Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• A sudden June downpour leaves officials soaked as they leave court. Back at the prince’s residence, Yin Xing prepares a bath and fresh clothes for Wenren Luoshui.
• Wenren Shuang barges into Luoshui’s room and tries to strike her, but Yin Xing slaps her first and fiercely defends her mistress. Shuang warns Luoshui to stop interfering with her plans, then storms away.
• Luoshui recalls that the Empress Dowager has recovered but lost many memories. Now carefree and lively, she gets along well with the Seventh Princess, and her relationship with the Emperor has improved.
• Shuang runs through the rain, lamenting her difficult circumstances. Though she believes she is the novel’s heroine, the Emperor’s hostility toward her father, Wenren Chun, has left her family ostracized—and the male leads she expected have yet to appear.
• Yunjian discovers that a marketplace update has added a crops category. She redeems a potato and recognizes it as a high-yield variety she developed during the apocalypse, capable of producing roughly triple an ordinary crop’s yield.
• Excited, Yunjian rushes to share the discovery with Luoshui. They celebrate and decide to tell the Emperor the next day, asking him to appoint someone to document the potatoes’ growth and harvest. They also discuss where to plant them, with Yunjian proposing unused land at her family’s residence.

Character developments and interactions

• Yin Xing shows open loyalty to Luoshui, physically shielding her and rejecting Wenren Shuang’s authority over her.
• Wenren Shuang reveals her self-centered belief that she is the story’s heroine and fears Luoshui is taking opportunities meant for her. Her frustration is heightened by her family’s declining status and her lack of expected romantic prospects.
• Luoshui and Yunjian share an exuberant, trusting friendship. Their excitement quickly turns into a practical plan to test and document the new crop.
• Wenren Qingluo hears the women’s celebration and runs off, mistakenly fearing his sister has been possessed.
• The Empress Dowager’s memory loss has reshaped palace relationships, especially bringing her closer to the Seventh Princess and easing tensions with the Emperor.

Significant themes

• Clashing ideas of destiny and agency: Shuang relies on her supposed “heroine’s halo,” while Luoshui and Yunjian create opportunities through action and cooperation.
• Innovation as public benefit: The improved potato could help address food scarcity, turning a personal achievement into a potentially valuable resource for the realm.
• Loyalty and friendship: Yin Xing’s protection and the women’s shared excitement contrast with Shuang’s threats and resentment.
• Social power and vulnerability: The Emperor’s treatment of Wenren Chun affects his family’s standing, showing how political favor shapes private life.

Key plot points

• The chapter recounts how Wenren Qiao and the Old Princess Consort fell out after his father’s death. She demanded that he give up his title in favor of her favored son, Wenren Chun, but Qiao refused. They argued in front of the clan elders and ultimately divided the household’s property, with the larger share going to Chun and his mother.
• Despite receiving less of the estate, Qiao retained valuable assets inherited through his birth mother’s wealthy family, including at least ten storefronts. The chapter also explains that his father had surrendered the family’s military command to avoid the enormous expense of maintaining troops, then repeatedly failed the civil examinations.
• After the rain stops, Yunjian decides to use the residence’s neglected garden for a potato-growing experiment and moves her belongings there. The royal couple lets her and Luoshui proceed, with the joking suggestion that the young sprout can help with the labor.
• At court the next morning, Yunjian tells the emperor about potatoes: a fast-growing, high-yield crop that can be filling enough to serve as either staple food or vegetable. Since ordinary people rely largely on wheat and rice is too expensive, the emperor is thrilled by its promise and sends two eunuchs to observe the planting.
• The garden is prepared, and planting begins. Luoshui pulls her younger brother, Wenren Qingluo, into the work, and he obediently helps.
• Meanwhile, Wenren Shuang recovers after being caught in the rain by Wenren Bing, a cousin from the family’s second branch. She tells him that Luoshui bullied her. Taking her account at face value, Bing follows her into the prince’s garden intending to reprimand Luoshui—only to find the group digging up the garden.

Character developments and interactions

• Wenren Qiao is shown asserting his independence for the first time against the Old Princess Consort, who had previously controlled his actions.
• Yunjian takes the lead on the potato project and successfully draws the emperor’s attention to its potential to reduce hunger.
• Luoshui is enthusiastic and energetic, but also bossy with her younger brother, whom she drags into farming.
• Wenren Bing presents himself as a responsible eldest brother, yet his habit of smoothing over disputes without investigating them leaves him vulnerable to Shuang’s one-sided story.
• Wenren Shuang uses a frail, helpless demeanor to gain Bing’s sympathy and recruit him against Luoshui.
• The emperor, the palace eunuchs, and the young residents become involved in the potato experiment, turning it from a private project into one of public importance.

Significant themes

• Food security and practical innovation: The potato’s high yield and versatility may transform ordinary people’s access to food.
• Family conflict and inheritance: The household split exposes rivalries, favoritism, and the difference between apparent and real wealth.
• Action versus appearances: Chun wants the benefits without risking his reputation, while Shuang’s performance of helplessness influences Bing before he knows the full story.
• Shared labor and community: The planting project brings children and palace officials together in a common task.

Key plot points and events

• Wenren Bing, a wealthy merchant family’s grandson, storms into the Prince of Beiping’s residence and demands to know who is in charge of the damaged garden. He fails to realize that the people he is addressing outrank him.
• Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian mock him in their thoughts while the servants ignore his commands and continue tending the potato trial plot.
• The Eldest Princess arrives with the Seventh Princess and Ironclad Guards. The emperor has placed the guards under her command until the potato harvest, recognizing the crop’s importance.
• Wenren Shuang tries to use her tearful, helpless appearance to turn Wenren Bing against Luoshui. Instead, Yunjian rebukes her, and Bing escalates matters by insulting Luoshui and demanding servants obey him.
• Luoshui’s thoughts expose Bing’s past: he pursued and forcibly married the Lu family’s daughter despite her mutual love with another man. The princesses, intrigued by the scandal—and mindful of the impoverished Imperial Treasury—consider how the Wenren family might be made to pay.

