Description Although Ren Yaoqi broke away from the fetters of her family in her previous lifetime, as she erroneously believed in her blood-relatives’ speech and views about sacrificing everything for the family’s interest, it ultimately led to her Elder Sister self-immolating in the army camp, her Mother passing away early with tears in her eyes and her Father dying with his blood splattered under the sword…… When she was reborn to her younger times, she swore that she would chop away all the sharp claws which intended to control her own life. Her father’s concubine who has some sinister motives, the cruel and unscrupulous elders, the aggressive foreign enemies and the surreptitious behaviors of harming people from the secret corners in the court…… She will expose their painted skins of disguise one by one, and strive for a life of happiness and peace for herself and those she loves. Author(s) Mian Bei Mei Nan ; 面北眉南 Year :2016 Status : 539 chapters + 4 extras (Completed)
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This novel has already 5 chapters translated. But it has been 2 years. No one translated this one again after chapter 5. If anybody read this novel, can you please give major spoilers about the plot, the Conspiracies. What happen in the end? I didn't fine any spoiler forum about this one. Some spoilers please......
waiting for spoilers Novel Link: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/scheme-of-the-official-descendant/ Novel Raws: https://www.shubaow.net/146_146353/ English MTL: https://www.mtlnovel.com/scheme-of-the-official-descendant/
Still no spoilers? It s sooooooooo long with pore than 500 chaps I actually just wanted to know who the ML would be , there are too many people surrounding her
Spoiler: ML ML is Xiao Jingxi from the Yanbei Wangfu, basically, they are the vassal prince of the province and related to the imperial family Spoiler: ML Family Love FL interactions with their family, especially Xiao Jinglin, ML's younger sister. She is a female general, straightforward personality, in comparison to her 'black-bellied' brother, their interactions are amusing, especially when ML tries to affect a mysterious and knowledgeable countenance and Jinglin just likes to ruin his image ML's parents are also wholesome and hilarious, they are extremely close to each other and are like an ordinary family. They like to joke that ML is more like a girl than their sister Jinglin. Xiao Wangye and Wangfei are a normal couple, they do not have any concubines and have 3 children (2 sons and 1 daughter), Wangye is born from Concubine Su and not the main wife Matriarch Xiao hates Concubine Su because the current Wangye is not her biological son, the main wife only has 1 daughter who married into the Wu family in Ningxia (General's family) Main matriarch wife is very petty and spiteful towards Xiao Wangfei but she has no power in the family and Wangfei usually pretends to play deaf when she scolds her Concubine Su (Wangye biological mother) usually lives in the temple guarding the grave of the previous Wangye She is cold and does not particularly like Xiao Wangfei/Jinglin or FL but has a strong sense of propriety Closer with her maiden family Yun (nephew and niece family: Wenfang and Qiuchen) Xiao Wangye is a vassal prince and his eldest son is living in the capital as a hostage, so he only has Jingxi and Jinglin by his side Jingxi is known to have a 'sickly' body, however, it is because his mother was poisoned at the time of his birth, so he is still recovering from his poison and has to regularly take medicine, which he hates. He is extremely knowledgeable and well-respected by the people Jinglin is very likeable, she comes across as 'cold' to many, but she is simply reluctant to participate in politics, and is a huge foodie. She likes to take FL around and introduce her to new cuisine. Jinglin is a female general at the border, and prefers to settle at the border to take care of the citizens rather than being stuck in the capital or in the family's backyard Conspiracy revealed: ML's brother in the capital is a fake, as his mother was poisoned at the time of her pregnancy and gave birth to a stillborn male. However, she exchanges her baby for her dowry maid's child as the child would be sent to the capital as a hostage. The whole family knows this, which is why they were not particularly sad when the son in the capital was 'killed' when returning to their province. This was orchestrated by the Xiao family, and they had that 'son' retire peacefully when the timing was right in order to accuse the imperial family so that they could gain an advantage. Xiao Heng and his son are another side branch in the Xiao Wangfu, and they play a major role later (when they team up with the imperial family in the capital to overthrow Xiao Wangye and take over the Yanbei province) Spoiler: FL and ML They do not start off with the best impressions, FL thinks ML is cavorting with a promiscuous nun but he is actually trying to run away from his crazy admirers, and uses FL as a shield against other women First meeting at the White Dragon Temple (Bailong Temple) FL and ML start off their interactions with a mutually beneficial relationship, FL does not want the Han family to destroy her family (technically just her branch family) and needs to take them down However, the Han family is associated with ML's family, as the Xiao Wangfu requires a family to act as a 'foil' to maintain the delicate economic system in the province, and also act as a 'sword' doing things for them (interacting with merchants etc) FL asks if the Han family is vital and ML says yes, but if another family can take over the Han family's job then it is also fine and ML will not interfere (thus, the Lei family later plays a major role) Fluffy moments before marriage ML likes to tease FL, and act childish around her He proposes to FL by taking her to a tower, and confess to her at the top floor which is where men from the Xiao family bring their love interest and vow that they will only have 1 woman FL's family worries that ML body is too weak and they don't want her to marry and become a widow but ML manages to win over her family. After they get married, even his father worried about his 'performance' and so his father playfully threw a weapon at ML and FL when they were going to give their greetings and ML caught the weapon. His father cheerfully told ML that he was trying to help him 'gain prestige after last night's performance' and ML goes '...' Spoiler: FL Ren family The Ren family is pretty screwed up, and Ren family prioritizes 'family interest' at the cost of their descendants and are incredibly selfish with only a few exceptions, which is how many of FL's branch family ended up in bad circumstances The Ren family are merchants who rent coal mines to operate coal kilns, and are trying to become one of the main families in the Yanbei province, currently headed by the Patriarch and Old Lady, with 5 branches, and will eventually separate Old lady Ren is related to the Qiu family (veteran aristocratic family in the Yanbei province) Order of descendants: Daughters: 1, 2, 3: Yaohua (FL's sister), 4: Yaoyin (1st branch) 5: Yaoqi (FL), 8: Yaoyu (5th branch) 9: Yaoying (FL's half sister) Sons: 6: Yihong (FL's half brother) First branch (main branch) that will take over the Ren family: Ren Shizong, wife Wang-shi, daughter-in-law Zhao-shi 2 sons: Yiyan, Yijun and 1 girl: Yaoyin FL likes Yijun, even though he is temperamental and moody due to his sickly body. In the first timeline, when FL was locked up for begging the matriarch to save her sister Yaohua from her marriage, Yijun helped her destroy the ancestral tablets. In this timeline, there is an instance where Yijun falls sick and is near death, and a female monk recommends a 'Chongxi' bride, which is a bride given to a sick person with the belief that good luck of marriage will cure the partner's illness. Thankfully Yijun recovers, but is displeased that he suddenly has a wife. Qiu Yangui is from a poorer family but is very smart and capable, and I love her dynamic with Yijun, who is basically a tsundere In the beginning, she likes to taunt and tease him into chasing her, so that Yijun can exercise and train his sickly body. Yijun doesn't have an illness persay, and has been coddled and given too much