Chapter Summaries

Jin Shanyao savored Zhu Huaizhang’s apology and spent the New Year at Anzhi Hall with Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci. After the staff returned, Qing Yang reported that Lush Mountain and the First Manor were being managed well under Tao Yunshan.

• Jin Shanyao laughed over Zhu Huaizhang’s apology, while Meng Anzhi and Qing He realized how deeply the false accusations had affected her.
• On the twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month, Jin Shanyao gave the Anzhi Hall staff leave and red envelopes, leaving herself and the Meng siblings to celebrate the New Year.
• Meng Anzhi cooked dumplings with Meng Anci, and the three shared a festive meal and stayed up together to welcome the New Year.
• Qing He and Qing Yang returned on the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, and Qing Yang reported that Tao Yunshan had kept the workers in order and Lush Mountain tidy.
• Meng Anzhi noted that Tao Yunshan had improved after the incident with Feng Shun, while Meng Anci said he should be replaced if he could not manage things well.

Jin Shanyao went to the river with a youth who mistook her enjoyment of the rain for a desire to die together. After she rescued him from the river, bystanders misunderstood them as lovers seeking a joint death, and the youth tried to jump again.

• Jin Shanyao left her shop to enjoy the rain and snow, where a youth copied her and called them kindred spirits.
• Jin Shanyao followed the youth to the riverbank, where he jumped into the water without warning.
• An old man accused Jin Shanyao of pushing the Young Master of the Wu Household into the river, and Jin Shanyao pulled the youth out with her lash.
• The youth claimed Jin Shanyao had agreed to die with him, while the crowd mistook them for lovers attempting suicide.
• Jin Shanyao stopped the youth from jumping again and told him to come back and jump tomorrow, shocking the onlookers.

Jin Shanyao stopped Wu Shaoyang from drowning himself and took him to Anzhi Hall, where she diagnosed his suicidal thoughts as depression rather than a haunting. Wu Shaoyang accepted the diagnosis and began treatment, hopeful that he could get better.

• Jin Shanyao restrained Wu Shaoyang by the river and persuaded him not to try to die that day, while the onlookers gossiped about them.
• Wu Shaoyang told Jin Shanyao that he often heard a voice urging him to kill himself and had hoped she would check whether a ghost was causing it.
• Jin Shanyao brought Wu Shaoyang to Anzhi Hall, where Meng Anzhi checked his pulse and Jin Shanyao wrote him a prescription.
• Jin Shanyao told Wu Shaoyang he had depression, assured him that no ghost was present, and advised him to take the medicine and get more sunlight.
• Wu Shaoyang accepted the prescription and asked Zhou Xiaosi to prepare a month's worth of medicine because he wanted to get better sooner.

Wu Shaoyang sought treatment from Zhou Xiaosi and Jin Shanyao, but his family rejected the diagnosis and pressured him into a politically useful marriage with Miss Miao. The chapter ended with Wu Shaoyang confronting his father over years of neglect, while his father still insisted he attend the arranged meeting.

• Zhou Xiaosi gave Wu Shaoyang medicine, and Jin Shanyao warned Meng Anzhi about the danger of going off with strangers after Wu Shaoyang had plunged into the river.
• Wu Shaoyang began brewing the medicine at home, but Sister-in-law Wu pressed him to accept a marriage with the Miao Household's eldest young lady, and he refused.
• Sister-in-law Wu knocked the medicine from Wu Shaoyang's hands, and Mother Wu dismissed his illness and ordered him to meet Miss Miao at the Drunken Immortal Pavilion.
• Mother Wu had a maid throw away Wu Shaoyang's remaining medicinal ingredients, leaving him unable to brew another dose.
• Father Wu brought Wu Shaoyang dinner and defended the arranged marriage, prompting Wu Shaoyang to list how his parents had repeatedly ignored his needs and feelings.
• Father Wu dismissed Wu Shaoyang's grievances and left, again telling him to attend the meeting with Miss Miao the next day.

Wu Shaoyang abandoned his attempt to hang himself and went to Anzhi Hall, where he told Jin Shanyao why his family’s neglect and their plans for his marriage made him want to die. He asked her to find and scatter his soul after his death, leaving Jin to face his final wish.

