Chapter Summaries

Jiang Nuan and her companions were surrounded by the Remnants of the Former Dynasty, but soldiers arrived and captured them. Zhou Youjia used Jiang Nuan’s inner voice and Guagua’s revelations to uncover the group’s connections, then arranged for Jiang Nuan to visit the Court of Judicial Review the next day.

• Zhou Youjia urged Chunhua and Qiuyue to escape before the Remnants of the Former Dynasty overwhelmed them, but they waited calmly until soldiers arrived and surrounded the attackers.
• Zhou Youjia captured Du Hai and the others, removed their hidden poison, and ordered them taken to the Court of Judicial Review for questioning.
• Guagua revealed the remnants’ identities, their escape route, and Du Hai’s superior in the Court of Judicial Review, so Zhou Youjia sent soldiers to intercept their accomplices and memorized the information.
• Zhou Youjia invited Jiang Nuan to visit the Court of Judicial Review, Jiang Yehua objected, and Jiang Nuan agreed to go with Jiang Zixuan.
• Zhou Youjia arranged to meet Jiang Nuan at the Court of Judicial Review after court the next day, while Jiang Mengqing wondered whether Jiang Zixuan was interested in him.

Jiang Nuan visited the Court of Judicial Review with Jiang Zixuan and learned through Guagua that Zhao Xianglin had been framed for murder while his wife had been abducted and sold by Huijue. Zhou Youjia said Zhao’s case would not be tried for at least five days, and then introduced Jiang Nuan to another suspect, Wu Mazi.

• Jiang Zixuan dressed up and accompanied Jiang Nuan to meet Zhou Youjia at the Court of Judicial Review.
• Zhou Youjia explained that Zhao Xianglin was suspected of killing his missing wife after a corpse was found buried beneath a tree in his backyard.
• Guagua revealed that the corpse belonged to a neighbor’s relative whom the neighbor had killed and secretly buried to frame Zhao Xianglin.
• Guagua told Jiang Nuan that Zhao’s wife had been abducted and sold by Huijue, and government troops were expected to bring her back to the Capital City the next day.
• Jiang Nuan confirmed that Zhao’s case would not be tried for at least five days, then heard Zhou Youjia describe the human finger found in Wu Mazi’s buns.

Jiang Nuan learned that Wu Mazi had killed three young women and made their flesh into steamed buns, while Butcher Wang had killed the person whose finger was found in one of the buns. The revelations ruined Jiang Nuan, Jiang Zixuan, and Yun Shining’s appetite for steamed buns, and they went to lunch with An Yan instead.

• Guagua told Jiang Nuan that Wu Mazi had murdered three young women and hidden their heads, though he had not killed the person whose finger was found in the bun.
• Guagua revealed that Butcher Wang had killed that victim and sold some of the body as donkey meat, while disposing of the rest.
• Jiang Nuan decided to gather evidence against Wu Mazi and Butcher Wang and deliver it to Lord Zhou.
• Jiang Nuan and Jiang Zixuan rejected Yun Shining’s steamed buns, and Yun Shining vomited after hearing Jiang Nuan’s thoughts about human flesh in buns.
• Yun Shining gave the buns to a little beggar, then joined Jiang Nuan and Jiang Zixuan in fetching An Yan for lunch.
• At the restaurant, the three women all refused the chef’s new steamed buns, leaving An Yan bewildered.

An Yan’s meal with Jiang Nuan, Yun Shining, and Jiang Zixuan was interrupted by Zhangsun Yi, who joked about marrying into An Yan’s family and revealed through Jiang Nuan’s thoughts that he had a family-arranged match with Jiang Zixuan. An Yan dismissed him from the shop, leaving Zhangsun Yi desperate to explain and Yun Shining wondering whether she should leave instead.

