Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Jian Chuyun arrives at the wrong courtyard while searching for her husband, Jian Huayuan, and is caught by Luo Shuirong and two Eastern Depot agents.
• Chuyun blames Jian Ruonan for directing her there, but the courtyard’s sign has been switched: it reads Full Chrysanthemum Fragrance rather than Full Plum Fragrance. The agents identify the switch.
• After Chuyun tries to escape, the agents threaten her with their swords and take her and her servants away. Luo tells them not to kill Chuyun, then returns to her attempt to seduce Huayuan.
• Huayuan urges Luo to abandon her efforts, but she persists, strips down, and discovers her Arousing Incense has mostly affected her rather than him. When she relights it, he refuses to breathe it in.
• Hidden nearby, Jian Ruonan and her companions debate whether to rescue Huayuan. Ruonan insists his innocence is safe for now and expects the Eastern Depot Governor to arrive with the butcher family.
• The butcher brothers arrive with the bound Governor, Pu Jingyi, looking for Full Chrysanthemum Fragrance. Unable to read the sign confidently, they discuss whether they may have brought the wrong man and consider apologizing with fruit wine. They decide to check inside first.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Chuyun shifts from bluster and blame to panic once she realizes the Eastern Depot agents are genuine. She tries to evade responsibility by blaming Ruonan, but is taken away.
• Luo Shuirong remains determined and shamelessly persistent despite repeated interruptions. Her plan is undermined by the switched sign, poor ventilation, and the incense’s effects.
• Jian Huayuan stays resistant to Luo’s advances, repeatedly asking her to stop and ultimately choosing to hold his breath.
• Jian Ruonan and her companions watch the chaos from hiding, balancing their amusement with concern for Huayuan.
• Pu Jingyi and the butcher brothers are an incongruous team: the Governor is bound and carried, while the brothers’ illiteracy and suspicion lead to a muddled discussion over the sign and their next move.

Significant themes

• Comic misunderstandings and mistaken identity: The switched courtyard signs send characters to the wrong place and drive the chapter’s escalating chaos.
• Blame and accountability: Chuyun attempts to shift responsibility to Ruonan, while the agents refuse to let her evade the consequences of striking them.
• Innocence under pressure: Huayuan’s restraint contrasts with Luo’s relentless advances, making his “innocence” the chapter’s running joke.
• Spectacle and disorder: Nearly every attempt to control events is disrupted, turning the onlookers into frantic participants in the unfolding farce.

Key plot points and events

• The butcher family’s brothers kick open the wrong room while searching for their missing eldest daughter, interrupting Luo Shuirong’s attempt to force herself on the bound Jian Huayuan.
• Jian Ruonan taunts the brothers into bringing Luo out to check whether she is the woman they seek. She is not.
• The brothers discover that the building’s sign was switched: they thought they had come to Full Chrysanthemum Fragrance, but the venue was originally Full Plum Fragrance.
• Mistaking fruit-wine seller Pu Jingyi for the person who led them there, the brothers seize him. Luo calls for Eastern Depot agents Xuan Seven and Xuan Eight, but the brothers overpower and bind them too.
• Following cries for help, the brothers find Jian Chuyun and two older women in a side room and free them. Comparing stories, they realize the butcher family’s eldest daughter is the mistress Jian Chuyun had been looking for—the same woman tricked into coming to the venue by a married man.
• Concluding she must be in the building’s last courtyard, the brothers tie up Pu Jingyi, Luo, and Jian Chuyun and take them along as witnesses. Jian Huayuan remains tied to his chair, pleading to be released.

Character developments and interactions

• The butcher brothers are determined but confused by the series of misunderstandings; their unexpectedly effective teamwork lets them overpower trained Eastern Depot agents.
• Jian Ruonan stays mischievous, steering the brothers toward Luo for an embarrassing inspection before disappearing.
• Luo Shuirong is humiliated by being seen naked and frustrated that her attempted seduction has been repeatedly interrupted. She fiercely objects when the brothers mistreat her uncle, Pu Jingyi.
• Pu Jingyi is bewildered and resentful at being accused and captured, while Xuan Seven and Xuan Eight are swiftly subdued after answering Luo’s summons.
• Jian Chuyun is rescued after being tortured; her account helps the group identify the missing girl. Jian Huayuan, meanwhile, is left behind still bound and calling for help.

Significant themes

• Comic chaos and mistaken identity: Wrong rooms, a switched sign, and crossed assumptions turn a search into a farcical chain of confrontations.
• Unexpected reversals: The rough butcher brothers easily defeat supposedly formidable agents, while the people trying to control events repeatedly lose control of them.
• Loyalty and solidarity: The brothers act as a united group and remain focused on rescuing their sister, even as they drag along people whose innocence is unclear.

Plot points and events

• Jian Ruonan’s group initially follows the Pork Butcher’s Family to witness the unfolding drama, leaving Jian Huayuan tied up. When he calls out and proves he knows they are there, they finally free him—though he complains that they delayed.
• The group catches up at Le Ao’s residence, where the butcher family rescues their daughter, Pork Xi Shi. Le Ao had lured her there by pretending to need a regular pork supplier, intending to seduce her despite being married.
• Le Ao’s servants are subdued, and he is tied up alongside Jian Chuyun, Pu Jingyi, and Luo Shuirong. Le Ao and Jian Chuyun argue, with Jian Chuyun denouncing his behavior.
• Pork Xi Shi reads a token that the family had mistaken for a fruit-wine seller’s pass: it actually identifies Pu Jingyi as an officer of the Eastern Depot. Realizing they have tied up its commander, the butcher family panics and vows to fight rather than submit.
• The family threatens to kill everyone who witnessed the incident. Just as violence is about to begin, Jian Ruonan arrives dramatically, calls for the execution to stop, and launches into a heroic song.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan remains playful and more interested in following the gossip than acting immediately, but ultimately leads the rescue and intervenes to prevent a massacre.
• Jian Huayuan is rescued but resents being left tied up; he is also embarrassed by the suggestion that he might have lost his chastity. Pei Shaoyi’s teasing “ninety-nine points” adds to his discomfort.
• Teng eagerly backs Jian Ruonan and accepts blame on her behalf, while Dantai Mo watches him with envy.
• Pork Xi Shi is revealed to have been deceived about Le Ao’s intentions. Her family’s fierce protectiveness brings her safely back to them.
• Le Ao’s plan to exploit Pork Xi Shi is exposed. His quarrel with Jian Chuyun reveals their strained marriage and her contempt for him.
• The butcher family’s relief at finding their daughter turns to terror when they discover Pu Jingyi’s identity; their fear quickly becomes defiance.

