Recaps

Gu Moran reached Yi Prefecture and began using his knowledge and his companions’ plans to improve the residence, build businesses, and strengthen local ties. As Mixue Ice City opened and Yun Shuyue entered the story again, Prince An’s spies mistook Gu Moran for a powerless figurehead.

• On the riverboat, Gu Moran secretly grew closer to Xie Wanqing and Liu Ruyan while the women teased him with romance novels and Shen Ling'er prescribed bitter medicine.
• At Black Wind Pass, Yun Shuyue’s bandits stopped Gu Moran’s convoy, and Gu Moran learned that Zhao Wuxu planned to betray Yun Shuyue and destroy her clan.
• Tuoba Mang found Zhao Wuxu near Black Wind Stronghold and drove him away, while Yun Shuyue moved the stronghold’s children and elderly to safer places.
• Gu Moran entered Yi Prefecture pretending to be ill, then studied Si Renyou and Zhen Daijin’s motives and assessed the old princely residence with his companions.
• After Zhao Wuxu’s destiny line was severed, Gu Moran received construction expertise and business knowledge, used the books hidden in the residence to plan improvements, and named the new tea shop Mixue Ice City.
• Gu Moran shared drainage, ventilation, and granary plans with Si Renyou and Zhen Daijin, while Su Yao and the women organized businesses and infrastructure projects across Yi Prefecture.
• Su Yao and the women disguised themselves to prepare Mixue Ice City’s opening, while Tiedan led children through the city singing its jingle and handing out fruit tea.
• Su Yao hired Yun Shuyue as an express courier without exposing her identity, while Gu Moran let Prince An’s spies believe he was a powerless figurehead.

Gu Moran turned Mixue Ice City's growth and Prince An's funds into support for troops, roads, and supply plans. His household sheltered Yun Shuyue and gained her father's salt-dealing ledger, leaving Yun Zhengze at the residence's door.

• Gu Moran used Chen Qing's infatuation with Batuer to secure Mixue Ice City's protection and obtain funds from Prince An.
• Gu Moran recruited Yun Shuyue's Black Wind Stronghold bandits for roadwork in exchange for food, lodging, and clothing.
• Chen Qing defeated Zhao Wuxu's inspection party, and Gu Moran forced Lady Wang to withdraw after her guards injured Yun Shuyue.
• Gu Moran assigned Chen Qing to horse management and secured Si Renyou and Zhen Daijin's support for salt, supply, and road projects.
• Su Yao and the household sold Gu Moran's poems, and Gu Moran proposed funding road repairs through merchant naming rights and toll shares.
• Su Yao exposed the ambush awaiting Yun Shuyue at her father's residence, and Yun Shuyue pledged herself to the household after it offered to support Black Wind Stronghold's children.
• Yun Shuyue gave Gu Moran the ledger implicating Yun Zhengze in illicit salt-permit dealings in exchange for a thirty-percent non-cash stake in the Land of Abundance Granary.
• Yun Zhengze visited Prince Yi's Residence and found Yun Shuyue holding a taro behind the household's women while Gu Moran's robes hung open.

Gu Moran expanded Yi Prefecture’s waterworks, broke through a mountain barrier with explosives, and forged stronger iron while political plots gathered around him. After veterans fled Prince An’s humiliating performances, Gu Moran recruited them into Tailwind Express and began organizing heavy-goods transport.

• Gu Moran secured Yun Zhengze’s cooperation by offering to return the salt-tax ledger while preserving Yun Shuyue’s shares, and Yun Shuyue signed a contract to remain at Prince Yi’s Residence.
• Gu Moran planned a filtered water system with Fang Bi, while Xue Huan brought 108 men and captured bandits into Gu Moran’s service.
• Gu Moran and his workers began the waterworks at Ten-Li Slope, where Yun Shuyue uncovered a spring, and Xue Huan’s men caught Gan Lingmu’s servants sabotaging the project.
• Gu Moran used Subduing Fire Thunder to blast a breach through Severed Dragon Ridge, then produced stronger iron that sped up the canal work and equipped trusted soldiers.
• Gu Moran gave Si Renyou a cover story for the blasting and ironmaking, while Gu Mochen pursued his human-pyramid spectacle and Prince An mistreated Anyang’s veterans.
• Zhi Tianfeng led eighty discharged veterans from Anyang to Yi Prefecture, where Gu Moran recruited them into Murong Xue’s Tailwind Express Brigade instead of making them soldiers.
• Zhi Tianfeng, Zhen Shizhong, and the veterans began courier work and earned delivery pay, while Gu Moran assigned infantrymen to carry heavy loads up and down a steep slope.

Gu Moran exposed a false plague accusation, improved Yi Prefecture’s sanitation, and uncovered a Tubo plot while secretly preparing to rally the Liu Clan Army. As the fireworks festival approached, the imperial court’s succession tensions escalated into an attack on Gu Nianli.

• Gu Moran proved that a dead man had been killed in a brawl, exposing a paid attempt to blame Tailwind Express and persuading the merchants to fund public works.
• Gu Moran organized sanitation patrols and a lottery to encourage public toilet use, while Tubo spy Ge'er Lalong was caught and revealed plans to capture Prince Yi and kill Gu Moran.
• Gu Moran and Si Renyou prepared a secret fireworks signal to summon surviving Liu Clan Army soldiers, and the estate’s women discussed the dangers of admitting new allies.
• At the fireworks demonstration, merchants bid for advertising displays as Chen Qing mistook the sanitation work and supplies for preparations to make witch soldiers and reported his suspicions to Gu Mochen.
• Gu Mochen urged the emperor to investigate Yi Prefecture, while Chen Qinglan told Gu Moyuan that the empress might discard him and he began writing to Consort Xian.
• The emperor ordered an investigation into Prince Yi and Chen Qing, then allowed Gu Moyuan to attend the year-end banquet after receiving his letter.
• Gu Nianli repeated his mother’s insult about Gu Moyuan’s fertility, and Gu Moyuan struck the child in the forehead with the jade chessboard, prompting Consort Xian to accuse the empress of ruining her son.