Recaps

Wang Yang confronted a mysterious woman who tested his claim to speak a Hu language and exposed the false identity behind his name. The woman threatened to send evidence to the authorities, and the chapter ended as she declared that Wang Yang had no backup plan.

• Wang Yang ignored Bai Si’s warning, approached the curtained hall, and backed away when the woman ordered him shot if he entered.
• The woman tested Wang Yang with Xianbei phrases, and he pretended to speak a dialect before denying that he understood her.
• Lian San showed Wang Yang a letter revealing that no one named Wang Yang from Yixing Commandery appeared in the investigated household records.
• Wang Yang refused to yield, while the woman threatened him with imprisonment and ordered Lian San to take him and the evidence to the Jiangling government office.
• The woman guessed that Wang Yang’s preparations were a bluff and said he had no backup plan, jolting him while he kept smiling.

Wang Yang tried to survive the mysterious woman’s control by pretending to submit, but she saw through his act and had Lian San punish him until he agreed to answer her questions. He began recounting the Prince of Badong’s banquet remarks, leaving the woman impatient as he insisted on listing them in order.

• The woman exposed Wang Yang’s bluff and ordered him to accept her as his Master in exchange for concealing his identity.
• Wang Yang lowered his head and acted obedient, but the woman warned him that she would allow only one attempt at defying her.
• The woman questioned Wang Yang about what the Prince of Badong had said at the banquet, and Lian San twisted Wang Yang’s arm when he resisted.
• Wang Yang recited the banquet’s idle chatter in detail until the woman stopped him and asked for the important remarks.
• Wang Yang admitted that the Prince of Badong had complained about Huashan Commandery belonging to Yongzhou and said that the old provinces had been Jingzhou, but claimed those remarks came later in his recital.

Wang Yang was forced to help a mysterious woman protect his false identity and report the Prince of Badong’s words, then learned that the woman connected to Third Master Du had been executed to conceal a scheme. After receiving an invitation whose poem hinted that Wang Tai knew his identity was false, Wang Yang went to meet him and found him waiting in a secluded courtyard.

• The woman ordered Wang Yang to report everything the Prince of Badong said during their ride and gave him details to memorize about Wang Yi, a real Cavalier Attendant he could claim as his second uncle.
• The woman promised to silence the soldiers who knew Wang Yang and arranged a false reply for Kong Changyu, while Wang Yang doubted her assurances.
• Black Han told Wang Yang that Xu Jiao Jiao had been executed for stealing government cloth and that the story linking her to Third Master Du had been fabricated.
• Wang Yang received an invitation from Wang Tai whose poem appeared to expose his false identity, so he went to Shoukang Lane despite his misgivings.
• The proprietor led Wang Yang to a secluded courtyard, where Wang Tai greeted him warmly as Zhi Yan.

Wang Tai welcomed Wang Yang with lavish praise, claimed kinship with him, and offered to secure his clan and gentry registration. Wang Yang remained skeptical of Wang Tai’s motives and was left unsure what the older man truly wanted.

• Wang Tai praised Wang Yang’s literary talent and apologized for failing to receive him earlier by blaming a servant, whom he ordered whipped after Wang Yang urged leniency.
• Wang Tai asked about Wang Yang’s descent from the Duke of the Right Army, then declared himself Wang Yang’s clan uncle.
• Wang Tai recounted how he had investigated Wang Yang’s claimed family background and said he had stopped clansmen from questioning it.
• Wang Tai offered to help Wang Yang join the clan or enter the Gentry Register, but Wang Yang doubted that the offer was genuine.

Wang Tai pressured Wang Yang to fabricate remarks against the Prince of Badong, promising to secure Wang Yang’s household registration in exchange. Wang Yang agreed only after Wang Tai swore an oath, but fighting broke out outside before he could finish writing.

