Chapter Summaries

Zhou Wanwan was coaxed into visiting the Black Wind Horse Ranch with a group of noble ladies, where they discovered its horse races, telescope, and freshly developed cakes. She told Princess Jianing that Crushed Stone Fort had a lively night market, sparking her interest in visiting it.

• Zhou Wanwan reluctantly agreed to go to the Black Wind Horse Ranch after the noble ladies promised to cover her food and drink.
• Princess Jianing provided Zhou Wanwan with a carriage, and the group traveled to the ranch to watch horse races.
• The steward showed the ladies a private room with a telescope and explained the ranch's betting, hot springs, and equestrian shows.
• Zhou Wanwan ordered a large spread of food, including cakes, which Shangguan Wan'er and the other ladies tasted and enjoyed.
• Princess Jianing asked about the capital's night market, and Zhou Wanwan told her that Crushed Stone Fort had a lively one.

Zhou Wanwan joined a group of noble ladies at a horse race and bet one hundred thousand taels on horse number one, despite its poor record. After Zhou Min suggested number one might win, the race began with Ding Nianci nervously hoping her two-hundred-tael bet would pay off.

• Zhou Wanwan discussed recreating KFC-style chicken as a way to attract customers to the borderlands.
• Princess Jianing asked Zhou Wanwan which horse she would choose, and Zhou Wanwan picked number one at random.
• Zhou Min explained that number fifteen had the strongest record, while several noble ladies mocked Ding Nianci for admiring Zhou Wanwan and betting only two hundred taels.
• Zhou Wanwan wagered one hundred thousand taels on number one and challenged Shangguan Wan'er to bet as well.
• Zhou Min told Shangguan Wan'er that she favored number fifteen but thought number one might win, and the noble ladies still chose number fifteen.
• The horses began racing, and Zhou Wanwan reassured a trembling Ding Nianci that they would win.

Zhou Wanwan won more than 600,000 taels at the horse race and then brought the noble ladies and merchants to her newly built aquarium. Shen Tao greeted her there, prompting onlookers to wonder about her connection to the imperial uncle.

• Zhou Wanwan introduced grilled foods to the noble ladies, who sampled the dishes and ordered more.
• At the horse race, the other horses stopped to graze while the Wusun Heavenly Horse numbered one won, and Zhou Wanwan collected her winnings.
• A maid invited the group to see the sea lions and seals at the newly built aquarium, where they marveled at the marine animals behind thick glass.
• Shen Tao admired the aquarium's glass, coral, and sea pearls as a staff member described its exhibits and goods for sale.
• Shen Tao greeted Zhou Wanwan, and nearby officials and merchants speculated about why the imperial uncle thought so highly of her.

Zhou Wanwan uncovered Shen Tao’s understanding of his clan’s precarious position and secured his pledge to make the Shen Clan acknowledge her as master. At the aquarium, Ding Nianci encountered her fiancé, Sun Hao, who criticized her for visiting the border region.

• Zhou Wanwan confirmed to Shen Tao that she had built the glasshouse and Black Wind Horse Ranch, and revealed that she knew about the Shen Clan’s political troubles.
• Shen Tao asked Zhou Wanwan to help his family, and she demanded that the Shen Clan acknowledge her as master and sign indentures.
• Shen Tao knelt and agreed on behalf of the Shen Clan; Zhou Wanwan specified that all 628 members would need to sign and press their fingerprints.
• At Ocean World, Ding Nianci enjoyed the sea lion and seal performances with Zhou Wanwan and the princesses, then told Zhou Wanwan she had to return home for her approaching marriage.
• Ding Nianci met her fiancé, Sun Hao, and his cousin Guo Xinyue; after Guo Xinyue left to watch the show, Sun Hao scolded Ding Nianci for visiting the aquarium and questioned her behavior.

Ding Nianci publicly broke off her engagement to Sun Hao after he humiliated her and flaunted a matching bracelet he had given Guo Xinyue. Zhou Wanwan offered Ding Nianci work at her embroidery workshop, and the chapter ended with the Third Princess asking why Zhou Wanwan had taken her in despite her having once talked back to her.

