Chapter Summaries

The Empress Dowager summoned Jian Ruonan to Cian Palace, despite Emperor Deyuan and the Eldest Princess’s attempts to delay their meeting. After palace attendants made Jian wait outside, her gossip exposed Auntie Yishuang’s secret dealings, and Auntie Yishuang suddenly fainted.

• The Empress Dowager insisted on meeting Jian Ruonan, while Emperor Deyuan and the Eldest Princess tried to put off the introduction.
• Cao Degui escorted Jian Ruonan to Cian Palace, where she speculated about palace gossip and worried that the Empress Dowager might arrange her marriage.
• Auntie Yishuang made Jian wait outside for an incense stick’s worth of time on the Empress Dowager’s orders, despite Cao Degui’s anxious objections.
• Jian Ruonan’s inner voice revealed that Auntie Yishuang had secretly consorted with eunuchs and used Cao Degui to learn about the emperor’s movements.
• Auntie Yishuang formed a murderous intent toward Jian Ruonan, then abruptly fainted before she could act.

Jian Ruonan entered the Empress Dowager’s palace, where her irreverent inner thoughts repeatedly threatened the Empress Dowager and forced her to treat Jian Ruonan with unusual kindness. The other consorts then heard Jian Ruonan reveal that Consort Xian had only slept beside the Emperor, leaving Consort Xian embarrassed.

• Auntie Yishuang stopped trying to silence Jian Ruonan after Cao Degui warned her, then escorted Jian Ruonan into the Cian Palace.
• The Empress Dowager received Jian Ruonan and gave her consecrated Buddhist prayer beads after hearing her inner thoughts about palace servants and the Empress Dowager’s personal habits.
• The Empress Dowager nearly ordered Jian Ruonan dragged away, but the threat to her throat made her command the palace maids to bring Jian Ruonan a chair and serve her tea and pastries.
• Consort Xian hinted that the Emperor had spent the night with her, and Jian Ruonan’s inner voice revealed that they had only slept.

Jian Ruonan’s unfiltered thoughts exposed Consort Xian’s false claims about the Emperor and turned the other consorts’ audience at Cian Palace into a humiliating spectacle for her. The Empress Dowager let the gossip continue, while Jian Ruonan ended the gathering contentedly eating pastries.

• Jian Ruonan’s thoughts revealed that Consort Xian had barely spoken with the Emperor, who had pretended to sleep during his visit, and the consorts struggled to hide their laughter.
• Consort Xian tried to redirect attention toward Consort Yan, but Jian Ruonan praised Yan’s beauty and revealed that the Emperor treated her with passionate favor.
• Consort Xian called out the other consorts, and Jian Ruonan’s thoughts dismissed Consort Xian as plain and favored only because of her family connections.
• After Consort Xian fell silent, the women chatted while Jian Ruonan ate several plates of pastries, and the Empress Dowager silently urged everyone not to scold her.

At Cian Palace, Jian Ruonan’s inner thoughts exposed the Duke of Cheng’en’s affair, the Third Prince’s hemorrhoids, and Consort Xian’s padded bust, humiliating the harem’s powerful consort. Consort Xian still plotted to drug Jian Ruonan, but the arrival of the imperial children coincided with Big System detecting the scumbag system.

• Auntie Yishuang served Jian Ruonan pastries, and Jian Ruonan asked Big System to watch for the scumbag system.
• Jian Ruonan’s thoughts revealed that the Duke of Cheng’en broke his leg after Hua Shanyue caught him cheating and that he was still trying to interfere in the Director of the Imperial College’s marriage.
• Jian Ruonan exposed the Third Prince’s peppercorns for hemorrhoids and Consort Xian’s padded bust, leaving Consort Xian humiliated.
• Consort Xian signaled Consort Wu to drug Jian Ruonan, and Consort Wu left for the tea room.
• A palace maid announced that the princes, princesses, and commandery princesses had arrived, and Big System told Jian Ruonan it had connected with the scumbag system.