medication that he is weak. One instance where Qiu-shi uproots his orchids and he chases her around, then she pacifies him by saying she can find him a new orchid and plants a leek into a pot. She tricks Yijun into thinking that it is a new species and FL is like '...' but keeps silent. Eventually Yijun overhears a maid wondering why someone planted a vegetable in a pot and Yijun is furious. Yaoyin (only daughter of eldest wife) is obsessively in love with Yun Wenting, and in the first timeline, she marries him as a concubine. Current timeline, she does not have a good outcome. When Yun Wenfang expresses interest in FL, she tries to break off any attempt because if FL marries WF, Yaoyin will not have a chance to marry WT. Major incident was at a Yun banquet for young marriageable ladies to showcase their talents and increase their marriage prospects (many ongoing plots, will expand later) Does not have a good ending nor ends up with WT, she ends up sent to a family temple to pray/recite scriptures Second branch (not much is said about them), when the family faced a crisis, they were the first ones to insist on separating the family Maiden family Su, lives in different province, related to Zeng family Third branch: FL's branch, her father, Ren Shimin is more of a scholar type and mother Li-shi. Li-shi does not give birth to a son, so the Ren family pushed for Shimin to take a concubine Fang-shi Li-shi, the main wife, is disliked by matriarch because she does not have a son, her background is very interesting, her maiden family used to be Xian Wangfu, but they lost the fight for the throne and were demoted to commoners, which is why she married a merchant family Fang-shi, concubine of Ren Shimin, is the best writing of a scheming white lotus, in the first timeline, she managed to make FL think she is pitiable and convince her to be at odds with her biological sister Yaohua. Fang-shi holds grudges very easily, very patient and is extremely conniving, and in particular, resents her status as a concubine, and wants her daughter to marry/live better than the two di daughters Main daughters: Older sister Yaohua: favoured by the matriarch because she looks like her Yaoqi: disliked because the matriarch wanted a grandson, however, is her father's favourite because she is well-versed in painting, said to look like Imperial Concubine Wan, her great-grandmother Born by Fang-shi: Yaoyu and 1 son (forgot name), the concubine refuses to allow her son to participate in backyard politics, so her son is actually very pedantic and calm Yaoyu: likes to scheme but is not as good at scheming as her mother Fourth branch: I don't remember much about them Five branch: Ren Shimao and Lin-shi has a strong maiden family and is related to old lady Ren, thus is well-liked by the matriarch. Lin-shi is childhood sweethearts with her husband, and he does not have any concubines* (until Fang-shi interferes) 1 son, 1 daughter: Yaoying is easily jealous and petty Main conspiracy: Ren family has a grudge with the Han family, in particular, the Han patriarch, Han Dongshen (DS) Years ago, there was a Zhai family and they were fleeing the state because an enemy Liao state that invaded and were pillaging the villages. The Zhai family gave some money and deeds to an uncle so that they could have enough money. However, the uncle had not come back and they delayed their departure. This led to a disaster and their family was slaughtered by the Liao invaders, and it's implied that they violated DS's mother. DS managed to escape with a few servants and eventually became part of the Han family. The uncle that fled with their family money/deeds was surnamed Ren, and he also stole the deed for the Zhai family ancestral house, which is where the Ren family currently lives Apparently, the Zhai family has a treasure buried somewhere on their ancestral house which the Ren family has tried to search but to no avail. This treasure is found by ML/FL later on and there's another layer to the Zhai family Spoiler: FL's family bad ending in previous life Ren Yaohua: At first, there was an engagement between Han Yunqian and Ren Yaohua which was suddenly cancelled by the Han family This incident caused Yaohua to become more rash and impulsive, and the Ren family viewed her as an abandoned daughter With the help of the second branch's wife, Su-shi, the Ren family married Yaohua to the Zeng family in Ningxia province which caused the downfall of Yaohua and basically ruined her life Her marriage to Zeng Kui was a disaster, firstly, Zeng Kui is a disgusting pervert with a horrific burn scar on one side of his face which he likes to taunt people with and make them uncomfortable He loves harassing people in cruel ways and tortured Yaohua, and humiliated her so much that she tried to strangle him. This angered the Zeng family and they throw her to a military barrack to become a military prostitute. She then self-immolates (sets herself on fire) and dies Thus, there is a grudge between Ren and Zeng family Ren Yaoqi (FL): Her family viewed her as dispensable as she did not have a marriage engagement, therefore, they try to sell her to a Eunuch Lu, who lives in the capital as a servant of Empress Dowager Yan Her father is furious and protests her engagement but to no avail. Yaoqi tries to run away but is caught by Yun Wenfang and she begs him to let her go but he refuses and takes her back. Eunuch Lu captures her and he tries to rape her but she resists, so he whips her and tortures her daily Her maiden family, Li (from the mother's side) manages to save her by sacrificing a lot of their connections and manpower to save FL from Eunuch Lu and send her to live with Official Pei, who is a widower, and she lives as his concubine in name, but he does not lay a finger on her. Instead, he treats her like a disciple, lets her read any book she wants in his library, quiz her, teach her how to play chess, calligraphy, etc Eventually FL passes away (peacefully) in her sleep (well, peacefully enough considering her whole family is dead, and her enemies are living well) Ren Shimin and Li-shi Both of them end up dead trying to protect Yaohua and Yaoqi Spoiler: Yaohua and her marriage Honestly she's really unlucky in her marriage prospects: Han Yunqian, Qiu Yun, Zeng Kui are all trashy husband prospects Qiu family proposes to her, but Qiu Yun does not want to get married so he tries to anger Yaohua so that she will break it off and gain a bad reputation while he gets away scot-free, YH does not fall for it and FL mocks him Unfortunately, his family has exchanged gengtie (birthdays) to check their compatibility and Fang-shi interferes (of course) because she doesn't want to see the di daughters have a good life, so she has an astronomer (bribed) to proclaim that YH is not compatible with the family, and imply that she is a calamitous star destined to be alone, and the Qiu family retracts their marriage proposal When Ren family encounter troubles with their coal mines (orchestrated by FL with help from ML), Fang-shi also plots a marriage between Zeng Kui (trash husband from previous life) and FL is furious as the Ren family wants to accept it even though Ren Shimin (FL father) disagrees FL devises a situation for Ren family where they have to decide which interest they will invest in: Xiao Wangfu (ML family) or Zeng family (located in different province). FL wants the Ren family to suffer and eventually the Ren patriarch and son get charged with several crimes. Ren family gets arrested by ML family for their handling of the coal mines and they try to make FL go to ML family to intercede on their behalf but obviously does not work and Ren family connects the dots that ML family is upset with their engagements with Zeng family so they break off YH and ZK engagement Yaohua and Lei Ting Yaohua, and FL meet Lei Pan'er, who is quite amusing and lovable, she likes to play around and hug FL/YH. Pan'er wanted to hug FL and asks Yaohua to help her unshell peanuts so that she can eat. A wet nurse drags away Pan'er and Yaohua continues to unshell peanuts and sends them to Pan'er. Later on, they meet again at a different estate, and Pan'er remembers their kind deeds. They play outside for a bit and Pan'er rests in the estate. Pan'er goes missing and it turns out that a dowry maid from the deceased wife drugged Pan'er and hid her