Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Luo Chuyan tries to persuade the Anyi Marquis’s Wife to fear that her son, Sui Yun, will neglect her after marrying. Her arguments fail: the Marquis’s Wife says Sui Yun and her husband have always cared for her, and she trusts her close relationship with daughter-in-law Yunjian.
• Luo Chuyan’s bitterness reflects her own unhappy marriage: her husband has taken many concubines. The Marquis and Sui Yun have quietly encouraged this by arranging more concubines for him whenever Luo Chuyan visits and stirs up trouble.
• Sui Yun returns and ignores Luo Chuyan’s attempt at friendly conversation, going straight to see his mother. Luo Chuyan leaves resentful and vowing revenge.
• Severe winter weather brings refugees to the Capital and drives grain prices up. Wenren Luoshui supplies inexpensive grain, helps the emperor organize relief, and keeps prices at her shop steady. The emperor sends trustworthy officials to oversee aid and authorizes them to punish embezzlers.
• Hoarders who stockpile goods hoping to profit are left with aging supplies. Meanwhile, relief efforts allow many ordinary families in and around the Capital to get through the winter with food and fuel.
• In colder weather, Yunjian and Wenren Luoshui visit the Anyi Marquis Residence to eat hot pot with Sui Yun. They hear Luo Chuyan asking her cousin to let an injured girl stay at the marquis’s residence because her own crowded home is unsuitable for recovery.

Character developments and interactions

• The Anyi Marquis’s Wife emerges as sincere and secure in her family bonds; Luo Chuyan’s manipulation cannot make her jealous or suspicious.
• Sui Yun’s actions show his loyalty and care for his mother, while his deliberate disregard for Luo Chuyan signals his distrust and dislike of her.
• Luo Chuyan remains resentful and scheming, driven by envy of her cousin’s marriage and status.
• Wenren Luoshui uses her unusual access to cheap grain to support public relief and stabilize prices, working with the emperor and several prominent households.
• Yunjian and Wenren Luoshui prioritize Tu Hua’s ambitions to enter the Embroidered Guards, then seek Sui Yun’s company.

Significant themes

• Family loyalty and trust: The Marquis’s Wife values the care she receives rather than fearing that marriage will divide her family.
• Envy and manipulation: Luo Chuyan’s attempts to sow discord are rooted in dissatisfaction with her own life.
• Public responsibility and compassion: Wenren Luoshui and the emperor help protect commoners during a crisis, while profiteers’ plans backfire.
• A contrast between harmony and isolation: The sparrows’ brief quarrel mirrors Luo Chuyan’s alienation from the close-knit family she resents.

Key plot points

• Luo Chuyan arrives at the Anyi Marquis Residence with her third daughter, Zuo Rongrong, who has caught a chill after falling into a lake.
• Luo tries to persuade her cousin, the Marquis’s Wife, to let Rongrong stay at the residence. Yunjian and Wenren Luoshui suspect she wants Rongrong near Sui Yun to sow discord and threaten Yunjian’s relationship with him.
• A mysterious voice alerts the Marquis’s Wife to the possible consequences. She refuses Luo’s request, with an older servant backing her up by pointing out that there is no suitable courtyard for Rongrong.
• Yunjian and Luoshui arrive. Luo then tries to pressure Luoshui into giving the household free medicinal wine. Luoshui responds that even the emperor has to wait for a free delivery, making clear that Luo is not entitled to special treatment.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Chuyan is shown as pushy and self-serving. Though she has five daughters, whom she once undervalued, she uses them to obtain gifts and favors from her cousin. She treats the Marquis’s residence as if she has a right to its hospitality.
• The Marquis’s Wife is kind and easily persuaded, but this time she resists Luo’s pressure after hearing the warning. Her affection for Yunjian and her son’s future helps shape her decision.
• Yunjian is protective of her relationship with Sui Yun and openly skeptical of Luo’s motives. She brings Luoshui to visit her mother.
• Wenren Luoshui is observant, confident, and sharp-tongued. She calmly rebukes Luo’s attempt to demand free wine.
• The older servant helps the Marquis’s Wife stand firm by exposing the practical problem with hosting Rongrong.

Significant themes

• Entitlement versus boundaries: Luo expects favors and hospitality, while Luoshui insists that even powerful customers follow the same rules.
• Family affection and manipulation: The Marquis’s Wife’s love of daughters is genuine, but Luo exploits it for personal gain.
• Protecting relationships: Yunjian and Luoshui recognize the potential for family schemes to create romantic misunderstandings and act to prevent them.
• Comic social satire: Luoshui’s emperor comparison punctures Luo’s inflated sense of importance.

Key plot points and events

• Luo Chuyan tries to provoke Yunjian by suggesting Wenren Luoshui withholds medicinal wine from her. Yunjian counters that Luo can simply buy it herself.
• Luo Chuyan’s daughter, Zuo Rongrong, claims Yunjian has no right to speak because Luo is related to the Marchioness of Anyi. Yunjian rebukes them for treating the marquis’s household as if its possessions belong to them.
• Rongrong orders Yunjian to leave. The usually timid Marchioness surprises everyone by defending Yunjian, declaring her the daughter-in-law she has chosen and telling Rongrong and Luo to leave instead.
• Luo pretends to be hurt by her cousin’s rejection. Yunjian pours tea over her, humiliating her and ruining her carefully arranged appearance.
• Through Wenren Luoshui and Yunjian’s exchanged thoughts, the Marchioness learns that Luo secretly buried a witchcraft doll in the residence’s southeast corner. She sends a trusted matron to search for it.
• Luo tries to stop the search and shouts at Yunjian. The Marchioness slaps her, then trembles with agitation; Yunjian comforts her.
• Wenren Luoshui reveals that Luo also stole and pawned the longevity lock made for the Young Marquis as a baby. The Anyi Marquis discovered the theft and retaliated by damaging the Zuo family’s businesses.

