Recaps

Zhou Wanwan exchanged gold for grain, then defeated Zhou Maolin and the people of Zhou Family Village when they ambushed her group. After returning to Liu Family Village with their captured grain, she saw Jiang Family Village arriving in force.

• Zhou Wanwan exchanged a gold hairpin and two rings for seventy sacks of coarse grain at the government office.
• Zhou Maolin and more than thirty people from Zhou Family Village surrounded Zhou Wanwan and Liu Xiuyuan in the woods, intending to kill them and take their grain.
• Zhou Wanwan used calming incense to make the attackers collapse, then had her group search them and take their valuables, clothes, cart, and grain.
• Zhou Wanwan suspected Old Madam Zhou had stirred up the feud and returned the captured goods to Liu Family Village.
• Liu Xiuyuan worried that Jiang Family Village might retaliate over the land they had bought, and people from Jiang Family Village arrived in force.

After Jiang Family Village poisoned the river to kill the people of Liu Family Village, Zhou Wanwan uncovered the village’s crimes and found a hidden cave containing two or three hundred sacks of coarse grain. The villagers prepared to strike back, and the grain’s discovery left them with a target for their retaliation.

• The chief of Jiang Family Village accused Liu Xiuyuan of cheating them over the fields and threatened to cut off business with Liu Family Village.
• The chief ordered his men to poison the water upstream, but Zhou Wanwan spotted dead fish and warned the villagers before anyone drank from the river.
• Zhou Wanwan and her relatives overheard the chief planning to attack Liu Family Village after supper, so she sent for the villagers and searched for Jiang Family Village’s grain.
• The grasses told Zhou Wanwan that Jiang Family Village had destroyed nearby villages, abducted women and children, and stored grain near the threshing ground and in a hidden cave.
• Zhou Wanwan led the villagers to the concealed cave behind Jiang Family Village and found two or three hundred sacks of coarse grain.

Zhou Wanwan and Liu Family Village moved their grain out of danger, then raided the Jiang Family Village chief’s home while its men searched the empty village. After preparing to fight back, Zhou Wanwan found a deep-water site for a well, leaving Liu Family Village with a possible source of water during the drought.

• Liu Xiuyuan and Zhou Wanwan discussed how Jiang Family Village had killed people in nearby villages and planned to move Liu Family Village’s grain to the mountain.
• When Jiang Family Village’s men marched toward Liu Family Village, Zhou Wanwan and the others raided the chief’s home, rescued the abused women, and took books, valuables, food, and weapons.
• The Jiang Family Village men found Liu Family Village empty, and their chief discovered that his hidden treasure had been replaced with a lump of shit.
• Zhou Wanwan told Old Liu that Liu Family Village would have to fight back and proposed digging a deep well.
• Zhou Wanwan persuaded the iris grass beneath the old locust tree to reveal that deep water lay below, and she chose the spot for the well.

Zhou Wanwan led villagers to collect herbs, Chinese yams, and previously unknown sweet potatoes before the locust plague and drought destroyed them. Zhou Family Village accused her of stealing their belongings, but she denied it and mocked their claims as they left without evidence.

• Zhou Wanwan led villagers into the mountains and had them dig up medicinal herbs and six sacks of Chinese yams.
• After hearing the yams mention sweet potatoes, Zhou Wanwan had Third Uncle Liu and Fourth Uncle Liu dig up more than twenty, filling two sacks.
• Zhou Maolin and Zhou Fuyu complained to Old Madam Zhou that Zhou Wanwan had taken their clothes, silver, grain, ox, and cart.
• More than a hundred people from Zhou Family Village marched into Liu Family Village, and Liu Sanlang warned Zhou Wanwan they had arrived.
• Zhou Wanwan denied taking anything and challenged Zhou Maolin to report her, arguing that he had no evidence.
• Old Madam Zhou threatened Zhou Wanwan, then led Zhou Family Village back without recovering their belongings.

Zhou Wanwan countered Zhou Family Village’s rumors by exposing their hidden grain while preparing charcoal for winter. After her house burned down, she suspected Shen Dalu and learned from a lilac that people from next door had started the fire and stolen grain.

