Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yunshen returned early and cared for Jiang Shuyue, who discovered her period had started again. He sent Qi Ye to buy menstrual cloths for her, leaving his trusted subordinate stunned.

• Zhou Yunshen came home early and gave Jiang Shuyue almond candy, allowing her only one piece until morning.
• Jiang Shuyue wondered why Zhou Yunshen liked her, and he told her he found her interesting and comfortable to be around.
• Zhou Yunshen realized Jiang Shuyue was bleeding and carried her to bathe while ordering blood-red bird's nest.
• Little Peach said they had run out of menstrual cloths, so Zhou Yunshen told her he would handle it himself.
• Zhou Yunshen summoned Qi Ye and ordered him to buy menstrual cloths for Madam, leaving Qi Ye dumbfounded.

Jiang Shuyue learned that Zhou Yunshen’s concubines were plotting and that the woman in yellow secretly drew explicit illustrated stories about the household. She stopped the woman’s plans, then asked to see her latest work.

• Zhou Yunshen ordered Qi Ye to buy a cartload of the best menstrual cloths for Jiang Shuyue.
• Jiang Shuyue and the system discussed Zhou Yunshen’s past disguise as a dancing girl and the danger posed by a transmigrator allied with the Fourth Prince.
• Jiang Shuyue learned that Zhou Yunshen had ordered his concubines to pay their respects daily, and the system revealed the women’s recent schemes.
• Jiang Shuyue ordered Little Peach to restrict the woman in yellow’s food, bedding, and drawing supplies after learning she planned to provoke Zhou Yunshen.
• Jiang Shuyue took the woman in yellow’s hand and asked to see her latest illustrated story.

Jiang Shuyue learned that Huang Shan had been sent to spy on her and poison her, but she turned Huang Shan’s fear into an opportunity to obtain her secret sketchbook. The chapter ended with Zhou Shiye inviting Jiang Shuyue’s father into the residence, suspecting he could provide more green tea points.

• Jiang Shuyue demanded to see Huang Shan’s secret sketchbook, and Huang Shan fell to her knees, begging to be spared.
• The system revealed that Huang Shan’s master had threatened her younger brother, who was secretly involved with Mei Yunqi, and that Jiang Shuyue’s father had supplied poison intended for Jiang Shuyue.
• Jiang Shuyue warned Huang Shan to cut ties with Mei Yunqi and told her to keep working on the sketchbook, so Huang Shan hurried away to draw.
• Huang Shan delivered the sketchbook, and Jiang Shuyue admired its drawings of herself and her eldest son.
• Zhou Shiye returned to the residence and admitted Jiang Shuyue’s father after Zhou Luming warned that he seemed suspicious.

Jiang Shuyue met Jiang An at the Marquis’s Residence and exposed his past neglect while he tried to recruit her for the Crown Prince’s temple visit. After learning his hidden plans for Jiang Liuli, she agreed to go only if attendants carried and cared for her, and Zhou Shiye backed her demands.

• Jiang Shuyue dressed to look poor and delicate, expecting a family visit to be a chance to obtain more gifts, but found Jiang An waiting in the hall.
• Jiang Shuyue bluntly reminded Jiang An that he had ignored her and made her surrender her belongings to Jiang Liuli, while Zhou Shiye watched him closely.
• Jiang An claimed he had good intentions and raised the Crown Prince’s planned temple visit, hoping Jiang Shuyue would take part in praying for blessings.
• The system revealed that Jiang An had arranged lessons to prepare Jiang Liuli to attract the Crown Prince, with Mei Yunqi’s help and without Jiang Shuyue’s mother knowing.
• Jiang Shuyue said she might attend the temple only if people carried her and cared for her meals and lodging, and Zhou Shiye insisted Jiang An accept her conditions.

