Recaps

Zhao Wuxu learned that Lady Wang’s missing biological son had a distinctive birthmark matching Tiedan’s, who was living at Prince Yi’s Residence. He decided to exploit the secret before anyone else could find out, while Gu Moran struggled with the effects of his surging primal yang.

• Lady Wang called Zhao Wuxu her son and told him her toddler had vanished during a lantern market outing after Yun Zhengze briefly left them to handle official business.
• Lady Wang showed Zhao Wuxu an old handkerchief embroidered with the birthmark on her missing son’s right side, and Zhao Wuxu recognized it as matching Tiedan’s mark.
• Lady Wang said her son would turn eight in the twelfth lunar month and that Zhao Wuxu was the first person in the household to learn the truth.
• Zhao Wuxu promised to search for Lady Wang’s son, then secretly planned to use the secret to gain access to her money, Yun Zhengze’s seal, and travel documents before deciding what to do about Tiedan.
• Gu Moran reclined in the old princely residence and found that neither resting nor Shen Ling’er’s heat-clearing medicine relieved the effects of his Vigorous Primal Yang.

Gu Moran teased Liu Ruyan, Su Yao, and Shen Ling'er while they tended to their work and his medicine. Yun Shuyue then brought Tiedan to him after the boy misbehaved at school, and Tiedan promptly stole Gu Moran's chicken.

• Gu Moran distracted Liu Ruyan as she read a secret letter from the Flower-Between Pavilion.
• Gu Moran praised Su Yao while she calculated the lantern market cleanup costs, making her lose her place in the accounts.
• Shen Ling'er examined Gu Moran's pulse and scolded him over his rising blood and qi, but he teased her until she fled in embarrassment.
• Yun Shuyue brought Tiedan to Gu Moran and reported that he had skipped his lessons and drawn a turtle in his copybook.
• Tiedan defended his drawing, dodged Yun Shuyue, and grabbed a drumstick from Gu Moran's platter, amusing Gu Moran.

Gu Moran discovered through the Eye of Detection that Tiedan was Yun Zhengze and Lady Wang’s missing son, then learned Yun Shuyue had found him abandoned and sick three years earlier. After hearing details that suggested Tiedan had been trafficked and discarded, Gu Moran took Liu Ruyan into the inner room to speak privately.

• Gu Moran used the Eye of Detection on Tiedan and saw that he was the son of Yun Zhengze and Lady Wang, missing since the Lantern Festival six years earlier.
• Yun Shuyue said she had found Tiedan unconscious with a high fever beside a ditch in Cypress Village three years ago and brought him back to the stronghold.
• Gu Moran realized Tiedan’s illness and abandonment suggested that someone had held and then discarded him during the three years after his disappearance.
• Gu Moran recognized that Tiedan’s return could give him leverage over Yun Zhengze and change the balance with Lady Wang.
• Yun Shuyue recalled that Tiedan’s clothes had fine embroidery and that he had a rope mark around his neck.
• Gu Moran asked Liu Ruyan to follow him into the inner room.

Gu Moran investigated the six-year-old disappearance of Yun Zhengze’s son, who was being raised as Tiedan, while hiding the truth from Yun Shuyue and arranging protection for the child. Zhao Wuxu discovered Tiedan’s identity and planned to use it to provoke Yun Zhengze against Gu Moran, then went to meet Pu Yunshan.

• Gu Moran told Liu Ruyan to investigate old records, lantern-market vendors, and bailiffs involved in arrests of human traffickers without contacting Yun Zhengze’s household.
• Gu Moran arranged extra protection for Tiedan and kept Yun Shuyue from learning that the boy was her younger brother.
• Su Yao offered to investigate whether human traffickers had traveled through Cypress Village and which routes and relay stations they used.
• Gu Moran worried that Zhao Wuxu might learn Tiedan’s identity and put the child in danger.
• Zhao Wuxu decided to tell Pu Yunshan that Yun Zhengze’s missing son was in Prince Yi’s Residence, then planned to make Yun Zhengze hear the news and blame the residence’s old retainers.
• Zhao Wuxu went to Public Latrine No. 12 to meet Pu Yunshan.

