Chapter Summaries

After Su Qiao left, Su Yuxin blamed her mother for the accident that ruined her legs and her hopes of marrying the Fourth Prince. Madam Su urged her to win the Fourth Prince’s sympathy and vowed to make things difficult for Su Qiao.

• Su Qiao quietly instructed Xiao Lan and left with Xiaoyu.
• Su Yuxin shoved Madam Su away and blamed her for arranging the test that led to her horse being frightened and her legs being injured.
• Su Yuxin lamented that she had lost her chance to become Empress by marrying the Fourth Prince, while Madam Su insisted the marriage decree and his devotion still gave her hope.
• Madam Su urged Su Yuxin to recover and deepen the Fourth Prince’s feelings for her.
• Madam Su said Su Qiao’s future was uncertain and vowed not to let her have an easy time.

Su Qiao learned that Su Yuxin and Madam Su still wanted revenge, and she planned to expose the Su household’s wrongdoings during Old Madam’s sixtieth-birthday celebration. She left the garden preparing to combine a Hallucinogen with hypnosis, while reflecting on the family’s silence about her birth mother’s death.

• Su Yuxin told Madam Su she wanted Su Qiao to suffer and be left bedridden, and Madam Su promised to take care of it.
• Su Qiao overheard their conversation through Little Four and said Su Yuxin deserved the punishment she had received.
• Su Qiao recalled that Su Yuxin had helped the Fourth Prince kill Xi Hanzhou in her previous life, making her a threat to them both.
• Su Qiao decided to use Old Madam’s upcoming sixtieth-birthday banquet to settle matters, combining a Hallucinogen with hypnosis.
• Su Qiao dismissed concerns about the Su Prime Minister’s Estate’s reputation and condemned the family for failing to defend her deceased birth mother.

Su Qiao learned that Xi Muyan had framed Xi Hanzhou with a forged Dragon Robe and letters implicating General Gu’s family in rebellion. When the emperor summoned Su Qiao to testify, she set out for the palace, determined not to let Xi Muyan drag her into his scheme.

• 444 told Su Qiao that Xi Muyan had hidden a forged Dragon Robe and letters in Xi Hanzhou’s Eastern Palace after staging an attempted assassination of the emperor.
• Su Qiao realized Xi Muyan was trying to eliminate Xi Hanzhou and implicate General Gu’s Estate in rebellion.
• 444 warned Su Qiao that the emperor’s chief eunuch was coming to summon her because Xi Muyan’s people claimed she could testify about the evidence.
• Su Qiao changed clothes and left with Xiao Lan and Xiao Yu to answer the emperor’s summons.

Su Qiao went to the Eastern Palace after the emperor summoned her to testify about a Dragon Robe and letters found in Crown Prince Xi Hanzhou’s quarters. She challenged Xi Muyan’s accusations in front of the emperor, leaving the princes astonished by her boldness.

• Su Qiao met Eunuch Wei at the courtyard entrance and agreed to go to the palace with him.
• Eunuch Wei told Su Qiao what had happened, and she hurried to the Eastern Palace, where Xi Hanzhou knelt before the emperor as the other princes and Imperial Guards stood by.
• Su Qiao denied seeing the Dragon Robe or letters and demanded that Xi Muyan prove she had seen them.
• Su Qiao suggested Xi Muyan might have planted the Dragon Robe and forged the letters to frame Xi Hanzhou.
• Xi Muyan told Su Qiao to stop covering for Xi Hanzhou, but she sarcastically offered to say whatever Xi Muyan wanted.
• The emperor’s sons were astonished as Su Qiao fearlessly confronted Xi Muyan before the emperor.

Su Qiao defended Xi Hanzhou against the princes’ accusations and openly scolded them for causing trouble. The Emperor summoned her, accepted her tea, and agreed that his sons were not worth getting angry over.

• Su Qiao praised the Emperor and Xi Hanzhou, arguing that the Crown Prince had no reason to rebel against a throne already destined to be his.
• Su Qiao berated the princes for suspecting Xi Hanzhou and for adding to the Emperor’s burdens.
• The Second Prince grew furious and prepared to have Su Qiao seized, but the Emperor ordered him to shut up.
• The Emperor called Su Qiao over, and she handed him tea while urging him not to damage his health by getting angry.
• The Emperor agreed with Su Qiao and dismissed his sons as worthless wretches.

