Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Xie Ciyan notices Jiang Yourning still seems hungry and discreetly orders her another bowl, earning her approval.
• When the Jiang family arrives, Yourning lies down and takes a short-acting sleep pill so Xie can present a convincing account of her rescue.
• Xie tells Jiang Huai’an and Jiang Wanrong that he found Yourning tied up in a City God temple and brought her back after hearing her call for help. He says she is unharmed and needs rest. The story, which Yourning had coached him to give, wins him the family’s gratitude and eases Jiang Huai’an’s earlier resentment.
• At the National Preceptor’s Residence, Qing Qianxue wakes with his mask missing and a woman’s fragrance lingering on his bedding. His attendants deny that any woman entered, but recall his odd behavior the previous day. Their suggestions that he might be possessed—or should be introduced to a woman—only irritate him.
• Back home, Yourning wakes after the pill wears off. Lin Xiangyin has been crying throughout the journey, and Yourning gently asks her why.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Yourning shows quick thinking and social awareness: she scripts Xie’s explanation, manages the family reunion, and later comforts her distraught mother.
• Xie Ciyan follows Yourning’s plan and presents himself as her rescuer. He hopes his conduct will improve his standing with her parents; Yourning, meanwhile, thinks his attentiveness makes him a suitable match for her sister.
• Jiang Huai’an and Jiang Wanrong relax once they learn Yourning is safe, and Huai’an’s suspicion of Xie gives way to gratitude.
• Lin Xiangyin is overwhelmed with relief and grief, expressing both through prolonged sobbing.
• Qing Qianxue is unsettled by evidence that someone may have been near him, though he cannot explain it. His attendants, Qian Yan and Qian Miao, respond with confusion and speculation; their teasing and guesses draw his sharp rebuke.

Significant themes

• Performance and deception: Yourning and Xie stage a carefully managed account of her rescue to influence the Jiang family’s view of him.
• Family affection and concern: The Jiang family’s frantic reunion and Lin Xiangyin’s tears show how deeply they care for Yourning.
• Comic misunderstandings: Xie’s private appetite, the attendants’ theories about Qing Qianxue, and the contrast between inner thoughts and outward politeness provide humor.
• Unexplained mystery: Qing Qianxue’s missing mask, the lingering fragrance, and his unusual behavior hint at an encounter he cannot remember.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Yourning wakes and reassures her mother, Lin Xiangyin, after the apparent kidnapping. She steers Lin away by pointing out that her makeup has been smeared, then asks to rest.
• Her elder sister, Jiang Wanrong, stays behind. She suspects the Duke’s Estate may be involved; their father had already asked the emperor to search it, but nothing was found.
• Yourning’s private thoughts reveal that she wasn’t truly kidnapped: she went to the Duke’s Estate, nearly ran into trouble with its dogs, and was delayed by a “block of ice.” Her family does not know the full story.
• Wanrong offers to examine her and mentions her skill with poisons. Yourning privately admires Wanrong’s medical and toxicological abilities, strengthening their bond.
• After Wanrong leaves, Yourning gets up, bathes, and changes. She admits she bought the filthy clothes she wore to make her story convincing.
• At the end, Yourning asks her maid Chun Tao whether anyone has heard of a prince suddenly dying in the palace.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Yourning is quick-witted and composed, using her mother’s vanity to end the emotional scene and conceal what really happened. She also shows affection by indulging Chun Tao’s worry and promising her a treat.
• Lin Xiangyin is intensely loving and protective, but her concern quickly gives way to thoughts of her appearance when Yourning says her makeup is ruined.
• Jiang Wanrong is caring and perceptive. She suspects a connection to the Duke’s Estate and privately reacts with anger when she realizes someone may have endangered Yourning. Yourning’s praise makes Wanrong feel appreciated.
• Chun Tao is devoted and anxious, while Yourning keeps her from crying and attends to her own comfort.

Significant themes

• Family love and protection: The women express concern for Yourning in distinct ways, while her father has already sought an official search.
• Appearance versus truth: Yourning’s convincing display of distress—and her deliberately dirty clothes—conceals the real events.
• Hidden knowledge and dramatic irony: Readers learn more through Yourning’s thoughts than her family does, leaving the apparent kidnapping unresolved.
• Sisterly understanding: Yourning’s admiration helps Wanrong feel valued, while Wanrong’s concern shows growing insight into her younger sister’s situation.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Yourning asks whether there has been news of the handsome man she encountered at Cloud Fragrance House, but Chun Tao says public attention is focused on the Jiang Residence and Duke’s Estate.
• Yourning trades her small haul from the Duke’s Estate through the System Shop, earning 2,000 points. She is disappointed by the modest return but enjoys using the system to buy an extravagant seafood meal.
• For several days after her kidnapping, Yourning is pampered at home but barred from going out. Her brother Jiang Li leads an aggressive citywide search for suspicious people, improving public safety and disrupting criminal activity.
• Five or six days later, Jiang Li escorts Lin Xiangyin, Yourning, and Jiang Wanrong to Huayin Temple to offer incense. Once there, the sisters are allowed to explore with a novice monk as their guide.
• Yourning is charmed by the guide, a cute five-year-old novice. She pinches his cheeks, then freezes and backs away when he says his name is Wukong, jokingly asking whether he has a fellow disciple named Wuneng.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Yourning remains irreverent and practical: she grumbles about the low system payout, enjoys her purchased feast, and still thinks about the male lead. Her curiosity and playful teasing show through even as her family’s protectiveness limits her freedom.
• Chun Tao worries that Yourning has become even stranger after the kidnapping, but continues to answer her questions dutifully.
• Jiang Li responds to his sister’s abduction with fierce, uncompromising protectiveness, launching a broad crackdown.
• Lin Xiangyin is still anxious about her daughters’ safety, while Jiang Wanrong notices Yourning’s unexpected fixation on the man they previously encountered.
• The novice monk politely protests Yourning’s cheek-pinching, creating a comic exchange; his name prompts her sudden retreat.