• Sun Hao scolded Ding Nianci for visiting the aquarium and insulted her family, while Guo Xinyue showed off the matching bracelet he had given her.
• Ding Nianci formally broke off her engagement to Sun Hao, who threatened to ruin her chances of marrying and insisted she had ended the engagement first.
• After Sun Hao left, Ding Nianci wept and worried that her family's failing marquis residence would suffer further.
• Zhou Wanwan offered Ding Nianci a job at the Yingluo Workshop, and Ding Nianci signed a contract of servitude before leaving with Zhou Wanwan's manager.
• The Third Princess asked Zhou Wanwan why she had taken her in despite having talked back to her before.

Zhou Wanwan refused to cure the second princess when her facial mark returned, so Qin Zimo took her away under threat of imprisonment and forced labor. The Great Qi crown prince and Qin Zimo planned to confine her, while discussing the Qin Clan’s daughters as potential matches for the crown prince.

• The second princess’s facial mark returned, and she blamed Zhou Wanwan and begged her to cure it again.
• Qin Zimo threatened Zhou Wanwan and ordered her taken away after she refused to help the second princess.
• Zhou Wanwan agreed to go with Qin Zimo, unfazed by the threats of a dungeon or work on the Qin Clan’s farms and businesses.
• The third and seventh princesses offered to intervene, but Zhou Wanwan told them to wait at the city lord’s residence.
• The Great Qi crown prince and Qin Zimo decided to lock Zhou Wanwan in a dark room and make her work.
• The Great Qi crown prince dismissed his earlier interest in taking Zhou Wanwan as a concubine, and Qin Zimo offered his clan’s daughters as more suitable matches.

Qin Zimo brought Zhou Wanwan to the Qin Clan residence and ordered her to perform exhausting household labor. Zhou Wanwan used her mysterious power to make the servants obey her, then punished the nanny who returned with guards to attack her.

• Qin Zimo ordered Zhou Wanwan locked in the woodshed and assigned her a long list of chores, while the Crown Prince admired the Qin Clan residence.
• The nanny and the servants tried to force Zhou Wanwan to work, but they began slapping themselves whenever they threatened her.
• Li Hongmei defended Zhou Wanwan, and Zhou Wanwan made the servants submit and declared herself their master.
• The nanny returned with more than a dozen guards and ordered them to beat Zhou Wanwan, but Zhou Wanwan was dragged into the bushes and the nanny was bound and struck by unseen forces.
• Zhou Wanwan repeatedly had salt water thrown over the nanny, then allowed the kneeling servants to leave with her.

Zhou Wanwan settled into lavish quarters at the Qin residence while the Old Scholar Tree and Old Ancestor planned to move the Qin Clan’s storeroom and study to their home. After dishes mysteriously vanished from dinner, Qin Yuan told Jiang Yunyao he intended to make Zheng Linglong his equal wife, and Jiang Yunyao asked if he was certain.

• The Old Scholar Tree and Old Ancestor furnished Zhou Wanwan’s room and study with treasures and books from the Qin Clan’s storeroom.
• Zhou Wanwan agreed to stay at the Qin residence to learn about the Great Qi Kingdom, and the Old Scholar Tree proposed moving the Qin Clan’s storeroom and study to their home.
• More than a dozen dishes disappeared from the Qin Clan’s kitchen, leaving Old Madam Qin with a mostly vegetarian dinner.
• Old Madam Qin criticized Qin Yuan for wanting to make Zheng Linglong his equal wife and reminded him of Jiang Yunyao’s years of work.
• Qin Yuan told Jiang Yunyao he wanted to bring Zheng Linglong into the residence as an equal wife, and Jiang Yunyao asked whether he was certain.

Jiang Yunyao was rejected and scorned by Qin Yuan and their children, and repeatedly tried to drown herself before Zhou Wanwan stopped her and confronted her about sacrificing too much for him. Zhou Wanwan took her back to the Jiang Family, where her brothers and sisters-in-law argued over the family’s crushing debts and the Qin Clan’s refusal to help.