Xi Hanzhou asked the Emperor to remove him as Crown Prince because he feared his damaged health would endanger Xilin Kingdom. He then asked only to marry Su Qiao, and the Emperor helped him up, distressed by his talk of dying.

• Su Qiao warned Xi Hanzhou and the Emperor that their enemies might provoke the Emperor to make his condition relapse.
• The Emperor urged Xi Hanzhou to rise and remain calm, but Xi Hanzhou asked to be stripped of his Crown Prince position.
• Xi Hanzhou said his poisoned body might never fully recover and that he did not want to burden the Emperor or bring ruin to Xilin Kingdom.
• The Emperor rejected Xi Hanzhou's fears, saying the imperial physicians and Su Qiao believed he could recover.
• Xi Hanzhou offered to give up the Crown Prince position to his younger brothers and asked the Emperor to grant him Su Qiao in marriage.
• The Emperor helped Xi Hanzhou up and lamented his son's talk of dying.

Xi Hanzhou reconciled with the King, who approved his marriage to Qiao'er and reaffirmed that he would remain Crown Prince. As the King prepared to confront the Princes, Su Qiao signaled Xi Hanzhou to leave the matter to him.

• The King grieved over Xi Hanzhou's suffering and blamed his other sons for causing it.
• Xi Hanzhou told the King he wanted to give up the Crown Prince position and live peacefully with Qiao'er.
• The King rejected Xi Hanzhou's plan, promised to keep trusting him, and agreed to his marriage to Qiao'er.
• Xi Hanzhou thanked the King and felt his lingering bitterness disappear.
• The Princes grew angrier, while the bribed Imperial Guard Commander and deputy commander regretted their actions.
• Su Qiao tugged Xi Hanzhou's sleeve and urged him to let the King handle the confrontation.

Xi Hanzhou left the Emperor’s presence after asking him to go easy on Fourth Prince Xi Muyan, but the Emperor warned him not to be softhearted. In the inner hall, Xi Hanzhou and Su Qiao discussed his changed attitude toward his brothers and the pain he once felt over the Emperor’s choices.

• Xi Hanzhou asked the Emperor not to reprimand Fourth Prince Xi Muyan too harshly, prompting the Emperor to warn him that his brothers might not consider him family.
• The Emperor sent Su Qiao to help Xi Hanzhou rest in the inner hall.
• Su Qiao reflected that Xi Hanzhou had cleverly let the Emperor grow suspicious of his brothers instead of destroying the evidence hidden in his secret chamber.
• Su Qiao told Xi Hanzhou she had worried that he was too softhearted, and he said he would no longer cling to brotherly affection as he had before.
• Xi Hanzhou said he understood why the Emperor had made a painful choice in the past and that it no longer hurt him.

Su Qiao asked Xi Hanzhou when he planned to ascend the throne, and he promised to settle the matter before they married while assuring her no other woman would enter the Eastern Palace. Meanwhile, the Emperor punished the princes and stripped Imperial Noble Consort Yun of power, leaving the Fourth Prince disgraced and the other princes wary of Su Qiao.

• Su Qiao asked Xi Hanzhou when he would ascend the throne and said she would accept waiting if he kept other women out of the Eastern Palace.
• Xi Hanzhou promised to give her a satisfactory answer before their marriage and reaffirmed his agreement to remain faithful.
• The Emperor had the Imperial Guard Commander and his deputy beaten and imprisoned, then forced the princes to kneel outside the Eastern Palace for four hours.
• The Emperor promoted the Second, Third, and Fifth Princes but gave the Fourth Prince no title, then demoted Imperial Noble Consort Yun and gave the Phoenix Seal to another consort.
• The princes stopped provoking Su Qiao because they feared her powerful support from the Crown Prince and her Imperial Father.

Old Lady Su returned to the estate for her sixtieth birthday banquet, where the Gu family and several princes arrived. Su Qiao appeared before Eunuch Wei with the Imperial Decree, ready to receive it.

• Old Lady Su returned to the estate after ten years away, and Su Qiao secretly sent a letter to Great General Gu before the birthday banquet.
• Old General Gu, Old Madam Gu, and Great General Gu attended, and Old Madam Gu coldly rebuffed Prime Minister Su.
• Xi Hanzhou and the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Princes arrived, and Xi Hanzhou asked where Su Qiao was.
• Eunuch Wei announced that Su Qiao must come receive an Imperial Decree.
• Su Qiao appeared in a black-and-gold dress, knelt before the decree, and silently asked her predecessors to forgive her for what she was about to do.

