Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yao woke after falling from a building and realized he had transmigrated into the body of a hunter in the drought-stricken Great Zhou State. After learning about the state’s harsh marriage laws and precarious food and water supplies, he climbed to safety and accepted his new life.

• Zhou Yao woke hanging from a tree on a cliff and remembered falling while doing parkour.
• Zhou Yao recovered the original owner's memories, learning that the Great Zhou State required men to marry multiple wives and women to bear children under threat of fines or punishment.
• Zhou Yao learned that severe drought and crop failures had left the state short of food and water, with its remaining river supplies expected to last only two years.
• Zhou Yao climbed up from the cliff, rested, and realized his physical fitness had helped him survive.
• Zhou Yao accepted that he had transmigrated and resolved to make the best of his new life.

After transmigrating, Zhou Yao discovered a ring filled with supplies and returned home with two goats. He found his mountain homestead and livestock in good order, then uncovered a hidden fortune and decided to improve his empty, shabby house.

• Zhou Yao remembered being knocked off a cliff by a goat, caught both goats, and discovered a black ring on his finger that contained abundant supplies.
• Zhou Yao fed the goats from the ring and led them home after a day’s journey.
• Zhou Yao settled the goats in the sheepfold and fed his cattle and pigs, then greeted the two dogs that had run to welcome him.
• Zhou Yao inspected his stone house and dry farmland, finding the rooms nearly empty and the household jars bare.
• Zhou Yao found the original owner’s hidden valuables: gold and jade jewelry, more than a hundred taels of silver, and over two thousand copper coins.
• Zhou Yao decided to replace the house’s furniture and buy new necessities.

Zhou Yao prepared to slaughter a wild boar and shared the meal with Damao, Ermao, and Sanmao. He bought a set of furniture from Damao, leaving the brothers to carry it to his home after they ate.

• Zhou Yao put his money in his spatial ring and prepared to slaughter a wild boar for food.
• Damao, Ermao, and Sanmao visited, and Zhou Yao invited them to help prepare the boar and share the meal.
• Ermao and Sanmao heated water and slaughtered the pig while Zhou Yao and Damao chatted.
• Damao told Zhou Yao that a landlord had not collected a set of furniture he had made.
• Zhou Yao bought the furniture and paid Damao, who agreed to bring it over with his brothers after the meal.

Zhou Yao shared a meal of wild boar meat and cassava porridge with Damao, Ermao, and Sanmao, and set aside meat for their mother. The meal ended with the brothers and Zhou Yao’s dogs eating most of the meat as the drought left villagers struggling to find food.

• Ermao and Sanmao cooked the wild boar, and Ermao brought it to the table with cassava porridge.
• Zhou Yao told Damao, Ermao, and Sanmao to save a generous portion of meat for their mother.
• Sanmao, then Damao and Ermao, eagerly grabbed meat and ate while Zhou Yao tried the cassava porridge.
• Zhou Yao reflected that two years of drought had left surrounding villages short of food and made cassava scarce in the mountains near Happiness Village.
• The brothers and Zhou Yao’s dogs finished most of the wild boar meat, while Zhou Yao ate about a jin and more porridge.

After sharing a meat meal with Damao and his brothers, Zhou Yao focused on preparing his house for his coming marriage. He finished arranging the home and planned to gather more firewood the next day.

• Damao, Ermao, and Sanmao thanked Zhou Yao for looking after them and discussed the drought and their need to support their future households.
• Zhou Yao sent the three brothers home with meat, then they carried the new furniture into his house.
• After the brothers left, Zhou Yao chopped up the old furniture for firewood and cleaned the house.
• Zhou Yao arranged his bedding, stocked the kitchen and pantry, and checked the animal shelters and bathing and toilet facilities.
• Zhou Yao found little dry firewood in the woodshed and decided to chop more on the mountain the next day.

Zhou Yao settled into life at home, chopped firewood, tended livestock, and planted a vegetable garden, which began producing fresh greens. After reading about the Great Zhou State and confirming that familiar poems and stories did not exist in this world, Zhou Yao decided to make money by writing novels and storybooks.

• Zhou Yao cooked a hearty meal, slept comfortably, and spent the next morning chopping enough firewood to fill the woodshed.
• Zhou Yao fed the pigs, cattle, and sheep, then watered, dug, and planted a two-fen vegetable plot with several kinds of seeds.
• Zhou Yao tended the vegetables with water and pig manure, and a month later harvested hand cabbage and scallions.
• Zhou Yao read an unofficial history of the Great Zhou State and examined a map showing its perilous position among neighboring countries.
• Zhou Yao discovered that this world had none of the poetry or storybooks Zhou Yao knew and decided to write novels and storybooks to earn money.

Happiness Village began its government wife-delivery, but no man chose the frail twin sisters. An officer went to find the absent Zhou Yao, the twins’ last chance to avoid being sent to a military camp.