Jian Ruonan tried to identify the host of the Black Tortoise System during the New Year greetings, while Dantai Mo warned the system to sever its link before she exposed him. The princes and princesses greeted the Empress Dowager, and Jian Ruonan discovered that the Third Prince had garlic clenched between his butt cheeks.

• Jian Ruonan had Big System call the Black Tortoise System, which woke inside the Fourth Prince and received a burst of energy through their link.
• Dantai Mo realized Big System might be trying to expose him to Jian Ruonan and ordered the Black Tortoise System to sever the link.
• The princes and princesses entered Cian Palace to offer New Year greetings, and Jian Ruonan watched for the host of the scumbag system.
• The consorts scrutinized the Third Prince's shoes and gait as he knelt to greet the Empress Dowager.
• The Third Prince winked at Jian Ruonan, who discovered that he had garlic clenched between his butt cheeks.

Jian Ruonan’s inner thoughts exposed scandalous secrets among the imperial women as the Empress Dowager and consorts gathered for New Year greetings. After Consort Wu failed to drug Jian Ruonan’s tea, Jian Ruonan’s final revelation accused Consort Xian of cuckolding the old emperor.

• The Empress Dowager seated Jian Ruonan beside her while the consorts and titled ladies crowded around to hear her thoughts.
• Jian Ruonan revealed that Madam Qin’s husband was the Empress Dowager’s lover, shocking the Empress Dowager and the gathered women.
• Consort Wu tried to put medicinal powder in Jian Ruonan’s tea, but a mysterious force seized her throat and forced her to stop.
• Consort Liang called Consort Wu “Consort Soup” after Jian Ruonan revealed that she regularly made soup for the old emperor.
• Consort Xian watched Jian Ruonan drink her tea, then heard Jian Ruonan reveal that the Empress Dowager had cuckolded the Retired Emperor and Consort Xian had cuckolded the old emperor.

Jian Ruonan’s inner voice exposed Consort Xian’s secret, and Consort Xian collapsed after trying to kill her. The Empress Dowager learned that Consort Xian had been assaulted by the crown prince of Wa Kingdom and arranged for her death, leaving the Third Prince in her care.

• The consorts and titled ladies heard Jian Ruonan’s inner voice reveal that Consort Xian had cuckolded Emperor Deyuan, while Consort Yan secretly sent a palace maid for help.
• Consort Xian glared at Jian Ruonan with murderous intent, then collapsed and struck her head on a tea table.
• The Empress Dowager ordered the palace gates closed over suspected poisoning, and Consort Yi was stopped from leaving Cian Palace.
• Consort Xian told the Empress Dowager that the Third Prince was Emperor Deyuan’s son, but that the crown prince of Wa Kingdom had assaulted her when she was a secondary consort.
• The Empress Dowager ordered Consort Xian to die and promised to look after Huai as palace maids lunged at Consort Xian.

After leaving Cian Palace, Jian Ruonan joined Commandery Princess Jiarou and Jiashan in confronting Princess Funing over the toys she had taken. Jian Ruonan used the gossip system to win them all back, leaving her wondering whether she could use it to win at gambling houses.

• The Empress Dowager warned the women leaving Cian Palace not to spread gossip about Consort Xian, who had fallen into a coma after a stroke.
• Commandery Princess Jiarou introduced Jian Ruonan to Princess Funing and Jiashan, then enlisted Jian Ruonan to help recover Jiashan's toys.
• Princess Funing challenged Jian Ruonan to games, but Jian Ruonan admitted she knew none of the games Funing suggested.
• Commandery Princess Jiarou proposed High-Low, and Jian Ruonan repeatedly guessed the dice results correctly, winning back the sisters' toys and Funing's treasures.
• Princess Funing left with red eyes, while Jian Ruonan realized the gossip system could help her win at gambling.

Princess Funing’s attempt to rally reinforcements failed when Jian Ruonan won over the Ninth Prince and swept the princesses’ High-Low game. Later, Jian Ruonan uncovered Pu Jingyi’s scheme to drug her and place her with the Third Prince, then turned the trap against the conspirators as the Third Prince entered the side hall.

