Recaps

Yan Xianjue skipped school to see Yan Shan off as she returned to her research institute, while his classmates speculated about his absence and planned to send him homework. At the Yan Household, Yan Shan teased him for failing to notice something unusual about his family, and he ended by asking a guard to protect her.

• Yan Xianjue took another day off to see Yan Shan off, relying on Ji Xi's strengthened PR team to handle any fallout.
• Zhou Ye told Yan Xianjue's classmates that he had gone to see his second sister off, then agreed to send him the homework.
• The classmates joked that Ji Xi would do Yan Xianjue's homework, while Zhou Ye knew Yan Xianjue only relied on Ji Xi for subjects he already understood.
• Yan Shan told Yan Xianjue to protect his head, and Yan Wan and Yan Yi'an explained that she had called him stupid for not noticing his family's odd behavior.
• Yan Xianjue told a guard to protect Yan Shan and said he would forgive him for the Jiang Tang incident.

Yan Shan and her guard flew back after her annual leave, while Lin Shi returned to Beijing and resumed dealing with Yan Xianjue’s assignments. Lin Shi and Yu Bai reaffirmed their resolve regarding the Lin Household.

• Yan Shan told her guard she had been considering resignation, then clarified that she planned to retire before turning thirty-five.
• Yan Shan gave the guard wasabi candy from Yan Xianjue and made him finish the bag as payment for the ginger candy incident.
• The guard translated the candy packaging and discovered it advertised a super jumbo extra-large edition beloved by the public.
• In Beijing, Lin Shi complained to Yu Bai about the all-night reflection essay he had revised using material Yan Xianjue assigned him.
• Lin Shi said he had achieved what he went back for and would only become annoying if he stayed longer.
• Yu Bai said Lin Lang could not keep the Lin Household alive, and he and Lin Shi silently reaffirmed their resolve.

Lin Shi and Yu Bai planned to use Fifth Uncle to investigate Old Master Lin's feng shui arrangements and anonymously send Yan Yi'an information about Little Monk. Meanwhile, Yan Xianjue and Shen Fangli laughed over a wasabi-candy prank, and Yan Xianjue arrived at school with homework and cookies to share.

• Lin Shi agreed to consider the feng shui plan but said Fifth Uncle should handle it, and he explained that Fifth Uncle's daughter gave him a reason to remain loyal to Lin Shi.
• Yu Bai proposed spreading a rumor in Lin Lang's name about finding a marriage partner for Fifth Uncle's daughter to make Fifth Uncle depend on their side.
• Lin Shi told Yu Bai to send Yan Yi'an Little Monk's next destination and address anonymously after Yu Bai confirmed that Little Monk's monk certificate was fake.
• Lin Shi realized Yan Xianjue had avoided the danger while he had faced Yan Yi'an's threats, then went upstairs to sleep as Yu Bai wondered what Lin Shi was hiding.
• Yan Xianjue and Shen Fangli laughed at a security officer's reaction to wasabi candy, and Yan Xianjue finished his advanced mathematics homework.
• Yan Xianjue brought his homework and Shen Fangli's butter cookies to class, where classmates crowded around to borrow the homework and hesitated over the cookies.

Yan Xianjue pranked his classmates over their homework before returning to his carefree university life. A month and a half later, Ji Xi called to suggest changing Lei Xuan’s role, and Yan Xianjue decided to add public relations duties without moving him out of screenwriting.

• Yan Xianjue revealed that he had written the homework, leaving the classmates who had copied it stunned.
• Yan Xianjue joked with Zhou Ye during class and realized his second sister had called him stupid when she told him to protect his head.
• A month and a half later, Ji Xi told Yan Xianjue that Lei Xuan had persuaded the sitcom’s producers to reconsider its ending.
• Ji Xi proposed moving Lei Xuan into work involving business and people, but Yan Xianjue learned Lei Xuan did not want to change fields.
• Yan Xianjue suggested promoting Lei Xuan and adding external public relations duties to his role while keeping him in screenwriting.