Jiang Shuyue arranged for Mei Yunqi to accompany her on an upcoming trip, while Zhou Shiye grew closer to her during a garden stroll. Zhou Yunshen assigned Three Flowers and May as her covert guards, and the chapter ended with the system revealing May had a maiden’s heart.

• Jiang Shuyue persuaded Jiang An to let Mei Yunqi accompany her on her trip, and Jiang An left furious after she did not see him out.
• Jiang Shuyue walked through the garden with Zhou Shiye and decided to publish illustrated stories about Jiang An’s misfortunes.
• Jiang Shuyue asked Zhou Shiye for two capable guards for her trip, and he agreed to find them.
• Zhou Yunshen introduced Three Flowers and May as Jiang Shuyue’s covert guards, and Jiang Shuyue gave them playful nicknames.
• The system revealed that May liked women but had a maiden’s heart, startling him as he overheard it.

Zhou Yunshen gave Jiang Shuyue poisons and antidotes for her pilgrimage, then kept her occupied until she departed with the Crown Prince’s party. She left the Marquis’s Residence exhausted and embarrassed, while Zhou Yunshen stayed behind to see her off.

• Zhou Yunshen showed Jiang Shuyue an assortment of poisons, explained their effects, and packed antidotes for her to take on the pilgrimage.
• Jiang Shuyue packed several poisons and antidotes while arguing with her system, which teased her about her past mistakes and dreams.
• Zhou Yunshen carried Jiang Shuyue to bed, and for the next few days she alternated between fleeing him and being pulled into bed.
• At first light on the second day of the month, Jiang Shuyue prepared to leave and joked with Little Peach about making a sign to limit Zhou Yunshen’s advances.
• Zhou Yunshen saw Jiang Shuyue off with the three children, and she hurried into the Crown Prince’s carriage after he teased her about their bruises.

Jiang An tried to shame Jiang Shuyue before the Crown Prince, but the Crown Prince defended her and Three Flowers stopped Jiang Liuli from entering her carriage. Jiang Liuli was forced to share Mei Yunqi’s carriage, where his foul-smelling feet made her vomit.

• Jiang An complained that Jiang Shuyue had arrived late, but the Crown Prince said she was on time and warned Jiang An to respect her as the marchioness.
• Jiang Liuli approached Jiang Shuyue’s carriage, but Three Flowers slapped her hand, rebuked her, and drove her away with a steamed bun.
• The Crown Prince’s procession departed before Jiang Liuli could find a carriage, so Jiang An told her to ride with Mei Yunqi and seek a chance to board Jiang Shuyue’s carriage later.
• Jiang Shuyue woke in her carriage and learned that Three Flowers had turned Jiang Liuli away.
• Jiang Shuyue learned that Mei Yunqi’s smelly feet had made Jiang Liuli vomit twice during their carriage ride.

Jiang Shuyue enjoyed Jiang Liuli’s misery as the Crown Prince and Sixth Prince forced her to eat rotten durian and revolting Stinky Candy. After Jiang Liuli vomited and Mei Yunqi tried to bribe Eunuch Qin, Jiang Shuyue confronted Mei Yunqi and pointed out that his trousers were on backward.

• The Crown Prince sent Jiang Liuli rotten durian, while the Sixth Prince sent her candy made with stinky fish jelly and rotten eggs.
• Jiang Shuyue rode over to watch Jiang Liuli eat the gifts, and Jiang Liuli pretended to enjoy them while refusing to share with her sister.
• Jiang Liuli ate three Stinky Candies, vomited, and faced Eunuch Qin’s threat to report her behavior to the princes.
• Mei Yunqi bribed Eunuch Qin to excuse Jiang Liuli’s behavior, and Eunuch Qin accepted the money and agreed to report it favorably.
• Mei Yunqi greeted Jiang Shuyue and tried to charm her, but she told him that his trousers were on backward.