• The group ordered the restaurant’s specialties, and Yun Shining thanked An Yan for handling the shop while she was away.
• Zhangsun Yi joined them, explained that he had claimed to be homeless and penniless, and proposed marrying into An Yan’s family.
• Jiang Nuan’s thoughts revealed that Zhangsun Yi was Grand Tutor Zhangsun’s son and had been arranged to marry Jiang Zixuan, while Jiang Zixuan appeared interested in Lord Zhou.
• An Yan left the meal, and Zhangsun Yi followed her back to the shop as Jiang Nuan, Yun Shining, and Jiang Zixuan finished eating.
• An Yan told Zhangsun Yi that his temporary employment was over and ordered him to collect his wages and leave.
• Zhangsun Yi tried to explain himself and looked to Yun Shining for help, but she misunderstood and wondered whether she should leave too.

Jiang Nuan watched the Black Earth School test its newly built Curved Shaft Plow, using a plowing contest to show the villagers how it worked. The contest ended with the burly farmer winning the copper coins, and the villagers asked whether the new plow was for sale.

• Yun Shining left An Yan and Zhangsun Yi alone, then went to help at an Incense Shop to avoid Jiang Yehua.
• Jiao Chengwang told Jiang Nuan that the Black Earth School had finished building the Curved Shaft Plow and was ready to test it.
• Jiang Nuan arrived at the village field and saw Chi Hengji, who regularly visited nearby villages to help their residents.
• At Jiang Nuan's suggestion, Chunhua offered copper coins to a villager who could outpace Jiao Chengwang using a traditional plow.
• The burly farmer and Jiao Chengwang plowed side by side; the farmer finished first, and Chunhua gave him the coins.
• The villagers asked Jiang Nuan whether the Curved Shaft Plow was for sale.

Jiang Nuan arranged for the Curved Shaft Plow to be mass-produced and distributed, while members of the Black Earth School chose new blueprints and argued over their inventions. After the plow earned rewards at court, An Laiyun reminded the court that the Spring Examination was two months away, prompting Jiang Nuan to think she should speed up the gossip.

• Jiang Nuan agreed that Chi Hengji would report the Curved Shaft Plow to the emperor and test her assembly-line method to increase production.
• Jiao Ping and Jiao Chengwang chose a waterwheel blueprint, while Xue Jian arrived with their newly made low-cost paper and chose the cement blueprint.
• Jiao Ping and Xue Jian argued over which invention was more impressive, and Jiang Nuan slipped away after handing out the blueprints.
• Chi Hengji reported the Curved Shaft Plow at court, earning rewards for Jiang Nuan and the Capital City branch of the Black Earth School.
• An Laiyun said preparations for the Spring Examination should begin, and Jiang Nuan realized she needed to pick up the pace on the gossip.

Jiang Nuan let Guagua turn gossip gathering into a name-drawing game, which exposed Vice Minister of Personnel Zhuang Zhenghao as a monstrous collector of severed hands. Guagua revealed that Zhuang had once plotted to take Jiang Yunsheng’s hands in a previous life, leaving the court in a chilling silence.

• Guagua offered Jiang Nuan a gossip handbook and a spinning wheel, and Jiang Nuan chose to play with the wheel.
• The wheel selected Vice Minister of Personnel Zhuang Zhenghao, and Guagua revealed that he kidnapped scholars with beautiful hands and mutilated them to build a collection.
• Jiang Nuan learned that Zhuang Zhenghao had also coveted Jiang Yunsheng’s hands, and Jiang Yunsheng gripped the Dragon Throne in anger.
• Guagua explained that in Jiang Yunsheng’s previous life, Zhuang Zhenghao nearly acted on his obsession during a palace rebellion after Jiang Yunsheng had lost control of court power.

Jiang Nuan uncovered that Grand Minister Zhang Jitao promoted officials based on how much he enjoyed their smelly feet, while Jiang Yunsheng grew furious over the ministers’ bizarre fetishes and useless memorials. The revelations left officials rethinking their estranged family ties as Jiang Nuan struggled not to laugh in court.

