Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Hoping to help Chancellor Chi Hengji, Jiang Nuan searches through medical books for a prescription. Lacking medical knowledge and money for a full search, she pays Guagua to check prescriptions page by page.
• Guagua eventually finds a suitable prescription. Jiang Nuan copies it out, then goes to court exhausted after getting only a few hours’ sleep.
• Chi hears her thoughts about finding a trustworthy way to deliver the prescription. Jiang Nuan plans to hire an itinerant physician to pose as its source; Chi decides he will let any doctors who visit his residence stay, so he does not miss the opportunity.
• Jiang Nuan also plans to give her sister An Yan the deed to a shop and later sneak into Pure Brahma Temple. Her thoughts reveal these plans to the entire court, but the officials stay silent out of fear of Jiang Yunsheng.
• After court, Jiang Nuan visits An Yan and gives her the shop deed. The sisters then begin discussing how to open the shop.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Nuan shows determination and generosity: she spends what little money she has to help Chi, despite the effort leaving her sleep-deprived. She is also enthusiastic and playful, especially when sharing the deed and seeking praise for her homemade cake.
• Chi Hengji feels guilty when he realizes Jiang Nuan lost sleep for his sake. Though he could accept the prescription directly, he understands why she wants it delivered by someone he might trust and prepares to welcome physicians.
• An Yan is surprised that Jiang Nuan obtained the deed, but is touched by her sister’s affection and eagerly turns to planning the business.
• Guagua offers a cheaper, practical alternative to its full prescription-search service.

Significant themes

• Care expressed through action: Jiang Nuan’s exhausting search reflects her concern for Chi, while the sisters’ exchange of a deed and cake shows their growing closeness.
• Trust and communication: Chi understands Jiang Nuan’s intentions through her inner voice, while she seeks a credible intermediary because she fears he may not take her help seriously.
• Comedy through unintended exposure: Jiang Nuan’s private thoughts are heard by the court, creating awkwardness and revealing plans she considers secret.
• Resourcefulness and ambition: Jiang Nuan finds a low-cost way to use Guagua’s help and moves forward with An Yan’s shop plans.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Nuan visits An Yan, who has already prepared business plans for a shop—considering jewelry and clothing as complementary ventures.
• Jiang Nuan proposes modern marketing ideas: seasonal and zodiac-themed collections, membership tiers, exclusive limited-edition outfits, and building a distinct brand. An Yan realizes these could greatly increase profits.
• Jiang Nuan suggests offering ready-made clothing and sketches cute character designs, as well as modern styles such as puff sleeves and A-line skirts. An Yan sees their commercial potential.
• Jiang Nuan then proposes making warm jackets stuffed with cleaned duck or goose down. Rather than seeking profit, she wants them sold at cost or below cost so ordinary people can stay warm during winter.

Character development and interactions

• Jiang Nuan is candid about her lack of business expertise but contributes creativity, practical marketing knowledge, and compassion. Her wish to help cold and poor people reveals a generous motive behind her business ideas.
• An Yan treats Jiang Nuan as a capable partner, listens seriously, and is astonished by her suggestions. She admires Jiang Nuan’s kindness, which rekindles her own hope of helping others.
• Their affectionate, trusting relationship is strengthened: An Yan praises Jiang Nuan, kisses her cheek, eagerly asks for more ideas, and comes to regard her as a beloved younger sister.

Significant themes

• Innovation and collaboration: Jiang Nuan’s fresh ideas complement An Yan’s business experience.
• Compassion alongside commerce: The shop can earn money through distinctive products, while the down jackets serve a humanitarian purpose.
• Renewed hope: Jiang Nuan’s example helps An Yan reconnect with her own desire to aid others.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Nuan and An Yan discuss making down coats. They lament that cotton is unavailable in Great Xia, though Jiang Nuan hopes it may eventually be cultivated there. An Yan is eager to start producing warm clothing and imagines helping children who suffer as she once did.
• Jiang Nuan leaves An Yan’s home and, after dark, heads with Chunhua and Qiuyue to Pure Brahma Temple, intending to investigate or rob it. Since the temple bars visitors at night, she crawls through a dog hole—only to discover her martial-arts-trained companions have simply climbed the wall.
• The trio hides when Chunhua and Qiuyue hear approaching footsteps. They see the temple’s abbot, Huijue, walking with a young monk named Wuchen.
• Guagua reveals Huijue’s secret history: once a street thug, he entered the temple during a famine, then became an associate of the corrupt official You Fengzhe. With You’s help, Huijue rose to abbot and safeguarded You’s embezzled wealth.
• Huijue’s own greed led him to devise a worse crime: kidnapping a commoner mother and daughter and selling them. Jiang Nuan is outraged when she hears this.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Nuan shows both compassion and determination: her enthusiasm for down coats comes from wanting to help vulnerable children. She is also impulsive and comically unaware of her companions’ abilities, choosing the dog hole instead of asking them to carry her over the wall.
• An Yan becomes increasingly invested in the clothing project and sees it as a way to protect children like her younger self. She is reluctant to part from Jiang Nuan, who promises to return.
• Chunhua and Qiuyue demonstrate their sharp senses and martial skill, quietly protecting Jiang Nuan during the nighttime intrusion.
• Guagua provides the hidden history of Huijue and You Fengzhe, while Jiang Nuan reacts with disbelief and growing anger.