Jiang Shuyue bonded with the Crown Prince and the sixth prince over food, proposing two outrageous new dishes for the sixth prince to develop. When Jiang Liuli forced her way into Jiang Shuyue’s carriage, Jiang Shuyue prepared to expose her secrets.

• The Crown Prince served Jiang Shuyue roast pheasant, and the sixth prince shared candy with her while the system revealed his dream of becoming a cook.
• Jiang Shuyue proposed blue cheese and Stargazy Pie, and the sixth prince eagerly agreed to make them and use Jiang Liuli and Jiang An as taste testers.
• The Crown Prince corrected the sixth prince for calling Jiang Shuyue big sister, and they settled on calling her Shuyue in private before sharing a roadside meal.
• Jiang Liuli and Mei Yunqi insulted Jiang Shuyue while she ate, and Jiang Liuli grew nauseated by the food’s smell.
• Jiang Liuli claimed she was carriage-sick and climbed into Jiang Shuyue’s carriage, while Jiang Shuyue asked the system to expose her dirty secrets.

Jiang Shuyue turned Jiang Liuli’s attempt to humiliate her into a public embarrassment, then traveled to Origin Return Temple with the Crown Prince’s Sixth Prince. The party reached the temple, where the Crown Prince singled out Jiang Liuli’s poor health before a large crowd.

• Jiang Shuyue offered Jiang Liuli her carriage and rode her donkey, prompting junior eunuchs to gossip about the Jiang Family.
• The Crown Prince invited Jiang Shuyue to ride with the Sixth Prince, who rejected Jiang Liuli and went with Jiang Shuyue instead.
• Three Flowers rebuked Jiang Liuli and arranged for her carriage to jolt over rough roads.
• At Origin Return Temple, Jiang Shuyue teased Jiang Liuli as they climbed the long staircase.
• Master Huiming welcomed the Crown Prince, who pointed out Jiang Liuli’s poor health before the gathered crowd.

Jiang Shuyue and her party arrived at Origin Return Temple, where Master Huiming was astonished by her thoughts and arranged special care for Little Strawberry. As Jiang Liuli sought help from Jie Yan, the system exposed that a young monk had stolen and auctioned Huiming’s underpants for three hundred taels of silver.

• Master Huiming heard Jiang Shuyue’s thoughts and took her praise of his head as a heavenly sign.
• Jiang Liuli collapsed after Little Strawberry kicked her, while Jiang Shuyue asked Huiming to arrange strawberries and comfortable lodgings for the donkey.
• Jiang Liuli accepted Jie Yan’s help and leaned on him as he offered to escort her to a guest room.
• Jiang Shuyue complained about the temple’s bland vegetarian meal, and the system offered to reveal a scandal about Huiming.
• The system revealed that a young monk had stolen Huiming’s underpants and sold them at auction for three hundred taels of silver.

Jiang Shuyue and the others learned that a novice planned to drug and assault Master Huiming, whom he had obsessed over while secretly posing as a refugee. The temple elders struggled to decide how to deal with him, and Jiang Shuyue made clear she would have no qualms about killing him.

• The system revealed that a novice had been collecting and selling Master Huiming’s underpants, along with keeping his discarded items and vegetable scraps.
• The system said the novice dreamed of sharing a bed with Master Huiming and believed the master’s Bodhi Body made him irresistibly alluring.
• The system exposed the novice’s plan to use an aphrodisiac to force Master Huiming to comply and threaten the temple’s reputation if he refused.
• The system revealed that the novice was from a wealthy family and had pretended to be a starving refugee to get close to Master Huiming.
• The elders struggled to punish the novice without concrete evidence, while the Crown Prince felt unable to intervene and Jiang Shuyue said she would kill anyone who deserved it.

After Jiang Shuyue and the System discussed punishing the young novice, Master Huiming and the elders uncovered corruption among the temple monks and prepared to remove the offenders. Huiming beat the young novice when he tried to assault him, and the Crown Prince ordered the man sent to a brothel after he recovered.