Significant themes

• Heroism and visibility: Jian Ruonan’s entrance frames the chapter’s central question: whether only people “standing in the light” can be heroes.
• Family loyalty and protection: The butcher family risks everything to rescue and defend Pork Xi Shi.
• Deception and exploitation: Le Ao disguises his predatory intentions as a business opportunity.
• Comedy amid danger: Delayed rescues, mistaken identities, teasing, and the butcher family’s over-the-top bravado turn a potentially deadly confrontation into comic melodrama.

Key plot points and events

• Jian Ruonan arrives to stop the confrontation. Pu Jingyi and Luo Shuirong are arrested for concealing the First Imperial Prince’s child, whom Pu secretly raised under his own name. The Crown Prince, Dantai Mo, declares the charge and says he will interrogate them.
• Jian Chuyun asks that her husband, Le Ao, be arrested. Jian Ruonan orders his arrest too, since he abducted a respectable woman. Chuyun watches him go with conflicted feelings.
• The arrests bring the public spectacle to an end, protecting Dragon Villa’s reputation and property values. The Pork Butcher’s family thanks Ruonan with a promise of a lasting discount.
• Chuyun and Le Ao’s families meet to arrange their divorce by mutual agreement. The Le family first urges reconciliation, then seeks to repudiate Chuyun after learning she had Le Ao imprisoned.
• Dantai Mo attends the family discussion as a witness. He quietly takes over shelling pine nuts for Ruonan while she, Teng, and Jian Xilu joke about marriage and good men.
• The Hou System warns Ruonan that failure to complete her mission will bring the punishment of erasure.

Character developments

• Jian Ruonan acts decisively as an official, ordering arrests without letting family ties sway her. Though outwardly casual, she is now confronted with the serious stakes of her mission.
• Jian Chuyun shows that her feelings toward Le Ao remain tangled, even as she chooses to have him punished and proceeds with their separation.
• Dantai Mo displays steady support for Ruonan and hints at a romantic devotion, praising her as a rare “pearl.” He also serves as a witness in the divorce proceedings.
• Teng jokes about Ruonan’s prospects while privately hoping Dantai Mo might become his future brother-in-law.
• Jian Xilu joins in the family’s teasing, showing warmth and solidarity with her siblings.

Significant themes

• Justice versus personal loyalty: Ruonan’s family connection to Le Ao does not prevent her from enforcing the law.
• Love, resentment, and separation: Chuyun’s conflicted reaction to Le Ao’s arrest underscores how painful and complicated the marriage remains.
• Romance and idealization: Dantai Mo contrasts Ruonan’s cynical view of marriage with his belief that encountering a truly good person can change one’s mind.
• Comedy alongside danger: The chapter mixes farcical spectacle and family banter with the grave threat of Ruonan’s possible erasure.

Character interactions

• Ruonan and Dantai Mo work together in the legal aftermath; his attentive gestures and pointed compliments suggest affection, while she redirects the conversation.
• Ruonan and Chuyun share a blunt, practical exchange about Le Ao’s arrest, with Chuyun’s emotions left unresolved.
• Teng and Xilu tease each other—and Ruonan—about marriage and Dantai Mo, while Ruonan and her siblings reaffirm their loyalty to one another.
• The Hou System’s warning abruptly shifts the mood, revealing that Ruonan’s mission carries consequences beyond the events at hand.

Key plot points

• Jian Ruonan learns that the Main System will erase her in less than seven days unless she completes her mission: getting Jian Chuxue to have a son. The Hou System admits it had known but failed to tell her promptly.
• Ruonan urgently tries to find a shortcut, asking for an instant or rapid fertility pill. None exists. The Hou System instead tells her the mission’s rewards are exceptionally generous; she spends the night studying them.
• Xuan Xiaowu tells Crown Prince Dantai Mo that the Hou System has arranged for him to discuss marriage at the Jinyang Marquis’s Residence. Delighted, Dantai dresses in full ceremonial robes and rushes there before the appointed time.
• Dantai arrives while Jian Ruonan is still asleep. When the Old Madam and other relatives try to use his visit to criticize Ruonan, he refuses to wake her and calmly waits beside her courtyard.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan remains practical and irreverent even when faced with impending erasure. Her initial calm gives way to alarm once she learns the deadline, and she immediately looks for ways to finish the mission.
• The Hou System is anxious and well-meaning but unreliable, having delayed an urgent warning. Its news about the rewards gives Ruonan a new incentive.
• Dantai Mo shows how eager he is to marry Ruonan: he abandons plans for morning court and arrives in elaborate formal dress. Though he threatens Xuan Xiaowu with a sword to make him speak quickly, he is visibly excited by the news.
• Xuan Xiaowu delivers the marriage message under pressure and privately thinks Dantai and Ruonan are well suited in their madness.
• The Old Madam and the younger branches expect Dantai to reprimand Ruonan for sleeping late, hoping to undermine her. His protective response surprises them and suggests he is deeply fond of her.

Significant themes

• Comic urgency: Ruonan’s looming deadline is serious, but her response—especially her search for increasingly impossible fertility pills—keeps the crisis humorous.
• Affection and loyalty: Dantai’s willingness to wait patiently and defend Ruonan contrasts with the relatives’ hostility.
• Expectations overturned: The family assumes the Crown Prince will punish Ruonan, but he supports her instead, leaving them baffled.

