Chapter Summaries

Zhou Wanwan bought discarded weapons for 300 copper coins and restored the crossbow and other finds at home. As Zhou Fusheng demonstrated his archery, he explained how a fall from a roof had left his leg lame.

• Zhou Wanwan discovered Torrential Rain Pear Blossom Needles, a Flying Claw, bows, daggers, and a broadsword among the junk.
• Zhou Wanwan paid 300 copper coins for the discarded weapons, then removed verdigris from the blades and repaired the crossbow string and sight.
• Zhou Fusheng demonstrated his archery and told Zhou Wanwan that he had practiced as a young man and once hoped to go to war.
• Zhou Fusheng explained that a rotten rafter broke beneath him while he repaired a roof, and that his leg healed crookedly because his family could not afford a good doctor.

Zhou Wanwan offered hope that she could treat Zhou Fusheng’s crippled leg, while Old Madam Zhou’s family plotted to hoard supplies and expected Zhou Fusheng’s family to return in desperation. The chapter ended with Zhou Fuyu’s wife suspecting that his brothers might have stolen their hidden stores.

• Zhou Wanwan examined Zhou Fusheng’s leg and said it might heal if the crooked bone was reset, then promised to search the mountain for herbs.
• Old Madam Zhou learned that their hidden cave had been cleared out and told her family to find another hiding place while continuing to buy grain.
• Old Madam Zhou dismissed rumors that Zhou Fusheng had money and expected him and his family to return as dependents when they ran short of food.
• Zhou Fukang rejected buying grain with his saved silver and chose to buy clothes instead, while admitting that he had kept half his earnings when working with Zhou Fusheng.
• Zhou Fuyu’s wife suggested that his brothers might have taken the hidden supplies, warning him to be cautious for their son’s sake.

Zhou Wanwan stole Shen Dalu’s hidden money and belongings after discovering he had stolen her family’s rabbit, then took her brothers into the mountains to gather herbs for Zhou Fusheng. She left the village singing an unfamiliar song, and her brothers asked what a “school” was.

• Zhou Qingyan, Zhou Qinghe, and Zhou Qingchen practiced writing while Zhou Wanwan urged them to stop for the night.
• Zhou Wanwan used her grappling hook to enter Shen Dalu’s courtyard, dug up his hidden box, and took its contents and loose money before defiling the box and covering it again.
• Zhou Wanwan examined the box’s hairpin, handkerchief, bracelet, and coins, planning to use the money for warm clothes and charcoal while seeking medicinal herbs for Zhou Fusheng.
• The next morning, Zhou Wanwan heard Shen Dalu complain that his box had disappeared and taunted him about smelling awful before leaving with her brothers.
• As Zhou Wanwan and her brothers headed into the mountains, she sang an unfamiliar tune, prompting Zhou Qingyan and Zhou Qinghe to ask about its words.

Zhou Wanwan gathered medicinal plants in the forest and discovered an intelligent wild ginseng over twenty years old. She kept it rather than selling it, and it offered to lead her to more ginseng plants.

• Zhou Wanwan listened as the plants argued about their medicinal uses, then had her older brothers dig up angelica, bupleurum, elderberry, and groundsel.
• Zhou Wanwan heard weeds complain that a sleeping ginseng had drained the soil, then spotted the wild mountain ginseng and carefully dug it up.
• The wild ginseng woke and pleaded with Zhou Wanwan not to eat it, offering to lead her to other ginseng plants in exchange for becoming her pet.
• Zhou Wanwan accepted the deal, and the ginseng guided her to a plant over ten years old before telling her about another ginseng over twenty years old.

Zhou Wanwan befriended a mobile ginseng plant and learned about its ancient medicinal-herb companions while preparing for the coming locust plague. She later joined her brothers at the fields, where Lin Shouyi’s warnings about disaster met resistance from Shen Boxian and skeptical villagers.

• Zhou Wanwan learned that the little ginseng could run through the woods, find herbs, and had friends including a twelve-hundred-year-old purple lingzhi grandpa.
• The little ginseng agreed to stay with Zhou Wanwan, who made it a medicinal-herb bath but refused to waste her most valuable herbs in the brew.
• Zhou Wanwan prepared herbs for Zhou Fusheng and set out with her three older brothers to visit the medicine shop.
• Lin Shouyi urged villagers to stockpile grain and water for the locust plague, while Shen Boxian and others doubted his warning and demanded to know his source.
• Zhou Wanwan called out to Uncle Lin from the ridge between the fields.

Zhou Wanwan went to town with Lin Shouyi to buy supplies, selling herbs and purchasing healthy chicks, eggs, and piglets after Little Ginseng warned her away from a bad seller’s stock. Lin Shouyi then offered to take her to buy discounted official grain, revealing that county officials had secretly diverted grain meant for the Ever-Normal Granary.

