Chapter Summaries

Xia Wanwan’s explosive talisman set off a chaotic attempt to capture the Bombing Criminal at the Minister’s Residence, where Liu Shi mistakenly arrested his father. Meanwhile, the disgraced Xie Jin'an scavenged for food until Xie Jinqian appeared before him.

• Xia Wanwan threw a talisman into the firecrackers, causing an explosion that shook the Minister’s Residence.
• Liu Shi rushed to capture the Bombing Criminal, but his servants seized Minister Liu and Xia Wanwan instead.
• Jing Wu and Xia Qianhui charged into the smoke, were beaten, and recognized the figure inside as the Ninth Prince.
• Xia Wanwan’s thoughts revealed the truth to Liu Shi, and Minister Liu grabbed him by the ear and beat him for mistaking his father for the criminal.
• Xia Siheng kicked Jing Wu and Xia Qianhui, while Consort Ling, Lady Liu, Liu Wan, and the others arrived to find the courtyard in chaos.
• Xie Jin'an, living on the streets, stole dog food and was confronted by Xie Jinqian.

Xie Jinqian found his disgraced elder brother Xie Jin'an and offered him a chance to continue the Xie bloodline. Xie Jin'an accepted, but his attempt to impress Miss Yan ended in humiliation.

• Xie Jinqian revealed that he had saved Xie Jin'an by trading his merits, while Xie Jin'an accused him of destroying the Xie family.
• Xie Jinqian offered to help preserve the Xie bloodline and took Xie Jin'an to meet Miss Yan, whom he had bought from a brothel to bear a child.
• Xie Jin'an reluctantly agreed to sleep with Miss Yan after she and Xie Jinqian mocked his fallen status.
• Xie Jin'an tried to seduce Miss Yan, but she discovered that his member was smaller than her thumb.

Yan humiliates Xie Jin'an by exposing his sexual dysfunction, and Xie Jinqian tricks him into confronting the problem and seeking a cure. Xie Jinqian then prepares a pair of shoes for a woman he longs to see, while Liu Wan returns to the Liu Residence with Xia Siheng and Xia Wanwan and encounters a young man carrying a gift box.

• Yan tells Xie Jinqian that Xie Jin'an finished almost immediately and mocks his confidence in his sexual ability.
• Xie Jinqian pays Yan, then persuades Xie Jin'an to visit a brothel to find out whether he has a problem.
• After the brothel visit leaves him devastated, Xie Jin'an agrees to go to a Daoist in Hezhou who claims to make curative pills.
• Xie Jinqian receives the custom pale-blue shoes and packs them carefully, imagining the woman he misses wearing them.
• Liu Wan returns to the Liu Residence with Xia Siheng and Xia Wanwan, who are covered in grime after getting into trouble.
• A young man carrying a gift box greets Liu Wan as she turns around.

Xie Jinqian visited Liu Wan with a gift, only to learn that she was engaged to Xia Siheng. As Liu Wan opened the gift, Xia Wanwan sensed sinister spiritual power from Xie Jinqian, and the chapter ended before the box’s contents were revealed.

• Xie Jinqian gave Liu Wan a gift and urged her to open it while he watched eagerly.
• Xia Siheng arrived with Xia Wanwan, introduced himself as the Ninth Prince, and announced that Liu Wan was his fiancée.
• Xie Jinqian shattered his teacup, then insisted he had used no martial arts and told Liu Wan he still cherished their connection.
• Xia Wanwan sensed sinister spiritual power from Xie Jinqian, while Xia Siheng challenged his claim that the cup broke by accident.
• Xia Siheng encouraged Liu Wan to open Xie Jinqian’s gift, and she began unwrapping the final layer.

Xie Jinqian brought Liu Wan a rare pair of shoes to repay her for saving him, but Xia Siheng suspected his motives and intervened. Xie Jinqian left with the shoes after Xia Siheng insisted on accepting and wearing them himself.