Significant themes

• Family care versus personal freedom: Yourning receives lavish attention after her kidnapping, but is also confined for her protection.
• Comedy and modern sensibilities: Her casual thoughts about system points, luxury food, and the novice’s “collagen” contrast with the historical setting.
• Fate and story awareness: Yourning continues tracking the original plot and wondering about the male lead.
• Playful foreshadowing: Wukong’s name and Yourning’s mention of Wuneng evoke the famous Journey to the West pairing, setting up a humorous moment.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Yourning recognizes the young novice Wukong as the stolen little prince, though his family has not yet acknowledged him. Jiang Wanrong is startled by her sister’s uncanny insight.
• Wukong corrects Yourning’s mistaken assumption that he has a junior brother, explaining that his senior brother is Wuneng. Yourning privately realizes the world seems to be filling in familiar story details on its own.
• Yourning bribes Wukong with candy to guide her and Wanrong to the Wealth God Hall. She pointedly ignores the Marriage Hall, thinking financial independence is safer than relying on a husband.
• At the Wealth God Hall, Yourning prays fervently for wealth and even wishes harm on Chu Haoze. Wanrong recognizes this as the seventh prince, a neglected royal, but cannot understand why Yourning fears him.
• Afterward, Yourning gives Wukong candy and tempts him with peach blossom pastries so she can pinch his cheeks. She promises two pinches but pinches him many times; Wukong demands five pastries as compensation.
• Yourning asks Wukong to take them to the temple’s vegetarian restaurant and continues offering him snacks, including chocolate.

Character developments

• Jiang Yourning is bold, irreverent, and openly focused on money and self-reliance. She is also delighted by cute things and shamelessly indulges her affection for Wukong.
• Jiang Wanrong grows more aware of her sister’s unusual knowledge, sharp views on marriage, and unexplained hostility toward Chu Haoze. Her understanding of Yourning becomes more complicated.
• Wukong is sweet-toothed, trusting, and eager to share treats with his senior brothers, though he can stand up for himself by bargaining for pastries.

Significant themes

• Self-reliance versus marriage: Yourning rejects the idea that marriage guarantees security, and Wanrong finds the argument difficult to dispute.
• Money and survival: Yourning’s prayers and choices reveal her strong desire for wealth and independence.
• Secrets and foreknowledge: Yourning appears to know Wukong’s identity and the world’s unfolding story, while Wanrong tries to make sense of what she knows.
• Affection and comic bargaining: Yourning’s playful cheek-pinching and Wukong’s pastry negotiations create a lighthearted contrast with the chapter’s political hints.

Character interactions

• Yourning and Wukong build an affectionate, transactional rapport: she offers sweets for guidance and cheek-pinching, while he negotiates treats in return.
• Wanrong mostly watches and interprets Yourning’s behavior, increasingly questioning how much her sister knows—and why she wants Chu Haoze dead.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Yourning offers Little Wukong chocolate. He initially refuses, convinced it is mud, but gives in after she challenges him. The piece is wasabi-flavored, and he suffers through the sharp taste rather than waste food—then discovers he actually likes it.
• While walking through Huayin Temple, Jiang Yourning spots Chu Haoze, an injured man staying at the temple. He has been there for seven or eight days, brought by an unknown woman. Chu recognizes Jiang Yourning and Jiang Wanrong and privately resents them, while fixating on Wanrong.
• Jiang Yourning worries that Chu will again bring trouble to the Jiang family and wonders which woman has become entangled with him. Wanrong considers whether Chu could be eliminated while he is isolated at the temple.
• The sisters enjoy the temple’s vegetarian meal, then settle into a courtyard to rest. Wanrong chooses a room farther from Yourning, giving her sister space to act without being nearby.
• Yourning returns to find her maid, Chun Tao, hurt that she was left behind. Yourning reassures her and tells her she can explore the temple on her own.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Yourning remains playful and mischievous, teasing Wukong with the chocolate and reacting with alarm—and hostility—to Chu’s presence.
• Little Wukong shifts from proud refusal to regret, then curiosity and reluctant enjoyment. He finds Yourning mean but entertaining and hopes she will return.
• Jiang Wanrong is increasingly protective of Yourning. She picks up on her sister’s dislike of Chu and quietly considers taking action against him.
• Chu Haoze appears resentful and menacing, interpreting the sisters’ past behavior as a slight and developing an unexplained interest in Wanrong.
• Chun Tao feels neglected but quickly cheers up when Yourning gives her permission to explore.

