Chapter Summaries

Jian Chuyun blundered into Luo Shuirong’s courtyard and was seized after striking Eastern Depot agents, while Luo Shuirong resumed trying to seduce Jian Huayuan. Jian Ruonan’s group waited for help, and the butcher brothers arrived with Pu Jingyi at the entrance to Full Chrysanthemum Fragrance.

• Jian Chuyun mistook Full Plum Fragrance for Full Chrysanthemum Fragrance, entered Luo Shuirong’s courtyard, and blamed Jian Ruonan for sending her there.
• After Jian Chuyun and her servants struck the Eastern Depot agents, the agents arrested them and took them away for punishment.
• Luo Shuirong relit the Arousing Incense and tried again to seduce Jian Huayuan, who chose to hold his breath.
• Jian Ruonan reassured Pei Shaoyi and Teng that Jian Huayuan was still safe and said the Eastern Depot Governor would arrive with the butcher brothers.
• The butcher brothers arrived carrying the bound Pu Jingyi, recognized the courtyard plaque as Full Chrysanthemum Fragrance, and decided to check inside before apologizing to him.

The butcher brothers stormed into Full Plum Fragrance while searching for their eldest girl, disrupting Luo Shuirong’s attempt to force herself on Jian Huayuan and uncovering a tangle of mistaken identities. After learning their missing sister was the mistress Jian Chuyun sought, they took Pu Jingyi, Luo Shuirong, and Jian Chuyun captive and headed for the last courtyard.

• The butcher brothers burst into Luo Shuirong’s room, mistook her for their missing eldest girl, and learned from Jian Ruonan that she was not the woman they sought.
• The butcher brothers discovered the inn’s sign had been switched, then seized Pu Jingyi and tied him up when they blamed him for leading them there.
• Luo Shuirong summoned Xuan Seven and Xuan Eight, but the butcher brothers quickly tied up both Eastern Depot agents as well.
• The butcher brothers followed Jian Chuyun’s cries for help and rescued her and two older women from the side room.
• The butcher brothers compared accounts and realized their eldest girl was Jian Chuyun’s missing mistress, then decided she must be in the last courtyard.
• The butcher brothers tied up Pu Jingyi, Luo Shuirong, and Jian Chuyun and dragged them along as witnesses, leaving Jian Huayuan still bound to his chair.

Jian Ruonan and her companions rescued Jian Huayuan, then followed the Pork Butcher's Family to find them confronting Le Ao and the other captives. When the family discovered they had tied up the Eastern Depot commander and prepared to kill everyone, Jian Ruonan arrived to stop the execution.

• Jian Ruonan led the gossip-watching squad to follow the Pork Butcher's Family, then turned back to free Jian Huayuan after he called for help.
• The group rescued Jian Huayuan and hurried to the real True Full Chrysanthemum Fragrance.
• The Pork Butcher's Family burst in and rescued Pork Xi Shi from Le Ao, then tied up Le Ao and his servants.
• Pork Xi Shi identified the token as belonging to the Eastern Depot, and the family realized Pu Jingyi was its commander.
• The Pork Butcher's Family decided to kill the captives and then face their own deaths, but Jian Ruonan arrived and called for the execution to stop.

Jian Ruonan had Pu Jingyi, Luo Shuirong, and Le Ao arrested, then witnessed Jian Chuyun’s family debate her divorce while Dantai Mo drew closer to her. The chapter ended when the Hou System warned Jian Ruonan that failing her mission would result in erasure.

• Jian Ruonan arrested Pu Jingyi and Luo Shuirong for harboring an Imperial Traitor, and Dantai Mo ordered them taken to the Court of Judicial Review.
• Jian Ruonan arrested Le Ao for abducting a respectable woman after Jian Chuyun asked her to do so.
• The Pork Butcher's Family thanked Jian Ruonan, and the Domineering Heir Apparent and Concubine Lü remained undisturbed in their courtyard.
• At the Jinyang Marquis's Residence, the Jian family and the Le Family argued over Jian Chuyun's divorce, while Dantai Mo arrived as a witness and shelled pine nuts for Jian Ruonan.
• The Hou System told Jian Ruonan that failure to complete her mission would bring the punishment of erasure.

