhua and Ruyi's daughters.

* MoralityPet: Downaplayed hard, it's hard to say but despite Xiangjian's obvious dislike to Hongli, he still likes her enough that he never tries to physically abuse her aside the coerced sexual relationship. In the novel when Xiangjian is passive-aggressive with Yanwan, who is in higher status, Hongli ignores it.

* OneTrueLove: Hanqi. He's the only man Xiangjian ever loved and will always be her only love which is the primary reason why she tries many ways to kill herself to be with him again [[spoiler: until Ruyi manages to convince to live on for his sake.]] It's also why she refuses to have any children with Hongli even if it could give her power leverage since she believes one should have a child if two people love each other and she does not love Hongli at all.

* QuestionableConsent: She refused to have sex with Hongli for a long time, and did not relent until Ruyi persuaded her to give him a chance. This was likely a bad idea considering he did not stop flipping her tag to the point Zhen Huan ordered a soup that would make her infertile so he would stop focuing on her but this would unforunately [[spoiler: sour his relationship with Ruyi.]]

* StarCrossedLovers: Ironic considering how she was actually betrothed to Hanqi and would have been very happy to be with him, but since Hongli heard of her beauty, he wanted her as a tribute and the betrothal between her and Hanqi was canceled. [[spoiler: Hanqi died from an avalanche trying to save her from getting married.]]

* GracefullyDemoted: [[spoiler: After she finally gets tired of Hongli being horrible to her, she doesn't go crazy or mad at him. Instead, after he slaps her, which leads to the final string being cut, she tells him she decides to not be his Empress anymore and silently pulls her hair down, taking out a knife to cut a piece of her hair despite knowing what will happen next. In other words, she's telling him "we are divorced" and cursing him (although it's implied in Ruyi's case, she's actually mourning the young Hongli she once loved who is now gone and not actually cursing him). This immediately leads to her deposement since hair cutting was very serious at the time.]]

* TookALevelInJerkass: Over the timeskip, '''big time'''. He becomes more paranoid, untrusting, and begins to fall into vices (lust, greed, jealousy, sadism, pleasure). It's to the point he starts distrusting Ruyi, taking other people's side over hers, and becoming extremely horrible to her, a stark contrast to who he was in the beginning. [[spoiler: It's to the point that Ruyi finally sees Hongli isn't the one she loved before he became the emperor losing her love for him.]]

* UndyingLoyalty: Her bond with Ruyi is genuine. Not once does she betray Ruyi and remains staunchly loyal to her throughout the series. It's to the point that with Chun who she was close patronized Ruyi during Langhua's funeral preparations for not having any children because the idea of being Empress or Yongzhang being the Crown Prince stuck to her leading her to become a slight jerkass (due to Yuyan's influence and a bit of the Empress Dowager's), she immediately made a plan to get Chun out of the run and it worked without anyone suspecting, not even Zhen Huan, it was Hailan and her son Yongqi that caused Hongli to be angry at her and her two sons leading them to be unfavored in the long run. Although Zhen Huan does find out, it never occurs to her that Hailan helps Ruyi out of love and devotion than being a lackey.

* TheAce: Alongside Yongqi, Yongcheng has proved to be as talented as his brother.

* LikeFatherLikeSon: The most significant trait that Yongqi probably got from his father was being infatuated with a woman he loved. [[spoiler:Too bad the woman who he fell in love was someone who wanted to kill him and get rid of Ruyi because she thought she killed Nanny Tian, her mother. It was all Yanwan's plot.]]

* LikeFatherLikeSon: Looking at the Yongzheng Emperor from the [[Series/TheLegendOfZhenHuan prequel]], he ends up exactly like his father but worse, particularly having a small ego and hates being talked back to. While having the political and intelligent aptitude, he also treats his concubines just as horribly as his father did and being possessive of them like how he was with [[spoiler: Zhen Huan.]]
* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: [[spoiler: The Yongzheng Emperor at least had a one true love of the Empress Chunyuan and deeply missed her while his son Hongli had Ruyi as his supposed true love but is then shown to love himself more than her.]]