Zhao Wuxu told Pu Yunshan that Tiedan was Yun Zhengze’s missing son and urged him to use the secret to approach the surveillance commissioner, but Pu Yunshan refused to endanger the child. Yun Shuyue overheard them and learned Tiedan was her little brother, then told Gu Moran, who warned that Zhao Wuxu might act on the secret.

• Zhao Wuxu told Pu Yunshan that Tiedan had the birthmark identifying him as Yun Zhengze’s missing son and argued that Prince Yi was using the boy to control Yun Zhengze.
• Pu Yunshan said he would leave Tiedan alone until Yun Zhengze learned the truth, and warned Zhao Wuxu not to use the child as a weapon.
• Yun Shuyue overheard the conversation from the shed roof and realized Tiedan was her little brother.
• Yun Shuyue hurried back to the prince’s residence and told Gu Moran what she had heard.
• Gu Moran checked Zhao Wuxu’s system profile and cautioned Yun Shuyue that Zhao Wuxu already knew Tiedan’s identity; she left undecided about sending Tiedan back to her family.

Gu Moran confirmed that Tiedan had a distinctive birthmark that could establish his identity, while Zhao Wuxu began hinting to Lady Wang that the boy might be in Prince Yi’s Residence. As Lady Wang prepared to visit under the pretext of seeking medicine, Yun Shuyue worried she would discover Tiedan, and Gu Moran reassured her that he understood her concern.

• Gu Moran had Uncle Fu discreetly confirm Tiedan’s birthmark and ordered that Auntie Zhao alone handle his baths and changes, while forbidding the schoolteacher from stripping and spanking him.
• Gu Moran asked Liu Ruyan to investigate how Yun Shuyue’s birth mother died and told her to keep the inquiry from Yun Shuyue for now.
• Zhao Wuxu told Lady Wang that Prince Yi’s Residence was raising children around seven or eight, then proposed gaining authority to investigate the residence himself.
• Lady Wang sent a visiting card requesting a calming prescription from Madam Shen, and Uncle Fu suspected she wanted to inspect Prince Yi’s Residence.
• Yun Shuyue said she feared Lady Wang would see Tiedan and take him back, and Gu Moran told her he understood her concern.

Gu Moran and the others prepared for Lady Wang’s visit, while Tiedan deliberately smeared her skirt and provoked her at the residence gate. Lin Qingdai stopped Yun Shuyue from intervening, explaining that Tiedan was acting on purpose to vent her anger.

• Su Yao brought Gu Moran the account books, and he arranged for Lady Wang to see the residence’s wealth when she arrived.
• Shen Ling'er made Gu Moran drink medicine to support the rumors about his health, and he teased Yun Shuyue about her injured ankle.
• Gu Moran had Tiedan eat a chicken leg at the entrance so he could enjoy meat in a prominent spot.
• Tiedan collided with Lady Wang, smeared grease on her skirt, and offered to help remove it and wash it.
• Lin Qingdai stopped Yun Shuyue from rushing to Tiedan and told her the boy was deliberately provoking Lady Wang.

Lady Wang visited Gu Moran’s residence to seek treatment and ask him to send Yue'er home, but Gu Moran used Shen Ling'er's diagnosis and Yue'er's employment contract to deflect her. Lady Wang then challenged his practice of sheltering children, leaving her request unresolved.

• Murong Xue led Tiedan away after he bumped into Lady Wang, while Gu Moran offered Lady Wang Shu brocade to compensate for the grease on her skirt.
• Su Yao read aloud the residence’s accounts as Lady Wang entered and surveyed Gu Moran’s practical, work-focused hall.
• Shen Ling'er diagnosed Lady Wang with deficiencies of the heart and spleen and liver stagnation, prescribed treatment, and suggested she might be taking calming medicine.
• Lady Wang asked Gu Moran to send Yue'er home to protect her husband’s reputation, but Gu Moran said Yue'er had a one-year employment contract with a hundred-thousand-tael breach penalty.
• Lady Wang argued that keeping children of unclear origins could damage Gu Moran’s reputation, and Gu Moran’s response was left pending.

Gu Moran confronted Lady Wang over her suspicions about the people he had brought to the residence, then learned through the Eye of Detection that she had helped cause Yun Shuyue’s birth mother’s death. After Lady Wang left, Yun Shuyue offered to move out, but Gu Moran refused and reminded her that he would protect her.

