"What is the matter, wife?" "I hate being here in the place where everything is above my station and so luxurious that it makes my head hurt." "I shall restore our home to a goo standard and less luxury items; I know how you are very well. But you will be a Lord's wife soon and our home will be decorated to a somewhat higher standard, you need to get used to it." "Yes yes husband, I shall try for your sake and blah blah blah…" "Here, come and take a look at this poems anthology that has been spreading around in the palace." "These are political poems? Why are you showing this to me? These are not even all that good at all." "Who do you think would keep such copy of an inaccessible book such as this one?" "My Lord? Is this the book they are trying to frame on my brother?" "Unfortunately so, wife." "Hwi has no interest in poems and he gave up on politics when he left palace affairs behind with his former master years ago now. And these poems are used to extol enemies of this nation that my family has no interest in getting involved with either. I may not have high regard for this nation but I have no time or allure in bringing it down to it's knees either, with the exception of The Royal Family themselves." "This not only upholds the deed and praises of The Third Prince, but his uncles as well." "Seeing his hard work perished should be enough for the poet, and sever punishments should be imposed on those who keep them, but not if they are being framed for it. And it is better to do it in one swoop so the people do not think that The Emperor is holding onto a deep grudge." "Your are saying that it is better for the poems to dissipate like clouds than continue to stoke fear into the hearts of the people?" "You cannot rule in fear forever husband, you need to instil mercy whenever you can so that the people can trust you, unlike previous rulers who kept their distance from the people with their highborn statuses despite their good intentions. That is how they always end up corrupt in the end, due to that distance between the people and their ruler."
"My Lord Nam? The Widow Nam has sent many people to fetch you from the cold palace…and she has abused them also…" "What do you mean 'abuse'? Those are my damned servants, how dare she treat my people that way!" "Calm down husband…" "I will not! I hate it when people interrupt us for fucks sake! I hardly get to see you as it is! Now tell me everything, servant! What the hell is that woman whining about this time!" "My Lord, since she has known her honorary title…she has gone quite mad." "She should see a physician gif she is feeling ill, how on earth does she expect me to cure her? With my wealth? My title? My very soul?" "Husband…" "I am tired of her endless chatter, her endless begging and her endless requests. It was a mistake to have supported her from he start; I should have just handed that nephew of mine over to my father's clan earlier and I could have saved thousands for myself!" "What a miser you are husband, I don't expect you to keep up that same attitude after our wedding." "Why do you think I am saving up so much?" "Husband, for the love of Buddha, we will have a small ceremony to keep the villager's eyes off of us for once. I wish to enjoy my big day in peace and not with a migraine and sore feet afterwards." "Now who is the miser here?"
"You do not have to see her again if it displeases you, but justifying it to me makes me think that you are avoiding her because of me." "Like I said earlier; if you were a little stupider, uglier and immature, then I can put up with these meetings without being distracted by you at all." "It is true that she is wilful by nature, but she wasn't be so foolish as to claim sickness just to gain attention, not so soon after the plague finally came to an end." "So what are you suggesting?" "I suggest that we both make this the final day that she ever begs to see you ever again? Can you spare me the time, husband?" "Very well then, you haven't entrained me in a while now." "Excuse me? You steal my night and my sleep away and you dare to say that I do not entertain you? Husband?" "I meant the other kind of entertainment that you do." "Men, honestly, how could you ever survive without us?" "Quite poorly, I can imagine."
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"You lowly bitches! Who said that The Lord Nam will stop visiting me once and for all! Which one of you bitches messed it up for me! How much is Seo Yeon paying you to sabotage me! How dare you curry favour with her to undermine my status! How dare you…" "Stop! You just hit My Lord Nam with that broken teacup! How dare you! You do not look sick to any of us at all!" "My Lord! Forgive me! I just…was disciplining my servants…" "My servant you mean, and I will never let anyone mistreat them; so you can all fall back now and retreat back to your original quarters, all of you! Pack up your things and get on the carriages that I have brought for you east of the palace gates." "By My Lord! I need them…" "A maid who betrayed her master for glory and wealth does not need servants at all! Wife!"
