Chapter Summaries

Jiang Shuyue and the Marquis of Zhennan’s family exposed Liu Zhiyuan’s deceit and his attempt to frame Wang Dan. Chen Yong struck Liu and confronted him with his family scandal, while Liu’s pleas failed to win Chen Cao Cao back.

• Jiang Shuyue warned Chen Cao Cao about Liu Zhiyuan and revealed that he had tried to seduce a concubine in her household.
• Chen Yong identified Jiang Shuyue as the Marquis of Zhennan’s wife and accused Liu of slandering the Marquis’s Residence.
• Chen Yong slapped Liu Zhiyuan, knocking out a front tooth, and revealed the story behind Liu’s birth.
• Huahua revealed that Liu Zhiyuan’s biological father was his paternal uncle, while Liu insisted he was a member of the Liu family.
• Wang Dan accused Liu of betraying their affair, and Jiang Shuyue mocked them as Liu begged Chen Cao Cao for help.

Chen Yong ordered Liu Zhiyuan and Wang Dan detained and investigated after Jiang Shuyue exposed Liu’s schemes and Huahua revealed clues to his crimes. When Liu drew a dagger to attack Jiang Shuyue, she struck him with a Thousand Years of Pain and kicked him down.

• Zhou Luming urged Chen Yong to interrogate Wang Dan, while Zhou Sesong asked him to send Liu Zhiyuan to the Court of Judicial Review.
• Huahua revealed that Liu Zhiyuan’s matching embroidery and his past role in driving his fiancée to her death could expose him, and Chen Cao Cao said she had kept the handkerchief he gave her.
• Liu Zhiyuan tried to reassure Chen Cao Cao, but Chen Yong ordered Wang Dan taken away, Liu bound, and Liu’s hometown notified of the investigation.
• Chen Yong kicked Liu Zhiyuan to the ground and accused him of murder, while Jiang Shuyue condemned his use of women for advancement.
• Liu Zhiyuan drew a dagger and moved to attack Jiang Shuyue, who struck his rear with a Thousand Years of Pain and kicked him down.

Jiang Shuyue and Zhou Luming left after beating Liu Zhiyuan and Wang Dan, while Chen Cao Cao dealt with the betrayal inside the Chen household. She ordered Wang Dan killed and disguised the death as an accident to protect her family and prevent Liu Zhiyuan from shifting the blame.

• Huahua praised Jiang Shuyue's Thousand Years of Pain, and Jiang Shuyue admitted she had learned the donkey's rear kick from Little Strawberry.
• Zhou Sesong beat Liu Zhiyuan unconscious, and Zhou Luming slapped Wang Dan for speaking out of turn.
• Jiang Shuyue and Zhou Luming departed to deliver ingredients to the Sixth Prince, while Chen Cao Cao sent Liu Zhiyuan to the Court of Judicial Review and had Wang Dan confined.
• Chen Cao Cao confronted Wang Dan over her affair with Liu Zhiyuan and her plot against the Chen Family, then presented her with a divorce letter.
• Chen Cao Cao decided to stage Wang Dan's death as an accidental fall, and ordered her servants to kill her.

Zhou Sesong carried Jiang Shuyue to the Crown Prince’s residence, where Little Six made Mei Yunqi eat Jiang Shuyue’s revolting cooking. Later, Huahua revealed that General Zhao’s concubine had faked her pregnancy and harmed his wife, prompting Jiang Shuyue to rush to the Zhao household.

• Huahua told Jiang Shuyue that Chen Cao Cao had killed Wang Dan, and Jiang Shuyue approved of her decisive action.
• Zhou Sesong and Zhou Luming brought Jiang Shuyue to the Crown Prince’s residence, where Little Six forced Mei Yunqi to eat her cooking and suggested serving it to the Ministry of Punishments.
• The Crown Prince welcomed Little Six to stay overnight, while Eunuch Qin arranged for Mei Yunqi to be nursed back to health so he could keep tasting the dishes.
• Huahua told Jiang Shuyue that General Zhao’s concubine had faked her pregnancy, pushed Madam Cheng down the stairs, and pretended to be in labor after complications arose.
• Jiang Shuyue ordered Little Peach to prepare the carriage so she could visit the Zhao household.