Character developments

• Wenren Bing is revealed as arrogant, entitled, and poor at reading social rank. His confidence comes from his family’s wealth and the deference he receives at home, but it falters in the capital.
• Wenren Shuang persists in playing the innocent victim, hoping to use Bing against Luoshui. Her resentment grows as Luoshui’s fortunes improve and her own influence declines.
• Wenren Luoshui remains composed and lets her thoughts expose the truth, while her position is reinforced by the princesses’ presence.
• Yunjian is quick-witted and blunt, eagerly joining the mockery and pushing for Bing’s secrets to be uncovered.
• The Eldest Princess demonstrates practical leadership by securing guards for the potato project; she also shows an opportunistic interest in extracting wealth from the Wenren family.

Significant themes

• Rank versus entitlement: Bing mistakes wealth and status in his hometown for authority over imperial nobles.
• Appearance and manipulation: Shuang’s practiced vulnerability fails to win sympathy from the women who see through her.
• Abuse of power and coercion: Bing’s marriage to the Lu family’s daughter exposes the harm behind his self-image as a family patriarch.
• Agriculture as a national concern: The guarded potato trial plot is treated as important enough to merit direct imperial protection.
• Gossip as leverage: Private knowledge becomes a possible tool for exposing wrongdoing and pressuring a powerful family.

Character interactions

• Bing’s demands are met with silence from the servants and ridicule from Luoshui and Yunjian.
• Shuang tries to hide behind Bing and then plead with the Eldest Princess, but neither tactic wins the women’s support.
• Bing insults the princesses and Luoshui, while Yunjian openly challenges his behavior.
• The princesses listen to Luoshui’s inner commentary, react to Bing’s revealed past, and begin considering what consequences—or financial benefits—might follow.

Plot and events

• Through Yunjian’s silent prompts, Wenren Luoshui recounts the Lu family’s tragedy: Wenren Bing and his wealthy father used bribed officials to ruin the family, frame the Lu sisters’ sweetheart for arson, and drive the elder sister to suicide.
• The younger Lu sister—an Emei disciple who looks almost identical to her sister—returned to find her family dead. She assumed her sister’s identity, and Wenren Bing agreed to marry her, believing she was the woman he had pursued. She has secretly poisoned the Wenren family with a slow-acting toxin.
• The Eldest Princess decides to investigate Lidu’s corruption and bring victims safely to the capital. She orders Wenren Bing and Wenren Shuang arrested after they trespass on the Imperial Farmland, where Yunjian is cultivating potatoes.
• Wenren Shuang tries to guilt Wenren Luoshui into helping them, but Luoshui runs off, summons the tiger Big Yellow, and uses an amplification talisman to draw the neighbors’ attention.

Character development and interactions

• Yunjian tries to steer Luoshui away from dangerous thoughts about the emperor, while the princesses and court figures listen in. Her inability to warn Luoshui openly remains a limitation of their mind-sharing arrangement.
• The Eldest Princess moves from listening to decisive action, using Wenren Bing’s trespass as grounds to arrest him while planning a broader inquiry into Lidu.
• Wenren Bing remains arrogant and self-righteous even while being seized; he cannot see the danger his conduct has brought upon him.
• Wenren Shuang performs helplessness and appeals to family loyalty, but Luoshui refuses to be manipulated.
• The younger Lu sister emerges as a determined avenger: she has adopted her sister’s identity and is quietly arranging the Wenren family’s downfall.

Significant themes

• Corruption and abuse of power: Wealthy families can manipulate local officials and suppress appeals.
• Justice and revenge: The younger Lu sister seeks retribution, while the Eldest Princess prepares to pursue official justice.
• Deception and mistaken identity: Wenren Bing’s vanity blinds him to the identity of the woman he plans to marry.
• Public accountability and power: Luoshui uses spectacle—and the neighbors as witnesses—to counter the Wenren siblings’ attempts to control the story.

Plot points and events

• Wenren Luoshui publicly weeps over an alleged crisis: her relatives, Wenren Shuang and Wenren Bing, stole experimental potato seeds and planned to sell them abroad. She insists the seeds belong to the imperial project and vows that her household will return every seed, even at the cost of her own fingers.
• Her dramatic speech wins public support. The crowd turns against the accused relatives, and when the Eldest Princess arrives, people pelt Wenren Shuang and Wenren Bing with rotten food.
• The Imperial Preceptor appears and publicly declares that the “chosen ones” who can strengthen Li Kingdom are at the Prince of Beiping’s Residence and Minister Yun’s estate. In private, he reveals to Luoshui that he is her long-missing Junior Martial Uncle.
• After the public scene, Luoshui and Yunjian take the Imperial Preceptor to the garden and put him to work planting potatoes.

Character developments and interactions

• Luoshui uses tears, patriotic language, and a pledge of personal sacrifice to shape public opinion against the seed thieves. Though she finds her uncle’s grand pronouncements absurd, his glare reminds her of their childhood, and she becomes obedient around him.
• The Junior Martial Uncle / Imperial Preceptor re-enters Luoshui’s life after a long disappearance. Revered by the public, he is also familiar and teasing in private, and the three young people’s shared history emerges.
• Wenren Shuang and Wenren Bing are publicly disgraced; Shuang angrily accuses Luoshui of plotting against her, but the crowd dismisses this as scapegoating.
• Yunjian recognizes the Imperial Preceptor’s reputation and quietly asks Luoshui about their closeness, then joins her in assigning him garden work.