• Lin Shouyi told Zhou Wanwan that he had warned villagers to store water, and he agreed to accompany her into town to buy supplies.
• Zhou Wanwan sold herbs at an apothecary, bought silver needles and medicinal ingredients, and avoided telling the shopkeeper where the herbs came from.
• Little Ginseng warned Zhou Wanwan not to buy one seller’s chicks, so she bought twenty-two chicks, one hundred eggs, and three piglets from a neighboring vendor instead.
• The first seller insulted Zhou Wanwan and threatened her, but Lin Shouyi stepped in and led her away.
• Lin Shouyi offered to show Zhou Wanwan where she could buy discounted official grain and explained that county officials had diverted it for private profit.

Zhou Wanwan bought official grain and winter supplies while warning her family to hide their food during the drought. She agreed to visit Liu Su'e's family home and set out to hunt game and bury the new grain before they went.

• Lin Shouyi took Zhou Wanwan to the granary, where she spent her money on fine grain and he bought ten taels' worth for their household.
• Zhou Wanwan asked about silver frost charcoal, then bought clothes and quilts instead, using nearly all her remaining money.
• After the grain arrived, Zhou Wanwan told Liu Su'e to dig another cellar and forbade the family from telling anyone they had grain.
• Liu Su'e wanted to visit her impoverished family, and Zhou Wanwan agreed to go with her that night after seeing their situation.
• Zhou Wanwan and Liu Su'e went up the mountain to dig a cellar and store the grain while Zhou Wanwan went to look for game to bring along.

Zhou Wanwan and her three older brothers searched the woods for game, guided by the little ginseng, and caught six red-necked pheasants. They gathered mushrooms and grass and picked a basket of wild persimmons before deciding to head home.

• Liu Su'e asked Zhou Wanwan to find her family, and Zhou Wanwan entered the woods with her three older brothers.
• The little ginseng led Zhou Wanwan to red-necked pheasants and revealed that he could understand most animals.
• Zhou Wanwan and her brothers caught six red-necked pheasants, while the little ginseng admitted he held a grudge against them for eating his friend.
• Zhou Wanwan gathered wood ear mushrooms and other mushrooms, and Zhou Qinghe and Zhou Qingchen cut grass to take home for the sheep.
• The little ginseng led the group to a wild persimmon tree, and Zhou Qingyan and his brothers filled a basket with fruit before Zhou Wanwan suggested returning home.

Zhou Wanwan and her family traveled to Liu Family Village, where Liu Su'e reunited with her parents and siblings after years apart. Her family learned that the Zhou family had kept Liu Su'e from visiting and turned her away after taking gifts, while the Liu family offered what little help they could.

• Zhou Wanwan helped secure the family's grain in the cellar, then agreed to accompany Liu Su'e to visit her maternal grandparents.
• Zhou Fusheng said he still hoped the Zhou family might invite them back, but Liu Su'e and the children rejected the idea of returning.
• Lin Shouyi drove the family to impoverished Liu Family Village, where Zhou Wanwan was astonished by the thatched homes.
• Old Madam Liu welcomed Liu Su'e with tears and told her how the Zhou family had prevented her relatives from visiting.
• Liu Su'e learned that her parents and brothers had tried to see her and had been insulted and turned away by her mother-in-law.
• Old Liu cursed the Zhou family and offered Liu Su'e and her family the fifty wen he had saved.

Liu Su'e and her family visited her poor but proud relatives, and Zhou Wanwan offered them work while keeping her own family’s circumstances secret. The next morning, Shen Dalu injured himself in their trap, and a confrontation escalated when his wife threatened Zhou Wanwan.

• Old Madam Liu and Liu Su'e discussed the family’s poverty and the fates of Liu Su'e’s married sisters, while Old Liu offered them fifty copper coins.
• Zhou Wanwan said her family had caught game and offered work to the Liu uncles, then invited them to Wild Field Village for breakfast the next day.
• Liu Su'e asked Zhou Wanwan whether she would help her relatives, and Zhou Wanwan agreed but told her not to reveal their family’s circumstances.
• Shen Dalu came to the courtyard injured by a hunting trap, and Old Madam Shen fought with Liu Su'e after accusing the family of setting it against her son.
• Shen Dalu’s wife threatened to kill Zhou Wanwan, and Zhou Wanwan aimed a crossbow at her and warned her not to come closer.

Zhou Wanwan wounded Shen Dalu's wife with her crossbow when the woman attacked her, and Lin Fugui backed the Zhou family while warning them about the Shen family. That night, the little ginseng stole Old Man Shen's hidden six taels of silver and delivered it to Zhou Wanwan, leaving the Shen family unable to explain the disappearance to the authorities.