Significant themes

• Compassion and social welfare: The clothing project reflects a desire to ease poverty and protect children from hardship.
• Greed and corruption: You Fengzhe exploits the temple to hide stolen wealth, while Huijue’s ambition turns him from a supposed religious figure into a criminal.
• Appearance versus reality: Huijue’s pious public image conceals a history of deception and human trafficking.
• Justice and exploitation: The revelation that vulnerable women and children are being targeted foreshadows the moral stakes of Jiang Nuan’s investigation.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Nuan learns that the monk Huijue has turned Pure Brahma Temple into a trafficking hub, where accomplices select victims posing as worshippers. He is responsible for most of the recent disappearances in Capital City.
• Guagua discovers that Huijue’s group has brought a badly injured woman to the temple to dispose of her. Jiang Nuan decides to risk a rescue, though she and Chunhua Qiuyue are badly outnumbered.
• Jiang Yehua arrives with soldiers and surrounds the courtyard, giving the rescue force the advantage. Jiang Nuan sends his men and Chunhua Qiuyue inside, while he keeps her safely outside.
• The group defeats the traffickers and rescues the injured woman, along with dozens of other captives. The newly freed women recognize the soldiers’ uniforms, break down in relief, and then throw stones at their captors.
• The injured woman may not survive the journey to a physician. Jiang Yehua offers his sole lifesaving pill, and Jiang Nuan gives it to her; it stabilizes her condition but cannot cure her.
• As the woman is cleaned up, Guagua notices a red thread of fate connecting her to Jiang Yehua. He freezes outside the door, while the woman appears to react to the revelation.

Character developments

• Jiang Nuan acts decisively and compassionately, willing to accept a dangerous gamble to save a stranger. She also recognizes her own limits and stays back when Jiang Yehua warns her.
• Jiang Yehua shows his protective affection for Jiang Nuan by stopping her from entering the fight. Though reluctant to spend his rare pill on a stranger, he gives it to Jiang Nuan to decide, revealing both his guarded nature and his trust in his sister.
• Chunhua Qiuyue are deeply affected by the trafficking because it echoes their own past as abducted victims. They remain focused and capable during the rescue.
• The rescued woman remains unconscious or severely weakened, but her apparent awareness of Guagua’s revelation hints that she may have a meaningful connection to Jiang Yehua.

Significant themes

• Compassion versus caution: Jiang Nuan chooses to intervene despite the risks, while the rescue succeeds partly because unexpected reinforcements arrive.
• The abuse of sacred places: A Buddhist sanctuary has been corrupted into a criminal den, contrasting its religious appearance with the exploitation inside.
• Trauma and solidarity: Chunhua Qiuyue’s history makes the crime personal, while the victims’ relief and anger show the lasting effects of captivity.
• Family loyalty and trust: Jiang Yehua protects Jiang Nuan and entrusts her with the decision about his precious medicine.

Character interactions

• Jiang Nuan and Guagua weigh the risks of rescuing the injured woman.
• Jiang Nuan relies on Chunhua Qiuyue and Jiang Yehua’s soldiers to carry out the rescue.
• Jiang Yehua restrains Jiang Nuan from joining the fight, then lets her decide whether to use his pill.
• The rescued women respond to their liberators with relief and to their captors with fury; the chapter closes on the unspoken, possible fate connection between the injured woman and Jiang Yehua.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Nuan arrives at Pure Brahma Temple intending to locate the silver stolen by You Fengzhe. She tells her brother Jiang Yehua that she came looking for an injured friend, and he lets the excuse pass.
• Yehua explains that their father sent soldiers to search the temple after evidence linked it to You Fengzhe’s embezzled funds. The troops find the hidden stash in a secret chamber.
• Yehua quietly allows Nuan to take some valuables, assuring her that even their father does not know the total amount. Nuan fills her ten-cubic-meter System Space with gold and silver, then carries out a few objects as a cover.
• The remaining treasure is ordered to be sent to the imperial treasury.
• Guagua warns Nuan that Huijue plans to hand goods over to buyers the next day. Nuan decides to stay at the temple so they can catch the group in the act. Yehua has his subordinates bring in Zhou Youjia, the judicial official handling the case.

Character developments

• Jiang Nuan prioritizes the chance to collect silver over enticing gossip, though she remains curious about hidden treasures. She is increasingly committed to helping expose wrongdoing.
• Jiang Yehua shows affection and protectiveness toward Nuan. He teases her, accommodates her secret storage ability, and helps conceal her taking a share of the treasure.
• Guagua has adopted Nuan’s strong dislike of wrongdoing and urges her to help stop the planned handoff.
• Jiang Yunsheng, though mostly offstage, supports Nuan’s freedom and quietly enables her to take some of the recovered valuables.

Significant themes

• Family trust and protection: Nuan’s family lets her act independently while ensuring she is not left in danger.
• Justice and complicity: The stolen wealth is recovered for the state, while the group prepares to catch those still involved in trafficking it.
• Greed and humor: Nuan’s excitement over treasure and Guagua’s gossip provide comic relief amid the investigation.
• Secrecy and shared understanding: Yehua and the others knowingly cooperate with Nuan’s hidden System Space and disguise her actions.

Character interactions

• Yehua gently tests Nuan with questions, then reveals the investigation and invites her to take valuables from the chamber.
• Nuan thanks Yehua and uses their playful understanding to conceal how much she has actually taken.
• Guagua’s warning reinforces Nuan’s decision to remain at the temple, while Yehua responds by summoning Zhou Youjia to join the investigation.

Key plot points and events

• Zhou Youjia arrives at Jiang Yehua’s invitation, exhausted from investigating ten recent disappearances in the capital. Yehua shows him the rescued victims, and Zhou recognizes them from the case portraits.
• After Yehua explains that the victims were abducted and sold through Pure Brahma Temple, Zhou decides to use Yehua’s soldiers to arrest the buyers. He lacks his own backup and agrees that keeping the operation discreet is important.
• Jiang Nuan identifies the buyers among the worshippers with Guagua’s help. When the suspects are lured into the rear courtyard, soldiers bind them and arrest them, along with monks implicated in the trafficking. Uninvolved monks are left behind.
• The rescued victims are too weak to descend the mountain, so Yehua sends for their families. One injured young woman remains because she cannot yet travel and no one has come to claim her.
• Nuan learns through Guagua that the woman is Yun Shining, a martial artist who was drugged and abducted after trying to fight back. She had secretly left home, so her parents do not know where she is. Guagua suggests taking her in temporarily.