in a well so that she could frame the wet nurse and gain more visibility to attract Lei Ting. YH takes over the estate and organises a search for Pan'er, which is a little improper as they are interceding in another family's affair but YH does not care. When Lei Ting shows up and YH chides him for his improper handling of family affairs and FL is slightly speechless that she would argue against an elder Lei Pan'er, FL and YH exchange letters and Pan'er is still learning to write so her letters look more like random scribbles and drawings which amuses them When Li-shi's family (former imperial prince) makes a comeback in the political sphere, she runs away angrily to meet with Lei Pan'er at a tea house and is kidnapped by Wu Yiyu and her husband Zeng Kui. Some people try to save her but her carriage over turns and Yaohua leg is heavily injured. ZK makes a bet that if Yaohua can reach the top of the hill with her injured leg, then he will let her go. Yaohua starts to desperately crawl up the hill and finally more people from the Lei and ML subordinates show up and save her. Lei Ting picks her up and bandages her wound, and promises that he will 'take care of it'. Lei family and ML subordinates pretend to be blend in and play a part of the Wu clan that want revenge and cut off ZK man parts. They keep it in a box and send it to Wu Yiyu who then uses it to mock ZK at their wedding Lei Ting goes to the Li family and seek an engagement with YH. For FL, YH's marriage is like her heart-demon because she fears that YH will die or suffer and FL wonders if YH is upset with the engagement, so she prods YH intentions and YH sings praises for LT (unknowingly) They hear that Lei family has taken in a woman who is the sister of Lei Ting's deceased wife, and that they look remarkably similar. YH is worried that Pan'er has not been sending them letters when they receive a request for a meeting at a tea house. FL proposes to go in her stead but YH points out that she has to fight her own battles so they go to meet Pan'er and this 'aunt'. Pan'er is happy to see them but is accompanied by the woman, who seems to genuinely care for Pan'er. However, FL is suspicious of the timing and thinks it could be a ploy by the Han family so she prods the lady, and is suspect that the lady has a reaction to children. Turns out that this lady had a miscarriage and it was a daughter, so she is imposing her feelings onto Pan'er. Further down the line, Yaoyu does something improper to scheme against YH and whispers to Lei Pan'er that she will have a stepmom and be neglected. YH is furious and decides to take matters into her own hands instead of relying on FL. She corners YY in an isolated garden and threatens YY that she has to behave, and then orders a servant to feed YY leeches. She says if YY schemes against them again, she will feed YY leeches and cockroaches. Lei Ting overhears this entire conversation and advises YH that she should find a better spot if she wants to do this act because someone else nearly stumbled upon this scene. YH is worried/sad that LT thinks she is vicious but LT reassures her. Ren family troubles worsen even further and they want Lei family to intercede on their behalf and avoid accountability for their crimes. Lei Ting refuses to help clean their slate as Ren family committed a major crime and advises them to get ahead of the issues by admitting their crime instead which displeases Ren family. Ren matriarch makes YH go to Lei Ting and ask for him to interfere in their case and YH goes to the tea house and asks Lei Ting to dissolve their engagement, the matriarch is listening next door and she is furious. YH does not want Lei Ting to enter their muddy waters and hopes LT will not help, and LT asks YH to trust him Ren matriarch is furious, slaps YH and sends her to kneel at the ancestral tablets. She wants to cultivate YY as a concubine for LT and also buys several beautiful dowry maids to entice LT to support Ren family. YY is fearful of YH but still participates as she likes LT looks and status, YH has very little attachment to the Ren family now. LT sends a message to the Ren family saying that his family does not accept a sister wife/concubine pair and YY is crushed (serves you right). However, YH still has to take the seductive dowry maids back. Once they return to their home, YH takes back the servant deeds and sells off the seductive servants, as the Ren matriarch will not notice until it is too late. YH marries into Lei family, Lei Ting and YH complement each other well, he has a steady personality and YH is straightforward. LT assures YH that she is the matriarch of the family, and she does not have to serve any in-laws in the Lei family Pan'er aunt tries to take control of Pan'er during the wedding. Usually Pan'er is with the second brother but during the wedding the aunt tried to persuade her to sleep in her courtyard, so that she can claim the right to raise Pan'er. This is foiled by Yaohua as she lets Pan'er sleep in their wedding bed and Lei Ting returns Pan'er to his second brother's courtyard instead of the aunt. After the wedding night, Yaohua and Lei Ting greet their 'ancestor's tablets' and the aunt tries to make trouble with Yaohua by asking if Yaohua 'kowtowed' to the first wife's tablet. Pan'er managed to argue against this tradition as she says that her mother was a gentle woman who would not have wanted to make trouble for others. The aunt continues to make trouble for Yaohua as she wants to regain control of the manor and take care of Pan'er. When YH was pregnant, she tried to scare by with ghost hauntings by having a servant pretend to wear a white sheet. YH played along and pretended to be scared in order to catch the servant. After they catch the servant, they examine the white material and it turns out to be an expensive muslin material which has only been distributed to two people: YH and the aunt. The aunt does not know that the white material was expensive as she grew up poor and merely thought the material was cheap cotton. YH uses this to confront the aunt, and force her to confess to her crimes. LT decides to kick her out of the estate and send her to live in a zhuangzi. Poor Pan'er is conflicted as the aunt did treat her well but she also knows that YH is a good person. Since the aunt kept trying to make trouble, Pan'er just decides to send a maid servant to see the aunt off, and the aunt is devastated to realise that Pan'er isn't as deeply attached even with all the aunt's schemes. Unfortunately, the aunt acts up again and tries to hang herself which scared Yaohua into having an early birth, in addition, her child is in the wrong position during birth. Thankfully, FL begs her mother-in-law for a nurse who specialises in birth, and they manage to save both YH and her daughter. I think Lei Ting has the aunt killled? Spoiler: Fang-shi, a lot of scheming and their endings Both Fang-shi and Yaoyu do not end well Multiple schemes Fang-shi tries to drive a wedge between YH and FL, also plots to have many servants and take over control of the third branch Frequently uses other to do her dirty schemes and it's difficult to find her direct involvement as she always covers her tracks very well First, she tries to take control of the third branch by portraying herself as the benevolent master, and uses YH as her foil. YH hates anyone and anything associated with Fang-shi which is why she is easily manipulated Second, she is deeply entrenched in the Ren family because she has bought off many close servants in addition to having additional helpers outside of the house that can carry out her schemes due to her reliance on her brother 1 major incidence which portrays her cunning 5th branch family Yaoying caused Yaoyu (her daughter) to fall into the toilet pit, Yaoyu had nightmares after many months Fang-shi liked to find the weaknesses of her opponents and for the 5th branch, it was Lin-shi's good relationship with her husband. It is revealed that the husband had an outside mistress and the mistress was pregnant with a male heir. Lin-shi fought constantly with her husband. Additionally, Fang-shi poisoned Yaoying to be more impulsive and then had the mistress provoke Yaoying to cause the mistress to miscarry. The mistress then ran away after everything occurred FL had to scheme and plot for months in advance to