Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• After having Green Cicada beaten, Jian Ruonan heads to the Prince of the Southwest’s residence to confront the Heir Apparent’s Consort, who she believes has extended her influence into the Jinyang Marquis’s household.
• Minister Shi worries about the danger. Jian jokes about going alone and offers him the Imperial Sword, but eventually agrees to seek guards from Prince Rui. Shi is stopped at the gate while Jian is admitted.
• Jian visits the pandas, Tangyuan and Plum Blossom, and wins them over with fresh milk. Tangyuan eagerly drinks from both bowls and clings to her.
• Prince Rui offers to accompany Jian to the Consort’s banquet and bring Embroidered Uniform Guards. Tangyuan insists on coming too, so both pandas join the party.
• At the banquet, the Heir Apparent’s Consort tries to exchange flattering remarks with Jian. Jian instead bluntly agrees that the Consort’s waist is thick, compares her skin to the dry skin on her grandmother’s feet, and tells her to accept aging. The chapter ends with the Consort visibly offended and Jian apparently oblivious to her reaction.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan is fearless, irreverent, and unwilling to flatter powerful people. She treats a potentially dangerous political confrontation like an opportunity to speak her mind—and brings pandas along as supposed muscle.
• Minister Shi is cautious and anxious about entering the Prince of the Southwest’s residence. His nervous exchanges with Jian provide comic contrast to her confidence.
• Prince Rui (Dantai Mo) accommodates Jian, agrees to accompany her, and appears fond of her; he is also bemused by her confidence in the pandas’ fighting ability.
• Tangyuan and Plum Blossom show their contrasting temperaments: Tangyuan is bold and greedy, while Plum Blossom is patient and gentle. Both are affectionate toward Jian, though Tangyuan is especially clingy.
• The Heir Apparent’s Consort attempts to assert social superiority through self-deprecating compliments and polished manners, but Jian’s blunt replies derail the exchange and leave her offended.

Significant themes

• Candor versus social politeness: Jian refuses the expected ritual of flattering a powerful hostess.
• Power and intimidation: The discussion of guards, the Imperial Sword, and the Prince of the Southwest’s suspected rebellion underscores the danger behind the comic tone.
• Loyalty and affection: The pandas’ attachment to Jian turns them into amusing, if unconventional, companions.
• Comedy through contrast: Jian’s casual irreverence clashes with courtly etiquette, while her confidence contrasts with Minister Shi’s fear and Prince Rui’s bemusement.

Plot points

• Jian Ruonan arrives at the Heir Apparent’s Consort’s residence with her sword and her bear, Tangyuan. The Consort suggests letting Tangyuan meet the Heir’s cherished wolf cub, but Jian privately tells Tangyuan to defend itself if the wolf starts trouble.
• Jian Ruonan’s presence emboldens the capital officials’ wives, who had stayed away for fear of angering either the Consort or the powerful princes of the Southwest. Their arrival fills the previously quiet hall.
• A woman called “Migraine” spreads rumors about Jian Ruonan’s difficult upbringing and alleged near-sale as a concubine. Jian responds by drawing her Imperial Sword and cutting away the woman’s hair covering, exposing the dark patch over her face.
• Jian accuses “Migraine” of malicious insinuations against both herself and the Consort, then theatrically threatens her. The Consort’s martial maids intervene, and the Consort dons a yellow riding jacket bestowed by the founding emperor—protection against Jian’s Imperial Sword.
• Unable to attack the Consort, Jian puts her sword away but insults the jacket, mocking the Consort’s waist and complexion.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan is fearless, impulsive, physically intimidating, and sharp-tongued. She uses her Imperial Sword and comic bravado to confront gossip, while also cleverly turning her attack into a defense of the Consort.
• The Heir Apparent’s Consort tries to control the gathering through polite hospitality and veiled hostility. She is prepared for Jian’s sword, but loses composure when Jian turns the encounter into a public spectacle.
• The officials’ wives shift from cautious observers to Jian’s enthusiastic supporters, feeling safer with her present.
• Jian’s interactions with the Consort and “Migraine” are a contest of power: the Consort relies on status and safeguards, while Jian counters with imperial authority, intimidation, and cutting insults. Tangyuan’s presence adds a comic threat of its own.

Significant themes

• Political intimidation and fear: Officials’ families hesitate to attend because the princes wield power with little accountability.
• Reputation and rumor: Jian refuses to accept slander quietly and exposes how gossip can be used to attack people indirectly.
• Power and performance: Both women use symbols of authority—the Imperial Sword and the bestowed riding jacket—while Jian’s irreverence undermines the Consort’s formal control.
• Defiance and comic bravado: The chapter pairs serious political tensions with exaggerated threats and verbal mockery.

Key plot points and events

• After publicly exposing the Heir Apparent’s Consort’s poor choice of yellow clothing, Jian Ruonan takes a break. The Capital City wives fuss over her, while the Consort’s Southwest supporters regroup.
• The Consort invites Jian Ruonan to chat, hoping to get the Imperial Sword put away. Jian gladly hands it to Chen Pozi, both because it is heavy and because she loves gossip.
• The conversation turns to Jian Xilu, whose broken engagement is used to spread a rumor that she has a hidden illness. The Marquise defends her, but Madam Wang and her maid perform a misleading exchange meant to make the rumor sound true.
• Jian Ruonan silently exposes Madam Wang’s own concealed health problems: a limp and fungal nails. She also reveals that Madam Wang’s maid has been putting picked foot skin into her mistress’s bird’s-nest porridge.
• Faced with the threat of further revelations, Madam Wang retracts the rumor and praises Jian Xilu as healthy, talented, and virtuous.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan proves that her apparent bluntness is a façade: she is observant, socially powerful, and happy to use gossip to defend her family. Her thoughts reach the assembled wives even as she eats.
• The Heir Apparent’s Consort recognizes Jian’s intelligence and tries to manage the conversation, but loses control once Jian begins exposing secrets.
• Madam Wang shifts from spreading insinuations to offering an emphatic public retraction. Her attempt to shame Jian Xilu rebounds on her.
• The Capital City wives move from surprise at Jian’s ability to read people to eager participation in the revelations. Several nearly investigate Madam Wang’s nail guards before Jian warns them off.
• The Marquise directly counters the attack on her future daughter-in-law, while the officials’ wives’ shifting reactions turn the gathering into a public contest of influence.

