Entering the Inner Chamber

Song Jiyun, a woman with memories from a previous life, finds herself in the body of the eldest daughter of the Song family, a prominent merchant clan. Her father, the Second Master, has just died suddenly while returning from auditing accounts, leaving the family in a state of vulnerability. In her past life, Song Jiyun endured a brutal struggle for inheritance where her relatives revealed their true, treacherous natures. Determined not to repeat those mistakes, she resolves to secure her family's future with cold calculation and strategic foresight. The funeral is disrupted by a storm, causing chaos among the mourning guests, but Song Jiyun remains composed in her father’s study, surrounded by the dust of his belongings and the echoes of his gentle teachings.

Her first act is to secure the family’s hidden wealth. She entrusts her loyal protector, Zheng Quan, with a silver ring and instructions to retrieve eight hundred thousand taels from the Suzhou Main Store. She prepares contingencies for the Chief Manager, ensuring loyalty through promises of testimony and gratitude, while also threatening legal action if he betrays her trust. Simultaneously, she begins liquidating land holdings in Nanchang and Shangrao. Her plans are interrupted when a mysterious young man in Daoist robes breaks into the study. He engages Zheng Quan in a fierce martial arts duel, easily overpowering the protector. Song Jiyun intervenes, but the stranger is about to strike Zheng Quan when her young maid, Xiang Zan, knocks him unconscious with a flower pot. Song Jiyun decides to detain the stranger, recognizing him as a significant threat or asset she cannot afford to release.

She orders Zheng Quan to tie the man and bring him to her private quarters, the Shachu. Manager Lin, a servant who has aligned himself with the eldest branch, arrives with a group of men, challenging Song Jiyun’s authority. She publicly humiliates him by ordering Zheng Quan to beat him, using the incident to assert dominance over the household staff and warn the eldest branch, Song Daliang, that she will not be bullied. When Song Daliang refuses to provide additional servants to move a chest of valuables, Song Jiyun threatens to sell off the disloyal staff, forcing him to capitulate. She then moves the chest to her inner chamber, where the stranger is hidden.

The stranger wakes up in the chest, displaying remarkable resilience and composure. Song Jiyun confronts him, and they engage in a psychological battle. She reveals she has drugged him with Ruangu San from an incense burner and that the antidote was in the tea she drank herself to prove its safety. When officials led by the county magistrate, Wang Zhubu, come searching for the missing nobleman, Song Jiyun outsmarts them by using a trained dog to sniff out the chest, only to distract the searchers with gifts and false leads. She successfully hides the stranger’s presence from the authorities.

Meanwhile, the family faces external pressure. Wang Zhubu demands ten thousand taels of silver, threatening to seal the Song family’s gates and disrupt the funeral. Song Jiyun’s third uncle, Song Sanliang, attempts to extort the money under the guise of helping, but Song Jiyun uncovers his deceit. She sends him to Wang Zhubu with a valuable painting, only for Wang Zhubu to beat Song Sanliang thirty strokes upon discovering the fraud. Song Jiyun uses this incident to expose her uncle’s greed to the family matriarch, Madam Zeng, while maintaining her image as a protective and capable daughter. The stranger, observing these events, mocks her ruthlessness but also acknowledges her competence. As the funeral proceeds, Song Jiyun navigates the treacherous waters of family politics, securing her father’s seal and preparing to dismantle the schemes of her relatives while keeping the mysterious stranger as her secret prisoner.