Chapter Summaries

Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan went through a hidden passage to reach Su Tan, who had swallowed poison, before the Imperial City Bureau could find her. In the Eastern Palace, Gu Moyuan blamed Crown Princess Chen Qinglan for his confinement and punished her, while she endured his abuse and left in tears.

• Madam Chun told Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan that Su Tan had drunk poisoned wine and was barely alive in the abandoned wine cellar.
• Madam Chun explained that the Second Prince's Residence and the Imperial City Bureau were closing in on Tao Wujiu's trail, so Gu Moran agreed to help Liu Ruyan reach Su Tan while keeping her identity concealed.
• Gu Moran, Liu Ruyan, and Madam Chun entered an old water channel and secret passage leading toward the Flower-Between Pavilion's old storehouse.
• Gu Moyuan berated Chen Qinglan over her father's failure to oppose Third Brother's marriage alliances and blamed her family for his confinement.
• Gu Moyuan ordered Chen Qinglan to move to a side hall and cut her allowance in half, and she obeyed before leaving in tears.

Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan confronted Su Tan in a hidden wine cellar after her staged lovers’ suicide with Tao Wujiu. Gu Moran spotted signs of layered poison and exposed a flaw in Su Tan’s account, but the chapter ended before she answered his accusation.

• Madam Chun led Liu Ruyan and Gu Moran through a secret passage to find Su Tan recovering from poison in an abandoned wine cellar.
• Gu Moran used the Eye of Detection and learned that Su Tan feared the Second Prince’s Residence, the Imperial City Bureau, and her proprietor’s orders.
• Gu Moran warned Su Tan that the Imperial City Bureau would soon find Tao Wujiu’s body and urged her to tell the truth.
• Su Tan claimed Tao Wujiu had saved money to buy her freedom and that they drank poisoned wine together because they could not escape.
• Gu Moran examined the cup and hollow grass stem, then told Su Tan she had cleverly used the stem.

Gu Moran exposed that Su Tan had poisoned Tao Wujiu to keep him from using the Flower-Between Pavilion’s hidden pattern to entangle Liu Ruyan and the pavilion in the pill case. After Su Tan revealed a wax pellet hidden in her hairpin, Gu Moran planned to fake her death and send her away through a hidden channel as pursuers closed in.

• Gu Moran explained that the poisoned wine had settled at the bottom, showing that Su Tan had tricked Tao Wujiu into drinking the strongest poison.
• Su Tan said Tao Wujiu had marked a pill with the Flower-Between Pavilion’s hidden pattern to force the pavilion to protect him and implicate it in the pill case.
• Su Tan confessed that she had killed Tao Wujiu to protect Liu Ruyan and the pavilion, though she wanted to live.
• Su Tan removed a wax pellet concealed in her hairpin and handed it over after Liu Ruyan promised to do their best to protect her.
• The gray-robed woman warned that the Second Prince’s Residence and the Imperial City Bureau were approaching the hidden channel.
• Gu Moran ordered Madam Chun to stage Su Tan’s death and send her through the channel so she could escape the pursuers.

Gu Moran uncovered a broken seal from Grand Tutor Liu's old medicine storehouse inside the wax, linking Tao Wujiu's death and the poisoned pills to Liu Ruyan's past. After Su Tan revealed an abandoned well guarded by a mysterious half-person, Madam Chun said the Flower-Between Pavilion would investigate, and its hidden master was about to intervene.

• Gu Moran arranged for Su Tan to disappear and leave the poisoned wine behind so the Second Prince would believe she and Tao Wujiu had died together.
• Su Tan revealed that Tao Wujiu knew the old wax formula and that a sealed batch of old pills had been unsealed.
• Gu Moran found a medicine-wrapping slip inside the wax, bearing a broken seal that Madam Chun identified as belonging to Grand Tutor Liu's old medicine storehouse.
• Su Tan told Gu Moran that old wax was hidden beside an abandoned well in the east-side pill shop's rear courtyard, where a guard who counted as half a person watched it.
• Madam Chun said someone had gone to report the matter, while Gu Moran realized the Flower-Between Pavilion's hidden master was about to appear.
• Su Tan was taken away to live in hiding, and Liu Ruyan's affection for Gu Moran increased after he reassured her that they were husband and wife.