• The government began delivering wives to Happiness Village, where eleven of the twelve eligible men chose women to take home.
• Damao, Ermao, and Sanmao quickly selected six women among them.
• The remaining twin sisters were left unchosen and feared being sent to a military camp as military prostitutes.
• A government officer learned that the twelfth man, Zhou Yao, had not arrived and ordered a villager to take him to Zhou Yao’s home.
• The officer brought the twin sisters along, telling them Zhou Yao was their final chance before they turned sixteen.

Zhou Yao met the twin sisters an officer had brought to his home and discovered their beauty beneath their dirty, frail appearance. The sisters admired Zhou Yao but feared he would reject them, and the chapter ended before he decided whether to marry them.

• An officer escorted the twin sisters to Zhou Yao's home after no one else had agreed to marry them.
• The officer told Zhou Yao that if he refused the sisters, they would be sent to the army camp as military prostitutes.
• Zhou Yao asked to see the sisters and lifted their chins to look at their faces.
• Zhou Yao recognized the sisters as beautiful despite their dirt, while the sisters admired his appearance and hoped they could marry him.

Zhou Yao married two twin sisters who had feared being sent to the army camps, saving them from that fate. He bribed the officer to bring him more petite or tall women to marry when he returned in a month.

• Zhou Yao chose to marry the twin sisters, and the officer drew up their marriage contract.
• The twin sisters thanked Zhou Yao, vowed to serve him for life, and went to wait in the courtyard.
• Zhou Yao congratulated the villagers whose son had also taken two women as wives.
• Zhou Yao asked the officer to bring him more petite or tall women to marry and slipped him two taels of silver.
• The officer promised to bring two petite women on his next visit in a month, then left laughing.

After the constables left, Zhou Yao fed his newly married twin wives and prepared hot water so they could bathe. His considerate actions only made the sisters more uneasy, since they feared his silence more than being beaten or scolded.

• Zhou Yao brought the hungry twin sisters inside and served them rice porridge, steamed buns, and pickles.
• Zhou Yao insisted that the sisters eat, and they eagerly finished the meal.
• Zhou Yao heated a large barrel of water so the sisters could wash and change into clean clothes.
• Zhou Yao cleared away and washed the dishes without scolding the sisters, leaving them confused and increasingly afraid.

After Zhou Yao prepared a bath and clean clothes for the twin sisters, they removed their disguise and revealed their beauty to him. The chapter ended with Zhou Yao asking whether they had made themselves look ugly to avoid being chosen by men.

• Zhou Yao led the twins to a bathing room and told them to wash using the tub of heated water and clothes he had prepared.
• The sisters bathed, explaining to themselves that they no longer needed to disguise their faces now that Zhou Yao had married them.
• The twins dressed in the clothes Zhou Yao had provided, then knelt and thanked him for saving them from being sent to a military camp.
• Zhou Yao was stunned by the sisters' beauty and told them to sit with him.
• Zhou Yao remarked that they might have married long ago if they had not deliberately made themselves look ugly.

Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian told Zhou Yao how their family was destroyed and how they had disguised themselves to avoid being forced into military prostitution. Yang Ailian revealed that the second prince had framed their father after he refused to let them become the prince’s concubines.

• Yang Aijin introduced herself as the older sister and Yang Ailian as the younger, and said they came from the Central Capital.
• Yang Aijin recounted how their father, a former vice minister, and their brothers were executed after their family was framed and stripped of its property.
• Yang Aijin explained that the sisters had been sent to work at an army camp and later disguised themselves to avoid being chosen as wives or sent to serve as military prostitutes.
• Zhou Yao introduced himself as an orphan who had supported himself by hunting, and the sisters did not question his imperial surname.
• Yang Ailian told Zhou Yao that the second prince had wanted the sisters as concubines, and their father’s refusal led the prince to frame him.

Yang Ailian told Yang Aijin and Zhou Yao how the second prince destroyed their family after their father refused his advances toward the sisters. Zhou Yao comforted them and promised to avenge their family, while the sisters began to trust and feel safe with him.

• Yang Ailian explained that the second prince had their home searched and their property confiscated, then had her father and elder brother beheaded.
• Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian cried together, and Zhou Yao embraced them and promised to avenge their family.
• Zhou Yao reflected that he had money and grain but needed people to build an army and gain power.
• Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian thanked Zhou Yao after crying and felt reassured by his promise.
• The sisters admired Zhou Yao and were glad to have married him, appreciating the safety and plentiful food at his home.

After marrying Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian, Zhou Yao reassured them that they would not go hungry and showed them the abundant supplies at his home. The sisters marveled at the food, livestock, vegetables, and clean water they had not seen during the drought.

• Zhou Yao told Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian to look ahead after their marriage and promised to provide for them.
• Yang Ailian told Zhou Yao that the sisters would both turn sixteen the next day.
• Zhou Yao took the sisters to see two oxen, wild boars, and three sheep in the backyard.
• Zhou Yao showed Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian the fresh vegetables growing beside the house.
• The sisters saw cupboards stocked with seasonings, jars full of rice and white flour, and a vat of clear water, which they tasted.
• Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian saw cured meat and sausages in the kitchen and marveled at their good fortune in marrying Zhou Yao.

