Fengming

Fengming is the head lady-in-waiting attached to Consort Ah-Duo in the Pomegranate Palace.

She entered palace service long before the main story, already serving Ah-Duo since the time when Ah-Duo was still the Crown Princess Consort.

Among the maids serving the imperial consorts, she is one of the longest-serving veterans, second only to Suiren, who once served Ah-Duo and later serves Jinshi.

Her long years of dedicated work earn her deep trust from Ah-Duo and respect from the other maids.

On the surface, Fengming is warm, kind, and endlessly gentle, always smiling and taking the lead in chores.

Even Maomao privately thinks she would have made a good wife because of her calm, considerate demeanor and reliable work ethic.

Despite this, Fengming carries a heavy sense of guilt tied to something obtained through her family’s connections.

That guilt festers into a desperate resolve to protect Ah-Duo’s position as consort at any cost, ultimately pushing her to attempt to eliminate Consort Lishu in secret.

Her story blends loyalty, trauma, and moral collapse, transforming a seemingly ideal senior maid into a tragic criminal whose actions trigger a large internal purge within the palace.

Fengming lives and works in the Pomegranate Palace, the residence of the gentle and melancholic Consort Ah-Duo.

As head maid, she manages other maids, organizes work, and acts as a buffer between Ah-Duo and the rest of the staff.

She has likely been in the palace since even before Ah-Duo became a new consort, or at least since that same period, though the exact timing is unclear.

Initially, she enters service because her parents tell her to, not out of personal ambition, but her feelings change after meeting Ah-Duo.

Fengming witnesses Ah-Duo interacting with the then Crown Prince (the current Emperor) on equal footing.

This shocks and fascinates her, and she becomes deeply devoted, deciding that Ah-Duo is the person to whom she will dedicate her entire life.

Day-to-day, she is known for being approachable and kind to the other palace maids.

She also treats the visiting helpers from the Jade Palace, including Maomao who comes for large-scale cleaning, with the same warm smile and gentle tone.

Outwardly, Fengming is the ideal senior maid: polite, patient, hardworking, and always smiling.

She rarely shows displeasure and instead encourages others, leading by example rather than by scolding.

Because of this warm demeanor, many in the palace view her as dependable and non-threatening.

Her gentle personality makes her especially suited to caring for emotionally fragile figures like Ah-Duo.

However, her kindness has one sharp exception: the young Consort Lishu.

When Lishu, still a child, starts visiting Ah-Duo and naturally becomes attached to her, Fengming treats Lishu coldly and drives her away without explanation.

This harsh treatment terrifies Lishu, who cannot understand why the otherwise kind maid is so frightening toward her.

Fengming’s cruelty in this one area stands out starkly against her usual behavior and hints at the obsessive, possessive core of her loyalty to Ah-Duo.

Her relationship with Ah-Duo is almost worshipful.

She sees Ah-Duo not just as a mistress but as a figure worth sacrificing everything for, including her own life and the lives of others.

Fengming also has indirect ties to Maomao.

Because Maomao’s “paper family” (the merchant house that legally purchased her from kidnappers) does business with Fengming’s family, Maomao is later caught up in the fallout from Fengming’s crime.

Fengming knows in painful detail the series of tragedies that mark Ah-Duo’s life as a consort.

She is present through Ah-Duo’s most important and devastating moments.

At some point, Ah-Duo becomes pregnant with the child who is expected to become the next crown prince.

The childbirth is extremely difficult, turning into a severe case of obstructed labor.

The palace physician attending Ah-Duo is suddenly called away because the Empress Dowager goes into labor at the same time.

Due to this unfortunate overlap, Ah-Duo is left without proper medical support, and the consequences are disastrous.

As a result of the complications, Ah-Duo loses her uterus and becomes unable to bear any more children.

The child who was supposed to be the next crown prince dies soon after birth.

Fengming sees Ah-Duo speaking in a hollow, expressionless way, saying that such deaths are common among infants and should not be dwelled upon.

But at night, Ah-Duo repeatedly breaks down and cries in anguish, a grief Fengming silently witnesses.

Later, it is revealed that a “nutritional supplement” given at the time was not in fact beneficial to infants and may have caused or worsened the baby’s condition.

Knowing this, and knowing that something obtained through her own family’s connections played a part, becomes a deep wound in Fengming’s heart.

This guilt, combined with seeing Ah-Duo stripped of her ability to have children and deprived of her heir, fuels Fengming’s extreme determination to protect Ah-Duo’s status.

For her, ensuring that Ah-Duo remains a consort with dignity becomes worth any sacrifice.

Fengming’s core motive is her belief that everything must be done “for Consort Ah-Duo to remain a consort.”

She interprets that mission in a ruthless way, especially when it concerns potential rivals or threats to Ah-Duo’s symbolic position.

Her family had previously used their connections to obtain certain goods for palace use.

One such item, connected with the tragedy of Ah-Duo’s lost child, becomes the source of Fengming’s unbearable guilt.

To hide this shame and to keep Ah-Duo’s image from being further damaged, she resolves to manipulate events from the shadows.

Her thinking gradually shifts from loyalty to fanaticism.

Fengming sees Lishu, a young consort who adores Ah-Duo and visits the Pomegranate Palace, as both a potential emotional replacement and a political complication.

Instead of welcoming Lishu, she chooses to exclude and later target her, convinced that removing Lishu will secure Ah-Duo’s position.

Her inner turmoil is never loudly expressed, but her actions reveal a woman who has convinced herself that terrible crimes are justified if they protect her mistress.

In the end, her sense of duty and her guilt become indistinguishable from obsession.

The critical turning point involving Fengming occurs at a garden party hosted by the Emperor.

During this imperial outing, an incident unfolds that endangers Consort Lishu’s life.

Fengming is directly involved in this attempted murder plot.

She uses her family’s trading connections and her authority in the Pomegranate Palace to arrange and obtain the necessary items for the crime.

After the incident, Fengming does not attempt to flee.

Instead, she turns herself in, effectively confessing to the authorities.

In her confession, she declares that “everything was for Consort Ah-Duo to remain a consort.”

This statement clearly lays out her motive: the crime is not for personal gain but for what she sees as the preservation of Ah-Duo’s position and dignity.

Although the matter does not become a public scandal throughout the entire court, it is handled strictly behind the scenes.

Within the inner palace, the consequences are severe and far-reaching.

Once Fengming confesses, her fate is decided quickly and harshly.

She is executed, and her family’s property is confiscated, leading to the collapse and ruin of her household.

Anyone officially judged to be connected to the incident through Fengming faces serious punishment.

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