Original subtitles

Episode 30

Royal Uncle Li.

Your Highness,

would you excuse me for a minute?

Is that true?

Royal Uncle Li, I saw it with my own eyes.

Ye Xiaotian was so impudent

that he accepted with only one hand

the gift the Cochin princess handed to him.

The dance arranged by Ye Xiaotian is so vulgar.

How could this folk dance be performed at this elegant banquet?

OK. I see. You may go now.

Yes, Your Highness.

Your Highness, Lord Deputy Envoy,

it's my honor to welcome you

on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor of Great Ming.

Let's raise our glasses

to the friendship between our two peoples.

Come on. Please.

Please.

-Cheers. -Cheers.

Please be seated.

OK.

Your Highness,

I liked your gift

very much.

I'll send Your Highness a present

in return later.

You're welcome, Your Highness.

It was a small gift

to show my respect.

The pleasure was mine.

Courtesy requires reciprocity.

By the way,

I heard

that Your Highness also gave a gift

to the ambassador of Foreign Guests' Hotel.

Yes, Your Highness.

Your country has been looking after me very well,

and the officials at Foreign Guests' Hotel have been very considerate,

so I prepared a gift for them, too,

to show my appreciation.

It was very kind of Your Highness

to treat a minor official from Foreign Guests' Hotel

with such courtesy.

Oh right, Your Highness,

did they show any indiscretion

in front of Your Highness?

No, not at all.

Your ambassador is great. He's amazing.

I'm very pleased to know

that he understands our national conditions

and respects our customs.

Thank you, Your Excellency.

You're so thoughtful and considerate.

No wonder the Celestial Empire is so powerful.

Not only is His Excellency

thoughtful and tactful,

but a minor official in charge of reception

turns out to be so well-informed as well.

Here's to Your Excellency.

Thank you.

Well,

it's our duty to do our utmost

to take care of Your Highness.

But may I ask why Your Highness

just called our ambassador

a well-informed man?

As a saying in your country goes,

a guest must do as his host does.

That's why

I always observe your country's conventions

and use both hands

when giving or accepting gifts in your country.

But in my country,

the left hand is deemed unclean,

and thus we neither accept a gift

nor eat with our left hand.

Ambassador Ye knows our customs very well.

He had habitually reached out

both hands for my proffered gift,

but then he lowered his left hand

to accept my gift with his right hand.

I'm delighted

because he showed respect to me,

and more importantly,

because I'm glad to see someone in the Celestial Empire

should know our Cochin customs.

Come on.

Let's raise our glasses to our friendship

and to the friendship between Cochin

and the Great Ming Empire.

Yes.

Cheers.

Your Highness, Lord Deputy Envoy,

please enjoy the dishes.

Well-informed? What nonsense!

Ye Xiaotian

couldn't raise his hand

because I'd sprained his left arm.

Take it off.

Take it off?

Take what off?

Take off your clothes.

You're a girl,

so behave like a girl, will you?

You're asking a man to take his clothes off?

But you got injured, right?

How else could I apply the ointment to your wound?

Take…take it easy.

Just tell me where you hurt, OK?

Well, it doesn't really hurt.

Do you remember the other day

when Royal Uncle Li pinched my shoulder like this?

My arm feels numb to this day.

Look, I can't even make a fist now.

Take it easy. Take it easy.

What's the matter?

You dislocated my arm.

But I...

I was just kidding, silly girl.

You're good at this.

I'm all right now.

What was wrong with me?

He hit at your Jianjing Acupoint.

You'll be fine. Remember to stretch a bit.

Brat, I'll beat you one day.

Why did the Cochin princess

give you this cloth as a gift?

Because she likes me.

Get over yourself.

A foreigner's type is anyone's guess.

I don't believe you.

A mixture of gondii and rhinoceros beetle

strengthens the properties

of the drug twofold.

Uncle Dong

remains indoors all day long.

What are you doing?

I…I…

I'm all right now,

so why are you still here?

I was afraid that you might relapse.

The others might hear us,

as the room isn't soundproof.

A single man and a single woman

shouldn't share the same room.

Didn't you call me a buddy?

It's OK for two men to share a room.

Go away.

Bye.

My lord.

My lord!

What's the matter?

The Cochin princess has fallen ill.

Please come and take a look.

What?

Our princess is still unconscious.

What shall we do? God help us.

This way, please, my lord.

She's still unconscious. What shall we do?

Hush.

My lord.

Who's the man jumping about in the chamber?

My lord,

that's the doctor in the Cochin princess's retinue.

He's examining Her Highness.

What on earth ails Her Highness?

I'm not sure.