garner enough evidence to accuse Fang-shi, and finally she found that the matriarch close servant was a spy for Fang-shi. After many many years at the right timing, she had her servant approach Lin-shi and Yaoying with proof. Lin-shi and 5th branch accuse Fang-shi that she schemed against them and caused a miscarriage. Unfortunately, Fang-shi managed to win over the Ren patriarch by saying her brother/family (Fang) has close ties with the Eunuch Lu and is able to help their merchant business in the coal mines. Ren patriarch agrees to deal with Fang-shi and protect her. Lin-shi accuses Fang-shi but she denies all allegations, basically she is only grounded without other repercussions. Ren Shimin does not care about Fang-shi at all and wanted her to be punished by the 5th branch, because to him, she is just a concubine and not the main wife. Fang-shi is devastated by this and she thought that they had cultivated deep feelings as she has been by his side appreciating paintings. Yaoying is furious and scares Yaoyu with a pair of scissors, Fang-shi desperately tries to protect her daughter and injures Yaoying's wrist. Lin-shi is furious and grabs the scissors, and stabs Fang-shi, disfiguring her permanently Later on, when the Ren family separates the branches, 5th branch was meant to take over some shops in a different city but had to stop their journey because Lin-shi and Yaoying fall ill. Ren family abandons them as they think that they caught the plague. It turns out that Fang-shi poisoned their powder rouge and both of them nearly die. Ren Shimao asks Shimin for help to find the culprit and they find out that the rouge was bought from the same place where one of Fang-shi's servants' daughter was working. They managed to catch Fang-shi connections and then wanted to lure out Fang-shi from Baihe Town, away from the Ren family who is covering for her. Shimin calls for Fang-shi, lying that Yaoyu is sick but she is suspicious and decides to run away. However, FL anticipates this and sets up another servant to capture her, Fang-shi tries to leave behind some traces for her brother to find but FL's servants are smarter than that. Fang-shi then tries to bribe her kidnappers but it fails and they bring her to an isolated house. ML brings FL to a soundproof room and they listen to Fang-shi confess to all her crimes. Fang-shi demands to see the superiors and says she has connections, she spots FL's maid skirt and deduces that FL is behind this. FL shows up and dispassionately looks at Fang-shi. ML also turns up and tells FL that she is too soft as FL does not want to kill Fang-shi. ML tells Fang-shi that she will be trapped in this room for the rest of her life and she has to listen to the news from outside where her maiden family disowns her and her daughter is sold off by the Ren family, while Yaohua and FL lead happy lives. Fang-shi despairs but is helpless. as she continues to listen to her brother disowning her, Shimin giving up on her daughter Yaoyu whereas YH, FL happily marry End result: Fang-shi is disfigured, locked up by ML and eventually dies Meanwhile, her daughter Yaoyu managed to anger her father Shimin, who is extremely disappointed in her conduct, he decides that he does not have a daughter named Yaoyu Shimin does try to arrange a good match for Yaoyu as he has a disciple who does not have a complicated background, however Yaoyu is disgusted as the disciple is poor and scholarly With the disciple, if Yaoyu is bullied, Shimin can step in for her and Yaoyu will have a strong backing after marriage, however Yaoyu is brainless and cannot see her father's good intentions Yaoyu angered Yaohua by attempting to become Lei Ting's concubine. Ren matriarch then arranges Yaoyu to marry into an official whom is the same age as Shimin, her father, and already have children that are older than Yaoyu. Shimin is disgusted and does not want to have a son-in-law who is older than him, but Yaoyu agrees with the matriarch and Shimin is disappointed/angry Additionally, Yaoyu tried to hook up with her cousin, Zhou Wen, and he meets with her in the rain before an important imperial exam. Obviously, Zhou Wen falls sick during the exam and fails, which disappoints Yaoyu as she does not think he can become an official so she breaks off the marriage ties with him. Her cousin is furious and curses Yaoyu as ungrateful and shameless as she exchanged marriage tokens with Zhou Wen but wants to back out Eventually shenanigan happens and Ren family falls, Yaoyu tries to run away to her previous suitor Zhou Wen, who is already married but Yaoyu pulls the pitiful white lotus act and he takes her in as a concubine Ren Shimin finds out that his daughter Yaoyu is missing but he has already given up on her so he decisively declares Yaoyu dead unbeknownst to Yaoyu Zhou Wen managed to become an official due to help from his wife's family, and he is going to move to a new town to further his career, and wants to take his wife and Yaoyu with him but the wife is pregnant so he only takes Yaoyu with him during to the new move Yaoyu shamelessly tries to attend family banquets and act as Zhou Wen's wife but the other official wives look down on Yaoyu identity as a concubine, and they make fun of her status. Zhou Wen realises that he needs his wife to gain more connections and host banquets, as Yaoyu cannot with her concubine status. Thus, he and the Zhou family beg the wife to come to the city so that she can help, and the wife agrees. Yaoyu is furious and confronts the wife and Zhou Wen, and the wife reveals that Ren Yaoyu is declared dead, therefore it doesn't matter if Yaoyu is from the Ren family as they have cut ties with her Eventually, Yaoyu pitiful white lotus crying and making a scene act does not work on Zhou Wen, and she does not have the brains to go up against the main wife, so she ends up losing his favour and dies neglected in the Zhou family
Spoiler: Brief introduction to key families There are A LOT of behind the scenes conspiracies that involve the FL family, her maiden family and the imperial family Families in the Yanbei province: Baihe town is where the Ren family live, Yunyang City is the capital of Yanbei province Yun family Yun Wenting (older brother), Wenfang and Yun Qianchen (favourite granddaughter, groomed by the Yun family to be a princess and marry into ML's family) Wenting is the heir and is also in love with Xiao Jinglin since childhood but due to his family obligations, he is unable to fully commit to her (more on that later) Wenfang is reborn from the same timeline as FL and is obsessed with marrying FL but FL is obviously not interested in him, because she has never had any good interactions with WF, so she does not like him at all Yun Qianchen is scheming af and wants to marry into ML's family Lin family Ren matriarch only daughter, Ren Shijia to married Lin Kun Lin Kun's position in the family is precarious, he was the rightful heir but his uncle took over the patriarch role because his father died when he was young and he does not have enough support to retake his position Ren Shijia is genuinely nice person and fled to her maiden Ren family to save her unborn child because she feared that the Lin family was preventing her from giving birth Lin Kun is conniving, he was aware of the plot against his wife and unborn child but allowed the plot to continue because he wanted leverage to gain evidence against his uncle's family Shijia is unaware of Lin Kun's complacency Later on, she becomes pregnant again and successfully gives birth to a male heir. FL notices that the child is unusually sleepy and brings up the matter to Shijia, and they check the medicine that the wet nurse takes, which has sleep inducing drugs which will eventually wear down the child's body and die FL helps Lin Kun to connect with the Lei family for support so that Lin Kun can separate from the Lin family, and he uses the evidence that the Lin family killed his unborn child in order to make the matriarch agree to his demands Han family Han Yunqian, set to take over the patriarch, Han Dongshen is prefers to train the grandson instead of his son because his son is not smart as the grandson Yunqian and his father are aware of the grudges between the two families: Ren and Zhai Han Dongshen is the patriarch of the Han family, formerly surnamed Zhai, and he has a deep-rooted