• Qin Yuan and the children belittled Jiang Yunyao and praised Zheng Linglong, leaving Jiang Yunyao devastated.
• Jiang Yunyao went to the rear courtyard well and repeatedly jumped in, but Old Scholar Tree saved her each time.
• Zhou Wanwan spoke with Jiang Yunyao, who admitted she had endured Qin Yuan’s mistreatment and feared the debts threatening the Jiang Family.
• Jiang Yunyao told Zhou Wanwan that the family needed several hundred thousand taels of silver the next day and over a million taels soon afterward.
• Zhou Wanwan brought Jiang Yunyao to the Jiang Family home, where her brothers and sisters-in-law argued over their debts and the Qin Clan’s refusal to acknowledge them.

Zhou Wanwan rescued Jiang Yunyao from the Qin Clan by paying off the Jiang Family’s debts in exchange for their service, and the Jiang family members who agreed left their clan to join her. The next morning, the Qin Clan discovered its valuables were gone and accused Jiang Yunyao, who recognized Zhou Wanwan’s hand in the strange changes.

• Zhou Wanwan offered Jiang Yunyao a position as her aide and used gold taken from the Qin Clan to clear the Jiang Family’s debts.
• Jiang Yunyao told Jiang Wentao about her agreement with Zhou Wanwan, and he and part of the Jiang Family chose to leave their clan and serve her.
• Jiang Yunyao gave her family a token for the Home Inn, then returned to the Qin Clan to pursue revenge.
• The Qin Clan’s storerooms and library were found empty the next morning, while Jiang Yunyao discovered unfamiliar jewelry and new clothes in her room.
• Old Madam Qin accused Jiang Yunyao of taking the household’s possessions and threatened to report her to the authorities.

Jiang Yunyao was accused of stealing the Qin Clan’s missing valuables and locked in the woodshed, where she found Zhou Wanwan enjoying a lavish meal. As Qing’er joined them, a magistrate’s investigation failed to find evidence of a break-in, and Zheng Linglong’s claim that she was with Qin Yuan all night sparked gossip among the assembled madams.

• Old Madam Qin and Qin Yuan accused Jiang Yunyao of stealing the Qin Clan’s storeroom goods, and Qin Yuan ordered her locked in the woodshed.
• Jiang Yunyao found Zhou Wanwan in the woodshed and told her she had been falsely accused; Zhou Wanwan invited her to share an extravagant meal.
• Qing’er entered the woodshed to stay with Jiang Yunyao and reported that the Qin Clan’s farms and shops had also been emptied.
• Shen Tao investigated the missing property and found no signs of forced entry, concluding that someone with the keys was responsible.
• Zheng Linglong claimed she had stayed beside Qin Yuan all night, prompting the madams to gossip about her and Jiang Yunyao’s confinement.

Shen Tao accepted Zhou Wanwan as the Shen Clan’s master, and she ordered him to expand her business in Great Qi. Back at the Qin Clan, Zhou Wanwan learned that Old Madam Qin was pressuring Jiang Yunyao to manage Qin Yuan and Zheng Linglong’s wedding by threatening her with her three children.

• Shen Tao received the empress’s reply and convinced his advisers that Zhou Wanwan was the Shen Clan’s lucky star and that they should serve her.
• Zhou Wanwan visited Shen Tao, accepted the Shen Clan’s deeds of servitude, and told the clan to remain in Great Qi and acquire estates and shops for her.
• Shen Tao agreed to begin buying property in Xin'an County, and Zhou Wanwan provided ten chests of gold to fund the purchases.
• Zhou Wanwan returned to the Qin Clan and learned that Old Madam Qin had summoned Jiang Yunyao from the woodshed.
• Old Madam Qin ordered Jiang Yunyao to arrange Qin Yuan and Zheng Linglong’s wedding and used Jiang Yunyao’s three children to pressure her.

Jiang Yunyao and Zhou Wanwan turned the Qin Clan’s lavish wedding preparations into a scheme to profit from purchases charged to the clan and damage its reputation if it failed to pay. As the wedding became the talk of Xin'an County, Qin Yuan carried the betrothal gifts toward the Zheng residence.

