Chapter Summaries

Gu Wanning left the feast with Xu Weibei after he publicly defended her and warned the guests not to offend her. At bedtime, they shared an affectionate moment, and Gu Wanning again voiced her concern about Second Concubine.

• Yiling refused to go with Gu Wanning because she did not want to see Xu Weibei, while another woman accused Gu Wanning of boasting about the Marquis.
• Gu Wanning went outside with the woman and several other guests, where Xu Weibei was waiting with her cloak.
• When the woman accused Gu Wanning of using his name to boast, Xu Weibei ordered Gao Lan to slap her and warned the crowd not to offend his wife.
• Xu Weibei put Gu Wanning's cloak around her shoulders, then held her hand and offered to take her riding before they went home.
• At bedtime, Gu Wanning cuddled Xu Weibei, called him Gege, and told him she was worried about Second Concubine and her younger brother.

Gu Wanning learned that Concubine Yu had already gained influence over Second Concubine’s brother and his businesses, but Second Concubine refused to abandon him. Jin Huayu arrived with his new wife, Shi, leaving the women to face the couple.

• Xu Weibei told Gu Wanning he would support her if she needed to discipline Yiling, but she refused his offer to add more attendants.
• Second Concubine visited Gu Wanning with Third Concubine after leaving because Shi had not risen for the family introductions.
• Second Concubine explained that she could not give up on her younger brother, even though she resented his new wife, Concubine Yu.
• Second Concubine revealed that Concubine Yu’s relatives had been installed in the Jin family’s shops and that her brother had let one of them withdraw money from the accounts.
• Jin Huayu arrived with his new wife, Shi, saying he had guessed Second Concubine would be with Gu Wanning.

Gu Wanning watched Shi Xin feign remorse while Jin Huayu defended her, then helped Second Concubine consider how to protect the Jin family’s money. She suggested Shi might have married Jin Huayu for wealth rather than a lasting marriage, leaving Second Concubine to reconsider her plan to confront her.

• Shi Xin tearfully apologized to Gu Wanning and explained that she maintained ties with her relatives for her mother’s sake.
• Jin Huayu defended Shi Xin’s lateness and insisted that she had worried Gu Wanning would misunderstand.
• After Shi Xin and Jin Huayu left, Second Concubine said she wanted to fight Shi Xin, and Gu Wanning warned that Jin Huayu might take Shi’s side.
• Second Concubine explained that she feared Shi Xin would drain the Jin family’s wealth, and Gu Wanning suggested Shi might not intend to stay married to Jin Huayu.

Gu Wanning advised Second Concubine to protect Jin Huayu by taking control of his property before Shi could swindle it from him. Second Concubine planned to open a shop and sought help registering as a female head of household, while Er Ya returned from the autumn harvest.

• Gu Wanning warned Second Concubine that confronting Jin Huayu about Shi could push him away, and suggested she take control of his property first.
• Second Concubine agreed to trick Jin Huayu out of his property so Shi would lose interest in him, and planned to open a shop with the money.
• Gu Wanning refused to let Second Concubine put the shop in her name but agreed to ask the Marquis to help her register as a female head of household.
• Er Ya returned from the autumn harvest and gave Second Concubine a basket of vegetables to take home.

Er Ya returned to Gu Wanning’s side, bringing vegetables and a costly birthday outfit she had bought for First Madam. Gu Wanning planned to prepare a gift and dinner, but Yiling arrived and tried to persuade her to go shopping.

• Er Ya returned from home with vegetables and told Gu Wanning how Xu Weibei’s hundred-tael birthday gift had let her buy her mother a gold bracelet.
• Er Ya revealed that she had spent sixty taels on an outfit for First Madam’s birthday and planned to claim the Marquis had provided the fabric.
• Gu Wanning decided to choose jewelry for First Madam and make dinner for Xu Weibei instead of attending the birthday meal with her father.
• Yiling came to invite Gu Wanning out, but Gu Wanning said she had to buy vegetables and go home to cook.

Gu Wanning learned about the Southern Border’s renowned witch-doctor families when Yiling offered to have her brother examine Xu Weibei. The chapter ended with Yiling revealing that she had studied witchcraft instead of medicine.