• Jiang Nuan learned that Zhuang Zhenghao had once considered collecting Jiang Yunsheng’s hands but abandoned the idea because he disliked their appearance, prompting her to plan to send evidence against him to the Court of Judicial Review.
• Jiang Yunsheng rebuked officials for submitting empty memorials, while Jiang Nuan reflected on how difficult and inescapable imperial life seemed.
• Jiang Nuan chose page ten of the gossip handbook and learned that Zhang Jitao favored officials with especially smelly feet and promoted them so he could enjoy them.
• Officials promoted by Zhang Jitao feared others would suspect their success came from the fetish, while some officials decided to reconcile with relatives they had dismissed for sharing the rumor.
• Guagua recounted how a dissatisfied official tried the foot-based promotion scheme on a relative’s suggestion, succeeded, and later apologized after wrongly suspecting the relative of trying to sabotage him.
• Jiang Nuan struggled to suppress her laughter in the Golden Throne Hall as she heard the story.

Jiang Nuan exposed officials who gained promotions through corrupt schemes and uncovered Liu Jitao’s obsession with stinky feet. After court, ministers confronted the disgraced men, and Zheng Feiyu cut off the relative who had helped secure his position.

• Jiang Nuan asked Guagua for the names of officials promoted through corrupt means, and Guagua listed Zheng Feiyu and several others.
• Jiang Nuan and Guagua discussed Liu Jitao’s lung problems, his physicians, and preparations for next year’s cold weather.
• After court adjourned, a minister confronted Zhuang Zhenghao about his missing cousin, and the ministers let the man beat Zhuang Zhenghao.
• A rival mocked Liu Jitao, while another minister knocked Zheng Feiyu’s shoe off and exposed the stench of his unwashed foot.
• Zheng Feiyu returned home and ordered servants to throw out the relative demanding fifty thousand taels of silver.

Jiang Nuan checked the opening of her milk tea shops and free school before receiving low-cost refined salt and commissioning the Black Earth School to build a large steamship. She planned to use the ship to expand Great Xia overseas, while the Black Earth School leader rushed off to recruit more workers.

• Jiang Nuan visited her two milk tea shops, where the Hungry Squad beggar children helped deliver orders and earn wages.
• Jiang Nuan visited the first day of trial classes at her free school, where children studied moral education, literature, and practical skills.
• Members of the Black Earth School showed Jiang Nuan refined salt that cost only a tenth as much to produce as salt on the market.
• Jiang Nuan gave the Black Earth School leader detailed blueprints for a large steamship and urged him to build it quickly.
• The Black Earth School leader left to recruit other members to help build the steamship, while Jiang Nuan wondered whether to give the salt to Brother Chengze or her father.

Jiang Nuan presented Jiang Yunsheng with a low-cost salt-making method that could help replenish the treasury. At court the next day, Guagua’s lot revealed that Commander-in-Chief Xing Yuanzheng secretly served Prince Xin, prompting Jiang Yunsheng to suspect a wider conspiracy.

• Jiang Nuan brought Jiang Yunsheng a jar of salt and explained that her method made it for a tenth of the usual cost or less.
• Jiang Yunsheng realized the method could fund government salt sales and relieve the treasury’s financial crisis.
• At court, Jiang Nuan drew Xing Yuanzheng’s name from Guagua’s lot-drawing cylinder.
• Guagua revealed that Xing Yuanzheng was one of Prince Xin’s supporters and described Prince Xin’s hidden network and long-standing ambitions.
• Jiang Yunsheng reconsidered the officials who had persuaded him to spare Prince Xin, while several courtiers broke out in a cold sweat.

Jiang Nuan learned from Guagua that Xing Yuanzheng had secretly built a large private army for Prince Xin, driven by an obsessive love that Prince Xin did not return. She resolved to stop Xing Yuanzheng from taking his troops to Prince Xin, then learned that General Dingyuan Meng Wenyao was another of Prince Xin’s spies.

• Guagua told Jiang Nuan that Xing Yuanzheng had risen to Right Commander-in-Chief while secretly serving Prince Xin.
• Guagua revealed that Xing Yuanzheng loved Prince Xin, married women who resembled him, and had become Prince Xin’s spy for his sake.
• Guagua explained that Xing Yuanzheng had taken bribes to fund ten thousand private troops and had also placed soldiers among the Capital City garrison.
• Jiang Nuan learned that Xing Yuanzheng planned to take his troops to protect Prince Xin, and she vowed to stop him.
• Guagua named General Dingyuan Meng Wenyao as another of Prince Xin’s spies and revealed that he was also attracted to men.

