Chapter Summaries

Zhou Wanwan helped Madam Cheng uncover Cheng Xiao and Feng Caigu’s affair and their plot to take the household from her and Cheng Yueyao. Madam Cheng resolved to raise Yueyao herself, while Zhou Wanwan began treating the girl’s poisoning and urged Madam Cheng to plan their next move.

• Zhou Wanwan led Madam Cheng to Feng Caigu’s room, where they overheard Feng Caigu boast that Cheng Xiao had given her control of the inner quarters and that she intended her son to inherit the household.
• Madam Cheng and Zhou Wanwan heard Cheng Xiao and Feng Caigu discuss sending Cheng Yueyao away, Cheng Xiao’s plans for Feng Caigu’s son, and making Madam Cheng disappear in a few years.
• Madam Cheng returned to the main room and declared that she would raise Cheng Yueyao herself, then asked for a doctor to examine her.
• Zhou Wanwan examined Cheng Yueyao and said that long-term medication had severely weakened her and left toxins in her body.
• Zhou Wanwan gave Cheng Yueyao medicine and cut her finger to draw out the toxins, and black blood dripped into a bowl.
• Zhou Wanwan told the grieving Madam Cheng to stop crying and asked what she planned to do next.

Zhou Wanwan helped Feng Jiao reclaim her 16,850 taels of dowry after Cheng Xiao handed household management to Feng Caigu. After Feng Jiao confronted Cheng Xiao and Feng Caigu and her daughter chose to stay with her, Zhou Wanwan discovered signs that Feng Jiao had been secretly poisoned.

• Zhou Wanwan advised Madam Cheng to separate her dowry from the household accounts, which showed the Cheng Family owed her 16,850 taels.
• Cheng Xiao ordered Feng Jiao to hand the household tally to Feng Caigu, and Feng Jiao demanded repayment of her dowry.
• Cheng Xiao found only a little over 6,000 taels in his storeroom, then surrendered deeds to shops and farms to cover the debt.
• Feng Jiao reminded Cheng Xiao that his mother had caused her miscarriage, while Feng Caigu tried to take Cheng Yueyao with her.
• Cheng Yueyao chose to stay with Feng Jiao, and Feng Jiao broke down after Cheng Xiao and Feng Caigu left.
• Zhou Wanwan checked Feng Jiao's pulse and warned that someone had been secretly poisoning her.

Feng Jiao left Cheng Xiao’s household after he cast her into a dilapidated side courtyard, then bought a grand house across the street for herself and the children. Cheng Xiao announced that he would marry Feng Caigu as his equal wife, and Feng Caigu came to flaunt the wedding invitation, only to be met with Feng Jiao’s indifference.

• Zhou Wanwan treated Feng Jiao’s depleted health and urged her to consider remarrying, but Feng Jiao said she would take things one step at a time.
• Cheng Xiao ordered Feng Jiao’s belongings moved to a side courtyard, and the prominent young ladies and other guests began leaving the Cheng residence.
• Feng Jiao moved into the west side courtyard, then decided to buy a nearby house after Zhou Wanwan pointed out how run-down the rooms were.
• Steward Feng purchased the grand house across the street, where Feng Jiao chose rooms for Zhou Wanwan and Cheng Yueyao and gave Zhou Wanwan jewelry.
• Cheng Xiao decided to marry Feng Caigu as his equal wife, and Feng Jiao said she would shut her doors and live her own life.
• Feng Caigu arrived with servants to deliver the wedding invitation and show off, but Feng Jiao dismissed her as only an equal wife.

Feng Jiao divorced Cheng Xiao, struck Feng Caigu after catching her faking an injury, and accused her of harming Cheng Yueyao and poisoning her bird's nest soup. She decided to partner with Zhou Wanwan in the charcoal business and traveled with her to Liu Family Village, where Liu Su'e and Zhou Fusheng anxiously confronted Zhou Wanwan.

