Chapter Summaries

After Jiang Boyan’s dismal exam results enraged Old Master Jiang, Song Yutang discovered his perfect physics score and a possible path to university through physics competitions. Jiang Boyan explained that bullying at school had disrupted his studies, though Teacher Zhang had protected him enough to keep him focused on physics.

• Old Master Jiang confronted Jiang Boyan over his very low scores in Chinese, English, history, geography, and politics, while Jiang Boyan blamed the exam setters for his seven points in English.
• Song Yutang found that Jiang Boyan had scored 100 in physics and 92 in mathematics, despite his weak results in chemistry and biology.
• The education team leader explained that Jiang Boyan could pursue physics competitions and special university admissions if he trained for a year or two.
• Jiang Boyan told Song Yutang that classmates had bullied and framed him after he transferred schools, making it difficult for him to study.
• Jiang Boyan said Teacher Zhang had protected him, which had allowed him to keep doing well in physics.

Song Yutang secured an ambitious education plan for Jiang Boyan and persuaded Old Master Jiang to compensate the family for the schooling expenses he had denied them. As the family shared a warm meal, Old Master Jiang resolved to stop Boyan’s bullying, while Jiang Muyan made a call to act against the students at school.

• Song Yutang approved a plan for Jiang Boyan that included intensive physics and English tutoring, a laboratory, and time for competition training.
• Jiang Boyan thanked Song Yutang, who urged him to study hard and support the family; he and his parents challenged Old Master Jiang over the unfair treatment he had received.
• Old Master Jiang agreed to calculate the schooling expenses that should have gone to Boyan and his siblings and convert the amount into cash or shares.
• Song Yutang suggested hot pot, and the family’s warm, lively preparations softened Old Master Jiang and made him appreciate their family bond.
• Old Master Jiang vowed to deal with the students bullying Jiang Boyan, and Song Yutang said she had already discussed the matter with Top Star Brother.
• Jiang Muyan watched the surveillance footage, admired Song Yutang’s efforts, and called Zhao Chuan to proceed with the matter at the school.

Song Yutang helped Jiang Boyan resolve the school bullying scandal and considered creating a foundation to support girls like Su Wanqing. After collecting old notes arranged by Jiang Muyan from the Lan Residence, she asked how to qualify as a diamond black-gold VIP client.

• The principal and several teachers were arrested or investigated, while all six students who bullied Jiang Boyan transferred schools after a series of accidents.
• Jiang Boyan thanked Song Yutang and asked her to hire Teacher Zhang as his physics tutor; she agreed and reassured him that she would help Su Wanqing.
• Song Yutang considered using the Jiang Family charitable foundation to support more girls in need.
• Song Yutang and Jiang Muyan exchanged messages about the school scandal and arranged for her to collect old notes from the Lan Residence.
• Song Yutang checked her finances, collected the prepared envelope from the Lan Residence, and asked the manager how to qualify as a diamond black-gold VIP client.

Song Yutang topped up her Lan Residence account, helped Jiang Boyan return to school, and prepared for the auction where she planned to sell her belongings. Jiang Muyan arranged to attend the auction and buy her jewelry, while Li Xiulan hurried off after seeing Song Yutang dressed to leave.

• Song Yutang topped up eight million at the Lan Residence and asked the manager to open two bottles of wine in case she could not attend.
• Jiang Boyan returned to school in new clothes, promised Song Yutang he would study hard, and left after thanking Old Master Jiang.
• Song Yutang read Top Star Brother’s study notes, while Zhao Chuan told Jiang Muyan that Jiang Boyan was doing well and that the auction was three days away.
• Jiang Muyan ordered Zhao Chuan to set aside money to buy Song Yutang gifts at the auction, then decided to attend himself and arranged for Doctor Fang to pick him up.
• Song Yutang dressed for the auction in a champagne-colored gown, and Li Xiulan hurried to the kitchen after complimenting her appearance.

Song Yutang defended Jiang Guoqiang and Li Xiulan after Chen Ruyin, Wu Caixia, and Jiang Shiya mocked them for wanting to attend an auction. She ordered Butler Wang to escort the three women back to their rooms and barred them from formal events, but Jiang Shiya began threatening to harm herself.

• Jiang Guoqiang gave Song Yutang a bank card for the auction, but Chen Ruyin, Wu Caixia, and Jiang Shiya mocked his and Li Xiulan's clothes and finances.
• Song Yutang stopped Jiang Guoqiang and Li Xiulan from leaving and told them to get changed so she could take them to the auction.
• Song Yutang ordered Butler Wang to send Chen Ruyin, Wu Caixia, and Jiang Shiya back to their rooms and forbid them from attending formal events in the Jiang Family's name.
• Chen Ruyin argued that the old master had permitted her to attend, but Song Yutang warned her to obey or kneel in the ancestral hall.
• Jiang Shiya fell to the floor and threatened to slit her wrists as Butler Wang's bodyguards moved to escort the women away.

