Wu Guotai

The aunt who is also a mother - her sister's co-wife to Sun Jian: finding Sun Quan sleepless between war and surrender, she asks one question - 'have you forgotten the last words of my sister?' - and the dying charge about Zhou Yu decides the crisis.

The Dowager Marchioness: learning of her daughter's 'betrothal' from the town gossip, she rakes her son over the coals - 'it was my place to promise her in marriage' - damns Zhou Yu's decoy scheme as the ruin of her child's life, inspects the groom at the Sweet Dew Temple ('just the son-in-law for me!'), scatters the hidden assassins with one burst of wrath, and moves Liu Bei into her own palace for safety.

Delighted by her son's luxurious 'kindness' to the newlyweds, she grants the New Year's request that springs the escape: 'a very filial proceeding - I should not think of stopping you.' Her authority shadows every pursuit: the officers dare not touch a couple the Dowager blessed.

The voice behind the screen: sentences Gu Yong's Jingzhou scheme to death for gambling with 'my only daughter', shames Sun Quan into dropping it — and her invented deathbed becomes the bait of the forged letter.