Chapter Summaries

Meng Jiuning and Wang Batian entered Yi Prefecture, where Meng recognized Prince Yi Gu Moran at a teahouse. Wang Batian tried to buy a thousand jin of the teahouse’s prized white sugar, and Su Yao began presenting him with a steep bill for transporting it to war-torn Dali.

• Meng Jiuning observed Yi Prefecture’s orderly streets, while Wang Batian dismissed the city’s good governance as a show.
• At Listening to the Rain Tower, Meng recognized Gu Moran behind a bamboo curtain from a portrait she had seen before leaving Dali.
• Wang Batian tasted the teahouse’s Snow Crystal Powder and demanded to buy a thousand jin of it.
• Gu Moran told Su Yao to let Wang Batian learn that goods in Yi Prefecture could not be taken simply by pounding a table.
• Su Yao itemized production, packaging, freight, escort, and other costs, bringing the total to 873 wen per jin.

Wang Batian tried to buy a thousand jin of Snow Crystal Powder without enough money, then boasted about his saber to avoid admitting he was broke. When Su Yao calmly explained the payment options, he lost his temper and raised his saber against the trading house’s counter, but Pu Yunshan rushed to stop him.

• Su Yao told Wang Batian that the order and risk deposit would cost 2,619 guan, far more than he had brought.
• Wang Batian boasted that his saber, Mountain Severer, was a legendary weapon and offered it as collateral.
• Su Yao said the saber could fetch at most 300 guan and offered horses, installments with interest, or a free sample instead.
• Meng Jiuning urged Wang Batian to leave the purchase for another time, but he insisted that he would buy it.
• Wang Batian erupted in anger, drew his saber, and prepared to cleave the rosewood counter.
• Pu Yunshan rushed forward and met the saber aura with his wood saw.

Pu Yunshan, a carpenter in Yi Prefecture, stopped Wang Batian’s saber strike with a saw and cared more about the damaged table and tool than the confrontation. Meng Jiuning apologized for Wang and, watching the orderly city and its powerful craftsman, grew convinced that Yi Prefecture and Prince Yi concealed formidable strength.

• Wang Batian’s heavy saber struck Pu Yunshan’s saw, but Pu Yunshan held firm and prevented the blow from reaching the table.
• Pu Yunshan examined the scratch in the Hainan rosewood, repaired the saw’s teeth, and ignored Wang Batian’s attempts to command his attention.
• Meng Jiuning noticed the guards’ discipline, the refined sugar served at the tea shop, and Pu Yunshan’s strength, raising her estimate of Yi Prefecture and Prince Yi.
• Pu Yunshan recognized Wang Batian as a guest from out of town and returned to his work after speaking briefly with Su Yao.
• Meng Jiuning told Wang Batian to sheath his saber, apologized to the tea patrons, and agreed to pay compensation.
• Meng Jiuning studied the figure behind the bamboo blind and concluded that Yi Prefecture was full of hidden experts.

Meng Jiuning sought an audience with Prince Yi to negotiate aid and trade for Dali, but was told to take a number and wait. Gu Moran discovered that Wang Batian and Meng Jiuning had extraordinary original fates, including romances with women and enemies, and was horrified by the plots.

• Meng Jiuning prepared to meet Prince Yi and coached Wang Batian that their identities should not be revealed too soon.
• Meng Jiuning formally praised Prince Yi’s governance, apologized for Wang Batian’s behavior, and requested an audience to discuss trade.
• A woman behind the curtain told Meng Jiuning to register, take a number, and wait behind three merchants.
• Gu Moran recognized the voice as Xie Wanqing’s and approved of her decision to test Meng Jiuning’s patience.
• Gu Moran read Wang Batian’s original fate, which described his relentless pursuit of Lin Qingdai and their eventual life together.
• Gu Moran discovered that Meng Jiuning was Dali’s princess and that her original fate involved falling in love with the general who had slaughtered her family, then rebuilding Dali with him.

Gu Moran discovered that Meng Jiuning was Dali’s princess and used her account of the journey to map Tubo’s deployments. He recognized that Tubo planned to take Dali and then threaten Yi Prefecture, and left Meng Jiuning facing the price of his military aid.