Gu Moran protected Su Tan and the Flower-Between Pavilion while keeping the Imperial City Bureau from finding the old storehouse too easily. Back at the Misty Waters Courtyard, Liu Ruyan invited him in and began explaining that their marriage had once felt like a transaction, leaving her confession unfinished.

• Madam Chun told Gu Moran that the Second Prince's Residence and the Imperial City Bureau had arrived, and he ordered her to let them discover the lovers' suicide gradually.
• Gu Moran told Liu Ruyan he had not handed Su Tan over because it would sever the trail to Tao Wujiu and disappoint her; he asked her not to hide things from him.
• Madam Chun led Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan through a secret passage to the Misty Waters Courtyard, where Liu Ruyan invited him to return quietly that night.
• Liu Ruyan brought Gu Moran inside, gave him tea, and said he did not owe her or need to repay her kindness with his body.
• Liu Ruyan recalled that she had heard Tao Wujiu call women's lives cheap and described how she once viewed marriage as a move from the Flower-Between Pavilion to Prince Yi's Residence, where she became Gu Moran's private plaything.

Liu Ruyan chose to consummate her marriage with Gu Moran, making clear that she wanted him to stay rather than repay a kindness. After easing her fears and agreeing to go slowly, Gu Moran heard her say she was ready.

• Liu Ruyan lit the bedside lamp, barred the door, and told Gu Moran she wanted him to stay.
• Gu Moran asked whether she was sure, and Liu Ruyan said she was willing to consummate their marriage.
• Liu Ruyan helped Gu Moran prepare for a bath, and he reassured her when she grew nervous.
• Liu Ruyan told Gu Moran she had no experience, and he promised to stop or slow down whenever she wanted.
• Liu Ruyan called him Gu Moran for the first time and said she was ready.

Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan grew closer during a night together, and he reassured her that he accepted her past and valued her as his wife. At dawn, Madam Chun reported a dispute over Tao Wujiu’s body and delivered the grand proprietor’s invitation to the old building, whose door was to be opened by someone from the Liu Clan.

• Gu Moran comforted Liu Ruyan as they became intimate, and she asked him to keep the bedside lamp lit.
• Afterward, Liu Ruyan voiced her fear that Gu Moran would look down on her because she came from the Flower-Between Pavilion, and he reassured her.
• Liu Ruyan’s affection rose to 68, and Gu Moran reflected on the trust and home he had built with the women in his life.
• Madam Chun told Gu Moran that the Second Prince’s Residence found Tao Wujiu’s body before the Imperial City Bureau arrived, and the two sides argued at the old storehouse.
• Madam Chun said Su Tan was still believed to have fallen into the water and gone missing, then invited Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan to the old building on the grand proprietor’s behalf.
• Madam Chun added that the grand proprietor wanted someone from the Liu Clan to open the old building’s door.

Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan met the hidden proprietor of the old building and learned that the Liu Clan had played a major role in the previous dynasty’s rebellion. The proprietor revealed that Gu Yuan had become emperor only after Lady Zheng persuaded Liu Xiao to step aside, but had not yet explained how she did it.

• Madam Chun led Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan through the back alleys to the old building while Uncle Fu waited outside.
• Liu Ruyan opened a box with her hairpin and found half a bronze military tally, old documents, a seal rubbing, and a roster.
• Gu Moran challenged the concealed proprietor to reveal himself, but the proprietor said he came from Gu Moran’s mother’s side and urged him to examine the token.
• The proprietor explained that Liu Xiao had raised an army, rescued Gu Yuan, and commanded rebel forces during the final years of the previous dynasty.
• The proprietor said Lady Zheng had personally persuaded Liu Xiao to step aside so Gu Yuan could ascend the throne, and Gu Moran asked what she had used to convince him.

Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan learned that the Liu Clan had surrendered its military power and later been exterminated on suspicion, despite no evidence of treason. As Liu Ruyan read the names of the dead, the person behind the screen warned Gu Moran that her growing hatred would ultimately be directed at someone close to him.

