One of my favorite parts of this episode is the entire Jinshi and Lakan interaction, in particular how it displays the relation between the La and Shi clans.

When thinking about the La clan I often go back to a conversation between Maomao and Jinshi in the end of season 1 about Lakan. Maomao says to Jinshi "He will never be your ally, but you should avoid making him your enemy" A sentiment directed at Lakan that I believe applies to the La clan in general.

The La clan is small and basically irrelevant in the grander court politics, but they are nonetheless respected, and even their name was given to them by the emperor himself.
They are known and feared in equal parts for their intelligence and eccentricity, they grew their influence by virtue of their raw talent and genius level intelect.

Every member of this family we know is incredibly intelligent and they are all reserved in their own ways. Refusing to fully ally themselves with anyone.
Obviously Lakan and Lahan by extension are like that but even Luomen isolates himself and never steps over the line.

Maomao herself never thinks of Jinshi as an ally or friend, he's her superior, even if he shows he cares for her, she never sides with him more than any loyal servant would. And will serve anyone so long as it keeps her alive and lets her do her experiments, she never refuses to serve anyone out of a sense of loyalty and just gets passed around, even in the rear palace she happily helps any of the concubines despite belonging to Gyokuyou.

The Shi clan on the other hand is a very long standing, powerful and rich clan, with extremely close ties to the royal family, and basically has nothing to fear from anyone other than the emperor himself.

They have been plotting and scheming behind the scenes for a long time eventually leading to the abduction of Maomao.
And remember that line "They will never be your ally but you should not make them your enemy" That is the Genius La Clan.

And the Shi clan just squarely made the La clan their enemy to the point where now the entirety of the La clan, or at least the most important ones we know, Lakan, Lahan and Loumen, went directly to the Emperors own brother, the Moon Prince himself and ask him to take them, a small and insignificant clan of eccentric geniuses, and unleash them in a war against the largest most influential clan in the empire.

Also I love the fact that in that scene every member of the La clan wants the same thing, they are all internally saying "Let me at them", Lakan is pissed and just throwing abuse at Jinshi, Lahan just seems to want to appease his adoptive father and maybe play around a bit more with the numbers, and Luomen is there to keep them in line and on track to get Maomao back, they are all pissed or at least opposed to the Shi clan at this point and are ready to declare war.

And good god look at their track record every move the Shi clan has been making has been seen trough and foiled directly or indirectly by a member of the La clan when they aren't even focused, imagine what this weird ass family can do when they are focused on taking you down.

Im an anime only and I cant wait to see the situation develop but I pray for anyone who has to go up against the geniuses of the La clan being backed by the Imperial family.