Chapter Summaries

Quan Yugui showed Quan Yuxun the video of Xia Chujian rescuing Quan Caiwei, and the cousins suspected the Fan Clan was behind the attack. Quan Yuxun sent Secretary Yun to Guiyuan Star while Xia Chujian stayed with Quan Yugui and Gu Shanjun until Quan Caiwei woke up.

• Quan Yugui called Quan Yuxun and had Xia Chujian show him the rescue video.
• After watching the footage, Quan Yuxun privately questioned Quan Yugui about the medical diagnosis and their suspicion that the Fan Clan had attacked Quan Caiwei.
• Quan Yuxun arranged for Secretary Yun to travel to Guiyuan Star aboard a spaceship capable of Space Warp.
• Quan Yugui asked Xia Chujian to stay until Quan Caiwei woke up, and Gu Shanjun agreed to wait with her.
• Xia Chujian messaged her teammates, then asked about Quan Yugui's flying vehicle and received a black card granting her access to it.

After Quan Caiwei woke, she thanked Xia Chujian for rescuing her and preserving her dignity, then described Fan Chengcai’s attack and how she had been drugged. Yun Nvluo concluded that Quan Yuxun intended to deal with the Fan Clan and complicit security personnel; as dawn approached, Xia Chujian made an impertinent request.

• Xia Chujian learned to operate the large flying vehicle, which its pilot explained was effectively a fighter jet that the law restricted to the Imperial Family and Military.
• Quan Caiwei thanked Xia Chujian for saving her, and Yun Nvluo introduced herself as Quan Yuxun’s secretary.
• Quan Caiwei recalled that Fan Chengcai had attacked her after she was drugged, while Xia Chujian explained how the villa’s shielding had prevented her team from seeing inside.
• Yun Nvluo said the Fan Clan and Quan Family Security personnel involved were not important, and Xia Chujian stated that they would all be dead.
• Yun Nvluo proposed going outside at dawn to see how the Fan Clan performed, and Xia Chujian asked everyone to accommodate an impertinent request.

Xia Chujian arranged for the Quan to conceal that she killed Fan Chengcai, crediting a Quan dark guard instead, and negotiated a renewed protection contract for her whole team. After the team celebrated the improved pay, Xia Chujian told them the truth and warned them to keep it secret.

• Xia Chujian asked Yun Nvluo and the Quan to hide that she had shot Fan Chengcai, and Yun Nvluo agreed to credit a Quan dark guard.
• Quan Caiwei asked Xia Chujian to keep protecting her, and Yun Nvluo renewed the contract for Xia Chujian’s entire team at two million Beichen Coin a day.
• Gu Shanjun told the team about the renewed contract, and the team welcomed Xia Chujian’s decision to share the opportunity with them.
• Xia Chujian told her teammates that Fan Chengcai had drugged Quan Caiwei, and Ye Shijie asked whether the Fan Clan might connect his death to the Hunted List mission.
• Xia Chujian explained that the Quan would publicly claim a dark guard killed Fan Chengcai and warned her teammates not to reveal the truth.

After the team agreed to keep their role in the killings secret, Xia Chujian and Ping Qiong watched the Quan Family’s confrontation with the Fan Clan unfold. Yun Nvluo brought Xia Chujian along as an attendant, while Zong Ruoan joined the gathering without yet knowing what had happened to Fan Chengcai.

• Ye Shijie, Song Mingqian, Ping Qiong, and Xia Chujian agreed to let the Quan Family receive public credit for the killings and keep their own names out of it.
• At dawn, Xia Chujian and Ping Qiong went to watch the Villa, where Quan Family Security Personnel were guarding the entrance.
• Xia Chujian and Ping Qiong met Yun Nvluo, Quan Yugui, and Gu Shanjun, and Yun Nvluo invited Xia Chujian to accompany her inside as an attendant.
• Quan Yugui ordered the Fan Clan Head to bring the clan’s leaders to the Villa, and Fan Bowei and Fan Chengqi arrived with several elders.
• Zong Ruoan arrived and spoke with Yun Nvluo, who asked him to uphold justice for the Quan siblings without telling him what had happened to Fan Chengcai.

