Recaps

Wang Yang tried to persuade Yu Yi to help establish Ever-Normal Granaries, but Yu Yi refused and challenged him to solve a problem involving wealthy families’ copper-clad eaves. Wang Yang proposed a workaround that astonished Yu Yi, leaving the granary question unresolved.

• Wang Yang and Yu Yi drank and discussed Qu Yuan, while Yu Yi avoided discussing Liu Cheng’s accusation against Wang Yang.
• Wang Yang explained the Prince of Badong’s Ever-Normal Granaries plan and asked Yu Yi to mediate with the great families, but Yu Yi said the proposed incentives would not persuade them.
• Wang Yang suggested using his family’s grain business to pressure the great families, and Yu Yi asked whether he truly had enough grain.
• Yu Qianlou and Yu Yuling watched from a covered walkway, worried that the conversation between Wang Yang and Yu Yi was growing tense.
• Yu Yi refused to intervene in the granary plan and presented Wang Yang with a problem about wealthy households melting coins to decorate their eaves in Xuancheng Commandery.
• Wang Yang proposed requiring brothels to buy copper from the authorities and use it on their eaves, making the wealthy families abandon the fashion; Yu Yi was stunned by the solution.

Wang Yang proposed a government-supervised, merchant-operated model to make the costly Meng Mountain mint profitable, impressing Yu Yi with his solutions. Yu Yi brought Wang Yang to meet his sons and pressed him to answer one final, most important question.

• Yu Yi asked Wang Yang how the court could address the rising costs and poor output of the Meng Mountain Mint Office.
• Wang Yang blamed excessive administrative overhead and proposed letting qualified private parties participate in mining and minting under government supervision while the court retained ownership and control.
• Wang Yang explained that private capital, management, and profit incentives could improve efficiency, while inspectors and checks on their authority could guard against corruption and debased coins.
• Yu Yi praised Wang Yang as a tremendous talent and insisted on asking him one final question, promising to grant him ten requests if he answered it.
• Yu Yuling and Yu Qianlou hurried over fearing an argument, but Yu Yi ordered tea and a late-night meal for Wang Yang.

Yu Yi asked Wang Yang to devise ways to improve Southern Qi’s grain transport, and Wang Yang proposed sweeping reforms that astonished him. Yu Yi stayed up all night writing to Lay Buddhist Xuanlong to praise Wang Yang’s exceptional talent.

• Yu Yi showed Wang Yang and his sons a map from the previous dynasty, then sent Yu Qianlou and Yu Yuling away before discussing confidential matters.
• Yu Yuling learned that Yu Yi had stopped socializing in the Jiwei Year, the founding year of Southern Qi, and wondered why his father stayed out of court despite caring deeply for the country.
• Yu Yi explained the delays, costs, and labor burdens of grain transport and asked Wang Yang for improvements.
• Wang Yang proposed relay transport using temporary granaries and trading yards, coordinated shipments from nearby sources, and flexible seasonal allocation backed by dedicated reserves.
• Yu Yi was overwhelmed by Wang Yang’s proposals and spent the night writing to Lay Buddhist Xuanlong, praising Wang Yang’s talent and ability to assist a sovereign.

Wang Yang led the Prince of Badong’s guards to surround Ruyi Tower and confronted Xiao Baoyue over her role in covering up his false identity and ordering him to spy on the prince. He closed the distance between them to five paces, leaving Xiao Baoyue’s reaction uncertain.

• Xiao Baoyue ordered Lian San to burn Xu Xiaosi’s letter and tried to dismiss her recurring stomach pain despite Lian San’s concern.
• Wang Yang arrived at Ruyi Tower with the prince’s guards, ordered the building surrounded, and had Chen Qing Shan kick the proprietor aside when he resisted.
• Wang Yang confronted Xiao Baoyue, accusing her of helping conceal his false identity and directing him to spy on the Prince of Badong.
• Xiao Baoyue laughed at Wang Yang’s accusations and bantered with him about his shamelessness and ambition to become Commandant of the Imperial Son-in-Law.
• Wang Yang stepped toward Xiao Baoyue until he was five paces away, while the surrounding swordsmen moved with him.