Shortly after Her Highness's return,

an attendant of the mission came to me

and rattled off some gibberish.

I was confused,

so I walked in

and saw Her Highness looking very pale

and weak.

The floor was covered with filth,

and so was the commode.

Did you send anyone to inquire

about the cause before Her Highness lost consciousness?

My lord, we needn't do that.

Her Highness vomited and had watery stools,

and her throat hurt so much

that she's lost her voice.

Apart from Her Highness, does anyone else

on this diplomatic mission know our language?

This is a problem.

In my opinion,

Her Highness probably had eaten something wrong

at the banquet.

Your Lordship is wise.

Cut it out.

Go to the Ministry of Rites to report this to His Excellency immediately.

Yes, my lord.

I'm on it.

My lord.

You did a lousy job of taking care of the Cochin envoy,

as Her Highness

should have fallen seriously ill overnight.

Your Excellency,

the Cochin princess fell ill

soon after returning from the banquet

as drunk as a fish last night.

How could Your Excellency accuse me of improper care?

If we have to track out the cause,

we should put the blame on the food

at the banquet last night.

What was the matter with the food we had last night?

I've been all right.

Royal Uncle Li has been all right.

And the Deputy Envoy and other Cochin attendants

have been all right.

I think there are two more likely causes:

Her Highness caught a cold

after your men had forgotten to shut the windows,

or Her Highness had to drink cold tea

because your men didn't change water in time.

So Your Excellency

actually has medical skills.

Your Excellency could tell the cause of her illness

just by taking a look at her.

That was very impressive.

What a glib talk!

Listen to me,

I won't let you off if anything untoward

should happen to the Cochin princess.

I shall go looking for a distinguished physician in the Capital City

to treat Her Highness.

Take good care of Her Highness.

Well,

I'm sending for a distinguished physician in the Capital City

to treat Her Highness,

and I shall put up a public notice

to recruit a Cochin-savvy person

from the folks.

The language barrier

has given rise to many difficulties.

I'll leave this to you.

Yes, Your Excellency.

So long.

I don't know what to do now.

Brother.

Brother,

why did that old man

go off in a huff?

How else

could he pass the buck?

What would happen

if the Cochin princess should die?

Then I'd be demoted to a position eight ranks lower.

Eight ranks lower?

Brother,

you're just a petty official,

so where would you be

if you were demoted like that?

I'd serve the King of Hell in the Palace of Hell.

Yunfei,

tell Miss Zhan, Duoni

and the old man

to make preparations

to flee.

Lord Ye.

Hello, sir,

may I ask your name?

Sure. I'm Gao,

Gao Tong.

This is Dr. Gao, the most prestigious physician in the Capital City.

I'm flattered.

It was very kind of Secretary Dong to say so.

Excellent.

Dr. Gao,

please come and examine our patient.

But this patient of ours

is a distinguished guest.

She's an envoy from Cochin,

and His Majesty will receive her in person.

So you have to be very careful.

All right.

This way, please.

Her Highness's eyes are lidded

and she's bedridden.

What are we going to do?

What shall we do?

Come on.

This way.

This way.

Lord Deputy Envoy,

this is a physician from our place.

How should I explain this?

That's me.

Shall we ask him to go in

and examine Her Highness?

Well,

look,

the doctor you consulted

has been treating Her Highness

for a long time,

but Her Highness still shows no sign of recovery.

So let our doctor take a look, OK?

Brother,

let him go in and take a look, OK?

What nonsense,

you stupid deputy envoy!

You despise our traditional Chinese medicine?

Your witch doctor is a quack.

You think we don't have witch doctors?

I could have some sorcerers

dance three days and three nights here,

and it wouldn't help the matter at all.

Listen carefully,

you don't care about Her Highness's health,

but I do!

Stay away from my place if you're suicidal.

Don't get me into trouble!

Shut up.

Watch your tongue.

You've…you've gone too far.

Luckily, he doesn't understand our language,

or you could be punished

for that remark you made.

You could punish me

even without that excuse.

Besides,

dare you do that now?

Dare you punish me now?

You…

If you do punish me now,

who's going to be your scapegoat

if anything untoward happens to Her Highness?

This is outrageous.

This is preposterous.

My lords,

may I ask if I'm needed to examine

this princess from our neighboring country?

Sure.

Why not?

You must examine her.

No.

We need their consent

if we want to examine their princess,

otherwise we wouldn't be able

to absolve ourselves from responsibility

if the Cochin princess's illness should be incurable

and if Her Highness

should die here.

Let me ask you,

so we have to stand here doing nothing

when the patient is lying in there,

is that what you mean?