Jiang Nuan uncovered seven of Prince Xin’s informants, including Meng Wenyao, who had been coerced into secretly mining silver for him. She offered the three coerced informants a chance to atone, sent evidence to the Court of Judicial Review, and left its officers overwhelmed with cases and short on space and funds; Jiang Zixuan and Zhou Youjia’s marriage was also arranged for next spring.

• Guagua revealed that Prince Xin had forced Meng Wenyao to conceal a silver mine and give him its profits after framing him.
• Jiang Nuan learned that five other ministers were Prince Xin’s informants and decided to quietly submit evidence against them.
• Jiang Nuan offered Meng Wenyao and two other coerced informants a chance to atone through meritorious service, while the three willing informants received no such offer.
• After court, Jiang Nuan sent her evidence to the Court of Judicial Review, whose crowded cells and heavy workload prompted Zhou Youjia’s father to seek an expansion that was rejected for lack of funds.
• Jiang Zixuan and Zhou Youjia’s families settled their marriage, and the couple were set to wed at the beginning of spring next year.

Jiang Nuan and her companions went to a Farmstead for a relaxing outing, where they met Mao Zhonglin and Ji Anxian and helped ease Ji Anxian’s worries about their relationship. As the men went hunting for food, Jiang Nuan brought out mahjong for those who stayed behind.

• Jiang Nuan set off for Farmstead with An Yan, Yun Shining, Jiang Yehua, Jiang Chengze, Zhou Youjia, and Jiang Zixuan.
• At Farmstead, the group encountered Mao Zhonglin and Ji Anxian, who was nervous about meeting his father.
• Jiang Nuan drew Ji Anxian into the group by asking about her medicine chest and inherited Silver Needles.
• Jiang Nuan’s unspoken thoughts about General Mao welcoming Ji Anxian eased Ji Anxian’s worries, and the group realized they could hear Jiang Nuan’s thoughts.
• Jiang Chengze, Jiang Yehua, Zhou Youjia, and Yun Shining went to catch pheasants and rabbits while Jiang Nuan invited the others to play mahjong.

Jiang Nuan's group enjoyed a barbecue at the Farmstead, where Yun Shining carried an injured Jiang Yehua down the hill. Their meal was interrupted when the proprietor begged for help with his wife's difficult labor, and Ji Anxian went to examine her with Jiang Nuan.

• Jiang Chengze took over Jiang Nuan's game, while Zhou Youjia returned with a little fox that delighted the group.
• Jiang Nuan learned that Jiang Yehua had sprained his ankle, then saw Yun Shining carry him down the hill while holding two pheasants.
• Ji Anxian examined Jiang Yehua's ankle and said he needed a couple of days' rest; the group prepared Beggar’s Chicken and grilled meat.
• The proprietor pleaded for help after a midwife warned that his wife and baby might not survive the difficult delivery.
• Ji Anxian and Jiang Nuan followed the proprietor into the rear courtyard to examine his wife.

Ji Anxian performed a cesarean section with Jiang Nuan’s help and saved both the mother and her baby. The innkeeper mistook his unconscious wife for dead, and Jiang Nuan grew uneasy when he told the doctors to leave.

• Ji Anxian found that the baby’s umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck and that the mother was unlikely to survive childbirth without surgery.
• The mother agreed to a cesarean section, while the midwife condemned the idea and tried to persuade the innkeeper to stop it.
• Jiang Nuan explained the procedure to Ji Anxian, then fetched Yun Shining to knock the mother unconscious and supplied alcohol to clean the blades.
• Ji Anxian delivered the baby, revived her with two slaps, and stitched the mother’s abdomen closed.
• The innkeeper rushed in, saw his unconscious wife, and began mourning her; the midwife accused the doctors of killing her, but the innkeeper told them to leave.

