Heartwarming / Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace

• The love between Ruyi and Hongli in the beginning was genuinely loving to the point he begs for his father to let him marry her which he finally accepts but only to be his second wife. It's unfortunate to how it ends in the series...
• It ends very badly for everyone involved, but it's still heartwarming when Hongli stands up for Ruyi in episode one and says she shouldn't be blamed for her aunt's crimes.
• When Ruyi is in the Cold Palace Hailan brings her clothes and flies a kite over the wall every day so Ruyi knows she's there.
• The moments of Hongli with his children when they are extremely young at least shows he is capable of being a good father, especially towards his daughters. When they get older though, he puts expectations more than anything with his sons but at the very least, is still soft to his daughters.
• Kind of, but Hongli is somewhat softer towards Hailan than any of his concubines throughout the series. Whether he felt bad for assaulting her while drunk, this comes from the novel version, or not, he never abused her like he does with his wives. When Gao asks him to punish her, he doesn't, instead he subtly punishes Gao and lets Hailan move to Ruyi's palace and when Ruyi is sent to the Cold Palace, he lets Hailan stay there even though she's lower rank (possibly because he knows some other concubine would abuse her like Gao). Plus, before he got her stretch marks and finally getting his attention, he is more affection towards her.
• Hongli does everything to try and keep Ruyi safe in the Cold Palace without anyone noticing. It's why though how Hailan can easily go there without trouble, get Jiang Yubin to do medical checks on them, etc. This information from Yuhu to Ruyi finally makes her realize Hongli still cared for her.
• As she leaves the Cold Palace Ruyi takes the time to bow to the other women still imprisoned there. And one of the first things she does upon being released is ask for Yunche to be promoted.
• Yongcheng might have gotten a bit arrogant of himself and didn't seem to care for his half-siblings but he just wanted the attention, respect and love from his parents. Plus, his mother was Jia so if he was raised like Yongqi there could have been a chance he could've actually succeeded Qianlong and be like Yongqi. Then again, his mother came from Korea so there probably wouldn't be a single chance he could've been the Emperor or Crown Prince. He was shown to be a good older brother towards his younger full-blooded siblings and promises to protect them after Yuyan dies.
• Chun and Ruyi's first friendly talk after the events of Langhua's funeral. During their walk, Chun realized how she was led by listening to Jia's sweet words of her being able to reach Empress and had wishful thinking. But she did want to give Yongzhang an identity. She admits she never really wanted to ask much from Hongli and wanted her sons to live in peace.
  • Kexin is part of the reason why Chun goes back to being friendly terms with Ruyi because she reminds her of their friendship before the funeral and that Ruyi was the one to try and get a doctor for her when no one else would do it. Overall, it shows she's devoted to her mistress like Rongpei and Suoxin.
• After Xiangjian nearly kills herself to reunite with her dead fiancé, Ruyi visits her and instead of acting jealous and hostile because her husband is so infatuated with her, instead, comforts her, feeds her soup and talks about her old love. This causes Xiangjian to be extremely loyal to Ruyi, not because she’s the empress but because she’s the first person in the palace who didn’t treat her like an object or a rival.
• Yongqi, overall, has to be the most loving prince out of all the sons Hongli has who cares for everyone. Even when his father told him to dump Yunche with the other bodies, not bothering to give him a good burial, Yongqi actually gave him a burial for him from his mother's request. He even begs Hongli to forgive Ruyi in his last moments because he knows she's a good person and considering he couldn't do much for her.
• When Yongji cries after Yunche is turned into a eunuch, Yunche hugs him and tells him not to cry. It’s nice that, despite everything that just happened to him, Yunche still takes the time to comfort the boy he loved taking care of when his own father can't even do so.

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