Plot points and events

• Dantai Mo waits seven hours for Jian Ruonan to wake, while the Old Madam and the Younger and Third Branches linger outside, expecting him to punish her. Instead, he orders the Old Madam to prepare for his wedding to Jian Ruonan; the Ministry of Rites will handle the arrangements.
• In Jian Ruonan’s room, Xuan Xiaowu reveals that Dantai Mo had been waiting since early morning despite knowing she would sleep late. Xiaowu jokes that he could become her heir, but Jian Ruonan says she may bring back the Hou System instead.
• Jian Ruonan presents Dantai Mo with a marriage agreement full of terms protecting her comfort and independence, including provisions against forced childbirth, early rising, and pressure to take concubines. He signs it immediately and seals it with the Crown Prince’s gold seal.
• Dantai Mo explains that he will honor the agreement so she can feel secure, and that she may leave if he ever fails to do so. He asks to add that they cannot sleep separately after marriage; Jian Ruonan agrees after adding a clause forbidding anyone from urging him to take concubines.
• After they sign and seal the agreement, Dantai Mo asks to fulfill her earlier request for a kiss. Embarrassed, Jian Ruonan chases him out.

Character developments

• Jian Ruonan remains fiercely protective of her freedom and comfort, using humor and a detailed agreement to set firm conditions for marriage. Her embarrassment at Dantai Mo’s request hints at growing romantic feelings.
• Dantai Mo demonstrates patience, devotion, and respect for Jian Ruonan’s autonomy. He accepts even extreme terms without bargaining, while openly seeking marital closeness and exclusivity.
• Xuan Xiaowu jokes about becoming Jian Ruonan’s heir, but Dantai Mo sends him out so the couple can speak privately.
• The Old Madam and the branch families move from anticipation of Jian Ruonan’s downfall to shock at the news that she will marry the Crown Prince.

Significant themes and interactions

• Marriage as negotiation and consent: Jian Ruonan defines the terms of marriage, and Dantai Mo’s willingness to accept them underscores her agency.
• Affection expressed through patience and reassurance: Dantai Mo’s long wait and promise to honor the agreement show commitment through actions as well as words.
• Monarchical power used for comic effect: The Crown Prince’s seal makes Jian Ruonan’s outrageous clauses official, while the relatives’ fear and disbelief provide humor.
• Romantic tension: Their practical, teasing negotiation gives way to a shy exchange about sharing a bed and a kiss.

Key plot points and events

• Dantai Mo returns to the palace and tells Emperor Deyuan and Consort Yan that he has arranged to marry Jian Ruonan. Both are astonished, since Jian has championed women’s independence and helped others break their engagements.
• Dantai Mo asks his father to issue the marriage decree and insists the wedding take place in six days. Emperor Deyuan objects that the traditional rites would take months, but Consort Yan persuades him that the match should be secured quickly. The Ministry of Rites is ordered to complete the preparations in six days.
• News of the engagement shocks Jian Ruonan’s friends, who had followed her example in leaving unwanted engagements. When teased about her apparent change of heart, Jian says marrying Dantai Mo will not feel like a hardship. She considers it a chance to experience a different life, though she cannot bring herself to reject his sincere feelings.
• Restless and distracted by the coming wedding, Dantai Mo decides to visit Jian. After Xuan Xiaowu suggests getting her to visit the Eastern Palace instead, he arranges for Xiaowu to tell her that he is ill.
• Jian arrives to examine him. Dantai admits his “illness” is longing and claims he feels cold; Xiaowu explains that it is the “empty, lonely, and cold” kind.

Character developments and interactions

• Dantai Mo is openly devoted to Jian and impatient to marry her, even threatening to replace officials who cannot meet his timetable. His eagerness also makes him resort to a transparent pretext to see her.
• Jian Ruonan remains independent and pragmatic, but Dantai’s heartfelt affection softens her resolve to keep marriage at arm’s length. She agrees to approach married life as an experience rather than a permanent obligation.
• Emperor Deyuan is initially incredulous and concerned about protocol, but his affection for Jian and fear of upsetting her lead him to approve the rushed wedding.
• Consort Yan supports the match and urges the Emperor to act quickly before Jian changes her mind.
• Xuan Xiaowu teases Dantai for pursuing Jian so eagerly, then helps arrange their meeting and punctures Dantai’s dramatic claim of illness with a joke.

Significant themes

• Women’s independence and choice: Jian’s marriage does not erase her commitment to autonomy; she sees it as a choice she can make on her own terms.
• Sincere affection versus pressure: Dantai’s devotion influences Jian, but her hesitation shows the importance of her own willingness.
• Romantic comedy and impatience: The palace’s frantic six-day wedding schedule and Dantai’s fake illness turn his earnest longing into playful farce.

