Chapter Summaries

Jiang Siyu demanded money to free relatives sentenced to death, while Jiang Shiqing injured herself and Song Yutang was hurt trying to stop her. After the family doctors treated them, Song Yutang and Jiang Muyan agreed to investigate what had happened to the two, and Jiang Muyan transferred three downtown storefronts to her.

• Jiang Siyu said he wanted the family assets to try to save his sentenced relatives, and Jiang Dingkun collapsed after hearing him.
• Song Yutang had Jiang Siyu dragged to the ancestral hall, then stopped Jiang Shiqing from harming herself and was cut across the palm.
• The family doctors treated Jiang Dingkun and Jiang Shiqing, while Song Yutang and Jiang Muyan discussed investigating what had happened to Jiang Siyu and Jiang Shiqing abroad.
• Jiang Muyan prepared an application to transfer three downtown storefronts to Song Yutang, who was moved by his gesture.
• Jiang Muyan hinted that Jiang Dingkun should bear responsibility for the trouble with Jiang Shiqing and Jiang Siyu, and Song Yutang understood.

Song Yutang and Jiang Muyan confronted Jiang Dingkun about the harm his past choices had caused Jiang Shiqing and the family, then learned how Jiang Sichen had manipulated Jiang Siyu. As they planned to help the siblings, they heard that Jiang Siyu had escaped the ancestral hall and driven away.

• Song Yutang showed Jiang Dingkun Jiang Shiqing’s assessment and demanded that he take responsibility, while Jiang Muyan secured promises of support and assets for Shiqing and Song Yutang.
• Jiang Shiqing overheard their conversation, thanked them, and ran off, giving the couple hope that she might begin to trust them.
• Jiang Muyan and Song Yutang read a report explaining that Jiang Sichen had deliberately spoiled and misled Jiang Siyu, who blamed his sister after their parents were killed.
• Jiang Muyan vowed to care for his younger siblings, and Song Yutang proposed using beatings to make Jiang Siyu change.
• The couple received word that Jiang Siyu had slipped out of the ancestral hall and sped away in a car.

Song Yutang confronted Jiang Siyu at a nightclub for spending the Jiang Family’s money to help his parents’ killers, then defended him from his cruel former friends and brought him home. As they reached the Jiang Family estate, Jiang Siyu quietly asked why she had spoken up for him.

• Song Yutang learned Jiang Siyu was meeting his parents’ former friends at a nightclub to get Jiang Sichen and Jiang Sinian off the hook.
• Song Yutang told Jiang Siyu he had to pay the nightclub bill himself and stop using the Jiang Family’s money, and he tried to punch her.
• Song Yutang pinned Jiang Siyu to the floor, then threw one of the wastrels onto a table after they mocked him and his dead parents.
• Song Yutang rebuked the wastrels, defended Jiang Siyu, and dragged him out of the nightclub to take him home.
• When they reached the Jiang Family estate, Jiang Siyu asked Song Yutang why she had spoken up for him.

After Jiang Siyu's drunk-driving crash, Song Yutang made him face the legal and financial consequences, then cut off his access to the Jiang Family's wealth. She sent him to a construction site to earn his keep, where he was left with a choice between working and going hungry.

• Song Yutang slapped Jiang Siyu at the traffic police station, took his valuables to cover the injured man's expenses, and refused to clean up his mess.
• Jiang Siyu received fifteen days of administrative detention for drunk driving, running a red light, and injuring the elderly scooter rider.
• Song Yutang froze Jiang Siyu's bank accounts and credit cards while he was detained.
• After Jiang Siyu returned to the Jiang Family estate, Song Yutang gave him a new ID listing his surname as Chen, three hundred yuan, and work gloves, then had bodyguards take him to a construction site.
• The foreman told Jiang Siyu that, on Miss Song's instructions, he could earn room, board, and monthly wages by working, or leave and go hungry.

Jiang Siyu was abandoned by his former friends and began working at a construction site, where he struggled through his first days carrying bricks. After his blisters burst, he taped his injured hands and continued working.

• Jiang Siyu called more than a dozen acquaintances for help, but none agreed to take him in or lend him money.
• The foreman gave Jiang Siyu water and a meal, then told him to change and start work if he wanted to be paid.
• Jiang Siyu moved into the crowded workers' dormitory and learned a safer way to carry bricks from an older worker.
• Jiang Siyu finished his first day with shaking arms and blistered palms, then ate dinner beside workers who spoke about their families and wages.
• On his second day, Jiang Siyu's blisters burst, so the foreman gave him medical tape and he wrapped his hands before continuing to carry bricks.

