Chapter Summaries

Jiang Shuyue and Huahua exposed the Shuntian Prefecture magistrate’s relatives’ scheme against his second son, prompting the magistrate to rush home and protect his family. They then decided to help the courtesan king leave Great Zhou and become the Jin Kingdom emperor’s new consort, potentially giving Jin San a little brother.

• Jiang Shuyue and Prince Huai calmed the Shuntian Prefecture magistrate after the bandits were dealt with.
• Huahua revealed that the magistrate’s nephew and his mistress planned to deceive the magistrate’s second son and exploit his family.
• Huahua disclosed that the nephew had gambling debts of tens of thousands of taels and was targeting the magistrate’s wife’s wealth.
• The Shuntian Prefecture magistrate hurried away with bailiffs to deal with his relatives and protect his family’s assets.
• Jiang Shuyue and Huahua plotted to help the courtesan king leave Great Zhou and become the Jin Kingdom emperor’s consort.

Jiang Shuyue and Zhou Yunshen left Prince Huai, while the emperor arranged lavish supplements for Zhou Yunshen after overhearing their banter. When Huahua spotted Huang Shanshan pursuing Jiang An, Jiang Shuyue eagerly hoped the woman would help separate him from Madam Jiang.

• Zhou Yunshen told Prince Huai that the emperor planned to title the traitor a Commandery Princess and send him to marry the old emperor of Jin, then took Jiang Shuyue and Huahua to eat.
• Jiang Shuyue invited Zhou Yunshen to ride Little Apple, but withdrew the offer when Huahua warned that the donkey might not carry them both.
• The emperor ordered ginseng, bird's nest, bull whip, deer antler velvet, and secret medicinal pills sent to the Marquisate of Southern Pacification, hoping to see Zhou Yunshen's reaction to the bull whip hot pot.
• As Zhou Yunshen led Little Apple through the street, Huahua warned Jiang Shuyue that women were admiring her husband and that Huang Shanshan had flirted with Jiang An.
• Huahua explained that Huang Shanshan's wealthy family wanted connections in the Capital while Jiang An needed money, and that the two had quickly taken an interest in each other.

Jiang Shuyue watched Huang Shanshan transfer her infatuation from Jiang An to Zhou Yunshen, who rejected her so bluntly that she fainted. At court, Zhou Yunshen, Prince Huai, and Murong Tianci arranged an official post for the gambling-addicted son of the Chen family’s eldest branch, setting up fresh trouble for the household.

• Huang Shanshan planned to spend fifty thousand taels on gifts for Jiang An, but after seeing Zhou Yunshen, she became infatuated with him instead.
• Jiang Shuyue urged Zhou Yunshen to charm Huang Shanshan, but he refused and called her an ugly creature, causing her to faint.
• Jiang Shuyue and Zhou Yunshen shared a meal, and their night ended in bedlam that lasted until dawn.
• Prince Huai told Zhou Yunshen that the Shuntian prefect had split his household and that the gambling-addicted son of the eldest branch had creditors pursuing him.
• Zhou Yunshen, Prince Huai, and Murong Tianci proposed giving the eldest branch’s son an official post, and the emperor granted one during court.
• After court, members of the eldest branch went to the prefect’s home to show off.

The prefect of Shuntian Prefecture confronted Liu Shi and Wang Yuyan over their insults and the first branch’s debts to his household. He ordered the second branch’s property and gifts reclaimed, leaving Liu Shi facing a bill she could not afford.

• Liu Shi and Wang Yuyan taunted the prefect’s family, while Chen Yonggu struggled with his anger over Wang Yuyan’s betrayal.
• The prefect urged Chen Yonggu to focus on the Spring Imperial Examination and said he would deal with the first branch by targeting its weaknesses.
• The prefect presented the registered dowry inventories and gift records, then ordered A Cai to retrieve the listed items or bill Liu Shi for their value.
• Wang Yuyan accused the prefect of abusing his authority, but he told her to report him wherever she liked.
• Chen Yonggu rejected Wang Yuyan’s appeals to family ties and demanded payment for the gifts she had swindled from him.
• The prefect ordered A Cai to seize the first branch’s belongings to settle the debt.

The prefect’s family reclaimed the property Liu Shi and Wang Yuyan had taken, then drove them out with a debt agreement and the land deeds held as security. After Liu Shi struck Wang Yuyan, she fell and began bleeding at the prefect’s gate, and the prefect’s wife ordered servants to take her to the Chen Family and fetch a doctor.