Significant themes

• Gossip as power: private knowledge becomes a weapon that can expose hypocrisy and force a public retreat.
• Appearances versus reality: Madam Wang’s polished presentation hides both personal ailments and a servant’s abuse.
• Loyalty and family defense: Jian Ruonan uses her insight to protect Jian Xilu from malicious rumors.
• Comic reversal: the woman who tries to expose another’s supposed “hidden ailment” is herself exposed.

Key plot points

• The officials’ wives arrive just in time to hear Fifth Miss Jian Ruonan expose Madam Wang’s opinions about Eldest Sister. The Heir Apparent’s Consort suspects Jian knows everyone’s secrets, while the wives worry the Southwest heir might retaliate.
• The Consort tries to restart the gathering’s gossip by prompting Madam Li to question the Minister of War’s wife about her daughter’s engagement to the Jinyang Marquis’s eldest son, whose former engagement ended after he kept a pregnant mistress.
• Jian’s inner thoughts reveal Madam Li collects curly body hair—not only her own, but other people’s—to make decorative face-framing curls. When Madam Li rushes out, Jian guesses she intends to collect hair in the privy; Madam Li trips and leaves in humiliation.
• The Consort then directs a famously filial lady, Madam Zhang, to challenge Jian on filial piety. Jian boasts that she is exceptionally devoted to Old Madam Shi, who awkwardly confirms it.
• Madam Zhang claims butterflies once landed on her and lingered as a sign of her filial virtue. Jian grows suspicious and begins to uncover the real reason behind Madam Zhang’s reputation, but the chapter ends before revealing it.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan remains cheerfully blunt and observant, exposing secrets without hesitation. She defends her elder sister but admits she cannot easily defend her eldest brother’s scandalous reputation.
• The Heir Apparent’s Consort grows increasingly frustrated as her attempts to steer the conversation fail and her chosen participants are exposed or intimidated.
• Madam Li is publicly disgraced by Jian’s revelation and flees the gathering.
• Madam Zhang enters as a confident, publicly celebrated example of filial piety, but Jian’s suspicion hints that her image may be misleading.
• Old Madam Shi reluctantly supports Jian’s boast, while the other wives watch anxiously and eagerly for more revelations.

Significant themes

• Reputation versus reality: Public virtue and respectable appearances may conceal embarrassing truths.
• Gossip as social power: Jian’s knowledge overturns the gathering’s usual hierarchy and leaves powerful guests wary.
• Filial piety and performance: The chapter questions whether celebrated moral conduct is genuine or merely a story cultivated for public praise.
• Comedy through exposure: Awkward misunderstandings and blunt revelations turn formal social competition into farce.

Key events

• Jian Ruonan’s unspoken thoughts expose “Madam Gao” as a thirty-year-old woman who allegedly gropes her eighty-five-year-old, paralyzed great-grandfather-in-law while pretending to care for him. The officials’ wives are horrified; Gao panics when Ruonan hints she might reveal more.
• Ruonan asks Gao for a bottle of her well-regarded floral water. Gao first refuses, then quickly agrees under pressure. Ruonan privately plans to study the formula and sell it.
• Jian Chuxue arrives with the Prince’s Tenth Young Miss. Ruonan recognizes Chuxue but wonders why she is at the princely residence; Chuxue offers only an indifferent glance.
• The women arrange a talent contest, with the Heir Apparent’s Consort’s jeweled hairpin and other costly jewelry as prizes. The Tenth Young Miss performs an extensive set—several instruments, a dance, calligraphy, and painting—despite initially claiming her talents are modest.
• Ruonan interprets the lavish performance as a calculated attempt to overwhelm her. When her turn comes, she confidently offers to demonstrate medicine, Purple Star astrology, or celestial divination.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan uses her revealing inner monologue to unsettle the gathering, secure the floral water, and spot the stakes in the contest. Her confidence and entrepreneurial instincts remain prominent.
• Madam Gao is exposed and embarrassed, then submits to Ruonan’s request rather than risk further revelations.
• The Tenth Young Miss appears modest but proves highly prepared and ambitious, displaying many talents in succession.
• The Heir Apparent’s Consort hosts the contest and contributes the first valuable prize.
• Jian Chuxue reappears, keeping her distance from Ruonan and the Old Madam.

Significant themes

• Public virtue versus private misconduct: Gao’s supposed filial devotion is recast as abuse of a vulnerable elder.
• Power of hidden knowledge: Ruonan’s thoughts—or the revelations they prompt—reshape the gathering and pressure others into compliance.
• Competition and strategy: The talent contest becomes a high-stakes social contest, with the Tenth Young Miss’s exhaustive display contrasted against Ruonan’s confidence.
• Wealth and opportunity: Ruonan sees both the prize pool and Gao’s floral water as chances to profit.