• Gu Moran challenged Lady Wang’s comments about the children from Black Wind Stronghold and asked whether she spoke for Lord Yun.
• Tiedan apologized to Lady Wang, found her embroidered handkerchief, and criticized her stitches before she snatched it back and insulted him.
• Gu Moran used the Eye of Detection and learned that Lady Wang’s biological child had been missing for six years and that she was an accomplice in Yun Shuyue’s birth mother’s death.
• Gu Moran warned Lady Wang that he would investigate anyone who spread rumors about the people in his residence.
• After Lady Wang left, Yun Shuyue offered to move to the communal bunks, but Gu Moran refused and said that doing so would let Lady Wang gloat.

Lady Lü persuaded Gu Mochen to approve a public porridge charity, then arranged to divert most donations and serve refugees cheap old rice. At the Surveillance Commissioner's residence, Zhao Wuxu comforted Lady Wang after her failed visit to Prince Yi's Residence, and she found relief in his attention.

• Yun Shuyue stopped when she was reminded of Tiedan.
• Lady Lü proposed New Year's porridge distribution to Gu Mochen, who approved the plan and authorized her to use the residence's resources.
• Lady Lü secretly instructed her adviser to collect donations from thirty-seven businesses, buy discounted old rice through her natal family's grain business, and divert most of the funds.
• Lady Wang returned from Prince Yi's Residence frustrated, and Zhao Wuxu gathered the broken porcelain and cleaned her room while consoling her.
• Lady Wang called Zhao Wuxu her own son, then asked him to massage her shoulders.

Liu Ruyan uncovered evidence that Yun Shuyue’s birth mother’s funeral involved eight unexplained carts and linked the altered account to Yang Tie, while Gu Moran kissed her after warning her to keep investigating discreetly. The next morning, Pu Yunshan received a sanitation award and was urged to enter a public prize draw.

• Liu Ruyan showed Gu Moran a copied funeral ledger with a replaced page and revealed that someone had hired eight carts for Yun Shuyue’s birth mother’s funeral.
• Liu Ruyan identified the man who paid for the carts as Yang Tie of Cypress Village, and Gu Moran ordered further inquiries while keeping the investigation from Yun Shuyue and the surveillance commissioner’s household.
• Liu Ruyan questioned whether Gu Moran feared Yun Shuyue would be hurt, and Gu Moran leaned forward and kissed her.
• Pu Yunshan received an Excellence in Sanitation award from Auntie Zhao for his work at the public latrine.
• Auntie Zhao gave Pu Yunshan five latrine tickets and invited him to the South Market prize draw, but he refused to join.

After six days hauling night soil, Pu Yunshan won a piglet in Yi Prefecture’s lottery and reflected on how little his experience matched the accusations he had heard about the city. Gu Moran watched the spectacle from a teahouse as Shen Ling'er and Yun Shuyue fussed over him, while Pu Yunshan stopped to read a new notice inviting manuscript submissions.

• Pu Yunshan won the lottery’s grand prize, a piglet, and Tuoba Mang put it in his arms despite his protests.
• The crowd laughed at Pu Yunshan, who carried the muddy, squealing piglet away while recalling his six days exploring Yi Prefecture and finding its streets orderly.
• Gu Moran laughed at Pu Yunshan from a teahouse window, choked on his medicine, and received an overly enthusiastic pounding from Yun Shuyue as Shen Ling'er teased her.
• Pu Yunshan stopped at the Brocade Literature Bookshop and read a notice inviting anyone to submit manuscripts the next afternoon.

Pu Yunshan submitted a poem to Xie Wanqing, hoping its childhood memories would make her recognize him as Xiaoshanzi. He left the meeting realizing Xie Wanqing loved Gu Moran and rejected his attempt to invoke their past.

