Zetian wakes from nightmares of her dead family and victims accusing her, only to find herself shackled to a bed in a luxurious, windowless room. A maidservant informs her she has been comatose for three days in the 'new palace,' which Zetian realizes is the Gao Estate, now appropriated by Qin Zheng as Huaxia's seat of government.

Qin Zheng arrives, recovered from his pox marks and fully back in command. He unlocks her shackle and reveals that all technicians who decoded information from the old palace have been assassinated by snipers, a warning from the gods to keep silent about them. Yizhi has survived by becoming Qin Zheng's Imperial Secretary, having handed over the estate, but Qin Zheng forbids Zetian from seeing him, deeming it improper.

Qin Zheng announces he will marry Zetian, purely as a political arrangement, to legitimize her self-proclaimed empress title and override the many calls for her execution. He has spun a public narrative crediting her with awakening him and exposing the Sages' corruption. He confronts her about her lack of any real revolutionary plan and frames himself as the experienced revolutionary who will turn her coup into a proper transformation of society.

Zetian discovers Qin Zheng had surgery performed on her bound feet and laser hair removal done while she was unconscious, justifying it as necessary because he loathes foot-binding (a practice he had banned in his time) and considers her unpresentable. He pledges to ban foot-binding again and equalize the yīn and yáng pilot inputs, revealing his egalitarian, anti-aristocratic ideology rooted in his lowborn origins.

Qin Zheng refuses to return her wristlet or armor, citing security risks and her injured meridians, and confines her to bed rest under guard. He agrees only to summon Dugu Qieluo for a visit, having put the other pilots to work excavating the old palace ruins. After he leaves, Zetian, helpless and operated upon without consent, despairs at having traded one prison for another, recognizing she 'quenched thirst with poison' by unleashing him.