• Princess Funing summoned Fu Wan, Fu An, and the Ninth Prince, but Jian Ruonan won the Ninth Prince over with chocolate and defeated the princesses at High-Low.
• A palace maid lured Auntie Yishuang away, and a eunuch summoned Jian Ruonan to the Imperial Study before leading her toward a side hall.
• Big System revealed that Pu Jingyi had sent the eunuch to drug Jian Ruonan and arrange for her to be found with the Third Prince.
• Jian Ruonan learned the eunuch had been paid two hundred taels, bargained for the money, and let him carry her into the side hall.
• Jian Ruonan used a gas mask to avoid the knockout incense, replaced it, and put the unconscious eunuch in the bed while she hid outside.
• A palace maid found the room prepared and left, then the Third Prince arrived and approached the figure under the quilt, believing he had caught Jian Ruonan.

Jian Ruonan used Tathagata Palm Mastery to create a spectacle of Buddha’s light and draw Emperor Deyuan to the side hall where Consort Wu’s scheme was unfolding. The Third Prince woke beside a young eunuch as the emperor and court officials arrived.

• Consort Wu brought titled ladies to the side hall, intending to expose the Third Prince with the Fifth Miss and pressure the family into accepting a marriage.
• Jian Ruonan activated Tathagata Palm Mastery and produced a series of dazzling Buddha images above the side hall.
• Emperor Deyuan saw the spectacle, declared it an auspicious sign, and headed toward the side hall with his ministers.
• A palace maid told Consort Wu that a man and a woman were in the inner room, and the titled ladies followed her inside.
• The Third Prince woke to find the titled ladies surrounding his bed, while the young eunuch hid beneath the quilt.
• Emperor Deyuan arrived outside the side hall with the court officials.

Emperor Deyuan followed Jian Ruonan to the Side Hall, where Consort Wu’s scheme to frame the Fifth Miss was exposed when the person beneath the quilt turned out to be a young eunuch. He punished the Third Prince and demoted Consort Wu, while the Fifth Miss’s whereabouts remained unclear.

• Emperor Deyuan dismissed his ministers, then brought them along as he followed Jian Ruonan toward the Side Hall to seek the auspicious omen.
• Consort Wu accused the veiled person in the Third Prince’s bed of trying to climb into his favor, while the Third Prince offered to take responsibility for her.
• Consort Wu identified the person beneath the quilt as the Fifth Miss, but Min insisted that the person could not be her daughter.
• Consort Wu and the palace maids pulled off the quilt and veil, revealing a young eunuch; the startled Third Prince dropped three cloves of garlic from his trousers and fled.
• Jian Ruonan announced that the Fifth Miss was present and revealed Emperor Deyuan behind the beaded curtain.
• Emperor Deyuan confined the Third Prince for a month and ordered him to copy the Classic of Filial Piety one hundred times, then demoted Consort Wu to a palace attendant.

Emperor Deyuan granted Jian Ruonan’s request to transfer Hou Yuchen to the Ministry of Revenue, then arranged Hou’s marriage to Jian Xilu after learning she was Jian Ruonan’s chosen match. He also approved Bian Yingyi’s request for disaster relief, only for Jian Ruonan’s inner voice to expose Bian’s secret romance with the Vice Minister of Works.

• Emperor Deyuan asked Jian Ruonan about her move to the Ministry of Revenue, and she requested that Compiler Hou transfer with her; he agreed.
• Emperor Deyuan considered matching Hou Yuchen with a princess, but Jian Ruonan’s inner voice revealed he was meant to marry Jian Xilu and that her previous match, Gao Yang, kept three mistresses.
• Emperor Deyuan ordered a marriage edict for Jian Xilu and Hou Yuchen, delighting Jian Ruonan and both families.
• Bian Yingyi petitioned Emperor Deyuan to open his private treasury and sell low-priced grain for disaster relief, and the emperor granted his request.
• Jian Ruonan’s inner voice revealed that Bian Yingyi planned a secret rendezvous with the Vice Minister of Works while dressed as a woman, and Bian realized Censor An had been the minister who urinated in the Golden Hall.