Jian Ruonan learned that she would be erased in less than seven days unless she completed her mission, and studied the rewards she would receive for succeeding. Dantai Mo rushed to the Jinyang Marquis's Residence to discuss marriage with her, where he waited while she slept in.

• The Hou System told Jian Ruonan that she would be erased in less than seven days and that completing her mission would earn generous rewards.
• Jian Ruonan tried to find a fast-acting fertility pill for Jian Chuxue but learned that no such pills existed, then studied the rewards list through the night.
• Xuan Xiaowu told Dantai Mo that the Hou System had arranged for him to discuss marriage at the Jinyang Marquis's Residence.
• Dantai Mo dressed in ceremonial robes and went early to the Deer Song Courtyard, where he waited for Jian Ruonan to wake.
• The Old Madam and the Younger and Third Branches arrived and complained that Jian Ruonan was still asleep, but Dantai Mo told them to let her sleep.

Jian Ruonan woke to find Dantai Mo waiting to announce their wedding, and the two signed a marriage agreement filled with terms protecting her freedom. After adding clauses about sharing a bed and refusing concubines, Jian Ruonan chased Dantai Mo out when he asked for a kiss.

• After standing outside Jian Ruonan’s courtyard for seven hours, the Old Madam, Younger Branch, and Third Branch heard Dantai Mo tell them to prepare for his wedding to Fifth Miss.
• Dantai Mo revealed that he had waited from five in the morning for Jian Ruonan to wake, while Xuan Xiaowu joked about becoming her heir.
• Jian Ruonan gave Dantai Mo her marriage agreement, and he signed and sealed it without objecting to her terms.
• Dantai Mo promised to honor the agreement and added that they could not sleep in separate beds and that he would not take concubines.
• Jian Ruonan and Dantai Mo signed and sealed the amended agreement, then Jian Ruonan chased him out after he asked to kiss her.

Dantai Mo secured Emperor Deyuan’s approval to marry Jian Ruonan in six days, and Jian Ruonan accepted the match as a chance to experience a different life. Dantai Mo then feigned illness to bring her to the Eastern Palace, where he confessed that longing had made him sick.

• Dantai Mo told Emperor Deyuan and Consort Yan that he intended to marry Jian Ruonan, and Emperor Deyuan agreed to arrange the wedding within six days.
• Consort Yan persuaded Emperor Deyuan to summon Jian Ruonan and hasten the wedding preparations, leaving the Ministry of Rites to complete the ceremonies in six days.
• Jian Ruonan told Min Yun and her friends that marrying Dantai Mo did not seem like a hardship and decided to treat it as a chance to experience a different life.
• Dantai Mo ignored his work and went to visit the Jinyang Marquis’s Residence, while Xuan Xiaowu urged him to have Jian Ruonan visit the Eastern Palace instead.
• Xuan Xiaowu told Jian Ruonan that Dantai Mo was ill, and she came to examine him at the Eastern Palace.
• Dantai Mo told Jian Ruonan that longing had made him ill and claimed he felt cold, prompting Xuan Xiaowu to describe it as an empty, lonely kind of cold.

Jian Ruonan accompanied Dantai Mo to the Imperial Study, where Emperor Deyuan asked the Imperial Astronomical Bureau to choose an auspicious date for the Crown Prince’s wedding. Director Li’s divination methods came under scrutiny as Jian Ruonan’s thoughts revealed both his weather-predicting habits and an embarrassing secret.