• A Cai and his men inventoried the belongings, while the prefect’s wife ordered servants to strip Wang Yuyan and reclaim the gifts.
• The prefect recorded a debt of over seventy thousand taels, set a three-year repayment plan, and kept the eldest branch’s land deeds as security.
• Liu Shi cursed the Old Madam, and the prefect’s wife slapped her and defended the Old Madam before the gathered crowd.
• Liu Shi struck Wang Yuyan twice, and Wang Yuyan fell against the steps and began bleeding.
• Liu Shi fled, and the prefect’s wife ordered servants to take Wang Yuyan to the Chen Family and fetch a doctor, with the family paying for her treatment.

Jiang Shuyue learned that Liu Shi was disgraced and sought out the brothel where Chen Yongwang and others were still tangled up after a night of drinking. With onlookers trying to help her get inside, she accepted a rouge-delivery job and prepared to sneak Huahua in with her.

• Huahua told Jiang Shuyue that Wang Yuyan had lost her baby, Chen Yongtai had been demoted, and Liu Shi had pawned his mother's things to drink at a brothel.
• Huahua revealed that Chen Wang and the Thousand-Household Captain's son were also at the brothel, so Jiang Shuyue sent Little Peach to alert their families and rode there on Little Apple.
• Jiang Shuyue struggled to find a way into the closed brothel, while nearby people tried to suggest ways for her to get inside unnoticed.
• Jiang Shuyue accepted the shopkeeper's wife's offer to help deliver rouge to the Happy Red Courtyard in exchange for candied hawthorn.
• Jiang Shuyue hid Huahua, shrunken to smaller than her palm, inside her bodice before going into the brothel.

Jiang Shuyue entered the Happy Red Courtyard with the proprietress and learned from Huahua about the drugs and crimes hidden there. After Huahua revealed the male attendant’s ruthless past, Jiang Shuyue dismissed his offer and boasted that her family might buy the brothel for her.

• Jiang Shuyue followed the proprietress into the Happy Red Courtyard while carrying a box of cosmetics.
• Huahua warned Jiang Shuyue that drug-filled sachets hung in the courtyard and told her about a young woman the brothel had drugged and sold.
• Huahua revealed that the male attendant and the proprietress had schemed to seize a patron’s wealth, and warned Jiang Shuyue not to confront him alone.
• The male attendant eyed Jiang Shuyue and suggested she could make a fortune at the brothel, but she scoffed at the amount he named.
• The proprietress told the male attendant that Jiang Shuyue’s family might buy the Happy Red Courtyard for her, leaving him frowning.

Jiang Shuyue and her companions went to a brothel to find Chen Yongwang, and Zhou Yunshen set a fire to force the men inside to flee. The ensuing spectacle exposed Chen Yongwang and Qin Si together and left the Thousand-Household Commander furious as Jiang An watched in alarm.

• Huahua told Jiang Shuyue that Chen Yongwang was asleep with Qin Si in a building to the west and described their scandalous antics.
• Jiang Shuyue and her companions hid nearby while she eagerly anticipated seeing the men emerge.
• Zhou Yunshen slipped into the building and started a fire by pouring hair oil on a curtain and dropping a firelighter.
• The fire drove Chen Yonggu, Chen Yongwang, Qin Si, and several women out of their rooms in disarray.
• The Thousand-Household Commander kicked Qin Si onto Chen Yongwang and ordered the onlookers to pull them apart, while Jiang An worried that the scandal would ruin his prospects.

Qin Si learned that Chen Yongwang had drugged his wine to sabotage his chances in the Spring Imperial Examination, and he took Chen and the brothel attendant to the Government Office. Jiang An tried to suppress the scandal, but witnesses began exposing Chen’s scheme as he bled.

• Jiang An tried to negotiate with Thousand-Household Commander Qin, while Huahua revealed that Chen Yongwang had drugged Qin Si and explained his motive.
• Thousand-Household Commander Qin kicked Chen Yongwang, and Qin Si confronted him over the drugging.
• Huahua revealed that Chen Yongwang had bought the drug himself, and Qin Si accused him of conspiring with the Happy Red Courtyard before grabbing him and the brothel attendant.
• Jiang An accused Jiang Shuyue of causing the affair, but Thousand-Household Commander Qin defended her and Qin Si threatened to find evidence and take the matter to the Government Office.
• A brothel girl testified that Chen Yongwang had driven the attendants away while asking for Qin Beauty, and she described his public quarrel with Elder Huang.
• Huahua warned Jiang Shuyue that Chen Yongwang was bleeding.

Jiang Shuyue and the Qin father and son forced Jiang An to pay for Chen Yongwang’s assault on Qin Si and secure Chen Yongwang’s confession. Jiang Shuyue then demanded another thirty thousand taels from her father to keep quiet.