• The person behind the screen told Gu Moran that Liu Xiao had given the throne to Gu Yuan despite commanding a hundred thousand cavalry, and that the Liu Clan had later been exterminated after the founding emperor died.
• Liu Ruyan asked what had happened to her family, and the person behind the screen directed her to records about the court factions after the founding emperor's death.
• Gu Moran learned that Liu Xiao, Liu Huaijin, and Noble Consort Chen had helped his father ascend the throne, and that his mother had been forced into the palace despite longing to travel the realm.
• Liu Ruyan read a secret investigation stating that the Liu Clan retained influence but offering no proof of treason, and learned that the imperial decree had taken the family by surprise.
• Madam Chun showed Liu Ruyan a list of the Liu household's dead, and Liu Ruyan insisted on reading every name she could remember.
• The person behind the screen urged Gu Moran to stop Liu Ruyan, warning that her hatred would eventually fall upon someone whose identity he knew.

Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan learned that the old pavilion had uncovered surviving members of the Liu Clan’s network and a former elixir keeper in Old Well Alley. Gu Moran agreed to help Liu Ruyan investigate, but the person behind the screen warned that Prince Yi's Residence needed powerful leverage to deter an attack.

• Gu Moran told Liu Ruyan that she could decide whom to hate, but staying alive had to come first.
• The person behind the screen revealed that the Liu Clan's old network had been opened because Tao Wujiu was dead and the Second Prince's Residence and Imperial City Bureau were investigating the old pavilion.
• Gu Moran demanded to know which Liu Clan retainers were still alive, and Madam Chun gave Liu Ruyan a list of former students, contacts, and descendants.
• Gu Moran learned that a former elixir keeper had been found in Old Well Alley and recognized that the man could be a witness or a target.
• Liu Ruyan insisted on going with Gu Moran to see the elixir keeper, and Gu Moran agreed on the condition that she follow his arrangements.
• The person behind the screen warned Gu Moran that protecting his household required leverage strong enough to prevent anyone from raiding it.

Gu Moran learned that Liu Huaijin, Liu Ruyan’s father and a key witness in the old Liu case, was alive and hiding. After learning that the Second Prince’s Residence and the Imperial City Bureau were racing to seize a wounded witness in Old Well Alley, Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan rushed there and found an injured old man guarding the well.

• Gu Moran used the restored Destiny Monitoring Eye and discovered Liu Huaijin was alive behind the screen, though Liu Huaijin refused to meet Liu Ruyan.
• A covert operative reported that forces from the Second Prince’s Residence and the Imperial City Bureau had reached the east of the city, while a wounded man near a well was under attack.
• Liu Huaijin directed Gu Moran to the third well in Old Well Alley and warned him not to let either faction question or take the man, who would recognize a bronze token.
• Madam Chun led Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan through a shortcut, and Gu Moran took Liu Ruyan by horse toward Old Well Alley with his death warriors hidden nearby.
• Gu Moran found two unconscious men in the shop’s backyard and an injured old man guarding the well; the old man mistook him for another agent of the Second Prince.

Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan found Han Che, a surviving Liu Clan gunpowder craftsman who had engineered the longevity-pill plot to expose the emperor and avenge the Liu Clan. As the Imperial City Bureau closed in, Gu Moran escaped with Tao Wujiu's testimony while Han Che stayed behind to make himself evidence.

• Han Che revealed that he had rescued Tao Wujiu and supplied the pills and formula that led the Second Prince to present them to the emperor.
• Gu Moran's Eye of Monitoring showed Han Che's loyalty to the Liu Clan and his plan to die as evidence that could implicate the Second Prince's Residence.
• Han Che uncovered old wax molds, furnace accounts, pills, and Tao Wujiu's testimony, then told Gu Moran to take the testimony and protect Liu Ruyan.
• Gu Moran took the testimony and promised to keep Liu Ruyan safe, while Liu Ruyan told Han Che that she trusted him.
• Han Che insisted on staying behind, then dropped a wooden barrier and released choking medicinal smoke to delay the pursuers as Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan headed for the back gate.