Character developments

• Jiang Yehua acts decisively to protect the victims and support the arrests. He is uncomfortable with Nuan’s assumption that Yun is his future sister-in-law, since he has no romantic interest in her.
• Zhou Youjia moves from weary frustration to eager determination once he realizes Yehua has found the missing people. He takes charge of the legal operation.
• Jiang Nuan continues to use Guagua’s information to help identify criminals and show concern for the vulnerable, while enjoying the gossip about her brother.
• Yun Shining is revealed as brave and skilled, but also inexperienced and trusting. Her failed attempt to escape, severe beating, and secret departure from home leave her dependent on others.

Significant themes

• Justice and human trafficking: The arrests expose the exploitation of missing people and the monks involved in selling them.
• Courage and vulnerability: Yun’s martial skill and determination cannot fully protect her from deception and numbers.
• Family and responsibility: The victims are reunited with their families where possible, while Yun’s estrangement from hers creates uncertainty about her next steps.
• Comedy amid danger: Nuan’s enthusiastic matchmaking and Yun’s embarrassment contrast with the grim events surrounding the abductions.

Character interactions

• Yehua and Zhou demonstrate trust and friendship: Yehua provides manpower and information, while Zhou takes responsibility for the arrests.
• Nuan’s inner thoughts reveal Yun’s past to those nearby, embarrassing Yun and irritating Yehua with the premature “fourth sister-in-law” label.
• Yehua quietly uses Nuan’s connection to Guagua to learn about Yun, while trying not to encourage the idea that he and Yun are romantically involved.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Nuan brings the mute, immobile Yun Shining to the separate residence where An Yan is staying. With An Yan away, she arranges a doctor, medicine, and care from the maids.
• She then searches for someone convincing enough to deliver a prescription to Chancellor Chi Hengji. Her first candidate is so nervous that she fears he would expose the plan and make Chi distrust the medicine.
• In the street, Jiang Nuan encounters an elderly man who appears to be a brazen fraud. Feeling sorry for him, she gives him silver and tells him to stop swindling people.
• The man overhears Jiang Nuan’s thoughts about the prescription and realizes she wants to get it to Chancellor Chi.
• Guagua returns from sleep mode and reveals that the supposed swindler is actually Gu Qingfeng, master of Divine Physician Valley—and the Divine Healer currently treating Chancellor Chi. Jiang Nuan remains deeply skeptical when he asks to borrow money.

Character developments

• Jiang Nuan is resourceful and determined to get the prescription to Chancellor Chi, but her distrust of appearances makes her doubt the genuine healer standing before her. She also shows compassion by giving the old man money.
• Gu Qingfeng is introduced as a celebrated physician whose shabby, awkward street behavior makes him seem like a con artist. He is confident about his status but apparently short on cash.
• Guagua returns after staying up late watching shows and provides the crucial identification of Gu Qingfeng.
• Yun Shining remains unable to speak or move; Jiang Nuan ensures she receives care and company.
• Jiang Yehua trusts Jiang Nuan’s judgment and allows her to shelter Yun Shining.

Character interactions

• Jiang Nuan and Jiang Yehua agree that Yun Shining can stay at Jiang Nuan’s residence.
• Jiang Nuan arranges Yun Shining’s care, then guards herself from the apparent swindler with help from Chunhua and Qiuyue.
• Jiang Nuan gives the old man silver, while he silently reacts to her private thoughts about the prescription.
• Guagua identifies the man as Gu Qingfeng, prompting Jiang Nuan’s disbelief; Gu Qingfeng then introduces himself and asks her for a loan.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: The man who looks least like a physician is revealed to be a renowned healer.
• Trust and judgment: Jiang Nuan must decide whether to rely on Guagua’s information despite her own strong suspicions.
• Compassion and responsibility: Jiang Nuan helps Yun Shining and offers money to someone she assumes is struggling, even while pursuing her own urgent plan.

Key plot points and events

• Gu Qingfeng’s disciple explains that the physician is brilliant at medicine but poor at emotional judgment and practical matters. He left Divine Physician Valley against advice, got lost on the way to the capital, and ran out of money, so he tried earning consultation fees.
• Jiang Nuan gives Gu Qingfeng a prescription intended to help Chancellor Chi Hengji. Gu Qingfeng recognizes its value and asks to buy it, but initially worries it might be an ancestral secret. Jiang Nuan assures him it was obtained by chance and is meant to be shared.
• Impressed by her generosity, Gu Qingfeng asks Jiang Nuan to study medicine under him. She firmly refuses, having no interest or time for medical study.
• Gu Qingfeng gives Jiang Nuan his lodging address and agrees to examine Yun Shining the following day. Jiang Nuan also gives him silver as a consultation fee.
• After Jiang Nuan leaves, Gu Qingfeng catches up and asks her to guide him to the Chancellor’s Residence, unable to find it himself. She escorts him there.
• Chi Hengji sees Jiang Nuan waving goodbye to Gu Qingfeng.

Character developments

• Jiang Nuan proves generous and practical: she shares the prescription freely, arranges care for Yun Shining, and helps Gu Qingfeng despite his ineptitude. She also makes clear she has no desire to become a physician.
• Gu Qingfeng is shown to be medically gifted but directionless, socially awkward, and financially impractical. Beneath his eccentricity, he is conscientious about respecting a child’s possible family inheritance and sincerely admires Jiang Nuan’s compassion.
• Chi Hengji remains concerned with finding an effective treatment for his long-standing illness; the new prescription may offer hope.