• Jiang Yunyao told Zhou Wanwan about Old Madam Qin’s demands, and Zhou Wanwan urged her to make the wedding grand and charge the expenses to the Qin residence.
• Old Madam Qin and Zheng Linglong praised their plan to use the wedding to squeeze Jiang Yunyao, while Second Madam Qin warned Jiang Yunyao that the Qin family was exploiting her.
• Jiang Yunyao arranged an extravagant banquet and eighty-eight sets of betrothal gifts, then told Qin Yuan that her former estates and shops had been sold to buy grain for his troops.
• Jiang Yunyao bought replacement estates and shops on credit at ten times their market price, and Zhou Wanwan arranged for the wedding costs to be charged to the Qin Clan.
• Jiang Yunyao and Zhou Wanwan planned to make the wedding widely visible, and people across Xin'an County began discussing its splendor.
• Qin Yuan carried the betrothal gifts toward the Zheng residence as onlookers gathered to watch.

Jiang Yunyao arranged an extravagant betrothal procession and banquet for Qin Yuan’s marriage to Zheng Linglong, while Shen Tao revealed that Qin Yuan had incurred a huge debt secured against his military tally. After the family praised her and Qin Yuan invited her back to the main house, Jiang Yunyao asked for a divorce by mutual consent so Qin Yuan and Zheng Linglong could be together, and Qin Yuan immediately wrote the agreement.

• General Qin rode to the Zheng Family with eighty-eight sets of betrothal gifts that Jiang Yunyao had arranged, and Zheng Linglong welcomed the lavish display.
• Shen Tao told his advisory group that Qin Yuan had accumulated at least a hundred thousand taels of gold in debt and had pledged his military tally as collateral.
• Jiang Yunyao served the Qin family an expensive takeout dinner and said the dishes would also be served at the next day’s banquet.
• Qin Yuan praised Jiang Yunyao, said she could leave the woodshed and return to the main house, and asked her to keep handling the arrangements.
• Jiang Yunyao requested a divorce by mutual consent, saying Zheng Linglong was better suited to be Qin Yuan’s wife and that she would still care for the Qin family.
• Qin Yuan was overjoyed and wrote the divorce agreement, while the children approved of Jiang Yunyao’s decision.

Jiang Yunyao managed Qin Yuan and Zheng Linglong’s lavish wedding banquet as Zhou Wanwan’s new employee, while the guests admired the Qin Clan’s wealth. Qin Ziyu publicly rejected Jiang Yunyao as her mother, and Jiang Yunyao let her damage her own prospects without intervening.

• Zhou Wanwan offered Jiang Yunyao employee housing and a commission for helping with business, and Jiang Yunyao agreed to work hard.
• Jiang Yunyao welcomed the wedding guests with rare teas and showed them the costly garden, while Old Madam Qin praised her care of it.
• Qin Yuan and Zheng Linglong arrived amid lavish gifts and a shower of candy, and Zheng Linglong planned to keep Jiang Yunyao as a servant to make money for her.
• The guests marveled at the expensive seafood banquet, and the Qin brothers and Qin Ziyu boasted about the clan’s wealth.
• Qin Ziyu called Zheng Linglong her mother and displayed the jewelry Zheng Linglong had given her, while Jiang Yunyao stayed silent.
• Jiang Yunyao served the noblewomen milk tea and explained that the banquet food came from takeout.

Jiang Yunyao promoted the delivery service at the Qin Clan banquet, then left for a luxurious residence after her mutual divorce from Qin Yuan. She settled into the six-courtyard dormitory, where staff and maids were assigned to house and protect her.

• Jiang Yunyao introduced the banquet guests to the delivery service’s food, seasonal fruit, merchandise, and rental wedding items, and several ladies expressed interest in ordering.
• Qin Yuan welcomed his guests to eat and drink freely while Jiang Yunyao watched the banquet proceed successfully.
• Jiang Yunyao asked Zhou Wanwan what to do with the orders she had collected, and Zhou Wanwan told her to leave them on the table for someone to retrieve.
• Jiang Yunyao left for the dormitory after her divorce, wary that the Qin Clan’s misdeeds would be exposed the next day, and Zhou Wanwan reassured her that the Xin'an County magistrate was on their side.
• The steward showed Jiang Yunyao her spacious six-courtyard residence and explained that staff would provide meals and that some assigned subordinates knew martial arts.
• Jiang Yunyao and Qing'er admired the furnished rooms, clothing, jewelry, and garden as several maids arrived to care for and protect her.

Qin Yuan discovered that Jiang Yunyao had incurred enormous debts for the Qin Clan’s wedding, while she had disappeared. Shen Tao insisted the Qin residence repay the bills and pointed out that Qin Yuan’s military tally could be used to settle them; the chapter ended with Jiang Yunyao returning.

