Chapter Summaries

Wei Xun uncovered the kidnappers’ decoys and found Baozhu’s hidden clue at the window. He realized she had been taken away across the Luo River, but her whereabouts remained unknown.

• The Setting Sun Courtyard investigated a lead about two executed bandits, but the missing bodies prevented them from confirming the men’s identities.
• Wei Xun noticed rice straw in the donkey’s hoof-worn hollow and realized the donkey had been trying to alert them to something it witnessed.
• Wei Xun deduced that the gray-clad kidnapper had used straw in the felt bundle as a decoy and had walked into the South Market without Baozhu.
• Wei Xun reconsidered the abduction scene and found three marks of Baozhu’s rouge on the outside of an upstairs window frame.
• Wei Xun concluded that Baozhu had been carried away by water across the Luo River.

After Jade Ewer was beaten to death by the Princess Consort of Qi, Baozhu comforted Mi Moyan and resolved to fight back against the people who controlled them. At the next banquet, Baozhu won Li Yu’s approval by proposing a grander Battle-Formation Music performance, unaware of what consequences his plans might bring.

• The Princess Consort of Qi had Jade Ewer beaten until her face was ruined, and two days later Jade Ewer died after crying out an ominous verse about the king’s descendants perishing.
• Baozhu reassured Mi Moyan that he was not guilty for helping prepare the Guanyin Attendants, then decided she would fight their oppressors rather than accept humiliation.
• Guards smothered Jade Ewer and removed her body, while Mi Moyan explained that the back-gate servants might profit from her remains.
• At the next banquet, Baozhu criticized the plain-clothed dancers performing the Qin King's Battle-Formation Music and described how Emperor Taizong’s original dance had been staged.
• Baozhu suggested making black paper or rattan armor for a more impressive performance, and Li Yu ordered his servants to prepare it without telling the Princess Consort of Qi.

After waking from a brief collapse, Wei Xun traced Baozhu’s kidnappers to the Luoqing Guild and confronted its leader, Cao Hong, at his tonsure ceremony. Cao Hong admitted he had abducted the Donkey-Riding Lady and the previous Guanyin Attendants.

• Wei Xun woke in Baozhu’s bedroom, learned he had been unconscious for less than two hours, and gathered Tuoba Sanniang, Yang Xingjian, and Qiu Ren to pursue the kidnappers.
• Wei Xun’s group reached the Luoqing Guild’s headquarters, where Cao Hong was preparing to become a monk, and entered by invoking Yang Xingjian’s supposed official authority.
• Wei Xun accused Cao Hong of hiding the Donkey-Riding Lady and presented the rouge box she had left behind as evidence that the kidnappers had escaped by water.
• When Cao Hong questioned whether Wei Xun had proof, Wei Xun threatened the Cao family and said he would search for the culprit.
• Cao Hong laid down his sabers and confessed that he had abducted the Donkey-Riding Lady and the previous Guanyin Attendants.

Baozhu’s attempt to join the battle-formation performance failed, and Li Yu chose Mi Moyan to take her place as the Guanyin Attendant at the Golden Osmanthus Banquet. Mi Moyan left for the banquet dressed in celestial garments, while Baozhu remained chained behind and could only exchange keepsakes with him.

• Li Yu learned that Dou Jing had declined his invitation and ordered Dong Shiguang to arrange a loan from a merchant while selling objects from his ancestral estate.
• Baozhu asked to portray Princess Pingyang in the battle-formation rehearsal, but Zhang Gougou stopped her from handling the bow and arrow.
• Baozhu told Li Yu that the lion dance was missing Bixie and suggested that the five-colored lion perform with it; Li Yu agreed to the performance but later decided not to send Baozhu onstage.
• Li Yu ordered Mi Moyan to replace Baozhu as the Guanyin Attendant, and guards chained Baozhu to a couch while Mi Moyan dressed for the banquet.
• Baozhu marked Mi Moyan’s chest with rouge, and Mi Moyan gave her a lock of his golden hair before leaving with the guards.

Cao Hong confessed to abducting the Guanyin Attendants and claimed Cao Yan had died, driving Wei Xun into a grief-stricken battle. Cao Hong died before Wei Xun could learn the truth, and the only clue he left behind proved unreadable.