Ji Xi and Yan Xianjue discussed a promotion, company finances, and a possible island shoot for Lei Xuan’s variety show. Yan Xianjue later told Shen Fangli about the plan, but she pointed out the scheduling and safety concerns, leaving him to reconsider how busy their upcoming work would be.

• Ji Xi asked whether the promotion came with a raise, and he and Yan Xianjue agreed to place the employee in charge of the production and directing departments with a small pay increase.
• Ji Xi reported that Wang Peter was adapting well, and Yan Xianjue asked whether Ji Xi needed housing near the company before Ji Xi declined.
• Ji Xi suggested Yan Xianjue buy an island, and Yan Xianjue revealed that he already owned an undeveloped island and proposed filming a wilderness survival episode there with Lei Xuan.
• Yan Xianjue told Shen Fangli about the island plan during their evening call, and she raised concerns about the island’s safety assessment and the cast’s crowded schedules.
• Shen Fangli explained that the variety show and an upcoming costume drama would keep her schedule packed, and Yan Xianjue wondered whether his recent sense of leisure was mistaken.

Shen Fangli joked with Yan Xianjue about having a baby after graduation, then told him she planned to attend her roommate Sui Chunhua’s in-game wedding. Yan Xianjue offered to have his brother help them in the game and explained why Yan Ci had borrowed money to bring esports analysis equipment to China.

• Shen Fangli suggested preparing for a baby after graduation, and Yan Xianjue insisted they should get engaged and married first.
• Shen Fangli explained that Sui Chunhua had invited her to an in-game wedding, and she planned to set off fireworks for the couple.
• Yan Xianjue offered to have Yan Ci carry them in the game because Yan Ci owed him money.
• Yan Xianjue explained that Yan Ci had bought overseas esports analysis equipment for his club and donated some to the national team.
• Yan Ci told Yan Xianjue that esports becoming an Olympic event meant it was more than just a game.

Shen Fangli and Yan Xianjue discussed Zhuang Yushu’s eagerness to play an emperor in Lei Xuan’s costume drama. The next day, Lei Xuan took Yan Xianjue to the casting site for help dealing with assistant directors interfering in casting.

• Shen Fangli told Yan Xianjue that Zhuang Yushu had turned down scripts because he wanted to play an emperor in Lei Xuan’s drama.
• Yan Xianjue suspected Lei Xuan might be delaying sending Zhuang Yushu the script, and Shen Fangli offered to ask Zhuang about it during their next online class.
• Yan Xianjue found more than thirty missed calls from Lei Xuan and got into his car after receiving a warning from Ji Xi.
• Lei Xuan told Yan Xianjue that Yao Weiran had asked him to bring his boss to the casting site for support.
• Lei Xuan explained that two assistant directors poached from Tourmaline Entertainment kept using their seniority to interfere with casting.

Yan Xianjue confronted two assistant directors after they harshly criticized an auditioning actor, accusing them of undermining Yao Weiran’s casting authority. He left the production team facing a choice between doing their jobs and admitting they could not run the project.

• Yan Xianjue told Ji Xi to investigate who had brought the two assistant directors into the production team, then joined Lei Xuan at the casting hall.
• Yan Xianjue noticed the assistant directors deliberately belittling an actor and gave the actor a new scene to prepare before calling a meeting.
• Yan Xianjue asked whether the casting process discriminated against actors from the Pear Garden Families and demanded the two directors explain their behavior.
• One director claimed the actor had gotten the audition through connections, but Yan Xianjue challenged the directors’ conduct and their understanding of their responsibilities.
• Lei Xuan clarified that casting authority belonged to him and Yao Weiran, and Yan Xianjue challenged them to admit they could not run the production team.

Yan Xianjue disciplined the production staff and urged Yao Weiran to take more responsibility, then watched an actor audition for the young general role. Impressed by the actor’s performance, he ordered Lei Xuan to sign him.