• Gu Moran saw that Meng Jiuning’s fate line had deviated but remained vulnerable, and considered severing her connection to a Tubo commander for the system’s promised rewards.
• Gu Moran invited Meng Jiuning into the private seating area and identified her as a princess of Dali.
• Gu Moran questioned Meng Jiuning about the Tubo forces and terrain she had observed while traveling to Yi Prefecture.
• Meng Jiuning described the garrisons, burned villages, and blocked roads, while Su Yao and Xie Wanqing recorded the details on the map.
• Gu Moran connected the garrison positions and concluded that Tubo planned to conquer Dali and threaten Yi Prefecture from the south.
• Meng Jiuning asked Gu Moran to send troops to save Dali, and he agreed only if she accepted his price.

Meng Jiuning negotiated with Gu Moran for Great Yan to send troops to save Dali, agreeing to a trade route security contract that gave Yi Prefecture control of customs revenue and copper mines. She offered to remain in Yi Prefecture as a hostage while Wang Batian was sent to join the army bound for Dali.

• Gu Moran reminded Meng Jiuning that Dali had repeatedly wavered between Great Yan and Tubo, and rejected her offer of ten percent of the southern route's customs duties.
• Gu Moran presented a contract granting Yi Prefecture twenty years of southern-route customs revenue, rights to three copper mines, and permission to station a Trade Route Guard in Dali.
• Meng Jiuning signed the contract with her blood and offered to stay in Yi Prefecture as a hostage responsible for carrying it out.
• Gu Moran ordered Wang Batian to go with Xue Huan to the camp outside the city so the army could be sent to Dali.
• Gu Moran told Meng Jiuning she would live under supervision in the princely residence's outer courtyard, and she fell silent after asking whether he intended to keep her under surveillance.

Wang Batian witnessed Great Yan’s military formation and Heaven-Shaking Thunder, then realized how much power Dali’s contract might give Gu Moran. Elsewhere, Shen Ling’er’s review of Madam Shen’s records led Gu Moran to suspect she had been poisoned.

• Xue Huan delivered the order for Zhen Daijin to lead twenty thousand troops to aid Dali, while Wang Batian questioned whether the force was sufficient.
• Wang Batian entered Zhen Daijin’s shield formation and stopped when crossbow bolts threatened him, then admitted the veterans’ tactics had beaten him.
• Zhen Daijin demonstrated Heaven-Shaking Thunder, and Wang Batian was astonished by its destructive power and offered to stay with the army to learn about its weapons.
• Wang Batian watched the troops load their supplies and worried that Gu Moran wanted more than Dali’s copper mines and customs duties.
• Liu Ruyan brought old account books to Gu Moran, and Shen Ling’er explained that Madam Shen’s worsening symptoms did not fit ordinary postpartum weakness.
• Gu Moran asked whether someone had poisoned Madam Shen.

Shen Ling'er and Liu Ruyan reconstructed how Yang Tie may have helped Lady Wang poison Madam Shen and exploit the Yun Clan's wagons, but they lacked proof. Gu Moran arranged to show Yun Zhengze the evidence privately, and Yun Zhengze arrived at Prince Yi's Residence with Lady Wang the next afternoon.

• Shen Ling'er identified a slow-acting poison that could have been administered in tea over several months.
• Liu Ruyan used Madam Shen's account book to link Yang Tie's wagon routes, missing girls, and contact with someone marked only by the character "Wang."
• Liu Ruyan and Shen Ling'er deduced that Lady Wang may have poisoned Madam Shen with Yang Tie's help, but acknowledged that the evidence was circumstantial.
• Gu Moran decided to show Yun Zhengze Shen Ling'er's medical record, Yang Tie's old accounts, and the spirit paper shop's records, then let him choose what to do.
• Yun Zhengze arrived at Prince Yi's Residence with Lady Wang, carrying a wooden donkey for Tiedan, while Lady Wang brought gifts and asked to see her son.

