Even if you were an elegant queen the day before, today, you are in the cold, and you are a ruined thing, eating worse than a pig.
Cold palace is generally a shabby place where no one will come, let alone redecorate it. The standards of food, clothing, housing and transportation of concubines detained in the cold palace are extreme. The standard of daily life can't even keep up with the servants waiting at least in the palace, and even they will continue to be abused because their former enemies have done something without authorization. Generally speaking, after being sent to the cold palace, the prosperity of the concubine is over, and the prosperity of the big family usually follows. So for concubines, the most unbearable thing is the feeling of falling into the purgatory of paradise on earth.
In TV series, what we see is generally the palace boundary of the harem. The concubines with low influence were put into limbo by the favored concubine, or the favored concubine was complacent, and her small tail rose to the sky, which violated the dragon's face and was put into limbo by the emperor. It gives the impression that this cold palace was prepared for the concubines in advance. Actually, it is not.
All the people in the harem, concubines, handmaids, little princesses and even the emperor, may be put in limbo if you are ignored by those in power.
In the harem, there are no laws and regulations. Everyone is a family, and they are all women of the emperor. Even if they make mistakes, they are unlikely to execute people easily. Cold palace is a kind of "changing cell". Let you live a daily life like a prisoner here and be gradually destroyed.
How bad the resettlement standard is depends on who lives in the cold palace. The Original Princess is a difficult example. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, Guangxu was detained in Yingtai, Zhongnanhai, Beijing because of the unsuccessful Reform Movement of 1898. Zhen Fei often communicated with Guangxu and exchanged ideas on political reform, and was put in the cold by Cixi in the name of autocracy. According to records, the door of the area where Zhen Fei now lives is locked from the outside, and cleaning and dining are handed in by servants from the window, so it is impossible to communicate with them.
On festivals, anniversaries, and so on, Cixi would go back to the old eunuch and point at Zhen Fei's nose and reprimand her loudly. Zhen Fei had to kneel on the ground to listen to her teachings. But in the end, Cixi either killed her and ordered her eunuchs to send Zhen Fei into the well and drown him.
Cixi imprisoned Emperor Guangxu in Yingtai, so Yingtai is Guangxu's cold palace, which should be the best so far. It's a large area, attended by eunuchs and handmaids. Even so, Guangxu's family only has a broken mat. In winter, enough paper was broken, and the cold wind whistled in, making Emperor Guangxu rub his hands and run around the room to keep warm.
After that, a little eunuch really couldn't stand it. He quietly went to Li Shan, assistant minister of the Ministry of Industry. Lishan is honest. After hearing this, he sent someone to post some new enough papers for Guangxu. After this incident was known by Cixi, Cixi was furious, lectured Lishan and sent him back to his hometown.
It won't be long before you suffer so much damage in the cold palace and suffer so heavy losses in body and mind. This kind of concubine is deeply rooted in this truth, so she would rather commit suicide once and for all than be left in the cold.