• Xie Jinqian presented Liu Wan with an ornate pair of shoes, prompting Xia Siheng to question why he was giving his fiancée such a personal gift.
• Liu Wan refused the shoes, and Xie Jinqian explained that they replaced a pair ruined six years earlier when she saved him.
• Liu Wan warned Xie Jinqian not to encourage misunderstandings about their relationship and asked him to take the gift back.
• Xia Siheng took Liu Wan's hand and declared that he would accept the shoes as a gift to himself.
• Xie Jinqian snatched the shoes back and left, saying he would consider things more carefully next time.

Xia Siheng kissed Liu Wan to stake his claim while Xie Jinqian watched, then Xia Wanwan challenged Xie Jinqian to fight before he left. Back at his residence, Xie Jinqian soothed himself with an old pair of shoes and vowed that Liu Wan would be his.

• Liu Wan had Wang Xia escort Xie Jinqian away, and Xia Siheng said he did not want anyone else getting ideas about her.
• Xia Siheng kissed Liu Wan while watching Xie Jinqian behind the rockery, provoking him into crushing a stone with his spiritual power.
• Xia Wanwan approached Xie Jinqian and challenged him to fight, but he declined and promised to bring her a gift next time.
• Xie Jinqian returned home and smashed several antiques in anger.
• Xie Jinqian took out an old pair of shoes identical to the gift he had brought and pressed his cheek against one, declaring that Liu Wan could only be his.

Liu Wan told Xia Siheng how she had once saved Xie Jinqian from a frozen lake and learned of his despair after his mother abandoned him. Her account left Xia Siheng with more reason to question the Second Master Xie’s suspicious strength and spiritual power.

• Xia Siheng brought Liu Wan beggar’s chicken and Plum Wine to the roof for a private conversation.
• Xia Siheng asked Liu Wan what she knew about Xie Jinqian after seeing him crush an imperial teacup despite claiming he knew no martial arts.
• Liu Wan recalled that, soon after she married into the Xie family, she and Pan Chun rescued twelve-year-old Xie Jinqian from a frozen lake.
• Liu Wan learned that Xie Jinqian’s mother had taken her own life after enduring abuse, while he had worked desperately to earn the Xie family’s kindness and protect her.
• Xie Jinqian asked Liu Wan why she had saved him and whether life still had meaning after his mother left him with only a final letter.

Liu Wan and Xia Siheng shared a tender moment before evil spirits attacked the Liu Residence and overwhelmed Xia Siheng. Xia Wanwan woke to find the beggar’s chicken from her dream and stepped outside as the spirits launched a fatal strike at Xia Siheng.

• Liu Wan regretted that her kindness had failed to steer a man away from harming ordinary people, and Xia Siheng reassured her that those who exploited her were at fault.
• Xia Siheng explained why he had changed how he addressed Liu Wan, and the two nearly kissed before black shadows attacked and separated them.
• A black shadow caught Liu Wan as she fell from the roof, while Xia Siheng fought the evil spirits; the unfinished beggar’s chicken fell into Xia Wanwan’s room.
• Xia Wanwan woke, happily ate the beggar’s chicken, then heard the fighting and went outside to look for her mother.
• The evil spirits knocked Xia Siheng down and formed a deadly arrow aimed at him as Liu Wan, Zi Xing, and the others rushed to protect him.
• Xia Wanwan appeared in the doorway barefoot, rubbing her eyes and still gnawing on the beggar’s chicken.

Xia Wanwan stopped an evil spirit from killing Xia Siheng and subdued it while demanding it replace her Beggar's Chicken. After Yuanbao swallowed the spirit, the cat began undergoing a tribulation, and Xia Wanwan gave Zi Xing an elixir that helped Yuanbao transform into a handsome man.

