Chapter Summaries

Ren Yingying tried to hide the garden’s grilling and fishing from the returning Qu Hua by pretending to drown, then swam away with Qu Nian following her. The chapter left them together in the pond as Qu Hua approached and Ren Yingying prepared to confront her.

• Ren Yingying released a koi after Jinse warned her it tasted bad, then decided they would grill the next one that bit.
• A maid announced that Qu Hua had returned, and Ren Yingying ordered everyone to throw the grill and their other things into the water.
• Qu Nian recognized Qu Hua as his sister and hoped she would stand up for him.
• Ren Yingying climbed over the railing and jumped into the pond, claiming she had thrown herself in over love.
• Qu Nian jumped in after Ren Yingying, but discovered she was swimming away under her own power.
• Ren Yingying stopped to comfort Qu Nian and said they would deal with Chahua together.

Ren Yingying confronted Qu Hua after the commandery princess kicked Qu Nian, arguing that the women deserved to enjoy themselves while the heir still lived. She returned to her quarters with the others and dismissed their fears of Qu Hua’s revenge, then called them together to discuss business.

• Ren Yingying pushed Qu Hua after she kicked Qu Nian, then carried the injured dog away and challenged Qu Hua as her sister-in-law.
• Ren Yingying told Qu Hua that the women had been forced to marry into the residence to counter the heir’s ill fortune and might face a lifetime of widowhood.
• Qu Nian reflected on the women’s unfair circumstances and felt less resentment toward Ren Yingying.
• Ren Yingying dried Qu Nian and teased him, while Jinjin and Yuanyang offered ways to placate Qu Hua and Jinse said she could fight her.
• Ren Yingying reassured the women that she was not afraid of Qu Hua, joked about taking them to become the Prince of Jin’s concubines, and told them to close the door so they could discuss business.

Ren Yingying suspected that iron chests beneath the Prince's Residence pond held hidden silver and planned to investigate and use the discovery to win favor with the Prince of Jin. Qu Nian slipped away to warn Qu Hua, but froze after hearing what was happening in her courtyard.

• Ren Yingying told the women that she had felt several iron chests beneath the pond, and they speculated about taking or reporting the treasure.
• Ren Yingying ordered everyone to stay in the courtyard until Qu Hua left, while Qu Nian worried that her suspicions could endanger the Prince's Residence.
• Qu Nian decided to find Qu Hua and prove his identity by writing to her before Ren Yingying revealed the supposed treasure.
• That night, Ren Yingying urged Hua Cha to consider marrying Xue Lie, and Qu Nian slipped out while they talked.
• Qu Nian avoided the guards and entered Qu Hua's courtyard, then froze when he heard sounds from inside.

Qu Nian overheard Qu Hua seducing a guard while grieving over his supposed death, then learned that Ren Yingying and Hua Cha planned to invite Nanxing to help protect them. He decided to avoid revealing himself to Qu Hua and returned to find out what the women were planning.

• Qu Nian listened as Qu Hua told a guard that she needed a son and had several men at her disposal, while the guard worried that Qu Nian might return.
• Qu Hua said she would protect the prince's residence from the emperor and the Southern Borderlands, then claimed she had killed people who pretended to be Qu Nian.
• Qu Nian asked the system about his task and learned he had to develop mutual affection with the heir's consort.
• Qu Nian decided not to approach Qu Hua and returned to Ren Yingying and Hua Cha.
• Ren Yingying and Hua Cha agreed to invite Nanxing over because they needed someone strong enough to help protect them.

Ren Yingying asked Nanxing to stay and help her deal with Qu Hua, but Nanxing advised her to wait until Qu Hua left before retrieving the silver. As the household settled into games and Ren Yingying prepared medicine for Song Jingyang, she told Nanxing how she had once earned money through cosmetic procedures.

• Ren Yingying woke to find Nanxing had arrived, and Nanxing agreed to stay at the residence.
• Ren Yingying asked Nanxing to help her get the silver for buying Dog Meat an official post, but Nanxing warned she could not retrieve it unnoticed while Qu Hua remained.
• Nanxing urged Ren Yingying to wait until Qu Hua left the capital, and Ren Yingying agreed while asking Nanxing to stay.
• Ren Yingying started a mahjong game, and beginner Nanxing won so much that the others lamented their losses.
• After receiving Tang Zhuyun's letter, Ren Yingying packed medicine for Song Jingyang and arranged for it to be sent to the border city.
• Nanxing asked how Ren Yingying had made money before, and Ren Yingying described nose jobs and breast augmentations, leaving Nanxing feeling teased.