hatred for the Ren family, which he cannot overcome. Lei Family Lei Ting (patriarch) and Lei Zhen (brother) Lei Pan'er (only daughter of Lei Ting), brought up by grandmother as her mother passed away Main conspiracy: Lei Ting is not from the main branch, he is from an 'outside room', a mistress that lived outside instead of an accepted concubine. This is frowned upon because those born 'outside' have unclear origins and are not recorded as part of the genealogy. They resolve this issue later on with advice from FL Li Family (FL's maiden family, related to the royal family) Previously were imperial prince descended from the Emperor however were demoted by Empress Dowager Yan Imperial family in the capital Empress Dowager Yan (depises the Concubine Wan and the Li family) Maiden family Yan holds a lot of power in the capital, and attempt to install a figurehead as the emperor Now deceased, Concubine Wan, was the favourite pampered concubine Was said to be extremely smart and able to plan ahead Managed to pave a way for her son to survive Committed suicide after the Emperor died FL's great-grandmother and supposedly looks like FL Wu family (related to ML's family) Old Wangfei only daughter, Xiao Wu, marries into the Wu family in Ningxia They are a general family that has access to troops and military intervention Only daughter Wu Yiyu is crazy and obsessed with Yun Wenting She also hates Xiao Jinglin and wants to steal the limelight from her, whereas Jinglin could not care less about them She is extremely vengeful since she knows WT does not reciprocate her feelings, and view everyone else as inferior She has tried to poison FL and Jinglin, destroyed their reputation and also kidnapped Yaohua Eventually, Wu Yiyu is forced to marry Zeng Kui in order to consolidate her family's military power Concubine Fang's family (Live in Jiangnan, does not live in Yanbei province) Fang family Fang Yancu (Fang's brother), has ties to Eunuch Lu, a servant close to Empress Dowager Yan Is concubine Fang's main support in the Ren family, which is why FL has to scheme to destroy Yancu's position in the Fang family Spoiler: Han family Han Dongshen (patriarch) does manage to regain his ancestral property and drive Ren family into a corner but it is not enough for him. Even after he regains his ancestral property from the Ren family, he still want to pursue revenge and eliminate the roots. He wants to go to their estate and burn them alive. He also ignores the warning signs from FL and the Xiao Wangfu that they should know their boundaries. This leads to his downfall, and FL forces Yunqian to decide. Yunqian forcibly detains his grandfather and informs him that their family surname is Han not Zhai, and he refuses to allow the Zhai family grudges to kill his Han clan members. After Han Dongshen has achieved his revenge, Yunqian gives up information about the 'treasure' of the Zhai family, and it turns out that the Zhai family is related to the imperial family, and they have the true Emperor's jade seal. The previous Emperor was cornered and gave his imperial jade seal to his outside mistress (a female general?) and she fled with his jade seal and parts of the treasury. Later, she established the Zhai family branch in hopes of staging a comeback. The current imperial family had to create a fake jade seal, but it contain imperfections so they made another one, which is the one that the current Emperor uses. Concubine Wan (from the FL's maiden Li family) managed to steal the imperfect jade seal and passed it onto her son. Which comes into play later on. Lei Family vs Han Family Both families want to gain favour from ML family, just like the current Yun family and so they do not get along, i.e Han Dongshen tries to dismantle and discredit their family (they succeeded in the previous timeline) Han Dongshen set up explosives during a dragon boat festival so that they could steal the Lei family dragon's head, which is symbolic for their family honor. FL gives advice (has someone send him a note, using her left handwriting) to Lei Ting and warns him Also, Dongshen finds out Lei Ting's background, and arranges for the maiden family to enter the province and expose his mother. His mother is using a fake identity and decided not to implicate Lei Ting so she commits suicide so that Lei Ting's identity is not exposed. Lei Ting is holding a funeral for his mother and usually the ceremony is held over several days. However, FL gives another secret note to him and Lei Ting sets a trap. He arranges for his mother to be buried immediately, this forces the maiden family to rush to his house and demand that they go to the 'yamen' (officials) as they suspect the mother died under suspicious circumstances. This reassures Lei Ting because it means that the maiden family has recognised his mother's identity and he allows them to conduct an autopsy which reveals his mother died of heart attack. When the maiden family realises they have been played, they try to expose his mother's identity as an outside concubine who stole their family daughter’s identity. No one believes them because they already went to the officials to sue Lei Ting, which meant they had to recognised the mother's clan identity. Another scheme is Han Dongshen planting a spy in Lei Ting's family by locating his wife's sister and sending her to his family to 'take care' of his daughter in her stead. This sister keeps trying to take over control of Lei Ting's courtyard and sow discord between Pan'er and Yaohua. This obviously fails and she is driven out of the family Han Yunqian does have feelings for FL, and his sister is also aware of his feelings but he does not act on them. Yunqian and his sister are really close, and he allows for her to marry into a 'normal' family so that she can have a strong maiden family for support He gets married to daughter from the Yun family, and she's really stupid E.g His wife was upset that the stepmother did not give her full control of the courtyard affairs, and she tried to "help" with his sister's marriage engagement. She tried to pair his sister with Lei Ting's brother, Lei Zhen, and goes to FL to ask for her to act as a matchmaker FL is stunned with disbelief because Lei and Han family are enemies, so she wonders if the wife has a deep grudge with the sister. The wife is merely trying to help because she thought the original fiance arranged by the stepmother was not 'impressive enough' His stepmother is from the Jiang family and she is a decent character, Yunqian gives her control of the inner courtyard affairs They are around the same age and Yunqian is careful to have witnesses so that no one can accuse him of having any improper relations with her Even after marriage, Yunqian does not allow his wife to gain full control of the estate, preferring to let his stepmother handle it Spoiler: Yun Family Yun family is considered a vassal family of Xiao Wangfu (ML's family) and they are related to Concubine Su (ML's grandmother) 3 grandchildren from the main branch: Wenting, Wenfang and Qianchen Wenting is the direct heir but gives it up to Wenfang so that he can pursue his love, Jinglin, and be happy. He has sacrificed a lot for the Yun family and is disillusioned. Thankfully, he is very close with his brother Wenfang, and always keeps a lookout for him, they are close confidants Wenfang's background Wenfang is reborn from the same timeline as FL and is deeply in love with her. FL does not have any good memories of him, as their first meeting she slaps him for insulting her and he retaliates. She is then locked up in the ancestral shrine and Wenfang sneaks in to tell her if she begs him, he would help her. From then on, FL hates him. In actuality, WF loves her but has a bad temper so he becomes an extreme tsundere and does not know how to express his goodwill. One major incident is when Ren family wants to sell FL to Eunuch Lu in the capital, FL flees but is caught by WF. She begs him to let her go but he refuses, he wants to help her hide but he is caught by Eunuch Lu's men. Eunuch Lu captures FL and kill WF, and his last thoughts were that he should have given FL money as she looks thin. Unfortunately, FL does not know that, and when she is reborn, actively avoids engaging with WF. This confuses WF as she is not acting according to his memories, but WF cannot let her go