• Xia Wanwan blocked the evil spirit's attack on Xia Siheng with her Beggar's Chicken, then slapped and restrained the spirit while demanding it pay her back.
• Liu Wan asked who had sent the evil spirit, but a curse prevented it from speaking; Xia Wanwan said the curse would bring bloody marks and a deadly backlash.
• Yuanbao tore apart and swallowed the evil spirit, then collapsed as orange power surrounded it and Xia Wanwan said it was facing a tribulation.
• Xia Wanwan gave Zi Xing a Third-Grade Elixir, and he fed it to Yuanbao.
• Golden light enveloped Yuanbao, and the cat transformed into a handsome man.

Yuanbao took human form after swallowing the Evil Spirit, but Xia Wanwan’s words kept him from leaving while Xia Siheng ordered him detained. The next morning, Yuanbao played along with Xia Wanwan until Jing Wu arrived with orders to take him to find the person controlling the Evil Spirit.

• Yuanbao turned into a naked human, and Jing Wu covered him with an outer robe.
• Yuanbao thanked Xia Wanwan for helping him cultivate and asked her to name him, but she called him Doggy and he tried to leave.
• Xia Wanwan’s thoughts stopped Yuanbao from escaping, so Xia Siheng’s Hidden Guards carried him away and Xia Siheng pretended his injury had worsened.
• At a nearby courtyard, Xie Jinqian suffered a backlash when the Evil Spirit he had raised was destroyed and feared Xia Siheng’s powerful ally.
• The next morning, Xia Wanwan woke Yuanbao and persuaded him to play as her riding dog by threatening to turn him back into a kitty.
• Jing Wu opened the door and announced Xia Siheng had ordered Yuanbao taken out to find the suspect.

Xia Wanwan gave Auntie Wang a protective bell after hearing how Li Kengqiang mistreated her and others. When Li Kengqiang tried to take Xia Wanwan’s candied hawthorns, the Liu Residence’s guards stopped him, leaving him threatening to report them to the emperor.

• Jing Wu arrived and interrupted Xia Wanwan’s play with Yuanbao, so she complained to Pan Chun.
• Xia Wanwan met Auntie Wang, who described Li Kengqiang’s violent behavior and the harm he had caused the steward’s son.
• Xia Wanwan gave Auntie Wang a bell enchanted to punish anyone who hit her, and the bell made Li Kengqiang hurt himself when he kicked Auntie Wang.
• Li Kengqiang ordered his servants to restrain Pan Chun and Qing Sheng while he tried to take Xia Wanwan’s candied hawthorns.
• A Hidden Guard kicked Li Kengqiang away and Qing Sheng threw the servants aside, prompting Li Kengqiang to threaten to report them to the emperor.

Xia Wanwan challenged Li Kengqiang to fight her the next day, while Jing Wu and Yuanbao searched the Xie Residence for the person who controlled the evil spirits. The search began among the household servants as Xie Jinqian secretly burned a blood mark from his arm.

• Xia Wanwan dared Li Kengqiang to report her to the emperor and fight her if she escaped punishment, and he threatened to make her apologize the next day.
• Qing Da struck down Li Kengqiang's pointing hand, and Xia Wanwan reassured the worried Auntie Wang that a bell would protect her.
• Jing Wu and Yuanbao arrived at the Xie Residence, where Li Duoduo and Xie Jinzhao learned that the Imperial Court had come to arrest a criminal.
• Xie Jinqian realized the investigators had tracked him down and burned the blood mark on his arm with a heated dagger.
• Yuanbao told the soldiers to inspect the servants' left arms for blood marks, and insulted Li Duoduo when she asked who he was.

Yuanbao helped Jing Wu search the Xie Residence for an evil spirit culprit and identified Xie Jinqian as a suspect by sensing the aura on his injured arm. Xie Jinqian tried to explain away the matching burns, but Jing Wu ordered his arrest.