• Jiang Shuyue mocked Chen Yongwang and challenged Jiang An for defending him, while Thousand-Household Commander Qin rebuked Jiang An for his disrespect.
• Thousand-Household Commander Qin demanded seventy thousand taels from Jiang An, threatening to pursue the matter if he refused.
• Qin Si dragged Chen Yongwang away until Jiang An agreed to pay, then made Chen Yongwang sign a confession and Jiang An write an IOU for the remaining silver.
• Jiang Shuyue scolded Jiang An for spending money to protect Chen Yongwang and demanded thirty thousand taels of her own to keep his secrets.

Jiang Shuyue secured a fifty-thousand-tael IOU from Jiang An at the brothel, while Chen Yonggu was carried away after collapsing. Zhou Yunshen joined Jiang Shuyue for a meal, and Murong Tianci used the incident to make Jiang An pay for his medicine.

• Jiang Shuyue pressed Jiang An's handprint onto a fifty-thousand-tael IOU, with Thousand-Household Commander Qin witnessing it.
• The Brothel Madam rushed the unconscious Chen Yonggu back to the Chen Family without dressing him.
• Jiang Shuyue prepared to leave, but Zhou Yunshen arrived and invited her to eat and watch a performance at the Happy Red Courtyard.
• Jiang An objected that the outing would harm Jiang Shuyue's reputation, and Murong Tianci and Prince Huai emerged from hiding.
• Murong Tianci hinted that he needed money for medicine, and Jiang An agreed to cover the full expense.

Jiang An agreed to pay Murong Tianci thirty thousand taels for his fictitious medicines, while Jiang Shuyue and Zhou Yunshen joined the others for a meal at a brothel. At the Chen family home, the brothel madam returned Chen Yonggu injured and exposed his debts and supposed infertility, leaving Liu Shi to turn on Wang Yuyan over her pregnancy.

• Murong Tianci claimed that his essential medicinal pills cost thirty thousand taels, and Jiang An agreed to send the money to the Imperial Preceptor's Residence.
• Zhou Yunshen invited Jiang Shuyue to eat, and the group went together to the brothel's finest private room.
• The brothel madam delivered Chen Yonggu to the Chen family home on a stretcher and demanded payment for his debts.
• The brothel madam told Liu Shi that Chen Yonggu could not father children, and the gathered onlookers mocked the family.
• Liu Shi looked at Wang Yuyan's belly and ordered someone to beat her after Wang Yuyan insisted the child was Chen Yonggu's.

Liu Shi beat Wang Yuyan after learning that the child she carried was not Chen Dalang’s, and their fight spilled out to the Chen Family gate. Wang Yuyan began bleeding as Liu Shi shut her out, leaving her helplessly pleading with the brothel madam for help.

• Liu Shi rejected Wang Yuyan’s explanation and struck her with a rattan cane over the affair and the child’s parentage.
• Wang Yuyan shoved Liu Shi away and blamed her for driving her husband to his death and ruining the Chen Family.
• Townspeople outside the gate condemned Liu Shi and recalled how Chen Dalang’s life had once been promising.
• Liu Shi dragged Wang Yuyan to the gate, kicked her abdomen, and beat her until Wang Yuyan began bleeding.
• The crowd fled, Liu Shi called Wang Yuyan’s unborn child a jinx, and the servants shut the gate on her.
• Wang Yuyan lay in pain outside the gate and begged the brothel madam to save her.

After Wang Yuyan’s deceitful affair led to the death of her child, Jiang Shuyue and the others discussed marriage and teased the unmarried Murong Tianci. Their joking made Jiang Shuyue wonder if Murong Tianci preferred men, while he began to consider Chu Xin’er as a possible wife.

• The Brothel Madam arranged for Wang Yuyan to be taken to a clinic and charged the cost to the Chen Family.
• Huahua told Jiang Shuyue that Wang Yuyan had conceived the child with a man she slept with for money, and that the child’s birthmark would have exposed her secret.
• Zhou Yunshen, Murong Tianci, and Prince Huai discussed the benefits of choosing the right wife and teased Murong Tianci for remaining unmarried.
• Jiang Shuyue wondered whether Murong Tianci was attracted to men, and Huahua joined her in gossiping about his preferences.
• Murong Tianci considered himself straight and began to think that Chu Xin’er might make a suitable wife.

Jiang Shuyue learned that Thousand-Household Commander Qin’s daughter was being targeted for a disastrous marriage to Chen Yonggu, while Huahua revealed that the girl was not Qin’s concubine’s biological child. Thousand-Household Commander Qin learned the truth and collapsed from shock, leaving his daughter’s fate unresolved.

• Thousand-Household Commander Qin offered to introduce his daughter to Jiang Shuyue, and Huahua revealed she was destined to suffer in a marriage to Chen Yonggu.
• Thousand-Household Commander Qin lost his temper when he heard the gossip, and Zhou Yunshen and Qin Si covered for him by blaming a bug.
• Huahua revealed that Liu Shi was plotting to marry Qin’s daughter to Chen Yonggu, who could no longer father children.
• Huahua disclosed that Qin’s concubine had switched the babies at birth, making the girl the First Madam’s biological daughter.
• Thousand-Household Commander Qin fell from his chair in shock, and Jiang Shuyue wondered how someone so timid had become a thousand-household commander.