Character developments and interactions

• Yunjian is outspoken and fearless, countering Luo and Rongrong’s manipulation with blunt humor and decisive action. She also offers the Marchioness comfort.
• The Marchioness shows unexpected resolve: she openly chooses Yunjian over her cousin, orders a search, and physically confronts Luo.
• Luo Chuyan shifts from calculated insinuation to feigned victimhood, then loses her composure as her misconduct is exposed.
• Zuo Rongrong acts as though she has authority in the marquis’s residence, but her attempt to intimidate Yunjian fails.
• Wenren Luoshui supports Yunjian by supplying crucial information about Luo’s past and current schemes.

Significant themes

• Entitlement and exploitation: Luo and Rongrong assume they can claim the marquis household’s resources because of family ties.
• Loyalty and chosen family: The Marchioness’s defense of Yunjian marks a break from her cousin’s influence.
• Deception and accountability: Luo’s manipulations, theft, and occult plot are brought into the open, with consequences following.
• Speaking up against abuse: Yunjian’s directness helps the Marchioness recognize and resist years of manipulation.

Plot points and events

• The Marquis’s Wife learns through Yunjian and Wenren Luoshui that Luo Chuyan had spread damaging gossip about her to her family, portraying her as jealous, weak, and an obstacle to the marquis’s household.
• Servants uncover two straw dolls used for witchcraft, bearing the birth details of Brother Yun and Zuo Rongrong. A manservant says he saw Luo Chuyan bury a jar nearby, giving the Marquis’s Wife reason to believe Luo Chuyan was behind the scheme.
• The Marquis’s Wife orders Luo Chuyan and her daughter, Zuo Rongrong, gagged and thrown out. She refuses to be swayed by Luo Chuyan’s appeals to their past closeness.
• When the Anyi Marquis returns, a trusted subordinate reports the incident. Later, Zuo Rongrong’s father’s business collapses, and his family leaves the capital.
• Yunjian assumes the Marquis’s Wife will be too upset to join their planned hot-pot meal. But the promise of good food cheers her up, and she enthusiastically devours spicy broth, aided afterward by a digestive pill.
• Wenren Luoshui returns home in winter, abandons her attempt at melancholy when the cold hits, and looks forward to a bath and a warm bed.

Character developments and interactions

• The Marquis’s Wife moves from shock and grief to decisive action, recognizing how Luo Chuyan exploited her trust and harmed her reputation. Her appetite and eagerness for hot pot also reveal a lively, pleasure-loving side beneath her gentle manner.
• Luo Chuyan is exposed as manipulative and unrepentant, trying to rely on their former relationship even after the evidence emerges.
• Yunjian and Wenren Luoshui support the Marquis’s Wife by sharing what they know and then include her in their meal, offering companionship after the betrayal.
• The household staff play a key role: a manservant supplies testimony, while the senior matron recognizes Luo Chuyan’s tactics and ensures the women are removed.

Significant themes

• Betrayal and misplaced trust: The Marquis’s Wife’s kindness toward Luo Chuyan was repaid with schemes and slander.
• Reputation and gossip: False stories damage the Marquis’s Wife’s standing with her family and community.
• Justice and consequences: Evidence of witchcraft leads to Luo Chuyan’s expulsion, while Zuo Rongrong’s family later faces financial ruin.
• Food as comfort: A shared meal helps the Marquis’s Wife recover from heartbreak and brings the characters together.

Key plot points and events

• On her day off, Wenren Luoshui is woken early by Emperor Yin Xing, who insists she accompany him to inspect the Medical College she founded.
• The emperor and several trusted ministers observe lessons and praise the teachers’ practical, thorough instruction. They consider whether the model could be expanded nationwide, but the college’s generous salaries and retirement benefits would be difficult for the state to afford.
• Yun Fei, Yunjian’s niece, has transferred from Ten Thousand Pines Academy to study medicine under Xu Lingzhi. Yunjian supports her choice to pursue the work she feels best suited to.
• During the tour, the group encounters Zhou Hongying and her sister-in-law arguing over a boy, “Dabao,” who has a slap mark on his face.
• Wenren Luoshui’s thoughts reveal what happened: Zhou Hongying demanded that Dabao be housed with a girl, then barged into the girls’ dormitory and tried to make a student give up her room. Dabao lunged at the student after noticing her body, and she slapped him.
• The boy’s mother blames Zhou Hongying for failing to protect him and threatens to force her into marriage with a brutal butcher. The chapter ends as Zhou Hongying reacts in terror.

Character developments and interactions

• Wenren Luoshui is exhausted and resentful at being made to work on her holiday, but remains responsible for the school she founded. Her candid inner commentary also exposes the absurdity and danger of Dabao’s family’s behavior.
• Emperor Yin Xing is impressed by the college and interested in spreading its teaching approach, though he recognizes its costs. He follows Luoshui’s judgment when he realizes the women arguing are not the victims.
• Yun Fei takes a decisive step toward a life in medicine, choosing service to patients over an academic path she doubts she can excel in; Yunjian respects her autonomy.
• Zhou Hongying appears meek and apologetic toward her sister-in-law, but her earlier conduct was reckless and endangered the girls at the school. Her dependence on family authority is underscored by the threat of forced marriage.
• Dabao’s mother focuses on her son’s injury and angrily blames Zhou Hongying, while the gathered students and officials watch the confrontation.