• Wang Tai told Wang Yang that he had to earn merit by recording the Prince of Badong’s forbidden remarks before the Wang clan would amend his registration.
• Wang Tai urged Wang Yang to write fabricated accusations and warned that Wang Yang, his associates, and his retainers could face severe punishment over the false registration.
• Wang Yang pretended to fear for his life and asked whether completing the task would truly secure his place in the Langya Wang genealogy.
• Wang Tai swore by the river that he would help Wang Yang obtain registration after he completed the task.
• Wang Yang agreed to write, but shouts and fighting erupted outside, and someone kicked open the courtyard gate.

Wang Yang protected Chen Qing Shan from being harmed by Wang Tai's swordsman Wu Qian, then reassured her after she worried she had made trouble. Wang Yang left with Chen Qing Shan planning to test his suspicions another time, while Wang Tai explained that his courtesy toward Wang Yang was meant to lower his guard before a future betrayal.

• Wu Qian attacked Chen Qing Shan, and Wang Yang called her his guard before Wu Qian could kill her.
• Wang Tai ordered Wu Qian to lower his sword and accepted Wang Yang's promise that Chen Qing Shan would keep the hidden place secret.
• Wang Yang told Chen Qing Shan to wait outside and continued writing at Wang Tai's request, postponing a test of his suspicions.
• Outside the bookshop, Wang Yang reassured Chen Qing Shan that she had acted to save him, and she said the sword was not what she was good at.
• Wang Tai told Wu Qian that he treated Wang Yang courteously to lower his resistance before turning against him, while Wu Qian misunderstood and asked whether kindness would make Wang Yang resent him less when killed.

Wang Yang began training Chen Qing Shan in self-defense before the Prince of Badong arrived and attacked her without warning. Wang Yang stopped the prince from continuing by praising his strength and valor, leaving the prince pleased but confused by Wang Yang’s references to Pan Feng and Xing Daorong.

• Wang Yang offered to buy Chen Qing Shan a horse and said he had decided to begin martial training alongside his physical exercises.
• Chen Qing Shan demonstrated how to escape a wrist grab and counterattack, but the Prince of Badong arrived and challenged her without warning.
• The Prince of Badong struck Chen Qing Shan twice, knocking her to one knee, and Wang Yang stepped in front of her to stop his next punch.
• Wang Yang challenged the prince’s offer of a one-handed handicap by comparing him to Xiang Yu and Lu Bu, which delighted the prince.
• The Prince of Badong asked who Pan Feng and Xing Daorong were after Wang Yang compared them to warriors who could not withstand him.

Wang Yang joined the Prince of Badong’s outing, secured a fine horse for Chen Qing Shan, and entertained the prince with a joke and a poem. When an attendant secretly passed him a letter, Wang Yang suspected a trap and openly demanded to know who had sent it.

• Wang Yang struggled to ride until Chen Qing Shan mounted behind him and drove his horse at a gallop to the picnic site.
• The Prince of Badong teased Wang Yang about his frugality, and Wang Yang answered with a joke that made the prince laugh.
• Wang Yang recited a line about valuing smiles, prompting the Prince of Badong to offer him any horse except his own.
• Wang Yang chose Wang Chongtian’s horse for Chen Qing Shan, and the prince agreed to give it to him.
• An attendant secretly delivered a bamboo tube and claimed it held a message from the Master, so Wang Yang called him back and demanded an explanation.

Wang Yang exposed a staged secret-letter test by the Prince of Badong, then faced another test when the prince aimed a bow at him in the woods. The prince offered him a lucrative role buying cloth and arranging thousands of garments, leaving Wang Yang suspicious of the prince’s motives and of the Mysterious Woman’s influence.

• Wang Yang showed the attendant’s bamboo tube to the Prince of Badong and accused the attendant of secretly serving someone else, prompting Kong Changyu to take him away for questioning.
• Kong Changyu reported that the attendant had been bribed by a young woman to deliver a love letter, and the Prince of Badong ordered her identity protected.
• The Prince of Badong took Wang Yang alone into the woods, aimed the Great Yellow Bow at him, and demanded to know who had sent him before claiming it was a joke.
• The Prince of Badong asked Wang Yang about his book and fan sales, then offered him a two-million-coin profit to buy cloth and arrange two thousand brocade robes and two thousand crimson satin jackets within two months.
• The Prince of Badong said he trusted Wang Yang and hinted he would help him advance, while Wang Yang wondered whether the prince had learned about his false background through the Mysterious Woman.