Jiang Shuyue rushed to General Zhao’s home to watch First Madam give birth, but learned the midwife and Madam Cheng were plotting to kill the mother and child. After Zhou Yunshen sent for Imperial Physician Zeng and his men moved to stop the baby swap, Jiang Shuyue realized their lives were tied to her own fate and offered to take over the delivery.

• Jiang Shuyue arrived with Zhou Yunshen at General Zhao’s home and insisted on staying to watch First Madam’s difficult childbirth.
• Huahua revealed that Madam Cheng had paid the midwife to displace First Madam’s placenta, putting mother and child in grave danger.
• Zhou Yunshen sent a deputy to fetch Imperial Physician Zeng, whose golden-needle technique and medicine could stabilize First Madam.
• Huahua revealed that the midwife’s son and daughter-in-law planned to smuggle in their nephew and pass him off as Madam Cheng’s baby, so a deputy went to arrest them.
• Zhou Yunshen threatened the midwife, but Huahua detected her intent to kill First Madam and the baby and warned Jiang Shuyue that their deaths could ruin her fortune.
• Jiang Shuyue learned she had to protect the mother and child and shouted for the midwife to let go so she could take over.

Jiang Shuyue rushed into Zhao Qing’s wife’s delivery room and used her tea essence to ease First Madam’s labor, helping her deliver a boy. First Madam survived after Imperial Physician Zeng treated her, while Zhou Yunshen worried over Jiang Shuyue’s lost hair.

• Jiang Shuyue barged into the delivery room and knocked the midwife into a basin of bloody water.
• After Huahua explained how her tea essence could ease labor, Jiang Shuyue gave First Madam strands of her hair to bite.
• Jiang Shuyue stopped the midwife from interfering and urged First Madam to stay conscious by warning that another woman might take her place.
• First Madam rallied and pushed, and the baby was born; she then collapsed as Imperial Physician Zeng arrived to treat her.
• Zhao Qing learned he had a son and asked after his wife, while Zhou Yunshen glared at him and worried that Jiang Shuyue had lost a handful of hair.

Jiang Shuyue helped save Zhao Qing’s wife and received a thousand taels of gold before Zhou Yunshen took her home. Zhao Qing confronted Cheng Ting after discovering she had faked her pregnancy with cotton, but her appeal to their past left him eerily calm.

• Imperial Physician Zeng confirmed that Zhao Qing’s wife was recovering, and Zhao Qing offered him a thousand taels of gold.
• Jiang Shuyue resented being left out of the reward until Zhou Yunshen arranged for the gold to be given to her, then snapped at Zhao Qing for calling her his little sister.
• Imperial Physician Zeng received five hundred taels of silver and promises of recommendations before Zhou Yunshen brought Jiang Shuyue and Zhou Shiye home for dinner.
• Zhao Qing confronted Cheng Ting after servants exposed the cotton she had used to fake a pregnancy, and Cheng Ting insisted she had acted out of love and fear of losing her place.
• Cheng Ting clung to Zhao Qing and reminded him that he had promised to give their child the best, asking what would happen if First Madam bore a son.

Zhao Qing punished Cheng Ting and her accomplices for plotting against Huixin and their son, then arranged for the abandoned baby to be raised by a good family. As Jiang Shuyue heard gossip about Bai Shufeng and the Ji sisters, she jokingly imagined slapping Zhou Yunshen if he ever wronged her.

• Zhao Qing rejected Cheng Ting's plea to become his co-wife, broke her wrist, and ordered her sent to the Court of Judicial Review.
• Zhao Qing had the midwife and other conspirators taken to the government office, and arranged for the abandoned baby to be placed with a suitable family.
• Bai Huixin's eldest brother returned to the General's Residence, took the baby, and planned to send him to an infertile couple in the countryside.
• Jiang Shuyue learned that Ji Family's eldest daughter kept trying to steal her younger sister's marriage to Bai Shufeng, while Bai Shufeng and his mother had already secured the match with the second daughter.
• Jiang Shuyue praised the second daughter for standing up to her family and joked that she would slap Zhou Yunshen if he wronged her, leaving him confused about why he had been brought into the conversation.