Significant themes

• Education and public service: The college offers practical training and openly shares professional knowledge.
• Access and institutional limits: The emperor sees the school’s promise, but its costly staffing model makes national expansion difficult.
• Choice and vocation: Yun Fei’s decision reflects the value of pursuing work suited to one’s abilities and values.
• Women’s safety and coercion: The dormitory incident highlights the threat posed by entitled behavior, while Zhou Hongying’s threatened marriage reveals women’s vulnerability to family control.

Key events

• The academy administrator catches up with Zhou Hongying and Liu Ahua, but Liu Ahua assumes she has come to apologize for Dabao’s injury. She demands that the girl who struck him be made his maid.
• Liu Ahua insults the academy for educating girls, claiming they are destined for marriage and should serve men. She also falsely portrays the school as dangerous and accuses it of running a brothel.
• The emperor, who is present in disguise and trying to keep a low profile, challenges her views. He points out that women in the Li Kingdom may take imperial examinations, while Liu Ahua argues that custom and social pressure make education pointless for women.
• Wenren Luoshui’s inner voice reveals that Dabao is likely not Liu Ahua’s husband’s child: after years without pregnancy, Liu Ahua had an affair with her former sweetheart and became pregnant.
• Zhou Hongying recalls Liu Ahua’s frequent visits to her parents’ home during that period and begins to suspect the truth.

Character developments and interactions

• Liu Ahua grows increasingly domineering, treating her son as exceptional and the girls at the academy as inferior. She appears ready to damage the school’s reputation rather than accept any responsibility.
• The emperor calmly questions Liu Ahua’s prejudice, while privately reacting with disbelief to her demands and fascination with the newly revealed family scandal.
• Zhou Hongying shifts from supporting Liu Ahua to quietly reconsidering Dabao’s parentage after Wenren Luoshui’s revelation.
• The academy administrator and students are angered and distressed by Liu Ahua’s insults. The students see the academy as an opportunity to improve their lives, and resent her claim that girls do not deserve education.
• Dabao watches the girls with an intrusive, unsettling gaze, reinforcing the contrast between his mother’s self-righteous claims and his own behavior.

Significant themes

• Women’s education and social expectations: Liu Ahua voices traditional arguments against educating girls, while the academy represents the possibility of a more equal future.
• Entitlement and hypocrisy: Liu Ahua demands special treatment for her son and condemns the school, despite having little basis for her accusations.
• Appearance, reputation, and concealed truth: Dabao’s resemblance to Liu Ahua has helped conceal his likely paternity, while the family secret threatens to undermine her claims of respectability.

Key plot points and events

• Granny Cui arrives at Wenren Luoshui’s academy to bring clothes to her youngest granddaughter, who has flourished since enrolling in its medical classes.
• She catches Liu Ahua spreading malicious rumors and confronts her. Wenren Luoshui’s revealed thoughts expose that Liu Ahua’s lover is courting Granny Cui’s recently divorced daughter to steal her money, while hiding that he has a son with Liu Ahua.
• Enraged, Granny Cui beats Liu Ahua with her cane. The crowd restrains Liu Ahua when she tries to retaliate, and Wenren Luoshui stops Zhou Dabao from attacking the old woman.
• Liu Ahua demands to report the crowd, but the emperor points out that spreading rumors is punishable by law. Wenren Luoshui has Liu Ahua sent to the authorities, where she receives ten strokes and must pay ten taels in compensation to the girl she bullied.
• Zhou Hongying reveals that Zhou Dabao is not her brother’s son and brings his biological father to the Zhou family. The family turns on Liu Ahua; her husband divorces her, and the Liu family rejects her. She ends up with her lover, but the pair quarrel constantly.

Character developments and interactions

• Granny Cui is fiercely protective of her granddaughter. Learning of the lover’s scheme transforms her anger at Liu Ahua’s rumors into outrage on her daughter’s behalf.
• Wenren Luoshui intervenes decisively, protecting Granny Cui and ensuring Liu Ahua faces legal consequences.
• Zhou Hongying, long mistreated by Liu Ahua, refuses to help her and exposes the truth about Dabao’s parentage.
• The emperor enjoys the unfolding gossip, then uses his authority to challenge Liu Ahua’s threats. The Right Chancellor backs him by explaining the law.
• Liu Ahua loses the protection of her family and husband, while the lover she depended on proves no lasting refuge.

Significant themes

• Consequences for deceit and rumor-spreading: Liu Ahua’s lies bring both legal punishment and personal ruin.
• Family loyalty and justice: Granny Cui defends her daughter, while Zhou Hongying acts against someone who has bullied her.
• Education and opportunity: Granny Cui’s granddaughter thrives under the academy’s practical teaching, contrasting with her earlier, ineffective apprenticeship.
• The limits of status and intimidation: Liu Ahua’s family connections and threats cannot shield her from the law or public accountability.

