Recaps

Zhou Wanwan exposed the Cui Family’s schemes, dealt with the Zhou family’s disastrous wedding banquet, and rescued women from exploitation while famine spread. After using cinnabar to strengthen her tree allies and moving her business, she entered Heavenly Demon City, where she confronted Princess Liuli and learned that Xue Ya and Xue Lang were dead.

• Zhou Wanwan exposed Cui Wenyuan’s attempt to frame Madam Cui, crippled him, and helped Zhao Qiuping pursue her dowry and the truth about her newborn son.
• Cheng Chao married Zheng Xing'an against his parents’ wishes, while Zhou Wanwan supported the couple and refused the Cui Family’s proposals that she become Cui Hongyuan’s wife or concubine.
• Zhou Wanwan attended Zhou Mei’s wedding banquet, uncovered the family’s spoiled food scheme, and made Zhou Fuyu take responsibility for the guests’ illness and compensation.
• Zhou Wanwan recruited and cured women with venereal disease, then made their abusers pay compensation after physicians confirmed the women were healthy.
• As famine drove food and salt prices upward, Zhou Wanwan sold supplies cheaply, but Zhao Lili seized her restaurant and took her to Pleasure City over a cinnabar mine.
• Zhou Wanwan helped Water Ghost recover his meridians, used cinnabar to strengthen the Old Scholar Tree, and moved the mine’s ore and her restaurant before taking missions at the Earth Ranking Courtyard.
• Princess Liuli forced Zhou Wanwan to become her maid, but Zhou Wanwan used the trees to seize Liuli’s torturers and learned that Xue Ya and Xue Lang were dead.

Zhou Wanwan looted the Cui and Nie families, strengthened her allies, and began taking up neglected legal cases. After winning justice for Lady Fang and uncovering the Wang family’s crimes, she appraised treasures at Nie Shi’an’s gathering and decided to build her own museum.

• Zhou Wanwan searched Princess Liuli’s storehouses, found maps to three mineral deposits, and harvested amber and crystal with Old Scholar Tree.
• After soldiers pursued Zhou Wanwan for a reward, Old Scholar Tree killed more than thirty Heavenly Demon Ranking experts, and Zhou Wanwan rejected the Cui Family’s plan to make her Cui Hongyuan’s concubine.
• Zhou Wanwan and her family left the Cui residence, then she sent more than 50,000 trees to seize grain and supplies from over sixty shops.
• Zhou Wanwan defeated Cui Hongyuan and the capital gamblers in a high-stakes contest, winning 242 million taels and keeping the estates and betrothal gifts they wagered.
• When the Cui Family tried to force Zhou Wanwan into marriage, she and Old Scholar Tree looted its estates and storerooms, then wrecked the residence with firecrackers before robbing the Nie Family.
• Zhou Wanwan improved the Water Ghost’s strength, taught martial artists Tai Chi, and later became a temporary assistant investigating old cases for Nie Shi’an.
• Zhou Wanwan reunited Lady Fang with her son and won her dowry and compensation in court, then investigated Wang Daya’s murder and exposed her grandfather and second uncle.
• At Nie Shi’an’s treasure gathering, Zhou Wanwan authenticated the guests’ antiques, humiliated Xie Cheng'en and turned away Cheng Xiao and Prefect Fang, then decided to make her own museum.

Zhou Wanwan turned the bandits drawn to Nie Shi'an’s gathering into an opportunity to expand Black Wind Stronghold, then faced family debts, household conflicts, and accusations of theft. After uncovering the State-Pacifying Temple abbot’s crimes, she exposed his theft of the golden Buddha, but the governor’s arrival left her facing a powerful new threat.

• Zhou Wanwan led the bandits who swarmed Nie Shi'an’s treasure gathering to Black Wind Stronghold, where she frightened rivals with traps and brought several strongholds under her influence through harvest agreements and support.
• Zhou Wanwan returned the recovered treasures to the noble families, defended herself against claims that she had switched antiques, and persuaded Nie Shi'an to help restore Tang Jingyuan and Su Yan to office.
• Zhou Wanwan refused to let the Zhou family take over her home or businesses, confiscated Old Madam Zhou and Qian Huihui’s hidden money, and made Zhou Qingzhou’s relatives face his mounting debts.
• Zhou Wanwan helped Madam Fang uncover the flaws in her daughters’ proposed marriages and encouraged her to consider divorce and a new business partnership, while Prefect Fang blamed Zhou Wanwan for his family’s troubles.
• After prominent families accused Zhou Wanwan of theft, she challenged Chen Ankang to a wager over the missing treasures and took charge of investigating the golden Buddha stolen from the State-Pacifying Temple.
• Zhou Wanwan discovered that the temple abbot had stolen the Buddha’s gold and hidden treasures, then brought him and his subordinates to the yamen and revealed the intact golden Buddha.
• The governor arrived, defended the abbot, and threatened Black Wind Stronghold, while Nie Shi'an warned Zhou Wanwan that the governor had powerful family connections.

Zhou Wanwan exposed Wen Jingshan’s massacre, left her post, and pursued White Deer Academy while confronting schemes among the academy’s families. After winning the entrance examination and taking Luo Xue into her service, she turned to the worsening drought and sought a plan to aid the refugees.

• Zhou Wanwan uncovered Wen Jingshan’s massacre of Broken Kiln Village and helped the survivors confront him, while the Old Scholar Tree captured Wen Jingshan and his forces.
• Zhou Wanwan quit her yamen position and set out for White Deer Academy with her companions, where she clashed with Luo Xue and exposed her pregnancy through a wager and physicians’ examinations.
• Luo Xue signed a deed of servitude to Zhou Wanwan, who seized the Luo family’s stores of gold, grain, and salt and distributed food and salt to disaster victims.
• Zhou Wanwan took the White Deer Academy entrance examination, placed second behind Gu Sinian, and rejected the Ji Family’s attempt to take Luo Xue away.
• Luo Xue accused Luo Qingshan and the Ji Family in court, and the magistrate ordered payments and a public apology.
• As drought-driven refugees increased, Zhou Wanwan assembled her officials in her throne hall and asked them to propose relief measures.
• Gu Sinian presented a policy calling for grain distribution, refugee resettlement, wells and canals, local reassurance, and controls against grain price increases.