Song Yutang asserted her authority over Chen Ruyin, Wu Caixia, and Jiang Shiya, while Jiang Dingkun regretted the old child-switching decision but kept the family’s interests in mind. She took Jiang Guoqiang and Li Xiulan toward the auction and learned that the family’s allowances had been unfairly deducted for years.

• Song Yutang ordered Jiang Shiya sent for psychiatric treatment and revoked Chen Ruyin, Wu Caixia, and Jiang Shiya’s access to the shared dressing room.
• Chen Ruyin and Jiang Shiya tried to gain Jiang Dingkun’s sympathy outside his room, but he stayed silent and reflected on how the family’s children had been switched.
• Jiang Dingkun regretted how Jiang Guoqiang had been treated but decided he could not yet sever ties with Chen Ruyin’s branch because the family’s interests were intertwined.
• Song Yutang invited Jiang Guoqiang and Li Xiulan to attend the auction and encouraged them to adapt to their place in the Jiang Family.
• Jiang Guoqiang and Li Xiulan told Song Yutang their monthly allowances had been deducted for ten years after Wu Caixia penalized them for minor incidents.

Song Yutang learned how badly Jiang Guoqiang and Li Xiulan had been deprived of money and decided to take them to the auction and buy them whatever they wanted. As the Jiang convoy arrived, the Song Family assumed Song Yutang could not be receiving such an impressive escort.

• Song Yutang discovered that Wu Caixia had docked the household allowance, while Jiang Guoqiang and Li Xiulan had spent their savings on Jiang Muyan’s medical care and relatives’ troubles.
• Li Xiulan and Jiang Guoqiang offered Song Yutang their remaining savings for the auction, but Song Yutang insisted on taking them and promised they would soon have plenty of money.
• Song Mingzhe promised to buy Song Ruowei an aquamarine and diamond necklace with the Jiang Family’s betrothal gift, while Song Jianye belittled Song Yutang and praised Song Ruowei.
• Song Yutang’s convoy reached the auction hotel with an elaborate escort, and the Song Family assumed Mrs. Chen and Wu Caixia were inside instead of Song Yutang.
• Song Ruowei admired the convoy, while Song Mingzhe questioned whether Song Yutang deserved such grandeur.

Song Yutang arrived with the Jiang Family and publicly confronted the Song Family after Song Mingzhe and Song Ruowei insulted her. She won over the assembled guests, while Song Jianye tried to repair their relationship to protect his business ties.

• Song Mingzhe and Song Ruowei mocked Song Yutang, and Li Xiulan and Jiang Guoqiang defended her marriage to Jiang Muyan.
• Song Yutang slapped Song Mingzhe and ordered a bodyguard to drag him away and beat him.
• Song Yutang slapped Song Ruowei when she tried to portray herself as the victim, then had bodyguards silence and remove her.
• Song Yutang addressed the crowd, denounced her siblings as concubine-born, and gained the guests' approval with her poised manner.
• Song Ruowei resented Song Yutang's prominence, while Song Jianye worried her conduct would hurt his business connections to the Jiang Family.
• Song Jianye approached Song Yutang with a false smile and urged her to discuss their family grievances in private.

Song Yutang forced Song Jianye and his family to answer for the insults Song Mingzhe and Song Ruowei had directed at her and the Jiang family. She left the family divided, with Song Mingzhe resenting Song Ruowei for escaping the harshest punishment.

• Song Yutang warned Song Jianye that his children’s slander could damage the Song family’s reputation, and he ordered Song Mingzhe and Song Ruowei to apologize.
• Song Jianye slapped and forced Song Mingzhe and Song Ruowei to kneel after Song Yutang threatened to involve the Jiang family and a lawyer.
• Song Yutang demanded an apology from Sun Meifang, and Song Jianye slapped her until she apologized.
• Song Jianye made Song Mingzhe apologize repeatedly to Song Yutang, then to Jiang Guoqiang and Li Xiulan.
• Song Yutang excused Song Ruowei from apologizing to the Jiangs, leaving Song Mingzhe resentful toward her and revealing a rift in the family.

Song Yutang brought the Song men into a private box at the auction while humiliating and separating Sun Meifang and Song Ruowei, then privately sent Butler Wang to handle an unspecified task. While admiring an old painting, she met a young man who claimed painter Kangyuan may have been Empress Dowager Duanyi’s lover.

• Song Yutang persuaded Song Jianye and Song Mingzhe to enter the auction with her, promising to help them make connections.
• Song Yutang barred Sun Meifang and Song Ruowei from the private box and shamed Sun Meifang over her background.
• Song Mingzhe abandoned Sun Meifang and followed Song Yutang into the private box.
• Song Yutang signaled Butler Wang to take care of something, then went to view the exhibits alone.
• A young man discussed Kangyuan’s painting with Song Yutang and said historians believed the painter had been Empress Dowager Duanyi’s lover.