Jiang Shuyue and Huahua exposed how Liu Shi and Qin’s concubine had secretly switched Yuanyuan with a stillborn baby. Thousand-Household Commander Qin learned that his daughter’s birth had been faked, then anxiously waited for Huahua to clarify whether he could father children.

• Huahua revealed that Liu Shi was blackmailing the concubine over her past affair to arrange for Yuanyuan to be brought over.
• Huahua explained that the concubine had given birth to a stillborn baby in Liu Shi’s room and that they had bribed the Midwife to switch the babies.
• Huahua described how the Midwife induced the First Madam’s labor and helped the concubine pretend to give birth to Yuanyuan.
• Thousand-Household Commander Qin realized he had been fooled despite guarding the birth and felt chilled by the concubine’s scheme.
• Jiang Shuyue wondered whether the concubine had not had another child because she or Thousand-Household Commander Qin was unable to conceive, and Qin silently insisted that he could perform.

Jiang Shuyue got drunk on Green Lotus Wine and behaved wildly while Zhou Yunshen tried to take her home. She ended the chapter praising Zhou Yunshen as the most handsome man under heaven, and he declared that she was unrivaled under heaven.

• Jiang Shuyue dismissed the idea of visiting Jiang An, and Zhou Yunshen planned to send people to demand money from him on the morning of the Spring Imperial Examination.
• The Brothel Madam reported the Chen Family's affairs, but Prince Huai fined her a hundred thousand taels and ordered the establishment closed for a month.
• Jiang Shuyue mistook the Brothel Madam for a wild boar, and Zhou Yunshen realized she had been drinking Green Lotus Wine.
• Zhou Yunshen drew the drunken Jiang Shuyue into his arms and offered to take her home for a nap.
• Jiang Shuyue called Zhou Yunshen Brother Monkey and praised his looks, and Zhou Yunshen told Prince Huai that she was unrivaled under heaven.

Jiang Shuyue kissed Zhou Yunshen and whispered about powerful figures watching from above before he carried her away. Prince Huai exposed the Brothel Madam’s crimes, had her arrested, and shut down the brothel after twenty-five bodies were found in its dry well.

• Jiang Shuyue kissed Zhou Yunshen and warned him to keep quiet about the Heavenly Dao, the Jade Emperor, and Venus Star.
• Zhou Yunshen carried Jiang Shuyue out, while Prince Huai and Murong Tianci stayed behind.
• Prince Huai confronted the Brothel Madam about the girls in the dry well and ordered guards to arrest her and the brothel attendant.
• Prince Huai ordered the brothel sealed and took two jugs of Green Lotus Wine for his mother.
• News spread that twenty-five bodies had been recovered from the dry well, and the Madam Boss of the rouge shop mourned the girls.

Jiang Shuyue woke to Huahua eating pork trotters and learned what she had done while drunk, along with the latest upheavals in the Qin and Chen families. Huahua ended with the news that Chen Yongwang had caught a venereal disease.

• Jiang Shuyue joined Huahua in eating pork trotters and learned that, while drunk, she had tried to make Little Apple and Zhou Yunshen sworn siblings.
• Huahua told Jiang Shuyue that Thousand-Household Commander Qin had humiliated Liu Shi, thrown her and the betrothal gifts out, and banished his concubine after having her beaten.
• Thousand-Household Commander Qin transferred Qin Juan under his principal wife's name and used compensation from Jiang Shuyue's father to buy her shops and hair ornaments.
• Jiang Shuyue learned that her father had beaten Chen Wang, her grandmother had made a scene, and her mother had taken her eldest brother to Second Brother's home.
• Huahua told Jiang Shuyue that Chen Yongwang had caught a venereal disease.

Jiang Shuyue learned that Chen Yongwang had mounted a donkey while under the influence of a drug and worried that the animal’s owner might be infected. Later, Lan Ruoyue tested the same donkey’s ability to detect narcissus and planned to use it to boost her standing with the emperor.

• Huahua told Jiang Shuyue that Chen Yongwang had mounted a donkey after leaving the clinic.
• Jiang Shuyue worried that the donkey’s owner could catch genital warts and spread the infection.
• Jiang An presented a donkey to Lan Ruoyue and explained that it could detect narcissus and paint by following its scent.
• Lan Ruoyue watched the donkey paint a landscape and approved of its abilities.
• Lan Ruoyue planned to use narcissus juice and a bribed eunuch to win the emperor’s favor.