• Shopkeepers arrived at the Qin residence with IOUs bearing the Qin Clan’s seal and demanded payment for wedding expenses.
• Qin Yuan learned that Jiang Yunyao was missing, and Shen Tao clarified that she had divorced Qin Yuan by mutual consent.
• The accountants calculated that the Qin Clan owed 110,000 taels of gold and 1,742 taels of silver for the wedding, gifts, residences, shops, and estates.
• Shen Tao told Qin Yuan the Qin residence had to repay the debts or exchange Qin Yuan’s military tally for them.
• Qin Yuan refused to acknowledge the debts and said he would find Jiang Yunyao, but a servant announced that she had returned.

Jiang Yunyao confronted the Qin Clan over the wedding banquet debts and demanded the return of her dowry, while Qin Yuan tried to use Zheng Linglong’s betrothal gifts to pay the creditors. The gifts had vanished, and Qin Yuan’s debts left his military tally at risk.

• Jiang Yunyao arrived with Jiang Family members and Zhou Wanwan’s bodyguards, refused Old Madam Qin’s demand that she kneel, and explained that the Qin Clan had forced her to arrange its costly wedding banquet on credit.
• Jiang Yunyao rejected the Qin Clan’s demand that she repay the banquet expenses and demanded the return of her dowry; Old Madam Qin pretended to faint before a snake startled her into revealing she was fine.
• When the shopkeepers pressed Qin Yuan for payment, he ordered Zheng Linglong to bring out her eighty-eight chests of betrothal gifts, but the gifts had vanished from the Zheng Family storeroom.
• Qin Yuan accused Jiang Yunyao of taking the gifts, but she denied it and again demanded her dowry; Qin Yuan then refused to pay the creditors, claiming he was a victim.
• Shen Tao reminded Qin Yuan that he had wagered his military tally and would have to hand it over if he could not pay what he owed.

After Qin Yuan threatened Jiang Yunyao, Zheng Linglong recruited Zhao Kun to take revenge on her. Zhao Kun’s staged ambush failed when Zhou Wanwan intervened, and Zhou Wanwan saw it as an opportunity to leave the Qin residence.

• Qin Yuan threatened Jiang Yunyao and ordered his attendant to find her after learning her family had moved away.
• Zheng Linglong visited Zhao Kun and asked him to trick Jiang Yunyao and take her possessions; Zhou Wanwan and Old Scholar Tree watched and discussed men’s reliability.
• Zhao Kun followed Jiang Yunyao at the market, where his hired men surrounded her and demanded her money.
• Zhou Wanwan broke the attackers’ limbs and Zhao Kun’s leg, then exposed the ambush as a staged attempt to play the hero.
• Jiang Yunyao warned that the Zhao Family might retaliate, but Zhou Wanwan said she was unafraid and welcomed the chance to move out of the Qin residence.

Zhou Wanwan and Jiang Yunyao were taken to the Zhao residence, where Zhou Wanwan magically worsened Zhao Kun’s injuries and settled in for the night. When the Second Princess asked Zhou Wanwan to treat the dark spots on her face, Zhou Wanwan offered a cure lasting one year in exchange for the princess’s treasures, or two years if she added the jewelry she was wearing.

• Zhao Kun was brought home with a shattered leg, and his servants took Jiang Yunyao and Zhou Wanwan to the Zhao residence.
• Zhou Wanwan noticed the Zhao residence had been built by her family’s craftsmen and teased Zhao Kun about his injury.
• Zhao Kun ordered his men to attack Zhou Wanwan and Jiang Yunyao, but his other leg broke and Zhou Wanwan snapped his thumb when he threatened them again.
• Zhou Wanwan ate a lavish meal, then stayed with Jiang Yunyao in the courtyard she recognized as one her family had built.
• Qin Zimo arrived with Qin Zixuan, Qin Ziyu, the crown prince of Great Qi, Zhao Mingzhu, and Zhao Yuzhu, and demanded Jiang Yunyao return to the Qin Clan.
• The Second Princess offered her private treasures for Zhou Wanwan to remove the dark spots on her face, and Zhou Wanwan said the treatment would last one year or two if the princess added her jewelry.