• Cao Hong confessed that he had hidden Cao Yan after she fled with her beloved and had abducted the other Guanyin Attendants to keep her company.
• Cao Hong presented Cao Yan’s hair ribbon and claimed he had killed her and disposed of her body in the Luo River.
• Wei Xun charged Cao Hong, fought past Abbess Duanchen and the White Camel Temple elders, and severely injured Huijue while breaking through their formation.
• Cao Hong offered no resistance to Wei Xun’s palm strike and suffered fatal internal injuries; Qiu Ren realized he had deliberately used Wei Xun to kill him.
• Tuoba Sanniang suspected Cao Hong had swallowed something, and Wei Xun found a blood-soaked note in his stomach bearing the characters “Bingzhi.”
• Yang Xingjian explained that “Bingzhi” meant to burn and destroy the letter, leaving Wei Xun without a usable clue as Cao Hong’s final memory returned to Cao Yan’s escape.

Baozhu witnessed Li Yu’s confrontation with the Princess Consort of Qi, whose accusations drove him deeper into madness. Li Yu chained Baozhu in the Auspicious Cloud Hall to enact a Buddhist contemplation of death, while she reached helplessly toward a bloodstained bell left from Mi Moyan.

• Baozhu noticed the servants scrubbing the stage where Mi Moyan had performed, and she was summoned to the Auspicious Cloud Hall.
• Li Yu threatened the silent Dan Niao, but the Princess Consort of Qi arrived and condemned his debauchery and his empty ambitions to reclaim power.
• Li Yu struck the Princess Consort after she exposed his obsession with the Noble Consort and his failure to pursue the throne; she told him to silence Baozhu and left.
• Li Yu decided to create his own Nine Contemplations practice and ordered the stage dismantled so Dan Niao could be chained there as a living subject.
• Li Yu ordered the eunuchs to pose Baozhu like the Newly Dead Phase Mural and dye her nails with balsam flower.
• Chained in the sunlight, Baozhu spotted a bloodstained golden bell in the stones but could not reach it before a servant swept it away.

Yang Xingjian proposed that a powerful person had arranged Baozhu’s abduction, but Qiu Ren and the others pursued another lead and found Wei Xun at the Mass Burial Mound. As Baozhu neared death from thirst in the Prince of Qi’s Residence, a miraculous storm brought rain to Luoyang and extinguished the Coiling Dragon Lanterns.

• Yang Xingjian argued that the note Cao Hong swallowed pointed to a powerful mastermind, but Qiu Ren and the others secretly decided not to pass on his theory.
• Qiu Ren, Xu Baozhen, Tuoba Sanniang, and Luo Toutuo found Wei Xun at the Mass Burial Mound and told him their last lead concerned someone who was already dead.
• Wei Xun said he had to see Baozhu alive or see her body, and Qiu Ren agreed that the Setting Sun Courtyard would dig up graves again.
• Baozhu endured three days of heat, hunger, and thirst while Li Yu watched her, and she hallucinated that her mother had come to take her away.
• Guanchao and the disaster victims saw a strange radiance in storm clouds above Luoyang, and the crowd prayed for rain.
• Rain poured over Luoyang and extinguished the two Coiling Dragon Lanterns in the Auspicious Cloud Hall.

Wei Xun found a foreign boy’s corpse marked with red pigment and demanded to know where it had been collected. At the Prince of Qi’s Residence, Baozhu survived an attempt on her life, killed Dong Shiguang, and took up the Giant-Que Sky Bow as she set out to kill Li Yu.

• Qiu Ren, Tuoba Sanniang, and Wei Xun searched fresh graves with Mangbei Hall’s matchmakers for the Donkey-Riding Lady, but instead found a foreign boy’s corpse.
• Qiu Ren identified the corpse as a castrated boy, and Tuoba Sanniang concluded he had been tortured to death for someone’s lust.
• Wei Xun spotted red pigment on the boy’s chest and demanded that Ruan San reveal where the body had been collected.
• After Baozhu survived the rain and remained alive for seven days, Li Yu ordered Dong Shiguang to kill her and preserve her corpse.
• Baozhu resisted Dong Shiguang’s poisoned water, killed him with his own dagger, and freed herself from her shackles.
• Baozhu took the Giant-Que Sky Bow and ran toward Auspicious Cloud Hall’s equipment room, determined to kill Li Yu.