Yun Nvluo and her group confronted the Fan family in Quan Caiwei’s bedroom, where a headless corpse was found. DNA testing identified the corpse as Fan Chengcai, while the Fan father and son continued to pose as victims and Quan Caiwei’s whereabouts remained unknown.

• Huo Yushen watched the confrontation from his cloaked fighter jet and considered using it to purge Guiyuan Star’s Governor’s Office.
• Yun Nvluo led Fan Bowei and the others into the villa, where they found a headless male corpse in Quan Caiwei’s bloodstained bedroom.
• Fan Chengqi identified the corpse as his brother and claimed someone had murdered him and possibly abducted Quan Caiwei.
• Yun Nvluo questioned Fan Chengqi’s identification, while Zong Ruoan revealed he had come to demand that Fan Bowei surrender Fan Chengcai to the Special Security Bureau.
• Quan staff ran a portable DNA test, which confirmed the corpse was Fan Chengcai.
• Fan Bowei accepted the test result and dramatically vowed to avenge his son, while Xia Chujian watched in disbelief.

Yun Nvluo established that Fan Chengcai had been killed while attempting to assault Quan Caiwei, and Fan Bowei and Fan Chengqi threatened to take the case to court. Jiang Yuanshu then arrived with an imperial edict ordering their arrest and the confiscation of Fan Clan property, leaving Yun Nvluo to inspect the newly issued copy.

• Fan Bowei tried to blame Fan Chengqi for Fan Chengcai’s death, but Yun Nvluo had the identity confirmation and bedroom investigation conducted.
• Yun Nvluo declared the bedroom the primary crime scene and said Fan Chengcai had been shot by a Quan covert guard while trying to harm Quan Caiwei.
• Fan Bowei and Fan Chengqi argued that Fan Chengcai and Quan Caiwei had been a couple and threatened to sue, while Yun Nvluo cited self-defense, evidence of prohibited drugs, and the limits of noble immunity.
• Jiang Yuanshu arrived with armed men and announced that she was arresting Fan Bowei, Fan Chengqi, and Fan Chengcai under an imperial edict, with the Fan Clan’s property to be confiscated and its title stripped.
• Yun Nvluo examined the edict and noted its State Seal, fresh timestamp, and status as a copy rather than the original.

Jiang Yuanshu used the Special Security Bureau’s Imperial Edict to take Fan Bowei and Fan Chengqi into custody, while Huo Yushen investigated Fan Chengcai’s death. Xia Chujian showed Huo Yushen enough of her video to establish self-defense without revealing the humiliating footage of Quan Caiwei.

• Yun Nvluo accepted the Special Security Bureau’s authority, and Jiang Yuanshu took Fan Bowei and Fan Chengqi away while treating Fan Chengcai’s death as a separate matter.
• Huo Yushen told the Quan that they needed solid evidence of self-defense or the case would proceed through the courts.
• Quan Caiwei agreed to let Huo Yushen view Xia Chujian’s video, provided it was not recorded or analyzed beyond what the case required.
• Quan Yugui summoned Xia Chujian, who arrived at Jiang Yuanshu’s fighter and began playing the video for Huo Yushen.
• Xia Chujian stopped the video after it showed the sniper bullet killing Fan Chengcai, and Huo Yushen ruled that the footage was sufficient without showing the rest.

After the Special Security Bureau archived the video of Fan Chengcai being shot, Xia Chujian asked it to publicly credit Quan’s hidden guards and certify that her copy of the video was permanently deleted. Huo Yushen arranged for the Bureau’s information director to erase it, and the deletion was confirmed.

• Jiang Yuanshu encrypted and sent the video to Huo Yushen, who had it archived as evidence in the Fan Clan case.
• Yun Nvluo challenged Xia Chujian’s identity and the evidence, but Huo Yushen and Quan Yugui confirmed the video was genuine, and Quan Caiwei corroborated what it showed.
• Quan Caiwei asked to leave with Xia Chujian, and Jiang Yuanshu agreed after Huo Yushen nodded.
• Xia Chujian asked the Special Security Bureau to publicly say Fan Chengcai had been killed by Quan’s hidden guards and to certify that her video copy was permanently deleted; Jiang Yuanshu agreed to both requests.
• Huo Yushen summoned Zong Ruoan, who deleted the video from Xia Chujian’s Quantum Optical Brain and confirmed it was irrecoverable with no backup there.

