Chapter Summaries

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.

At the Le family’s poetry gathering, Xie Xinghan used Wang Yang’s arrival to stop Liu Cheng from controlling the linked verse. The group agreed that Wang Yang could join if he supplied four lines in succession, and he began reading the poem’s manuscript.

• Madam Le continued adding lines to the poem, and Le Zhan struggled to answer while Xie Xinghan searched for a way to end her turn.
• Wang Yang arrived with Liu Cheng’s companion, Wei Kuang, who introduced himself and praised Wang’s reputation.
• Liu Cheng tried to keep Wang out of the game, but Wei Kuang and Xie Xinghan invited him to contribute.
• Xie Xinghan proposed that Liu Cheng challenge Wang to a poetry duel, but Madam Le stopped the idea and restored the gathering’s cheerful mood.
• Madam Le ruled that Wang must provide four lines in succession to make up the missed rounds and help Xie Xinghan, and Wang began reading the checked manuscript.

Wang Yang and Wei Kuang led a linked-verse contest that transformed a poem about a young aristocrat into a story of his ambition to distinguish himself on the battlefield. Liu Cheng and Xie Xinghan contributed lines that revealed the protagonist’s dissatisfaction with indulgent court life, and Wang Yang ended by reciting a verse about an imperial call to arms.

• Wang Yang answered the mother’s lecture with mixed-length lines declaring that a man should seek distant lands, a marquisate, and victory in battle.
• Wei Kuang and Le Zhan added lines about rejecting civil paperwork and becoming a Gentleman of the Golden Mace, then Wei Kuang used an allusion to lead the poem into Imperial Guard service.
• Wei Kuang described feasting and acclaim, but Wang Yang shifted the poem toward the young man’s private thoughts, and Liu Cheng answered with a reference to the war poem “Dispatching the Chariot.”
• Xie Xinghan added that the guests shouted merrily, while Wei Kuang, Wang Yang, Liu Cheng, and Le Zhan built the scene into a sudden invasion and a panicked court.
• Wang Yang tossed a yellow flower and recited a line about an edict summoning troops to strike the Hu, impressing Madam Le with his boldness.

Wang Yang overwhelmed Wei Kuang and Liu Cheng in a linked-poetry exchange, ending with a hauntingly reframed couplet about the few who returned from war. Afterward, Wei Kuang refused Liu Cheng’s plea to challenge Wang Yang at paired verse and fled, leaving Liu Cheng alone.

• Wang Yang answered Wei Kuang and Liu Cheng’s verses with increasingly sharp lines, leaving both men unable to continue.
• Wang Yang drew flowers from Wei Kuang and Liu Cheng’s tables and concluded the poem with lines about soldiers who never returned from the frontier.
• The gathered guests recognized Wang Yang’s transformation of Chen Kongzhang’s opening line, and the scattered flowers accompanied their stunned silence.
• Liu Cheng confronted Wei Kuang in the bamboo grove for abandoning their plan to challenge Wang Yang at paired verse.
• Wei Kuang admitted he had little chance of winning and refused to risk his literary reputation, then tricked Liu Cheng by claiming Wang Yang was behind him and escaped.

At the Music Family gathering, the guests admired their linked poem, while Wang Yang spent the afternoon reading with Chen Qing Shan and comforted her about her father’s case. The story left Wang Yang agreeing to follow a servant to an undisclosed place Le Zhan had prepared, while Chen Qing Shan had been interrupted just as she was about to make a bold move.

• Le Zhan recited the linked poem, and the guests praised it and named it “Linked Verse at the Winding Stream of Green Forest Mountain.”
• Le Xiaopang questioned how the poem’s speaker could chant Dispatching the Chariot after disliking the classics, and Le Zhan ordered him dragged away.
• Wang Yang explained a passage in Records of the Hidden and the Visible to Chen Qing Shan, who realized that her questions about her father had not burdened him.
• Wang Yang told Chen Qing Shan he had kept her father’s situation in mind and had a plan, and she wept with relief.
• Chen Qing Shan gathered her courage to step toward Wang Yang, but a servant interrupted them with an invitation from Le Zhan.
• Wang Yang agreed to go with the servant to see what Le Zhan had prepared, after saying he would let Chen Qing Shan know first.

Liu Cheng arranged an ambush to humiliate and beat Wang Yang, but Wang Yang noticed Liu Cheng hiding nearby and quietly alerted Chen Qing Shan. As Tian Qi led thirteen villagers into the manor, an unseen attack struck the group.

• Liu Cheng watched Wang Yang arrive at the Beside the Lush Woods Pavilion and recalled how Tian Qi had bribed a Music Family steward and recruited villagers to stage an attack.
• Liu Cheng realized Chen Qing Shan had entered the pavilion, threatening the plan because she was armed and skilled.
• Wang Yang used a subtle exchange with Chen Qing Shan to help her spot Liu Cheng hiding behind an artificial hill.
• Wang Yang gave Chen Qing Shan instructions, and she pretended to leave, making Liu Cheng believe the ambush could proceed.
• Tian Qi led thirteen villagers through a hidden entrance and warned them not to kill Wang Yang, but an arrow struck his neck and more arrows rained down as figures emerged.