On their wedding day, Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian struggled to believe their good fortune, so Zhou Yao promised to celebrate their wedding and birthday with a meal he cooked himself. He prepared red-braised pork and longevity noodles, leaving the sisters astonished by his skill as dinner was served.

• Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian told Zhou Yao that their wealthy life amid famine and drought felt like a dream.
• Zhou Yao playfully spanked the sisters, then promised to show them what he could do for their wedding and birthday celebration.
• Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian heated water while Zhou Yao slaughtered and prepared a wild boar.
• Zhou Yao prepared pork belly, dough, and seasonings as the sisters watched his unfamiliar skill in the kitchen.
• Zhou Yao cooked red-braised pork and longevity noodles, then plated the meal for himself and the sisters.

Zhou Yao made Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian a celebratory meal, and the sisters ate their fill before going to wait in the bedroom. After sending them inside, he left to practice martial arts in the woods, revealing his formidable skills and training.

• Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian watched Zhou Yao cook red-braised pork and longevity noodles, then carried the food to the table.
• Zhou Yao explained that he had made the dishes to celebrate their marriage and their upcoming birthdays, and the sisters praised the meal as they ate.
• After dinner, Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian washed the dishes and heated water for everyone to wash up.
• Zhou Yao told the sisters to wait for him in the bedroom, then went outside and appeared in the woods.
• Zhou Yao revealed that he was an expert martial artist who had mastered the skills taught by the elders in his village and trained with parkour.

Zhou Yao confronted and killed an elderly martial artist who had been spying on Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian for the second prince. After the man threatened Zhou Yao’s wives, Zhou Yao left him dead and declared that the second prince would follow him to the underworld.

• Zhou Yao sensed a watcher following Yang Aijin and Yang Ailian and confronted him in the mountain woods.
• The elderly man revealed his interest in the sisters and offered Zhou Yao a chance to become his disciple.
• Zhou Yao identified the man as an agent of the second prince, prompting the old man to threaten him.
• Zhou Yao struck the elderly man with one blow, then crushed his chest and killed him.

Zhou Yao disposed of the man he had killed, then confronted a mysterious person who had been watching him and claiming to protect him. After discovering the watcher was a woman and restraining her, he learned she addressed him as the heir.

• Zhou Yao took the dead man's silver, token, and sword, then used medicinal powder to dissolve the corpse and its belongings.
• A shadowy figure watched Zhou Yao leave, and Zhou Yao appeared behind her and demanded to know who she was.
• The woman said she had secretly protected Zhou Yao, but he refused to trust her and sealed her acupoints.
• Zhou Yao realized the disguised watcher was a woman and threatened to interrogate her until she revealed her secrets.
• The woman called Zhou Yao the heir and said she had something to tell him, leaving him to wonder whether he was a prince's son.

Zhou Yao learned that he was Prince Zhou Shun’s son and the nephew of Emperor Zhou Xian, and Wuying revealed how his father’s household had been destroyed. He learned that Zhou Xian and Prime Minister Pei Yuanli had framed Prince Zhou Shun, leaving Zhou Yao poised to act on the truth.

• Wuying told Zhou Yao that Prince Zhou Shun had secretly sent him to Happiness Village and that his foster parents had been assigned to protect him.
• Wuying proved her account by revealing Zhou Yao’s birthmark, and he accepted her loyalty.
• Zhou Yao renamed Hongxiu Wuying and ordered her to obey him alone.
• Wuying explained that she had led Prince Zhou Shun’s intelligence network, which had hidden after his household was confiscated and its members were killed or exiled.
• Wuying told Zhou Yao that Zhou Xian and Pei Yuanli had conspired to frame Prince Zhou Shun.

Zhou Yao took charge of his late father’s intelligence network and twenty-thousand-man army, using his money to address the soldiers’ unpaid rations and set out plans for their training and equipment. He renamed the network the Brocade Guard and sent Wuying to organize its agents across the Great Zhou State.

• Wuying told Zhou Yao that the intelligence network had 3,600 agents across eleven provinces and that his father had left a force of about twenty thousand men in the mountains, but they were owed nearly half a year’s pay and rations.
• Zhou Yao gave Wuying five hundred thousand taels to settle the soldiers’ debts, provide three months’ pay and rations, and buy food, then ordered her to summon their senior officers while the army remained in place.
• Zhou Yao ordered the army divided into ten thousand heavy cavalry and ten thousand heavy infantry, promised them monthly pay and three meals a day, and said he would deliver their equipment at the new year.
• Zhou Yao told Wuying to call him Young Master and renamed his intelligence organizations the Brocade Guard, ordering them to monitor officials, villages, rural areas, and neighboring countries.
• Zhou Yao gave Wuying another one hundred and fifty thousand taels to distribute among provincial intelligence chiefs and keep for her own use, and she pledged to serve him faithfully.