Significant themes

• Food security and duty: The potatoes symbolize a resource meant to benefit Li Kingdom’s people, not private or foreign interests.
• Public image and performance: Luoshui’s theatrical grief turns a dispute over seeds into a public moral cause.
• Power and reputation: The Imperial Preceptor’s near-mythic status lends authority to the claim that Luoshui and Yunjian are vital to the kingdom.
• Friendship and familiar bonds: Despite titles and public spectacle, Luoshui, Yunjian, and the Junior Martial Uncle interact with the ease of people who grew up together.

Key plot points and events

• The Eldest Princess reports that Wenren Bing’s family has colluded with local officials in Lidu and that Wenren Shuang and Wenren Bing tried to seize the newly discovered potato seeds for private profit and sale abroad.
• Enraged, the emperor orders Wenren Chun, his wife, and the Old Princess Consort imprisoned, and sends officers to bring Wenren Hongyu’s family and the implicated Lidu officials to the capital.
• In jail, Wenren Shuang blames her father for failing to rescue her. Wenren Chun and Wenren Bing each beat her, with the jailers eventually moving her to a separate cell.
• At court, the emperor denounces the leak of information about the potatoes and condemns the ministers’ incompetence. Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian privately fret about their aching knees, while their audible thoughts distract the court.
• Wenren Qiao tearfully clings to the emperor’s legs, insisting he knew nothing of his relatives’ wrongdoing. Prince Heng joins him, defending Qiao as too foolish to have masterminded the scheme. The two then bicker, further exasperating the emperor.

Character developments and interactions

• The emperor’s anger reflects how seriously he views the potatoes’ potential to relieve hunger; he acts swiftly against corruption and attempts to protect the crop for the country.
• Wenren Shuang’s self-centeredness becomes clear when she shows no concern for her imprisoned family and blames her father. Wenren Bing likewise evades responsibility by deciding she caused all his troubles.
• Wenren Qiao appears frightened and helpless, while Prince Heng risks looking ridiculous to defend his friend. Their sincere loyalty is undercut by their comic argument over who is more foolish.
• Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian share playful, candid thoughts, but their mental chatter is audible to the court. Yunjian tries to rein in her friend after noticing the emperor’s glare.

Significant themes

• Public welfare versus private greed: The potato seeds represent a chance to improve food security, making attempts to monopolize or export them especially serious.
• Corruption and accountability: The emperor targets both the family members and officials implicated in abusing their positions.
• Family dysfunction and blame: Wenren Shuang and Wenren Bing respond to crisis by shifting responsibility rather than showing loyalty or remorse.
• Comedy amid political tension: The court’s grave proceedings are repeatedly disrupted by the heroines’ knee-related thoughts and the two “fools” pleading and quarrelling before the emperor.

Key plot points and events

• Wenren Qiao tries to take responsibility for the crimes of his estranged relatives by offering to pass his title to his daughter, Luoshui. The emperor rejects the offer, noting that Qiao’s branch had long since separated from theirs.
• After reviewing evidence, the court sentences Wenren Chun, Wenren Hongyu, and the officials who exploited local people to exile and confiscates their property. The emperor is delighted to see the seized wealth added to the Imperial Treasury.
• Wenren Shuang, facing exile and the hostility of her imprisoned relatives, kills herself by striking her head against her cell wall.
• Luoshui and Yunjian inspect potatoes planted the previous day and find that they have already sprouted. The emperor orders extra guards to protect the garden until the crop matures.
• The Eldest Princess presents the emperor with exceptionally white, soft paper made using Luoshui’s method. Its production cost is less than half that of traditional paper.
• The emperor and Eldest Princess open a paper shop on Vermilion Bird Street. Its low prices draw eager customers, and the shop earns an impressive profit on its first day.

Character developments and interactions

• Wenren Qiao shows loyalty and a sense of responsibility, though his impulsive attempt to intervene earns him a warning from the emperor.
• The emperor moves from frustration at the court’s antics to satisfaction over the confiscated wealth and enthusiasm for Luoshui’s agricultural and industrial innovations. He also enjoys a rare, good-humored visit with the Empress and her card-playing consorts.
• Wenren Shuang makes a desperate final attempt to escape her fate, convinced she might transmigrate again, but dies in prison.
• Luoshui and Yunjian work together on the potato experiment, while palace eunuchs and agricultural officials observe its progress. The emperor’s hidden guards are assigned to protect them.
• The Eldest Princess and emperor collaborate on the paper venture. In the palace, the Empress also gently sends away the consorts when they begin taking advantage of the emperor’s eagerness to please her.

Significant themes

• Justice and accountability: Officials who abuse ordinary people face punishment, and their wealth is returned to the state.
• Innovation and public benefit: Luoshui’s ideas promise practical gains through faster-growing crops and cheaper, better paper.
• Fate and desperation: Wenren Shuang’s death contrasts with Luoshui’s successful efforts to change her circumstances.
• Comedy amid political tension: The court’s absurd interruptions and the emperor’s domestic meekness provide humor alongside serious punishments and reform.