• Pu Yunshan joined the queue at the Brocade Literature Bookshop, where people mocked him as the Blue-Robed King of Dung.
• The steward accepted Pu Yunshan’s manuscript and told him Xie Wanqing would review it in person.
• Pu Yunshan entered the inner room and found Xie Wanqing reading his poem, while Gu Moran sat nearby.
• Gu Moran teased Xie Wanqing about the poem, and she dismissed its writing as lacking genuine feeling.
• Pu Yunshan revealed that his childhood name was Xiaoshanzi and appealed to their old friendship, but Xie Wanqing denied any meaningful childhood affection and warned him not to claim a past connection.
• Pu Yunshan saw Xie Wanqing accept Gu Moran’s intimate touch and understood that their relationship was one of mutual love.

Gu Moran and Xie Wanqing dismissed Pu Yunshan’s attempt to revive their childhood connection, while Pu Yunshan left humiliated and Zhao Wuxu proposed targeting Tiedan to infiltrate Prince Yi’s Residence. Gu Moran then learned from Liu Ruyan that Yang Tie was concealing a much darker scheme involving girls at his estate.

• Gu Moran mocked Pu Yunshan’s poem and his work hauling night soil, and Xie Wanqing paid him the usual thirty wen without meeting him.
• Xie Wanqing told Gu Moran that she valued the people in her life now, and he received a reward for Pu Yunshan’s reduced fortune: a military frostbite ointment formula.
• Pu Yunshan left the bookshop with the piglet, and Zhao Wuxu urged him not to give up and suggested starting with Tiedan to breach Prince Yi’s Residence.
• Liu Ruyan showed Gu Moran old accounts and testimony indicating that Yang Tie kept at least a hundred unmarried girls at his estate and that those sent away under the guise of respectable marriages disappeared.

Liu Ruyan revealed that Yang Tie had abducted Tiedan to use him as a medicinal catalyst for refining Red Lead Pills, while Lady Wang unknowingly supplied Yang Tie's residence. After Zhen Daijin returned victorious, Zhao Wuxu and Pu Yunshan abducted Tiedan, but Gu Moran's guards let them carry out the plan so they could catch them in the act.

• Liu Ruyan told Gu Moran that Yang Tie used girls' menstrual blood to refine Red Lead Pills and had selected Tiedan, whose birth hour was of extreme yang, as a catalyst.
• Liu Ruyan reported that Lady Wang had unknowingly supplied Yang Tie's residence for years, and Gu Moran thanked her for her work.
• Uncle Fu announced Zhen Daijin's triumphant return, and the next morning Gu Moran welcomed him and ordered the captured Tubo soldiers made government slaves.
• The system warned Gu Moran that Zhao Wuxu was planning a scheme involving a child, and Gu Moran suspected he meant to use Tiedan to win Lady Wang's and Yun Zhengze's favor.
• Zhao Wuxu and Pu Yunshan put Tiedan in a drugged sack and carried him away while Xue Huan and Song Wan watched under Gu Moran's orders.
• Tiedan ate pastry inside the sack, and Song Wan sent a courier to report that the plan had caught Zhao Wuxu and that Tiedan was safe.

Zhao Wuxu abducted Tiedan and planned to cripple him, frame Pu Yunshan, and use the scheme to gain the Yun Clan’s fortune. Tiedan woke inside the sack and learned Zhao Wuxu meant to kill him, while an unknown sound came from the roof.

• Zhao Wuxu and Pu Yunshan hid Tiedan in a ruined temple and planted objects from Prince Yi's Residence to implicate it in the kidnapping.
• Pu Yunshan left to check for pursuers and buy food, while Zhao Wuxu prepared to cripple Tiedan and blame Pu Yunshan.
• Tiedan pretended to be unconscious as Zhao Wuxu drew a blade and confessed that Tiedan stood in his way to the Yun Clan fortune.
• Tiedan woke and struggled as Zhao Wuxu opened the sack, then insisted he did not want the Yun Clan’s wealth.
• Zhao Wuxu raised his blade and told Tiedan he would cripple him and make everyone believe Pu Yunshan had done it.

Lady Wang and her companions found Zhao Wuxu about to cripple and kill Tiedan, and she rescued her son and confronted Zhao Wuxu. When Zhao Wuxu attacked her, Pu Yunshan killed him, then worried that he would be punished.