• Dantai Mo tried to tell Jian Ruonan that the Embroidered Uniform Guard was not omniscient, but he and Xuan Xiaowu could not speak about what she already knew.
• Cao Degui summoned Dantai Mo and Jian Ruonan to Emperor Deyuan’s Imperial Study, interrupting the Crown Prince’s private time with her.
• Emperor Deyuan asked Director Li to calculate an auspicious hour for the wedding, and Director Li objected that the planned date carried a bad omen.
• Jian Ruonan wondered whether the Imperial Astronomical Bureau merely relied on fortune-telling and ordinary signs to predict the weather.
• Jian Ruonan acknowledged Director Li’s accurate forecasts, then revealed in her thoughts that he had gained his ability after spying on a widow bathing.

At court, Jian Ruonan exposed how Director Li used pain from a broken hand to predict the weather, then forced him to recalculate an auspicious hour until it suited her schedule. The chapter ended with Minister Pei proposing his rheumatic former-cook nephew for the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.

• Director Li tried to curse Jian Ruonan, but she revealed that he had learned to predict the weather from pain in his broken hand after falling while peeping on a widow.
• Emperor Deyuan angrily ordered Director Li to find an auspicious hour for the fifteenth, and Director Li repeatedly adjusted the time after Jian Ruonan objected to getting up early.
• Dantai Mo told Director Li to calculate again until he set the auspicious time at three quarters past Shen Hour.
• Dantai Mo asked whether Director Li's hand would hurt that day, and Director Li said it would not.
• Minister Pei asked whether his former-cook nephew, who had chronic rheumatism in his legs, could join the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.

Jian Ruonan toured the Eastern Palace with Dantai Mo, then received his wild-geese betrothal gifts and saw the lavish dowry Min had prepared for her. The chapter ended when Chen Pozi asked Jian Ruonan to use her supposed divination skills to find her missing grandson.

• After Director Li's matter was settled, Dantai Mo took Jian Ruonan to tour the Eastern Palace and meet its officials.
• Jian Ruonan mistook the Crown Prince's Horse Washer for someone assigned to wash horses, and Dantai Mo gently explained the title.
• Dantai Mo sent Jian Ruonan a pair of wild geese he had hunted himself as betrothal tokens, and the Eastern Palace delivered the betrothal gifts.
• Jian Ruonan found Min's courtyard packed with her prepared dowry, which Min said she had set aside even before Jian Ruonan agreed to marry.
• Chen Pozi told Jian Ruonan that her grandson had gone missing at the market and asked her to divine where he was; Jian Ruonan hurriedly searched for him.

Jian Ruonan rescued children and young women from traffickers, then uncovered the abuses enabled by legal slave brokers and vowed to act against them. She confronted Dantai Mo about her flaws while preparing to punish Master Xu, who had ignored her warning.

• Jian Ruonan learned that Chen Pozi's grandson Tangdou had been abducted, then led Commander Xue and a hundred elite soldiers to rescue him and other captives.
• The soldiers arrested the traffickers and freed six boys, three girls, and several teenage girls and young women; Jian Ruonan ordered the traffickers and two exploitative slave brokers sent for execution.
• Jian Ruonan resolved to intervene against people who abused enslaved children and sent Master Xu a warning under the alias Rich Lady.
• Master Xu ignored the warning and summoned a young attendant to his study, while Jian Ruonan, Commander Xue, and masked soldiers waited outside with the Imperial Sword.
• Dantai Mo followed Jian Ruonan, pledged his support, and told her she had no flaws when she admitted she could be willful and reckless.

Jian Ruonan and Dantai Mo punished Capital City men who abused children and women, while the Rich Lady’s vigilante campaign alarmed the court. Emperor Deyuan assigned Jian Ruonan to the Ministry of Justice, and Dantai Mo reassured her that she still had him.

• Jian Ruonan ordered Commander Xue to castrate Xu Fan and display him on the city wall after he abused children.
• The Rich Lady’s warnings preceded the disappearance and castration of other predatory men across the Capital City, frightening officials and residents.
• Emperor Deyuan ordered the Ministry of Justice to capture the Rich Lady, and Dantai Mo proposed punishing her with three cups of wine.
• Jian Ruonan argued that harming children deserved punishment at least as serious as adultery, and Emperor Deyuan transferred her to the Ministry of Justice to assist with the case.
• Dantai Mo told Jian Ruonan she could work whenever she wanted, then reassured her, “You still have me.”