Xiao Baoyue revealed that the Prince of Badong had secretly bought Jingzhou brocade and traded it to the Southern Man for weapons, implicating Wang Yang in treason through his silk business. As soldiers closed in on the tavern’s secret chamber, Wang Yang realized the prince might eliminate him if he was not ready to rebel.

• Soldiers began searching the tavern, while Wang Yang challenged Xiao Baoyue’s threats and insisted they should act as partners.
• Xiao Baoyue explained that Jingzhou’s supposedly closed brocade workshops had secretly continued operating and that the Prince of Badong had arranged for brocade to be bought in small quantities.
• Xiao Baoyue said twenty-three brocade buyers were military households from the Cao Gong Grove Outpost, which Man soldiers had massacred.
• Wang Yang connected the brocade trade to the Prince of Badong’s scheme and guessed that the fabric had been sold to the Southern Man.
• Xiao Baoyue concluded that the Prince of Badong had exchanged brocade for Man weapons, warning Wang Yang that the prince might kill him to keep the plan secret.

Wang Yang negotiated with Xiao Baoyue, trying to secure her as a fallback while avoiding entanglement in the Prince of Badong’s uncertain plans. Xiao Baoyue agreed to reveal the person in charge of her operation, and the curtain was opened to show the mysterious woman’s face.

• Wang Yang judged that Xiao Baoyue’s claims about the Prince of Badong might be true, but he refused to show weakness and challenged her to produce evidence.
• Wang Yang explained his plan to draw the Mysterious Woman close, guard against the Prince of Badong, and use the prince’s soldiers to strengthen his bargaining position.
• Wang Yang and Xiao Baoyue dismissed their armed followers from the room and argued over what each could demand in their proposed cooperation.
• Wang Yang refused to risk his life for information about Xiao Baoyue’s allies, but demanded to see the person in charge of her operation.
• Xiao Baoyue accepted Wang Yang’s demand, and two maids opened the beaded curtain to reveal the mysterious woman’s true face.

Wang Yang met Xiao Baoyue face-to-face and agreed to study Southern Barbarian Studies so he could help her plan and avoid being implicated in the Prince of Badong’s treason. Xiao Baoyue warned him against deceiving young women, then revealed she had an escape route through connected courtyards and planned to introduce him to several beauties.

• Wang Yang persuaded Xiao Baoyue to lift the curtain and said they should meet face-to-face from then on.
• Xiao Baoyue gave Wang Yang a scroll on Southern Barbarian Studies and ordered him to study it within a month, with lessons and tests every four days.
• Xiao Baoyue warned Wang Yang not to use his claimed Langya Wang identity to seduce or deceive women, and Wang Yang protested that he was a gentleman.
• Wang Yang warned Xiao Baoyue that soldiers from the Prince’s Residence might investigate, but she explained that the connected courtyards and nearby private brothels would let her escape unnoticed.
• Xiao Baoyue said she would introduce Wang Yang to several beauties, leaving him privately questioning who counted as an upright gentleman.

Wang Yang brought Wang Tai gifts and described the Prince of Badong’s Ever-Normal Granary plans, prompting Wang Tai to suspect the prince was using Wang Yang as a cover for grain theft. Wang Tai decided to exploit Wang Yang’s trust to investigate, and Wang Yang ended the chapter by voicing that suspicion aloud.

• Wang Yang gave Wang Tai gifts and praised his kindness, then explained that the Prince of Badong had rewarded him and rented warehouses in his name.
• Wang Tai examined the warehouse lease and grew suspicious that the prince had involved Wang Yang in a scheme connected to the Ever-Normal Granary.
• Wang Yang asked Wang Tai to help him stop writing accusations against the prince, and Wang Tai agreed to consider another way for him to earn credit.
• Wang Tai warned Wang Yang that the prince’s warehouses at the Linjiang Freight Depot could be used to conceal illicit shipments.
• Wang Yang feigned shock and asked whether the Prince of Badong planned to steal government grain and sell it privately.