Plot points

• The Heir Apparent’s Consort challenges Jian Ruonan to prove her medical ability, expecting the young girl to fail. Madam Wang volunteers her nail fungus as a test, but Ruonan’s private thoughts about the contagious ailment alarm the Consort.
• Instead, Ruonan diagnoses the Consort by sight, correctly identifying boils hidden beneath her sleeves. She then embarrasses her further by claiming she has boils on her buttocks and exposing the jealousy and anxiety behind her “excess heart fire.”
• A vote between Ruonan and Tenth Young Miss ends in a tie. The Consort proposes a new test: Ruonan must improve a supposedly paralyzed guard.
• The Consort arranges for Guard Chen to be presented as gravely ill—apparently pretending to be paralyzed. Ruonan learns of the setup but accepts the challenge, encouraged by the heir apparent’s promise not to blame her if the guard dies and his offer of valuable jewelry if Chen improves.
• The chapter ends with Ruonan dramatically calling for her “Deep Sea Scalpel.”

Character developments

• Jian Ruonan proves to be more perceptive, confident, and mischievous than the ladies expect. She uses accurate observation and sharp psychological insight, while privately plotting outrageous ways to get even.
• The Heir Apparent’s Consort shifts from smug confidence to discomfort and embarrassment after Ruonan exposes her symptoms and personal frustrations. She then attempts to regain control by raising the stakes.
• Madam Pei acts as a practical mediator, steering the test toward a diagnosis that can be judged quickly and helping verify Ruonan’s claims.
• The heir apparent publicly backs the medical challenge and makes a risky promise, while Guard Chen becomes the focus of the next test.

Significant themes

• Appearances versus reality: Ruonan’s young age and timid manner conceal unusual skill and boldness.
• Power and public humiliation: The contest becomes a struggle for status, with medical claims and gossip used to undermine authority.
• Deception and showmanship: The Consort manipulates the challenge, while Ruonan counters with theatrics of her own.
• Medical skill as spectacle: The ladies judge healing ability in a competitive setting, where proof and public credibility matter as much as treatment.

Character interactions

• The Consort tries to corner Ruonan with Madam Wang’s ailment; Ruonan’s reactions and diagnosis turn the pressure back on her.
• Madam Pei supports a fairer, faster test and helps confirm the Consort’s hidden boils.
• The capital and southwestern officials’ wives divide their votes, leaving the contest unresolved.
• The Consort and heir apparent set Ruonan against Guard Chen, but Ruonan accepts with apparent innocence—and unmistakable confidence.

Key plot points and events

• Jian Ruonan examines Imperial Guard Chen, who appears paralyzed, and asks to review his medical records. Though she cannot read the physician’s handwriting, she pretends she has finished.
• The records claim Chen suffered a severe stroke causing hemiplegia. Jian Ruonan’s gossip patch reveals the truth: he had a real stroke, but only facial paralysis, and is faking the rest.
• With a sharp scalpel, Jian Ruonan theatrically stabs between Chen’s fingers, first without a blindfold and then blindfolded. She claims the ritual will borrow twenty years from Heaven and warns everyone to hold him still.
• The Prince of the Southwest’s heir and the attendants flee the blade’s path. When Jian Ruonan removes the blindfold, Chen’s arm can straighten and his fingers spread. The onlookers hail her as a miracle physician.
• Jian Ruonan calls the result “severing the shackles” on Chen’s hand. The Fourth Prince’s positive reaction earns her 100 points.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan remains bold, calculating, and comic: she conceals her inability to read the records and uses an alarming performance to treat a condition she knows is partly feigned.
• Imperial Guard Chen is revealed to be exaggerating his paralysis. He is frightened by Jian Ruonan’s apparent recklessness, but his hand improves enough to expose the contrast with his act.
• The Southwest heir begins as a curious observer, then grows increasingly alarmed and ultimately retreats from the blindfolded scalpel work.
• The Fourth Prince, Dantai Mo, silently reacts with jealousy at the thought that Jian Ruonan might use special medicine on Chen but not him. The system teases him about it.
• The officials’ wives first condemn the heir’s side for trying to intimidate Jian Ruonan, then are astonished by her apparent success.

Significant themes

• Performance and deception: Chen is faking the extent of his illness, while Jian Ruonan’s “treatment” is also a theatrical show.
• Appearance versus reality: The medical records and Chen’s symptoms seem to describe severe paralysis, but the truth is less dramatic.
• Comic bravado and spectacle: Jian Ruonan turns a risky procedure into a performance, while the others’ fear makes her seem even more impressive.
• Jealousy and affection: Dantai Mo’s unspoken concern over Jian Ruonan’s attention is played for humor.

Plot points and events

• After earning 100 points, Jian Ruonan clears her system debt and has points left to spend. She promises to upgrade her system, while privately planning to earn more from the visiting Fourth Prince.
• At a gathering, she claims her treatment has improved Imperial Guard Chen’s paralysis. The Southwest heir apparent and his consort reject this, despite an earlier agreement that any improvement would count as a win. Chen’s worsening “claw hand” makes his feigned condition increasingly obvious.
• Rather than accept their shifting rules, Jian Ruonan theatrically announces increasingly alarming treatments: first invoking an “Imperial Sword,” then producing a huge steel saw from her tiny pouch and threatening to amputate Chen’s legs.
• She demonstrates the saw on a stool, then prepares to operate on Chen. She blindfolds herself because she says she fears blood—and blindfolds Chen to spare him the shock.
• When the saw touches his leg, Chen cries out and springs off the bed, revealing that he was never paralyzed. Jian Ruonan declares that she has cured him by treating the “root cause.”

Character developments

• Jian Ruonan proves resourceful, theatrical, and unflappable. She turns the opponents’ refusal to acknowledge her success into a public trap, using humor and intimidation to expose the fraud.
• Imperial Guard Chen shifts from obediently faking paralysis to genuine panic as Jian Ruonan’s supposed treatment escalates; his involuntary leap gives him away.
• The heir apparent and his consort appear increasingly dishonest as they break the agreed conditions and defend Chen’s staged symptoms.
• Dantai Mo watches tensely, then interprets Jian Ruonan’s blindfolding of Chen as evidence of her compassion.