• Dantai Mo tries to speak privately with Jian Ruonan, but she insists Xuan Xiaowu stay. Mo attempts to tell her something serious, yet he and Xiaowu are both mysteriously unable to say it aloud. He gives up and hints that the Embroidered Uniform Guard is not omniscient, using the hidden gold of Censor Cao as an example. Jian Ruonan is puzzled, since she believes the Guard uncovered that very secret.
• Emperor Deyuan summons Jian Ruonan to the Imperial Study. Mo is irritated that Cao Degui interrupts his time with her, while Xiaowu teases him. At the meeting, Mo insists on sitting beside Jian Ruonan, prompting the Emperor to privately lament his son’s devotion—and worry that Ruonan’s unfiltered thoughts might reveal state secrets.
• The wedding date becomes the subject of court business. Emperor Deyuan has ordered the Crown Prince’s wedding in six days, despite officials’ objections that the preparations are rushed. The Imperial Astronomical Bureau’s Director Li claims the proposed date is inauspicious and recommends postponing the wedding. The officials expect Ruonan to intimidate him into withdrawing the objection, but she instead becomes curious about the Bureau.
• Ruonan’s thoughts expose the Bureau’s methods and Director Li’s secret. She assumes its forecasts rely on ordinary divination and natural signs, and jokes that her family’s Teng could do the same. The court initially fears she will get the Bureau abolished, then learns that Li’s weather predictions are unusually accurate. Ruonan reveals the absurd reason: after secretly watching a widow bathe when he was young, he began predicting the weather correctly. The officials and Li are left stunned and embarrassed.
  Character developments and interactions: Mo’s affection for Ruonan is evident in his wish for privacy and insistence on sitting beside her, while Ruonan remains blunt, curious, and unaware that others can hear her thoughts. Xiaowu acts as Mo’s teasing foil and readily follows Ruonan’s lead. The Emperor and ministers both admire Ruonan’s usefulness and fear the trouble her revelations can cause. Director Li begins as a confident obstacle to the wedding plans but ends exposed by Ruonan’s thoughts.
  Themes: The chapter uses comic misunderstandings and involuntary revelations to explore the gap between public authority and private reality. It also satirizes court bureaucracy, divination, and official resistance to an inconveniently swift royal wedding.

Key plot points and events

• Director Li confronts Jian Ruonan with a bagua disk, apparently preparing a curse. Her thoughts expose that he is reciting cooking recipes instead.
• Jian’s inner commentary reveals the real source of Director Li’s weather-predicting reputation: after breaking his hand while peeping at a widow, he learned to forecast rain, snow, and wind from the pain in his injured joints. His rain rituals merely coincided with weather he had already predicted.
• Emperor Deyuan is outraged to learn that Director Li’s mysticism is really rheumatism—and that the emperor has swallowed his homemade pills—but tolerates Jian’s irreverent thoughts.
• The emperor orders Director Li to choose an auspicious hour for the fifteenth. His suggested times are successively rejected because Jian sleeps late. After several attempts, he settles on three quarters past Shen Hour.
• Dantai Mo asks whether Director Li’s hand will hurt that day. Minister Pei then proposes his rheumatic, former-cook nephew for the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, prompting the court to recognize the absurd fit.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan remains blunt and irreverent, exposing Director Li’s secrets and prioritizing a late start to the day. She insists she cannot calculate auspicious hours herself.
• Director Li goes from threatening Jian to humiliated compliance, repeatedly changing the chosen time under pressure. His mystic authority is revealed as a comic fraud built on bodily pain.
• Emperor Deyuan shifts from amused curiosity to anger at Director Li’s deception, but still does not punish Jian for her thoughts.
• Dantai Mo backs Jian by demanding new calculations, while Minister Pei joins the joke by recommending a nephew whose cooking and rheumatism mirror Director Li’s supposed qualifications.
• The court’s officials collectively mock Director Li and accept Jian’s version of events over his denials.

Significant themes

• Debunking false authority: Director Li’s grand reputation rests on an ordinary, embarrassing explanation.
• Power of candid speech: Jian’s thoughts expose secrets and reshape the court’s behavior, even when she is not speaking aloud.
• Courtly absurdity and complicity: Officials and emperor alike participate in the farce, and the Bureau’s expertise is reduced to recipe recitation and rheumatism.
• Comfort versus convention: The “auspicious” schedule is ultimately adjusted around Jian’s sleeping habits.

Plot points and events

• After Director Li’s retirement is arranged, Jian Ruonan and Crown Prince Dantai Mo visit the Eastern Palace. He explains that Li’s supposedly reliable forecasts came from an old arm injury, and remarks that the Astronomical Bureau has too many officials who do little work.
• Dantai Mo introduces Ruonan to the Eastern Palace officials. She misreads the title of the Crown Prince’s “Horse Washer” as a literal groom, prompting an awkward but amusing clarification. The officials see how unusually gentle Dantai Mo is with her and conclude that he genuinely values his future Crown Princess.
• Dantai Mo escorts Ruonan home, then sends her a pair of wild geese he personally hunted as betrothal tokens. Soon after, the Eastern Palace delivers an enormous collection of betrothal gifts.
• Ruonan discovers that her mother, Min, had quietly prepared a substantial dowry even when Ruonan insisted she would never marry. Min now needs to expand it for the hurried wedding, while Ruonan leaves the preparations to her.
• Chen Pozi arrives in distress: her grandson has disappeared at the market, and she asks Ruonan to use her supposed divination skills to find him. Though Ruonan knows the request is unusual, she immediately tries to help.

Character developments and interactions

• Dantai Mo continues to show affection through practical attention and personal gestures. He is careful not to reveal that he can hear Ruonan’s thoughts, and his tenderness toward her surprises the Eastern Palace officials.
• Jian Ruonan remains candid, irreverent, and unconcerned with courtly formality. Despite her skepticism about Chen Pozi’s appeal, she responds quickly to the child’s disappearance.
• Min reveals her long-standing care for Ruonan: she prepared a dowry in advance so her daughter would be provided for whether or not she married.
• The Eastern Palace officials move from uncertainty about the sudden wedding to recognizing Dantai Mo’s genuine devotion to Ruonan.
• Chen Pozi, who knows Ruonan’s divine possessions are an act, nevertheless trusts her enough to seek her help in a crisis.

Significant themes

• Love expressed through action: Dantai Mo’s hunted geese and Min’s years of preparation show affection through concrete gestures.
• Public image versus private character: Ruonan’s casual humor unsettles officials, while Dantai Mo’s private warmth contrasts with his stern public reputation.
• Family care and preparedness: Min’s quiet planning emphasizes a parent’s enduring concern for her daughter.
• Trust amid deception: Chen Pozi’s appeal highlights the complicated trust surrounding Ruonan’s fabricated supernatural abilities.

