Chapter Summaries

Zhou Wanwan managed the War God Hall and its thriving underground farms while Qin Yuan’s army was trapped in the mountains around Yanmen Pass. As Qin Yuan prepared to march on a major jade mine, Zhou Wanwan planned to use the jade to supply distant regions with spiritual energy.

• Zhao Muyuan told Zhou Wanwan that the War God Hall’s first level was attracting crowds, and she planned to keep drawing visitors with treasures while its traps delayed them.
• After learning Qin Yuan had brought more than a hundred thousand loyal troops to seize the mountains around Yanmen Pass, Zhou Wanwan ordered the trees to trap them.
• Zhou Wanwan infused the underground palace’s crops and herbs with energy, then decided to obtain jade from two imperial mines to support farms in the capital and Dongshan Prefecture.
• Zhou Wanwan’s treefolk led Zhang Yu and Zheng Xiaoyao out of the maze and to flourishing mountainsides, where they ate with her while Qin Yuan’s troops remained lost and hungry.
• Qin Yuan learned that the emperor had ordered his army to mine a major jade deposit, and he told his men they could profit from its valuable ore.

Zhou Wanwan returned to the Zhao Family to assess Great Qi’s powerful clans and advise the second princess about a suitable husband. The Cui, Bai, Chen, Ye, and Xu families forcibly took Zhou Wanwan to treat Second Master Cui, but she refused, leaving the Cui steward angry.

• Zhou Wanwan learned that underground crops thrived, tended to the sleepy Lingbao, and explained that she planned to understand Great Qi’s aristocratic families.
• Zhou Wanwan told the second princess that Xu Changqing liked her and would be a suitable husband, but the crown prince pushed her toward Cui Erlang to secure the Cui Family’s support.
• The crown prince warned that the Cui, Xu, Chen, Ye, and Bai families were looking for Zhou Wanwan after she insulted them.
• Representatives of the five families arrived and forcibly dragged Zhou Wanwan to the Cui residence to treat Second Master Cui, who was weak and unable to have children.
• Zhou Wanwan refused to treat Second Master Cui without payment, and Steward Cui challenged her ability as a divine physician.

Zhou Wanwan was imprisoned by the Cui Family, but the trees transformed her squalid courtyard into a beautiful home and took the family’s furnishings and food for her. The Cui Family’s banquet was reduced to vegetable dishes, and Old Madam Cui discovered that her beloved courtyard had vanished.

• Steward Cui threatened Zhou Wanwan and ordered her locked in a dilapidated side courtyard for refusing to treat Second Master for free.
• Old Scholar Tree and the other trees replaced the side courtyard with a beautiful house and moved the Cui Family’s books, furnishings, and other goods for Zhou Wanwan.
• Zhou Wanwan replenished the courtyard plants’ spiritual power and enjoyed a lavish meal brought by Old Ancestor.
• The Cui Family’s kitchen found that its prepared dishes had disappeared, leaving only vegetables and tofu to serve the guests.
• Old Madam Cui served the Crown Prince and Second Princess a table of vegetable dishes, then learned that her beloved Furong Courtyard had been emptied.

After failing to find the vanished courtyard, Zhou Wanwan met Cui Wenyuan, a mistreated illegitimate son of the Cui Family, and agreed to take him as her disciple. She planned to visit the Cui Clan school with him the next day and see whether the great scholar Xie Guangyuan could be invited to Yan Mountain Academy.

• The Cui Family searched for the vanished courtyard and its treasures, while Old Madam Cui and her sons denied having offended anyone.
• Cui Wenyuan’s loud reading woke Zhou Wanwan, who climbed over the wall and introduced herself as his new neighbor.
• Cui Wenyuan told Zhou Wanwan that the Cui Family despised him because he was illegitimate and that they had killed his mother; he studied by sneaking into lessons at the ancestral hall.
• Zhou Wanwan tested Cui Wenyuan, praised his talent, pointed out gaps in his learning, and gave him books; he asked her to accept him as his disciple.
• Cui Wenyuan signed Zhou Wanwan’s deed of servitude and offered his savings, but she returned his silver and invited him to choose books and writing supplies.
• Cui Wenyuan told Zhou Wanwan about the clan school’s teacher, Xie Guangyuan, and she decided to attend lessons with him the next day and investigate the Cui Family.