because he keeps having dreams with FL begging him and he is obsessed with FL. FL does not tell him that she is also reborn and does not have the same 'longing' that he feels. WF really does care for FL, e.g Yun Flower Banquet in the current timeline His family tries to set him with multiple engagements but WF always ruins it. He sets up the Jiang family daughters during the Yun Banquet He gets 'married' (forced by his elders) and his wife is upset because he does not show up for his wedding, and when he does show up, he warns the wife that she should return to her maiden family as he does not and will not love her. The wife says if WF has a lover outside, she will accept her as a concubine. WF threatens her that he used to think that if he married his love interest, he would not want her to be slighted at all, so even if FL was married as a concubine, WF would find a way to kill the main wife and have FL married in as the main wife. When FL gets engaged to ML, he goes to FL and confesses that he likes her and wants to marry her but FL refuses, she asks him if she ever admitted for marriage and WF is extremely disappointed Wenfang and Wenting relationship (they are close brothers) During the Yun Flower Banquet, after WF sets up Wu Yiyu, the Wu family is furious and wants to capture/kill WF. WF evades the Wu family and flees to the border so that he can gain military accomplishments. WF is a well-known general and he returns to the Yun family so that he can help his brother Wenting His brother, Wenting, is forced into an engagement by the Empress Dowager Yan. However, Wenting runs away from his marriage and so WF takes his place during the marriage ceremony. WF becomes a stand-in for his brother, similar to when his brother was a stand-in for him during WF's wedding WF asks his grandparents why they did not raise him as a potential heir and his grandmother says that they do not see his temperament as suitable for headship. Therefore, they raised him to have a 'good-for-nothing' type son. WF is devastated and furious as he realised that in the first timeline, he was the useless prodigal son. However, he is different in this timeline, partly because of FL WF had a beloved pet dog, who was playful and bit him once. His grandmother was angry and had the dog killed. WF was the type that believed in 'an eye for an eye', and broke the legs of the servant that killed his dog. This incident made the grandparents fearful of his personality so they did not train him as an heir After FL and ML is married, FL is pregnant with ML's child. However conspiracy abound, and the Yanbei province is surrounded/going to be invaded. WF rushes out with a small army and kill the Xiao's hostage, and behead Xiao Feng. He is nearly killed as his army does a suicidal attempt to kill the imperial capital's troops, and he is saved by ML. Eventually, WF recovers from his injuries and becomes the head of the Yun family He does not marry anyone Spoiler: Yun Flower Banquet These is a banquet for the girls of marriageable age to showcase their talents, and it is hosted by the Yun family, who are vassals of the Xiao Wangfu (ML's family), which is why ML's sister, Jinglin, will be the ranked first. One of the judges is famous female scholar who is well-versed in the 4 womanly arts. She was saved by FL as she was unconscious and had a seizure. She has consistent heart problems which FL managed to save as her previous master had a medicinal book that could cure heart problems. She gives FL an unfinished musical score and takes FL in as a student to repay her as a life-saving grace. At the first Yun banquet, Xiao Fei (only daughter of old Xiao wangfei) and Wu Yiyu are also present. There is a love triangle between WYY, YWT, and XJL. WYY is incredibly possessive of Yun Wenting, and she knows that YWT is in love with Xiao Jinglin. Immediately, there is bad blood between XF and Xiao Wangfu as XF complains that she should be given the best estate and JL retorts that the best estate is given to the Xiao Wangfu and XiaoFei is already married to another family. Yun Qianchen and Xiao Jinglin entertain the other female guests and take them to their animal farm. The girls get scared by a monkey, Jinglin and FL get bored and separate to hang out someplace else. They meet ML and have tea together, and Yun Qianchen sends over some refreshments. FL realises something is wrong as the tea is cold/tepid but it's too late and when they remove the tea lids, a poisonous spider jumps out and lands on FL's dress. FL freezes in fear and ML quickly catches the spider but it bites him, and his hand swells up. FL is worried so she calls for a doctor but the swelling has gone down, and ML reveals that he cannot be poisoned. FL realises how sinister the poisonous plot is as if she did not quickly undress to catch the spider, she would be killed but if she did strip, she would have lost her virtue/reputation. This is WYY scheme, because she hates JL, and everyone who is friendly with JL. FL request for ML for help and ask ML to keep an eye on her sister Yaoyin During the banquet, JL was supposed to go first, and has been practicing her music skills, specifically only one song, as she is a terrible musician, even with FL giving her advice. However, WYY cuts in first and plays JL's song, as she is returning to her seat, she mocks JL. FL worries for JL and Yaoyu's maid spills tea on FL's dress so that she is forced to change. During the change, FL meets JL and convinces her to do a sword dance, but JL is hesitant because her master does not like frivolous dances. FL points out that her master is not here and does not have to know. So FL and JL will have a performance together. FL comes back and her sister Yaoyu is performing a calligraphy painting. This painting was the same one that Yaoyu did to gain favour from Shimin and FL helped her to correct the painting. Yaohua is furious and disciplines Yaoyu's maid that spilled the tea on FL by sending her back to the estate and selling her off. Unfortunately for Yaoyu, her calligraphy painting does not impress the judges, especially since she used a bamboo which signifies remarriage, and the judge did not like bamboo paintings. FL knew the judge's background and could have stopped Yaoyu but instead Yaoyu schemed against her so she is unsympathetic and does not tell her why the painting was not well-received. Also, Yaoyin does a poetry reading, which is in 'reply' to WT's poem about having similar interests. Yaoyin found the poem written in the margins of a book she borrowed, and she writes this poem in hopes that WT will receive her intentions. Wu Yiyu and JL notes this. Later on, Wu Yiyu confronts Yaoyin, mocks her and forces Yaoyin to participate in her scheme to frame FL and Wenfang in bed together. Yaoyin is tempted as Yiyu says she would allow Yaoyin to become Wenting concubine as she does not view her as a threat. Finally, FL and JL perform and win the banquet. Meanwhile, Wu Yiyu schemes to destroy FL and asks Wenfang to go an estate where he can take advantage of FL. WF decides to knock out Yiyu and throws her, and the maidservant onto the bed. Then, he also kidnaps his fiancé-to-be, Jiang-shi, and throws her onto the bed with Yiyu and stages a raunchy scene Meanwhile, Yaoyin tries to lure out FL. FL is with Jinglin and is suspicious, ML's spy reveals that Yaoyin was in contact with Wu Yiyu. FL exposes Yaoyin's plot, as Yaoyin tries to lead FL to Yiyu to ruin her reputation and also destroy Jinglin as FL was with Jinglin. Moreover, if Jinglin finds FL was schemed by Wu Yiyu, Jinglin would take revenge on Wu Yiyu and likely cause a huge scene, which is damaging to their marriage prospects. Jinglin exposes Yaoyin's feelings as she is also of Wenting's poem and sarcastically points out if Wu Yiyu knows, then as Xiao Wangfu county princess, she would obviously be aware of Wenting's poems. Yaoyin is humiliated as she realises that everyone is aware of her 'secret admiration' Jinglin informs her mother, Xiao Wangfei, and sends Yaoyin back to the Ren estate with a severe warning, which frightens the Ren matriarch. It also cements the good relationship between Jinglin and FL, and Xiao Wangfei is friendly towards FL Second time they have a Yun flower banquet. Some background information, FL/ML are engaged, the Empress Dowager Yan is furious and sends 10 