Significant themes

• Hidden thoughts and misunderstandings: Characters’ inner thoughts reveal fears and motives that they conceal in conversation.
• Protective sisterhood: Wanrong responds to Yourning’s concerns by considering how to shield her from Chu.
• Comic contrasts: Wukong’s dignity, Yourning’s teasing, and Chun Tao’s melodramatic complaint lighten the threat posed by Chu.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Yourning sends Chun Tao away with Xia He, leaving herself free to search the System Shop for a way to torment the injured Seventh Prince, Chu Haoze.
• Disguised by an invisibility cloak, she heads to Chu’s lodging and briefly spots a black-clad figure nearby. The figure is her elder sister, Jiang Wanrong, who has come intending to make sure Chu is dead—or finish him off if necessary.
• Jiang Yourning finds Chu unharmed and secretly sticks a “Today Is Also Cute” note on him. The item makes his clothes fall loose, changes his voice to a little girl’s, and alters his body in a humiliating way. Chu is so shocked that he faints.
• Hearing people approach, Jiang Yourning slips away. Before leaving, she puts a pill in Chu’s mouth, though its effect is not explained in this chapter.
• Jiang Wanrong returns after changing out of her conspicuous outfit. Seeing Jiang Yourning happily feeding dogs, she is reassured that her sister is safe, then goes to check on Chu. She confirms he is still alive when she hears odd popping sounds from inside the courtyard.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Yourning is mischievous and impulsive, treating revenge as entertainment. She takes satisfaction in humiliating Chu rather than killing him, and remains cheerful afterward.
• Jiang Wanrong is secretly ruthless: she has already poisoned Chu and came prepared to stab him if necessary. Yet she is also protective of Jiang Yourning and worries about the consequences of a prince dying while they are present.
• The sisters’ actions overlap without either understanding the other’s full intentions. Jiang Yourning mistakes Wanrong’s black outfit for that of a failed assassin, while Wanrong overhears her sister’s crude inner thoughts and is embarrassed.
• Chu Haoze is left helpless and humiliated. His furious response to the unseen attacker turns to panic when he discovers the note’s effects.

Significant themes

• Comedy through secrecy and misunderstanding: Both sisters conceal their plans, and their unspoken thoughts create the chapter’s central humor.
• Revenge and restraint: Jiang Yourning wants to punish Chu but stops short of killing him; Wanrong, by contrast, has already chosen poison as a lethal measure.
• Appearance versus reality: A peaceful temple setting hides assassination plots, poison, and supernatural pranks.
• The System as a tool for mischief: Jiang Yourning uses its strange merchandise to inflict absurd, temporary humiliation rather than conventional harm.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Yourning discovers that Jiang Wanrong’s persona has collapsed by 95%, earning 110,000 points and two beginner skill books.
• The books grant her suona mastery and Jinx, a once-daily skill that makes an individual target’s bad predictions come true. Yourning initially mocks the suona but is delighted by Jinx, which lets her harm people without fighting.
• The Jiang family prepares to leave Huayin Temple. Yourning befriends the young novice Wukong, giving him candied hawthorn and saying she would like to take him home.
• Wukong takes her words literally and races to the abbot to ask for his bundle. The monks celebrate his departure with gongs and drums, clearly relieved to be rid of him. The abbot entrusts Wukong to the Jiang family and asks him to repay their kindness someday.

Character developments and interactions

• Yourning’s luck remains comically unpredictable: her random skills are unusual, but Jinx suits her cautious, mischievous nature.
• She approaches Wukong with playful affection, while privately hoping to win the favor of the young prince she believes he may become.
• Wanrong overhears the exchange and recognizes Wukong as the empress’s son—and a likely future ruler—revealing that she is alert to the political stakes.
• Wukong responds warmly to Yourning’s kindness, while the abbot and older novices eagerly support his move to the Jiang family.

Significant themes

• Comic irony and luck: A supposedly useless skill turns out to be ideal for Yourning, while her sister’s persona collapse unexpectedly brings rewards.
• Affection mixed with self-interest: Yourning’s kindness toward Wukong is genuine in tone but also motivated by thoughts of future influence.
• Unexpected consequences: A casual, teasing offer to take Wukong home becomes a real arrangement.
• Power and political opportunity: Wukong’s royal identity gives the seemingly small encounter potential importance for the Jiang family’s future.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Wanrong agrees to take the novice monk Wukong home, promising the abbot the Jiang family will raise him well.
• In the carriage, Jiang Yourning realizes Wukong had been trying to get adopted and that her joking promise to “kidnap” him home gave him the opening he wanted. He charms his way into being accepted as her little brother, then obediently shells sunflower seeds for her.
• Jiang Wanrong and her mother, Lin Xiangyin, share a warm conversation. Lin acknowledges that Wanrong has endured hardship and says she wants to cherish her; Wanrong feels their relationship gradually becoming more familial.
• Back at the Jiang residence, servant Chun Tao reports that the Duchess of Zhen’s daughter has developed severe, pus-filled sores. The duchess has spent money on treatment, but the condition worsened; after an imperial physician also failed to help, she and Duke Zhen fought, and he struck her.
• Jiang Wanrong privately reveals that the poisoning is not truly dangerous and should clear on its own within a week. However, misguided treatments may leave scars.