Jian Ruonan confirmed that Dantai Mo and the Scavenger Group could hear her thoughts, and realized the emperor and court officials could hear them too. After learning how to control the Gossip System, she deliberately used it to torment the Old Madam and Emperor Deyuan, ending with the emperor forced to endure her taunts before her wedding.

• Jian Ruonan confirmed through Dantai Mo's blinks that he and the Scavenger Group could hear her thoughts, then fled in embarrassment after realizing the emperor and officials could hear them as well.
• Jian Ruonan figured out that people could not speak about hearing her thoughts and believed Great-Grandma's possession explained why the emperor had spared her family.
• Jian Ruonan switched the Gossip System on and off while serving the Old Madam poisoned soup, causing the Old Madam to spit it out and drop Jian Ruonan's bowl.
• Jian Ruonan visited Emperor Deyuan before her wedding and deliberately mocked his health drink in her thoughts.
• Emperor Deyuan listened as Jian Ruonan admitted she had come to be a menace and continued taunting him.

Jian Ruonan’s wedding day began with her household and the Eastern Palace officials waiting for her to wake, while Dantai Mo patiently waited at the Ceremonial Tent. She eventually completed the wedding rites with Dantai Mo, and the main story ended with her leaving to begin married life.

• Dantai Mo arrived at the Jinyang Marquis's Residence before dawn, but Jian Ruonan stayed asleep while the female officials waited and worried.
• Min, Teng, the Old Madam, and Dantai Mo all told the officials to let Jian Ruonan sleep until the auspicious hour approached.
• Jian Ruonan woke at the third quarter of Wu Hour, ate breakfast, handed red envelopes to the maids, and began dressing at her own pace.
• Jian Ruonan put on her wedding robes and followed the female official through the wedding rites with Dantai Mo.
• Jian Ruonan and Dantai Mo completed the ceremony, and Jian Ruonan left the Jinyang Marquis's Estate to join him.

Chen Yuerong recounted how she became one of Fifth Miss's trusted attendants after being transferred to her courtyard. At the Eldest Princess's Residence, Fifth Miss praised her strength and began a string of accurate divinations, setting Chen Yuerong on an unexpected path into mysticism.

• Chen Yuerong carried Fifth Miss to see the epiphyllum and accidentally witnessed Second Master Jian Lang with Concubine Wei.
• After Chen Yuerong transferred to Fifth Miss's courtyard, Fifth Miss made her a personal attendant and doubled her allowance.
• Chen Yuerong carried Fifth Miss to safety when a banded krait appeared at the Eldest Princess's Residence, earning Fifth Miss's trust.
• Fifth Miss appointed Chen Yuerong as her assistant for a performance and told her to set out dry ice.
• When maids tried to push Fifth Miss into the lake, Chen Yuerong threw them in instead, and Fifth Miss praised her.
• Fifth Miss performed accurate divinations, while Chen Yuerong realized she was beginning an unexpected journey into mysticism.

Chen Pozi recounted how serving Fifth Miss transformed her from a newly promoted courtyard housekeeper into the trusted attendant of a rising official and general. After Fifth Miss became engaged to the Crown Prince, Chen Pozi looked forward to following her into the Eastern Palace as its managing matron.

• Chen Pozi became the housekeeper of Deer Song Courtyard, where Fifth Miss's generous rules and divine inner voice made the courtyard popular with servants.
• After hearing that Old Madam planned to harm Fifth Miss at a Taoist Temple, Chen Pozi warned her and helped expose the Taoist masters' secrets.
• Chen Pozi guarded Fifth Miss during the Taoist masters' attack and witnessed Fifth Miss pose as the Primordial Heavenly Venerable, while the masters mistook Chen Pozi for Cihang Daoist.
• When Fifth Miss became Great Xia's first female official, Chen Pozi carried her to the government office and rose alongside her as Fifth Miss advanced through government and military posts.
• Fifth Miss was betrothed to the Crown Prince and promised to take Chen Pozi with her to the Eastern Palace as its managing matron.