• Lin Shouyi warned Zhou Wanwan that Zhou Family Village had accused her family of stealing grain and silver, so she spread word that the Zhou villagers had hidden grain in the mountains.
• Old Madam Zhou and Zhou Maolin discussed ways to punish Zhou Wanwan and considered arranging a marriage between her and Zhou Maolin’s young nephew.
• Zhou Wanwan organized villagers to make Silver Frost Charcoal, but told Liu Dalang to store it until the weather turned cold and planned to produce cheaper charcoal as well.
• Lin Shouyi told Zhou Wanwan that her house had burned down, and she returned to find it reduced to ashes.
• Zhou Wanwan confronted Shen Dalu, who denied setting the fire, then asked a nearby lilac what it had seen.
• The lilac said people from next door had entered the house, stolen grain, and started the fire.

After Zhou Wanwan decided to transfer her household registration from Wild Field Village, she learned that the Shen family had stolen her grain and burned her house. She revealed that she had left poisoned grain for them, and the chapter ended with the Shens returning from the doctor and deciding to feed the grain to their chicks and piglets.

• Lin Fugui apologized to Zhou Wanwan for the house fire, offered her silver, and agreed to help transfer her household registration.
• Lin Shouyi told Zhou Wanwan about discarded weapons and arranged to meet her in town the next day.
• Zhou Wanwan confronted Old Madam Shen, then learned from the lilac that the Shens had stolen grain and burned her house; she told Liu Su'e that she had laced the sacks with croton seeds and other substances.
• The Shen family ate the stolen grain and suffered severe diarrhea throughout the night.
• Lin Shouyi reluctantly took the Shens to town, where a doctor identified the substances they had eaten and charged them five taels for medicine.
• The Shens returned home angry at their stolen grain, and Old Madam Shen proposed washing it to feed their chicks and piglets.

Zhou Wanwan planned to make several kinds of charcoal and brewed wine with Liu Su'e's help while her family celebrated finding water in a new well. At Three Purities Mountain, she explained that the frightening ghost fire was caused by phosphorus from decaying remains.

• Old Madam Shen fed the grain Shen Dahai had poisoned to the family's piglets and chicks, killing them, and Shen Dahai sent the animals to the Shen family restaurant.
• The poisoned animals made the restaurant's customers suffer diarrhea, and Shen Dahai lost his position as manager.
• Zhou Wanwan learned recipes for several kinds of charcoal from Little Ginseng and promised him wine and medicinal baths in return.
• Zhou Wanwan and Liu Su'e brewed more than ten jars of wine, and villagers told her they had found water by digging a well.
• Jiang Wu suspected someone had been watching his village and ordered his people to buy grain as prices rose during the locust plague.
• At Three Purities Mountain, Zhou Wanwan calmed Liu Sanlang by explaining that the ghost fire was phosphorus igniting when exposed to air.

Zhou Wanwan used her jade pendant to speak with the trees on Three Purities Mountain, found a small stash of money and medicinal herbs, and learned where the bandits had buried two chests. The chests held books and writing supplies instead of the wealth she had hoped for.

• Zhou Wanwan heard the trees talking and agreed to bring them water in exchange for their help finding treasure.
• Zhou Wanwan found a mountain spring, gathered medicinal herbs, and carried water back to the trees.
• A tree directed Zhou Wanwan to a shallow stash containing six hundred wen and one tael of silver, and she warned the trees about an upcoming drought.
• Zhou Wanwan's jade pendant stopped working just as Zhou Qingyan called her over to the two buried rosewood chests.
• Zhou Wanwan, Zhou Qingyan, Zhou Qinghe, and Zhou Qingchen opened the chests and found books, brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones instead of gold or silver.

Zhou Wanwan and her companions raided Jiang Family Village’s granary after discovering the village’s wealth came from Songhua inkstones. Lingbao returned with stolen medicinal herbs and a donkey buddy, while Jiang Family Village woke to find its grain and pig gone.

• Zhou Wanwan found travel journals, storybooks, and thirty-five taels in banknotes among the books.
• After passing Jiang Family Village’s loaded carts, Zhou Wanwan decided to take its grain and save her money to buy farmland.
• Zhou Qingyan brought people to the granary, and Zhou Wanwan knocked out its eight guards with incense before discovering its grain, clothes, and pig.
• Liu Xiuyuan explained that Jiang Family Village grew wealthy by quarrying Songhua stone and making valuable inkstones, and Little Ginseng said he knew the formula.
• Little Ginseng flew off to search the village, and Zhou Wanwan’s group carried more than four hundred sacks of grain into the mountains over three trips.
• Jiang Family Village discovered the missing grain, pig, and medicinal herbs, while Lingbao returned with a donkey buddy and asked Zhou Wanwan for food.