I need to consult His Excellency first.

Don't take any reckless actions.

Ye Xiaotian

is done for this time.

The Cochin princess fell ill

at their Foreign Guests' Hotel.

He's definitely in deep trouble this time.

I don't think

the matter will be as simple as you think.

The Cochin princess

will soon recover

if she just had a problem with food.

I beg to differ.

Royal Uncle Li,

I've inquired about it:

the Cochin princess has traveled a long way

to our country.

Her conditions are far worse

than diarrhea.

I don't think she'll survive this.

If so,

we'll just need to sit back

and watch how he rots in hell.

Sir. Sir.

Her Highness remains ill.

She aches all over.

What shall we do?

Sir, give us a hand.

Hold on.

What's up with Her Highness?

Ambassador Ye,

the Cochin princess

threw up and had loose bowels just now.

She almost passed out

from vomiting so hard.

The deputy envoy was very worried

and he blathered on about something I don't get.

So I had to bring him to you.

OK.

This is a famous physician of Great Ming.

He's got excellent medical skills.

Could you let him

examine Her Highness?

Why did you come out rattling away

if you don't agree to our proposal?

Brother.

Nice to meet you, Ambassador Ye.

Did you get anything from the Ministry of Rites?

His Excellency just gave the order

that Dr. Gao should leave Foreign Guests' Hotel.

But we can't just stand by

and watch the Cochin princess

succumb to her illness, can we?

Ambassador Ye,

I'm just transmitting His Excellency's order.

We must not offer treatment

to the Cochin princess without the consent

from the Cochin Deputy Envoy,

for if the Cochin princess should die,

the Cochin people would blame her death

on our country.

The consequences would be unthinkable.

So long.

Brother, he just scuttled away.

I suggest you should be prepared.

You're going to be the scapegoat

of the Ministry of Rites, I'm afraid.

Yeah.

Make up your mind quickly.

I just went over and took a look.

I don't think the Cochin princess

will see another day

if we don't treat her today.

Shall…shall we

find a doctor on our own to examine her?

Didn't you hear what the man from the Ministry of Rites said?

We'll be in more serious trouble

if we fail to cure Her Highness.

Yunfei,

have you packed our things up?

What are you talking about?

We're fleeing.

What? We're fleeing?

Yeah.

Tsk, come off it.

The Ministry of Rites wouldn't shoulder this responsibility,

but I will.

You will?

The Ministry of Rites said no,

so Dr. Gao

wouldn't get himself into trouble.

I've figured out a solution.

Dr. Gao,

this is Lord Dong from the Ministry of Rites.

He's brought here the order from His Excellency.

Nice to meet you, Lord Dong.

His Excellency decrees

that our country should take full charge of the health and safety

about our foreign guests since they're in our land.

Take no heed of the Cochin attendants' opinions.

Mr. Gao must treat the invalid attentively.

Man proposes, Heaven disposes.

Just do your best.

The Ministry of Rites shall take full responsibility

if anything untoward should happen.

Since His Excellency has said so,

I shall obey the order.

Dr. Gao, this way, please.

Why is Her Highness still so ill? What shall we do?

What shall we do?

My lord.

Stop.

Keep quiet.

Yunfei, Daheng, do it.

Keep quiet.

Dr. Gao,

please.

Please examine the patient.

Don't move.

Tianshu Acupoint.

Wailing Acupoint.

Liangmen Acupoint.

That's it.

Dr. Gao,

that's it?

That's not enough, to be sure.

We must combine external treatment with internal treatment.

But don't worry, my lord.

Her Highness's illness isn't fatal.

Really?

That's wonderful.

Master, I've got the medicine.

Hurry up.

Decoct a potion first

at the kitchen of Foreign Guests' Hotel.

Yes, Master.

Go ahead.

I'll leave a disciple of mine here

to decoct a potion according to my prescription every day.

After three days,

decoct and boil the herbs three times.

I believe that Her Highness,

frail as she is, shall fully recover.

Thank you, Dr. Gao.

Insolent fool!

What made you so daring?

The Cochin princess is our distinguished guest.

If anything untoward should happen,

how are you going to be able to answer for it?

Yes.

Your Excellency is right.

Watch your tongue

in the presence of the Cochin princess.

Yes, Your Excellency.

Your Excellency is right.

I'll sort you out later.

Please take care, Your Highness.

Please have a seat, Your Highness.

Your Highness.

Your Highness,

how are you feeling?

I'm feeling much better now.

Thank you, Your Excellency.

Have a seat, please.

Please be seated, Your Highness.

Your Highness,

His Excellency has been deeply concerned about your illness.