Zhou Wanwan learned that Old Scholar Tree’s companions had emptied the Cui Family’s library, storerooms, and birdcages after the family mistreated her. Shen Tao returned the noisy birds to Old Master Cui, while the Cui Family still had no idea where its books and valuables had gone.

• Cui Wenyuan told Zhou Wanwan about the Cui Family’s wealth and stinginess as they ate breakfast and headed to the clan school.
• The teachers discovered that every book in the school had vanished, and the Cui masters found their private storerooms empty.
• Old Scholar Tree told Zhou Wanwan that his companions had taken everything to her private storeroom, and Zhou Wanwan chose not to scold them.
• The Cui Family summoned Shen Tao to investigate, while Old Master Cui mourned the disappearance of his birds.
• Old Master Cui begged Shen Tao to recover the birds, and Zhou Wanwan’s people later brought them to the county yamen.
• After the birds complained noisily through the night, Shen Tao returned them to the Cui Family the next morning.

Zhou Wanwan helped Cui Wenyuan gain a place in the advanced class and secure recognition and better living quarters from Old Master Cui. She then learned that Cui Wenyuan could embroider and offered to find buyers for his work.

• Zhou Wanwan listened to Xie Guangyuan's lesson, answered his question when Cui Wenyuan could not, and was allowed to stay in the advanced class despite the students' jeers.
• Zhou Wanwan encouraged Cui Wenyuan and arranged for him to stand with a birdcage where Old Master Cui would see him.
• Old Master Cui admired the ruby throat in Cui Wenyuan's cage, recognized him as his son, and ordered him moved from the side courtyard to the west wing with supplies and servants.
• Zhou Wanwan chose three servants to remain with Cui Wenyuan and reassured him that Old Master Cui's order would protect him from the old madam.
• Cui Wenyuan showed Zhou Wanwan his embroidery, and she praised it and offered to find out whether it could be sold.

Old Madam Cui welcomed Cui Wenyuan and secretly tried to corrupt him by giving him money and disreputable servants. Zhou Wanwan learned of the scheme and followed Cui Wenyuan when the servants invited them out, leaving the group headed for a restaurant in Xin'an County.

• Old Master Cui recognized Cui Wenyuan as his son and ordered Old Madam Cui to treat him well, while she planned to ruin him by indulging him and surrounding him with bad influences.
• Old Madam Cui summoned Cui Wenyuan, pretended to care for him, gave him gifts, and introduced him to six servants chosen to lead him astray.
• At dinner, Old Master Cui welcomed Cui Wenyuan, while Steward Cui reported that expensive food had gone missing from the kitchen.
• Zhou Wanwan heard the garden plants gossip about Old Madam Cui and learned that the servants assigned to Cui Wenyuan were dishonest and corrupt.
• The servants urged Cui Wenyuan to skip his schoolwork and go out, and Zhou Wanwan insisted on accompanying him as his master.
• The servants offered to take Zhou Wanwan and Cui Wenyuan to a restaurant in Xin'an County using money Old Madam Cui had provided.

Zhou Wanwan urged Cui Wenyuan to spend lavishly with Old Madam Cui’s money, while secretly turning his purchases into a scheme against her. The cousins tried to exploit Cui Wenyuan at a teahouse, but Zhou Wanwan redirected their anger toward Old Madam Cui, and Old Master Cui praised his son’s gifts.

• Zhou Wanwan took Cui Wenyuan to her restaurant, ordered more than twenty thousand taels’ worth of food, and sent dishes to Old Master Cui.
• Zhou Wanwan led Cui Wenyuan to her silk shop, where he spent more than thirty thousand taels on clothes for the Cui family.
• Old Madam Cui grew furious at the spending, while her maidservant revealed their plan to take Cui Wenyuan gambling and force him into servitude.
• Zhou Wanwan took Cui Wenyuan shopping at Treasure Pavilion, where they spent more than a hundred thousand taels before his cousins invited them to Sleepless Street.
• At the teahouse, Zhou Wanwan encouraged Cui Wenyuan to pay for the cousins’ lavish order and told them Old Madam Cui had funded his spending, making them resent her.
• Zhou Wanwan sent Old Master Cui his favorite teas, and he praised Cui Wenyuan’s filialness while wondering whether Cui Mingyuan’s studies were going well.