Character developments and interactions

• Wukong proves clever and determined to secure a home, using innocence and flattery to win Jiang Yourning over. He also shows gratitude toward his master and senior brothers by resolving to live well outside the monastery.
• Jiang Yourning is embarrassed at being tricked, but her irritation softens when she sees Wukong’s obedience. Their teasing, affectionate big-sister/little-brother dynamic begins to form.
• Jiang Wanrong grows more secure in her place within the family and recognizes that affection is developing through shared time.
• Lin Xiangyin shows increasing warmth toward Wanrong, while her curiosity about gossip provides a lighter family moment.
• Jiang Wanrong’s calm reaction to the Duchess’s predicament hints at her knowledge of the poisoning and contrasts with the duchess’s increasingly desperate efforts to treat it.

Significant themes

• Family and belonging: Wukong seeks a home, while Wanrong and her parents slowly build genuine affection.
• Cleverness and deception: Wukong’s adoption succeeds through a deliberate, playful trick.
• Consequences and irony: The Duchess’s frantic attempts to undo the poisoning may cause lasting harm even though the condition would have resolved naturally.

Key plot points and events

• After arriving at the Jiang residence, Jiang Yourning realizes Little Wukong is still asleep in the carriage. She wakes him with news that his food has been given away; he panics until she explains they have reached his new home.
• Yourning and Jiang Wanrong decide that Wukong should stay in Third Brother’s courtyard. They worry he might be a disruptive influence if paired with Fourth Brother.
• Yourning shows Wukong around the residence and takes him to her courtyard for a meal. Finding another unappetizing “all-brains” lunch prepared for her recovery, she produces a box of roast duck, spicy pork, dumplings, and fizzy cola.
• The two devour the food, bickering playfully over the last portions and the cola.
• Wukong asks to buy more cola and reveals that his master has given him substantial funds, including banknotes, a bank deposit receipt, and property deeds. Yourning is stunned by the wealth of her five-year-old guest.

Character developments

• Jiang Yourning shows warmth and responsibility toward Wukong, acting as his guide and host. Her playful, greedy side also emerges during their meal, and his fortune leaves her comically envious.
• Little Wukong is affectionate and eager to stay close to Yourning, whom he trusts most in the unfamiliar household. He is excitable, very food-motivated, and unexpectedly wealthy.
• Jiang Wanrong is considerate of both Wukong’s distinguished status and the household’s arrangements. She notices an unusual sense of kinship between him and Yourning, despite their lack of resemblance.

Significant themes

• Belonging and family: Wukong begins adjusting to his new home and seeks reassurance that he can visit Yourning whenever he wants.
• Care expressed through everyday acts: Yourning welcomes him with a tour, a meal, and friendly attention.
• Comic contrasts: Wukong’s small, monkish appearance contrasts with his voracious appetite and immense wealth; Yourning’s lavish household still cannot match his assets.
• Sibling responsibility: The sisters think ahead about where Wukong will fit best and how to manage his presence.

Character interactions

• Yourning reassures Wukong that he can visit her anytime, strengthening their immediate bond.
• Wanrong and Yourning confer about where he should live, reaching the same conclusion for practical reasons.
• Yourning and Wukong share a lively, competitive meal, teasing each other over food and cola.
• Wukong’s disclosure of his money shifts their playful conversation into Yourning’s astonished reaction.

Key plot points

• Little Wukong offers Jiang Yourning a bundle of banknotes in exchange for fizzy water. She refuses, joking that she “resents the rich,” and promises to buy him a drink another day.
• After a nap, Yourning goes shopping with her mother, Lin Xiangyin, and sister Jiang Wanrong. Wanrong notices Yourning’s unusual gloom and privately worries about the mystery of Little Wukong’s wealth and identity.
• Yourning resolves to help renovate the family tavern and build her own fortune, though she laments that she must work for wealth rather than inherit it.
• At the Jade Pavilion, County Lady Baojin arrives and demands every piece of jewelry in the shop, claiming the Jiang women have not paid yet.
• Lin Xiangyin recognizes Baojin and identifies her as a powerful noblewoman from Prince Anhe’s fief. Yourning’s inner thoughts reveal Baojin’s immense hidden wealth and her future role in funding a military campaign against the capital. Her revelations shock those who can hear them, including someone in a passing carriage.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Yourning is comically envious of Little Wukong’s money, but also shows restraint and ambition: she refuses his cash and plans to earn wealth by improving the tavern. At the jewelry shop, she remains calm when Baojin claims the goods.
• Little Wukong is generous but naïve about money and writing; he cannot understand why Yourning refuses his offer.
• Jiang Wanrong is perceptive and increasingly concerned that Little Wukong’s unknown origins and fortune may signal trouble. Yourning’s practical plans partly reassure her.
• County Lady Baojin enters with a haughty, extravagant manner and expects everyone to yield to her status. Her maid reinforces her arrogance.
• Lin Xiangyin handles the social situation diplomatically, greeting Baojin once she recognizes her rank.

Significant themes

• Wealth and inequality: Yourning’s envy of Little Wukong’s effortless fortune contrasts with her determination to make money herself.
• Ambition and labor: Yourning imagines building a business and creating wealth rather than relying on inheritance.
• Appearances versus reality: Baojin’s flashy display masks a far greater fortune and a consequential political future.
• Foreknowledge and danger: Yourning’s knowledge of future events exposes the stakes behind Baojin’s seemingly ordinary shopping trip and raises questions about how others will react to what she reveals.

