Chapter Summaries

Yun Manman sold a large haul of game to Shopkeeper Chen while keeping her identity and hunting methods secret. Shopkeeper Chen paid her in silver and hoped to become her regular buyer.

• Yun Manman told Shopkeeper Chen she wanted peace and secrecy, and he promised to keep her dealings confidential.
• Yun Manman placed the game in an alley, keeping two small yaks for her family, and Shopkeeper Chen arrived with carts and workers.
• Shopkeeper Chen and his men found the alley filled with tigers, bears, snow leopards, yaks, and other game, and he was impressed by the haul.
• Shopkeeper Chen quoted prices for the animals, and Yun Manman accepted on the condition that she be paid in silver.
• Shopkeeper Chen’s men counted and loaded forty-six animals, and Shopkeeper Chen ordered the full payment withdrawn in silver.
• Yun Manman agreed to sell her future game to the Chen Family General Store as long as it kept its word.

Yun Manman sold game to Shopkeeper Chen, concealed the silver, and left him wondering about her abilities and identity. Disguised as a young woman, she completed her household registration, bought pastries, and ordered a feast at the Fragrant Guest Pavilion, packing most of it away to take home.

• Yun Manman accepted twelve thousand two hundred taels from Shopkeeper Chen for forty-six animals, then stored the silver chests in her space and escaped over the alley wall.
• Shopkeeper Chen examined the game, suspected Yun Manman had exceptional martial and beast-controlling skills, and decided not to investigate her.
• Yun Manman transformed into a young woman, completed her household registration, and bought three large bags of pastries for the two boys at home.
• Yun Manman went to the Fragrant Guest Pavilion, ordered its signature dishes with chili peppers, and listened to a zither player in the adjoining room.
• Yun Manman paid for the thirty dishes and plates, then put most of the meal into her space to bring home.

Yun Manman chased Master Wang after he abducted Miss Xue, intending to rescue her and punish him. She infiltrated his residence and found him torturing several women in a courtyard.

• Yun Manman heard Master Wang claim that Madam Qin had sold Miss Xue's first night and order his guards to take her away as his twenty-eighth concubine.
• After Master Wang insulted women, Yun Manman broke her chopsticks, decided to intervene, and leaped from the window to follow his carriage.
• A noble man in a neighboring teahouse ordered his subordinate to investigate his father's affair after seeing Yun Manman fly past.
• Yun Manman tracked the carriage to a residence, sensed a lone guard, and slipped into the courtyard to search for Miss Xue.
• Following women's cries into the rear courtyard, Yun Manman saw Master Wang using a barbed jade rod to torture the kneeling women.

Yun Manman found Master Wang torturing women and prepared a pill to make him suffer without dying. She then broke into his residence to loot its valuables, discovering a map and a hidden space beneath his bed.

• Yun Manman saw Master Wang pouring wine onto the wounds of women he was torturing and decided to make him suffer.
• Yun Manman learned from Guagua about a pill that would cause Master Wang severe pain unless he was beaten, then set out to gather resentment and loot his residence.
• Yun Manman knocked out a servant guarding a study and collected its books before discovering a secret room behind a bookshelf.
• Yun Manman found letters mentioning the North-Guarding Prince's poison and a map of the residence, then took everything from the secret room.
• Yun Manman looted the furniture and treasures in Master Wang's rooms, damaged his bed, and uncovered a dark space beneath it.

Yun Manman raided Master Wang’s estate, taking its hidden stores of grain, weapons, gold, silver, valuables, meat, and horses while incapacitating guards and household members. She returned to the rear courtyard, where she knocked down the performing women but saw that Master Wang and his companions still had not noticed.

• Yun Manman found a secret chamber stocked with grain, weapons, and gold, took everything, and retreated after spotting guards at its exit.
• Yun Manman broke into the storeroom, took its silver, paintings, jade, and jewelry, then disabled the guards and secured them inside.
• Yun Manman killed the guards at the granary courtyard and took its grain and gold, then looted valuable furniture from the rear courtyard.
• Yun Manman incapacitated Master Wang’s first wife and her confidante, took the room’s valuables and unreadable correspondence, and left the message “Daddy was here!”
• Yun Manman emptied the kitchen and stable, then returned to the rear courtyard and struck down the singing and dancing women while Master Wang remained unaware behind the curtains.

Yun Manman rescued a girl from the Flower-Filled House, incapacitated Master Wang, and led the girl out of the residence. After the girl swore loyalty to her, Yun Manman renamed her Yuanwei and set off for a brothel and gambling house.