Cui Wenyuan’s cousins took him to a brothel, where Zhou Wanwan urged him to buy the top courtesan a costly piece of Hotan mutton-fat jade. Old Madam Cui was enraged by the bill, while her maid expected the cousins to take Cui Wenyuan gambling next.

• Teahouse patrons discussed treasures found in the War God's Tomb, and the cousins persuaded Cui Wenyuan to visit it the next day.
• Cui Wenyuan’s cousins took him to a brothel, where dancers performed and the young men spent heavily on jewelry for the women they fancied.
• The cousins pressured Cui Wenyuan to buy a gift, and Zhou Wanwan told him to purchase top-grade Hotan mutton-fat jade for 18,888 taels for the top courtesan.
• Old Madam Cui saw the bill and demanded that Cui Wenyuan be called back, but her maid said the cousins would take him to a gambling house and make him liable for his losses.

Old Madam Cui’s cousins tried to get Zhou Wanwan and Cui Wenyuan drunk before leading them to the casino to saddle Cui Wenyuan with debt. Zhou Wanwan went along with their scheme and had Cui Wenyuan borrow 100,000 taels, unaware that Old Madam Cui had helped arrange the trap.

• The cousins made Zhou Wanwan and Cui Wenyuan drink more than a hundred jugs of wine, but the pair pretended to pass out.
• After waking, Zhou Wanwan agreed to follow the cousins to the casino, where she learned which of them had money.
• At the casino, the cousins pressured Cui Wenyuan to gamble and borrow money, while he tried to refuse.
• Zhou Wanwan told Cui Wenyuan to sign and leave his fingerprint to borrow 100,000 taels.
• Old Madam Cui had offered 100,000 taels of her own silver to help set the trap for Cui Wenyuan.

Zhou Wanwan guided Cui Wenyuan through a gambling match, helping him recover his losses and win against his cousins before challenging Sun Tai to a two-million-tael wager. She produced genuine high-denomination banknotes from Treasure-Gathering Bank, and Sun Tai sent for his seal to retrieve his stake.

• Cui Wenyuan lost several rounds and twenty thousand taels while his cousins mocked him, but Zhou Wanwan urged him to keep betting.
• Zhou Wanwan guided Cui Wenyuan through bigger wagers, and he won enough to recover his losses and beat his cousins in an all-in round.
• Sun Tai boasted about Tongtai Escort Agency, and Zhou Wanwan challenged his claims by mentioning its lost cargo and Golden Saber Escort Agency.
• Sun Tai proposed a two-million-tael wager, and Zhou Wanwan produced twenty genuine hundred-thousand-tael banknotes from Treasure-Gathering Bank.
• Sun Tai accepted the challenge and ordered someone to take his seal to the bank for the money.

Zhou Wanwan won two million taels from Sun Tai in a gambling match, exposing the Cui cousins’ scheme to force Cui Wenyuan into an indenture. She left with the winnings to eat hot pot with Zhao Kun, while Sun Tai faced the fallout of losing most of Tongtai Bank’s funds.

• Manman brought two million taels in Tongtai Bank notes, and Zhao Kun served Zhou Wanwan fruit and jasmine milk tea at her request.
• Sun Tai chose to go all in, while Zhou Wanwan bet on small and Cui Wenyuan and the cousins placed their own bets.
• The dice showed small, and Sun Tai lost two million taels; Zhou Wanwan taunted him as he sat stunned.
• The cousins demanded that Cui Wenyuan return the money, but he reminded them they had insisted gamblers accept their losses, and Zhou Wanwan exposed their plan to get him drunk and make him sign an indenture.
• Zhou Wanwan left with the silver and went upstairs for hot pot with Zhao Kun, whose friends warned that Sun Tai might seek revenge.
• Zhao Kun said Sun Tai was in serious trouble because his loss had effectively drained Tongtai Bank, whose owner had not yet found out.

