Chapter Summaries

Chen Ankang’s parents confronted him over serving Zhou Wanwan and tried to force him to choose a bride, but he refused. Father Chen went to White Deer Academy to challenge Zhou Wanwan and was mocked by his political enemies, while Chen Ankang stood by his wager.

• Father Chen and Mother Chen scolded Chen Ankang for serving Zhou Wanwan and demanded that he choose one of the young women they had brought as a match.
• Chen Ankang warned his father not to seek out Zhou Wanwan, but Father Chen went to White Deer Academy anyway, followed by Chen Ankang and the clan elders.
• Father Chen complained to Dean Zhu that Zhou Wanwan had made Chen Ankang her servant, and Dean Zhu rebuked him for his son’s wager and defended Zhou Wanwan.
• Zhou Wanwan came out of Dean Zhu’s courtyard and ignored Father Chen’s insults before heading to dinner, where Chen Ankang offered to serve her.
• Several of Father Chen’s political enemies arrived and ridiculed him and Chen Ankang, while Chen Ankang calmly said he had sold himself to Zhou Wanwan.

Zhou Wanwan defended Chen Ankang by exposing the misdeeds of the lords who mocked him and his family. She then offered to assess Lord Wang’s family fortunes and revealed that she knew about a serious problem involving Lord Xiao’s daughter’s marriage.

• Chen Ankang rejected his family’s demands to leave Zhou Wanwan, and she invited him to sit and eat while the argument continued.
• Lord Chen threatened to disown Chen Ankang, and Zhou Wanwan mocked the Chen family’s hardship and rebuked Lord Zheng, Lord Wang, Lord Yuan, Lord Tang, and Lord Xiao for their own failings.
• Zhou Wanwan revealed Lord Wang’s sons’ problems, Lord Yuan’s neglect of his parents, Lord Tang’s past sycophancy, Lord Xiao’s corruption, and Lord Zheng’s abuse of power.
• When Lord Wang asked about his sons, Zhou Wanwan said she would share her information for a fee and could help assess and change the family’s luck.
• Zhou Wanwan told Lord Xiao that his daughter would face serious trouble after marrying into a certain family, startling him into asking how she knew.

Zhou Wanwan charged Lord Xiao and Lord Wang for readings and revealed private details about their families, convincing them that her predictions were accurate. She began a reading for Lord Yuan, leaving him stunned by her knowledge of his household.

• Zhou Wanwan told Lord Xiao that the crown prince wanted his daughter as a secondary consort, then accepted 5,000 taels to help prevent it.
• Lord Xiao praised Zhou Wanwan's accuracy to Lords Yuan, Tang, Zheng, and Wang, and Lord Wang asked her for a reading.
• Lord Wang paid Zhou Wanwan five gold ingots, and she revealed that his former bedchamber maid had a promising son who was already a provincial graduate.
• Lord Wang urged the others to seek readings, and Lord Yuan followed Zhou Wanwan inside after she noted he had brought only one valuable item.
• Zhou Wanwan told Lord Yuan that he seemed unfilial because he had no choice with a tigress at home, and he reacted in alarm.

Zhou Wanwan exposed the Yuan clan leader’s plot against Lord Yuan and offered him a place in her service in Dongshan Prefecture. She also heard Lord Tang’s request about his future, and Tang Mingshan pledged his loyalty to her with a chest of treasures.

• Lord Yuan told Zhou Wanwan that his wife had sold off his family’s property and offered her his ancestral jade pendant, then asked to work for her.
• Zhou Wanwan revealed that the clan leader had arranged Lord Yuan’s marriage to seize his property and that his two sons were not his; Lord Yuan agreed to seek revenge and serve her.
• Zhou Wanwan gave Lord Yuan a hundred taels of gold and promised to bring his parents to the stronghold.
• Lord Zheng rejected Zhou Wanwan’s offer to tell his fortune, while Lord Tang asked about his prospects and then knelt, naming Zhou Wanwan as the person he would follow.
• Tang Mingshan explained that he had left the crown prince’s service and brought chests of treasures, saying he could sense that Zhou Wanwan would benefit him.