Ren Yingying offered Nanxing cosmetic surgery, and Nanxing later revealed that her breasts had grown after taking medicine from the Princess Consort. Pei Shen discovered the change while tending to Nanxing, while Tang Zhuyun waited for Yanran, who had been stopped on the way.

• Ren Yingying joked with Nanxing about her body and offered her a free cosmetic procedure, but Nanxing said she would think about it.
• A few days later, Pei Shen returned from the spring examinations and found Nanxing pale and bedridden with menstrual pain.
• While rubbing Nanxing’s lower belly, Pei Shen noticed her enlarged breasts and briefly suspected she was an impostor before recognizing her.
• Nanxing told Pei Shen that the change came from medicine given by Her Highness the Princess Consort, and Pei Shen accepted the explanation with relief.
• Ren Yingying wrote to Tang Zhuyun to boast about her work, while Tang Zhuyun sent someone to find Yanran after she failed to arrive for a meal.
• Someone had stopped Yanran on her way.

Yanran met Xiao Pang, her biological father, and explained that although she would provide for him in his old age, her love and companionship belonged to the family who had raised her. Xiao Pang left with the painful understanding that Yanran neither hated nor resented him, but did not consider him a parent in her life.

• Yanran recognized Xiao Pang as her biological father and asked whether her father had allowed him to leave or he had escaped.
• Xiao Pang explained that he could control himself and had begged Yanran's father to let him move about freely.
• Yanran told Xiao Pang she knew the history of her parents and felt no longing for them because her father, Mother Consort, and Brother had given her everything she needed.
• Yanran promised to provide Xiao Pang with care and silver in his old age but said she would give her company to the family who had raised her.
• Yanran said she understood the reasons behind her biological parents' choices, held no resentment, and would make the best arrangements for Xiao Pang when she grew up.

Xiao Pang warned Yanran to avoid the Zhou family and revealed that he had disguised himself as a woman to watch the banquet. Yanran felt upset after their conversation, but Linlin comforted her and helped her see that a parent's choice to leave did not measure a child's worth; she left with a new resolve to go home and do something important.

• Xiao Pang warned Yanran to stay away from the Zhou family, then admitted he had dressed as a woman to attend the banquet and keep watch for them.
• Yanran told Xiao Pang she would feel upset if she ever had to stand against him, then went to the garden to be alone and let herself cry.
• Linlin found Yanran, wiped her tears, and took her out for grilled meat instead of letting her return to Tang Zhuyun for the meal.
• Linlin told Yanran that even gold was not treasured by everyone, helping her understand that people who leave do not define her value.
• After eating, Yanran arranged for grilled meat to be sent to the prince's residence and told Linlin she wanted to go home because she had something more important to do.

Yanran urged the Prince of Jin to meet Xiao Pang, who revealed he had information about the Prince’s mother and a portrait hidden in a border city. Tang Zhuyun also received a letter from Ren Yingying asking to bring Qu Nian’s four concubines to seek refuge, while Yingying’s plans for Dog Meat alarmed her.

• Yanran told Tang Zhuyun that Xiao Pang said he might help with the search for her grandmother but wanted to speak with the Prince of Jin, and Tang Zhuyun encouraged her to tell him.
• The Prince of Jin met Xiao Pang, who shared information about his mother and said he had a portrait of her hidden in an old house in a border city.
• The Prince of Jin sent someone to inspect the house before planning to retrieve the portrait, while Tang Zhuyun agreed the city’s vast size made finding her missing relative difficult.
• Xiu'er brought Ren Yingying’s medicine and a letter in which Yingying asked Tang Zhuyun to shelter Qu Nian’s four concubines.
• Tang Zhuyun told the Prince of Jin that Ren Yingying had also mentioned castrating Dog Meat, and the Prince dismissed the idea as ordinary.

Qu Nian fled Qu Hua’s guards and was injured by their bait before Ren Yingying treated him. Nanxing told Ren Yingying that she felt closer to Pei Shen and no longer considered herself unworthy of him, while Ren Yingying joked about Qu Nian’s sex and sent him scrambling away.

• Qu Nian escaped Qu Hua’s guards, but one of them hit him with a raw bone and scraped his side.
• Qu Nian ran to Ren Yingying, who found and treated his injury while Nanxing worried that he might need a veterinarian.
• Nanxing admitted that her misgivings about Pei Shen were fading and that she now dared to look at him without feeling unworthy.
• Nanxing said she wanted to see Pei Shen lose control because of her, and Ren Yingying teased her about their intimacy.
• Ren Yingying suggested granting Qu Nian’s supposed wish to become a female dog, and Qu Nian yowled and fled her arms.