Plot points and events

• After Lord Zhu dies while overseeing disaster relief, his frail wife dies soon afterward, leaving their twelve-year-old daughter, Miss Zhu, orphaned.
• The emperor has protected Miss Zhu’s inheritance from her grasping relatives. At court, the Imperial Censor proposes arranging her marriage to the eldest son of the Grand Master for Comprehensive Counsel.
• The emperor initially considers the match suitable, but Wenren Luoshui’s thoughts expose the family’s hidden problems: they are financially irresponsible, and the son’s supposed devotion is an awkward, unreciprocated fixation on the Right Chancellor’s sixth daughter.
• Luoshui also reveals that, if married into the family, Miss Zhu would be pressured to support them through a business, exploited for free meals, blamed for protecting her earnings, and ultimately die under the strain—while public opinion would slander her and her father.
• The emperor and court understand that approving the match could make the emperor responsible for Miss Zhu’s misery. The Imperial Censor abruptly retracts his recommendation and kneels, calling himself foolish. Luoshui is baffled by his sudden change.

Character developments and interactions

• The emperor acts cautiously toward Miss Zhu’s future and is reminded that a careless marriage decree could harm her and damage his own reputation.
• Wenren Luoshui provides the decisive, blunt insight into the proposed family and its likely treatment of Miss Zhu, though she does not understand the court’s reaction.
• The Imperial Censor begins as a confident advocate for the match, then panics and reverses himself once he grasps its consequences.
• The Right Chancellor initially listens quietly, then is relieved to learn that his daughter has not reciprocated the suitor’s interest; he sees the young man’s behavior as performative rather than sincere.

Significant themes

• The vulnerability of orphaned girls and the importance of protecting their inheritance and future.
• The difference between public reputation and private character.
• Exploitation disguised as family duty, and the way women can be blamed for resisting it.
• The political responsibility of rulers: an imperial decree can shape a vulnerable person’s life and expose the emperor to blame.

Key plot points

• In the cold of winter, Wenren Luoshui is reluctantly summoned from her warm room to meet visitors at the prince’s residence.
• The visitors are the Tie Clan Head and his third daughter, who has been mistreated for years by her mother-in-law for failing to conceive. Her husband has supported her, but his family secretly arranged a concubine for him—who became pregnant after an affair with his younger brother.
• The couple fled to her family home, and the Clan Head brought his daughter to Capital City to ask Wenren Luoshui for medicinal wine.
• Moved by the Clan Head’s concern and trusting his character, Wenren gives him two bottles. She warns him to keep the matter private so the rest of the clan will not come asking for favors.
• The Clan Head and his daughter return home; news soon arrives that she is pregnant. The chapter ends by noting that the Clan Head’s notorious eldest daughter is likely to make keeping his promise difficult.

Character developments and interactions

• Wenren Luoshui is initially cozy and reluctant to leave bed, but handles the request compassionately and pragmatically. She agrees to help while setting a clear boundary about future requests.
• The Tie Clan Head is shown as principled and deeply devoted to his daughter. His distress over her suffering drives him to seek help, even humbling himself before Wenren.
• The third daughter and her husband have endured family pressure together; his loyalty to her distinguishes him from the relatives who mistreated her.
• Tie Lihua and Wenren’s maternal grandparents are present as family witnesses and hosts, while Yin Xing assists Wenren and provides a lighthearted contrast to the serious meeting.
• Wenren’s interaction with the Clan Head balances respect and generosity: she helps because of his good character, not because she intends to make herself available to the whole clan.

Significant themes

• Parental love and family loyalty: The Clan Head rejects the idea that marriage makes his daughter someone else’s responsibility.
• Women’s vulnerability and unfair blame: The daughter is punished for infertility while her husband’s family acts hypocritically and selfishly.
• Compassion with boundaries: Wenren offers meaningful help but guards against her kindness becoming an expectation.
• Comic contrast: The system’s antics and the final warning about the Clan Head’s troublesome eldest daughter soften the chapter’s painful family conflict.

Key plot points and events

• Yunjian shares peeled lychees with Sui Yun, teasing him sweetly while he feeds her. After he is called away, she drops the delicate act with her friend Wenren Luoshui.
• Yunjian and Wenren Luoshui overhear townspeople gossiping about a family whose four babies have died. The women assume the daughter-in-law is at fault and worry that the family’s two unmarried daughters will lose their marriage prospects.
• In heavy snow, the friends witness the Ninghua Count’s wife ejecting her daughter-in-law and ordering servants to beat her. The wife calls her barren and blames her for the babies’ deaths.
• Yunjian intervenes, defending the young woman and suggesting the husband—not the wife—may have a fertility problem. Wenren then explains that the children died from severe allergies to breast milk, an allergy their parents also have in milder form.
• The Count’s wife rejects the explanation and attacks Wenren with a club; Wenren disarms her and knocks her down. Yunjian argues that an unfamiliar cause of death is not therefore impossible, using other unexpected accidents as examples.

Character developments and interactions

• Yunjian shifts easily between affectionate, coy behavior with Sui Yun and blunt, irreverent confidence with Wenren. Her happiness with Sui Yun appears genuine, and she steps forward without hesitation to protect the abused daughter-in-law.
• Wenren Luoshui remains practical and supportive of Yunjian, while using her knowledge to challenge the family’s mistaken assumptions. She acts decisively when the Count’s wife attacks.
• Sui Yun is shown as gentle and attentive toward Yunjian, though he leaves when summoned for business.
• The Ninghua Count’s wife embodies the family’s prejudice: she blames her daughter-in-law for the deaths and refuses to consider an unfamiliar medical explanation.
• Yunjian and Wenren share a close, candid friendship. They discuss Yunjian’s relationship, observe the town’s gossip, then work together to confront cruelty and ignorance.