After Zhou Wanwan’s fortune-telling made her famous and wealthy, Madam Shen rushed to arrange Shen Zhiyu’s marriage to her, hoping to secure her fortune for the Yongning Earl’s Manor. Zhou Wanwan learned they had prepared another set of betrothal gifts and ordered Old Scholar Tree to leave them penniless.

• Lord Chen admitted that the crown prince had persuaded him to invest the Chen Family’s entire fortune in a business that failed, and he warned Chen Ankang against Zhou Wanwan.
• Rumors spread across Dongshan Prefecture that Zhou Wanwan had accurately told the fortunes of several high officials and charged thousands of taels for a reading.
• Madam Shen decided to send sixty-eight loads of betrothal gifts to Zhou Wanwan’s home the next day, fearing another family would claim her first.
• At White Deer Academy, Zhou Wanwan complained that her studies left her no time to see the people waiting outside for fortune-telling.
• Old Scholar Tree told Zhou Wanwan that the Yongning Earl’s Manor had prepared another sixty-eight loads of gifts, and she ordered him to leave them penniless.
• Madam Shen explained to Shen Zhiyu that Zhou Wanwan’s earnings could reach a million taels a year, and Shen Zhiyu compared marrying her to marrying the God of Wealth.

Zhou Wanwan had Lingbao and the treefolk steal the Shen Clan’s sixty-eight cartloads of betrothal gifts and the house Madam Shen had borrowed. After settling a dispute with the house’s owner, Madam Shen found that no one else would let her stay and went to Zhou Wanwan.

• Zhou Wanwan and Lingbao dismissed Shen Zhiyu as unworthy, then had Old Scholar Tree’s treefolk remove the betrothal gifts and everything else from the borrowed house.
• Madam Shen woke to find the gifts and house gone, while the house’s owner demanded compensation.
• Madam Shen and the owner took their dispute to court, where Cheng Xiao heard their accusations.
• Madam Shen settled with the owner for eight hundred taels of silver, but news of the vanished houses made her friends refuse to shelter her.
• Unable to find a place to stay in Dongshan Prefecture, Madam Shen went to Zhou Wanwan.

Zhou Wanwan warned Madam Shen to leave Dongshan Prefecture, then used gossip gathered by the trees to tell a salt merchant about his household and predict that salt and grain prices would fall. When the merchants and scholars challenged her, she called for Xing'an to fetch Dean Zhu of White Deer Academy as a witness.

• Madam Shen paid Zhou Wanwan to learn who had moved her house, and Zhou Wanwan warned her that she had angered someone powerful and should leave Dongshan Prefecture before her family faced calamity.
• Zhou Wanwan told a salt merchant that his household was troubled and his finances would suffer, drawing angry demands for a refund.
• Zhou Wanwan predicted that salt prices and grain prices in Dongshan Prefecture would fall, but the merchants and onlookers mocked her forecast.
• The salt merchant proposed that Dean Zhu of White Deer Academy witness a bet about prices, and Zhou Wanwan sent Xing'an to fetch him.
• As the crowd waited, scholars doubted that Dean Zhu would come and criticized Zhou Wanwan for boasting.

Zhou Wanwan revealed that Dean Zhu had taken her as his final disciple, then challenged salt and grain merchants to wager on her prediction that grain and salt prices would fall. She left with signed contracts granting her grain, cotton quilts, and medicinal herbs if the merchants lost.

• Luo Shuang mocked Zhou Wanwan for setting up a fortune-telling stall and insulted Luo Xue, who warned her about the Luo Family's declining business.
• Dean Zhu came out and confirmed that Zhou Wanwan was his final disciple, stunning Luo Shuang, the other onlookers, and the merchants.
• Zhou Wanwan accepted the merchants' offer to make a large bet and specified that she wanted grain, cotton quilts, and medicinal herbs rather than silver if they lost.
• Zhou Wanwan drafted clear contracts, and the merchants signed and sealed more than a hundred copies.