• Yan Xianjue rebuked the production staff for scheming over rank and age, and declared that Yao Weiran and the chief director and screenwriter would decide who stayed on the production.
• Yan Xianjue told Yao Weiran to stand on his own or face a new boss, and Yao Weiran agreed to undergo training at Yan Corporation while Lei Xuan refused.
• Yan Xianjue watched an actor with a traditional opera background perform a scene as a disguised young general, and the actor’s change in expression surprised him.
• Yan Xianjue asked whether the actor had signed with a company, then told Lei Xuan to sign him; Lei Xuan discovered that his duties included other work assigned by the boss.

Yan Xianjue arranged for an auditioning actor to meet with Lei Xuan about signing with Random Entertainment, then reprimanded an assistant director for spreading gossip and possibly taking money to promote an unsuitable actor. As the auditions continued, Lei Xuan pitched a bizarre version of the script’s protagonist role, and Yan Xianjue scolded him for going off the rails.

• Yan Xianjue told the auditioning actor to bring his agent and legal counsel to discuss a contract with Lei Xuan, and arranged for Ji Xi to assign Lei Xuan an assistant.
• An assistant director linked the actor to Shen Fangli and suggested she had recommended him through her grandmother, so Yan Xianjue rebuked him for gossiping and questioned Yao Weiran’s management of the crew.
• Yan Xianjue stayed to watch more auditions and asked the assistant director whether he had taken money after he praised an unsuitable young actor.
• Lei Xuan suggested approaching a rugged but skilled actor for a brief role as the protagonist’s father, then described an outlandish twist involving a spoiled heir and the Eldest Princess.
• Yan Xianjue told Lei Xuan to stop altering the story and remarked that his past habit of doing so might explain why he had been kicked off production crews.

Yan Xianjue watched a casting session and discussed the roles with Lei Xuan before going home for dinner. Yan Yi'an advised him on managing Lei Xuan and suggested that Yan Xianjue's company needed a disruptive new presence, using Yan Ci's past hiring experience as an example.

• Lei Xuan explained his script's plot to Yan Xianjue, who questioned its lack of romance and praised the young general's decision to rebel.
• Yao Weiran selected three people to try different roles, and Yan Xianjue left after declining Lei Xuan's dinner invitation.
• Yan Xianjue returned home and told Yan Yi'an about the casting, wondering why Lei Xuan and Yao Weiran had not turned out like Ji Xi.
• Yan Yi'an advised Yan Xianjue to set limits for Lei Xuan's sudden ideas instead of cleaning up after him.
• Yan Yi'an brought up how Yan Ci had once strengthened his team by hiring a catfish and said Yan Xianjue's company needed someone like that.

Yan Xianjue’s siblings discussed his trouble managing the employees at his entertainment company. They left him facing the need to find a suitable general manager rather than relying on another Ji Xi.

• Yan Xianjue accidentally covered Yan Ci’s nose and mouth while trying to stop him from complaining, and Yan Wan walked in and told him to let go.
• Yan Yi'an explained that Yan Xianjue’s employees would not listen to him, prompting Yan Ci to argue that he spoiled them too much.
• Yan Yi'an suggested hiring a general manager for the entertainment company so Ji Xi could be freed from the job, but Yan Xianjue said he had found no suitable candidate.
• Yan Wan explained that entertainment companies faced unexpected situations unlike investment companies, while Yan Xianjue said he had hoped Lei Xuan or Yao Weiran would take over.
• Yan Ci revealed that Yan Xianjue was also counting on Jiang Miaomiao to grow into a capable manager after graduating, and the others considered how rare workers like Ji Xi were.

Yan Xianjue arranged for Yan Yi'an's special assistant to tighten oversight of Lei Xuan and discussed the drama's characters and plot with his siblings. Lei Xuan struggled with the new demands, and Boss Lei confronted him about treating his work carelessly and relying on Yan Xianjue and other investors.