Song Yutang learned that modern rumors falsely linked her historical self to several men, then reunited with Cheng Yun, who had once helped her in high school. Upstairs, Jiang Muyan learned that Song Yutang was talking closely with the man Gu Zheng identified as her youthful white moonlight.

• A man told Song Yutang that histories and popular rumors portrayed Empress Dowager Duanyi as a schemer who had several lovers, and she rejected his invitation to tour the exhibits together.
• Song Yutang recognized Cheng Yun as the schoolmate who had helped her when classmates mocked her after she bled through her clothes, and they caught up politely.
• Jiang Muyan told Gu Zheng that he had found leads on his uncle and cousin's overseas asset transfers and hoped Song Yutang would help him remove them from the company.
• Jiang Muyan objected when Gu Zheng called Song Yutang his little sister-in-law, insisting she was his lawfully wedded wife.
• Gu Zheng showed Jiang Muyan Song Yutang chatting with Cheng Yun in the exhibition hall and identified Cheng Yun as her white moonlight from her youth.

Jiang Muyan watched Song Yutang speak with Cheng Yun and suspected the meeting might be part of a plot against her, but he trusted her judgment and explained why he supported her independence. As the auction began, Song Jianye confronted Song Yutang about her conversation with Cheng Yun.

• Jiang Muyan recognized Cheng Yun from a report and asked Gu Zheng to investigate him, suspecting Jiang Qingyu's side might use him in another scheme against Song Yutang.
• Gu Zheng offered to have Cheng Yun beaten, but Jiang Muyan refused to alert anyone and said Song Yutang could handle herself.
• Jiang Muyan told Gu Zheng that he supported Song Yutang's wish to learn and manage her own wealth because she was his wife, not his slave.
• Jiang Muyan said he had set aside three hundred million to bid on jewelry for Song Yutang as the auction began.
• Song Yutang exchanged contact details with Cheng Yun out of politeness, then returned to the private room, where Song Jianye reprimanded her for getting close to a strange man.

At an auction, Song Yutang forced Song Jianye to buy a diamond brooch and an antique watch, then watched the Song Family’s seized valuables sell for twenty-three million. The auction continued to its grand finale, a pink diamond necklace.

• Song Yutang threatened to tell her grandfather to take away the Jiang Family project unless Song Jianye bought her the diamond brooch, which Song Ruowei had also been bidding on.
• Song Yutang blamed Song Ruowei for driving up the brooch’s price, and Song Jianye became displeased with his concubine and shu daughter.
• Song Yutang pressured Song Jianye to buy an antique pocket watch for Song Mingzhe and forbade him from bidding on anything for himself afterward.
• Song Ruowei and Sun Meifang angrily complained that Song Yutang had outbid them for the brooch and that Jiang Muyan had cost Ruowei her place in the Jiang Family.
• Song Yutang’s oil painting and antique ornaments from the Song Family sold for twenty-three million, and the auction brought out a pink diamond necklace as its grand finale.

Song Yutang attended an auction with the Jiang family, where Jiang Muyan secretly bought several expensive pieces of jewelry. As the auction’s final lot was introduced, Song Yutang resolved to abandon her plans to kill her husband but still pursue the Song family’s assets by targeting its second branch.

• Jiang Guoqiang obtained twenty million from Jiang Dingkun and transferred it to Song Yutang to spend at the auction.
• Jiang Muyan bid two hundred and sixty million for a pink diamond necklace, then bought jadeite jewelry and a yellow diamond necklace for his mother and Zhixia.
• Song Yutang watched Song Ruowei grow jealous and decided to keep targeting the Song family’s second branch while giving up on killing her husband.
• The auction presented an incomplete handwritten journal from the Jing Dynasty as its final lot.

The auction’s final lot was He Shuangxi’s recipe notebook, which Song Yutang recognized as important to her family’s culinary heritage and bid aggressively to obtain. Just as the bidding reached four hundred million yuan, someone in the opposite private room raised the offer to five hundred million.

• The host presented He Shuangxi’s notebook of the lost recipes for the River Clear and Sea Calm Banquet and opened bidding at one hundred million yuan.
• Jiang Muyan explained that He Family Catering descended from He Shuangxi’s apprentices, while Jiang Guoqiang recalled his own master’s claims about their culinary lineage.
• Song Yutang asked Jiang Guoqiang whether he would cook anything she wanted and considered whether he was an inheritor of He Shuangxi’s tradition.
• After someone bid two hundred million yuan, Song Yutang raised the offer to three hundred million, then four hundred million yuan.
• Jiang Muyan defended Song Yutang’s bid, and a person in the opposite private room countered with five hundred million yuan.