Xia Chujian warned Quan Caiwei that Secretary Yun might be trying to expose her videos, then became friends with her as Quan sought comfort after Fan Chengcai’s abuse. Meanwhile, the Special Security Bureau removed Governor Hu Meihang and detained the Hu family as well as Fan Clan leaders, leaving the investigation under imperial and Cabinet oversight.

• Jiang Yuanshu noticed that Xia Chujian’s scanned appearance did not match the file photo, but Huo Yushen explained that she was likely using a Face Mask and ended the call.
• Xia Chujian warned Quan Caiwei to be careful around Secretary Yun because Yun had hinted that they possessed important evidence, and Quan realized the only complete video remained on her vehicle.
• Quan Caiwei added Xia Chujian as a friend, embraced her, and accepted Xia’s offer to help if she ever wanted someone killed.
• Fan Jiaojie learned that Fan Bowei and Fan Chengqi had been taken by the Special Security Bureau and told Fan Jiao Yan that Hu Meihang was missing.
• Jiang Yuanshu announced that Hu Meihang had been stripped of his governorship over collusion with Fan Bowei and ordered the Governor’s Office sealed.
• Special Security Bureau personnel seized Fan Jiaojie’s Quantum Optical Brain and detained her, her children, Hu Meihang’s direct lineage, and the Hu Family’s servants and Bodyguards for questioning on Beichen Star.

Fan Jiao Yan’s ties to the Rong Clan suffered after the Fan Clan’s crimes came to light, while noble families rushed to compete for the title the Fan Clan lost. In Guiyuan Star, Zong Ruoan questioned Jiang Yuanshu about why the Emperor had intervened in the case, leaving the reason for the Imperial Edict unresolved.

• Fan Jiao Yan called Rong Ruowu for help, but Rong Ruowu rejected her call and told Rong Chunyu she would no longer attend events with Fan Jiao Yan.
• Rong Chunyu ordered Rong Ruoxian and Rong Ruoye to keep Fan Jiao Yan away from Rong Ruowu, then investigated the Fan Clan after noticing the women’s unusual behavior.
• News that the Fan Clan had been stripped of its title spread through the Beichen Empire, prompting military achievers and Senate Councilors to compete for the vacant barony.
• After learning Fan Chengcai had been killed by the Quan Family’s covert guards, Rong Chunyu ordered Rong Ruoye’s family to move out of Rong Estate.
• Rong Ruoye agreed to move out but said he would not divorce Fan Jiao Yan, while Rong Ruoxian urged him not to blame Rong Ruowu.
• Zong Ruoan questioned Jiang Yuanshu about why the Emperor had intervened in the Fan Clan case without a report from him.

Jiang Yuanshu and Zong Ruoan argued over the Emperor’s order against the Fan Clan, and Zong Ruoan realized his earlier failure to detain Fan Chengcai had enabled the crisis. Xia Chujian and her teammates returned to Mulan City for New Year’s Eve, where they arrived at her home and found the rooftop transformed into a glass-covered garden.

• Jiang Yuanshu defended the Emperor’s order to uproot the Fan Clan, while Zong Ruoan argued that Fan Bowei and Fan Chengqi should not be punished so harshly.
• Zong Ruoan concluded that he had lost his chance to stop the order and admitted he should have taken Fan Chengcai into custody sooner.
• Xia Chujian’s team watched Quan Caiwei leave, then decided to return to Mulan City for New Year’s Eve instead of visiting the Exotic Beast Forest.
• Xia Chujian asked San Zong to send New Year’s provisions to her home and arranged for Aunt Chen and Zhu Yingying to stay out of sight of her teammates.
• Xia Chujian and her teammates collected their rewards and flew to her home, where they discovered a glass-roofed garden on the rooftop.

Xia Chujian confronted the wealthy new neighbors who had enclosed the rooftop staircase and secured access for herself and her friends. Meanwhile, Zong Ruoan spent New Year's Eve alone in Mulan City, but seeing Xia Chujian’s brightly lit building made him reconsider.