Key plot points and events

• Jian Ruonan learns that Chen Pozi’s grandson, Tangdou, has been abducted near Tianshui Temple. Though Chen Pozi seems unexpectedly calm, Jian knows the boy is being held outside the city and sends Commander Xue with a hundred soldiers to rescue him.
• The soldiers raid the traffickers’ hideout, arrest the criminals, and free Tangdou along with other abducted children and young women. Jian arranges for the victims to be reunited with their families and has the traffickers turned over for punishment.
• Two licensed slave brokers claim they were deceived. Jian discovers they knowingly supplied children to powerful clients for abuse and other cruel purposes. Horrified that such dealings are legal, she orders the brokers treated as traffickers.
• Realizing that her recently enacted laws do not protect people enslaved by contract, Jian decides to act directly against those exploiting children. She sends a warning to Master Xu, a wealthy man who sexually abuses the young boys he keeps as study attendants. When he ignores it and calls a child to his study, Jian waits outside with the Imperial Sword, ready to intervene.

Character developments

• Jian Ruonan shows decisiveness and compassion in the rescue, then becomes more determined and personally involved in protecting vulnerable children when she sees the limits of the law.
• Chen Pozi and her daughter, Xianshu, are grateful to Jian. Chen also reveals that her husband disappeared years earlier; Jian promises to help find him.
• Dantai Mo accompanies Jian on her mission and openly assures her that he will support her, despite her warning that she can be reckless and self-interested.

Character interactions

• Jian questions Chen Pozi about the disappearance, reassures her through action, and promises help finding her missing son-in-law.
• Commander Xue follows Jian’s instructions, leads the rescue, and consults her about the brokers and the law.
• Outside Master Xu’s study, Jian challenges Dantai Mo’s devotion by admitting her flaws and recklessness. He rejects her doubts, insisting she has no flaws and that he will stand by her.

Significant themes

• Justice versus inadequate law: Legal protections fail those trapped in slavery, prompting Jian to consider direct action.
• Exploitation and abuse of the vulnerable: The chapter condemns trafficking and the legal systems that enable the purchase and abuse of children.
• Compassion expressed through action: Jian’s concern for victims leads her to organize rescues and confront perpetrators herself.
• Trust and devotion: Dantai Mo’s unwavering support contrasts with Jian’s reluctance to accept responsibility for another person.

Plot and key events

• Jian Ruonan leads Commander Xue and soldiers in punishing Xu Fan, a powerful man accused of abusing children. After he is bound and gagged, she orders him castrated; Dantai Mo approves, even suggesting a harsher public warning.
• The next morning, Xu Fan is displayed on the city wall with his crimes written on a strip of cloth. The Rich Lady’s campaign continues: men in the capital who have abused children or raped women are warned, then castrated and publicly exposed. The city’s officials grow terrified of her.
• Emperor Deyuan orders the Ministry of Justice to catch the Rich Lady. Dantai Mo jokingly proposes punishing her with wine, while Jian argues that harming children is worse than adultery—an offense for which private punishment is already permitted. The emperor assigns Jian to help investigate the cases.
• Afterward, Dantai Mo tells Jian she can work at the Ministry whenever she likes. Jian reflects that, despite her laziness and limited power, she cannot ignore the cruelty hidden beneath the city’s prosperity. Dantai reassures her: “You still have me.”

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan is ruthless in punishing abusers but worries about whether Dantai will judge her. She finds his approval surprisingly bloodthirsty, then shows a deeper sense of responsibility by acknowledging the suffering she cannot simply overlook.
• Dantai Mo remains tender and supportive toward Jian, yet his approval of severe violence hints at the ruthless ruler he may become. He backs her publicly and comforts her afterward.
• Commander Xue initially fears the political risks of Jian’s campaign, but Dantai’s presence reassures him. He and the soldiers carry out Jian’s orders.
• Emperor Deyuan tries to assert control over the scandal, but Jian challenges the logic behind the law, and he responds by placing her in the Ministry of Justice.

Significant themes

• Justice versus legality: Jian questions why private vengeance is tolerated for adultery but not for crimes against children.
• Power and impunity: Influential offenders evade ordinary accountability, prompting extrajudicial punishment.
• Moral conviction and its costs: Jian admits she cannot fix the world, but refuses to turn away from abuses she can confront.
• Love and support: Dantai’s final reassurance anchors Jian amid her exhaustion and moral burden.

Plot points and events

• Dantai Mo confirms to Jian Ruonan—through a deliberately timed blink—that he can hear her thoughts. The Scavenger Group can hear them too, and so can the emperor and court officials. Jian realizes her private insults and songs have been exposed, including to her family, and flees in mortification.
• After sleeping, Jian quickly accepts the situation and deduces that people who hear her thoughts are unable to discuss it openly. She also realizes the emperor has spared her family because he believes she is possessed by her formidable great-grandmother.
• Jian experiments with the Gossip System’s settings at the Old Madam’s home. By switching between [Enjoy Alone] and [Enjoy Together], she can control whether others hear her thoughts. She uses the shared setting to make the Old Madam hear that the soup Jian serves is poisonous; the Old Madam panics, spills both bowls, and calls for a physician.
• Jian then visits Emperor Deyuan before her wedding. Claiming she is troubled about marrying, she privately mocks his health tonic and deliberately taunts him because she knows he can hear her thoughts.

Character developments

• Jian Ruonan moves from shock and embarrassment to mischievous confidence. Rather than hide her thoughts, she decides to exploit the system and enjoy her newfound power over those who hear her.
• Dantai Mo confirms his ability to hear her thoughts while remaining outwardly calm and composed.
• The Old Madam becomes wary of Jian after hearing her thoughts about the supposedly poisonous soup.
• Emperor Deyuan is forced to endure Jian’s insults without being able to confront her about how she knows he can hear them.

Significant themes

• Privacy and exposure: Jian’s inner monologue is suddenly public, turning her private irreverence into a source of social embarrassment.
• Power through information: The Gossip System’s settings let Jian decide who hears her thoughts, giving her a way to manipulate others.
• Comedy and role reversal: Jian appears quiet and respectful, but her thoughts are brazen; those in authority must silently tolerate her mockery.
• Family and political survival: Jian’s possession by her great-grandmother helps explain why the emperor has not punished her for her insults.