Significant themes

• Scapegoating and gender prejudice: The daughter-in-law is blamed for child deaths, while her husband’s possible role is dismissed.
• Ignorance versus evidence: The allergy explanation is mocked because it is unprecedented to the listeners, and Yunjian challenges the belief that unfamiliar things cannot be true.
• Social pressure and women’s status: The gossip reveals how a woman’s marriage prospects and value are tied to bearing surviving children.
• Compassion and intervention: Yunjian and Wenren refuse to treat the daughter-in-law’s abuse as merely a private family matter.

Key plot points and events

• Yunjian confronts the Ninghua Count’s wife, accusing her of blaming her daughter-in-law for the deaths of her children instead of noticing that they were allergic to breast milk.
• The Young Count comes out to defend his mother. Yunjian slaps him, but his wife then protects him and rebukes the two women for criticizing her husband.
• Realizing the daughter-in-law is not receptive to help, Wenren Luoshui leads Yunjian away. The narration explains that the woman repeatedly sought her family’s support against her husband, then turned on them afterward, leaving them unwilling to help her.
• Leaving Begonia Garden, Yunjian is met by Sui Yun, who shelters her from the snow and helps her into his carriage. Their affectionate exchange reveals her growing romantic feelings for him.
• Back at the princely residence, Wenren learns that another daughter of the Clan Head has arrived. The Princess Consort has kept the older Miss Tie in a secluded courtyard and refused her requests for an audience.
• Miss Tie asks to see Wenren, who agrees, curious about her sudden visit.

Character developments and interactions

• Yunjian acts boldly on the daughter-in-law’s behalf, but her frustration grows when the woman defends her husband and attacks her would-be helpers. She also shows a shy, romantic side around Sui Yun.
• Wenren Luoshui is more pragmatic: she recognizes that arguing further will do no good and removes Yunjian from the confrontation. She remains observant and curious about the new visitor.
• The Ninghua Count’s daughter-in-law rejects the women’s defense of her, fiercely siding with her husband. Her history of repeatedly turning to—and alienating—her birth family shows why she is increasingly isolated.
• Sui Yun and Yunjian share a tender moment: he protects her from the snow, while she blushes and happily accepts his help.
• Yin Xing eagerly updates Wenren about events at the residence and is plainly excited by the prospect of Miss Tie meeting her.

Significant themes

• Misplaced kindness: Help can be wasted when someone refuses to recognize their own situation or accepts mistreatment as loyalty.
• Family loyalty and isolation: The daughter-in-law’s conflicting demands eventually exhaust the family that once supported her.
• Romance and tenderness: Yunjian’s bashful reaction to Sui Yun contrasts with the earlier family conflict.
• Judgment and responsibility: The confrontation raises questions of blame, particularly over the children’s deaths and the adults’ failure to notice their allergy.

Plot points and events

• Tie Sumi visits Wenren Luoshui, flattering her and then pleading for fertility medicine so she can have another child. She shifts between self-pity, emotional appeals, and tears, but Luoshui refuses to give her the wine for free and tells her to buy it from the shop.
• Tie Sumi spends nearly two hours trying to persuade Luoshui, then leaves empty-handed, intending to settle into the prince’s residence and try again.
• Luoshui can see the story connected to Tie Sumi. It reveals that Sumi hopes another child will restore her husband’s affection. In the story, she pressures her elderly father to intervene after her husband stops sharing her bed; he does, and Sumi becomes pregnant.
• The late-life pregnancy ends in a difficult birth, leaving the child intellectually disabled. Sumi’s husband turns back to an old lover, while Sumi blames her family, mistreats her relatives, and uses public displays of grief to silence criticism.

Character developments and interactions

• Wenren Luoshui remains cool, observant, and unmoved by Sumi’s performance. She treats the request as a business matter and quietly enjoys walnuts while Sumi cries.
• Tie Sumi presents herself as humble and desperate, but her repeated emotional appeals reveal a persistent, self-serving determination to get what she wants.
• Their interaction is a contest of tactics: Sumi tries flattery, pity, guilt, and tears; Luoshui declines to reward any of them.
• The story also shows Sumi’s damaging relationships with her husband, father, and younger relatives. Her father’s intervention briefly reunites the couple, but the consequences fall heavily on her child and family.

Significant themes

• Manipulation versus emotional detachment: Sumi’s performances fail against Luoshui’s refusal to be pressured.
• Entitlement and misplaced blame: Sumi later holds others responsible for her choices and their consequences.
• Gender, fertility, and social pressure: Sumi sees another pregnancy as a way to secure her husband’s affection, while the chapter highlights the danger of childbirth at an advanced age in a society with limited medical care.
• The cost of coercion: Sumi’s attempt to force a return to marital intimacy leads to a tragic birth and lasting harm to her family.

Key plot points and events

• As winter deepens, Wenren Luoshui keeps taking leave from court, secretly hoping the emperor will dismiss her. Tie Sumi’s stay at the prince’s residence ends when her father arrives and forcibly takes her away.
• Yunjian visits Wenren Luoshui, and the emperor soon arrives. Seeking an ordinary-life outing, he asks Wenren for Disguise Talismans.
• Disguised as poor travelers, the emperor, Wenren Luoshui, Yunjian, and Sui Yun go to Bullfrog County and sell roasted sweet potatoes. The talismans and warming charms help them blend in and endure the cold.
• They find an unconscious, richly dressed young woman near a beggar who claims she is his wife. Yunjian and Sui Yun help her, but she wakes and insults them, declaring herself the future empress and threatening to have the emperor punish them.
• Wenren discovers that the woman, Jiang Sangsang, is another transmigrator whose system promises to make her the female lead and win the emperor’s exclusive love. When Jiang tries to slap Wenren and Yunjian, Wenren kicks her away.
• Jiang lands against a middle-aged man and, unexpectedly, reacts to him with shy affection, leaving Wenren and Yunjian bewildered.