Baozhu and Wei Xun fought through the Prince of Qi's Residence, where she killed Li Yu to avenge her suffering. After Baozhu collapsed, Wei Xun carried her out and opened the locked doors, allowing the imprisoned Household Courtesans and slaves to escape.

• Wei Xun recognized the Prince of Qi's Residence and followed the trail of dead guards in search of Baozhu.
• Baozhu fought her way toward Li Yu's Bedchamber, killing guards with her Four-Feather Great Arrows.
• Wei Xun killed Zhang Gougou, and Baozhu shot Xu Shiyi when he tried to ambush Wei Xun.
• Baozhu ordered Wei Xun to find Li Yu, then shot him and killed him with an arrow through his eyes.
• Baozhu collapsed after Li Yu's death, and Wei Xun carried her away while opening the residence's locked doors.
• The imprisoned Household Courtesans and slaves fled the Prince of Qi's Residence.

After Wei Xun brought the badly injured Baozhu to safety, she recovered from her ordeal while Luoyang erupted over the Prince of Qi’s death and the crimes revealed at his residence. When Yang Xingjian urged her to flee, Baozhu refused and ordered him to help carry out collective punishment against the prince’s surviving accomplices.

• Wei Xun cared for the unconscious Baozhu, and Qiu Ren treated her burns before selling Yang Xingjian ginseng for forty-five taels of gold.
• Thirteenth Son helped Wei Xun replenish Baozhu with honey water, and Wei Xun told Yang Xingjian that she had shot Li Yu, the Prince of Qi.
• Yang Xingjian moved the group to a house beside a Wuhou Post, where Baozhu and Wei Xun slept for three days as Luoyang searched for the assassin and learned of Li Yu’s crimes.
• Baozhu awoke, confirmed Thirteenth Son was safe, and rejected Yang Xingjian’s proposal to leave Luoyang before avenging herself on the Prince of Qi’s remaining followers.
• Baozhu told Yang Xingjian to bring out brush and ink because she wanted collective punishment.

Baozhu resolved to destroy the Prince of Qi’s branch by accusing Li Yu of rebellion, using the residence’s armor and lion dances as evidence. She directed Yang Xingjian to draft the petition and said she had chosen someone to submit it under their real name.

• Baozhu ordered Yang Xingjian to write an impeachment petition against Li Yu, but he warned that Li Yu’s crimes against low-status victims would not earn him a death sentence.
• Baozhu rejected Wei Xun’s plan to massacre the Prince of Qi’s Residence, explaining that Li Yu could still receive a grand burial and an heir could inherit his title.
• Baozhu decided to accuse Li Yu of rebellion and described how she had encouraged him to make armor and perform the Qin King’s Battle-Formation Music and Yellow Lion Dance.
• Baozhu told Yang Xingjian how the court had used pottery armor to condemn Prince Yiyang for rebellion and instructed him to exaggerate Li Yu’s offenses under the ten abominations.
• Baozhu assured Yang Xingjian that someone else would submit the petition under their real name and clenched the golden lock of hair as she vowed to make her enemies dance to her rules.

Baozhu forced Prefect Dou Jing to endorse an impeachment accusing Li Yu and his household of treason, using evidence from the prince’s residence and threats against Dou’s family. After Dou Jing collapsed, Wei Xun and Tuoba Sanniang arranged to return him to his residence while Baozhu prepared to purge Luoyang.

• Baozhu confronted Dou Jing in a secret chamber and admitted that she had killed Li Yu herself.
• Baozhu presented evidence of Li Yu’s treason and threatened Dou Jing until he agreed to impeach the prince and surround his residence.
• Dou Jing copied and sealed the impeachment letter, which Baozhu planned to send to Daming Palace with Mi Moyan’s hair.
• Baozhu gave the agreed signal, and Dou Jing lost consciousness as Wei Xun gathered his seals.
• Wei Xun told Tuoba Sanniang that Baozhu intended to avenge herself and purge Luoyang, and Tuoba carried Dou Jing away.

Baozhu recovered physically while waiting for the ruling from Chang'an, but she remained determined to die after taking revenge. When Wei Xun discovered she had kept a porcelain shard to kill herself, she entrusted him with her final wishes, and Yang Xingjian responded by deciding to accompany her and compose a final poem.