Ji Shuang’s attempt to seize Ji Ling’s marriage to Bai Shufeng led her parents to punish and exile her to Cold Mountain Temple. Meanwhile, Jiang Shuyue slept in Zhou Yunshen’s arms and left him covered in bite marks, and he went to court joking that he had been poisoned by mutual devotion.

• Ji Shuang demanded that Ji Ling’s hands be chopped off, and Lord Ji slapped her and condemned her for endangering the family.
• Ji Shuang declared that she deserved to marry Bai Shufeng and said she might take Ji Ling as a concubine after becoming the Bai Family Matriarch.
• Ji Shuang shoved Madam Ji into a table, injuring her forehead, and Lord Ji ordered Ji Shuang stripped of her finery and locked in the woodshed before being sent to Cold Mountain Temple.
• Huahua relayed the gossip to Jiang Shuyue, who sleepily said Ji Shuang deserved it and lamented not having enough green tea points.
• Jiang Shuyue hugged and bit Zhou Yunshen while dreaming, leaving marks that Qi Ye noticed the next morning.
• Zhou Yunshen told Qi Ye that he might have been poisoned by a poison called mutual devotion.

Zhou Yunshen brought Jiang Shuyue to court at the emperor’s request, where she woke while eating a meat bun and Huahua exposed a bribery scheme tied to the military selection. The emperor supported Prince Huai’s proposal to add strategic and command trials, while the Minister of Revenue and Vice Minister of War objected.

• Zhou Yunshen wrapped the sleeping Jiang Shuyue in a quilt, brought her to court, and fed her hot meat buns as she woke in the Golden Chariot Hall.
• Huahua revealed that the Minister of Revenue and Vice Minister of War planned to sell military-selection rankings and frame Zhao Qing if their scheme was exposed.
• Prince Huai proposed adding strategy, mock-battle, and imperial trials to the military selection, and the Minister of Revenue and Vice Minister of War opposed the changes.
• The emperor endorsed Prince Huai’s proposal and challenged the two ministers to explain why talented candidates were worth less than the cost of the new trials.

The emperor assigned the Crown Prince to oversee the Military Selection and summoned Lan Ruoyue, who claimed to be an immortal with extraordinary knowledge and medical skills. Jiang Shuyue recognized Lan Ruoyue as a threat to Zhou Yunshen’s family and learned that treating the Empress Dowager could affect Great Zhou’s destiny.

• The emperor rebuked Minister Li, and Zhou Yunshen declined to set the Military Selection questions because his brother-in-law would be a candidate.
• Jiang Shuyue’s thoughts revealed that the Vice Minister of War had tampered with weapons to favor candidates who bribed him, and the Crown Prince agreed to oversee the selection.
• The Fourth Prince summoned Lan Ruoyue, whom Jiang Shuyue learned had allied with the Fourth and Second Princes after offering to make soap.
• Lan Ruoyue refused to kneel to the emperor and claimed she was not from this world, but the emperor rejected the ministers’ proposal to name her a Goddess.
• Lan Ruoyue claimed she could cure the Empress Dowager’s headaches, and Huahua told Jiang Shuyue that the Empress Dowager, Empress, and Crown Prince carried part of Great Zhou’s destiny.

Lan Ruoyue tried to win the emperor’s favor by offering to treat the Empress Dowager and improve iron smelting, but Zhou Yunshen made her prove her claims before earning a title. The emperor approved a trial clinic and manufacturing project, while Jiang Shuyue discovered Zhou Yunshen had given Lan Ruoyue a valuable shop and suspected his motives.

• Lan Ruoyue argued that all lives were equal and offered to operate on the Empress Dowager, angering the emperor and Prince Huai.
• Jiang Shuyue’s thoughts exposed Lan Ruoyue’s hypocrisy, and the emperor’s favorability toward her fell sharply.
• Lan Ruoyue offered to open a clinic and provide a new iron-smelting method, prompting the emperor to give her a chance to prove herself.
• Zhou Yunshen said Lan Ruoyue would need to demonstrate her achievements before receiving the title of County Princess and offered her a shop for the clinic.
• Jiang Shuyue learned from Huahua that the shop was a valuable three-story storefront and privately called Zhou Yunshen a dog.