• Yan Yi'an offered to send his special assistant to help Yan Xianjue manage the entertainment company and put pressure on Lei Xuan.
• Yan Xianjue described Shen Fangli's role as a cruel young princess and recounted the general's tragic story, while Yan Ci suggested ways to make the general suffer more.
• Yan Yi'an's special assistant began rejecting Lei Xuan's proposals and demanding revisions, and Lei Xuan admitted he had ignored Ji Xi's earlier notes.
• Lei Xuan went to Boss Lei for help revising his proposal, but Boss Lei told him to take his work seriously and stop relying on investors who tolerated his carelessness.
• Boss Lei warned Lei Xuan that he had to improve if he truly wanted his scripts made into dramas and films, and Lei Xuan listened despite feeling hurt.

Lei Xuan got Boss Lei's help revising his proposal, then faced a special assistant sent by Yan Xianjue to push Random Entertainment to improve. The assistant warned Lei Xuan that he could be replaced as head writer, leaving him doubtful but daring him to try.

• Boss Lei helped Lei Xuan revise his proposal until it was finally accepted.
• The special assistant challenged Lei Xuan over Random Entertainment's lack of results and said his return to headquarters depended on Lei Xuan's improvement.
• Lei Xuan suggested training Yao Weiran instead, but the special assistant said none of them would escape being trained.
• The special assistant told Lei Xuan that Yan Xianjue would let him replace himself as head writer if he could not handle the job.
• Lei Xuan questioned whether Yan Xianjue would really replace him without warning, and the special assistant replied that he could try.

Yan Yi'an prepared to leave Shenzhen and tested whether people at Yan Corporation would exploit his absence, while arranging for Yan Xianjue to support his special assistant. Abroad, Yan Wan dealt with mercenaries hired to accompany them as a monk searched for a feng shui formation.

• Lei Xuan denied trying to provoke Yan Yi'an, unaware the special assistant's video conference had let Yan Yi'an hear their conversation.
• Yan Yi'an told his special assistant to pressure Lei Xuan moderately, warned him to contact Yan Xianjue if needed, and said he would be going abroad with Yan Wan.
• Yan Yi'an and his special assistant discussed the Lin Household's life-prolonging feng shui formation and the risk of opportunists at Yan Corporation making a move during his absence.
• Yan Wan told Yan Yi'an that the mercenaries had tried to raise their price because they thought the location was ominous, while a monk searched nearby with a compass.
• When the mercenary and monk could not communicate, the mercenary pressed a gun to the monk's neck before his leader rebuked him for acting like he had seen too much television.

Yan Yi'an and Yan Wan helped the Little Monk retrieve an old parchment hidden by his deceased master near the Arctic Circle. After learning more about the master's relationship with Lin Lang, Yan Yi'an took the Little Monk back to the hotel to examine the parchment, leaving one of Lin Shi's men unsure how to keep watch over him.

• Yan Yi'an, Yan Wan, and the Little Monk found the hidden site and dug up the item his master had left behind.
• The Little Monk explained that he did not hate his master for guarding against him, since the master had once saved him from starvation.
• Yan Wan recalled that Lin Lang had visited temples around Old Master Lin's birthday, and the Little Monk revealed that Lin Lang had used that period to contact his master.
• Mercenaries brought over a parchment damaged during excavation, and the Little Monk identified it as altered Sanskrit that only he could read.
• Yan Yi'an postponed the translation until they returned to the hotel and told one of Lin Shi's men that he was taking the Little Monk with him.
• The man hesitated, then followed Yan Yi'an and the Little Monk, while Yan Wan questioned who he was supposed to watch now.

Yan Wan and Yan Yi'an reconsidered their grandfather’s clues and realized they had overlooked his sanatorium, while debating how to use the missing young monk to influence the Lin family. Lin Lang then acted after discovering the monk had disappeared, and Yu Bai brought an injured Lin Shi to Yan Xianjue’s villa.

• Yan Yi'an suspected their grandfather had been trying to pull people’s fates back onto their proper tracks, while Carefree Master had pointed Xian Jue toward a turning point four years later.
• Yan Wan and Yan Yi'an connected the four-year timeline to Lin Shi and Lin Lang, then realized their search for clues should return to their grandfather’s sanatorium.
• Yan Wan planned to retrieve the sanatorium key, while Yan Yi'an decided to keep the young monk overseas and use Lin Lang to prevent Lin Shi from becoming too conspicuous.
• After learning the monk had disappeared and Lin Shi had returned to Shenzhen, Lin Lang made his move.
• Yu Bai half-carried an unconscious Lin Shi to the bushes by Yan Xianjue’s villa security booth, changed out of his bloodied clothes, and gave the guard the villa number.