After earning his first wages at the construction site, Jiang Siyu began to understand how hard his parents had worked to support him. Meanwhile, Song Yutang patiently gave Jiang Shiqing space and found a way to draw her into conversation through her interest in archaeology.

• Jiang Siyu received fifteen hundred yuan for nine days of work and reflected on the effort his parents had made to provide for him.
• Jiang Shiqing remained withdrawn and barely spoke during her sessions with Doctor He, who advised Song Yutang not to pressure her.
• Song Yutang began quietly keeping Jiang Shiqing company each day and adjusted how she approached her to avoid startling her.
• Song Yutang noticed Jiang Shiqing's archaeology books and placed antiques beside deliberately inaccurate appraisal notes in the living room.
• After studying the notes for several days, Jiang Shiqing pointed out an error to Song Yutang.

Song Yutang helped Jiang Shiqing regain confidence by encouraging her interest in antiques and taking her to an exhibition, then brought her to a dinner reception. The reception had gone smoothly until Song Yutang returned from a brief conversation and noticed something was wrong with Jiang Shiqing.

• Jiang Shiqing corrected Song Yutang's dating of a bronze mirror, and Song Yutang asked her to teach her about it.
• Song Yutang brought Jiang Shiqing antiques to discuss, and Jiang Shiqing gradually spoke more confidently about their history.
• Song Yutang took Jiang Shiqing to a Qin and Han bamboo-and-wood-slip exhibition, where Jiang Shiqing showed clear interest and happiness.
• Jiang Shiqing told Song Yutang that her parents expected her to study business, and Song Yutang gave her time to consider her future.
• Jiang Shiqing began going out with Song Yutang, chose new clothes, and attended a dinner reception with her.
• Song Yutang left Jiang Shiqing by the terrace while she spoke with a chamber of commerce president, then returned five minutes later and sensed something was wrong.

Song Yutang intervened when three girls bullied Jiang Shiqing and poured wine on her, then comforted her and challenged her to stop enduring their abuse. Jiang Shiqing’s grief and anger surfaced as the girls’ insults reopened her wounds.

• The lead girl and her two friends cornered Jiang Shiqing, mocked her parents’ deaths, and poured wine over her dress.
• Song Yutang splashed ice water in the lead girl’s face and identified herself as Jiang Shiqing’s sister-in-law and the current head of the Jiang Family.
• Song Yutang warned the girls against offending the Jiang Family, and they fell silent.
• Song Yutang told Jiang Shiqing that her parents’ deaths and the bullying were not her fault.
• The lead girl repeated her insults, and Song Yutang asked Jiang Shiqing whether she would keep putting up with them.

Jiang Shiqing finally released years of grief and anger after confronting girls who insulted her parents, then began recovering at home. She told Song Yutang she wanted to study archaeology, and Song Yutang helped her question whether honoring her parents meant following their career plans or living happily.

• Jiang Shiqing smashed the champagne tower and attacked the girls who mocked her parents, crying that their deaths were not her fault.
• Song Yutang caught Jiang Shiqing as she collapsed and reassured her that she had done nothing wrong and that she would always support her.
• Doctor He examined Jiang Shiqing at home and told Song Yutang that the outburst helped her face the anguish she had suppressed.
• Jiang Shiqing slept deeply, stayed in her room for two days, then went to Song Yutang's study and said she wanted to study archaeology.
• Jiang Shiqing worried that choosing archaeology would let her parents down, and Song Yutang asked whether they would want her to live unhappily just to follow their wishes.

Song Yutang helped Jiang Shiqing pursue archaeology while Jiang Siyu worked to earn back his place in the Jiang Family. After he returned the money he owed and asked to start at the bottom, Song Yutang told him that Jiang Sichen and Jiang Qingyu would be executed in half a month, while Jiang Sinian and Chen Ruyin could still be rescued.

• Song Yutang encouraged Jiang Shiqing to study archaeology and gradually helped her join academic groups and make friends, while Jiang Zhixia supported her at charity dinners.
• Six months later, Jiang Shiqing received Elder He's offer to audit his archaeology classes for a year and prove herself for mentorship.
• At a construction site, Xiao Li rebuked Jiang Siyu for blaming his sister instead of his parents' killers and challenged his ideas about friendship.
• Jiang Siyu returned to the Jiang Family home, repaid Song Yutang the three hundred yuan he owed, and asked to earn the right to inherit his parents' estate.
• Song Yutang assigned Jiang Siyu to the understaffed warehousing department and told him Jiang Sichen and Jiang Qingyu would be executed in half a month, while Jiang Sinian and Chen Ruyin could still be rescued.