talented girls to the province to participate. Yan Niansheng is the favoured niece of ED Yan, and also rumoured to be the best lookalike of ED Yan. FL does not participate as a contestant but as a judge. All of the 10 girls from the capital ask for 'advice' from FL, and FL takes on their challenges, by outperforming all of them in their specific talents. Be it poetry, music, painting, etc Yan Niansheng challenges FL to a book memorisation, one of them recites a passage/sentence and the other will have to reply with the book title. They go back and forth for a really long impressing everyone, and everyone is getting bored. One of the capital officials, Pei Zhiyan, was her master and taught her how to read through and infer information from the passages instead of simply memorising. Pei Zhiyan quizzes them regarding the books and FL wins. Yun Qianchen scheme to destroy FL reputation (sensing a trend here), because she wants to marry ML. So she stages Wenfang and his servant to steal several undergarments and fakes a scene where Wenfang is going to elope with Ren Yaoqi (FL). Wenfang immediately kills the servant who was about to reveal FL's name, Wenfang does not want to ruin FL reputation so he says another name, and Qianchen is surprised. He also scolds Qianchen for scheming against him and he slaps her. She looks in disbelief at him but he tells her to remain silent and grasp his blade as a warning to her. It turns out that Wenfang probably saved her life as ML has his servants hiding around and if either Wenfang or Qianchen had said Ren Yaoqi's name, they would have shot them with an arrow and killed them. Yun family is furious, Wenfang slapped Qianchen so severely that she lost her hearing in one ear. The Xiao Wangfu is also angry as they are aware of Qianchen's scheme to ruin FL. Yun Qianchen was confident in her schemes as she would have the backing of Concubine Su (Xiao Wangye's biological mother) and would not suffer repercussions. Thankfully, Concubine Su does not side with her maiden family and gifts FL some presents. Spoiler: Major plot arcs FL's maiden family (Lin clan) declares themselves as a Wangfu in a different province (far away from the Yanbei province) Before Li clan leaves, FL's grandmother chides FL, as FL is plotting the downfall of Ren family, she reminds FL that the Li clan is leaving the Yanbei province and FL will no longer have the support of her maiden family when the Ren family falls. Even if FL will be fine in Xiao Wangfu, Yaohua may still need a strong maiden family as a support, so the grandmother asks how will FL solve the problem? FL decides to pull in her aunt, Ren Shijia and Lin Kun firmly to her side. She reminds Lin Kun to connect with Lei Ting and push for the Lin clan to separate so that Lin Kun can regain his status. This goes well and FL manages to resolve the issue Eventually, the imperial family in the capital grow suspicious of the Li clan in the Yanbei province and send soldiers to capture them, however, the Li clan have already fled. During this time, the Ren family send people to Ren Shimin to persuade him to abandon Li-shi but he refuses. Honestly, I'm impressed af, Ren Shimin may be odd but he is a righteous man who does not abandon his family during times of crisis, and FL reassured her family will be fine. ML also send guards to protect FL's family from the imperial clan but to the outside, it looks like the guards are detaining their family. The Ren family freak out and worry that they will be implicated so they disown Ren Shimin and Shimin is extremely disappointed. During this time, Eunuch Lu show up with an imperial jade and want to arrest FL's family for questioning. ML guards stop him and Eunuch Lu shows his jade with the imperial clan seal, but the head guard shameless says he cannot read so he has no idea what the seal says. Eunuch Lu is furious and asks if their guards can read and the head says if he, a superior, cannot read, his subordinates also dare not read. Eunuch Lu looks ready to puke blood, and in his anger, he 'drops' the jade seal and it shatters on the ground. He is stunned and is forced to 'admit' that the seal was not an imperial seal. ML shows up and demands Eunuch Lu take out the imperial jade seal and Eunuch Lu says he does not have it on him at this moment. ML then arrests Eunuch Lu for 'lying', acting as the 'imperial family', and treason ML reveals that he has experts that forced Eunuch Lu to drop the jade seal, and everything was planned ML gets revenge for FL, as he notices FL is utterly terrified to Eunuch Lu, in particular he stares at Eunuch Lu's hands and wonders which one he should cut off first. He sends Eunuch Lu to his subordinate who specialises in torture and his subordinate asks ML if they require any specific information or need Eunuch Lu alive. ML tells his subordinate to have fun and they torture Eunuch Lu to death FL is a little stunned that Eunuch Lu is so easily dealt with after he tormented her so viciously Li clan claims a territory for their own and reveal that they have an imperial edict from the previous Emperor. Everyone is stunned as it has been 14 years and the Li clan have been patiently biding their time. Apparently, the edict also states that the Li clan cannot leave their vassal territory for a certain amount of time. This buys them some time and safety from the imperial family, as the Emperor cannot summon them to the capital. Li clan circulate the imperial edict with the the imperial jade seal and Official Pei, a famous reputable scholar, verifies the edict. Therefore, Li clan is safe from the imperial family in the capital and gaining military power in order to overthrow the current Emperor Li-shi is incredibly happy as her maiden family has finally regained their status. Suddenly, Li-shi, Yaohua and FL status are elevated as they are related to the imperial family, i.e wangfei/county princess. This allows ML to officially propose to FL, and he goes to Shimin to seek a marriage engagement. Yaohua is already married at this point but is concerned for FL, but Lei Ting reassures her. Shimin and Li-shi are hesitant to accept ML proposal as they have several concerns, in particular, ML's high status, ML's poor health and if ML's family will accept FL (aka will the in-laws like FL) Valid concerns: they do not want FL to marry and become a widow, and Shimin has seen firsthand how his mother treated Li-shi, so he does not want his favourite daughter to go through the same treatment ML goes to the house and manages to win over Li-shi, he also plays chess with Shimin and impresses Shimin. They both agree to the marriage and add a generous amount of dowry for FL, as she is now considered a county princess Ren family is now trying to backtrack the disownment but Shimin is resolute. The Ren patriarch is dying (or the matriarch) and they use it as an excuse to call Shimin back to Baihe city. Ren Shimin returns to Ren family but refuses to be admitted into the family lineage despite Ren matriarch guilt trips. Shimin cuts off ties and wants to repay the Ren family with money for 'taking care' of him, the first branch wife tries to mediate but it fails. Li-shi helps Shimin to pay back the cost as she has hoarded money over the years, Shimin is stunned as he thought Li-shi was keeping the money to give to her maiden family during hard times, so he is touched by Li-shi's gesture. Yanbei province is invaded (again) A lot of background conflict between the imperial family in the capital and the Xiao Wangfu in the Yanbei province (Baihe city is the main city where ML/FL live) Basically, ML's 'brother' is held hostage in the capital and was supposed to return to Yanbei but is 'killed'. The 'brother' left behind a concubine whom is pregnant with his 'son' in the capital Scheme by the imperial family ML discusses the situation with his father and he sarcastically points at the timing of the concubine's pregnancy and ML father wonders about the pregnancy and ML points out that the child will definitely be a 'son' and ML father goes 'fuck, how shameless is the imperial family?!' After the 'grandson' is born, ML father declares the 'grandson' as his heir instead of ML, which is a ploy to reduce the imperial family suspicions. Everyone else wonders if ML's 'sickness' is the reason why he is not the heir. Eventually, the 'grandson' is killed