Wang Tai warned Wang Yang that the Prince of Badong might be using him to take the blame for grain schemes, then sent men to investigate. As the Ever-Normal Granary began receiving grain, rumors about Wang Yang’s role sparked a fierce academic dispute, which ended with his name spreading widely and people pressing him for confirmation.

• Wang Tai cautioned Wang Yang that the Prince of Badong might make him responsible for any wrongdoing involving grain transport, and urged him to watch the warehouse closely.
• After Wang Yang left, Wang Tai sent men to investigate Jingzhou’s granary plans and the connection between Wang Yang’s warehouse and the Prince of Badong.
• Grain carts began arriving at the government granary, and people across Jingzhou praised the Prince of Badong while speculating about Wang Yang’s involvement.
• A student in Nanping Commandery wrote a long essay arguing that Wang Yang had entered the silk trade to procure grain and establish the granary.
• Old-Text scholars tried to have the student punished, but the New-Text School supported him, turning the dispute into a provincial controversy that made the student and his essay widely known.
• With Xie Xinghan secretly encouraging the debate, people began cornering Wang Yang to ask whether the claims about his silk trading were true.

Wang Yang’s supporters defeated the accusations against him, and he withdrew from the debate to focus on his studies and affairs. Over hot pot, he and Xie Xinghan chose a school for A-Wu and discussed Liu Yin’s rise and ruthless record, leaving Wang Yang pondering the man’s character.

• Xie Xinghan’s anonymous essay, Proof Without Words, spread through the debate and branded Wang Yang’s critics as “flying flies,” causing the opposition to collapse.
• Wang Yang kept to his studies and routine, while Xie Xinghan, Zong Ce, and Little Fatty found ways to draw him into social visits.
• Wang Yang and Xie Xinghan shared hot pot, and she admitted she had eaten duck blood despite previously refusing it.
• Xie Xinghan recommended Liu Qiu’s household school for A-Wu, and Wang Yang agreed that it would suit her better than the Lu clan school.
• Xie Xinghan described Liu Yin’s career and his ruthless crackdown on local magnates, prompting Wang Yang to wonder why Liu had waited three years before becoming a county magistrate.

Wang Yang told Xie Xinghan to prepare boats to move ten thousand folding fans from the Linjiang Freight Depot, then alerted Wang Tai that government grain had been stored there for shipment under his name. Wang Tai sent Wu Qian with him to verify the grain, and they reached the depot before its gates closed.

• Wang Yang arranged for Xie Xinghan’s people to collect ten thousand folding fans from the Linjiang Freight Depot at midnight in five days.
• Wang Yang told Wang Tai that the Prince of Badong had stored grain marked for the Ever-Normal Granary in two depot warehouses and planned to ship it under Wang Yang’s name.
• Wang Tai sent Wu Qian with Wang Yang to inspect the warehouses and serve as a witness.
• Wang Yang and Wu Qian reached the depot, where its guards and steward welcomed Wang Yang without checking his contracts.

Wang Yang lured Poker Face into a warehouse, where Chen Qing Shan defeated him with the Nightfall Iron Lance. Poker Face discussed the limits of her swordsmanship and his own prospects, then turned his attention to Wang Yang.

• Wang Yang led Poker Face to a warehouse where the supposed grain sacks contained sand and dirt.
• After the lantern went out, Chen Qing Shan attacked Poker Face with the Nightfall Iron Lance and drove him back.
• Wang Yang called out to distract Poker Face, allowing Chen Qing Shan to strike him down and pin him with her lance.
• Poker Face recognized Chen Qing Shan's lance techniques as Cloud-Shattering Jade-Breaker and criticized her swordsmanship.
• Chen Qing Shan and Poker Face debated the strengths of swords and lances, and Poker Face asked whether she had understood his last three moves.
• Poker Face finally looked directly at Wang Yang as Wang Yang smiled at him.