Gu Moran and Liu Ruyan escaped after Han Che died publicly accusing the Second Prince’s Residence of plotting against the emperor and framing the Liu Clan. At the Imperial Medical Bureau, Elder Shen warned Chu Tianxing not to reveal the emperor’s prognosis carelessly, but Chu Tianxing responded by proposing they become sworn brothers.

• Gu Moran led Liu Ruyan out through the back door while Han Che stayed behind and died after accusing the Second Prince and defending the Liu Clan.
• The Imperial City Bureau found the Second Prince’s spies, an old wax mold, and pill-furnace accounts beside Han Che’s body, then ordered the evidence recorded and the spies taken away.
• Gu Moran told Liu Ruyan that Han Che had meant for everyone to witness his death and hear the accusation that the second prince offered pills to murder the emperor.
• Elder Shen warned Chu Tianxing that telling the emperor he had only two years left could get him killed, and advised him to say the pills were harmful and the emperor’s health could improve.
• Chu Tianxing praised Elder Shen and asked him to become his sworn brother, promising that they would live and die together.

Chu Tianxing rehearsed careful answers with Elder Shen before appearing before the emperor to discuss the harmful elixirs. In the Hall of Supreme Ultimate, Chu Tianxing explained their effects and assured the emperor that stopping them and recuperating could restore his health.

• Elder Shen warned Chu Tianxing to avoid reckless remarks and coached him on three statements about the elixirs, the emperor’s health, and reviewing future formulas.
• Chu Tianxing practiced the statements and asked whether he would be fed or rewarded at the imperial audience, prompting Elder Shen to worry about his loose tongue.
• The emperor summoned Chu Tianxing and asked what was wrong with the elixirs and how much time he had left.
• Chu Tianxing began to say “Two” but, after Elder Shen coughed, changed his answer to the elixirs’ two harmful effects.
• Chu Tianxing told the emperor that the elixirs damaged his qi, blood, and spirit, but that stopping them and recuperating could restore his health.

After Chu Tianxing’s warning about elixir poisoning, the emperor ordered an investigation and restricted the princes from contacting him. When Lu Huaizhang accused Gu Moran’s wives of linking six powerful families to Prince Yi’s Residence, Gu Moran proposed a registry for all such family dealings and demanded that the same scrutiny apply to the Crown Prince, the Second Prince, and senior officials.

• Elder Shen confirmed that Chu Tianxing’s medical reasoning was sound, and the emperor ordered the Imperial City Bureau and Imperial Medical Bureau to continue investigating the elixirs.
• The emperor faulted Gu Mochen for failing to track the elixirs’ chain of custody and barred princes from contacting Chu Tianxing privately until the case was resolved.
• Lu Huaizhang accused Gu Moran’s six wives of strengthening Prince Yi’s Residence through frequent visits and correspondence with their natal families.
• Gu Moran defended the wives’ ordinary family dealings and argued that the influential families were protecting themselves from being implicated in his troubles.
• Gu Moran offered to register his wives’ visits, gifts, letters, and guests with the Imperial Clan Court every three days, then demanded that the same rules apply to the Crown Prince, the Second Prince, and officials of the fifth rank and above.

Gu Moran turned Lu Huaizhang’s impeachment into a demand for an empire-wide household audit, forcing the emperor to rebuke Lu and order Gu Moran’s household to behave. In the Eastern Palace, Chen Qinglan accepted further cuts to her allowance and surrendered the treasury keys, but Matron Cui then searched her dowry chests for a missing gold ruyi.

• Gu Moran argued that account books, gatehouse records, and carriage traffic should be checked in every titled household, and he answered objections by pointing out that investigating only Prince Yi's Residence would invite suspicion.
• The emperor scolded Lu Huaizhang for his memorial and told Gu Moran to warn the six women in his household not to overreach.
• Chen Qinglan learned that the crown prince had received a representative from the Qin family and saw the family’s military connections as a possible path into the Ministry of War.
• Matron Cui reduced Chen Qinglan’s charcoal allowance, removed pastries and supper meat, and took charge of the Eastern Palace inner treasury keys.
• Matron Cui announced that a gold ruyi was missing and began searching Chen Qinglan’s dowry chests despite Caiwei’s protest.