• Lady Wang arrived at the temple with Shen Ling'er, Yun Shuyue, and guards, and caught Zhao Wuxu holding a knife to Tiedan's wrist.
• Lady Wang slapped Zhao Wuxu, then freed Tiedan and embraced him as he offered her pastry crumbs.
• Tiedan told Yun Shuyue that Zhao Wuxu had tried to cut him and called him a bastard.
• Zhao Wuxu grabbed his knife and lunged at Lady Wang, intending to take her hostage.
• Pu Yunshan rushed in and stabbed Zhao Wuxu, then slashed his neck, killing him.
• Pu Yunshan sheathed his sword and worried that he would be punished for killing Zhao Wuxu in front of witnesses.

Murong Xue and Lin Qingdai arrived as Pu Yunshan killed Zhao Wuxu, and Yun Zhengze discovered that Tiedan was his lost son. Gu Moran defended the killing before Yun Zhengze, then gained mid-fourth-rank cultivation from the system.

• Murong Xue and Lin Qingdai dropped into the temple after Pu Yunshan killed Zhao Wuxu, revealing they had followed him and helped keep watch over Tiedan.
• Yun Zhengze arrived and learned from Lady Wang that Tiedan was their son, Wangchuan; he confirmed the boy’s distinctive birthmark, but Tiedan said he wanted only Sister Yun and the prince.
• Gu Moran entered and checked that Tiedan was unharmed, then Yun Zhengze demanded an explanation for Zhao Wuxu’s death.
• Gu Moran argued that Zhao Wuxu had abducted Yun Zhengze’s own son and that Pu Yunshan had prevented further harm.
• The system announced that Zhao Wuxu’s fate line had been severed and rewarded Gu Moran with mid-fourth-rank cultivation.

Gu Moran pressured Yun Zhengze to conceal Zhao Wuxu’s death and let Tiedan remain at the prince's residence until he felt ready to return to the Yun Clan. Tiedan rejected Yun Zhengze and Lady Wang, then went home with Yun Shuyue as Gu Moran began to reveal something else.

• Gu Moran told Yun Zhengze to report Zhao Wuxu as a bandit killed by Pu Hua, and Yun Zhengze agreed to keep the Yun Clan’s disgrace private.
• Gu Moran sentenced Pu Yunshan to another three months hauling night soil, while Murong Xue and Lin Qingdai teased him.
• Yun Zhengze tried to take Tiedan home, but Tiedan kicked him, clung to Gu Moran, and refused to go with either Yun Zhengze or Lady Wang.
• Gu Moran advised Yun Zhengze to let Tiedan stay at the prince's residence and visit until the boy was willing to acknowledge him; Yun Zhengze agreed.
• Tiedan went home with Yun Shuyue, and Gu Moran told Yun Zhengze there was something else he should know.

Gu Moran revealed that Yun Shuyue had saved and cared for Tiedan, leaving Yun Zhengze and Lady Wang unable to respond. Meanwhile, Chen Qing mistook Yang Tie’s pill-making for a means to counter Prince Yi’s supposed witchcraft and went to recruit him, where Yang Tie agreed to hear him out.

• Gu Moran told Yun Zhengze that Yun Shuyue had fed, sheltered, and educated Tiedan, and Lady Wang could not bring herself to call Yun Shuyue her daughter.
• Chen Qing asked Gan Lingmu about Yang Tie and learned that the lumber merchant made medicinal pills and had many followers.
• Chen Qing decided Yang Tie could counter Prince Yi’s gu and dung-related schemes, then asked Gan Lingmu for directions to Yang Tie’s residence.
• Chen Qing arrived at Yang Tie’s back gate and warned the gatekeeper that Prince Yi had set his sights on the Yang Family.
• Yang Tie ordered the servants to bring Chen Qing in and studied the strange visitor.

Chen Qing persuaded Yang Tie to cooperate with Prince An by claiming his pills could counter Prince Yi’s gu, while both men mistook the other for a useful ally. At Prince Yi’s Residence, Gu Moran went to the pharmacy late at night under the pretext of seeking a consultation with Shen Ling'er.