Zhou Wanwan exposed Zhao Peng’s secret affair and led his wife to the lavish courtyard where he kept his lover. After the discovery sparked a scandal, she hinted that Wen Shichang might also have a mistress and offered to reveal the truth for 2,000 taels.

• Zhou Wanwan mocked Wen Shichang and Zhao Peng, then revealed that Zhao Peng kept a little lover despite relying on his wife’s family.
• Zhao Peng’s wife paid Zhou Wanwan 2,000 taels to learn where the lover lived, and Zhou led her to Zhao Peng’s courtyard.
• Zhao Peng’s wife found the woman and learned that Zhao Peng’s lover was a mother and daughter, then confronted him and demanded a divorce.
• Wen Shichang’s wife arrived with his eldest sister-in-law, and Zhou Wanwan suggested that Wen Shichang also had a mistress.
• Madam Wen asked whether Wen Shichang was involved, and Zhou Wanwan offered to reveal what she knew for 2,000 taels.

Zhou Wanwan exposed Wen Shichang’s affair, theft, and poisoning of Madam Wen, leading to their divorce and making Zhou famous. The Sun Family sent over a hundred assassins after her, while at the Cui residence Cui Wenyuan revealed his gambling winnings just as Old Madam Cui’s maiden relatives arrived to confront her.

• Zhou Wanwan revealed that Wen Shichang’s sister-in-law’s child was his and that he had taken the family’s money, including Madam Wen’s dowry.
• Zhou Wanwan exposed Wen Shichang for secretly giving Madam Wen medicine that caused her infertility; Madam Wen called for a physician, reported him, and divorced him.
• Master Sun blamed Zhou Wanwan for the crisis at Tongtai Bank and ordered the Sun Family’s deathsworn to kill her.
• Old Madam Cui learned that Cui Wenyuan had signed a contract, then scolded him for borrowing 100,000 taels to gamble.
• Cui Wenyuan revealed that he had won more than a million taels and offered Old Madam Cui 100,000 taels, while Old Master Cui praised him.
• Old Madam Cui’s eldest sister-in-law arrived with relatives and accused Wang Cuizhi of sending her son to gamble and causing him to lose everything.

After Sun Tai and the other young men lost fortunes gambling, Old Master Cui removed Sun Cuizhi from household management and welcomed Zhou Wanwan, who then agreed to bet on the county-level examination. Master Sun accepted a wager involving the Treasure-Gathering Bank, the Golden Saber Escort Agency, and the Sun Family’s own bank and escort agency.

• Sun Cuizhi denied responsibility for the gambling losses, but Sun Tai and the others blamed her for sending them to gamble with Cui Wenyuan.
• Cui Wenyuan explained that his cousins had forced him to gamble, and Old Master Cui removed Sun Cuizhi from managing the household before taking Cui Wenyuan to eat.
• Zhou Wanwan brought Old Master Cui rare birds, received jewelry in return, and was welcomed as his granddaughter.
• Cui Wenyuan said he planned to take the imperial examinations, and Zhou Wanwan announced that she would try the county-level examination too.
• Sun Tai challenged Zhou Wanwan to wager their banks and escort agencies, and Master Sun arrived and accepted the bet.

Zhou Wanwan wagered the Sun Family’s banks and escort agencies in Xin'an County against her passing the county-level examination, then was confined to the Cui Family’s side courtyard. After the Sun Family sent armed men to attack her, she planned to raid its jade and gold mines, while Cui Wenyuan discovered a mysterious meal waiting for him.

• Zhou Wanwan accepted Master Sun’s wager and agreed to change her name to Shen Wanzhou before the examination.
• Second Master Cui refused to let Zhou Wanwan treat him and ordered her confined to the side courtyard, where she ate food delivered from her own establishment.
• Old Scholar Tree told Zhou Wanwan that her grandparents and third uncle’s family had come to Yanmen Pass hoping to profit from the War God Hall.
• Old Scholar Tree revealed that the Sun Family had sent armed men to kill Zhou Wanwan, and the surrounding trees captured and ate the attackers.
• Zhou Wanwan agreed to join Old Scholar Tree in raiding the Sun Family’s jade and gold mines at midnight.
• Cui Wenyuan found a table of fine dishes that seemed to have appeared for him and wondered whether Zhou Wanwan had sent them.