• Wei Xun cared for Baozhu's injured face and hands as she admitted she could not continue traveling much farther.
• Yang Xingjian reported that Dou Jing had effectively confined the Prince of Qi's household while awaiting Chang'an's ruling, and the escaped slave women were no longer being pursued.
• Wei Xun discovered a missing piece from Baozhu's shattered teacup and took the porcelain shard from her before she could use it to harm herself.
• Baozhu told Wei Xun that she intended to die after her revenge and asked him to ensure she was truly dead before burial, bury her on North Mang Mountain, and remove her nails.
• Wei Xun told Yang Xingjian that Baozhu planned to take her own life, and Yang Xingjian resolved to accompany her and write a final poem.

The court destroyed Li Yu’s household after uncovering his theft of palace timber, completing Baozhu’s revenge. When she asked Wei Xun for the Fish-Intestine Sword, she ultimately put it aside, danced for him, and wept in his embrace as she began to face a future beyond her suffering.

• The emperor sent Wei Changfu and the Forbidden Army to Luoyang, where Dou Jing’s soldiers surrounded Li Yu’s residence and investigators uncovered Li Yu’s theft of timber from the Purple Enclosure Palace.
• The court executed Li Yu’s male descendants, enslaved his female relatives, confiscated the family’s wealth, and publicly displayed Li Yu’s corpse while his associates faced questioning.
• Baozhu and Wei Xun watched the Prince of Qi’s Residence burn, and Baozhu asked Wei Xun to give her the Fish-Intestine Sword so she could end her life.
• After reflecting on her mother’s words about dancing for someone worthy, Baozhu returned the sword and told Wei Xun she would dance to cleanse her shame.
• Baozhu danced before Wei Xun, forgot the steps, and broke down crying as he held and comforted her.

Baozhu mourned Mi Moyan, reunited with Wei Xun, and resumed her journey with his companions. As the group left Luoyang, Wei Xun’s illness worsened, while Baozhu accepted her reputation and the violence in her past; Wei Xun assured her that she remained his Guanyin.

• Baozhu wept in Wei Xun’s arms and told him about Mi Moyan, whose death they had discovered too late to prevent.
• Yang Xingjian abandoned his plans to die after Baozhu and Wei Xun returned, and Baozhu arranged new clothes and a proper burial for Mi Moyan.
• Before the party departed, Thirteenth Son saw that Wei Xun’s illness had spread across his chest, and Wei Xun urged him to keep quiet and continue the journey discreetly.
• Wei Xun helped Baozhu arrange her hair, and the party left Luoyang as rumors spread that she was the Donkey-Riding Lady and the Setting Sun Courtyard’s leader.
• Baozhu yielded the road to a red-robed official without protest, then told Wei Xun she could no longer portray Guanyin because she had taken lives.
• Wei Xun clasped Baozhu’s hands and told her that she was the only Guanyin in his heart.

Baozhu and her companions traveled through Weibo toward Youzhou, where she tried to care for Wei Xun’s worsening cold ailment with an oversized dose of ginseng. The potent soup left Wei Xun feverish and overwhelmed by desire, and he fled Baozhu’s room after nearly hurting her.

• Baozhu reflected on Weibo’s fertile farmland and military strength as the party ran short of provisions on the road.
• At an inn in Dangyin County, Baozhu confronted Wei Xun about hiding his poor appetite and gave him ginseng soup she had prepared.
• Wei Xun learned Baozhu had paid fifty taels of gold for the ginseng, but drank the soup after she told him he was worth spending money on.
• The entire ginseng root had been boiled into the soup, and its powerful effects made Wei Xun tremble and struggle to control himself as Baozhu embraced him.
• Wei Xun kissed Baozhu’s ear and held her too tightly, then tore the inn-room door off its hinges while escaping from her.
• Baozhu wondered why Wei Xun had acted strangely, remembered her silk stockings were at the washerwoman’s, and went to sleep.

Wei Xun’s illness worsened as he escorted Baozhu toward Youzhou, but Baozhu persuaded him to seek help from his senior martial aunt, Zhou Qingyang. After examining him, Zhou Qingyang gave him a phoenix embryo that could keep him alive for another year.