Gu Moran and Shen Ling'er revealed that Tiedan had been abused as a drug-testing slave and that Yun Zhengze's late wife was poisoned after uncovering Yang Tie's trafficking operation. Yun Zhengze left to investigate the suspected accomplice in his household and find evidence that could save Tiedan.

• Lady Wang visited Tiedan with pastries and clothes, but he stayed close to Yun Shuyue and asked whether her gift contained chicken drumsticks or gold.
• Gu Moran asked Yun Zhengze to consult old transport records, then Shen Ling'er showed him Tiedan's medical record and explained his lasting organ damage from being used as a drug-testing slave.
• Gu Moran identified Yang Tie as the person who abused Tiedan and showed Yun Zhengze a ledger linking Yang Tie's timber convoys to reports of missing girls.
• Gu Moran and Shen Ling'er revealed that Yun Zhengze's late wife had discovered the trafficking and was poisoned with tainted calming tea.
• Gu Moran explained that Yang Tie had used Tiedan as leverage over an accomplice in the Yun household and said the evidence was still incomplete.
• Yun Zhengze left the study to question those in his household and pursue the evidence needed to obtain the antidote formula for Tiedan.

Yun Zhengze and Gu Moran confronted Lady Wang about Wangchuan’s poisoning and linked it to the poison that killed Madam Shen. Lady Wang confessed her connection to Yang Tie and revealed clues to his apothecary and trafficking operation.

• Yun Zhengze saw Tiedan enjoying the warmth of the household, while Gu Moran sent Yun Shuyue and the boy to the back courtyard.
• Yun Zhengze told Lady Wang that Wangchuan had been poisoned for years and needed the original formula to survive.
• Yun Zhengze confronted Lady Wang with the matching symptoms of Madam Shen and Wangchuan, then exposed her role in Madam Shen’s poisoning.
• Lady Wang blurted out Yang Tie’s name and confessed that she had helped conceal his activities, though she claimed she had not known he would abduct Wangchuan.
• Lady Wang revealed that Yang Tie used an apothecary near an abandoned well and timber wagons with hidden compartments to transport girls and children.

Yun Zhengze learned from Lady Wang that Yang Tie had fled and coordinated with Gu Moran’s forces to pursue him. At the mountain pass, Xue Huan confronted Yang Tie’s convoy, and a little girl’s muffled sob exposed the captives hidden among the supposed timber.

• Yun Zhengze ordered Lady Wang confined after she confessed, then learned that Tiedan’s life was not in danger and was urged to treat his daughter better.
• Gu Moran received word that a large convoy had left the Yang residence, and Liu Ruyan identified the old timber road as Yang Tie’s likely route.
• Yun Zhengze and Gu Moran split their forces to block the roads and ferry crossing; a messenger reported that three black-canopied carriages had gone west toward West Mountain.
• Yang Tie fled in one of the carriages with a box of formulas, accounts, powders, and pills, while two gagged girls were bound inside.
• Xue Huan’s crossbowmen blocked the mountain pass, and he accused Yang Tie of human trafficking and making prohibited drugs.
• A bound girl sobbed inside the second carriage, prompting Xue Huan to challenge Yang Tie’s claim that the wagons carried only timber.

Xue Huan's crossbowmen were ambushed while confronting Yang Tie, and a Tubo spy rescued the wounded Yang Tie and fled with the Red Lead Pills. Back at the princely residence, Gu Moran suspected Prince An had sent the death warriors and ordered their bodies displayed to unsettle him while avoiding a direct accusation.

• Xue Huan threatened Yang Tie's convoy, but demon-masked death warriors ambushed the group before Yang Tie could surrender.
• The Tubo spy revealed his identity, fought through the attackers, and escaped over a cliff with Yang Tie and the wooden box of Red Lead Pills.
• Xue Huan identified signs that the masked attackers had been trained as death warriors and came from Anyang, then ordered their bodies taken away.
• Xue Huan reported the ambush to Gu Moran and Yun Zhengze, who suspected Prince An had sent the attackers after a false claim about a Heavenly Fire Divine Pill.
• Gu Moran rejected Yun Zhengze's suggestion to report Prince An to the court and ordered the bodies publicly presented as mountain bandits, with news quietly passed to Anyang's informants.