• Chen Qing claimed to be a confidant of both Prince An and Prince Yi and told Yang Tie that Prince Yi was refining Heavenly Fire Poison Gu.
• Chen Qing offered Yang Tie Prince An’s backing and silver in exchange for pills that could counter Prince Yi’s supposed dark arts.
• Yang Tie gave Chen Qing six virility pills and then ordered his subordinate to investigate Chen Qing and watch the new maids.
• Chen Qing left to report his supposed discovery to the Second Prince in Anyang.
• Gu Moran, troubled by heat surging through his body, learned that Shen Ling'er was still in the pharmacy and hurried there for a consultation.

Gu Moran visited the dispensary claiming to need treatment for excess heart fire, but his flirtation with Shen Ling'er was interrupted by Su Yao, Lin Qingdai, and Murong Xue. The women gathered around him as Su Yao mocked his excuse and Murong Xue discovered how hot he felt when she touched him.

• Gu Moran asked Shen Ling'er to examine him, and she diagnosed him with vigorous qi and blood and prescribed quiet rest.
• Gu Moran embraced Shen Ling'er by the medicine cabinet and pressed her to find another cure before Su Yao entered.
• Su Yao brought calming incense, teased Gu Moran about his supposed heart fire, and told him to speak less.
• Lin Qingdai and Murong Xue appeared at the window, and Gu Moran invited them inside for an examination.
• Murong Xue challenged Gu Moran's claim that he felt unwell, touched his hot chest, and he caught her wrist, saying her cool hands could calm his fire.

Gu Moran teased the four consorts in the apothecary before thanking Murong Xue and Lin Qingdai for helping prevent Tiedan's life from being ruined. He admitted that he had let Zhao Wuxu expose himself to Yun Zhengze, then left the women exasperated as he sought comfort through hugs.

• Gu Moran flirted with Lin Qingdai, Murong Xue, Shen Ling'er, and Su Yao in the apothecary, and Su Yao made him swallow a calming incense pill.
• Gu Moran thanked Murong Xue and Lin Qingdai for protecting Tiedan from Zhao Wuxu and Pu Yunshan.
• Murong Xue questioned Gu Moran about his martial progress, and he credited his training and the consorts' support.
• Lin Qingdai challenged Gu Moran for using Tiedan as bait, and he promised to remember her warning.
• Gu Moran pulled Lin Qingdai, Shen Ling'er, and Su Yao into hugs while Murong Xue mocked his excuses and asked if his legs were weak.

After Gu Moran spent the night in the dispensary with Su Yao, Murong Xue, Lin Qingdai, and Shen Ling'er, Chisang abandoned a direct assault on Jiannan Circuit and ordered an attack on Dali's border stockades. The chapter ended with Gu Moran leaving the exhausted women to rest while hiding Murong Xue's whip.

• Su Yao and the others stayed with Gu Moran in the dispensary through the night, keeping him from going out while he suffered from excessive heart fire.
• Chisang learned that Yi Prefecture's forces had ambushed and defeated three thousand Tubo light cavalry near North Post.
• After weighing the danger and cost of attacking Jiannan Circuit, Chisang ordered twenty thousand troops to march south and seize Dali's border stockades for supplies.
• At dawn, Su Yao, Murong Xue, Lin Qingdai, and Shen Ling'er scolded Gu Moran about the previous night as he arranged food and medicine and told Uncle Fu to keep people from disturbing them.
• Gu Moran left the dispensary with Murong Xue's whip tucked into his sleeve as she demanded it back.

Gu Moran released the Green City death warriors and accepted Pu Yunshan’s pledge of loyalty, gaining enhanced martial perception and a special physique. At a New Year porridge shelter, Lady Lü’s charitable display was interrupted when word spread that rice prices had doubled.

• Pu Yunshan asked Gu Moran for work tending the prisoners in the residence’s dungeon.
• Gu Moran revealed that the eight Green City death warriors had been cleaned, given supplies, and allowed to return home.
• Pu Yunshan knelt to apologize and pledged to serve Gu Moran, causing his hostility to reach zero and earning Gu Moran new rewards.
• Gu Moran told Pu Yunshan to help repair roofs in the shantytown and said the residence would buy his piglet at market price.
• Lady Lü distributed porridge at the west gate while attendants read aloud the donations to Prince An’s Residence.
• A man rushed from the city to announce that rice prices had doubled, and the crowd at the porridge shelter fell into chaos.