• Thirteenth Son saw Wei Xun training through the night while hiding his worsening illness and the effects of Baozhu’s ginseng soup.
• Baozhu urged the exhausted Wei Xun to rest and drink warm water, and he told her about his senior martial aunt near Ye County.
• Wei Xun, Baozhu, Thirteenth Son, and Yang Xingjian found Zhou Qingyang at Four Heroes Inn and followed her to her home.
• Zhou Qingyang diagnosed Wei Xun as near death and warned that the potent medicine he had taken only stirred up restless heat.
• Wei Xun asked Zhou Qingyang to help him survive long enough to escort Baozhu safely, and she gave him a phoenix embryo said to buy him another year.

Zhou Qingyang gave Wei Xun the Phoenix Embryo, which eased his symptoms and revealed that years of drinking ancient wine had poisoned him. She then took Wei Xun and his companions to the abandoned Four Heroes Temple and asked him to tear it down, explaining that it had honored her and Chen Shigu’s fellow disciples when they were young.

• Zhou Qingyang explained that Chen Shigu had left the Phoenix Embryo for Wei Xun and that Huo Qilang had told her about his condition.
• Zhou Qingyang swallowed half the medicine to prove it was safe, and Wei Xun took the remainder after weighing his doubts.
• Zhou Qingyang told Wei Xun that lead-tainted ancient wine had contributed to Chen Shigu’s death and Wei Xun’s illness, while the Phoenix Embryo temporarily eased his symptoms.
• Wei Xun agreed to help Zhou Qingyang repay her, and she led him, Baozhu, Thirteenth Son, and Yang Xingjian to the ruined Four Heroes Temple.
• Zhou Qingyang identified the temple’s statues as herself and her fellow disciples, including Chen Shigu, and asked Wei Xun to tear the abandoned shrine down.

Baozhu and her companions demolished the Four Heroes Temple and continued north with Zhou Qingyang, who warned Wei Xun against entangling himself with the powerful. Baozhu identified the temple’s former figures and learned that Zhou Qingyang was withholding the formula for the Phoenix Embryo, the medicine that had saved Wei Xun’s life.

• Wei Xun, Baozhu, and Thirteenth Son brought down the Four Heroes Temple, and Baozhu found a half Fish Tally inscribed with the title “Guerrilla General” inside a statue.
• Wei Xun explained that Zhou Qingyang wanted to travel north with them, and Baozhu agreed that the renowned physician could make their journey safer, though Wei Xun revealed she knew no martial arts.
• As the group traveled, Zhou Qingyang mocked Wei Xun and rejected Yang Xingjian’s offer to recommend her for a position, then warned Wei Xun not to get mixed up with the powerful.
• Baozhu used the Fish Tally and the statues’ order to identify the former disciples as Qingyang, Zhu Ming, White Treasury, and Xuanying, then asked whether Zhu Ming had died because she was discarded after serving her purpose.
• Zhou Qingyang reacted sharply to Baozhu’s question, then revealed that she would give Wei Xun the Phoenix Embryo formula only after he completed two tasks for her, leaving Baozhu to realize that Wei Xun and Thirteenth Son had concealed the medicine’s name.

After Zhou Qingyang revealed that Baozhu might be connected to the Phoenix Embryo, Wei Xun met Baozhu to explain why he had kept his life-threatening need for it secret. Baozhu declared them lovers and, convinced their fates were linked, insisted that Wei Xun stay with her so they could try to cure his illness.

• Before meeting Baozhu, Wei Xun fretted over the Phoenix Embryo secret while Thirteenth Son suggested he prove his loyalty by disemboweling himself.
• Baozhu used a poem to suggest she understood why Wei Xun had hidden the Phoenix Embryo, then asked why he had not trusted her with the truth.
• Wei Xun explained that he had kept silent because he did not want his promise to take her to Youzhou to seem conditional or coercive.
• Baozhu insisted that she and Wei Xun were lovers, citing their time together in Luoyang and the Silk Socks she had worn to prevent pregnancy.
• After Wei Xun denied that they had shared a bed, Baozhu said she would become a Daoist Priestess but could still have Bedchamber Companions.
• Baozhu declared their connection a matter of destiny and ordered Wei Xun to stay the night so they could try to cure his illness by sharing a pillow.