Hou Yuchen learned that the emperor had arranged his marriage to Jian Xilu, while Jian Huayuan faced a proposed match with the Minister of War’s granddaughter. Jian Ruonan revealed that the granddaughter had previously run away with an actor, leaving the family to decide whether Huayuan and the love-addled young woman were a fitting pair.

• Hou Wenyao told Hou Yuchen that the emperor had betrothed him to Jian Xilu, then gave him the courtesy name Lixie.
• Hou Yuchen advised his father to prepare a comfortable bed for Jian Ruonan at the Ministry of Revenue, predicting she would flip a table without one.
• Min celebrated Jian Xilu’s imperial marriage decree while the Duke of Pingguo’s Residence faced disgrace over Gao Yang’s three illegitimate sons.
• Jian Zhang told Jian Huayuan that the Yin Family had ended their engagement and that the Minister of War wanted to arrange a marriage between Huayuan and his granddaughter.
• Jian Ruonan revealed that the Minister of War’s granddaughter had run away with an actor before being caught, and Jian Huayuan realized the proposed match was not the good news his family had expected.

The Jian family discussed Jian Huayuan’s marriage prospects while worrying that Pu Jingyi might discover Teng’s role in dousing him with dung. Dantai Mo took the Black Tortoise System back to the Jinyang Marquis’s Residence, where the Big System angrily confronted it with Jian Ruonan’s bluff about being bound to a prince.

• Jian Xilu and Jian Ruonan approved Jian Huayuan’s proposed match, and Jian Zhang hoped Jian Ruonan would uphold the family name.
• Jian Ruonan worried that Pu Jingyi might uncover who had doused him with dung, while Teng revealed that he had done it to avenge Jian Huayuan.
• Dantai Mo used energy from the Big System to regain some ability to walk, then brought the Black Tortoise System to the Jinyang Marquis’s Residence to contact it.
• The Big System refused to answer the Black Tortoise System while Jian Ruonan slept, then followed her instructions to bluff that it knew the system was bound to a prince.
• On their next visit, the Big System accused the Black Tortoise System of lying about having no host, and the Black Tortoise System short-circuited.

Dantai Mo tried to win over the flower bears so they would help him gain Jian Ruonan’s favor, while Tangyuan plotted an escape. On Jian Ruonan’s first day at the Ministry of Revenue, she stopped to investigate a gambling scam and arrived late, only to find several colleagues had also been delayed by the same gossip.

• The Black Tortoise System panicked when Big System’s bluff exposed that it was bound to a prince, then cut off their connection and told Dantai Mo it could not collect lamp oil.
• Dantai Mo visited Plum Blossom and Tangyuan in the Bamboo Garden, groomed them, and urged them to befriend Jian Ruonan; afterward, Tangyuan tried to climb over the wall and escape.
• Jian Ruonan arrived at the Ministry of Revenue and stopped to watch a crowd investigating Zhang San, whose wife was being taken to pay his gambling debt.
• Jian Ruonan used the Enhanced Gossip Button to confirm Zhang San had been swindled, then sent Chen Pozi to pay for his wife’s freedom.
• Jian Ruonan reached the Ministry of Revenue late for roll call and discovered several colleagues had also stopped to watch the gossip.

Jian Ruonan settled into her new post at the Ministry of Revenue, where her colleagues treated her lavishly after realizing she could uncover their secrets. When Top Graduate Hou explained the treasury’s financial problems, Jian Ruonan proposed banning gambling to raise revenue.

• Jian Ruonan arrived at the Ministry of Revenue and received an unusually warm welcome from her colleagues and Top Graduate Hou.
• The bureau director showed Jian Ruonan a private office and offered her a gilded incense burner after her thoughts exposed his corrupt dealings.
• Jian Ruonan slept through the morning, then considered bonding with her colleagues by listening to their gossip.
• Top Graduate Hou advised Jian Ruonan to devise ways to increase the treasury’s revenue and explained that issuing more government certificates would not solve its financial problems.
• Jian Ruonan rejected the idea of becoming Minister of Revenue and proposed banning gambling to fill the treasury.