Wang Yang had Poker Face killed rather than risk keeping him alive as leverage against Wang Tai, then arranged to hide the body among cargo leaving the freight depot. As the boats were loaded that night, a worker spotted Wang Yang’s guard and Black Han pushing a crate into the river and reported it to Xie Xinghan.

• Wang Yang ordered Black Han to stab Poker Face to death, and he watched despite feeling nauseated.
• Wang Yang explained that hiding a corpse was safer than imprisoning Poker Face and told Black Han to prepare supplies to cover up the killing.
• Black Han and Chen Qing Shan helped remove Poker Face’s body from the warehouse amid the cargo workers, leaving chicken blood and feathers behind.
• Wang Yang watched the Xie Family boats being loaded while Black Han kept the workers supplied with food and wine.
• A worker told Xie Xinghan that he had seen Black Han and Wang Yang’s guard push a crate into the river.

Xie Xinghan silenced a man who had learned about Wang Yang’s affairs and arranged to send him away, then invited Wang Yang aboard her ship for a private meal. She served him four dishes in exchange for poems, and the evening ended with Wang Yang asking her to pick the snail meat from its shells.

• Xie Xinghan paid a man for reporting what he knew, warned him to keep quiet, and ordered Shi Er to take him aboard a departing ship.
• Wang Yang and Chen Qing Shan were invited to Xie Xinghan’s ship, but Xie Xinghan insisted that Wang Yang come alone; he arranged for Chen Qing Shan to alert Black Han if he did not return.
• Wang Yang confirmed that Xie Xinghan was aboard, then entered her cabin after telling Chen Qing Shan to follow a backup plan if necessary.
• Xie Xinghan served Wang Yang kingfisher-and-golden-grain rice, and he composed a poem before she poured him wine.
• Xie Xinghan served drunken dance spring breeze snails, and Wang Yang recited a poem praising her fingers before asking her to pick the snail meat for him.

Wang Yang and Xie Xinghan shared wine and dishes while discussing sorrowful literature, and Wang Yang recited Li Shangyin’s poem about bamboo shoots, revealing his own hidden ambitions to Xie Xinghan. Their meal ended with Wang Yang sharing half a dragon’s beard roll with her and composing a poem that made her heart skip a beat.

• Xie Xinghan challenged Wang Yang to write sorrowful verse about the dishes, and he discussed the Han and Wei taste for dirges with her.
• Wang Yang recited Li Shangyin’s poem about Yongning bamboo shoots and lamented the fate of talented men whose ambitions were thwarted.
• Xie Xinghan mistook Wang Yang’s sorrow for personal distress and tried to cheer him with the final dessert.
• Xie Xinghan admitted that a cook from the Fragrant Snow Tower had made the dragon’s beard roll after Wang Yang teased her about claiming all four dishes as her own.
• Wang Yang split the dragon’s beard roll in half, shared it with Xie Xinghan, and recited a poem about sharing whatever pleased her.

Wang Yang confronted Wang Tai with a bluff that he had evidence linking Wang Tai to the plot against the Prince of Badong, then brought scholars into Wang Tai’s courtyard to prevent him from acting freely. Wang Tai pretended to faint but quickly came to when Wang Yang offered to treat him with acupuncture.

• Wang Yang told Wang Tai that Wu Qian had been abducted and warned that their scheme to frame the Prince of Badong could be exposed.
• Wang Yang implied he had leverage over Wang Tai, claiming he had entrusted a deposition to a friend who would release it if anything happened to him.
• Wang Yang explained that he had used the Prince of Badong’s grain warehouse scheme to draw Wang Tai into making a move he could exploit.
• Wang Yang summoned more than twenty Confucian scholars, including Chen Qing Shan, into Wang Tai’s courtyard under the pretense of discussing scholarship.
• Wang Tai pretended to faint, then immediately opened his eyes when Wang Yang announced he would treat him with acupuncture.

Wang Yang forced Wang Tai to acknowledge and hand over twenty-two chests of gifts, while Wang Tai secretly mobilized men to search for someone. Meanwhile, Madam Le discussed Little Fatty’s prospects for entering official service and hinted that the right friends and opportunities might let him rise.