Ji Anxian saved Zhu Xiu and her baby, but Guagua revealed that Zhu Xiu’s husband, Du Zhuoran, had poisoned her parents and planned to kill her and the baby. Zhu Xiu woke and accused him, leaving Jiang Nuan, Ji Anxian, and Yun Shining poised to stop him.

• Ji Anxian assured the proprietor that Zhu Xiu and her baby were safe, then prepared to leave with Jiang Nuan and Yun Shining.
• Guagua warned Jiang Nuan that the proprietor was dangerous, so Yun Shining kept the baby from him.
• Guagua revealed that Du Daniu, now known as Du Zhuoran, had poisoned Zhu Xiu’s parents and planned to kill Zhu Xiu and the baby while framing Ji Anxian.
• Du Zhuoran tried to send the women away and take the baby, but Zhu Xiu woke and ordered him to keep his hands off her child.
• Zhu Xiu accused Du Zhuoran of poisoning her food, while he maintained his pretense of concern for her.

Jiang Nuan exposed Du Zhuoran’s affair with Gong Xiaofang, his two children, and his scheme against Zhu Xiu. Zhu Xiu divorced him and had Zhou Youjia take him to face an investigation into her parents’ deaths.

• Guagua told Jiang Nuan that Du Zhuoran had secretly given Zhu Xiu contraceptive pills and that Gong Xiaofang, the Farmstead cook, was the mother of his two sons.
• Yun Shining confronted Du Zhuoran about Gong Xiaofang, and Zhou Youjia brought her and the two boys before the gathered onlookers.
• The boys called Du Zhuoran their father, and Zhu Xiu revealed that he had married into her family and that the Farmstead belonged to the Zhu family.
• Gong Xiaofang asked for her children to be accepted into Du Zhuoran’s lineage, but Zhu Xiu rejected her plea and announced she was divorcing him.
• Zhu Xiu received the divorce document and offered ten taels of silver to anyone who reported her suspicion that Du Zhuoran had caused her parents’ deaths.
• Zhou Youjia identified himself as a member of the Court of Judicial Review and took Du Zhuoran away.

After Du Zhuoran was exposed and taken away, Zhu Xiu resolved to recover for the sake of her child. Jiang Nuan and the others accompanied Mao Zhonglin and Ji Anxian to the General's Residence, where an extravagant welcome awaited them.

• Zhou Youjia took Du Zhuoran away, and Ji Anxian stayed behind to comfort the injured Zhu Xiu.
• Hearing Jiang Nuan's thoughts about her parents and unborn child, Zhu Xiu wiped away her tears and resolved to pull herself together.
• Guagua urged Jiang Nuan to visit the General's Residence to see General Mao's welcome, and Jiang Chengze, Jiang Yehua, Yun Shining, Jiang Zixuan, and An Yan each found an excuse to go along.
• Ji Anxian welcomed the group's company, while Mao Zhonglin hoped his father would not embarrass him or frighten her away.
• Mao Zhonglin and the others saw a red carpet leading toward the General's Residence, and a servant ran ahead to announce the eldest young master and young madam's return.

Mao Zhonglin brought Ji Anxian home to the General's Residence, where Tao Ying's elaborate welcome and sudden offer of money left Ji Anxian bewildered. Tao Ying ushered Ji Anxian inside and enthusiastically tried to persuade her to marry Mao Zhonglin, while Jiang Nuan and the others watched.

• Mao Zhonglin and Ji Anxian arrived at the General's Residence, where the servants greeted them with firecrackers and a loud welcome.
• Tao Ying gave Ji Anxian fifty thousand taels and told her to leave Mao Zhonglin, but Ji Anxian accepted the offer, alarming Mao Zhonglin.
• Tao Ying changed her mind, gave Ji Anxian a hundred thousand taels as a welcoming gift, and hurried her inside.
• Tao Ying noticed Jiang Chengze, the Fourth Prince, the Ninth Princess, and Princess Fu'an, and Mao Qiantao invited them into the residence.
• Tao Ying praised Mao Zhonglin and promised to support Ji Anxian, then offered to show her Storybooks about a Divine Healer and a War God General.