Recaps

Gu Wanning tried to repair the household accounts and grow rare corn as a route to wealth and independence while navigating Xu Weibei’s hostility and the concubines’ private troubles. After Xu Weibei was forced to share a wedding night with her, Gu Wanning took the concubines on an outing, where Lu Baozhu confronted her.

• Gu Wanning discovered that Xu Weibei planned to divorce her, defended her treatment of the concubines, and began tending her vegetable garden as he left with Third Concubine to visit the Grand Princess Dowager.
• Gu Wanning found unexplained deductions of more than six hundred taels in the household accounts, then pawned some of the Grand Princess’s tonics and bought an expensive ear of corn to cultivate for profit.
• Second Concubine returned Gu Wanning’s pawned tonics, offered accounting help and an eight-hundred-tael note, while First Concubine and Third Concubine separately revealed why they did not want to serve Xu Weibei.
• Xu Weibei struck Gu Anqi at court and was reprimanded by the emperor, then ordered Gu Wanning to cut ties with her family, but she refused.
• The Grand Princess Dowager punished Xu Weibei for striking Gu Anqi and forced him and Gu Wanning to share a wedding night, though they slept separately and Xu Weibei sought a way to separate from her.
• Xu Weibei drove out Jiang Qiubai’s troupe after Jiang mistook his interest in the opera for attraction, while Gu Wanning continued growing corn and Second Concubine told her the crop might be a rare overseas commodity.
• Gu Wanning took the concubines on an outing despite Xu Weibei’s confinement, and First Concubine sold her embroidery for more than eighty taels.
• Lu Baozhu accused Gu Wanning of neglecting her sister, and Gu Wanning suggested that Lu ask her family to help her become Xu Weibei’s fifth concubine.

Gu Wanning confronted her family’s neglect, pursued a divorce from Xu Weibei, and built closer ties with the household’s concubines as she tended her crops and cared for First Concubine. After a banquet ended with Gu Wanning and Lu Baozhu in the lake, He Shi visited and remarked on how much Gu Wanning had changed since marrying.

• Gu Wanning told Gu Anqi she wanted to divorce Xu Weibei and live independently, while Gu Anqi explained the marriage’s ties to the Grand Princess and Gu Yuanshi’s Death-Exemption Gold Plaque.
• Gu Wanning and Xu Weibei worked to protect her corn patch from a storm, and Xu Weibei saved her from a falling door panel.
• Gu Wanning cared for First Concubine after she learned her beloved had married someone else, and the household tried a spirit ritual when First Concubine fell into an unexplained sleep.
• After Gu Wanning’s corn seedlings wilted from uncomposted manure, Xu Weibei gave her more corn and offered her use of his farmland.
• Gu Wanning brought the concubines to the Grand Princess’s flower-viewing banquet, where Gu Wanqing arrived with Lu Baozhu.
• Lu Baozhu insulted Gu Wanning by the lake, and Gu Wanning deliberately fell in before Xu Weibei rescued her and Lu Baozhu also jumped into the water.
• After returning to the Marquis’s Residence, Gu Wanning heard about trouble at the Thirteen Wards and received a visit from He Shi, who said Gu Anqi had sent her and remarked that Gu Wanning seemed changed.

Gu Wanning resisted Xu Weibei’s plan to force First Concubine into marriage and learned that First Concubine’s dreams foretold disasters and hidden family truths. After Xu Weibei agreed to bring Jiaoniang to the residence and help the orphaned children, Gu Wanning prepared to visit her family and searched for useful goods.

• Xu Weibei planned to bring Jiaoniang and pregnant Linglong to the residence, but the Grand Princess allowed Jiaoniang to come only if Gu Wanning agreed and barred Linglong until after the birth.
• Xu Weibei agreed that Qin Lie could marry First Concubine, but she refused, and Gu Wanning stood against forcing her into the match.
• First Concubine described dreams of Xu Weibei’s imprisonment and death, Gu Yuanshi’s disgrace, and a switch at birth that made Gu Wanning the Gu family’s true daughter.
• First Concubine feared that marrying Qin Lie would bring him misfortune, while Gu Wanning urged her to reconsider and learned Xu Weibei had never touched any of his concubines.
• Er Ya told Gu Wanning that a man was exploiting Shitou and other children by forcing them to beg, and Gu Wanning asked Xu Weibei to arrange help for them.
• Gu Wanning persuaded Xu Weibei to bring Jiaoniang to the residence and asked him to help the children, who were placed in a charity home, an army camp, or the Estate, while some older children set out on their own.
• Xu Weibei told Gu Wanning that her family wanted her at her father’s birthday celebration, and she agreed to go while reaffirming her intention to seek a mutual divorce.
• Gu Wanning went shopping with First Concubine and Er Ya, offered Baoji corn for resale, asked the shop to seek sweet potatoes overseas, and bought fabric for her family after finding the alpacas unaffordable.

Gu Wanning returned to her family for her father’s birthday, confronted Gu Xiaoxiao, and found her family divided over her wish to divorce Xu Weibei. Xu Weibei refused the divorce, realized he loved Gu Wanning, and tried to win her over with lavish gifts, while the pair remained at odds and First Concubine’s connection to Qin Lie resurfaced.

• Gu Wanning returned to the Gu residence and met Gu Xiaoxiao, who mocked her marriage and tried to attract Xu Weibei.
• Gu Wanning confronted Gu Xiaoxiao for bullying Ling Ge and trying to seduce Xu Weibei, then declared she would no longer acknowledge her as a sister.
• Gu Wanning told Gu Yuanshi she would not stay married out of duty, while he promised to support her and later moved to ask the emperor to oversee the divorce.
• After an attack on the family’s carriage, Xu Weibei refused to let Gu Yuanshi handle the divorce and told the emperor he wanted to grow old with Gu Wanning.
• Xu Weibei accepted a post in the Ministry of Revenue, and Gu Wanning learned he had rejected her father’s divorce efforts and vowed to pursue her own plans.
• Gao Lan told Xu Weibei he had treated Gu Wanning badly, and Xu Weibei realized he liked her and sought advice on changing her mind.
• Xu Weibei gave Gu Wanning an alpaca worth fifty thousand taels, while she thanked him but planned to leave it behind after their divorce.
• Xu Weibei asked Gu Wanning to learn whether First Concubine would meet Qin Lie, as Gu Wanning suspected Qin Lie had not given up on her.