Character interactions

• Jian and Dantai communicate indirectly through blinks, as she tests what he can hear.
• Jian uses her thoughts to frighten the Old Madam, who misinterprets her warnings as evidence of an actual poisoning attempt.
• Jian faces Emperor Deyuan with polite words and an openly mocking inner voice, while he can only listen in frustration.

Plot and events

On the day of Jian Ruonan and Crown Prince Dantai Mo’s wedding, the Jinyang Marquis’s household is bustling with preparations—but Ruonan is still asleep. The Eastern Palace’s female officials grow increasingly alarmed as the family, including Min and the Old Madam, refuses to wake her. Dantai Mo is equally untroubled, saying there is plenty of time before the auspicious hour.
Ruonan finally wakes at her usual time, eats a full meal, and declines both an early start on her makeup and a lesson in wedding etiquette. She trusts that she can simply follow the officials’ guidance. After giving the courtyard maids red envelopes and greeting the friends and relatives gathered to support her, she dresses in her bridal robes. At the appointed hour, she calmly follows the elaborate ceremony and leaves with Dantai Mo.

Character developments

• Jian Ruonan remains independent, relaxed, and practical even on her wedding day. She treats the marriage as a change of home rather than a frightening upheaval, and her playful confidence continues through the ceremony.
• Dantai Mo is openly delighted and eager to marry Ruonan. His calm response to the officials’ worries shows how well he accepts her habits and trusts her.
• The household and friends demonstrate affection by supporting Ruonan without pressuring her. Min and Jian Xilu are moved by her appearance, while Teng praises her—only to be teased for his limited vocabulary.
• The female officials serve as a comic contrast: they are anxious about protocol, while Ruonan and her family remain entirely at ease.

Themes

• Love as acceptance: Dantai Mo’s patience and the family’s indulgence show that Ruonan is loved without needing to conform to others’ expectations.
• Personal freedom within tradition: Ruonan takes part in the formal wedding rites but approaches them in her own unhurried, matter-of-fact way.
• Life’s brevity and choosing happiness: As she is led through the ceremony, Ruonan reflects on how quickly life passes and on Dantai Mo’s promise of a peaceful, joyful future.
• A relaxed ending: The wedding closes the main story with warmth, humor, and confidence in the couple’s life together.

Key plot points

• Chen Yuerong, an overlooked cleaning woman in the Jinyang Marquis’s Residence, is transferred to serve the poorly regarded Fifth Miss. The household is divided between the Old Madam’s Younger and Third Branches and the weaker Elder Branch, led by Jian Zhang.
• Yuerong first carries the Fifth Miss during an outing, where they miss the epiphyllum bloom but stumble upon Second Master Jian Lang and Concubine Wei in a compromising encounter.
• Though other servants warn that serving the Fifth Miss offers no prospects, the Fifth Miss appoints Yuerong to attend her personally and doubles her allowance. Yuerong is pleased, especially because the extra money lets her buy treats and ribbons for her daughter.
• Yuerong grows stronger through exercise so she can keep carrying the Fifth Miss. At the Eldest Princess’s Residence, she protects the girl from a krait by whisking her away on her shoulder, earning the Fifth Miss’s trust.
• Later, while helping with the Fifth Miss’s divination performance, Yuerong follows her instructions to set out “dry ice.” When attendants try to push the Fifth Miss into a lake, Yuerong throws two of them in instead. The Fifth Miss praises her and reassures her that she will handle any fallout.
• The Fifth Miss’s divinations prove accurate, and Yuerong’s first exposure to mysticism begins a path she will pursue increasingly far.

Character development and relationships

• Yuerong starts as a humble, pragmatic servant who assumes she will always do menial work. The Fifth Miss’s confidence in her strength gives her growing purpose, pride, and loyalty. Though she is anxious about offending powerful people, she acts decisively to protect her mistress.
• The Fifth Miss treats Yuerong as more than a low-status laborer, recognizes her physical abilities, and rewards her trustworthiness. Her innocent-seeming manner also appears more knowing than Yuerong first assumes.
• The other servants dismiss the Fifth Miss as a poor career choice and mock Yuerong’s size, highlighting the household’s status-conscious culture.
• Yuerong’s interactions with the Fifth Miss are increasingly trusting: she moves from being a randomly chosen carrier to a favored attendant and capable assistant.

Significant themes

• Status and power: Servants carefully choose which branch to serve, while Yuerong remains outside the household’s political calculations.
• Recognition and self-worth: The Fifth Miss sees value in Yuerong’s strength, transforming a source of ridicule into a talent.
• Loyalty expressed through action: Yuerong’s instinct to protect the Fifth Miss matters more than refinement or rank.
• Mysticism and hidden capability: The accurate divinations—and the Fifth Miss’s cryptic guidance—foreshadow Yuerong’s unexpected future in the supernatural world.