Su Qiao reunited with her maternal relatives at the gathering where she was announced as Crown Princess. The celebration was interrupted when Madam Su appeared in a terrified, deranged state and accused someone of causing a woman’s death in childbirth.

• Xi Hanzhou helped Su Qiao to her feet, and the guests recognized her as the Crown Princess despite their surprise at her nimble movements.
• Gu Jincheng brought Old General Gu and Old Madam Gu to greet Su Qiao, who acknowledged them as her maternal grandparents.
• Old Madam Su called Su Qiao to sit with her in the inner hall, separating her from Xi Hanzhou by several screens.
• Madam Su suddenly ran into the gathering in a disheveled state, shouting that she had not caused a woman’s death during childbirth.
• Madam Su shoved aside the steward and ran off as Prime Minister Su tried to have her taken back to her room.

At the Prime Minister's Estate banquet, Su Qiao let Madam Su's drug-fueled confession expose her jealousy of Gu Qiyan and her role in her death. Gu Jincheng stopped Prime Minister Su's servants from taking Madam Su away, leaving the Gu Family ready to demand answers.

• Madam Su ran through the banquet hall raving, and Prime Minister Su ordered the steward and Wet Nurses to take her away.
• Su Qiao rose and insisted that Madam Su be allowed to finish, while the Crown Prince stood by her and Old Madam warned her to remember she was a daughter of the Su Family.
• Under the effects of the truth serum, hallucinogen, and hypnotic suggestion, Madam Su confessed her resentment of Gu Qiyan and accused her of taking Yunhe from her.
• Madam Su attacked a guest she mistook for Gu Qiyan and shouted that Gu Qiyan and the child in her belly deserved to die.
• Gu Jincheng blocked the Prime Minister's servants from removing Madam Su and told Prime Minister Su he no longer had the right to decide what happened to her.

Gu Qirou confessed that she had repeatedly tried to harm Gu Qiyan and her unborn child to prevent her sister from marrying Xi Hanzhou. Xi Hanzhou stopped Prime Minister Su from resisting Gu Jincheng as Gu Qirou was seized.

• Prime Minister Su claimed his wife was mentally unwell and urged Gu Jincheng not to believe her.
• Gu Jincheng ordered two military officers to seize Gu Qirou and questioned her about harming Gu Qiyan.
• Gu Qirou confessed to causing Gu Qiyan's difficult childbirth and attempting to poison, starve, and injure her and her child.
• Gu Qirou revealed that she wanted Gu Qiyan crippled and sought to keep her from marrying Xi Hanzhou.
• Prime Minister Su summoned his household staff to confront Gu Jincheng, but Xi Hanzhou warned that no one would dare move.
• The officials and Prime Minister Su backed down, unwilling to challenge the Crown Prince.

Su Qiao questioned Gu Qirou until she revealed that Su Yuxin knew about the plan to tamper with the carriage and that Gu Qirou had intended to cripple Su Qiao. Prime Minister Su realized the confession exposed his illicit relationship with his wife’s younger half-sister and his role in conspiring against his first wife and unborn child, leaving the Prime Minister’s residence facing ruin.

• Prime Minister Su recognized that Su Qiao had used the incident to expose the Gu Estate’s involvement and felt furious at her schemes.
• Su Qiao asked Gu Qirou whether Su Yuxin was premature and whether she knew about the carriage plot before the incense offering.
• Gu Qirou mistook Su Qiao for Su Yuxin and admitted that her daughter knew of the plan and had been afraid to participate.
• Gu Qirou promised to cripple Su Qiao and help Su Yuxin recover so she could marry the Fourth Prince.
• Xi Hanzhou gave Su Qiao a handkerchief, and she wiped her hand after Gu Qirou touched it.
• Prime Minister Su realized Gu Qirou’s words could expose his affair during the mourning period and a conspiracy to murder his first wife and unborn child.

Old Madam Gu accused Prime Minister Su of betraying and killing her daughter, then attacked him in front of everyone. Su Yunhe tried to save his reputation by claiming Gu Qirou had long been mad and confined.