• Feng Jiao confronted Cheng Xiao over his family's debts, and they signed a mutual divorce agreement with Cheng Yueyao going with Feng Jiao.
• Feng Caigu taunted Feng Jiao about having Cheng Xiao's son, but Feng Jiao exposed her feigned injury and slapped her three times.
• Feng Jiao accused Feng Caigu of mistreating Cheng Yueyao and putting something in the bird's nest soup, then had Feng Caigu and Cheng Xiao thrown out.
• Zhou Wanwan proposed that she and Feng Jiao go into business together, and Feng Jiao agreed to visit Liu Family Village to see her charcoal.
• Feng Jiao and Zhou Wanwan arrived at Liu Family Village, where Liu Su'e and Zhou Fusheng scolded Zhou Wanwan for disappearing without warning.

Zhou Wanwan sold high-quality charcoal to Feng Jiao’s household and discussed preparing Liu Family Village for future disasters. During a mountain walk, she discovered a herd of roe deer and had the villagers capture five alive for Cheng Yueyao.

• Steward Li inspected Zhou Wanwan’s charcoal and arranged for Feng Jiao to buy the batch for two hundred and sixty taels.
• Feng Jiao told Zhou Wanwan she would settle in the area, help build the village wall, and support her preparations for a future drought.
• Zhou Wanwan led Feng Jiao and Cheng Yueyao through the mountain and explained that she wanted to fortify Liu Family Village against refugees.
• Zhou Wanwan heard sow thistles talking about nearby roe deer, followed their tracks, and led villagers to capture five of them alive.
• Cheng Yueyao asked to play with the roe deer, and Zhou Wanwan offered to bring rabbits from the farm for her to keep.

Feng Jiao and Cheng Yueyao visited Zhou Wanwan’s family, where they shared a meal made with wild greens and homegrown vegetables. After Feng Jiao returned to town, Zhou Wanwan sorted the valuable jewelry she had obtained and went to check on her medicinal herbs.

• Zhou Wanwan led Feng Jiao and Cheng Yueyao to find mushrooms and wild greens on the mountain.
• Liu Su'e prepared a feast, and Feng Jiao told the family she had divorced Cheng Xiao and was now Zhou Wanwan’s godmother.
• Feng Jiao and Steward Li praised the meal, and Feng Jiao took pheasants, hares, long beans, and cucumbers back to town.
• Feng Jiao said she would leave Cheng Xiao a way out as long as he did not go too far.
• Zhou Wanwan sorted Feng Caigu’s gold and silver jewelry and said she might write storybooks for money.
• Zhou Wanwan took Little Ginseng to the vegetable field to check on her medicinal herbs.

Zhou Wanwan discovered bandits trying to poison Liu Family Village’s well and captured them before they could act. The Third Chief revealed that Jiang Wu had hired the Azure Dragon Mountain Stronghold, and Zhou Wanwan considered what to do with the bandits.

• Zhou Wanwan accelerated the growth of medicinal herbs in her greenhouse with spiritual energy and discussed the suspicious armed men with nearby trees.
• Zhou Wanwan followed the bandits to the village well and overheard them planning to poison it with gelsemium powder.
• Zhou Wanwan used osmanthus fragrance to knock the bandits unconscious, then summoned her three older brothers and villagers to capture them.
• Zhou Wanwan threatened the Third Chief with the poison, and he begged for mercy and admitted someone had hired the bandits.
• The Third Chief wrote the character “Jiang,” and Zhou Wanwan recognized Jiang Wu as the one behind the plot.

Zhou Wanwan followed the bandits to Azure Dragon Mountain Stronghold after learning about its wealth, where the third boss’s men ambushed her group. In the stronghold’s main hall, the chief threatened them for the anesthetic formula, and Zhou Wanwan challenged the bandits’ demands.

• Zhou Wanwan ordered Liu Xiuyuan to dispose of the medicinal powder and decided to accompany the bandits to their stronghold despite his objections.
• The third boss secretly led Zhou Wanwan and the others into an ambush, where the bandits captured them and brought them to the enormous stronghold.
• The third boss threatened Zhou Wanwan’s group and demanded the formula for her anesthetic in exchange for sparing them.
• The stronghold chief berated the third boss for bringing the captives back, while the third boss insisted they would die anyway.
• Zhou Wanwan pointed out that the bandits still wanted the formula despite claiming they planned to kill her group.