• Yiling asked Gu Wanning whether Xu Weibei could get it up, and Gu Wanning warned her not to talk about him that way.
• Yiling explained that the Central Plains and the Southern Border had become allies through royal marriages and exchanged customs, including seasonings.
• Yiling offered to find a witch doctor to examine Xu Weibei and introduced the Bian, Yi, Su, and Ning families as the Southern Border’s four great medical families.
• Gu Wanning learned that Yiling’s brother, Yi Xiu, was a skilled doctor who would inherit the Yi Family’s medical lineage.
• Yiling said she had studied witchcraft because she did not want to study medicine.

Gu Wanning brought Yiling to meet Yi Xiu, hoping he could treat Xu Weibei, but Yi Xiu refused and left them without help. Later, Xu Weibei told Gu Wanning that the corn harvest and tax collection had gone well, and she wondered whether the emperor would reward her with silver.

• Yiling took Gu Wanning to meet her brother Yi Xiu and asked him to treat Xu Weibei, but he refused, saying it was not his specialty.
• Yiling argued with Yi Xiu, and Gu Wanning calmed them before promising to ask again later and show Yiling around the Capital.
• Gu Wanning spent the day taking Yiling around the Capital, then sent He Shi a box of silk flowers after declining her valuable jewelry gift.
• Xu Weibei told Gu Wanning that the corn yields had been tallied and the autumn grain tax collected as seed for the next year's planting.
• Xu Weibei predicted the emperor would reward Gu Wanning, and she eagerly asked whether the reward would be silver.

Xu Weibei asked the emperor to rescind his proposed marriage decree because Gu Wanning did not want to marry him, and he refused to pressure her. The emperor summoned Gu Wanning to ask her directly why she would not marry Xu Weibei.

• The emperor proposed that Xu Weibei and Gu Wanning marry again as a reward for their contributions, while Gu Yuanshi said he wanted no part in his daughter's affairs.
• Xu Weibei knelt and asked the emperor to rescind the decree, explaining that Gu Wanning was unwilling and he would not force her.
• Xu Weibei told the emperor that he had hurt Gu Wanning in the past and needed time to win her back.
• The emperor decided to ask Gu Wanning himself why she refused to marry Xu Weibei and had her brought to the palace.
• As she followed a eunuch through the palace, Gu Wanning worried about why the emperor had summoned her and wondered whether he suspected her of colluding with Yiling.

Gu Wanning appeared before the emperor, rejected the proposed marriage to Xu Weibei, and challenged Gu Yuanshi’s attempt to sever ties with her. The emperor grew angry as Gu Wanning insisted on exposing Gu Yuanshi’s selfishness, while Xu Weibei tried to restrain her.

• Gu Wanning entered the imperial study and repeatedly kowtowed until the emperor told her to rise.
• The emperor asked whether Gu Wanning agreed to marry Xu Weibei, and she refused, citing her fear that he might change his mind.
• When the emperor raised the possibility of her marrying the Marquis of Yingchuan, Gu Wanning said she had no ties to the Gu family.
• Gu Yuanshi declared that he would sever ties with Gu Wanning, and she accused him of deceiving himself about his motives.
• Gu Wanning told the emperor she neither forgave nor dwelled on past hurts, then called Gu Yuanshi selfish and cold-hearted.
• The emperor rebuked Gu Wanning for defiance, while Xu Weibei tried to pull her away and Gu Yuanshi warned that she was growing arrogant.

Gu Wanning confronted Gu Yuanshi over the danger his reforms posed to their family, while concealing her appeal for the emperor to grant the Gu family a Death-Exemption Gold Plaque. The emperor recognized that her words could have been planned, leaving Gu Yuanshi to answer the suspicion.

• Gu Wanning accused Gu Yuanshi of sacrificing his family and explained why she feared the consequences of his reforms.
• She condemned his efforts to arrange her future and declared that she would not marry the Marquis because she feared putting him in danger.
• Xu Weibei comforted Gu Wanning and realized she had spoken to the emperor partly to help Gu Yuanshi and secure a Death-Exemption Gold Plaque for the Gu family.
• The emperor told Gu Yuanshi that, had he not decided on the spur of the moment to visit his daughter, he would have suspected Gu Yuanshi had arranged her speech in advance.

Gu Wanning urged the emperor to protect the Gu family, while he reassured Gu Yuanshi and Xu Weibei about his past loyalties. He then revealed that Xu Weibei’s mother had been a princess of the Southern Border.