Meng Jiuning tried to use a Dali secret art to probe the women in Prince Yi's Residence, but Shen Ling'er exposed her trick and Su Yao demanded payment for the tea gathering. The chapter ended with Su Yao asking whether Meng Jiuning would pay cash or charge the expense against Dali's future military aid.

• Gu Moran told Yun Zhengze that Yang Tie was only an alchemist and said he was curious how Chisang would use the pills.
• Meng Jiuning prepared tea for the women of Prince Yi's Residence and secretly released Heart-Seeking Gu into the tea mist to make them answer questions.
• Shen Ling'er brought in a pungent medicinal pot that destroyed the gu insects, warned Meng Jiuning not to drink the contaminated tea, and revealed that she had noticed the trick.
• Su Yao set down her abacus and itemized the costs and the residence's share for Meng Jiuning's tea gathering.
• Su Yao asked Meng Jiuning whether she would pay six hundred wen in cash or have it deducted from the military funds meant to aid Dali.

Meng Jiuning tried to win over the women of Prince Yi's Residence, but they exposed her scheme, demonstrated their knowledge and abilities, and left her completely outmatched. The chapter ended with her pride and scheming spirit breaking.

• Liu Ruyan revealed detailed knowledge of Marquis Mu's private collection, concubine, and conflict with Marquis Duan, shocking Meng Jiuning.
• Xie Wanqing warned Meng Jiuning that she would be welcome only if she worked for His Highness rather than trying to take advantage of the inner courtyard.
• Lin Qingdai sharpened her blade while Murong Xue challenged Meng Jiuning to prove she could fight and take a beating.
• Meng Jiuning realized that the women were a formidable team whose skills had defeated her attempt to manipulate them.
• Meng Jiuning's pride and scheming spirit finally snapped.

Meng Jiuning dropped her polite act and offered the women of Yi Prefecture detailed information about Dali’s trade routes and powerful families in exchange for support. Gu Moran arrived, but she realized the women—not him—controlled the prince’s residence, while Liu Ruyan kept a paper listing three important places in Dali.

• Meng Jiuning admitted that she had used Heart-Seeking Gu in the tea to learn who held influence in the prince’s residence and who might help her.
• Meng Jiuning offered a plan to share customs revenue and give Yi Prefecture priority passage along Dali’s southern trade routes.
• Meng Jiuning discussed Murong Xue’s and Lin Qingdai’s fighting skills, then gave Liu Ruyan information about the secret assets and dealings of Dali’s nobles and generals.
• Meng Jiuning said she wanted benefits, troops, and a chance to take control of Dali, admitting she had used Gu because she was afraid to trust anyone.
• Gu Moran entered the warm chamber but left the women to continue their discussion, and Meng Jiuning realized they ran the prince’s residence.
• Liu Ruyan held down a paper bearing the place names Mojie City, Jingtai City, and Moon Spring.

Meng Jiuning offered Su Yao intelligence on Dali’s southern routes in exchange for protection for her younger brothers, while Chen Qing spun elaborate theories about Prince An’s actions as he recovered from his beating. Chen Qing learned that Yang Tie had disappeared with the divine medicine after a clash involving Prince An’s men, and that a Tubo hunter had taken him.

• Meng Jiuning gave Liu Ruyan information about Deng Yue and the women taken along the southern relay stations.
• Meng Jiuning warned Su Yao that the copper mines required joint oversight and demanded that Prince An’s Residence protect her two younger brothers in exchange for her map and intelligence.
• Chen Qing claimed Prince An had staged his public disgrace and the grain crisis to expose powerful grain hoarders, though Batuer doubted his theories.
• Chen Qing asked Batuer to fetch Yang Tie and the second batch of divine medicine, but Batuer said Yang Tie had fled with the medicine and prescription.
• Batuer told Chen Qing that a Tubo hunter had taken Yang Tie after he encountered Prince An’s men, leaving Chen Qing shocked.