** [[spoiler: Making Ling Yunche a eunuch, a man who has saved him many times, cemented the viewer's view of him becoming a full-on asshole of a monster who threw his morals away. Not to mention because Ruyi was involved, he also subjected her to many humiliating moments just for a bunch of baseless rumors that had no evidence to them.]]

* UndyingLoyalty: Her bond with Ruyi is genuine. Not once does she betray Ruyi and remains staunchly loyal to her throughout the series. It's to the point that with Chun who she was close patronized Ruyi during Langhua's funeral preparations for not having any children because the idea of being Empress or Yongzhang being the Crown Prince stuck to her leading her to become a slight jerkass (due to Yuyan's influence and a bit of the Empress Dowager's), she immediately made a plan to get Chun out of the run and it worked without anyone suspecting, not even Zhen Huan, it was Hailan and her son Yongqi that caused Hongli to be angry at her and her two sons leading them to be unfavored in the long run. Although Hailan's face shows she didn't expect Hongli to be that harsh.

* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Is very haughty about being the sole legitimate princess.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: As much as she dislikes Ruyi, she eventually sees Yanwan is truly evil and decides to do one good thing by sending an eunuch to spy on her (on Meiruo's advice) that leads her children being taken away.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Conspires with Wei Yanwan to bring down Ruyi, but comes to regret when she realizes that Yanwan is evil and wants the Empress position Ruyi is a decent person.

* CallingTheOldManOut: Calls out Hongli for overly favoring Xiangjian and causing chaos in the palace by making his women jealous for someone who doesn’t even like him. Hongli's apt response to that is to slap him.

* CallingTheOldWomanOut: When Yuyan is deposed, he is originally scared for her and calling for her, but when she tells him Prince Yu expects her to put one of her children as Crown Prince and that she can’t disappoint him, he is angry and calling her out for always caring about the Prince but never caring about him and forcing him to do things for her own benefits.

* DaddysGirl: While we don't see scenes with her and her father, it implies Hongli doted on her a lot and her death was one of the only times he mourned for his children. He even immediately punishes Yuyan [[spoiler: it was actually Yanwan's doing]] for her apparent hand on Jingsi's death on Hailan's request.

* BigDamnReunion: Reunites with her mother and brother after 20 years of being apart. When she and Zhenhuan meet, they take a moment to greet each other formally, but then, the waterworks start and they hug each other while crying. But when she meets Hongli, she rebuffs his attempts to remember their childhoods and subtly talks about the pain of being “inside a cage” after she was married off by him.

* AwfulWeddedLife: She and her Khorchin husband are very unhappy with one another.
* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Is very haughty about being the sole legitimate princess.

* PassiveAggressiveCombat
* TheReliableOne

* EunuchsAreEvil: He is first seen trying to manipulate a desperate Yanwan by telling her that if she gives him sexual favors, he will try to get her out of Yuyan’s palace. Then, when Yanwan becomes a concubine, he starts stroking her ego and helping her with morally deplorable plans in exchange for her putting a good word in for him.

** When she leaves for the Cold Palace he wanted to go with her but she only allowed Suoxin to go with her and lets him go to Hailan, because she wants Hailan to be safe and when she finally leaves, he goes down on his knees and bows to her. When she comes back to the palace, he does the same thing again but this time welcoming her back.

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler: At the very end, when he dies holding to a container containing his hair and Ruyi's, it's ambiguous to why he cuts a piece of his hair (which is stark white) and mixes it with Ruyi's hair (the piece that she cut that lead to her deposement). Either in his final moments, he finally knows the pain he caused and wanted Ruyi's forgiveness, or he also decides to finally cut his ties to her so she can be free, or it's possible to think how they would have had a life without him being an emperor, or it's possible it's a mix or all of those assumptions since in the final scene we see the scene where Ruyi enters in the wife picking for Hongli in the very first episode.]] We'll never know.