His Excellency came to visit Your Highness

and found the best physician

in the capital

to treat Your Highness.

His Excellency, though busy,

has been paying close attention

to Your Highness's condition.

Your Highness,

he's never concerned about your illness.

Don't believe him.

I appreciate it, Your Excellency.

Your Highness,

well,

I asked our physician to examine Your Highness

when I saw that Your Highness

didn't show any sign of recovery

after your physician had treated Your Highness.

But your Deputy Envoy preferred caution

and kept rejecting our proposal.

I had misgivings, too.

Later,

on seeing the deterioration of Your Highness's condition,

I gave the order decisively.

It grieves me that Your Highness

had such a hard time.

I didn't stop their physician from treating Your Highness.

All right.

Your Excellency,

my Deputy Envoy said

that he gave immediate consent

to your proposal

when you brought your physician here.

He didn't stand in the way.

How…

How could that be?

Although I'm unable to communicate

with your Deputy Envoy verbally,

yet I can understand

his gestures.

When I was to bid our physician

to examine Your Highness,

your Deputy Envoy kept shaking his head

at the idea.

Um…

What?

The Cochin people shake their heads to show agreement

and nod to show disagreement?

Yeah.

I'll be darned.

What a horrendous custom is that!

Who knows that Ye Xiaotian

could be so blessed by Heaven?

Blessed?

If he were blessed by Heaven,

he wouldn't be just a petty official,

would he?

He scored a lucky hit, I'm sure.

It was dumb luck.

Royal Uncle Li.

Royal Uncle Li,

could you seek an opportunity to give

another banquet in honor of the Cochin princess

before His Majesty receives the princess?

What are you up to?

Listen to me,

we shall tamper with the dishes prepared by Ye Xiaotian

to get him into serious trouble again.

Wouldn't…wouldn't it be overdone?

It wouldn't be a big deal.

Ye Xiaotian would be the only one

who's made a show of himself.

It would be a mere slip in courtesy

and a small embarrassment

as far as the Ming government is concerned.

After all, the blunderer is a minor official.

No, no.

The government would lose face

should there be an accident.

Royal Uncle Li,

we could have things prearranged at Chongyi Restaurant.

Once Ye Xiaotian makes a mistake,

Your Highness could come to Chongyi Restaurant with your men.

In this way

we could minimize the impact.

Think about it.

Ye Xiaotian would definitely

be severely punished

when the government learns of this incident.

That would be a thoughtful plan.

But if…

Royal Uncle Li,

please stop hesitating.

It's now or never.

OK.

But remember,

entrust this matter to a reliable man,

do you understand?

Don't worry, Your Highness.

I'll see to it myself.

Brother.

What is it?

Brother,

a man at the gate wishes to see you.

He said the Guest office of…the Ministry of Rites…

Shut up, silly man.

What a bad memory you've got.

Brother Xiaotian,

it's a Secretary Zheng from the Foreign Guests Reception Office

of the Ministry of Rites.

He's been waiting for you a long time.

Brother,

that doesn't bode well.

Secretary Zheng,

may I ask what has brought Your Lordship here?

You're Ye Xiaotian, Ambassador of Foreign Guests' Hotel?

Yes, I am.

His Highness Royal Uncle Li and His Excellency Minister Guan

will hold a banquet at Foreign Guests' Hotel

in honor of the Cochin princess the day after tomorrow.

Meritorious ministers, members of the imperial family

and other officials will join the banquet.

You've been put in charge of the matter.

Secretary Zheng,

it's impossible for Foreign Guests' Hotel

to hold a banquet of this magnitude.

Please find another place for the banquet.

Their Lordships needn't your approval

of the location of the banquet, need they?

That's not what I mean, Your Lordship.

But we're really short-handed.

Don't worry.

The organization of the banquet will be our responsibility.

Entertainments shall be in the charge of the Imperial Music Office.

You only need to take care of catering.

You can handle that, right?

Secretary Zheng,

let me tell you the truth.

Foreign Guests' Hotel has always

been short of cooks.

His Excellency temporarily assigned a few cooks

to our place a few days ago,

but together they could only manage

the daily diet of the several envoys.

We won't be able to cater this grand banquet

because of our poor culinary skills

and because we're really short-handed.

Don't worry about it.

You'll soon receive the silver allocated by the Ministry of Rites.

In these two days

you shall purchase sufficient ingredients.

And I'll dispatch excellent chefs here

to help you prepare the catering.

That should solve all your problems, right?

All right.

We've got enough here.

No, thanks.

Lord Ye.

What are you doing here?

Lord Ye,

please leave it to me.

You just cut your hand,

go dress the wound right now.