Key plot points and events

• Xie Ciyan realizes Jiang Yourning may have uncovered a hidden danger: Prince Anhe’s wealth includes eight gold mines and seven silver mines, and someone may try to marry County Lady Baojin to exploit that fortune for a rebellion. He sends Shuo Feng to look for the Jiang sisters.
• County Lady Baojin buys the goods Lin Xiangyin wanted and offers the group 10,000 taels as compensation. Jiang Yourning cheerfully accepts, liking Baojin’s generosity despite her showy manner.
• After Lin Xiangyin leaves, Jiang Yourning gives Jiang Wanrong Xie Ciyan’s jade pendant, which can withdraw up to 50,000 taels, and asks her to arrange renovations for their tavern. Yourning plans to shop for supplies and commission furniture.
• Yourning privately hopes the withdrawal will give Xie Ciyan a chance to impress Wanrong. Hearing this, Xie heads to Anping Bank and orders fine jewelry sent to the Jiang sisters, including a prized headdress he had intended for the Empress.
• Yourning separates from her companions, disguises herself, and enters a shabby grain shop. After giving a coded order, she passes through a concealed doorway into a lit passage and puts on a black cloak.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Yourning is resourceful, financially ambitious, and mischievously invested in bringing her sister and Xie Ciyan together. Her inner thoughts contrast her practical plans with fantasies of being waited on by handsome men.
• Jiang Wanrong is touched by her sister’s trust in giving her access to a huge sum, then exasperated by Yourning’s matchmaking schemes. She also worries about Xie’s difficult childhood and questions whether he deserves to be teased.
• Xie Ciyan shifts from alarm over the possible rebellion to being deeply moved by Yourning’s concern for him. He responds with extravagant gifts for both sisters.
• County Lady Baojin is introduced as a generous, confident figure whose wealth and compensation soften the disruption she caused. Lin Xiangyin remains protective of the sisters and leaves them money and reminders before departing.

Significant themes

• Wealth and power: Money drives both the sisters’ business plans and concerns about political rebellion.
• Family trust and care: Yourning entrusts Wanrong with substantial funds, while also trying—sometimes intrusively—to secure her sister’s future.
• Romance and comic misunderstanding: Yourning’s matchmaking thoughts, Wanrong’s mixed reactions, and Xie’s earnest generosity create humor around affection.
• Hidden identities and schemes: Yourning’s disguise and secret entrance suggest that her business ambitions—or another plan—extend beyond ordinary shopping.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Yourning visits Swallow Sparrow Street, the capital’s secret black market, and enters the Shadow Pavilion to sell poison and truth-telling pills. She offers samples for testing and receives a bird-shaped badge, with instructions to return to the Everpeace Pawnshop the following evening to negotiate a price.
• She evades the Pavilion’s attempts to follow her by changing clothes and waiting for her disguise pill to wear off in a busy shop.
• Qing Qianxue learns about the unusual medicines and orders his men to identify their seller within three days. His attendant, Qian Yan, admits they lost track of her.
• Qing Qianxue reflects on a recent divination: an unpredictable presence in his fate may represent a chance at life, though he cannot discover its source.
• Jiang Yourning commissions an old carpenter and a blacksmith to build her novel designs at the tavern, arranging for work to begin the next day.
• Xie Ciyan escorts Jiang Wanrong home after helping her with the tavern renovations. Jiang Yourning visits her sister and is pleased by how warmly she speaks of him.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Yourning shows confidence and resourcefulness in the black market, protects her identity, and pursues practical plans to improve her business and expand her storage.
• Qing Qianxue remains outwardly composed but is unsettled by the possibility that his fate contains a path to survival. His interest in the mysterious medicine seller grows.
• Qian Yan reports to Qing Qianxue, is reprimanded for losing the trail, and rushes off to investigate.
• Jiang Wanrong trusts and appreciates Xie Ciyan’s help; her blush suggests growing affection. Jiang Yourning playfully notices and approves of him.
• Xie Ciyan supports Jiang Wanrong by helping arrange the renovation, earning both her trust and Jiang Yourning’s approval.

Significant themes

• Secrecy and disguise: Jiang Yourning conceals her identity while navigating dangerous, hidden networks.
• Life, fate, and uncertainty: Qing Qianxue’s divination hints that an unknown person may alter his seemingly doomed future.
• Ingenuity and ambition: Jiang Yourning pursues both unconventional inventions and new sources of income.
• Trust and budding romance: Xie Ciyan’s reliability brings him closer to Jiang Wanrong, while her sister quietly encourages the connection.