Zhou Wanwan incapacitated the bandits who had captured her, then led Liu Family Village in searching the stronghold and its guarded fortress for supplies. After they found grain and other goods, Old Scholar Tree agreed to reveal the stronghold’s treasure, and a chest rose from beneath its roots.

• Zhou Wanwan freed herself, revealed she had poisoned the stronghold, and ordered Liu Family Village to search it.
• The villagers found more than three hundred sacks of grain, and Zhou Wanwan learned from a morning glory that another granary stood in a guarded fortress.
• Lingbao knocked out the fortress guards, allowing Zhou Wanwan and the villagers to collect grain, tools, weapons, food, and other supplies.
• Zhou Wanwan planned to transport the grain by horse cart and eventually hide it in a tunnel in the mountain.
• Old Scholar Tree explained that the bandits paid their silver in taxes and offered to help find their treasure if Zhou Wanwan took it to her village.
• Old Scholar Tree accepted Zhou Wanwan’s offer, and its roots pushed a chest up out of the ground.

Zhou Wanwan brought the Old Scholar Tree back to Liu Family Village, where it helped her obtain jadeite and boost the growth of medicinal herbs. She then began digging a hidden mountain tunnel with explosives as winter approached.

• Zhou Wanwan gave the Old Scholar Tree energy, and it pulled its roots from the ground and crawled away carrying her.
• The Old Scholar Tree revealed a jade mine and dug up several rocks containing valuable jadeite before carrying them and the stronghold's valuables back to Liu Family Village.
• Zhou Wanwan had the villagers settle the Old Scholar Tree beside her family and used the jade-bearing rocks to nourish medicinal herbs in her greenhouse.
• After recovering from the energy drain by drinking Lingbao's bathwater, Zhou Wanwan searched the back mountain and chose a secluded valley for a hidden tunnel.
• Zhou Wanwan used explosives to blast out a large chamber in the mountain, and Zhou Qingyan, Zhou Qinghe, and Zhou Qingchen watched in amazement.

Zhou Wanwan finished outfitting an underground refuge for Liu Family Village and went to Luban Village to buy furnishings. There she found Wooden Oxen and Gliding Horses and offered to treat the villagers’ illness in exchange for them, leaving the village chief to consider her proposal.

• Zhou Wanwan completed the underground refuge, stocked it with supplies and water, and planned a library and beds for the villagers.
• Carpenter Liu told Zhou Wanwan about Luban Village’s skilled craftspeople, and she went there to inspect their work.
• The village chief showed Zhou Wanwan the village’s warehouse and its Wooden Oxen and Gliding Horses.
• Zhou Wanwan agreed to buy the warehouse’s furniture for 310 taels of silver.
• When the village chief refused to sell the Wooden Oxen and Gliding Horses, Zhou Wanwan offered to cure Luban Village’s illness in exchange.

Zhou Wanwan cured Luban Village’s illness by replacing its harmful salt with clean salt and medicine, then took the village’s wooden oxen and gliding horses and arranged furniture in the underground passage. When Lin Shouyi told her that Second Uncle Lin was being forced to arrange Cheng Xiao’s wedding, Zhou Wanwan advised him to run up debts for the extravagant celebration.

• Zhou Wanwan traded the wooden oxen and gliding horses for treating Luban Village’s residents and ordered them to stop eating their harmful homemade salt.
• Zhou Wanwan gave the villagers more than thirty bags of clean salt and medicine, and urged them to stock up on grain and water for three years.
• Zhou Wanwan rode a wooden ox and gliding horse away with the village’s stored furniture and arranged it in the underground passage.
• Lin Shouyi told Zhou Wanwan that Cheng Xiao was making Second Uncle Lin arrange his wedding without providing money, while Cheng Xiao’s wife demanded eighty-eight loads of betrothal gifts.
• Zhou Wanwan told Lin Shouyi to have Second Uncle Lin get the wedding requirements in writing, then buy everything on credit from powerful shops and let the debt distract Cheng Xiao.