• As Shen Dalu's wife raised her machete against Zhou Wanwan, Zhou Wanwan shot her in the shoulder with a crossbow.
• Lin Fugui arrived, rebuked the Shen family, ordered them to take their injured relatives home, and warned the Zhou family about the Shen sons.
• Zhou Wanwan reassured Liu Su'e that Shen Dalu's wife would survive, then went to sleep while the little ginseng slipped next door.
• Old Man Shen found the six taels he had saved and hidden, and the little ginseng stole the silver after he went inside.
• Zhou Wanwan woke to find six taels of silver beside her bed, while the Shen family discovered the money missing and called the authorities.
• An officer found no footprints around the hiding place and suggested that someone in Old Man Shen's family might have taken the silver.

Shen Dahai learned that his parents had lied about their feud with the neighbors and warned them that their misdeeds could ruin the family. Meanwhile, Zhou Wanwan hired village workers to build livestock pens quickly.

• Old Man Shen and Old Madam Shen took Shen Dalu to town, where Shen Dahai arranged cheaper treatment for his brother's injured leg.
• After Shen Dachuan brought Shen Dalu's wife to the clinic, a doctor’s apprentice recognized her wound as a crossbow injury, and Shen Dahai learned his father had concealed the truth.
• Shen Dahai and Shen Daze rebuked their parents and warned them that further wrongdoing could bring prison and end their financial support.
• Zhou Wanwan asked her six maternal uncles to build a large livestock shed and insisted it be finished within two days.
• Zhou Wanwan offered fifteen wen per day, and more than forty villagers arrived to work.

Zhou Wanwan bought meat, medicinal herbs, grain, and seeds while arranging for workers to build livestock sheds ahead of a possible locust plague. After stocking up and heading into the mountains with her brothers, she listened to plants gossip about a man and woman caught sneaking around.

• Zhou Wanwan bought pork and offal, then ordered medicinal herbs for Little Ginseng and supplies to store in case of an epidemic.
• Zhou Wanwan spent two taels of silver on grain and vegetable seeds before returning to the village with her brothers.
• Liu Su'e told Zhou Wanwan that more than forty workers from Liu Family Village would finish the livestock sheds by morning.
• Liu Su'e served the workers red-braised pork and white rice, and Zhou Wanwan later went to the mountain with her brothers.
• Zhou Wanwan let Little Ginseng take wine to its grandfather and tell its friends about the possible locust plague.
• Zhou Wanwan overheard plants gossip that a man and a woman had been caught sneaking around in the bushes the previous night.

Zhou Wanwan found the butcher’s hidden money and a marked note that led her to a large piece of pork, which she brought home. As the family settled into their improved living arrangements, Zhou Fusheng’s brothers’ wives arrived and invited them back for a meal.

• Zhou Wanwan heard conflicting gossip about the butcher and his wife’s cousin, then found his hidden pouch containing copper coins, silver, and a charcoal map.
• Zhou Wanwan followed the map with Zhou Qingchen, Zhou Qinghe, and Zhou Qingyan and found nearly half a pig tied to a crooked tree.
• Zhou Wanwan carried the pork home, where Liu Su'e mistook the hidden meat for something alarming before serving her a stuffed bun.
• Liu Su'e told Zhou Wanwan about learning to cook from her grandmother, whose family had been implicated when her employers fell into trouble.
• Liu Su'e fed the Liu Family Village workers, and Zhou Wanwan offered them payment for building sturdy animal shelters, but they refused.
• Zhang Guilan and Zhao Zhaodi visited and said Zhou Fusheng’s mother wanted the family to come home for a meal.

Zhou Wanwan’s family was summoned to the Zhou house under the pretense of a meal, but Old Madam Zhou intended to expel them from the clan and take their home. Zhou Wanwan threatened the family with her crossbow and fired past Old Madam Zhou, shattering a bronze mirror.

• Zhang Guilan told Zhou Fusheng’s family that the Zhou Clan planned to drive them out unless they gave Old Madam Zhou the deed to their house.
• Zhou Wanwan agreed to go to the Zhou house and threatened to burn the ancestral hall if the clan falsely accused her family of being unfilial.
• Zhou Wanwan used her crossbow to frighten Zhang Guilan into leading them to Old Madam Zhou.
• Old Madam Zhou said she would let Zhou Fusheng’s family return only if they accepted her terms, and announced that the eldest son’s family would move into their house.
• Zhou Wanwan warned Zhang Guilan not to move, aimed her crossbow at Old Madam Zhou, and fired a bolt that shattered the bronze mirror beside her.

Zhou Wanwan forced Old Madam Zhou to separate Zhou Fusheng’s family from the Zhou Clan, while learning that the drought had lasted three years in her previous life. After the family returned to Wild Field Village, Zhou Wanwan helped Zhou Fusheng question whether leaving the clan had truly been wrong.