Thank you, Lord Ye.

Leave it to me.

Is there anything I can do to help?

What can you do?

You might as well stay out of our way.

What?

I mean,

why don't you patrol the place

and help me beat those

who are loafing on the job?

Good idea.

That's a perfect job for me.

She's on it?

Go and help them over there.

I'm coming.

Let's tidy it up.

Fetch a few buckets of water.

Ambassador Ye,

the officials have arrived.

You must hurry up.

The dishes must be served on time.

Don't worry.

We won't hold things up.

We're ready here.

The banquet begins in a minute.

Let's hurry up.

OK.

My lord.

The dishes are ready.

Everyone shall take the dishes

in the order we numbered them.

Keep up your spirit

at the banquet hall.

Yes, my lord.

Come on. Take the dishes in order.

Don't mix them up.

Hurry.

Let's hurry.

Follow the rhythm.

Come on. Make haste.

Let's keep our hands busy.

How did this happen?

What's going on?

Ye Xiaotian,

look what you've done!

You know how important

the banquet tonight is.

You're making the Great Ming Dynasty

lose face in front of the Cochin princess.

I'm reporting this to His Excellency Minister Guan.

Catch him.

Are you out of your mind?

How dare you beat me? You…

Secretary Zheng,

you couldn't wait another second to pop out

the moment we had this mishap here.

You were definitely involved

in this mishap tonight.

What nonsense are you talking about?

The tables in your kitchen

have fallen into disuse

and rotted over the years.

As the man in charge of catering,

you should have checked them beforehand.

You're imputing the blame to me

now that this disaster happened?

Come off it.

Shut up.

Come on.

We all know you did it.

Well,

shall we hand him over to Uncle Dong?

Uncle Dong specializes in this.

He'll make this man confess

within 15 minutes.

Keep a close watch on him.

We'll deal with him later.

The urgent matter now

is how to deal with the guests in the banquet hall.

Nobody could handle

this awful mess.

I think you should flee from your official post

and return to Dawan Mountain.

I'll leave

when I resign my position of my own free will.

I'll never allow myself

to be driven away disgracefully.

You're the fastest swordsperson here,

I suppose?

Tell me.

Who do you want me to kill?

How do you do, Your Highness?

Your Highness, precious indeed

are the good-neighborly and friendly relations

and the exchange of needed goods

between our two countries over the past century

since Lord Zheng He made friends with your country

during the reign of the Yongle Emperor.

Thus we're giving this state banquet

in honor of Your Highness's envoy

under His Majesty's orders.

We hope that Your Highness

will like these choicest delicacies

from land and sea.

We're indebted to His Majesty the Emperor of Great Ming

for this courteous reception.

We're thankful to Your Lordships' warm hospitality.

We're deeply grateful.

Our country wishes to be firm friends

with the Great Ming Dynasty for generations to come.

Well said.

Let's drink to Your Highness's auspicious words.

Come on.

Let's raise our glasses.

-Come on. -Here's to our everlasting

good-neighborliness and friendship!

Cheers.

Please be seated, Your Highness.

Take a seat, everyone.

-Please take a seat. –Please.

My lord.

Why aren't the dishes served yet?

I shall go hurry them up.

Please don't stand on ceremony.

Lord Guan,

the Cochin envoy has traveled thousands of miles to our country.

It'd be a loss of face for our government

if we played a bad host.

They've long been informed of the arrangements,

but why haven't they served the dishes yet?

If Foreign Guests' Hotel should make a slip,

I'll submit a memorial to His Majesty

to banish Ye Xiaotian to Qiongzhou

for life.

How is it going?

Are we all set?

Surely I can slice the ingredients faster

than they could eat.

Excellent.

It's time to serve the dishes.

Yes.

Why are they taking so long to serve the dishes?

His Excellency has inquired about it.

They're coming.

The dishes are coming.

The dinner party begins now.

Thank you.

All this stuff is raw.

How are we supposed to eat it?

Lord Guan,

isn't this just hot pot?

We're entertaining our foreign guests with this stuff?

This is a state banquet after all.

What's the meaning of this?

Ye Xiaotian

is being ridiculous.

This is a disgrace to our national prestige.

How do you do, Your Highness?

I hope Your Highness will forgive me for the poor reception.

Ambassador Ye,

it was your arrangement?

I've arranged this dinner

specially for Your Highness.

This is one of the most distinctive dishes

in the Great Ming Dynasty.

It's unique in that it allows the diners

to decide the flavor of the dish

as they please.

Is this dish really so wonderful?

Would Your Highness like to have a try?

What flavor would Your Highness prefer?