Character developments and interactions

• Wenren Luoshui remains irreverent and unenthusiastic about official duties; she uses force without hesitation when Jiang attacks her and her friend.
• Yunjian is close and playful with Wenren, but also quick to help the unconscious woman. She calmly joins Wenren in mocking Jiang’s absurd behavior.
• The emperor seeks a break from palace work and joins the group in disguise, observing life outside the capital.
• Sui Yun helps rescue Jiang and intimidates the beggar when he follows them.
• Jiang Sangsang arrives convinced of her destined status, but her arrogance and threats are undercut by her failure to recognize the emperor nearby—and by her sudden shyness toward the stranger she lands on.

Significant themes

• The chapter satirizes transmigrators who assume they are entitled to reshape the world around them, especially when they rely on systems and “female lead” fantasies.
• It contrasts grand claims of power with ordinary reality: Jiang boasts of imperial favor while overlooking the emperor himself.
• Friendship and practical compassion emerge in the group’s response to the vulnerable woman, even as Jiang responds with contempt.
• The disguised outing offers a lighthearted glimpse of the emperor’s wish to escape court life and experience everyday existence.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Sangsang’s system mistakenly identifies Liu Yinshan, a poor traveler, as the emperor because he vaguely resembles him.
• Believing she has found her future emperor, Jiang launches into an exaggerated seduction routine and proposes marriage. Liu Yinshan plays along, partly because he sees her expensive clothing as a sign of wealth.
• Sangsang threatens Wenren Luoshui and the others, then kicks their carrying load. Wenren has secretly made it immovable with a talisman, so Sangsang breaks her foot instead.
• Liu carries Sangsang around town, but she repeatedly refuses to let doctors examine her, calling them lechers and insisting that only Liu may see her. He eventually carries her away without treatment.
• Wenren changes the group’s identities so they are now members of the Jiang Family. Yunjian informs Mother Jiang about Sangsang’s public behavior, and the family confirms the story.
• Sangsang returns home pleased with herself, only to be confronted by an angry Father Jiang. She responds arrogantly, calling herself the future Empress.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Sangsang grows more deluded and entitled, interpreting Liu’s attention as proof that she is destined for power. Her belief that she will become Empress makes her dismissive of her family and threatening toward others.
• Liu Yinshan indulges Sangsang’s behavior while considering the Jiang Family’s wealth. Though he comforts and carries her, his patience is strained, especially when she makes medical care impossible.
• Wenren Luoshui quietly engineers Sangsang’s injury with a protective talisman and later manipulates the plot to place the group inside the Jiang household.
• Yunjian helps expose Sangsang’s conduct to her family and joins Wenren in mocking the absurd romance unfolding in public.
• The emperor and Sui Yun observe the mistaken identity and Sangsang’s theatrics, reacting with discomfort and disbelief.

Significant themes

• Delusion and mistaken identity: Sangsang’s system misidentifies Liu, while she treats that error as certainty about her future.
• Consequences of cruelty: The chapter reveals that Sangsang bullied many people in her previous life; her current humiliation and injury suggest a form of comeuppance.
• Entitlement and hypocrisy: She threatens others and demands special treatment, yet refuses the practical help needed for her own injury.
• Satire of romance tropes: Sangsang’s exaggerated coyness and public displays of affection are played for comedy, especially against the exasperation of bystanders and doctors.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Sangsang defies her family’s objections to her relationship with Liu Yinshan, insulting her father, siblings, and especially her married eldest sister.
• Wenren Luoshui’s thoughts reveal that Sangsang will eventually arrange for her eldest sister to be raped and killed, then manipulate the aftermath to shame the woman’s children. A further warning describes Sangsang destroying her family, causing her father’s death and her mother’s fatal accident.
• The Jiang family, horrified by these revelations, sees Sangsang as a threat rather than the sweet daughter they thought they knew.
• Sangsang demands an enormous dowry, the family’s most profitable businesses, a large monthly allowance, and a lavish house with servants. Her family refuses.
• Father Jiang declares that she is no longer part of the family and will receive nothing. Sangsang erupts in anger, insisting she is entitled to her share; Yunjian mocks her hypocrisy, and Father Jiang challenges her to threaten her own father.

Character developments

• Jiang Sangsang appears increasingly selfish, entitled, and hostile, placing her romance and personal gain above her family. She believes her romance system guarantees success and dismisses all warnings.
• Father Jiang moves from anger to exhausted resolve, choosing to disown Sangsang rather than let her endanger the household.
• The eldest sister is shaken by the warning about her future murder and begins to see her younger sister as genuinely dangerous.
• The eldest brother and parents shift from trying to correct Sangsang to fearing what she may do.
• Yunjian openly criticizes Sangsang’s greed and double standards.

Significant themes

• Love versus greed: Sangsang presents herself as pursuing love, yet demands vast wealth and property from her family.
• Family loyalty and betrayal: The family’s attempt to advise her is met with contempt and, in the warned future, murderous retaliation.
• Warnings and choice: The revelations give the family a chance to recognize the danger and act before the predicted tragedies occur.
• Appearances changing through knowledge: Once the family learns of Sangsang’s supposed future actions, her formerly pleasant image becomes monstrous to them.

