Recaps

After Madam Lin and Jin Changshun were exposed, Lord Lin tried to recover Lin Yue’s dowry and keep her at home, while Zhou Wanwan helped Lin Yue leave the danger behind. Lord Lin sent Lin Xi to a nunnery, and Zhou Wanwan accompanied Chen Ankang to visit the disgraced Huo Family.

• Lord Lin confronted Madam Lin over her role in Jin Changshun’s arrest, while Zhou Wanwan arranged for Lin Yue to leave her residence and demanded that the Lin Family return her dowry.
• Madam Lin admitted she had moved Lin Yue’s dowry to her maiden family’s estate, but Lord Lin found the storeroom empty when he went there with her.
• Zhou Wanwan and Chen Ankang discussed Lin Yue’s recovered dowry and Huo Lingchuan’s loss of the Chen Family’s old residence.
• Lord Lin took Madam Lin’s own dowry to compensate Lin Yue and sent Lin Xi to a nunnery for the rest of her life.
• Zhou Wanwan accompanied Chen Ankang to the Huo Family, where Madam Huo berated Huo Lingchuan for his disastrous bet and marriage to Lin Xi.

Chen Ankang and Zhou Wanwan visited the Huo residence, where Huo Lingchuan attacked Chen and was struck in the face by a rebounding boot. At the Lin residence, Chen Ankang’s lavish betrothal gifts stunned the gathered madams, while Madam Lin hinted that she resented Lin Yue receiving what had been intended for Lin Xi.

• Chen Ankang brought Huo Lingchuan a wedding invitation, and Huo Lingchuan threw a boot that the Old Scholar Tree bounced back into his face.
• Zhou Wanwan predicted that Huo Lingchuan might try to marry Lin Yue himself, and Chen Ankang worried about Lin Yue’s safety.
• Chen Ankang’s betrothal gifts arrived at the Lin residence, where Madam Huo and other madams gathered to mock the Chen Family.
• Zhou Wanwan told the madams that Princess Jianing had invited her to become a study companion, and they reacted with alarm and pity.
• The madams saw Chen Ankang’s forty-eight trays of betrothal gifts, and Madam Lin remarked that the gifts had been meant for Lin Xi.

Lin Xi tried to replace Lin Yue at the weddings so she could marry Chen Ankang and claim Lin Yue’s gifts, but Black Wind Stronghold had anticipated her scheme. Lin Xi ended up married to Huo Lingchuan, and the chapter left them arguing over whether to divorce.

• Lin Yue received a wedding dress and jewelry from the young miss of Black Wind Stronghold and learned she was welcome there as a member.
• Lin Xi burst in, announced that she had taken control of Lin Yue’s attendants, and said she would marry Chen Ankang while sending Lin Yue to the Huo Family.
• Lin Yue fainted, but the stronghold’s arrangements ensured she reached the Chen Family, where Chen Ankang reassured her that everything had been arranged.
• Huo Lingchuan completed the wedding ceremony with Lin Xi, believing she was Lin Yue, while Lin Yue married Chen Ankang and recognized him as her childhood friend, Brother Kang.
• The next morning, Huo Lingchuan discovered Lin Xi in his bed and demanded a divorce, while Lin Xi refused to become a public laughingstock.

Zhou Wanwan was arrested after someone accused the Hundred Herbs Hall of selling fake medicine that caused a death. At the Shuntian Prefecture, she exposed the accuser’s story as fabricated, and he admitted he had been paid to frame the pharmacy.

• Zhou Wanwan and Chen Ankang mocked Huo Lingchuan and Lin Xi as a perfect match, and Huo Lingchuan threatened Chen Ankang with his saber.
• Zheng Yuanbao told Zhou Wanwan that the Hundred Herbs Hall had been sealed after rumors spread that its medicine was fake and someone had died.
• Shuntian Prefecture bailiffs arrested Zhou Wanwan and brought her before the prefect, who accused her of selling poisoned medicine.
• Zhou Wanwan challenged the accuser’s evidence by pointing out the packet’s wrapping did not match the pharmacy’s and asking for the required prescription and signature.
• The accuser confessed that someone had paid him to blame the Hundred Herbs Hall for his father’s death, and Zhou Wanwan asked the prefect to investigate.