Significant themes

• Bluff and performance: Jian Ruonan’s exaggerated medical act outmaneuvers the couple’s own deception.
• Hypocrisy and accountability: Their attempts to change the rules are challenged in front of witnesses.
• Comedy through contrast: Jian Ruonan’s calm confidence clashes with everyone else’s alarm at her absurdly extreme “cure.”
• Unorthodox problem-solving: She wins not through conventional medicine, but by recognizing and exploiting the sham.

Character interactions

• Jian Ruonan appeals to the gathered officials’ wives, who support her and remind the couple of the original agreement.
• The heir apparent and his consort repeatedly try to discredit her; she answers their objections with increasingly outrageous threats.
• Chen’s fear grows as Jian Ruonan prepares the saw, while the onlookers misread her theatrics as medical skill and compassion.
• The moment Chen jumps exposes the deception to everyone, turning Jian Ruonan’s apparent threat into a decisive public victory.

Key plot points and events

• Imperial Guard Chen suddenly stands and is declared fully cured, prompting the gathered officials’ wives to praise Jian Ruonan as a miracle physician. Chen kneels to thank her, but Jian demands a consultation fee of five hundred taels, despite his private belief that her treatment had nearly maimed him.
• The Southwest heir apparent pays the fee. Jian also wins a sapphire peacock hairpin, which the Heir Apparent’s Consort tries to reclaim by offering an exchange. Jian refuses, jokingly asking for a city instead, and keeps the hairpin.
• Jian has the jewelry handled with gloves for “disinfection,” pointedly drawing attention to her disgust toward Madam Wang of the Black Fingernails.
• Jian notices the Fourth Prince has earned her a large number of system points. Her excitement triggers more points, while the Black Tortoise System mistakenly interprets her racing heartbeat as romantic interest in him.
• After the contest, the Heir Apparent’s Consort invites the ladies to admire an Eighteen Scholars camellia. Jian spots the Tenth Young Miss talking with Jian Chuxue.
• The Tenth Young Miss complains that Jian stole the hairpin and asks Jian Chuxue who the Third Prince loves. Jian Chuxue implies that the answer is Jian Ruonan, making the Tenth Young Miss resent her further.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan remains bold, mercenary, and unembarrassed by social conventions. She confidently claims payment and prizes, while her inner thoughts reveal that system points and valuable objects matter far more to her than admiration.
• Imperial Guard Chen is grateful in public but privately furious and doubtful about Jian’s treatment. He cannot contradict the crowd’s belief that she saved him.
• The Southwest heir apparent and his consort are visibly displeased by Jian’s success and demands. The heir apparent pays the fee; his consort fails to recover the hairpin.
• The Fourth Prince and Jian share an unexplained point-generating dynamic. Jian mistakes his influence for evidence of romantic promise, while the system insists her own excitement means she is falling for it.
• Jian Chuxue and the Tenth Young Miss bond over their resentment of Jian. Chuxue acts gentle and reassuring, but her revelation about the Third Prince’s affections turns the Tenth Young Miss’s jealousy toward Jian into sharper hostility.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: The crowd celebrates Jian as compassionate, while Chen remembers her frightening treatment; Jian’s apparent romantic excitement is actually about earning points.
• Social status and material value: Rank limits who may wear the hairpin, but Jian values it as a precious collectible and treats a city as a plausible price.
• Jealousy and rivalry: The Tenth Young Miss’s loss of the prize and suspicion that Jian is loved by the Third Prince intensify her hostility.

Plot and events

• Jian Ruonan admires the Heir Apparent’s Consort’s rare Eighteen Scholars camellia when Jian Chuxue, disguised as the adviser “Mr. Snow,” confronts her about selling Warm Jade. Jian Chuxue accuses Ruonan of secretly pursuing influence and wealth; Ruonan replies that Warm Jade serves a different market from Chuxue’s soap business.
• Their argument turns to Chuxue’s role in arranging for the Third Prince to marry her younger sister. Ruonan warns that the Third Prince is from Wa, but Chuxue already knows. She claims he rejected Wa and chose Great Xia for her sake, and insists she has no way back.
• After Chuxue leaves, a maid announces that Ruonan’s bear, Tangyuan, has fought Lang Batian, a large, territorial animal kept by the Heir Apparent’s Consort. The consort assumes Tangyuan has been badly hurt and pretends to offer sympathy, hoping Ruonan will be humiliated. Ruonan calmly asks that Tangyuan not be blamed if it misbehaved, and the consort promises not to hold a grudge.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan remains blunt and unbothered by accusations, but reveals concern about the Third Prince’s foreign origins and the threat his rule could pose to Great Xia. She also shows trust in Tangyuan, responding calmly to the report of the fight.
• Jian Chuxue is revealed as increasingly invested in the Third Prince, whom she believes has chosen Great Xia for her. Despite Ruonan’s warning, she supports his political ambitions and regards their relationship as an impossible-to-escape romance.
• The Heir Apparent’s Consort hides her satisfaction at the prospect of Tangyuan’s defeat, underestimating the bear because it seems gentle and harmless.
• The exchanges between Ruonan and Chuxue are openly hostile, while the consort’s exchange with Ruonan is outwardly courteous but driven by concealed malice. The actual outcome of Tangyuan and Lang Batian’s fight is not yet revealed.

Significant themes

• Loyalty and national identity: Ruonan objects to helping a foreign-born prince claim Great Xia’s throne, while Chuxue prioritizes her romance with him.
• Appearances versus reality: Chuxue’s scholarly disguise masks her political role; Ruonan’s apparent laziness conceals considerable achievements; and Tangyuan’s gentle appearance leads others to underestimate it.
• Romance and political ambition: Chuxue frames the Third Prince’s choice as proof of love, while Ruonan sees the danger in allowing romance to shape the succession.