• Gu Wanning made clear that she wanted the emperor to leave the Gu family a way to survive, and he praised her cleverness.
• The emperor said he did not enjoy suspecting his ministers, then recalled Xu Weibei’s doubts about his father’s death.
• Gu Yuanshi and Xu Weibei knelt as the emperor explained that he had no reason to harm Xu Weibei’s father.
• The emperor asked Xu Weibei whether he knew his mother’s family and revealed that his mother had been a Southern Border princess.
• Gu Wanning realized Xu Weibei’s mother had been Yiling and Yi Xiu’s paternal aunt.

The emperor told Xu Weibei that his mother was a princess of the Southern Border and explained how his parents’ marriage and deaths had shaped his origins. Xu Weibei remained silent as he struggled to absorb the revelations, while the emperor dismissed the old family conflicts as long past.

• The emperor recounted how Xu Weibei’s father had insisted on marrying his mother despite the Grand Princess’s opposition.
• The emperor explained that Xu Weibei’s mother had left the Capital to find his father, and that both parents later died after his father fell in battle.
• The emperor urged Xu Weibei to ask Yi Xiu about treatment, and Gu Wanning explained that Yi Xiu had refused Yiling’s offer to help.
• The emperor told Xu Weibei that he was Yi Xiu’s older cousin and encouraged them to spend time together.
• Xu Weibei fell silent after learning about his origins, and the emperor noted that his parents had been dead for nearly twenty years.

Gu Wanning asked the emperor to reward her farming contributions with a Death-Exemption Gold Plaque, hoping to protect herself and her family from political danger. The emperor refused to grant it before she achieved her ambitious goals, and Gu Wanning thought of asking instead to be exempted from kneeling.

• Gu Yuanshi and the emperor reminisced about Xu Weibei's late father, and Xu Weibei redirected the emperor to his intended conversation with Gu Wanning.
• The emperor invited Gu Wanning to name a reward for her contributions to farming, and she explained that recognition could encourage others to help ease the state's burdens.
• Gu Wanning said she feared that envy and political accusations could endanger her and asked for a Death-Exemption Gold Plaque.
• The emperor refused to grant the plaque until Gu Wanning had fulfilled her promises to feed the people, fill the treasury, and bring all four seas to court.
• When the emperor offered another reward, Gu Wanning considered asking to be exempted from kneeling.

Gu Wanning won the emperor’s promise of a Death-Exemption Gold Plaque and exemption from kneeling, while he charged her with serving the people and keeping Xu Weibei in line. The emperor also arranged a new post for Gu Anwei, and Gu Wanning left the palace with rewards before Xu Weibei asked whether she wanted to learn what had happened in the past.

• Gu Wanning asked the emperor for the right to avoid kneeling before others, and he granted her both that privilege and a Death-Exemption Gold Plaque.
• The emperor told Gu Wanning to seek the people’s welfare and keep Xu Weibei in line, while warning them both not to act recklessly.
• The emperor decided to transfer Gu Anwei to another post, and Gu Wanning thanked him on her brother’s behalf.
• Gu Wanning left the palace with Xu Weibei, who praised how calmly she had handled the emperor.
• Xu Weibei asked Gu Wanning whether she wanted to return and ask her grandmother what had happened back then.

Xu Weibei learned that Zhou Jingyuan had returned with Physician Bian, who had come back early to see him. After Gu Wanning left them to speak privately, Physician Bian congratulated Xu Weibei on finding love, prompting Xu Weibei to demand an explanation.

• Gao Lan told Xu Weibei and Gu Wanning that Zhou Jingyuan had brought Physician Bian back to the capital early.
• Xu Weibei took Gu Wanning with him to the separate residence to meet Physician Bian.
• Xu Weibei introduced Gu Wanning as his wife, and Physician Bian greeted her as the Marchioness.
• Physician Bian asked to speak with Xu Weibei privately, so Gu Wanning left with Gao Lan.
• Physician Bian congratulated Xu Weibei on finding the love of his life, and Xu Weibei stared at him, demanding an explanation.

Physician Bian told Xu Weibei how his mother, the Southern Border Princess, had been hurt by the Grand Princess’s interference in her marriage and had died grieving the old Marquis. Before her death, she left Xu Weibei medicine and a message for the woman he would love, and Physician Bian believed the time had come to fulfill her wish.