Wang Yang accepted the Prince of Badong’s brocade business while secretly shaping a plan to turn the prince’s power against Wang Tai and the Mysterious Woman. On the ride back to the city, he resolved to conceal the deal from the pair and prepare his counterattack.

• Wang Yang rejected the Prince of Badong’s business proposal at first, then agreed after confirming the prices and promised profit.
• The Prince of Badong gave Wang Yang a contract and funds for the brocade trade, with goods to be stored at the Linjiang Freight Depot.
• Wang Yang decided not to tell Wang Tai and the Mysterious Woman about the business, fearing they would interfere or silence him.
• Wang Yang considered how to explain his resources and concluded he might need to repair the plank road openly while secretly crossing through Chen Cang.
• The Prince of Badong grew excited at the sight of two geese and took down his bow, while Wang Yang decided it was his turn to act against the two adversaries.

Wang Yang tried to conceal his dealings with the Prince of Badong by staging a horse-fall injury and pretending to seek investment for a business venture. Wang Tai then coached him to invent a more useful account of the prince’s words, but Wang Yang’s injured arm caused him to drop his brush just as he began writing it down.

• Wang Yang asked Chen Qing Shan to injure his arm so he could claim he had fallen from his horse, and she struck him with her sword scabbard.
• Wang Yang told the veiled woman at Ruyi Tower a partial account of meeting the Prince of Badong, then pitched her a fake investment opportunity to explain his planned purchases.
• Wang Yang decided the business pitch had laid groundwork for his future purchases and planned to use a similar deception with Wang Tai.
• Wang Yang repeated his partial account to Wang Tai, who supplied a fabricated quotation from the Prince of Badong and warned that Register Verification could threaten Wang Yang’s household registration.
• Wang Yang agreed to claim the prince had said the invented words, but when he began writing the account, pain made him drop the brush.

Wang Yang feigned an arm injury to avoid writing down the Prince of Badong’s taboo remarks, while realizing Wang Tai might be planning to use his written testimony against him. After Wang Yang returned home, Chen Qing Shan told him Black Han was waiting with news about the fan business.

• Wang Yang pretended his arm was injured, and Wu Qian examined it while Wang Tai arranged medicinal liniment and postponed the dictation until after the Dragon Boat Festival.
• Wang Yang concluded that Wang Tai wanted his handwriting as testimony and might eliminate him once he had written it, so he decided to accelerate his plans.
• Wang Yang invited Wang Tai to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival and pitched his business venture, but Wang Tai neither accepted nor refused to invest.
• After Wang Yang left, Wu Qian said a blunt instrument could have caused the injury, and Wang Tai considered whether Wang Yang had been pretending before dismissing the possibility.
• Wang Yang returned home, learned Chen Qing Shan had helped Black Han with the fan business, and called Black Han into the courtyard.

Wang Yang settled the folding-fan dispute, rewarded Black Han, and urged him to spend time with A-Wu. At the Prince of Luling’s residence, Xiao Ziqing spared Third Master Du but secretly ordered his death, then ordered Du Lier strangled as well.

• Black Han told Wang Yang that Shopkeeper Luo and several workshops had tried to raise fan prices, and that Chen Qing Shan had helped settle the dispute.
• Wang Yang confirmed the contracted price, arranged storage at the Linjiang Freight Depot, and returned Black Han’s thousand-coin gift as a reward.
• Black Han and A-Wu thanked Wang Yang, and Wang Yang told them to take a day off and prepare A-Wu’s school clothes.
• Third Master Du pleaded with Xiao Ziqing, who reassured him and then directed A-Po to kill him.
• Du Lier asked Xiao Ziqing about her father, and he told her they would reunite the next day before ordering A-Po to strangle her.
• Xiao Ziqing watched the moon and hummed about parting after sending A-Po to kill Du Lier.