Six-year-old Teng tried to regain favor and get revenge on Jian Ruonan, but her schemes repeatedly outsmarted him. After she ate his homework and won their parents’ trust, Teng accepted her as his mentor and began following her down the path of a treacherous courtier.

• Teng complained to Min that Jian Ruonan had bullied him, but Min defended Jian Ruonan and warned Teng not to do it again.
• Teng persuaded Jian Zhang that Jian Ruonan should learn the arts, and her parents arranged lessons for her.
• Jian Ruonan had Chen Pozi seize Teng and tore up his homework, then ate it while he watched.
• Teng told Min and Jian Zhang what Jian Ruonan had done, but they disbelieved him and made him apologize to her.
• Teng asked Jian Ruonan why no one believed his true account, and she explained that it was an open stratagem.
• Teng declared himself Jian Ruonan’s loyal servant and began following her, learning from her schemes.

After the wedding, Jian Ruonan dozed through the morning rites, then joined Dantai Mo at court and exposed a censor’s embezzlement. Emperor Deyuan ordered the censor’s estate confiscated, while Jian Ruonan proposed a recurring scheme to recover officials’ stolen wealth.

• Jian Ruonan slept through much of the morning ceremony, and Emperor Deyuan realized Dantai Mo had kept her thoughts private because he wanted to hear them alone.
• Jian Ruonan fell asleep during the visit, so Dantai Mo carried her back to the Eastern Palace and let her rest until the afternoon court session.
• Jian Ruonan learned she had to attend court and arrived at the Golden Hall, where she revealed through her thoughts that the salt-inspection censor had embezzled silver.
• Emperor Deyuan ordered Wei Liren to confiscate the censor’s estate, and Jian Ruonan argued that corrupt officials should be allowed to return their stolen money.
• Jian Ruonan proposed holding an Ill-Gotten Gains Return Day every few years to recover officials’ ill-gotten wealth, alarming the assembled officials.

Jian Ruonan discovered Emperor Deyuan was using her grandfather’s toxic Elixir Pills as a test and dealt with the Hou System’s refusal to leave until she had a baby. The chapter ended with Dantai Mo teasing her before kissing her in the Eastern Palace.

• Jian Ruonan visited Emperor Deyuan, learned the Elixir Pills contained toxic mercury, and realized he was demanding more pills from her grandfather as a test.
• Jian Ruonan learned the Hou System’s mission would not count as complete until she had a baby, then blamed Xuan Xiaowu for reporting their marriage agreement.
• Houhou appeared as a six-year-old girl, and Xuan Xiaowu suggested that she and he could stop officials from pressuring Jian Ruonan to have children.
• Emperor Deyuan questioned Jian Ruonan’s claim that she had given birth to Houhou, then scolded Dantai Mo for being too spineless with his wife.
• Dantai Mo told Jian Ruonan he had promised Emperor Deyuan he could father seventeen or eighteen children, then kissed her when she teased him.

Jian Ruonan endured the palace’s efforts to persuade her to have a child, then used the Suffering Transfer Device to pass pregnancy symptoms to the Empress Dowager after she became pregnant. As Jian Ruonan neared childbirth, Emperor Deyuan unexpectedly began suffering labor pains too.

• Consort Yan, the Empress Dowager, and Emperor Deyuan tried to convince Jian Ruonan that pregnancy and childbirth were painless, while she secretly recorded their claims.
• Dantai Mo and Jian Ruonan were intimate, and he worried about continuing without protection.
• After Jian Ruonan became pregnant, the Empress Dowager developed severe morning sickness and other pregnancy symptoms, which Jian Ruonan revealed had been transferred to her.
• The Empress Dowager suffered through months of symptoms and prayed for Jian Ruonan and her child to be safe as the birth approached.
• Emperor Deyuan suddenly developed labor pains, and the Empress Dowager ordered him carried to the Eastern Palace, believing Jian Ruonan was about to give birth.