Zhou Wanwan refused to flee after wagering tens of millions of taels on salt and grain prices, confident that a newly opened waterway would soon end the drought. The river reached Yunxi County, and Lord Fang set out to see the enormous river and learn whether Zhou Wanwan had built it.

• Dean Zhu urged Zhou Wanwan to flee over her risky contracts, but Zhao Muyuan backed her confidence that grain and salt prices would fall within ten days.
• Zhou Wanwan checked the channel her tree people had spent a month digging and blasting open from a branch of the Yangtze River system.
• Zhou Wanwan’s people demolished the mountain barrier, and the river water flowed through the channel into a low-lying area, forming a lake.
• Zhou Wanwan said the new water source would let them irrigate fields and grow grain despite future droughts.
• Lord Fang’s steward told him Dongshan Prefecture had gained a river, and Lord Fang traveled to Yunxi County to see it and investigate Zhou Wanwan’s role.

Zhou Wanwan used the newly dug river to persuade Lord Fang to lower grain and salt prices and organize relief for the refugees in Dongshan Prefecture. As winter approached, she began building greenhouses and selling salt and sweet potatoes cheaply, leaving the grain market shaken.

• Lord Fang inspected Zhou Wanwan’s river and agreed that grain and salt prices should come down.
• Zhou Wanwan urged Lord Fang to control prices, feed refugees, and put able-bodied refugees to work farming.
• Lord Fang established refugee camps, distributed porridge, and sent young adults to farm Zhou Wanwan’s land.
• Zhou Wanwan built greenhouses and sold salt at less than half the merchants’ prices.
• Zhou Wanwan began selling sweet potatoes for two wen per jin, along with sweet potato flour, dried sweet potatoes, and sweet potato noodles.

Zhou Wanwan flooded Dongshan Prefecture's markets with cheap grain and sweet potatoes, defeating the merchants' attempt to buy up supplies and forcing them to honor their bet. She then showed Master Zhu her plans to grow crops through winter in heated greenhouses.

• Zhou Wanwan's low prices alarmed the grain and salt merchants, who feared their stored grain would lose value and urged one another to buy up the market supply.
• Zhou Wanwan told Dean Zhu to let the merchants buy grain, while Old Scholar Tree explained that supplies would keep returning to market.
• The merchants found that grain mysteriously vanished from their storehouses even as they purchased more, while market prices continued to fall.
• On the tenth day, the merchants knelt before Zhou Wanwan, paid half their debt in silver, and promised to provide the rest in grain.
• Zhou Wanwan told Dean Zhu that the prefect was on her side, then showed Master Zhu plans for winter greenhouses heated with coal and charcoal.

Zhou Wanwan proposed using greenhouses and settling disaster victims to expand farming in Dongshan Prefecture while Lord Fang and Cheng Xiao dealt with Eunuch Hai’s arrival. Eunuch Hai pressured Cheng Xiao to help sell military supplies and demanded to meet Zhou Wanwan, who agreed to see him.

• Zhou Wanwan told Master Zhu that greenhouses could supply her growing delivery business and give disaster victims work.
• Lord Fang arranged for disaster victims to settle in Dongshan Prefecture and planned to have them clear wasteland and farm.
• Eunuch Hai arrived and offered Cheng Xiao a promotion in exchange for helping sell weapons, horses, salt, gunpowder, and other supplies.
• Eunuch Hai ordered Cheng Xiao to bring Zhou Wanwan to meet him, and Cheng Xiao refused to assist with the military sale because it would betray the country.
• Lord Fang and Cheng Xiao went to Zhou Wanwan, who agreed to meet Eunuch Hai; Cheng Chao then entered and questioned why his father had come.

Zhou Wanwan discovered Eunuch Hai’s hidden stores of military supplies and had them moved to the Black Wind Stronghold before he could send them to Great Qi. The next morning, Eunuch Hai ordered her to enter the palace and disband her stronghold, then learned the supplies had vanished and demanded that Lord Fang investigate.