• Xia Chujian and her teammates landed on the rooftop and were confronted by a large dog and its handler, who said she was a servant in the newly moved-in household.
• When the servant refused to let them pass through the greenhouse-enclosed staircase, Xia Chujian insisted the rooftop was public and threatened to cut an opening in the glass.
• The servant opened the greenhouse door, and Xia Chujian demanded a remote control or a conversation with someone authorized to provide one.
• Xia Chujian and her teammates reached her home, where Xia Yuanfang welcomed them and they wished her a happy New Year.
• Zong Ruoan answered a video call from his mother, Tantai Jinyu, who arranged a formal New Year's Eve dinner to be delivered to him.
• After seeing the festive lights at Xia Chujian's building, Zong Ruoan no longer wanted to spend New Year's Eve alone.

Zong Ruoan joined Xia Chujian and her team for New Year's Eve after being left alone with a feast from his family. He arrived expecting his family's food to be superior, but Xia Yuanfang's cooking stunned him, leaving him amazed by her rice and meatballs.

• Zong Ruoan called Xia Chujian and asked to spend New Year's Eve with her team, bringing the thirty-two dishes his family had sent him.
• Li Fu and Song Mingqian helped Zong Ruoan carry the food from his nearby residence to Xia Chujian's home.
• Zong Ruoan asked about the Black Rhino Pig filling in Xia Chujian's buns, and Ye Shijie explained that the team had hunted the pigs on a mission.
• Xia Yuanfang served her dishes alongside Zong Ruoan's feast, and he was astonished by the flavor of her Tantai Royal Field Rice.
• Zong Ruoan tasted Xia Yuanfang's steamed meatballs and was shocked by how delicious they were.

At Xia Yuanfang’s New Year’s Eve dinner, Zong Ruoan praised her cooking and offered to support her work, while Xia Chujian boasted that she could become a top chef herself. The group later joined the Beichen Empire’s recorded New Year countdown, leaving the celebration underway in Mulan City.

• Xia Chujian’s team devoured Xia Yuanfang’s dishes before spending the rest of dinner eating Zong Ruoan’s food and chatting.
• Zong Ruoan declared Xia Yuanfang’s cooking the best in the Beichen Empire and offered to support her if she opened a restaurant.
• Xia Chujian revealed Xia Yuanfang’s past as a senior researcher at Li's Pharmaceuticals, then claimed her own cooking could rival the best chefs.
• Zong Ruoan asked whether Xia Yuanfang would return to research work, but she said she planned to pursue something new after recovering.
• The group watched the Imperial Family Television Station’s recorded New Year celebration and countdown from Beichen Star Imperial City.

Xia Chujian celebrated the New Year with friends, received a staircase remote from her neighbor, and saw them off with Zong Ruoan. The chapter revealed that Huo Yushen had performed the Imperial Family’s Shooting Fortune ceremony before returning home, where he woke the next day to find his family watching the news.

• Huo Yushen shot the fu character at midnight, and its fragments transformed into glowing butterflies over the square.
• Xia Chujian exchanged New Year red envelopes with Su Buyan, who raised One Million Beichen Coins by jokingly soliciting donations in her name.
• Xia Chujian borrowed a spare staircase remote from her neighbor so Ye Shijie, Li Fu, Song Mingqian, Ping Qiong, and Zong Ruoan could leave from the rooftop.
• Zong Ruoan returned home, drank Ice Fruit Dew Wine, and went to sleep after his failed mission left him troubled.
• Huo Yushen returned to Beichen Star, slept at his home, and woke the next day to find a middle-aged woman watching the news at lunch.

Huo Yushen showed She Zhuyin an image of his missing younger sister and explained that investigators had one final clue: the living witness who had helped create it. After New Year's Eve, Xia Chujian and Xia Yuanfang visited Aunt Chen, who used her Stealth skill to take them into the snow-covered Exotic Beast Forest.

• She Zhuyin asked Huo Yushen about clues to finding his younger sister, and he showed her an image based on Xia Chujian's memories.
• Huo Yushen explained that a cautious Mastermind had erased evidence and that investigators had traced a Private Starship and identified a living witness as their final clue.
• She Zhuyin questioned Huo Yushen about the witness, then returned to her room and painted her missing daughter's face.
• Xia Chujian invited Aunt Chen to take her and Xia Yuanfang to visit Zhu Yingying for New Year's Day.
• Aunt Chen used her Stealth skill to bring Xia Chujian and Xia Yuanfang to the snow-covered Exotic Beast Forest.