• With the Crown Prince's help, Master Huiming and the elders exposed the monks' misdeeds and identified those who needed to be punished.
• Master Huiming planned the temple purge with his senior brothers, and five monks were quietly taken away that night.
• The young novice entered Master Huiming's meditation room to assault him, but Huiming trapped him in a sack and beat him with a club.
• Master Huiming had his disciples take the unconscious novice to the Crown Prince, who ordered a doctor to treat him and then send him to a brothel.
• The Crown Prince carried Little Six to bed while Jiang Shuyue and the System speculated about the novice's fate.

Jiang Shuyue learned that Zhou Yunshen was raiding a brothel and turning arrests into bail money for her, then uncovered the tangled family and scandalous lives behind Eunuch Qin’s supposed sons. The gossip finally led back to Jiang Shuyue when she learned the woman caught with Qin Youshun was her half sister.

• The system told Jiang Shuyue that Zhou Yunshen had raided a brothel, planned to charge bail for minor offenders, and claimed the money would support his wife.
• The system revealed that Eunuch Qin’s supposed sons were actually his younger brother’s godsons, and that Qin Youcai regarded Eunuch Qin as his real father.
• The system said Qin Youshun had been caught with a woman who was engaged to Mei Yunqi, and that the woman was Jiang Shuyue’s half sister, born to her father and his secret mistress.
• Jiang Shuyue and the Crown Prince were stunned when the system revealed that the scandal had led straight back to Jiang Shuyue’s own family.

Jiang Shuyue tried to sneak into Mei Yunqi’s residence through a dog hole after learning about his affair with Qin Ling'er, but she got stuck while her companions tried to free her. The chapter ended with the system offering to dig up dirt on Jiang Shuyue’s would-be rescuers so she could provoke them into helping.

• Jiang Shuyue learned that Mei Yunqi had secretly been involved with Qin Ling'er, who was jailed after posing as his fiancée and asked his family to pay for her release.
• Jiang Shuyue changed into rough clothes and crawled toward a dog hole, determined to sneak in and knock Mei Yunqi unconscious.
• Jiang Shuyue got her butt stuck in the hole, and Little Peach, Three Flowers, and May gathered to help her.
• Little Peach pushed Jiang Shuyue while Three Flowers and May debated pulling her out, dismantling the wall, drugging the temple, or slapping her.
• Jiang Shuyue asked the system to find dirt on her companions so she could provoke them into helping her escape.

Jiang Shuyue learned that a lovesick young Zhou had become obsessed with Little Peach, then accidentally confessed to ruining Little Peach’s hydrangea with Daughter's Red. A fire striker ignited her collar, and she extinguished herself by flipping into May’s bucket of water.

• The system revealed that Three Flowers had once framed May for a botched mission and that May had ruined Three Flowers’s clothes with bloodstains, costing her fifty taels.
• The system told Jiang Shuyue that young Zhou had fixated on Little Peach after she beat him, and described his increasingly bizarre efforts to get close to her.
• Jiang Shuyue joked that Little Peach might someday marry young Zhou, then thought about admitting she had killed Little Peach’s hydrangea by watering it with Daughter's Red.
• Little Peach slapped Jiang Shuyue, and the fire striker in Jiang Shuyue’s mouth fell onto the ground and set weeds alight.
• Jiang Shuyue ran from the flames, spun through the air, and landed in May’s bucket, putting out the fire and knocking May to his knees.

Zhou Yunshen arranged for Qin Ling'er’s arrest to cause trouble for Jiang An and prepared drawings for Jiang Shuyue. At the monastery’s morning service, Jiang Shuyue uncovered gossip about a monk whose attention had settled on Jiang Liuli.