• Zhou Wanwan threatened Old Madam Zhou with her weapon and demanded that the clan formally separate her family from the Zhou Clan.
• Old Madam Zhou revealed that the drought had lasted three years in her previous life, and Zhou Wanwan pressed her about what had happened then.
• The Zhou clan leader formally cut Zhou Fusheng’s family off from the clan, while clan members insulted them and demanded they leave the village.
• Zhou Fusheng defended Zhou Wanwan as a lucky star, and Liu Su'e challenged Old Madam Zhou’s claim that the family had taken him in without payment.
• After the family returned to Wild Field Village, Zhou Wanwan questioned Zhou Fusheng about whether the clan had ever helped them, and he recalled being forced to work while his brothers studied.

Zhou Wanwan warned Liu Family Village that a locust plague and a prolonged drought were coming, and the village mobilized to prepare. The village chief invited Zhou Wanwan and her family to move back, and she agreed to inspect a house in the mountains.

• Zhou Wanwan told her grandfather and uncles that Old Madam Zhou had warned Zhou Family Village to stock up on food and water, and urged them to sell their fields.
• Old Liu rang the ancestral hall bell and warned Liu Family Village about the coming locust plague and long drought, crediting Zhou Wanwan with the information.
• Village Chief Liu ordered the clan to spend its silver on coarse grain, sell its fields, fill water vats, and send the hunting team to gather game for trade.
• Village Chief Liu called Zhou Wanwan the savior of Liu Family Village and invited her family to move back, offering them temporary shelter and help building a house.
• Zhou Wanwan said she wanted to see the mountain house after villagers debated whether it was suitable for her family.

Zhou Wanwan and the Zhou brothers explored an abandoned stone house, caught game, and began making Silver Frost Charcoal with Little Ginseng’s instructions. While Eldest Uncle stayed behind to tend the kiln, Zhou Wanwan led the others into the mountains, where Second Uncle feared they would encounter a tiger.

• Old Liu led Zhou Wanwan and the others to an abandoned stone house, where the brothers caught pheasants and rabbits and Zhou Wanwan collected pheasant eggs.
• Zhou Wanwan asked Old Liu to arrange for the house to be cleared and repaired, then asked whether the Liu brothers could help with another task.
• Zhou Wanwan persuaded Little Ginseng to explain how to make Silver Frost Charcoal, and the villagers brought jujube and ring-cupped oak wood to the mountain.
• Little Ginseng explained how to prepare the wood and fire the kiln, but the process would take several days.
• Zhou Wanwan had Eldest Uncle watch the kiln and led the others into the rugged mountains, prompting Second Uncle to worry that a tiger might attack them.

Zhou Wanwan found two orphaned tiger cubs and gathered medicinal herbs while preparing her family for possible disasters. She also had her uncles dig up a huanghuali tree and headed to town with it, leaving its purpose unexplained.

• Zhou Wanwan and her relatives hid in a tree while two tigers fought, then learned one tiger had died and discovered its two blind cubs had been left motherless.
• Zhou Wanwan put the cubs in her basket and gathered medicinal herbs with help from Little Ginseng, who warned that a drought was likely.
• Zhou Wanwan discussed storing food and finding a fallback shelter in Liu Family Village in case disaster made Wild Field Village unsafe.
• Zhou Wanwan filled her relatives’ baskets with herbs and mushrooms, then asked Second Uncle to dig up a huanghuali tree.
• Fourth Uncle borrowed the village chief’s ox cart, and he and Zhou Wanwan took the tree to town.

Zhou Wanwan sold medicinal herbs and huanghuali wood for ten taels of silver, then used the money to buy fine grain, clothes, shoes, and quilts for the Liu family and her own family. After returning to the Liu home, she explained why her family needed to prepare a second house in Wild Field Village and asked about its cellar.

• Zhou Wanwan sold seven jin of gastrodia tubers, eleven jin of rehmannia roots, and huanghuali wood to the shopkeeper for ten taels of silver, along with two packets of herbs.
• Zhou Wanwan and Second Uncle exchanged eight taels of silver for fine grain, while she bought padded clothes, shoes, and quilts for both families.
• Zhou Wanwan left two sacks of grain and clothes and quilts at the Liu home, where Old Liu told his sons to obey and protect her and keep her discoveries secret.
• Liu Liulang told Old Liu that Zhou Wanwan had led them past tigers, found two tiger cubs, and guided them to medicinal herbs, mushrooms, and a valuable tree.
• Liu Su'e asked why they needed to prepare the house in Wild Field Village, and Zhou Wanwan warned that famine could make the village unsafe and asked whether the house had a cellar.
• Liu Su'e said the house had a large cellar that only needed cleaning.