• Cheng Chao warned Cheng Xiao that Eunuch Hai was selling military supplies at the Noble Consort’s bidding, and Zhou Wanwan reassured them that she would handle the matter.
• Zhou Wanwan learned that Eunuch Hai’s shipment was stored at estates outside the city, where soldiers discussed delivering the goods to an unknown destination.
• Zhou Wanwan found warehouses full of provisions, clothing, armor, weapons, and other supplies, then ordered them taken to the Black Wind Stronghold.
• Zhou Wanwan moved all the supplies from the estates overnight.
• Eunuch Hai summoned Zhou Wanwan, ordered her to enter the palace to serve Princess Jianing, and demanded that she disband the Black Wind Mountain Stronghold.
• After learning the supplies were missing, Eunuch Hai ordered Lord Fang to investigate and revealed that they were winter military supplies for an impending war with Great Qi.

Eunuch Hai ordered six-year-old Zhou Wanwan to enter the palace, while Lord Fang learned she had sent the missing military supplies to the front lines. Zhou Wanwan went to Eunuch Hai’s residence, where the palace matrons tried to force her to learn servant etiquette, but she used her power to turn their punishments against them.

• Eunuch Hai told Lord Fang that Zhou Wanwan would stay at his residence and enter the palace under the noble consort’s command.
• Zhou Wanwan told Lord Fang she had sent the missing military supplies to the army camp instead of letting Eunuch Hai send them to Great Qi Kingdom.
• Liu Su'e objected to Zhou Wanwan going to the palace, and Zhou Fusheng, Zhou Qingyan, Zhou Qinghe, Feng Yueyao, and Feng Jiao discussed traveling to the capital with her.
• Zhou Wanwan arrived at Eunuch Hai’s residence, where palace matrons began harshly teaching her the rules for serving the princess.
• Zhou Wanwan immobilized the matrons and forced them to run and strike themselves after they tried to punish her.

Zhou Wanwan forced the palace matrons to stop their etiquette lessons, while Eunuch Hai discovered that someone had already delivered the military supplies and pay, ruining his chance to profit. When Eunuch Hai ordered a young eunuch to strike Zhou Wanwan, the eunuch’s hand broke before he could hit her.

• Zhou Wanwan made the palace matrons run for a full shichen until they collapsed, and they admitted she had learned etiquette well enough.
• Lord Fang told Eunuch Hai that a kind person had delivered the military pay and supplies to the troops and gave him the military camp’s signed list.
• Eunuch Hai threatened to investigate Dongshan Prefecture’s treatment of the disaster victims and insisted on going out to inspect conditions in disguise.
• Eunuch Hai demanded that Zhou Wanwan accompany him, then ordered a young eunuch to slap her when she refused.
• The young eunuch swung at Zhou Wanwan, but his hand bent backward and broke, leaving him screaming before he fainted.

Zhou Wanwan took Eunuch Hai to the Mandarin Duck Tower, where he became absorbed in its storytelling and performances instead of inspecting Dongshan Prefecture. Meanwhile, Zhou Qingzhou told Shen Zhiyu and their companions that Zhou Wanwan’s grandmother was a renowned spirit medium who could answer their questions.

• Eunuch Hai angrily demanded to know who had struck him, then slapped himself ten times while Zhou Wanwan tried to stop him.
• Zhou Wanwan brought Eunuch Hai to the Mandarin Duck Tower, where he listened to Journey to the West for hours and paid the storyteller to continue.
• Eunuch Hai stayed to watch the Mandarin Duck Tower’s new adaptation of The Romance of the Western Chamber and ordered dinner so he could keep watching.
• Zhou Wanwan spotted Xie Cheng'en, Cui Hongyuan, Ji Huai, Shen Zhiyu, and Zhou Qingzhou among the tower’s visitors.
• Cui Hongyuan and Zhou Qingzhou blamed Zhou Wanwan for bringing misfortune to their family, and Zhou Qingzhou claimed her grandmother was a famous spirit medium with accurate fortune-telling.

Zhou Wanwan confronted Zhou Qingzhou for claiming his grandmother taught her fortune-telling, then learned Xie Cheng'en found it amusing that she was going to serve as Princess Jianing's study companion. As Zhou Wanwan prepared to enter the palace, she reassured herself that Old Ancestor and Old Scholar Tree could protect her and offered to help Eunuch Hai find his lost childhood love.