Xiao Ziqing instructed Wang Chen to investigate the Wang boy and arrange to bring him from Jingzhou, while warning that everything must be handled according to the law. In Jingzhou, Wang Yang’s lecture on reading was interrupted when a crowd from the Old Text School surrounded the Commandery Academy demanding to see him.

• Xiao Ziqing told Wang Chen to use Qiu Xiong to investigate the Wang boy and arrange for Liu Yin to bring the child from Jingzhou, using lawful means to handle any resistance.
• Wang Yang lectured the students on storming cities and conquering territory as methods of reading, emphasizing foundations, bibliography, philology, and pre-Qin studies.
• A messenger reported that more than a hundred people from the Old Text School had surrounded the Commandery Academy and demanded to see Wang Yang.
• The students rose to defend the gate, while Le Zhan sent an attendant to the Jiangling County Office to request men to maintain order.

Wang Yang went out to confront the crowd gathered at the Commandery Academy, while Zong Ce led the students to join him. The gathering turned into a plea for Wang Yang to teach the Book of Documents, and the two schools sat together as he lectured on scholarship and ideals.

• Liu Zhao ordered his students to stay seated and went outside, but Wang Yang insisted on accompanying him and warned that he would answer any trouble with his sword.
• Xie Xinghan sent the Four Attendants to protect Wang Yang, while Le Zhan and Le Pang also went outside.
• Zong Ce persuaded Yu Yuling and the other students to leave the classroom and follow him to support their teacher.
• Lu Huan and Xu Bozhen led the Old-Text School scholars in asking Wang Yang to teach them the Book of Documents, and Wang Yang agreed to learn and explore its principles with them.
• The New-Text and Old-Text scholars sat together as Wang Yang lectured that intellectuals should pursue truth and ideals beyond personal wealth, rank, and family advancement.

At a wine house, Yan Youcheng tried to lift Liu Cheng’s spirits after Wang Yang’s success and Liu Cheng’s resentment over Xie Xinghan had left him withdrawn and bitter. Yan Youcheng persuaded him to see Wang Yang as a potential ally to recruit for the Liu family, giving Liu Cheng a new way to think about his rival.

• Liu Cheng ordered the singing girls out after one sang Wang Yang’s poem, then tried to leave the wine house.
• Yan Youcheng stopped Liu Cheng and suggested his anger stemmed from Xie Xinghan growing close to Wang Yang, which Liu Cheng angrily denied.
• Liu Cheng denounced Wang Yang for pursuing trade and profit, calling him a dangerous hypocrite despite his talent.
• Yan Youcheng argued that Liu Cheng should use his family’s influence to win Wang Yang over as a protégé rather than compete with him.
• Yan Youcheng’s advice gave Liu Cheng a new perspective on turning Wang Yang into an ally for the Liu family.

Liu Cheng regained his confidence after Yan Youcheng reassured him that he would always rank above Wang Yang, while Wang Yang managed the merchants’ brocade orders and received their gifts. The chapter ended with Wang Yang learning that Liu Cheng had requested an audience.

• Yan Youcheng’s consolation restored Liu Cheng’s sense of superiority, and Liu Cheng imagined Wang Yang and Xie Xinghan someday bowing before him.
• Wang Yang recorded the gifts merchants sent after he won their brocade contracts through competitive bidding.
• Wang Yang reflected that the commercial venture would increase his profits and connections while drawing attention away from his planned counterattack.
• Wang Yang told A-Wu to save some clams for dinner and distribute the rest among five residences.
• Black Han reported that Liu Cheng had requested an audience, leaving Wang Yang wondering what Liu Cheng wanted.