Chen Qing brought his wildly speculative theory about Prince Yi and Yang Tie to Gu Moran, then offered to defect and revealed that Prince An had sent him to spy on Yi Prefecture. Gu Moran asked what he had discovered, leaving Chen Qing poised to report his findings.

• Chen Qing concluded that Gu Moran had let Yang Tie escape so the medicine could disrupt the Tubo army, while Batuer questioned his assumptions.
• Chen Qing insisted Prince An had arranged his beating to give him a pass into Tubo, then went with Batuer to meet Gu Moran.
• Chen Qing told Gu Moran that Prince An had sent him to collect Yang Tie's medicine and claimed Prince An's disgrace and the grain unrest were part of a larger scheme.
• Chen Qing accused Gu Moran of letting Yang Tie carry the medicine to Chisang to throw the Tubo troops into chaos, and Gu Moran praised his guess.
• Chen Qing offered his allegiance to Gu Moran and confessed that Prince An had sent him to monitor Yi Prefecture, including its canals, grain, troops, shops, and household ladies.
• Gu Moran asked Chen Qing what he had discovered.

Chen Qing gave Gu Moran five thousand taels and eagerly accepted a mission to stir up conflict among Tubo forces, while Gu Moran quietly arranged to keep him under watch. In the outer courtyard, Meng Jiuning and Yun Shuyue struggled to peel chestnuts as punishment and began bonding over their shared fear of Accountant Su.

• Chen Qing proposed that Gu Moran and Prince An had used the Tubo spies and dry-toxin pills in a layered plan, then offered five thousand taels from Prince An's treasury.
• Gu Moran praised Chen Qing, promised him a future in the Wenyuan Pavilion, and sent him toward the Tubo border with supplies and guards.
• After Chen Qing left, Gu Moran told Uncle Fu to have Xue Huan's men follow him and to give Batuer braised beef for holding back her reaction.
• Su Yao made Meng Jiuning peel chestnuts to earn her keep and Yun Shuyue peel a basket as punishment for stealing a taste of syrup.
• Meng Jiuning and Yun Shuyue injured themselves and ruined chestnuts while trying to peel them, then gave up and complained about Accountant Su.

Meng Jiuning bonded with Yun Shuyue while they worked in the cold courtyard, and Gu Moran unlocked and tested a new martial art before receiving an urgent report about a Tubo attack. The chapter ended with Bronze Gorge under surprise assault by two thousand elite cavalry.

• Meng Jiuning treated Yun Shuyue's cut, and the two shared fried dough twists while discussing how to evade Su Yao.
• Yun Shuyue asked whether Meng Jiuning had stayed because she liked Gu Moran, and Meng Jiuning denied it.
• Gu Moran received the Divine Finger Flick technique and the Turtle Breath and Qi Concealment Method after reaching an affection milestone.
• Gu Moran tested Divine Finger Flick by shooting a pebble through a thick nanmu window lattice without shaking its frame.
• Si Renyou and Fang Bi arrived with an urgent dispatch reporting that Tubo's cavalry had attacked Bronze Gorge with two thousand elite riders.

Gu Moran learned that Tubo forces had trapped a thousand Great Yan soldiers in Bronze Gorge, while rescuing them risked exposing Yi Prefecture to attack. After hearing of the crisis, Pu Yunshan decided to seek military merit so Qin Hongxiu could be freed from her lowborn status, leaving her pleading for him to stay safe.

• Si Renyou reported that two thousand Tubo troops had sealed Bronze Gorge around a thousand soldiers and their supplies.
• Gu Moran refused Fang Bi’s plan to send three thousand infantry, reasoning that a large deployment would expose the city and its supply routes to an ambush.
• Pu Yunshan worked on the Foot Care Hall while Qin Hongxiu worried about his sacrifices to repay the debt for her freedom.
• Tuoba Mang told Pu Yunshan and Qin Hongxiu that Tubo forces had trapped the soldiers at Bronze Gorge.
• Pu Yunshan resolved to earn military merit and win Qin Hongxiu freeborn status, and she caught his sleeve and begged him to remain safe.