Okay so let me just say—this section is a masterclass in how to layer reveals without making it feel like a checklist. You've got Su Qing curing Liu's wife, then Old Man Shen showing up and dropping the Green Turtle Probing the Cave bomb, and THEN Lu Zhanye's PTSD episode all in one stretch. That's three major plot pivots and the author never lets you catch your breath. The Liu's wife scene is deceptively simple on the surface—it's just a medical treatment—but it does so much heavy lifting. It establishes Su Qing's competence in front of ordinary villagers, which then makes Secretary Liu's offer of protection feel earned rather than handed to her. And that line, "Those last four words meant everything"—when she says the herbs won't cost a thing? In 1976 China, a healer who doesn't charge money is basically a living bodhisattva. The political and social implications of that moment are huge, and the author just lets it sit there without over-explaining. Then Old Man Shen walks in and everything shifts. The reveal that he's Shen Henian—the nation's greatest physician, labeled a leftist and exiled—this is such a smart plot move. It immediately elevates Su Qing's status from "useful village doctor" to "someone the top medical establishment would kill to have on their side." And the way he recognizes her technique? That's not just a cool moment, it's a plot landmine. Because now we know her skills come from somewhere extraordinary, and the reader is dying to figure out what. The Lu Zhanye PTSD scene is the emotional peak of this section, but from a pure plot standpoint, it's also the moment that ties everything together. Su Qing needs his protection, he needs her healing—they're locked into a mutual dependency that's going to drive the entire narrative forward. The author sets this up like a trap springing shut, and there's no going back.
Okay so let me just say — the way this plot is constructed is genuinely clever. Cui Xiaoqi doesn't just save a random guy and hope for the best. No, she immediately starts calculating. She sees this injured, amnesiac man, realizes he's dangerous, but also sees an opportunity. The Unmarried Tax Silver threat is hanging over her head, and instead of panicking, she weaponizes her own 'virtue' against him. The scene where she reveals the marriage certificate is peak plot engineering. She literally tells him: I used my body to save you, you owe me, sign this and we divorce later. It's manipulation dressed up as kindness, and the fact that Pei Ji actually agrees — with that calculating flicker in his eyes — tells you everything about who he is. He's not falling for it; he's testing her, trying to figure out who sent her. And then the leg bone dislocation? She goes to fetch a hammer, he SMASHES his own leg back into place without making a sound. That's not just a medical detail — that's a character reveal disguised as plot. This man has survived things that would break ordinary people, and the reader has no idea what he's capable of. The pacing is also worth noting. Chapter after chapter, the tension just keeps mounting. First it's survival (food, shelter, the snow), then it's the marriage contract, then it's the wound reopening, and each beat pushes the story forward without a single wasted moment.
Here's the thing about this book that keeps me up at night: the stakes are simultaneously enormous and completely mundane. On one hand, you've got the Crown Prince navigating palace politics, managing relationships with eunuchs who have their own agendas, maintaining appearances before the Empress. On the other hand, the central conflict of these chapters is literally a bird getting slapped by a cat. But they're the same thing. The cat is a metaphor for every threat to the Crown Prince's carefully constructed world, and General is every old ally who feels replaced. When Zhe Junwu laughs at this scene, she's laughing at the absurdity of it all—the fact that in a place where people's lives depend on every decision, the real drama is happening over a feathered rival and a household pet. The tension never really lets up because the author understands that in a palace, there's always someone watching, always someone plotting, always something smaller than it appears that could change everything. And yet, the Crown Prince still finds time to nap and eat beef. That's the real stakes—the stakes of staying human in a place that wants to make you a pawn.
The plot mechanics here are actually really clever when you think about it. Berry's entire goal is to get home, and the mechanism is deceptively simple: she needs a white Scarletberry to open the portal. But the author layers in complications that keep the narrative moving. First attempt: Berry tries to cook with firewood in a closed apartment—immediate danger, immediate conflict resolution. Second attempt: the supermarket trip where Berry tries to pass off every white fruit as a Scarletberry relative. The 'they need to be reunited to make it easier to find' line is both hilarious and reveals her desperation. Then there's the Xiuxiu subplot—the broom that unlocked his door—which adds a secondary character dynamic and explains how Berry got in. And the hospital visit at the end sets up the next plot beat. The pacing is tight: chaos → consequence → new plan → complication → emotional beat → new direction. No filler. Every scene advances either the plot or the relationship, and honestly that's rare in web novels. The author knows exactly when to land a joke and when to pivot to something softer.
I have a feeling that my opinion is going to be a bit the same as the others, but that's okay, I'll give it anyway. A superb novel that I loved, action, intrigue, adventure, drama, blood, in short, it's all there and frankly I don't regret having put this book in my library.
I just wanted to say how cool Cole is....??
I'm loving reading this story.I'm looking forward to seeing what happens from now on with Thea and her master.Well that's it, let's wait for the next chapter.Until later....Bye ......
I’m just starting but i’m enjoying it a lot!!
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Crazy here . The author has a vivid mind and it is really good he is sharing it with us. I like the story . It has my five star rating . I love it!!!!
I’m enjoying the novel a lot, I just wish there were more chapters. I would also like less annoying “women have to be abused damsels in distress” but fortunately that doesn’t really happen much in this novel
It is an interesting, funny novel, and it is different from other styles of novels., but the chapters are so short, so for this reason I will go back until it updates more than 100 chapters