• Physician Bian sent Zhou Jingyuan away and began explaining the princess’s past to Xu Weibei.
• Physician Bian said the Grand Princess had disliked the Southern Border Princess and drugged the old Marquis so he would sleep with her maid.
• The princess and the old Marquis quarreled, and although he later arranged for the maid to marry, the princess could not move past the betrayal.
• The old Marquis died after a wound worsened during an emergency in the Northwest, leaving the princess consumed by grief and hatred for the Grand Princess.
• The princess entrusted Xu Weibei to Physician Bian and gave him medicine to deliver when Xu Weibei found someone he truly loved.
• Physician Bian said the princess had also left something for Xu Weibei’s wife, and Zhou Jingyuan’s account convinced him that the princess’s wish could finally come true.

Gu Wanning met Gu Yuanshi when she returned home, and he asked to speak with her in his study. He thanked her, explained his decision about her second brother, and admitted that he had failed her as a father and regretted how hastily he had arranged her marriage.

• Gu Wanning encountered Gu Yuanshi at the gate and tried to avoid speaking with him.
• Gu Yuanshi called Gu Wanning over and brought her to his study for a private conversation.
• Gu Yuanshi thanked Gu Wanning for protecting him, and she said she had acted out of public duty and personal obligation.
• Gu Yuanshi explained that her second brother was unsuited to officialdom and that the present arrangement was best for him.
• Gu Yuanshi admitted he had wronged Gu Wanning, regretted not being more patient, and said he had arranged her marriage to the Marquis too hastily.

Gu Wanning rejected Gu Yuanshi’s offer to intervene with the Grand Princess and explained why she feared marriage, while he assured her that her brothers would support her. She learned that Gu Anfang had told their father of his feelings for Hua Ying, and Xu Weibei arrived after an apparently unpleasant conversation with Physician Bian.

• Gu Wanning refused Gu Yuanshi’s offer to speak to the Grand Princess, saying she did not want to live at her mercy or give up her independence.
• Gu Yuanshi told Gu Wanning that her three older brothers would support her if she ever changed her mind.
• Gu Wanning asked how Gu Yuanshi learned of Gu Anfang’s feelings for Hua Ying, and he said Gu Anfang had told him himself.
• Gu Yuanshi said he did not mind Hua Ying’s past as the Marquis’s concubine, so long as she was respectable.
• Gu Wanning decided to tell Third Concubine that Gu Yuanshi approved, and Xu Weibei came looking for her after speaking with Physician Bian.
• Gu Yuanshi warned Gu Wanning that serving a ruler was like keeping company with a tiger.

Gu Wanning reassured Xu Weibei that she loved him and did not care about his physical limitation, then comforted him as he struggled with guilt over his mother and grandmother. Xu Weibei embraced her, and they found comfort in facing the past together.

• Gu Wanning thanked Gu Yuanshi for his guidance, and he sent her on her way.
• At home, Gu Wanning noticed Xu Weibei was distressed and reassured him that she loved him and accepted his physical limitation.
• Gu Wanning told Xu Weibei that she was averse to sex and did not want him to feel pressured by the subject.
• Xu Weibei told Gu Wanning about the conflict between his mother and grandmother and his regret that his father had died alone in the Northwest.
• Gu Wanning urged Xu Weibei to follow his heart, honor his grandmother without surrendering his own choices, and stop burdening himself over the past.
• Xu Weibei drew Gu Wanning into his arms and held her in the sunlight.

Xu Weibei asked Gu Wanning to accompany him to visit his mother’s grave, and she supported his decision to keep the news from his grandmother. At Third Concubine’s clinic, Gu Wanning shared that her father approved of Third Concubine and Gu Anfang, then learned Gu Anfang already knew about the harm Third Concubine had suffered and wanted to avenge her.

• Xu Weibei asked Gu Wanning to visit his mother with him, and she agreed to prepare offerings while supporting his choice not to tell the Grand Princess.
• Gu Wanning bought incense, candles, and spirit money, then went to Third Concubine’s clinic and traded sharp words with Gu Anfang.
• Third Concubine explained that Gu Anfang had visited because the Consort of the Prince of Qin was ill, likely with a heart ailment.
• Gu Wanning told Third Concubine that Gu Yuanshi knew about their relationship and did not object, urging her to speak openly with Gu Anfang about her worries.
• Third Concubine revealed that she had already told Gu Anfang about her past, and that he had insisted on learning who her older maternal cousin was so he could take revenge.