Chapter Summaries

Zhou Wanwan rescued two tiger cubs, discovered that Shen Dahai had tried to poison her family with croton-filled pastries, and found money hidden in the neighbors’ rockery. She took her family to town with Lin Shouyi to buy an ox, and they began looking over the cattle at the livestock market.

• Zhou Wanwan brought two orphaned tiger cubs home and decided to seek goat’s milk to feed them.
• Shen Dahai apologized to Liu Su'e for his brothers’ behavior and offered pastries and a tael of silver, but Zhou Wanwan detected croton seeds in the pastries and threw them away.
• Zhou Wanwan learned from the mint where Shen Dahai had hidden a bag in the neighboring rockery, and Little Ginseng retrieved it.
• Zhou Wanwan found several hundred copper coins, silver, and gold rings in the bag, then took her family to Lin Shouyi to buy an ox.
• Lin Shouyi accompanied Zhou Wanwan’s family to the livestock market, where they inspected the cattle for sale.

Zhou Wanwan found a sick ox and negotiated to buy it after its owner tried to pressure her into treating it for free. She agreed to cure it only under clear terms and asked Qian Erniu to sign a contract before the sale.

• Zhou Wanwan and Lin Shouyi rejected the overpriced oxen at the market, while Little Ginseng suggested using its bathwater to strengthen a cheap calf.
• Zhou Wanwan offered one tael for Qian Erniu’s gravely ill ox and said she could cure it, but refused to treat it for free.
• When Qian Erniu and the onlookers tried to shame Zhou Wanwan into helping, she listed costly herbs and challenged them to contribute money.
• Qian Erniu agreed to sell the ox for one tael, and Zhou Wanwan demanded a signed contract to prevent him from making unreasonable demands if she cured it.

Zhou Wanwan bought a dying cow, restored her health, and brought her to the mountain to recover and give birth. While searching the mountains for supplies, Zhou Wanwan and her family overheard people from Zhou Family Village boasting about their fortunes and wishing harm on Zhou Fusheng’s family.

• Zhou Wanwan bought the sick cow for one tael of silver and had Lin Shouyi take her to the Liu family home.
• Zhou Wanwan used acupuncture and a medicinal decoction to revive the cow, then brought her up the mountain to rest and give birth to her calves.
• The cow asked through Little Ginseng that Zhou Wanwan not sell her calves, and Zhou Wanwan promised to keep them.
• Zhou Wanwan visited Eldest Uncle and Second Uncle as they made charcoal, then went into the mountains with her brothers and uncles to gather supplies.
• Zhou Wanwan and her family hid when people from Zhou Family Village approached and overheard them discussing the shaman’s predictions and their plans for the Zhou Clan.
• After hearing them insult Zhou Fusheng’s family, Zhou Wanwan sneered and vowed that her future would be better than theirs.

Zhou Wanwan and the Liu family discovered and carried away a hidden stockpile of food and supplies from the Zhou Clan, then began preparing for future hardship. Old Liu led Zhou Wanwan to a secret refuge beneath a graveyard, revealing a large underground space for storing supplies.

• Zhou Wanwan listened to nearby plants and followed their directions to find a cave hidden in the mountains.
• Zhou Wanwan and the Liu family discovered grain, water, meat, seasonings, and winter clothes in the cave, then carried the supplies home by a different route.
• Zhou Wanwan proposed digging a larger cellar, setting traps, and teaching martial arts, and Old Liu agreed to gather villagers at the ancestral hall for training.
• Old Liu revealed that the Liu Clan had a secret refuge, then led Zhou Wanwan to a graveyard and opened a hidden entrance beneath a stone marker.
• Zhou Wanwan followed Old Liu down the stone steps and found an underground refuge more than a hundred square meters in size.

Zhou Wanwan and Old Liu moved their grain into a hidden cellar, then encountered Shen Dahai, who tried to find out why she had survived his poisoned pastries. After he gave them two sacks of rice, Zhou Wanwan warned Old Liu that the grain might also be tampered with and said she planned to move everything from home into the cellar.

• Old Liu explained that his family were the true direct bloodline of the Liu clan and showed Zhou Wanwan the secure cellar.
• Zhou Wanwan and her family moved their grain and water into the cellar, then she and her brothers went to town to buy more grain.
• Shen Dahai confronted Zhou Wanwan about surviving the pastries he had given her, then invited her to his shop and offered two sacks of rice on credit.
• Shen Dahai questioned Zhou Wanwan about what she had eaten with the pastries, and she said she had drunk mung bean soup.
• On the way home, Zhou Wanwan told Old Liu that the pastries had contained croton seeds and recounted Shen Dalu's actions; she said she would move everything from home into the cellar.

After moving their grain and belongings to Liu Family Village, Zhou Wanwan joined her relatives on a fishing trip and used her homemade bait to catch a huge haul. As the group prepared to return, Zhou Family Village called for help because Zhou Qiang had fallen into the river.