• Wu Shaoyang prepared to hang himself but remembered he could pay Shopkeeper Jin to talk and left the Wu residence for Anzhi Hall.
• Jin Shanyao welcomed Wu Shaoyang inside, and he paid her five copper coins to listen to him.
• Wu Shaoyang explained that his family’s apparent kindness never made him feel cared for, recalling how his mother left him sick to tend to newborn puppies.
• Wu Shaoyang said his family’s plan for him to meet a prospective bride made him feel he had no control over his life and that death would end his troubles.
• Wu Shaoyang asked Jin Shanyao to find and scatter his soul after he died so he would have neither a present life nor a next life.

Jin Shanyao persuaded Wu Shaoyang to keep living by promising to help him arrange his death once he earned enough money. Wu Shaoyang returned to Anzhi Hall for medicine, where Xiao Huzi’s defiant words left him stunned.

• Jin Shanyao agreed to scatter Wu Shaoyang’s soul and destroy his body for a thousand taels, provided he earned the money himself.
• Jin Shanyao urged Wu Shaoyang to take medicine and work toward his goal, and he left determined to live until he could afford it.
• Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci questioned Jin Shanyao about Wu Shaoyang, and she told them not to talk to or leave with strangers.
• Wu Shaoyang asked his family for money at breakfast, then came to Anzhi Hall for medicine.
• Xiao Huzi told Wu Shaoyang that he should remain himself despite the risk of being beaten, leaving Wu Shaoyang stunned.

Wu Shaoyang went to Anzhi Hall before his arranged meeting with Miao Shuihua, where Xiao Huzi tried to teach him how to scare off matchmakers. Wu Shaoyang still went to the Drunken Immortal Pavilion and met Miao Shuihua, who asked whether he liked men.

• Wu Shaoyang took his medicine and watched Xiao Huzi struggle with his schoolwork and plans to earn money.
• Xiao Huzi charged Wu Shaoyang ten coins for a scheme to fake a seizure and frighten off his matchmaker.
• Xiao Huzi demonstrated the trick, but Jin Shanyao caught him pretending and spanked him while Meng Anci tried to intervene.
• Wu Shaoyang left for the Drunken Immortal Pavilion, promising to return for his second bowl of medicine.
• Miao Shuihua arrived, and Wu Shaoyang admitted his family had forced him to attend the matchmaking meeting.
• Miao Shuihua asked whether Wu Shaoyang liked men, and he hurriedly denied it.

Miao Shuihua began helping Wu Shaoyang save the thousand taels he needed before deciding whether to die, while Jin Shanyao treated a sleepless visitor and dismissed his fears of ghosts. Bai Yunjin left with talismans before rejecting Jiang Jinshu as an apprentice, and Jin Shanyao comforted the girl and her mother.

• Miao Shuihua asked Wu Shaoyang to consider her, then agreed to help him save a thousand taels and invited him to work at her family's dock.
• Wu Shaoyang agreed to go with Miao Shuihua to earn wages and take his medicine at Anzhi Hall.
• Bai Yunjin asked Jin Shanyao for a divination, but Jin Shanyao and Meng Anzhi diagnosed his symptoms as severe insomnia and sold him two talismans for two hundred taels.
• Bai Yunjin left Anzhi Hall and encountered Madam Jiang and Jiang Jinshu, who showed him the girl's embroidery in hopes he would take her as an apprentice.
• Bai Yunjin rejected Jiang Jinshu because the Cloud Brocade Workshop had stopped taking apprentices, and Jin Shanyao reassured Madam Jiang and praised the girl's embroidery.

After recovering from his despair, Wu Shaoyang stopped visiting Anzhi Hall for medicine, and Jin Shanyao was left facing a group of men who claimed to be constables from Jing'an Prefecture. When they tried to take her without proper authorization, Jin Shanyao and Meng Anzhi subdued them as suspected traffickers and had them arrested.