Cheng Xiao planned an extravagant wedding to Feng Caigu, while Feng Jiao and Zhou Wanwan plotted to make him pay dearly for it. After Zhou Wanwan arranged a copy of his official seal, Feng Jiao ordered her shop to supply the wedding goods at several times their value and deny Cheng Xiao any credit afterward.

• Cheng Xiao told Second Uncle Lin to arrange a wedding grander than his own in the capital, with at least eighty-eight chests of betrothal gifts and a lavish banquet.
• Zhou Wanwan told Feng Jiao about Cheng Xiao's plans, and they decided to use his extravagant wedding to bring him down by selling him goods from Feng Jiao's shops.
• Second Uncle Lin brought Feng Caigu's extensive betrothal-gift list to Feng Jiao, and Zhou Wanwan asked how Cheng Xiao could buy goods on credit using his official seal.
• Zhou Wanwan had Lingbao steal Cheng Xiao's official seal so a craftsman could carve an identical copy, and Lingbao returned the seal the next morning.
• Feng Jiao took Second Uncle Lin, Zhou Wanwan, and Cheng Yueyao to her shop and ordered the wedding goods at several times their value, including inferior goods passed off as fine ones.
• Feng Jiao told the shopkeeper that she and Cheng Xiao had divorced and that her shops must no longer extend him credit, and the shopkeeper agreed to make Cheng Xiao pay.

Cheng Xiao and Feng Caigu’s lavish wedding drew a crowd, while they and their allies celebrated their good fortune. The ceremony took an unexpected turn when both families arrived, believing Cheng Xiao was taking Feng Caigu as a concubine and discussing the child she carried.

• Feng Caigu prepared for the wedding and boasted that Cheng Xiao truly loved her, while the Feng Clan’s servants condemned him for betraying Feng Jiao.
• Cheng Xiao praised Second Uncle Lin for arranging the grand banquet, and Zhou Wanwan watched over the profitable goods she had sold to the Cheng Family.
• Cheng Xiao fetched Feng Caigu, and the couple prepared to bow before their parents arrived unexpectedly.
• Mother Cheng and Mother Feng assumed Feng Caigu was becoming Cheng Xiao’s concubine, and Old Madam Cheng said the child should be registered under Feng Jiao’s name.
• Cheng Xiao froze when his parents announced they had come to watch him take a concubine and said they had heard he already had a son.

At Cheng Xiao’s wedding to Feng Caigu, guests exposed his divorce from Feng Jiao, and shopkeepers arrived with bills for the lavish ceremony. Facing debts of over a million taels, Cheng Xiao rushed to Feng Jiao’s residence to ask for help.

• Guests revealed that Cheng Xiao had divorced Feng Jiao and identified Feng Caigu as his new wife.
• Father Cheng slapped Cheng Xiao and ordered him to cancel the wedding and beg Feng Jiao to return, but Cheng Xiao insisted she would come back as a co-wife.
• Shopkeepers arrived with invoices for the wedding, and County Deputy Lin showed that Cheng Xiao had authorized the purchases.
• The prefect ordered Cheng Xiao to pay the bills, and Feng Caigu discovered that the wedding expenses exceeded a million taels of silver.
• Cheng Xiao rushed to Feng Jiao’s residence and called on her to open the door.

Feng Jiao refused Cheng Xiao’s plea to return and left the Cheng family to deal with its debts. After Feng Jiao and Zhou Wanwan discussed stockpiling grain, Zhou Wanwan returned home and found Jiang Wu demanding Liu Family Village as compensation for poisoned fish and ruined crops.