Significant themes

• Knowledge should be shared: Jiang Nuan believes useful prescriptions should help patients rather than remain hidden away.
• Contrasts within a person: Gu Qingfeng’s exceptional medical ability is paired with poor emotional intelligence and a disastrous sense of direction.
• Compassion and responsibility: Jiang Nuan uses her resources and connections to help both Gu Qingfeng and Yun Shining.

Character interactions

• Jiang Nuan and Gu Qingfeng negotiate the prescription’s use, with Gu Qingfeng’s caution about family secrets meeting Jiang Nuan’s open-handed attitude.
• Gu Qingfeng tries to recruit Jiang Nuan as his student; she declines, though he continues to admire her.
• Jiang Nuan arranges for Gu Qingfeng to examine Yun Shining and guides him to the Chancellor’s Residence.
• Chi Hengji witnesses Jiang Nuan’s parting with Gu Qingfeng, setting up a likely misunderstanding or reaction.

Key plot points and events

• Gu Qingfeng brings Chi Hengji a prescription that Jiang Nuan gave him. Chi already knows where it came from and confirms he can hear Jiang Nuan’s thoughts.
• Chi warns Gu not to repeat her private thoughts aloud: trying to do so leaves him unable to breathe. Gu is intrigued by the phenomenon, but says nothing further.
• Gu avoids explaining why he came to the capital without his disciple and begins studying how to treat Chi.
• Jiang Nuan visits An Yan’s newly renovated shop. It now combines jewelry with fabrics and ready-made clothes, and is drawing interest before its official opening. Flyers and discount cards promise customers a ten-percent discount, while nearby residents can bring a flyer for a free egg.
• Noticing that the jewelry is displayed uncovered, Jiang Nuan recalls that glass could protect it. She realizes glass—rare and highly valued in this era—could also be sold for a large profit. She asks An Yan to find artisans to make it.

Character developments and interactions

• Chi Hengji is composed and candid with Gu, sharing both his knowledge of Jiang Nuan’s thoughts and the danger of voicing them.
• Gu Qingfeng is surprised by Jiang Nuan’s royal identity and Chi’s unusual ability, but his medical work and his embarrassment about leaving his disciple keep him from explaining himself.
• Jiang Nuan shows her knack for spotting business opportunities and delegating practical work to others.
• An Yan proudly guides Jiang Nuan through the shop and has effectively put her marketing ideas into action. Memories of unfair treatment at her former home briefly dampen her spirits, but she refocuses on her new work. Jiang Nuan’s latest project leaves her wondering whether she needs an assistant.

Significant themes

• Entrepreneurship and innovation: Jiang Nuan turns modern ideas into new opportunities in her setting.
• Trust and privacy: Chi warns Gu that Jiang Nuan’s thoughts must not be exposed.
• Moving beyond past hurt: An Yan recalls mistreatment but chooses to concentrate on the life and work she is building now.

Key plot points and events

• An Yan realizes she has more ideas for improving her shop than she can manage alone, so she decides she needs a dependable assistant.
• Jiang Nuan visits the courtyard residence, where An Yan is helping the injured Yun Shining enjoy the sunshine. Yun thanks An Yan for rescuing her, and Jiang Nuan warmly offers her a place to stay while she recovers—and afterward, if she wishes.
• An Yan considers whether Yun might make a suitable assistant, but recognizes that Yun is currently too weak to help.
• Divine Physician Gu arrives to treat Yun and reveals that he knows her family. Yun, who has secretly left home, worries he will tell her overprotective parents where she is. Gu teases her and lectures her about running away.
• Gu discovers he cannot speak aloud about Jiang Nuan’s inner thoughts. He repeatedly tests this strange restriction, amusing An Yan and Yun while leaving Jiang Nuan confused. Once he turns to examining Yun, he resumes a serious, professional manner.

Character developments

• An Yan shows practical ambition: she wants to put her ideas into action and begins considering Yun as a potential assistant, while remaining attentive to Yun’s fragile condition.
• Yun Shining is revealed as spirited and independent despite her weakness. She ran away from home to escape her parents’ overprotectiveness, though she still writes to reassure them.
• Gu Qingfeng shifts between playful mischief and medical seriousness. He is curious about the rule preventing him from revealing Jiang Nuan’s inner voice.
• Jiang Nuan remains unaware that others can hear her thoughts and interprets Gu’s strange behavior as a possible illness or possession.

Significant themes

• Independence versus protection: Yun’s flight from her loving but restrictive parents highlights her desire to choose her own path.
• Fate and unexpected connections: Yun’s rescue brings her into Jiang Nuan’s household and reunites her with Gu.
• Thoughts versus speech: Gu’s inability to repeat Jiang Nuan’s inner comments creates comic tension and dramatic irony.
• Care and responsibility: An Yan and Jiang Nuan look after Yun, while Gu’s teasing is balanced by his commitment to treating her.

Character interactions

• An Yan supports Yun physically and offers her water; Jiang Nuan reassures Yun that she may stay as long as she likes.
• An Yan quietly evaluates Yun as a possible assistant, though Yun’s condition makes the idea impractical for now.
• Gu and Yun’s familiarity shows their families’ longstanding connection. He teases her about her escape, while she asks him to keep her whereabouts secret.
• Jiang Nuan’s unspoken observations expose Gu’s own hypocrisy as a runaway healer, and Gu’s attempts to mention her thoughts only make An Yan and Yun laugh.