• After a month of treatment, Meng Anzhi confirmed Wu Shaoyang had recovered, and he left Anzhi Hall flustered, saying he would not return for medicine.
• Fang Rui, who claimed to be the head constable of Jing'an Prefecture, demanded that Jin Shanyao accompany him to investigate a murder.
• Meng Anzhi challenged the men for lacking the official documents required for cross-prefecture assistance and ordered Qing Yang to report their attempted abduction.
• When Fang Rui's men moved to seize Jin Shanyao, Meng Anzhi scattered powder that knocked them unconscious.
• Jin Shanyao and Meng Anzhi had Zhou Xiaosi tie up the men and discussed claiming a reward for capturing traffickers.
• Constable Wang arrived, arrested Fang Rui and his men, and took them to jail for Lord Zhu to interrogate.

Zhu Huaizhang learned that the men Jin Shanyao caught were constables from Jing'an Prefecture who had overstepped their jurisdiction, and he ordered them kept in jail. He refused Jin Shanyao's reward until he revealed the prisoners were not human traffickers, leaving her without payment.

• Constable Wang told Zhu Huaizhang that the arrested men were led by Fang Rui, a Jing'an Prefecture head constable, and recalled how Su Wenqian had once cleaned up Qingzhou Prefecture's corrupt yamen.
• Zhu Huaizhang ordered the Jing'an constables kept in jail until Jing'an's prefect came in person, following the approach Constable Wang said Su Wenqian would have taken.
• Constable Wang brought Jin Shanyao to claim her reward, and she complained that the constables had falsely accused her of murder and tried to take her away.
• Zhu Huaizhang suspected Jing'an Prefecture wanted to extort Jin Shanyao, but told her there was no money for her reward and tried to send her away.
• Jin Shanyao confronted Zhu Huaizhang for refusing to pay, and he finally told her that the men she caught were Jing'an constables, not human traffickers, so she was owed no reward.

Jin Shanyao and the Meng siblings considered whether Anzhi Hall’s medicinal herbs were connected to a murder case in Jing'an Prefecture, while Zhou Yan learned that his men were imprisoned in Qingzhou Prefecture. The chapter left Jin Shanyao unaware of the growing conflict between the prefectures as Fan Er accidentally upset a heartbroken customer.

• Jin Shanyao provoked Zhu Huaizhang before leaving the Qingzhou Prefecture office, then recorded a warning about people who say, “Listen to me.”
• Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci searched Anzhi Hall’s records after considering whether its herbs might have caused a death, and planned to investigate the cause before taking further action.
• Zhou Yan learned from Constable Li that Zhu Huaizhang had imprisoned Fang Rui and the others for human trafficking and would not release them without Zhou Yan appearing in person.
• Jin Shanyao advised a heartbroken young woman at her shop, but her jokes about red beans and longing angered the customer.
• Fan Er collided with the young woman as she left, breaking her red-bean bracelet; she refused his offer to replace it and ran off in tears.

Jin Shanyao learned that Bai Yunjin had been strangled with thread and that the authorities were blaming medicinal ingredients supplied by Anzhi Hall. Zhou Yan came to take her to Jing'an Prefecture, but Zhu Huaizhang insisted on escorting her himself and arranged to leave the next day.

• Fan Er reported that Bai Yunjin had been strangled with threads and that the pharmacy owner implicated Anzhi Hall's sour jujube seeds.
• Jin Shanyao reassured Zhou Xiaosi and Meng Anzhi that she would investigate whether a person or a ghost had caused the trouble.
• Zhou Yan demanded the return of his detained constables and sought to take Jin Shanyao to Jing'an Prefecture.
• Zhu Huaizhang had the six constables brought in and required Zhou Yan to sign the case file before taking them away.
• Zhu Huaizhang refused to hand Jin Shanyao over alone and said he would escort her to Jing'an Prefecture.
• Zhou Yan signed the case file and told Zhu Huaizhang to meet him at the city gate the next day.

Zhu Huaizhang summoned Jin Shanyao to Jing'an Prefecture to assist in investigating Bai Yunjin’s murder, and she arrived with Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci in an ox cart. Zhou Yan opened court and accused Jin of responsibility because Yongtaihe had obtained the sour jujube seed Bai ate from Anzhi Hall, then called in Yongtaihe’s shopkeeper.