Key events

• Xia He reports that Young Marquis Xie has sent jewelry for Jiang Wanrong and Jiang Yourning, regretting that neither could shop at the Jade Pavilion.
• Shuo Feng explains that Xie still feels his earlier apology of fifty thousand taels was insufficient, so he sent two chests of gifts.
• Yourning eagerly opens her chest and is delighted by the beautiful jewelry, imagining Xie as an exceptionally generous future brother-in-law.
• Wanrong’s chest contains an ornate rosewood case holding a lavish set of East Sea Mermaid Pearl hair ornaments, including a peacock hairpin altered from a phoenix design.
• Recognizing the set’s extraordinary value, Wanrong refuses the gifts and asks Shuo Feng to return them. Yourning initially agrees, but adds that Xie should “keep working at it,” implying he has not yet earned the right to give such extravagant presents.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Yourning is openly thrilled by the gifts and strongly encourages her sister’s romance with Xie, viewing his generosity as proof of devotion. She playfully backs Wanrong’s refusal while still teasingly leaving the door open for him.
• Jiang Wanrong is startled by the richness of the gifts but shows restraint and propriety, refusing to accept something so valuable given the current state of their relationship.
• Shuo Feng delivers the gifts and is privately unnerved by Yourning’s sudden, overly sweet manner toward him.
• The sisters’ contrasting reactions—Yourning’s excitement and Wanrong’s caution—create both humor and tension around Xie’s apparent favoritism.

Significant themes

• Generosity and courtship: Xie’s costly gifts suggest serious affection, though their value risks overwhelming the recipient.
• Restraint and propriety: Wanrong insists that lavish presents must match the relationship’s standing.
• Sisterly support and teasing: Yourning enthusiastically roots for Wanrong’s romance, while Wanrong tempers her excitement with careful judgment.

Plot points

• Shuo Feng leaves after delivering the two sisters’ responses about the gifts. He is impressed that Jiang Wanrong refuses to be swayed by wealth and finds Jiang Yourning sweet.
• Jiang Wanrong gives Yourning the three thousand taels she received from County Lady Baojin so Yourning can buy jewelry. Yourning refuses, touched by her sister’s generosity.
• Back in her room, Yourning shares the day’s snacks among the servants and other courtyards, including a portion for Little Wukong. She then privately enjoys modern-style fast food and drinks.
• At midnight, the system returns and startles Yourning with an eerie entrance. She panics and shouts at it to “drop dead,” waking Chun Tao, who mistakes Yourning’s behavior for worsening illness.
• The system says headquarters has given Yourning a resurrection card as compensation. She dismisses its value, then initially refuses to hear the bad news—but soon asks the system to tell her anyway.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Wanrong shows affection through practical generosity, offering her savings to comfort her younger sister. She is delighted by Yourning’s praise and resolves to plant lilies for her.
• Jiang Yourning is touched by Wanrong’s care but remains humorous, eccentric, and generous herself, sharing snacks despite her own dissatisfaction with the local food.
• Chun Tao continues to worry over Yourning, interpreting her startled antics and forced smile as signs that her illness is worsening.
• The system is frustrated with its host and envies another system’s “lucky-charm heroine,” but still returns with compensation and news. Its teasing exchange with Yourning remains comically adversarial.

Significant themes

• Sibling devotion and generosity: The sisters repeatedly put one another’s comfort ahead of their own.
• Comedy through misunderstanding: Yourning’s unusual behavior is read as illness by Chun Tao, while the system’s dramatic return only makes the confusion worse.
• Human attachment and reluctant duty: Despite its resentment, the system remains tied to Yourning and must continue its mission.

Key plot points and events

• The system reveals that Jiang Yourning truly died in the first novel’s world and has been reborn as a nameless extra in the author’s companion novel. The two stories unfold at the same time.
• Yourning learns that the companion novel’s female lead is a transmigrator from an apocalyptic world with her own system. She buys and reads the book through the System Shop.
• The novel’s plot horrifies her: its female lead’s obsession with Qing Qianxue sets off a chain of abductions, murders, and revenge that ultimately leads to the fall of the Yu Kingdom. Yourning considers returning the “ice-faced” Qing Qianxue to his homeland, but decides it is too risky and may not prevent the kingdom’s destruction.
• Exhausted after reading all night, Yourning collapses into sleep. Chun Tao mistakes her weakened state for a serious illness and raises the alarm. Jiang Wanrong checks her, gives her a pill, and the Jiang family gathers as they wait for a doctor.

Character developments

• Jiang Yourning discovers that her survival now depends on navigating a second novel’s world. She is frustrated by the unfairness of her circumstances and increasingly resigned to the danger ahead, though she briefly considers intervening to save Qing Qianxue.
• The companion novel’s female lead is revealed as powerful and obsessive: her pursuit of Qing Qianxue drives her toward increasingly destructive choices.
• Qing Qianxue is identified as a mistreated figure whose later return to Yu Kingdom becomes the trigger for its downfall.
• Chun Tao shows genuine concern for Yourning, while Jiang Wanrong responds quickly and practically to her apparent illness.

Significant themes

• Fate and unequal circumstances: Yourning contrasts her struggle to stay alive with the other heroine’s wealth, power, and system-backed advantages.
• Stories within stories: Yourning’s death moves her from one fictional narrative into another, where knowledge of the plot may—or may not—help her change events.
• Obsession and destruction: The female lead’s fixation on Qing Qianxue fuels violence and political catastrophe.
• Powerlessness versus intervention: Yourning recognizes the coming disaster but doubts that she can safely prevent it.

Character interactions

• Yourning questions the system about her new world and its relationship to the other system, then obtains the companion novel from the System Shop.
• She mentally weighs whether to remove Qing Qianxue from Yu Kingdom, but concludes that doing so could be dangerous and might worsen the kingdom’s fate.
• Chun Tao discovers Yourning’s apparent collapse and calls for help; Jiang Wanrong examines and treats her as the rest of the Jiang family rushes to her bedside.