Plot points and events

• Chen Pozi is promoted to housekeeper of Fifth Miss’s Deer Song Courtyard, earning a much higher salary. She discovers that everyone can hear Fifth Miss’s extraordinary inner thoughts, though she cannot warn her about it.
• Fifth Miss runs her courtyard unusually kindly: the maids have manageable workloads, may sleep without overnight watch, and are not punished. Deer Song Courtyard becomes highly sought after, and Chen refuses to let Granny Wang’s granddaughter join.
• Chen learns through her new network of housekeepers that Old Madam plans to use a Taoist temple’s abbot to harm Fifth Miss. She alerts Fifth Miss and helps expose the Taoist masters’ secrets by setting off firecrackers during an oath. When they attack, Chen guards Fifth Miss with a firework; Fifth Miss reveals overwhelming supernatural power and declares Chen a divinely appointed Cihang Daoist. The Taoists believe the act and give Fifth Miss money, though Chen later realizes she has gained no real powers.
• Fifth Miss becomes Great Xia’s first female official. Since she struggles to wake for morning roll call, she has Chen carry her—still wrapped in her quilt—to the government office. Chen obeys, trusting in Fifth Miss’s judgment.
• Fifth Miss rises rapidly through government posts and becomes a general preparing to suppress bandits. Chen’s own status and pay rise with her, reaching fifty taels a month, while people across the estate bring her gifts.
• Fifth Miss is betrothed to the Crown Prince, who is the same Fourth Prince she privately insults as a cripple. She promises to take Chen to the Eastern Palace as its managing matron, leaving Chen to imagine an increasingly grand future.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Pozi grows from an anxious servant into a confident, ambitious housekeeper. Her position changes how she chooses her friends: she drops people who once advised her, then later leaves behind housekeepers she considers beneath her new status. She also relishes the deference she receives, including intimidating a kitchen worker who once treated her badly.
• Fifth Miss remains unconventional, generous toward her staff, and apparently unshaken by danger. Her irreverent inner voice contrasts with her startling success and supernatural authority.
• Chen’s loyalty to Fifth Miss is shown in her warning her about the temple plot, helping expose the Taoists, guarding her during their attack, and carrying her to work.
• The chapter also shows shifting power within the Marquis’s household: influence moves from Old Madam toward the Elder Branch and Fifth Miss.

Significant themes

• Social mobility and patronage: Chen’s fortunes soar through her service to Fifth Miss, bringing higher pay, status, and connections.
• Power and reputation: Fifth Miss’s divine-seeming abilities and official promotions transform how people treat her and those around her.
• Loyalty and trust: Chen follows Fifth Miss’s instructions despite finding them strange, convinced that Fifth Miss knows best.
• Comedy through contrast: Chen’s awe and ambition sit alongside Fifth Miss’s laziness, blunt private thoughts, and wildly unconventional behavior.

Key plot points and events

• Six-year-old Teng resents the attention his family now gives Fifth Sister, Jian Ruonan, and tries to win it back by acting victimized. After he is caught scheming against her, Ruonan turns the tables, and Min comforts Ruonan while warning Teng not to repeat his behavior.
• Teng then claims Ruonan’s fierce nature will make it hard for her to find a husband. His argument prompts Jian Zhang and Min to consider arranging lessons in the traditional arts for her.
• When Teng mocks her about the lessons, Ruonan has her servant stop him and takes his homework. She tears it up and eats it.
• Teng reports what happened, but his parents assume he is lying because of his past tricks. Ruonan arrives, pretends to apologize and take the blame, and persuades Min that she should not have to study the arts.
• Teng later asks Ruonan why nobody believed his truthful account. She explains that people may distrust someone who has lied before, calling her move an “open stratagem.” Impressed, Teng declares himself her loyal servant.

Character development

• Teng shifts from a jealous schemer trying to regain his family’s favor to an admirer eager to learn from Ruonan. His experience teaches him that his reputation can undermine even the truth.
• Jian Ruonan proves herself both mischievous and strategic: she uses feigned innocence, appetite, and an understanding of family dynamics to outmaneuver Teng and avoid unwanted lessons.
• Min and Jian Zhang are affectionate but quick to dismiss Teng’s complaints, largely because his earlier deceptions have damaged his credibility.

Significant themes

• Reputation and credibility: Teng’s history of lying makes it difficult for others to believe him when he is right.
• Deception and strategy: Ruonan treats family squabbles as contests of tactics, turning Teng’s own habits against him.
• Sibling rivalry and shifting affection: Teng’s jealousy over Ruonan’s place in the family drives the conflict, but it eventually becomes admiration and loyalty.

Character interactions

• Teng repeatedly appeals to his parents for sympathy, but Min and Jian Zhang favor Ruonan and discipline him instead.
• Ruonan and Teng trade taunts and schemes; she beats him at his own game, then explains her strategy when he comes seeking advice.
• By the end, their rivalry has turned into a mentor-and-follower dynamic, with Teng eager to learn Ruonan’s methods.

Plot and events

• On the morning after their wedding, Crown Prince Dantai Mo and Jian Ruonan attend the formal ceremony to pay respects to the emperor, empress, Empress Dowager, and Consort Yan. Ruonan is so exhausted that she dozes through it.
• Emperor Deyuan notices that Ruonan’s thoughts have gone quiet and suspects Dantai Mo has found a way to stop others hearing them. Dantai admits he wants to keep his wife’s thoughts to himself. Ruonan’s sleepy mind promptly reveals that Dantai kept her awake the previous night.
• Once Ruonan’s thoughts resume, she complains about the early hour and reveals that the emperor has switched from one supposed immortality remedy to medicine from Taoist Master Jian—her grandfather, whom she had thought long dead. Dantai reminds her that she will have to observe mourning if her grandfather dies. Ruonan falls asleep before the emperor can ask more.
• Dantai takes her back to the Eastern Palace, where she sleeps until afternoon. When she wakes, she is startled to find him beside her, then banishes him from her thoughts and calls for her nurse. She learns that she must attend court that same afternoon, despite having just married.
• At court, Ruonan’s thoughts expose the salt-inspection censor’s embezzlement. The emperor orders his estate confiscated. Ruonan publicly argues that corrupt officials should be allowed to correct their mistakes by returning what they stole, while privately proposing periodic, compulsory repayments that would effectively refill the treasury through repeated confiscations.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan remains sleepy, irreverent, and blunt in her inner thoughts, but she also presents herself as a composed court figure and argues that corrupt officials can reform. Her ambitions now extend beyond her own family’s estate to the wealth of the whole bureaucracy.
• Dantai Mo is openly possessive, claiming that only he should hear his wife’s thoughts. He also looks after her, taking her home when she is exhausted, though his attempt to rest beside her is rejected.
• Emperor Deyuan is fascinated by Ruonan’s thoughts and wants access to her gossip, but he also uses what she reveals to punish corruption.
• The court officials are unnerved when Ruonan exposes the censor and hints that she knows everyone’s secrets. They become cautious, fearing that her plans for “Ill-Gotten Gains Return Day” could target them next.