After learning Shangguan Wan'er had arranged the attack on her pharmacy, Zhou Wanwan visited Madam Shangguan with gifts and confronted her about the accusation. Madam Shangguan admitted that her eldest daughter was behind the schemes, leaving her worried about the damage to her and Shangguan Yun'er's reputations.

• The Shuntian prefect ordered an investigation into who had manipulated the pharmacy case, while Old Scholar Tree told Zhou Wanwan that Shangguan Wan'er was responsible.
• Zhou Wanwan learned that Madam Shangguan enjoyed shopping at her businesses and arranged a visit with gifts for her and Shangguan Yun'er.
• Madam Shangguan and Shangguan Yun'er eagerly admired the clothes, cosmetics, and jewelry Zhou Wanwan brought.
• Zhou Wanwan told Madam Shangguan that she had traced the false claim about the pharmacy to her eldest daughter.
• Madam Shangguan complained that her eldest daughter kept causing trouble and had made people believe that she and Shangguan Yun'er were cruel schemers.

Zhou Wanwan persuaded Madam Shangguan to rely on her, offering money and a share of her shop’s profits in exchange for promoting its clothes and jewelry. Shangguan Wan'er learned Zhou Wanwan had visited and prepared for a flower-viewing banquet, where she planned to make her beauty stand out.

• Zhou Wanwan pointed out Madam Shangguan’s lack of money and influence, and Madam Shangguan agreed to accept her help so she and Shangguan Yun'er could live comfortably.
• Zhou Wanwan offered to replace Madam Shangguan’s servants with trusted people and gave her ten silver ingots to dress for a flower-viewing banquet and promote Zhou Wanwan’s shop.
• After Zhou Wanwan left, Madam Shangguan told Shangguan Yun'er she trusted Zhou Wanwan because she had given them valuable goods and money, unlike the General of the Cavalry.
• When Shangguan Wan'er returned home, she learned that Zhou Wanwan had visited Madam Shangguan but could not find out what they had discussed.
• Shangguan Wan'er prepared an elegant outfit for the flower-viewing banquet, hoping to impress Zhou Mingyang, and told her mother to bring Madam Shangguan and Shangguan Yun'er so her beauty would stand out.

Madam Shangguan and Shangguan Yun'er arrived at the Yongning Earl’s Manor in lavish clothes, drawing attention and making Shangguan Wan'er jealous. When Wan'er accused her mother of favoring Yun'er, Madam Shangguan told the gathered madams that Wan'er controlled the household accounts and asked her to say who was really in charge.

• Shangguan Wan'er left without Madam Shangguan and Shangguan Yun'er, while Yun'er said she planned to anger Wan'er by pursuing Zhou Mingyang.
• Madam Shangguan and Shangguan Yun'er arrived at the Yongning Earl’s Manor dressed in fine clothes and jewelry from the Four Seas Rare Goods Store.
• Madam Shangguan told the gathered madams about the store and claimed she could get them a twenty percent discount.
• Shangguan Wan'er grew jealous when she saw their outfits and accused Madam Shangguan of buying Yun'er fine clothes while leaving her with nothing.
• Madam Shangguan said Shangguan Wan'er managed the household accounts and asked her to tell everyone who was really in charge.

Zhou Wanwan exposed Shangguan Wan'er’s mistreatment of Madam Shangguan and was introduced by the Countess of Yongning as her fortune-telling goddaughter. After a skeptical official’s wife paid Zhou two thousand taels to investigate her son’s exam failures, Zhou took her into a side hall for a private reading.

• Madam Shangguan and her matron said Shangguan Wan'er gave them only one tael of silver a month, and Zhou Wanwan explained that she had rented them their clothes.
• Shangguan Wan'er challenged Zhou Wanwan’s presence, but the Countess of Yongning introduced Zhou as her goddaughter and praised her fortune-telling.
• The Countess of Yongning told the guests that Zhou Wanwan had passed the xiucai exam at six and correctly predicted falling grain and salt prices during a drought.
• A fourth-rank official’s wife paid Zhou Wanwan two thousand taels to learn why her son kept failing the tongsheng exam and how he could pass the xiucai exam.
• Zhou Wanwan asked the Countess of Yongning to leave the side hall so she could give the woman a private reading.