Key plot points and events

• Gu Qingfeng examines Yun Shining and says her injuries are minor: she should regain normal movement within five days, though she must wait about half a month before using martial arts.
• Jiang Nuan entertains the restless Yun Shining by telling her the opening of Dream of the Red Chamber. Chunhua, Qiuyue, and other servants gather to listen, and even An Yan is intrigued.
• Jiang Nuan ends the story on a cliffhanger. An Yan suggests publishing it, prompting Jiang Nuan to realize she could earn money from storytelling.
• Jiang Nuan uses Guagua to produce the complete Four Great Classical Novels. She sends them to the villa for Yun Shining and the others to read, while leaving publication plans to An Yan.
• On the shop’s opening day, Jiang Nuan brings Jiang Yehua to see the busy, successful business. Yun Shining, still recovering, has insisted on coming and watches from a private room upstairs.
• Jiang Nuan and Jiang Yehua visit Yun Shining. Jiang Nuan notices their similar dark outfits and privately imagines them as a perfectly matched couple.

Character developments

• Jiang Nuan discovers that her knowledge of famous stories could become a profitable business opportunity and trusts An Yan’s commercial judgment.
• Yun Shining remains energetic despite her injuries, eagerly embracing both Jiang Nuan’s story and the chance to visit the lively shop.
• An Yan demonstrates her business sense by recognizing the story’s publishing potential and continues to manage the shop effectively.
• Jiang Yehua admires Jiang Nuan’s work and her choice of An Yan, but his feelings about Yun Shining remain unreadable.

Significant themes

• Storytelling and shared enjoyment: Jiang Nuan’s tale brings people together and gives Yun Shining a welcome distraction.
• Entrepreneurship and opportunity: An Yan’s suggestion turns entertainment into a potential commercial venture.
• Healing and patience: Yun Shining’s recovery requires restraint, though her restless nature makes confinement difficult.
• Romantic possibility: Jiang Nuan interprets the pair’s matching clothes as a sign of compatibility, while their true feelings remain uncertain.

Character interactions

• Gu Qingfeng reassures Yun Shining and outlines her recovery.
• Jiang Nuan entertains Yun Shining and the servants, then promises to continue the tale.
• An Yan encourages Jiang Nuan to publish the story and later oversees the shop’s opening.
• Yun Shining eagerly calls out to Jiang Nuan, then feels embarrassed when she realizes Jiang Yehua is with her.
• Jiang Nuan teases herself with thoughts of Jiang Yehua and Yun Shining as a couple; Yun Shining blushes, while Jiang Yehua shows no reaction.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Nuan leaves Yun Shining with her fourth brother, Jiang Yehua, so she can help An Yan prepare the shop.
• Yehua realizes Yun Shining can hear Nuan’s thoughts and bluntly warns her not to take Nuan’s imagined predictions about their future marriage seriously. Yun’s new attraction to him fades, and she agrees to keep her distance.
• The two watch Nuan working and share a fond smile when she looks up at them. Nuan privately imagines them as a perfect couple, while Guagua considers whether to tell her that Yehua has just discouraged the very romance she is fantasizing about.
• Jiang Chengze arrives with a gift of gold for Nuan’s shop. Hearing that Yehua gave her a shop deed, Chengze tries to buy the neighboring shop—only to discover it already belongs to him—and gives its deed to Nuan instead.
• Yun leaves to rest. Yehua joins Nuan downstairs but does not see Yun home, prompting Nuan to criticize him in her thoughts.
• Nuan realizes her brothers are giving her more property than she can manage. Both men abandon plans to give her still more, and Chengze asks her which brother she likes best.

Character developments

• Yun Shining recognizes that her interest in Yehua was partly prompted by Nuan’s thoughts and by Yehua being her type. She accepts his boundary and deliberately keeps her distance.
• Jiang Yehua remains wary of a relationship being decided by Nuan’s predictions, but his growing affection for his sister makes him eager to outdo Chengze with generous gifts.
• Jiang Chengze shows his affection through lavish support and a playful rivalry with Yehua for Nuan’s approval.
• Jiang Nuan is delighted by the gifts but also practical: she intends to invest them in the shop and share profits with An Yan, while worrying that she cannot manage so many businesses.

Significant themes

• Free will versus predicted romance: Yehua refuses to treat Nuan’s thoughts about his future marriage as binding.
• Family affection and rivalry: The brothers compete to be Nuan’s favorite, expressing love through gifts and teasing.
• Thoughts versus reality: Nuan’s private romantic fantasies contrast with Yehua’s firm rejection of premature expectations.
• Generosity and responsibility: The gifts bring opportunity, but also leave Nuan facing the practical burden of managing a growing business.

Character interactions

• Yehua sets a clear boundary with Yun; she accepts it, and they later stand apart while fondly watching Nuan.
• Nuan’s thoughts cast Yehua and Yun as a couple, creating dramatic irony as the reader sees how mismatched her fantasy is with Yehua’s actions.
• Chengze and Yehua engage in a friendly contest over who can give Nuan more, while Nuan’s concern about managing the shops brings their competition to a halt.
• Chengze ends the chapter by asking Nuan to choose between him and Yehua, turning their rivalry into a direct bid for her affection.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Chengze playfully demands that Jiang Nuan choose which of her two brothers she likes best. Unable to choose without hurting anyone, she pretends An Yan needs her and escapes to help at the shop.
• Chi Hengji arrives at the shop opening in white robes. Jiang Nuan admires him, thinking gratefully that the prescription she gave him will help him live a long life.
• Chi seeks Jiang Nuan out, but she asks to speak privately because the crowd’s attention makes her uncomfortable. Jiang Chengze and Jiang Yehua follow to make sure Chi means no harm.
• Chi gives Jiang Nuan gold ingots as an opening gift and a small, jointed doll. After learning from Guagua that it is made from rare colored gold—worth far more than ordinary gold—she carefully stores it.
• Chi’s real motive is gratitude: Jiang Nuan’s prescription saved his life. He chose the gold because she likes it, and crafted the doll in her likeness, though she doesn’t realize that.