Significant themes

• Private thoughts versus public behavior: Ruonan’s proper courtly appearance contrasts with her unfiltered inner commentary, which shapes palace and political events.
• Corruption and accountability: The censor’s exposure prompts debate over punishment, restitution, and whether reform can curb official greed.
• Power and possessiveness: Dantai’s desire to keep Ruonan’s thoughts to himself clashes with the emperor’s appetite for information.
• Satire of court life: The chapter mocks rigid customs, exhausting obligations, and officials who fear Ruonan’s expanding appetite for estate confiscation.

Plot points and events

• After court, Jian Ruonan complains inwardly about Emperor Deyuan’s demand that she attend court. Dantai Mo guesses the emperor is anxious about the Elixir Pills, so she goes with him to the Hall of Mental Cultivation.
• Emperor Deyuan is taking the pills and imagining a grand future as an immortal. Jian Ruonan’s thoughts reveal that they contain toxic mercury and that Dantai Mo had warned her grandfather not to take them until they had been tested. The emperor, who has been using the grandfather as a test subject, orders attendants to request twice as many pills—then learns the danger and becomes alarmed.
• Back at the Eastern Palace, Jian Ruonan discovers Xuan Xiaowu is still there. The Hou System explains that the Main System will not consider Jian and Dantai’s marriage mission complete until they have a baby. Jian suspects Xiaowu reported their fake marriage and threatens him, while Dantai orders him tied up.
• Houhou appears in the form of a six-year-old girl with rabbit ears. Xiaowu suggests that he and Houhou could be presented as Jian and Dantai’s children to stop officials from pressuring them to have a baby. Dantai agrees to take them to the emperor.
• Emperor Deyuan rejects the claim that Jian gave birth to the children, especially when Houhou’s rabbit ears appear. He sends Jian away and scolds Dantai for being too yielding. Dantai insists that he is showing respect.
• Later, Dantai tells Jian that the emperor questioned his ability to father a son. He claims he could father seventeen or eighteen children. When Jian calls him a “breeding boar” in thought, Dantai answers back and kisses her, saying he is “talking back.”

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan remains outspoken in her thoughts and quick to threaten Xiaowu, while protecting Houhou when the emperor frightens her.
• Dantai Mo continues to support Jian, including her plan to use Xiaowu and Houhou to deflect pressure for children. He also becomes more playful and assertive with her.
• Emperor Deyuan is shown as fearful of death and eager for immortality, yet wary of confronting Jian directly. His reliance on the pills exposes him to danger, and he directs his frustration at his son instead.
• Xuan Xiaowu admits he is staying to prevent pressure on Jian, though his role in alerting the system makes Jian suspect him. He helps propose the children-as-heirs ploy.
• Houhou emerges as a girl, despite the system’s earlier male identity, and becomes part of the couple’s improvised solution.

Significant themes

• Comic tension between inner thoughts and public speech: Jian’s irreverent mental commentary repeatedly contrasts with what the emperor and others hear.
• Fear of death and false immortality: Emperor Deyuan’s desire to become immortal leads him to trust dangerous pills.
• Marriage, family, and social pressure: The system’s baby requirement and officials’ expectations clash with Jian and Dantai’s choices.
• Power and changing traditions: Dantai accepts that the dynasty may eventually end, while Jian’s unconventional approach challenges imperial expectations.
• Growing intimacy: The chapter closes with teasing, directness, and a kiss between Jian and Dantai.

Plot and key events

• After learning of Jian Ruonan’s pregnancy questions, Consort Yan honestly describes morning sickness and painful childbirth. The Empress Dowager rebukes her, then visits Jian Ruonan herself and falsely insists that pregnancy is comfortable and childbirth painless. Emperor Deyuan also joins the campaign, making the same reassuring claims.
• Jian Ruonan records their exaggerated assurances, amused and resolved to make them face the suffering they dismiss.
• Dantai Mo and Jian Ruonan share an intimate night, but he pauses when they run out of protection. Jian Ruonan then permits him to continue.
• Soon afterward, the Empress Dowager develops severe nausea and other pregnancy-like symptoms. The Imperial physicians cannot explain them, and she even fears she might be pregnant.
• When Jian Ruonan is confirmed pregnant, she reveals through her thoughts that a “Suffering Transfer Device” has transferred pregnancy symptoms to the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager endures months of vomiting, urinary leakage, frequent nighttime urination, palpitations, and wasting-thirst, while Jian Ruonan remains comfortable.
• As Jian Ruonan nears childbirth, the Empress Dowager prays for a safe delivery, hoping not to suffer labor pains too. Then Emperor Deyuan suddenly experiences abdominal pain. The Empress Dowager concludes that the Crown Princess must be about to give birth and orders him carried to the Eastern Palace. He begins using his breathing practice to endure the pain.

Character developments and interactions

• Jian Ruonan stays witty and unbothered by pressure to have a child. She turns the Empress Dowager’s and emperor’s confident reassurances against them through the supernatural transfer device.
• Dantai Mo is affectionate and considerate, stopping intimacy when he worries they lack protection.
• Consort Yan is candid about pregnancy but withdraws after being scolded, wary of provoking Jian Ruonan.
• The Empress Dowager shifts from pressuring Jian Ruonan to regretting her boasts as she suffers the symptoms herself.
• Emperor Deyuan confidently claims childbirth is painless, only to suffer unexplained labor-like pain himself.

Significant themes

• Retribution and hypocrisy: Those who dismiss another person’s suffering end up experiencing it themselves.
• Women’s reproductive hardship: The story contrasts the men’s and elders’ casual assurances with the real discomfort of pregnancy.
• Comic supernatural justice: The suffering-transfer device turns the pressure to bear a child into a farcical reversal.
• Words have consequences: The Empress Dowager recognizes that her careless reassurances helped bring about her predicament.