Zhou Wanwan revealed that the minister of the Court of State Ceremonial's wife had a missing younger son and that her older son had abandoned him, then gave her the boy’s location. The flower-viewing banquet began with flower-themed takeout, until Shangguan Wan'er mocked the crayfish served there.

• Zhou Wanwan told the minister of the Court of State Ceremonial's wife that her older son was violent, deeply indebted, and responsible for abandoning her missing younger son.
• The lady paid Zhou Wanwan ten thousand taels, and Zhou Wanwan later gave her an address where her fourteen-year-old son lived with an unkind adoptive family.
• The lady left by carriage to find her younger son, while the other ladies doubted Zhou Wanwan's fortune-telling.
• The Countess of Yongning began her flower-viewing banquet with flower-themed dishes, fresh seafood, and milk teas that the guests praised.
• Servants brought out basins of crayfish, and Shangguan Wan'er sneered that the dish was fit for fallen families.

At a banquet, Zhou Wanwan served crayfish and drew the young ladies to her side, while Shangguan Wan'er insulted her and Shangguan Yun'er. Zhou Mingyang defended Yun'er and rejected his engagement to Shangguan Wan'er, who retaliated by exposing Madam Shangguan’s past as a Yangzhou skinny horse and casting doubt on Yun’er’s marriage prospects.

• Zhou Wanwan defended her crayfish business against Shangguan Wan'er and offered the guests garlic and thirteen-spice crayfish.
• The women and young ladies enjoyed the crayfish, and several young ladies gathered around Zhou Wanwan to ask about her fortune-telling and scholarship.
• Shangguan Wan'er mocked Zhou Wanwan, and Shangguan Yun'er challenged her before pretending to retreat in tears.
• Zhou Mingyang defended Shangguan Yun'er, condemned Shangguan Wan'er’s treatment of her, and said he would not marry her.
• Madam Shangguan told Zhou Wanwan that she had secretly taught Shangguan Yun'er the skills of a Yangzhou skinny horse.
• Shangguan Wan'er revealed Madam Shangguan’s past in front of the guests, and Zhou Mingyang’s mother reminded him that his marriage had been arranged between their families.

Zhou Wanwan exposed Shangguan Wan'er’s attempt to discredit her stepmother by revealing a deed that made Shangguan Wan'er owe her one hundred thousand taels of gold and become her servant if she failed to repay it. The gathering turned against Shangguan Wan'er, while Madam Zhou proposed a match between Zhou Mingyang and Shangguan Yun'er.

• Shangguan Wan'er brought out a deed she claimed proved her mother had been a Yangzhou slender horse and demanded that Madam Zhou read it aloud.
• The Countess of Yongning read the deed, which said Shangguan Wan'er owed Zhou Wanwan one hundred thousand taels of gold and would become her servant if she failed to repay it.
• Shangguan Wan'er called the deed fake, but Zhou Wanwan said the debt was due the next day and that Shangguan Wan'er had kept the deed in the box herself.
• The gathered madams condemned Shangguan Wan'er for mistreating Madam Shangguan and Shangguan Yun'er, and Zhou Mingyang rebuked her.
• Madam Zhou praised Shangguan Yun'er and said she would send a matchmaker to her home the next day.

Zhou Wanwan and Old Ancestor used a forged contract to expose Shangguan Wan'er, whose signature and fingerprint were verified as genuine, leaving her liable for her debt and bound to servitude. Zhou Wanwan learned how Old Ancestor arranged the scheme and resolved to avoid further robberies in the capital as her Four Seas Rare Goods Store gained publicity.

• Shangguan Wan'er claimed the contract was forged, but the Court of Judicial Review minister summoned experts to examine it.
• The experts confirmed that the signature and fingerprint belonged to Shangguan Wan'er, and the minister told her to repay Zhou Wanwan and honor the contract.
• Shangguan Wan'er was taken to a side courtyard as Madam Shangguan praised Zhou Wanwan and pledged herself to her.
• Zhou Wanwan asked Old Ancestor how he had anticipated the scheme, and he explained that his trees had spotted Shangguan Wan'er examining the box.
• Old Ancestor revealed that he had copied Shangguan Wan'er's handwriting and counted her gold to set the contract amount, while Zhou Wanwan decided she needed to behave in the capital and rely on her store instead of robberies.