• Cheng Xiao knelt outside Feng Jiao’s residence and begged her to return, but Feng Jiao refused to pay the Cheng family’s debts.
• Feng Jiao told Cheng Xiao and Mother Cheng that Feng Yueyao had no ties to the Cheng family, and Feng Caigu urged them to stay together and face their troubles.
• Father Cheng returned to the Upper Capital, where the Cheng family sold its fields, shops, and estates to cover its debts.
• Feng Jiao gave Zhou Wanwan 100,000 taels and said she planned to stockpile grain and cotton bought from the Cheng family’s estates.
• Zhou Wanwan returned home and heard Liu Xiuyuan arguing with Jiang Wu, who accused their side of poisoning his village’s fish and crops.
• Jiang Wu demanded the houses in Liu Family Village as compensation.

Jiang Wu and the Zhou uncles tried to seize Liu Family Village, but the village’s enchanted trees and mechanisms trapped their men. The intruders remained lost in the woods as Liu Xiuyuan rebuked Jiang Wu for provoking the villagers.

• Jiang Wu claimed Liu Family Village for himself and ordered his men to loot the houses, take the greenhouse vegetables, and tear down the graves.
• The Old Scholar Tree kicked the constables into a ditch, then used vines to hang them upside down among the trees.
• Zhou Wanwan found Zhou Fu'an and Zhou Fukang battered and vomiting, taunted them, and left them behind.
• The enchanted trees blocked the woods’ exit, trapping Jiang Wu’s men as they searched for a way out.
• Jiang Wu prepared to enter the woods, but Liu Xiuyuan warned him that his men might be trapped and blamed him for causing trouble.

Zhou Wanwan drove Jiang Wu and his constables out of Liu Family Village, then the Old Scholar Tree trapped and stripped them, leaving them exposed before a crowd. Meanwhile, Cheng Xiao struggled with his household’s finances and noticed that most of his men were missing.

• Jiang Wu forced Liu Xiuyuan into the grove, where the ground opened and swallowed the constables until Zhou Wanwan appeared and ordered them to leave.
• After the group escaped the grove, Jiang Wu vowed to return with more people, but the Old Scholar Tree ensnared the constables in poisonous, thorn-covered vines and stole their silver.
• The constables woke stripped bare as villagers called for them to be taken before the authorities, while Jiang Wu protested that they served the yamen.
• Cheng Xiao recalled his troubles at home, including Feng Caigu’s anger over their fake betrothal gifts and the cost of their child’s schooling.
• In the courtroom, Cheng Xiao saw that only a few people had arrived and asked where his men had gone.

Cheng Xiao ordered an attack on Liu Family Village after Jiang Wu blamed Zhou Wanwan for his village’s troubles and promised support in exchange for promotion. When the force arrived, Liu Family Village had been stripped bare, while Zhou Wanwan and her people relocated to Black Wind Stronghold to avoid further conflict.

• Cheng Xiao found Jiang Wu and his subordinates captured and naked, and Jiang Wu said Liu Family Village had trapped them and poisoned his village’s crops.
• Cheng Xiao connected Zhou Wanwan to the trouble and agreed to help Jiang Wu in return for access to his family’s Songhua stone vein and his loyalty.
• Cheng Xiao sent more than two hundred yamen runners with Jiang Wu to wipe out Liu Family Village.
• Zhou Fu'an and Jiang Wu arrived to find the village’s houses, greenhouses, crops, and trees gone, with tall weeds covering the ground.
• Zhou Wanwan explained to Liu Su'e that they could not safely return to Liu Family Village, and she moved her people to Black Wind Stronghold.

Zhou Wanwan brought Liu Family Village to Black Wind Stronghold and asked Tie Niu to take them in. Tie Niu agreed, but Lin Xiao led a large faction away, and Zhou Wanwan saw how harshly the remaining people lived.

• Zhou Wanwan arrived at Black Wind Stronghold with her people and asked Tie Niu to let them stay.
• Tie Niu welcomed them, but Lin Xiao and his supporters objected and challenged Tie Niu’s leadership.
• Lin Xiao led more than eight hundred people out of the stronghold after Tie Niu divided the silver and grain with them.
• Tie Niu assured Zhou Wanwan that Lin Xiao’s departure had been planned and offered to show her people their quarters.
• Zhou Wanwan saw the dilapidated sheds where the remaining people lived and worried they would freeze in winter.