Plot points and events

• After collapsing from staying up late, Jiang Yourning is examined by a doctor, who attributes her condition to exhaustion and an irregular heartbeat. He prescribes medicine and warns that she needs more rest.
• Lin Xiangyin reassures herself that Yourning is recovering, then hurries off to clean up after Jiang Wanrong points out how filthy she looks.
• Jiang Heng and Little Wukong, mistakenly believing Yourning is dying, stage a mock funeral outside her room. Little Wukong’s loud suona wakes her; she springs up and angrily curses the noise.
• The boys mistake her sudden appearance for a corpse coming back to life and flee. Yourning, unaware of the misunderstanding, goes back to bed.
• Jiang Wanrong takes charge of Yourning’s care and orders her maids punished for failing to keep her from overworking. Yourning obediently drinks her medicine, then releases the kneeling maids once she feels better.
• Yourning heads toward Lin Xiangyin’s courtyard and encounters her mother on the way.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Yourning is blunt and comically irritable when startled, but shows concern for her maids, insisting they have treated her well and allowing them to rise.
• Jiang Wanrong acts protectively toward her younger sister, supervises her medicine, and holds the household staff accountable.
• Lin Xiangyin is deeply worried about Yourning, though her concern also leads to an amusingly quick retreat when her appearance is criticized.
• Jiang Heng and Little Wukong show affection through exaggerated, childish funeral tributes, then panic when Yourning appears alive.
• Yourning’s relationship with the household staff is shown as gentler than the discipline imposed on them by others.

Significant themes

• Rest and care: Yourning’s collapse makes the dangers of overwork—and the family’s efforts to protect her—clear.
• Family affection expressed through comedy: The funeral prank and the family’s anxious reactions turn concern into farce.
• Authority and compassion: Jiang Wanrong punishes the maids, while Yourning later chooses leniency, revealing differing approaches to responsibility.

Plot points

• After recovering from an illness, Jiang Yourning tells her mother, Lin Xiangyin, she feels better. Lin says Chun Tao is being punished for her part in Yourning’s illness by sorting beans—and decides that sorting beans will become the household’s punishment for anyone who makes a mistake.
• Lin takes Yourning out without telling her where they are going. Yourning assumes they are visiting the tavern, where her sister is overseeing renovations, but the carriage instead stops at the National Preceptor’s Residence.
• As Yourning steps out, she misjudges the distance and falls flat. Xie Ciyan appears, jokes about her fall, then offers her a precious salve. He leaves it on the carriage and departs promptly.

Character developments and interactions

• Yourning remains playful and impulsive, but her illness has left her physically weak. Her blunt inner thoughts contrast with her polite words, especially when Xie jokes and hesitates over offering the medicine.
• Xie quickly realizes Yourning prefers directness: after she silently objects to his drawn-out offer, he simply gives her the salve and leaves.
• Lin is affectionate and gently teasing toward Yourning, but becomes quietly uneasy when she notices Yourning’s interaction with Xie. Yourning reassures her that Xie is simply returning kindness after saving her and is interested in her sister.

Themes

• The chapter’s humor comes from the gap between Yourning’s polite speech and candid inner commentary.
• It also explores family care and discipline, as well as the uncertain meaning of gifts and closeness: Xie’s medicine is an ordinary gesture to Yourning, but it prompts concern in her mother.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Xiangyin tells Jiang Yourning that if she ever likes a young man, her mother will help seize him and bring him home. Jiang Yourning nods just to change the subject.
• Lin reveals that they have come to the National Preceptor’s Residence to ask Qing Qianxue to divine whether anything is wrong with Jiang Yourning’s health—or whether she has encountered something supernatural.
• Qing Qianxue receives them behind a screen, as is customary. He initially refuses, saying a physician should handle illness and that he cannot help with supernatural trouble.
• Lin challenges the National Preceptor’s reputation, prompting him to dismiss them. But when Jiang Yourning thinks happily about leaving to sell medicine at a pawnshop, Qing abruptly tells them to wait and agrees to divine for her after preparing.
• In private, Qing questions his aide Qian Miao about why he did not respond to Jiang’s apparent insults. Qian Miao insists she was polite and denies hearing any of the thoughts Qing says she expressed.
• While they wait, Jiang privately explains to her mother that she only stayed up late. Her thoughts also recall Qing carrying her off and keeping her beside him overnight, and warn that a dangerous woman may be hunting him. Qing overhears this and reacts with alarm.

Character developments

• Jiang Yourning remains outwardly obedient but inwardly resentful and wary of Qing. She wants to leave quickly for her own business and is anxious about being drawn into danger.
• Lin Xiangyin is affectionate and forceful, both jokingly offering to help her daughter win a man and earnestly seeking supernatural reassurance about her.
• Qing Qianxue is unusually affected by Jiang’s unspoken thoughts. His curiosity and concern override his initial refusal, while his uncertainty grows when Qian Miao cannot hear what he hears.
• Qian Miao remains composed and sees no evidence that Jiang has been rude or mentioned the pawnshop.