• Wang Yang threatened to treat Wang Tai with acupuncture until Wang Tai admitted that he had prepared twenty-two chests of gifts for Wang Yang.
• Wang Tai met a one-eyed man at a hidden house and ordered him to assemble seventeen men to search for someone.
• Madam Le told Le Zhan that their son had caused 80,000 coins in damage after fighting his cousin and wrecking a Cockfighting Hall.
• Madam Le reviewed the possible routes into official service and argued that Little Fatty might succeed through good fortune and the right companions.
• Le Zhan asked what Madam Le meant when she suggested their son could soar into the heavens.

Lady Le persuaded Le Zhan to send Gao'er to the capital to study and build connections, while arranging a small gathering before the summer festival. Meanwhile, Liu Cheng and a man in the Liu Residence discussed a secret operation and their plans to leave Jingzhou afterward.

• Lady Le convinced Le Zhan to send Gao'er to the capital in September with Wang Yang, presenting the trip as study under Wu Tiangai.
• Le Zhan and Lady Le planned a private mountain gathering for Liu Cheng, Fourth Lady Xie, and Wang Yang to give Gao'er new acquaintances.
• Liu Cheng told a man that his arrangements were nearly complete and insisted they would not interfere with the man's plan.
• Liu Cheng instructed the man to lead the team, conceal himself near the target, and flee to the capital after the operation.
• The man warned that another person also needed to leave Jingzhou, and Liu Cheng said that person would depart with him.

Wang Yang endured the heat during Xiao Baoyue’s elective lesson and recalled his unsuccessful search for xiaoshi so he could make ice. He resumed reciting a history passage while envying the ice and comforts inside her room.

• Wang Yang sweated through the lesson outside while Xiao Baoyue stayed cool indoors with chilled drinks, fruit, and a large block of ice.
• Wang Yang recalled that market ice cost a hundred thousand coins and that he had been unable to identify xiaoshi despite asking craftsmen and Jingzhou alchemists.
• Wang Yang and Zong Ce persuaded Tao Hongchang to share what he knew, but Tao could not identify which kind of xiaoshi Wang Yang needed.
• Tao Hongchang offered to ask his more knowledgeable cousin in Jiankang about xiaoshi, and Wang Yang agreed despite doubting the search would help.
• Xiao Baoyue noticed Wang Yang had lost focus, and he returned to reciting the account of the Han campaign against the Wuling Man.

Wang Yang recited Xiao Baoyue’s book on the Southern Man and challenged its historical claims about Zhuge Liang’s southern campaign. He left her facing his argument that her account overstated the campaign’s lasting peace and misunderstood its purpose.

• Wang Yang recited the Comprehensive Study of the Southern Barbarians while Xiao Baoyue ate iced dessert and corrected him for skipping a passage.
• Wang Yang claimed the skipped passage contained errors, then cited records omitted from Xiao Baoyue’s account of Zhuge Liang’s southern campaign.
• Xiao Baoyue ordered a bowl of iced dessert for Wang Yang after he supported his criticism with historical sources.
• Wang Yang challenged Xiao Baoyue’s claim that Zhuge Liang’s policy brought thirty-eight years of peace, citing later rebellions in the southern commanderies.
• Wang Yang argued that Zhuge Liang had focused on the Northern Expedition and had only roughly settled southern affairs, so Xiao Baoyue had praised an incomplete policy too highly.

Wang Yang argued that Southern Man could not be pacified by force or virtue alone, and urged Xiao Baoyue to govern through a Kingly Way grounded in practical measures and equal treatment. His claim that Huaxia and the Barbarians could be united through culture and inclusive rule left Xiao Baoyue visibly shaken.

• Wang Yang explained that military campaigns could not eradicate the Southern Man and that virtue-based persuasion offered no lasting peace.
• Xiao Baoyue described past attempts to win over the Southern Man, and Wang Yang challenged her understanding of virtue.
• Wang Yang argued that true virtue meant treating the Yi, Man, Rong, and Di as equals rather than judging them by ancestry.
• Xiao Baoyue laughed when Wang Yang asked for her dark-plum juice, then questioned his argument after he drank it.
• Wang Yang cited historical examples to argue that the distinction between Huaxia and Barbarians depended on conduct and culture, not bloodline.
• Wang Yang declared that equal treatment could unite all beneath heaven, and Xiao Baoyue dropped her bowl in shock.