• Yun Manman freed the girl from her ropes, gave her a healing fruit, and urged her to live for herself.
• Yun Manman knocked out the women in Master Wang's room, immobilized him, and forced a pill into his mouth.
• Yun Manman covered the unconscious women, then took the recovering girl out through the back gate.
• The girl, Mu Xue, knelt to thank Yun Manman and asked to stay by her side as her servant.
• Yun Manman accepted Mu Xue's loyalty, renamed her Yuanwei, and told her to call her Master as they headed for a brothel and a gambling house.

Yun Manman went to the Ten Cold Gate with Yuanwei and demonstrated her strength to its assassins. Han Yu agreed to hear her proposal to work with the pavilion for a year, and she left with Yuanwei to collect her belongings from the Flower-Filled House.

• Yuanwei warned Yun Manman that Master Wang might seek revenge, but Yun Manman assured her he would be too miserable to do so.
• Yuanwei led Yun Manman to the Ten Cold Gate branch, where Yun Manman sensed a powerful expert watching from the third floor.
• Yun Manman challenged the pavilion's assassins and defeated ten black-clad men with her blade, martial arts, and silver needles.
• Han Yu introduced himself and invited Yun Manman inside after she proposed working with the Ten Cold Gate for a year, taking only missions against unforgivably evil people.
• Yun Manman took the still-dazed Yuanwei toward the Flower-Filled House to retrieve her belongings.

Yun Manman robbed a county storehouse and the madam’s room, then returned to the inn with Yuanwei and prepared to go back to the village. After finding two starving boys, she agreed to help their sick companion and followed them outside the city.

• Yuanwei offered Yun Manman her savings to dissuade her from becoming an assassin, but Yun Manman refused the money and left.
• Yun Manman incapacitated four guards, stole the storehouse’s valuables, and looted the madam’s room before burning Yuanwei’s pavilion.
• Yun Manman told Yuanwei they would return to the village to farm, while reflecting that she had agreed to take outside commissions for the Ten Cold Gate for a year.
• At the inn, Yun Manman gave buns to two beggar boys and promised to bring food and see whether she could save their sick companion, Brother Tongtong.
• Yun Manman and Yuanwei followed the boys through a dog hole in the city wall and into the woods.

Mo Beiyuan learned that an unknown man called Dad had robbed the Wang residence, and he ordered his guards to find him and interrogate the captives. Meanwhile, Yun Manman found a group of starving children in the woods, healed Tongtong with a Returning Lotus Fruit, and offered to take them in as loyal subordinates.

• Qing Yi reported that Dad had emptied the Wang residence and poisoned Master Wang into madness, so Mo Beiyuan ordered an investigation and retraining for the hidden guards.
• Han Yu followed Qing Yi away without telling Mo Beiyuan about the purple-eyed female assassin, and Mo Beiyuan's search across Wuliang County failed to recover the stolen goods.
• Yun Manman and Yuanwei found twenty-eight children living in makeshift shelters and gave them buns.
• Yun Manman gave the sick Tongtong a Returning Lotus Fruit, and he began recovering as he ate it.
• Yun Manman asked the children to join her as loyal subordinates, and Tongtong questioned whether she intended to make them slaves or death warriors.

Yun Manman recruited Tongtong and the other children, took them to Red Star Village, and welcomed them into her household as her followers and pupils. The group bonded over her horse’s bad haircut, while Tongtong began to imagine a life beyond hiding and begging.

• Tongtong swore loyalty to Yun Manman, and the other children chose to follow her as well.
• Yun Manman told the children to call her Sister Man, declared herself their master, and said they would go home with her to farm.
• Yun Manman bought the children new clothes, registered their households in the county town, and led them toward Red Star Village.
• The children laughed at Yun Manman’s horse until it affectionately rubbed against her, and Tongtong tried to kneel and apologize for mocking it.
• Yun Manman told Tongtong not to kneel so readily and urged the children to live boldly, then invited them to pet the horse.
• Yun Manman said she would give the children better names, and they suspected she was using her authority to get even with them.

Yun Manman returned home with the children she had rescued and promised to give them names, strength, and a place in the world. After reuniting with her worried family, she revealed that she had earned a fortune from killing tigers and saving a wealthy merchant, leaving her parents stunned by the gold she showed them.