Xia Chujian reunited with Aunt Chen, Zhu Yingying, and San Zong at the snow-covered flying vehicle, where she learned that Alien Beasts had wiped out the Black Truffle Wild Rhino Pigs. San Zong showed her that the Kongsang was growing well and the Blood Kirin seeds had sprouted.

• Xia Chujian arrived at the buried flying vehicle with Aunt Chen and Xia Yuanfang, gave San Zong a New Year red envelope, and greeted Zhu Yingying.
• Xia Chujian reassured Zhu Yingying that she liked her new catlike appearance, and Zhu Yingying said she had gradually gotten used to living aboard the vehicle.
• Zhu Yingying showed Xia Chujian videos of Black Truffle Wild Rhino Pigs whose flesh had been sucked dry, explaining that Alien Beasts had wiped out the population.
• Xia Chujian realized the four tusks and kidneys she had stored might become valuable if the Wild Rhinoceros Pigs were extinct.
• Xia Chujian visited San Zong, who showed her the thriving Kongsang and the Blood Kirin seeds sprouting around it.

Xia Chujian discovered that San Zong had successfully cultivated Blood Kirin and Kongsang, then saw the thriving farm he and Aunt Chen had built. The chapter ended with Xia Yuanfang renaming San Zong’s crops and discussing his cultivation work with him.

• San Zong told Xia Chujian that the Blood Kirins had grown healthy and were happy to see her, while Xiao Gouzi Sixi showed affection for the Kongsang.
• Xia Yuanfang told Aunt Chen that San Zong might be a royal member of a Divine Beast clan because he was unaffected by the Fei Fei’s suppressive aura.
• Xia Yuanfang saw the cultivated Kongsang and Blood Kirin, asked San Zong for plants and humus, and learned that he had built a Warm Shed and farmed several crops.
• San Zong showed Xia Chujian and Xia Yuanfang his farmland, including rice, wheat, vegetables, fruit trees, and nut trees cultivated with specialized fertilizer.
• Xia Yuanfang proposed new names for San Zong’s rice and wheat, and San Zong enthusiastically agreed.

Xia Yuanfang helped San Zong prepare a Blood Kirin transplant and promised to teach him farming techniques, while Xia Chujian learned that Purple Salmon could help her aunt’s heart recover. After lunch, Xia Yuanfang privately asked Aunt Chen to partner with her in a business venture.

• Xia Yuanfang asked San Zong for fertilizer samples and offered to teach him to read, then had him call Xia Chujian “Young Lord” and herself “Teacher Xia.”
• San Zong prepared a pot of humus and transplanted three Blood Kirin plants with Xia Chujian and Xia Yuanfang.
• At lunch, Xia Chujian praised the Purple Salmon and learned it was especially nourishing for the heart, so she asked to buy some for Xia Yuanfang.
• After lunch, San Zong and Xiao Gouzi went to catch more Purple Salmon while Xia Yuanfang and Aunt Chen met privately to discuss business.
• Xia Yuanfang proposed a business partnership, and Aunt Chen questioned whether she and Zhu Yingying were suitable partners because they were humanoids.

Xia Yuanfang persuaded Aunt Chen to partner with her in a Reproductive Assistance Workshop, using Aunt Chen and San Zong to gather rare herbs while Xia Yuanfang handled treatment. After visiting Aunt Chen, Xia Chujian and Xia Yuanfang returned to Mulan City with food and Small Sixi, who stayed with Xia Chujian.

• Xia Yuanfang proposed that Aunt Chen partner with her to gather rare herbs from the Exotic Beast Forest for a Reproductive Assistance Workshop.
• Xia Yuanfang explained that her treatments could increase or guarantee a child's chances of becoming a Gene Evolver, convincing Aunt Chen to join the partnership.
• Xia Yuanfang said she would draft a detailed partnership contract after the New Year and have it registered with the authorities.
• Aunt Chen asked why Xia Yuanfang had not used her research to help Chujian's mother, and Xia Yuanfang said her brother and sister-in-law were gone before she could help them.
• Xia Chujian asked to take Small Sixi back with her, and San Zong and Zhu Yingying agreed to let the dog stay for a few days.
• Aunt Chen escorted Xia Chujian and Xia Yuanfang through the snow to Mulan City, where Xia Chujian entered the elevator carrying Small Sixi, food, and supplies.