Cung Tam Ke
Kong Choi-king, Sam-ho's mother, was brought into the palace with her daughter, Lau Sam-ho (Charmaine Sheh), and their serving girl, Yiu Kam-ling (Tavia Yeung). As she came from a very distinguished line of jewelery makers in the kingdom, she was assigned the task of making a beautiful headpiece in the shape of a phoenix, inlaid with precious stones and tails made from the feathers of exotic birds for the Empress Dowager. However, during a flower viewing outing, the phoenix headpiece worn by the Empress Dowager suddenly bled tears of blood. Taking this as a sign of bad luck, she threw it away and demanded that the jewelery maker, Choi-king, be punished. She died as a result of the harsh beatings. Before she passed away, she told Sam-ho to always remember the significance of her name, "Do kind deeds, speak kind words, spread kindness". (Sam-ho literally means three goodness/kindness).
At the same time around Choi-king's death, Lee Yi (Moses Chan), the young prince of Concubine Cheng, met the six years old Sam-ho. He showed kindness to Sam-ho by giving her some white flowers from Choi-king's favorite tree so she could take it to her dying mother. Later when he had to leave the palace without his mother, feigning mentally ill as an excuse to escape the imminent death threat by the Empress Dowager, Sam-ho gave him some sweet 'tong lin-chi', to comfort him on the journey. Because of this, the young prince has developed a good feeling for her.
The Imperial Household Bureau was responsible for managing and directing all household services to the Emperor and the Imperial family of the Tang Dynasty. It was made up of four departments, namely the Houses of Jewelery, Attire, Food and Furnishing. Sam-ho and Kam-ling were introduced into the bureau in their childhood and brought up as the disciples in the palace. The two girls were very diligent. Yuen Tsui-wan (Susanna Kwan), Head of the Jewels, and Chung Suet-ha (Michelle Yim), Head of Attire, were both very fond of Sam-ho for she was a kind-hearted young girl and showed great capabilities in the decorative arts of jewelery and silk work. Both of they fough bitterly to have Sam-ho in their departments. In the end, Sam-ho was assigned to Department of Attire while, Kam-Ling was assigned to the Department of Jewelery.
Years later, Sam-ho grew up to be a very lovely young lady and she met Ko Hin-yeung (Kevin Cheng) the palace scholar and chess teacher, where a secret love bloomed between them. At the same time the young prince now grown up, Lee Yi, return to the palace and become the Emperor after evading assassinations with the help of Sam-ho and Hin-yeung. He promoted Hin-yeung as the Palace General because of his faithfulness. Sam-ho later become the Head of the Jewel Department. Even though the Emperor has deep feeling for Sam-ho and had wanted to marry Sam-hou, he decided to bury his feeling for her when he discovered that Hin-yeung and Sam-ho loved each other.
Sam-ho and Kam-ling continue to enjoy a very close friendship, treating each other as sisters and this provokes jealousy among other palace girl servants. Time and again some of them will try to get Sam-ho and Kam-ling into trouble. However, Kam-ho's honesty and kind attitude endeared many powerful people in the palace to her and they always help her out. Whereas, Kam-ling uses her cunning mind to get rid of her enemies. As time passed, Kam-ling realizes that to stop the bullying and to be able to survive in the palace she has to be someone powerful and respectful. Therefore, she slowly works on a scheme to gain favour of the Empress Dowager Cheng, Lee yi's mother. She was eventually chosen as one of the emperor's concubines. From there she works on a bigger scheme to get rid of all her competitors.
Genre: Drama