Significant themes

• Hidden thoughts and appearances: Jiang’s polite outward behavior contrasts sharply with her candid inner commentary, while Qing seems able to hear thoughts others cannot.
• Mystery and uncertainty: Qing’s apparent access to Jiang’s thoughts—and Qian Miao’s inability to confirm them—raises questions about what is happening.
• Danger beneath comedy: The banter and Jiang’s exaggerated worries sit alongside memories of coercion and the threat of a dangerous pursuer.

Character interactions

• Lin and Jiang share a warm but awkward mother-daughter exchange, with Jiang dodging her mother’s matchmaking talk.
• Lin respectfully appeals to Qing, then challenges him when he refuses.
• Qing and Qian Miao disagree over Jiang’s behavior, revealing a strange gap between what Qing perceives and what his aide observes.
• Qing listens in on Jiang and Lin’s conversation, and Jiang’s private account of their past encounter sharply unsettles him.

Key plot points and events

• Qing Qianxue hears Jiang Yourning’s voice despite seeing that she has not spoken. Suspecting he can hear her thoughts, he orders the Shadow Pavilion to investigate her.
• He emerges to meet Jiang Yourning and her mother, Lin Xiangyin, then attempts to divine the girl’s fate. Her nonstop inner commentary distracts him, and his reading yields an unprecedented result: she has no discernible fate star, and her future is unresolved.
• Qing tells Lin Xiangyin that Jiang Yourning’s careless speech may bring disaster upon her and her family. Lin takes the warning seriously, while Jiang outwardly responds politely and privately protests that her thoughts are not spoken aloud.
• Qing realizes he can hear Jiang’s inner voice and decides to keep listening before judging whether she is a threat.
• After the women leave, he recognizes Jiang’s scent as the one from his room during his previous bout of Cold Affliction. He concludes that he must have brought her back and put her in his bed, though his attendants insist they saw no one.
• Though his killing intent rises, Qing does not order Jiang killed. He calls for Qian Yan to question him.

Character developments

• Qing Qianxue shifts from suspicion to fascination and alarm. Jiang’s unknowable fate may be connected to the unexplained change in his own, and her thoughts unsettle him.
• Jiang Yourning remains composed and respectful outwardly, while her candid, irreverent inner monologue reveals a bold and humorous side.
• Lin Xiangyin trusts Qing’s authority and accepts his warning, promising to guide her daughter toward caution.
• Qian Miao and Qian Yan are puzzled by Qing’s unusual behavior; their claim that they noticed no one in the residence deepens the mystery.

Significant themes

• Fate and uncertainty: Jiang’s future cannot be divined, challenging Qing’s confidence in his prophetic abilities.
• Hidden thoughts and appearances: Jiang’s private thoughts contrast sharply with her polite behavior, while Qing’s ability to hear them creates an unusual bond.
• Mystery and contradiction: Jiang’s apparent overnight presence in Qing’s room conflicts with the attendants’ memories.
• Restraint and suspicion: Qing’s violent impulses give way to curiosity as he chooses investigation over immediate action.

Character interactions

• Qing questions Qian Miao, then orders him to investigate Jiang.
• During the divination, Jiang’s unspoken remarks irritate and distract Qing, while her mother responds earnestly to his warning.
• Qing watches Jiang closely, recognizing that her thoughts confirm his strange ability.
• After Jiang departs, Qing summons Qian Yan to explain the baffling events surrounding her visit.

Plot points and events

• Qing Qianxue orders Qian Yan to follow Jiang Yourning and report if she visits the Everpeace Pawnshop. She also unexpectedly punishes him with ten days without dinner.
• Jiang Yourning slips away from Lin Xiangyin, changes her appearance in an alley, and visits the pawnshop under disguise. Qian Yan loses sight of her, then recognizes the disguised woman using a familiar token.
• Unable to make sense of the transformation, Qian Yan reports what he saw. Qing Qianxue wonders whether the woman is truly Jiang Yourning—or an impostor—and decides to attend the empress’s birthday celebration in five days.
• At the pawnshop, Jiang Yourning sells medicine and trades the proceeds for supplies, which she converts into system points to expand her inventory to 200 cubic meters.
• She takes Jiang Wanrong to the Drunken Spring House. Remembering that its talented head chef will later die after getting into trouble, Jiang Yourning suggests recruiting him for the sisters’ planned tavern.
• Jiang Yourning theatrically asks to meet the chef, pretending the food has moved her to tears, and offers him a gold leaf as a reward.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Yourning shows resourcefulness in disguising herself and using the pawnshop and system to increase her resources. She also turns her knowledge of future events into a business opportunity, though she pursues it through comic, exaggerated acting.
• Qing Qianxue grows more suspicious of Jiang Yourning’s identity and intentions, while making plans to observe her at the empress’s birthday.
• Qian Yan is dutiful but bewildered by what he witnesses—and unlucky enough to be punished despite his confusion.
• Jiang Wanrong is impressed by her younger sister’s knowledge and agrees that hiring the chef would benefit their future tavern. Jiang Yourning’s enthusiastic praise of her also warms her.

Significant themes

• Performance and deception: Disguises, false identities, and Jiang Yourning’s staged tears make acting a practical tool for survival and persuasion.
• Knowledge as power: Jiang Yourning’s unusual foreknowledge helps her build resources and anticipate business opportunities.
• Suspicion and uncertainty: Qing Qianxue’s inability to determine who Jiang Yourning really is creates an undercurrent of intrigue beneath the chapter’s humor.