• Three Flowers and May sent Zhou Yunshen drawings and an account of Jiang Shuyue’s encounter with Mei Yunqi, while Eunuch Qin sent him a letter about Qin Ling'er.
• Zhou Yunshen ordered Qi Ye to summon Qin Ling'er's family in a carefully timed sequence and arranged for Huang Shan to draw the scene for Jiang Shuyue.
• Jiang Shuyue hurried to the morning service after the system announced major gossip, where she found that several novice monks had been sent to the Discipline Hall.
• Jiang Shuyue mistook Master Huiming’s attention for romantic interest, while he silently insisted that his feelings were pure reverence.
• The system pointed out a rosy-faced monk whose gaze followed Jiang Liuli, and Jiang Shuyue realized that Jiang Liuli was his spring breeze.

At the temple, Jiang Shuyue’s private thoughts expose Jiang Liuli’s attempt to seduce Jie Yan and the leaked topic of the coming Buddhist debate, while the Crown Prince turns Jiang Liuli’s marriage talk back on her. The chapter ends with news that Jiang Shuyue’s mother has confronted two women at the government office and Mei Yunqi has been stripped of his post.

• Jiang Shuyue and the system revealed that Jiang Liuli had spent the night pressing Jie Yan’s hand to her chest, while the monks mistakenly concluded Jie Yan was impotent.
• Jiang Liuli asked whether Jiang Shuyue would join the Buddhist debate, and the system disclosed that Jiang Liuli had wheedled its topic from Jie Yan.
• Jiang Shuyue declined the debate and suggested Jiang Liuli pray for a good marriage, prompting the Crown Prince to connect her with Mei Yunqi and promise a wedding gift.
• Jiang Liuli denied any marriage plans with Mei Yunqi, while the system reported that Jiang Shuyue’s mother had fought Qin Wanru and another woman at the government office.
• The system revealed that Mei Yunqi had been exposed and the emperor had stripped him of his post and made him a commoner.

Jiang Shuyue missed the capital’s scandal over Jiang An and the Qin sisters, but she and the others prepared to spy on Jie Yan and Jiang Liuli’s midnight meeting in the eastern grove. The chapter ended with the temple’s monks and Jiang Shuyue’s companions getting ready to watch the gossip unfold.

• The system told Jiang Shuyue that Zhou Yunshen had spread pictures and stories exposing the Qin sisters’ affair, and Jiang An fainted after hearing about them.
• Madam Jiang expelled Qin Wanru from the Jiang Family, while Jiang An repeatedly fainted and was revived during the confrontation.
• Jiang Shuyue asked the system to develop a way to act out gossip, and the system agreed to request the ability from the Heavenly Dao.
• Jiang Shuyue complained about the vegetarian meal, then learned that Jie Yan had arranged to meet Jiang Liuli in the eastern grove at midnight.
• Jiang Shuyue planned to bring May to hunt pheasants and roast them, while the Sixth Prince and Crown Prince planned to join the midnight outing.
• Huici fainted in anger over his disciple, and Huiming, Huixin, and the other monks prepared snacks and drinks to enjoy the gossip.

Jiang Shuyue waited in the woods to spy on Jiang Liuli, and the Crown Prince joined her with food and insect-repelling incense. She watched Jiang Liuli manipulate Jie Yan into giving her the next day’s exam answers, while Huiming took note of her criticism of the temple’s mentoring.

• Jiang Shuyue waited beneath a tree with Little Peach, swatting mosquitoes and wondering why Jiang Liuli had not arrived.
• Little Six, the Crown Prince, and Eunuch Qin joined Jiang Shuyue, bringing snacks, rice wine, stools, and insect-repelling incense.
• Little Six spotted two figures moving in the woods, and the system gave Jiang Shuyue a telescope so she could watch them.
• Jiang Liuli tearfully told Jie Yan that Jiang Shuyue had mistreated her and claimed she needed the Crown Prince’s favor to survive.
• Jie Yan gave Jiang Liuli the next day’s exam questions with answers, and Jiang Shuyue criticized Huiming for neglecting his disciples’ mental well-being.