Plot and key events

• Tangyuan is lured into Wolf Batian’s enclosure with apples. The heir apparent orders the partition removed so the wolf can attack the panda, while servants are told to lie about how the animals were brought together.
• Wolf Batian wakes, postures with a dramatic howl, and treats Tangyuan as harmless. When a bloodied live chicken is thrown in to provoke him, Tangyuan catches it first.
• Wolf Batian attacks. Tangyuan dodges, knocks him down with one paw, and sits on his head. After an unfortunate mess and several warning swats, the once-fierce wolf becomes docile and whimpering.
• When the Heir Apparent’s Consort arrives, she finds Tangyuan still planted on Wolf Batian, despite the servants’ attempts to lure him away with apples. Jian Ruonan recognizes the whimpering “wolf pup” beneath him as Wolf Batian.

Character developments and interactions

• Tangyuan appears cute, food-focused, and unimpressed by Wolf Batian’s displays, but proves unexpectedly powerful and assertive. He treats the wolf’s head as a seat and enforces his comfort with paw swats.
• Wolf Batian shifts from swaggering predator to defeated, frightened submissive. His confidence collapses after Tangyuan easily overpowers him.
• The servants and Imperial Guard enable the heir apparent’s order despite fearing the consequences. Their confidence that Tangyuan will be an easy victim turns to shock and fear.
• Jian Ruonan and the Consort arrive after the fight; Jian Ruonan’s remark highlights how completely the situation has been reversed.

Themes

• Appearances can deceive: the adorable, plant-eating panda is far more formidable than the fearsome wolf.
• Bullying and power reversal: those who arrange a cruel spectacle lose control when their intended victim turns the tables.
• Comic humiliation: Wolf Batian’s grand posturing ends in an undignified defeat, while Tangyuan remains focused on apples—and a comfortable seat.

Plot

• Tangyuan, Jian Ruonan’s pet Flower Bear, is found sitting on Wolf Batian, the Southwest heir apparent’s wolf. The heir apparent arrives expecting to see Tangyuan defeated, but instead finds his wolf pinned beneath the bear.
• Furious when his servants refuse to intervene, the heir apparent enters the enclosure with a sword. Tangyuan knocks the weapon away, tackles him, and tears off his jade crown and belt, exposing his red underpants.
• Jian Ruonan reveals that the “adorable” bear is an Iron-Eating Beast, capable of biting through iron. Tangyuan eventually stops when she calls it over, then instantly resumes its sweet, cuddly manner.
• Later, the injured and humiliated heir apparent plots to kill Jian Ruonan. As he threatens her, an unseen force grips his throat and kills him. His dying message, written in blood, is identified as “Great-Grandma.”
• His wife orders an attack on Jian Ruonan’s residence, but the same invisible force seizes her throat. She realizes what killed her husband just before she dies.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan remains composed and wry, using warnings and clever timing to expose the heir apparent’s recklessness. She controls Tangyuan easily and appears connected to the mysterious force responsible for the couple’s deaths.
• The Southwest heir apparent shifts from smug confidence to panic, humiliation, and finally a fatal attempt at revenge. His contempt for Tangyuan and refusal to heed warnings prove disastrous.
• The Heir Apparent’s Consort initially insists Tangyuan should not be blamed, but changes her position once her husband is attacked. After his death, she too becomes a target.
• Tangyuan is both terrifyingly powerful and comically docile, while Wolf Batian meekly accepts its role as a cushion and watches its master’s defeat.
• The gathered servants and officials’ wives serve as witnesses, reinforcing the couple’s public embarrassment and holding the consort to her earlier promise.

Themes

• Pride and recklessness invite consequences: the heir apparent ignores warnings and charges into danger.
• Appearances deceive: Tangyuan’s cuddly look conceals formidable strength, while its gentle behavior returns as soon as Jian Ruonan calls.
• Power and revenge: Jian Ruonan’s influence—or the mysterious “Great-Grandma”—extends beyond what her enemies understand.
• Public humiliation and social performance: the enclosure fight turns the heir apparent’s defeat into a spectacle, exposing the gap between his bravado and his helplessness.

Key plot points and events

• After the heir apparent and his consort die in a sealed study, Tenth Young Miss learns they both wrote “Great-Grandma” before dying. The heir apparent had also ordered Jian Ruonan’s assassination.
• Tenth Young Miss orders an attack on Jian Ruonan, but an unseen force kills her too. The three deaths are blamed on a mysterious assassin called “Great-Grandma.”
• At home, Jian Ruonan counts the lavish gifts she received at the prince’s residence and spends the night exploiting a system-upgrade glitch to draw cards without limit. She racks up a huge points debt and gains useful equipment, including solar batteries, pressure cookers, and gas cylinders.
• After upgrading, the system can show videos. Jian Ruonan watches footage revealing that the heir apparent, his consort, and Tenth Young Miss all died after plotting against her.
• With the heir apparent gone, Shi Fan feels secure enough to destroy the Prince of the Southwest’s gambling dens. The emperor appoints Jian Ruonan a Distant Pacification General and orders her to report to the Ministry of War.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan remains bold and opportunistic: she eagerly exploits the system glitch, jokes about her new “Dog System,” and treats the mysterious deaths as strange but useful protection.
• Min and Jian Xilu witness the magical screen above Jian Ruonan and interpret it as evidence of her growing supernatural power. Jian Xilu cannot speak about what she sees, preserving the mystery around Jian Ruonan’s abilities.
• Tenth Young Miss moves from confusion about the deaths to suspicion and an assassination order, but dies before she can finish giving it.
• Shi Fan shifts from concern about the prince’s power to decisive action against his gambling operations. The emperor and ministers discuss the risk of retaliation before giving Jian Ruonan a military appointment.
• The upgraded system and Jian Ruonan banter: she mocks its single-dot improvement, while it proudly reveals its new video feature.