Jian Ruonan arranged for Zhang San to repay her and publicly warn others about gambling, then rescued Tangyuan from a failed escape attempt and injured her hand. Dantai Mo returned to find Tangyuan clinging to Jian Ruonan, while she still had business to discuss with him.

• Jian Ruonan learned that gambling was protected by powerful interests and abandoned her plan to crack down on gambling dens.
• Jian Ruonan made Zhang San write an IOU and arranged for Editor Lu to publicize his story and have him warn people in the square.
• Jian Ruonan found Tangyuan trapped between the railings while trying to escape, took a Great Strength Pill, and freed the panda, injuring her hand in the process.
• Tangyuan cuddled Jian Ruonan and stopped her from petting Plum Blossom, while Dantai Mo hurried back after hearing that she had been hurt.
• Jian Ruonan told Dantai Mo she had come both to see the pandas and to discuss business, but Tangyuan clung to her and tried to keep Dantai Mo away.

Jian Ruonan investigated a gambling den after its thugs drove down her storybook sales, hoping to test whether people who threatened her would suffer heavenly punishment. Her gossip exposed a dice-cheating operator and his wife's affair, but the gamblers and guards vanished before she could see what happened next.

• Jian Ruonan promised Tangyuan she would visit again, then Dantai Mo confronted the Black Tortoise System about its suspicious silence.
• After Zhang San was beaten and storybook sales fell, Jian Ruonan decided to ban gambling and discussed her plan with Top Graduate Hou.
• Jian Ruonan borrowed guards from Dantai Mo and the Eldest Princess, then disguised herself and Top Graduate Hou to enter a gambling den and gather gossip.
• At the dice table, Jian Ruonan's gossip system revealed the operator Triangle Eyes was cheating, and the gamblers began to suspect him.
• Triangle Eyes swore he was honest, but Jian Ruonan uncovered that his wife was having an affair with his friend Wang Wu.
• Jian Ruonan looked up and found Triangle Eyes, the bettors, and the guards had all disappeared.

Jian Ruonan and Brother-in-law Hou followed Triangle Eyes and the gamblers to catch Wang Wu with Triangle Eyes’ wife. Triangle Eyes burst into the bedroom after overhearing their affair, while the others tried to get a view through the window.

• Jian Ruonan found a chest of gambling money but told the Embroidered Uniform Guard to confiscate it for the Ministry of Revenue before leaving with Brother-in-law Hou.
• Jian Ruonan checked her groundhog count and muted the gossip subjects as she and Brother-in-law Hou arrived at Triangle Eyes’ house with the crowd.
• Triangle Eyes learned from his youngest son that Wang Wu was inside with his wife, but the gamblers restrained him so they could listen first.
• Wang Wu and Triangle Eyes’ wife discussed their affair, and Triangle Eyes broke free and burst into the bedroom to attack them.
• Brother-in-law Hou paid a young man two taels of silver to open the window so the crowd could see inside.

Jian Ruonan and Top Graduate Hou watched a gambling den brawl end in arrests, then returned to the Ministry of Revenue with one hundred thousand taels in confiscated silver. There, Jian Ruonan learned Lord Wu Zhi’s shameless secrets and struck him across the face, leaving the Ministry stunned.

• Triangle Eyes caught Wang Wu with his wife, but Wang Wu invoked their brotherhood and Master Wu to stop the beating.
• Wang Wu admitted that he and Triangle Eyes had cheated at gambling, prompting the spectators to attack them and demand their money back.
• Officers from the Five City Garrison Command arrested Wang Wu, Triangle Eyes, and other brawlers, then told Jian Ruonan and Top Graduate Hou to leave.
• Jian Ruonan and Top Graduate Hou returned to the Ministry of Revenue with one hundred thousand taels of illicit silver, and Jian Ruonan claimed it came from a new tax.
• Lord Wu Zhi arrived to demand funds for the Sixth Prince’s residence and insulted Jian Ruonan’s colleagues.
• Jian Ruonan’s thoughts exposed Lord Wu’s extreme bootlicking, and she struck him across the left cheek with a wooden board.