• Yuanbao insulted Li Duoduo and Xie Jinzhao, then told Jing Wu that Xie Jinzhao’s absent second brother might be the culprit.
• Xie Jinzhao led Jing Wu and the soldiers to Xie Jinqian’s courtyard, where Xie Jinqian claimed rivals had injured him.
• The soldiers uncovered burns on Xie Jinqian’s body, and Yuanbao said the mark did not match the culprit’s blood mark but confirmed that the culprit’s aura was present.
• Jing Wu challenged Xie Jinqian to explain how anyone could have abducted him after his identity as Southern Yue’s Second Imperial Prince was announced.
• When Xie Jinqian hesitated to answer, Jing Wu ordered the soldiers to take him into custody as a suspect.

Xie Jinqian convinced Jing Wu that his kidnapping was tied to political enemies, but Yuanbao sensed an evil spirit with him and a masked man attacked before fleeing. Meanwhile, Li Kengqiang manipulated his mother into seeking revenge on the Liu family, and Madam Li arrived at their residence.

• Xie Jinqian told Jing Wu that Southern Yue political enemies had kidnapped him in retaliation for exposing their medicinal powder bases.
• Yuanbao sensed the evil spirit with Xie Jinqian, and a masked man suddenly attacked him.
• Yuanbao shoved Xie Jinqian aside and fought the masked man, who escaped over the wall as Yuanbao and Jing Wu's men gave chase.
• Xie Jinzhao helped Xie Jinqian up and challenged Jing Wu to pursue the fleeing criminal.
• Li Kengqiang worsened his own facial injuries and ordered the servants to stay silent before his mother arrived.
• Li Kengqiang told Madam Li that the Liu family had beaten and insulted him, and she took him to the Liu Residence to avenge him.

Madam Li brought Li Kengqiang to the Liu Residence to demand an explanation for Princess Ximing striking him, hoping to preserve a possible marriage alliance with the Liu Family. When Liu Wan arranged for Imperial Physician Huang and the people who attended her daughter to clarify what happened, Li Kengqiang panicked and tried to leave, but Qing Da and two Hidden Guards blocked him.

• Madam Li stopped Li Kengqiang from confronting the Liu Family and explained that they needed to protect the Vice Minister's Residence's prospects with the Liu Family.
• Madam Li took Li Kengqiang to the Liu Residence with a visiting card and told Liu Wan that Princess Ximing had ordered someone to slap him.
• Liu Wan noted that Li Kengqiang's two slap marks differed and said Imperial Physician Huang and the people who attended her daughter would help establish what happened.
• Li Kengqiang panicked at the prospect of an examination, accused the Liu Family of abusing its power, and tried to pull Madam Li away.
• Qing Da stepped forward with two Hidden Guards and blocked Li Kengqiang as Liu Wan and Imperial Physician Huang arrived.

Xia Wanwan’s accusation that Li Kengqiang had been bullied led Imperial Physician Huang to expose his violent behavior and reveal that he had injured himself to frame the Princess. Madam Li apologized to Liu Wan, but Xia Wanwan demanded that she discipline her son immediately while the Princess watched.

• Xia Wanwan reunited with Liu Wan and revealed through her thoughts that she sensed something sinister around Li Kengqiang.
• Li Kengqiang refused Imperial Physician Huang’s examination, threatened everyone, and lunged at them before the Hidden Guard restrained him.
• Imperial Physician Huang concluded that Li Kengqiang had a congenital condition that made him dangerously violent, and explained that the marks on his face showed he had slapped himself after the Hidden Guard struck him once.
• The Hidden Guard admitted he had struck Li Kengqiang to stop him from attacking the Princess, then slapped him again after he insulted Xia Wanwan.
• Liu Wan warned Madam Li that Li Kengqiang had endangered the Princess and falsely accused her, and Madam Li apologized and promised to discipline him at home.
• Xia Wanwan insisted that Madam Li teach Li Kengqiang a lesson immediately while the Princess watched.