Key plot points and events

• The emperor refuses to add the visiting Huiju princess to his harem and tells his ministers to arrange her marriage as they had with earlier princesses. None of them volunteers a son.
• Wenren Luoshui asks her Salty Fish System for gossip about the princess. She learns that the princess had kept more than thirty male favorites, borne a child with a fatal birth defect, and falsely presented him as an auspicious “pixiu” before claiming he had become a celestial child.
• The princess had also pursued married men and contracted a venereal disease. Luoshui discovers the reason: her cousin, reborn in the princess’s body, came to Li intending to infect the emperor and his ministers.
• The emperor orders Yuqiao to intercept the party and send it back, protecting his subjects from the threat.
• Luoshui privately suggests marrying the princess to Commandery Princess Nanyi’s youngest son, partly to thwart Nanyi’s plan to marry her own son to the Seventh Princess. She also reveals that the son, nearly twenty-seven, still shares a bed with his mother.
• The Eldest Princess captures Wenren Shuang, who dies during the return journey. Huiju’s new king shows no grief; he is chiefly relieved when Li’s envoy warns that there must not be another such incident.

Character developments

• The emperor acts decisively once he learns of the danger, prioritizing his people’s safety. He also grows more determined to deal with Commandery Princess Nanyi’s presumptuous marriage ambitions.
• Wenren Luoshui uses her system and sharp gossip-reading to uncover the conspiracy and help prevent it.
• Yunjian reacts with curiosity and shock, serving as Luoshui’s audience for the increasingly disturbing revelations.
• The Huiju king appears pragmatic and self-protective: he cares less about his sister’s death than about avoiding Li’s retaliation.
• The Eldest Princess handles the threat directly by apprehending Wenren Shuang.

Significant themes

• Protection and political responsibility: The emperor refuses to let a foreign scheme endanger his subjects.
• Gossip as intelligence: Luoshui’s seemingly frivolous information-gathering exposes a serious conspiracy.
• Power, deception, and reputation: The Huiju princess’s fabricated story about her child shows how public belief can be manipulated.
• Dynastic marriage as political leverage: The proposed alliances are treated as tools for managing relations and rivalries.
• Dark comedy: The ministers’ fear of offering up their sons and the bizarre revelations contrast with the genuine threat.

Character interactions

• The emperor’s brief exchange with the ministers establishes his refusal to expand his harem and their reluctance to risk an imperial marriage decree.
• Luoshui and Yunjian trade questions and reactions as the gossip unfolds, while the emperor and ministers overhear Luoshui’s thoughts.
• Luoshui’s suggestion about Nanyi’s son links the foreign crisis to domestic court politics.
• The Eldest Princess’s seizure of Wenren Shuang and the envoy’s warning to Huiju’s king close the episode with a firm political boundary.

• Key events: After dying in prison, Wenren Shuang asks her system, 444, to reincarnate her again despite the ten-year lifespan cost. It reminds her that she can reclaim lifespan by winning men over—and even gain their wives’ lifespan if they abandon them. Meanwhile, Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian ride together toward the Yun residence. Yunjian has to attend a family dinner because her second brother, Yun Zheng, and his family have returned to the capital.
• The Yun family secret: Luoshui’s “Salty Fish System” reveals that a midwife once switched Yun Zheng’s newborn daughter with her own granddaughter. The adopted daughter has long known the truth and secretly helped her biological grandmother, even plotting to have the real heiress sold away. Yun Zheng’s wife, however, is deeply attached to the girl she raised and has shielded her from consequences. The real daughter escaped, reached the Court of Justice, and exposed the scheme. Luoshui and Yunjian anticipate trouble when the two girls arrive in the capital.
• Character developments and interactions: Curious about the real-and-fake heiress drama, Luoshui persuades Yunjian to bring her to the Yun residence. Their playful closeness is evident as Yunjian teases her for wanting to watch the spectacle. At home, Madam Yun warmly fusses over Yunjian, then welcomes Luoshui, newly introduced as the Prince of Beiping’s Little Commandery Princess and Yunjian’s close friend. Madam Yun knows Luoshui may be able to reveal people’s thoughts and is eager to see whether it works.
• Significant themes: The chapter contrasts self-serving manipulation—with Wenren Shuang treating romance as a way to harvest lifespans—with family affection and responsibility. It also introduces the damage caused by favoritism and willful blindness: the Yun family’s crisis has been prolonged by the mother’s attachment to the adopted daughter and Yun Zheng’s distance from household affairs. The real-and-fake heiress conflict is set up as the next major source of drama.

Key events

• At a family dinner, Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian silently criticize Ye Qianyi’s treatment of her biological daughter, Yun Fei, compared with her adopted daughter, Yun Shuang.
• Yun Fei’s clothes and jewelry are visibly poorer and less flattering than Yun Shuang’s. Ye Qianyi insists she has treated them equally, but her thoughts reveal that she deliberately prioritizes Shuang and resents Fei’s return.
• The family learns through Wenren Luoshui’s thoughts that Yun Fei was raised harshly by her birth family, while Yun Shuang enjoyed a comfortable life and sent money to the midwife who arranged the baby swap.
• Yun Shuang offers Fei greasy braised pork to appear considerate. Yunjian stops Fei from eating it, explaining that years of vegetarian meals have left her unable to tolerate rich food.
• The family realizes Ye Qianyi had given Fei meat after her return, then used Fei’s resulting illness to justify keeping her on a vegetarian diet. Madam Yun offers to arrange better vegetarian cooking.
• Ye Qianyi corrects Fei for calling her “Granny” instead of “Grandmother,” leaving Fei feeling that she can never meet her mother’s expectations.

Character developments and interactions

• Yun Fei is shown as physically neglected, uncertain, and eager to adapt, despite being repeatedly made to feel inadequate.
• Ye Qianyi sees herself as fair and wronged, but her thoughts reveal deep favoritism toward Yun Shuang and little empathy for Fei.
• Yun Shuang maintains a kindly public image, while her gesture toward Fei is questionable given Fei’s limited tolerance for rich food.
• Yunjian and Wenren Luoshui speak up for Fei, with Yunjian directly preventing her from eating the pork. The wider Yun family shares their concern, and Madam Yun offers practical help.
• The chapter contrasts Ye Qianyi’s self-justification with the family’s growing awareness of Fei’s mistreatment.