Lan Ruoyue wagered her life that she could open a clinic and produce weapons, while Zhou Yunshen made her serve as the Sixth Prince’s taste tester if she failed. The emperor approved the wager, and Jiang Shuyue planned to celebrate by seeking gossip at Jadeite Tower.

• Jiang Shuyue privately accused Zhou Yunshen of favoring Lan Ruoyue and threatened to save money so she could run away, prompting Zhou Yunshen to set strict conditions for Lan Ruoyue’s claims.
• Lan Ruoyue proposed wagering her life against the shops on South Street if she failed to prove her claims.
• Zhou Yunshen countered that Lan Ruoyue would become the Sixth Prince’s taste tester for three years if she failed.
• Lan Ruoyue accepted the wager despite her system’s warning about the Sixth Prince’s cooking.
• The emperor approved Lan Ruoyue’s clinic opening in three days and arranged for the Forging Bureau to help with her weapons in a month.
• Jiang Shuyue decided to ask Zhou Yunshen for money to visit Jadeite Tower with Huahua and discuss setting Lan Ruoyue up.

After court, Jiang Shuyue joined the Emperor, Empress, Zhou Yunshen, Prince Huai, and Murong Tianci for a meal, where her thoughts exposed the brothers’ childhood secrets. The gathering turned tense when Huahua revealed that their waiter was the surviving son of a traitor who had once tried to kill the Emperor and the Late Emperor.

• The Emperor and Empress showered Jiang Shuyue with gifts and took her out to eat, while Prince Huai and Murong Tianci joined them.
• Jiang Shuyue wondered whether the Emperor and Prince Huai were secretly not biological brothers, but Huahua confirmed they were and revealed their childhood pranks and rivalries.
• The Emperor offered to pay for the meal, and Jiang Shuyue ordered an extravagant spread while Zhou Yunshen requested tea instead of wine.
• Huahua revealed that the waiter was the son of the Prince of Dongling, a traitor whose rebellion had nearly killed the Emperor and the Late Emperor.
• The Emperor considered the danger of the traitor’s surviving son and resolved not to leave a threat behind.

Jiang Shuyue and the emperor learned that the inn’s waiter planned to poison the Prince of Dongling’s former followers and knew he possessed the key to the prince’s hidden supplies. Murong Tianci used the waiter’s trust in him to obtain the key and promised to protect his family.

• Huahua explained that the waiter had poisoned the Prince of Dongling’s allies as a child and now planned to poison the remaining followers at a gathering.
• Jiang Shuyue and Huahua learned that the waiter had stolen the Prince of Dongling’s key, which could unlock millions of taels of silver, grain, and military supplies hidden near Moon Mountain Bridge.
• Prince Huai suggested sending troops to Moon Mountain Bridge, while the emperor realized the hidden wealth could fund his reforms.
• Murong Tianci warned the waiter of danger to his family, gave him a jade pendant, and persuaded him to fetch the Prince of Dongling’s belongings so he could deal with the supposed restless spirit.

Jiang Shuyue and Huahua speculated that Murong Tianci had sensed Xiaobao’s possession through his medium abilities, while the Fourth Prince violently threatened Lan Ruoyue in their carriage. Lan Ruoyue promised to earn his trust and proposed a way to ruin Jiang Shuyue socially.

• Jiang Shuyue and Huahua concluded that Murong Tianci could sense spirits, and Murong Tianci worried that their private conversation might be exposed.
• The Fourth Prince confronted Lan Ruoyue about her conduct at morning court and warned her to help him, while her system urged her to win his favor.
• After Lan Ruoyue looked at him dismissively, the Fourth Prince grabbed her hair, slammed her against the carriage wall, and slapped her.
• Lan Ruoyue submitted and promised to earn three hundred taels of private funds within a month and win the wager.
• Lan Ruoyue said she could use the coming drought to strengthen her standing as a Goddess and warned that Jiang Shuyue seemed uncanny.
• When the Fourth Prince admitted he could not easily kill Jiang Shuyue, Lan Ruoyue suggested making her suffer social death and leaned in to explain.