Liu Cheng offered to have his father, Elder Duke Liu, take Wang Yang as a pupil and urged him to skip the Yu Family’s Dragon Boat Festival banquet. Wang Yang weighed the offer against his obligations and plans, then decided to visit the Prince of Badong’s Residence.

• Liu Cheng proposed ending their past disputes and offered to use his family’s influence to advance Wang Yang’s career.
• Liu Cheng showed Wang Yang a letter praising his talents and asking Elder Duke Liu to accept him as a pupil.
• Liu Cheng told Wang Yang not to attend the Yu Family’s Orchid Bathing Festival banquet and said he would explain Wang Yang’s absence.
• Wang Yang considered the Liu family’s offer alongside his threats, his ties to the Yu Family, and his plans to seek Yu Yi’s cooperation.
• After Liu Cheng left, Wang Yang called Black Han to prepare a carriage for the Prince of Badong’s Residence.

Wang Yang proposed establishing an Ever-Normal Granary to the Prince of Badong, offering a plan to win the gentry’s cooperation and stabilize grain prices. In return, he secured the Prince’s support for a military headquarters appointment and two other requests, while Yu Yi read a letter that could determine Wang Yang’s fate.

• Wang Yang reported on the brocade business, then urged the Prince of Badong to establish an Ever-Normal Granary and explained how Yu Yi could help coordinate the gentry.
• Wang Yang proposed threatening to operate the granary with his own grain business if the gentry refused to cooperate, and the Prince of Badong approved the strategy.
• Wang Yang persuaded the Prince of Badong to appoint him Acting Staff Officer of the Southern Zhonglang General after his rank appraisal at twenty.
• Wang Yang asked for help with two additional matters, and the Prince of Badong granted both requests.
• The Prince of Badong questioned whether Wang Yang could persuade Yu Yi, then said he cared only about results.
• Yu Yi read a letter on which Wang Yang’s fate hinged.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, Wang Yang and Little A-Wu trained and prepared for the holiday, while Wang Yang was knocked out after challenging Chen Qing Shan to spar. At the Yu family banquet, Liu Cheng claimed Wang Yang had joined the Liu household, but Xie Xinghan insisted Wang Yang would come.

• Yu Yi read a letter questioning whether Wang Yang’s talent made him fit to serve and considered how carefully he should be examined.
• Little A-Wu prepared Wang Yang’s desk and supplies, then trained living stances with him and made five-colored cords for the household.
• Wang Yang gave Little A-Wu brushes and ink for her schooling as a birthday gift, then challenged Chen Qing Shan and was quickly knocked out.
• At the Yu family’s Dragon Boat Festival banquet, Liu Cheng claimed Wang Yang had become a protégé of the Liu family and apologized for his absence.
• Yu Yuling doubted Liu Cheng’s claim, and Xie Xinghan declared that Wang Yang would come.

At the Dragon Boat Festival feast, Liu Cheng condemned Wang Yang for personally engaging in trade and challenged his worth as a scholar. Wang Yang arrived after Liu Cheng had silenced his defenders and began answering the accusations, leaving the clash over righteousness and profit unresolved.

• Liu Cheng accused Wang Yang of abandoning a scholar's duties by doing business, while Xie Xinghan defended trade as a respectable way to earn a living.
• Liu Cheng argued that scholar-officials should pursue the Way rather than profit, leaving Xie Xinghan and Yu Yuling unable to answer him.
• Liu Cheng offered to summon Wang Yang, but Wang Yang arrived at the Yu Residence with Qing Shan and apologized for being late.
• Liu Cheng accused Wang Yang of breaking his word about joining the Liu family, and Wang Yang denied having agreed to anything.
• Liu Cheng challenged Wang Yang's right to honor Qu Zi while pursuing trade, and Wang Yang cited Shun and Zi Gong as precedents for seeking profit.

Wang Yang and Liu Cheng continued debating whether profit conflicted with righteousness, with Wang Yang dismantling Liu Cheng’s arguments and then defending commerce as a source of public benefit. The chapter ended with the young men astonished by his claim that commerce could greatly benefit the nation and all under heaven.