Significant themes

• Favoritism and parental responsibility: Ye Qianyi’s attachment to her adopted daughter blinds her to her biological daughter’s needs.
• Appearance versus intention: Yun Shuang’s outward kindness and Ye Qianyi’s claims of fairness conflict with the harm their actions cause.
• Neglect and recovery: Fei’s difficult upbringing continues to affect her health, confidence, and place in the family.
• Family intervention: The family’s willingness to challenge Ye Qianyi offers Fei some protection, even as she remains emotionally vulnerable.

Key plot points and events

• Yunjian sees Ye Qianyi scolding Yun Fei and, reminded of her own painful childhood, takes the girl’s side. She moves Fei to sit beside her and gives her a treasured jade pendant, reassuring her that she is loved by the wider Yun family.
• Madam Yun intervenes and declares that Fei will stay with her. Ye Qianyi is left upset and humiliated; soon afterward, she collapses from a sudden tightness in her chest.
• Through the Salty Fish System, Yunjian learns that “Yun Shuang” is actually Wenren Shuang, a woman who has repeatedly been reborn by trading away years of her life. Her rogue system promises to restore her lifespan by having her seduce men and take theirs.
• Wenren Shuang’s intended scheme would make the Yun family recklessly favor her, even giving her a military tiger tally, which could lead to the family’s execution. The Yun relatives hear the warning and turn suspiciously toward her.
• Wenren Shuang believes a Captivating Gu Insect is making everyone adore her. Luoshui secretly uses a paper rooster to draw the insect out of her body, breaking its influence.

Character developments and interactions

• Yunjian shows empathy shaped by her own history and firmly protects Fei, openly challenging Ye Qianyi.
• Yun Fei receives reassurance and a new sense of belonging, marking a turning point in her circumstances.
• Madam Yun takes direct responsibility for Fei when Ye Qianyi continues to mistreat her.
• Ye Qianyi casts herself as the wronged party, while the family increasingly questions her behavior.
• Wenren Shuang/Yun Shuang is revealed as a calculating outsider whose confidence rests on supernatural manipulation; the family’s awareness threatens her plans.
• Luoshui and Yunjian share a playful, trusting rapport, with Luoshui acting decisively to neutralize the Gu.

Significant themes

• Chosen and familial care: Fei is reminded that a parent’s rejection does not define her worth.
• Cycles of harm and empathy: Yunjian’s own abandonment makes her especially sensitive to Fei’s suffering.
• Manipulation versus agency: Wenren Shuang’s system seeks to control people for personal gain, while exposing it gives the Yun family a chance to resist.
• Family loyalty and accountability: The chapter contrasts genuine protection with favoritism and abuse, while foreshadowing the danger of blindly trusting Wenren Shuang.

Key plot points and events

• Yunjian brings Wenren Luoshui and Yun Fei to her room. Wenren recognizes that Yun Fei is severely malnourished and vows to find herbs to help her recover.
• Yun Fei reveals that no one has ever cared about her wellbeing. She had even planned to escape and drown herself. Yunjian comforts her and embraces her as she cries.
• Yun Shuang barges into Minister Yun’s study, hoping to use her Alluring Gu to charm him, but he has her thrown out before she can try.
• Madam Yun summons Yun Shuang and orders her to copy books in the ancestral hall as punishment. Yun Shuang refuses, insults Madam Yun, and boasts that she will make the Yun family’s men serve her.
• When Ye Qianyi arrives, she takes Yun Shuang’s side despite the girl’s abuse of Madam Yun. Yun Shuang demands that Ye kill Madam Yun for her.
• Wenren Luoshui kicks Yun Shuang, while Yunjian kicks Ye Qianyi as Ye rushes toward Madam Yun, apparently intending to strangle her.

Character developments

• Yun Fei begins to trust Yunjian and Wenren Luoshui after experiencing genuine concern for the first time. Her tears reveal how deeply neglected she has been.
• Yun Shuang grows bolder and more openly cruel, convinced that her status as the “protagonist” and her gu give her the right to dominate others. Her attempted charm of Minister Yun fails.
• Ye Qianyi shows extreme, unthinking favoritism toward Yun Shuang, even turning against her own family on the girl’s command.
• Madam Yun asserts her authority as mistress of the household, but Yun Shuang’s insults provoke her into striking the girl.

Character interactions

• Yunjian comforts Yun Fei and treats her needs seriously, contrasting sharply with the neglect she has suffered from her birth family.
• Yun Shuang’s disrespect toward Minister Yun and Madam Yun exposes her contempt for household authority.
• Ye Qianyi’s defense of Yun Shuang puts her at odds with Madam Yun and the other women of the Yun household.
• Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian intervene physically when Yun Shuang’s demand leads Ye Qianyi to attack Madam Yun.

Significant themes

• Care versus neglect: Yun Fei’s first experience of kindness highlights the harm caused by her family’s cruelty.
• Entitlement and delusion: Yun Shuang mistakes her confidence in her “destiny” for immunity from consequences.
• Unhealthy favoritism: Ye Qianyi’s blind loyalty to Yun Shuang threatens to destroy her relationships with her own family.
• Household authority and accountability: The chapter contrasts reasonable discipline with Yun Shuang’s insistence that no one has the right to correct her.