• Yun Manman gave the rescued children the surname Yun and names drawn from a poem, and Yun Mo and the others vowed lifelong loyalty to her.
• Yun Manman told the children about her family, and they laughed together over a secret before continuing to the village.
• Yun Manman arrived home after twelve hours away, and Madam Zhou, Yun Zewu, and Yun Zeren rushed to embrace her while Old Father Yun checked that she was unharmed.
• Yun Manman introduced Yun Mo and the other children to her family and said she planned to build houses on the land and buy the village's vacant plots.
• Yun Manman told her parents that she had killed six tigers, sold them for two thousand taels of silver, and received a thousand taels of gold from a wealthy merchant.
• When Old Father Yun and Madam Zhou doubted her story, Yun Manman showed them two gold ingots and said she had hidden the rest.

Yun Manman used her mountain earnings to arrange the purchase of land and farmland and to hire workers to build a large house for her family. The next day, the village chief began handling the purchases while Yun Manman and the children built temporary huts, and the village chief’s wife spread news that left local gossips stunned and envious.

• Yun Manman visited the village chief and offered his family a roast duck before asking to buy all the land near her home and all available farmland and uncultivated land in the village.
• Yun Manman gave the village chief five taels of silver to arrange the land purchases, find a master house builder, and recruit reliable workers for thirty copper coins a day.
• The village chief resolved to help Yun Manman, saying she had earned her money by risking her life and was kindhearted.
• The next day, the village chief took Old Father Yun to town to buy land and find a house builder while Yun Manman and the children built thatched huts outside their courtyard.
• The village chief’s wife told the gossiping women that Yun Manman had bought the village’s remaining land and planned to hire workers, leaving them speechless and envious.

Yun Manman oversaw the construction of her large compound and the little ones’ residential compound, while preparing fields and gathering oxen to help farm them. The chapter ended with her attending a housewarming feast that brought together the workers she hoped to employ in her fields.

• Old Man Yun planned to move into Yun Zhen’s new house despite their severed ties, and Yun Wang questioned whether he could.
• Yun Manman designed her compounds, hired the village chief to oversee construction, and taught the little ones to turn the fields.
• Yun Manman flew to the mountain, caught three oxen, and gathered wild potatoes for a trial planting.
• After a month and a half, the houses, training ground, and schoolroom were finished, and Yun Manman agreed to hold a housewarming feast.
• Yun Manman thanked the villagers at the feast and told them she would need workers for her fields in the future.

Yun Manman and Yun Zhen confronted the old Yun household when they tried to move into Yun Zhen’s new home. Yun Manman stopped them with force and left Yun Wang wounded in the thigh with a dagger.

• Old Man Yun arrived with Old Woman Yun, Yun Wang, Yun Fa, and their families, and demanded that Yun Zhen let them move into his home.
• Yun Zhen refused, and the village chief and villagers reminded Old Man Yun that Yun Zhen had registered as a separate household after being forced to sever ties.
• Yun Manman blocked Old Man Yun when he tried to strike Yun Zhen and sent him flying with a palm strike.
• Old Man Yun and Old Woman Yun tried to enter anyway, but Yun Manman broke Old Man Yun’s tobacco pipe and ordered them to leave.
• Yun Wang ignored Yun Manman’s warning and tried to enter the courtyard, so Yun Manman threw a dagger into his thigh.

Yun Manman drove the Yun Family out of her courtyard and warned them not to provoke her again. After reassuring her neighbors, she heard that their resentment had strengthened Guagua’s space and discussed whether to deal with the family before they could retaliate.

• Yun Manman knocked Old Woman Yun and the other Yun Family members out of her courtyard, then warned Old Man Yun, Old Woman Yun, and Yun Wang that she would kill them if they kept provoking her.
• Yun Manman reassured the neighbors that she would not harm anyone who left her and her family alone, then invited them to stay for dinner.
• The Yun Family returned to their roofless house, where Old Man Yun regretted severing ties with Yun Manman’s family while Old Woman Yun and Yun Wang remained frightened and resentful.
• Yun Manman placed Returning Lotus Fruits on the table, and Guagua told her the Yun Family’s resentment had increased its space and points.
• Yuanwei asked whether they should deal with the Yun Family ahead of time, and Yun Mo warned that they might still scheme against or harm Yun Manman.

Yun Manman discovered that her growing belly and sudden abdominal pain might mean she was pregnant, recalling the man in white from the cave. She asked Yuanwei to have her father fetch a doctor, while Mo Beiyuan had experienced a matching bout of abdominal pain at his army camp.