"Calm yourself and sit down husband, I shall handle this for you." "What do you mean, sister=in=law?" "Widow Nam, why do you insist on destroying everything that my husband gifts you? I am the one who cultivated these servants, so how dare you mistreat them like this? Just who do you think you are and what gives you the right to beat your own people? What did this girl even do to deserve such abuse?" "My own people! I am a married woman with a child…!" "You are a widow with no power and wealth of your own." "I am her mistress and she defied me many times! I got infuriated by her lies, so I just punished her lightly…" "Is that why you gave her an ugly nickname that counteracts mine like slander? And is that why you gave your youngest servants so many dark bruises?" "She is an ingrate of a girl who does not know how to carry out chores properly, what else am I to do with her? Who is she putting on this show for?" "Those bruises are not a show and you know it! Her old wounds are coupled up with new ones, how can you possibly explain that away?"
"My Lord! You have finally come to see me! Do you have any idea how aggrieved I feel by still being locked up here? This so=called palace is worse than the servants quarters than your father housed us in! I am being unjust confined in here with no news of my release at all! Have you already forgotten all about me! Please save me from this terrible fate that I find myself in all because of The Late Concubine Chung! It wasn't my fault at all! You know that I am illiterate and I…"
"I have reason to suspect that you were beating this maid because she was one of the small group who was closest to me in The Nam Yangban. You took out your anger on her when my husband refused to see you? This wasn't the servant who came to my husband's quarters today to request an audience with him? Beating such a young and innocent child, you have no compassion at all! And you dare to challenge my husband's goodwill that he bestowed onto you like this? You harbour envy against your masters and your own family, and resentment towards my husband and your master, you use a false status to press your own servants and…you have certainly had a hand in what happened to me in The Nam Yangban, did you not?" "How did you…but how…what are you…why are you bringing that up now after all of this time? How dare you grow conceited over such a small favour that you have from my own brother=in=law? You are just a disabled lowborn, how dare you strut around like a proud peacock in front of me?" "Yes, I am all of that and more, and yet I am more favoured in this lifetime than you ever shall be in all of your lifetimes combined, even more my children than your own. Even your dead sister surpasses you in this life, so enough with the insults and let go of us." "How dare you even think about breeding with The Lord Nam! I will never let your status surpass mine! I curse you to be infertile so that you can never gain more favour than you have right now!"
"Enough of this! I should have taken precautions against you long ago when that servant of mine took you in! I should have given you a goodwill soup and made you take it in front of me! Just like you damaged the fertility of many women under my father's roof!" "I was just following my husband's instructions! You cannot possibly punish me over that! It happened years ago now and I have forgotten all about it!" "What instructions? Do you have any proof from that time? You were clearly the one who came up with the idea and implemented it all yourself! How can you dare to blame your dead husband for your own actions? How can such a person exist like this!"
"My Lord…" "I have been printing you and guiding you all along, but what is the use of helping out a mother like you that has no son to care for at all? You have lost all capability of nurturing and protecting him, so there is no reason for you to continue to waste air at all, is there? I only shielded you for your son's survival, and there is no saving you anymore. Your obvious methods behind the downfall of my wife has secured your death warrant and if I continue to protect you over nothing, you will surely drag me down with you, and I cannot let that happen at all, no after all of the hard work I have put in to better myself. Your son is not favoured by anyone in this life because he has a mother like you and you really hoped with all of your might that you would become something? Really?" "My Lord Nam…what are you…"
"With a useless, unfeeling and lazy mother such as yourself, your son will never amount to anything at all and you are better off making the right choice for him for the very first time in your life. Your son will have to live with your reputation on his back for the rest of his life like I have to otherwise. So make the right choice of your own violation and give him a chance to rise higher in the world than you ever could in our care, or you might as well bring him with you into the afterlife. And nobody will believe you at all if you ever can forward about what has transpired today." "My son…he will comply with my wishes…he has to, for me…" "Once you take your own life, you cannot be conferred with honours, so think about your options well."