Significant themes

• Retribution and supernatural protection: Those who plot against Jian Ruonan die mysteriously, and “Great-Grandma” becomes the name attached to that lethal force.
• Power and political opportunity: The heir apparent’s death weakens the prince’s faction, allowing Shi Fan and the court to act.
• Irreverent humor amid danger: The chapter mixes sudden deaths and political maneuvering with comic misunderstandings, system jokes, and Jian Ruonan’s extravagant card-drawing spree.
• Modern tools in a historical setting: Jian Ruonan’s prize draws introduce technology and improvised weapons as potential instruments of military power.

Key plot points and events

• Jian Ruonan learns she has been appointed grand general and must report to the Ministry of War. Her first thought is that her newly acquired modern equipment might finally be useful in a military role.
• She visits her Farm Estate with Hou Lixie, the Marquis’s brother-in-law, intending to develop weapons and eventually secure troops to protect her family from the Third Prince’s future rebellion.
• Her upgraded Dog System can now contact the Black Tortoise System directly. Jian asks it to bring the Fourth Prince to the estate—not for a romantic meeting, but so she can earn points by shocking him.
• The Black Tortoise System misleads Dantai Mo into thinking Jian wants time alone with him. He joins her carriage, where Hou Lixie’s presence briefly makes him jealous.
• At the estate, Jian introduces Dantai Mo to her unusual team: Abbot Li, Daoist Zhang, Daoist Xu, and the heavily pregnant explosives expert Wu Yehe. She gives Wu Yehe modern equipment and a schematic for a weapon she calls “Silly Sweetheart,” which Wu and Abbot Li begin building.
• Meanwhile, Jian Chuxue tests homemade explosives on Mount Wanyang and dreams of using her three thousand private troops to conquer Xia. She dismisses Jian Ruonan as insignificant.

Character developments

• Jian Ruonan turns her promotion into an opportunity to prepare for conflict, using her modern inventions and unconventional staff to build military strength.
• Dantai Mo is eager to see Jian, though he disguises his enthusiasm as coincidence. His jealousy of Hou Lixie reveals his romantic interest.
• Wu Yehe is shown as exceptionally capable and determined, continuing explosives work despite being close to giving birth.
• Jian Chuxue grows increasingly ambitious and confident, believing her developing bombs will let her overthrow the state.
• The Dog System has upgraded enough to communicate across long distances, while still encouraging Jian’s chaotic point-farming plans.

Significant themes

• Modern ingenuity versus traditional warfare: Jian’s pressure cookers, gas cylinders, and technical equipment promise to transform weapons development.
• Preparation and survival: Jian is building resources and a force to protect her family against future political upheaval.
• Ambition and rivalry: Jian Chuxue’s revolutionary plans set her against Jian Ruonan, though each is developing a different path to power.
• Romantic comedy and misunderstanding: The systems’ meddling turns a practical meeting into an imagined rendezvous and sparks Dantai Mo’s jealousy.

Character interactions

• Jian and the Dog System bicker over her enormous debt of points, then plot to make Dantai Mo earn more for her.
• The Black Tortoise System teases Dantai Mo and pushes him to present himself well, while Jian remains focused on shocking him for points.
• Dantai Mo and Hou Lixie exchange a tense, watchful moment; Hou quickly recognizes the prince’s jealousy.
• Jian presents her unusual team and equipment to Dantai Mo, who praises her collection of talent.
• Jian Chuxue’s contemptuous thoughts about Jian Ruonan underscore the growing rivalry between them.

Plot points and events

• Jian Ruonan learns that disaster refugees are arriving in the area and that many have turned to banditry. With the Farm Estate needing workers, she orders the manager to offer willing refugees food and work in the fields, livestock yards, and workshops.
• Dantai Mo supports the plan, offers grain, and leaves Imperial Guards to help manage the newcomers.
• Wu Yehe completes a rocket launcher made from a gas canister, a steel pipe, sugar-and-fertilizer propellant, and a grenade. Jian Ruonan takes it to Mount Wanyang to test it and deter the bandits.
• At the mountain, Dantai Mo demonstrates his archery skill by shooting a grenade-tipped arrow that blasts apart a tree. The bandits spot the group and are revealed to be an organized force led by Jian Chuxue, who is testing a cannon made from gunpowder and a catapult.
• Jian Ruonan’s supernatural Light Screen reveals Jian Chuxue’s plan to fire at them. The cannonballs fall short, so Jian Ruonan orders Wu Yehe to launch the rocket in response.
• The gas-canister rocket lands in Jian Chuxue’s gunpowder stockpile, creating a devastating explosion that destroys much of the mountaintop and wipes out the bandits. Jian Chuxue survives, trapped in the debris, and vows revenge. Her emotional reaction earns Jian Ruonan points from the system.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan shows both practical compassion and strategic judgment: she aims to prevent refugees from becoming desperate while using the estate’s labor needs to support them. In the confrontation, she quickly adapts to the threat and turns Jian Chuxue’s attack against her.
• Dantai Mo backs Jian Ruonan’s relief plan with resources and personnel, then volunteers to test his archery with a grenade-tipped arrow. His skill contrasts with his usual cold demeanor.
• Wu Yehe proves the rocket launcher’s designer and operator, following Jian Ruonan’s commands during the exchange of fire.
• Jian Chuxue emerges as the leader of a disciplined, technologically inventive bandit force. Her confidence in her cannon turns to panic at the rocket, but she survives and remains hostile toward Jian Ruonan.
• Jian Ruonan and Dantai Mo also react with surprise and humor to the system’s apparent upgrade, which it describes as gaining “one little dot” of power and becoming the “Dog System.”