• Jin Shanyao bid farewell to Wu Shaoyang, who said he had promised Shuihua to be buried with her, and agreed to attend his wedding.
• Zhu Huaizhang told Jin that a murder in Jing'an Prefecture was connected to Anzhi Hall’s herbs and asked her to assist with the investigation.
• Jin set out with Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci in her ox cart, while Zhu Huaizhang and Li Xiao traveled by carriage.
• At Jing'an Prefecture’s city gate, Zhou Yan recognized Jin and noticed Meng Anzhi; on the road, Jin’s ox cart repeatedly blocked Zhou’s carriage.
• Zhou Yan opened court and accused Jin of responsibility for Bai Yunjin’s death because Yongtaihe had sourced the sour jujube seed from Anzhi Hall.
• Jin denied the accusation, and Zhou Yan ordered guards to bring in Yongtaihe’s shopkeeper.

Zhu Huaizhang and Jin Shanyao challenged Zhou Yan’s coerced confession and dubious evidence, then went to the Cloud Brocade Workshop to inspect Bai Yunjin’s death scene. Jin Shanyao noticed suspicious details in the workshop and bedroom while Zhou Yan remained confident that he had erased every clue.

• Zhou Yan presented Jiang Wancheng’s tortured confession and a sack of sour jujube seeds as evidence against Jin Shanyao, but she identified the seeds as moldy fakes.
• Jin Shanyao confronted Zhou Yan and insisted on examining the scene, and Zhu Huaizhang agreed that the evidence was insufficient to prove Bai Yunjin died from the medicine.
• Zhu Huaizhang, Jin Shanyao, and the children visited the sealed Cloud Brocade Workshop, where they found embroiderers still working, including young girls.
• Bai Yunduan charged at Jin Shanyao, but she knocked him down before the group entered the rear residence.
• In Bai Yunjin’s bedroom, Jin Shanyao noticed a lush peach tree outside, signs of medicinal liquid, and a miniature pine as Zhu Huaizhang searched the kang and Zhou Yan watched confidently.

Zhu Huaizhang uncovered evidence that Bai Yunjin had been murdered and Jin Shanyao revealed three corpses buried beneath a peach tree. Zhou Yan agreed to a joint investigation with Zhu Huaizhang, but tried to delay it until the next day.

• Zhu Huaizhang used soapberry water to reveal bloodstains on the kang and found embroidery thread, concluding that Bai Yunjin had been murdered.
• Zhu Huaizhang found another strand of thread on the decorative panel, and Jin Shanyao pointed out bloodstains and claimed three corpses were buried beneath the peach tree.
• Zhou Yan and Bai Yunduan challenged Jin Shanyao's claim, but Dahuang dug up three corpses in front of everyone.
• Jin Shanyao offered to help Zhu Huaizhang solve the case for three hundred taels, while Zhu Huaizhang insisted the major case required a joint investigation or referral to superiors.
• Zhou Yan agreed to examine the scene together with Zhu Huaizhang, but suggested they return the next day after resting.

Zhu Huaizhang investigated three bodies found at the Bai household, and Meng Anzhi identified signs that two victims had taken banned Five Minerals Powder, prompting a search of the Cloud Brocade Workshop. The inquiry stalled after everyone in the household produced an alibi, until servants said Yao Yuniang had threatened Bai Yunjin and rumors blamed his death on a vengeful ghost.

• Zhu Huaizhang refused Zhou Yan's offer to set aside the case and ordered Li Xiao to take Bai Yunduan to find the workshop register after Bai identified the bodies' clothing and explained the numbered tag.
• Meng Anci described the plan Zhou Yan had been considering to settle the case by sacrificing Jiang Wancheng and blaming the bodies on Bai Yunjin, leaving Zhou Yan unable to put it into action.
• The coroner reported that the three victims had died at different times and suffered violent deaths, and Meng Anzhi identified brittle, discolored bones in two bodies as evidence of long-term Five Minerals Powder use.
• Zhu Huaizhang ordered Zhou Yan to seal and search the Cloud Brocade Workshop, while Li Xiao returned with the register showing that tag sixty-five belonged to Yao Yuniang.
• Zhu Huaizhang questioned the Bai household, but everyone gave an alibi; servants then claimed Yao Yuniang had cried out about making Bai Yunjin pay and spread rumors that a vengeful ghost had strangled him with embroidery thread.