Cui Wenyuan escaped Old Madam Cui’s attempt to ruin his fertility when Zhou Wanwan switched the poisoned bird’s nest soup, though Eldest Master Cui drank the medicine instead. Meanwhile, Zhou Wanwan and the trees emptied the Sun Family’s jade mine and prepared to raid its gold mine next.

• Second Master Cui searched Cui Wenyuan’s room for money but found nothing because Cui Wenyuan had deposited his fortune at the Treasure-Gathering Bank.
• Old Madam Cui ordered medicine added to Cui Wenyuan’s bird’s nest soup, hoping to prevent him from having children.
• Zhou Wanwan revealed that she had switched the soup, so Cui Wenyuan drank a harmless bowl while Eldest Master Cui unknowingly drank the medicine.
• Zhou Wanwan tutored Cui Wenyuan for his examinations, then traveled with Old Scholar Tree and Old Ancestor to the Sun Family’s jade mine.
• Zhou Wanwan and the trees took the jade stones and mined the entire site overnight, with Zhou Wanwan channeling energy into several hundred stones.
• Old Ancestor revealed that the Sun Family had also been cleaned out, and Zhou Wanwan said they would go to its gold mine the next day.

The Sun Family discovered that all sixteen of their houses and possessions had vanished after their deathsworn went missing. Shen Tao hid the drag marks and silenced the yamen runners, then read a report about Zhao Lili’s influence in the palace and the danger facing his sister.

• Sun Tai, Master Sun, and Madam Sun woke in the pigsty and found the Sun Family residence stripped bare, while A Da and the other deathsworn were missing.
• Master Sun searched the family’s sixteen houses, found them all empty, and went to Old Madam Cui for help.
• Shen Tao inspected the empty courtyards with county yamen runners and ordered them to cover the drag marks they discovered.
• Shen Tao gave the yamen runners five taels each and told them to keep quiet about the evidence.
• Shen Tao read a letter about Consort Li, identified as Zhao Lili, and worried that she had his sister running ragged in the palace.

Zhao Lili tried to have Zhou Wanwan killed and steal her wealth, but the two great trees foiled her plans and emptied her palace storeroom for Zhou Wanwan. As Zhou Wanwan prepared to take the child scholar exam, Sun Tai and several young masters sneaked into her courtyard to sabotage her.

• Zhao Lili ordered her guards to kill Zhou Wanwan and seize her businesses and possessions.
• The two great trees killed the assassins on the road, then carried off Zhao Lili's treasures and sent them to Zhou Wanwan.
• Zhou Wanwan kept the jade and sent the other stolen goods to the War God's Tomb, which had become a popular amusement park and source of income.
• A tree told Zhou Wanwan that her grandmother had caused a scene outside the city lord's residence, but Zhou Wanwan chose to focus on her exam preparations.
• Sun Tai and several young masters sneaked into the side courtyard to plant cheat sheets in Zhou Wanwan's exam supplies, then recognized the courtyard as Aunt's.

Old Scholar Tree frightened Sun Tai and the Cui cousins with staged ghosts, leaving them too terrified to take the imperial examination. Zhou Wanwan went to the examination venue with Cui Wenyuan, where her teasing made Sun Tai faint again.

• Old Scholar Tree used ghosts, bones, and corpses to terrify Sun Tai and the Cui cousins, while Zhou Wanwan slept through the night.
• Cui Wenyuan told Zhou Wanwan that many of the cousins had been carried home and Sun Tai might skip the examination; Old Madam Cui learned that her breakfast had vanished again and ordered a Daoist priest hired.
• Zhou Wanwan and Cui Wenyuan arrived at the academy, where Old Master Cui encouraged his son before leaving.
• The frightened Cui cousins warned Zhou Wanwan to stay away, and Sun Tai accused her of knowing about the haunting.
• Zhou Wanwan teased Sun Tai that the skeleton wanted to marry him, and he fainted before she led Cui Wenyuan inside.