Yan Xianjue learned that Lin Shi was injured and unconscious near the residential complex, and arranged to have him brought to the villa for help. He prepared to find out what had happened, while Zhou Ye suggested contacting Ni Qiu for a doctor if needed.

• Yan Xianjue received a call from the villa butler while watching a movie with Yan Ci.
• Yu Bai told Yan Xianjue that Lin Shi was badly injured and unconscious in the bushes by the residential complex entrance.
• Yan Xianjue sent the villa's bodyguards to retrieve Lin Shi and asked Zhou Ye to help them enter the complex.
• Yan Xianjue told Zhou Ye that Lin Shi was hurt and would be taken to his villa until they learned what had happened.
• Zhou Ye suggested that Yan Xianjue contact Ni Qiu for a doctor if using official channels was inconvenient.

Yan Xianjue arranged emergency surgery for the badly wounded Lin Shi, calling in help through Ni Qiu and taking him to Ni Qiu's family's hospital. Yu Bai revealed that Lin Shi had been shot while protecting him after one of their people betrayed them, and that Lin Lang had used a gun openly in the country.

• Yan Xianjue decided to return to his villa to check on Lin Shi, and Yan Ci insisted on going with him.
• At the villa, Yan Xianjue learned that Lin Shi's bullet wound was too serious for treatment there and called Ni Qiu for help.
• Yan Xianjue promised Ni Qiu a favor on Yan Yi'an's tab, and Ni Qiu arranged for Lin Shi to be treated at his family's hospital.
• Yan Xianjue took Lin Shi to the hospital, where Yan Ci and Yu Bai waited outside the operating room.
• Yan Xianjue asked Yu Bai what had happened, and Yu Bai said a member of their group had betrayed them and Lin Shi had taken a bullet meant for him from Lin Lang.

After Lin Shi was shot during Lin Lang’s ambush, Yu Bai explained the betrayal and the Lin Household’s schemes to Yan Xianjue while Lin Shi underwent surgery. The surgery succeeded, but Doctor Ni then revealed that scans showed possible cancerous changes in Lin Shi’s liver.

• Yu Bai told Yan Xianjue that Fifth Uncle had betrayed them and that Lin Lang had arranged the ambush that left Lin Shi wounded.
• Yu Bai admitted the Lin Household’s search for botanists involved important trees and said Lin Lang had acted to eliminate Lin Shi, while Yan Xianjue urged him to call the police.
• Yan Xianjue asked Uncle Lu to investigate the mercenary behind the attack and learned that his elder brother had recently clashed with Lin Lang.
• Ni Qiu brought Yan Xianjue to Doctor Ni after Lin Shi’s bullet-removal surgery, which had gone well.
• Doctor Ni told Yan Xianjue and Yu Bai that Lin Shi’s scans showed signs of cancerous changes in his liver.

After Lin Shi was hospitalized, Doctor Ni found a possible liver mass, and Yan Xianjue arranged for him to receive care and protection while keeping his location secret from the Lin Household. Yan Xianjue also ordered more security for his family because Lin Lang had an armed mercenary, then planned to pick up Shen Fangli while preparations for another film began.

• Doctor Ni identified a possible liver mass in Lin Shi and said further examinations were needed to confirm it.
• Yan Xianjue told Yu Bai to arrange Lin Shi's care and asked Uncle Lu to assign guards to protect him.
• Yan Xianjue ordered Yu Bai to test the Lin Household's attitude and keep Lin Shi's hospitalization secret from them.
• On the drive home, Yan Xianjue told Yan Ci that Lin Lang had an armed mercenary and arranged extra guards for the family.
• Yan Xianjue said Lin Shi could wait in the hospital until after he picked up Shen Fangli, while Lei Xuan and Yao Weiran prepared the film's opening ceremony.