• The onlookers connected Second Miss Su’s cruelty and the Fourth Prince’s ambitions, leaving him regretting that he had attended.
• Old Madam Gu charged at Su Yunhe and clawed his face as she accused him of having an affair with Gu Qirou and conspiring to kill her daughter.
• Old General Gu and Gu Jincheng pulled Old Madam Gu away from Su Yunhe.
• Su Yunhe denied responsibility and claimed Gu Qirou had been mad and kept confined to her courtyard.

Su Qiao exposed Madam Su’s plot to harm Gu Yan through Nanny Lai’s testimony, then used medicine and acupuncture to revive Old Madam Gu after she fainted. Old General Gu declared the Gu Estate’s enmity with Prime Minister Su and urged Su Qiao to leave with him.

• Su Qiao summoned Nanny Lai, who confessed that Madam Su had sent her to infiltrate the Su Prime Minister’s Estate and serve the Eldest Miss.
• Nanny Lai admitted that she had lied to the Eldest Miss about her pregnancy, telling her to stay in bed and take nourishing food despite the physician’s advice.
• Old Madam Gu became enraged and fainted, so Su Qiao gave her pills and used gold needles to revive her.
• Old General Gu declared that the Gu Estate and Prime Minister Su were irreconcilable and asked Su Qiao to return with him.

Su Qiao declined Old General Gu’s offer to marry from the Gu Estate, choosing instead to leave from the Su Estate, which she still considered home. Xi Hanzhou showed her the renovated estate he had prepared for her, while Nanny Lai and Su Yuxin faced the consequences of the banquet.

• Old General Gu offered to protect Su Qiao and have her marry from the Gu Estate, but she refused and revealed that the Emperor had granted her a County Princess title and estate.
• Su Qiao told Prime Minister Su to raise his son well, then left with Xi Hanzhou to see her renovated estate.
• Xi Hanzhou showed Su Qiao the estate’s new furnishings, gardens, training ground, and space for medicinal herbs, which pleased her.
• People sent by Prime Minister Su beat Nanny Lai to death while she was escaping.
• Su Yuxin learned what had happened at the banquet and realized that she and her mother were finished.

After Madam Su escaped her locked room and went to see Su Yuxin, Su Yuxin killed her in a confused state. Prime Minister Su covered up the death and sent Su Yuxin to a country estate.

• Madam Su woke at night, escaped through a small window, and rushed to Su Yuxin’s room.
• Su Yuxin rejected Madam Su and accused her of ruining her life, while Madam Su tried to comfort her.
• When Madam Su held her, Su Yuxin stabbed her neck with a shard of porcelain.
• Madam Su died from blood loss, and Prime Minister Su claimed she had gone mad and died in an accident.
• Prime Minister Su sent the frightened and dazed Su Yuxin to a small country estate.

Su Qiao learned that the Fourth Prince had poisoned the Emperor and seized the palace, so she rushed to alert Xi Hanzhou and the Gu Family. By the time she reached the palace, Xi Hanzhou had prepared to confront the crisis and led her through a secret passage to the Emperor’s Imperial Bedchamber.

• Su Qiao learned that the Fourth Prince had poisoned the Emperor and forced him to pass on the throne, then lit a signal to summon her hidden guards.
• Su Qiao sent Xiao Yu and Xiao Lan to warn her Great General uncle and hurried toward the palace with the hidden guards.
• Xiao Lan and Xiao Yu informed the Gu Estate, where Old General Gu relocated the family and Great General Gu, Gu Jincheng, went to mobilize troops outside the city.
• Xi Hanzhou took Su Qiao through a secret passage to the Emperor’s Imperial Bedchamber, followed by a group of armed hidden guards.

Xi Muyan confronted the Emperor over his lifelong favoritism toward the Crown Prince, but learned that his mother, Yun Yujin, had poisoned the woman the Emperor loved. The Emperor revealed that he had kept Yun Yujin from becoming Empress and had secretly given her a Sterilization Drug.

• Xi Muyan accused the Emperor of favoring the Crown Prince and denying Yun Yujin the Empress's position.
• The Emperor claimed Yun Yujin had poisoned the woman he loved and that Xi Muyan had poisoned the Crown Prince.
• Yun Yujin entered and remained silent when Xi Muyan asked whether the accusation was true.
• The Emperor said he had raised Yun Yujin to Imperial Noble Consort to torment her and keep her beneath his beloved woman.
• The Emperor admitted that he had personally given Yun Yujin the Sterilization Drug.