Plot and events

• After the dispute at the Yun residence, Ye Shi is sent back to her family home to reflect, while Yun Shuang is taken away still threatening revenge. Ye Shi cares far more about Yun Shuang than about returning to her husband’s household.
• Yunjian and Yun Fei accompany Wenren Luoshui to the prince’s residence. Yun Fei has grown attached to Yunjian and follows her willingly.
• They arrive to find the emperor, Wenren Qiao, Prince Heng, and the residence’s staff harvesting potatoes. The work takes three days, and the harvest from six mu totals 60,000 jin—an extraordinary 10,000 jin per mu.
• To celebrate, Yunjian and Luoshui prepare a wide variety of potato dishes. The emperor enjoys the meal so much that he eats until he is uncomfortably full.
• At court, officials unanimously agree to promote potato cultivation around the capital. Luoshui reminds Yunjian to warn people not to eat potatoes that have sprouted or turned green; Yunjian promises to write out cultivation and safety precautions.

Character developments and interactions

• Yun Fei’s bond with Yunjian deepens: she looks to her for guidance and happily stays by her side. Yunjian and Luoshui include her in a simple word-chain game.
• Yunjian is disappointed that the harvest is only twice the yield of ordinary seeds, despite the impressive result. She suspects the garden’s soil or management limited the crop, and remains eager to improve her seeds.
• The emperor is impressed by both the potatoes and Yunjian’s ambitions, and is willing to let her continue experimenting. His affection for potatoes becomes a running joke.
• Luoshui understands Yunjian well and redirects her from disappointment toward the practical need to share food-safety guidance. Their teasing, meandering inner conversation leaves the emperor and ministers exasperated.

Significant themes

• Innovation and public welfare: Potatoes’ exceptional yield leads the court to support wider cultivation, suggesting their potential to improve food supplies.
• Persistence and ambition: Yunjian treats a remarkable harvest as a shortfall and wants to keep refining her seeds.
• Trust and care: Yun Fei’s attachment to Yunjian contrasts with Yun Shuang’s angry threats.
• Humor and contrast: The characters’ playful banter and the officials’ comic reactions lighten the serious prospect of agricultural reform.

Key plot points and events

• Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian visit the Imperial Preceptor’s Hall during a storm, using a token that lets them enter freely. They interrupt the Imperial Preceptor with a young man, whom he identifies as his former classmate and fellow transmigrator.
• Luoshui immediately teases the pair about when they will marry. The classmate’s laughter and the Imperial Preceptor’s sharp reprimands only encourage her gossip; he insists their having transmigrated together was simply fate.
• Back at the prince’s residence, Luoshui’s father, Prince Wenren Qiao, begs her to stop her mother from meeting her first love. Luoshui mocks his jealousy and threatens to summon relatives to witness his crying.
• The Princess Consort returns, picks up her husband, and carries him away, telling Luoshui to look after Little Treasure. Their playful affection makes clear that the couple’s dramatic quarrels are part of their lively relationship.
• Later, the system reports that Wenren Shuang tried to climb into the Director of the Imperial Academy’s bed. She and Ye Shi were thrown out of the Ye household, turned away from the Yun household, and ended up renting a small courtyard.

Character developments and interactions

• Wenren Luoshui is irreverent, curious, and eager for gossip. She teases the Imperial Preceptor, jokes about her parents’ relationship, and uses humor to manage her father’s melodrama.
• Yunjian accompanies Luoshui but is quieter, silently bracing herself when Luoshui gets scolded.
• The Imperial Preceptor is composed and authoritative, using an Immobilization Spell to keep the intruders from leaving. His comfortable familiarity with his classmate fuels Luoshui’s suspicions.
• The Prince of Beiping and the Princess Consort have a theatrical but affectionate marriage: he is jealous and prone to crying, while she is decisive and physically playful.
• Wenren Shuang is shown acting recklessly, while Ye Shi continues to support her despite the consequences for their family relationships.

Significant themes

• Comic family and romantic relationships: Jealousy, affection, and teasing drive both the Imperial Preceptor’s mysterious bond and the prince couple’s antics.
• Gossip and curiosity: Luoshui treats private affairs as irresistible entertainment, though the system cannot answer every question.
• Consequences and misplaced devotion: Wenren Shuang’s behavior leads to rejection by two households, while Ye Shi’s unwavering favoritism prompts Luoshui to question her judgment.
• Fate and transmigration: The Imperial Preceptor and his classmate arrived in this world together, which Luoshui interprets as evidence of a special bond.

Plot points and events

• During a dull morning court session, Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian bicker through their systems about what music to play.
• The system says it can share gossip exchanged with other systems, prompting the ministers to listen eagerly.
• It recounts a modern story: a couple’s wedding plans are disrupted when the bride’s parents raise the agreed bride price threefold, intending to keep the money for their own retirement. The bride refuses to oppose them, and the groom’s family questions whether the marriage should proceed.
• Luoshui and Yunjian debate how the groom’s parents might respond, then improvise a humorous “reborn” ending in which the mother divorces her husband, leaves her son to his choices, and later refuses to take him back when he returns in distress.

Character developments

• Luoshui and Yunjian are shown as mischievous, outspoken companions who enjoy turning gossip into exaggerated hypothetical scenarios.
• Yunjian argues that a last-minute change to a marriage agreement is a warning sign; Luoshui agrees and questions whether the bride would accept her parents keeping all the money.
• Their shared joke about rebirth and moving on shows their playful rapport and delight in dramatic one-liners.
• The system is easily provoked by their teasing but still indulges them by telling the story.

Significant themes

• Marriage and family obligations: The story raises questions about parental influence, bride price, and whether a couple can build a marriage when one partner cannot set boundaries.
• Fairness and trust: Changing an agreement at the last minute is presented as a breach of trust and a possible sign of future conflict.
• Generational and cultural differences: The ministers are baffled by modern ideas such as IVF, online discussions, and later marriage ages, highlighting the gap between their world and the system’s.
• Humor and escapism: Court boredom gives way to lively gossip and comic speculation.