Zhou Wanwan learned that Lingbao’s medicinal bathwater had helped her family’s health, then watched corrupt officers search her village for a theft and try to frame its residents. Gu Chaoyang refused Jiang Wu’s bribe and quit rather than falsify evidence, leaving the other officers free to pursue their scheme.

• Zhou Wanwan shared the medicinal herbs with Lingbao, who soaked in the broth and explained its health benefits.
• Liu Sanlang warned Zhou Wanwan that authorities were searching the village, but she stayed home and acted like her family was starving when officers arrived.
• Officer Gu Chaoyang gave Zhou Wanwan’s family 200 wen after seeing their apparent poverty, despite his colleagues mocking his generosity and his son.
• The officers returned to Jiang Family Village and told Jiang Wu they had found no evidence against Liu Family Village.
• Jiang Wu bribed the officers to accuse Liu Family Village, and Gu Chaoyang challenged them for falsifying evidence.
• When the other officers threatened his job and mocked his son, Gu Chaoyang threw down his saber and quit.

Zhou Wanwan stopped Liu Family Village’s officers from arresting its people and staged an Underworld judgment to frighten them. The constables were forced to confess their wrongdoing as King Yan warned them to leave the village alone.

• Gu Chaoyang warned Liu Xiuyuan that officers planned to blame Liu Family Village for Jiang Family Village’s missing grain, but Liu Xiuyuan sought Zhou Wanwan’s instructions instead of fleeing.
• Zhou Wanwan told Liu Xiuyuan to let the officers come, and more than a dozen officers arrived with Jiang Wu to arrest the villagers and demand silver or control of the village.
• Zhou Wanwan incapacitated the officers with incense, took their silver, and arranged a staged Underworld scene with Liu Family Village residents disguised as ghost bailiffs.
• The chief constable and the other officers were brought before Zhou Wanwan impersonating King Yan, who accused them of abusing their authority and threatened consequences if they harmed Liu Family Village again.
• King Yan ordered the officers to write down and fingerprint confessions detailing their misdeeds.

After frightening the prefecture constables into leaving Liu Family Village alone, Zhou Wanwan organized the villagers to sell charcoal and stock up on grain as prices rose. She bought more than a hundred taels' worth of grain from the county yamen and arranged for it to be delivered discreetly, while warnings about Jiang Family Village’s powerful connections left the threat unresolved.

• The constables woke from their encounter with Lord King Yan, realized it had been real, and fled after vowing not to trouble Liu Family Village again.
• Zhou Wanwan rested, ate Liu Su'e’s meal, then checked the villagers’ charcoal production and told Liu Dalang to sell charcoal and buy grain and cotton before supplies ran out.
• Zhou Wanwan asked Lin Shouyi to help purchase grain and learned the constables had come from the prefecture; Lin Shouyi warned her that Jiang Family Village had powerful connections.
• The prefecture chief constable warned Jiang Wu not to cross Liu Family Village, but refused to explain why, and Jiang Wu remained unconvinced and baffled.
• At the county yamen, Zhou Wanwan bought more than a hundred taels’ worth of coarse grain despite sharply increased prices, arranged for the carts to deliver it to the village, and Lin Shouyi’s second uncle offered to include some unrecorded weapons.

Zhou Wanwan gathered weapons, quilts, and medicinal herbs for Liu Family Village, then organized lessons and intensive combat training. She led villagers deep into the mountains to find iron, where they encountered wild boars and opened fire.

• Zhou Wanwan bought bows, arrows, broadswords, Heaven-Shaking Thunder, crossbows, halberds, and quilts, then traded charcoal for medicinal herbs.
• Zhou Wanwan refused to give food or quilts to starving people blocking the road, and Liu Family Village drove them away with bows and arrows.
• Zhou Wanwan arranged for three teachers to educate Liu Family Village's children and trained the older children and young adults in writing, running, martial arts, and archery.
• Zhou Wanwan asked Lingbao where to find iron, and Lingbao led her and more than twenty villagers deep into the mountains.
• Zhou Wanwan and the villagers shot at a group of wild boars, and Zhou Qingyan and Zhou Wanwan used their crossbows to target two charging boars.

