At the Lantern Festival palace banquet, Shen Lingyi hears Qing Tan's inner thoughts and discovers that Pei Xuanzhi, whom she has long loved, already has Ning Linglong and a child, and even intends to use a marriage alliance to frame the Shen family. She changes her request and asks for a cook instead. When Pei Xuanzhi tests her under the pretext of taking her as his disciple, she follows the clues of forged seals, falsified accounts, and a missing grain official to uncover the truth. Gathering both witnesses and physical evidence, she personally destroys his path to power in confrontations at court and before the authorities.