Wang Yang argued that a ruler should embrace Hua and Yi alike, then used the unfinished promise of a practical governing method to draw Xiao Baoyue’s interest. As he continued probing their unequal alliance, he sought more leverage to protect himself and keep Xiao Baoyue from controlling their every move.

• Wang Yang challenged the idea that Jiangnan could establish legitimacy by denouncing the Northern Dynasties and argued that embracing all people could unite the realm.
• Xiao Baoyue asked how to put Wang Yang’s policy into practice, but he gave only a cryptic reply and enjoyed the snacks and cooling fans she provided.
• Xiao Baoyue shifted the discussion to the Kingly Way and asked Wang Yang what he meant by using methods.
• Wang Yang considered how Xiao Baoyue held greater power in their alliance and resolved to use his words to strengthen his bargaining position and protect his life.

Wang Yang outlined how economic ties and cultural integration could pacify the Southern Man, and Xiao Baoyue eagerly explored the strategy while questioning its risks. He left without explaining how to control the tribes, promising no further instruction that day.

• Wang Yang argued that trade, aid, farming, and shared investments would give the Southern Man a stake in peace.
• Xiao Baoyue kept Wang Yang at her residence, where he explained how schools, shared history, and cultural exchange could build loyalty to the state.
• Xiao Baoyue praised the strategy but warned that open contact and growing tribal populations could expose the dynasty to danger.
• Wang Yang blamed past rebellions on exploitation and poor governance, arguing that assimilation and control could turn tribesmen into subjects and soldiers.
• Xiao Baoyue asked Wang Yang to explain his method of control, but he refused to teach her the hegemonic Way and said he would leave.

Wang Yang arrived late at the Le Zhan family estate in Green Forest Mountain, where Le Xiaopang teased him about rumors involving Lady Xie and showed him around the property. The visit ended with Le Xiaopang asking Wang Yang to arrange an introduction to another of the Three Beauties of the Imperial Capital and help write her a letter.

• Wang Yang reached the mountain entrance and Le Xiaopang asked why he had arrived a day late.
• Le Xiaopang wrongly concluded that Wang Yang was courting Lady Xie and warned him to be discreet about taking a concubine.
• Wang Yang and Le Xiaopang rode shoulder carriages into the estate while Le Xiaopang described its scenery, produce, and family history.
• Le Xiaopang teased Wang Yang about the Xie Family estate, and Wang Yang threatened to reveal the embarrassing poem Le Xiaopang had once meant to give Lady Xie.
• Le Xiaopang asked Wang Yang to get Lady Xie to introduce him to the Marquis of Xichang's daughter and to help write her a letter, but Wang Yang refused to ghostwrite it.

Le Zhan, Madam Le, Xie Xinghan, Liu Cheng, and a white-robed scholar played a linked-verse game beside a stream. The poem continued with Liu Cheng rescuing an awkward turn, while the white-robed scholar’s unexpected line left the group wondering where he intended to take it.

• Le Zhan drew a verse about watering horses and assigned Madam Le the opening turn, but she persuaded him to exchange seats with her.
• Le Zhan, Xie Xinghan, the white-robed scholar, and Liu Cheng added lines about a talented child, while Madam Le joked that the child disliked studying the classics.
• Liu Cheng and Xie Xinghan traded barbed remarks before the group continued the poem with lines about the child’s family and education.
• Madam Le could not continue Liu Cheng’s line and called on Le Zhan for help, but both of them failed and drank penalty cups.
• Xie Xinghan supplied a line about rising to the Secretariat, and the white-robed scholar unexpectedly added that the Eastern Palace was selecting staff.
• Liu Cheng reframed the awkward line by adding that family standing and ancestral privilege could secure an appointment, earning the group’s approval.