Character interactions

• Sangsang trades insults with her eldest sister and brother when they urge her to apologize and reconsider.
• Her family’s response to Wenren Luoshui’s revelations turns the confrontation from a dispute over romance into a crisis of survival.
• Sangsang tries to dictate the terms of her departure, but Father Jiang rejects her demands and cuts her off.
• Yunjian taunts Sangsang for claiming to value love while fighting for money; Sangsang angrily tells him to stay out of it.

• Key plot points and events: After Jiang Sangsang attacks her father, Wenren Luoshui knocks her down, and the Jiang family throws her out for threatening them with a hairpin. She goes to Liu Yinshan, pretending to be devoted; each hopes to use the other. They sleep together, and six weeks later she becomes pregnant. When she returns to the Jiang residence seeking help, she discovers the family has moved away. The system that had helped her win Liu’s affection is gone. Liu beats her, causing a miscarriage, then takes her to his home, where she learns he is already a cruel husband and father. There, he and his mother imprison and abuse her, and he sometimes sells her to other men.
• Character developments: Sangsang’s confidence and scheming give way to desperation and entrapment. Her belief that the system and Liu will secure her revenge collapses, yet she remains painfully lucid. Liu’s apparent affection is revealed as manipulation: once Sangsang can no longer serve his interests, he turns openly violent. His mother and children join in making Sangsang’s life miserable.
• Character interactions: Sangsang clashes with her father and the Jiang household, then plays the loving wife to Liu while both conceal their motives. Later, the innkeeper confirms the Jiang family has left, and Liu responds by attacking Sangsang. At his home, Liu and his mother dominate her, while the children demand her labor.
• Significant themes: The chapter emphasizes the consequences of cruelty and self-deception. Sangsang’s attempts to control others lead her into dependence on someone more vicious than herself. The vanished system and absent family support expose the fragility of her plans, while her tormenting memories of those she once bullied deepen the sense of ironic retribution.

Plot points

• In Gourd Town, the group adopts new disguises and takes on ordinary street-vendor roles: Wenren Luoshui sells candied fruit, Emperor Lang Ling pretends to tell fortunes, and Yunjian and Sui Yun sell fried skewers.
• Their stalls draw contrasting results: Yunjian’s cheap, generously seasoned food attracts a long queue, while Lang Ling’s outrageous readings drive customers away. He ends up helping at the food stall.
• Sun Aidi arrives with servants, drives away the customers, and starts wrecking the stall. She recognizes Yunjian despite her disguise and taunts her about losing the wealth and status she supposedly relied on.
• Yunjian recalls that Sun Aidi was their college roommate. Though academically gifted and from a poor background, Sun secretly took her roommates’ sunscreen and later spread fabricated photos and claims portraying Yunjian as a married man’s mistress. Yunjian gathered evidence and sued; the university’s student council traced the anonymous posts to Sun.

Character developments

• Yunjian remains practical and unbothered by petty insults while working, but her recollections reveal she has faced deliberate betrayal before and responded through evidence and legal action.
• Sun Aidi is introduced as jealous, vindictive, and openly domineering. Her history suggests resentment toward Yunjian grew out of a seemingly small act of generosity she interpreted with hostility.
• Lang Ling cheerfully plays the fool and accepts being put to work, adding comic relief.
• Wenren Luoshui and Sui Yun contribute to the group’s shared street-life venture, with Luoshui’s candied fruit helping supply the food stall.

Themes

• Appearances and identity: Disguises alter the women’s faces, but Sun claims she can still recognize Yunjian.
• Jealousy and misread kindness: A trivial incident involving sunscreen precedes Sun’s malicious campaign against Yunjian.
• Resilience and accountability: Yunjian counters slander with evidence and legal action rather than retaliation.
• Everyday life and camaraderie: The group’s playful workaday roles contrast with the sudden aggression of Sun’s arrival.

Character interactions

• Yunjian teases Lang Ling about eating despite his toothache, then recruits him to season food when he complains about the workload.
• Sun confronts Yunjian, insults her, and uses her servants to clear the stall; Yunjian initially stays focused on work.
• The flashback frames the present conflict: Sun’s current hostility follows her earlier theft and the false accusations she spread about Yunjian.

Key plot points and events

• After causing trouble the previous semester, Sun Aidi returns to the dorm early in the new term and announces that she is pregnant.
• She demands that her roommates serve her—bringing meals, doing laundry, fetching hot water, and emptying her footbath—and insists they stop using electronic devices in the dorm.
• Wenren Luoshui records Sun’s demands and plays them aloud in the hallway. Other students gather to listen, and Sun mistakenly assumes they support her.
• Yunjian challenges Sun’s expectations and points out that her pregnancy does not entitle her to control or exploit her roommates.
• Sun claims the others look down on her because she is poor, but students reveal that she has a reputation for taking other people’s supplies and using their hot-water cards. She often responds to complaints by accusing people of bullying her for her poverty.
• Realizing the onlookers are not sympathetic, Sun storms off and does not return that night. The counselor later scolds the roommates for being cold toward her.
• Yunjian disregards the counselor’s lecture and uses her family’s wealth to buy apartments for herself and her two remaining roommates.