Jiang Shuyue learned that Lan Ruoyue planned to drug her and disrupt her second brother’s wedding, while Zhou Yunshen grew increasingly angry with the Fourth Prince’s companion. Lan Ruoyue stole a box from Zhou Yunshen’s shop and celebrated finding its silver, unaware the Fourth Prince had followed her.

• Huahua told Jiang Shuyue that Lan Ruoyue planned to drug her and have vagrants assault her at the wedding, prompting Zhou Yunshen to smash his glass in anger.
• Huahua revealed that Lan Ruoyue intended to use hallucinogens to make Jiang Shuyue streak at the wedding and planned to enlist Chen Yuanyuan’s help.
• Jiang Shuyue watched Lan Ruoyue and the Fourth Prince enter Zhou Yunshen’s shop while its staff moved the goods to another location.
• Lan Ruoyue stole a locked box containing two fifty-tael silver ingots and insisted she had merely found ownerless property.
• The Fourth Prince asked whether Lan Ruoyue truly liked what she had found, and she eagerly confirmed that she liked the money.

Lan Ruoyue discovered the shocking contents of a box and paid for its damage while arranging to make soap and obtain medical supplies. Jiang Shuyue learned the jade dildo belonged to Prince Li’s male lover, Boss Qiao, and decided to reveal the truth to Lan Ruoyue at his upcoming performance.

• The Fourth Prince warned Lan Ruoyue that her conduct could damage her chances of becoming the Goddess, then left after she opened the box and screamed at its contents.
• Fanghua paid the shopkeeper a thousand taels for the damaged sandalwood box and jade lock, then Lan Ruoyue gave her soap-making instructions and requested medicines and surgical instruments.
• Jiang Shuyue laughed at Huahua’s reenactment and learned the jade dildo belonged to Prince Li’s secret lover, who had pawned it along with the money in the box.
• Huahua revealed that Prince Li’s lover was Boss Qiao, a male performer at the South Bridge Pear Garden, and Jiang Shuyue decided to take Lan Ruoyue to his performance and tell her.

Jiang Shuyue and Huahua planned to compete with Lan Ruoyue’s soap business by making premium body wash, shampoo, and custom products from flower essences. Their plans put the Imperial Garden and several noble households’ gardens at risk, and Zhou Yunshen promised to send Jiang Shuyue to visit Prince Huai’s residence.

• The emperor and the others wondered how Lan Ruoyue had learned to pray for rain, and Little Six teased the Crown Prince about Jiang Shuyue becoming his sister-in-law.
• Jiang Shuyue considered how to counter Lan Ruoyue’s soap business, while Huahua revealed that Zhou Yunshen had already secretly made soap from Lan Ruoyue’s recipes.
• Jiang Shuyue decided to target the high-end market with body wash, shampoo, and custom products made using flower essences gathered from other people’s gardens.
• Huahua proposed taking Jiang Shuyue through a dog hole into the Imperial Palace to gather flowers, and Jiang Shuyue also named the Eastern Palace, Prince Huai’s residence, and the Imperial Preceptor’s residence as sources.
• Jiang Shuyue refused to harvest plants from her own household, and Zhou Yunshen told Prince Huai that he would send her to visit his residence often.

Jiang Shuyue visited the Minister of Revenue’s residence with Zhou Shiye and encountered Qian Cancan, his enormous and violent admirer. After Qian repeatedly crashed into walls and a pillar, Madam Qian stopped her with a threat to withhold dinner.

• Lan Ruoyue finished preparing her clinic, hiring apprentices and arranging consultation rooms, treatment rooms, rehabilitation space, and inpatient wards.
• Jiang Shuyue followed Huahua’s advice and went with Zhou Shiye to the Minister of Revenue’s residence, where Qian Cancan charged out to greet him.
• Qian Cancan mistook Jiang Shuyue’s affectionate pat on Zhou Shiye’s head for seduction and charged at her, smashing through an earthen wall.
• Jiang Shuyue laughed at Qian Cancan, who charged again, and Zhou Shiye drew his sword to stop her.
• Madam Qian threatened to withhold Qian Cancan’s dinner, but Qian could not brake in time and crashed into a pillar.