Character developments

• Jiang Nuan shows her sensitivity and affection for her brothers by refusing to rank them, then uses humor and quick thinking to escape their teasing. She is also shy under public attention, but openly admires Chi.
• Jiang Chengze and Jiang Yehua’s concern for Jiang Nuan shows their protective loyalty, especially given others’ attempts to exploit her.
• Chi Hengji reveals a warmer, more personal side through his thoughtful gifts and his wish to be called “Brother Chi.” He is pleased by Jiang Nuan’s sincere delight, even if she values the doll mainly for its material.

Significant themes

• Family affection and protection: Jiang Nuan’s reluctance to choose between her brothers reflects close family bonds, while her brothers remain vigilant on her behalf.
• Gratitude and reciprocity: Chi uses the shop opening as an occasion to thank Jiang Nuan for saving his life.
• Misunderstanding and humor: Chi intends the doll as a personal likeness, while Jiang Nuan’s enthusiasm is sparked by its rare, valuable material.
• Public attention versus private comfort: Jiang Nuan enjoys meeting her idol but prefers to speak away from the crowd.

Character interactions

• Jiang Nuan and Jiang Chengze share playful sibling teasing; An Yan helps her escape it.
• Jiang Chengze and Jiang Yehua silently coordinate to protect their sister while assessing Chi.
• Jiang Nuan and Chi establish a warmer, more familiar rapport when she agrees to call him “Brother Chi” and invites him to call her “Nuannuan.”

Key plot points and events

• After Chi Hengji delivers some items, he leaves to handle other responsibilities. Jiang Chengze also departs, while Jiang Yehua stays behind with time to spare.
• Jiang Nuan puts her fourth brother, Jiang Yehua, to work at her busy shop. An Yan is impressed by his ability and privately asks whether he could help for a few more days.
• Before Jiang Nuan can ask, Jiang Yehua volunteers to help, saying he has little else to do and wants to try running the shop.
• An Yan reveals the day’s takings: one million taels before expenses. Most came from several wealthy young women who each paid a large amount to top up membership cards.
• Reviewing An Yan’s ledger, Jiang Nuan suggests using Arabic numerals and explains a simplified spreadsheet-style system for tracking income and expenses. An Yan quickly grasps the new methods.
• Jiang Yehua interprets Jiang Nuan’s ease with the explanation as a talent for arithmetic and offers to hire her a tutor. Jiang Nuan recoils, remembering her struggles with math and emphatically rejecting the idea.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Nuan is enthusiastic and affectionate toward her brother, but her thoughts reveal that she is mainly recruiting him as free labor. She briefly considers pairing him with the recovering Yun Shining, then decides not to meddle in their relationship.
• Jiang Yehua shows generosity and initiative by volunteering to help, and he admires both the shop’s success and Jiang Nuan’s apparent skill.
• An Yan demonstrates strong business ability and gratitude toward Jiang Nuan, while eagerly adopting Jiang Nuan’s practical innovations. She also trusts Jiang Nuan’s brother more than an outside hire.
• Jiang Nuan and An Yan share warm mutual praise: An Yan credits Jiang Nuan’s ideas for the shop’s success, while Jiang Nuan admires An Yan’s management.
• Chi Hengji remains reserved; Jiang Nuan assumes his consideration is due to her royal status, and he chooses not to correct her.

Significant themes

• Practical ingenuity: Jiang Nuan’s modern knowledge improves the shop’s accounting.
• Cooperation and trust: The shop’s growth depends on An Yan’s management, Jiang Nuan’s ideas, and Jiang Yehua’s help.
• Comedy through misunderstanding: Jiang Nuan’s assumptions about Chi Hengji and Jiang Yehua’s mistaken belief that she loves arithmetic drive the humor.
• Family affection and matchmaking: Jiang Nuan enjoys relying on her brother and privately hopes he and Yun Shining might become a couple, even as she recognizes she should not force the matter.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Nuan and Jiang Yehua arrive at An Yan’s shop to find a man accusing it of selling faulty clothes and demanding compensation for a rash.
• An Yan offers to have a physician examine him and promises to take responsibility if the shop is at fault, but the man refuses and accuses her of trying to deceive him. The growing crowd begins to panic and ask for refunds.
• Jiang Nuan asks Guagua to investigate. It reveals that An Yuxue hired the man to cause trouble because she was jealous of An Yan’s successful shop.
• An Yuxue had also lied to An Laiyun that An Yan had eloped. An Laiyun, who had neglected to notice his daughter was missing, recently realized the deception but still struggles to reject the daughter he raised.
• Gu Qingfeng arrives and identifies the rash as a temporary reaction to Cypress Grass Leaf juice. The man’s guilt shows, but he loudly denies the accusation and calls Gu Qingfeng a hired swindler, leaving the crowd uncertain about whom to believe.

Character developments

• Jiang Nuan is protective of An Yan and quick to expose the scheme. She sharply judges both An Yuxue and An Laiyun, while also recognizing that An Yuxue failed to consider the powerful people backing the shop.
• An Yan remains composed and professional despite the public attack. She appears emotionally detached from An Laiyun, having already understood his failings.
• An Laiyun is confronted with his neglect of An Yan and accepts that Jiang Nuan’s private criticism is deserved, though he remains attached to An Yuxue.
• Gu Qingfeng makes a more successful, properly planned journey to the shop and steps in confidently when he recognizes the man’s scam.
• The hired troublemaker becomes increasingly defensive as Gu Qingfeng exposes his likely method.

Significant themes

• Deception and favoritism: An Yuxue manipulates her father and the household, benefiting from the servants’ tendency to favor the person they believe is most valued.
• Neglect and responsibility: An Laiyun’s failure to notice An Yan’s absence highlights the harm caused by his avoidance and emotional favoritism.
• Public pressure and truth: The crowd’s reaction shows how quickly suspicion can threaten a business, even before the facts are established.
• Competence and accountability: An Yan’s measured offer to investigate contrasts with the accuser’s refusal to accept a fair examination.