After Zhou Wanwan’s divination led a madam to her long-lost son, she attracted a crowd seeking readings. Her investigation exposed an engaged young lady’s fiancé as deceitful, and as word spread, hundreds queued to see Zhou Wanwan, who limited herself to three readings a day.

• The madam returned with her son, whom she had found after more than ten years, and credited Zhou Wanwan with divining his address.
• A young lady paid Zhou Wanwan six thousand taels to learn about her fiancé, Shen Wenyan, and Zhou Wanwan sent Old Ancestor to investigate him.
• Old Ancestor reported that Shen Wenyan was selfish, impoverished, and secretly supporting his cousin and their children with plans to exploit the young lady’s dowry.
• The young lady investigated Shen Wenyan’s cousin, found two children who looked like him, and her family broke off the engagement that evening.
• As news of Zhou Wanwan’s accurate readings spread, hundreds of people queued outside her home, and she announced that she would only read for three people each day.

Zhou Wanwan used her knowledge to advise two women facing trouble and diagnosed a sick customer, earning large fees in return. After warning the first woman about a bribe and helping Shen Yumei plan to reclaim her dowry and divorce her husband, she sent the last customer away with medicine and instructions to stop drinking.

• Zhou Wanwan told an official's wife that her husband would not be promoted and urged her to return a bribe publicly and prepare a grand gift for his superior's child's celebration.
• Shen Jiamu's wife, Shen Yumei, asked Zhou Wanwan whether she should divorce him after learning he was keeping her younger sister as a mistress.
• Zhou Wanwan advised Shen Yumei to gather evidence, claim her dowry, and sue if necessary, then agreed to help in exchange for twenty percent of the listed property.
• Shen Yumei signed a contract and agreed to follow Zhou Wanwan's arrangements without yielding to pleas from her family.
• Zhou Wanwan took a customer's pulse, blamed his illness on heavy drinking, prescribed medicine, and warned him to abstain from alcohol while taking it.

Zhou Wanwan helped Shen Yumei expose Shen Jiamu’s affair with Shen Yulan before the Shen Lineage and their families. When Shen Jiamu blamed Shen Yumei’s supposed infertility, physicians revealed that he was the one unlikely to father children.

• Zhou Wanwan arranged for Shen Yumei, the Shen Lineage, both families, and Shen Jiamu’s acquaintances to witness the affair.
• The crowd caught Shen Jiamu and Shen Yulan in bed and heard their plans to frame Shen Yumei so Shen Yulan could marry him.
• Shen Yumei demanded an amicable divorce, while her mother blamed her and Shen Jiamu threatened her.
• Shen Yumei called on physicians to examine Shen Jiamu, and they said he would have difficulty fathering children.
• Shen Jiamu insisted the physicians were wrong because Shen Yulan was carrying his child.

Shen Yumei confronted the Shen Clan over Shen Jiamu’s affair with Shen Yulan, while her advocate Zhou Wanwan forced the family to negotiate a divorce settlement. Shen Jiamu signed the agreement, and Father Shen ordered a doctor to determine whether Shen Yulan’s unborn child was his.

• Shen Yumei challenged Shen Yulan’s claim that she was only three months pregnant and suggested a doctor check her pulse.
• Zhou Wanwan’s people restrained Mother Shen’s servants, and Zhou warned the Shen Clan that Shen Jiamu would likely lose in court.
• Shen Jiamu threatened Shen Yumei and Zhou Wanwan, but Zhou broke his finger and demanded that he sign the mutual divorce agreement.
• Shen Yumei refused Father Shen’s offer to let her remain with Shen Jiamu as his wife while Shen Yulan became a concubine.
• Father Shen made Shen Jiamu sign the divorce agreement, then ordered a doctor to check whether Shen Yulan’s child belonged to the Shen Clan.

Zhou Wanwan discovered that Shen Yumei was the long-lost daughter of the chief of the Court of Judicial Review and reunited her with Madam Jiang. Shen Yumei rejected the Shen family’s demand that she return to Shen Jiamu, and the chief arrived as the confrontation continued.