* CrazyJealousGuy: He's pretty possessive of his women, especially Ruyi.

** He's also hit some of his sons for being rude and having an outward desire to become Crown Price like with Yonghuang, Yongcheng, and Yongzhang, both who became unfavored permanently. At least with Yongqi, he only subjected him to being on his knees for an hour because he talked about Hengchuo's situation when he shouldn't. (Li Yu implies he's not really mad, and he hates it when his children tell on a sibling, he's just disciplining him to keep his mouth shut.)

** [[spoiler: Several reasons to why he didn't publicly punish Langhua is because she comes from a powerful, noble clan, and more importantly she's his first Empress. It would cause controversy and rumors if people heard that the Emperor's wife is an evil woman. On her deathbed, when she sees he never loved her and only kept her for image and giving birth to legitimate heirs, it leads to her death.]] For Yanwan, [[spoiler: it's implied because he brought her into his harem, if it turns out, she was found to be an evil woman then it would be his fault for bringing her in. He only finally severely punishes her at last when her crimes are exposed to him and everybody else. Plus, she was pretty and gave birth to many children so he didn't want to get rid of her.]]
** It reaches to the point he even begins distrusting [[NiceGuy Ruyi]] of all people and thinking the worst of her which is ludicrous but considering his increasing paranoia and distrustful traits, it happens. [[spoiler: It reaches to the peak where he believes she was cheating on him with Ling Yunche and terribly humiliated her.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: He's disgusted when he hears Prince Yu drove his wife to suicide and says a man who can't treat his wife well is heartless and dishonourable. At this point Hongli has emotionally and physically abused all of his wives, two of whom are already dead because of him. He remains completely oblivious to his hypocrisy.

* ItsAllAboutMe: One of the traits that [[spoiler: eventually leads to Ruyi losing her love for him. Having a NeverMyFault personality and never personally taking responsiblity for his actions that hurt and/or killed people, Hongli becomes this as he gets older. Plus, wanting to have an excellent reign without any corruptions and damage to his reputation is one considering how he never publicly reveals Langhua's crimes and never sticking up for Ruyi.]]

* LikeFatherLikeSon: Looking at the Yongzheng Emperor from the [[Series/TheLegendOfZhenHuan prequel]], he ends up exactly like his father but worse, particularly having a small ego and hates being talked back to. While having the political and intelligent aptitude, he also treats his concubines just as horribly as his father did. He's also pretty possessive of his women too like his father.

* MaintainTheLie: He wants to keep a good look on his reign and himself, wanting to be seen as devoted, family person. Of course this is not true as he is anything but that. [[spoiler: One of the reasons why he never publicly punishes Langhua is because she's the Empress and if he exposes how his wife is an evil person, it would bring rumors and be a blemish in his reign.]]

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: After her crimes are revealed, her son is disowned from the royal heirdom and she is deposed to commoner. The last straw from her was the revelation that she's not a Yu clanswoman but a bastard who was abandoned as a baby.]]

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Appears a kind, meek and gentle maid and later concubine who is a power-hungry and ambition woman who wants to have status.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Who would have thought that the little maid would end up causing so much damage and suffering?

* PetTheDog: For Ling Yunche. It's a small one in a way. [[spoiler: While she apparently had no hesitation in taking him out for power, seeing how he become a eunuch made her feel pity for him and unlike how she would usually taunt the people who get in her way, Yanwan is showing a sad expression for him. While Jin Zhong didn't hesitate to taunt Ling Yunche for becoming a eunuch, Yanwan didn't. It's to the point she rather see him dead than make him suffer humiliation. It goes to show that she still has genuine feelings for him even if it is a twisted one.]]

* WouldHurtAChild: When Jingyuan is defiant towards her, Yanwan harshly pinches her cheek.