Significant themes

• Compassion as prevention: Offering refugees food and honest work is presented as a way to relieve suffering and reduce the risk of rebellion.
• Technology and escalation: Both sides experiment with weapons, but Jian Ruonan’s improvised rocket proves overwhelmingly more destructive than Jian Chuxue’s cannon.
• Power, ingenuity, and unintended consequences: The rocket’s success defeats the bandits, but leaves a surviving enemy determined to retaliate.
• Comedy amid danger: The chapter mixes lethal combat with irreverent reactions to the system and the absurd image of a gas canister flying like a rocket.

• The grenade’s power—and its cost: The group watches Jian Chuxue’s cooking-canister grenade destroy half a mountaintop. Its blast also ignites the remaining fireworks, throwing Chuxue into the air; she survives but is badly injured. Dantai Mo and the others are astonished, and Dantai privately recognizes how such a weapon could change warfare—or even seize the throne.
• A miraculous birth at the estate: Wu Yehe goes into labor just as the estate’s cows do. Jian Ruonan has the midwife handle Wu Yehe while she uses her “Cow Midwifery” skill. Both cows, aided by Multiple-Birth Pills, deliver eight healthy calves each. The onlookers hail the event as an auspicious sign. Wu Yehe gives birth to a son and nicknames him “Gas Canister” in celebration of the successful rocket launch.
• Jian Ruonan and Dantai Mo: Jian leaves the cattle ranch in Dantai’s care and is pleased by how many points his emotional reactions earn her. The Black Tortoise System mistakes her attention for romantic interest, but Jian admits she mainly wishes Dantai would give her a thousand points at once. The systems conclude she is uninterested in romance and focused on rewards.
• A new military assignment: After Jian Ruonan is appointed Third-Rank General Who Pacifies the Frontier, the Ministry of War decides she must go directly to the barracks and earn the troops’ respect. Minister Pei doubts she has the usual qualities of a successful general and warns the officers not to go too far. At the barracks, Captain Xue and his men mock the idea of an eleven-year-old girl commanding them, insisting she will have to prove her strength.
  Character developments and themes: Jian Ruonan remains practical, skill-focused, and motivated by system points rather than romance, while Dantai’s reactions reveal his growing emotional investment. The chapter contrasts awe at Jian’s extraordinary inventions and supernatural abilities with skepticism about her fitness to command. It also plays comedy off the grandeur of “heavenly signs,” while setting up a conflict between Jian’s appointment and the soldiers’ gendered, age-based prejudice.

Plot points and events

• After spending the morning recovering from delivering a calf, Jian Ruonan prepares to report to the Ministry of War. Pei Shaoyi, her future sister-in-law, arrives with a letter and an heirloom saber from her grandmother, Madam Pei.
• Madam Pei hopes the saber will help Ruonan earn respect at the barracks. She also asks Ruonan to help Pei Shaoyi recover from her obsession with an actor, whom she tried to elope with.
• Ruonan takes Pei Shaoyi along to the barracks and uses deliberately terrible, teasing poetry—supplied by Black Tortoise through the Dog System—to ridicule her romantic fixation. The tactic works: Pei Shaoyi gives up composing poetry and wants to look at the scenery instead.
• At the barracks, Commander Wang and his officers have waited all morning for Ruonan. They mistake her late arrival and small party for calculated intimidation, though she was simply sleeping in.
• Wang dismisses Ruonan as a girl on a spring outing and orders the strong, bow-skilled Xue Jing to challenge her, assuming she will be physically outmatched.

Character development and interactions

• Jian Ruonan is irreverent and confident, treating Pei Shaoyi’s lovesickness as something she can “cure.” She accepts Madam Pei’s request and brings Shaoyi with her, while also carrying the borrowed saber despite knowing little about swordsmanship.
• Pei Shaoyi initially appears delicate, tearful, and absorbed in romantic poetry. Ruonan’s absurd verses quickly puncture her sentimental mood, prompting her to abandon the subject.
• Jian Xilu is protective of both the family and the match: she tries to keep Ruonan’s blunt inner thoughts from frightening their future sister-in-law.
• Black Tortoise and the Dog System contribute comic verse and encourage Ruonan, turning the carriage ride into a farcical poetry exchange.
• Commander Wang underestimates Ruonan based on her appearance and modest entourage, setting up the coming confrontation. His officers, meanwhile, interpret her absence as a deliberate show of authority.

Significant themes

• Comedy through contrast: Ruonan’s practical, sharp-edged outlook clashes with Pei Shaoyi’s melodramatic romanticism.
• Appearance versus reality: The soldiers see Ruonan as an unserious young woman, while her late arrival is mistakenly read as strategy.
• Love and family intervention: Madam Pei recruits Ruonan to help redirect Shaoyi’s fixation, while the family hopes Shaoyi will become a suitable match for Ruonan’s eldest brother.
• Authority and merit: The barracks officers’ assumptions foreshadow a test of whether Ruonan can command respect beyond her title.

Key plot points and events

• Jian Ruonan arrives at the barracks with Pei Shaoyi and is distracted by the soldiers’ physical training. Her inner commentary makes Pei Shaoyi wonder whether spending time with her will change her own temperament.
• On the Drill Platform, soldiers challenge Jian, hoping to expose what they see as an unearned appointment: she has become a general without military achievements.
• Jian chooses archery rather than a contest of strength. Unable to draw even a light conventional bow, she produces a compact, specially improved crossbow she designed with Abbot Li.
• The soldiers mock the weapon and Jian’s confidence. Captain Xue Jing demonstrates his skill by hitting and piercing the bull’s-eye from horseback at a long distance.
• Jian then fires from her own horse. Her bolt misses the target and lands nearby—until its attached explosive detonates, destroying the target and blasting a huge hole in the ground. The assembled soldiers are left speechless.