Character interactions

• Luoshui and Yunjian spar with each other and the system, while the system alternates between irritation and cooperation.
• The ministers silently follow the exchange, reacting with curiosity to modern customs and amusement—and discomfort—to the pair’s final, boastful punchline.

Key events

• The Salty Fish System resumes sharing court gossip after Yunjian and Wenren Luoshui repeatedly interrupt it with absurd guesses and jokes.
• It reveals that the emperor once dreamed of eating potatoes and, half-asleep, gnawed on the Empress’s foot. The ministers find the story astonishing, while the emperor turns red before recovering his composure.
• The Eldest Princess learns that her missing gemstone ring was stolen by the Little Commandery Princess from Prince Chen’s residence—and that it was hidden in an extremely indecent place. Although she now knows who took it, the revelation leaves her disgusted and unsure whether she wants the ring back.
• The emperor sympathizes with his daughter and decides to give her a better ring from the Imperial Treasury.
• The system explains that the thief stole the ring because she had fallen in love and wanted to give it to her lover; her household lacked the money to buy him a gift. Yunjian jokes that the couple will likely go hungry if they get together.

Character developments and interactions

• The emperor is briefly embarrassed by the potato story but quickly restores his dignity. He is relieved that the gossip concerns someone else and responds kindly to his daughter’s predicament.
• The Eldest Princess moves from enjoying the gossip to horrified disbelief when she discovers what happened to her ring. Knowing the truth does not make her eager to reclaim it.
• Yunjian and Wenren Luoshui repeatedly derail the system’s story with fanciful theories and teasing banter. Their guesses—ranging from a mouse to hiding the ring in a tooth—contrast with the crude truth.
• The ministers silently listen, react with bewilderment to the girls’ strange references, and are shocked by the ring’s hiding place.

Significant themes

• Gossip and embarrassment: Private mishaps become public entertainment, exposing the vulnerability of even powerful people.
• Love and sacrifice: The thief’s theft is motivated by affection, though her romantic gesture is shaped by poverty.
• Humor through contrast: The chapter pairs courtly dignity with ridiculous, vulgar revelations and the girls’ irreverent commentary.
• Wealth and status: The emperor’s ability to replace the ring highlights the difference between the wealthy imperial family and Prince Chen’s outwardly prosperous but financially strained household.

Key plot points and events

• In court, the Salty Fish System reveals that Prince Chen’s heir has damaged his sexual health through excessive visits to pleasure houses and now struggles despite taking medicine. The gossip amuses the emperor, who has long resented Prince Chen but must tolerate him because of the Late Emperor’s decree.
• The system boasts that the condition is common among men in Li Kingdom, prompting the ministers to worry it might expose their own names.
• Wenren Luoshui recalls an ancient medicinal-wine recipe she and Yunjian recreated during the apocalypse. It improved physical health and sexual vitality, and selling it helped them prosper.
• The two friends decide to brew and sell the wine again. They spend the day preparing twenty jars, then arrange food and massages after tiring themselves out.
• They also plan a small shopping-mall-like venue outside the capital, combining shops, food, and theatrical performances. They intend to use system-provided gossip as material for plays and modern recipes as signature dishes.
• After drawing up plans, they request a month’s leave from the emperor, hand the application to the Prince of Beiping, and leave to pursue the venture—leaving her father to secure the emperor’s approval.

Character developments and interactions

• Wenren Luoshui is entrepreneurial and energetic, turning a remembered survival-era recipe into a new business opportunity. She is also irreverent, privately imagining the emperor’s flushed face as a digestive problem.
• Yunjian quickly understands Luoshui’s idea and supports it without hesitation; their shared past gives them effortless, unspoken cooperation.
• The emperor delights in Prince Chen’s family scandal but struggles to conceal his amusement. Luoshui’s blunt thoughts about him only worsen his frustration.
• The Prince of Beiping and Prince Heng recognize the emperor’s true reaction and silently mock his attempt to keep up appearances. The ministers share a moment of mutual anxiety about the system exposing their secrets.
• Luoshui and Yunjian’s fathers call after them as they rush off, but the pair are too focused on their plans to respond.

Significant themes

• Gossip as power and entertainment: private scandals can amuse the court, unsettle ministers, and potentially supply material for public performances.
• Resourcefulness and entrepreneurship: skills and ideas developed during the apocalypse become the foundation for ventures in their new world.
• Female agency and friendship: Luoshui and Yunjian make plans, exchange expertise, and act independently despite expectations and family obligations.
• Comedic irreverence: the chapter contrasts imperial formality with blunt jokes, bodily humor, and the protagonists’ casual disregard for courtly decorum.