Shen Fangli reunited with Yan Xianjue, and the two rested together at a hotel while the villa was disinfected. At the hospital, Lin Shi ordered Yu Bai to retaliate against their betrayers and insisted on returning to the Lin Household despite his injuries and cancer.

• Shen Fangli told Yan Xianjue she had missed him, and he admitted he regretted their universities being in different cities.
• Yan Xianjue took Shen Fangli to a hotel because the villa was being disinfected, and they decided to nap together.
• Yu Bai told Lin Shi that Lin Lang had informed the old man about the tree and that Fifth Uncle had been beaten.
• Lin Shi ordered Yu Bai to tell the old man about Fifth Uncle's overseas property plans as punishment for betraying him.
• Yu Bai urged Lin Shi to stay in the hospital and recover, but Lin Shi insisted he had to return after seeing information Yan Yi'an sent.
• Yan Yi'an and Yan Wan finally received definite news from the young monk after nearly two days.

Yan Yi'an and Yan Wan discovered that Yan Xianjue had unknowingly disrupted most of the schemes in Old Monk’s detailed plan against Yan Corporation. The remaining warning concerned a future explosion connected to Lin Shi, and Yan Yi'an turned the paper to focus on it.

• Yan Yi'an confirmed that the companies and plans listed in Little Monk’s translation were real, though a vice president named in the plan had already retired.
• Yan Yi'an explained that Yan Xianjue had cut three proposed projects while reviewing documents and had pushed another energy project forward ahead of schedule.
• Yan Wan realized Yan Xianjue had unknowingly dealt with nearly all the plans targeting Yan Corporation.
• Little Monk explained that Old Monk considered Lin Shi and Lin Lang equally important but believed Lin Shi needed more tempering and should not become president.
• Yan Yi'an and Yan Wan rejected Old Monk’s presumption that he could dictate other people’s fates, and Yan Yi'an highlighted the remaining warning about a future explosion.

Yan Yi'an and Yan Wan learned that Lin Shi had been shot after Lin Lang’s explosion plot was exposed, while wondering why Yan Xianjue was unusually tolerant of Lin Shi. In the hospital, Lin Shi and Yu Bai planned to lure Lin Lang to the explosion site and decided to trade him Lin Corporation’s private hospital for a price.

• Yan Yi'an told Yan Wan that Lin Shi had been shot, and he wondered whether Yan Xianjue’s tolerance for Lin Shi came from a forgotten childhood connection.
• Yu Bai regretted cooperating with Yan Yi'an and said Yan Xianjue was easier to get along with, prompting Lin Shi to ask when he had gone blind.
• Lin Shi and Yu Bai considered using the upscale private restaurant where the explosion was planned to lure Lin Lang there.
• Lin Shi decided to give Lin Lang Lin Corporation’s private hospital because the company’s pharmaceutical factory and drug laboratory made it dispensable and Fifth Uncle might know its secrets.
• Lin Shi insisted that Lin Lang would have to pay for the hospital, and Yu Bai agreed to follow his decision.

Lin Shi resisted Yu Bai’s plan to find him a liver donor, while Yan Xianjue’s casual request led Ni Qiu to keep checking on him. At a historical drama’s opening ceremony, Yan Xianjue teased Lei Xuan about his exhaustion and reassured Shen Fangli about her busy filming schedule and role as a villain.

• Yu Bai proposed asking Li Shuo or someone from the Lin Household to donate part of a liver to Lin Shi, but Lin Shi refused and threw a stuffed gorilla at him.
• Ni Qiu visited Lin Shi and said Yan Xianjue had told him to keep an eye on him, then gave him the gorilla as a recovery gift.
• Yan Xianjue saw Lei Xuan looking exhausted at the historical drama’s opening ceremony and learned its schedule had been moved up by a month.
• Shen Fangli said traveling back every weekend to film was manageable because she and Yan Xianjue could see each other weekly.
• Yan Xianjue teased Shen Fangli for asking whether he would still like her if she played a villain, and said they were a match made in heaven.