Song Yutang lit the sky lantern to secure a handwritten recipe notebook, and He Family Catering eventually withdrew after learning the Jiang Family was bidding for it. As the auction ended, Jiang Guoqiang and Li Xiulan offered to take the blame, and Song Yutang received a call from Grandpa.

• Song Yutang announced she would light the sky lantern, while Jiang Muyan arranged to support her and explained the notebook could help his father revive his culinary business.
• He Bingzheng learned the bidders were from the Jiang Family and, after hearing about Jiang Guoqiang's restaurants, chose to withdraw rather than sour relations with them.
• The auctioneer sold the notebook to Song Yutang for one billion.
• Jiang Guoqiang and Li Xiulan offered to take responsibility if the old master was angry, but Song Yutang reassured them that she knew what she was doing.
• Song Yutang received a phone call from Grandpa.

Song Yutang forced the Jiang Family to pay the auction bill by warning that refusing would damage its reputation, then reunited with Song Jianye and Song Mingzhe. When Sun Meifang and Song Ruowei appeared, Song Ruowei’s jealousy erupted and Song Mingzhe slapped her for insulting Song Yutang.

• Song Yutang told the Jiang Family patriarch that refusing to pay the billion would make outsiders question the family’s finances and reputation.
• Jiang Guoqiang pleaded that the cookbook was important to him, and the patriarch hung up before Butler Wang later confirmed that the Jiang Family would pay.
• Song Jianye and Song Mingzhe regretted mistreating Song Yutang and tried to reconcile with her, while she accepted the brooch and praised Mingzhe’s pocket watch.
• Song Yutang deliberately thanked Song Jianye for the brooch in front of Sun Meifang and Song Ruowei, provoking Song Ruowei’s jealousy.
• Song Ruowei insulted Song Yutang and Jiang Muyan, so Song Mingzhe slapped her and Song Jianye rebuked her; Song Ruowei ran out crying.

Song Yutang let Sun Meifang’s attempt to portray herself as a victim collapse under the guests’ contempt, then clarified her family relationships as Song Mingzhe and Song Jianye fled in disgrace. Butler Wang asked Song Yutang whether she was satisfied.

• Sun Meifang pretended to be a mistreated elder, but the guests mocked her and rejected her attempt to gain sympathy.
• Song Jianye ordered Sun Meifang to leave, and Song Mingzhe refused to defend her, calling her Auntie Sun and distancing himself.
• Sun Meifang fled the hall, resenting Song Mingzhe and thinking of having a son who could replace him.
• Song Yutang told the guests that she and Song Mingzhe were both children of her father’s first wife, prompting further disdain for Song Mingzhe.
• Song Mingzhe and Song Jianye left in embarrassment, and Butler Wang quietly asked Song Yutang if she was satisfied.

Song Yutang arranged to spread humiliating rumors about Song Mingzhe, rewarded Butler Wang, and asked him to investigate the Song Family’s conflicts. As Song Yutang prepared to leave the auction, He Bingzheng approached Jiang Guoqiang and offered to take him as a disciple and successor to He Imperial Cuisine.

• Song Yutang ordered Butler Wang to spread rumors about Song Mingzhe and promised to arrange psychiatric help for his daughter.
• Song Yutang gave Butler Wang his commission, promised to raise his salary, and asked him to investigate the Song Family’s weaknesses and disputes.
• Jiang Muyan and Gu Zheng watched Song Yutang manage Butler Wang, then noticed He Bingzheng heading toward her.
• He Bingzheng introduced himself to Song Yutang and struck up a lively conversation about cooking with Jiang Guoqiang.
• He Bingzheng asked Jiang Guoqiang to become his disciple and the fourteenth-generation successor to He Imperial Cuisine.

He Bingzheng tried to recruit Jiang Guoqiang as He Imperial Cuisine’s heir, but Song Yutang challenged his motives and revealed her connection to the lineage’s founder, He Shuangxi. As He Bingzheng accused her of taking the family relic, a masked man surnamed Gu intervened and defended the auction purchase.

• He Bingzheng offered to make Jiang Guoqiang his disciple and the fourteenth-generation heir to He Imperial Cuisine, and Jiang suspected he wanted the handbook back.
• Song Yutang called out He Bingzheng’s scheme, while Jiang Guoqiang and Li Xiulan deferred the decision to her.
• Song Yutang claimed Jiang Guoqiang was He Shuangxi’s second-generation personal disciple and explained that He Shuangxi had created the handbook to cook food she enjoyed.
• He Bingzheng accused Song Yutang of mocking his founder and threatened her over the auctioned relic.
• A masked man surnamed Gu arrived and challenged He Bingzheng’s claim that the handbook had been seized.