Character interactions

• An Yan tries to resolve the complaint responsibly, while the man rejects her offer and inflames the crowd.
• Jiang Nuan investigates behind the scenes and recognizes An Yuxue’s role; An Yan, by contrast, shows little surprise or emotion.
• Gu Qingfeng directly challenges the accuser with an explanation for the rash, prompting the man to attack his credibility.
• An Laiyun arrives and overhears Jiang Nuan’s private rebuke, which reinforces his guilt over neglecting An Yan.

Plot and events

• A man accuses Gu Qingfeng of being a fraud, refusing to believe he is the master of Divine Physician Valley because he is traveling without his disciple. Gu Qingfeng cannot prove his identity, and Jiang Nuan fears that forcibly detaining the accuser will make them look guilty.
• Gu Qingfeng’s disciple arrives and is recognized by the crowd as a physician from the valley. He exposes the man’s rash as painted-on marks, and nearby officers arrest him.
• The man confesses that he was hired to stage the accusation. He identifies An Yuxue, explaining that her maid paid a beggar, who passed some of the money on to him to do the dirty work.
• An Yuxue is arrested on Jiang Yehua’s orders. She protests and calls on her status, then begs An Laiyun to save her; he turns away.
• Guagua reveals that An Yuxue had long known she was not An Yan’s biological sister and had deliberately targeted An Yan—including contributing to a forced-marriage scheme and contacting bandits who wanted her dead.
• After the commotion, An Yan returns to work and ignores An Laiyun. He approaches her hesitantly, beginning, “Yan’er…”

Character developments and interactions

• Gu Qingfeng is frustrated by being mistaken for a fraud, while his disciple’s arrival both confirms the valley’s connection and exposes the deception.
• An Yuxue’s scheme collapses, and her apparent rivalry with An Yan is revealed as a much more deliberate and dangerous campaign.
• An Laiyun is shaken by the revelation that An Yuxue knowingly sought to harm An Yan. He recognizes his past foolishness in trusting Yuxue and distancing himself from his biological daughter, but An Yan remains cold toward him.
• Jiang Nuan watches events unfold and privately criticizes An Laiyun for having been so easily manipulated. He overhears her thoughts, reflecting on his own mistakes.
• The crowd and officers help turn the man’s accusation into a public exposure and arrest.

Significant themes

• Deception exposed: Evidence and chance unravel a staged accusation and reveal deeper betrayals.
• Consequences and accountability: An Yuxue’s privilege cannot protect her once the authorities act.
• Estrangement and regret: An Laiyun begins to face the harm caused by his misplaced trust, while An Yan’s distance shows that regret alone has not repaired their relationship.
• Coincidence and irony: A chain of unlikely encounters brings the scheme to light.

Key plot points and events

• An Laiyun confronts An Yan and demands that she return to the Minister’s Residence, insisting that she must obey him as her father.
• An Yan reminds him that she has already left a Severance Letter and accuses him of favoring An Yuxue and neglecting her. An Laiyun dismisses her wishes and threatens to disown her unless she comes home.
• An Yan immediately accepts the threat and prepares a new Severance Letter, with the Ninth Princess, Jiang Nuan, and Fourth Prince Jiang Yehua as witnesses. Angry, An Laiyun signs it, formally ending their family ties.
• An Yan tells him to leave. Afterward, she admits to Jiang Nuan that she expected to feel sad but instead feels liberated, then returns to work.
• Jiang Nuan is thanked by Gu Qingfeng’s disciple, Mu Zhiye, for helping the physician. Mu Zhiye learns that Jiang Nuan is unusually perceptive when Guagua, her spirit companion, appears and offers her gossip.

Character developments and interactions

• An Yan stands firm against her father’s authority and secures a formal break from a family that has repeatedly disregarded her. Her reaction afterward confirms that separation brings relief rather than grief.
• An Laiyun reveals his controlling, patriarchal beliefs: he expects An Yan to obey him and sees a woman’s ambition and public work as improper. His attempt to pressure her ends with him signing the document himself.
• Jiang Nuan fiercely supports An Yan, bringing Jiang Yehua along in case she needs protection. She worries that An Yan may be hiding her hurt, then feels reassured by her friend’s relief.
• Jiang Yehua witnesses the severance and accepts a copy as an official witness.
• Gu Qingfeng and Mu Zhiye display a comic reversal in their relationship: the disciple seems more responsible than his eccentric master. Mu Zhiye’s skepticism about Jiang Nuan’s special nature shifts when he witnesses Guagua appear.

Significant themes

• Freedom and self-determination: An Yan chooses independence over submission to family authority.
• Patriarchal control and favoritism: An Laiyun’s demands reflect his belief that daughters should be obedient and confined to domestic roles, while his treatment of An Yan contrasts with his preference for An Yuxue.
• Chosen support: Jiang Nuan and Jiang Yehua provide the care and backing An Yan’s biological family failed to offer.
• Comic supernatural intrigue: Guagua’s sudden return with gossip introduces a lighter, playful thread after the serious family confrontation.