Character developments

• Jian Ruonan remains physically weak but turns that apparent disadvantage into an advantage through ingenuity and concealed firepower. She is amused by the soldiers’ contempt and confident that her invention will impress them.
• Pei Shaoyi reacts with restrained discomfort to the rowdy barracks and is repeatedly baffled by Jian’s irreverent inner thoughts.
• Xue Jing is introduced as a proud, highly capable archer whose eagerness to challenge Jian reflects both resentment and curiosity.
• Commander Wang is initially concerned that Jian might embarrass or injure herself, but witnesses the startling power of her weapon firsthand.

Significant themes

• Perception versus reality: The soldiers judge Jian by her gender, slight build, and lack of conventional martial prowess, only to discover that she possesses a formidable alternative.
• Innovation as power: Jian’s technical creativity lets her overcome physical limitations and reshape what counts as military skill.
• Prejudice and status: The challenge exposes the hostility toward a woman promoted without the battlefield record her peers expect.
• Comic bravado: Jian’s boastful inner monologue contrasts humorously with others’ skepticism—and, in the end, is backed up by results.

Character interactions

• Jian’s teasing thoughts about the soldiers and Pei Shaoyi’s reactions establish their contrasting personalities: Jian is mischievous and audacious, while Pei is reserved and easily exasperated.
• The soldiers’ taunts and Xue Jing’s challenge turn the welcome into a test of Jian’s legitimacy.
• Commander Wang tries to manage the contest cautiously, especially when Jian mounts her horse, but cannot prevent her from demonstrating her weapon.
• Jian’s explosive shot abruptly reverses the crowd’s mockery, leaving her challengers stunned.

Key plot points

• Jian Ruonan’s first crossbow shot obliterates the target, leaving the archery contest’s result unclear: Xue Jing hit the bull’s-eye, while Jian’s projectile appears to have destroyed the target without striking it.
• Jian agrees to shoot again, but first inspects the crater and praises the crossbow’s power. She also reveals her unusual stirrups, which make riding and shooting from horseback easier.
• Commander Wang and Xue Jing become interested in acquiring Jian’s equipment. Jian refuses to share, pointedly reminding them that they had just dismissed her because she was a woman.
• For the rematch, Jian has the target moved to 1,000 meters. She then uses an AWM rifle and destroys it with a single shot, ending the dispute with another “perfect score.”

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan remains playful, boastful, and sharp-tongued. She uses her success to embarrass those who underestimated her, while showing practical confidence in her weapons and equipment.
• Xue Jing starts out proud of his archery and skeptical of Jian, but her feats leave him speechless.
• Commander Wang shifts from judging Jian’s abilities to admiring her innovations and wanting her equipment; his earlier sexist attitude leaves him with little room to defend himself.
• Pei Shaoyi argues that Xue should win by conventional archery rules, prompting Jian to accept a rematch.
• Jian’s teasing exchanges with the men expose their private doubts and make their reactions part of the scene’s humor.

Significant themes

• Challenging sexism: Jian’s skill and inventions directly undermine the men’s assumptions about women in combat.
• Innovation and military potential: The crossbow and stirrups suggest new possibilities for long-range weaponry and cavalry training.
• Conventional rules versus battlefield effectiveness: Xue may be the better traditional archer, but Jian’s destructive weapons make her more formidable in real combat.
• Humor and humiliation: Jian’s exaggerated “humble” boasts and the others’ stunned reactions turn the contest into a comic reversal.

Key plot points and events

• Jian Ruonan wins a shooting contest against Captain Xue Jing by hitting a target at one thousand meters with her AWM. Xue’s arrow reaches only three hundred meters, and he formally concedes, though he privately blames her superior equipment.
• When Xue Jing admits the gear made the difference, Jian Ruonan asks who called her a “hen crowing at dawn.” She orders the entire garrison assembled to prove that she can lead them.
• Addressing roughly five thousand soldiers, Jian Ruonan proposes forming a “Daughter Army.” She presents the Maiden Stirrups and Maiden Crossbow, and demonstrates the AWM, which she jokingly renames the “Daughter Gun.”
• Selected soldiers test the stirrups and crossbow. The equipment impresses them: stirrups improve mounted combat, while the explosive-tipped crossbow bolts are deadly. Jian Ruonan promises advanced gear to those willing to fight under her.
• A soldier challenges her as an inexperienced commander who relies on equipment. Jian Ruonan counters with a theatrical claim that she is a heavenly god, then has Hou Lixie cloak her and activate a Tesla-coil staff. Its lightning display overwhelms the assembled soldiers.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan uses a mix of genuine ingenuity, bravado, humor, and spectacle to win the soldiers’ attention. She is sensitive to insults but turns them into opportunities to demonstrate her authority.
• Xue Jing shows discipline and pride: he competes seriously despite expecting to lose and kneels to concede, though he remains unconvinced that Jian Ruonan is personally superior.
• Hou Lixie supports Jian Ruonan by arranging the gathering, selecting soldiers to test her equipment, and helping stage the lightning demonstration. He enjoys the spectacle and is bemused by her ever-expanding claims of divine identity.
• Pei Shaoyi, Jian Ruonan’s eldest sister-in-law, watches her antics with dry skepticism, while still politely praising her deliberately ridiculous “poem.”
• The soldiers move from disbelief and suspicion toward wavering interest as they see the equipment’s practical value and then witness the Tesla-coil display.

Significant themes

• Technology and military change: Innovative weapons and equipment can reshape battlefield capability, but the chapter also raises the question of whether tools alone establish a commander’s worth.
• Authority through performance: Jian Ruonan uses demonstrations, slogans, humor, and theatrical staging to command attention and challenge prejudice.
• Gender and resistance: The idea of a “Daughter Army” provokes unease, reflecting assumptions about women’s place in military life; Jian Ruonan answers those doubts with visible power and practical results.
• Pride and persuasion: Xue Jing’s reluctant concession and the soldiers’ skepticism show that outward submission does not necessarily mean inward conviction.