Zhu Huaizhang uncovered a hidden stockpile of five-stone powder beneath the Cloud Brocade Workshop and learned that three bodies had been buried there. He let Jin Shanyao go and secretly asked her to deliver a letter to Su Wenqian, warning that Zhou Yan might have powerful backing in the Provincial Surveillance Commission.

• Zhu Huaizhang questioned the embroiderers about Yao Yuniang and five-stone powder, then asked Jin Shanyao to search the workshop with her animals.
• Xiaoli discovered hidden boxes of five-stone powder beneath a stone slab in Bai Yunjin's room.
• Jin Shanyao estimated the ages of the three bodies for Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci while Zhu Huaizhang asked Zhou Yan to postpone the investigation.
• After Zhu Huaizhang left, Bai Yunduan confronted Zhou Yan and threatened to expose him if he failed to protect the Bai Household.
• At the guesthouse, Zhu Huaizhang told Jin Shanyao that Bai Yunjin's death had nothing to do with her and handed her a letter for Su Wenqian.
• Zhu Huaizhang warned Jin Shanyao that Zhou Yan might be backed by someone in the Provincial Surveillance Commission and told her to deliver the letter in person.

Jin Shanyao accepted Zhu Huaizhang’s letter for one copper coin and realized he had sent her and the children toward Su Wenqian to deter Zhou Yan while he faced the danger himself. Later, she used her Spiritual Power to revisit the Cloud Brocade Workshop and witnessed the embroiderers murder Bai Yunjin.

• Zhu Huaizhang asked Jin Shanyao to deliver his letter to Su Wenqian, and she agreed for one copper coin.
• Meng Anci insisted they read the letter because it was being sent in his name, and Jin Shanyao concluded Zhu Huaizhang meant to use their connection to Su Wenqian as a warning to Zhou Yan.
• Jin Shanyao explained that Zhu Huaizhang was betting Zhou Yan would not dare murder a court official, since everyone involved would face execution and their families would be implicated.
• After Zhu Huaizhang joined Zhou Yan for wine, Jin Shanyao used her Spiritual Power to view events at the Cloud Brocade Workshop.
• Jin Shanyao saw Qiuju and more than a dozen embroiderers strangle Bai Yunjin with embroidery thread and stage his death as a haunting.

Jin Shanyao witnessed Xiaju’s murder and uncovered how the Bai Household exploited, drugged, and controlled the embroiderers at the Cloud Brocade Workshop. The chapter ended with her understanding the women’s desperation and the abuse that drove them to resist.

• Bai Yunjin tortured Xiaju for information about Yao Yuniang, then strangled her when she refused to answer.
• Jin Shanyao watched Jixiang bury Xiaju beneath a peach tree and realized she was the fresh corpse.
• Jin Shanyao saw the embroiderers work in shifts without rest while matrons punished them for slowing down.
• Qiuju, Dongju, and Xiaju revealed how debts, threats, and Five Minerals Powder trapped the embroiderers at the workshop.
• The embroiderers said they would join the resistance, and Jin Shanyao learned the Bai Household also sent attractive workers to customers and officials.

Jin Shanyao examined scenes from the Cloud Brocade Workshop's past and uncovered Bai Yunjin's murders and the circumstances surrounding several victims. She learned that Yao Yuniang had died outside the workshop, but the cause remained unknown.

• Laifu secretly opened the side gate, and Bai Yunjin saw a scarlet robe and embroidery thread that Laifu pretended not to see.
• Jin Shanyao watched Qiuju witness a man called Lord He assault Chunju, who died, and saw Bai Yunjin order Jixiang to bury her beneath a peach tree.
• Jin Shanyao discovered that Bai Yunjin had killed Yao Yuniang five years earlier and buried her beneath a peach tree, while a little girl secretly watched.
• Jin Shanyao found that Yao Yuniang had been carried back to the workshop in a burlap sack after leaving, but could not determine why she had died.
• Jin Shanyao watched Yao Yuniang give money and food to her parents before returning to the Cloud Brocade Workshop.