Zhou Wanwan discovered that Jiang Family Village had secretly mined an iron ore deposit and arranged for Liu Family Village to report it in exchange for official posts. The chapter ended with Old Liu and Liu Xiuyuan appointed as village officials, while Zhou Wanwan kept the recovered ore for later use.

• Zhou Wanwan heard plants say that Jiang Family Village had found iron ore beneath black rocks and had been mining it in secret for over a month.
• Jiang Wu said he planned to trade the ore for wealth or an official post and threatened to destroy Liu Family Village once he gained power.
• Zhou Wanwan and Liu Xiuyuan confronted the situation, and Zhou Wanwan had people carry the mined iron ore back to Liu Family Village.
• Zhou Wanwan brought Old Liu, Liu Xiuyuan, and Lin Shouyi to the county yamen and offered Second Uncle Lin the iron mine's location in exchange for posts for her maternal grandfather and the village chief.
• Second Uncle Lin and the county magistrate agreed to the arrangement, and Old Liu and Liu Xiuyuan received official posts and a hundred taels of silver for Liu Family Village.

Zhou Wanwan oversaw the smelting of iron for Liu Family Village and prepared to make crossbows, but bandits from Black Wind Stronghold arrived demanding valuables. After her archers frightened them into surrender, she forced them to pay compensation and let them go.

• Zhou Wanwan followed Lingbao's instructions to smelt iron, and the village blacksmiths successfully produced a block of good-quality iron.
• Liu Xiuyuan told Zhou Wanwan that Liu Family Village's residents had many useful trades and skills.
• Zhou Wanwan went to prepare designs for crossbows, but Zhou Qingyan warned her that armed bandits had come to the village.
• Zhou Wanwan confronted the bandit chief, who revealed that someone had offered five hundred taels for the villagers' heads and then begged for mercy when archers surrounded them.
• Zhou Wanwan demanded fifty sacks of grain, a hundred taels of silver, and the bandits' three horses as compensation, then let them leave.

Zhou Wanwan planned to fortify Liu Family Village and put its villagers to work making bricks, with Lingbao explaining how to fire them. She also began planning paper production, including oiled paper for greenhouses and paper for writing and household use.

• Zhou Wanwan decided to seal the routes into Liu Family Village with a stone wall, but balked when Liu Xiuyuan estimated that large city-wall bricks would cost over a thousand taels.
• Lingbao advised making ordinary bricks from local clay, and Zhou Wanwan had villagers gather clay and follow Lingbao’s instructions for preparing and firing it.
• Liu Xiuyuan assigned the villagers to make charcoal and bricks while the women cleared land for crops, and Zhou Wanwan considered building greenhouses for winter vegetables.
• Lingbao explained how to make oiled paper from paper mulberry bark and tung oil, which Zhou Wanwan planned to use for greenhouses.
• Zhou Wanwan considered making writing paper and toilet paper, recalling methods that used bark, rice straw, wheat straw, and bamboo fibers.

Zhou Wanwan’s village completed its greenhouses and gardens, but Jiang Wu accused them of stealing an iron mine and threatened them. After Jiang Family Village attacked that night, Zhou Wanwan treated two children who had been shot and planned to settle the score.

• Zhou Wanwan and the villagers finished making oil-paper greenhouse covers, planted sweet potatoes and vegetables, and prepared more than fifty plots.
• Jiang Wu arrived with dozens of people and demanded that Liu Family Village return iron ore, but Zhou Wanwan insisted they had reported the state-owned mine to the authorities.
• After Jiang Wu left, Zhou Wanwan ordered thirty villagers to patrol with bows and arrows, but that night attackers from Jiang Family Village shot Liu Goudan and Liu Wang and set houses on fire.
• Zhou Wanwan removed Liu Goudan’s arrow and treated Liu Wang’s chest wound with needles and hemostatic powder; Liu Wang’s fever subsided by morning.
• Zhou Wanwan said she would settle the score with Jiang Family Village that night, then Liu Su’e mistook Little Ginseng soaking in medicinal herbs for a large ginseng root.

