Crown Prince Xiao Qi'an closes the main gate on his wedding day, forcing the primary consort Shen Mingzhu to enter through the side gate to become a secondary consort, humiliating her publicly, burning her bridal robes, seizing her mother's heirloom phoenix hairpin, and beating her maid Liuying with a staff. At a critical moment, her adoptive father, Western Depot Superintendent Pei Cheng, leads troops back to the capital, exposing the Crown Prince's forged imperial edict and the Empress's treason, resulting in the Crown Prince being deposed. Shen Mingzhu in turn recommends the Fifth Prince Xiao Huaijin as the heir apparent, later entering the court to head the Inspectorate, and following the Northwestern disaster relief silver case, uncovers a shocking old case of the Late Emperor's sixth son not dying.