Recaps

Zhou Wanwan secured farmland, exposed the Zhou Family’s demands, and gathered allies while managing refugees and outmaneuvering those who tried to exploit her. The arc ended with powerful families competing to marry into her wealth as she ordered the Yongning Earl’s Manor’s latest betrothal gifts seized.

• Zhou Wanwan presented her drought-relief plan, then let rival families buy western farmland before secretly securing most of the eastern estates.
• Old Madam Zhou tried to force Zhou Wanwan to help her grandsons enter White Deer Academy, but Zhou Wanwan produced their severance document and later exposed the family’s gambling debts and donations at a public hearing.
• Old Madam Zhou revealed that Zhou Fusheng was not her birth son, and Zhou Wanwan showed him a pendant bearing Xiao Huaijin’s name before her family moved into the Cheng residence.
• Zhou Wanwan exposed Wen Qiuyu and Wen Dongyu’s false identities and revenge plot, sent them to the county yamen, then arranged for their relatives to be brought from the capital.
• As famine refugees flooded the region, Zhou Wanwan opened her granaries, rescued starving children, and redirected displaced people after Prefect Fang and Cheng Xiao tried to send them into her counties.
• The Countess of Yongning tried to force Shen Zhiyu’s marriage to Zhou Wanwan, but Zhou Wanwan displayed his concubines and seized his betrothal gifts and properties before he could propose.
• Chen Ankang stood by Zhou Wanwan despite his family’s objections, and Zhou Wanwan impressed several officials with her revelations about their families, leading Lord Xiao, Lord Yuan, and Tang Mingshan to seek her help or pledge themselves to her.
• After rumors spread about Zhou Wanwan’s paid fortune-telling, Madam Shen prepared sixty-eight loads of betrothal gifts for her, while Zhou Wanwan ordered Old Scholar Tree to leave the Yongning Earl’s Manor penniless.

Zhou Wanwan stabilized Dongshan Prefecture, exposed Eunuch Hai’s enemies, and brought her family to the capital. There she helped Lin Yue confront her stepmother’s abuse and a plot to ruin her reputation, while Chen Ankang’s marriage to Lin Yue remained ahead.

• Zhou Wanwan cleared Madam Shen from the borrowed house, then warned her to leave Dongshan Prefecture after Madam Shen paid her to learn who had taken it.
• Zhou Wanwan bet the merchants that grain and salt prices would fall, opened a river channel to secure irrigation, and used low prices and steady supplies to defeat their attempt to corner the market.
• Zhou Wanwan moved Eunuch Hai’s military supplies to the army camp, uncovered the Ning Clan’s plot against his family, and helped him reconcile with the Zheng and Feng families.
• Zhou Wanwan and her family traveled to the capital, where she learned about Shangguan Wan’er’s troubles and saw Chen Ankang rejected by his former friends and Lin Xi.
• Zhou Wanwan intervened when Lin Yue offered to marry Chen Ankang, then exposed Lord Lin’s embezzlement and Madam Lin’s theft of Lin Yue’s dowry.
• Madam Lin and Lin Xi tried to frame Lin Yue with a staged scandal, but the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review uncovered Jin Changshun’s role and arrested him.
• Lord Lin returned and struck Madam Lin as Lin Yue accused her of mistreatment and stealing her mother’s dowry.

Zhou Wanwan used her fortune-telling, business schemes, and investigations to help Lin Yue, Shen Yumei, and Song Rusheng while securing Chen Ankang a place at the Court of Judicial Review. The arc ended with Zhou Wanwan sending the Zhou family away and preparing to face Old Madam Zhou’s planned public attack at the Grand Princess’s birthday banquet.

• Lord Lin compensated Lin Yue with Madam Lin’s dowry and sent Lin Xi to a nunnery, while Lin Yue married Chen Ankang and Huo Lingchuan discovered he had married Lin Xi.
• Zhou Wanwan exposed Shangguan Wan'er’s schemes, secured Madam Shangguan and Shangguan Yun'er’s trust, and used a debt contract to force Shangguan Wan'er to answer for her actions.
• Zhou Wanwan’s accurate readings drew a stream of customers, and she helped Shen Yumei expose Shen Jiamu’s affair and reclaim her freedom.
• Madam Jiang reunited with her missing daughter Shen Yumei, and Lord Jiang exiled the Shen family members involved in taking her as an infant.
• Zhou Wanwan helped Song Rusheng recover control of her household from Zhao Hu and his lover, then arranged a herb-trading scheme that left Zhao Hu in debt.
• Zhou Wanwan traced the theater murder to Marquis Yongning's Residence and accused Xiao Heng of killing Su Heng and poisoning Su Ling, while Xiao Heng denied it.
• The Court of Judicial Review offered Zhou Wanwan a registrar position, but she credited Chen Ankang and left him to work there.
• Zhou Wanwan showed the neighbors her agreement severing ties with Old Madam Zhou’s family and sent them away, while Old Madam Zhou planned to expose her at the Grand Princess’s birthday banquet.

Zhou Wanwan reunited the Grand Princess with her lost son, endured Noble Consort Ning’s attempt to punish her, and transformed the Cold Palace into a thriving home. When the Xie Family tried to take over her food business, Zhou Wanwan’s family won the foreign contest and her rival’s banquet failed, though Xie Cheng’en planned to poach her workers.

• Zhou Wanwan exposed how Nanny Huang and Shen Huizhen had helped conceal the Grand Princess’s missing son, then reunited the Grand Princess with Zhou Fusheng through his jade pendant and birthmark.
• The Grand Princess recognized Zhou Wanwan as her granddaughter, punished Old Madam Zhou, welcomed the Zhou family, and took Zhou Wanwan to seek a commandery princess title from the emperor.
• Noble Consort Ning sent Zhou Wanwan to Princess Jianing, but Zhou Wanwan thwarted Jianing’s attacks, explored the palace with Lingbao, and was eventually banished to the Cold Palace.
• Zhou Wanwan organized the Cold Palace residents to farm, eat, and care for one another, treated wounded palace servants, and used spiritual power to improve the land and livestock.
• After learning the Xie Family had closed her takeaway shops to copy her business, Zhou Wanwan took valuable goods and plants from Xie Cheng’en’s residence, while the Xie Family’s palace banquet drew poor reviews beside her food and entertainment.
• Zhou Wanwan persuaded the emperor and foreign envoys to offer prizes for a contest, then competed with Zhou Qingyan, Zhou Qingchen, Zhou Qinghe, and Gu Sinian against Khotan and the Snow Khanate.
• Zhou Wanwan’s team defeated the foreign fighters, and the emperor praised her milk tea and fruit as the guests stayed up listening to stories and her snack business received a large palace order.
• Xie Cheng’en paid a steep price to rush together six banquets, but guests disliked most of his dishes and remembered Zhou Wanwan’s deliveries, so he approved his butler’s plan to poach her workers.