After Matron Cui searched her rooms and humiliated her on the crown prince’s orders, Chen Qinglan went to the Hall of Proper Beauty and overheard him plotting with an adviser to free Xiao Jinghan during a general amnesty and trade her position for Qin Jingzhi’s support. She returned to her side hall and ordered Caiwei to grind ink, preparing to seek help.

• Matron Cui searched Chen Qinglan’s belongings, and Chen Qinglan told Caiwei to stop crying and prepare ginseng soup.
• Chen Qinglan went to the Hall of Proper Beauty despite her injured leg, where a eunuch warned her the crown prince was in a temper.
• From outside the room, Chen Qinglan overheard the crown prince and his adviser plan to stage Xiao Jinghan’s death in a prison fire and use him to target Prince Yi’s Residence.
• Chen Qinglan heard that Qin Jingzhi would support the crown prince in exchange for a path through the Ministry of War, while Miss Qin demanded a high rank in the Eastern Palace.
• The crown prince said he would remove Chen Qinglan from the principal consort position once the bargain succeeded, and Chen Qinglan withdrew without revealing she had heard.
• Back in the side hall, Chen Qinglan ordered Caiwei to grind ink, but Caiwei asked who could save her.

Chen Qinglan sent Chen Qingyuan a coded family letter, hoping it would reach someone who could understand her warning. At Prince Yi's Residence, Gu Moran discovered evidence that Shen Ling'er's parents had been killed after exposing the dangers of the longevity pills, and he hid that part of the testimony before Shen Ling'er arrived with medicine.

• Chen Qinglan wrote Chen Qingyuan a letter disguised as family chatter because she could not safely write to her father, and Caiwei carried it away.
• Gu Moran read Tao Wujiu's testimony linking the Second Prince's Residence, Han Che, old wax, and the Liu Clan's storehouse seal to the longevity pills.
• Gu Moran found that Shen Zhiheng and Wen Heng had entered the palace to test the pills, urged the court to stop using them, and died in a staged furnace fire whose aftermath concealed their bodies.
• Gu Moran split the testimony, keeping the Shen Family evidence separate until he could investigate further without endangering Shen Ling'er and Elder Shen.
• Shen Ling'er arrived at Gu Moran's study with medicine despite Uncle Fu warning that His Highness was occupied.

Shen Ling'er learned from Gu Moran's confession and an old copper bell that her parents had died in the palace pill furnace chamber, despite her grandfather telling her they were traveling. She realized Elder Shen had kept the truth from her for years by writing letters in her parents' names.

• Shen Ling'er saw her mother's name, Wen Heng, on Gu Moran's confession and demanded to read it.
• Gu Moran gave Shen Ling'er the confession, and she tested the old copper bell, revealing a palace pill furnace brand linked to the people named in the document.
• Shen Ling'er read that her parents had entered the palace pill furnace chamber, opposed the imperial medicine, and died in a fire, with their bodies never returned for burial.
• Shen Ling'er asked Gu Moran whether her parents had died long ago and whether Elder Shen had known the truth.
• Shen Ling'er recalled her grandfather's promises and the letters supposedly sent by her parents, realizing Elder Shen had written them himself.

Shen Ling'er learned from Tao Wujiu's testimony that her parents had been burned alive after opposing the emperor's life-draining pills, and she struggled to accept that Elder Shen had concealed the truth. Gu Moran comforted her and stopped her from confronting the emperor's agents prematurely, while she resolved to keep investigating the evidence.

• Shen Ling'er read Tao Wujiu's testimony describing how her parents identified the emperor's pills as life-draining and were trapped in the burning pill furnace chamber.
• Gu Moran urged Shen Ling'er to stop reading and warned that confronting Elder Shen or the emperor could endanger her family and Prince Yi's Residence.
• Shen Ling'er realized Elder Shen had hidden the truth to protect her when she was a child, though she still wanted answers from him.
• Gu Moran held Shen Ling'er as she mourned her parents and told her to leave the investigation to him for now.
• After steadying herself, Shen Ling'er decided to investigate the medicine, the furnace, and the old records step by step.