• Guagua’s sudden change: After watching a palace-intrigue drama, Guagua worries that the many people now around Jiang Nuan will make it fade into the background. It resolves to become the most dazzling system at its host’s side and tries to win her attention by offering gossip.
• Mu Zhiye’s family crisis: Guagua reveals that Mu Zhiye’s daughter, Xiao Yin, is insisting on marrying an older, unattractive country bumpkin. Her distress is caused by Love Gu. Mu Zhiye realizes the danger and rushes back to the Divine Physician Valley, leaving his master, Gu Qingfeng, with Jiang Nuan while he seeks help from Yue Xi before she departs.
• Xiao Yin’s medical condition: Guagua explains that poison accumulated in Xiao Yin’s meridians before birth after her mother was injured and poisoned. Though careful treatment could let her live normally, Xiao Yin’s dream of becoming a martial heroine led her to secretly practice martial arts, worsening her fragile health. Gu Qingfeng recognizes that treating her carries serious risks.
• A possible cure: Jiang Nuan asks Guagua whether it knows how to help. Guagua identifies a mild antidote formula suited to Xiao Yin’s long-established poison, which can be paired with acupuncture. Jiang Nuan praises Guagua, and later finds the acupuncture method to give Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng is reassured, then leaves to check on Chi Hengji. Jiang Nuan spends the rest of the day helping her fourth brother and goes to sleep.
• Character interactions and developments: Guagua’s insecurity about losing Jiang Nuan’s attention is played for comedy, and Jiang Nuan knowingly indulges its need for praise. Mu Zhiye acts urgently to protect his daughter. Gu Qingfeng initially feels awkward about being left in Jiang Nuan’s care, but rationalizes staying as necessary to receive prescriptions; he also feels frustrated by the limits of his medical skill.
• Themes: The chapter combines comic rivalry for affection with serious concerns about parental care, medical uncertainty, and the consequences of pursuing a dream beyond one’s physical limits. It also highlights knowledge-sharing and cooperation as the means to help Xiao Yin. The chapter ends with Guagua eager to resume its competition for attention by proposing more ministerial gossip at court.

Key plot points

• During court, Jiang Nuan’s inner monologue and Guagua’s revelations expose the story behind Minister Ning Ziteng’s lifelong bachelorhood.
• As a young man, Ning fell from a cliff. His childhood sweetheart found him while searching his body for a valuable herb, but Ning woke and mistakenly believed she had saved him. She accepted the credit, and he became devoted to her, remembering his promise to marry her.
• When the sweetheart became pregnant by a landlord’s son, Ning offered to marry her and even agreed that the child could bear the landlord’s surname—or that he could take it himself. She rejected him, later becoming a concubine to another man.
• Now an official, Ning is about to face the return of that former sweetheart, whose husband hopes Ning will help rescue his father from trouble. Jiang Nuan eagerly plans to witness what happens.
• Guagua hints at exposing another minister’s gossip, leaving Ning’s nearby colleagues worried they may be next.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Nuan is delighted by court gossip, initially sympathetic to Ning but also amused by the absurd possibility of his becoming “Du Ziteng.”
• Ning Ziteng learns that the woman he believed he owed his life to had actually intended to rob him. His romantic devotion gives way to embarrassment and anger, and he resolves not to repeat his past foolishness.
• Guagua supplies the details and encourages Jiang Nuan to investigate the coming encounter in person.
• The ministers eagerly listen to Ning’s story, laugh at his predicament, then become anxious when Jiang Nuan considers choosing another target. Ning, in turn, enjoys seeing his colleagues fear becoming the next subject.

Significant themes

• Misplaced gratitude and mistaken beliefs: Ning’s lifelong devotion rests on a false account of how he was “saved.”
• Love, loyalty, and self-sacrifice: Ning takes his childhood promise seriously, to an extreme that others find baffling.
• Public embarrassment and gossip: Private histories become entertainment in court, where the ministers’ amusement quickly turns to fear.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Nuan and Guagua expose Peng Changshun, a young assistant director in the Ministry of Rites, as far more ruthless than the previously discussed Ning Ziteng.
• Guagua reveals that Peng’s poor, orphaned childhood was supported by his maternal uncle’s family. He married his uncle’s daughter, and their first child was born with a deformity. Peng blamed the child for his bad luck and strangled the baby.
• After failing an imperial examination, Peng continued pretending to value his wife and her family because he still depended on them. Once he passed and became a jinshi, he decided his status required a more advantageous marriage.
• Peng concealed his existing family from an official who wanted him as a son-in-law. When floods threatened his uncle’s region, Peng arranged for the entire family to die rather than negotiate their removal.
• Jiang Nuan asks Guagua to investigate further. Guagua uncovers alleged embezzlement, bribery to secure the release of condemned prisoners in exchange for kickbacks, and the purchase of young girls.
• Jiang Nuan plans to pass the evidence to the Court of Judicial Review. The official who had arranged Peng’s marriage to his daughter realizes the danger and resolves to end the engagement.
• After court adjourns, the Court of Judicial Review takes Peng into custody. Jiang Nuan sends over the evidence and looks forward to unwinding with more gossip.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Nuan grows increasingly furious as Peng’s crimes emerge, but channels that anger into helping expose him. She also voices a modern view that close-relative marriages raise the risk of health problems in children, prompting some ministers to reconsider family betrothals.
• Guagua supplies the details behind Peng’s history and additional alleged crimes, reinforcing its role as Jiang Nuan’s source of hidden information.
• Peng Changshun sees himself as justified in killing his child and disposing of the family that raised him. His calm façade falters when Jiang Nuan calls for further investigation.
• The prospective father-in-law shifts from supporting Peng to fearing him and deciding to cancel his daughter’s engagement.
• The Court of Judicial Review welcomes Jiang Nuan’s evidence and acts quickly to arrest Peng.

Significant themes

• Betrayal and ingratitude: Peng repays the uncle who raised and supported him by plotting the family’s deaths.
• Ambition and social status: His rise in rank leads him to reject his first wife and pursue a more prestigious marriage.
• Abuse of power and corruption: Peng’s alleged bribery and embezzlement extend his private cruelty into official life.
• Justice through exposure: Jiang Nuan’s gossip uncovers hidden wrongdoing and supplies authorities with leads.
• Tradition versus modern knowledge: Jiang Nuan’s comments on cousin marriage introduce a modern understanding of inherited health risks.