by someone during a plot somehow... idgi I think it is when Liao invades or something Xiao Wangfu is in charge of protecting the border, but the imperial family want to take away that power so they plot with the enemy Liao state. If this two countries have a successful peace talk, they can legitimately remove Xiao Wangfu's military power and leave ML family defenseless against the imperial family ML discusses with FL about the ethics of maintaining the disputes among the two countries and he wonders if he is being selfish as he does not want the peace talks to succeed. FL reassure him ML/FL marry, introduce ML's uncle/nephew duo, uncle is lowkey whereas nephew is competitive and likes to stir up trouble. Nephew plots to marry ED Yan's niece so that he can gain support. During the peace talks, the Liao country agrees to send a hostage and a Liao princess is sent to ML's family, as a concubine for Xiao Wangye. ML's father is furious but they cannot refuse without a good reason. The Liao princess shows up, and she used to be a well-known female general who makes up a story of how she was captured by ML's father and he let her go, she's super touched etc. FL attempts to pry out information but the Liao princess is calm, and incredibly lowkey personality the entire duration. FL is suspicious Time lapse of ML/FL marital happiness, FL is pregnant for about 8 months. ED Yan's niece is in love with ML and she intercepts a letter from uncle/nephew duo pertaining to an assassination plot about ML. She freaks out and goes to FL but FL does not entertain her request, and ED Yan's niece 'takes matters into her own hands' and poisons the her husband so he cannot kill ML. (Everyone knows she's just a chess piece except for herself...) ML goes... somewhere... to resolve a military dispute? But he reassure FL that he will return in time and leaves a lot of guards for her. FL is worried as she realises the scope of ML's mission so she sends a letter to her maiden family, Li clan, and requests that they conduct military exercises. This greatly alarms the capital city and reduces the amount of forces that the capital city sends to Yanbei province. ML's uncle/nephew duo have orchestrated a plot with the imperial family in the capital AND the Liao enemy state to kill ML's father/son duo and take over the Yanbei province Remember the 10 girls that Empress Dowager Yan sent to participate in the Yun Flower banquet, well one of them is a spy who has been feeding the capital city information regarding guard formations and manpower. They strike when ML father/son are out of the province and attempt to kidnap Xiao Wangfei (ML's mother), FL, Concubine Su as hostages. Xiao Wangfei manages to get to safety. FL realises the wangfu is suspiciously quiet as her maids do not encounter any guards outside her gate, so she reacts quickly and calls Concubine Su, using an excuse that she wants to play chess. She detains Concubine Su as long as possible and a commotion happens outside, the Xiao uncle/nephew duo have started a rebellion outside. FL has her female guard hiding behind a screen as the nephew and Liao enemy princess barrages into the room. He threatens FL and Concubine Su while Concubine Su attempts to protect FL behind her. Nephew makes a move towards FL's pregnant belly and the female guard shoots out and attacks him, catching him off guards. FL's maid servant jumps in and viciously beats the nephew with an object, and every time he twitches, the maid servant continues to whack his head until he stops moving Xiao uncle shows up and demands FL release his son, and he has the Xiao matriarch as hostage. FL is in a dilemma as she cannot give up the nephew as hostage but she cannot risk the Xiao matriarch's life (filial piety!) Concubine Su intercedes for FL, and she mocks the Xiao matriarch, telling her that she should have conviction instead of allowing herself to be held hostage. Xiao matriarch is furious as Concubine Su implies that she should commit suicide as the Yanbei province cannot retaliate when an imperial family member is a hostage Finally, ML's guards manage to regain control of the Xiao wangfu and Xiao uncle retreats with his forces, still holding the Xiao matriarch as hostage. Yun Wenfang and his small army decides to pursue Xiao uncle and the uncle holds the matriarch as a hostage, but Wenfang just shoots an arrow through her throat. Wenfang chases down Xiao uncle and beheads him. Eventually, the imperial forces corner Wenfang's troop in a forest, but WF is effectively using guerilla tactics. Eventually, they are trying to smoke them out by burning the forest down, and WF leads one last suicidal charge. It's heartbreaking as WF reminisces about FL and their interactions. WF is cut down but ML troops manage to fish out WF and save WF Li clan and Xiao Wangfu invade the capital city and overthrow the imperial family Xiao Wangfu forces move towards to capital city to fight against the imperial family, in particular, ED Yan and the Yan family. ML's forces are careful and respectful towards the citizens and do not attack/pillage the peasant villages. This garners a lot of goodwill from the citizens, and eventually they lose their fear. Some of them even try to get a soldier as a son-in-law as girl throw handmade sachets hoping a potential suitor picks it up. One soldier mistakenly picks one up and the mother shameless throws herself at him, begging him to marry her daughter. The soldier is frustrated and trying to remove the mother but does not want to use force, while the rest of his cavalry is laughing at him. The soldier tries to pass the mother off to another man but the mother insists that she wants a strong son-in-law to tend to the fields and produce good offspring, and she suggestively pats at this thick waist. His colleagues are cackling in laughter. Li clan cedes the emperor role to ML's father, ML does not want to become emperor and be involved in politics, so ML's father choses ML's son as the crown prince instead ML/FL have more children, 2 boys and 1 girl, HEA Spoiler: Jinglin and Yun Wenting GREAT NEWS: THEY END UP TOGETHER They are childhood sweethearts but family politics drove them apart. They were both stationed at the border and cultivated a lot of feelings together, one cute moment was when Jinglin wanted to ride on the same horse with WT but he ends up guiding her on the horse instead. She returns to her home and whacks a few trees in anger Unfortunately, something happens in the Yun family and they recall WT from the border. This heavily disappoints Jinglin and she decides to cut off her feelings for WT. Jinglin is aware of her status and position, moreover, her main wish is to live at the border to protect the city, which is not possible as WT is the heir and has to live in the province. Since WT prioritizes family obligations over Jinglin, she decides to prioritize herself. WT still loves Jinglin, and he is genuinely happy to be around her, and he wanted to resolve his family issues so that he can marry Jinglin. Sadly, he says leaving Jinglin at the border was his biggest mistake and she does not give him a chance to get close to her again He always tries to get close to Jinglin but she draws a clear boundary between them, especially when he gets engaged (on Empress Dowager's orders). The engagement falls through because the engagement was a plot to garner information and invade Yanbei province (huge story arc) WT gives up his heir position to WF so that he can chase Jinglin and follow her into battle and the border town. He gets injured trying to save her and she tells him that she wants him to live and gives him one more chance. So he lives and she agrees to marry him. ML complains that WT is too soft but his mother think their temperament suit each other Lots of conspiracies abound, like conspiracy on top of conspiracy on top of conspiracy... Honestly, I don't do the novel justice, I hope someone becomes interested to pick it up, it's an engaging read. My apologies about the names, there's so many names that it's difficult to keep track.
https: //sleepyautumn. wordpress. com/2023/07/06/scheme-of-the-official-descendant-the-glossary/ I made the list of the whole genealogy of families that has been mentioned up to chapter 52, lol. For anyone who interested to understand the story more. Mostly contained non-story spoilers