• Liu Cheng cited Emperor Shun and Zi Gong to argue that pursuing profit reflected shallow understanding and could keep a person from the Way.
• Wang Yang challenged Liu Cheng’s assumptions about the status of scholars and mocked the logic linking Zi Gong’s commerce to his supposed inferiority to Yan Hui.
• Wang Yang turned Liu Cheng’s own examples against him, arguing that Zi Gong’s statement about Confucius’s teachings could have been an expression of modesty and rejecting Liu Cheng’s use of Zhuangzi.
• Liu Cheng restrained himself from throwing his wine cup and renewed his case by citing Confucian teachings that distinguished righteousness from profit.
• Wang Yang argued that benefiting the nation and all under heaven was both great righteousness and great profit, and that commerce could achieve this.
• Yu Yi and the other young men were astonished as Wang Yang openly praised commerce’s potential benefits.

Wang Yang argued that commerce increased society’s wealth through exchange and specialization, then defended commercial policy as essential to state revenue and military strength. Liu Cheng’s objections collapsed under Wang Yang’s reasoning, leaving him trembling with humiliation.

• Liu Cheng condemned commerce as unproductive, but Wang Yang explained how exchange let people specialize and raise their total output.
• Xie Xinghan confirmed Wang Yang’s calculation, while Yu Yuling and the others recognized that exchange increased production.
• Liu Cheng challenged Wang Yang to defend his argument against the dynasty’s policy, but Wang Yang said the state suppressed private merchants while using commerce and taxation to raise revenue.
• Liu Cheng warned that commerce encouraged greed and undermined morality, and Wang Yang countered that prosperity and public welfare required practical economic policies.
• Wang Yang argued that commercial revenue was vital to funding horses, weapons, provisions, and military administration, then called Liu Cheng useless for relying on empty talk of benevolence and righteousness.
• Liu Cheng trembled as Wang Yang’s attack brought back the humiliation he had suffered at the Wang banquet.

At Yu Yi’s feast, Liu Cheng demanded that Wang Yang be expelled for defending commerce, but Yu Yi instead ordered Liu Cheng to leave. After Liu Cheng departed and Yan Youcheng followed him, Yu Yi asked Wang Yang to finish explaining the great failing of taxation.

• Liu Cheng interrupted Wang Yang’s discussion of taxation and demanded that Yu Yi drive him from the feast.
• Yu Yuling defended Wang Yang, but Yu Yi instructed Yu Qianlou to see Liu Cheng out instead.
• Yu Yi refused to yield to Liu Cheng’s threats and ordered the attendants to escort him from the residence.
• Wang Yang defused Liu Cheng’s apparent rage by suggesting that his family and friends be summoned, prompting Liu Cheng to leave after threatening the Yu Family.
• Yan Youcheng apologized for Liu Cheng and promised to return to hear Wang Yang’s unfinished argument.
• Yu Yi asked Wang Yang to explain the great failing of taxation.

Wang Yang explained how reliance on agricultural taxes created two destructive cycles and suggested expanding commercial and foreign trade revenue, while Yu Yi pressed him for further details. Meanwhile, Liu Cheng sought revenge against Wang Yang, but after his retainers balked at targeting him, one silent retainer promised a secret plan.

• Wang Yang explained to Yu Yi and the others how agricultural taxation could lead to escalating burdens and rebellion, and how suppressing commerce created a second cycle of dependence on agriculture.
• Wang Yang proposed safeguarding agriculture while expanding commercial revenue and mutual trade, but Xie Xinghan cautioned him and Yu Yi’s questions remained unanswered as food arrived.
• Liu Cheng told his retainers that Wang Yang had humiliated him and demanded revenge, but they fell silent after learning Wang Yang’s status and connections.
• Liu Cheng rejected several proposed schemes and dismissed his retainers after their suggestions failed to satisfy him.
• The retainer who had remained silent returned to Liu Cheng, promised a secret strategy, and asked for time to prepare it.