Recaps

Chen Yi adapted to life in the Xiao mansion, secretly advanced in martial arts, and began investigating a hidden message network. His birthday ode won the Old Marquis’s favor, and Chen Yi prepared to ask him to lift his confinement.

• Chen Yi finished copying the family rules, met Xiao Wan'er and Xiao Wuge, and began practicing martial arts under Wang Lixing while using Daily Intelligence to improve his skills.
• Chen Yi sneaked into Jiaxing Garden to watch Xiao Wuge and Zhang Heng fight, where Hua Tang caught him and Xiao Wan'er escorted him back to Chunhe Garden.
• Chen Yi visited the Lihong Courtesan House after receiving intelligence about Scholar Liu, so Xiao Xuanshuo confined him and set a martial Dao test.
• Chen Yi met Pei Guanli in the bamboo grove, concealed his growing martial skill from the guards, and helped her uncover the hidden guard Liu Si’er’s coded-letter exchange.
• Chen Yi retrieved and altered the secret letter, then had Pei Guanli watch the pavilion until she identified a refuse-hauling servant as the letter collector.
• Chen Yi composed “Yongyu Le: Ode to Marquis Xiao,” and Xiao Wuge recited it at the Old Marquis’s birthday gathering, where Xiao Yuan forgave Chen Yi for fleeing the wedding.
• Chen Yi continued training and corrected Pei Guanli’s techniques, while his ode spread through Shuzhou and inspired a song performed by courtesans.
• Chen Yi asked Xiao Wuge to accompany him to greet the Old Master and seek an end to his confinement.

Chen Yi uncovered a Hidden Guard plot, improved his skills, and grew closer to Xiao Jinghong as the Xiao family prepared for the Old Marquis’s birthday. Chen Yunfan’s arrival ended the stretch with a tense reunion and a sign that he had noticed Chen Yi’s changed abilities.

• Chen Yi discovered Liu Si'er’s coded letters identifying him as the “fledgeling,” then kept the Hidden Guard’s identities secret while advancing his cultivation and medical knowledge.
• Chen Yi helped Li Huaigu reunite with Yunxiang through a staged abduction, despite rumors that he had tried to abduct her himself.
• Chen Yi rewrote the Old Marquis’s birthday ode after the original vanished, and Xiao Jinghong saw its glowing Calligraphy Artistic Conception when she returned to the mansion.
• Xiao Jinghong learned that Chen Yi had changed, approved of her marriage to him, and later spoke with him about why she had fled their wedding and worn a mask.
• Xiao Jinghong asked Chen Yi to help Xiao Wan'er with the family’s affairs, but Chen Yi left the decision to Xiao Wan'er until after the Old Marquis’s birthday.
• Chen Yi accepted Li Huaigu and Yunxiang’s wedding invitation, refused a poetry gathering, and received a summons from Chen Yunfan to meet him on the North City Official Road.
• Chen Yi met Chen Yunfan at the post station, where they exchanged pointed remarks before Chen Yunfan left for Shuzhou City.
• Chunying told Chen Yunfan that Chen Yi had practiced the Martial Path, and Chen Yunfan observed that his brother had changed and learned to hide his abilities.

Chen Yi’s calligraphy and the Emperor’s decree brought him new attention at the Xiao Family’s birthday banquet, while he took on responsibility for its medicine halls. After Xiao Jinghong left to negotiate with the Mountain Tribe, Chen Yi uncovered Xiao Dongchen’s secret role as a Hidden Guard.

• Chen Yi avoided Chen Yunfan’s poetry gathering, helped with the Xiao Family’s birthday preparations, and wrote a calligraphy piece for Pei Guanli.
• Pei Guanli drugged and humiliated Chen Yunfan after recognizing him as the man ordered to kill her, while Chen Yi dismissed her apologies and repaired her damaged copybook.
• At Old Marquis Xiao’s birthday banquet, Chen Yi calmly answered Li Changqing’s mockery, and Xiao Jinghong ordered Li to accept a hundred strokes of the military rod.
• Feng Erbao delivered an Imperial Edict praising Chen Yi’s talent and granting him special permission to take the next Imperial Examination.
• Chen Yi’s calligraphy copybook astonished the banquet guests, and the Light Screen awarded him the Earth Rank Spear Technique, Falling Dragon.
• Chen Yi accepted Xiao Wan’er’s appointment as shopkeeper of the medicine halls and learned that the Xiao Family was struggling to fund the Dingyuan Army’s Mutual Market.
• Xiao Jinghong departed with Pei Guanli and Su Zhenyue to negotiate with the Mountain Tribe after Chen Yi gave her the poem “Magpie Bridge Immortal.”
• Chen Yi investigated Sifang Zhai and discovered Xiao Dongchen hiding a coded Secret Letter in a tree, then memorized its cipher and returned toward Chunhe Garden.

Chen Yi uncovered theft at Jishi Pharmacy and secretly built Hundred Herbs Hall while a convoy robbery and Linglan Pavilion's expansion threatened the Xiao Family's medicine halls. He advanced his cultivation and medical skills, and the crisis led to Wang Ji proposing cooperation while Xiao Jinghong delayed her return.

• Chen Yi deciphered the Secret Letter and concluded that the Hidden Guard had arranged his official post as part of its plans against the Xiao Family.
• Chen Yi exposed Wang Ji and Jishi Pharmacy's staff for embezzlement and used their recovered profits to fund a separate medicinal-herb business under Wang Ji.
• Chen Yi broke through to the Eighth Rank, Lower Stage before Liu Lang and the Phantom Sound Sect slaughtered the Xiao Family's escort convoy and stole its medicinal herbs.
• Old Master Xiao ordered an investigation into the robbery, while Linglan Pavilion opened beside all five Xiao Family medicine halls and drew away their patients.
• Chen Yunfan warned Chen Yi at Li Huaigu's wedding not to interfere in the Xiao Family's affairs, but Chen Yi believed he was already tied to the family.
• Xiao Wan'er pawned her jewelry as funds dwindled, while Chen Yi raised his Medical Dao to Great Accomplishment and gave Wang Ji tea recipes and instructions to recruit physicians.
• Chen Yi thwarted a gang's disturbance at Jishi Pharmacy by recognizing the Pointy-Faced Little Man's Collapse Syndrome, then inspected Linglan Pavilion's branches and recognized how they targeted the Xiao Family.
• Xiao Wan'er told Chen Yi that Wang Ji had proposed cooperation with famed physicians and old prescriptions, then delivered Xiao Jinghong's letter delaying her return and urging him to consider teaching at Guiyun Academy.