Madam Li punished Li Kengqiang after he offended Xia Wanwan, whose thoughts revealed his horrific abuse of a young woman who later died by suicide. After Madam Li asked Liu Wan not to hold the incident against her sister-in-law Li Qian, Liu Wan left the marriage decision to her family and comforted Xia Wanwan by folding paper clothes for the dead girl.

• Madam Li slapped Li Kengqiang and, following Imperial Physician Huang’s advice, beat him with Qing Da’s stick until he cried and claimed he was sorry.
• Xia Wanwan’s thoughts revealed that Li Kengqiang had stripped a young woman, forced her to drink his urine, and thrown her naked into the street, driving her to suicide.
• Madam Li took Li Kengqiang away and asked Liu Wan not to blame Li Qian for his conduct; Liu Wan said her mother and younger brother would decide whether the marriage proceeded.
• Xia Wanwan cried over the dead young woman, and Liu Wan soothed her by preparing colored paper so they could fold clothes to burn for her.

Xia Wanwan and Liu Wan burned paper clothes and a ball for a wronged girl, who thanked them and chose to remain among the dead until Li Kengqiang faced justice. At Attendant Li's Residence, Attendant Li and Madam Li tried to salvage Li Qian's marriage prospects with the Liu Family, but Madam Li discovered something alarming in Li Qian's room.

• Xia Wanwan and Liu Wan made paper clothes for the wronged girl beneath the Coral Tree.
• Xia Wanwan sent the burned clothes to the girl, who thanked them and said she would not reincarnate until Li Kengqiang could no longer bully anyone.
• Xia Wanwan burned her beloved ball so the girl could have something that brought her happiness.
• Attendant Li scolded Madam Li for worsening the situation by raising Li Qian's marriage prospects after Li Kengqiang's offense.
• Attendant Li ordered Madam Li to send gifts to the Liu Residence and find an etiquette nanny to teach Li Qian proper manners.
• Madam Li dismissed the etiquette nanny after hearing troubling sounds from Li Qian's bedroom, then knocked and called to her.

Li Qian prepared to meet the Liu Family’s Third Young Master while warning Madam Li about Li Kengqiang’s behavior. Later, Yuanbao returned to the Liu Residence badly wounded with Jing Wu, and Xia Wanwan used beast medicine to heal Yuanbao before revealing why she had made it.

• Li Qian told Madam Li she would marry for the Li family’s sake, provided Ning'er could accompany her, and learned that Li Kengqiang had offended the princess.
• Yuanbao carried the gravely injured Jing Wu back to the Liu Residence and said a powerful cultivator had seen through his identity and might be connected to the evil spirit that hurt Xia Siheng.
• Xia Wanwan sensed evil-path energy in Yuanbao’s wounds and asked him to take her along next time.
• Xia Wanwan gave Yuanbao beast medicine, which eased his pain and helped his wounds heal, but said it was unsuitable for Jing Wu.
• Xia Wanwan quietly told Xia Siheng that the medicine was for beasts and recalled that she had been a veterinarian who saved piglets with a Soul-Restoring Elixir.

Xia Wanwan’s failed pill revived Jing Wu, and Xia Siheng worried about Liu Wan’s safety while preparing for further trouble. The next day, when Li Kengqiang failed to show up for their promised fight, Xia Wanwan set off to confront him at the Vice Minister’s Residence.

• Xia Wanwan gave Jing Wu one of her foul-smelling failed pills, and it restored him to health before Imperial Physician Huang arrived.
• Xia Siheng wrote to His Majesty about the day’s events and worried that Liu Wan might be in danger on her upcoming trip to the Minister’s Residence.
• Xia Wanwan ate the Beggar’s Chicken Xia Siheng had bought for her after he teased her about withholding it.
• Xia Wanwan waited outside her home for Li Kengqiang to keep their fight appointment, then decided to go to the Vice Minister’s Residence and beat him up herself.