Ren Yingying and Nanxing discussed Qu Nian’s unusual intelligence and Qu Hua’s troublemaking, then planned how Ren Yingying could investigate what was beneath the pool. Ren Yingying gave Jinse a pair of earplugs and asked her for a favor, leaving Qu Nian wary of her next scheme.

• Ren Yingying joked about altering Dog Meat’s body, and Nanxing remarked that Qu Nian seemed to understand their conversation and act like a man.
• Ren Yingying told Nanxing that Qu Hua had turned against her after Ren Yingying mocked her suspicion that someone was using a voodoo doll against her brother.
• Ren Yingying admitted she was desperate to investigate what was under the pool, so Nanxing suggested she claim she wanted to play in it that night to keep others away.
• Pei Shen came to pick Nanxing up, and Nanxing promised Ren Yingying she would sneak over later.
• Ren Yingying summoned Jinse, who explained she was making cotton earplugs because the sound of her own qin playing bothered her.
• Ren Yingying gave Jinse a pair of earplugs from her operating room, and Jinse gratefully accepted as Ren Yingying asked her for a favor.

Ren Yingying and her companions hauled a locked chest from the pool and sent a rubbing of its hidden-lock pattern to Tang Zhuyun for help opening it. Meanwhile, Zhou Xu brought her bound aunt to Tang Zhuyun, who prepared to examine her while guarding against trouble.

• Ren Yingying asked Jinse to play a suggestive melody to distract Qu Hua while she retrieved something from the pool.
• Ren Yingying, Nanxing, Jinjin, and Qu Nian pulled a heavy chest from the pool and found a hidden lock carved into its top.
• Ren Yingying set aside paper covered with six portraits of handsome men, and Qu Nian tore the portraits to shreds.
• Xiao Ye arrived with Tang Zhuyun's letter, and Ren Yingying sent him back with a rubbing of the lock and an explanation.
• Zhou Xu brought her bound aunt to the prince's residence, and Tang Zhuyun went out to see her with precautions in place.

Tang Zhuyun examined Zhou Xu’s concubine mother and discovered that she had been poisoned, not afflicted with consumption or lung disease. Zhou Xu chose to have her treated, and Tang Zhuyun said she would prepare medicine the next day.

• The Prince of Jin joined Tang Zhuyun on her way to see Zhou Xu, but Tang Zhuyun went ahead because Zhou Xu had brought her concubine mother.
• Zhou Xu told Tang Zhuyun that she had tied up Concubine Yu because her face was injured and her mind was unwell.
• Concubine Yu begged Zhou Xu to take her back, but Zhou Xu refused and threatened to die alongside her if she kept speaking of death.
• Tang Zhuyun examined Concubine Yu and determined that she had been poisoned rather than suffering from consumption or lung disease.
• Zhou Xu asked Tang Zhuyun to save Concubine Yu, and Tang Zhuyun offered to prepare medicine the next day.

Zhou Xu offered to use her relationship with Wu Zhenhai to help Tang Zhuyun and the Prince of Jin secure military power, asking Tang Zhuyun to shelter her mother in return. Tang Zhuyun agreed to protect Concubine Yu temporarily, while Zhou Xu left to pursue her plan.

• Zhou Xu asked Tang Zhuyun to find shelter for Concubine Yu, then warned that the Zhou Family would not help the Prince of Jin consolidate military power.
• Zhou Xu privately told Tang Zhuyun that Wu Zhenhai, a man her grandfather relied on, was her lover and might be persuaded to help.
• Zhou Xu offered to leave Concubine Yu in Tang Zhuyun's care and said a guard could follow her to verify her claims.
• Tang Zhuyun agreed to shelter Concubine Yu temporarily after Zhou Xu paid a thousand taels and promised to help.
• Zhou Xu said goodbye to Concubine Yu and left without looking back, while Tang Zhuyun arranged for her to stay until morning.
• As Tang Zhuyun and Xiu'er walked back, Xiu'er suddenly remembered something.

Tang Zhuyun returned to find the Prince of Jin furious after a maid tried to curry favor with him, then learned he was upset because his birth mother's portrait had been ruined. She told him about Zhou Xu's claim to be Wu Zhenhai's lover, and he insisted it was impossible.

• Xiu'er recalled that a young married woman at a banquet had said she was Wu Zhenhai's daughter, leading Tang Zhuyun and Xiu'er to worry about Zhou Xu's past.
• Tang Zhuyun returned to the residence and found the Prince of Jin raging after a maid had tried to ingratiate herself with him.
• Tang Zhuyun ordered the guards to sell the maid far away if she was still alive, then calmed the Prince of Jin and learned his mother's portrait had been blurred by water damage.
• Tang Zhuyun told the Prince of Jin that Zhou Xu claimed to be Wu Zhenhai's lover, and he firmly said it was impossible.