• After the physician estimated that Shen Yulan was more than five months pregnant, Zhou Wanwan took Shen Yumei in and asked Old Scholar Tree to investigate her family.
• Old Scholar Tree learned that the Shen family had adopted Shen Yumei after she was stolen from her birth parents, whose father had become the chief of the Court of Judicial Review.
• Madam Jiang paid Zhou Wanwan to find her missing daughter, and Zhou Wanwan revealed that Shen Yumei was staying with her; the two women reunited.
• Shen Jiamu and Shen Yumei’s adoptive parents arrived, and Mother Shen urged Shen Yumei to become Shen Jiamu’s concubine while Father Shen threatened to call her unfilial.
• Shen Yumei refused to return, Madam Jiang defended her, and the chief of the Court of Judicial Review arrived and recognized Zhou Wanwan.

Zhou Wanwan helped Shen Yumei expose the Shen family’s role in her kidnapping and secure punishment for those who had wronged her. After Lord Jiang rejected the Shen family’s attempt to seek forgiveness, he rewarded Zhou Wanwan, who suggested Chen Ankang as a subordinate.

• Madam Jiang introduced Shen Yumei to Lord Jiang, and Zhou Wanwan explained how Shen Jiamu had mistreated her before their divorce.
• Shen Yumei rejected Shen Jiamu’s pleas and accused the Shen family of stealing her from her birth family.
• Zhou Wanwan produced the human traffickers and a midwife, who testified that Mother Shen had paid to have Shen Yumei taken as an infant.
• Lord Jiang ordered the traffickers and Shen family members exiled to Ningguta, while Shen Yumei refused to help them and Shen Jiamu was dragged away.
• Father Shen and Mother Shen returned Shen Yumei’s dowry, estate, and shops, but Lord Jiang sent them away; he then rewarded Zhou Wanwan, who pointed to Chen Ankang as a possible subordinate.

Lord Jiang offered Chen Ankang a position at the Court of Judicial Review if he solved two unsolved cases: a boy who vanished from a locked room and an unidentified man found dead in another locked room. Zhou Wanwan began investigating the boy’s disappearance and, after questioning his family, offered to examine his bedridden wife’s pulse.

• Lord Jiang presented the two cases and said Chen Ankang could work under him if he solved them.
• Zhou Wanwan explained that she wanted Chen Ankang placed at the Court of Judicial Review to strengthen their influence at court.
• After Old Scholar Tree found no trees in the boy’s courtyard to question, Zhou Wanwan and Chen Ankang went to investigate the family’s home.
• The wealthy man said his son vanished from a locked room while two people guarded the door, and explained that the boy could not tolerate flowers, so the courtyard had no trees.
• Zhou Wanwan learned that the boy’s wet nurse had been away and that his mother was bedridden and mentally unwell.
• Zhou Wanwan asked to read the mother’s pulse, and the wealthy man agreed.

Zhou Wanwan discovered that Song Rusheng had hidden her son to protect him from her husband and his lover, then offered to help her claim her share of their assets. Song Rusheng signed Zhou Wanwan’s contract, and the chapter ended with Zhao Hu and the wet nurse plotting together in Song Rusheng’s home.

• Zhou Wanwan and Chen Ankang suspected the wealthy man, his wife, and the wet nurse were involved in the boy’s disappearance.
• Song Rusheng visited Zhou Wanwan and confessed that she had secretly taken her son away because the wet nurse, her husband Zhao Hu’s lover, was turning the child against her.
• Song Rusheng explained that Zhao Hu controlled the family’s wealth and threatened that she would have nothing if she left him.
• Zhou Wanwan offered to uncover Zhao Hu’s assets in exchange for twenty percent and asked Song Rusheng to decide whether she wanted a divorce.
• Song Rusheng signed the contract and returned home, where she overheard Zhao Hu and the wet nurse discussing their affair and the wet nurse’s hopes of becoming his principal wife.

Song Rusheng endured Zhao Hu’s confinement and mistreatment while hoping Zhou Wanwan could help her protect the family property. Zhou Wanwan arranged for Zheng Yuanbao to approach Zhao Hu with rare medicinal herbs, and the chapter ended with Zheng revealing a thousand-year-old ginseng root.