Character developments and interactions

• Sun Aidi becomes openly entitled, treating pregnancy as grounds to command her roommates. She frames their resistance as prejudice against the poor, though her past behavior has also alienated other students.
• Wenren Luoshui protects her computer and responds practically by recording Sun’s demands, making them public.
• Yunjian refuses to indulge Sun or accept the counselor’s pressure, confronting her sense of entitlement and later securing housing for her friends.
• Zhang Tie, another student from a modest background, serves as a contrast: she values her education, works hard, and hopes to improve her circumstances through effort.
• The roommates’ conflict with Sun draws in the wider student community, whose stories expose how her behavior has affected others.

Significant themes

• Poverty and accountability: The chapter distinguishes genuine hardship from using poverty as a shield against criticism.
• Entitlement and boundaries: Pregnancy and personal circumstances do not give someone the right to control or exploit others.
• Effort and self-determination: Zhang Tie represents a constructive response to limited means: study, work, and strive for change.
• Social judgment and isolation: Sun’s own conduct—not simply her background—has left her without the sympathy she expects.

Plot points

• Sun Aidi’s thug boyfriend breaks into the women’s dorm after she encourages him to retaliate against Wenren Luoshui and her roommates. He stabs their beds, then steals valuable belongings.
• Zhao Xueqi’s hidden security camera captures the break-in. Yunjian refuses to settle privately; the value of the stolen goods—especially her luxury items—leads to the boyfriend’s arrest and a long prison sentence.
• Sun Aidi had hoped to use the incident to blame her breakup on the others, but the plan backfires. Later, Yunjian sees her at a banquet as the much older man’s kept woman and chooses not to intervene. She blocks Sun Aidi and later shuts down her threats by pointing out that the man depends on Yunjian’s family’s business ties.
• Sun Aidi’s life deteriorates: she leaves school, relies on men for money, sends much of it to her brothers, and receives no help from her family when she becomes ill. After contracting a sexually transmitted disease, losing her support and housing, she dies of starvation.
• The narrative then shifts to a later encounter: Sun Aidi appears to have been reincarnated into a historical setting, where she is a favored concubine. She maliciously offers to arrange a marriage for Yunjian with an older relative.

Character developments and interactions

• Yunjian is decisive and unsentimental: she pursues legal consequences for the burglary, refuses Sun Aidi’s intimidation, and sees Sun Aidi’s downfall as the result of her own choices.
• Zhao Xueqi proves practical and prepared; her camera provides the evidence needed to identify the thief.
• Sun Aidi moves from resentment and manipulation to increasingly precarious dependence. Her interactions with the women are marked by blame, threats, and hostility; even after her apparent new beginning, she again acts spitefully toward Yunjian.
• Wenren Luoshui and the others are targets of Sun Aidi’s schemes, but their determination to pursue wrongdoing helps ensure the boyfriend is held accountable.
• Yunjian and Sun Aidi’s exchanges emphasize their unequal positions: Sun Aidi tries to threaten or patronize Yunjian, while Yunjian responds with blunt confidence backed by her family’s influence.

Significant themes

• Consequences and personal responsibility: Sun Aidi’s choices repeatedly worsen her circumstances; the chapter frames her decline as self-inflicted.
• Evidence and accountability: Zhao Xueqi’s camera turns suspicion into proof, while Yunjian’s refusal to settle ensures legal consequences.
• Class, power, and dependence: Wealth and family connections shield Yunjian, while Sun Aidi’s reliance on men leaves her vulnerable.
• Hypocrisy and status: Sun Aidi’s favored position as a concubine does not, in Yunjian’s view, make her respectable or free.
• A grim cycle of antagonism: Even after a catastrophic downfall and apparent reincarnation, Sun Aidi resumes trying to control or undermine Yunjian.

Chapter Summary

Plot points and events

• Zhao Aidi confronts Yunjian and her companions, orders her servants to destroy their stall, and taunts them. Yunjian and Wenren Luoshui let her act, intending to use her arrogance against her.
• The group takes Zhao Aidi to the county magistrate’s office to demand compensation.
• When the magistrate sees Emperor Lang Ling, he perceives him in imperial dragon robes, panics, and kneels. The emperor’s presence also prevents the magistrate from speaking aloud about his identity.
• Zhao Aidi challenges her uncle, the magistrate, and is slapped for insulting the “exalted person.” The magistrate then reminds her that she is only a concubine and orders her sent back.
• Humiliated and furious, Zhao Aidi ignores the bailiffs and lunges at Yunjian with her gold hairpin.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhao Aidi is exposed as arrogant, reckless, and unable to recognize when she has lost. Despite her uncle’s warnings, she repeatedly invokes her status and ultimately attacks Yunjian.
• Yunjian remains composed while Zhao Aidi provokes her, though she and Wenren Luoshui privately mock their enemy.
• Wenren Luoshui helps steer events, allowing Zhao Aidi to incriminate herself and then pressing the matter at the magistrate’s office.
• Sui Yun reacts with intense hostility to Zhao Aidi’s attempt to arrange Yunjian’s marriage to an elderly man, but holds back when the others stop him.
• The magistrate recognizes the emperor through his supernatural perception, yet must conceal what he sees. He reprimands Zhao Aidi rather than backing her.

Significant themes

• Arrogance invites consequences: Zhao Aidi’s confidence in her connections repeatedly backfires.
• Hidden power and perception: The emperor appears ordinary to everyone except the magistrate, creating a sharp contrast between appearance and reality.
• Composure versus impulsiveness: Yunjian and Wenren Luoshui stay strategic, while Zhao Aidi’s temper drives her toward increasingly reckless choices.
• Comic irony: Zhao Aidi expects to dominate the encounter, but her own uncle’s strange deference to the emperor leaves her bewildered and undermines her authority.