Tang Zhuyun and the Prince of Jin investigated Zhou Xu’s claims about Wu Zhenhai and learned that Zhou Xu had secretly met him. They decided to keep Concubine Yu at the prince’s residence while waiting to see whether Zhou Xu could help them.

• The Prince of Jin told Tang Zhuyun that Wu Zhenhai had children, had been a widower for years, and openly accepted male lovers after being caught with a man.
• Tang Zhuyun questioned whether Wu Zhenhai had a hidden ailment, while the Prince of Jin suspected Zhou Xu was lying about her relationship with him.
• Tang Zhuyun and the Prince of Jin shared a tender moment when their unborn child moved, and they promised to keep searching for her mother.
• A guard reported that Wu Zhenhai had taken Zhou Xu away, believing she had slipped out to meet him secretly without his knowledge of her visit to the prince’s residence.
• The Prince of Jin decided to keep Concubine Yu under his protection, and Tang Zhuyun joked with him before Zhou Xu became intimate with Wu Zhenhai.

Zhou Xu manipulated Wu Zhenhai into indulging her, then told him she had once ended a pregnancy caused by their affair. Wu Zhenhai was left furious and demanding the truth, while Zhou Xu remained unmoved.

• Wu Zhenhai and Zhou Xu slept together, and he accused her of deliberately provoking him to ask for favors.
• Wu Zhenhai proposed asking the governor for permission to marry Zhou Xu, but she mocked the idea and their ruined reputations.
• Wu Zhenhai asked whether Madam had been making things difficult for Zhou Xu, then said he should marry her before she became pregnant.
• Zhou Xu said she would simply end a pregnancy and revealed that she had already ended one of Wu Zhenhai's children.
• Wu Zhenhai demanded to know whether she had ever been pregnant, and Zhou Xu said she had ended the pregnancy when it was two months along, three months after their relationship began.
• Zhou Xu told Wu Zhenhai not to pretend to be devoted or compassionate because neither of them was that kind of person.

Zhou Xu rejected Wu Zhenhai’s attempt to care for her and left without showing him affection, prompting him to investigate whom she had been meeting. Meanwhile, Tang Zhuyun and Xiu’er discussed Zhou Xu’s visit and continued trying to uncover the truth about Concubine Yu’s condition.

• Zhou Xu told Wu Zhenhai she would cover up the marks with powder, refused his offer of tonics, and insisted he call her Zhou Xu rather than by her childhood name.
• Wu Zhenhai escorted Zhou Xu back to her room, then ordered someone to investigate whom she had recently been in contact with.
• The next day, Tang Zhuyun learned that Zhou Xu had stayed with Wu Zhenhai for two hours and that he had escorted her home.
• Xiu’er suggested Zhou Xu might have been plotting with Wu Zhenhai, while Tang Zhuyun wondered if he had been unable to perform.
• Tang Zhuyun and Xiu’er discussed Concubine Yu, and Xiu’er recalled that Concubine Yu had seemed afraid of something.

Tang Zhuyun and Xiu'er discussed Concubine Yu, pregnancy, and the Prince of Jin's efforts to feed hungry baby birds. Xiu'er then discovered that a woman who had tried to enter the prince's bed had died, and warned the residence's servants against scheming.

• Tang Zhuyun and Xiu'er wondered why Concubine Yu still wanted to return to the Zhou family despite Zhou Xu's threats.
• Xiu'er explained that thinking of her past had moved her to write Song Jingyang a letter, leaving her with little sleep.
• Tang Zhuyun told Xiu'er how the Prince of Jin had enlisted Eighth Master to help feed the baby birds.
• Xiu'er searched for Yanran and Jiaojiao, then saw guards carrying away the woman who had tried to climb into the prince's bed.
• Xiu'er told the gathered maids and older servant women that anyone seeking to scheme in the residence could be made an example of.

Xiu'er checked on Nanny Jing and Concubine Yu after arranging a birthday celebration for Nanny Jing. Concubine Yu maintained her appearance of madness while worrying about her daughter Zhou Xu, who had not yet come to visit.

• Yanran tried to catch koi so she could find out whether they tasted terrible, while Xiu'er reminded her that the prince had chosen them.
• Xiu'er visited Concubine Yu's courtyard and persuaded Nanny Jing to consider an opera troupe for her birthday.
• Concubine Yu asked whether Nanny Jing was the prince's wet nurse, then covered her ears and screamed to preserve her appearance of madness.
• Concubine Yu worried about Zhou Xu's future and resolved to speak with her when she visited, but Zhou Xu's plans changed.