• Shen Zhiyu suggested visiting Zhou Qingzhou's grandmother, whom Zhou Qingzhou claimed was a renowned spirit medium who had taught Zhou Wanwan.
• Zhou Wanwan confronted Zhou Qingzhou and denied that his grandmother had taught her, while Xie Cheng'en criticized her for disrespecting an elder.
• Eunuch Hai revealed that Zhou Wanwan was going into the palace as Princess Jianing's study companion, and Xie Cheng'en and Shen Zhiyu reacted with amusement.
• Zhou Wanwan privately discussed palace protection with Old Scholar Tree and Old Ancestor, who said they had grown powerful after eating Jianghu Alliance experts.
• Eunuch Hai cried over the love story in The Romance of the Western Chamber and told Zhou Wanwan about his childhood sweetheart, so she offered to help him find her.
• Eunuch Hai warned Zhou Wanwan not to insult Noble Consort Ning, since people in the capital might punish her for it.

Zhou Wanwan discussed Noble Consort Ning and Princess Jianing with Eunuch Hai, then astonished him by naming the ingredients and preparation methods of several imperial dishes. They went to the newly opened Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion for dinner, where Eunuch Hai admired its unusual decor and furnishings.

• Eunuch Hai explained Noble Consort Ning’s power and Princess Jianing’s favor, and said Jianing had not summoned Zhou Wanwan merely to be her study companion.
• Eunuch Hai challenged Zhou Wanwan to identify the ingredients in four imperial dishes, betting he would pay for dinner if she guessed three correctly.
• Zhou Wanwan described the ingredients and preparation of five elaborate imperial dishes, leaving Eunuch Hai amazed by her knowledge.
• Zhou Wanwan invited Eunuch Hai to the Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion, and they arrived at its private room.
• Eunuch Hai praised the restaurant’s distinctive decor, soft sofas, and glass-topped low tables.

Zhou Wanwan hosted Eunuch Hai at the Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion, where its food, drinks, and books drew crowds and impressed him. When Zhou Wanwan suggested he leave the palace and questioned his grudge against the Feng Clan, Eunuch Hai ordered his guards to seize her.

• Eunuch Hai criticized the restaurant, but became engrossed in Journey to the West while Zhou Wanwan teased him.
• The dishes arrived, and Eunuch Hai questioned whether Dongshan Prefecture's refugees were hungry and where they had been settled.
• Zhou Wanwan invited Prefect Fang and the accompanying magistrates to eat, while rumors about the Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion attracted crowds of wealthy and prominent people.
• Eunuch Hai enjoyed watermelon juice and milk tea, and Zhou Wanwan urged him to leave the palace and follow her to Dongshan Prefecture.
• Eunuch Hai insisted he had a great grudge against the Feng Clan, and when Zhou Wanwan suggested he might be mistaken, he ordered his guards to seize her.

Zhou Wanwan revealed that the Ning Clan had framed the Zheng and Hai families, ending Eunuch Hai’s decades-long pursuit of revenge. After reconciling with Old Master Zheng and meeting Zhao Qingxi, Eunuch Hai thanked Zhou Wanwan, while she remained eager to visit the imperial palace.

• Zhou Wanwan brought the Feng Clan before Eunuch Hai, and Old Master Feng denied betraying Hai’s family, showing him their letters.
• Zhou Wanwan explained that the Ning Clan had driven a wedge between the Hai and Zheng families, and a former Ning Clan servant provided evidence of the plot.
• Eunuch Hai realized the Ning Clan had used him for decades, then sat with Old Master Zheng to discuss their shared past.
• Eunuch Hai warned Zhou Wanwan about going to the imperial palace, but she insisted she wanted to go.
• Zhou Wanwan introduced Eunuch Hai to Zhao Qingxi, who explained that she had been mistreated by her merchant husband before Zhou Wanwan rescued her.
• Eunuch Hai thanked Zhou Wanwan, and she told him she knew he had secretly helped young eunuchs and palace maids.