• Yun Manman secretly returned to the mountain woods after leaving Red Star Village, then spent three days in the county town before coming back with supplies.
• Yuanwei told Yun Manman that Old Hag Yun had fallen into a cesspit and remained unconscious despite several doctors’ efforts.
• Yun Manman increased the children’s training, while the villagers watched them run in formation wearing sandbags and matching white outfits.
• Yun Manman and Mo Beiyuan both suffered sudden stabbing pain in their lower abdomens, though the army physician found no sign of illness or poisoning in Mo Beiyuan.
• Yuanwei and Madam Zhou noticed Yun Manman’s growing belly, and Yuanwei suggested she might be pregnant.
• Yun Manman recalled the man in white from the cave and asked Yuanwei to have her father fetch a doctor because she might be pregnant.

Yun Manman learned she was more than three months pregnant with twins and told her family that the children’s father had died, though Mo Beiyuan knew he was alive. She accepted the pregnancy and ended her cooperation with the Ten Cold Gate, but village gossip about her pregnancy stirred her anger.

• A doctor confirmed that Yun Manman was pregnant with twins, and she told her family the children’s father had died while saving her.
• Yun Manman’s family agreed to support her and the children, and she shared fruit with them to mark the news as a happy occasion.
• Yun Manman stopped strenuous exercise, continued her studies and martial arts practice, and ended her cooperation with the Ten Cold Gate.
• By her fifth month, Yun Manman had accepted village children into her lessons, though only the village chief’s sons kept attending.
• Old Woman Shen and Old Woman Wang insulted Yun Manman and accused her of selling herself, so she turned toward home with killing intent.

Yun Manman enjoyed her pregnancy while Mo Beiyuan developed unexplained pregnancy-like nausea. After Guagua woke her at midnight, Yun Manman confronted Old Woman Wang and punished her for insulting Yun Manman's children, then encountered Yun Mo on her way home.

• Yun Zeren, Yun Zewu, Madam Zhou, and Old Father Yun fussed over Yun Manman and urged her to eat, while Yun Manman felt little discomfort from her pregnancy.
• Mo Beiyuan vomited at the smell of food, and Luo Fan observed that his symptoms were normally associated with pregnant women.
• Guagua woke Yun Manman in the middle of the night and sent her to deal with Old Woman Wang.
• Yun Manman kicked open Old Woman Wang's door, tore out her tongue with a transparent lotus, and warned her not to cause trouble again.
• Yun Manman reassured her unborn children that she would protect them and then found Yun Mo waiting beneath the moonlight.

Yun Manman refused to mourn Old Woman Yun, and the old Yun household ended in three gruesome deaths after Old Man Yun’s crimes came to light. As Yun Manman prepared to give birth to twins, Mo Beiyuan continued suffering unexplained pregnancy-like symptoms in the military camp.

• Yun Manman rejected Old Man Yun’s demand that Old Father Yun observe mourning for Old Woman Yun and shut the door on him.
• Old Man Yun starved Old Woman Yun to death, then mistook Yun Wang for her ghost and killed him before escaping his restraints and hanging himself.
• Yun Manman told Old Father Yun he could fulfill his filial duty if he wished, then instructed Yuanwei to keep training and educating the beggars she had taken in.
• Mo Beiyuan ate noodles without vomiting but suffered another painful episode, and Luo Fan found no answer when he checked his pulse.
• Yun Manman’s water broke, and she calmly reassured Madam Zhou and the others while they prepared for the birth of her twins.

Yun Manman gave birth to twins safely while Mo Beiyuan endured the same excruciating pain from afar. A strange celestial display appeared as the babies were born, and Mo Beiyuan suspected his suffering was connected to visions of a woman with violet eyes.

• Yun Zewu and Yun Ting sparred outside while Old Father Yun anxiously waited for news from Yun Manman's room.
• Yun Manman, Madam Zhou, Yuanwei, and the midwives waited through labor as Yun Manman remained calm and ate Returning Lotus Fruit.
• Mo Beiyuan suffered severe waves of pain in the northwestern military camp, then lost consciousness.
• A crescent moon and two brilliant stars illuminated the sky as Yun Manman gave birth to the twins, and Yuanwei reassured the family that all three were safe.
• Mo Beiyuan woke exhausted and said he should no longer have to suffer; he kept his visions of violet eyes and a woman to himself.
• Luo Fan brought Mo Beiyuan outside to see the celestial display, while Qing Yi noticed the imprint Mo Beiyuan's soaked body had left on the ground.