• Zhou Wanwan and Old Liu moved the household grain and belongings from Wild Field Village to Liu Family Village in three ox-cart trips.
• Old Madam Liu prepared a generous meal and praised Zhou Wanwan for improving the family's fortunes.
• Zhou Wanwan had Zhou Fusheng make fishing rods and scoop nets, then prepared bait from grains, worms, snails, and chicken offal.
• Zhou Wanwan and the Liu family reached the river, where Zhou Qingshan and Zhou Qiang mocked them and claimed they could not fish there.
• Zhou Wanwan and Zhou Qingyan used the bait and scoop nets to fill more than twenty buckets with fish.
• As the Liu family prepared to leave, people from Zhou Family Village shouted that Zhou Qiang had fallen into the water.

Zhou Wanwan confronted Zhou Family Village after their staged attempt to brand her a calamity star ended with Zhang Qiang drowning. She rejected the Zhou village chief’s blame with support from Liu Family Village, then led her brothers and uncles into the mountains.

• Zhou Wanwan threatened the Zhou villagers with her crossbow, fired it, and kicked Zhou Qingshan into the river as they charged at her.
• The Zhou villagers realized Zhang Qiang had disappeared, and Zhou Wanwan figured out they had staged the incident to make her look like a calamity star.
• Zhou Wanwan returned to Liu Family Village with the others, where Liu Sanlang told her that Zhang Qiang had drowned and the Zhou villagers were coming to accuse her.
• The chief of Zhou Family Village blamed Zhou Wanwan for his son's death, but the chief of Liu Family Village defended her and pointed out that Zhang Qiang had jumped into the river himself.
• After the Zhou chief threatened Zhou Wanwan and left, she turned down an offer of escorts and led her brothers and uncles into the mountains.

Zhou Wanwan confirmed that the Silver Frost Charcoal had been made and sold four baskets for six taels, which she exchanged for grain. She then led the group into the mountains to gather herbs and discovered a rabbit nest in a tree hollow.

• Zhou Wanwan opened the kiln with Liu Dalang and found that the wood had become glossy, frost-covered Silver Frost Charcoal.
• Zhou Wanwan negotiated with a medicine shopkeeper and sold the four baskets for six taels of silver, agreeing to bring him future supplies.
• Zhou Wanwan exchanged the silver for twelve sacks of grain and explained that she hoped to grow medicinal herbs herself.
• Zhou Wanwan led the group deep into the mountains, where she dug up medicinal plants to take home.
• A dandelion told Zhou Wanwan about rabbits hiding in a tree hollow, so she lit dry grass and pine needles to smoke them out.

Zhou Wanwan and her family captured a group from Zhou Family Village who had planned to ambush and kill them, then searched the unconscious attackers and uncovered a hidden box of treasure and a map. They left with weapons, winter clothes, and valuables, and Zhou Wanwan proposed spending forty taels on coarse and fine grain.

• Zhou Wanwan led her family around the rabbits’ hollow and used calming incense to knock out more than twenty armed people from Zhou Family Village.
• Zhou Wanwan and her relatives searched the attackers, finding silver, gold, a jade pendant, and more than two thousand copper coins.
• Little Ginseng identified the pendant as Hetian mutton-fat white jade, and Zhou Wanwan discovered that holding it helped her hear nearby trees speak.
• Zhou Wanwan had Zhou Qingyan dig beneath a large tree and found a box containing five silver ingots, a gold hairpin, and a parchment marking Three Purities Mountain.
• Zhou Wanwan proposed using forty taels to buy grain, with thirty taels for coarse grain and ten taels for fine grain.

Zhou Wanwan took charge of Liu Family Village and learned that its people were bound to the Liu family by secret contracts, while her grandfather explained how his father’s gambling had left the village in debt. After a locust plague destroyed the crops, Zhou Wanwan set out to buy more grain and warned Liu Xiuyuan that their supplies might not last through a drought lasting several years.

• Old Liu revealed that the people of Liu Family Village had been freed but remained bound by secret contracts, and that his father’s gambling had left the family and village in debt.
• Old Liu gave Zhou Wanwan the villagers’ deeds, and village chief Liu Xiuyuan pledged that the village would serve her.
• Zhou Wanwan returned to Wild Field Village, where she and Liu Su'e ate dinner after moving most of their supplies and livestock to Liu Family Village.
• Zhou Qingyan woke Zhou Wanwan to tell her that locusts had destroyed the crops overnight, while Lin Shouyi reported that grain prices had risen tenfold.
• Zhou Wanwan took her gold hairpin and rings to buy coarse grain and learned from Liu Xiuyuan that the Liu family’s fields had already been sold for grain.
• Zhou Wanwan said the grain would not be enough if the drought lasted more than three years.

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.