At first, when Xianfeng chose women to study, Li Fei and Cixi were favored by the emperor together, and later they were made nobles. At the same time, the two equal women soon became friends. The two supported each other in this huge palace, which is also a rare sisterhood. Within two years, they were successively promoted to concubines.
In the second year of becoming a concubine, Li Fei was promoted by giving birth to the only daughter of Emperor Xianfeng. This is probably when Cixi's attitude towards Li Fei began to change, and she began to envy Li Fei. The following year, Cixi gave birth to the Tongzhi Emperor. After that, Cixi relied on her son. In a short period of one year, she was promoted to the imperial concubine, becoming the second woman in the harem after the queen.
Empress Dowager Cixi knew that compared with Li Fei, she had no advantage in appearance and could not be an innocent girl like her, but her talent helped her make up for these shortcomings. Empress Dowager Cixi succeeded in relying on her excellent calligraphy, so that Xianfeng authorized her to help him read the right to memorialize, so that Xianfeng had enough thoughts to deal with DPRK-China affairs.
Over time, Cixi tasted the power step by step. After the death of Emperor Xianfeng, Emperor Tongzhi ascended the throne. Because the emperor is still very young, he directly listens to politics with Empress Ci 'an. After Empress Dowager Cixi came to power, she followed Lv Hou's example and cruelly turned Li Fei into a wife.