Zhou Wanwan learned that armed men planned to crush her group with falling rocks, then discovered that Zhou Fuyu had arranged the attack with masked men from Eagle's Beak Stronghold. The chapter revealed that Old Madam Zhou had previously saved the stronghold’s chief, Zhou Chong, by warning him of an ambush, and had urged him to stockpile grain for a coming drought.

• Little Ginseng offered to ask around for the Songhua stone deposit, and Zhou Wanwan explained that gunpowder could be made from saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal.
• Zhou Wanwan bought large quantities of saltpeter and sulfur with Liu Xiuyuan, while Zhou Qingyan questioned what the materials were for.
• A mock strawberry plant warned Zhou Wanwan that black-clad men planned to drop loose rocks on her group, so she led more than twenty people up the mountain to investigate.
• Zhou Wanwan overheard a masked man and Zhou Fuyu discussing their plan to crush the group and praising Old Madam Zhou’s accurate fortune-telling.
• The story recounted how Old Madam Zhou had warned Zhou Chong of an ambush, saving him and his men, and how he rewarded her with supplies and five hundred taels of silver.
• Old Madam Zhou advised Zhou Chong to prepare plenty of grain because a drought would come later.

Zhou Wanwan and the villagers robbed Zhou Fuyu’s bandits, then successfully made a small gunpowder charge and began searching for the Songhua stone vein. The trees revealed that people traveled to the vein at night along a nearby road, giving Zhou Wanwan a lead to follow.

• Zhou Wanwan’s group used incense to knock out Zhou Fuyu and his men, stole their valuables, and left them bound and hanging from trees above a cliff.
• Liu Xiuyuan reported that the group had collected 165 taels of silver and several pieces of jewelry, while Zhou Wanwan absorbed spiritual energy from Zhou Fuyu’s jade pendant.
• Zhou Wanwan returned home, ate a meal prepared by Liu Su'e, and began experimenting with gunpowder alongside the village craftsmen.
• Zhou Wanwan’s gunpowder mixture exploded like a firecracker, and she told her family to keep their new weapon secret.
• Zhou Wanwan asked nearby plants about the Songhua stone vein, and the trees revealed that people visited it at night via a road nearby.

Zhou Wanwan and Liu Dalang followed the Jiang family’s cautious mining party to a hidden songhua stone vein, then brought villagers from Liu Family Village to collect stone. After Lingbao explained how to make songhua inkstones, Zhou Wanwan asked Liu Shiyan to craft some, and he summoned his son and grandson to do the work.

• Zhou Wanwan and Liu Dalang overheard Jiang family members boast about their songhua inkstone order and threaten to hunt the people of Liu Family Village as prey.
• Zhou Wanwan followed the mining party for more than two hours, using the trees’ gossip to track them to a hidden songhua stone vein.
• After the Jiang family miners left at daybreak, Zhou Wanwan and her companions entered the mine and found a passage filled with songhua stone.
• Zhou Wanwan summoned more than four hundred villagers, who loaded songhua stone into carts and made seven or eight trips.
• Lingbao explained how to select, shape, and polish stone into songhua inkstones, and Zhou Wanwan decided the villagers should try making them.
• Liu Xiuyuan brought Zhou Wanwan to Liu Shiyan, who claimed the craft for his family and called for his son and grandson to help.

Zhou Wanwan arranged new designs for Songhua inkstones while Lingbao raided the Jiang family’s study and medicine room for inkstones, books, silver notes, and herbs. After deciding to sell her village’s inkstones far cheaper than the Jiang family’s, she took them to a bookshop, where an assistant insulted her and she predicted the shop would close.

• Liu Shiyan’s eldest son finished a Songhua inkstone, and Zhou Wanwan drew several designs for him to carve.
• Lingbao and Donkey Friend sneaked into the Jiang family’s study, taking Songhua inkstones and books, then emptied the medicine room of its herbs.
• Jiang Wu discovered the thefts and ordered the village searched, while Lingbao returned home with the haul.
• Zhou Wanwan inspected the stolen inkstones and decided to sell her village’s versions for 30 taels instead of 300.
• Zhou Wanwan brought more than twenty inkstones to a bookshop, where an assistant mocked her appearance and questioned whether she could afford books.
• Zhou Wanwan told the assistant that his bookshop would eventually close.