• The Ghost Market is turned into a business venture. Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian visit a hidden wasteland with her youngest martial uncle and his classmate. The apparent wasteland is revealed as a bustling Ghost Market concealed by an illusion. Her uncle offers Luoshui the place, provided she sets hours around the ghosts’ nighttime activity. She persuades him to let the ghosts work for her by proposing services such as fast deliveries, letter-carrying, and spreading news—but the limited number of ghosts means she will start small.
• Luoshui recruits and organizes the ghosts. Her uncle leaves her to negotiate with the market’s head steward, a ghost carrying a butcher’s knife. Eager to leave the Ghost Domain, many ghosts quickly sign contracts. Luoshui selects attractive, capable performers to rehearse a script, while the others help renovate the market. After more than half a month, she and Yunjian prepare bottled medicinal wine for sale.
• The wine sells briskly at court. The next morning, the pair bring their homemade medicinal wine to court and approach the ministers. Grand Commandant Chu immediately buys a bottle, and the ministers soon compete to purchase the limited stock, driving prices as high as a thousand taels per bottle. The emperor privately suspects their willingness to buy is partly due to fear that Luoshui will uncover and expose their family secrets.
• Luoshui courts the emperor as a customer and promoter. After court, she gives the emperor a bottle she had reserved for him, advising him not to drink too much. The emperor appreciates the gesture and offers to write a signboard for her and Yunjian’s business. Luoshui immediately recognizes the publicity value, while her private thoughts reveal that she sees the gift as a way to win the emperor’s affection and support for the Prince of Beiping’s residence.
  Character developments and interactions: Luoshui’s entrepreneurial ambition and shameless salesmanship drive the chapter, as she tries to turn the Ghost Market into a network of services and the medicinal wine into a profitable product. Her youngest martial uncle is amused by her schemes but sets firm limits before handing over responsibility. Yunjian works alongside her, while the emperor balances genuine appreciation of her gift with dry, private skepticism—and becomes an unexpected source of advertising.
  Themes: The chapter humorously explores resourcefulness, commerce, and turning overlooked opportunities into profit. It also contrasts Luoshui’s elaborate business ambitions with practical constraints, and highlights the gap between characters’ polite interactions and their candid inner thoughts.

Key plot points and events

• The morning after the Empress and Emperor spend a passionate night together, the Emperor feels unusually energetic. At court, several officials who bought Yunjian’s medicinal wine show the same renewed vigor.
• The system announces that the wine helped its buyers manage seven rounds in one night, prompting shock and envy among the ministers—especially the Prince of Beiping, who resents that his daughter did not give him any.
• The system reveals that the elderly Marquis of Dingyang’s wife has a very high chance of becoming pregnant. The marquis faints from excitement, is revived by Imperial Physician Xue, then faints again when the system reports that she is carrying eight babies.
• The marquis worries that pregnancy at his wife’s age could endanger her life and considers ending it. Yunjian reassures him that regular, small doses of the wine for his wife could strengthen her and support the pregnancy; he should not drink it himself.
• Yunjian recalls that the wine was developed during the Apocalypse to address low birth rates and once helped a woman conceive twelve children, making her a successful advertisement for the product.

Character developments and interactions

• The Marquis of Dingyang is overwhelmed by the prospect of finally having an heir after losing his only son decades earlier. His joy quickly turns to fear for his wife’s safety.
• Imperial Physician Xue demonstrates quick skill by repeatedly reviving the marquis with acupuncture.
• Yunjian and Wenren Luoshui privately speculate, with mischievous innuendo, about why the marquis fainted. Their teasing embarrasses him and scandalizes the court.
• The ministers react collectively with disbelief, curiosity, and envy, while the Prince of Beiping comically feels neglected by his daughter.

Significant themes

• Hope after loss: The possible pregnancy offers the elderly marquis and his wife renewed hope after years of grief and conflict with their relatives.
• The risks of childbirth and age: The marquis’s concern highlights the danger of an eight-baby pregnancy, especially for an older mother in a time without advanced medicine.
• Power and consequences of the extraordinary: The wine’s dramatic effects bring both excitement and unexpected complications.
• Comedy through contrast: The court’s solemn setting clashes with the system’s blunt announcements and the young characters’ bawdy speculation.

Chapter summary

• Half a month after Wenren Luoshui’s medicinal wine was given to the Marchioness of Dingyang, the marchioness was confirmed pregnant. The news astonishes the capital, and word spreads that Luoshui’s wine made it possible. Officials’ households send servants to seek more, but Luoshui says the earlier bottles were only a trial batch.
• The Prince of Beiping takes his wife away to escape the flood of visitors. Luoshui and Yunjian then promote their newly renovated Begonia Garden with a parade and open it to the public.
• The Begonia Garden is an elaborate entertainment venue with separate areas for male and female guests. Each has a theater, blind-box shop, food shop, and leisure facilities such as card games, massages, beauty treatments, and manicures. Visitors are especially impressed by the snacks and milk tea; the Yun family’s sisters-in-law and their daughters enjoy the outing.
• The medicinal wine is in high demand, but only one hundred bottles are available. Once they sell out, Luoshui and Yunjian close the shop.
• The chapter also reveals that many of the spirits helping at the venue are transmigrators from the previous dynasty. They died soon after arriving in that difficult era and found shelter only after encountering Yunjian’s junior granduncle and his classmates.
• On the way home, the sleepy Luoshui and Yunjian are jolted awake when their carriage hits a woman in the street. She appears to have fainted but has no fractures, so they take her to the prince’s residence. The next day, they find her arguing with a man outside the gates; the chapter ends before the dispute is explained.

Character developments and interactions

• Luoshui and Yunjian show themselves to be ambitious, resourceful partners: they turn the medicinal wine’s success into publicity for their commercial venture and create a space for recreation, particularly for women.
• Yunjian is protective and warmly teasing toward her sisters-in-law, offering to defend them if their husbands object to their enjoying the venue.
• The Yun sisters-in-law respond enthusiastically to the garden, highlighting how unusual and welcome such leisure opportunities are for women.
• Luoshui and Yunjian also act compassionately toward the injured stranger, taking responsibility for her when medical halls are closed.

Significant themes

• Commerce and ambition: The garden’s opening marks Luoshui and Yunjian’s growing business enterprise.
• Women’s leisure and independence: The venue offers women activities beyond the limited entertainment available in conventional social life.
• Unexpected consequences of success: The pregnancy draws intense public attention and demand for the wine.
• Compassion and community: The protagonists help a stranger despite the late hour.
• Displacement and belonging: The spirits’ histories reveal the hardship of transmigrators who cannot return home and must seek refuge in a new world.