• Song Rusheng told Lüzhu she was waiting for a chance to keep the family property from falling into Zhao Hu’s hands and was willing to trust Zhou Wanwan’s help.
• Zhou Wanwan learned that Zhao Hu owned twenty estates and more than ten shops, with banknotes held under the wet nurse’s name, and planned to lure him with medicinal herbs.
• Zheng Yuanbao met Zhao Hu with the clan uncle’s introduction and displayed rare medicinal herbs, but Zhao suspected he was trying to swindle him.
• Zheng Yuanbao insisted he had more than twenty medicine halls and revealed a thousand-year-old ginseng root to prove the quality of his goods.

Zheng Yuanbao used his impressive medicinal-herb stock, a grand pharmacy, rare tea, and claimed connections to win orders from the capital’s herb merchants. After a foreign merchant bought their goods at high prices, Zhao Hu and the others eagerly placed even larger orders, while Zhou Wanwan hinted that this was only the first step of her plan.

• Zheng Yuanbao displayed his high-quality herbs, negotiated contracts with the merchants, and led them to United Hearts Hall.
• Zheng Yuanbao served rare palace tribute tea and showed Zhao Hu Academician Wang’s calling card, persuading Zhao Hu to place a ten-thousand-tael order with a thirty-percent deposit.
• Zhou Wanwan told Zheng Xing'an that Zhao Hu’s deposit was only the first step of her plan.
• A foreign merchant bought Zhao Hu’s delivered herbs, earning him ten thousand taels in a single day.
• Zhao Hu increased his next order to fifty thousand taels, and the other merchants followed as the foreign merchant bought their herbs at double the price.

Zheng Yuanbao and Zhou Wanwan tricked the capital’s herb merchants into paying millions of taels, while Zhao Hu discovered that his foreign supplier had vanished and turned to Song Rusheng for help. Song Rusheng revealed she could walk, seized control of the household with Zhou Wanwan, and ordered the wet nurse punished for harming her son.

• Zheng Yuanbao sold herb merchants contracts requiring full payment upfront, and Zhou Wanwan arranged for their group to leave that night with more than thirty million taels.
• Zhao Hu boasted to Song Rusheng that his latest herb deal would make him rich, then let the wet nurse humiliate Song Rusheng in her room.
• An assistant reported that the foreign merchant and his caravan had disappeared, leaving Zhao Hu worried about the three million taels of herbs he had ordered.
• Song Rusheng refused to help Zhao Hu and suggested breaking the wet nurse’s legs; Zhao Hu ordered it, but Song Rusheng then stood up and revealed she had never been unable to walk.
• Zhou Wanwan entered and declared that the household answered to her, while Song Rusheng accused the wet nurse of repeatedly feeding seafood to her allergic son and ordered her legs broken.

Song Rusheng recovered her dowry and rejected Zhao Hu after his medicine scam collapsed. Zhou Wanwan investigated the theater murder and accused Marquis Yongning, Xiao Heng, of killing Su Ling and his brother Su Heng, leaving Xiao Heng denying the charge.

• Zhao Hu returned Song Rusheng's dowry, and she offered it to Zhou Wanwan, who asked her to manage her medicine shops instead.
• A shop assistant reported that Young Master Zheng had disappeared with the merchants' money, and officials confirmed the medicine-shop scheme had been a fraud.
• Zhao Hu begged Song Rusheng to take him back, but she refused and told him to repay his debts.
• Zhou Wanwan traced the theater murder to Marquis Yongning's Residence and had Xiao Heng arrested after identifying his imperial jade thumb ring.
• Zhou Wanwan accused Xiao Heng of secretly loving performer Su Heng, killing him after their quarrel, and poisoning Su Ling, while Xiao Heng denied everything.

After helping the Court of Judicial Review solve a case, Zhou Wanwan left Chen Ankang in its service and rejected the minister’s offer of a post. She confronted Old Madam Zhou’s family when they came seeking refuge, then tried to persuade her nervous parents to attend the Grand Princess’s birthday banquet.

• The Court of Judicial Review praised Zhou Wanwan’s investigation and offered her a registrar position, but she credited Chen Ankang and had him stay to work there.
• Zhou Wanwan confronted Old Madam Zhou and her family at her residence, showed the neighbors their agreement severing ties, and sent them away.
• Old Madam Zhou decided to attend the Grand Princess’s birthday banquet and publicly expose Zhou Wanwan’s family.
• Liu Su'e and Zhou Fusheng worried about attending the banquet, but Zhou Wanwan encouraged them and reminded Zhou Fusheng of their standing in the capital.