Zhou Wanwan offered to treat Gu Chaoyang’s son Gu Sinian and began acupuncture, while advising Gu Chaoyang to sell his struggling bookshop before a severe drought. After the village chief and his men threatened to take the shop, Gu Chaoyang decided to sell and asked whether he could move to Zhou Wanwan’s village.

• Zhou Wanwan offered to treat Gu Sinian, and Gu Chaoyang agreed after she explained the cause of his condition and the treatment plan.
• Zhou Wanwan gave Gu Sinian acupuncture, prescribed medicinal decoctions, and told Gu Chaoyang that treatment could restore his senses within three to six months.
• Zhou Wanwan urged Gu Chaoyang to sell the bookshop before a severe drought, but he dismissed her warning and trusted the imperial court to handle the coming locust plague.
• The village chief and his men threatened Gu Chaoyang and announced that they would force him to sell the bookshop for 100 taels.
• Gu Chaoyang said he planned to sell the shop and asked Zhou Wanwan if he could move to her village because he could not get along with his own village.

Zhou Wanwan met the newly appointed county magistrate's wife, Madam Cheng, and learned that her daughter Cheng Yueyao could speak when she felt comfortable. She arranged to sell Songhua inkstones through Madam Cheng and warned her to stockpile grain and water as drought approached.

• Gu Chaoyang agreed to settle outside Zhou Wanwan's village, sell his bookshop, and use 200 taels of the proceeds to buy grain despite Chen Dongmei's protest.
• Zhou Wanwan met Madam Cheng, who offered her 50 taels a month to accompany Cheng Yueyao as a study companion.
• Cheng Yueyao saw Lingbao, called out to her, and giggled, prompting Madam Cheng to realize her daughter had spoken.
• Madam Cheng inspected the Songhua inkstones and agreed to buy them from Zhou Wanwan for 50 taels each to resell.
• Zhou Wanwan warned Madam Cheng that drought was coming and advised her to stockpile grain and water, leaving Madam Cheng eager to know how she had learned this.

Zhou Wanwan warned Madam Cheng that a long drought was likely, prompting her to stockpile grain and buy Zhou Wanwan’s Songhua inkstones. Meanwhile, Gu Chaoyang’s wife divorced him and left with Su Peng, while Gu Chaoyang blamed himself and explained that Gu Sinian had once been clever before villagers injured his head.

• Zhou Wanwan told Madam Cheng that a severe, prolonged drought was likely, and Madam Cheng agreed to buy grain and all twenty of Zhou Wanwan’s Songhua inkstones for a thousand taels of silver.
• Madam Cheng offered to exchange Zhou Wanwan’s silver for grain and invited her to visit Yueyao the next day.
• Gu Chaoyang’s wife demanded a divorce, accusing him of wasting the family’s money and refusing to take Gu Sinian to the countryside.
• Gu Chaoyang agreed to give Meiniang a hundred and fifty taels, and they divorced at the county yamen.
• Su Peng left with Meiniang, while Gu Chaoyang sat dazed and blamed himself; Zhou Wanwan reassured him, and he said villagers had smashed Gu Sinian’s head because they were jealous of his cleverness.

Zhou Wanwan drove Old Madam Zhou and the people from Zhou Family Village away when they came to confront her, then planned to retaliate with a lesson of her own. She made goat-milk tea for her family and checked the greenhouse, where Lingbao offered to help the leafy greens grow.

• Old Madam Zhou accused Zhou Wanwan of stealing silver and harming her son, but Zhou Wanwan faced down the armed visitors with villagers carrying bows and arrows, forcing them to leave.
• Zhou Wanwan told her family that they needed to teach Zhou Family Village a lesson without killing anyone, and explained how their heated greenhouses could grow crops through winter.
• Liu Su'e brought goat's milk, and Zhou Wanwan made milk tea that her family and Lingbao enjoyed.
• Zhou Wanwan said she would treat her father's legs in a few days and reflected that she could not help Wild Field Village families who had spent their money on land instead of grain.
• At the vegetable greenhouse, Zhou Wanwan clasped the imperial green jadeite as Lingbao offered to bathe and help the leafy greens grow.