Jiang Siyu admitted why he had pretended to be foolish and accepted Jiang Muyan and Song Yutang, while his family welcomed him back cautiously. He began to reconcile with Jiang Shiqing, agreeing to visit their parents’ graves together.

• Jiang Siyu told Song Yutang and Jiang Muyan that he had pretended to be hopelessly stupid because he feared them, but realized they had been trying to help him stand on his own.
• Jiang Siyu apologized to Jiang Muyan and Song Yutang, and Jiang Guoqiang welcomed him home for dinner.
• Jiang Boyan revealed that he had earned guaranteed admission to the same university as Jiang Muyan, and Jiang Muyan offered to fund his physics research.
• Jiang Shiqing returned dressed for her research team, and Song Yutang and their aunt helped prepare her for university while Jiang Siyu planned to intern in the Jiang Group’s warehousing department.
• Before leaving, Jiang Siyu gave Jiang Shiqing money and agreed to visit their parents’ graves with her when she told him their death anniversary was approaching.

Song Yutang and Jiang Muyan’s busy, prosperous life left them content to let having a child happen naturally, until they woke as unseen spirits in an imperial palace. Song Yutang recognized the unconscious emperor on the bed as her son Qi’er, and the chapter left them facing his mysterious illness.

• Song Yutang and Jiang Muyan became successful in their work, with people calling her President Song and him President Song’s husband.
• Song Yutang no longer needed a child to prove her worth, while she and Jiang Muyan continued their passionate relationship.
• After falling asleep together, Song Yutang and Jiang Muyan woke in a palace, still wearing the clothes they had worn to bed.
• They discovered that the palace servants could neither see nor touch them, and Jiang Muyan suspected they were dreaming or that their souls had left their bodies.
• Song Yutang heard that the emperor had been unconscious for three days and that people blamed his condition on his grief for Empress Dowager Duanyi.
• Song Yutang recognized the unconscious emperor as her son Qi’er and entered his bedchamber with Jiang Muyan.

Song Yutang reunited with the dying Muzong of Jing, who tearfully told her how he had avenged her and denied ever poisoning her. After he sent the palace attendants away, he reached for her and said he wanted them to be alone together, prompting Jiang Muyan to ask where that left him.

• Song Yutang tried to wake Muzong of Jing and called to him as his mother, and he opened his eyes and recognized her.
• Muzong of Jing told Song Yutang how he had punished Li Zerui, Song Lian'er, the Song clan, and Water Moon Nunnery in her name.
• Muzong of Jing insisted he had never poisoned Song Yutang, and she reassured him that she had known her life was already nearing its end.
• Muzong of Jing ordered the palace attendants and imperial physicians out after realizing they could not see Song Yutang.
• Muzong of Jing reached out to embrace Song Yutang and said he wanted them to be alone, and Jiang Muyan asked what that made him.

Song Yutang reunited with Muzong of Jing in his feverish dream and introduced Jiang Muyan as her current husband. She reassured her son that she was happy in her new life before he embraced her and begged her not to leave.

• Muzong of Jing mistook Jiang Muyan for a supernatural guard and offered him wealth and titles to keep Song Yutang by his side.
• Song Yutang told Muzong of Jing that Jiang Muyan was her current husband, and Muzong disparaged him and offered to find Song Yutang a better consort.
• Jiang Muyan and Muzong of Jing argued over Jiang Muyan's qualifications and the Jing Dynasty's feudal hierarchy until Song Yutang's laughter quieted them.
• Muzong of Jing reluctantly offered to make Jiang Muyan a duke and promised lavish titles and gifts for Song Yutang's future children.
• Song Yutang told Muzong of Jing she was happy in her new family and urged him to live well and be a good emperor.
• Muzong of Jing wept, embraced Song Yutang, and begged her not to leave.

Song Yutang and Jiang Muyan said farewell to Muzong of Jing in a shared dream, then awoke in their own world and wondered how they had experienced the same vision. Song Yutang’s sudden nausea left them suspecting she might be pregnant.

• Song Yutang urged Muzong of Jing to look after Wei Xun, and he promised to do so while pleading with her not to leave.
• As Song Yutang and Jiang Muyan faded away, they comforted Muzong of Jing and promised to meet him in another life.
• Muzong of Jing awoke from the dream in tears, surrounded by the imperial physicians and attendants in his palace.
• Song Yutang and Jiang Muyan woke at the same time and realized they had shared a dream of returning to the Jing Dynasty.
• Song Yutang said she had once wished Muzong of Jing could have been her biological son, and Jiang Muyan joked that they would be fortunate to have him as a child.
• Song Yutang suddenly retched, and she and Jiang Muyan wondered if she was pregnant.